I would like to start this chapter with an apology. I made a serious error in my quick proofreading of the last chapter in regards to how many members of the Rose family were alive before everything fell apart in Sanctuary. I didn't put another zero at the end of either, but I did put four times the intended number. This was corrected fairly quickly after I initially uploaded the chapter and most people would not have noticed this mistake, however a few people (maybe 8-12, not sure exactly how many) did and I'm unsure if they read the chapter since then, so I'm putting this here for them to see just in case: the number of living members of the Rose family at the time of their war would have been between 100 and 200, not the 5-800 I originally put. I mean, looking at the math it could still be an acceptable number, but it'd make their family an unrealistically large portion of the population of Sanctuary in my opinion.

Anyways, now for a bit of a whiplash for everyone's mood: going from the greatest disaster in this story's history to a concert, and a bit more recent lore. Also, I put some thought into it and felt that I should point out that, in this story, one of Weiss' songs is based off the full prophesy Aurelius gave before dying. Important to note since that song will be in this chapter.

Chapter 13: The Concert and Ruby on Roses

"Trust, secrecy and love are the most important things a Rose can have in this age, my little rose bud. Remember, when the time comes and I share our family's secrets with you, you can only ever share them with your closest friends, your children… and the person you fall in love with." -Summer Rose, in one of the recordings left to Ruby

Outside the Vale Concert Hall

Ruby was beyond thrilled. Over the last few days it had become harder for her to resist the urge to scream in excitement as Weiss' concert came closer, especially with all the time they'd been spending together due to their training with their semblances. Weiss had discovered early on that Ruby sometimes needed to be reminded to use her breathing equipment while practicing with Rose Storm's Wind aspect, while Ruby's unique experiences with the mental aspects of her semblances allowed the faunus to give her partner a few ideas for her own semblances, such as trying to feed the Frost aspect of Flash Freeze directly into her Glyphs or Myrtenaster instead of using Frost Dust. More than that, however, Ruby noticed that her partner's mood had improved over the last month. "She actually seems… happy now," Ruby thought as she drifted back to a recent incident.

RWBY Dorm room, previous day

Weiss closed her textbook with a sigh before turning to face Ruby. "So, I suppose you're looking forward to the concert?" Weiss asked, getting a massive grin from the faunus girl.

"Are you kidding? I've been waiting for this all month! I can't believe I get to go to one of your concerts! This is going to be great, I just know it!" Ruby stopped for a moment as Weiss smiled, a warmth going through her, before Yang spoke up.

"Wow Weiss, you're smiling now? If I didn't know any better, I'd say the pup's melting that cold heart of yours. Might wanna be careful, Ice Queen, or she might affect your semblance too!" Ruby let out a squeak and pulled her hood over her head while Weiss glared at the blonde as she was getting ready for a shower.

"Shut up! I told you not to call me that you brute!" Yang simply laughed and hopped up, heading into the bathroom before the shower started up. Giving Ruby a chance to hop down off her bed and stand next to Weiss.

"So, what are you going to sing Weiss? Is it going to be "This Will Be the Day?" Or are you going to sing "I May Fall?" Oh! Or are you going to sing-"

Weiss rolled her eyes with a smile. "Dolt, if you looked at the concert's schedule you'd know what I'm going to sing. But trust me, you're going to like it, I promise." The mood was ruined by Yang's singsong voice from the shower.

"Weiss, watch out, at this rate that ice water you call blood is going to melt- AH! COLD! F-FUCK YOU WEISS!" Yang screamed from the shower while Weiss laughed, causing Ruby to look away for a moment.

"Maybe next time you shouldn't mock me while you're in the shower, Yang!"

Back in the present, with Ruby

Ruby was still trying to get the sound of Weiss' almost angelic laugh out of her head when she stepped up to the door to show her ticket, surprised to see Weiss with a guard behind the man inside the building. After being allowed in, Ruby walked up to her partner. "Weiss? Shouldn't you be getting ready?"

The guard made a move to stop Ruby before Weiss responded. "Normally yes, but I was walking past earlier and heard that the person originally checking tickets was harassing a faunus and accusing them of stealing the ticket. We had to call security to check her ID to make sure and it turns out the staff has an… Issue with faunus and was planning to give the tickets to his friends, so I felt it was a good idea to make sure his replacement doesn't get the same idea."

