THIS STORY JUST BROKE FOUR-HUNDRED FOLLOWERS! WHOA! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! THANK YOU!

A lot, thank you a lot! You guys really are amazing! Anyways, I hope you enjoy chapter nineteen!

The first thing that Crimson had to say about Beacon Academy is that it was huge, not just big, but huge. The Academy was an also confusing labyrinth of warren-like hallways and ventilation shafts that, in one way or the other, all lead to the bowels of the titanic institution…where Crimson was currently trapped with the newly dubbed "Lady in the Capsule". Crimson had thought that title sounding better than "Proof that this school is composed of whack-jobs that I will have to murder and possibly sacrifice Skyler to".

Some things are just too wordy.

Crimson had laid on the cold stone floor, twilight eyes blurrily looking around the vast space that he had fallen into because of poor construction on certain ventilation shafts. Certain shafts like those on the ceiling which really out to be strengthen to stop innocent assassins from falling to their bloody deaths on the floor far, far below.

But because of hearty mixture of luck and aura, Crimson did not splatter all over the floor; instead, he just swan-dived into the floor, which sent him into the darkness of unconsciousness until he awoke to the darkness of the vault and saw the machine and its current occupant.

Altogether, this was the third weirdest thing Crimson had ever had happened to him in his life.

He stared at the woman inside the capsule, brown hair and dusky skin, not enormously remarkable physically, but Crimson could sense an aura brimming with strength radiating off of her and filling the room. But under the humming power of the woman's aura, Crimson could feel a disgusting taint, like the fecal leavings of insects staining the woman's soul.

Crimson rose carefully to his feet, his eyes now sharp and watchful. Whatever this place was and whoever that was in the capsule, Crimson was sure that it was nothing good. As he grew closer to the glowing capsule of the woman, Crimson noticed the design and technology that made up the machine.

Atlas technology for sure. Crimson expected the panels and monitors that glowed in the dimness before nodding with finalization. For sure. I doubt any of the other kingdoms could build something like this or even think of building something like this.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another, empty capsule; but that wasn't anywhere close to be interesting enough to drew his attention away from the occupied capsule. Crimson stepped in front of the unconscious woman's capsule and stared inside. This close, Crimson could see the large discolored scar that was spread across the left side of the woman's face.

"Now, who did that to you?" The whisper echoed around the silent hall, but Crimson received no answer. Other than the scar, however, Crimson could see no other reason for this woman to be enclosed by an Atlas machine in the deepest parts of Beacon. Crimson quickly whirled in a full circle, taking in any signs of cameras or other forms of security, but all that greeted his eyes was dim lights and stone walls.

So, she's not a prisoner, probably. But what happened to her that got her sent into Ozpin's secret dungeon instead of an actual hospital?

Alas, Crimson was beginning to realize that he wouldn't get a real answer down here in the dimness of the school's vault. But the lost and now thoroughly confused assassin knew where he could find them.

Always assuming I don't get caught first.

"So, do you think Crimson has done something illegal yet?"

"No idea." Skyler checked his battle-watch. "It's been forty minutes since we left…so maybe."

The three members of Team RSNC wandered through the distracts of Vale, never having a specific destination in mind, but just enjoying the city in all of its flaunted and hidden glory. Ruby had recovered quickly from the unexpected meeting with Team EBWY, and the red-cloaked girl was once again content in her usual carefree attitude

"We need to get him a monitor or something." Ruby nodded sagely. "Like a tracking dart!"

The currently bicolored eyes of Neopolitan brightened. "I like that idea." Neo paused for a moment, then shrugged. "You know, if I'm the one who gets to shoot him."

"Ah, my team and their priorities." Skyler sighed happily.

"We know we want!"" Ruby declared in a loud voice. "And what we want is Crimson to be shot!"

"Apparently." Skyler seemed remarkable unconcerned about the possibility of his other teammates tagging his partner. "With a tracking dart, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Ah." Skyler nodded. "Right, you tell me how that goes."

Ruby glanced over at him, a faint smile on her face. "You don't want to see Neo shoot Crimson with a dart?"

"I rather not see whatever happens afterwards. Chances are, after Crimson has a dart sticking out of his neck, it will be revealed that he has a semblance that turns everyone in a ten-mile radius into rabid squirrels."

Ruby sniggered at the thought of Neo and Skyler as two-

"Ruby! If you're imagining me as a rabid squirrel, I will appreciate it if you would stop!"

Snapping out of imagining a fedora-wearing squirrel squeaking angrily at people, Ruby looked up into the indignant eyes of Skyler Snow.

"But I think you would look so cute as a squirrel!"

The puff of air was the only sign that Neo was now laughing her head off; Skyler, however, was less amused.

"I-I would not!" The sputter only made Neo laugh harder, Ruby just shrugged.

"You would a little."

