Chapter 9-

The next morning.

Ruby woke up last in the room, though it seemed everyone else let her sleep in so when she finally got up and got ready she was late for the first class of the day, but she didn't care as she headed for Ozpin's office.

She wasn't going to speak to Ozpin but rather enter the basement underneath the school. Each school had something like that, which was how she knew about it because Ironwood would take her down there for her private lessons.

Finding that Ozpin wasn't in his office it allowed Ruby to head down unopposed, she could already feel the power radiating from the large room and as she walked through the dark hall she discovered the source.

Looking at the life support pods Ruby grew sad as she saw just who was inside. "Amber, please, not you." Ruby said quietly as she placed her hand on the pod.

She could feel the power coming off Amber, although it wasn't as much as it should have been, but it was clear to her what had happened.

She sat down there for several hours, she was lost to time as she spoke to Amber. Talking to the woman that she had met on her travels and later learnt of the relation they had.

"Hello Miss Rose, I won't ask how you got down here." Ozpin said as he slowly stepped towards the two women. He had known Ruby was down there, but he didn't want to disturb them but as time wore on and it was a few hours from the next day and Ruby hadn't eaten all day.

"How long?" Ruby asked, not giving any context to what she was talking about, but it was obvious.

"Three months now. Qrow stepped in before they could take it all, but she's been in a coma ever since." Ozpin answered as he stopped a few feet away from Ruby.

"Where did it happen?" Ruby asked next.

"Forever Fall, she was travelling to meet Qrow and she was attacked. We aren't sure who the attackers were, but we know they were working for her." Ozpin explained further.

"I'll find out. I'll make them pay." Ruby stated as she stood up and walked over to the pod, resting her hand on Amber's. "May we meet again Amber, be it this life or the next." Ruby said softly though her voice echoed in the large hall.

"I hope you never use that machine." Ruby called over her shoulder as she headed out of the hall.

"Neither do I Miss Rose." Ozpin said softly to himself.

She made a quick stop to grab some food from the cafeteria which she ate on her way to her room. The next day was the dance, she already had a dress and everything ready for it but now she needed to sleep, to be ready for tomorrow.

Entering her room, she spotted Winter joining the rest of her team in the room, who immediately said, "Where have you been today?" Winter asked.

"I've been bus…I was seeing an old friend." Ruby said softly, changing halfway through her lie. She was tired, it had been an emotional day being around the comatose Amber.

"Who?" Weiss asked full of curiosity.

"Just someone I met a while ago." Ruby replied, not wanting to tell them anything about what was really going on. "I'm heading to bed." Ruby said as she stripped down, not bothering with pyjamas this evening as she just climbed into bed.

They waited an hour until they knew that Ruby was asleep before they began talking about her, or rather Winter asking after her.

"How is she? Really?" Winter asked the three young women.

"We're not sure, she only came back a few days ago and she's been distant. She looks rather sad, whose her friend?" Blake explained first.

"No idea, I only know that she was friends with Neo but not really with anyone else. So, I don't know." Winter answered.

"What do we do? She's clearly hiding something from all of us." Weiss asked, worried for her sister.

"We wait, we can't really just go into her or force her to tell us. Can we? Maybe she's hiding something for a reason." Yang offered her view.

"You're right, we can't force her to tell us." Winter said, sighing with resignation over what to do.

The next day the students had off to prepare for the dance, namely to get everything ready in the hall itself but also in the case of some to actually get dressed for the event itself.

Ruby who was used to balls when she was still living at home she could get ready within minutes though tonight she wanted to make it special, so she was going to spend some time on getting ready.

Showering first before her teammates could she cleaned up before getting dressed into her underwear and leaving the bathroom to get her dress, as she walked outside though her team looked in shock.

"Wow! Are you wearing all them to the dance?" Blake asked in shock as she was the first to notice, which then drew everyone else's attention. The only one who wasn't surprised was Winter because she knew that Ruby did that.

"Of course." Ruby said, not thinking anything of the two stiletto knives that she wore, one strapped to her thigh and the other strapped just behind her shoulder. She also had several throwing knives strapped to her bicep as well. What went unnoticed was the white gold necklace around her neck, attached to it was a ruby gem hanging down.

"Why do you have so many weapons? It's just a dance." Weiss stated as she didn't know what Ruby had done to Winter, or rather pulled on Winter.

"I'm never unarmed, these are my backups. Normally I'd wear my sword with me, but I can't wear it with my dress." Ruby explained as she carefully removed her dress from the protecting bag.

"That's just like…" Winter began to say before Ruby interrupted her.

"It's intentional." Ruby said in reply as she took the Chinese style dress out. It was meant to be similar to Neo's in the last dance they went to together.

The long red sleeveless dress had black roses woven into the soft material while from her thigh down it was cut and exposed to reveal Ruby's legs and with a little window area between the breasts and neck to reveal a small amount of cleavage and her necklace on display.

