"What happened, kid?" Tai asked, his voice tinny through Ruby's Scroll.

She choked up when her father answered the call. She had been on the verge of tears for the better part of an hour, and every second she felt closer to tipping over the edge.

She was alone in their dorm, legs loosely dangling off the side of her bed. Yang and Blake had gone out to celebrate after their exam scores had come back, leaving Ruby behind after she insisted everything would be fine and she needed some time by herself. Weiss was… somewhere. Thinking about her made her stomach clench. She remembered returning Weiss' weapon to her, the split second of fear across the bond, then nothing but a steel gaze, a cold shoulder, and a mumbled 'thanks'. She hasn't responded to any of Ruby's texts since and would barely talk to her.

"I failed my exam." She mumbled, her voice shaky.

There was a sound, like Tai had started to shout something but stopped himself. His next words were calm and slow. "Turn on the camera, Ruby."

"W-wait, dad, I'm fine, it's just—"

"Young lady, you will turn on that camera right now." He demanded, making Ruby gulp as she pressed a shaky finger to the video call button. Her father's face filled most of the screen, her own pitiful portrait showing itself in a tiny box in the corner, red face and nose contrasting with the dark bags under her bloodshot eyes.

Surprisingly, Tai didn't seem angry. His brows were creased with worry, but he managed a sympathetic smile when he saw her face. "Much better. How are you feeling?"

"Well I failed my—"

"Not that, Ruby, how are you feeling right now?"

Ruby flopped back onto her bed, the ropes suspending it creaking under the movement. "I feel… ugh!" She pounded a fist on the mattress. "I feel like crap! I failed my test! Weiss won't talk to me! I chopped my partner's freaking arm off and everything was finebut now she won't talk to me? Agh!" She felt an urge to throw her Scroll across the room, but managed to squash it down. "I just… I dunno, dad, we were okay and things were great between us— she even took me out on a date—"

"She wha—"

"But then," she plowed forward before her dad could say anything "she was doing her Aura visualization for her new arm and she got stuck in it! I came in to help but I couldn't connect to her and that's never happened and then she woke up and it was like she was scared of me!" She took a breath. "I don't get it! Things were fine!"

Tai recoiled, clearly overwhelmed with new information, but he schooled his expression and opted not to pry. "Is that why you failed your exam?"

"What? No! I failed my exam because I'm a dumb freaking idiot, I'm a total dolt, just like Weiss says. Can't do anything right."

Tai glared into the camera. "You and I both know that's not true."

Ruby shied away from his gaze and mumbled sheepishly. "Yeah… I know."

Tai sighed. "It sounds like you've had too much to deal with on your own. Qrow told me about what happened with your partner."

Ruby stifled a look of shock. She wasn't surprised that Qrow had told him, what did surprise her was the fact that he didn't call his own daughter. What kind of dad hears his daughter almost kills her partner and doesn't call? She felt something bubble up in her gut and grip her chest, but she quashed it before it could show on her face. Tai had never been a perfect father, and she knew it was through no fault of his own.

"I know it may have seemed like nothing was wrong," he continued, "but people can be strange sometimes. Our brains can lock things away— things they think we'd be better off not knowing, and when we find them?" His gaze dropped and his face grew solemn. "It's like it's happening all over again."

The silence grew thick as Tai became lost in thought, staring somewhere past his Scroll.

"Dad?" She muttered after a long while.

Tai jumped, then shook his head vigorously. "Sorry, Rubes, just, uh, lost my train of thought." He rubbed the back of his neck and forced out a few unconvincing chuckles.

Ruby turned onto her side. "I still failed my test."

Tai sighed. "So?"

Ruby bolted up, making the ropes groan against her bed frame. "What do you mean 'so'? I've never failed a test before!"

Tai's eyebrows rose. "Really? Not one?"

"What am I gonna do?" She whined, "How am I gonna be a Huntress if I can't pass a simple history exam?"

Tai shrugged and waved her concerns off. "Dude, I failed at least half of my tests at Beacon. Just ask Oobleck if you can retake it or get some extra credit."

Ruby fumbled for words as the mental image of her father tarnished. "What!" She shouted, then cringed as someone in a neighboring dorm banged on the wall. It was pretty late. "You always told me to study hard and get good grades or I'll never be a good Huntress!" She hissed.

"Hey, hey, I never said I was a good Huntress. In fact, I'm not a Huntress at all!" Ruby smacked a hand over her face. This time, Tai actually laughed. "Cs get degrees, Ruby!"