Skyler's response was to glare at her with eyes that conveyed death and mutilation to their target. Ruby matched him with a wide-eyed look of pure innocence and puppy eyes.

The young spy didn't stand a chance. He crumbled in the face of Ruby Rose's most dangerous ability.

Unadulterated cuteness.

Crimson realized he might not be able to go see Jaune today, for a variety of reasons ranging from the length of time navigating the vents of the school to the fact that if he slipped, he would fall two hundred feet straight down and go splat in the darkness of the ventilation system.

Crimson seriously doubted that his luck would be enough for him to survive that.

Grunting, Crimson carefully inched his way up the tall vertical shaft that lead into the lofty office of the esteemed headmaster of Beacon, Professor Ozpin, the same man whose secrets Crimson was about to find and steal.

You know, if he ever got out of this godforsaken ventilation shaft.

No one ever tells you how unbearably cold a ventilation shaft is, no one at all! So with his teeth chattering and his fingers turning blue, Crimson Shard plowed upwards to the distant light that shone out of the office, high above.

I should've just taken the elevator; this is going to take all day.

After two hours of defying gravity and completing his mortality later, Crimson felt the thin metal grating of the floor vent brush the top of his deathhawk. Smiling to himself, he tilted his head back and peered out through the thin bars, listening and waiting for any signs of movement inside the spacious office.

Anybody up there? The assassin in the shaft didn't have to wait long before he heard a rustling, probably the noise of papers being handled. Crimson nodded to himself, Ozpin was in his office, more than likely sitting at his desk and going over things that would have bored most others to tears, but in his office nevertheless.

Unfortunately, Ozpin's current location meant that the assassin would have to stay in the ventilation shaft until the headmaster leaves or Crimson dies.

He wasn't doing any more climbing; Crimson had sworn that to himself two hundred feet ago.

"ICE CREAM!"

The force of Neo's silent exclamation was so strong that Skyler covered his ears in pain, a quick moment past before he lowered his hands, looking extremely confused and a bit embarrassed at what he just did.

"Well." Ruby looked at the spy whose cheeks were now tinged with pink. "I guess that means you are getting better at understanding Neo!"

"I am getting better at understanding silence?" Skyler cocked an eyebrow at Ruby who nodded eagerly.

"Yep! Well…Neo's silence, anyways." Ruby looked thoughtful for a second. "I guess that's different than ordinary silence?"

"Let's just assume yes." Skyler turned to where Neo was standing…only to find the spot deserted and Neo nowhere to be seen. "And where did she go?"

A snort made Skyler tilt his head back towards Ruby who was pointing off down the street. Skyler followed her finger to see a pink and white shop that gave off the heavy scent of cream and sugar. Skyler squinted and, through one of the large windows, he saw a small tricolored figure waving furiously at them to hurry up.

"I looked away for ten seconds." Skyler narrowed his eyes at the distant Neopolitan. "How did she even do that?"

Ruby shrugged. "Yeah, I've always just assumed that Neo is some kind of ice cream wizard."

Skyler decided not to give that a vocal response, instead he just rolled his eyes and started to walk towards the ice cream parlor.

"Well, come on, let's not keep the mighty ice cream wizard waiting."

"And to Skyler, I leave a full-sized poster of myself, enjoy."

Crimson finished mentally preparing his will as the freezing cold started to send his body into forced hibernation.

Or maybe he was just dying, Crimson didn't know.

What he did know was that Ozpin was still in his office if the constant rustle of paper meant anything, he also knew that he was beyond freezing and if the headmaster didn't leave soon, there was a high possibility of Crimson bursting out of the ventilation shaft, hugging Ozpin to his chest for warmth, and then fleeing into the night.

Then again, he could just throw the headmaster out the window and blame it on Ruby's uncle…which would also involve Crimson fleeing into the night when said uncle and his niece came for his head.

Really, the choices here were simply fantastic.

The rustling continued with nothing to break it's constant scratching that had begun to grate on Crimson's ears an hour ago; it now made Crimson want to rip his own ears off and then go and murder somebody with them.

With that gruesome thought running through his mind, Crimson peeked out of the vent again and tried to see if Ozpin was still in his stupid office. The only light come from the late afternoon sun that still streamed through the glass of the clock tower and the distinct rustling was still to be heard, but nothing else betrayed a human presence.

Nothing at all.

I swear if I've just been hanging here, freezing my more important extremities off, all for listening to disembodied noises…I am going to be very upset!

Crimson narrowed his eyes, he had decided the time for waiting had long since passed. Abandoning all forms of subtlety, Crimson launch himself out of the vent like some sort of bizarre whale and slammed back down on the intricate floor of the office.

Immediately pulling out his cleavers, he scanned the room for any signs of Ozpin or any other inhabitant.

He was the only person in the entire room.

