Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Coco

Ruby wasn't scowling, no matter how much anyone would tell her that she was. Last night's dinner was...not a disaster, but definitely something close to it. Her Dad and Yang decided to have a shouting match, which meant now Ruby was paranoid about Vale police coming down and handing her a cease-and-desist order for noise complaints.

Although Blake was nice. They hit it off surprisingly well when the girl from Menagerie noticed Ruby's book collection. Even offered to let Ruby borrow a few of her own.

So...that was a thing that happened.

She was leaning against the glass counter, waiting for someone to come in. She was supposed to be at the forge, but instead her contact had called her early this morning and canceled, saying that he needed it for a surprise gift for his wife. Which was great and all, but…that left her with nothing to do.

She thought about playing on her scroll a bit, but it was generally considered to be bad practice even if no one was around.

But she was so bored! She needed a chair she could swivel on. Then she'd be less bored for at least a few seconds. She could go make cookies, but that would leave the counter empty, and that would also provide 'bad optics', as Uncle Qrow liked to put it.

Although what did that have to do with what people thought of them? It's not like she looked any different to their eyes.

The door opened gently with a small bell sound, and Ruby lit up instantly. A customer! A person! Something, anything to take her boredom away from this!

"No, Vel, you have to really announce yourself. Like this," another voice said, practically punting the door open and letting the bell really ring.

"I don't think she'd like that, Coco," Velvet's soft voice said. It was hard to see the door from the counter, and Ruby raced over to the side she could see the door from. There was Velvet, her first and so far favorite customer because it was nice working with someone who actually knew something, and there was another girl next to her in mostly a surprisingly fashionable brown.

The weird part was her hat though, seemingly lopsided. The sunglasses were an interesting approach, especially considering she was running an indoor shop. Ruby's eyes went straight to the new girl's waist to see what kind of weapon she had.

A purse. Ruby's eyes narrowed; the girl was obviously a huntress. A purse by itself...wait, wait wait wait wait wait. That was a minigun. Ruby had to stop herself from squeeing; a purse-sized M134 7.62x51mm minigun! The rate of fire on that had to be impressive.

"Oh, hi Ruby! Here for Aneisadora," Velvet waved. "This is Coco, she's my team leader," she introduced. The girl gave no look of recognition, but scowled as she walked up to the counter.

"I don't appreciate anyone fooling my teammate, especially Velvet," Coco growled. Ruby envisioned her glaring underneath the sunglasses, not that Ruby could tell.

"I'm not fooling anyone?" She answered as honestly as she could.

"Coco, I told you, she's fine! She at least knows what Aneisadora needed and helped out with her maintenance last time," Velvet whined.

"I'll be the judge of that," Coco said, still staring straight at Ruby. "So if you're such a weaponsmith, what weapon am I using?" she asked.

Ruby blinked. "A Valean minigun capable of self-folding into a storage purse," she answered instantly.

Coco stood up straighter. "And how do you know it's Valean?"

"Because it's obvious?"

Coco stared. "I mean what gives it away? I designed this thing to look as if it's from Mistral."

Ruby gave it a look over. Now that she was looking for it, she could kind of see it. The small design changes that showed the weapon should be from Mistral, a bit more stylized and more formulative rather than functional.

Vale was notorious for having functional weaponry over pretty weapons. Vacuo was even moreso, with every part of a weapon hiding another way to do some damage. Mistral was more about form. Atlas was the worst at that, with some weapons even being purely decorative.

"It's a good fake, but see here and the exhaust port? Mistral would put a bend in it, leading away from the user. You put your toward the user. Semblance? The storage area is perfect for more ammo, in Mistral it'd be a bit smaller and would wrap around your back."

"Huh. I'll be," Coco said, relaxing a bit. "You did find a real deal, Vel."

"I told you!" Velvet said. "But you never believe me when I say I found something cool."

"Honestly it was because of the price. No one sane could maintain Aneisadora at the price she quoted you," Coco said, flicking her thumb to Ruby. "Seriously, you'd barely break even."

