Story so far: Returning from a trip abroad, Ruby Rose has encountered setback after setback. A new client seeking protection from his organization has the potential to escalate the tensions with the White Fang; his sister suddenly shows up in his jurisdiction the night he returns home, adding fuel to unstable emotions stirred up during his absence; and a meeting he was supposed to have was gutted by a mystery person or group not even two full days later. On top of all that, during his stint in Haven something has happened which has seemingly shaken the core goal/dream Ruby had been working towards for all these years, yet none other than him knows of it. All of this is happening under Ozpin's ever watching eyes, just waiting for the excuse to eradicate every trace of Ruby's radical philosophy. All the while the urges Ruby keeps shackled are desperately clawing at the surface, hoping for a chance to indulge their obsessions. And yet, even now, the worst has yet to happen…

Chapter Six: Calm; Confrontation

Ruby woke with a dull tightness in his temples and a soreness in his eyes, the lids of which were cast iron balls desperately wanting to fall, to put him back in a dreamless sleep. But that couldn't happen; he had too much to do today. His black hair was a wild mesh obscuring his vision, but he still knew that he wasn't in his and Cinder's room. Through a handful of tiny slivers, random parts of a statue could be seen, specifically a sword, a kneecap, and a severed head. He was in the office underground. Strange, why was he in the office? He could've sworn he and Cinder had gone to bed as soon as they'd got home last night.

Wait a second, he wasn't alone. There was a comforting weight nudging him into the couch, breath on his neck, legs curled around his own and arms clutching onto him for dear life. But something seemed off to his dreary mind. The breaths were more gentle and quicker than normal, not to mention cooler. The limbs cocooning him were slender and lithe; they lacked the muscle and meat Cinder's had. All in all the one holding him was petite and lacked his girlfriends' subtle sonsie figure.

Neo, that was the one snuggling him. While not unheard of or even unwelcome, it didn't help with his confusion. Careful not to wake her, Ruby subtly looked for a way to untangle themselves without waking her up. Not as hard as you would think, considering Neo was by far the heaviest sleeper of them all.

Someone must have noticed the movements of his head because footsteps came closer soon after his eyes had fluttered open.

"So you're finally awake, huh." Roman's voice was more of a statement than a question or tease. Surprisingly, his hat and white coat were absent, leaving the fancy suit vest and his orange hair exposed.

Ruby responded with a nod, his head a shaggy mop in motion. "Why am I in the office?" He inched his way up, carefully removing the arm which was slung across his chest.

"Well, the pyro was called away. Opal had heard you were back in town and wanted to visit." Roman began walking his way towards the couch on the other side of the room, side-stepping an ottoman. "They went out to lunch since you were sleeping."

Oh, right. She did say she was gonna drop by as soon as he got back. Guess he forgot.

Opal was a very spunky girl; in fact in a lot of ways she reminded Ruby of an old acquaintance: Nora. Both were energetic, both had zero filter, and both had no idea how to tamper their emotions in any way. Happiness, sadness and everything in between were both worn on their sleeves with absolutely zero reservations.

Anyway, Opal was a friend he had made within the last couple of years, after his war on the underground had already been in full force. She had also been an employee, specifically an escort, one of about a dozen Ruby kept staffed. Months after they had met she had fallen for a guy and asked to be reassigned to a more standard job, a wish Ruby had happily granted. About a year and a half later, just a couple of months before he left for Haven, they announced their engagement during a double date.

What started out as her running to Ruby seeking protection from her pimp had blossomed into a surprising friendship. Even Cinder enjoyed being around her, a shock to many no doubt. If there was one person Cinder could be considered genuine friends with it would be Opal. The fact that she went out to eat with her on her own was proof enough of that. And that fact made him happy. Cinder had definitely made progress in their years together. But all this was beside the point.

"Doesn't explain why I'm here." Ruby's feet touched the floor as he finally made it upright. Man, he was tired. Roman had said lunch, right? How long had he been out?

It looked as though Neo was still in her Pjs, a cute, oversized top and bottom made of pink satin decorated with smiling ice cream cones. Nobody has or ever would guess that Neo was actually his senior, a year older than Yang, actually, making her twenty-seven. It was so shocking since she could pass for a high-schooler with no questions, and with just a touch of make-up a middle schooler.

Of course, the guessing was made harder by her choice of clothing, preferring cute, childlike designs along the lines of lolita fashion. She had been extremely shy back in the day but Ruby and later Roman had both encouraged her to express what she liked in her style, as she had spent the years before forcing herself to wear things she thought others would find acceptable. He gently reached out and parted her pink and brown hair from her face. Even talking normally as they were now wasn't going to wake her up.

Roman sat on the other couch. "She brought you down 'cause she didn't want you alone. Frankly, after last night, I don't blame her."

"You know about last night?" Ruby sounded almost ashamed. The pad of a wandering finger ever-so gently caressed the faded line of an old scar on Neo's neck, right where her vocal cords should've been. Unless you were closely inspecting at a fingers' distance, there would be no way to see it, so old there was no tactile or even color difference between the two types of skin.

"Of course I do. Me and Neo both felt whatever it was. She barged into my room last night in a cold sweat, worried sick to her stomach, and didn't fall asleep until after you guys got back." Ruby frowned slightly. He did remember Neo practically tackling him when they walked through the front door. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm happy I was doing our Estimated Taxes, otherwise I probably would've had nightmares like hers."

The hand Ruby had to Neo aimlessly drifted around her face as he thought. That was a bitter pill, though Roman didn't mean to. Bad enough Cinder saw him breakdown in person, but these two as well? Roman and Neo were everything to him, more than simple friends, more than just family. These two had been with him through the worst part of his life, they were hands to hold onto for comfort, shoulders to cry on, ears to listen, pillars that propped him up when he had been on a downward spiral; there was no Ruby without Roman or Neo.

Was that why Neo had curled around him as he slept? Like she was protecting him in her own way? The guilt of terrifying his little Neo was a knife to the heart. Roman, for as good of a poker face he had, couldn't hide his emotions from him. Never from him. It was in the cadence in which he spoke, and the slightest twitches of his cheek and eye muscles. That was a salted twist of the knife, and it burned just as hollow.

Roman fiddled around one of the drawers of the table briefly before slamming it shut with his knuckles. It was a brush and a comb along with some spare hair ties. "C'mere, let me fix that bird's nest."

Without words he got up from the couch and walked over. His sweatpants, bunched around his knees from the sleep, fell back to his ankles; his shirt, which was the same one he had left in last night, had somehow been pushed up to his belly button and had to be untucked. Even the straps of a sports bra had to be adjusted.

The silence was guilt ridden and awkward. So much was spoken without anything being said. He sat down between Roman's legs as he had a thousand times before. Small plastic teeth immediately began gently snagging knots and pulling them straight. For a little bit there was nothing to say, or rather everything that needed saying were things one of them didn't want to broach.

"I'm going to see Jacques later today." Finally found something to fill the nothing.

"What for? I thought our order was for next week?" No, he couldn't be wrong. Ruby's trip had only been planned for six weeks and they had scheduled an order for Dust at the tail end of the following month. Him being gone for so long had been unexpected but the order shouldn't have been affected by it. Even then they normally went to a local branch for pickup, never to the Schnee's main office.

Ruby winced as one stubborn tangle needed a couple yanks to be rid of. "Not about that. The ship we found was a Schnee Bulldog. He's the only person I know that has access to information about it."

Well that certainly made more sense than what he'd assumed. He felt Ruby twitch as the brush snared and pulled free the last of the big knots. He was starting to become a bit more presentable. Time to switch to the fine tooth comb. "Is Cinder taking you or me?"

"Neither. I'm driving myself today."

While it wasn't uncommon for Ruby to drive when needed, he did absolutely hate doing it which was why he usually got other people to chauffeur him around. Considering his position in the criminal market and the sheer amount of enemies he had, it made sense for him to always have an extra person or two around. Emerald has argued that it was pointless since if there was someone strong enough to fell Ruby none of them could possibly help, and while that was true the "better to have and not need," saying was absolutely applicable. She was naturally a bit short-sighted.

