Chapter 20 – new reKruit


Author's Notes

A lot of people are criticizing Ruby, Ozpin, and everyone's behaviors for shunning Blake, as well as Ruby's family for forgetting about her. I'd like to point out: you're all 100% right.

Ruby is going overboard on the punishment. It's not supposed to be portrayed as reasonable. Blake accepts it because she feels she needs to be punished (which she does, but not like this). Ruby simply sees nothing wrong with this since it's how she grew up. She's not doing it to be mean, she just thinks this is a normal thing, like a recess time-out or no dessert for a month. Yang and co are doing it bumblingly because Ruby is insisting, and Yang's more loyal to her sister than she is to Blake.

Ozpin doesn't approve, but he can't tell Ruby to stop because she's ignoring him, and he feels like intervention using his position as headmaster would only make the divide between Blake and Ruby worse. If he superseded Ruby's authority and forced her to stop, it would destroy her last remaining shred of self-confidence, which is barely hanging on as it is. Hence, he went to Blake and tried to set her on the path of fixing this. As we know from canon, Ozpin tends to let his student teams solve their own problems rather than step in and do it for them.

As for Ruby's family: yes, it was neglect. They have no excuse, especially Tai. Ruby has been told that what happened to her wasn't right, but it's difficult for her to distinguish what parts exactly were wrong since it's such a long period of time in her life. She hasn't fully recovered and probably needs therapy (but won't because plot).

Happy rats, and don't do crime!


"I've gotta say, Penny, it's good to meet a fellow daughter of Atlas. Don't get me wrong – Valeans are great and all, but it'll just be nice to have someone who's…well, you know."

Penny tilted her head. "I do not know, Friend Blake."

The pair of them were currently strolling through Beacon as Penny used her enhanced vision to look underground for any secret chambers or hidden conduits that might lead to an aura transfer device. They weren't expecting to find the machine itself, but they wouldn't need to. The machine needed a sizeable power input in order to operate, as well as several different types of liquid feeds – water and ethylene glycol for coolant, sulfur dioxide as a working fluid, and many more that Blake couldn't even pronounce. On top of that, there would have to be exhaust vents to dispose of toxic waste gases, lest they fill up whatever underground room it was stored in and asphyxiate whoever was in there.

Blake was also willing to bet that Vale or Beacon or whoever had stolen it wanted to reverse engineer the technology. That meant laboratories, which meant even more power lines, fluid feeds, and so on. Their hope was that, as the pair circumambulated the CCT, Penny might just stumble upon one of those indicators under the ground, and they could trace the line. If K was lucky, they might even be able to find an entry way big enough for Ilia to sneak in.

Penny had assured her that she could walk and talk as she scanned, hence their pleasant conversation. It also would've drawn attention to K if they silently walked in circles around the tower, so it was for the best.

Oh, who am I kidding? We've already got more attention than most hunters do in a lifetime, and the semester has barely started. Getting out of this place without leaving a trace is going to be a trying ordeal.

Penny was still waiting for an answer about the difference between the kingdoms, so Blake tried her best to phrase her feeling politely but honestly. "Well, when you got to Vale, the people there are quite similar to Vacuo or Mistral in terms of their culture. They all focus on the individual. There's nothing wrong with that, but you can only hear words like freedom, independence, and identity. In Atlas, you hear people talk about community, the common good, and unification. Everything you do, you do to help your neighbors just as much as yourself. People care about more than just themselves and their own issues, and they're willing and ready to sacrifice for it. I just like that more about our people…not that there's anything wrong with the other ways of thinking."

"I believe I understand. Though I feel obliged to point out the following: Weiss Schnee is a fellow daughter of Atlas. Does her company not evoke this feeling of communal utilitarianism that you have described?"

"Weiss and I don't exactly see eye to eye."

"She is short, even in those high heels, but I do not believe that it would be a significant barrier to visualizing her eyes."

"No, I mean that we're not on the same wavelength."

"Oh, that is wonderful news! I was unaware humans and Faunus also possessed radio receivers like mine." A small antenna popped out of Penny's head with a blinking red light on the top. "Now I can show my true form without shame!"

"No, put that away! No one can know you're a…you know!" Blake looked around to see if anyone had noticed, then pressed down on the antenna, causing it to fold up and retract into her new friend's scalp. "You can't just go around with weird shit on your head! People will look at you like you're crazy." Blake's ears stood up on end in anger at Penny's faux pas.

I need to explain my issue with Weiss like I would to a child.

"Penny, Weiss is a bitch."

"A female doggess?"

"No, a–"

Penny giggled. "I am kidding – father programmed me with a full dictionary, including pejorative and expletive terminology. That is unfortunate to hear, though. I was rather hoping to befriend her."

"Trust me, Penny, you don't want her as a friend."

"But Blake! More friends are always better! I am confident that if I express nothing but goodwill towards her, complement her attire, and offer my genuine companionship, I may overcome her apparent bitchery."

"Oh, you're one of those 'kill her with kindness' people, then? Personally, I'd rather kill her with bullets, but whatever floats your airship…"

"I've got it!"