Ruby rolled her eyes so hard it hurt her head. She couldn't even think of a way to respond, if Weiss were there she'd probably have called him a… a wastrel, or a ragamuffin, or something. Ruby felt a twinge in her chest. Ouch.

Tai gave a few more self-satisfied chuckles before wiping a fake tear from his eye. "But seriously, ask your teacher how you can make up for it. Believe it or not, he doesn't actually want you to fail."

Ruby considered making a snarky comeback, but couldn't think of anything clever enough before sighing. "Okay, I guess you're right."

Tai smiled. "And don't worry so much about Weiss, okay? I don't really know what's going on between you two… relationship-wise…" He shuddered in what Ruby hoped was comically feigned disgust, "but she's probably going through a lot, too. She just needs some time to herself. If you two really were that close, she'll realize how important you are to her." Tai gave her a warm look. "Just let her know that you're there, and she'll come to you when she's ready."

Ruby felt her heart twist at the thought of leaving Weiss alone, but she couldn't deny that he was right. She'd been glued to her side ever since the accident, and whatever was wrong with Weiss wasn't something she could help with. All she could do was be a good leader. She sighed, but felt a small smile creeping onto her lips. "Thanks, dad."

Tai beamed. "You're welcome. Now go to bed, you're gonna have a busy day tomorrow."

Ruby nodded, her father's contagious joy spreading like wildfire. "I love you."

"I love you, too. Goodnight, Ruby."

"Goodnight, dad."


Weiss stared at the paper, tired eyes gliding over the tiny black letters. Her gaze panned down. A list of tiny black letters, one of which was circled, then crossed through with a red X. Red like a rose, like her partner, like a scythe, like blood— like blood and silver eyes and a glinting blade and a shattered knife— she shook her head, then slapped herself for good measure. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. "You're okay," she affirmed to herself, frustration clear even through her hushed voice, "you missed this question. Read it again."

She took time to register each individual letter, each word, until she had finally assembled an understanding of the question. How had she missed this? She flipped through her notebook, then the textbook, then wrote in the correction and its relevant page number in green ink. Green like the leaves of a rose bush, the sting of its thorns, a dark cocoon, a pool of light, a monster with Ruby's face—

Weiss slammed her head on the library table, teeth gritting as she garnered a few shushes. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. She felt helpless. She couldn't stop thinking about it. It was like she had been holding back all those memories, and now the dam was broken and she was drowning. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Don't panic, you're in public, people would talk, talk about the Schnee who got an eighty-one on her exam and had a full breakdown about it. Her father would find out, he would learn about what happened with her and Ruby, everything would be in jeopardy, she would have to go back to Atlas and be alone again, she would never become a Huntress, never be able to change the SDC, never see Ruby again.

She clicked her pen rapidly, hoping the feeling and sound would ground her. It didn't. Never see Ruby again, not like she could now. She was in anguish. She couldn't even look at her partner, lest the red and the silver and the blood claw at her mind like a hungry insect latched onto her brain. Her arm itched. Her arm ached. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, she bit the inside of her cheek hard enough that it shocked her as the faint taste of iron spread over her tongue.

Next question.


Ruby stretched, prying her crusty eyelids apart to the pitch-dark expanse of the RWBY dorm. Yang's snoring filled the room. Ruby rolled off the bed, brain kicking itself awake as she experienced a second of free fall before dissipating into a mass of petals and reforming on her feet. She grinned, but it quickly died when her gaze found itself on her partner. She was curled up in the fetal position facing the wall, blanket clutched tightly around her. Ruby felt her heart twist. She didn't need to tap into their connection to know she was having a nightmare— her shoulders and back twitched occasionally, her legs kicking out in random fits. Waves of panic crossed the bridge between their Auras as Weiss shook and mumbled.

She found herself reaching out, but pulled back. She couldn't help Weiss, much as it pained her to admit it. If she tried waking her up in the middle of her nightmare, there would be no telling how Weiss would respond. She blinked hard to regroup her thoughts and marched to her dresser, extracted her uniform, then went into the bathroom. The bright white light blinded her briefly before her eyes adjusted to the room.

She sighed and began peeling off her sleep shirt, pale torso revealing itself in the mirror.

