If there's one thing Jaune's learned from Ruby in the past ten minutes, it's that the Mouse is such a horrible liar.

How did she know his train and time? "Um… Yang told me."

Weird that they managed to get the same train, same time. "Yeah! I, uh, guess we have totally awesome luck then, huh?"

Hm. Wonder if Yang has anything to do with this. "Um! N-no! I don't think so. At least, she didn't seem like it when she told me about our random assignment together."

So now they've been with assigned to each other as partners? "Eh?! No! I just meant… assigned to the same train!" He tries not to laugh as Ruby's face rapidly begins to resemble her namesake. "We can. Y'know. Sit with each other. It'll be nice to be with somebody that I… know…"

Are those nervous tears in her eyes? "I'm not crying! And I'm definitely not shaking. I'm... cold."

So what happens after the train ride? "Well… if you don't have anybody else watching your back… I could…" She sucks on her bottom lip and glances at the ground shyly, suddenly turning her adorable display of embarrassment into an incredibly attractive exhibition of moe magnetism.

Still, for all her absolute incompetence at subterfuge (though he has to give her Cuteness +100 for trying), he can't for the life of him figure out why she didn't include Pyrrha. After all, he had been with the redhead when he'd essentially asked Ruby to be on Team Jaune. Ruby had to have known that Jaune and Pyrrha were pretty good friends. So if she had the power to modify the scheduling of train rides through Yang, why didn't she include Pyrrha?

Was it… love?

{Dude she's fifteen.}

Which does happen to be that time of a teenager's life when hormones is the driving force in everything…

{Don't flatter yourself… you've only known her for two weeks and this isn't a Japanese visual novel.}

Point taken. Still, from his short friendship with her so far, Ruby isn't the obsessive, jealous type. He trusts Ruby enough to believe that she wouldn't have deliberately asked Yang to ensure Jaune would be alone on his ride.

So the only other option left is that somebody else manipulated Ruby into switching her ticket and only her ticket. Thus the true question being: who would use an innocently adorkable teenage girl like that, and why?

It would be incredibly easy for Yang to do so, seeing as the Dragoness could have easily tweaked the "random" train ticket scheduler (because really, it can't be coincidence that he and Ruby are on the same train, same time, headed to the same destination) before she even announced the Rose-Arc duo to Ruby. However, this is Yang: the incredibly protective older sibling, one who would happily shred apart any guy who even looked at her baby sister funny. Yang couldn't have willingly convinced Ruby that she should partner up with the school's rumored resident pervert. In all reality, Yang was probably all against it, and only gave in to the persistent pleadings and moe attractions of a young girl.

Would Sun be a player here? He probably also had access to the train ticket scheduler, and, since Jaune is feeling extra paranoid today, security footage of him and Pyrrha talking to Ruby about learning hand-to-hand combat, the night before a weaponless event between freshmen and upperclassmen was to happen. He doesn't really have much of a tail on his Director, aside from the fact that the guy likes pushing boundaries; would he go as far as to push Yang's buttons by putting Ruby within the predatory claws of a purported agent of chaos?

He scrabbles through his mind for any other potential leads, but truthfully, he doesn't know Ruby's social network all too well. He'd dreamed that Nora had approached him with a request to accompany her to the mall for a shopping trip, and that Ruby had been there as well… he really doesn't remember much else from that dream, aside from a strange, skittish terror of Yang. Blake covered Jaune's back by notifying him of Ruby's hurt feelings, which, now that Jaune thinks about it, was pretty perceptive of a Cat who's devoted all her time to the heiress Schnee. Uh… um…

"—so then Uncle Qrow went, 'HIYA! KA-POW! WATCHABANG!' and kicked all their asses!" Ruby freezes, forcing Jaune to snap back to the present and stop lest he walk on and reveal that he really hasn't been listening to the grand stories of how her awesome uncle broke through enemy lines to release some Boars who'd been held captive within Vytal, among other epic feats.

"Hm?" Jaune questions, glancing back at Ruby.

"Um. Yang says I'm not supposed to say that word. But…" she glances at him sneakily. "Yang's not here, is she?"

