13

Chapter 13: Raining Blood

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Ruby got back to her dorm late that night. Tomorrow would be incredibly busy, but she felt prepared. And tired. Mostly tired. Between the three of them, she was pretty sure that Pyrrha, Jaune, and her had gone over every scenario that could erupt at the warehouse tomorrow. Everything from being stopped at the door, to having to fight Torchwick in a crowd of White Fang-aligned civilians.

Nothing left to do but dream. Ruby winced as she walked down the hallway. Actually, she could do just fine without the dreams. The nightmares never stayed long once she woke up, but that didn't make waking up in a cold sweat and shaking any easier.

Ruby did her best to enter the dorm as quietly as possible. The lights were already out and her teammates hopefully asleep. Ruby grabbed her nightclothes and dashed into the bathroom to shower and change. Ruby stepped under the warm stream and felt the stress of the day melt away. All too quickly it was over, and she got dressed and toweled down her hair. It was going to be a spikey mess in the morning, but there was no way she'd blow-dry it now. Ruby was just about to leave when she heard a whimper coming from the dorm room.

Ruby flicked the lights off, and stepped back into their dorm. Weiss was cocooned in blankets, only her face visible. Yang was sprawled over the bed, her arm over the side, and a blanket haphazardly covering her. Their rhythmic breathing filled the air.

Below her sister, Blake had torn the blankets from where they were tucked in at the foot of the bed and clutched them tightly. Her form shivered and Ruby sighed. Blake's nightmare. She had become well acquainted with how all of theirs manifested when she was in the void. After waking, Jaune would wander until he found Pyrrha, useless until he did. Neo denied that she ever had nightmares, but what else could have elicited those horrible, guttural sounds while she slept? Weiss would freeze up, her hand would clutch Ruby's in a vice, and often it would wake Ruby from her own sleep, not that she ever minded. Yang would toss and turn, sometimes she shouted, sometimes she cried. Ruby always pretended not to notice when her eyes were puffy the next morning. Yang wanted it that way.

But Blake had always had it worst. She would thrash and kick and whimper and scream, desperate to escape from whatever tormented her sleep. The shaking wouldn't subside once she awoke either. Yang was the best at calming her down, caressing her and whispering reassurances into her ear until either the sun had risen or she had been able to rest again, but they had all done their best to help her recover.

Yang had told her that the nightmares had gotten much worse after the two of them had confronted Adam in Argus. When Ruby left, they were showing no signs of improving.

It was because of her time in the void that she could tell that Blake had just woken up from one. Just another commonality between the two of them that even time travel couldn't erase.

Ruby crossed the short distance between the bathroom and Blake's bed, and quietly stood beside it. As she approached, Blake made an effort to appear normal, but she couldn't stop shaking. All thoughts of sleep disappeared as overwhelming concern for her partner took over.

"Blake?" Ruby whispered as quietly as she could. Blake's ears twitched involuntarily, and Ruby frowned glumly. She reached out a tentative hand and placed it on Blake's side. She could feel the shaking, and Blake dropped the pretense of pretending she was asleep. She rolled over and opened her eyes. Ruby had seen many emotions reflecting in those amber eyes, laughter, joy, solace, anger, but now there was only fear.

Ruby opened her arms and Blake sat up and hugged her. "He has to be dead. We killed him. He has to be." She said, over and over. Ruby caressed the back of her head as Blake slowly regained control.

"Nightmares?" Ruby asked. She didn't need confirmation, but it was a gateway to conversation if Blake needed to talk about it.

Not that she seemed compelled to talk about it. She nodded on Ruby's shoulder, and didn't show any signs of letting go any time soon. So Ruby didn't let go either. Another ten minutes went by before the shaking finally stopped, and Blake's breathing returned to something approaching normal.

"Any better?" Ruby asked gently. This time Blake did more than nod. She slowly relaxed her grip on Ruby and pulled back.

"I'm- yeah, I think so. Thanks."

"You'd do the same for me." Ruby replied. And Blake had. They all had. Ruby started to rise to go to her own bed when Blake's hand shot out and grabbed her own. Puzzled, Ruby looked back at her.

"I… I can't sleep alone." Blake said. "Stay, please." Ruby tried to read Blake's expression in the low light. Her voice, while still nervous, was sure.

