Chapter 43 – Klose up shop

"Who attacked him?" asked Ruby, as her grumbling uncle was carried away in a stretcher.

"I don't know. I think he called her Raven. I didn't hear much of it before she was gone."

"Wait, Y-Yang's mom? She tried to kill Uncle Qrow?!"

Well, that explains that.

"But why was she even in Beacon? How did she get here?"

"I don't know," said Ilia. Given how Qrow had been talking about her semblance giving her the ability to sneak up on him at any time, she figured it was probably invisibility, teleportation, or something like that, but there was no way to be sure. "Do you know anything about her?"

"I know that Yang is kinda obsessed with her and wants to find her. She used to be on my parents' team with Uncle Qrow, back when Mom was alive and they were all still hunters. I don't exactly know what her deal is, but she's apparently really bad news."

"Why would she hurt your uncle? Aren't they teammates?"

"They're siblings, but it's not like the super functional epic sibling goals relationship that Yang and I share. Raven's a…hmmmm, how to put it?...a stone cold bitch."

Ilia was surprised to hear Ruby talk about anyone in such direct terms. If this Raven Branwen woman was bad enough to upset their normally forgiving leader, she must have actually been trouble. Normally, Ilia would chalk the dislike down to another Rubyism – she insulted Zwei, she sucks at baking cookies, she doesn't have a cool weapon – but Qrow Branwen was among Vale's best huntsmen. Raven had demolished him in less time than it had taken Blake to beat up Team Funkopop, and that was saying something, given how one sided the tournament fight had been. Yang's mother was the real deal, and she was in Vale.

Ilia ran over everything she knew in her head. Qrow wanted Raven to make an appearance, presumably to help Yang get over her obsession, but Raven wanted Yang to get stronger, or something? She mentioned a tribe in Mistral, too.

"We should go congratulate Blake, I guess."

The fight had been a victory for Team Rabies. Adam hung his head in shame at being so easily defeated by two putzes, while Blake was the champion for turning match around in Beacon's favor despite being outnumbered.

Ruby and Ilia exited the out of the way corridor and headed back to their seats together.

"Hey, Ils, why were you even over here in the first place? The snack bar's way closer to our seats, and it's in the other direction."

"Oh." Ilia breathed out a sigh of relief. She wouldn't even need to lie. "I saw Schnee on the way and decided to go the other direction."

Ruby snorted. "That was probably a good idea. What's her deal anyways? You know her best, because you used to be friends."

"We were never friends, Ruby. I was just playing her."

"Yeah, for intel. But, like, you never told me any of your findings when we started competing in the tournament, and then you just stopped hanging out with her after our mission."

"Because she's mean."

Ruby scrunched up her face. "Uh huh. She was always mean, even when you were pretending to be friends. Y-You were pretending, right? Cuz, like, Blake said you were, but I – oh my gosh, I'm not trying to say you're lying, I swear! I didn't mean it to sound like that! Please please please forgive me, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, Ruby," Ilia said. "When Russel joined our team and told us him and Dove's semblances, I had already figured out how Weiss' Glyphs work, so I figured that that would be enough. It was getting to the point where she was really getting on my nerves, so I bailed."

"Ah, I see."

If Ruby asked about the Glyphs, she could rattle off facts left and right that she'd learned from Winter. It was the perfect cover story.

Except Ruby looked down at the floor in confusion, not meeting Ilia's gaze as she worked out the math of the timeline in her head. "But Weiss…Weiss was mad at you before Russel joined us around the campfire."

"Yeah, we had a small fight that afternoon. It was one of the things that got on my nerves. First straw was the fight, then Russel's defection was the last one that broke the Nuckelavee's back."

"What happened? Why'dja fight?"

"She was the one who outed Jaune. I told you, remember?"

Ruby stopped walking.

Ilia cursed herself for forgetting that she'd told Blake and Adam, not Ruby. It was getting difficult to distinguish Team Rabies from K.

"Jaune…that was Weiss?" Ruby said monotonically.

"Ruby, please take your hand off Crescent Rose."

"I – oh." Ruby's personality returned. "It wasn't like that. I just sometimes reach for her to calm down. I'm not gonna go all insane and shoot up Team Sword."