"You're fifteen; you can say whatever you want," he says, pandering to her probably-rebellious-teenager outlook. "Besides, it's not like she's your mom."

Surprisingly, Ruby's countenance darkens at this. "That doesn't mean that I'm shouldn't respect her."

"Because she's the last Dragoness?"

Ruby skips ahead a step and turns towards him. "I knew Yang for years before she was the last of her Clan," she almost boasts, though her steel-colored eyes are a little too hard for her playful tone. "She is my sister, no doubt about it. And maybe to her, I'm the last member of her family. If that's what it takes to keep her from collapsing under the legacy of a species, then I can be the adoring little sister." A small, genuine smile graces her lips. "There are more ways to protect than through just physical means."

"…Sooo… are you going to start calling her onee-sama now?"

"Were you even listening to anything I said?"

The train is completely devoid of seats, so they don't sit next to each other.

Instead, they're packed like sardines into the train cars, and every time their ride runs over a bump in the tracks, the shock ripples through the students' bodies themselves. This basically translates into Ruby banging against him at random intervals. Or the other way around, depending on which side of the track the bump is on. Her difference in body type combined with height also means that most of her contact points tend to be of the hips rather than the shoulders.

{Yang definitely did not plan this, nope.}

He can almost pretend that Ruby is just another one of dozens of other faunus pressed up against him, as is the physics of packing train cars to the max; however, Ruby's body is much smaller than anybody else's, which makes her physical presence alongside him that much more distinctive. It's times like these that remind Jaune just how much his school uniform feels like a second skin… but he can't blame the state of his mind entirely on his too-comfy uniform.

Why he seems to be wired up this way to make him hyper aware of the most uncomfortably awkward aspects of the train ride… Jaune really wishes he knew.

{THINK CLEAN THOUGHTS like soap and detergent and laundry… diiiirty laundry…}

Okay that's it his brain can't take it much longer. Ruby is actively pushing up against him, even when there aren't uneven spots in the track. No, don't focus on that. Ruby is totally like a little sister. She's only full-physical-contact against him because she'd rather be up on him than some other dude with clammy hands or a frigidly stoic chick barking orders into a personal cell phone—

Good. Distraction! Focus on that! The girl right on the other side of Ruby has straight black hair and emerald eyes and looks waaay too much like the imaginary friend he'd met his first day here.

"And we are truly grateful for your guardianship over Miltia, Mr. Winchester," says the girl, her tone clipped and curt, "but as of right now, you have been relieved of your duty to the Malachites. That is all."

"Melanie!" he barks, just as the girl disconnects her call. He would have lunged forward to catch her attention, but Ruby's in the way and he really would not like anybody who might be watching a security camera feed to report to Yang that he was seen pushing up against her baby sister…

He really doesn't have to, though, because Ruby's short enough that when Melanie turns her head, their eyes meet immediately. However, when the rest of Melanie's body tries to follow, her shoulder catches against a neighbor's and she's forced to settle with a super intense side-eye in Jaune's direction. "Like, who are you even?" Melanie growls, strangely intimidating despite her valley girl drawl. "Seriously, I don't even know who you are."

Jaune can't help getting the chills; in her school uniform and standing not more than two feet away, Melanie looks exactly the same as the image of Miltia that Jaune's burned into his mind. Aside from the hair length. And maybe the facial expression. Miltia had been reserved and a little hesitant until given direction; meanwhile, Melanie looks absolutely in control of her situation, never mind the fact that she's practically pinned on all sides by other bodies. Little deets aside, however, they are legitimately twins, both heiresses to the Malachite Corporation.

At least, he thinks so. He recalls the disdain from Pyrrha's friend, Tifa, at the mention of Miltia's name. Ren telling him that she didn't exist. Cardin's warning that she was dangerous. Why did the younger Malachite warrant such a negative response? Is it because she's telepathic? …He could see how an invasive psychological semblance like hers would provoke a lot of negative reaction. He himself had to admit he'd been extremely creeped out to hear somebody else's voice in his head. Like, he already has enough snark to condescendingly criticize to himself; he really doesn't need an imaginary valley girl friend to join in on the party in his head.

