Disclaimer: See last chapter.

The White Fang

Ruby's hands were resting in front of her, more than anxious to get this done and over with. Whatever it was that Atlas was hoping for, she didn't know.

The day's bouts were easy, on the Weaponsmith's side of things. Oh, they were full of action and adventure, plenty of drama being unveiled, and most of the time Ruby knew the Huntsman and Huntresses were just playing it up for the sake of the Vytal Festival.

There were no egos being really hurt here, and she more often than not caught a bit of snark from the two commentators, who for some reason were still allowed to commentate on the matches and hadn't just been thrown overboard by Goodwitch yet. And the fact that Ozpin was smiling and laughing for a good chunk of it, for at least the Beacon fights, that she knew that nothing was actually wrong.

Although that was that one bit where one person threatened to out the other team about their polyamory. The fact that all four of that other team blushed bright red told Ruby far more than she needed to know. Was that a thing people actually did here?

But no, here she was now. The day was done, and while shopping was still being done on the main grounds of Beacon, she was in another Bullhead heading towards Atlas' main carrier.

She wasn't in trouble, although James Ironwood, standing next to her with his hands very clearly on his pistol, had mentioned it had been a very close thing.

How was she supposed to know that the Adam that she'd made that contract with was with the White Fang? And more than that, how was she supposed to know that those guns she'd made for them were to outfit the White Fang!?

And more to the point, how did Blake not realize it? Ruby knew she'd mentioned it at one point or another, but maybe she'd left out the name. It wouldn't be unlike her to hold confidentiality on even the weirdest of things, just because people could be sensitive like that.

Like that polyamorous team. That was something that Ruby had wished had stayed confidential. Of course, there had been wolf whistles and catcalls, and they had proved that they most definitely did not appreciate being outed like that, so maybe that was for the best...they were still in the tournament after all. The other team? Still in the medbay.

"You're lucky," Ironwood said gravely again. It had been the sixth time he'd repeated it. "If Qrow hadn't actually vouched for you..."

Best of all, or worst of all depending on the point of view, half those guns she'd made? They'd broken due to problems that weren't because of her. Meaning she got fully paid still, half of them didn't work, and so her actual felony of supplying terrorists had gone down to a misdemeanor.

Why there was a limit on felonies and misdemeanor of being a gun runner Ruby didn't know but she was counting her blessings on that particular feature of Vale law.

"You'll have ten to fifteen minutes. Taurus first, then the other one," Ironwood commanded as Ruby felt the bullhead dock with the main craft. Ruby nodded quietly. She knew what they wanted. Honestly, it was what she wanted too.

She wanted to ask why. Why had Adam turned on seemingly everything he'd known for the sole purpose of...something. Why had the White Fang not attacked her the instant they had the chance? Unless they were trying back at the grocery store but she doubted it there because that would speak volumes about their competency.

Ironwood led her, his steel boots clanging terribly loud against the pure metal floors, around a seemingly labyrinth of hallways. Before she could think on it for too long, she saw a few soldiers outside a particular doorway, and they gave a salute as Ironwood approached.

He nodded towards her. "Your turn. They won't talk to us. Ozpin suggested we try you. Otherwise you wouldn't have been up here at all," he said again, his voice grave.

Because it had been Vale law that she'd broken...unknowingly...the only real thing she had was a small fine. Especially because she'd already proven herself to go out and help against both the White Fang and the Grimm, but especially against Torchwick.

It was surprisingly common sense, which she knew from experience did not work when applied to legalities. She wondered how much of that was Ozpin trying to not throw the book at her.

The hallway was long and silent, an ominous air of tension throughout the entire thing. There were no solid bars here, but rather hard light dust bars that separated out the terrorists from each other and the hallway. Each one that had been arrested had a small view of the outside, windows with bars on them. They also had a small private area for going to the bathroom, which Ruby was honestly surprised about. Yang had complained incessantly about the Vale jails.

Except for the first cell. It had no private area, just a small toilet and a bench that doubled as a bed. A young man, wearing his usual outfit surprisingly, was sitting on the bench. There was no sign of the eye patch that she'd seen on him the entire rest of the time, and the large brand of the SDC lay obvious over one of his eyes.