Ilia wrapped an arm around Ruby's shoulder. "If you did, pipsqueak, I'd be your alibi."

"Pipsqueak? I'll have you know that we're barely two inches apart in terms of height."

"Two inches matters, sweetheart. When you turn eighteen and get with Blake, you'll understand."

"Ewwww!" Ruby pushed Ilia away and stuck out her tongue. "Grossssss! That's not even how it works for girls!"

"I thought you didn't know how it works." Ilia mock gasped. "Ruby, were you lying about your virginity? Are you secretly moonlighting as a woman of the evening in addition to being a huntress student?"

"A woman of the evening? What, is that like the comic book superheroes X-Ray and Vav? You know, 'I am the evening.'"

"Pretty sure the quote is 'I am the night,' pipsqueak."

Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but Ilia beat her too it. "Now that your uncle's gonna be off his feet while he recovers, I figure someone ought to meet the call-Ruby-pipsqueak quota. Nobly, I shall sacrifice my own clever nicknames for you and take one for the team."

"No more Rubadubdub? No more Rubaby? Truly I'm – Blake!"

Ruby rushed over to envelope her girlfriend in a hug as she and Adam came into sight. Ilia and Adam awkwardly did some sort of bro-fist bump thing just to pass the time as the other pair affectionately rubbed their noses together, since they couldn't kiss per Blake's restrictions.

"Great job on the fight, Blake! You kicked their tooshies! And Adam, t– uhhhh, t-try harder at not sucking so much ass, I guess?" She raised her arms in a shrug. "I don't really know what to make of you losing so easy…"

"I got overconfident."

"Suuuuuuure. Whatever you need to tell yourself. Hey, my uncle got wasted while you were fighting."

Blake's face fell. That piece of shit. Sober three years my ass! I'm not going to let him anywhere near my Ruby for as long as I–

"Wasted meaning attacked, not sloshed," corrected Ilia. "He's seriously injured, not drunk."

Adam was instantly all business. "Who?"

"Raven Branwen, Yang's mother. She used her semblance to get away. His leg got cut up pretty bad, but he's otherwise okay.

"That's horrible," said Blake. "I hope he's going to be o…K."

"Yeah, he'll be o…K," mimicked Ruby (hopefully) unknowingly, grinning. "O…K. Heh. O…K…O…K. You guys are always…so…" She waved her hand up and down, then blushed while looking away. "…just…you know, you guys."

They were going to need to talk about this, especially given what it would mean for Ozpin's timetable now that one of his close links to Ruby was off the chess board. He might be tempted to speed up his selection process.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that he'll be alright."

Adam cleared his throat. "Ahem. We said that after the fight, we'd…"

"Oh, right. Ruby…" Blake placed a hand on her little leader's shoulder. "There's someone we'd like to introduce to you."

"Are you fricking kidding me?" said Ruby, glaring at Winter. "There's two of them?!"

Winter, for her part, tried to maintain a pleasant demeaner, but it was probably difficult for her not to wither under Ruby's glare.

"T-Three, actually, if you include our br–"

Ruby didn't even hear her. "An older, bigger, fatter, saggier, shittier, uglier, older, shittier Weiss? Who is she, the Mother Goose to Weiss' gosling? How could you possibly think that I would like this, guys?"

"Mother…what?"

Ruby threw her hands down violently, then folded them in front of her chest. "I hate Weiss! I hate her! And whoever ultra-Weiss is, I hate her too!"

Winter's eyes narrowed at the cross words, but she calmed down and extended a hand. "Greetings, child. I am…"

"Don't call me child," interrupted Ruby. "I'm not some stupid little kid. I'm Ruby Rose, and I'd like to be referred to by my legal title. Miss." She sneered the last part and faked a curtsy.

"Apologize, Miss Rose. My name is Winter Schnee, eldest child of the Schnee family. I am an ally of your teammates. Adam and I met on a joint mission and have stayed in contact since. Back then, I was associated with the At–"

"Don't know, don't care. If you're a friend of the gang's, you're a friend of mine. Winter, was it?" Ruby took Winter's hand and shook it. "Pleased ta meet'cha, Winter Pepperminter!"