The rustling made Crimson slowly swivel towards the sound. There, tapped tight to window that Ozpin took a dive out of when Ruby's uncle last visited, was a large, rustling, sheet of plastic.

Crimson's eye twitched sporadically.

"MOTHER-"

"-of God, that's a lot of ice cream." Skyler whispered in awe as he gazed upon the menu. The ice cream parlor that Neo had apparently claimed as her territory also seemed to have every flavor ever, as well as some that seemed to Skyler that the parlor had completely made up on their own.

"This might very well be Neo Heaven." Ruby gazed around her at the bright interior of the parlor and the sweet scent of ice cream that nearly made the air simmer. "I'll be lucky if I ever get her out of here."

"Speaking of which, where is she?" Skyler scanned the shop slowly. "You would think a tri-colored midget would be much more noticeable."

Ruby's response was cut off by a flying bowl of ice cream that splattered itself across Skyler's face.

"Found her!" Ruby said cheerfully as she bonded over to a corner booth where Neo sat, glaring at her male teammate who stood frozen in shock as ice cream dripped down his suit. Ruby slid in beside her partner and glanced back at the unmoving statue of shock and building fury.

"I did sorta warn you about calling Neo-"

Ruby was cut off when Neo was tackled by a flashing blur of soiled lounge suit and loud, angry screaming.

Every inhabitant of the ice cream parlor looked in alarm and disbelief as the two hunters-in-training began to demolish the corner in which they were sitting, a golden watch gleamed as it was swung through the air only to be blocked by an uplifted parasol, a leg slammed itself under a jaw and Skyler flew over the table followed closely by an enraged Neopolitan.

Meanwhile, Ruby was looking over the parlor's menu of ice cream flavors.

Ooh, strawberry!

Crimson would like to say he was calm, always level-headed and prepared to just go with the flow; but after shouting profanities at a broken window for the past ten minutes, Crimson knew that was just an insane fantasy of his.

OK, it's not that big of a deal, I'm fine, it's fine, everything is fine!

Crimson slowly slid his cleavers back into their sheaths and took a deep breath.

Steal school secrets now, rage later.

Nodding, the assassin strode quickly to Ozpin's desk and activated the holographic monitors, a single screen appeared in front of him along with the words

Password?

Crimson stared at the small box where he was supposed to type in the key of getting into Ozpin's files, but instead he just smiled.

Slipping his hand into one his trench coat's outer pockets, Crimson pulled out a small flash drive decorate with the image of a screaming skull and inserted it into one of the numerous slots. Crimson waited for the flash drive to take effect.

Any second now.

Any minute now.

He put it into the wrong slot.

Four minutes and a ridiculous amount of slots later, Crimson was distracted by the screen in front of him as it flashed crimson and showed the image of the screaming skull, the screen went dark for the briefest of seconds before it re-activated and brought three separate screens to life, showing to Crimson Shard that he now had access to all the functions and secrets of Beacon Academy. Crimson's smile turned into a self-assured grin as he cracked his knuckles theatrically and prepared to find why there was a comatose woman in capsule, hidden from the rest of the world's view.

Crimson's rapidly injected yet another flash dive, this time making sure it was in the right place, and prepared to download everything that Ozpin didn't want anyone else knowing about. Crimson began the transfer, watching as more and more secrets fell into his hands. After a few more minutes of maniacal glee, the transfer was completed and Crimson pulled out both flash drives, one of them now holding every secret and every scrap of information that Beacon Academy held. Crimson thought he very well might be the most intelligent person who ever lived, he threw up his arms in a wild expression of victory.

"Yes!"

The shout of victory was completely neutered when the ding of an arriving elevator sounded throughout the office.

"No!"

The elevator binged open and Crimson came face to face with the great and might Ozpin. The two stared at each other for a long moment as plans of escape ran through the assassin's head while simultaneously making sure that the flash drives were hidden in his clenched fists. After a long moment, in which Crimson considered throwing himself out the window, he lowered his arms and nondescriptly slipped his hands in his pockets.

"Ummm…hi?"

"Come back again and I'm calling the cops!" The manager of the now partially-destroyed ice cream parlor shouted as the three members of Team RSNC were forcibly removed from said ice cream parlor. Neo and Skyler were exceptionally disheveled and still shooting glares at each other while Ruby was shouting defiance back.

"The cops are morons! They can barely find their ways out of their own homes, much less actually catch someone!"

Neo dragged Ruby down the street, away from the growing confrontation.

"Like the cops could do anything to me." Ruby's grumbling about how the Vale's police department and stupidity were basically synonyms lasted the three's walk for the next two blocks.

"Oh, are you done?" Skyler's sarcastic inquire when his team leader's muttering faded off into silence caused Ruby to glare at him along with Neo.

"Shut up, ice cream-face." Ruby crossed her arms moodily, Skyler rolled his eyes.

"Ok, first off, that's not insulting. Second off, my name is Skyler, say it with me, Skyler. Also known as Skyler Snow."