Ruby nodded, a gesture that Blake had no problem seeing despite the lack of light. Blake scooted over, and Ruby laid next to her. It was the closest the two of them had ever been to one another, and yet Ruby didn't feel awkward at all. It felt so natural, so simple. They easily found themselves in the same positions they would sleep down in the void, where losing each other had been so easy.

It was in this comfortable, almost eerily familiar embrace, that a sudden thought occurred to Ruby. 'We killed him'? Killed who…? It couldn't be… could it?

Her sleepy mind tried to form that final connection as her consciousness was pulled into a restful sleep.

---

This time Ruby knew what to expect when she woke up. Blake was nowhere to be found, and Weiss too was absent. Yang hung her head upside down over the bunk and grinned obnoxiously.

"Yang…" Ruby warned.

"She didn't even stay to make you breakfast!" Yang quipped and popped back to her own bed, laughing. Ruby could hear the books creaking as she rolled back and forth.

Ruby didn't blush this time. There was no need, no ghost kiss to haunt her thoughts the moment she woke up. She was only comforting a friend in need. It wasn't even the first time she had done that.

The thought triggered something, a distinct impression of a breakthrough that she told herself she must remember come morning. Ruby tried to concentrate and remember what had been so important, but she came up short.

"It's not what you think, Yang." Ruby grumbled.

Yang hoped down, her grin still on her face. "Uh oh. Trouble in paradise, Rubes?" Yang waggled her eyebrows. Ruby glared at her sister. "You're right, if anyone has paradise it's me and Weiss." Yang says.

Ruby hops out of Blake's bed. "Where is Weiss?" It was rare to see her separated from Yang.

"She's over at the library. I think she's calling home. She was up pretty early for it and we grabbed breakfast."

Great. So Weiss also saw her and Blake cuddled up together. Great start to a busy day-

"Wait, what time is it?"

Yang glances at her scroll. "Um… Half past nine."

"Oh my Gods, I'm late!!" Ruby yelled.

---

It's not the double lives that get you killed. It's the triple, the quadruple, the quintuple lives that trip you up. No, managing two lives isn't easy, but with a little practice it's doable. And Roman Torchwick has been living three lives, four, if you're picky.

But at least one of those, if everything goes smoothly, ends today.

Mind you, another could be starting, but that's a problem for the Roman of tomorrow, dashing young fellow that he is. Where does that leave today's Roman? Stuck in a back room, in a very particular warehouse on the outskirts of Vale.

A warehouse that, later today, will play host to a rally.

Stuck wasn't the right word. Neo called what he was doing 'hiding.' Roman called it prudence, shrewd, even. Sure, he was capable of reckless action when the situation called for it, but this was not a situation that called for it. As much fun as piloting the wrecking ball can be, sometimes the well-placed detonation charge brings down the building.

Three rhythmic knocks let Roman know that it's safe to leave. He pushed on what looked to be a wooden wall, but it swung open into the foreman's office. Neo let her disguise, an Altesian soldier, shimmer away, revealing herself, one hand on the false wall that concealed Torchwick's hideout.

"No one around?" Roman asked.

Neo shook her head. Roman let out a breath. More than once Neo caught sight of someone stalking the grounds, but even with her stealth she was never able to find out who. Roman had a pretty good idea of who it could be. The list of people interested in this particular warehouse should be short. A list of three, precisely.

"So? Are they coming?" Roman asked.

Neo tapped her chin twice in mock thought, then smirked. Excellent. The brats would still be showing up tonight, and this entire effort wouldn't be a waste.

And what an effort it had been. See, the double life was as a White Fang sympathizer and loyal lackey to Cinder. The triple life was this warehouse, or at least what it represented.

Neo leaned on a filing cabinet and watched as Roman flicked through the one next to her. Roman was looking for the manifest of one "King Ozymandias," a dust tanker that arrived in Vale three days ago. Quick fingers found their target, and Roman looked over the reported cargo and frowned. Not because there wasn't enough of it, there was. It's more that he had to purchase this... legally.

See, it wasn't a good idea to just sneak off and pursue his own objectives. Roman needed to account for his time spent away from the White Fang, so he said that he was 'acquiring' more dust. Cinder had already expressed dissatisfaction with how much dust he had been able to obtain, which meant she either had to look weak and go back on what she said, or accept Roman's new course of action.

