Yo!

Not a ton to say about this chapter tbh. The penultimate chapter in Part 1 of this story!

Start Chapter 17

Weiss and Qrow arrive at the hospital some ten or so minutes later.

Weiss is distracted thinking about Neo, or Trivia, and her family, and the abuse she'd seen her taking. It has her irritable, and the fact that Mercury is waiting for them is not helping even remotely.

She takes a breath as they board an elevator to the intensive care unit. Mercury's doing better, but he still needs around the clock service for his injuries, and to make sure that his body is properly adapting to his newly unlocked aura.

They arrive to find Mercury awake, and while Weiss makes to enter into the closed-off room immediately, Qrow places a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

"You sure about this?" He asks, and Weiss is initially uncertain as to Qrow's line of questioning.

"Should I not be?"

"You can probably answer that question on your own, Weiss." Qrow states, sighing. "Whether or not we did what we had to, we killed his father."

Weiss… now that she thinks about it – and she's not sure how it had managed to evade her thoughts beforehand – they very much had done that.

"There's a pretty good chance that kid's going to scream at you, that he's going to blame you. I'm asking you whether or not you think you can handle that."

"I…" Weiss swallows. "I don't know if I can. But… at the same time, I'm responsible for what happened, aren't I?"

"There's no need to punish yourself, kid."

"I'm not punishing myself–"

"Easy to say that." Qrow stares her down, not letting her get away from this. "But I don't think you're telling the truth. You want to apologize to the kid for what happened, don't you?"

Weiss… she had wanted to do that, yes. And when Qrow says it…

It sounds ridiculous.

To ask a child forgiveness for murdering their parent, even if that parent had been a world-renowned assassin, is…

Well…

"Just…" Qrow sighs. "Don't take anything the kid says personally. It's not your fault that you did what you had to do. If Marcus Black had lived a fraction of a second longer, he'd have killed me and the kid with that grenade. You had no choice. But he's not going to be able to see that."

Weiss nods her head, takes a breath, and then steps inside the room.

Mercury Black, who will one day become one of Cinder's, and then Salem's, lieutenants, is talking quietly with a member of the nursing staff about something that Weiss cannot hear.

He seems… not happy, but he's also not livid, or depressed. If Weiss hadn't known any better, she'd have said he looked relatively calm.

She's certain there are feelings much less so lurking beneath the surface for Mercury.

Once she fully steps into the space, however, Mercury's eyes turn towards her.

And everything about him changes.

His lips peel; his brow draws down. His eyes narrow, and his breath catches. He snarls as he sits up in bed, and the only thing that prevents him from jumping to his feet is that same nurse he'd been talking to before, keeping him in place.

"YOU!" Mercury screams, and it is a sound that has Weiss taking a step back. "Murderer! I'll kill you!"

Qrow is there beside her, once more supporting her. He steps forward, and says, "Weiss saved your life, kid. Your father was going to kill the both of us with that little stunt."

"Shut up!" He screeches, his voice cracking, tears already running down his face. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

Qrow sighs, but shakes his head, and backs off. He places a hand on Weiss' shoulder, and nods towards the door with his head.

"It's done. There's nothing we can do. Let's go."

Weiss… she isn't willing to accept that. It… he has to understand. She had done what she had to, for his sake.

"Mercury, listen," She steps forward, ignoring the way Qrow tries to stop her. "Your dad would've killed you, he–"

"I don't care!" He shouts, screams. "At least he'd still be alive! You killed him! You did it!"

The machines at Mercury's side, monitoring his heartrate and other such measurements, are all spiking. The nurse who's keeping Mercury in place presses a button, and immediately, two other nurses filter into the room. They hold Mercury down as the other nurse comes over, and starts pushing Weiss towards the door.

"What are you–"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but for his sake, I'll have to ask you to step out." The nurse speaks the words, and it's clear she is apologetic, at least. "He can't be expending energy like this, and if you're here… it's only going to be worse."

"That… yes." Weiss nods her head slowly, and it's difficult, really, to comprehend. "I… I understand."

She allows herself to be taken out of the room by the nurse and Qrow, and then watches as the door shuts behind her. She hears Mercury still screaming, calling her a murderer, a killer…

His father had been all of those things, too, and yet… can she blame a child for not wanting to see the faults in their family?

Weiss had been the same, once upon a time.

"You okay?"

