Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Paint as red as blood.

Ruby Rose, a student of the Ring, sighed as her empty sketch book seemed to mock her and her artistic inadequacies. She was in an art gallery owned by the Ring, in one of the side rooms available for every member of the Ring to use. She had an exam coming up soon and she needed to pass it. If she did she would be in line for a promotion from a one ringed Student to a two ringed Docent, the thought was an exciting one. But her art block was making things harder than they needed to be. She looked to the ring on her right hand, angling it so she could let the light catch on the smooth metal finish of her ring.

She had been a member of the Ring for as long as she could remember, bought up to love art in all its different forms. She wanted to do them proud, to create a piece that would speak to the human condition in the city. That usually meant a lot of suffering on the part the subject of said art piece but the pursuing of one’s artistic vision required sacrifices.

Unfortunately no ideas came to her. “Argh.” she groaned, placing her head on the blank expanse of paper in her hands. “Why is coming up with ideas so hard!?” she complained like the fifteen year old she was.

She heard an old woman chuckling. She would have threatened most people who laughed at her, but she would never do that to this particular woman, not the own who raised her as her own. “Having trouble there little wolf?” Ruby heard the nickname she had been called for a long long time.

“Yeah Granny.” Ruby replied as she took her head of the page, allowing to see her grandmother, a Maestro of the Ring. She was old, with her wrinkles having wrinkles of their own. Her hair was silver and her eyes were a piercing grey colour. She was wearing the typical outfit for a member of the Ring with a beret as well as a black shirt and jeans covered by white overalls. Much of Granny’s clothes, much like Ruby’s own, were covered in paint and sometimes blood. “I have an exam soon and the ideas aren’t flowing. It’s just so argh! You know?” Granny sat down on the stool next to Ruby, a thoughtful gleam in her eye as she looked over her ward, still struggling to come up with idea.

“I do know what you mean little wolf.” Granny gave her a warm smile, before looking of to some far off sight that only she could see. “I was much the same back in the day. Having issues with coming up with a good idea for the exam.” Ruby honestly couldn’t see that happening with Granny but let her elder continue on with her story. “Do you know what worked for me?”

“Uh no not really. If I did I would have done it already.” Ruby pointed out get Granny to laugh, conceding the student’s point.

“True enough little wolf, but what I did was simple. I went on a journey for inspiration. I went all over the City and by the time I got back I had the inspiration I needed.”

“Uh Granny?” Ruby asked, feeling very glad she wasn’t a member of the Thumb. If she was she would have her tongue cut out at the minimum. The Thumb were insane to put it bluntly. “The exam is in a week. How am I going to go on a journey if I only have a week?” Because a week isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things especially in regards to things like travel. Dang paperwork took up too much time for anything fun.

Granny hummed thoughtfully. “Hmmm. You’re right about that little wolf. But some of the examiners... well let’s just say they owe me several favours. I could get an extension for you. Let’s saw about.... a month would that work for you?” That would work for Ruby, becasue it actually gave her time to do things outside of all the forms she needed to fill if she wanted to leave District 22.

Ruby nodded her head vigorously, before she hugged her Granny tightly. “Thankyouthankthankyou.” she thanked Granny, her words blurring together. The idea of traveling and creating new pieces of art to display was an exciting one for the young student, she could see new places and see how it affects the people who live there. She wondered what art would take shape. She couldn’t wait to see.

Granny gave a small laugh, as she patted Ruby on the head. “You’re quite welcome little wolf. Now how about you pack your things while I go talk to who I need to talk to?” Granny suggested causing Ruby to look up at her. “Think you can do that?”

“Yeah that sounds good.” Ruby said letting Granny go, before she began to race off to her room. “I shouldn’t be too long. Love you Granny.”

As Ruby exited the room leaving Granny on her own. “Love you too little wolf.” Granny got up, her bones creaking slightly as she did so. “I hope your journey is a fruitful one, just like mine.” Unbeknownst to Granny her words would prove true in a way she could have scarcely imagined.

That was the last time anyone in the Ring saw Ruby that day.

It was like she just vanished into thin air. The Ring searched for her high and low. They could not find their promising student anywhere. They were not the Middle. They did not blindly lash out at those they deem threats. They were not the Index. They did not blindly follow orders. They were the Ring and they would be methodical and purposeful in their search, they would leave no stone unturned.

But Ruby, when she woke up, would be left unaware of this. She gazed up at the shattered moon, its light gently illuminating the alley she found herself in.

“Where am I?”

Chapter Text

To have your fate written down.

Weiss was a messenger of the Index, her job was a simple one, but a necessary one. She was to deliver the prescripts to their intended recipient and to ensure that it was carried out, providing clarification if needed. If the recipient failed to carry out their prescript, they would be killed, Weiss took no joy from the act. But she did her duty all the same. Her sword would cut their thread of life short. The will of the prescripts must be followed, those who do not are worthless and evading taxes and must be purged.

Weiss had just delivered a prescript to a young woman named Charlie. It said that Charlie must wear a blindfold for a week and must not take it off for anything. It also said that she should not eat any dairy or fish for two days. As prescripts go, this one didn’t need much in the way of clarification, much to Charlie’s barely hidden relief. Some of them could be very abstract at times. “Thank you.” the young woman said, nervously clutching her prescript in her hands. Fingers leaving noticeable imprints on the paper. In Weiss’ experience that was a normal reaction. One full of nerves and fright but willingness to do what needed to be done. It also made her job go smoothly which she quite liked when that happened.

“You’re quite welcome.” Weiss politely replied, the index was taught to never be rude to those they delivered the prescripts to. Unlike the Thumb, however, they did not punish minor pieces of rudeness with mutilation. The prescripts, as long as they are followed, will provide. “If there’s nothing else I will take my leave now.”

“But still thank you for the protection and peace you bring.” In terms of peacefulness the backstreets ruled over by the Index were at the top. The members of the Index could only be violent when the prescripts required them to be. They enforced that rule on those who fell under their protection as well, ensuing a peaceful place for everyone, as long as the followed the prescripts’ instructions.

“Just doing my duty Miss. Nothing more, nothing less.” Weiss said leaving the young woman’s abode. She closed the door behind her with a ‘click.’ After delivering the prescript Weiss had one last prescript on her person.

She pulled it out and read the name emblazoned on it. It said in the ever familiar script her name: Weiss. Beneath her name was the strict instruction to open it after delivering all the other prescripts. Strange but nothing to be concerned about. The prescript will guide her where she needs to go. They would never leave her astray.

She opened it, and began to read what the prescript wanted her to do.

- To Weiss, walk down the nearest alley there you will encounter a black cat. Approach it. If it moves towards you stay still and let it pass. If it moves away from you follow it. Follow it for a total time of twenty minutes and fifty seconds.

-Once twenty minutes pass stop where and turn to your left. Open the first door you find.

-Walk through the door. Mind your step.

The instructions ended there. Weiss turned the prescript over in her hands to see if there was anything else. There was not. She tucked her prescript in her pocket, making sure she wouldn’t lose it and could refer back to it if need to. She never needed to refer back to it, having already committed it to her memory.

She began to follow the prescript’s instructions. She walked down the nearest alley. Atop of a rubbish bin there was a black cat. She approached it. It jumped off its perch and began to move away from her. She followed it as she was instructed to do. She kept time and waited for twenty minutes and fifteen seconds to pass. She stopped where she was, watching the cat continue on its way. She turned to her left. There was a door. She opened it and walked through it. She minded her step.

The world went dark. She felt like she was underwater. She was drowning in this strange mirror. She saw unto infinity itself. Like mirrors reflecting each other to the distant horizon. She blinked and found herself in an unfamiliar place at night. It was the middle of the afternoon last she checked. She was not in the backstreets that were protected by the Index. Her nose wrinkled slightly in disgust as some unpleasant scent hit her nose. She stepped out of the alleyway she was in, looking for anything that looked even vaguely familiar to her. So she could figure out what part of the City she was in, or just where she was in general. She just hoped she wasn’t in the outskirts.

She failed. She found nothing familiar to her. She then gazed at the skyline and found that the moon was shattered. She blinked in shock, completely caught off guard. Where was she? She took a moment to breath and tried to think of her next step. Her prescript ended at the moment she walked through the door, meaning her next move was up to her. She needed information and that meant finding a good source of it. Either some sort of library or a local would be her best bet. “Right then Weiss you know what you need to do. Time to go do it.” She looked around to see if she could find anyone, considering the (presumably) late hour she saw nobody around. “Hope there’s some sort of library around.” She also hoped that The Library wasn’t near here. She had heard horror stories about how people went in and didn’t come out. So she began to walk down the moonlit streets, examining everything that caught her sight. She made notice of the fact there was the occasional mention of something called the White Fang as well ‘Dust’ prices going up due to someone stealing it on flyers. Weiss had a feeling that they weren’t talking about dust you need to clean off of shelves and the like. If it was Gloria would be one of the richest people in the City. She never cleaned her room, unless ordered or forced to. Weiss remember the sneezing fit she had when she first visited Gloria’s room.

She had no clue what the White Fang could be. “Some sort of syndicate maybe?” she mused to herself as she turned a corner. She felt someone crash into her and tumble to the ground. Weiss, on the other hand stood firm, not very hard considering the enhancements her body had accrued over the years. She looked down to see that she had bumped into a young woman, who Weiss guessed was at least a year older than her, she had brown hair and brown eyes and most curiously she had rabbit ears that moved like the real thing. Must be some sort of body modification, like that one Thumb member, with the cat ears, who cut out her left eye. “I am so sorry.” Weiss said apologetically as she held out a hand for the young woman to take. “I wasn’t looking where I was going, I’m a bit lost you see.” she stated truthfully, for she had not seen the other woman coming as well as the fact she was lost. For some undiscernable reason the young woman had a look of fear in her eyes. Weiss’s best guess was the encountering a member of the Five Fingers would be a frightening experience for anyone, considering how the Ring, the Thumb and the Middle could get at times, was an understandable reaction.

Eventually the woman took her hand, allowing Weiss to help her to her feet. She brushed herself off, occasionally trying to sneak glances at Weiss, who just stood there while she waited for her to respond. Eventually she did. “Um that’s-. That’s alright. I’m fine.” the woman took a quick breath, steadying herself, before continuing to talk. “Right right, you’re lost, are you looking for any place in particular?”

“Since I’m not sure where I am, can you please tell me where I am?”

“You’re in the Kingdom of Vale.” Weiss tilted her head to the side at the unfamiliar name. “Home of Beacon academy, like the most famous hunter academy.” The woman added. Still not ringing a bell.

“I’ve never heard of those places before.” Weiss calmly stated.

“How!?!” she sounded like she couldn’t believe that Weiss had never heard of those places before.

“I spent most of my time in the backstreets and not the nests as a Messenger of the Index.” Weiss explained causing the woman to give a confused head tilt of her own.

“The what?” she asked, causing Weiss to realise that they would keep talking in circles if they kept this up. She hated talking in circles, it got in the way of getting her job done.

“Is there a place we can sit down and talk? Maybe so we don’t just keep talking in circles.”

“Yeah there’s a 24 hour diner nearby I visit occasionally. We can talk there.” the woman said agreeing with Weiss’ suggestion. “I’m Velvet by the way. What’s your name, so I don’t just keep calling you Schnee in my head?” What an odd name, Weiss thought, sounds somewhat familiar though. Before shrugging it off, deeming it not important at the moment.

