24

Chapter 24:

Present day:

The days went by, each one gradually seeming to blend into the next. In between classes, Ruby and Pyrrha worked Jaune as hard as they could, building up his physical ability and working on his technique. Jaune practiced doggedly, putting his all into every single session, determined not to disappoint the girls who had put so much work into helping him. Weiss, in the meantime, stood by, providing the occasional hint of advice. In the evenings, all four of them practiced their Temper.

Fortunately, Jaune's third Sunday at Beacon proved to be a genuinely peaceful one, free of bullies and vindictive older sisters. He was actually able to go into Vale and visit the comic store he hadn't been able to the previous week, getting the latest issues of his favorite series, and getting back in time to enjoy reading them.

That day, when Ruby came back from reading with Blake in the library, she found Jaune enjoying his comics and asked about them. Remembering that Ruby had spent most of the last few years outside the Kingdoms, Jaune was excited to fill her in on the popular culture that had passed since she'd left. In his mind, he was already making plans to take her, maybe Weiss and Pyrrha too, to a movie next Sunday, both to show her what she'd been missing, and to thank Ruby for all the work she'd put into helping him.

Cardin and his cronies kept their distance. They had two whole weeks free of the boys, thanks to their suspension. Even after they came back, they stayed away from Jaune and the rest of Team RASP. Ruby kept a wary eye on them though, certain they hadn't changed their ways after just one session of punishment. The boys were a bit too busy to bully anyone though, being forced to do makeup work for all the classes they missed while on suspension.

Yang also stayed away from Jaune, though, from time to time, Jaune felt a chill run down his spine, particularly when he and Ruby were close together. He'd look out of the corner of his eye, and see Yang glaring at him intently. Clearly, she hadn't abandoned her hostility either. However, Ren seemed to be keeping her on a tighter leash than before, The threat of telling Ruby on her seemed to be keeping Yang in check, for the time being.

All told, things seemed to be going well.

"Anyway, since you girls have been doing so much for me, I wanted to know if you'd like to see a movie tomorrow?" Jaune was saying after they finished off their evening training, Saturday night. "There are some good ones playing."

"A movie..." Ruby's eyes went wide and glazed over. "Oh my God...I haven't been to a movie in...ever!"

"It sounds like a grand idea," said Pyrrha cheerfully, genuinely liking the notion.

"Well, if the entire team is going, then I suppose I have no objection," said Weiss.

"So you wouldn't want to go if not everyone could go?" asked Ruby, looking at Weiss in confusion.

"Well, there there should be at least two of us there with him," said Weiss pointedly, "otherwise people might think that one of us is there with him...on a date."

"A date?" Ruby's cheeks colored automatically at the notion. Even Pyrrha didn't seem immune, while Jaune sputtered nervously.

"It's not like that," he protested. "I just thought that Ruby hasn't gotten a chance to see a movie in a long time, so it could be a fun thing to do as a team."

"Oh..." said Weiss, a wry smile crossing her face. "Did you really want us to do this as a team...or were you hoping Pyrrha and I had other things to do, so that you could have Ruby alone?"

"What?!" exclaimed Ruby, nearly her entire face turning red.

"It's not like that!" protested Jaune. "I mean...I...uh..." He groaned and slumped. "I can tell there's nothing I can say that you can't turn back around on me, Weiss...So I'm just gonna shut up now."

To everyone's surprise, Weiss laughed. It was such a rare sound, coming from her that the rest of the team was taken aback.

"Were you...teasing Jaune?" asked Ruby.

"Maybe," said Weiss in a lilting tone.

"You're definitely improving," noted Pyrrha with a small degree of pride in her voice.

"Why thank you," said Weiss proudly, her nose going up a little

"Is everything all right?" asked Jaune, looking at Ruby.

He hadn't really noticed it before, but Ruby was acting a little...jittery. Seated on her bed, Ruby was eagerly kicking her legs back and forth, almost bouncing in place.

"Sorry," said Ruby sheepishly. "It's just...it's almost been a whole month since we've come to Beacon."

"That's true," said Weiss. "That is something to celebrate, I suppose."

"Well, that too," said Ruby. "But...I was thinking that Sasame-nee should be here any day now. I can't wait for her to meet everyone."