Ruby sighed before smiling, tail moving behind her. "I'm sure your faunus fans will appreciate that, Weiss, thanks."

The heiress rolled her eyes before responding. "Don't worry about it, dolt, just head in and find your seat."

Ruby nodded and went inside, quickly finding her seat as her mind wandered. "Weiss really does care a lot about her fans, it's nice… But it does fit her new outlook of things since we were partnered up… Gah, what's with me lately?" Ruby sank into her seat with a sigh. There were things that Bisman had thankfully kept quiet about in his most recent class that were weighing heavily on her. "If what I read was true… I need to find someone I can trust in case something happens, otherwise everyone might be in danger if things go wrong."

Her attention was drawn to the stage by the announcer's voice. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Weiss Schnee." Ruby's ears perked up as she joined in on the applause, smiling happily once it died down and Weiss started her first song.

"They see you as small and helpless. They see you as just a child. Surprise when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild…" Ruby let out a content sigh as she watched Weiss move around the stage, quietly humming along to possibly her favorite song.

"It sounds so much better hearing her sing in person and she looks so happy right now…" Eventually, however, Weiss reached a part that, recently, Ruby had come to understand a meaning behind.

"Your world needs a great defender. Your world's in the way of harm. You want a romantic life, a fairy tale that's full of charm. Beware as the light is fading. Beware as the dark returns. This world's unforgiving, even brilliant lights will cease to burn. Legends scatter, day and night will sever, hope and peace are lost forever!"

Ruby sighed, still enjoying the song as she thought over it. "The legend, or prophesy, whatever it was, did get passed down for centuries… Maybe Weiss based a song around it?" Ruby smiled as the song became more upbeat again, clapping happily when it ended. Ruby felt her face heat up a bit when Weiss looked at her with a smile. "W-what's going on? I-I'm not… I'm not falling for Weiss, am I?" Ruby shook her head to clear her thoughts, filing it away for later.

There was one song she could sing that always told the world how she felt, a song she was expected to sing at each concert now. She wasn't sure if Ruby had ever heard her sing it, but she knew the faunus girl could pick up on things much more easily than most, even without her Analysis. Taking a breath, Weiss waited for the piano before starting her next song.

"Mirror… Tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest… Of all? Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all? Mirror, what's inside me? Tell me, can a heart be turned to stone?"Weiss took a breath before starting on the vocalization in the middle of the song, not noticing that Ruby was staring at the ground.

Ruby let out a sigh before glancing at her partner. "Weiss… How many times have you performed this song and nobody noticed? Can your family, your fans, and everyone here care so little about you as a person?" Ruby sat silently and listened to the song sadly.

"Mirror mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see. I can keep it from the world, why won't you let me hide from me? Mirror, mirror, tell me something. Who's the loneliest of all? I'm the loneliest… of all…" Weiss took a deep breath as the crowd cheered. "Why do they always have to cheer for this song? Why?" She looked towards Ruby to see her sitting in her seat, a frown on her face.

"Weiss… you're not as cold or heartless as everyone says you are. You're the first person outside my family that's ever made me feel truly welcome…" Ruby looked at her partner and gave her a reassuring smile before sliding back into her seat. When the concert ended, Ruby waited by the door for her partner. "H-hey, Weiss, can I talk to you before we head back to Beacon?"

Weiss looked at her partner in confusion. "Sure, what's the matter?"

Ruby shook her head. "Not here, I can't talk about it with so many people around," she whispered before heading out the door, Weiss following behind in confusion. As they started walking Ruby spoke up. "You know, you're not as cold as you think, you've been nicer to me than a lot of other people have. I… I understand how you feel though, isolated and alone because of your family's reputation even though you're not like them, even though it hurts to see how everyone else either tries to pretend you aren't there or pretend they actually enjoy having you around when they're scared or intimidated by what you represent…"

Weiss was about to respond when she noticed how on edge Ruby was, glancing around occasionally. "Ruby? Is something wrong?"