Her gaze only briefly caught her reflection, but she couldn't stop herself from getting pulled in when she caught sight of her newest scars. Innumerable thin lines of raised, pink skin crawled from the backs of her fingers, over her hands, up her arms, cresting her shoulders before coming to a stop at the nape of her neck, with a few wisps of scar tissue stretching around the front of her neck and fanning out over her shoulder blades. The lines intersected and split, crisscrossing in web-like patters and covering up the dozens of smaller nicks and scratches that she had once been so proud of. These, though… she didn't like them. They weren't a sign of victory, they were a reminder of the mistake that almost killed her partner— and herself. The memory was fuzzy, but she could remember the burn— the searing pain, so much she could feel it now, the memory tingling up her arms and on her neck.

Worse, they were ugly. They covered her skin randomly in jagged, interconnecting lines with no consistent pattern and didn't leave more than an inch or two of flesh unmarred. Her earlier scars had just been a highlight to the rest of her, even grotesque ones like Bartramb's scratches at least looked cool. These just made her look like a freak, like she had some kind of condition or disease, the kind of thing that scared people.

She looked down at her hands, the pinkish lines making her gut wrench. She didn't want to see them. She didn't want anybody to see them. Tearing her eyes from the mirror, she quickly changed into her uniform, a new, self-conscious shame making her cover herself before she could be tempted to look again. Her cloak and shirt collar combined covered the scars on her neck, but the blazer wasn't long enough to hide her hands. She frowned. She hated wearing gloves, but supposed the tradeoff of hiding her shame would be worth it since she didn't have combat today.

She retreated from the restroom after finishing the rest of her routine and slowly navigated back to her dresser through the dark dorm. She picked through the drawers, fumbling through her clothes for a long time before finally extracting a pair of dark brown leather gloves. Fur poked out past its edges. Would people think she was weird for wearing them when they were still getting the last dregs of summer?

She moved to leave the dorm and get her day started, but stopped when she touched the handle. She first felt a twist in her Aura, then a pair of eyes on her back. Weiss was watching her. Ruby looked over her shoulder slowly, silver briefly meeting cerulean blue through the darkness before the latter fell back into bed. She huddled closer to the wall, and Ruby felt so many emotions churn across their bond that she couldn't tell them apart.

Ruby wrenched her gaze away, forcing herself through the doorway before she could have any more thoughts of her partner. She rushed down the hallways, eager to put those thoughts behind her and get started on her long list of tasks for the day, the first of which was well past-due: maintaining her weapon.

Just the thought of Crescent Rose was enough to distract her from her partner. Tune-ups, enhancements, attachments, new forms, they all raced through her mind, distracting her so much that she was surprised when she found herself already sitting with the scythe fully extended across the double-length communal working table. Crescent Rose never failed to take her breath away.

She gently lifted the snath, then leaned in close to the receiver, giving it a cursory glance before taking a long whiff. The intoxicating scent of metal, powder, and lubricant filled her senses, making a smile spread across her face. Before her joy could fade, she switched her leather gloves for a white pair of rubber ones, purposefully glancing away as she changed so as not to see her scars.

With a surge of vigor, she set about disassembling the hulking red machine. She had plenty of time before her first class would start, and she knew Blake wouldn't let the others be late to class, so she took her time with her baby. She relished every pop, every click and clack as the beast came apart in her hands. Tubes and rods slid, springs burst free, bolts and screws twisted and dropped into her hands. Each piece had its place, separated and laid out until more than half of Crescent Rose was no more, now just screws, springs, pins, and metal pieces stretched across the table before her. She took care to painstakingly inspect each piece, taking notes of wear and tear and any parts she would have to requisition in the coming weeks in a tiny, leather-bound notebook before wiping everything down, spraying it with solvent, and wiping it down again before applying the necessary lubricants and reassembling the receiver.

Then came the hard part. The blade assembly. With so many moving parts in the head and it being used so frequently for high-intentisty combat, there were many redundancies, which meant many pieces, all in extremely close proximity to the razor-sharp blades. That wasn't what she was worried about, though.

As she disassembled the head, her fears became justified. Blood. A dark crust covered much of the internals of the blade, a grim reminder of her slapdash cleanup after the incident with her partner.

Where Grimm ichor usually faded to ash or dust after being outside its host for too long, human blood would only harden and cake up. She sighed, trying to ignore the sick feeling rising in her gut as she sprayed the area with a solution, let it sit for a few moments, then started scrubbing with a brush. Red foam rose up as she scrubbed, staining the towel she used to wipe it away. She looked around, thankful nobody else was in the workshop to see her macabre work.