Neo snorted as Skyler said his name slowly and rolled her eyes towards the person beside her who still had streaks of dessert stains on his clothes and face.

"Please, between Crimson and the rest of us, you'll never hear your real name again."

"I find it extremely disturbing that I am beginning understand you." With Skyler's comment, the group descended into silence and made their way to nowhere in particular.

"Soo…where are we going?" Skyler looked over at his two teammates, hoping for an idea; what he got were shrugs.

"I don't know." Ruby looked thoughtful before her face lit up. "You know what, we're going to go and visit Roman! With Crimson not being here, no one will have an urge to kill people!"

"Yes, thank goodness for that."

The walk to the warehouse was occupied by Ruby pestering Skyler for any information that Crimson may have dropped about what he did to Roman.

"I don't know!" Skyler finally shouted. "All I know is that Roman ended up in drag and was forced on a date with a man named Junior!"

Neo looked between her two teammates. "Um…that's the reason right there. Roman in a dress and going a date with Junior is exactly the reason why he hates Crimson Shard."

"But how did that happen?!" Ruby whined pitifully. "I want the story behind Roman's fun night!"

"I am sure `fun` is not the word he would use to describe what happened to him." Skyler murmured. "Roman did try to kill Crimson when he found him in the loft."

"Meh, mere details."

As the three marched farther away from the nicer parts of Vale, the air began to smile like chemicals and filthy seawater, the buildings started to change from bright shops to dank warehouses and factories, but the three teammates marched farther into the jumble of buildings before arriving at the large warehouse that Ruby would always smile upon seeing.

"Home, sweet home, people." Ruby pulled open the doors and took a quick glance inside. With the light streaming in through the high windows, Ruby could see that the bottom level of the warehouse was completely deserted. The three moved inside and Ruby cupped her hands around her mouth to shout up to the loft above them.

"ROOOOOOMMMEEEE'!"

"IF THE LUNATIC IS WITH YOU, THROW HIM OUT!"

Ruby rolled her eye and, in a flash of rose petals, rushed up the staircase. She was greeted by the hatless head of Roman Torchwick poking out from his bedroom and office. His eyes narrowed as Skyler and Neo climbed into view, but the suspicion soon vanished when Neo give him a reassuring wave.

"we're it."

"Good. I don't think I could handle anymore Crimson Shard." Roman ducked his head back into the hidden space of his office and bedroom before fully emerging with his hat firmly in place. Ruby tilted her head to look up at him.

"If you hate Crimson, why did you put him on my team?"

Roman sighed. "Because he is one of the best assassins I have ever seen, sans Neo, of course."

Neo nodded, a smug look on her face. Skyler, however, was less impressed.

"Is that all? Because he knows how to kill people?"

Roman shook his head. "Well, first things first, is that Crimson Shard knows how to slaughter people, not just kill them. My second reason is that Crimson Shard's semblance is very useful."

That perked Skyler's interest. "Really, useful how?"

His orange-haired host waved his question away. "Ask him."

Roman walked into what used to be his sitting area, but now was an empty space of half-rebuilt floors. He shook his head and turned back to Ruby and her team. "So, why are you here? Did you all get suspended again?"

Ruby put a hand to her chest in mock offense. "Dear Rome', I can hardly believe you would dare think of such a thing."

"Is that yes?"

"Actually, we haven't been suspended, so ha!" Ruby struck a smug stance of victory, then Skyler spoke up.

"Correction, we haven't been suspended yet." A fedora-wearing spy poked his head out of the kitchen and looked critically at his leader, the ice cream that used to streak his face now half gone. "Once we get back to Beacon, however, we probably won't even get a chance to pack before they pitch us out for good."

Ruby slowly turned to the watch-wielder. "Skyler…we were going to avoid mentioning that."

He looked at Ruby blankly. "I do not remember that conversation at all." Skyler pulled his head back into the kitchen, leaving Ruby to simply look at the spot where he used to be, her concentration was cut off when Roman spoke.

"What did you do?"

Ruby turned to the taller man, whose mouth was quirked in a tiny smile, and crossed her arms.

"Why do you always assume I'm the one doing the horribleness?" The tiny smile on Roman's face grew as Ruby pouted.

"Because you usually are doing the horribleness."

Ruby scuffed the floor with her boot. "Well, I didn't this time!" Ruby straightened her back and flung out her arm, pointing to Neo. "I present to you the true culprit, Neopolitan!"

Her dramatics were totally unappreciated.

"Uh huh." Roman turned to Neo. "So, what happened?"

Neo smirked sardonically. Roman's eyes widened slightly.

"Neo, did you murder someone?"

"Nope."

"Broke someone's spine?"

"Just an arm."

"I take It that breaking someone's arm is not the only thing you did, yeah?"