"Rose," Adam Taurus said, his voice loud and in charge. There was a small moment of silence before the other White Fang members started to cheer for her. Wait...cheer?

They were. "Whoo! Ruby Rose!" One of them shouted. "Best damn weaponsmith this side of Atlas!" Another one said. "Didn't give a flying fuck and got away with it!" Another one was yelling.

"Alright calm down, down there!" Adam shouted after a moment. "Let her breathe. Rose. What do you want?"

"I wanted to ask why," Ruby asked quietly, "but I think I got my answers."

"Why what? Why we started on the fight of justice? Why we went down the path we did!? Or why am I stuck here, while the others are down there, probably awaiting the death penalty-" Adam started as Ironwood's voice called out over a loudspeaker.

"Not death penalty. With the exception of security robots, the amount of people you've killed is abnormally low. We're looking into it, and with the SDC brand, we might gain some lenience. Don't waste it," Ironwood's voice rang out.

"Huh. So they are listening in," Adam said quietly. "Wanted to make sure," he finished. He turned to Ruby, both of his hands raised, a sneer on his face. "Well? Which one is it?"

"What happened?"

Ruby wasn't sure which question she meant. What happened to his face, what happened to make him quit, what happened to made him make decisions...

"To make me quit? Nothing. I'm still on. The moment I get out of this, there's going to be trouble."

"What made you fight the Grimm rather than us?" Ruby eventually managed to ask.

"Oh," Adam said softly, his eyes turning down and away from her. "It was...a strike of conscience."

"Ha! Don't lie boss. I know what you were saying," Perry's voice called out. "If one human can do more for the faunus than the entirety of the White Fang, then maybe we are doing the wrong thing!"

"Shut up Perry!" Adam called out instantly.

"Because...of who?"

Adam rolled his eyes. There was a look of disgust on his face, as if he was trying to explain something obvious to a child. "Because of you. What we wanted for the faunus is equality. Equal opportunities, no matter the reason. You do that, without even thinking about it. A good human, I would have thought, was impossible to find. I thought your kind was worthless from the very start. And yet here you stand. You acted not just to protect humans, but to protect faunus as well."

"They're people too! Just like you or me!"

"They aren't people!" Adam roared, jumping off the bed. "They're faunus, and to all humans that makes them different, that makes them worse! That was what I used to think...and I still stand by it. But then I see you. I see your father. I see Ozpin. I see most of Vale.

"I used to see signs," Adam said wistfully after a moment. "No faunus allowed. No animals allowed. We were on the same level as dogs. And yet...I saw them taking down the signs. Ripping them down, whenever someone brought them back out. I saw the good that people were doing here. And I wanted it to change faster."

"They're people too. No matter what you look like on the outside. My dad taught me that. I know my sister believes that too. Most of Beacon-" Ruby started.

Adam shook his head, "I know that now. But I was angry. I still am. And that anger...it gets to you. So we came up with the plan. We'd show the world that we were better than them, better than the Grimm that they were so afraid of."

"By blowing up the central park?"

"That wasn't our design. Not entirely, at least. I knew about the plan, but I'd had a strategy in place to have our soldiers on the outside, shooting the Grimm. Showing that the White Fang wanted better for all. Mostly faunus, certainly, but when you're at the bottom all you can do is go up."

"So what happened?"

"Torchwick. And her. Cinder Fall," Adam spat out. "They hijacked our plan, half of it their plan to begin with. They fooled us into thinking they were going to do it on a certain day, two days afterwards."

Ruby remained silent. There was no talking to Adam out of it, she'd realized. He was going to spill everything. But more than that, she recognized that name; Cinder Fall. It was impossible not to. That timeframe would have also put it right on a Vytal Tournament day if it hadn't been delayed.

Ironwood remained silent, allowing Adam to go on. "But then...Ozpin intervened. The chieftain of Menagerie, Ghira Belladonna. Most of the White Fang are still familiar with him; he started it up as a civil rights movement ages ago. I didn't agree with it back then. I thought we needed to go strong, but I couldn't deny that what he did worked. If he was back in charge...I can't deny he'd be effective."

