Warnings for Pollination, violence and plot twists. Be very afraid.

Chapter 1 – The first step

Ruby couldn't recall ever having been more tired as she walked along the courtyard outside of Beacon. She'd barely slept the night before their excursion to Mt Glenn and might have had an hour of rest before everything went crazy. Now that the adrenaline had faded, she was barely able to put one foot in front of the other and keep her eyes open at the same time.

Yang didn't look like she was in any better shape – but she sidled up and slung an arm around Ruby's shoulders all the same, offering what little support she could. Ordinarily, her skin was just a little bit warmer than most people's – something to do with her semblance – but now she was cold and clammy.

Her Aura really must've taken a battering for that to happen.

Weiss was too proud to ask for help, of course - she was kinda silly like that – and walked with her back ramrod straight, her posture as perfect as always. She glared at Blake the first time the faunus steadied her when she stumbled. Blake made sure that the next time looked like an accident and Weiss didn't complain.

Ruby's bed beckoned her, with its soft sheets and plushy pillows, but she resisted its siren call. It was time to do the leader thing.

"Sooo," she said, slipping out from under Yang's arm to stand before her team. "We should all get cleaned up and put all of our scrolls on the floor before going to bed."

Judging by their expressions, something had gone wrong somewhere. Ruby backtracked until she found where things had gotten confusing.

"Oh – so we set our scrolls on alarm and put them in on the floor so we can't just reach out and shut em' down, see? We've still got classes and debrief and we don't wanna completely ruin our sleeping pattern, you know how grumpy you get, Yang."

She felt a little light-headed and remembered that breathing was a good thing to do.

"So… maybe two-three hours?"

Yang grumbled something under her breath and Weiss gave her a look that would have withered small plants, but they all filed into the bathroom.

Each team had its own bathroom adjacent to their dormitory, a room almost as big as their living quarters, with one stall available for each member over by the far corner, and two small rooms for toilets.

Each shower stall had a drape to offer as much privacy as one wanted, with a slit into the wall to put razors, shampoo, towels and whatever else one might want to bring.

After several months together things should've gotten less awkward, not more – and it seemed like it had. Just not for Ruby.

She kept her eyes firmly focused on the white porcelain tiles as she pulled off her boots – but even with such precautions, there wasn't anything she could do about noticing how pretty Weiss' calves were, slender but with muscle playing underneath soft, smooth skin.

Ruby's leggings were torn and ragged, far beyond any hopes of repair and she threw them into the trash. The rest of her stuff was fortunately mostly fine and Ruby intentionally dawdled so that the rest of them were already in the showers by the time she headed over there.

"You okay, Rubes?"

Ruby stepped into her own stall and turned the knobs until the water pouring down over her was just below scalding.

"Mm-hmm," she confirmed as the cocoon of warmth enveloping her added to the bone-deep sensation of weariness. "Jus' tired."

She looked over at her sister but the mix of jealousy and admiration for her beauty that usually struck her was effectively smothered when she saw the nasty bruises marring her skin.

"Am I okay?" she asked in a shrill voice, pointing. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing." Though her tone of voice was light, she wouldn't meet Ruby's eyes. Yang Xiao Long was and had always been a crappy liar.

Ruby considered pushing, but decided it could wait until after they'd slept and when they weren't quite as naked.

It took almost half an hour to get rid of the dust and grime out of her hair and by the time Ruby was done with that, she realized she was alone in the bathroom.

She wrapped herself up in towels and headed back into the dorm. Three scrolls lay on the ground and her teammates were already passed out in their beds. Ruby smiled as she dug out an overlong t-shirt she'd stolen off Yang, pulled it on, and climbed up to her own bed.

She'd barely gotten her head down on the pillow before sleep claimed her.

About a minute later, she woke up to the sound of blaring alarms. She blinked open bleary eyes and slowly sat up, waiting for everything to stop spinning. Across the room there was a crash, followed by Yang swearing sulfurously. She was joined by Weiss a few moments later, though her vocabulary was… more selective.

Promising herself an early evening and a large stack of pancakes with her coffee, Ruby managed to drag herself out of bed.