"Oh? You sure? You know I don't mind."

Ruby placed the subtlest of nods. "I just need time to think about some things. Besides I need to be as inconspicuous as possible in the SDC building and you two stick out like sore thumbs."

Roman gave a little chuckle as a cluster of red-dyed ends was pulled free. "Uh-huh, so says the he-she with silver eyes."

The smile laced Ruby's voice. "Actually, I'll be going as a woman specifically for that reason. So ha, eat a dick."

Roman quickly reached around and flicked Ruby's nose, like he would do to a pet dog. "Bitch."

Ruby playfully elbowed his chest. "Asshole." Just like that the tension was destroyed in a series of giggles. Their playful banter settled down and the silence returned, though less awkward this time.

Roman began bunching Ruby's hair into one long tail and grabbed the thicker of the two hair ties. "So are you finally gonna tell me what's been naggin' at your noggin'?" Even when talking about something serious, Roman had an ability to diffuse tension. "Since you've been back you've seemed distracted. Not like you."

Ruby's smile faltered. "I guess if I said 'nothing' you wouldn't buy it, huh?"

"Respectfully my dear boy-girl, not for a penny. Neither would Cinder." Roman finished off Ruby's hair with a swing of the tail over the shoulder with enough force to tickle its owner's nose.

Something had happened in Haven and whatever it was it had shaken up his normally confidant and implacable boss and family. He noticed it that night at the bar not even two hours after his return; the way he seemed so quick to violence, evidenced by that poor girl. Was attacking Ruby idiotic? Absolutely, but the retaliation had been overboard, especially for some college girl that looked too weak to tear a wet paper bag. The normal Ruby would've never gone so far against someone so weak. Right before that he had been practically shaking.

Hell, even Cinder had said something to him about it in private when she had brought him down a few hours ago. That alone spoke volumes. Her? Asking his personal opinion? Talk about hell freezing over.

Ruby leaned back against the warm body, the crown of his head a rest for Roman's chin. When next he spoke his voice was soft and fragile, uncertain and drowned in regret. How many years had it been since Roman had heard Ruby like that? "There's no going back, 'Ro. I've screwed up and there's no way to change it."

"It'd be a lot easier to tell you you're wrong if you stopped beating around the bush."

Ruby lips form a gentle grin, one of longing for a future that seemed so far. "Later, I promise. I just need time to work it out in my head first."

Ruby stood up. "I'm gonna go get dressed. If I don't see you before I leave: later." He bent down and kissed Roman on the cheek. He went back to Neo and did the same to her, but of course she slept through it. She did, however, curl into herself in a halfway fetal position. Ruby smiled expectedly and walked to the door. As it shut he couldn't help but feel a weight on his shoulders.

Today was going to be a long one.

…

Jacques stared in disbelief. "What are you doing here? Your shipment isn't until the thirtieth- we can not be seen together, dammit!"

Ruby pulled on one of three high quality, plump leather chairs. "I'm not here for Dust. There was an incident last night." She sat down and started digging around the inside of her suit jacket. "I need you to tell me about a ship with this serial number." From an inside breast pocket came an unmarked envelope that hadn't even been sealed.

Jacques paid little attention to the paper as it slid across his desk. "And what if the wrong someone saw you? Coming to my office mid-day; are you out of your mind!"

"Why do you think I came here looking like this? At a distance I don't think even my family could recognize me." Well, he couldn't really disagree with that. He really-damnit, she really was unrecognizable as the old Ruby. Although she had been different for a long time now the way she looked today was polar opposite to the normal. Every other time they had met Ruby had been almost stuck in time; the clothes and hair style may change but the body and face never did, she was almost identical to her fifteen year old self. Almost.

Jacques never could put his finger on the specific thing, but there was always this uncanny valley effect when he met with Ruby. Whenever he looked at her face for too long this pit in his stomach yawned wide. It was this impression that whatever he was looking at shouldn't be real, something so close to being human but not quite hitting the mark. He wondered what other people thought when they looked at her before now, with how easily she charmed and enthralled people it seemed he was the odd man out. That feeling was absent today. There was no denying the woman that sat in front of him.

"Now onto the important stuff." She tapped the reinforced glass of his desk. "There was an attack in the forest and one of your ships was there. Those pictures are the images of the scene. I imagine the cops will be contacting you or one of your C-suite executives about it soon."

Inside the envelope was a piece of paper with a long string of numbers and letters along with half a dozen pictures. All of them were different angles on a burned out wreck of a ship. He flipped through them, and as he did so he asked an evident question. "If the police are investigating this, how did you get these?"

She smiled. It was polite but obviously forced. "Don't worry about that, Jacques. The police have a strict process which they are required to follow, I'm simply getting ahead of the curb."

He set the pictures down. "And you care so much about this because…?"

"Let's just say I'm not careless enough to write this incident off as a coincidence. For your own liability let's just end it at that." Ruby leaned back against the chair.

"Yeah, sure," he brushed off the dismissal. Like he was capable of getting Ruby to talk when she didn't want to. He wasn't even going to try.

"But you should care."

"Oh really," he raised a brow. "Why should I be the one sticking my nose into this matter? I have people for stuff like this for a reason." He spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Bodies, six of them. They were found at the scene as well, along with Dust in SDC standard shipping crates. All of them were armed." The bulging blue eyes certainly showcased his new attitude. "It's gonna be quite the circus around here when the news breaks."

"What? Were they killed by the crash?" Ten different scenarios ran through his mind in an instant. Chief among them was the possibility that something was wrong with the ship itself. If it turns out faulty equipment caused the deaths of civilians; the slander that would be thrown his way…

"Actually they weren't," she corrected. Before he could sigh in relief Ruby continued. "Homicide. Someone or someones killed these people, and there was one of your ships right by them, set ablaze."

"No, you can't be serious." He was in disbelief. The ship in the photos was a Bulldog variant; it was a restricted model to be used only by licensed Huntsman. Hell only the four Huntsman academies had the clearance to even purchase the things. No two-bit criminal or street thug should even be near one let alone…

Fingers were a blur on his virtual keyboard immediately. A white window popped up on a separate holographic screen and he began typing again. There was a database that recorded the flight logs of every ship active in the SDC, uploaded by the GPS systems in the black box. More detailed information and audio recordings would have to be downloaded from the thing itself but there was still a decent amount of information to be gathered this way, stuff like purchase history as well a record of all the missions it had been on as well as the personnel slated to be on them.

Now it made sense, Ruby had come to him because he was one of only three people in the whole of the SDC that had clearance to look at this database. Technically the logs were for the customers of the business, but being at the top of said business had its benefits.

While Jacques entered his account information Ruby lifted her legs to the desk. May as well kick back while the opportunity presents itself. Not like down time would be abundant in her immediate future. She noticed a picture frame of interlinked sterling silver. It was a family portrait in a painterly style. It was of a younger Jacques and Willow, their daughters Winter and Weiss, and then there was the baby of the group, the only boy of the litter.

"So how's Whitley been doing?" Jacques gave her some side eye. Oh he knew where this was going. "Has the cutie found a sweetheart to whisk him off his feet? Haha."

He lifted his hands from his desk for a moment. "Would-stop bringing that up!" Bad enough his son had been smitten with another heir, but it just had to be Ruby. Granted it made a certain amount of sense, seeing as Ruby was only a couple years older than him compared to the rest which were five to six years older. Still, seeing his thirteen year-old son follow around another boy like a lost puppy had been positively annoying. "Oh god, the headaches are back."

Ruby laughed, a full and hearty one. "It's your fault for making it so easy to tease you." Ruby placed one foot over the other. "C'mon, it's not so bad. He could be like me and play for both teams."

"Like that changes anything. He needs an heir to take over the company when the time comes and he's not going to get that with another man, now is he?"

"There's always adoption."

"Absolutely not. The business has to be kept in the family, end of discussion." Ah, there it was. Jacques had put more time and effort into the Schnee Dust Corporation than anything else. It was his life's work, even though he had married into it. He had poured more blood, sweat, and tears into the business than Willow, technically the rightful heir under Nicholas, had ever even dreamed of doing.