But she'd opened his chakras. It's given him the endurance needed to survive a week-long flash-freeze, allowed him to take blows with minimum screaming or whining. He has more power in his legs nowadays. Can feel it with every step, leap, and dodge he takes during his evening sparring seshs with Pyrrha. Has somehow picked up new techniques for kicks that he'd never really known about before.

Then there's the vial of Dust that's been hanging out at the bottom of his jacket pocket all week. He does take it everywhere with him, doesn't he? He always seems to forget about it the moment he drops it into his jacket pocket, but it's already become another staple of his life, as necessary as taking his scroll and lien card with him every time he leaves his dorm room in the morning. He still doesn't a clue what it does; for all he knows, maybe it allows Miltia to contact him whenever she wants. Gives him an affinity for her, perhaps. The point is that she really hasn't done anything harmful to him, so the younger Malachite can't really be so bad, right?

Still, as a Sheep who has a psychological semblance that faunus in Menagerie had a resistance to… and also has the ability to constantly heal herself… there are probably a lot of protestors. Some violent. So keeping a low profile and hiring a guard totally makes sense.

Except he'd just overheard Melanie firing Cardin.

So does that mean that Miltia is now strong enough to protect herself? A healer also capable of combat? Well, why not? She'd gained admittance into the Academy, after all. Maybe she was like him; she had to warm up first before she reached her full fighting potential. Maybe that was why she decided to help out a hopeless Lemming in the first place. The same reason why he'd welcomed Russell to his side: as a less better-off companion to make himself feel better.

If that is the case… well, he certainly still appreciates the benefits that that one-sided relationship has brought him.

If all of the above is even the case.

{Have you realized that there have been way too many 'ifs' and 'maybes' in your thoughts lately?}

Melanie apparently misunderstands his thought process as camera-shy speechlessness, because she begins to turn away. "That's totally what I thought."

"Wait!" he shouts, thrusting a hand into his suit jacket pocket, and, after quite a bit of accidentally digging his elbow into his neighbors, he successfully extracts Miltia's vial out from the hidden depths (along with a small shower of candy wrappers, paper notes, cookie crumbs, extra pens, etc that flutter all over Ruby), and practically shoves it up Melanie's nose in his efforts to get her attention. "This!" he bellows, drawing the attention of everybody within a three-feet radius. "What does this Dust do?"

Melanie's eyes skip entirely over the bottle and focus on Jaune instead. "No, seriously. Who are you? You have, like, five seconds before I turn around and ignore you until we get off the train, whereupon I will suddenly focus all my attention on you just so I can, like, have the happiness of crushing the life out of your fragile little body."

By the time she's finished speaking, Jaune's pretty sure that five seconds have long passed, so he just squeaks, "Miltiagavethistome and it'dbenicetoknowwhy!"

Deathly silence ripples outward around the train at the forbidden name. Melanie's eyes zero in on the vial just long enough to pinpoint its location before her sticky fingers go in for the kill—only to be just as quickly intercepted by Ruby's hand.

"Hands off, kiddo," Melanie grunts, her eyes still on Jaune and the incriminating vessel of Dust. "You seriously don't want in on this monkey business."

"I think my friend's business is my business too." Ruby's hold on the older girl slackens a bit as she hesitantly shoots a look in his direction. "But. Um. Only if. Eh, you—"

Melanie attempts another grab at the bottle of Dust in Jaune's fist with her other hand while Ruby's distracted; Ruby grabs that too and yanks both arms down, forcing the taller girl to hunch over and break her tense almost-fighting pose.

Melanie growls at Jaune over Ruby's shoulder, "So you've got, like, a loli at your beck and call? Good. Makes me feel soooo much better about kicking your head off when we get off this stupid crowded train."

As if to demonstrate her kicking power, she raises a knee and directs a pointed stomp at Ruby's foot. Ruby is quick to skip aside, though this has the side effect of pulling Melanie around with her, which also forces Jaune to hustle sideways in the desperate effort to use Ruby as a shield. "I just want to talk," he responds plaintively.