None of her teammates looked to be in better shape than she felt like, but they dutifully stumbled out of their own bunks to shut down their individual alarms.

"We've got to report to Ozpin in an hour," Ruby told them once she'd consulted her own scroll. "Uh – Sooo… Coffee?"

"Oh yes."

"Hell yeah."

"That'd be nice."

They got dressed in silenced and trudged their way down to the dining hall. Beacon had lunch hour between 11.00 and 13.00 and the students were encouraged to adhere to that schedule. Maybe Ozpin had told them to make an exception because it was 14.13 according to Ruby's scroll and things were still running.

A good thing, too, because she felt that both Yang and Weiss were liable to have psychotic murderous breakdowns if they didn't get their coffee soon.

They got a few stray glances cast their way – more than usual – and it wasn't until they were heading out of the hall again and ran into team CRDL and all four of them came to a dead halt that Ruby's brain caught up and connected the dots.

Blake wasn't wearing the bow anymore and her adorably cute kitty ears were showing and Ruby really just wanted to reach out and pet them. She knew she shouldn't, though, because that had to be all kinds of racist, and was she a bad person for even thinking about it, or just weird?

Cardin's eyes lingered on the eyes for a couple of seconds, then drifted over to Weiss. His smirk made Ruby feel uneasy and Blake had gone completely rigid.

Crap. Blake had forgotten to put her bow on… And nobody had even seemed to notice up until now.

"I wonder what your father's going to say when he finds out you've got a mongrel on your team."

Weiss' tone was pleasant on the surface, but it still made Ruby cringe as sure as the sound of nails drawn along a chalkboard.

"My father and the Schnee Dust Company value their good relationship with the faunus community, the same way I do."

Cardin laughed and his little friends laughed along with him.

"Really?" He asked with obvious distaste. "You know her kind can't be trusted. It doesn't matter how docile they act. Deep down, they're all animals."

He shook his head and Ruby sneaked a guilty glance at her teammates. Yang looked somewhere in between shouting profanity at Cardin's back and trying to lighten the mood with a joke, but wasn't doing either. Blake was still holding herself carefully still and Weiss was trembling with suppressed rage.

"I'm sorry," Ruby mumbled, looking down at her boots. They really needed to be cleaned. "I should've… Done something."

"It's fine," Weiss said.

"But I'm your team leader. I'm supposed to-"

"I said it's fine, Ruby," Weiss snapped. The words were barely past her lips before she grimaced and deflated visibly, sighing tiredly as she shook her head.

She didn't actually apologize, but her expression softened and she managed a gentle smile, which was good enough. Some things didn't need to be said. Others did.

Ruby walked up to Blake.

"I knew this would happen sooner or later," Blake said quietly and without looking up. "I thought I'd be ready by the time it did, but…"

She shrugged and Ruby felt even more shame piled onto her shoulders. She should've protected her teammate and told that big idiot Cardin to go… go do something somewhere else!

Possibly using swear words. Definitely. Next time, there would be swear words.

For now, though… Ruby didn't have any brilliant solution for the problem, so she did what she would've done with Yang, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around Blake in a hug.

The other girl stood there, stiff as a board, and Ruby was considering backing off when she finally felt Blake slowly begin to relax. Her arms moved up around Ruby's shoulders, one hand tangling in her hair and pressing her cheek gently against her front.

The faunus was tall enough that when she lifted her chin just a little bit, Ruby's head fit in perfectly under it, which was just awesome.

They stayed like that for a while and Ruby idly considered going to sleep right there. It was nice and comfy and Blake smelled nice. She didn't have any perfume on – she never really did – but her hair smelled citrusy from her shampoo.

Weiss appeared at Blake's side, a serious expression on her face.

"You're my teammate," she said, her voice carrying a steely edge. "My father's or anyone else's… Opinions aren't going to change that. I… I trust you."

Ruby slowly let go of Blake and stepped back to see her smiling tentatively.

"Thank you, Weiss."

Weiss tried really hard to look aloof. Her cheeks slowly coloured, which kinda ruined her attempt. For all of that, her voice remained prim. It was sorta cute.

"You're welcome."