"The worst part is the dust, but I'm having trouble getting the purity Aneisadora needs," Ruby said. "Eighty five purity is not the easiest to find, especially in light dust."

"That was always one of the hardest problems for me," Velvet agreed. She reached behind her for the camera, placing it on the counter gently. Ruby could hear the small parts that made the thing tick.

"How long will you be? She has to have that back by tomorrow," Coco supplied. "First year classes are annoying."

"And you're not even the one that has to take them," Velvet agreed. "Take your time though Ruby."

Ruby had already gotten out her own maintenance kit, stretching it out against the glass counter. Everything she needed to maintain Crescent Rose, and Aneisadora was built on similar principles.

The backing was off almost faster than Ruby could blink, the small flower petals disappearing into the air. Coco was staring at her as Ruby dove into the internal workings, gently tightening up some gears and making others a little loose. "Is that some kind of weapon semblance?" she asked.

"No, it's a speed one," Ruby answered absently. The fourth gear was off by two thirds, which would make the aperture close nearly one sixth second longer than it should. She tightened that up, checking to make sure the dust crystal was still good. Unsurprisingly it was.

"A speed semblance in a weapon shop? Why aren't you at Flare?" Coco asked. "Seriously, you'd be considered the best of the best there."

Velvet looked over the camera. "Third gear is lopsided by two degrees," she advised. Ruby blinked, her train of thought derailed instantly as she put her all into the maintenance. The third gear was off, but by four degrees, not two. Which meant that the entire stand was off.

Which meant the entire stand had to be replaced or tightened. "I was at Signal, for a while. Then...well, I got expelled."

"Expelled? From Signal!? That's possible!?" Coco said. "How!?"

"I don't like to talk about it," Ruby answered. The stand was in good condition, but the screw for it was stripped just a bit. That's what allowed it to be wobbly. They couldn't have that; she had a few extras lying around. It used the same size as Crescent Rose, and...she turned for only a second, reaching into a drawer filled to the brim with various size screws, nuts, bolts, everything a weaponsmith would need for mechashift weapons.

Aneisadora wasn't technically a mechashift, but it was complicated enough to be one. "Seriously, wouldn't that be in the papers? Vel, you read the news. Anything?"

"I'm not going to pry. If Ruby doesn't want to tell, I won't search."

"Darn it bun-bun. Just when I thought you couldn't get any better, you have to pull off the secret friend card," Coco growled.

Ruby double and triple checked her work. She made sure there weren't any flower petals in the casing as she tapped on the gears, making sure they were as solid as they needed to be. Finding everything to be in order, she turned off her Semblance, closing the casing just as fast as she'd opened it up.

"I was expecting this to be a quick trip, but then have to come back tomorrow. Now it's only once, and even quicker than I thought," Coco said bluntly. "You found a real one there Vel."

"I told you. And only for two thousand lien too. Good thing we have that mission lined up for four days from now," Velvet said. She picked up Aneisadora, quietly checking everything herself.

Normally Ruby might've been incensed that she was double checking what Ruby had already triple checked, but honestly, it was her weapon. If anyone knew anything about her, it would be her owner.

She heard a small click, and Velvet grinned as she brought the camera back down. "Sorry, have to test," she answered. She reached back for her wallet.

Coco reached out in front of her. "No, I got this one, Vel," she said, bringing up her own wallet. "You take credit right?"

Ruby nodded, glad that her Dad and Uncle Qrow had made certain to drill her in knowing what the difference was between credit, debit, and cards. "Perfect," Coco drawled. "Now...can you do Gianduja?"

"Coco!" Velvet said.

Ruby blinked, before she smiled. "Sure, put her on the counter!"

Ruby regretted it a moment later when Coco did, in fact, put the minigun slash handbag onto the counter. She thought she'd heard a bit of glass shattering, but fortunately didn't see any damage. "I'll triple your payment if you can tell me how to get more power from the dust rounds."