Of course, he didn't have time to actually rob more dust stores, what with putting together all this. But, to keep his cover intact, he had to provide dust, and that meant purchasing it. But what about the exorbitant dust prices that all the robberies caused? Roman ate the cost. Blew through private savings, and then took out loans. Loans! Can you imagine? Ace criminal Roman Torchwick, signing forms in a bank? When was the last time he stepped foot in a bank he didn't rob?

Technically, he didn't step foot in any bank. But Neo did, and secured them the cash they needed. Normally, Roman wouldn't go to such lengths, but their lives were at stake, and Roman thought he'd earned a long life for himself and wasn't about to give it up now. Besides, when this was all over, he'd be sitting pretty selling their entire cache back and living like a king.

So there he sat, arranging the final details as the clock ticked one minute closer to midnight.

---

Jaune grasped the handle of the metal door that would ultimately lead to their destination. Behind him, both Ruby and Pyrrha had their weapons drawn, and Jaune's free arm held his deployed shield. They had arrived early, and planned to find hiding spots within the warehouse itself, to monitor the rally as it unfolded. Unless extremely favorable circumstances arose, confronting Torchwick was out of the question. Fighting in a crowd of civilians sympathetic to the White Fang was about the last thing any of them wanted.

The plan then, as they had decided it: arrive early, gather information, and look to sabotage any equipment that was in the warehouse. If the rally ended and they were still around along with Torchwick, they would make a judgement in the field as to whether or not to confront him. It wasn't the most ambitious plan, and in fact, their first drafts had them considering apprehending Torchwick. Fortunately, Pyrrha had pointed out that whatever the merits of their plan, they were three non-faunus walking into a hostile White Fang rally. If handled poorly, the fighting wouldn't just be a setback for their them or their teams, but all of Vale. Jaune agreed immediately, he had been unsure of what their objectives should be from the start, but Ruby was stubborn. She only acquiesced after Jaune pointed out that they had already gotten Ozpin's attention, and that if they did cause a huge scene here, it would only make Vale more divided, which would make Ozpin less likely to trust them. So, stealth only.

Did Jaune worry about the fact that he and Ruby were about as stealthy as a pair of bricks? Yes, but they could still pull this off! They wouldn't take any unnecessary risks. Intelligence and sabotage were still their primary objectives.

Jaune took a deep breath before opening the door. There was a very real possibility that on the other side would be Roman Torchwick, surprised perhaps, but ready to fight. Jaune glanced one last time at Ruby and Pyrrha, who both gave him a nod.

Jaune opened the door as quietly as he could, but the old metal hinges squeaked. From their research, the warehouse had been abandoned for years. Technically, it was owned by the city after its previous owner filed for bankruptcy after an entire caravan of dust was lost in the deserts of Vacuo. The city hadn't done anything with it, and so it had languished.

After peaking inside, Jaune waved the three of them in. The interior was pitch black. Jaune fished out his scroll and turned on the flashlight. Pyrrha and Ruby followed and the three of them scanned the room. It was large, easily enough to hold a couple hundred people. Normally lots of shelfing units would occupy much of the floor space, but they had been cleared out, and were thrown up against the walls in haphazard piles. Near the back, a stage had been set up for the rally. The three beams of light scanned every wall until they confirmed that no one else was inside. Jaune walked over and flicked the lights. Behind the stage, they found two doors, one marked 'utilities,' and another 'office'.

"Looks like we got here early enough." Ruby said.

Pyrrha nodded. "There isn't as much room to maneuver as I'd like… Depending on how large the back area is, we may want to quickly search the area and leave, or at the very least observe from another location."

"Let's check out the other rooms before making any decisions." Jaune said.

"Utility first?" Ruby asked.

Jaune was just about to nod to the affirmative when a loud crash came from the office. All three of them startled and hands reached for weapons instinctively. Jaune brought a finger to his lips to quiet them, and the two girls got behind him as he threw the door open.

Jaune burst into the room, prepared to put himself between the threat and his team, as Ruby's semblance whizzed beside him. There was a desk in the center littered with papers, and a couple bookshelves filled with dusty three ring binders and books, and a few filing cabinets, but no one other than them. Jaune looked to the floor and saw a few broomsticks which must have been propped against one of the bookshelves and had slid to the floor.