That said Ruby couldn't help but notice a hole in his logic. "So what if he finds a wife that can't conceive?"

"Then she's not a proper bride, now is she?" How formal of him. Marriage to him seemed to be nothing more than a business transaction, like most things in his life. Not a wrong way of thinking per se, but definitely a stale one.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Just sounds like nepotism to me. And here I thought you and I had similar ideals on stuff like this: that merit is all that should matter. I thought that was why you got rid of Nicholas's faunus policies?"

Now it was Jacques' turn to roll eyes. "And look where that's gotten me, even now there's a group of those animals that want to hang me as if I was the one who enacted those damn things in the first place."

She shrugged. There was another point she could bring up but decided against it. His harping on a genetic line was funny since he himself was an example of the stupidity of nepotism; he had married into the Schnees and that is what saved the company from bankruptcy. Willow had neither the smarts or the spine to run a mom and pop store let alone a global conglomerate with over eighty-thousand employees. Very few people had the work ethic to be a CEO, and she had been an example of why you can't put just anyone in a seat of power.

"Not exactly the point but whatever, to each their own." She waved her hand. "Now back to your furious typing. The sooner I leave the better."

"Hmph," Jacques returned to the web page. He started entering the same login information for the fourth time. There must be some unwritten rule his web development team had to put in as many checkpoints for authentication as possible. In theory he understood why but god it got annoying. There was still one more sign-in left, too.

A vibration caught his attention. His blue eyes flicked to Ruby as she pulled a scroll out from the opposite breast pocket. "Sorry, it shouldn't take long." She answered. "Hello? Ugh, damn automated calls…finish the damn prompt already!" He snickered.

There was a knock at his door but before he could answer it was opened. "What is it now?" He sounded annoyed, very much so. Even if he didn't have a presentation to put together single handedly, or this new ship incident to look into, the more people that saw Ruby the more anxious he got.

Peeking out from the massive door, the man held up a folder thick with papers defensively at the tone. "I got those inventory copies you wanted."

"Oh, right. Bring 'em here." Curse his fading memory. Getting old isn't easy.

Iolite, personal assistant to the CEO, walked towards the desk with a curious eye to the woman. He was dressed as properly as one would expect for a man in his position, though with a dress shirt instead of a full three-piece like most wore, his boss included. Large ears, thin but wide like a bats', jutted out from neatly combed sandy blond hair. The ear facing the stranger slightly twitched and perked straight. Jacques didn't seem to notice even while looking straight at him, and the woman was busy pressing some prompts on her scroll.

A human finally picked up on the call. "Hello? Yes, this is her."

"This all of them?" Jacques reached a hand out.

"Yep," Iolite handed them off. "Everyone actually had their reports done on time," he deadpanned.

"Huh, maybe the moon is in one piece after all," Jacques joked back in the same tone.

"…you found it, oh that's wonderful…yes, I'm already running about today so I can be there within the next few hours…" Ruby ignored them both.

Iolite gave a quick glance behind him. He saw the briefest flash of silver before turning back to his boss. So, that "gorgeous woman" a coworker mentioned did have silver eyes after all. With his assignment done ahead of time he had intended on going out to lunch a bit early today but a friend had asked him if he knew anything about a stunning, silver eyed woman walking straight to Jacques office as if she owned the place. Curiosity peaked, he had asked the secretary about the mystery woman. The flustered response told him more than what she scrambled to say. Seems the stranger was quite the charmer.

An old acquaintance of his, Weiss, was gonna be interested in this.

"Since everything is done ahead of time I'm gonna take my lunch a little early, alright?"

"Yeah, sure, that's fine." Hmm, his boss seemed almost eager to get him out. He took a mental note of that. Iolite offered his goodbyes and turned to leave.

"…alright, thank you so much, buh-bye." The scroll was closed. For the first time they locked eyes.

"Hello Miss, I'm Iolite." He put out a hand. She gave him a firm grip in response. He had had doubts as to whether or not his friend had been exaggerating the beauty of this mystery woman but, astonishingly, he hadn't. A face of almost perfect symmetry topping off a body which seemed plucked from a collective ideal. It was made all the more amazing when he realized that there was no trace of makeup, not even simple lipstick or gloss. Most women he knew, wife included, consider that to be a bare essential before going outside. The rings and dangling jewels from her ears were the only adornments he could spot.

"Hello as well. I'm Sascha." She paused. For a second he felt scrutinized, like those eyes were picking apart every pore on his face, every spec of dust on his clothes; one glance was all it took for his nerves to start flaring up, for the hair on his neck to stiffen. Was this what it felt like to be a criminal under interrogation?

"I hope you don't mind me asking," Sascha released his hand. "But is everything alright? Is it because you're injured?" She pointed under her left eye. Clammy fingers traced the edges of his square bandage, as if to make sure it was still there.

"Nah. I would like to say I got this doing something cool or exciting, so I'll leave it a mystery." He forced a fraudulent smile. "I'm fine, but thank you for the concern." Iolite excused himself formally again and left the room in a mild hurry.

The door behind her shut. On a normal day maybe her suspicions would've been triggered, but with the chaos of the last few days what might have been noticeable was just something odd to write off. That lapse in judgment would cost her.

"Well, this is going to be quite the productive day, huh." Ruby turned back to Jacques. There were a few taps of a button and the reflected hologram screen on her side suddenly went white.

"Alright, I'm in."

Weiss waited in a nerve-shaking silence. The hustling coffee shop was drowned out by thoughts in her head as if they were more real than the people around her. She was waiting for him to come by for lunch so all she had was time, time to dwell past regrets and possible futures. She had been waiting so long that her coffee, of which only a sip had been taken, was now barely lukewarm.

Weiss didn't have the thoughts to spare. An old wound has been picked raw over the last few days and now it flooded over every waking moment. She would never forgive herself for not speaking up.

Ruby had always been awkward and socially anxious, but she hadn't had any idea as to how deep it ran or how severe it was. It was only after becoming a team when the situations arose to give Weiss a glimpse into just how horrid Ruby's view of himself was. The way he would drop into dangerous situations with almost no sense of risk to himself, or how he would be the first to act as a human shield while fighting grimm. Even the team formations he created always put him at the greatest risk.

It had all finally clicked during a one sided argument Weiss had had with him. As Ruby's partner she decided that he needed a talking to, specifically about how little he seemed to think of his safety. The argument had been prompted by an incident during their latest mission when Ruby had jumped in front of Blake, taking Deathstalkers' stinger in the stomach. Not the first time he had something like that. He had been hospitalized yet again, that time for over a week.

How had he responded? What did he say to Weiss' heartfelt plea for, if nothing else, just a little consideration for his own life?

"Sorry, 'didn't think it would be a big deal."

"You-what?" Weiss had been stunned, not just by the words but the genuine surprise he showed. It was infuriating. "How dare you! How could you ever think that? Do you have any idea how much we love you? Yang would be devastated if she heard you say that."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he mumbled, "I mean it'd be so much worse if one of you guys got seriously hurt or worse. At least if I die, 'ya know, it'd be like, I dunno, ripping a band-aid off."

"Wha…how could you…" Weiss was at a loss for words, a very rare thing to be sure. The worst part, however, was yet to come. What Ruby would say would haunt her for years, to this very day.

"Why are you so weird about it? He finally made eye contact with her. "If it makes you feel any better just…don't think of me as a person, 'ya know. I'm…ephemeral, like a dream. You guys will wake up one morning and forget that I was even something to remember."

Weiss' lips twitched in an attempt to form words, but nothing came out. How does anyone respond to that insanity? Did Ruby really think that if, god forbid, something happened his family and friends would just move on, as if they'd lost a toy or something?

She stepped forward. There were no words that could fully articulate what she wanted so she opted for a different approach, one that was most unusual for her. She walked up to Ruby, who sat on the edge of his bottom bunk avoiding her gaze, and reached out. Weiss engulfed him in a hug, cradling his head against hers.