“I have no idea where you got Schnee from,” Weiss said before she gave Velvet her name, “but my name is Weiss. It’s a pleasure to meet you Velvet.” Weiss said with her usual polite smile.

Chapter Text

Never met your superior’s eyes.

Blake was a proud Soldato of the Thumb. She had been basically raised in the Thumb’s culture from the very beginning. The Thumb believed in politeness and propriety, raising Blake to respect one’s superiors and to show people the respect they deserve. How did they enforce that one may ask?

Why it’s quite simple.

Punish those who show disrespect, without mercy and without quarter.

Speak out of turn? Cut out their tongue.
Look a superior in the eye? Remove their eyes.
Lie to your superiors? Cut their throat.
Touch a superior without permission? Cut off their hand.
Underperform, thus bring shame to your superior? Execution.
Not saying bless you when a superior sneezes? Cut off their nose.
Leaving negative feedback when unasked for? Write ten thousand lines of compliments.
Using unnecessary amounts of ammo? Used as a practise dummy for your fellow members of the Thumb.
Wear the uniform in a dishevelled manner? Work in the Thumb’s tailoring until your arms fall off.
Fail at your task assigned to you by a superior? Self-termination. If unable to a fellow member of the Thumb shall perform the necessary deed.
Use the last tea bag and not replace it? Be forced to buy teabags for everyone with your salary for the next six months.

All that and more. Respect and politeness was crammed into Blake from the moment she could walk. She had only shown disrespect once, but she would never misstep again. She glanced down to her gloved right hand, clenching it around her musket with a thought. She had touched a superior without permission, and so her hand was cut off. She had held out her offending hand, and let it be cut off. She did not wince from pain, as that would have bought more shame on her superior. Nor did she cry or beg or plead. She was trained to not show those signs of weakness, for they would shame the Thumb and what it stood for.

She had later replaced it with a prosthetic that worked just as well as her old flesh and blood one. She turned her attention back to her current job which was guard duty. She was to keep watch with another Soldato until they were relived by those who were scheduled after them. It was a dreadfully boring job, but an important one. They needed to ensue that everything was in its place, and to be the first line of defence in case of an attack. It also helped that the cat ears she had, gave her a sharper sense of hearing than most people. They twitched as they heard the sounds of the city in the middle of the afternoon. There was a lot of screaming and pleading. Blake could also hear the occasional faint echo of gunshots in the distance. They could be members of the Thumb fight their numerous enemies or they could have been punishing themselves for failing a task they were ordered to do. Blake couldn’t really tell at this far away from her.

The cat ears were a bit of mystery, no one was quite sure how Blake had them. But since the head didn’t come down on her like a bag of hammers, she was human, so they shrugged it off. Personally Blake assumed she was some experiment of the old G-corp that had managed to escape somehow at a young age. She didn’t have much proof that was actually the case, but it was the only thing that really could fit.

But enough about that, she had guard duty. She mentally tracked how long she had until the shift change. She may have been a proud member of the Thumb but she had been standing at her post for over two hours.

So yeah her feet were pretty sore. Not that she would say that aloud. She wasn't stupid.

She was really looking forward to heading to the break room and getting a cup of coffee. She wouldn’t be able to eat until much later after all her superiors hand eaten. She had long trained herself to withstand the constant gnawing feeling of hunger in her belly, nowadays she could ignore it with ease. She instead focused on her duty, using as a way to keep her mind off hollow feeling in her stomach.

If she did a good enough job, maybe just maybe, one of her superiors would notice her and give the opportunity to move up in the ranks. Maybe she could even work under the direct command of Capo Katriel. Capo Katriel was who she aspired to be like. Cool, calm and strong. When asked to comment on the higher ups Blake would always choose to sing the praises of Capo Katriel, getting to the point that some of her fellow Soldatos began to think she had a bit of a crush on Capo Katriel.

Okay that was actually the case, but she wasn’t going to act on it, she valued her life. If Katriel so choses she could pursue Blake but inversely Blake couldn’t initiate anything because if she did she would be killed for disrespecting the hierarchy. So she just did her best to ignore her crush on Capo Katriel and focus on her duties as a Soldato. Even if it was really really hard. Okay think about anything else. Maybe she should think about the nice cup of coffee she would have once she got inside.

Eventually the time came.

“Hey it’s time for you two to head back inside.” said a young sounding voice coming from behind her. Blake turned to see two other Soldato ready to take up guard duty.

She and her fellow guard were done for the day. She walked back inside the Thumb compound, beelining straight for the Soldato’s break room. It wasn’t as good as the higher up’s break rooms, but the fact it had a working coffee machine more than made up for it. Frankly Blake’s left hand was feeling the cold, and a hot drink would be just what she needs.

As she traversed the halls, delving deeper and deeper into the compound, Blake heard the sound of shattering mirrors. She blinked and the corridors of the Thumb compound disappeared...

and was replaced by an office?

What.

Blake blinked, shocked at her sudden change in scenery. As she examined the room she found herself in she saw that the office was occupied by a stern looking blonde woman, who looked very surprised to see Blake. Blake immediately averted her eyes and pointed them to the floor. Her instincts, finely honed by her time in the Thumb told her that this woman was above her in the hierarchy. She waited for her superior to speak, for a Soldato to start a conversation with a superior was immediate grounds for death.

“Excuse me young lady who are you and why are you in my office?” the blonde woman asked her firmly. Blake gave a nervous gulp, trying to think of a way to explain this properly.

- - - -

Oh Little Dorothy you’re so far from home.

Glynda Goodwitch was hard at work, as per usual, preparing for the new school year starting in a few days. There was much to do. Ensue that everything was in order, teachers had their curriculum, that all the students would have their needs met, that supplies were plentiful. The last one caused Glynda to scowl to herself, due to all the Dust robberies recently driving up prices they had less leeway with the budget than Glynda would have liked.

“Well nothing you can do about it for the moment.” she sighed to herself, her duties at Beacon were just as important, she looked at the current piece of paperwork she was doing. She decided that this would be the last one for the night before she turned in for the night. It was late and Glynda needed to be up early in the morning, as much as she hated the idea. She was not a morning person in the slightest. She yawned, eyes closing as she did so. When they opened there was someone else in her office.

She examined the young girl with a discerning eye. She was a cat faunus with black hair and golden eyes. The suit she was wearing was black and looked to be finely tailored. Over the suit shoulders was hanging a red jacket. The young lady also wore a red hat that had been modified to allow her cat ears to poke through. Attached to her back via a strap was a very old fashioned musket with a bayonet. Her golden eyes examined the room until they came across Glynda, where they immediately looked at the floor. Glynda noted that bizarre reaction to her presence.

“Excuse me young lady who are you and why are you in my office?” Glynda asked, noting that the young lady immediately went ramrod straight at her question.

“Miss I am Soldato III of the Thumb named Blake,” Blake replied before answering Glynda’s second question. Glynda made a mental note of those unfamiliar terms. “I do not know how I got here, I was being relieved from my shift before I heard the sound of breaking glass, causing myself to wind up here.” Blake gripped the strap of her musket with her left hand, seemingly a nervous tic. “I will accept any punishment you deem necessary for disrespecting you and your space.” Blake sounded like she honestly meant that, which was causing alarm bells to ring in Glynda’s head. “I will give up my life if you desire me to do so.” she said it so matter of factly, like that was something to expect from someone so young.

Glynda’s heart broke as she replied to Blake’s frankly insane statement. “You will be doing no such thing young lady.” Glynda firmly stated, trying her best to not let her voice waver. Why would she go so far as to say that? Glynda needed to get to the bottom of these as soon as possible.

Blake looked so utterly lost and confused at Glynda’s reply, making Glynda's heart break even more. Glynda felt a protective urge towards this girl as well as the sudden urge to wrap this girl in a warm blanket and not let anything hurt her.

Chapter Text

The chains that binds this family.

Yang was partying with her family. The music was loud and the air was full of cheers and joyful whoops of her family. The drinks were flowing and the food was good. Then again the parties the Middle put on for their families were always a hit. Everyone here had the purple tattoos and chains that showed them as part of the Middle, they also served as an effective deterrent for anyone looking to start shit. Because if someone did, well the Books of Vengeance existed for a reason.

Yang had not that long ago been dancing on the dance, now she was taking a break on the sidelines- unsure if she would go back, watching the festivities from there and was having a glass of water. She drank, letting the cool liquid quench the thirst she worked up. She could see all the sweet glistening in the disco lights on her tattoo covered arms as she lifted the glass up.

She loved to party, and she loved to party with her family. She had been a member of the Middle for a good few years now and every party she went to was a banger. In the middle of everything she could see one of her brothers getting congratulated for his promotion from little brother to young brother, and thus the reason why they were having this party in the first place, then again the Middle took any chance they could to party. She smiled at the sight happy for him, wishing him the best. She also used it as motivation to work as hard as she could, so one day she would be the one congratulated for their promotion, and that she would be able to protect and provide for her family as a big sister or even a greater sister. In the little corner she was currently standing in she could hear someone approaching her with measured and even steps, accompanied by the rattling of chains. She turned to see that one of her favourite brothers Meursault was walking towards her. “Hey Meur what’s up?” she asked, noticing that he currently had a mug of beer in his hand. One of the things the Middle were know to love apart from avenging those who had been sinned against by an outsider and partying was alcohol. They loved their beer that was for sure. Yang, personally didn’t much care for alcohol finding the taste to be to be gross. But she enjoyed the atmosphere nonetheless.

“It is currently 9:32 pm on a Saturday night, the weather is overcast with a small chance of rain and the family is in a good mood. I have punished several transgressions against the family as dictated by the Book of Vengeance and I have a gift for you for your birthday next week.” Meursault replied with his usual matter of fact and monotone voice. With his free hand he reached into his pocket and retrieved a coupon. He held it out for Yang to take, so she did so. She looked at it and beamed brightly at what she saw. It was a coupon for a very nice salon Yang had been meaning to go to, but hadn't mainly due to being busy. Her luscious long blonde locks took a lot of work to make it look fabulous, and a trip to a nice salon would do wonders for her hair.

“Thanks Meur.” Yang said with a smile. “Thank you so much.” she refrained from hugging him, knowing that he wasn’t a hugging kind of person. “I can’t wait to use this.” she said gleefully, already imaging all the pampering she could get with the help of this coupon.

“You’re quite welcome Yang. It is hearting to hear that you appreciate my gift. Would you like my company or would you prefer that I leave you alone?” Yang knew Meursault well enough to know that he was pleased that his gift was appreciated, even if he didn't show it.

Yang shook her head. “Nah I think I’m going to turn in for the evening.” she replied, deciding she had enough partying for the night. That and she wanted to store her coupon in a safe place so she wouldn’t lose the damn thing.

“Understood. I wish you a good nights sleep and I will see you tomorrow.” Meursault said giving his usual farewell to her.
“Yup sure thing and thanks, I’ll see you tomorrow” Yang replied, finishing her glass of water and placing it on a nearby table. She walked out of the dance hall, saying farewell to all her brothers and sisters, who returned her farewells before they focused on partying.