"Uh guys?" Yang interjected. "Didn't we kinda have a meeting to go to?"

Ruby glanced down at her scroll. Crap crap crap, Ozpin was going to be pissed.

Ruby's knuckles had barely grazed the polished wooden door outside of Ozpin's office when his voice rang from inside.

"Come on in."

She felt Yang's shoulder brush up against hers, a warm solid presence at her side, and fought down her nerves as she pushed the door open.

Ozpin's office was a strange place, placed as it was in a large clock tower, with large gears smoothly turning overhead.

The headmaster of Beacon sat behind his desk with a cup of coffee in one hand and that strange cane he carried with him in the other. Ruby knew it was his weapon, but she didn't actually have any idea what it looked like when it was active. She made a mental note to ask some other time.

Professor Oobleck stood behind him and a little to his left. He'd had time to shower and change clothes, but clearly hadn't rested.

"I take it your mission was successful, then?" Ozpin asked mildly. "Professor Oobleck has briefed me already, but I would like to hear the events from your perspective, too."

Everybody was silent and it took a moment before Ruby realized they expected her to do the talking.

"Uh – so we found the White Fang. I guess you already know that, but they were planning something with the trains and we sorta crashed the party and then, well…"

She issued vaguely out the window. They couldn't actually see the aftermath of the crash and the subsequent battle, but it was probably still all there. Ozpin nodded.

"Roman Torchwick was apprehended in the wake of the battle, as were several other members of the White Fang. The police are no doubt dealing with them as we speak. Many others did not survive the grimm. Is there anyone unaccounted for?"

"Not that I saw," Ruby said, thinking out loud. "I was up top on the train with Pro- Doctor Oobleck."

She looked sideways to her team.

"I believe I fought some captain of theirs with a chainsaw, but he wore a mask," Weiss shrugged her shoulders daintily. "I do not know who he was but he seemed very eager to kill me."

Ozpin's gaze fell on Blake next.

"Torchwick," she said stiffly.

Their headmaster nodded, then turned to Yang. The blonde shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"There was that weird chick with the pink and brown eyes. Kinda skinny and tiny, even shorter than Ruby or Weiss." Ruby glared at her and Weiss bit back a retort when she caught Ozpin's smile. "She fought with a parasol that she'd hidden a sword in and-"

There was a buzzing sound from Ozpin's scroll where it lay on his desk and his eyes glided down towards it, widening as he read. He held up a finger for silence and the gesture was imperious enough that Yang shut up immediately. Something not even their father had managed.

For a moment, Ozpin was completely absorbed by whatever message he'd received, eyebrows furrowing with concern. He showed the message to Oobleck and they had a brief whispered conversation about seagulls that Ruby assumed to be code before he put the scroll back on his desk.

"Apologies, ladies," he said, making a steeple of his fingers and preparing to once more be a good listener. "Please go on."

It took Yang a second or two to get started again.

"She didn't talk. Like – at all - not even when we fought."

"I see…" Ozpin considered her statement for a moment. "Very well, then. Unless there's something else that you'd like to add, I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut out meeting short."

He gave his scroll a rueful look while he waited to see if they had something to add. Nobody did.

"Before you go, I would like you to know that as your headmaster and as a huntsman, I am proud of what you did. Many lives were saved thanks to your bravery. Go rest. You've earned it."

There was genuine warmth in his words and Ruby felt her cheeks heat up. Rest sounded awesome.

"Thank you, sir." She rose and her team followed suit. "Just doing our job."

Ozpin's grin made him look a lot younger.

"And I'm glad you chose to discard the bow, miss Belladonna."

Blake's ears twitched - and oh goodness is was sooo cute - and she looked down at her shoes.

"Yeah," Yang said. "Guess the cat's out of the bag on that one? Eh? Eh?"

Ozpin could be heard chuckling as they left.

They eventually found themselves back in their room, slouched over in their beds. None of had been motivated enough to climb to the top bunks, which left Blake and Weiss sitting on one of the beds, both of them reading and at a respectable distance from one another.

It was still a big step for them.