Ruby did return it but only after an awkward number of seconds. His hands were unsure, almost shaking as they settled onto her shoulders. "If I could be selfish," he uttered against her ear, his voice about as stable as his hands. They squeezed. "When the time comes, could you… remember me? I have these dreams and… I don't know when it will be enough. How hard do I have…" Ruby trailed off. He couldn't bring himself to finish.

Was this really the boy she had known all of her life? The sweet kid who was almost criminally optimistic? This, whatever it was, wasn't even nihilistic. Nihilism, in its simplest form, was the belief that life had no objective purpose or meaning. The things Ruby was saying went beyond that. It wasn't that he had no purpose, worse than that he seemed to think his life had no value.

What the hell had happened to him? What could cause one of the most gentle souls on the planet to turn this… whatever it was. Was it some form of depression or had Ruby, for however long, really gone through life thinking his existence was so worthless that no one would mourn him? Was that why he had always put a hundred-and-ten percent into everything he tried? Just to prove himself worthy of just being remembered?

As it turns out she would never know. Unsure of what to do Weiss had scheduled an appointment with a counselor at Beacon Academy to help her with this dilemma. Did she risk their team dynamic and tell Yang behind Ruby's back? Or did she go straight to Ruby's parents and risk offending both the siblings at the same time? Would Blake take offense that she was skipped entirely despite being on the same team? On a Wednesday, two days before the session with Goodwitch, Ruby abandoned his family and kingdom. There would be no answer or progress.

Weiss wondered what Qrow thought about all of this. What did he know? She didn't have much of a personal connection to Ruby and Yangs' uncle. All she knew was that he had a falling out with Ruby's parents not long after the incident and soon after stopped teaching. Yang was just as in the dark as she was on that topic. There was something going on in the background yet no one would tell them.

Qrow was a stand out fighter amongst his generation of huntsmen, the position as Ozpin's right hand was very appropriate. In fact even now, a few years past his prime, every now and then Qrow would spar against Yang, Blake and Weiss herself. As recently as last year, in fact. Even in that battle Qrow had been capable of holding all three to a standstill simultaneously, Semblances and all, and Weiss could confirm, while obviously not aiming to kill him the three of them hadn't held back either. She had a sneaking suspicion he had.

In fact in the days after Ruby left it became somewhat accepted amongst the team that he had waited for a time when Qrow was away from the villa to enact his plan. Blowing up their home was not to distract his parents or the other nobles nor even was it some emotional outburst, he had done it specifically to get Qrow's attention away from him for a large amount of time. Prodigy he may have been, Ruby was no match for a veteran of Qrow's caliber.

Worried about some sort of terrorism and possible subsequent attacks Ozpin had ordered Qrow to coordinate a search of the other noble houses with the local police while he coordinated additional hunstmen groups in the area for possible grimm activity. That was the reason why the heirs had been sent out to search the immediate areas of their respective homes. That's why Yang, Weiss, and a group of friends they'd had over at the time had been sent out into the forest.

At the time Yang and Weiss had urged Blake to check on her family just in case they were attacked next. Being the only faunus of the nobles it wasn't unthinkable they would be targeted. Meanwhile Weiss's family was so segregated from the rest and guarded by a private force that her family was the least of anyone's concern.

Only adding to this theory, when they had surrounded him Ruby didn't seem worried about fighting off a combination of them, three members of Team JNPR and Coco Adel; Weiss and Yang had gotten the impression that he was more worried about drawing attention, presumably from Qrow. A fear only proved right as shortly after he had beaten them all into the dirt and left Qrow had arrived, drawn by the sound of one of Nora's thunderous attacks.

Weiss often wondered what would've happened if Pyrrha had been there. She had been showing her parents around town at the time. Out of everyone in their age group her and Ruby were by far the strongest. In fact they seemed equal in all physical aspects, as every duel, every spar between them ended in a draw. It happened even in team matches, for every time RWBY and JNPR sparred the outcome may have changed but the formula didn't. It was simple really, Pyrrha was too strong for Yang, Blake or Weiss and Ruby was too strong for Nora, Ren, and Jaune, so they would separate themselves out in an attempt to give their teams a fair shot at victory. Without intervention the result would invariably be them knocking each other out.

With Pyrrha there he wouldn't have won, that's what Weiss thought. Which was why he had timed it perfectly. His parents were away in some sort of meeting with the teachers of Beacon, including Qrow at the time, and his only equal was showing her family the sights of the kingdom, flown in for a similar conference the day before. Ruby had said he was going to the local armory to fine tune his precious scythe so no one had thought anything of his absence. Then he had waited for a time when his team, their friends, and the staff were out of the house to blow it up with a mixture of Fire and Lighting Dust. Even Ozpins' and Qrows' reactions seemed to have been an anticipated factor in his plan.

A simpler mind would just run when he had the chance but Ruby was much too clever. Knowing the sheer response a missing noble child would've elected, he instead opted to put the entire local government on lock down. If it wasn't for the heirs finding him that night he would've been off the continent long before a proper search could've been organized. It was Ruby taking a break after a whole day's run, without that one act they would have never found him.

Yang always dismissed the thought as that level of calculating was too cold for someone like Ruby. She seems to forget why Ozpin prized Ruby so much. Genius warriors were one thing, genius minds were another. Ruby's ability to manage logistical chains and strategize was what separated him from the rest. Ozpin had him leading multi-team missions before he had even officially joined Beacon Academy, when he was thirteen. The fact Ruby was an amazing fighter was just icing on that cake.

Weiss left out a breath as her head pressed against the cushion of her seat. This was so complicated, not to mention emotionally draining.

So distracted from the world it wasn't until someone had sat down on the opposite side of her booth when she noticed the man. A faunus, well dressed and mature, thirties most likely though she had never asked his age. Iolite must have already talked to someone at the counter because he had a steaming cup with the shop logo on it.

"Princess," he raised his cup in a mock salute. "Been awhile."

"What was so important you had me come down here?" Weiss took a sip from her coffee. She cringed. Forget lukewarm, this was cold.

"Testie today, aren't 'ya." Iolite laughed. He pulled a walnut-colored satchel, one of high quality, tanned leather, onto his lap and began rooting around it.

After dropping her cup Weiss sank into her seat. "It's been a rough couple of days."

Iolite was someone who Weiss had known for years but didn't exactly hangout with. She saw him around when she was a teenager and was always impressed with his work ethic. Down in the mines he was one of the few who took initiative, so much so that Weiss had been the one that talked her father into giving him a position of leadership when a spot opened up. Obviously it worked well enough and he had steadily worked his way up the corporate ladder over the years. To be the CEO's assistant in the SDC was to be his eyes and ears on the ground, knowing the ins and outs of every department and having enough practical knowledge to both work in and lead them if necessary. Iolite had the required ethic and skills in spades.

A couple seconds of silence passed. "What happened?" Weiss pointed under her eye.

"Nothing, just fell down some stairs. Morning hangovers don't mix well with children's toys, let me tell you." For reasons, Weiss didn't believe him. The way stammered that out was one strike against him and the slight reddening of his cheeks was the other.

He quickly switched the subject. "Well I got something you might find interesting." From the bag an oversized scroll bigger than a dinner plate, also called a liber, was pulled free. Libers were different from scrolls in that, being four times the size of a scroll at minimum, they were not holographic. He made a few taps on the screen. "I took a picture of our security cameras. Remind you of anyone?" He handed it across the table.

When Weiss centered her vision on the device her heart stopped. There, a picture of a screenshot in time, a beautiful woman walking down a sparsely populated hallway. Her skin pale, hair black but dyed red at the tips, and eyes calming pools of silver. She looked so similar, disturbingly so; a female Ruby look-alike. Just one or two of these things on someone would simply raise an eyebrow but all three characteristics on a single person, even a woman, in the Schnee's corporate headquarters of all things…

"Who the hell is this?" She barked, looking away from the screen for the briefest second.

Iolite shrugged. "Couldn't tell you, 'never seen her before in my life, but she was in your father's office earlier today. However she did say her name was 'Sascha.'"