"But you don't know when, exactly, she'll show up," noted Weiss.

"Not really," said Ruby, looking down. "A month was our best guess. It might take a little longer than that."

"I'd say there's no reason to get antsy," said Jaune, gently patting Ruby on the shoulder. "She'll get here when she gets here."

"Yeah," said Ruby with a tired sigh.

"Let's just enjoy ourselves tomorrow and take things as they come for now," said Jaune.

Late next morning, they caught an airship into Vale, and soon they were looking at the different options on offer at the movie theater. They ended up picking a space opera film, belonging to a series that Jaune loved. Weiss scoffed at the idea, but, once the movie began, the others were amused to see that she was completely enthralled by the film.

They emerged from the theater, laughing and talking about the film. Weiss was in such a good mood that she even offered to buy everyone dinner again, something that none of them were about to turn down. As they made their way to the restaurant, Jaune paused when his scroll buzzed in his pocket.

Pulling it out, he looked at the caller ID and scowled.

"Who is it?" asked Pyrrha.

"Dad," grumbled Jaune, continuing to watch the scroll buzz.

"You need to talk to him sooner or later," prodded Pyrrha.

Jaune's scowl deepened. Pyrrha continued to look at him plaintively. "Look Jaune, I know it's painful. But you need to get it over and done with, or your parents won't ever stop bothering you."

"I guess," said Jaune with a low groan. He gave the girls an apologetic look. "Go on ahead without me. I might be a few minutes...and there's probably going to be some shouting involved."

"Jaune..." Ruby hesitated. "Are you sure you don't want us with you?"

Jaune gave her a grateful smile. "Nah. I can do this. I'll catch up with you."

"Okay..." Ruby reluctantly allowed Weiss and Pyrrha to lead her away.

Jaune swallowed and looked down at his scroll, which was still buzzing. After a few more repetitions, the buzz cut out...then started again. Dad's really not gonna let me go this time, huh?

With a sigh, Jaune answered. "Hey, Dad," he said.

"Jaune!" snapped a deep voice. "What in God's name is your problem, boy? Don't you know we've been trying to get in touch with you for the better part of a month?"

"Yeah," said Jaune.

"Any reason you didn't answer?"

"Maybe I didn't feel like talking," Jaune retorted.

"Is that any way to treat the people who've taken care of you all this time?" growled his father.

"I don't know," said Jaune, his eyes narrowing, somewhat glad that this wasn't a video call. "Maybe if they weren't actually trying to undermine me, and practically wall me off from the one thing I really wanted to do with my life."

"Bah!" grunted his father. "Are you still going on about that crap? Listen, Jaune. I did you a favor. You just aren't cut out to be a Hunstsman. You don't have what it takes. That should be completely clear by now, so if you'd stop loafing around in Vale and get on home, we can start working on finding a profession you're actually suited for."

"I'm not loafing around Vale," said Jaune. "In fact, I made it into Beacon."

He wasn't sure what he expected. Maybe he'd expected denial and anger. What he didn't expect was for his father to burst out laughing. Jaune grit his teeth, growling under his breath as his father carried on for at least two solid minutes of doing nothing but laughing.

"Oh...that's funny, Jaune," his father said, finally, after regaining enough of his composure to speak. "Really, you don't have to lie to me. There's no way a fake transcript like yours could be accepted."

"I don't know how it was," said Jaune, thinking about Weiss' theory that Ozpin had already known he was lying, even before accepting him, "but it was. More importantly, I passed the Initiation."

"What?" Now Jaune heard genuine surprise in his father's tone.

"Yeah, funny thing..." growled Jaune. "I was damn lucky someone noticed my Aura wasn't unlocked, or I would have been splattered across the Emerald Forest like an overripe tomato...or did they not launch students off a cliff, back in your day?"

"Jaune...that can't be right. You weren't supposed to-"

"Supposed to what?" snapped Jaune. "I wasn't supposed to make it that far. I'd get to Beacon, find out that my little ruse had been seen through, and I'd get kicked right back to Ansel, where the lot of you could have a nice little laugh at my expense. 'Poor, silly Jaune...What an idiot, trying to chase that dream, when we went through all the trouble to make sure he couldn't do it.'"