In contrast, Ruby lay with her head in Yang's lap, lazily flipping through a weapon's magazine while her sister ran her nails along her scalp. Generally, Yang didn't have the patience to sit still and spoil her for very long, but she was apparently too tired now to run off. It was pure heaven. If Ruby had been a cat, she would've been purring.

"Blake, can you purr?"

The question left her mouth so suddenly that for a moment, Ruby was looking to see who had been silly enough to ask. Realization followed, accompanied by a healthy dose of dread. Ruby's cheeks turned red as the rest of her team just stared at her.

Under different circumstances it probably would have been fun to see that look of utter surprise on Weiss' face. As it was, Ruby desperately wished she could sink through Yang's lap, through the cushy bed and the floor and onwards until she was somewhere dark and out of sight.

Blake just rolled her eyes and returned to her book. The corner of her mouth twitched a little, though, so Ruby decided to postpone her plans of her future life as an exile in the Emerald Forest.

They had a long weekend, what with their excursion to the field being cut short, and there being no classes planned to fill the gap left. All things considered, that was probably for the best. They had rest to catch up on.

Weiss, the thoughtful slave driver that she was, decided they might as well get crackin' on their homework, now that they'd been blessed with extra time to do it. (Okay, so maybe she didn't say it quite like that, but...)

Before any of them knew it, it was Monday morning and they had about an hour until history class with Oobleck. They armed themselves with a cup of coffee each and settled at the far back.

Ruby leant her head down to rest on Weiss' shoulder and was promptly rewarded with a sharp elbow to the ribs.

"Meanie," she accused, pouting. The heiress was, unfortunately, completely immune to the expression. Yang had demanded lessons.

"Pay attention," Weiss snapped back under her breath as Oobleck began to dash back and forth across the classroom.

Ruby scowled at her for as long as she could manage, about three seconds, then looked forward sipping at her coffee and trying to pay attention.

"According to the stories, the Grimm descended, or were created by beings referred to as The Old One, which were said to have-"

Whatever they were said to have done faded to background noise as Ruby looked to her right instead, finding Blake doodling in a notebook and Yang already staring into space.

She leaned a little closer to the faunus girl and rested her cheek against her shoulder. Blake looked sideways at her and rolled her eyes, but for all of that, shifted closer and slouched just a little to provide a more comfortable position.

With a contented sound, Ruby let her eyes drift half-shut while Oobleck obliviously kept on lecturing.

"Now, these stories are spread all throughout remnant and seemed rather popular a few thousand years ago, but modern historians-"

Ruby yawned and snuggled up against Blake's neck. The older girl rested her cheek against Ruby's hair, draping her free left arm around her shoulders while she kept on taking notes with her right.

Whatever historic anecdotes Oobleck had meant to impart that day were lost on Ruby.

Glynda Goodwitch's stern emerald gaze swept over the students of her class with the intensity a descending eagle would pay a possum. Below the dias, Nora was helping Ren off the stage, having handed him a sound beating. They both seemed pretty chipper about it all, though.

"Do we have any more volunteers?"

Ruby was on her feet in a burst of motion and a rush of rose petals, bouncing on her heels with her hand up.

"Me! Me!"

"Miss Rose." Goodwitch pinched the bridge of her nose, momentarily letting her eyes drift shut. Her next words were tinged with a sigh. "Very well – Let's see who still hasn't fought-"

"I want to challenge Cardin Winchester to a duel to the de- Uhm - to a duel!"

More annoyance flickered across Goodwitch's face at the interruption, but she waved a hand in a permissive gesture.

"Mr Winchester?" She inquired.

Ruby thought she was a brief flash of fear in Cardin's eyes and she grinned at him. The big jerk-face was going to get his now. The big brute caught her looking and his eyes narrowed as the fear was drowned out by anger.

He rose out of his seat, seized the huge mace he toted, and proclaimed loudly:

"I accept the challenge."

They squared off fifteen feet apart to the sound of their teammates loudly cheering them on. Team JNPR pitched in on their side and even Velvet gave her the thumbs up.

Her heart was speeding up, sending adrenaline flowing through her system and Ruby found herself grinning. She pulled out crescent rose, keeping it in its compact rifle form and held it along her leg, pointed at the ground. Cardin had his mace resting on his broad shoulder and stared right at her.