The black-with-red-tips girl blinked for a moment. "Sure, just give me a few minutes?" she said. Coco's eyebrow visibly raised over the sunglasses.

It was mostly just to make sure she knew what she was doing, but since Coco had issued it as a challenge...she could do it. Just more power though, there's any number of things that could do it. Less pure dust, more pure dust, cleaning out the shafts of the minigun, making sure that the pathways were all cleaned out and clear of any gunk.

"Do you need me to activate it for you?" Coco said, a teasing tone in her voice that went away as Ruby pressed a small button hidden on the inside of the bag. The minigun came out, nearly as long as the glass counter was.

"No, I think I found it," Ruby answered. She made sure to keep the barrels far away from her face as she double checked each barrel to make sure it was unloaded. She checked the back, making sure the loading mechanism was still there.

It didn't look like she ever used the part, which is why it was so dirty. The amount of grease back there was almost disturbing. Ruby took a clean rag to it, wiping off everything.

It was a surprisingly simple weapon. It just had one more aspect to it that Ruby was trying to figure out. "Sixty five purity rounds?" she asked Coco.

"Uh...I use forty five but use my Semblance to make it better. I don't know how much."

"I told you you needed to figure that out. You're a second year Coco," Velvet sighed.

"Yeah well I was busy trying to make sure Fox wasn't trying to cheat in the poker games," Coco answered. "Seriously, he's a mindreader sometimes. Especially because he's blind."

"Hmm...Oh, here, can you use your Semblance on this?" Ruby asked, disappearing for a moment before coming back with a small red dust crystal.

"That's not how my Semblance works."

"Darn. You have to use it?"

"Yeah, I have to use it."

"Alright, it's a ten purity crystal. Go ahead and throw it into the center of the training arena over there. Good time to test the shields!" Ruby grinned, as she hit a small button off to the side. Coco rolled her eyes, grabbing the crystal and doing...something with it in her hand, before she tossed it into the center.

The dust crystal landed once, rolling to the center just as the shields came up, hardlight dust being used to shield the rest of the shop. It was the biggest purchase her Uncle Qrow had made in a long time, setting up some hard light dust projectors that he'd 'gotten for a reasonable deal from a friend'.

Ruby didn't want to know what he'd promised.

The dust exploded, and Ruby ran some calculations in her head. "Looks like you made it a thirty five purity crystal. Which means that Gianduja needs sixty five, and that was a ten, so you should be looking to use forty purity rounds for the base ammunition, sixty five if you don't use your Semblance."

Coco stared at her. "I'll be. Guess I owe you triple then."

Ruby grinned. Who said she wasn't good with customers!?

The White Fang

Ruby stared out the window. The glass counter was far behind her, and her hand trailed down the large front glass. She didn't understand, she was doing so well!

Now there was a small army of people outside, wearing white shirts with red Grimm heads on it, each of them with a few signs that say 'pride for the faunus!' or 'March for rights!'. 'Equality is a right, not a privilege!'

And of course they had to be doing this right outside her store on the same day that she was expecting people to come in. Granted, she was expecting people to come in every day, but this time she was actually expecting expecting!

What did they even want anyways? She could hear shouting from down the street as a few other shop owners came out and yelled at the picketers for disturbing the peace. Ruby couldn't blame them.

And it wasn't as if all of these people were obviously faunus either. Some of them didn't have the usual attributes that commonly went to faunus.

Ruby opened the door slowly, letting the dozens of voices calling out for something hit her as hard as the SDC's dust selling policy did. Some were from shopkeepers, impossible to make out, and others were from the picketers, also impossible to make out. A cacophony of sound that if anything made her want to withdraw and head under the sheets in her bed.

Instead she turned to the nearest picketer, a small girl with a large squirrel tail. That would have to be uncomfortable, Ruby imagined. "What's going on?"

The girl was probably only eight, maybe nine. "We're fighting for our fights!" she yelled back. Ruby winced.