"Those must've fallen…" Jaune nudged them with his foot. Ruby bent down to examine them.

"They must have been put there recently then. Perhaps someone was here just before us?" Pyrrha said.

That didn't sit well with Jaune. Had they only just missed Torchwick, or someone else?

"Nothing looks amiss with the brooms." Ruby reported, standing back up.

"What would be wrong with them?" Jaune asked, perplexed.

"I don't know! They could be like, cursed or something!" Ruby replied.

Pyrrha grabbed a paper from the desk and skimmed it. "This looks like an old shipping manifest."

Jaune grabbed one of the papers for himself. Sure enough, it was a shipping manifest for a dust tanker, the 'King Ozymandias.' "Wait," Jaune said. "Look at the date on this. It departed from Atlas only a week ago. This is recent." Ruby and Pyrrha gathered next to him as he pointed out the date.

"Huh. Why would the White Fang be ordering dust? They already have all that dust that Torchwick stole…" Ruby asked.

"I don't know… maybe they-"

Jaune was cut off by a mechanical whirring as the door they entered through closed shut behind them. Outside, they heard several more mechanical servos activating.

"What the-?!" Jaune exclaimed. He rushed over to the door, and jiggled the handle. "It's locked!!"

Pyrrha muttered something under her breath. "Stand back." She commanded. Pyrrha raised Milo and struck the door. The metal frame barely registered a scratch. Pyrrha frowned. "Ruby, try your scythe."

"Right!" Ruby unfurled Crescent Rose and took a swipe, trying to embed the tip of the blade. The blade pierced through the metal of the door, carving a thin line, and Ruby took swing after swing as she slowly hacked away at the door.

Jaune watched nervously as the minutes ticked away. His palms were sweaty at the implications of being locked in here. Who had trapped them? Were they on the other side? The door didn't have a window in it or they would've just broken the glass. There was no telling who was on the other side, or how many people were on the other side… What if they were facing down Cinder?

Jaune took a moment and collected himself. Thinking like that benefitted no one right now. Problem was, he was so nervous that he was hearing a ringing in his ears. Wait, a ringing? "Ruby, stop!" Ruby froze mid-swing and gave Jaune a perplexed look. "Do you hear that?" Jaune asked.

The three of them stood stock still, and their faces lit up in understanding. "The bookshelves!" Ruby exclaimed. One of the books was definitely ringing. Jaune scrambled to grab the book and opened it. The page had been hollowed out, and in its place was a scroll, which was ringing with an unknown number. Jaune looked over at his team, unsure if he should answer. Pyrrha merely gestured at the scroll.

"It seems as though someone wants us to answer." She said.

Jaune answered the scroll and turned on the speaker so they could all hear. "Hello…?" He said with a shaky voice.

Romans voice streamed through the receiver. "You know, I spent a lot of time putting a reinforced door on that frame, and here you are tearing it up."

"Torchwick!!" Ruby yelled.

"Oh hello Little Red! So, we have you and golden boy, is there anyone else joining us this fine evening?" Roman said.

If Roman was asking who else was with them, that meant he probably couldn't see them. Jaune hadn't even thought to look for them, but there was a very real possibility that they were on camera.

"… No, it's just us." Ruby lied.

Roman tutted over the phone. "This is going to be a lot smoother if we agree not to lie to each other."

… Scratch that. Jaune looked around and sure enough spotted a same camera in the corner above one of the filing cabinets. Jaune whispered to Pyrrha and pointed it out.

"Break that and the first call I make after hanging up is to Cinder." Roman said sternly.

"Why wouldn't you just call Cinder when you saw us enter?" Pyrrha asked.

"… Who are you?" Roman asked. Pyrrha opened her mouth to answer. "Never mind, I don't care. The only reason I'm not phoning my beloved boss is because the three of you have something I want. Now, you didn't listen to me last time, so I'm giving you no choice this time."

"The three of us? What does Pyrrha have to do with this?" Jaune could understand himself and Ruby, but Pyrrha?

"Not the three of you, blondie. The three of you." The door, which had several nasty gashes in it by the point, clicked. "Why don't you go out there and we can all get acquainted?"

Jaune cast a worried gaze to his companions. "Are we really going out there?"

"There's nothing else to be done. No other way to move forward." Pyrrha noted, grabbing the scroll off the table.