The tall Atlesian woman accepted the greeting with apprehension, unsure of the sudden change in Ruby's demeanor.

"I…see. Yes, Winter Schnee is my full name," she opted with, addressing Ruby's first question and ignoring the rest.

Blake herself was equally unsure of what to make of Ruby's mood swing. The anger had been real, and it was easily explained given that Weiss frequently tried to murder Ruby in cold blood, but the cheery offer of friendship was also earnest. Blake had been around Ruby long enough to know when she was genuinely happy or just faking it. She'd had a lot of experience with both of those since Mountain Glenn.

Mood inconsistencies could be a sign that they were getting to Ruby's sanity. That was the best explanation, and also the one that tore open Blake's guts like a sword. Her mental health had already been unstable given her unusually lonesome childhood, and now K's constant deceptive antics were throwing her into a downward spiral.

Ruby had already figured out that the letter K was something to them, and she was repeating it without knowing the deeper meaning. She was seeing through more and more of the curtain, and if she found out the full truth before they told it to her…

This mission needed to end, and Ruby needed to join them, ASAP. No more games.

Winter seemed content to accept Ruby's random behavior and move on. "Your friends speak highly of you."

"They do?" Ruby blushed. "Oh, stop. Don't stop, keep going."

"Your performance in the tournament was admirable, and most missteps were immediately corrected. I hear that your romance with Blake is going quite well. I suppose that makes me your moth– ahem. Never mind."

I guess she's not comfortable to joke around in Ruby's presence just yet. We'll have to save the mother-in-law quips from my little slip up for later. Ruby's going to be K, but Winter hasn't had the chance to come to understand just why we trust her so much. I'm sure that she'll come around in time.

"Yeah, Blake and I are totally a thing. We're currently taking the physical stuff slow and focusing on the emotional side of our relationship."

"A praiseworthy choice. Far too often, young couples rush into mistakes without considering the long term consequences." Blake noticed Adam shift ever so slightly, but she chose to mentally seal off the portion of her brain that contained the memory and flag it for deletion. "That you both choose to rise above this and ensure your love is pure first is most certainly an indication that you are mature beyond your ages."

"Mature?" Blake said. "Have you met Ruby?"

"I just did. Would I be correct in assuming that is an inside jest of some sort?" said Winter.

"You'll get it one day."

"Wait, I've got it!" said Ruby. "Okay, stay right here!" She turned around and dashed off in a flurry of petals.

"Her semblance?" asked Winter.

Ilia confirmed it with a nod.

"I see. She'll be useful for missions. If her scythework is quality as well, she shall make–"

"We're not recruiting her for any skill," said Adam. "If anything, we'll need to teach her how to fit in to K."

"Curious. The three of you have always focused on the mission first, sometimes to the point of myopia, and yet you choose to induct Miss Rose for personal reason?"

"Yup." The three of them nodded and offered no further explanation. As far as Blake was concerned, no further explanation was needed. Winter would see in time, assuming she stuck around long enough. If she and Adam managed to make it work, perhaps she would. I'd certainly appreciate her company, even if she won't join us on missions or anything. Jeez, between her, Ruby, and maybe Penny, we've almost doubled in size.

Ruby returned with a small piece of glass in her hands. "Okay, hold still." She stood up on her tiptoes and gently pressed the glass against Winter's eye. "Cello!"

"C-Cello?" asked Blake.

Ruby had placed a monocle against Winter's eye. While it certainly looked good on her, it was the most non of all the non sequiturs Blake had ever witnessed.

"She's so formal and dootdeedootdeedoo, tralala! I just feel like, you know, she needs a little sumthin' sumthin' to make the look. Too bad Roman Torchwick is dead and vored; I really coulda used his bowler hat to fancy this gal right up. Maybe Coco can hook a girl up with some threads…" Ruby trailed off, scratching her head.

"And what do bowed string instruments have to do with my revised appearance?" asked Winter.

"You know, cuz you say cello when you win. And I did."

Blake thought long and hard about why Ruby had just said what she did. The only conclusion she could come up with was nothing. There was no reason that could explain Ruby Rose.