"Big scythe for a kid, isn't it?"

Goodwitch was already stepping back and generally didn't get in the way of some trash talking before fights. As far as she was concerned, psychological warfare was fair game.

Ruby ignored the jibe. She'd show him all her baby could do, but she wasn't going to let the jerk get to her. He was a big guy, strong, and even if Pyrrha had handled him easily enough, that didn't mean he should be underestimated.

"Are you ready?" Ruby nodded without taking her Cardin.

"Ready," Cardin confirmed.

"Proceed."

Ruby guessed Cardin expected her to charge at him because of his oh-so-clever taunts, or at least hoped for it, so she did just that, dashing forward in a flurry of rose petals and whirling steel.

She could see the big oaf smirk at her, thinking she'd fallen for his trap, and immediately dug her heels in. Rubber soles screeched on the floor as she slowed down two feet short of Cardin, just outside of the reach of his mace, and dashed left.

She felt her lips stretch into a wild smile.

She'd meant to go for a single, devastating swing into Cardin's unguarded flank, but he recovered too quickly. Ruby adapted smoothly, retracting Crescent Rose into its compact rifle form and pulling the trigger.

Her baby roared and two bullets slammed into Cardin's gut like sledgehammers. He bore the blows and managed to swing in her direction, but she was already rolling back over one shoulder, carried by her rifle's recoil.

Cardin pressed her, whipping his mace through the air and deflected the bullets coming his way.

Ruby's heart pounded and she grinned with exhilaration as she met him head-on. She fired a bullet into Cardin's knee and pirouetted a foot side-ways to dodge his unbalanced strike, unfolding crescent rose as she did and slammed its blade into his back with all of its considerable striking power.

Cardin grunted and managed to turn his fall into a clumsy roll, coming to his feet with a wild sweep of his mace at the level of Ruby's waist. His eyes widened when he realized Ruby hadn't moved in on him and his strike caught nothing but empty air.

Ruby stuck her tongue out at him, put another two bullets into his center mass and walked to the center of the room, intentionally turning her back on him.

Cardin didn't have any ranged weaponry, which meant he only had one choice and Ruby waited patiently, waving up towards the stands and her team. She could hear his harsh breathing and the thump of his boots on the floor. It didn't hurt that she'd made Crescent Rose all pretty, leaving its blade shining like a mirror.

When Cardin was with a few feet from her Ruby sunk down into a crouch and put a single bullet into the leg Cardin's entire weight rested on. He stumbled and Ruby helped introduce his stupid face with the hard arena floor with a kick at his legs as he went by.

Jerk or not, his aura could take a lot of punishment. He got back up, snarled something at her, and came again, eyes wide with fury. It was almost unfair that was just the way Ruby wanted it. She wanted to embarrass him so badly that he'd never even think to look towards Blake or her team ever again.

Ruby let him try to hit her, letting each blow pass by as nothing but a whooshing sounds of displaced air. She waited for her moment and it didn't take long until he left and opening.

Crescent Rose crashed into his exposed side. She was just about to pull back and tell him to suck it, when his arm clamped down, pinning her weapon to his body.

She jerked at it purely on instinct and by the time she'd realized her mistake, it was already too late. A large, meaty fist crashed into her jaw with enough force that she fell backwards and only barely kept hold of Crescent Rose in one hand.

A sweeping kick took her legs out from under her and she hit her ass on the floor with a whimper of pain, still clutching on to her weapon. She rolled out of the way of the heavy stomp of a plated boot, and grabbed onto the base of the scythe.

Cardin struck her over and over and she tried to take the blows on her arms rather than her head, the way Yang had shown her.

She pulled at the weapon again it slipped out of Cardin's grip, but he caught it again with both hands just below the blade. He was stronger than she was... But not smarter.

Crescent Rose roared as Ruby held down the trigger and bullet after bullet slammed into Cardin's gut until the alarm overhead blared as his aura went down into the red, signalling the end of the match.

Applauds and cheers began to sound from the stands and Ruby gave a little bow to the audience, heart soaring with the triumph of her victory. Yang looked so proud and even Weiss was joining in.