Yang smiled. She loved her family. They stuck by each other through thick and thin, ensure that anyone who harmed their family, unlike the Thumb. The Thumb was indiscriminate with how they enforced their ‘hierarchy’ treating their members and outsiders the same way. Unlike the Middle which was something truly special and kind. Once you were part of the family, the family would move heaven and earth for you.

She walked back in the direction of her apartment, the noise of joyous partying fading as she got further and further away. It was late at night, so not many people were out and about. Those who were kept as far away from Yang as they could reasonably manage. When she got to her apartment block, one devoted to the members of the Middle, she started to take the stairs to the second floor. When she got there she began to head to left, counting the doors all the while. Eventually she got to her apartment, the one labelled 2-7. She got her key out of her pocket, inserted it into the lock and unlocked the door. She opened the door, taking her keys out of the lock and walked inside her-

forest in the middle of the day?

Wait what.

She blinked as instead of her apartment she was suddenly in a verdant forest. She rubbed her eyes hoping that she was just seeing things. She opened her eyes and found that she was still in the forest. She scowled, deciding the moment she found who was responsible she was going to kill them as painfully as she could. But that would require her getting out of this forest first and actually be able to find them or anyone connected to them.

Seeing nothing but trees in every direction, she just picked a random direction and began to walk, hoping that she would be able to find some answers. She had never been in an actual forest before and really only knew about them in the abstract sense. If she wasn’t so pissed about being teleported her, she would actually really like. But that was a moot point considering the massive inferno that was Yang’s rage. Her tattoos glowed a striking purple, ready for Yang to use them to enhance her strength as well as serve as a warning sign to anyone considering messing with her.

 

- - - -

Oh little raven come back to roost.

Raven Branwen was talking a walk in the forest on Patch, enjoying some time to herself while her wife was finishing up with some paperwork before they went back to their jobs at Beacon. Summer in a fit of forgetfulness, well forgot to fill in some very important paperwork needed for things like field trips and work experiences, and now had to rush through it before the start of the Beacon year. Raven promised her wife that if she got it done today Raven would reward her. Summer excited at the prospect, promptly got to work. Raven chuckled at the image of her motivated wife. Summer was damn cute.

In order to not distract her easily distracted wife of thirteen or so years, Raven took a walk in the wildness of Patch, enjoying the last bit of peace and quiet she would get before she had to get back to work in the hustle and bustle of Vale proper. She listened to the bird song, the rustling of the leaves in the wind, the rattling of chains and muttered curses.

What what was the last two things?

She turned to face the direction the sounds of chains were coming from, she grabbed the hilt of her sword Omen, ready for anything. Soon enough she saw the source of the out of place sounds. It was a blond teenager, she was wearing jeans and a floral print shirt, that had its bottom two buttons undone. She had chains wrapped around her arms and her body was absolutely covered in purple tattoos that were somehow glowing? Sure why not. “Fucking forest, If I find out who’s responsible for this I’m going to kill them.” What caused Raven’s heart to stop from shock was the blonde’s very familiar face. When she saw it, it was like looking in a mirror, if her reflection was blonde and had violet eyes.

It couldn’t be-?

Could it?

Was it Yang?

No it couldn’t be. Raven thought shaking her head trying to dislodge that insistent thought

No her daughters were gone.

Vanished into thin air.

Leaving her and Summer to try and pick up the pieces.

“Yang?” Raven asked, she hated how weak her voice sounded right now. She hated showing weakness. She hoped maybe just maybe one of her daughters had come home. The blonde teen locked eyes with Raven, her tattoos glowed brightly and she rushed at Raven with a furious expression on her face.

“How do you know my name?” Yang growled, trying to punch Raven with a chain wrapped fist. Raven being a hunter of great experience dodged the wild swing with ease. “Are you the one who took me away from my family?” Yang asked again trying to punch Raven with her other fist. Raven dodge this attack as well. She didn’t want to hurt her oldest but her daughter didn’t seem to share that same sentiment. “I’ll show what happens to those who fuck with the Middle!” Ignoring the umfamiliar term, Raven decided enough was enough caught the next punch with her hand. Yang had quite a bit of strength in her blows- enough to make her shoulder ache, but she was still very unskilled in Raven’s eyes, she likely didn’t have much in the way of formal training. “Huh?” Yang said before Raven swept her legs from out under her. Whatever Yang was going to say next went unsaid as Raven swung her round and knocked her out with a blow to the back of her neck, Raven was also really glad that worked. As Yang crumpled into a heap, Raven sighed and picked up the currently unconscious teen in a fireman’s carry.

“Here’s hoping Summer doesn’t freak out when I get back.” she muttered to herself as she made her way home.

. . . .

“Raven what the actual fuck?!?” Summer freaked out upon seeing her wife carry an unconscious teen into their house.

“I can explain... sorta.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 1 Dye the world in your colours.

Ruby Rose, student of the Ring looked up at the shattered moon, pieces floating in the uncaring void of space, much unlike the moon back in the City. She rubbed her eyes, like it would remove the strange sight in front of her and return her to her home.

It did not.

Dang it.

“Okay Ruby check what you have first then you can try and figure out where you are.” Ruby told herself, trying to keep herself calm. Her voice was trying its best to remain even and measured. “You have your weapon,” a brush that all students of the Ring started out with before branching out as they learned their trade, “your satchel which was your wallet, your sketchbook, some paints and some pens and brushes.” Ruby said opening said satchel taking stock of what she had on hand by rifling through it, which wasn’t that much admittedly, but it was better than nothing.

She tried to remember what had happened before she wound up in this strange alley, she had packed her satchel and was starting to pack a bag with her essentials when she blinked and found herself here. She could also vaguely hear the sound of shattering glass as well.

“So I’ve got some supplies. What do I do next?” she asked herself, shutting her bag closed, ensuing that nothing would fall out. “Well I guess I better see where I wound up.” she said, coming up with the best plan of action she could at this current point of time. “Also I should probably find a place to sleep.” She didn’t want to find out if this place had something like the Sweepers, if she could avoid it. So she took her first step out of the alley and witnessed a strange new city. Unlike the City she was raised in this one seemed... cleaner for lack of a better word. She couldn’t see anything like the cannibal restaurants, or Syndicates roaming the street, or those prosthetics technicians who screwed over their customers, or anything like the causal and ever present horror that the City was home to. It was strange, Ruby thought to herself, like walking into a story book.

The streets she walked seemed to be fairly empty considering the presumably late hour. Most of the people she saw literally went out their way to avoid her, some of them had animal traits that were really cool looking. If Ruby was a member of the Thumb she would be insulted, instead she was just confused because apart from the Index the Ring were one of the most approachable of the Five Fingers. What Ruby wasn’t aware of was the fact people could notice the blood on her clothes and came to the conclusion that she was someone dangerous. They were right, Ruby was a very dangerous girl.

“Weird.” she said to herself before continuing on her way. As she did, an idea grew in her mind, maybe she could explore this place and find some inspiration, like Granny told her to do.

“Just watch me Granny, I’m going to find some amazing to inspire my next piece of art! Just you wait.” she quietly told herself, joy energising her through her veins. She pumped her fist and she continued to walk down these foreign streets. She hummed a song as she walked using music to keep herself calm. She was humming the lullabies her Granny used to sing to her when Ruby was trying to get to sleep.

Eventually she came across a beautiful woman with tricoloured hair. It was a combination of brown, white and pink and it made Ruby really want to get some ice cream for some reason. Said pretty lady was walking away from her, so Ruby ran up to her. “Hey ice cream lady!” she shouted causing the woman to stop and turn to face her. The pretty lady raised an eyebrow clearly stating that ‘this better be good’ without even utter a single word. Ruby caught up to her, the lady looking very unimpressed with Ruby until she looked at Ruby properly, gaining the student a curious and interested look. “Look sorry that I’ve stopped you. But I’m like really really lost, and I don’t where I am, also I like need a place to sleep. So can you help me?” Ruby for extra strength begging turned on her puppy dog eyes, which worked on most people with getting her what she wants. She knew this could easily blow up in her face, but Granny made sure Ruby could defend herself, and besides that she’s fairly strong.

The girl doesn’t say anything, instead she just signs something, Ruby was very glad she took signing lessons when offered them. “I’m Neo.” the girl, who Ruby now knows as Neo, signs. “Why do you have blood on your clothes?” There was no fear, rather there was only a sense of curiosity in the other girl’s words.

“Well you know how art can be sometimes. Sometimes you need to spill some blood.” Neo just looked at her with a tilted head which looked really cute, silently asking Ruby to elaborate. “Well I’m a student of the Ring, and when we make art we often us people as materials for out pieces.” Ruby explained, Neo listening to her every word. “Granny gave me the opportunity to travel and see if I can get some good inspiration, so I can create my next piece and pass my promotion exam.”

“What’s the Ring and who is this Granny?” Neo asked clearly unfamiliar with the Ring, which Ruby would find weird, if she wasn’t sure she wasn’t in her world any more. Because last she checked the moon back home was in one piece.

“Well back home the Ring is one of the Five Fingers, some of the biggest syndicates in the City.” Ruby began to explain to Neo, who looked baffled at the City’s name, which was fair. “There’s the Thumb, the Index, the Middle, the Ring, and finally the Pinky.” Ruby said counting off each one on their respective finger. “Each one of them has their own special thing that sets them apart from each other.”

“And that is what exactly?”

“Well the Thumb is like super big into respect and hierarchy right?” Ruby didn’t wait for an answer, quite happy to rush on ahead with her explanation. “If you disrespect someone they deem to be higher up in the hierarchy, if you’re lucky you’ll lose you tongue or a limb. Something super easy to replace. Basically they’re insane and nobody really wants to deal with them.” Which was true Ruby knew for the fact that practically all fixers, as well as anyone with a lick of sense frankly, gave the Thumb a wide berth, not wanting to anger the very temperamental and easiliy set off finger.

“Well they sound like they really suck.” Neo said agreeing with Ruby’s assessment. “Can they not deal with someone being the slightest bit rude to them?” Ruby shook her head, making Neo face palm briefly. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’m not.”

Neo gave off a soft sigh, before she took a look of a watch on her wrist. “It’s getting late, you may as well come back with me and finish your explication at my apartment.”

“Thank you.” Ruby beamed at Neo. “Do you mind if I give you a hug in order to thank you?” Neo shook her head. “Dang it.” Ruby pouted.

“I only hug people I consider friends and we’ve just met.”

“Yeah that makes sense.” Ruby agreed, seeing that as fair. “Now lead on, cause I will get lost, and I will be very sad.” She wasn’t even exaggerating... that much.

“We wouldn’t want that now would we?” Neo gave her a smile, it kinda reminded Ruby of the ones Outis would sometimes sport. “Come on, we’re not far.” Wow Ruby got really lucky.

“Coming.” Ruby said as Neo turned and began walk off, Ruby kept pace easily, walking on Neo’s left.

“Oh yeah I have a room mate and, well he can be a bit jumpy. So don’t take it personally okay?”

“I won’t.” Ruby promised. She was good at that. You had to be in a place like the City.

 

- - - -

 

Velvet is really not paid enough for this shit.

Velvet Scarlatina had no idea what to make of Weiss, the pair was currently sitting in a corner booth at Velvet’s favourite 24 hour diner. Velvet often came to this diner when her insomnia made it hard to sleep, knowing that she would always be welcome here. She was strange, seemingly so calm like nothing would ever be able to shake her. Velvet found herself envying that calm, it would be really useful in the field. There was also the way she held herself, straight and looking very poised, as well as the fact she looked like a member of the Schnee family. In fact she looked a lot like the one who vanished all those years ago. But that was probably just Velvet’s mind being silly. Hopefully she wasn’t actually a member of said family, no one really deserved dealing with that minefield.