The faunus let out a sigh and stopped, seemingly content with where they were as she ran a hand through her hair. "I-I don't know, Weiss… It's just that I've found a few things in the stuff I've been helping Bisman translate and a few things he shared with me about my family's more recent history… There's things that I can only share with someone I know I can trust. I've… Decided I can trust you with this." Weiss looked at her, eyes wide as she processed this. "I-if you don't want to hear about it, I won't-"

"No," Weiss said quickly, a light smile on her face. "I've been around you for a while, Ruby. I know trust is something extremely important to you… And I'm honored that you're willing to trust me enough to tell me about this, even if it's only a little bit."

Ruby pulled her hood up and looked away to hide her blush before letting out a sigh. "The Rose family wasn't always made of faunus. Aurelius was human… In fact, when he vanished humanity didn't even know the faunus existed, it wasn't until he came back with a few of them at his side that humans and faunus actually met. Some people even jokingly suggested that maybe Aurelius had run into a human family hiding in the woods that were terrified that their human senses wouldn't help them escape the Grimm and he'd used Dust to do something to them to create the faunus." Ruby let out a laugh. "T-they liked to say he did a lot of things though, didn't they?" Weiss rolled her eyes at Ruby's attempt to lighten the mood.

"A-anyways, while the faunus were viewed with distrust by many, the Rose family accepted them from the beginning. As time went on and my family became more secretive, it led to an understanding between my human and faunus ancestors. The Rose family understood the faunus' need for companionship, while the faunus learned to understand and accept my family's need for secrecy."

Weiss nodded, realizing what Ruby was getting at. "So, I guess she sees something similar with both of us…"

Ruby looked away before continuing. "Over time, the bonds of trust led to friendship and, eventually, love. By the time of the War of Roses, there were a handful of people in my family that descended from the faunus, but when Sanctuary fell, many members of the Rose family found themselves to have more in common with their faunus friends. Within about five hundred years, every living Rose was faunus. We still wandered around human settlements and helped out when we could, but it was obvious that our ancestors' choice and our family's growing isolation and secrecy strained humanity's view of us. We tried to keep the peace as best we could for 1400 years until tensions reached a peak between Vale and the alliance between Mantle and Mistral a century ago…"

"The Great War," Weiss muttered, paling.

Ruby nodded. "During the time leading up to it, Mantle had started studying how the Grimm behaved and ways to control, or at least predict, their actions. For my family, this was a harsh reminder of what started the War of Roses, when one of our own insisted that the survival of humanity and the faunus rested in controlling Grimm rather than using Dust to fight them off. Something… Dark led to that war and my ancestors tried to guide Mantle away from the subject, only to watch helplessly as they enforced their ban on the arts and self-expression, which, sadly for us, included a number of things important to us, such as our legends and stories. When this happened and it spread to Mistral, every Rose in the two kingdoms suddenly found themselves unable to do the one thing we'd spent centuries doing. We couldn't share our warning as everything crumbled around us. Rather than obey, they chose to live in the wilderness."

Ruby took a breath before continuing. "When the first battle took place between the settlers of Vale and Mistral on an island off the coast of Sanus, my family tried to help resolve the situation as peacefully as we could… But by then the rulers of Mantle and Mistral weren't willing to even listen to us since we refused to listen to their laws. We were forced to watch as the world tore itself apart, unwilling to take a side until it became clear that Mantle was using captured soldiers and civilians as labor in their mines. My family couldn't stand for the thought and started a resistance in Mantle that eventually spread to Mistral. For a while, they focused their efforts on freeing prisoners, disrupting supply lines, and doing whatever they could to slow the war without leading to senseless bloodshed…"

Ruby looked at Weiss before she continued. "And then the "Hunts" began. When Mistral and Mantle realized that every member of the Rose family in their borders was taking part in this, when rumors of how capable and dangerous they were started going around, the two kingdoms started sending out groups of soldiers to search areas with a large population of faunus and the wilderness with orders to execute anyone they found wearing a cloak or the Rose family's crest. What was meant to be an effort to save innocents became a bloody struggle for survival… More so in Mantle, where many of my family were protecting the faunus, who chose to come to the aid of their protectors."

Weiss felt a chill go down her spine. "So, the way the faunus have been treated in the last century… Was it because of a war they were dragged into? A war Ruby's family was trying to stop?"