Weiss's thoughts were scrambled. Sascha? Never even heard of that name before. The timing, the look, the location; no way this person was unrelated, right? But if it was who she thought, why her father? It's not like Ruby and him spent time together or anything back in the day, hell her father seemed to take extra steps to distance himself from the other nobles. He thought being the Schnee CEO was more important than being a, to quote: "...beggar of the people."

Noting Weiss' trance-like state, Iolite continued. "There's something else. She reminded me of your friend from way back so I decided to do a little snooping. When I saw her she was on a scroll with someone so I may have looked at our network logs. On an unrelated note there should be another window open, I believe you might find that interesting."

Weiss hit the task-view button and her screen zoomed out into two. In the second window, even when smaller, she could see the words typed out. For a second she forgot how to breathe. It was an address and when she read it her heart sank. It was the airport they had all been to the other day.

"I have no idea what the conversation was about but it sounded like she had left something there and was going to pick it up later today." The older man attempted to add information but he had no idea if Weiss was even registering his voice. She stared at that screen so intently you'd think it held the secret to the universe.

That address sealed it. This had to be Ruby. This was Ruby. There was no way this was just some astronomical coincidence. The whole woman thing would be figured out later.

In a hurry Weiss returned the liber and got up. She grabbed the purse sitting beside her, rummaging through hurriedly not dis-similar to Iolite minutes ago. A green one-hundred lien card was slapped onto the table. "Give that to the waitress," she ordered. An almost absurd amount to pay considering the standard drink here was like seven lien. Purse hanging from her shoulder she walked to his side.

Two purple cards were placed in front of him. "Here, take this. Consider it my thank you."

He gathered them. "Weiss, I'm salaried at 150k, I don't need a couple grand. Let alone for helping the friend who helped me get the job in the first place. Forget about it, it's nothing."

She rejected his offering. "Then give it to charity or something, 'cause you're keeping it. And email me that picture, would you."

Resigning himself to it Iolite agreed and pocketed the cards. One did not argue with any Schnee unless you had a lot of time and energy to spare. He had neither. "Sure thing," he took another sip of his hot drink.

"Also," Weiss gently rubbed his cheek with the back of her knuckles. He flinched when she barely traced the edge of the bandage. She bent down to speak privately in his ear. "Tell Miranda that if she touches you again she'll have to worry about me, not the cops."

Iolite's body language suddenly became awkward and fidgety. He couldn't even look in her general direction. He said nothing. She patted his back in an attempt to comfort, "Talk later," and started walking. Her scroll was in her hand before walking out the door. Being good friends with multiple teams, Weiss had their license numbers programmed into her huntsmen finder as they all had with her and her team. It was mainly used on missions to coordinate everyone, Ruby had used it extensively when he was their leader. It also had some fringe benefits.

According to it, the ones closest to the airport was JNPR, for whatever reason. Somewhere in mind she could've sworn Nora had been saying something about a restaurant near there or something. They were over an hour away judging by the map but that was still one-third of her time, Weiss was at the other end of the kingdom; Yang and Blake weren't better either. Blake was the closest but she was still two and a half hours away and was currently heading towards Yang who was even farther than Weiss was right now.

She made a few motions with thumb before setting it to her ear. It didn't ring for long. "Hey Jaune, 'you guys free right now? We might have a clue on Ruby."

Vale's downtown port was well known the world over for its size and traffic. A wedge-shaped structure the size of a small town, broken into segments labeled "buildings," each of which focusing on its type of customer: international, local, business and huntsmen. It was one of the last of a previous generation of airports. Erected in an age when airplanes were the only ways to fly, this building had oversaw the transition to hover crafts over a three-hundred year history. Most of its kin had been torn down or repurposed but Aerial Port stood strong as ever, with its history, unique design, and sheer volume of traffic on a daily basis, its near future was assured.

Nora was struck by the superstructure as she walked in the lobby of the second building. It was amazing that this thing had been in her backyard all these years yet she never once bothered to check it out. It's a shame she didn't have time to enjoy it. She pressed on through a crowd of people. There were hundreds of them in this room yet it wasn't even at half capacity.

A giant glass door guarded by a group of officers was her destination. "B" was the only door guarded that way, it was also the least trafficked. Nora only saw two people enter after presenting their huntsmen license. A far cry from "C" which, while still being the second least populated, had a line that stretched about forty people long.

As she approached one of the officers held out a hand. "Huntsmen license or no entry."

She handed over her scroll, already prepped for this, to the worker. "Nora Valkyrie. We believe a suspect in a criminal case might be here or is on his way. I've been charged with this building and my teammates are searching the other three. Your supervisor should've been contacted by a noble already."

Their faces became tense and serious. "From JNPR, correct?" Her scroll was handed back. She confirmed it. "Yes, we were told. We've been tasked with escorting you around as you see fit."

She pocketed her device. "Good. You," she pointed to the mustached man who had halted her. "And you," she put a finger to the man who gave her scroll back. "Come with me. The rest of you keep an eye out for someone with black and red hair and silver eyes. If you find 'em don't, and I repeat: don't engage. Radio every single person over private coms, that's it. Understood?" They all nodded.

Nora walked. "Good. Let's go." The uniform officers followed suit. A button was pressed behind her and the reinforced glass door slid open with the sound of pressured hissing.

"Any idea where this person might be?" The officer with the handlebar mustache questioned.

"We believe he may have left something here. I think the best place to start would be the lost and found."

…

Ruby rested her elbow on a chair's arm. "What's up?"

"Roman said to give you an update today. Afraid it's not much, she's still out." Hmm, there was something different about Adam's voice, a little quicker than normal. Interesting. Ruby's eyebrows raised in mild interest, but didn't mention anything about his speech pattern.

"Wow, you must've hit her hard. Think she's faking it?"

"Well it's that, or she just has a weak Aura." Ruby doubted that. It was a well known phenomenon that, when out cold, an awakened Aura would work on healing the person. In that amount of time, however, it was rare for the person to wake until completely healed from whatever had caused the injury. Now it could, in theory, take days or weeks for someone to wake from a Catatonic Aura but the injury needed to be severe. A knee to the face was not. Strong Adam may be, but in no way should it take days to heal even with a students' level of Aura.

There was a solution though. "Either way just grab some smelling salts, should work if she's not in a coma."

"I know, I got one of my guys getting some now." He quickly brushed that aside. Now she guessed whatever else was on his mind was coming next. "But there's something else, I'm getting in touch now 'cause Sienna just called. She's wondering why Ilia hasn't gotten back to her; wants me to call my contacts and get back to her."

The back of Ruby's head conked the glass window behind her in exasperation. Of courses Sienna did. Even a moron would have their spy check-in every so often, worthwhile updates or no.

Few knew the true relationship between Adam Taurus and the great figure known as Sascha. The understanding for most people was that Adam was one of the handful of people who had managed negotiations with Vale's infamous monster. They were not friends nor allies, they were neutral parties who had negotiated a truce for staying out of each other's way, nothing more, only interacting when the situation absolutely called for it.

It was a convenient cover story and had served them well, but both knew it was only a temporary measure. Sooner or later something would force their hand and their allegiance would be shown. It was all a matter of how it was done. Maybe Sienna had caught wind of the two of them spending an unusual amount of time together over the years or, perhaps, it was just a coincidence and Sienna had no idea about what was going on under her watch. Maybe Tuckson really was her only priority, but there was no way to tell.

Adam sensed her frustration from half a kingdom away. "That's pretty much my thoughts right now. Got any ideas? From where I'm standing things aren't looking so good."

Ruby said nothing immediately. Already her mind was at work concocting plans for the future. With an engineers' methodology she dissected several plans within the span of fifteen seconds. How many pieces were needed? How certain did events need to be? How long would it take to set up? What was the margin for error? These were just one-fifth of the checklist she subjected three spur of the moment ideas. All three were tossed away by the nine second mark. The last six seconds birthed a competent combination of the first and third discarded plans of attack.