"Pyrrha's right. Be ready for anything." This time Ruby took point. She counted down, and then they burst through as one.

Jaune considered himself ready for just about anything. For facing down an army of White Fang, or Torchwick and Neo, or even Cinder herself. But Jaune couldn't have ever imagined he would find himself staring into the surprised eyes of Blake Belladonna.

---

Ruby was positive Blake was as surprised to see her as she was to see Blake. The four of them stared at each other, none daring to break the spell. In Blake's face Ruby could recognize the girl who ran when she was outed as a faunus, who ran from Adam, who ran from Beacon after it fell.

But there was nowhere to run this time. The doors they had entered the warehouse through had been shielded in thick sheets of metal, and iron bars had descended over the windows. The large loading bay door had been bolted to the ground, and a heavy-duty protector pulled down over it. There would be no hacking through any of this. They could try going through the wall, but Ruby didn't like her chances of cutting through cinder blocks with bladed weapons. Getting through the door had already probably dulled her beloved scythe's blade.

Jaune and Pyrrha recovered before Ruby and Blake, but both just stared, waiting for the other to speak first.

"What… what are you doing here?" Ruby asked.

"I- I…" Blake responded.

The scroll buzzed back to life. "Why don't I take that one?" Roman said. Pyrrha pulled the scroll out and put it on the floor between the four of them. "She's here cause you're here. Slipped in just before I locked down the place. By the way, I'm nearly positive I've made this place hunter-proof, but just in case I haven't, let me make this clear: try and escape and I call Cinder up and tell her about this great fortune I've come across."

Ruby continued to stare at her partner. "You… followed us?"

Blake shook her head. "No, I… I wanted to be here anyway today, but when I arrived, I saw you out front…" While the partners conversed Jaune and Pyrrha looked over at the 'Utility' room. "I looked in there already."

"Did you see anything?" Pyrrha asked.

"Hey! I'm still here!" Roman shouted from the scroll.

"Nothing out of place." Blake responded.

Right, escaping. Escaping was the priority. Ruby could figure out what it meant for Blake to be here later. Except Torchwick made it clear that escaping wasn't an option they could take, at least if they wanted to keep their heads. But why had Torchwick trapped them in the first place? He mentioned that he was going to force them to listen…?

"What do you want?" Ruby asked the scroll. The other end was silent for a moment, and Ruby briefly wondered if Roman had hung up.

"… Information. Take the scroll and come into the office. Shut the door behind you. The rest of you are going to stay put here and not make any trouble."

"You can't follow his instructions." Jaune said.

"He hasn't given us much other choice." Ruby responded.

Pyrrha nodded. "If he wanted us dead, he already had every opportunity."

"Today, please!" Roman shouted through the scroll.

Ruby scooped it up. "Be right back."

"Ruby-" Blake said, her face a mask of worry. She looked like she had something she wanted to say, but suppressed it. "Just—be careful."

---

Ruby entered the office, and as the door shut close, Ruby heard the click of the locking mechanism sliding back into place.

"Do you know what a premonition is, Little Red?" Torchwick stood behind the desk, twirling his cane, Neo at his side.

"How did you…?" They had been in here moments ago, and Torchwick was nowhere to be found.

"Trade secret. Now, let's talk, Rose."

"You know my name?" Ruby asked. She genuinely thought Torchwick had no clue.

"I know all your names, and not by choice." Torchwick pointed his cane at Ruby. "Know a hell of a lot more than that too. Things I shouldn't." Torchwick twirled his cane whimsically. "I know your favorite food and the name of that little bunny on blondie's shirt." Torchwick let his cane clatter to the ground. "I know what day you discovered your semblance, I know why kitty-cat ran from Taurus and can never look back, I know why blondie can't bear to be separated from that 'friend' of his." Torchwick leaned over the desk and his eyes bored into Ruby. "I know in four months that Beacon is going to be destroyed, and that a third of us here don't survive."

"How? How do you know any of that?" Ruby asked. Had the brothers actually sent back someone else?

"Doesn't matter." Roman said quickly. "What matters is that we're changing the ending."

"You want us to work together?" Ruby asked.

Roman let out a harsh laugh and straightened up. "Gods, no! Me, working with you all? Can you imagine? No, I don't think so. Instead, you're going to take down Cinder, and I'm going to provide you with whatever information you need to do it."