Ruby continued. "Eventually, the war ended, but the… The Hunts didn't. While the kingdoms were trying to get every faunus they could to live on Menagerie, even with the help Vale and Vacuo received, my family was forced into hiding as deserters from Mistral and Mantle started chasing us down all over Remnant. Nobody really cared at the time, the two kingdoms simply passed it off as their troops being forced to take extreme measures when we resisted. After the Faunus War though, everyone was on edge. The faunus might not have been treated very well after the war, but every time a Rose was killed it enraged any faunus that heard of it. Eventually, the kingdoms were forced to work together to track down the people involved in the Hunts. For the next sixty years, every kingdom's view on the Hunts changed, from being a serious threat that needed to be stopped to a minor issue that would eventually solve itself."

"My family quickly realized that someone was trying to wipe us out, that these Hunts that were started in the Great War had been subverted by someone or something that wanted us out of the picture. Most thought that the Black Rose had somehow survived the fight with Aurelius and was tracking us down, making sure the major threat to their plans was gone. A few of them decided to take a risk and speak in front of representatives of the four kingdoms at the Vytal Festival about thirty years ago with a few other members of our family in attendance. They tried to warn the kingdoms that something terrible was on the horizon, that an ancient threat would be returning. While they were mocked for their paranoia… The people at the festival found it hard to argue when the members of the family were found dead the next day, the rest of the Roses in attendance panicked and on guard."

"The four kingdoms were forced to admit that something had to be done, if not because my family was telling the truth, then because the threat of a Hunt happening within the city walls was too big or the possibility that the only source of ancient knowledge still left in the world would be destroyed too great. Most of the groups involved were eventually captured and dealt with, but by then the damage was done… When I was three, my mom and I were among the last four Roses alive when she decided to meet the others to speak with the Council of Vale…"

Ruby cast a glance at Weiss, the haunted look in the normally cheerful girl's eyes sending a chill down the heiress' spine. "They were attacked in the middle of the street in broad daylight by a man, some Dr. Arthur Watts I think. There wasn't much they could do in the crowded streets and tried to get somewhere isolated. H-he… Took advantage of my family's desire to minimize the loss of innocent life to put them in a position where they couldn't fight back." By the end of it Ruby was shaking, tears running down her cheeks. Weiss stepped forward and wrapped the girl in a comforting hug, causing her to let out a sob.

"I-I'm sorry you and your family had to go through that Ruby…" She waited a moment for Ruby to calm down. "Are you okay?" Ruby gave a weak nod before Weiss continued. "Why are you telling me this Ruby? I can understand that it's hard for you to talk about…"

Ruby sighed and looked down. "Dr. Watts was never caught and every Hunt in the last sixty years was directed at a member of the Rose family who knew the most about our history or was most vocal about it… Now that I'm learning about my heritage… If there's another Hunt, if something happens to me, the Rose family will be extinct." Weiss paled and took a step back. "I-if that happens, I need someone I can trust to carry the message on for me, to make sure people understand what's coming." Ruby looked at the girl in front of her sadly. "I'd like if you'd be the one to do that for me Weiss."

Weiss hesitated. "If I say yes, I might be a target too, right? But Ruby just told me all this, shared her family's greatest fear with me, because she trusts me. Could I betray that trust?" Weiss didn't acknowledge the part of her that, deep down, was more terrified that the normally cheerful faunus girl could be killed in cold blood at any time. She nodded slowly. "I-I'll do it Ruby, you have my word, but I know it won't come to it. You're too strong to let one man stop you."

Ruby smiled brightly, looking away to hide her blush at the praise. "T-thanks Weiss, it means more to me than you know."

And that's done. A long chapter that ties up the last bits of the lore… At least the parts I'm willing to share for the time being. Yep, Ruby's aware she's got a crush on Weiss. Weiss just agreed to carry the torch if something happens to Ruby. Interesting times are ahead of us.

Writing about the Hunts was a bit of a tough decision on my part. I had to come up with some way of explaining what happened to the rest of the Rose family and I needed to come up with something to explain what Salem's doing in the background for the last two thousand years. At this point, it's safe to assume that Ruby's aware of things that are going on in the background, such as who Salem is and that she's even alive still. It'd be a good idea to assume she's also keeping an eye out for things that might mean trouble.

Leave a review to tell me what you think.