Adam leaned back. "Torchwick got scared. And Bane over there got frightened by Belladonna, and started the attack early."

A large member of the White Fang, the biggest of the lot, shivered in the cell next to Adam. "He was terrifying! You know that scene in Rabbit from Hell? It was like that, but with a cat. And that's to say nothing of Mrs. Belladonna."

Ruby had never seen the full Rabbit from Hell, seeing as how both her dad and Yang had banned her from watching it after they vetted it for her. However, she'd also located a pirated copy and watched it one night, or at least part of it. That scene was infamous for being scary, in which the rabbit faunus jumps down onto someone's neck and slips inside their body to kill them. Obviously impossible, but to an eight year old Ruby? Terrifying.

Adam rolled his eyes. "No one's blaming you, Bane. I do wish you'd at least think to get my permission first, but I've sparred against the Belladonna's before. They're quite strong."

"I think they just went harder on you because you liked Blake," Bane answered back.

"Let's not talk about her," Adam retorted instantly, his voice full of venom and hatred.

Immediately Ruby was glad that she hadn't mentioned Blake to Adam at some point. She was up in Beacon, and in all rights seemingly happy about it. She had said she was in a relationship with him at one point, before she realized he'd changed.

Had he changed again? Or was that part of him still there, ready to come out at a moment's notice? Based on how he was acting, Ruby suspected it was both of them. He'd changed, but he could easily change back instantly.

"But no, it was what you did, Rose, that made me rethink things. When the attack started, you saved two faunus children. You did it without thinking, without realizing who I was, who they were. You took action instantly, getting both human and faunus, equally, to safety."

Adam looked up towards the ceiling, "And that...made me realize that maybe...just maybe...the White Fang, or rather how we were doing things, were wrong. Some humans were good. And that means they needed protection, to learn how to be you."

Ruby stared at him for a long moment, unsure of how to respond to any of that.

Then Ironwood told her that if she wanted to talk to Perry, she should hurry up. Ruby nodded silently, her thoughts going a mile a minute, before she used Petal Burst to fly down the hallway towards her other friend.

Fallen Truths

The bullhead was shifting from side to side, a sure sign that the pilot had changed from the expert pilot earlier to someone who didn't know Vale's airways nearly as well.

Her talk with Perry had gone well. He mostly knew that there was little anyone could have done, and was sad that he wouldn't be able to come to the arcade anymore.

Although for some reason he also brought up her chocolate chip cookies and saying he really wanted some, which Ruby thought was kind of weird and hoped that wasn't some kind of code thing that she didn't know, because otherwise she'd have to report that to Atlas and she really didn't want to do that because Atlas was weird and far too still and metallic and metal was good but she preferred forests and the forge and maybe she should stop thinking at this point.

She took a single step off the Bullhead, alone this time rather than with Ironwood with her, before her scroll dinged. It hadn't gone off at all up in Atlas territory. Maybe there was some kind of blocker on it? Or maybe...she glanced at the message.

From Professor Ozpin? Ruby raised an eyebrow. Why would Professor Ozpin send her a message, let alone at eight at night when there are more tournament bouts tomorrow? Or was that two days from now? The entire schedule was out of whack in her mind.

Then her scroll dinged again, this time with the reports from Lilac and Jasper. Nothing to report from the ground, except that Zwei was happy on the Beacon grounds, and that Yang had taken him for his walk.

Ruby growled a bit. That meant inevitably she'd have to take him out on another walk. Yang always cut his walks short for some reason.

And now Jasper and Lavender were trying to trade places without specifically asking for it, because the grounds were too much work and the Vale grounds had nothing happen.

She sighed. Working with these two was exhausting. She messaged them back saying to switch places...again...and hopefully they'd be happier. If Jasper wanted boring, that was fine. If Lavender wanted non-boring, that was also fine.

She couldn't be in three places at once. Much as she'd like to, and while Zwei was more than capable of taking care of the place himself, she always wondered if he was stealing a bit off of the top...of the food bowl. There was always a bit less in his container after she walked out and back in...