Adam was about to ask if she was still there but was cut off by a new set of orders. "Tell her you got in touch with me. Ilia had been caught sneaking around my building so she was captured. You reached out to me and we met at which point I nearly attacked you, as Ilia had said she had been sent on your orders. The only reason I let you live was because you had no idea and assured me Sienna would be able to clear the air. We made an agreement for a call tomorrow night at eight on the dot. If I hear nothing back I will make Ilia into an example and my truce with the White Fang is over."

There was a pause. "Are you sure threatening her is a good Idea? She has quite the ego."

"All the more reason I'm betting it will work." Ruby caught movement coming from the door behind a desk. A teen with the name tag "Schorl" noticed her being on the scroll so he waved the object in his hand. Ruby mimed a talking head with her free hand and made an exaggerated, mocking roll of the eyes. The clerk smiled in understanding and placed the lighter on the counter before turning to another customer.

Ruby continued. "Besides, from what you told me Sienna has a soft spot for her personal subordinates, which is why I added that line about Ilia selling you out and not her. I imagine that level of loyalty will incentivize most into at least trying to get her back."

"And what if she refuses," Adam refuted. "Say I sell her the story and she says no anyway, what then? We're basically burning a bridge with no guarantee everything will make it."

"There is another way to take this," Ruby was confident in her answer, like she had planned for him to say those exact words. "Record your call with her. If she refuses we can use it as a tool to turn the Fang against itself, even if a little editing is needed for a more explicit answer."

To the White Fang allegiance is everything. The last few generations of the group have started protecting murders and thieves, manipulators and spoiled brats alike. Toxic faunus who smear the future of their own goals are protected just as zealously as the unarmed, defenseless civilian; rotten fruit, poisoning its own tree. If a leader was caught overtly sacrificing her own people, that may as well be the one sin they actually believe in.

"Alright, I trust you. I'll go along with it."

"Thank you. Oh, since you're not much of an actor," Ruby tangented, "feel free to rehearse the conversation. I say two-and-a-half to three hours should be a believable amount of time for all that to transpire, so that should mean plenty of rehearsal."

"Gee, thanks for the tip." He wasn't amused. Adam was the type of leader that got by with sheer passion and earnestly. Admirable traits sure, but both were just small parts in being a great leader. He still had a few things to learn before leading her future army.

"I'm serious. Think up a story that connects everything I just told you; say it out loud a few times. Then try channeling some anger into it, like I called you every slur in the book. Then repeat a few times. Remember, you need to sound like pride got wounded to really sell it."

"Yeah, fine whatever."

"Come on, you know I'll do it, cur." She smiled.

Some faunus might take offense to that slur, including Adam in his younger days, but he had grown beyond that now. Ruby had grown his perspective a lot over their short time together. Even besides that, someone with thin skin probably wouldn't last around Ruby for any prolonged period of time. "Yeah-yeah. I'll text you later with the confirmation."

Aw, he was embarrassed. She decided to be merciful and to let him go "Alright, talk to you later…yeah, by." She collapsed the scroll.

She let out a frustrated groan. This whole week was gonna be shit. This was punishment for doubling her trip in Haven, she just knew it. According to the information Jacques had that particular Bulldog had last been registered to one Robyn Hill, some politician up in Atlas. How that thing managed to cross a continent was beyond her at the moment. She's apparently been pretty vocal against the SDC, Jacques in particular, but Ruby really couldn't care less. She's already sent word to Roman to start digging things up on her. Maybe she was directly involved with what was going on down here, or maybe the ship was just stolen from her, though if that were the case it should have been flagged. It wasn't.

Screw it, she'd think about it at home, preferably perched on Cinder's lap. It was hard to be mad or frustrated when snuggling with her girlfriend. It was the only thing better than a rainstorm at calming nerves. Ruby forced herself from the chair and walked over to the desk. She picked up Roman's golden lighter. It was a beautiful rectangle of golden bronze, meticulously engraved with machine-straight lines that formed a smile, one that managed to be both sinister yet comical. A jack-o-lantern's grin taking up the entire body portion of the lighter. She flipped the top open and ignited a couple flames. Still working.

The metal clinked shut and stowed away in one of the pockets of Ruby's suit vest. When the current customer got her papers and left, blissfully short at only a minute, she spoke to Schorl again. "Sorry about that. Man I tell 'ya, people out there just don't get that some conversations are for meetings and not scrolls."

"Oh no, it's alright. It looked like you were busy so I didn't want to interpret."

"How sweet, thank you." The boy blushed at the complement. "If only everyone I knew had your manners, my life would be so much easier," she gave him another compliment. It was hard to resist, his red face was just too precious. Hmm, was this what Cinder was always talking about with her? She was starting to understand it a bit.

"Have a nice…" The clerks' eyes saw something behind her and his face contorted in confusion. Then worry. Then, an instant later, fear. Something metal touched the back of Ruby's skull.

"Make a move and you're dead," a familiar voice commanded.

A man with a voice of weighty authority suddenly shouted. "Everyone vacate the area. NOW!"

Sounds of hurried feet echoed, spliced together with murmurs and worried voices of opposition or morbid curiosity. The clerk seemed incapable of moving, his eyes glued to Ruby's own. Those silver windows seemed almost forlorn, not scared or fearful but rather sad and lonesome, almost drowning in something like regret.

A different man shouted, this time at the clerk. "That includes you, Schorl! Wait for us at the front entrance. Go on, go!"

The clerk gave one last look at the strange woman before running out from his desk and past Ruby's periphery, one more set of shoes amongst a slowly dying chorus of noise.

"Hands in the air, now!" Ruby did so, slowly and deliberately. The metal thing separated and her captor started walking backwards, though not by much. "Face me, Ruby. Slowly."

She once again did as commanded. The fat barrel of a grenade launcher was in her eyes.

Nora hadn't learned much in these years. It was common sense to not hold someone up at gunpoint inside arms reach. Ten to fifteen feet was Ruby's sweet spot. At this close distance someone well trained, such as any professional huntsman, should have the speed to take away the weapon before it fires. It seemed she was still just an amature when dealing with real people in the real world, not some mindless beast like grimm or some polished tournament with rules and traditions. Either that or she was just that much of an idiot.

Something caught Ruby's eye immediately. A ring on her left hand. Time to act. She forced a natural smiled. "Long time no see, Nora. Did you and Renny finally take the big step? Congratulations. Any rugrats running around yet?"

Silence was all she got. There must've been a lot going through that head of hers. "Knowing you I bet it was fireworks galore, am I right? Shame I couldn't make the wedding, 'bet I could've made those explosions something really special." Ruby's mouth cut into a sinister grin.

Nothing still, at least verbally. The twitches on her face spoke for her. Ruby huffed in fake annoyance. "If you're not even going to laugh, could you at least tell me why I'm being held up?"

"Don't you even dare try and ignore what you did."

"Last time I checked I wasn't on any wanted lists." She had been quite eagle eyed about it when she first left, but Ruby's name never appeared on any records, not even missing childrens. She wondered how many strings her parents had to pull for that. Regardless, it was quite fortunate. "So what's the excuse? Or are you in the business of arresting people for decade-old, victimless crimes?"

"Victimless? You put us in the hospital, and destroyed your own home! How could you deny hurting your friends, your sister? Do you have any idea what you've put Yang through all these years?"

"And you all survived, kudos to that. Can I go now?"

The taunts were getting to Nora. Even a normal person could see the effort she was exerting to stop the snarling. "Did you think skulking around as a woman would hide you?" Nora spat. "Playing pretend won't save you from your crimes."

"You've got the wrong impression," Ruby cut in. Her voice was even tempered, firm and confident. "I did this to myself because I was trapped. Please don't be so arrogant as to think any of you have any bearing on myself."

"Save it," Nora cut in. "If you wanted sympathy you shouldn't have blown up your own home, you shouldn't have fought us. All this started with you, don't ever forget that, traitor!"