Several little bows were tied by the neck and her thighs to hold all the parts together and she pulled on long black gloves that reached the middle of her bicep. To complete the outfit, she put on a pair of black heels and a rose hairclip that she clipped into her long hair.

"You look beautiful." Weiss said as she looked at her sister fully dressed up now as she began to apply some makeup.

"Thank you." Ruby replied as she looked into the mirror, applying a light amount of blush, mascara and lipstick.

"Is she coming for the dance?" Blake asked, not needing to say her name for Ruby to know who she was talking about.

"She is, taking a break from her work so we could go together. We only ever went to one dance together." Ruby answered as she checked the time, Neo should be here in the next couple minutes.

"What's she working on?" Winter asked out of curiosity, trying to get an insight into what Neo was doing with Roman.

"Are you going to the dance with anyone?" Ruby asked Winter instead, Yang was already at the dance as she was welcoming people to it.

"Uh…no one." Winter replied with a blush, clearly lying but Ruby decided it best not to push. They weren't on the best of terms at the moment so rather than push too much she'd leave it alone. For the moment.

A knock on the door interrupted any further questioning by Ruby as she walked to the door to open it, which revealed Neo standing before her though she looked different to the Neo that Winter remembers.

Neo's hair had changed to brunette with subtle pink highlights like Ruby's, while her eyes had changed to emerald instead of ever changing on her whim.

This time around though she hadn't gone with a Chinese style dress but rather a white, sleeveless knee length dress with an open back and tied around her neck alongside heels to give her an extra couple inches with similar makeup to Ruby.

"You look beautiful." Ruby's first words were as she saw Neo as she pulled the shorter woman into a hug.

"Hello to you too." Neo chuckled as she returned Ruby's hug. "You look beautiful as well, took some inspiration from me it seems." Neo said.

"Of course." Ruby replied as she kissed Neo briefly.

Smiling Neo broke the kiss after a few seconds as she looked at everyone in the room, "Hello Winter. Weiss it's a pleasure to finally meet you and you as well Miss Belladonna, Ruby has told me a lot about both of you." Neo said to the three women in the room.

"Shall we go?" Ruby said before anyone could talk to Neo or vice visa.

"Ok. See you all later." Neo said as she took Ruby's arm in her own as they headed out of the dorms and downstairs.

"So, didn't want me to talk to them?" Neo asked as they walked past other students.

"No, sorry it's just…I want to enjoy tonight. Not get into any fights, when I told Winter that I was still seeing you she uh…she wasn't the most receptive." Ruby said rather diplomatically.

"I see." Neo said, not pushing the issue because she knew that while Ruby said she didn't care what her family thought, she longed to be with them.

"Come on, let's just dance the night away as we did before." Ruby said cheerfully as they came out of the building and into the courtyard outside as they walked across to the hall being used for the dance.

The two remained quiet as they headed into the dance, greeting Yang briefly before heading to the dance floor almost immediately.

A slow song was starting as Ruby took Neo's hands as they began to just slowly move to the beat firstly but as the song carried on they started doing more.

They continued dancing together for another few songs, not caring for the tempo as they simply spent the time together.

Eventually though, as with all nights it came to a point where they needed a break. So, Ruby headed upstairs while Neo stayed downstairs briefly to get them a drink.

"Neo!" A voice called out, "Having fun?" Blake asked as she approached grabbing two drinks as well.

"I am. It's been a while since we've been able to do something like this. What about you?" Neo asked as she turned to face Blake, seeing that she had two drinks. "Who are you here with?" Neo asked.

"Oh uh…" Blake blushed as she stuttered in her answer, embarrassed and unsure what to say but her eyes betrayed her as she looked upstairs towards someone approaching Ruby.

"Ah, I see. Serious?" Neo asked as she looked up to see Winter approaching Ruby upstairs, she was more than happy to stay downstairs for the moment as she waited for them to talk a little bit.

"I uh…don't know." Blake replied, still a little uncomfortable at talking about it.

"I see. Well, shall we head up there?" Neo said as she notices the two talking upstairs and she wanted to check that the talk wasn't going too far.

Ruby perched herself upstairs where she could look over the whole hall where students were dancing or relaxing on the sides.

She enjoyed people watching but she soon felt a presence approaching her from the side, so she turned to face Winter as she approached.

"Hey Ruby." Winter said softly, standing a few feet away from Ruby.

"Winter." Ruby said, inclining her head slightly as she turned to look back down at all the students.

Taking the invitation for what it was Winter stood next to Ruby overlooking everyone while waiting a few minutes before she started to talk.

"I uh…I wanted to apologise for everything I've done, especially what I've said about Neo. I understand now, or at least I'm trying to understand it now. I was wrong, mother was wrong. I know an apology won't solve everything but I…I want to make up for everything…I want us to be a family again…I want us to be sisters again." Winter said, stuttering slightly as she tried to explain everything to Ruby.