Right, Ozpin's message. She should check on that too. She'd barely walked fifty feet from where the Bullhead landed when she realized he'd called her into his office. She had no idea what for, and the message was as blank and cordial as they came.

She made sure to head back to her room to grab Crescent Rose first, just because she felt weird if she didn't have its familiar weight on her back. And with her Semblance, it barely took three minutes. If she'd been walking, it would definitely be slower!

The elevator up to Ozpin's office was the same as it always was, although she'd only been up here twice. Once was after the mech incident, and the other was after she'd agreed to be the onsite blacksmith for the Vytal Festival'.

It was a singular large hallway, with an elevator at the back that took up the entirety of the wall. There was a small green couch next to it, as if to have people wait for Ozpin. Ruby had no idea if he used it or not. The elevator dinged happily as it opened the instant she used the button.

The inside almost obnoxiously overdone. Green walls filled her view, with a small bronze panel for the different floors. Most of them were obvious, just the 'G' and the 'O'. There was more room underneath the G, as if it went into the basement.

It soared upwards, bringing her with it. She almost wished there was some view that let her watch Beacon around her as she was sent skyward.

It dinged again to the dark view of Ozpin's office. The clock motif was obvious, as was Ozpin's love for the color green. Giant clockwork parts ticked above her and below the glass underneath her. There was a single desk halfway through, with a chair looked away from the elevator. The backside had a large glass panel, showing the entirety of Beacon outside his view.

The long, tall, white haired man was sitting down in the chair, or at least Ruby thought it was Ozpin. "Hey Professor Ozpin. You wanted to see me?" She asked as she walked in.

Ozpin turned around. She could see the small slight shadows underneath his eyes. "Good evening, Ms. Rose," he said steadily despite it. "I did, yes."

Ruby waited patiently for a moment, while Ozpin said nothing more. The moment stretched painfully long, and for a while Ruby almost thought that Ozpin had fallen asleep, except his eyes were still open. "So...what was it?" She asked.

"My apologies, Ms. Rose. I am simply...debating on how to proceed," Ozpin said quietly. "Perhaps...perhaps a demonstration might be for the best. Walk with me, please?" Ozpin said, his voice surprisingly pleading despite being the headmaster. "And please don't tell your uncle about this, not yet. You can tell him, and ask him his opinion, after I tell you the full story."

Ruby blinked, tilting her head. "Alright...? This is starting to sound suspicious, Professor," she muttered.

Ozpin let out a dark chuckle. "It does, doesn't it?" He murmured, heading back into the elevator. The instant she got on, he tapped a small sequence of buttons on the panel, and sure enough right where she thought there was one to go lower, there was. A small 'B' marked it.

"A basement?"

"Something like that," Ozpin answered. "While we get there, I have a few things I would like to ask you. Please answer honestly. Your uncle Qrow and your father would...well, they wouldn't be particularly endeared by my forthcoming."

"Oh...Kay...?"

"Why do you wish to become a huntress?" Ozpin asked instantly.

"To help people. To kill Grimm. To keep people safe. To be a hero like my mom," Ruby answered just as quick. It was one of the most important questions that she'd ever asked herself; of course she'd have an answer right away.

"What if I said...there were other ways to help?" Ozpin asked. "Such as with your weaponsmithing. You're already of great renown, and yet you wish to become a huntress still?"

"Well...yeah. Don't get someone else to do something that you're not willing to do yourself," Ruby answered. That was one of the 'important lessons' that Yang and her dad had taught down to her.

"I see. I'm at a bit of an impasse, you see. Tell me, Ruby Rose...what is your favorite fairy tale?" Ozpin asked, a small smirk playing on his face. The elevator was still going down. Considering how fast it was to go upwards, Ruby was surprised it took longer than a minute. How far down were they going?

"Where are we going?" She wasn't sure if she was asking about the elevator, or the conversation.

"How much has your father or your uncle mentioned their work for me?" Ozpin asked instead of answering.

Ruby had to think about it for a while before she answered. "Dad hasn't said much, just that he used to do a lot of patrols for you a while ago, but that was before he was hired at Signal. Uncle Qrow hasn't said anything, but we all know he does."