"What? You going to invite her to a slumber party?"

"No, I've found the underground line for which we were searching."

"Can you tell where it leads? What exactly did you find?"

"It appears to be a pipe containing pressurized liquid water, buried at approximately 12 meters below the surface. The diameter is 0.15 meters, and the flow velocity is extremely high. It's too small to enter, but we could follow it."

"Are you sure it goes to the machine?"

"I am not, nor do I even have reason to believe it at this point. There is no way to visually analyze the purity of the water or determine if its composition is appropriate for the specifications of the machine's intake. If I were to be able to obtain a sample, I could confirm or deny it with greater certainty."

The area surrounding the CCT had no other buildings nearby for the pipe to lead to, but there certainly were trees that needed irrigation. It might be ours, but if it was this difficult to find it, tracing it would take a lot of time and energy. We had better be sure before we proceed.

"My lasers could reach and pierce the hypogeal tubing, Friend Blake. Shall I–"

"No. We're alone right now, but if you started drilling, we would have to stay in the same spot until you've got a sample and plugged the leak. Someone could approach us in that time. We can come back to this spot at night and try then. Meet me here 2300 hours from now."

Penny nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"Dismissed."

Penny, as an ostensible transfer student, headed back to her dormitories. It was 1900 hours and getting pretty close to dinnertime. Even though Blake might be a social pariah due to the curse Ruby placed on her, she still needed to show her face at the cafeteria. People didn't speak to her, but her absence would be noted and might lead to rumors that she didn't need right now. Keeping a low profile may have failed, but there was still a killer out there looking for her, and she wasn't keen on letting them know who she was.

Dinner was the usual affair. People noticed her and looked away. When she sat down at a table, everyone slid to the other end and continued their conversations, but in quieter voices. Blake figured that, at this point, this little game had grown beyond Ruby's initial punishment and taken on a life of its own. Some people were doing it at Ruby's request, but others probably saw Blake's isolation and thought that there was something wrong with her. Mob mentality was a horrible thing. Also, it didn't seem too farfetched that some of the humans would play a little 'shun the Faunus.' That said, it was only fair to admit that Blake's life experiences made her predisposed to expecting that sort of thing, so she might have been looking for smoke where there was no fire.

Blake sipped from her milk carton and ignored it all. Across the cafeteria, Ruby sat alone at her own table, eating her cookies in silence. As long as she was forcing herself to do this, Blake would keep up with it. Until Ilia got better and Ruby lifted the moratorium on socializing, Blake was determined to keep on a brave face and show Ruby that she stood in solidarity with her. Besides, with Ruby ignoring her too, there wasn't much else she could do.

I'll need to convince her that shutting out the world isn't healthy, but I can't do that until she's done shutting me out.

A sociable group of second years sat down across from Blake, so focused on their upbeat chattering that they didn't see who she was. One of them, a fish Faunus with gills running down his neck, looked at Blake, stopped dead in his tracks, and tapped on his friends' shoulders. Blake waved with her fork still in her hand, but she already knew what was coming before it happened. The Faunus and his friends averted their eyes uncomfortably, stood up, and moved to a different table.

It's like I've got the plague. This is getting out of hand.

Blake scoffed in disgust as she resumed her dinner. Her dinner of…tuna.

Or it could be that I'm eating fish. That might have made him want to sit somewhere else. Faunus weren't the animals they represented, but Blake would probably be a bit miffed if she'd seen the second years chowing down on a plate of gently braised kitten flesh.

Blake could have easily invited Penny to sit with her for dinner, but that would go against the spirit of the thing. She would talk with Penny for mission related topics, but other than that, Blake fully intended to see this silence through to the end. Even if it did nothing to benefit Ilia, it helped some of the guilt over her perilous state go away, and Blake would be damned if she started chatting it up with a friend while Ruby was all alone.

I can do this. I can be strong. I̶f̶ After Ilia gets better and we're back on speaking terms, I'll corner her and convince her why it's not okay to go into self-imposed excommunication.


At 2300 hours, Blake arrived to find Penny already there. With her, she had a small blue case.

"What's all that?"

"To improve the veracity and scope of my analysis, I have brought some pH testing strips, a thermocouple, a handheld turbidity analyzer, and some other instruments not installed in my system that must be carried externally." Blake watched as Penny began to unpack her tools on the floor.

"You get set up and start digging. I'm going to get into one of the trees and keep a lookout."

Blake left a shadow clone behind, but somehow Penny's eyes followed her real body as she moved away. In theory, as long as the clone remained undisturbed, Blake would remain hazy and difficult to see, though it tended to worsen over time. Like Ilia's skin changing, it wasn't true invisibility, but it would keep her mostly unseen at night. Blake ascended to the top of a nearby cluster of stone pines and made her way up the tallest tree. From up here, she could see three quarters of the courtyard and most of the other area. As long as no one approached by jumping through the other trees, she had a perfect vantage point.

And no one will. The worst we can expect is some schmuck taking a late night stroll, although I wouldn't put it past our dear headmaster to have some peculiar and annoying habits like that. I need to stay alert.