Neo crossed her arms and smirked up at Roman. Oh, you must be psychic."

And so, the entire story of the day, from the fight between Neo and Yang Xiao Long to why Skyler Snow was cleaning ice cream off himself. There was silence in the loft for a long moment, then Roman locked eyes with both Ruby and Neo.

"I can't decide on whether to buy you both with your own ice cream parlors or just a life-time supply of cookies."

Ruby beamed. "I'll have the life-time supply of cookie."

Neo raised a lazy finger. "It'll be the ice cream parlor for me."

"Yes, and I will just be having a new suit, thank you!"

Skyler, apparently, was still upset about the "Neo-Ice Cream Incident".

"Crimson Shard."

Ozpin said his name like some key that would make Crimson see the errors of his ways and tell the headmaster everything he wanted to know, but, in reality, Ozpin saying Crimson's name should have made the professor realize that interrogating the Team RNSC member was utterly hopeless.

"Yes?" Crimson looked straight into Ozpin watchful eyes, waiting for it to begin. The two stared at each other before Ozpin broke the silence by setting a small scroll on the table between them and activated it, a hologram bloomed to life.

"Do you know what this is?"

Twilight eyes glance over the information displayed and then narrowed as he recognized what he was seeing.

"That is my personal data file." Crimson looked at it with a mild interest, it was much larger than he would have thought. Ozpin nodded his sliver head.

"Yes. Yes, it is." There was a short pause before Ozpin spoke again. "Mr. Shard, what happened today?"

Crimson raised a single eyebrow. "Yeah, knowing Ms. Glynda Goodwitch, I'm sure you already know what Neo did, when she did it, and the number of dust specks that were on the floor."

The headmaster shrugged. "Possibly, but I want to hear your side of the story."

Crimson considered and relented. "Quick question first, do you want to hear my side of the story or do you want to just cut to the main point and ask the reason Neo micro-scalped Xiao Long and why I was in your office?"

"The latter." The answer was immediate as Ozpin sipped whatever brew was in his mug. A smile formed on the undercover assassin's face and he nodded.

"Alright then." He leaned in close, as if prepared to reveal a great secret. "The reason that Neo give Xiao Long a micro-scalp and the reason that I was in your office is that Neo is insane and I was lost."

The silence that followed was extremely anti-climactic.

Ozpin seemed like he wanted to sigh heavily, but settled for just enlarging some aspect of the date file in front of him. What he said next caused the usually unfazed Crimson Shard to freeze in his seat.

"What do you know of a place called the Shards?"

"Excuse me? I…don't know…" Crimson's voice was barely more than a whisper as he trailed off into complete and utter silence, a silence that made Ozpin's eyes grow deeper and more searching.

"The Shards, Mr. Shard, are located in the Kingdom of Atlas, and as rich and advanced as the rest of the Kingdom is; the Shards are a place of misery and brutality. The entire distract is made up of the rejects of Remnant who came to Atlas looking for a new start, but instead found an endless purgatory of which there is no escape." Ozpin looked at Crimson for a long while before speaking again.

"I once heard a story that came from that place, it was about a boy. Now, this boy lived his entire life amidst the waste and evil of the Shards, but he was credited with being one of the strongest beings there. I remember a part of the story when a man asked why the boy always seemed to get what he wanted almost without fail, all the boy answered with was the words 'Death's Fortune'. No one had any idea what he meant...of course, as I recall, no one ever really wanted to find out either."

Again, another long look. "The boy was no saint, however, he was credited with being the strongest because he stole the quickest, always pushed those who were weaker out of his way, and, more notably, he was not afraid to shed the blood of those who opposed him. Why do you think he did this? Besides the obvious need to survive, of course."

Crimson's shifted in his seat and spoke carefully and quietly. "I think it was because the boy never knew there was anything else. That he only knew and saw cruelty and brute force inflicted upon other people, people who were weak…I think he swore to himself that he would never be weak like them, that he would be the strongest, stronger than all the other thugs he grew up with, and that one-day, people would fear his name."

Ozpin's voice was gentile. "The story ends when the boy disappeared. No one knows where he went or what he did once he left the Shards, and so the story ends there, with a mystery and too many unanswered questions."

The quiet lasted longer than Crimson would have liked. "You still don't know the answers to those questions, do you?"

"That is correct." Ozpin's gaze never flickered. "But I would like too."

"Then get use to waiting." Crimson felt his cockiness returning. "Maybe when I'm not about to be punished and then we can discuss the boy's life in great detail all you want, we can do over tea or coffee or whatever you drink" He tilted his head back and crossed his arms over his chest, defiance practically radiating off of him.

"Speaking of which, what is my punishment for my various crimes of today? Am I finally going to get expelled?"

Ozpin's face was stoic. "No, not yet. But it is obvious that Team RNSC cannot be trusted to go about unsupervised."