"So that's what this is about, huh!" Ruby's voice perked up in manufactured epiphany. "You just want revenge for me kicking your ass! Or wait, is it that I toppled Ren without the slightest effort? Trying to avenge your man's honor or something stupid like that?" Her head shook with parental disappointment. "You may have gotten older but you're still stuck as a teenager, I see."

"Your taunts ain't gonna work." She lied. "Your crazy ass is going to jail where you belong! Your team can finally move on."

Ruby gave a sorrow filled smile, a crack in the crass facade. When she was younger never in her wildest dreams would she think Nora could be capable of hatred. Another old friendship ruined. Good, the less ties she has to her old life the better. "To be born either man or woman is to be limited," she began a sudden tangent. "Forever cut off from the experience and scope of abilities of the other. All I ever wanted was to explore humanity in all of its facets, but the truth is we cannot change the lots we're born into."

Nora flashed a fake, sour smile. "You always did have a way with words, I'll give you that. If I didn't know what you've done I might actually think that nonsense had a point."

"Even so, I strived for an alternative." Something about Ruby's eyes changed. They seemed set and stiff, almost stern. The demeanor had switched, not just in the eyes but in the breath and even the shoulders.

"And I found it."

Nora's weapon was slapped from her hand with an ungodly speed. She watched in shock as it clattered against an adjacent wall. Nora had trained her reflexes to the point where she could respond to bullets flying faster than sound, but she hadn't even noticed Ruby's movement until her gun was ripped from her hand. Something was wrong, dreadfully wrong. It was like a poorly cut movie scene in front of her eyes, just the action and the consequence with no in-between frames, a jarring smash cut in real life.

But that wasn't the worst part. As Nora turned back to a confident Ruby she noticed that, even now, there wasn't the faintest spark of Aura, an impossibility when using a Semblance. It's like the one standing before her didn't even have a soul-!

The square heel of Ruby's pump smashed into her face in a lightning-quick front kick. Her souls' natural shield was overtaxed in an instant with unbridled force. Even though her Aura had absorbed the brunt of it, the excess energy broke her nose towards the right so far she could see it in her periphery. Nora landed on the ground with a hardy thump, in the distance her weapon on the floor, so agonizingly far away yet relatively close. She heard the distinct sounds of two collapsible batons extending.

Ruby turned to the officers rushing her. The one to the right was fastest and gained ground at almost double the pace. She would start with him. Dodging the weapon, a kick bent the cap of his knee inwards. A swift chop to the throat crumbled any resistance he had and he fell to the floor, gasping.

Ruby made a slight turn. The second guard was upon her, baton already arcing towards her face. She caught the wrist holding the weapon. Half a second later a palm strike from below bent his elbow upwards. Broken bone tented his long sleeve. He screamed, the weapon fell, forgotten.

Hands clapped both sides of his screaming head at the ear. His eardrums cried in a sharp pain radiating out to his head. Fingers grabbing hold of his brown hair like reins to an animal, Ruby brought his face to her upward-forcing knee eye first. He landed on his back out cold.

Ruby's eyes flashed back to the first guard. A round kick to the back of his head slammed the gasping man to the floor face first. A heel stepped on the metal stick the guard still clung to and pulled it from his hands. She kicked it off to the side.

"Trust me, this job ain't worth your life." The man may have taken that as a taunt but Ruby hadn't intended for that. It was a simple fact and an earnest warning.

The sound of rapid footsteps and clinking of metal drew her worried attention. Nora!

Ruby twisted towards the sound in a mad rush. Suddenly the cop's hand whipped out. Fingers snatched a thin heel in a vice grip. "Go to hell, bitch!" The cop yelled in a strangled parody of a voice. Ruby hadn't expected that, almost pulled back by the man's strength. Her weight shifted awkwardly. She yanked the heel from the grip, kicking the man from lucidity in the process; she tripped and fumbled but didn't fall.

Damn lady stilts, she cursed mentally.

The pointed side of Nora's now hammer, Magnhild, smashed into Ruby's cheek, rag dolling her into the ground all bent and twisted. Both hands gripped the shaft and with an adrenaline fueled roar Nora brought the flat head of her hammer down upon Ruby's head. She felt the resistance in the skull give way like a ripened fruit as her hammer sank into her opponent. Spurts of blood colored the ground but not as much as movies would like you to believe.

Shock, Nora was in shock right now. Her arms were stiff like a statue yet her legs shook. How could she tell Tai and Summer about their son? What about Weiss and Blake, would they even look at her after this? Oh god, how would Yang react?

Pushing all that to the side for now Nora scrambled to the nearest officer, clearly out cold, and ripped his radio from his belt. "Emergency! Emergency! This is huntress Nora Valkyrie! I'm at the service office in building B. I have two wounded officers and a downed suspect. Immediate medical assistance is required!"

A palm suddenly took hold of her face. The radio hit the floor. Immediately something burned, a sensation like white-iron branding her forehead. The screaming woman grabbed the wrist holding her tugged but the limb was like twisted steel. Too little too late. With a strength many times her own she was flung through air to an adjacent wall.

Something was wrong. She didn't fall after impact, pinned to the wall upside down. A force was pushing on every inch of her body, her arms and legs lacked the strength to even twitch under the pressure. There was something else she noticed as she opened her eyes to an upside-down world. Gravity should be tugging at her but there was nothing. Her shirt, her bomber jacket, her skirt, even her hair, they fit her normal even when the laws of physics say they should be being pulled towards the ground.

Though her limbs were locked Nora could still move her head to a degree. Though she couldn't see it, a symbol of alien origin was carved upon her forehead. It was the source of the hot waves of pain. She attempted to find her bearings in this reversed world. The two officers, the chairs, the desk, those massive windows lining the back wall, Ruby-!

Nora wanted to gag.

Her hammer had mutilated Ruby's face. Flaps of skin and muscle hung from her left cheek exposing the top row of bloody teeth underneath. Her lower jaw had been completely ripped from its socket on the left side, so it swung loosely all the way to the right, threads of sinew and ripped skin being the only things keeping it attached to her skull. Her tongue dangled like a lure in the air and to make it even worse splinters of bone, most likely the cheek bone, had skewered Ruby's left eye like shrapnel.

"Oh god," she heaved at the mangled sight. She didn't fight people! She battled monsters, saved people! To think her weapon could be capable of that mutilation on a person, on Ruby! Tears welled in her eyes. She was angry, but not- she didn't want to hurt her old friend!

The woman dropped to her knees, hands grasping at the mutilated taters that were once her face. And she screamed. Earlier Ruby had spoken with confidence and control, almost regality. All of that was gone. She screamed and writhed on the ground like a worm. Her voice was a wet, choking sob interrupted by tears and snot, rolling around on her back erratically like she was having a weird seizure.

After what couldn't have been more than a minute, but felt so much longer, Ruby stopped. She laid motionless on the floor, her back to Nora.

Pain, pain was all that Ruby could feel. Bones snapped and rearranged, muscle fibers twisted and re-stitched themselves without the fortune of an anesthetic. All she needed to do was hold her torn up face together long enough for it to heal. It was the type of agony that faded reality and time, that softened the line between consciousness and unconsciousness. Was she awake, or perhaps dreaming? Her vision blurred and blackened only to appear seconds later but really, who knew how long the bouts lasted? For all she knew those stretches of unconsciousness were hours at a time.

Yet despite all of this the worst was yet to come. For a reason she couldn't fathom, no matter the injury the aftereffects of bodily reconstruction were always worse still. Biologically there was no reason for the pain and even the strongest medications on the market were always ineffective. It was like a universal law, a punishment for a death that should've been. Gods know how many times she's escaped her end only to suffer a hell much worse. This was just a taste of the agony in the coming days.

The saddest part of all this, much to Ruby's shame, was the thrill, both from her recent mutilation and for the future suffering. In the back of her mind, in the deepest part of her skull, she could feel the cooing, the laughing. The eroticism of her destruction was intoxicating, the thought of the pain she would endure, for as much as she feared it, a sliver of herself couldn't deny the shivers it sent along her spine or the tingling spreading from her core.

