Ruby's hand shook and tears ran down her face as she reached for her dorm's doorknob. Her breath came in deep, shaky breaths. The doorknob made a soft shaking noise as she wrapped her small hand around it. She slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open, taking a step into the room.

[The One Who Knocks]

A/N: So, I'm going to start doing what Breaking Bad did, showing you a bit of the end of a chapter, then showing you everything before that. The A/N should be going just below the end part as well, as well as the brackets you see above this. Should serve as a title sequence of sorts. And I would like to add that Salem doesn't exist in this story, so Cinder's not planning on taking down Beacon or anything like that. Ruby only got in to Beacon early because Roman was still robbing that dust shop on that night. And Ruby was still there.

Ruby sat down in front of Sun once more, causing the monkey faunas to sigh.

"I told you," He said. "I'm not getting involved."

Ruby shook her head, "I'm not asking you to get involved." She told him. "I'm asking if you want to buy."

Sun laughed. "You think I'm going to by Crystal here? From you?"

He laughed again. "That's how you get arrested."

She rolled her eyes and discreetly slid him a small ziplock bag. He quickly took it under his hand, not wanting anyone to see it. He brought his hand closer to his chest and flipped it around, looking at the contents of the bag.

"Holy shit." He said, putting it back down and looking at her. She had a smug grin on her face.

"This is like, clear as hell." He told her.

She sarcastically feigned surprise, "Really?" She asked. "I didn't notice."

"I gotta get in on this." He said.

"What happened to, 'I don't wanna get involved'?" She asked him.

"That's before I saw the product." He told her. "Besides, you need someone to sell don't you?"

She shook her head. "I can do that myself." She began to stand, but stopped when he spoke.

"Yeah," Sun said. "And get arrested within a week."

Ruby sat back down.

"I know the streets," he told her. "You know the chemistry. This could work."

Ruby pursed her lips, considering his offer.

"I don't know."

Sun looked around the cafeteria, his eyes landing at the table Team RWBY regularly sat, now deserted, "You let me in on this, and I don't tell anyone."

Ruby's eyes widened and her face fell into a frown.

"You wouldn't." She said.

He smirked. "I would. In fact, I have Blake on speed dial." He said. He quickly pulled out his scroll. "Why don't we give her a call."

Ruby watched helplessly as he opened pressed the call button next to Blake's name. There were two rings before Ruby stopped him.

"Alright!" She almost shouted, causing her to cough a bit. "Partners. Fifty-fifty."

Sun gave a satisfied smile, but did not remove the scroll from his ear. Ruby's body froze up and she felt as though she was about to cry. She didn't want her team to know about this, so she had told Sun what he wanted to hear. So why was he still calling her?

"Hello?" Ruby faintly heard Blake's voice on the other end of the call, and she made eye contact with Sun.

"Oh," he said. "Is this Blake?"

"Yes."

"I meant to call someone else. Sorry!"

Blake quickly hung up and Ruby sighed in relief, coughing a little.

"Never do that again." She told him.

Sun grinned smugly, "We should probably go somewhere a little more private. To talk business, ya know?"

Ruby nodded, "Like where?"

"Christ," he said, standing. "I never thought I'd say this, but, to the library!"

[Shift]

Ruby and Sun sat across from one another in the empty and quiet library. It was a Friday and there were no upcoming tests, so there wasn't anyone there, giving them all the privacy they needed.

"Alright," Sun said. "I think the best way to do this is probably to try and start with a distributor."

"Then what do I need you for?" Ruby asked.

"You need my connections." Sun said. "With most of these guys, you need connections. They're not about to let some undercover cop into their organization. Ya know what I'm saying?"

Ruby nodded. "So you know a guy?"

Sun tilted his head to the side, shrugging, "Well," he said. "I know a guy who works for a guy."

Ruby leaned back and rolled her eyes.

"Can he get us distribution?" She asked him.

"Hell yeah." Sun told her. "If your shit is half as good as it looks, then it should be no problem getting us in."

[Shift]

Ruby was in her dorm, sitting at her desk and listening to music. Her leg was bouncing up and down with the beat and she tapped her finger against the desk as the same pace.

"Something wrong?" Ruby barely heard Yang's voice with her headphones on, but it was clear enough for her to understand.

Ruby shook her head, "No."

Yang sat at the desk beside Ruby's and looked around the room. Weiss and Blake were both absent from the room, each having their own things going on.

"So," Yang said. "We haven't had much time to talk recently."

Ruby nodded, pausing her music and moving her headphones down to her neck.

"You wanna talk about the cancer, don't you?" Ruby somberly asked.

"Only if you're ready to talk about it." Yang told her.

"What's there to talk about?" Ruby harshly asked.

"I don't know." Yang said. "How you feel about this whole thing? How it affects you?" She paused. "How it affects the team? I mean, we can't keep this from Weiss and Blake forever. They deserve to know."

Ruby glared at her.

"You want me to answer them in that order?" She asked.

"Doesn't matter."