"I told you you weren't cut out for it," growled his father. "You have zero talent-"

"I have something," growled Jaune. "And now, thanks to my teammates, I know what real training, real preparation looks like, so I know you were faking it back then, and lying through your teeth to me, all so that you could keep me at home. I guess you won't tell me the real reason you wanted to sabotage any chance I had at getting into Beacon, so I won't bother asking what it was."

He heard a loud intake of breath on the other end of the line. Jaune braced himself for one of his father's trademark roars. However, he then heard his father let out a slow breath. "Look, Jaune, this has gone on long enough. It seems like you actually managed to stick around long enough to watch the Initiation happen. I imagine you backed down, once you realized you were standing on a catapult, or something like that. But this has to end. You need to come home, son. Your sisters and mother all miss you. I'm only giving you one warning. If I don't hear you're on an airship back by tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to freeze your account."

"Go ahead," Jaune replied curtly.

"If you're still going to be stubborn about this, I'll come down there and get you myself."

"You can try," said Jaune. "But I'm not going anywhere." He sighed. "I don't know what I was expecting, Dad. My teammate told me I should at least try talking to you...but this was obviously a mistake."

Without further preamble, Jaune hung up. For good measure, he blocked his father's number. That way, the man couldn't continually ring his scroll in an effort to annoy him into picking up.

"Bastard..." growled Jaune, glaring at his scroll for a moment longer, before pocketing it and heading off to the restaurant the girls had picked out.

"How'd it go?" asked Ruby as Jaune joined them at the table.

It had only taken another couple minutes to reach the restaurant. Weiss had picked a less-expensive place this time. Looking at the table, and seeing that they still had their menus, and only water, Jaune felt a surge of gratitude that they'd waited for him before ordering.

"About how I expected," said Jaune with a sigh as he took his seat.

The hopeful look on Pyrrha's face was dashed to pieces.

"What did he say?" prodded Ruby.

"He accused me of lying, said I needed to stop wasting my time in Vale, said he was going to freeze my account...pretty much everything I thought he was gonna say."

"Jaune...I'm so sorry," said Pyrrha. "I really thought...that you might be able to..."

"Pyrrha, it's okay," said Jaune, giving her a smile. "I know you were just trying to help. It's my dad's fault that he's got his head up his-"

"Anyway!" interrupted Weiss, before things could go any further. "You need to go ahead and order, Jaune. I think the waitstaff is getting a little impatient with us."

"Oh...right," said Jaune, smiling apologetically at Weiss, and picking up his menu.

He used the menu to hide a slight smile. Sure, his family might not have believed he could accomplish anything, but at least his friends believed in him.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Yang roared, her eyes flashing red.

Before Blake could even consider answering, Yang's hands had grabbed her by her top and lifted her up before Yang slammed Blake's back against the wall.

"Yang!" snapped Ren, looking up from his homework in response to Yang's shout. "Let her down, now!"

"Not until she tells me what she means by that?" growled Yang, glaring intently at Blake.

Unfortunately, Blake was too busy trying to get her wind back from being slammed against the wall to answer. However, Yang's patience wasn't up to the task of waiting and she pulled Blake away from the wall and slammed her against it again.

"ANSWER ME!" Yang howled.

"Nora!" snapped Ren.

"On it!" replied Nora in an uncharacteristically serious tone. A second later, she grabbed Yang's wrists and twisted, forcing Yang to let go of Blake. Before Yang could react, Nora had twisted both of the blonde's arms behind her back and had Yang on the floor in an effective submission hold.

"Let me go!" shouted Yang, trying to struggle out of Nora's grip.

"No can do," replied Nora.

While Nora and Yang might have been as thick as thieves much of the time, the ultimate fact of the matter was that, if it came to choosing between Yang and Ren, Nora would choose Ren without a second's hesitation.

"Blake? Are you all right?" asked Ren, kneeling beside Blake and helping her up.

"I'll...I'll be fine," said Blake.

"Here..." Ren led Blake to her bed and settled her on it, sitting next to her and gently rubbing her back.

After a moment, he looked over at where Nora was still keeping Yang pinned. "Have you calmed down any?"