"An apology won't solve everything and you should apologise to Neo, you're right…but I didn't leave just because of the family. There were other elements in play, but everything that had happened just made it easier to leave. You know what happened with Jacques, how hard it was for me and then for you all to act like I had no choice in what I did either. It was hard, I didn't want to be there at all. I avoided going home as much as possible and well, when I decided to leave it was easy because I never truly felt like my life was my own until I left." Ruby replied, explaining her side at least partially to Winter.

"I promise that I won't ever make you feel like that again, and I promise to talk to our parents and get them to understand as well…we all want you back." Winter said, hesitating as she wanted to hug Ruby to comfort her slightly but was unsure how she would react.

"Don't make a promise you can't keep, you never know what may happen intentionally or unintentionally but thank you, and I think Summer at least understands a little, but she never spoke up in my defence. She left me to fend for myself." Ruby answered, offering her arm to Winter as she knew what she wanted to do.

Winter smiled lightly as she leaned in and hugged Ruby though she kept it brief as footsteps behind Winter echoed out and she broke it off.

"I hope you aren't trying to steal Ruby away their Winter, I at least want another dance from her first." Neo said playfully as she approached with Blake at her side.

"You're safe Neo, for now at least." Winter replied, turning to face the two approaching women. "I wanted to apologise Neo, for everything I said and did before…" Winter began to say but Neo just waved off her apology.

"I'm fine Winter, most of what I did was intentional so there's nothing to apologise for. I've never had an issue with you or the rest of your family, only with how you've treated Ruby. Get that down and we'll be fine." Neo replied as she took Ruby's arm into her own and handed over a drink.

"Here, it hasn't been spiked." Neo said as she knew at the dance in Atlas it had been spiked at some point in the evening.

"Thanks." Ruby said, taking the offered drink, she sipped at it as she said to the others, "Oh and congratulations you two." Ruby called to Winter and Blake as they walked away, everything they had wanted to say was said and now it time to wait for the next step.

"So, I know we're meant to be relaxing but there's something work related happening tonight." Neo said as she finished her drink, putting the cup on a table behind them.

"I expected as much, everyone's here and distracted. What are we looking at exactly?" Ruby asked with a sigh. She couldn't expect just one evening being quiet.

"There's three others alongside Roman and Adam. They're posing as students, Emerald and Mercury who are down there now, a green haired woman and grey-haired man." Neo said, pointing out the two who were dancing together.

"Right. And the third?" Ruby asked next as her eyes searched around the students, most notably the transfer students.

"Cinder. You fought her before, with Roman. She's got something planned tonight while everyone's distracted." Neo informed Ruby.

"Right…let's head out. We need to have a look." Ruby said reluctantly, she didn't want to leave or spend the night working but she knew that she had to.

"I'm sorry I don't know more." Neo said as the two headed out of the hall and into the courtyard.

"It's fine, you've done more than I thought you'd find out in such a short time." Ruby replied, her eyes scanning around which was when she noticed the CCT.

"There were two guards there earlier." Ruby stated, changing direction to head there.

"It'd make sense to hit the CCT while everyone's distracted." Neo said as she approached, seeing the two guards on the ground.

"Two down." Neo said, reaching down to check for a pulse.

Ruby was checking the other one and said, "Unconscious." Ruby said, taking the guards rifle and ejecting the magazine. "Full mag, yours?" Ruby asked.

"Unconscious, mag full. Let's head up there." Neo said as she loaded the rifle again and started to head towards the elevator.

"I'll go, you stay here. It could blow your cover." Ruby said, not wanting to risk Neo any further.

"I'm disguised and to them I'm a mute. If I don't fight the same or use my Semblance, I'll be fine. Now come on, you can't go in without back up." Neo explained as she wasn't backing down at all.

"Alright, you stay behind me though. If it's the same woman, then I can take the hits easier." Ruby said as she worried if it was the one with the Maiden powers.

"Fine." Neo said as both women took the rifles and headed into the elevator.

"Here." Ruby said as she drew one of her stiletto knives, they were short, thin blades that were good to strike small points or through armoured joints.

"Thanks, you know I really wish you had your sword or pistol." Neo commented as she wished for the stopping power of the weapons.

"Well I would have had them, but someone told me I wasn't allowed any large weapons. It's just lucky I've got my knives." Ruby replied, she would have preferred her pistol or sword with her, but she understood where Neo came from with the request.

"Yeah, yeah. Blame me." Neo teased as they got ready with the elevator arriving.

"I've got left; you go right. Hit cover immediately and we'll go from there." Ruby said as she pulled the rifle up to her shoulder.

"I know how to enter and clear a room; I did the same classes you did." Neo replied sharply though she understood that it was for Ruby's peace of mind.

"I know…stand by." Ruby said as the elevator reached the floor and the doors opened soon after.