Weiss was wearing a plain black suit, that was clearly finely tailored to Velvet’s eye. Atop of her shoulders was a white cape that came down to her ankles. At her hip was a sheathed rapier. Her white hair was done up in a slightly skewed ponytail, her eyes were a frosty blue. The left one had a scar over it, telling Velvet that someone slashed at her eye, making Velvet wince at the mere thought of someone doing that. She almost wanted to wince in sympathy but thought better of it.

The pair of them were currently holding menus in their hands, Velvet already having decided to get a hot chocolate as well as a large fudge brownie. Weiss seemed to be scanning the menu with a great deal of intensity, like if looking at the menu was a matter of life or death. “I have decided what I will have.” Weiss said in a very matter of fact way. Velvet nodded and raised her hand to gain a server’s attention.

One came over, note pad at the ready. Velvet told them her order. Weiss did as well, She ordered some chocolate ice cream as well as a chocolate milkshake. The server took their orders and went of to get them made. Which just left Velvet and Weiss in their own corner booth, the world moving on outside the window. The diner was, for the most part, unoccupied due to the late hour leaving Velvet to her thoughts.

Things were trapped in an awkward silence as Velvet had no idea how to start things off and Weiss seemed quite happy to sit in silence. Velvet cursed her social awkwardness at times like these, made it really hard to interact with people.

Eventually Velvet had enough of sitting there awkwardly and blurted out the first question that came to mind. “Can you please explain what you meant by the Backstreets, and the Index and being a messenger?” Because the way Weiss said them made it sound like terms she expected everyone to be familiar with.

“I can certainly explain those terms, so long as you explain some terms yourself.” That seemed fair enough. Information for information. Should be easy. Nothing world shattering.... she hoped.

She would later regret that line of thought.

“Yeah sure I can do that.”

“Very well.” Then Weiss with her very calm voice begins to tell her about the city she lived in (called the City of all things) the place where only humans could live in, the Index, the fact it was a crime syndicate of all things. The prescripts which ordered people to do whatever they say, no matter how dangerous or insane it was, or face death at the hands of the Index. Velvet couldn’t believe how calmly Weiss told her that little fact, like she was just commenting on the weather. It was disturbing to say the least. It also implied that Weiss had killed people before, and she seemed completely unbothered by that fact.

There was also the fact that Weiss was a messenger, which in her words meant that she, in her own words, ‘would be the one to take the prescript to its intended recipient, ensue that the recipient understood what they must do by answering any question they may have, and execute them for tax evasion if they fail to do so.’ The idea that not being able to carry out prescript would be considered tax evasion confused Velvet until Weiss explained that instead of asking for protection money they asked the people under their protection to carry out the prescripts.

Velvet had a very hard time deciding what one was worse.

“Can you explain what you mean by only humans are allowed to live in the City?” Velvet asked knowing that that someone like her would not be allowed in such a place. Weiss gave a small tilt of her head before she began to explain.

“Well as long as you were born human, in the eyes of the Head, you are welcome in the city.” Weiss explained, Velvet could hear the emphasis she placed on the word head. There was a faint undercurrent of fear, like she was afraid that whatever this head was, could just appear and ruin her day, like the bogeyman. “So someone like you and me would be welcome but anything like A.I or Gnomes were ousted from the City many years ago.” Okay Velvet was going to put that for the side for the moment, having been caught of guard by the fact Weiss said a Faunus like her would be welcome in the City.

“What do you mean like me. I’m a Faunus.” Velvet pointed out. “I’m not human.” As she was so often reminded of, day in and day out.

Weiss gave Velvet a confused tilt of her head. “Why wouldn’t you be welcome? I know for a fact that there are people like you living in the City.” With her left hand Weiss traced the scar crossing over her left eye. “A girl with cat ears was the one who took out my left eye when the Index had a skirmish with the Thumb.” Velvet noticed how blasé Weiss was about such an injury, like it didn’t really matter or she didn’t really care. As a hunter Velvet knew of many of her fellow students and some teachers who had lost their sight in the line of duty. Very few survived as injuries to the eyes were hard to heal even with aura. Too finicky and too delicate. It took a great deal of skill that most hunters did not have without a lot of training.

Soon enough their orders arrived and their talk was put on hold as they began to eat. Velvet enjoyed the soothing warmth of her hot chocolate, she clutched the mug in her hands. The thoughts in Velvet’s head bounced around, she had so many questions.

She also had a feeling she had only just scratched the surface of the mystery that was Weiss.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2 You can't help but worry.

Glynda Goodwitch had a very strong urge to hug the girl standing in front of her desk, she refrained not knowing if Blake would appreciate or want that. It was late and someone had teleported into her office, just before she was going to turn in for the night. The young girl clearly didn’t know how she wound up in Glynda’s office, she was clearly telling the truth about that. Glynda would know, her many years as a teacher helping her discern when a child was lying to her. Blake was not. She also, more worryingly, not lying about the fact she would happily kill herself if Glynda ordered her to. It was only her long career as a hunter that helped her keep the expression on her face schooled. “I am Glynda Goodwitch, the deputy headmistress of Beacon academy.” Blake looked confused at the mention of the name of her current location, frankly as much as Glynda wanted to ask it was very late at night.

“Right Miss Blake, would you like a place to stay for the night? It’s very late and we’ll talk in the morning and sort things out then.” she gently offered the young faunus, making sure to make no sudden moves. She could see how tense Blake was and Glynda hated it. It reminded her of the students who couldn’t relax, always tense, worried that saying the wrong thing would get them hurt. She had seen many cases in her long career as a teacher. “We have some guest rooms you can use.” It was true, Beacon had guest rooms that could be used for people who weren’t staff or students could stay in temporarily if the need arose. Like right now, for instance.

“Oh I wouldn’t want to-.” Glynda held up a hand stopping Blake short. She looked absolutely terrified, only for Blake to quickly school her face into one of forced neutrality. It was fragile, like old glassware. One wrong move and it would shatter entirely. Glynda needed to be careful and gentle. She opened a drawer in her desk and got out one of the guest room keys that resided in there. The room could be opened with one’s scroll but there also existed physical keys just in case a scroll couldn’t be used for whatever reason. Glynda wasn’t sure if Blake had a scroll, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

“No I insist, Miss Blake.” Glynda said with a gentle firmness, one forged from her years of teaching children just like Blake. As much as she wanted to tear down Blake’s world-view, she knew that it was better to take it one step at a time. “You can use a guest room.” Glynda slowly stood up from her desk, noting Blake subtlety tensing as she did so. “That’s what they’re there for in the first place.” Blake relaxed slightly, still very tense and guarded. It was progress all the same. “Please do follow me.” Glynda said walking to her office door, unsure footsteps soon echoed behind her.

Glynda opened her office door and began the thankfully short trip to the guest rooms, which weren’t that far from Glynda’s apartment, hopefully if anything came up Glynda could be there as fast as possible. Beacon was quiet, everyone had long gone to sleep except her and Ozpin. She opened the door, using the key, to the guest room closet to her place. It had everything one could need, a small kitchenette, an attached bathroom, a chest of drawers with some clothing of all sizes, as well as a desk and comfortable bed. Glynda stepped back and allowed Blake to look into the room, she looked extremely amazed at the relatively simple room, which raised questions about her living conditions. “Can I really use such a nice room like this?” Blake looked like she wasn’t even aware she asked that question.

“Of course you can.” Blake jumped, startled by Glynda’s answer. “If you need me I’m just down the hall in apartment 2.” Blake nodded her head, and Glynda knew in an instant Blake wasn’t like to come get her if something happened. She was clearly someone who was taught not to take up room, to not let herself breathe and take a chance to relax. But still she needed Blake to know that the option was available to her.

“Thank you miss!” Blake almost shouted out before realising how loud she was being. “Thank you miss. She stood there... almost like she was waiting for Glynda to dismiss her. And she was.

“You may go if you so wish.” Glynda offered handing Blake the key, then stepping back and letting Blake have some room. “Good night Blake.” she said noticing how the girl tightly held on to the key she had been given.

Blake hesitated for a moment, but eventually replied. “Thank you miss.” she grinned shakily. “Good night to you too.” Blake stepped inside her room, and closed the door behind her. Glynda was left alone in the quiet halls. She sighed and turned to head off to her home, and thus her bed.

Her thoughts ran wild as her footsteps echoed in the quiet hall. She and Blake would have a more in depth discussion tomorrow after they had both gotten some sleep. Blake looked like she dearly needed some sleep.

As Glynda arrived at her apartment, she opened her front door and walked inside. She shut the door behind her, leaving her in the gentle gloom of her apartment. By the table by her front door she kept one of her glasses cases, so she could take her glasses off and put them away. It was a way for her to turn off her ‘work mode’ and enter a more relaxed state of mind. She didn’t need to worry about stumbling around in the dark, she knew where everything was and so she could walk like a graceful ballet dancer. She grabbed her glasses and took them off, seeing the gloom become more indistinct. She opened her case, and placed the glasses inside. She snapped it shut and began to get herself ready for bed.

Her thoughts occupied by Blake and what was going on with her.

 

- - - -

 

Lost and Alone.

Blake, turned the light on, then shut the door behind her, and she felt she was on the verge of complete and utter panic. She had disrespected Glynda and her space. So why didn’t she punish Blake for her transgressions? That was how things were done. That was how the Thumb was the most respectable of the Five Fingers. So why didn’t she? It felt so so wrong to the Soldato.

She stood there for what felt like an eternity, her breaths shaking her to her core. Breath in. Hold. And breath out. She continued that until she felt her nerves settle somewhat. She placed the key she had been given on the table. She took off her hat, placed it on the table. She took of her musket, put it on the table. She took the bullets out of her jacket, placed it on the table. She counted them as she did so. She had five bullets, she had to make them count. She took off her jacket, folded it and placed it on the table. She took her shoes off, placed them under the table. She opened the drawers and found sleeping ware that looked to be about her size. She placed them atop the neatly made bed. They felt comfortable to the touch. They were just a plain long sleeved shirt and a pair of shorts, both were black. A colour Blake had always found to be soothing. A gentle darkness to rest in, where she didn’t have to worry about anything.

She didn’t give herself time to think at that moment, if she did she would work herself up into a panic. She closed the curtains, catching a glimpse of the shattered moon, a reminder of how far she was from all that she knew. She took off her suit, making sure to fold it as the Thumb handbook dictated she should. She placed it atop her jacket. She put on the sleeping wear she had been provided. It felt comfortable and warm, it felt like it was been wasted on someone of her rank. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the lights. She opened the cabinet and found several manual brushes, all in separate little boxes. She opened one at random, found some toothpaste and got to work cleaning her teeth.

She let muscle memory take over, trying to get her thoughts in some semblance of order. Right Blake, what do you know? she thought to herself, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her eyes were fighting to keep themselves open, her face had scars from all the fights she had been in. One across her nose from when she had fought that messenger of the Index, her rapier barely missing her eyes. Blake got even, gouging out the Messenger’s eye with her bayonet. You know that you seem to be outside the City. Some place called Beacon Academy. Next steps, find information and learn. Be sure to be respectful, you may be the first member of the Thumb and first impressions are important. she thought as she scrubbed her teeth, making extra sure not to miss a spot.