At times she regretted giving her shadow life, at least of a sort. The final trial of Qliphoth was making the Id, the darkest and most primal desires and impulses of the human mind, into a sort of consciousness that could be actively and deliberately confronted, combated, and most importantly understood.

The Id has a hand in your life, but it tends to be subtle. Sex and and hunger were the most oblivious but only idiots assume that the whole of the human shadow. A bigotry born from insecurity or genuine fear from someone unlike you; a cause that you dedicate your life to fueled by nothing more than wanting to be a part of a collective, to feel the safety of an in-group in lockstep against a justifiable out-group. The shape of a shadow was as infinite as the thoughts of the person it was part of.

The White Fang are a perfect example of a collective taken over by their hidden shadows. What started out as an uphill battle against the kingdoms which treated them like property was now just another terrorist cell. When the great war had ended and the kings of Vale and Vaccuo had strong-armed their fellow rulers of Atlas and Haven into signing the Vytal Pact, which among other things had decreed no human or faunus would again be property in the four kingdoms, putting into law a trend that had been happening for hundreds years in the former's' territories. It had even given the founder of the White Fang a continent of his own to build up as a home for his kind, a kingdom for faunus by faunus.

Yet now, almost a century later, no such kingdom exists. A once disciplined milta made up of faunus and humans fighting for a better future has degenerated into a faunus-only collective which hated humanity. The shadow murmurs in their ears, that every grumble and slur is a threat, that their inadequacies are the fault of the humans never themselves. That's why they are justified in stealing, murdering, and taking hostages. Swaggering over a village to take over, forcing its residents out into grimm-filled forests was justified since they were a part of a collective which 'held them down,' even if there were faunus in that very community they appropriated.

Violence itself is a goal, and all one needs to do to see it is give a population a moral justification, whether true or fictitious, and watch as regular civilized citizens turn into rabid beasts. Not many people appreciate the true importance of violence, either on a practical or psychological level. So few things satisfy a human being like being morally justified in their aggression, that chance for the Id to indulge while remaining justified for both the ego, the pragmatic portion of our mind, and the super-ego, the part that internalizes our cultural values. It's a very rare thing for all three aspects of the mind to be in union.

For Ruby, her shadow-self was an amalgam of several psychic urges and faults like everyone else's, and part of it was a type of masochism to a very dangerous, very extreme degree. Right now it giggled in a disturbing, childlike fashion at the thought of its own suffering. It was a dog happily writhing on its back, begging for its own dismemberment.

Now was not the time to be distracted. The thoughts were quickly suppressed and a resolution formed.

In a flash Ruby was on her feet, no not a flash. It was another cut in time. Going from the floor to feet in an instant, quicker than a flash, like a specter. Nora couldn't even process the change. She went from laying on the ground limp to standing with no in-between.

Ruby turned her eyes back to Nora. Her jaw slacked. Though clammy and pallid Ruby's face was healed miraculously. But somehow that wasn't the worst of it. Those silver eyes were full of visceral hatred. They say eyes are the windows to the soul, and these were showcasing Nora's very long, brutal death. A violent fire that would burn her as slowly as possible. Nora never would have guessed Ruby to be capable of such simmering rage.

A stiff finger pointed to her. "Be thankful," Ruby said. Her voice would've been intimidating if it wasn't so weak and still very much in agony. "Killing you isn't worth the trouble."

Burning sigils seared their way to the surface from within, glowing runes carving up her face down to her torso and through her legs and feet. Nora thrashed against the unnatural energies binding her. The screams were horrible, shrill and at the end of sanity. Blood dripped from her nose, both eyes, and even her ears. Ruby seemed to gain back some nerve as her old friend begged her for release. It took ten whole seconds for consciousness to fade. The screams finally stopped.

The finger was lowered and the threads of reality pulled. Gravity yanked Nora to the floor in a crumpled heap of bloody clothes and obtuse limbs, the dozen runes gone as if never there. Ruby grabbed onto a cushioned seat and squeezed in rage. "Fuck," she cursed under her breath. Her grip crinkled the cloth. "Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!" As she got louder her voice became deeper, more masculine. That last one sounded completely at odds with her feminine appearance.

The next one lost all pretense of being human for it was guttural, distorted within two other voices at completely different ends of the tonal register, like three demons shouting their anger at the heavens. "FUCK!" The chair was ripped from the ground with herculean strength. Nuts and screws securing to metal bars were ripped from the floor and fell clinging against each other, the chair angrily pitched against the clerks desk splintering it into parts.

The blacks of the rooms' shadows dimmed and brightened, matching Ruby's breathing. Her hands cupped her face. "Not the time," she muttered to herself, her voice back to normal. The shadows became natural once more. Deep breaths calmed her raging heart. Pinkness began leaving her face. There was no time to think about how Nora had found her or how Ozpin would react, not to mention the knock-on effect this meeting would surely have upon the noble houses.

"Shut up, stupid brain," she mumbled. Right now she needed to focus on how to get out of here without drawing even more attention. Theoretically she could fly out but there's no way she would be unnoticed. Nothing keeps secrets quite like a hundred different camera angles. Speaking of which, the cameras recording her at this moment were also a problem. She did, technically, have a solution to the cameras but the method ran the risk of provoking Ozpin, which was the last thing she needed right now. Better to deal with the whole of the noble houses than even risk getting him involved prematurely. She could cash in a favor for Watts but it had to be quick for him to wipe the data.

One thing was certain, however. She couldn't kill anyone here for any reason. If she made such a merciless spectacle then Oz would go on the attack, no doubt about it. His passivity wasn't as infinite as most people liked to believe.

Flashing lights off in the distance drew her eyes. She glimpsed them through the windows. Ruby walked to the wall of glass, heels clicking by the two downed officers. Pouring through an open gate a flood of red and blue lights, a dozen cars and half that again in SWAT vans, each after her. Considering the profile of this place extra huntsmen entering the fray wasn't an impossibility either.

Something in her periphery caught her attention. Outside near one of the terminals, a figure in bronze armor with a trail of red hair carrying a spear and shield on her back. She was running towards Ruby's building in a manic fury. Apparently she had heard Nora's pleas for assistance.

Her feet suddenly halted, and her emerald gaze became locked in shock.

Their eyes met.

(End of Chapter Six)

Author's Note: Three chapters in a single year, damn I'm shocked. Surprisingly enough it was almost 2000 more words than the last but it took just a fraction of the to make, just goes to show you the power of inspiration I guess. The majority of the next two chapters are actually already in my head, it's just a matter of fleshing them out, really. One of the big things of this chapter was that I had to finally establish what my version of the White Fang would be. It's one thing to have some idea in an abstract and another to start actively setting it up.

I had a few directions I could go with the White Fang, and I'm not sure if anyone else thinks this but I've recently come to the conclusion that the group is utterly worthless in RWBY proper. You could switch 'em out with any hired goon cabal and 80-90% of the story would still make sense. I don't know if it's because the writers didn't know how to write something like the White Fang, maybe they didn't have the nerve to pull the trigger on some things, or maybe they regretted it in the first place so they strung it along only when they had to? Regardless, the group, and the whole faunus discrimination thing in general, was just not even worth thinking about in the show. Four or five bigoted people (and that's being generous) don't justify terrorism.

If you want the Black Knights, then you're required to have a Britannia to justify it, and most importantly: Show. It.

So I thought it would be more interesting if I did an inverse of the Code Geass example. I've been reading a lot of historical/political books lately and there are lots of examples of the freedom-fighter types taking over a tyrannical regime only to end up being just as bad if not worse than the previous. While reading Dictator's Handbook I got an idea: what would happen if the White Fang got everything they could've wanted but were still possessed by this deep, identity-defining hatred? Not only that, but said hatred kept festering in a smaller and smaller number of individuals as generations passed so they whip themselves up into being more and more radical?

More details about the White Fang will be expounded on with an Adam perspective either in the next chapter or the following (one of the few things haven't decided yet though I'm leaning towards the latter). When that happens we will also finally get an explanation for the first half of Ruby's goal and how both Adam and Leo fit into it.

As always, feedback is appreciated, good or critical.