It was Crimson's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Is a professor going to supervise us?"

Ozpin shock his head. "The staff already have enough on their hands without having to watch a team of disobedient students. No, from here until I say you are trustworthy, Team JNPR will be assigned to watch you. They will be with you until further notice and will be your shadow in everything you do, is that understood?"

"Perfectly." Crimson now had a throbbing headache because of this new revelation and this entire conversation in general. He just got his team of admittedly terrible spies another entire team of people whose sole assignment was to watch them. Crimson was glad he hacked the secrets of the school when he did, at least the rest of his team wouldn't kill him...yet.

Oh, Ruby is sooo not going to be happy about this.

Ruby felt uncomfortable, itchy in her own skin. She was sitting in the kitchen with most of her team and Roman, nothing bad was happening, but Ruby still felt like her day would be ruined colossally one way or another. She tried to think of why she felt this way, but all that came up was the vague sense of unease.

This wasn't good. Ruby had long ago learned to trust her vague senses of unease because they were usually right and then something bad happened.

Her fingers traced an invisible line on the kitchen counter as Roman and Skyler discussed proper ways to clean a suit jacket and if a fedora was better than a bowler. In other words, if Crimson was here, he would have already groaned loudly and declared all of this to be boring; Ruby would have been thinking that, but she had long ago learned to never interrupted Roman or Neo when they were on the topic of fashion.

Maybe Skyler and Rome' will never stop talking about suits, maybe that's the only horrible thing going to happen today. Ruby fervently hoped that was it while at the same time wishing she stayed with Crimson back at Beacon.

The itch in her skin was worse and Ruby felt herself start to fidget, her legs drumming out a beat against the tile floor, she needed to do something, to go somewhere and try to calm her mind without attracting Neo or Roman's worry. Ruby's legs drummed out on last beat and Ruby stood up, Neo looked over at her from the opposite side of the kitchen island.

"Just going for a walk." Ruby pointed to the sprain staircase. "I'll be back soon."

"Be careful, hide the bodies." Neo waved and turned back to watching Skyler and Roman arguing fiercely about if watches were better than canes when used as weapons, Ruby smiled and in a flash of red, was down the iron steps and out the door.

OK! What now? Ruby glanced around her, taking in the other warehouses and factories. As home Ruby felt in this district, with the constant noise and chemical-scented air, it was a horrible place for a person to try and clear their head…or find out what fresh air was like. With this in mind, Ruby struck out for somewhere both quieter and possibly somewhere that smelled better.

Downsides of living inside a warehouse, I guess.

Wandering away from the familiar sight of the warehouses, Ruby drifted back into the shops of the calmer part of Vale and set her sights on just strolling, enjoying the evening air as the sun began to disappear behind the horizon.

Guess Crimson is going to have the dorm room to himself tonight. Ruby reflected as she walked down the street, admitting that neither Neo or Skyler, or herself, had any plans to go back to the Academy tonight.

So lost she was in her speculations of Beacon and why she went there in the first place, Ruby didn't notice when her feet took her off the main streets and into the warren of side roads and streets that spelled out danger to all who set foot on their cracked pavement.

She didn't notice when she was spotted by a small group of men.

Didn't noticed that every single one of them were Faunus.

Did not notice that there wasn't a lust-fueled craving in their eyes, but instead a fanatical anger.

And didn't notice the most important fact, that this group of Faunus, this group of White Fang soldiers, were not being led by some lieutenant of the White Fang, that they were not even being led by another Faunus; but were being led by a woman whose cruelty give off ashy smell that nearly filled the street.

What Ruby did notice, however, was the furious snarl that echoed around her.

Pulling out Crescent Rose from where it was slung, hidden under her cloak, Ruby spun on her heel and finally realized who she was sharing this small street with.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"

There in front of here, arranged in some fleshy blockade, was a row of White Fang warriors, weapons in hand and eyes trained on the human girl. But Ruby barely sparred them a glance, because leading them, as little sense it made to Ruby, was Cinder Fall.

What is she even doing?! I thought she was the high and might dominatrix that made everyone else do her dirty work! Why is she out here doing it herself?!

Whatever the reason, Ruby did not lower her scythe. Her sliver eyes boring holes into Cinder's smirking form.

"Hello, Ruby." Cinder voice was dripping with things Ruby had no wish to identify. "Now, what are you doing up so late? And out here, of all places?"

Grinding her teeth together, the smaller girl spat her own questions out, not bothering to hid the venom in her voice.

"What do you want, Fall? Why are you even here?"

Cinder tutted in response. "Can't a girl go for a night out?" Her smirk widened. "And please, call me Cinder."

Oh, I have a name I can call you. Ruby's grip tightened on Crescent Rose's shaft. Her gaze never leaving Cinder's.

"No, normal, sane girls go for a night out. You neither normal nor sane, so what are you doing here?" Ruby widened her stance. "And what's with the world's nuttiest fanatics beyond you?"