Eventually she finished that task, she turned off the bathroom lights, walked out, turned out the lights and got into the bed. She sink into the plush mattress, she wanted to say this was wasted on one such as her.

She drifted off into a fitful sleep. Her dreams, as always, filled with the thoughts of the punishments one would face for disrespecting the hierarchy, she saw the faces of those who didn’t survive. Exhausting dreams, even while she tried to rest.

 

. . . .

 

Blake woke up to a knock at the door, her ears twitching in the direction of the sound. “Blake, it’s Glynda. Are you up?” She blinked, still not fully awake. She began to get out of bed, wanting desperately wanting to stay in the nice and cosy bed, but she knew she had to get up. So she did.

“I am, I won’t be longer than a minute.” she called back, taking her sleeping wear off before getting changed back into her usual uniform. If she was allowed, she would ask of she could get herself some other clothing. She didn’t just want to have one outfit. Maybe she could find a tailor as good as the one who made the suit she was wearing. Maybe but those were things for later. She made sure her jacket was over her shoulders, her hat on her head and her musket on her back. She took a deep breath and walked over to the door and opened it. Outside the door was Miss Glynda Goodwitch, she was dressed with a white frilly shirt and a black skirt that went below her knees. Her hair was done up in a somewhat messy bun, and she was wearing a pair of glasses. Blake immediately realised she was dangerously close to meeting Miss Goodwitch’s eye, so Blake’s eyes shoot to looking at Miss Goodwitch’s shoes. She could hear Miss Goodwitch give a quiet sigh, did she do something wrong? Oh no oh no. “I’m here.” she said trying not to let her fear show. Keep calm, keep cool and you won’t be punished.

“It’s breakfast would you like to come along and eat?” Miss Goodwitch asked catching Blake off guard. In the Thumb the higher up you were in the ranks, the earlier you got to eat, so Blake as a Soldato was along the last to eat and the last to fall asleep. Safe to say Blake was shocked by the mere thought as eating at the same time as someone higher in rank than her. It wasn’t something that

“Is it alright for me to eat at the same time as you?” Blake asked, make sure that her voice didn’t waver as she asked that question. Normally she wouldn’t ask a question like this, but something told her that Miss Goodwitch was different. “Soldatos usually eat after the Capos and Sottocapos.” It was why she had become so good at ignoring her hunger, she had to be after all. Those who didn’t, wouldn’t survive. If there was one thing Blake could say she was good at, it was surviving. She survived, when everyone else died. She pushed those thoughts down.

Blake couldn’t see Miss Goodwitch’s expression, but her voice was much softer and gentler that Blake expected or was used to from someone like her. “It’s perfectly fine for you to eat at the same time as me.” Blake believed her, as much as she could believe anyone she didn’t know well. “Please follow me, we have quite the range of food available.” Glynda turned and began to walk a path unknown to Blake. Blake walked after her, making sure to shut her door and pocket the key she had been given.

Glynda’s heels echoed throughout the hall, Blake’s steps matching their timing, borne from years and years of practise. Blake, while keeping her eyes down, surveyed everything she could see as she followed Miss Goodwitch to the dining room. Blake didn’t have much of the way of formal schooling at a school on account of the whole being raised by a syndicate thing, but Beacon looked a lot like a school she would read about in the books she loved to read. She loved reading, often reading one fanciful tale or the other while on her breaks. It was nice, just pretending the world was simple and clean as a fairy tale. But every time she had to return to the cruel reality of her day to day existence.

Soon the pair was at the dining room, and safe to say Blake was shocked. The dining room was enormous, tables with attached chairs filling the room to the brim, some of them were occupied, some by people Blake’s age and some by people older than Blake. There were large windows letting the morning sun stream in, and fill the room with a gentle warmth. Maybe Blake could find herself a seat in the sun, she always liked being warm in the sun, it made her feel cosy. One wall was taken up by the buffet, behind it, in another room was the kitchen, which seemed to be well staffed all of them busy cooking up breakfast. Blake had to stop herself from salivating from the delicious scent of food she could smell. Blake’s stomach loudly growled, make her face flush a brilliant red. You should be better than this, she chided herself in her thoughts.

“Come along Blake. Let’s get you something to eat.” Miss Goodwitch suggested, walking over to the food on offer. Blake followed after her, her head habitually low. As she walked behind Miss Goodwitch she could hear faint whispers from a nearby table, her cat ears twitch in the direction. Her ears, something that made her stick out in the rank and file, gave her better hearing than most people had. It was a useful tool, it allowed her to hear what was coming for her, before most people could. Also she had pretty good night vision, but that wasn’t as relevant at the moment.

These whispers, for the most part, were curious about Blake.

“-wonder who that is-?”

“-yeah she doesn’t look like-.”

“-why is she following Miss Goodwitch-?”

“-what’s with that really old gun-?”

Blake did her best to ignore it.

It was not easy, but she managed.

When she got to the food, Blake found herself a bit lost on what to do. There was so much on offer.

So she got what was the most familiar to her, she got some cereal, some toast, some orange juice as well as some scrambled eggs. She picked up her tray and seeing nothing better to do, followed Glynda and sat down at the same table. She of course sat on the opposite side, and quickly got to eating.

It was.... something alright. It tasted amazing Blake would admit to herself, she ate like she was starving. Which she was, the Thumb had its soldatos eat after long periods of times, which with the typical work day worked up quite an appetite.

“I see you’re enjoying that?” Miss Goodwitch asked, cup of hot steaming tea cradled in her hand. Blake, whose mouth was full of scrambled eggs, just nodded, not wanting to be rude and speak with her mouth full. “I’m glad.” Blake couldn't help the small smile that graced her lips.

 

- - - -

 

What’s the next step Dorothy?

 

Glynda examined the young girl sitting across from her, with a gentle and discerning eye. Blake was rigid, eating her breakfast at a decent clip, any faster and Glynda feared she would choke. Normally Glynda would have her breakfast in the staff room, preferring the relative quiet and isolated room to eat in, the dining room could easily get too loud for her to stand. Today however she was going to eat in the dining room, so that she could show Blake where it was and see if she could learn more about Blake. It helped that only a handful of students who stayed year round for whatever reason, were occupying the room currently.

But enough about that, she needed to focus on the girl in front of her. “Blake?” she asked waiting for her to finish her current mouthful of food. “Can you please tell me about the Thumb?” she asked, making a point to make it clear to Blake that she didn’t have to answer if she didn’t want to.

Blake, seemingly ignoring that, began to to explain. She explained about the City she was raised in- it sounded like a whole other world to Glynda, the Five Syndicates- each one named after a finger on a hand. There was the Thumb, the Index, the Middle, the Ring and the Pinky. Blake managed to explain a little bit about each one, going into greater detail about the Thumb. The Index, who followed the prescript’s instruction without fail and expected those under their protection to do the same. Failure to do so would result in death.

The Middle, who Blake explained were a big believer in being a family, and when one of their family was hurt the Middle would retaliate with an excessive amount of force, even for the most minor of slights.
The Ring, a group of artists that wanted to capture ‘the human experience’ in their art. Which much to Glynda’s well concealed horror meant that people were killed and turned into ‘art.’ Glynda’s stomach churned at the mere thought, she could easily imagine the horrors something like the Ring would create. She clenched her mug tight, using the dwindling warmth of her tea as a way to ground herself.

The Pinky, Blake told her the least about, apparently they were very secretive and apart from a brief mention of philosophy Blake told her little.

The Thumb, however tested Glynda’s control over her anger. She gritted her teeth as Blake explained how the Thumb believed in respect and respecting those higher up than oneself. How they enforced this? By using things like mutilation and even up to death, if they stepped out of line. Which they could easily do by doing things like touching their superior without permission. Blake showed her that they had cut of the young girl’s right hand. Blake took of the glove on her right hand revealing the prosthetic beneath the silken gloves. It was simple and made of steel, plain and a simple design.

“For disrespecting my superior by touching her without permission, my hand was cut off.” she said so matter of factly, like casual cruelty like that was like talking about the weather. Normal and an accepted part of life. She slipped her glove back on, matching with its counterpart on the left hand.

There was also the fact that in the Thumb those in the lower ranks had to eat much later than anyone else, often going without food for long periods of times. The same could be said of their chances to sleep. Blake was among the last who were allowed to go to sleep. “I’ve gotten used to suppressing my hunger, it makes it easier on me.” Blake said, like she was proud of what she had done in order to not least her hunger stop her.

Glynda saw no reason to be proud, however. She was reminded of the gnawing hunger she felt, back as a wee child, back when she had nothing to her name. Never getting enough to eat. She shook her head, no was not the time to get lost in her memories, she reminded herself, Blake needed her more at the moment.

Glynda, doing her best to keep her anger in check, took a sip of her tea. It was beginning to cool, unlike her anger. It wanted to rage at the injustice it had witnessed, it wanted to ensue Blake never had to face something like that every again. But she knew that let her rage slip its leash was not the solution. So she took a deep breath, before trying to impart some wisdom. “Blake why do you think the way the Thumb treats you is the right thing to do?” she asked, wanting to see if she could crack the chains holding Blake.

Blake blinked, looking very confused at the question. “It... it just is?” she sounding like she was asking rather than telling Glynda that. “It’s important to show respect right?”

“It is.” Glynda confirmed, before tacking on something else. “But showing respect goes both ways.” Blake looked absolutely shocked at that assertion. She blinked, trying to process Glynda’s words. “Just because someone makes a minor mistake, that doesn’t give them the right to hurt you because of that. It’s not right.”

Glynda took a depth breath, and took a moment to gather her composure. “I have students that have been rude to me. Do you know what I do to them?” Blake shook her head, clearly unsure about what to say. “I talk to them, and try my best to help them correct their behaviour. Does the Thumb do something like that?” She already had a good idea what that answer was going to be.

“...No.” Blake weakly responded. She seemed like she had a lot to think about. So Glynda left her to her thoughts for the moment. She knew that it wasn’t going to be a one and done thing, she would need to chip away at Blake’s extremely toxic world view, bit by bit. After that she would help the girl rebuild herself.

Over Blake’s shoulder, Glynda could spot Miss Scarletina walking over to where she was sitting, behind the young girl was a young woman with white hair. The white haired girl walked with a certain grace, like she had nothing to be worried about. On her hip was a sheathed rapier. She vaguely reminded Glynda of Specialist Schnee, probably from the same way the two walked. With an easy sort of confident that everything would work out for them.

“Miss Goodwitch?” Miss Scarletina asked after she came up to the teacher, she sounded a bit unsure, but that was normal for the brunette in Glynda’s experience. Blake’s ear twitched in the general direction of Miss Scarletina and her companion, but the young girl didn’t turn to look.

“Yes Miss Scarletina?” she replied, keeping a wary eye on the white haired girl. “How may I help you and your friend?”

“I am Weiss, messenger of the Index,” Blake stiffened upon hearing the white haired woman speak, “Velvet said you could be able to help me with my situation.” Blake looked like she wanted to run, but instead froze right where she was sitting. Weiss looked down, and say Blake. She smiled, as cold as the tundra. She placed a hand on Blake's shoulder. Like she was stopping her from running. “Oh hello there. It’s good to see you again.” Blake stiffened even more, to the point one could mistake her for a statue.