"That's the match," Goodwitch concluded, eyeing ten feet furrow in the stone. "Well done, miss Rose."

Ruby beamed at Cardin, whose hands were going white at how hard they were clenched.

"Not so tough when the little girls fight back, are you?" She hissed at him under her breath, then remembered and added. "Bitch."

She turned over to Goodwitch for the evaluation.

There was a flash of red before Ruby's eyes followed by the sensation of falling, another impact and a disoriented haze. Warmth trickled down from her hair and over her face, tasting coppery on her tongue as some of it trickled past her lips.

For a few seconds, she didn't know where she was or how she'd gotten there. Then she saw Cardin on the other side of the arena floor. It took her brain a few seconds longer than it should to muddle through the details, but it got there eventually. He'd hit her. From behind. Way after they'd been done with the fighting.

She got her arms under her body and pushed, trying to get to her feet but the pain in her skull spiked and her stomach turned. For several long seconds it took all of her concentration to avoid throwing up all over herself. The room was deadly quiet, enough so that Ruby could hear her heart pounding with an accompanying stab of pain resonating through her skull each time.

A harsh, vicious snarl rang through the classroom and fiery angel descended the dias, landed smoothly in a crouch on the floor and charged Cardin. She was beautiful, scarlet eyes burning with righteous fury and fire trickling down her limbs.

It wasn't until Weiss and Blake leapt down in hot pursuit that Ruby realized that the angel was Yang.

They were both quicker than Yang and caught up after a few yards, each of them grabbing one of Yang's arms. There was a sizzling sound, like bacon hitting a hot skillet, and Weiss fell back with a yelp.

Blake did not. She held on, face set in grim determination, even as she burned, even as Yang fought viciously to free herself, bucking, screaming and kicking, she held on. Yang resorted to fighting dirty and stomped her foot onto her teammate's with enough force that bones cracked audibly.

Blake gasped and her grip loosened enough that Yang could tear one wrist free and slam her elbow into the faunus' solar plexus. While Blake was desperately trying to draw breath, Yang wrenched her other arm free and stalked forward.

Ruby tried to get up – to stop her – to do something, but she barely got her legs under her before they collapsed. She tried to use her semblance and a spike was thrust through her eye-socket. Well, not really, but it sure felt like it as the classroom dimmed before her eyes.

She fought against that darkness, clawing and fighting her way back until she could see her sister again. Without any other options offered, she crawled, inch by agonizing inch.

She had to make it. She had to.

Yang got to within six or seven feet of Cardin before Goodwitch stepped between the two. Her riding crop cleared its holster and thick iron chains shot out of floor, their attached manacles striking her sister's wrists like striking serpents and locking about them with an audible clack.

Ruby's vision was going hazy as the darkness pulled at her, but she took solace in the fact that she wasn't far away now. Yang fought to get free, tearing and jerking at the chains, the muscles of her arms taut with the effort. Her teeth were gritted against the pain and her wrists were bleeding where the unforgiving bonds cut into them, but she still didn't stop fighting.

Tears were pouring from her scarlet eyes and turning into steam on her cheeks as she stared with pure unrestrained hatred at Cardin Winchester.

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" She howled.

Yang only seemed to spot Ruby once she was a few feet away and her eyes widened – fear and worry replacing rage. She backed away slowly, her hair still surrounded by a corona of flame.

"Stay back," she warned, backpedalling as far as she could until the chains once more were pulled taut and she fell over on her ass. Her eyes were wide and slowly turning back to lilac as they darted left and right in search of an escape like a frightened rabbit.

Ruby ignored her words stubbornly and shrugged off Goodwitch's hand from her shoulder, crawling on until she caught up with her sister – and her two very blurry twins.

"S'ok," she mumbled, reaching out with a trembling hand until she found something to hold on to. "I'm okay. Jus' tired s'all. Gonna pass out now, I think."

Ruby slumped over with her head in Yang's lap, arms slung around her waist. She was warm, but the scalding fires from before were gone. Ruby stopped fighting against the pull of the darkness and her consciousness slipped.