"Not until Blake explains what she meant by that," Yang snarled. "What did you mean that Ruby's sister is coming? I'm her sister."

Blake sighed. "She told me she had an adoptive older sister. The last time we were in the library together, Ruby mentioned that she would be arriving around a month after the school year began. I thought that's why she went into town with her team today."

Yang began to struggle in Nora's grip. "Let me go! I'm going after her!"

"No you're not," said Ren, frowning darkly at Yang. "In your current state, you'd do or say something you'd regret. Besides, it's not as though her sister-"

"She's not Ruby's sister!" protested Yang.

"-her sister is guaranteed to arrive today," said Ren, looking over at Blake. "Right?"

Blake nodded. "Ruby said a month was their best guess time-wise."

"Jaune told me that he was taking the rest of the team to a movie," continued Ren. "So, I don't think we have anything to worry about."

Yang's body shuddered. She stopped trying to struggle. Instead, she went limp and Nora hesitantly released her. Yang remained where she was, slumping all the way to the floor, her body quaking with nearly silent sobs.

"Yang...?" asked Nora, bending down to see her face.

Tears ran freely down Yang's cheeks, dropping the rest of the way to the floor. "She replaced me...just switched me out, just like that. How could she?"

"I don't know," said Ren. "I honestly wish I had an answer. Whatever grudge Ruby has against you, the only thing I can tell is that it runs deep."

"Why?" whispered Yang. "All I ever wanted was to keep her safe."

"Maybe she didn't want to be kept safe," Blake countered, a slight tinge of resentment in her words. At the moment, she didn't feel like cutting her unstable partner much slack. All she'd done was offhandedly mention something Ruby had told her before, in the library, and the next thing she knew, Yang was slamming her against the wall and demanding answers like she was shaking Blake down for money.

"That's enough," said Ren, gripping Blake's shoulder firmly. "We'll have to find some way to get through to Ruby. But Yang, Ruby may just not be open to accepting you as her sister. It might be that you'll have to learn to live with that."

"Never!" growled Yang, her voice tight with fury.

Ren sighed and lowered his face into his hands. Why me?

The rest of Sunday evening passed, with no sign of Sasame arriving, to Ruby's subdued disappointment. They went into the next week like usual. Jaune's training was making impressive progress. On Monday, he was called to fight in Combat Class. While he didn't win his match, he did manage to do some considerable damage to his opponent and hold his own for a while, almost managing to run out the clock, before his opponent finally managed to force him out of the ring.

Ruby noticed that, while her team was doing well enough, the mood over at Team RYNB was much more tense. Yang was acting sullen and depressed, mixed with moments of barely-restrained anger, while the rest of her teammates acted warily with her. Ruby also noticed that Yang was looking her way more often, though Yang didn't seem inclined to say anything at the moment.

The only other black mark was that Team CRDL was up to their old antics. They seemed to be keeping their distance from Jaune, and didn't bother him at all. If anything, their interactions had become congenial, on the rare occasions they did interact with Ruby and her friends. She noticed that Cardin seemed to be going out of his way to act nice towards her in particular, holding doors open for her and the other girls, offering to carry her books for her, even suggesting he could get her food for her in the dining hall. She just wished that gave her a good feeling, instead of a sensation she could only describe as "slimy," whenever she had to deal with him. "Cardin" and "polite" were not two words that went together in her, mind and his presence was gradually growing more and more obtrusive.

By the time Friday had rolled around, Cardin's behavior was nothing short of annoying.

Ruby had set down her tray at the table. She'd managed to get through the line first, while her friends had been held up behind her. Looking back, she saw Weiss silently fuming as Russel, in front of her, dithered over which type of meat offering he wanted. A little further behind them, Pyrrha and Jaune were stuck behind Sky, who had taken a plateful of salad and, now, was carefully extracting fragments of what looked like black olives and putting them back...one at a time.

Ruby felt the air shift and warm uncomfortably as the bench beneath her shifted slightly, a heavy weight settling down next to her. Cardin took a casual seat, leaning back against the table and resting his elbows on it as he stretched his legs out into the aisle. Looking over towards her, he flashed a grin at her that made Ruby distinctly uncomfortable, as it set her nerves on edge.