Ozpin blinked for a moment, as if internalizing the fact he'd just made a mistake. "Ah. I hadn't realized Qrow was so secretive. I suppose I should have-"

"He also hasn't told us he can turn into a bird yet, but Yang and I figured it out about eight years ago and we've been giving him bird seed in secret for his birthday since."

"...He always thought that was me or his sister being cheeky," Ozpin grumbled lightly. "Wait, you're aware of that? And that his Semblance is-"

"That his Semblance is bad luck, uncontrollable, although he can ramp it up during a fight, and is most definitely not turning into a bird. His family named him Qrow because the back of his head looked like a crow's back feathers," Ruby supplied instantly. "We aren't dumb."

"Never said you were," Ozpin said instantly, his tone suggesting that his ideal for this conversation had suddenly tripped up. "Have you ever wondered how?"

"There's a bet between me and Yang. Yang says magic, I say he's part bird genetically and figured it out the rest of the way."

"Yang has it," Ozpin dropped.

"Darn it, that means I owe her a month's allowance. Although...I don't have an allowance anymore, so ha! Take that Yang!" Ruby cheered. "No need for my two hundred lien!"

Then the thought percolated through her mind. "Wait, you said magic. Magic's a thing?"

"And that...is the secret I wish to ask of you. The conversation has most definitely not gone the angle that I thought it needed, but it does bring me around to where I needed to go," Ozpin admitted. "Have you heard the story of the Four Sisters?" He asked.

"The story? Yeah, Mom used to read that one a bit, but Yang said she wanted different stories. Since then it's been the Girl Who Fell Through the World, the Man with Two Souls but not the kind that Blake reads, or the Two Brothers. Or the Wise King, I like that one."

Ozpin nodded, his eyes closed deep in thought. The elevator slowed, showing that it was finally reaching its final destination. "In the story, the man gave the four sisters the power of magic in order to assist them in making the world a better place. The four maidens."

"Was one of them hit on by Qrow so they cursed him to be able to turn into a bird? Because if so that's really cool! I want to be a bird, or wait, a wolf! I could do all kinds of things, like growl, talk to Zwei, run in the forest and sniff everything-"

Ozpin chuckled, the doors opening slowly to reveal the dark damp depths right outside it. "No, he wasn't cursed by a Maiden. Rather, he wasn't cursed at all. But the four maidens do exist."

Ruby nodded, silent as she glanced around. The caves this far down were brightly lit by small green lights rising from the floor. The floors themselves were slick, slightly iced over from the cold. There was a dark chill that hummed around.

"However...they are the bygones of an era long gone. Their powers do not grant immortality, or anything like that. Rather, they are transferred upon the death of the wielder."

"Suddenly I get the feeling that I'm missing out on a lot of information."

"Yes. I only have so much time. Normally I'd prefer to take my time, get to really know someone, ensuring that they know what they're walking into. But...Ironwood sent me a message regarding what Adam Taurus said to you, and so my hand has been forced."

"Professor Ozpin?"

"Ruby Rose," Ozpin said instantly, his tone chilly and cold. It made her quiet down, every word puncturing into her head. "I would like to ask you a question. One of the four maidens is down here, on her last breath. We tried to save her, your uncle and I. But we arrived too late, and now we think that her attacker has come back to finish the job, to steal the power away from her, ending her life."

"I wish to ask you, Ruby Rose...if you would take on the burden of becoming the next Fall Maiden," Ozpin said, hitting a small button next to him, lighting up the far wall.

A large brown machine was humming along, with a long haired girl only at most six or seven years older than Ruby herself encased in glass. Her eyes were shut, and she lay in the tube, her chest barely rising.

A small meter was next to her, its screen turning on as soon as Ozpin hit the lights. 'Aura Functionality; 8%'.

...no note needed, really. I'll be honest, I'm terrified of this chapter. This is the turning point, in the fic. By the way, this was planned since the beginning, much like Adam's turning. Updating early since I'll be out over the next few days and can't do it normally.

Until Next Time!