"Rights, not fights," another woman, much older than her, with squirrel...ears? gently corrected her. "We're trying to make sure we have equal rights for all of our kind."

"I...thought you did already?" Ruby asked. "I mean, wasn't that what the White Fang was doing before they turned to hurting people?"

"They only had to do that because people like you wouldn't sell to us!"

Ruby tilted her head. She was confused now, especially. She...didn't care? She just needed the money? She wasn't about to kick anyone out, especially for something as silly as being a faunus. "I...don't think I ever did that?"

The woman railed on her. "It's because of people like you! You 'don't think you did', but you don't know!?" The words must've been heard by the other picketers, somehow, and they started to move around Ruby.

"Fight for rights! Fight for rights!" the chant came up suddenly, Ruby wasn't sure by who. They weren't just screaming or yelling at her, but into the air, all around her.

"Oi! Shut up you lot! None of us care!" A bookstore owner from down near the end yelled at them, his voice somehow drowning out everyone's.

The picketers blinked before they finally realized that everyone else was calming down too. "Seriously, all of us are just trying to make do, and I haven't heard of anyone here turning anyone away. There aren't any signs in any of the shops. It's against the law here in Vale for anything blatant. Move to the more mafia controlled areas if you really want to fight something. Maybe then the police would give a damn."

It was an older gentleman, now that Ruby could actually see through the sea of people, with graying hair that went around most of his face. He stood underneath 'Tukson's Book Shop'.

The picketers didn't disperse so much as gently put down their signs and slowly walked down the main street. "You okay there lass?" the man said as he walked towards her. "You need some coffee or cocoa?"

"N-no. I'm fine," Ruby whispered. She wasn't really, but there was no way she was going to tell anyone that.

"Thanks Tukson!" one of the other store owners called out. "It's always a pain when they start getting together and screaming their lungs out."

"Well maybe you should actually obey the damned law White!" Tukson yelled back. There was no heat in it though.

"I do! I don't turn 'em away, I don't upcharge 'em, I don't scowl at 'em, I just get pissed when I'm blitzed!"

Ruby turned and headed back into her own store, hearing the bell tinkle after her. A moment later it rang again as Tukson followed her in. "Seriously, are you alright? It's not pretty to be in the middle of a demonstration like you were."

"I just don't know what they were angry about."

"How much do you know about faunus and what they face?" Tukson asked. "This isn't an attack on your education, but you seem fairly young and new. It's not something they teach in most schools. Where are you from?"

"Patch. They didn't teach much about faunus over there," Ruby answered. Especially not in Signal. Although even if they did, she was a bit busy coming up with designs for Crescent Rose, so she'd probably not be paying attention anyways.

"That would do it. Patch is small enough for it to not matter I suppose. Faunus are...not well liked, in case you couldn't tell."

"I know that. I don't see why though. They're just like any of the rest of us!"

"Everyone knows that, but not everyone accepts it. People want to go through any differences they can to elevate themselves. To make themselves feel better about themselves."

"That's silly."

"I agree. But it's what they go through. I've seen a couple of faunus come through your shop; next time they do, ask them what they're experiences are like. And don't be afraid to call me the next time those White Fang supporters come out of the woodwork."

"But why-"

"That's the question though, isn't it? Why do they go through it? There's not one simple answer. Atlas and the SDC made sure of it, and it didn't help with the faunus war, although that was long before your time. Were your parents soldiers?"

"They were huntsmen."

"Ah, best of all worlds, hunters. More level-headed than most, but that doesn't stop a few bad seeds from going in."

"Why are there even still White Fang supporters? Aren't they just a terrorist group now?"

"They didn't used to be. Some people preferred the more peaceful protests they used to have. Back when old Ghira Belladonna was leading them. I used to march in those too, you know? They made some real change, but they then stalled out."

Ruby leaned over the counter, eager to hear more. "How so?"