She looks up at Qrow, with a weary expression on his face, and feels a question on the tip of her tongue.

"Why is it always like this? Hard, and bitter?"

Qrow laughs, then, even as he leans against the opposite wall, and runs a hand down his face.

"I don't know, kid… I don't know."

/

The next couple days are relatively quiet for Ruby.

She spends the majority of her time building Roman's weapon, and then guiding him through the process. She's happy to find that Roman's a quick study, and that he's not just coasting off of having her as a partner, either. He does his best during their evening sparring matches, although Amber has, for the moment, chosen to exempt herself.

Ruby admits to being somewhat bothered about that. She gets the feeling that Amber's absence is on Ozpin's orders – he can't trust Ruby, given she just popped up out of nowhere – but…

Well, for now, she'll focus on her first problem.

"So?" She asks Roman as he holds the inner blade of Melodic Foil in his hands, flicking it about and testing the weight. "Does it feel right?"

He hums out under his breath, evidently unsure as of yet. "I think so. It's light; way lighter than I expected."

"That's what they're made for. Of course, normal foils are also incredibly fragile, but as hunters, we can channel our auras into our blades to prevent them from snapping and breaking." She explains, given that Roman's likely not familiar with these concepts. His knives had, after all, snapped clean in two during their time in the Emerald Forest. "So, I'd advise getting a handle on that."

Roman laughs. "Yeah, I guess that's fair. You mind walking me through that?"

She doesn't at all, and she does over the course of the next hour or so. Roman doesn't exactly take to these things like a fish to water – Jaune, for example, had been a veritable sponge for new information, going from entirely incapable to able to hold his own against other hunters in training in just a few months – but she's proud of Roman's growth by the end of the evening.

"Keep practicing with those aura exercises I showed you. It might be a few weeks before you see any progress, but until then, we'll use your foil only for form exercises, and not hit it against anything."

"Probably a good idea, yeah," Roman chuckles, before suddenly his eyes widen, looking at something behind Ruby. "Oh, uh… hey, Amber."

Ruby's eyes widen, but by the time she's turned around, Amber's already retreated back into the main building.

"Man, she's kind of skittish, isn't she." Roman chuckles, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I don't know. Feels like we just have a two-person team sometimes."

Ruby can't really argue against that. She agrees with the sentiment as well; she, too, would like for Amber to join them in some of these activities.

She'd not gone out to Vale with them – which, okay, Ozpin probably told her not to travel outside of Beacon, with Ruby there or otherwise – or joined them for forging Roman's weapon, or the subsequent training with that weapon.

She doesn't sit with them during class, or at lunch. She, for the large part, ignores nearly everyone in Beacon Academy.

Ruby…

Well, honestly, this isn't really her forte. Getting someone to come out of their shell seems more like Yang's thing. She'd gotten Blake to let go of the White Fang hate boner – that's a terrible turn of phrase, but it's what Yang had said about it at the time – and go to the dance.

Ruby's not quite equipped the same way. She's an introvert; quiet, and even as a leader, she's much better in combat than she is on a day-to-day basis.

In combat, she can fall back on her instincts, which are, from what everyone says, usually quite good, and issue orders to the others based off of that.

In a dorm room, trying to deal with a frankly suicidally obsessed teammate, she'd had to rely on her sister to solve the problem.

She sighs, even as she calls training for the night, and she and Roman return to the dorm.

Amber isn't there.

"It feels like she's avoiding us." Roman turns to Ruby. "I'm not crazy, right?"

"You're not crazy." Ruby confirms, her brow furrowing. "I think I know why, too."

"Going to tell?"

"Did I tell her about your baggage?"

"Touché."

She smiles, even as Roman decides to take an early night. She should probably do the same, but…

Well, she wants to solve this problem before it can become more of a problem.

Amber seems like a nice, if not somewhat snooty, girl.

And she's met one of those in her life already.

She's her closest friend.

Thinking about Weiss has Ruby smiling, but she also feels, once more, a longing in her gut. She wants to see her teammates.

She doesn't even know if they're here with her. That thought… it haunts her late in the evenings, as she lies down to sleep. It sticks with her whenever she grows happy, and weighs down her every step.

The idea that she's here all alone.

She does her best to dismiss it. After all, they'd all gone through the portal that they'd thought would be taking them to Vacuo. It makes more sense to think that the others, too, have been scattered.

It's just… worrying is all.