 

“We have so much to talk about.”

 

- - - -

Distant chains

Yang woke to the sounds of hushed voices and boiling kettles. She slowly opened her eyes, and wondered where she was. She took in her new surroundings, making sure to keep her guard up. The place she found herself, was for lack of a better term, domestic. All the walls seemed to be made out of wood. Pictures dotted the wall. Frames of many shapes and sizes. She gripped the surface she was laying on and found it to be plush. She looked down and found she was on a couch, her head propped up with cushions, a loved and well cared for blanket, red in colour and soothing to the touch. It tugged at Yang’s memories, like it was something familiar to her. Like something from her past. But she doubted it. She belonged to the Middle, nowhere else.

“I’m worried-.”

“I know I know-.” were the hushed words she could catch drifting from a distant room.

“Where am I?” she asked herself, trying to remember what had happened before she wound up in this place. The moment she did so, she leapt from the couch, her anger inflamed once more, the blanket tossed carelessly to the floor. That woman! That fucking woman! She grit her teeth, her tattoos flashing in time with her breaths. Her heart pounding like a war drum. She was going to find that-

She heard a curious sounding huff, down by her feet. She looked down and saw that a small black and white dog. A corgi she thinks this kind of dog is called. The sight of the dog is almost enough to distract her from her rage. Almost. “You wouldn’t happen to know where that woman is would you?” she asked the dog, not expecting much in the way of response. She bent her knees and held out her hand as she asked, letting the dog sniff her hand. Why she did this Yang wasn’t sure, it wasn’t like she had seen a dog before in real life.

It takes a moment but, much to her shock, nods like it understands her and runs off towards the hushed whispers from the other room.

“Zwei what is it boy?” one voice said, a warm sounding voice, echoing slightly from the distance.

A bark.

“I’m guessing he’s saying Yang’s awake.” The second voice was familiar to Yang, if only due to the fact she had fucked with the Middle.
Soon Yang could hear the sound of approaching footsteps, she tenses up ready for anything. That woman may have won that battle, but next time would be different.

Accompanying the black haired version of herself, was a woman with black hair that had the occasional red highlight. Her eyes were silver, like looking into a pool of liquid metal. She had seen eyes like those only once before, at the Finger Bow Bell. The Ring student who had stood in the corner, shyly watching people with her sketchbook in one hand, and a pencil in the other. The black haired woman was just wearing a simple combination of a t-shirt and ripped blue jeans. Said woman brightened upon seeing that Yang was awake. “Ah good you’re awake.” she said, stating the obvious. “I’m Summer,” she introduced before she gestured to the woman beside her, “and this grump is Raven, the love of my life.” Raven just huffed grumpily on being introduced. She smiled at Yang, taking the little sister off guard. “Your name is Yang, right?” Yang tensed at the question.

“How do know my name?” Yang growled, ready to fight, even if she had lost the last time. The Middle taught her to fight with every fibre of her being for the sake of her family.

“Because you look just like our daughter.” Raven spoke up, confusing Yang with that statement for a moment. But the fact she and Raven looked so alike was concerning to say the least.

“How do I look like your daughter?” Yang asked, not sure where this may be going. It wasn’t like these were going to be her parents right? “I’ve never know my family.” She had assumed she was abandoned by her family, it mad the most sense to the child her. It was true, for a good chunk of her life she was a Rat before she became a member of the Middle, the lowest of the low in the City, trying to survive the harsh City all on her own. Which was a dime a dozen story in the City.

Raven opened a strange device, that honestly looked like a small pane of glass. She tapped on it for a bit before turning it around so Yang could see the picture on the screen. On it was Summer, Raven, a small black haired girl with silver eyes, and most shockingly was image of a younger version of herself. “That’s how.” Summer explained, as Yang snatched the device out of Raven’s hands, much to said woman’s annoyance. “When you were six and your sister was four, you both disappeared one day, without a trace.” Yang could see the tears beginning to well up in Summer’s eyes. Raven wrapped a hand around her waist. “We-we tried to search for you. We couldn’t find any sign of you two.” she said with a slight sniffle. The tears started to stream down her face. Raven gripped her tighter. “I’m sorry, I-i’d given up hope of seeing either of you again.” Summer’s voice shook as she said this.

While Summer was trying to steam her tears, Yang was grappling with the part of the story that said she had a sister. “I have a sister?” she asked, her tattoos stopped glowing as she said this, her anger mostly suppressed by her curiosity. She had always wondered if she had a family before the Middle, but she always shoved it a distant corner, trying her best not to think about it. She belonged with the Middle anyway. She shook her head. “That doesn’t matter. I’m a member of the Middle.” What mattered was her family. The one that she was bound in chains to. Nothing else.

“The Middle?” Raven asks, staring at Yang in an impassive manner. “You mentioned them before I knocked you out.” Yang’s thought skipped a beat, shocked at someone who had never heard of the Middle, one of the biggest syndicates of the City. Wherever they were must really be out in the boonies. A sliver of dread, crawled down Yang’s spine, the mere thought was one she didn’t want to even consider.

“The Middle? You know one of the Five Fingers. One of the biggest syndicates in the City?” She asked, trying to push the thought out of her mind. I’m not in the Outskirts? she hoped to herself, dreading to find out the actual answer. Everyone knew about the Outskirts, where it was extremely dangerous and all the sentient non humans were forced out from the City to. Cuckoos, gnomes, AI you name it and if it was sentient and wasn’t born a human. Well they were forced out of the City, forced to survive outside the relative safety the City offered.

“I have never heard of an organisation like that in my life, and I was a bandit and I'm a hunter, I’ve been around the block as it were.”

“Never?” asked an incredulous Yang. It made the previous non reaction Raven had at the mention of the Middle make sense. Would Yang still try to punch her head in? Yes yes she would. Even if she wasn’t strong enough right now, and if she was far away from the City bereft of support of her family, she could put it off until later.

Raven shook her head. “I’ve been to all the four kingdoms, and I have never heard of an organisation called the Middle,” she gestured to Yang, “if you’re what they’re all like, well I imagine you’re not the best at keeping things secret.” Yang gritting her teeth, wanted to dispute that, but found that she couldn’t really do that. The Middle, as much as she loved her family, didn’t really know the meaning of words like discretion or keeping secrets or quiet. They were loud and unabashedly themselves, unlike the Pinky, all hidden and secretive, like a dagger in the dark.

“What the fuck are the four kingdoms?” Yang asked, feeling the flames of her anger flicker again. Her anger wanted to rage and burn. But Yang tugged on its leash, no was not the time.

“Yang do you not know where you are?”

“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t be asking you that!” Yang shot back angrily.

“Yang you’re on the island of Patch of the coast of Vale.” Summer told her, her voice was soft in an attempt to soothe Yang, one held up in a gesture of surrender. “Where were you before you wound up here?”
“I was in the City. Heading home from a party. I walked in my front door...” Yang gave a shrug, leaving obvious as to what happened next. She wasn’t sure why she told Summer this, but tell her she did.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3 Mixing colours

Ruby followed Neo through this whole new city she found herself in. She made to keep pace with the girl with the tri coloured hair, but still took the time to map out her surroundings, making a mental map of the place, which would serve her well until she got her hands on an actual map. This city seemed to be much cleaner, and for lack of better words, less oppressive. The air didn’t seem to be filled with the scent of things like spilt blood, smoke and the harsh and burning scent of unknown chemicals. It was a strange experience for the young student. The moon seemed to have been shattered at some point, leaving its debris to float in the unforgiving void of space. There also seemed to be no things like syndicates or fixers or rats running about, all fighting to live another day. It was weird, to say the least and Ruby had no idea if she could ever get used to a place like this.

Eventually the duo reached an apartment block, with Neo taking the stairs to the second floor, Ruby trailing right behind her. When Neo reached a door labelled 2B she pulled out a key and inserted into the lock. With a deft flick of her wrist, Neo opened the door to reveal a fairly nice looking apartment. It was a mostly a plain and understated place, that Ruby thought could use a bit more decoration to brighten the place up, but it was functional and to the point, and considering the man in front of a pin board planning on stealing Dust (whatever that was), maybe that was all they needed it to be.

“Hey Neo,” the red haired man, who really only could be Roman, said turning only for him to be surprised to see Ruby with Neo, “Neo who the fuck is this?” he asked Neo, while trying his best to cover up the very obvious plans to steal stuff with his body, and did it in such a way that made it extremely obvious he was up to something. He would do a better job of hiding it if he just left it be.

“Hi I’m Ruby Rose!” the student introduced herself to Roman who only gave her a baffled look. “Neo said I could stay with you two!” Neo nodded her head, backing up what Ruby said. Roman, with a frustrated gleam in his eyes and a silent question waiting to be asked, turned to look at Neo, who just offered him a shit eating grin and a shrug. Her eyes made it clear that she wouldn’t accept any opinions to the contary.

“Any relation to Summer Rose?” Roman asked, seeing that Neo wasn’t like to budge on letting Ruby stay with her. Ruby blinked, trying to remember if she had heard that name before.

She came up with nothing, and said as such. “I have no idea who that is.” she stated bluntly.

“Really?” Roman asked, sounding like he didn’t believe Ruby at all. Ruby wanted to pout at such an obvious show of disbelief, but refrained from such. “Summer Rose, one of the most famous hunters of her generation, leader of team STRQ? Does that ring any bells?”

“Nope!”

“Are you from another planet or something?” he asked, in a way that seemed sarcastic to Ruby, who wasn’t the best judge of that admittedly.

“Think so yeah, how’d you know?” Roman, apparently had no idea how to take that frank admission, started to splutter in shock.

“Wait what?” he eventually managed to croak out.

“Well the moon back home isn’t broken.” she pointed out, which just seemed to make Roman mad and his eye brow twitch.

“You know what? Sure she can stay here! I’m going to bed. Good night!” With that said Roman stalked off into an adjoining room, which looked to Ruby to be a bedroom, and shut the door behind him.

Ruby turned to Neo, who looked at her with an adorably smug grin. “What do we do now?” she asked the other girl. Behind Neo Ruby could still see the crime planning board, now left for all to see. Admittedly Ruby was more familiar with the protection racket the Ring ran, rather than stealing things.

Neo stalked over to the couch, and promptly sat down on its plush surface. She patted the cushion next to her, and Ruby seeing the invitation walked over and sat down next to the girl with pink and brown eyes. In front of them, was something that looked similar to a television, attached to the wall in front of the couch. “Want to watch some tv?” Neo asked her. Honestly Ruby saw no reason to refuse, and besides she was curious what the shows were like here. The shows Ruby watched tended to be the ones the Ring put on, on the channels they owned, which to the surprise of no one consisted mainly on show about art. Every member of the Five Fingers (barring the Pinky of course) owned a couple of tv channels, as did the main twelve fixer associations and the various corporations. She got the Ring channels for free.

“Yeah sure thing, what do you have in mind?” With a grin Neo grabbed a remote that was sitting on the couch’s armrest. She pressed the on button, making the television light up.

So Ruby and Neo settled in, got cosy and watched the movie Neo had put on. It was a weird horror lesbian romance, and Ruby enjoyed every minute of cheesy special effects, rubber suited monsters and women kissing.