"Hey there, Rose," greeted Cardin.

"Hey..." Ruby returned the greeting dully, feeling extremely uneasy with how close Cardin had planted himself.

"So, anyway, tomorrow's Saturday," said Cardin.

"Yeah," answered Ruby, really wishing she could at least find it in herself to be rude enough to tell Cardin to get lost. At the moment, the best she could manage was act as disinterested in him as possible and hope he caught the hint.

If he did, he was clearly ignoring it, as Cardin pressed on gamely. "Well, I was thinking we could head into town...just you and me." His grin progressed through several more degrees of sickening. "We could catch a movie, maybe have a nice dinner together...What do you say?"

"Sorry," said Ruby plainly. "I'm not interested. Besides, I have plans with my team."

"Aww, come on," protested Cardin plaintively. "You work way too hard. We hear you guys up there every night, training. You need to enjoy yourself more. All work and no play makes Ruby a dull girl"

He reached up and used a finger to gently caress Ruby's cheek. The gesture sent an uneasy shiver through her body. Coming directly at her, screaming insults; that Ruby could understand and deal with. Attacking her with a weapon, no problem. But this kind of attack was not something she was used to, particularly since it imparted a queasy feeling to her stomach, the kind that made her sympathize with Jaune's bouts of motion sickness.

"Please don't do that," said Ruby, edging away from him.

It didn't work very well, as Cardin just edged along with her, keeping her within easy reach. "Hey, I'm not hurting anything," said Cardin, resting his hand on her shoulder, almost seeming to knead or massage it. "Don't make such a big deal of something so small, Ruby. Come on, go ahead and ditch that wimp you and the girls have been fawning over. I know way more about treating a girl right than he ever could."

"No thank you," said Ruby firmly, pushing Cardin's hand off her shoulder. "And please stop touching me."

She edged away again, yet Cardin continued after her, scooting even closer when she came to a stop. "Hey, come on," he persisted. "Listen, I may not be a Schnee, but my family is pretty well off. The Winchesters are a big name in Vale. I know how to show a girl a good time. I can even get us into some places that your average guy couldn't even get within a hundred feet of. Maybe I can take you to one of them, tomorrow."

"No thanks," said Ruby, pointedly avoiding making eye contact with him. "Please go away. I'm not interested."

Once again, Cardin reached up to her face, this time cupping her cheek and forcefully turning her head to look at him. "You think you aren't," he said with easy confidence. "But I'm willing to bet I can change your mind."

"I don't want my mind changed, thank you very much," said Ruby, jerking her head to get away from his hand.

"You keep saying no, but I'll get you to say yes," said Cardin, his grin growing wider. "I like it when they're feisty."

"Oh, then you'll love this."

Ruby saw the space between Cardin and the table he was leaning on shimmer. A second later, a snowflake-shaped Glyph spun into being. Cardin was abruptly propelled into the air with a surprised yelp, Weiss' Glyph launching him right over the next row of tables to land, face-first, in the aisle on the other side.

"Disgusting lout," said Weiss with an angry huff as she settled into the space Cardin had forcefully vacated.

"Ruby! Are you all right?" asked Pyrrha as she and Jaune came to Ruby's other side.

"I..." Ruby sighed and slumped forward. "I was scared."

"Honestly," scoffed Weiss. "You can face Grimm that most people would run from without flinching, but that lout gets a bit handsy with you and you suddenly become a bowl of jello?"

"I'm not used to people doing that with me," said Ruby, shivering at the memory of Cardin's touch.

Pyrrha pulled Ruby against her and hugged her. "It's okay," she said. "You're all right now."

"I'm sorry, Ruby," said Jaune. "We should have realized sooner that Russel and Sky were stalling us."

"Listen, if that jerk gets too handsy with you...or if he's just bothering you in general, just tell Professor Goodwitch," said Weiss. "There's no way she'll let that kind of behavior fly."

"And with Cardinal's previous infractions, Cardin will be in even bigger trouble than before," added Pyrrha.

"I will," promised Ruby.

Jaune looked over where Cardin landed, seeing Russel and Sky helped him back up to his feet, while Dove stood back, shaking his head, looking...disgusted. I wonder if Dove is different from the others, thought Jaune.