She groans, even as she decides to explore Beacon's grounds, wondering if she can find Amber before she turns in for the night. She's not in the dorm common room, or in the cafeteria. She's also not in the first year's training hall, which had been the other place Ruby had thought to check.

She decides to check outside, and makes her way towards the fountain in front of Beacon Academy.

She'd been dubbed crater face on this very spot, she finds herself thinking, as she takes in the statue that stands just beyond it. Here she'd made friends with Jaune, and become a lot more confident as a result. Here, she'd first met Weiss, and 'exploded'. Here she'd first met Blake, and the girl had totally ignored her.

Speaking of being ignored, this had also been the place that Yang had abandoned her so that she could come out of her shell.

She should probably thank her for that whenever they meet up again, because it had been a successful gambit.

Even if Ruby had most certainly not been happy with her sister at the time.

It's as she's thinking about such things that she notices a figure sitting in the gardens, which she can just barely make out from where she's sitting. Brown hair – she thinks, at least; it's dark out – means that it could, potentially, be Amber.

So, Ruby closes the distance, and sure enough, when she makes her way over there some thirty seconds later, she finds Amber sat alone, looking out over Beacon's gardens.

It's not quite as nice as it had been during Ruby's era, having evidently seen either some budget increases, or some students who'd care to keep it maintained in the future, but still, it has a charm to it.

"It's a nice night." Ruby says, trying to start a conversation, and she winces as Amber jumps in place, spins around on a dime, and points her staff right at Ruby.

"You…" She doesn't lower the weapon. Her eyes harden.

"I'm sorry." Ruby raises her hands in surrender, trying to show she means no harm. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Amber bristles, seemingly at the insinuation that she'd been frightened by Ruby's appearance – even though it had been criminally obvious, so Ruby's not sure who she'd been trying to hide that from – as she straightens out her posture, and then says, "It's alright. I was just leaving."

"Amber, wait!" Ruby stops Amber before she can get too far. The woman – or girl, Ruby supposes – halts in place, but she's antsy, Ruby can tell. "I just… you've kind of been avoiding me, haven't you?"

Amber's eyes widen. Ruby's not really sure what it is she knows, what Ozpin's told her, but…

Well, she just wants to clear the air.

"Can I ask why?"

She has a pretty good idea as to why, but she wants to put the ball in Amber's court, so to speak.

Amber, on the other hand, doesn't seem to want to answer. Ruby can't fault her for that if she's right on what's going on.

"It's complicated."

"Can you uncomplicate it?"

Amber glares back at her.

"I'm sorry, it's just…" Ruby sighs. "We're supposed to be teammates, aren't we?"

Amber's expression becomes almost guilty, then, and she looks down and away from Ruby.

"I… there's just…"

Ruby doesn't try and speak again. She gives Amber a chance to say what she wants to say.

It takes a while, but she does in the end.

"…I want to."

"You…"

"I don't…" Amber's hands clench into fists. "Do you honestly think I like this? Dancing around you and pretending you guys don't exist?"

Ruby hadn't really thought about it, but when it's put like that… no, she can't imagine Amber does.

"I was so excited to come to Beacon, you know." Amber's voice is small, almost absent, but Ruby can barely hear it. "My mother went here. So did my grandmother. I've been preparing to come here for my entire life. And yet… when I finally arrive, I'm…"

Put on a team with someone she can't trust at all. Ruby thinks but doesn't say. Someone who just suddenly appeared aboard the transport ship, without any rhyme or reason.

As if by magic.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Ruby." Amber turns back towards her, and then she scoffs. "If that's even your real name."

"It is." Ruby says, though whether or not Amber would believe her… "I'm not… things are complicated for me. I can't really give you any easy answers. I'm…" She sighs. "I guess that's probably not helping you to feel better, or like you can trust me, is it?"

"No. It isn't."

Ruby can't do much about that. "There's a lot going on for me, too. Just like I'm pretty sure there's a lot going on for you. I'm not asking you to trust me, but… couldn't you at least hang around with Roman and I when we're in school, in the lunch room, or in classes? It's not like I could make a move to attack you there."

Ruby realizes how stupid she's just sounded when Amber takes a step back. She's just implied she might try and attack Amber in a scenario where they aren't being watched.

Just like this one; the two of them alone in the gardens, late at night.