"Alright," Ruby began. "It doesn't matter how I feel. It happened. I'm going to die. That's how it affects me. And it won't affect the team until I'm dead. And my hair should start falling out soon. That and the weekly doctor's appointments I've had. They're smart girls, they'll figure out that we lied to them before we can tell them."

Yang leaned in, "That's a shitty way of finding out your friend's going to die."

"A lot of stuff that's happened recently are the 'shittiest ways' to find out anything!" Ruby said, causing Yang to reel back. Ruby had never cursed before, and had usually called out others for cursing in front of her.

Yang angrily huffed. "Language." She said.

Ruby sighed and rolled her eyes, "Whatever…"

She began to put her headphones back on, but Yang stopped her.

"Hey," she said. "I know you're getting to that age where you hate everyone and everything, and that's coupled with cancer. But, I'm on your side."

Ruby sighed, stood and headed for the door. Yang leapt to her feet and grabbed Ruby's arm, stopping her from leaving.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"Out." Ruby harshly said.

"Out where?"

Ruby shrugged. "Out."

She jerked away from Yang's grip and slipped out the door, leaving the blonde wondering what just happened.

[Shift]

Ruby and Sun sat back down at the library, in the same seats that had the previous afternoon. This time there was much less to talk about.

"So," Sun said. "I talked to my guy, who talked to his boss. He said he's gonna send someone to talk to you. They wanna check you out first. And not in the weird, 'Let's see how hot she is' kinda way, more in the 'Let's make sure she's not a cop' kinda way. Not that they wouldn't think you're hot or anything. I mean, they might, they might not. We don't know that. I, personally, am not attracted to you, but it's not that you're not attractive, it's just that I've got my eye on someone else. Not that you—."

"Sun." Ruby said. "I get the point."

Sun shut his mouth and nodded, "Right."

"Where are we meeting them?" She asked.

"Well," Sun began. "We sure as hell can't meet them here."

"Figured as much." She said. "What about Forever Fall?"

Sun shook his head. "What?!" He asked. "No! You always meet in a public place. So they can't rob you or anything."

Ruby shook her head. "I'm not meeting a bunch of drug dealers in a public place."

"Why not?!"

Ruby gave him a look, "We'll meet them in Forever Fall." She sternly told him.

He sighed. "Fine!"

[Shift]

Ruby softly rubbed her scalp as she rinsed out her hair. Something felt wrong, it was as if the hair was sticking to her hands as she did this. Ruby immediately brought her hands in front of her face. There were large clumps of red and black hair wrapped around her hands and fingers. Ruby sighed as she realized why this was; her hair was falling out.

She quickly turned off the shower, stepped out and began drying herself. Once she was done drying off she put her school uniform on. Then, she turned to the mirror. Her hair was a patchy mess. There were bald spots all over, but it seemed that all that was going to come out today already had.

Realizing she only had one option left, Ruby called out the bathroom door.

"Yang!" She said. "I need you to help me with something!"

Ruby heard the shuffling of feet outside, and the bathroom door opened. Lilac eyes met silver before Yang saw Ruby's hair.

"What happened to your hair?" Yang didn't think much about what she was saying before it came out of her mouth, so Ruby just glared at her.

"I'm not going anywhere like this." The younger girl said.

"And you want me to shave your head?" Yang asked.

Ruby bashfully nodded, handing Yang a razor. The blonde girl stifled a laugh and shook her head.

"That won't do it." She said.

Yang turned around and left the bathroom. Luckily, their other teammates had already left for class, so they could do this without Ruby having to worry about anyone else finding out about her illness.

Yang could hear Ruby coughing as she retrieved something their father had given her, expecting such a situation from the younger girl. The blonde soon returned to the bathroom with an electric razor and a small trash can.

"You know," Yang said, plugging the device into the wall. "This will be pretty hard to hide. Are you sure you don't want me to tell them?"

Ruby nodded.

"Alright then." Yang quickly pressed a button and the razor began to buzz. This sound made Ruby incredibly nervous, as she knew, after this, there was no hiding it.

[Shift]

All eyes were on Ruby and Yang as they walked into Port's class late. Ruby had expected such and was wearing a beanie to hide her distinct lack of hair. It fit loosely, as it belonged to her older sister, who had put her hair up to draw attention away from the younger. And it worked, for the most part. The more observant students still noticed the differences in the way Ruby looked, as well as the way she almost sprinted to her seat. However, most of these students barely knew Ruby and took no concern in it. Even Weiss and Blake were so shocked by Yang's difference in hair style that they failed to notice their leader's.

This strategy managed to work for the rest of the school day, and even all the way until their dinner. Unfortunately, Nora was very observant and immediately asked the younger girl.

"Your hair looks shorter!" She exclaimed.

"No," Ruby immediately looked up from her food, trying not to panic. "I just put it up and I'm wearing a hat on top of it."

"Oh." Nora paused, and looked back down at her food, before looking right back up with a huge smile on her face. "What does it look like?"