Still, there wasn't much point in wondering about that now. Jaune turned back to Ruby and rubbed her back reassuringly, even as Pyrrha continued to hug her. In the meantime, Jaune felt a familiar set of eyes burning into his back. He didn't even need to look to know that Yang was glaring at him again.

To Ruby's disappointment, Sasame still hadn't shown up. Now that she thought about it, it wasn't as though she and Sasame had made definitive plans about where exactly they were going to meet...or how they would know where to find each other. Technically, Ruby figured that Sasame already knew where Ruby would be most of the time, so perhaps she didn't need to think too hard about it.

Sticking with her team on Saturday and Sunday, Ruby avoided any further run-ins with Cardin, trying to make sure that someone was with her, whenever she thought Cardin might be in her vicinity. For his part, Cardin kept his distance, apparently only really wanting to approach her when he could get her alone.

Unfortunately, that meant that the boys of CRDL turned to other amusements, as Ruby found out one day, in the dining hall.

"OW! Please stop that!"

Ruby looked up at the pained shout, which was accompanied by the clatter of a dropped tray. She and her friends had just gotten their lunch and were eating, while chatting about their homework and their next class. Looking up for the source of the shout, Ruby's eyes widened at the sight of CRDL, Cardin in particular, tormenting an unfortunate girl.

Ruby recognized her from History class with Dr. Oobleck. From what she remembered, the girl was a second-year, which made her a bit of an unusual sight in a class mostly full of first-years. She was a pretty girl, with light skin that contrasted nicely with the head of brown hair that flowed down past her shoulders. However, her most distinct features were the pair of long, brown, rabbit ears that rose up from the top of her head.

Right now, the poor girl's brown eyes were squeezed shut in pain as she begged and pleaded for Cardin to release her. The brute had closed his hand around one of her ears in a tight grip, tugging on it as he laughed. The tray, with the girl's lunch, lay on the floor at her feet.

"Hey, look at this, these things are real," he said, grinning at his cronies.

"What a freak," commented Russel with a look of smug amusement.

Sky was laughing loudly, dancing in place and holding his hands over his head, mimicking...a set of antlers, maybe...it was hard to tell. Once again, Dove was sitting away, apparently muttering something about what a waste of time this was.

"Atrocious," growled Pyrrha, from where she sat, next to Ruby.

Ruby looked at Pyrrha and frowned, then at the others at the table around her. Both RASP and RYNB were there, but no one seemed inclined to do anything. Ruby's eyes found Blake. Respecting Blake's desire to keep her own faunus heritage a secret, Ruby said nothing. Blake had been watching CRDL's antics too, glaring angrily at them. Yet, when she caught Ruby looking at her, Blake's face fell and she averted her eyes.

She's not going to do anything...even though she's a faunus too? Ruby thought, somehow surprised, yet also not. It was clear that Blake wanted to do something, yet confronting CRDL, when no one else seemed prepared to move, would make her stand out, maybe even put her at risk of her own faunus nature being discovered.

Nobody's going to do anything, thought Ruby, her gaze skipping from one person to another. They were all content to look on from afar with disapproval and click their tongues. But no one actually wanted to take the next step, and move to stop what those boys were doing.

Ruby closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, she got up from the bench and headed towards CRDL, and the unfortunate faunus they were tormenting.

"Ruby?" she heard Jaune call out from behind her.

Reaching behind her, Ruby slipped her hand underneath her cloak, grasping her sword, not by its handle, but further down by its sheath. When she came within reach of Cardin, she glared intently at him, though he didn't notice her, focused as he was on his victim.

"Let her go," said Ruby in a tense, angry tone.

"Huh...?" Cardin finally noticed her and turned to look. "Well, hey there, Red. You come to play too?"

"Let her go," Ruby repeated, silently bristling at Cardin, albeit unknowingly, using the nickname Roman Torchwick had used to address her. "I'm not going to tell you again."

"Aw, come on, Red," said Cardin. "There's no need to get worked up over a stupid ani-OW!"