"There's nothing to talk about," snaps Melanie, her eyes still focused on Jaune over Ruby's head. "The Dust was so not hers to give."

{"Melanie has a pretty tight leash on me."}

"You're saying that Miltia can't—"

"Don't." Melanie practically lunges at Jaune, she's so passionate. "Don't say her name."

"So you're saying your sis—"

"Died. Eight years ago."

{...Wut.} "Um." He continues shuffling around their tiny arena, unminding of all the foreign shoulders and hips that he keeps glancing off of while maintaining Ruby's status as a barrier between him and Melanie. Their neighbors meanwhile are pointedly staying out of the confrontation, acting very much like an unresponsive wall of bodies that cage the trio within a 2'x2' space. "So. We're obviously not on the same page here. Because I'm pretty sure that, on the day we both arrived within Zodiac, your… she approached me so she could heal—"

Melanie unexpectedly tackles Ruby against Jaune just to get as close as possible to him, uncaring that both of her arms are disabled.

"Uwah? Yang says I should wait a couple years before I get into this kind of stuff…"

Jaune doesn't catch the entirety of what smaller girl's said because he's captivated by the wildfire in Melanie's eyes, a passionate emotion that he didn't think a seemingly shallow woman like her could possess. Plus her face is so close to his that spittle speckles his cheeks {ew} as she snarls, "Get this in your mind, otherwise I'm gonna hafta kick it out. Miltia. does. not. physically. exist."

Jaune presses as far away as he can from the livid girl, giving the bottle one last shake before safely slipping it back into his pocket. "This bottle of Dust is proof that she's here in Zodiac, somewhere. I just want to know what it's supposed to do."

In the extremely uncomfortable jiffy of time that Ruby has spent smooshed between the two, Melanie's wrists have been released; she holds them up in neutral surrender as she takes as much of a step back as possible. "When we get off this train—"

He waves a careless hand in her direction. "You'll kill me horribly, got it, got it…"

He has to do a double-take when the taller girl smiles creepily over Ruby's mouse ears. "I won't. My Familiar will."

She confidently reaches into her inside jacket pocket, mirroring his earlier action. He doesn't need sixth faunus sense to notice how her breath quickens, her pupils dilate, sweat beads on her forehead as she grips the unseen object in her jacket pocket.

Red lights flash through the train the moment she pulls out a silver pistol. The consequences of such an action is just as physically rattling as a bump in the tracks; shockwaves ripple outward through the students, this time with audible cries of shock. Jaune might have shoved Ruby behind him protectively; he doesn't remember much, because crimson light reflects sharply across the metal of the firearm as it turns—

"Don't!"

—and aims at her own forehead.

"Death is forever," Melanie murmurs, "so I'm gonna live for the both of us."

She pulls the trigger.

Jaune doesn't close his eyes. He feels like he should have. Probably to preserve his own innocence from the invariable and messy bloodshed. Maybe for some strange sort of propriety. But his eyes remain wide open, so he sees what flies out the back of Melanie's head.

It is clear blue and crystalline white.

The blur unfolds in midair, a tangle of limbs and black hair that abruptly reaches upwards with a familiar pair of red claws and tears through the metal above like jello. Jaune yelps as the entire ceiling explodes into gigantic shreds of heavy confetti that topple off the train, exposing all passengers to the sights and sounds of the industrial neighborhood surrounding Phoenix's Landing.

Melanie kicks off from the floor so hard that she probably dents it. Jaune stumbles into Ruby as the Malachite arcs into a backflip above them all, eyes on Jaune at all times until she makes a perfect landing on a small corner of ceiling left behind, right in front of an unidentified floating object.

Jaune recognizes the hovering being instantly for who she is—or is it looks like? Well, she does look almost exactly like a younger Melanie, dressed entirely in white. But the red, clawed hand guards, the shorter hair, the dulled jade-colored eyes, just her very presence... though she's also slightly see-through. He doesn't remember that part. But hey, for a while he wasn't sure she even existed, right? So lookee here, it turns out that he was half-correct. She's halfway between physically here and not, right? Ahaha. Ha.

{"Remember me."}

It's his imaginary friend.