Ruby's comment earned her a few growls from the assortment of White Fang, but nothing remotely lethal. Cinder shook her head, the smirk still in place.

"Oh, Ruby." Cinder's head tilted to the side. "You ask too many questions."

And then, by some unspoken command, The White Fang Faunus charged Ruby, murder clear in their eyes.

Ruby probably should have been more worried than she was, but there is only so much that can scare her and morons from the White Fang were not on that list. Spinning high above the mob, Ruby unleashed flurry of rose petals that engulfed the murderous Faunus in a mass of red, and from within that cloud of petals, came the first scream.

The blade of Crescent Rose began to butcher the White Fang members, all of whom had thought it's wielder was too unremarkable to be a proper threat.

They only learned how wrong they were when their life was sliced out of them. In a mere matter of minutes, the small group of terrorist were coating the street in their blood, a lone red figure with a giant scythe in their hands stood over the carnage like some elegant reaper of souls.

Ruby was breathing heavily and swayed with the light breeze, using her petals for cover and distraction had taken her strength to its barest limits. So, when Ruby was roughly spun around and Crescent Rose taken from her as she herself was kicked through the air, there was nothing Ruby could do but gasp in pain as she landed in a crumpled heap on the asphalt.

"Your semblance works against you." Cinder slowly walked over to the fallen form of Ruby, Crescent Rose dragging along the ground beside her. "You use it for too long, and you are reduced to this."

Cinder stopped right beside the fallen girl, who looked back at the glowing-eyed woman with hatred. The bitter loathing that emitted from Ruby did not stop Cinder Fall from crouching down and running a light finger across Ruby's cheek. The girl shuddered in disgust, but only could manage a pitiful swat at Cinder's hand.

"How disappointing." Cinder murmured. "I had hope you would still try to fight me." The woman leaned in close, her breath hot against Ruby's face. "No matter, this will only make it easier."

Cinder's hand stopped petting Ruby's face and instead grasped a fistful of her hair, using it to yank the squirming girl to her feet. Ruby hissed in pain and tried to fight Cinder off, but all she achieved in doing was letting Cinder trap both her arms behind her head.

Cinder looked at the struggling Ruby with an intense heat in her eyes, tracing a line down the girl's neck with a finger.

"Strange to think. No matter how skilled and strong you are…" Cinder's eyes grew brighter. "It is always so easy for me to dominant you."

"Fuck you." Ruby hissed up at the woman who just smirked, her hand trailing down, past Ruby's chest.

"Well, if you say s-"

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

The shout only caused Cinder to slowly turn her head and glare at a woman whose furious brown eyes matched Cinder's glare. In the newcomer's hand was a long sword that seemed to have blue flames licking down the blade.

Cinder released Ruby and turned to fully face the woman, her amber eyes taking in the newcomer's fiery blade. Cinder smiled at the sight of it.

In a flash of orange fire, two onyx-black swords appeared in Cinder's hands. Without a word being spoken, Cinder charged towards the other woman who simply prepared to meet the twin blades with her own.

But before the discord of clashing swords could fill the street, the ground between the two adversaries was blown apart in a ringing gun-blast.

"Watch your step!" A voice called mockingly out to Cinder, who had skidded to a stop to avoid falling into the newly-formed pit and the cloud of dust that was erupting out of it. Cinder turned to her left just in time to see a teenage boy hit the ground softly. The boy straightened up to reveal that the left side of his face was cybernetic, his left eye glowing blood red in the twilight. He wiped the dust off the ragged cloak draped around his body, causing it to fluttered like the wings of a bat.

"Mind if I join?" Everything about him, from his voice to the grin on his face was mocking to Cinder. His mismatched eyes seemed to shine with a devilish glee at her anger. "Yay or nay?"

"Leave while I'm feeling merciful." Cinder warned, her voice dark. "Or you won't have the time to regret your mistake!"

"Well, aren't you dramatic." The woman's voice cut through Cinder's anger and she whirled around to see the first newcomer pointing his flaming blade straight at Cinder's face. "What do you think, Rowan?"

The teenage boy, Rowan, shrugged. "Eh, drama isn't really my thing, I'm more of a snarky one-liner kind of guy." Rowan stretched, showing dark body armor under his cloak and a large shotgun that was hanging from his body.

"Are we going to get on with this because I have places to be." As he was saying this, Rowan unslung his shotgun and, with a quick flick of the wrist, transformed it into a wicked-looking saber. "Important places, Riley."

The woman, Riley apparently, snorted. "Yeah, I heard you the first time, kid." Her sword drew back, preparing to strike. Rowan's saber cut through the air as he prepared to attack. Cinder grip tighten on her blades, ready to-

The gunshot shattered the sword in Cinder's right hand, the shards pluming up in smoke before they even hit the ground. Spinning around, Cinder eyes widened at the sight of Ruby Rose pointing her Crescent Rose at Cinder, her red-cloak making her look like a gore-splattered wraith of vengeances.