Ruby whipped her hand back out from under cloak, gripping her weapon by its sheath, then drove the pommel right into the back of the hand Cardin was using to grip the poor girl's ear, adding a twist to grind it in further. Reflexively, he released her ear. Ruby reached out and grabbed the other girl's forearm with her free hand, tugging her back away from Cardin and positioning the faunus behind her, Ruby backing the pair of them away, holding up her sheathed sword in readiness.

"Dammit!" growled Cardin, massaging his hand. "What'd you do that for, Red?"

Ruby's eyes narrowed, her glare intensifying. "If I catch you doing something like that again, your hand comes off." To show she meant business, she used her thumb to push the handle of her sword free, baring an inch of the crimson blade hidden within the black-lacquered sheath.

While he looked angry at first, Cardin balked at the sight of her sword, and took a step back. Then, after a second's hesitation, he lifted his hands in surrender and grinned at her. Ruby shuddered. It was that same grin that had unnerved her so much when he'd been trying to ask her out last Friday. "Fine fine," he said. "Whatever you say, Red."

Ruby carefully backed herself and the faunus girl away from CRDL, waiting until she was sure they were far enough away before turning to guide the poor girl the rest of the way back to the table she and her friends had been sitting at.

The girl's shoulders were stooped, and she was slumped forward slightly, her head hanging, ears bent low. Looking more closely, Ruby could see pained tears leaking down her cheeks.

"Are you all right?" asked Ruby, her gaze flickering to the girl's ears. "Does it still hurt?"

The girl looked back at her, clearly fighting back the urge to whimper.

"Um...What's your name?" asked Ruby. "I know we have History together, but-"

"Velvet," she said softly. "It's Velvet."

Ruby smiled. "Velvet," she said. "Does your ear still hurt?"

Velvet hesitated for a second, before nodding.

"I can help," said Ruby. "Is it all right if I touch your ear?"

Velvet blinked, looking uncertain.

"I promise I won't hurt you," Ruby said firmly.

After another second of hesitation, Velvet bowed her head low enough that Ruby was able to easily reach her ear. Lifting her hand, Ruby carefully brushed her palm against the ear that Cardin had been squeezing and tugging, letting her Aura flow out into the appendage, using it to enhance the healing faculties of that section of the body. She felt Velvet shiver against her, then sigh in relief as her pain washed away under the warm pulse of Ruby's Aura.

"Is that better?" asked Ruby.

Velvet nodded and now gave Ruby a small, relieved smile. "It is," she said. "Thank you."

"Do you want to come sit with us?" asked Ruby, using her head to gesture towards her friends.

Velvet paused, clearly not expecting this kind of treatment. However, after another second, she nodded. "That would be nice. My team's not here now, so..."

Ruby led Velvet back to the table. Pyrrha scooted over, giving them enough room for Velvet to sit between the pair. Ruby sat down and continued to gently rub Velvet's back reassuringly.

"I'm sorry about them," said Pyrrha, looking at Velvet.

"Y-you didn't do anything," said Velvet, obviously a bit uncertain when dealing with so many strangers. "You're not responsible for them."

"Yes..." Pyrrha admitted. Then she looked down in shame. "But...we should have done something. We just sat here and watched and judged. But no one but Ruby actually tried to do anything."

Ruby's eyes flickered towards Blake again, not surprised to see Blake looking down in shame. Ruby understood...and couldn't completely bring herself to sympathize. Blake had put maintaining her secret over helping a fellow faunus. Granted, the fact that what CRDL had been doing was wrong should have been enough to galvanize any of them to act. But Blake clearly felt especially disappointed by their collective inaction.

"It's all right," said Velvet. "I'm used to it. Most people think it's not their problem and...they're not wrong."

"That shouldn't stop us from doing something when we see a situation like that," said Ren, his tone unusually bitter as he stared down at the table. "Sometimes, the worst thing you can do...is nothing at all."

Ruby blinked, wondering where that bit of wisdom had come from. She saw a melancholy look wash over Nora's face, an expression that looked almost...alien...on the girl who seemed to perpetually beam with smiles and sunshine. Reaching over, Nora gently rubbed Ren's back in a mirror of what Ruby was doing for Velvet, making him smile and lean ever so slightly towards her.