Ruby shrugged. "Like I have my hair up." She said.

"Can I see?" Nora politely asked.

Ruby shook her head and looked over at Yang, who pretended not to see her.

"Why not?"

"Because it looks weird."

"Then why do you have it like that?"

"Because my hair looks like crap."

"It can't be that bad."

"It is. Drop it."

Nora winced at Ruby's harsh tone, and everyone stared at the younger girl, the only exception being Yang, who was trying to act as though she was oblivious to Ruby's struggle.

Ruby suddenly stood and began to quickly walk away. Weiss and Blake both shared a look before going after her. It wasn't very long before the managed to catch her, blocking her path down the hallway.

"What is going on with you?" Weiss asked. "You're acting weird."

Ruby stared at them for a second before checking the clock on her scroll.

"We'll talk about it later," she said. "I've got somewhere to be."

Ruby pushed past her teammates, running down the hall until she was out of sight.

[Shift]

As Sun and Ruby made the short trek to Forever Fall, Sun found himself giving Ruby odd looks. Not romantic ones, no. But rather a look that said that he could not believe what he was seeing. The girl was wearing a long, black wig, as well as a pork pie hat and a pair of Ray Bans. To cover the rest of her body, she wore a dark grey V-neck, a black leather jacket and a dark colored pair of jeans.

Sun, however, wore the same thing he wore everyday.

"You realize how freaking shady you look, right?" Sun suddenly asked.

Ruby only gave him a short glance.

"What makes you say that?" She boredly asked.

"The dark colors, the sunglasses, the hat." He said. "And are you wearing a wig?"

Ruby rolled her eyes underneath her sunglasses and looked over at him once again.

"I have a lot of recognizable features that are exclusive to me." She told him.

"Like what?"

"Hmm… I don't know, maybe it's the silver eyes and the red and black hair. And maybe even the red cloak." Ruby sarcastically said.

Sun offered no response, he just sighed and rolled his eyes.

After a few more minutes of silence, Sun suddenly stopped and started looking for something inside his shirt.

"Wait." He said.

Ruby stopped as well and annoyedly turned around, watching as he pulled something from his shirt.

Ruby was shocked to see that it was a handgun. One that she had a hard time recognizing, as there was a leather holster wrapped around the barrel.

"Here." He held the gun out to her, and she just stared at it. Sun shook it a little, "Take it." He told her.

Ruby reluctantly grabbed the weapon and took it out of its holster.

"Is this aura piercing?!" She shrieked.

"Uh, yeah!" Sun said, acting as though it were obvious. "You can probably fit the holster into your waistband."

"I thought this was just a simple deal!" She shouted.

"Well," Sun said. "Yeah. But someone suggested that we meet in the middle of nowhere, so I have to make sure we don't get shot."

"I'm not going to shoot anyone." Ruby told him.

"And you probably won't have to." Sun said.

She just looked at him.

"Look," he said. "No one's gonna blame you if you forge a silver bullet."

"However, if you use one…" Ruby added.

Sun rolled his eyes, "Just hold onto it for now and give it back after this thing is over."

Ruby shakily sighed, checking to make sure the safety was on. It wasn't. She loudly groaned and flipped the safety on, then she put it back into its holster and slid it into her waistband, allowing it to clip onto her belt.

[Shift]

Ruby and Sun waited for a few hours before the distributor's guys showed up. Both of them looked to be in their twenties and current meth users. This made Ruby the slightest bit nervous, but she shrugged it off.

"Who's this?" One asked, pointing to Ruby.

Sun looked over at her, and pointed as well.

"This is the cook, R—"

"Heisenberg." Ruby cut him off.

Sun scoffed.

"RHeisenberg?" The second guy asked.

Ruby shook her head. "Just Heisenberg."

The first guy shook away the conversation, waving off the second.

"Sun," he said. "I thought you said you'd come alone."

"No," Sun said. "I said 'we'd come alone'."

The man just shook his head.

"Maybe if you hadn't brought her, then maybe your lady friend could have lived a little longer."

Ruby suddenly looked over at Sun, a look of terror on her face.

Both of the men quickly drew their weapons and began to shoot at Ruby, who used her semblance to take cover behind the trees. Sun just used his clone semblance to create some cover so he could also get to the trees.

"You might wanna start shooting!" Sun shouted at Ruby as he quickly split his staff into its nunchuck form. The monkey faunas dove out from behind the trees and fired at the men. He managed to hit one, and send him flying into a nearby tree, but the other man managed to hit him in the leg.

Sun cried out in pain as the aura-piercing bullet tore through his leg, and the man slowly approached him, pressing the barrel of the gun against his skull.

The loud gunshot made Ruby jump, regardless of the fact that she had fired a gun many times before. This time was different. The man that was just about to kill Sun fell to the ground, and Ruby dropped the gun, tears flowing down her face as she realized what she had done. No matter how much she may want to, there was no bringing that man back to life. He was dead because she shot him.

The young girl fell to her knees and began heavily sobbing as she thought more and more about her actions.