"Viola! It's the missing link!" screamed Ilia suddenly. "She mistook viola for cello, and she mistook voilà for viola! Dust, that Rubyism took me longer than it should have."

"I'm starting to see what you meant by immature," said Winter.

"Blake!" chided Ruby. "Are you dissing me behind my back? We're not supposed to do that until we're unhappily married and in our golden years!" She shook her head. "Anyways, sorry I misjudged you, lady. You seem pretty rad. You're like Weiss' good clone. I think I'll call you nice!Weiss."

"No, your preliminary judgment was not without cause," said Winter. "I…spoke with my sister during your match, Blake."

Blake cringed. "That bad, huh?"

"I barely recognize her," murmured Winter. "The little girl I fondly recalled playing at my coattails is all grown up. This should be a happy occasion. I should be ecstatic, but instead I find myself downright horrified by her behavior. The way she speaks of your people is abhorrent. My sister…" Winter choked. "…my dear baby sister, who once expressed a desire to grow up into a huntress as valorous as I am, proudly informed me that she'd 'successfully dealt with an insubordinate mutineer.' She showed me an album of photographs on her scroll of her handiwork. I nearly ran that lump of disagreeable rubbish she calls a partner through with my sabers for being such a negative influence."

"I mean, you could've." Ruby shrugged and wiped her nose. "Like, me personally? I wouldn't've stopped you if you had."

"It's more than just Cardin," said Ilia. "Winter, she's lost her damn mind. She's convinced herself that she can do no wrong. Back before the tournament, she tried to stab Ruby because Ruby talked back to her. Now, she's going around telling people that she barely made it out of there alive after Ruby here…" Ilia placed both hands on Ruby's shoulders from behind and motioned to her with her head. "…went on a bloodthirsty rampage. Ruby, who just monocle'd you and declared you a string instrument."

"I'm sorry, Winter," said Adam. "But I think whatever girl you used to know is gone."

"I know," breathed Winter, closing her eyes. "I know, but it's just so damn hard. I placed all my hopes and dreams in my siblings. They were the future for me, for the whole Schnee family, whenever I thought Jacques had broken me too deeply for me to ever lead a normal life. Whitley was always the more troubled child between the two of them, and I thought Weiss would be the one to rise above our father's influence."

"Whitley is their littlest brother," Blake clarified to Ruby when she looked at her in confusion.

"Jacques was deemed unfit to care for a child, and Mother is barely lucid these days, so he's been transferred to a foster family. He's taking it…well. As well as can be expected. I think he's at least mature enough to see that the Schnee family home no longer holds anything for him." Winter tilted her head back, leaning it against a wall behind her. "My entire family has become such a mess."

"No we're not," said Adam.

"I…hmm. Yes. I forget that I'm not alone. T-Thank you, Adam."

Adam placed a hand on her shoulder.

"eeeeeeeeeEEEEEE!" squeal Ruby, quickly picking up on the fact that they were f̶u̶c̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ deeply in love. She pointed at Adam. "You?"

"Yep," the bull Faunus said.

"And you?" she said, pointing at Winter.

"Quite so."

"Oh, I knew this was the right time to bust out my second finest monocle! We won the tournament, everyone's getting some ass except Ilia, and Uncle Qrow's injuries were non-lethal – today is the best day ever! Er, second, because Ilia came back to life once and that's kinda better but this is still awesome! Today so butters my motherfuckin' biscuits! Let's party all night long!"

All night long, of course, extended only to Ruby's bedtime, 7pm.

Ilia made her a warm glass of milk, Blake tucked her in, and Adam didn't sing her a lullaby.

He didn't, even thought she insisted that it would be the perfect end to the perfect day.

He held out, and he didn't sing the silly children's song with absurdist lyrics but a decent melody when performed in E minor t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶k̶e̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶G̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶,̶ ̶h̶e̶y̶,̶ ̶h̶i̶n̶d̶s̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶w̶e̶n̶t̶y̶-̶t̶w̶e̶n̶t̶y̶.

When Ruby was busy counting sheep Faunus, K slipped out of the room and lead Winter straight to Penny's room in the transfer building. The bubbly android was waiting for them at the door, her roommate having been assigned some distraction in the form of busywork by the visiting Atlesian professor who stood in for General Ironwood.