"Not that I'm going to attack you!" Ruby rushes to say, before wanting to smack herself in the face. "Ugh. I… I just…"

"It's…" Amber hesitates. "I don't think you're going to attack me, either. But I've been told to be wary of you; that you might try and get me to let my guard down, that…"

It doesn't surprise Ruby to know that Ozpin is telling her not to relax. The man is paranoid, but given everything she knows, for good reason. He's watched civilizations rise and fall and been at the heart of many of them. He's likely dealt with his fair share of spies and traitors in his time.

Ruby can't blame him for suspecting her, either.

"Maybe just…" Ruby hesitates. "Come down to the forge and chat with us some days? Or the lunch room? You could join us for training on the roof. You came to check in on us earlier, didn't you?"

Amber nods her head slowly. "I… I was…"

"Lonely?"

Amber grimaces. "I wasn't lonely."

So, she'd been lonely, then.

"It's alright. It's not like I'm saying you're weird. I'd be lonely too if I was distancing myself from my teammates like you are."

Amber huffs. "I just… I'm caught between my duty and my wishes. And I'm beginning to realize that I never truly wished for this duty of mine in the first place."

To someone without any knowledge of the secrets of Remnant, that phrase might not have meant anything. But to Ruby, who knows quite a bit about things like the Relics, and Magic, and Maidens…

She wonders if the latter might have something to do with Amber's current predicament.

Could she be a maiden? Perhaps a candidate to become one, like Pyrrha had been?

Ruby mentally groans. This is all too complicated for her. Espionage, sneaking around, worldwide plots about taking and passing magical powers between people…

She's meant to hit monsters really hard. That's who Ruby Rose is.

She's content to leave the conspiracies to Blake.

Unfortunately, Blake's not here – although Ruby's sure that wherever she is, she's likely getting involved in something she shouldn't – which means that Ruby has no choice but to involve herself in this.

And she does want to. Amber is supposed to be her teammate. While that doesn't mean as much to Ruby, who already has a team, she can tell it means a lot to Roman, and to Amber as well.

She's not going to let her throw that away out of fear.

"Well… think about it, okay?" Ruby asks her, walking past her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "I can't tell you exactly what's going on with me, but I get the feeling the same goes for you, right?"

Amber nods, albeit slowly.

"But I think Roman would like a team. And I think you would, too."

"That…" Amber sighs. "I will… consider it."

Perhaps that meant she would talk to Ozpin about the matter instead. Ruby doesn't have enough information to really guess…

But that's fine. She doesn't need any more.

"That's all I ask." She says as she starts making her way back to the dorm. She is tired, after all. "I think we can make a great team."

Amber doesn't respond to that, but Ruby hadn't asked her to. She leaves the girl behind as she departs for the evening.

Hopefully, a new day will bring new tidings.

/

Amber Equinox would describe herself as an opinionated person.

Others would call her rude, or cocky. She likes to think of it as simply knowing the skills that she possesses, knowing what it is that she's capable of, and not shying away from the truth.

The Fall Maiden's fire, burning within her breast, does not help in keeping down her ego.

It's rather difficult to not grow somewhat haughty knowing that you are one of the most powerful people on Remnant. Surely, yes, she has no doubt that someone like Qrow could best her, but then, he's been a Huntsman – or she supposes she should say a combatant, given he'd started his life out under less-than-ideal circumstances – his whole life.

Amber knows for a fact, however, that she is the strongest girl in Beacon's first year class. That is a given. She can't exactly bring out the Maiden's power, however, and so she'd not been able to prove herself during that inane competition at the start of the year.

Her team leader, Ruby Rosenberg, however, had done just that.

Or, well, if Ruby Rosenberg is her real name, which Amber has some doubts about.

She's skilled. More than skilled, she's good. She's been there when Ozpin and Glynda have discussed the girl's abilities. They call her a prodigy, years ahead of her classmates in terms of skills.

Ozpin even goes so far as to call her an already fully fledged Huntress.

Amber wants to laugh. Ruby's not better than her, she just doesn't have to hide herself away like Amber does.

Or… well, she doesn't have to hide her skills.

It's obvious to Ozpin and Glynda also that Ruby Rosenberg is up to no good.

Or at the very least, that she is an object of suspicion; one to have a close eye kept on at nearly all times.

She knows for a fact that while the school doesn't have any cameras in the Team Rarity dorm, they do have a few listening devices, in case Amber would be attacked by Ruby, and there's a camera on the wall opposite the door to their dorm room, in case Ruby ever decides to try and follow her out after she's left the dorm as well.