"Hey, kid." Ruby jumped out of her skin and whirled around. Qrow. She sighed. He looked over her shoulder. "That's a lot of blood."

Ruby felt her heart sink into her stomach, then slingshot into her throat as she tried fruitlessly to block her uncle from seeing her work. "I-it's not what it looks like!"

"It's okay, kid, I already saw it." He pulled up a stool and sat next to the workbench, motioning for Ruby to continue, which she did after a moment.

"Why are you here?" Ruby asked, side-eyeing her uncle as she scrubbed caked blood from the housing slot of a blade.

Qrow shrugged. "I don't really sleep. Saw you failed your exam with Oobleck."

Ruby stiffened and started scrubbing harder. "How do you know?"

Qrow gave her a deadpan look, but she was focusing on her weapon. "I'm a teacher, Ruby."

Ruby sighed. "I didn't study enough, I was really distracted." She lifted a blade and thumbed the edge, making a note in her little book.

"Weiss?"

Ruby frowned, but didn't respond.

"Lover's spat?"

She whipped her head around and glared at her uncle, who only flashed her a shit-eating grin. "It's not like that."

"I know how those Schnees are, she'll warm up to—"

"I cut off—" She shouted, then sharply inhaled when she heard how loud she was. "I cut her freaking arm off. She's scared of me. I traumatized my own partner."

Qrow's grin faded. "Oh. Uh, sorry."

Ruby just shook her head and started sharpening the blades. Silence reigned for a tense few moments before Ruby broke it. "You were right about the scythe. I never should've made this…" she looked up and down at the huge organized amalgam of parts before her, "thing. I wish I'd listened to you."

Qrow cocked his head. "I never told you not to build a scythe."

"No, I mean about controlling it. What you said about momentum, how uncontrollable it is. When I was…" she left a pause, throwing her uncle a shameful glance, "y'know, I was barely even swinging it myself. The weight, the momentum, it pulled me around and I just let it. It was like it had a mind of its own. I wish it had… nevermind."

Qrow sighed, then pulled out his Scroll. For a few long moments, he fished through folders and files before settling on one. He looked up at Ruby.

She was inspecting a now-clean screw when she heard a ding from her Scroll. A notification. She pulled it out, then looked up at Qrow with a quirked eyebrow. "Go ahead," he insisted.

She opened the message, then gasped at what she saw. Harbinger in both its scythe and sword form, each piece labeled, internals laid out and noted, different angles, even documents attached with the purpose of each part and a description of the assembly process. She was intimately familiar with all of it, as it was all required for a Huntsman to have their weapon registered. She looked up at her uncle in amazement.

He scoffed and didn't meet her eyes. "Don't get too excited, kid. I'm not gonna help you any more than this. You're lucky scythes are so rare, otherwise I'd just tell you to look it up online."

Ruby pounced, wrapping her arms around Qrow's waist and nearly knocking him off the stool. He let out a grunt before briefly attempting to pry her away, then just resigning to his fate. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She squeaked. "You're the best!"

Qrow rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever, I know. Just don't come crying to me when you have to take out the sniper part or whatever."

Ruby pulled away with a horrified expression.

"What? Swords are small, kid, at least compared to that thing. Something's not gonna fit."

Ruby pouted, then took a long few moments staring at her weapon, eyes bouncing between pieces as she analyzed it. Take out the sniper? Heresy. She couldn't. Literally, the rifle made up for more than half of the entire weapon and was key to propulsion. Maybe change the rifle mode? Find a way to invert the head? She might have to rework the entire—

Her Scroll beeped and vibrated, making her jump. How did she get so lost in thought? And when did Qrow leave? He had even put his stool back without her noticing.

She silenced the alarm, panicking slightly as she quickly oiled the blades and set them back into their housing, then started reassembling the rest. She rushed, not even letting herself admire the snaps and metal noises as she pieced the beast back together in what felt like record time. Snapping the weapon back to its magnetic clip, she didn't even bother cleaning her station before zipping away in a flurry of petals. She would need to be quick to get to Oobleck before he started class, as much as she hated leaving a mess for the next person.

She left a filthy station behind, littered with dirty rags, oil stains, used brushes and pipe cleaners, and a small, insignificant metal cylinder. One small piece, barely longer then an inch, slightly poking out from the rag it had rolled under. Probably nothing.

Probably.