Eventually Ruby would find herself drifting off, and would wake up to find that someone had left a blanket for her to snuggle under and a pillow for her head to rest on.

 

- - - -

What does fate have in store?

Weiss had enjoyed the meal she had gotten, the chocolate ice cream and milkshake weren’t the most filling meal she would admit, but they did hit the spot. Currently she was explaining some of the finer details of how the City operated, like with the nests and the Wings that ran them, also the feathers that called those nests home. As well as the backstreets attached to each of the nests. “So you’re saying the City is divided up in to 26 different districts each one run by a different corporation, am I getting that right?” Velvet asked looking like she wasn’t quite sure how to process what Weiss was telling her, which Weiss couldn’t really blame the rabbit eared girl for. An errant thought of Velvet as a member of the rabbit team briefly cross Weiss’ mind before she brushed it aside. Besides Velvet seemed much too kind a person for that team of lunatics. “Can you give me some examples of some of the corps?”

Weiss thought for a moment, trying to think of a good one to use as an example, before deciding on W-corp as a one she could use. “Well there’s W-corp who run the warp trains, which can transport you to your destination on an instant, fairly affordable too, unless you want a first class ticket.” Weiss never got why something that transported you place to place in an instant needed first class tickets in the first place, but then again knowing how things tended to go in the City, Weiss could easily imagine W-corp subjecting their passengers to some horrible and grisly fate. So Weiss, unless ordered by a prescript, avoided taking the warp train as much as she possible could. She didn’t want to see what actually happened to the passengers with her own two eyes.

Velvet blinked puzzled from the mention of the first class tickets. “Why would there be first class tickets for something that doesn’t last that long?” she asked the question Weiss also had, not accepting it at face value, which is a good skill to have in the City. Weiss approved.

“That’s a good question, I’m afraid I can’t answer that however. I haven’t much reason to use the warp train myself.”

“Ah right.” Velvet replied, seeing that Weiss didn’t have much else to say on the subject. “What are the backstreets like? In comparison to the Nests I mean.”

“If the nests are places of relative safety and ruled by the various corporations,” Weiss made sure to stress the word relative, “the Backstreets are where the syndicates like the Five Fingers rule, with power equivalent to the corporations. Their rules are the rules of the parts they rule over. The Thumb is obsessed with hierarchy and propriety, so anyone who lives there needs to do the same, respect your superiors or face the consequences.” While Weiss did believe being respectful was a good thing to be, the Thumb were extremely excessive in how they showed their respect. Willing to let themselves be mutilated just for speaking out of turn, or for a very minor and inconsequential fault or mistake. There’s a very good reason why many people steer clear of the Thumb and their subordinates, it was extremely easy to provoke them into attacking you. Like that cat eared girl, she was a nervous wreck of a girl, but the moment someone bumped into her superior, it was like a switch was flipped. She was a vicious fighter, willing to do do anything to see those she saw as enemies dead or punished in accordance with the rules of the Thumb. Weiss knew that without a doubt, that girl was strong, and provided she kept herself alive, she could easily see that girl climbing the ranks with relative ease. That and she wanted to fight that girl again if she had the chance. Weiss, despite her cool exterior, was a bit of a battle junkie and she loved the feeling of her pounding heart as she fought to live another day. Her boiling blood the racing adrenaline, she loved it all.

“Do I want to ask what the consequences even are?” Velvet asked, only for Weiss to shake her head. “Yeah I figured.” Velvet fiddling with with a balled up napkin began to ask Weiss some more questions about the Five Fingers and Weiss was happy to answer them to the best of her ability. She told her about the Ring, artists who created art from their victims and were seeking ways to create art that expressed things about the human condition. She told her about the Middle, people who claimed each other as family, bound together by their chains. They were a big believer in an attack on one of them was an attack on all of them- any ‘sins’ were written in their books of vengeance, so they would retaliate with everything they had. The Thumb and the Index, Weiss had already gone over them to a point, but added some more details that Weiss felt Velvet should know. For the Thumb she mentioned about how their rules of propriety didn’t just apply to themself, they applied to everyone the Thumb interacted with even if they liked it or not.

For the Index she mentioned the ranks that made up the syndicate she was a member of, there were the proselytes the initiates of the Index, made to wear a blindfold to help them learn to follow the prescripts without question. Next level up were the proxies, the ones who serve as the executors of the Index and help enforce the prescripts by tracking down and punishing those who have failed at fulfilling their prescript. An alternative rank that a proselyte could be promoted to was the rank of messenger, the rank Weiss herself held, they were in charge of delivering prescripts to their intended recipient and helping them fulfil it by clarifying anything that may cause confusion. There were also the Weavers, the ones who weaved together the tapestry that was the will of the city into the prescripts she obeyed. The Weavers admittedly tended to keep to the shadows, to the point most of the Index didn’t seem to aware of them.

Then they got to the subject of the Pinky, which safe to say was a secretive bunch. Velvet looked a touch overwhelmed at all this information, and Weiss couldn’t fault her for that. Thankfully she was almost done with her explanation. “With the Pinky, however, they’re the most secretive of the Five Fingers, infiltrating other organisations, all over the City.” The fact that made this so paranoia inducing was the fact that no one had any idea of how large the Pinky actually was and the fact anyone you knew could be a member.

“What do mean by that?”

Weiss took a moment to think about how best to phrase it. Eventually she decided on the words she would use. “The Pinky is so secretive to the point that unless ordered otherwise two members of the Pinky might fight to the death, in order to not break character as it were.”

Velvet looked horrified at all Weiss had told her, and Weiss felt a small bit of sympathy for the other girl. If Weiss were in her shoes, completely new to the City and life in it, she would be the same way. But living her life in the cruel and uncaring city, like it did to everyone, wore aware at you numbing you to how cruel life could be, one horrible event at a time. “I think that’s enough for now.” Velvet finally said weakly. “I think I’ll tell you what you need to know tomorrow.” Velvet yawned. “Besides I’m exhausted and I want to try get some sleep if I can.” Weiss, in complete contrast, didn’t feel tired at all, due to the fact she had gotten a full night’s rest as well as the fact it was relatively early in the day before she got sent here.

“That’s perfectly fine with me. But do you have any place for me to sleep? I don’t think my money would be accepted here.” To demonstrate her point Weiss pulled out her wallet and pulled out some Ahn notes. The reminded her that she would also need to get some form of income while she was here, one couldn’t rely on the good will of others forever after all.

Velvet thought for a moment, her expression a pensive one. Eventually she offered Weiss some accommodation. “You can sleep in my room.” she offered and Weiss seeing no other option had to accept.

“Thank you, for your kindness.” Weiss thanked the brown haired girl, bowing her head slightly as she did so.

“You’re welcome.” Velvet replied before she said something quietly underneath her breath. It was so quiet that Weiss could barely hear it despite sitting just across from the girl. What did Velvet mean by ‘it’s not like anyone was using the other beds now anyway?’

Weiss wanted to ask about it, but she knew that it could easily be something personal to the girl, as well as something she didn’t mean for Weiss to hear. So she left it alone.

She was good at ignoring things that didn’t concern her. After all it’s a necessary skill for a member of the Index.

 

- - - -

To desire what is unwanted.

Roman Torchwick was wondering if Neo took a leave of her senses, bringing in a strange girl that looked like the younger version of one Summer Rose, which would likely bring trouble down on their heads. Trouble they couldn’t afford to deal with considering their current situation. The last person to refuse that woman was burned alive, slowly and painfully. She made it a demonstration to Roman and Neo too, having recorded it to convince anyone who was on the fence to join in in her crazy and fucking insane plan. As he and Neo liked being alive and uncooked they decided to play along for now, but the moment they saw the chance they were going to sabotage the hell out of the woman’s plans. Anyway he had a store called Dust to Dawn he needed to rob in like a week. So he is so looking forward to that. Please note the sarcasm, Roman rather wishes he could just go get a stiff drink.

He then realised that Neo felt like she was crazier than he was, meaning he should probably make some more back up plans or something before it blew up in their faces. He sighed, running a hand through his red hair, feeling just a bit frustrated at the girl who was like the sister he didn’t want at first, but grew to care for her after several heists. He looked at his current room, sparsely decorated, empty of the small personal touches that one would expect of people. Most of his personal belongings were kept in a bag that he could take with him any time, just in case something happened. These precautions were in case someone found out two very wanted criminals were staying in this apartment block, and they needed to make a quick getaway. Even if he and Neo went outside in disguise, him more so than Neo, you could never be too careful.

Which was why Neo bringing little Red back was so frustrating, he didn’t know the girl and what made her tick at all. He knew Neo and what made her tick.

Besides there was something in her eyes that made alarm bells ring in his head.
It reminded him, of the time he first met Neo, where both of girl’s eyes, looking at them reminded Roman of one thing and one thing one.

A mirror, fractured but still reflecting into an ever distant infinity.

Something was broken in Ruby, and Roman didn’t look forward finding out what it was.

One person like Neo was enough. The world didn’t need another.

- - - -

Sweet dreams lost little rabbit

 

Velvet Scarlatina was tired and really just wanted to go to bed now. Her head was whirling with all the things Weiss had told her about the City, it was a lot to process, but there was one thing that was abundantly clear and that was the City was a hellhole at best.

At the moment the pair of a Beacon student and a criminal that was being invited to stay at Beacon were currently on the last bullhead back to school, having just caught it in time. If they hadn’t Velvet would have to taken her chance with a motel room or something, something she was heavily disinclined to actually do. The pair silently sat in the same row of seats, the craft mostly empty apart from the odd straggler whose sleep schedule were as ruined as Velvet’s. Weiss sat in the window seat, a glint of amazement as she peered down at the city below them, shining in the dark, one hand pressed against the window leaving her prints in on the tempered glass. Velvet meanwhile, was examining the white haired girl with a curious gaze, trying to figure out the girl who sat next to her.

At the moment Velvet knew that Weiss was a dangerous person, considering she all but admitted to killing people for not following the Index’s prescripts, which was something that felt absolutely insane to the young Scarlatina, the fact people would blindly follow orders no matter how insane or dangerous they were, all because of a piece of paper that told them so. Velvet did her best to suppress her shudder at the thought of the Prescripts somehow winding up here, things were bad enough in Remnant with something like the Prescripts being added to the mix, so Velvet hoped against hope that no one tried to bring them over from the City.

However while Velvet knew Weiss was dangerous, there was also a slightly lost look in her ice blue eyes, like she didn’t know what to do with herself, and considering the fact she seemed to obey the prescripts for who know how long, so being cut off from it likely left her in a tail spin. Velvet could relate in a way, she felt directionless and lost, cut off from the compass that used to help her guide her on her way.

She shook her head, trying not to let those memories of that day bubble up again, she didn’t have much luck with that unfortunately. But thankfully the thuds of the bullhead landing on the landing pad distracted her from her spiralling thoughts, which she was grateful for. A hunter needs to be able to control their emotions after all, as the Grimm are drawn towards negative emotions, so the better one can control their negative emotions the better off they’ll be.