A faint green light appeared in the corner of Blake's eye. Penny's weird back hatch was open again, and three of her swords were slowly spinning around, perpendicular to the ground and about an inch above it.

A noise caught Blake's second pair of ears. Rotating around, she saw light pouring out of a door to one of the semi-distant dorm halls as it opened up. Faint footsteps started to originate from the door when it closed.

Hurry up, Blake mentally willed her orange-haired accomplice. Whoever's coming is going to see you if you don't finish up soon.

The light faded, but Blake could now just barely visualize the brightly colored green hair of the person who'd exited the building. Her night vision was a blessing, but she still couldn't make out their face, gender, or species.

Water trickled up out of the ground, and Penny quickly filled a small vial with some of it. Blake could feel sweat beginning to pool up on her forehead as the mystery student got closer and closer to the robot. Penny was still safe, but she wouldn't be for long.

This wasn't going to work. It would be less than thirty seconds before whoever it was got close enough to see them. There was no way Penny could finish her experiments before then, and moving away would only make her bright hair and clothes stand out more. There was nothing the private could do. It was up to Blake to act.

Blake dissipated her shadow clone and tore a pinecone from the tree on which she was standing. Jumping into the air, she dropped another clone beneath her and kicked off of its hands it to gain even more altitude. The duplicate threw her as she did so, and Blake soared into the sky to the height of the CCT's 5th floor at least. Flexing her arm, she hurled the pinecone as far as she could in the direction of the unseen student. The small missile flew right over their head and landed on the path from which they'd been coming. The student turned around upon hearing the impact, then started backtracking to see what it was.

Blake shot down towards Penny in the limited window of time she had and clutched her shoulder. "We need to go. Now!"

"Just a few more seconds." Penny's swords floated out of her back, then stabbed into the ground repeatedly. The churned up rubble filled in the leak she'd created, and a quick laser shot fused it closed. She grabbed hold of her case of tools. "Let's g–"

Penny hadn't even finished the request when Blake pulled her away, dashing as fast as they could. Now that someone knew they were there and might be looking for them, the trees wouldn't be enough cover. From her preliminary scouting, she remembered that the nearest hiding spot was the top of the Eastern Wing, whose roof was not pitched and thus hidden from view by those on the ground level. Blake internally patted herself on the back for playing it safe that first night – her preparation was paying off now as they approached.

"Fly us up," Blake commanded.

"Yes, ma'am." In a split second, they were atop the lecture hall, hidden from the student or whoever else might have heard the pinecone's noisy impact.

"Did you get what you came for?"

Penny nodded. "Affirmative."

"Good. We can try following the line tos–"

"Friend Blake, I was replying in the affirmative to your question. The water is not the right salinity or pH for the aura transfer device cooling systems."

"Are you sure?"

"The machine's inputs and outputs are clearly labelled. Furthermore, water with 9 grams per liter of salt and a pH of 5.5 is far too specific to be used by accident. Such high salt concentrations and acidity must be specially purchased."

"Damn it! Oh, well. I guess we'll need to keep looking, or find a way to crack the code."

"I concur, Friend Blake."

"Hey, how come you switch between ma'am and Friend Blake?"

"I refer to you formally when you distribute an order, whereas I prefer to acknowledge our friendship when the conversation is casual. We are friends, are we not?"

"I suppose," Blake answered noncommittally. "You may not want to get too attached. K's eventually going to pack up our bags when we find the machine, and I'm not sure you'll be coming with us. The general said you were to be temporary support for this mission."

"Perhaps, but perhaps not. Were you not originally intending to take Former Specialist Amin on as a fourth member? If the spot is available, perhaps I may fill it."

An open spot.

Ruby.

"No," Blake instinctively responded, banishing the unbidden idea from her head as soon as it popped in. "Absolutely not."

Penny's face fell a fraction, but she still maintained her ever-present smiled. "Oh. I see. If you do not want me, I shall not–"

"Wait, no, that's not it. Sorry, Penny, I was talking about someone else. Er, something else. Unrelated to your question. Yeah, no, I'll run it by Adam, see what he thinks."

He would say no, but Blake could barely think about that. Currently, 100% of her brain's power was focused on scrubbing itself clean of any thoughts related to inviting Ruby onto K.

S̶h̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶t̶e̶a̶m̶.̶

Nope

W̶e̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶b̶a̶n̶d̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶.̶

Nope.

I̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶r̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶u̶s̶u̶r̶p̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶d̶e̶r̶.̶

Nope.

I̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶.̶

Nope.


Author's Notes

Fanfiction dot net's spell-check decided to screw me once more.

In chapter 6, I wrote a joke about Ironwood calling the aura transfer device the Psionically Linked Aura Transfer Device. He then said that it's abbreviated as the P. L. Au. T. device for short (as a joke - plot device). Unfortunately, spell check flagged the original typing (with no spaces) and deleted it half of it, so you all read it as 'P.T.' device. It's been corrected now, but I'm still miffed.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!