"But why would you want that? Isn't Cinder your boss?"

"First of all, no one's my boss, kind of a sticking point for me. Second, I'm going to die. Do you really think I'm willing to die for her insane plan? We both know that woman only drinks water because it doesn't rain blood. I want to sheer the sheep, not stab it through the heart."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't and shouldn't. I'm not giving you another choice and this isn't a request. Either you agree and we both benefit, or I call Cinder down here and enjoy a wonderful promotion for all my hard work serving you up to her on a silver platter."

Ruby grit her teeth. He really wasn't leaving much room for negotiation. "Fine, how would this work?"

Neo, who had thus far been standing menacingly on the sidelines, threw a pad of paper at Ruby. "Write down everything you can think of that you'd need to take down Cinder. In terms of information, at least. I don't do equipment unless you're willing to pay. Take the scroll with you."

Ruby snatched up the pad and wrote down what came to mind. What were Cinder's plans? When did she plan to enact them? Did she follow any routines?

As Ruby came up with as many questions as she could, Torchwick kept talking. "You ever wonder why it's always four? Four schools, unlocked by four maidens, guarding four relics." Torchwick caught Ruby's eye. "Made, by only two gods."

Where was he going with this? Ruby gave the pad of paper back to Neo.

"I don't know how I know what I know. But I have theories. And its knowledge that I can't dispute. When we first met, that's when it all started. I couldn't comprehend what was happening at first. All that new knowledge, trying to be crammed into my head. Until one day, the dam broke. I gained this." Roman briefly became an incorporeal black smoke using his semblance. "And really, what is a semblance other than knowledge of oneself, applied? But as I explored my new-found knowledge, I found it wasn't boundless. No, it was in fact quite contained. My knowledge was limited to the three of you. The three of you… who shared the same fate."

The three of us… Torchwick had said that earlier, and he didn't mean Pyrrha. The only three people that made sense, were Ruby, Jaune, and Blake. Ruby… Jaune… and Blake… sharing the same fate…

Oh gods, Blake was from the future. From their shared future.

---

Blake huddled against the back edge of the stage. Her partner and team leader had already been in the office for a while and Blake couldn't fight the feeling that something was wrong. Torchwick couldn't be trusted, and he could be doing gods knew what.

She really hadn't planned to follow Ruby and the others. She had been doing her own reconnaissance since the White Fang rally was scheduled to happen later today. The White Fang rally where Torchwick had spotted her and Sun what felt like a lifetime ago. When she saw Ruby at the same spot, she knew it couldn't have been a coincidence. Did Ruby know what she was getting into? Did she truly understand what dark forces she was dealing with?

A knot formed in Blake's stomach as she worried. Ruby was in real danger. Whether or not this was some sick twisted world or the real one, that fact was still the same. Her own brush with death in Mistral had made her come to her senses about that.

Just as Blake was sure she was about to break down the door herself, Ruby emerged from the room. She was incredibly distraught, clutching the scroll she had brought in with her.

"What happened?" Blake didn't bother to hide the worry in her voice. Then, Ruby uttered the one sentence that haunted Blake's every waking moment, and the bottom went out of her world.

"Did you really leave Weiss and Yang behind?"

Notes:

Chapter 13. Unlucky thirteen.

"Do you know what a premonitions is, Little Red?" has been in my head since before I put down the first word of the first chapter. This wasn't exactly how I expected it to play out, but in the interest of not making this super long, I'm going to add a comment down below with more details for the interested.

Between trying to figure out how on earth to write this chapter, I've been reading hunger games. Did you know there's actually a fourth hunger games book? I didn't. Tore through it in a couple days. I'd recommend it if you were a big fan of the original books, like I was. Of course it's got me thinking about a hunger games x RWBY crossover, but I've got my hands plenty full with this and I don't want to put it down. Just add that to my ever growing list of story ideas.

In the past week, this fic reached 200 kudos, and 6300 hits, which puts it in the top 10% for both metrics for RWBY fics. When I started, that was one of my goals (which yes, is kind of shallow), and I'm kinda shocked that we've reached it already. I'm very grateful to everyone reading and to my beta reader for hearing me say "I want to make a major change to the story structure we spent hours working out a week ago" and going "alright, lets figure it out."

Thank you to everyone who reads, kudos, and comments. The story wouldn't be what it is without you.