Turning to look at Ruby was a mistake on Cinder's part, as soon as her eyes left him, Rowan swung his saber in a deadly arc and sliced Cinder's glass-like blade in two, the smoke curling up in the air as the nightmare blade dissolved.

"Oops." Rowan smiled as Cinder's eyes widened in rage.

"You miserable little s-"

A second gunshot from Ruby caused Cinder to leave that sentence hanging and deflect the bullet to avoid it blowing off her head. Riley whistled as the bullet deflected off Cinder's palm.

"That's impressive, can you block this?"

Riley carved her sword at Cinder's head, just as Rowan sliced at Cinder's legs, the duel attack made Cinder twist out of the way, away from the partners. Unfortunately for her, this maneuver brought Cinder close to Ruby and the singing sound that filled the air was all the warning Cinder received before she had to duck as Crescent Rose's blade cut the air where her dress-clad torso was just bare moments before.

I don't have time for this! Cinder fumed to herself, she was certain she could have killed all three of these children if she wanted, but time was of the essence for tonight and Cinder had already wasted enough of it.

Narrowing her eyes at the girl whose red cloak flowed like a banner, Cinder made a silent vow.

One day.

The blinding flash of fire that followed sealed the promise.

Once Ruby regained her sense of sight, she noticed the two others that had joined in and fought Cinder. They stared back at her, Rowan doing a little salute finally broke the quiet.

"So, you come here often?"

Crescent Rose folded back down as Ruby walked towards them, placing it back into its sling as she answered.

"Nah, I was just feeling lucky."

The teen stared back her with a small on his face, his cybernetic eye glittering along with his human eye.

"Not lucky enough, apparently."

Ruby scoffed. "You both popped out, didn't you?"

Rowan chuckled. "Ah yes! You would be lucky then, everyone wants to get themselves a piece of me!"

"People get restraining orders on you, Rowan, that's it." Riley sheathed her sword and moved past Ruby.

"Now, if you excuse us, we got somewhere to be."

Ruby looked at the remaining partner who nodded and put away his weapon, but before he left, Rowan asked Ruby.

"Do you go to Beacon?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Good! Guess I'll be seeing you then." With a farewell nod, Rowan walked off, after his partner. Ruby watched as he stepped over a body of a White Fang member.

"Not even going to ask." Ruby heard Rowan say to himself as he rolled aside yet another body with his foot.

"That was…something." Ruby muttered as she stepped back onto the light of the main street, meeting new friends and getting on Cinder's bad side, that was a full evening right there. She turned sharply in the direction of the warehouse, ready to go home, but as soon Ruby lifted her leg to take the first step, she was promptly butted in the head by some hard, uncomfortable idiot who apparently couldn't take the time to watch where they were going while running.

The collision sent both Ruby and whoever had just rammed into her, sprawling to the pavement. They landed together in a tangled heap of arms, legs, and…tails?

Ruby stared transfixed at the long, prehensile tail as it twitched in front of her, its owner groaned and tried to detangle themselves from the memorized Ruby Rose.

"Hey, you mind giving me a hand?" They said irritably.

Ruby froze, not in anger like Skyler back at the ice cream parlor, but in an icy shock of memories that Ruby was entirely unprepared for. She froze as that one voice brought back a time when she thought she had found hope, but instead found only despair.

That voice…he couldn't be…he died!

The person that Ruby collided with and who apparently had the tail of a monkey realized that the small girl was still sitting on the hard pavement, unmoving and unspeaking.

"Hey, you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Ruby began to shake, violent trembles racking her body as the voice continued to ask if she was all right.

No, I am not all right. I am completely not all right.

One side of Ruby roared at her to run, to escape before this situation worsened anymore, but another part of her, the part that had been growing in volume ever since her reunion with Qrow, begged her to stay and look into his face, if only for a moment.

"Should I call an ambulance? I'm calling an ambulance if you don't-"

The voice cut off in a choking gasp as Ruby lifted her head and stared into a face with mischievous grey eyes and unruly blond hair. The Faunus teen looked back down at Ruby, at her sliver eyes and dark, bicolored hair.

"R-Ruby?!"

Hearing him again, after so long, made a tiny smile appear on Ruby's face despite the enormity of the entire event.

"Hi, Sun."

OK! There we go! What did you think? Good? Bad? Alright? Anyways, let me know in the reviews if you think there are things I can do better and thank you for taking the time to read! It means a lot!

Oh yeah, Rowan and Riley (The two OCs who ruined Cinder's insanity) do not belong to me, in fact. They belong to the amazing TheNeoNightmare and C respectfully, not me.

And so, thank you for reading my story and I'll see you all in the next chapter!