Soon enough the doors were opened and Weiss and Velvet left their flight and was greeted by the Beacon Campus shrouded in a relatively quiet night. The paths all illuminated by gentle and warm lights. One could see moths flying lazy circles around the lights, and also see the vague outlines of things like the buildings and the garden. Velvet led the way, the path she took having been engraved into her memories, like a piece of chiselled stone, formed from consistent and constant repetition. She often found herself walking the paths at night, sleep evading her like a scared rabbit. Her nightmares still came back at regular intervals, despite the fact she had regular appointments with the school therapist, she would have to talk about it with her during their next session. But yet she continued to walk the warmly lit path, lost in her thoughts, habit guiding her and her guest to her room.

Soon enough the two arrived at Velvet’s room. “Well here we are.” Velvet said, getting her scroll out and unlocking her door with a soft ‘click.’ “Welcome to my room.” she said, once more ignore how empty things felt nowadays, as she ignored that she flicked the lights on, revealing the current state of her room to Weiss. The traces that were left behind were all she had left of them. Posters of stuff like bands or, mugs no longer used, cosmetics left abandoned and unused, books- some half read left now all unattended, and a half built model kit left unfinished on one bed. All things Velvet couldn’t work up the courage to pack away, and in turn feeling like she’s being haunted by ghosts of those she couldn’t save.

“I’m sure I can get you something to sleep in.” Velvet said seeing that Weiss was around the same size as her. “Do you mind using a spare pair of my pyjamas?” she had a few pairs, a couple for the warmer months and a couple for the cooler months. Considering they were now heading into autumn, and the start of the new school year, the pair for cooler months would be a good idea.

“I don’t mind.” Weiss replied, looking around with a very obvious look of curiosity, but thankfully she didn’t ask any questions, which Velvet was very thankful for, the pain still felt too raw for her to talk about it with someone she didn’t know too well.

“Cool cool.” Velvet said, going over to the chest of drawers she kept her clothes in. She tried to pay no mind to the stickers of cute cats that covered one of the drawers, trying to solely focus her attention on her own drawer. She bet down and opened her drawer with a gentle but firm tug, and pulled out her spare pair of winter pyjamas.
After grabbing them she handed them to Weiss, who immediately began to undress herself. Velvet, face flushing a bright red, made a quick about turn. “What are you doing?!?” she squawked, trying her best to ignore the brief flash of pale and scarred skin she saw.

“Getting changed?” Weiss replied, sounding confused at Velvet’s reaction. “Why?”

“J-j-just do it in the bathroom!” Velvet shouted, trying her best to look at a random spot of the wall and pretend that was the most interesting thing in the world. She wasn’t doing a very good job at it. Damn her lesbianism!

“Okay?” Weiss replied, and thankfully Velvet could hear her shuffle off into the attached bathroom. Velvet only relaxed when she could hear the bathroom door shut.

Seeing that she was alone Velvet quickly got herself changed and into her warm and comfortable sleepwear. It was a simple affair all told, it had a plain black top with long sleeves and a black pair of bottoms. The only thing that could be called ornamentation would be some black ribbons that trailed down the top, gradually decreasing in size as you went down. Coco always said that this set of pyjamas was too plain and unfashionable for someone like Velvet, but Velvet honestly preferred things, like her clothes, to be a simple affair, made things easier to clean as well. She also ignored the brief pang of pain at the thought of Coco.

Eventually the bathroom door open revealing Weiss who was decked out in what was a basically white version of what Velvet was wearing. “Where can I sleep?” Weiss asked, her outfit neatly folded in her arms. The pyjamas, in Velvet’s professional opinion, suited Weiss pretty well.

“You can sleep in the bed there.” Velvet replied pointing at the bottom bunk of the other bunk bed. She then got up with her bundled up clothes and made her way to the bathroom. She dropped her clothes off in the laundry bin, also making a mental note to see if she could help Weiss get more than one outfit. Maybe she could ask Professor Goodwitch for help. The deputy headmistress, in Velvet’s experience, was a stern but a kind person, willing to help any students who were willing to ask for help.

After dropping off her laundry, also catching a glimpse of Weiss setting her clothes at the foot of the bed Velvet pointed her towards, she grabbed her toothbrush and began to brush her teeth. Letting her mind wander as she brushed her teeth, trying not to think of anything in particular.

Admittedly her thoughts constantly meandered towards the girl who was currently getting into bed. Her thoughts wondered how she could even help the girl who found herself lost in what probably seemed like a completely different world.

Even after she finished brushing her teeth and turned out the lights, her thoughts still busy with the thoughts of Weiss sleeping in the bed across from her.

 

- - - -

Red light in the morning.

Ruby woke up on the couch and found that someone had quite kindly given her a blanket after she had fallen asleep, out of the two choices it could be Ruby could really only see Neo doing this for her. She blinked her bleary eyes to see Roman sitting on a nearby chair, coffee mug in his hand steaming slowly wafting off of it. She couldn’t quite make out his expression properly. “Uh hello?” she greeted the red haired man.

Roman sighed, before taking a quick sip of his drink. “Well little red, I was hoping you were just a dream like the clowns that killed my parents, but sadly you’re very much real.” Honestly Ruby could get why Roman didn’t seem too pleased that Neo had bought Ruby to stay at this place, but she couldn’t really to afford to be picky at the moment. Besides there was something about Neo that Ruby found interesting, something that threatened to spark her inspiration. She couldn’t wait to find out what it was.

Ruby then took a moment to process the statement about the killer clowns. “Do you guys have problems with killer clowns as well?” she asked, thinking of things like the 8’o clock circus and whatever those weird skin clowns were. Roman instead of answering her question got up and walked off. As Ruby was sitting herself up- her overalls nearly getting tangled in the blanket, he soon came back of what looked to be a bottle of liquor. What type it was Ruby didn’t really know. Roman, sat down, removed the cap of the bottle and poured a huge amount of liquor in his coffee. He replaced the cap on the bottle and put the bottle by his left foot.

He then took another sip of his coffee. There was a moment of silence as Ruby stared at the man sitting across from her. Eventually he spoke. “Well I’m not going to touch that with a ten foot pole, because quite frankly I don’t want to know.” He looked Ruby dead in the eye, making Ruby straighten up slightly, seeing the dead serious look in his eyes. “Look little red, if you’re going to stay here, I’m going have to lay down some ground rules, got that?”

Ruby nodded, knowing that one should follow the rules of one’s host. Well to a point anyway, she wasn’t a member of the Thumb after all. Some things, like Granny said, you should never comprise on. Like your pride as an artist.

“First rule, don’t tell anyone about me and Neo living here. Second rule, don’t tell anyone about anything you saw in here. Third rule if you have to go somewhere please tell me or Neo where you’re going. Also finally Neo’s going to take you clothes shopping.” He motioned to her outfit, her overalls covered with the splashed paint and blood of her hard work.

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” Ruby asked feeling somewhat offended by Roman’s look when he said ‘clothes’
“What’s-? What’s wrong with your clothes?!?” Roman palmed his face. “Is someone being covered in blood a regular occurrence to you or something?”

“Yeah it is.” Ruby replied completely unaware the question was a rhetorical one. “Especially if you’re a cannibal or something.” She had heard of the eight chefs and their pursuit of the ultimate flavour, and she couldn’t help but admire them for that. Shame they’re dead now, she wanted to meet them. But they died doing what they loved eating people, and that was something to be admired, in Ruby’s opinion.

Roman just looked to the ceiling and muttered something underneath his breath. Ruby just blinked in confusion, curious as to what caused that reaction.

 

- - - -

 

Adrift, without instructions.

Weiss woke up, not to her usual alarm, but to a completely unfamiliar room, sunlight beaming in from an open window. It took her thoughts a moment to catch up and remember what had happened. She wasn’t in the City any more. She was in some place called Beacon, kindly invited by Velvet to sleep in her room. Which left her with a very serious problem, she had no idea what to do. The Prescripts were everything to the Index, they guided each member of the Index to their fates. Weiss had long gotten used to letting the Prescripts guide her, and now that she was here....

She had no idea what to do. She had no idea what to do.

Back home she had no need to feel doubt, as the Prescripts would guide her.

But here, all she could do was feel doubt about everything. What to do. What to say. What to think. All that and more. If she could bring the Prescripts here, she would. But there was the issue of the fact Weiss didn’t actually know how the Prescript creation system was constructed, and even if she did she didn’t have access to the necessary materials.

Distracting her from her thoughts she could hear Velvet begin to wake up with a small yawn. Weiss turned, her eyes focusing on the rabbit eared girl across in the other bed. Weiss didn’t quite know why Velvet reacted so oddly last night, when she began to change, none of the girls Weiss had changed with never reacted like that. Weiss was completely oblivious to the fact all the other girls she had changed around had been people she had spent a lot of time around especially in the changing rooms.

As Velvet slowly became fully aware of Weiss looking at her, she said. “Morning Weiss.” she said with a quiet intonation.
“Good morning Velvet.” Weiss replied, being courteous with her host. “What’s on your agenda today?” she asked, not knowing what to do, so she would likely just go along with what Velvet did today.

It was, quite literally, better than nothing.

“Well first things first, I need to get something to eat for breakfast, and after that we can see about getting you situated. As well as making sure you have more than one outfit to wear.” Weiss had to concede that one, even if her Index uniform was an amazing outfit and offered her a great deal of protection, having more than one outfit means she could actually wash her uniform.

“That sounds good to me.” Weiss said, immediately vacating the bed she had slept in. She picked up her uniform from where she had left it, and aware of Velvet’s previous reactions, made her way to the bathroom to get changed.

Soon enough she was in her uniform and ready to face the day. As she exited the bathroom she could see that Velvet had already got herself dressed. “I’m ready when you are.” Weiss said to the Faunas.

“Okay. It’s not very far. Come on.”

With that said Velvet opened the door, and Weiss, seeing nothing else she could really do, followed right behind her.

. . . .

Like Velvet said it didn’t take long for them to get to the cafeteria. Velvet, upon sighting a stern looking blonde woman, made her way to the woman. What caught Weiss’ attention was the certain cat eared girl sitting in front of the blonde. So caught up with the sight of the girl who cut out her eye, she basically focused on her to the exclusion of everything else. Weiss could feel her blood boiling, faintly aware of Velvet talking to the blonde woman, however she didn’t really care about that as she reached out to grab the black haired girl on the shoulder, instinctively responding to the blonde haired woman’s question before she did so. As she did so, she noted that the Thumb Soldato stiffened.

“Oh hello there. It’s good to see you again.” Weiss greeted the girl with a smile. “We have so much to talk about.” She wanted to fight that girl again. But she knew that at her current rank of Messenger and the other girl’s rank of Soldato, asking her a fight would make Weiss feel like she was forcing her into it, a bit too much for her tastes. But Weiss did know of a way, that the Thumb used, of temporally giving their authority to another to act in their place, or they could demote themselves to a lower rank if they felt the need to. She had no idea if she could do the same thing, but it didn’t hurt to try. “I am temporally handing my rank of Index Messenger to one Velvet Scarlatina, until a moment of my choosing. We are now of equivalent rank. You and I.” Velvet and the blonde woman both looked at Weiss in confusion, Weiss however ignored them. “I challenge you to a spar, one member of the Five Fingers to another.” The cat eared girl, seemed to relax, and stood herself up. As she did so she gently removed Weiss’ hand from her shoulder. She faced Weiss, a flare of determination and bloodlust visible in her eyes. Weiss couldn’t help but enjoy the sight of it.

“I am Blake Soldato III of the Thumb, and I accept your challenge.”

“Excellent.”