"They changed the laws for them. Back in Atlas, it was common to be able to pay faunus less, or more hours. Common to abuse them, break them, because Atlas didn't see them as people. The White Fang, the original, changed that. Atlas was the hardest one, but that's where the White Fang started. After that, the other areas fell in line. Mistral, Vale, Vacuo...although Vacuo was already relatively racism-free. Something about the harsh desert taking everyone to work together, and they didn't have no time for stupid shit. Their words."

"So what made them turn to terrorism? Would their leader really want to do that? Because it sounded like what they were doing was working, just...slowly."

Tukson nodded. "It was working. But now they faced the worst part. They could change the laws, but now they needed to change the minds. And that...there was a change of leadership. Belladonna stepped down, Khan stepped up, and I got out."

"You used to be a part of the White Fang?"

"It's not a secret. The VPD have me well monitored, and it was before they turned to terrorism anyways. It's the whole point behind the name; White Fang. As in untouched, unbloodied. The new one would, if anything, be called the Red Fang. It's a different movement now, not what I signed up for."

Ruby nodded slowly. "So those people outside were mad that people haven't been getting the faunus equal rights, despite the laws that say so?"

Tukson nodded. "That's about right. Atlas especially is notorious for it, although I hear the newest General is pretty strict about following the newer laws."

"How can we help?" Ruby asked instantly. "How can we help to change people's minds?"

Tukson stared at her. "It's not an easy thing, to change a mind," he looked away wistfully towards the front, "You've just gotta keep at it. Keep showing them their wrong, but don't stuff it down their heads. People don't like it when they're wrong. Instead, you have to teach them. Teach them one thing is wrong. And then another. Teach their kids the right way, to be open-minded."

"That sounds exhausting."

"It is," Tukson said, "But it's the only way to make any real headway now. It's why I figure the current White Fang is doing what they are. They don't know how, but they want change now. Regardless of who they hurt."

The bell jingled again as this time a blue clothed police officer stepped in quietly. "Tukson? White told me I could find you here," she said quietly. "This isn't your shop, though."

Tukson shook his head. "No, it's this lady's. I was just going on about the better times."

The officer stared at Ruby, confusion evident on her face. "Rose? I thought you went back to Patch," she asked.

"I wanted to, but the mayor was being a punk and didn't want let me in. And Professor Ozpin couldn't let me into Beacon-"

"And so you're here. And either running a shop or getting a job. Impressive either way. Come on Tukson, we just need a few words. Nothing harmful."

"You can have them here," Ruby offered. "I don't mind, and I'm not likely to get any more customers after the demonstration outside."

"Nah, I shouldn't take any more of your time," Tukson said. "And my books need me more than ever, now," he grinned. "Some Beacon girl came down and ran through my stock of that series you like so much, Officer Raine."

For some reason, the officer blushed furiously. "Ye-yeah, let's go back to your bookstore. Nice to see you're doing well, Rose," she said, almost rushing out the door, followed by a laughing Tukson.

Ruby watched them go, and she sighed a moment later. She wasn't lying before, there was little chance of anyone coming in after what happened outside.

Idly she grabbed her scroll and started to look up some of the names that Tukson was mentioning. The information was easy to find. On a random search she found Ghira Belladonna's name, and then she somehow found her way through him to a variety of topics she wouldn't know about.

Although that stopped when she found a name. "He has a daughter..." Ruby said softly, clicking the link. She stared at the picture for a long moment. "That explains a lot," she said aloud. "Though I wonder why she doesn't at least change her name? Seems pretty obvious to me."

The bathroom door opened softly, and Zwei walked out with his head held high. Ruby's nose furrowed immediately. "Zwei! Were you in there the entire time!?" she shrieked. The corgi tilted his head as Ruby rushed off to find the cleaning products.

One of the things I dislike about RWBY is how quick they are to paint the White Fang as 'always wrong'. I think the one we're shown is, but there was more history to it even in Vol 1. So I hope to show a few things about it.

Racism is, however, a very complicated subject and a very sensitive one even in today's society, so I hope to portray it with the same gravitas that it deserves while still maintaining the 'humor' genre.

Until Next Time!