It's an invasion of Amber's privacy, obviously, and it's a part of the reason why she's done her best to not stay within the room any longer than she has to. Knowing that every word she says within that room is being listened in on is…

Well, certain things aren't meant for anyone else to hear.

And it agonizes her to know that Roman's words, clearly not meant for anyone outside their team, are being heard and recorded by Ozpin and the other teachers.

Ruby… well, she might not like it, but she understands why they're spying on her. But Roman's just a normal, average Huntsman in training. He's nothing special – if anything, he's weak – and she'd say he's a good guy at heart.

This whole… espionage thing is really beyond what Amber would like to be involved with.

"Enter."

She does just that, stepping into the office of the Headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin. She knows he has to have a first name – or a last name? – but he's never given any indication as to what it is.

So just 'Ozpin' he remains.

"Ah, Amber." He smiles at her like it's a nice surprise to see her, but she has a feeling he'd known she'd been there for a while via a camera of some kind set up outside, or in the elevator. "It's good to see you. What can I help you with?"

She doesn't really want to waste time. It's never been her thing.

"I'd like to spend time with my teammates."

Ozpin's expression is complicated, then. He gives a low hum, even as he sits up in his chair, and places both hands on the desk in front of him.

"I would advise against that."

"I know." Amber answers before Ozpin can get it into his head that she's an idiot. "I understand that Ruby Rosenberg can't be trusted."

"Then…?"

"I am saying that while I don't think she can be trusted, she is not telling me to trust her." Amber states, and Ozpin's brow furrows. "I talked with her just twenty or so minutes ago. I was sat outside in the gardens. She approached me without attempting to attack me, or to do anything else."

Ozpin sighs. "Amber, I believe we have told you not to leave Beacon outside of regular school hours."
"You did." Amber doesn't apologize. She already feels enough like some kind of caged bird. She'd really rather not feel more like one. "I went out anyways. I can't be confined to this building for four years, sir."

"That…" Ozpin sighs. "I suppose you likely can't be. Know that I am only trying to keep you safe, Amber. If she'd utilized her speed semblance, she likely could've killed you before you even realized she was there."

"And then the power would've gone to someone entirely random," Amber shrugs. "Which I don't think is what anyone who is after it would want."

It's a flimsy excuse; Amber would still be dead, and she doesn't think Ozpin only cares about the power. He cares about her as well, but it's… well…

She doesn't know if he cares more about the power than her. Some days, she thinks he does.

"But we talked. She mentioned that she wants the three of us; our team, to hang out more. That she wants us to engage in traditional team bonding. I agreed with her, even past what you'd told me."

Ozpin takes a breath, then. "Why?"

"Roman Torchwick, the third member of our team, is just a boy. A boy whom you've admitted you hold no suspicions about."

"There are reasons one might suspect him, but…" Ozpin nods his head. "He could not fake his lack of skill. I doubt he is in any way a threat. But that does not mean Ms. Rosenberg could not turn him against you given proper time–"

"Headmaster," Amber interrupts, unwilling to listen to such a theorem. "Do you honestly believe this Ruby Rosenberg to be working for her?"

Ozpin stops, and seems to consider it.

"…If the chances of it are even one in a hundred, Amber, I would rather play things safe."

"So, you admit it's unlikely?"

"I will." Ozpin sighs. "We have been listening in on their conversations in the dorm. Ms. Rosenberg sounds and acts, for all intents and purposes, like an average, if gifted, seventeen-year-old Huntress-in-training. I simply worry that such is an act."

"I am willing to take that chance, sir."

Ozpin looks at her, and it's one of those moments where Amber cannot possibly guess what it is he must see. Is he witnessing someone from his past, someone who'd made that same proclamation, and paid for it with their life?

"If you have made up your mind, Amber, then I will not stop you. There would be no point." Ozpin speaks, and he's right; Amber will make this happen even without his support. "But I would advise caution. You may think you know someone… but sometimes the people around you will surprise you in the worst of ways."

"I will keep that in mind, sir."

"I pray that you do, Amber." Ozpin speaks, but his voice is absent, and when he stares at her, he does not seem to see her.

"I pray that you do."

End Chapter 17

Alright, that was chapter 17!

We're finishing out the first part of the story by finally getting Amber to be an actual member of Team RAR. Time will tell on whether or not that works out for her.

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