Penny saluted, either not knowing or not caring that Winter had no rank. "Salutations, Winter Schnee!"

"Who's this?"

"The general express shipped us a toaster," said Adam. "It's useful because it can make toast and also call him directly."

"Oh. This is Dr. Polendina's project? The Programmable Enhanced Neural Network Yabber?"

"Progr– yabber?" asked Ilia. "What's Yabber?"

"Well, he didn't just want to call her PENN, but not many words start with the letter Y, so he just ended up tacking on the first word in the dictionary starting with Y."

"It does fit," said Adam. "She's something of a chatterbox."

"Shall I open up a secure line to the general?" said Penny.

"NO!" Winter held up her hands in alarm. "Ahem. I mean, not yet. I'd prefer to have time to mentally prepare myself before I speak to General Ironwood for the first time since my departure from Atlas."

Ilia nodded. "How's about we keep it between us kids for now, Yabby Gabby?"

"My name is Penny."

"Meep morp does not compute. Nah, I'm just messin' with ya."

"Ilia," Adam coughed chidingly. "Stay focused. You're the one that insisted we meet."

She had. Ilia had privately requested that they convene all their forces to discuss their next move. She'd done this while Ruby was distracted forcing Winter to hold the late Roman Torchwick's old cane and say in a fancy accent 'bran flakes' (she probably meant cheerio; Ruby was so adorable).

"Yeah. I think it's time to start accelerating our schedule and finishing things up here. This is the second random encounter with an insanely overpowered huntresses that I've had in the past month, and that's two too many. If Raven Branwen is randomly going around offing people related to Ruby, we need to grab our aura machine, grab our maiden powers, grab our Ruby, and get going."

"That's less a plan and more a goal," said Blake. "But I do agree. We've pushed Ruby to the brink with our constant lies. It's only a matter of time before she starts seeing through them and realizes we haven't been honest with her about who we are."

"I actually do have an idea for how she should proceed," said Ilia.

"What do you propose?" said Adam.

"Once we know for sure that Marrow Amin's killer isn't watching us, we can start moving around more boldly. I think it's time we brought them in."

Penny began to quietly fill Winter in on what they were talking about while K discussed it.

"We still don't know who it was," said Blake.

"Based on skill levels, weaponry, and proximity to the crime scene, we only ever suspected Weiss, Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune, or Goodwitch. Ruby and Jaune got cleared early on, and Pyrrha knows a lot about Blake's history. The killer can't know who we are, or they would have killed us a lot earlier on. I think it's safe to say that it's either Weiss or Goodwitch."

"How do we find out which one?"

"Winter?" asked Ilia.

Penny finished whispering the details, and Winter nodded. "What can I do?"

"You're Weiss' sister. Do you think that you could definitively find out whether or not Weiss is involved in Marrow's death? You can do whatever you need to do, as long as you don't reveal K to her."

"I can try. She's changed, but she's still my sister, and I might be able to get through to her. That said, if she is–"

"We'll take her alive," Ilia rushed to assure her.

"And if she isn't?" asked Blake.

Ilia recalled Marrow's decapitated body. A proud son of Atlas, reduced to a corpse and not even treated to a proper burial.

"That same courtesy won't be extended to Goodwitch," she replied.

Omake

Ilia: Weiss was the one who outed Jaune.

Ruby on the group chat: Hey, Russel. You're pretty cool. Don't show up to Team Sword tomorrow.

Author's Notes

And so, as declared by the main characters, we're now racing towards the finish line. With the end only seven chapters away, this one's going to be my first completed fic, even though The Empty Seat was written and debuted first. Crazy, isn't it?

Goose #2 (El Madre de Gansa) raises her head, and it's…it's Winter?! But I thought she was a good guy! How dare she goose it up to ungoosable levels of gandery!

I just love the idea that Ruby's completely figured out the level of significance of the letter K without realizing what it actually means and is now openly just laughing at it as though it's just a mannerism. Imagine Blake, Adam, and Ilia mentally screaming as Ruby says 'K! K! K!'

Happy rats, and don't do crime!