"Why didn't you do anything yourself?" asked Weiss tartly, apparently less filled with sympathy than her friends. "You're a second-year. You should have been able to put those buffoons in their place without much effort."

Ruby supposed it was true. While it wasn't a given that those in their second year at Beacon were better than the first-years, second-year students had been through things most first-years had not, including several missions and field excursions. Though Velvet's nature was timid and retiring, Ruby got the distinct impression that she was far stronger and more capable than she looked. The strong thrum of the brown-haired girl's Aura against Ruby's senses confirming that, to an extent.

"I...I wish I could," said Velvet, looking down. "But it's not that easy."

"What do you mean?" asked Nora.

"Faunus get less leeway when it comes to defending themselves," said Blake softly.

Everyone looked at her in confusion. There was an expression of genuine bitterness on Blake's face.

"It's true," said Velvet, drawing their attention back to her. "I've tried to fight back in the past. But afterwards, the ones who were attacking me, and the humans who saw it, would always say I overreacted. They'd claim that we faunus are vicious, and always looking for an excuse to cause trouble." She sighed, lowering her head.

"Even so, you should at least try to stand up for yourself," said Weiss firmly. "This is Beacon Academy. There's no way someone like Professor Goodwitch would allow those louts to get away with behavior like that, or believe some stupid claims so easily."

"Maybe that's true," said Velvet. "But it's a hard habit to break."

"What about your team?" asked Pyrrha. "Where are they?"

"Out on a mission," said Velvet. "I was supposed to go with them, but I was just recovering from a cold last week, so Coco insisted that I stay here and rest up."

"So they don't let you get picked on?" asked Ren warily.

"Not when they know about it," said Velvet, sighing again. "I try to keep it from them because, when they find out, they're the ones who tend to overreact."

"Oh..." said Ren.

Velvet jumped when a tray was set in front of her with a clatter, her eyes going wide in surprise. She turned and looked up to see Jaune smiling down at her. "I tried to see what you had on your tray when you dropped it, and get some more for you," he said.

"Thank you," said Velvet gratefully.

Ruby looked at Jaune and beamed proudly. Jaune smiled back and returned to his seat.

"Well, at the very least, we can stay with you until your team gets back," Ruby told Velvet. "We won't let those jerks near you."

"Y-you don't have to," said Velvet, blushing.

"But we want to," said Ruby, gazing around at her friends, as though daring them to object. "And it's the right thing to do."

"But why did you help me in the first place?" asked Velvet, her gaze flashing to Pyrrha. "It's true that people know what Cardinal was doing is wrong, but they usually stay back all the same."

"Well, my big sister is a faunus," said Ruby.

Across from her, Ren, Nora, and Blake all winced visibly. Their bench jolted as Yang abruptly shot to her feet and walked away at a hurried pace. Ruby glanced after her, but otherwise ignored her.

"Your sister is a faunus...really?" asked Velvet.

"Adopted big sister," Ruby admitted. "She's a fox-faunus, but she's one of the best people I know. She's coming to visit and should be here any day now. I wouldn't be able to look her in the eye, if I just sat back and did nothing while you were being treated like that."

"She sounds like someone I'd like to meet," said Velvet.

"I'll introduce you to her, if I can," Ruby promised, ignoring the uncomfortable looks the three remaining members of RYNB were wearing at the moment.

They kept Velvet company for the remainder of lunch. Afterwards, Velvet decided to stay with RASP as they went out for their free period of training. However, as they were leaving the dining hall, Blake pulled Ruby aside with a hand to her shoulder.

"What is it?" asked Ruby, seeing the wary look on Blake's face. "Look, if it's about what happened with Velvet-"

"That's not it," said Blake abruptly. She opened her mouth to continue, then paused, seeming to think of something else. "Well...I do feel ashamed," she admitted. "I should have done something..."

"But you didn't want to risk giving yourself away," said Ruby quietly.

Blake nodded, before rallying and meeting Ruby's gaze again. This time, her expression was plaintive. "Ruby...Please talk to Yang."

Blake winced as an angry look washed over Ruby's face. "Why should I?" she growled.

Blake sighed. "Look, we've been trying to keep her from bothering you too much, because we know that it would only make things worse if she kept pushing you. But she can't take much more of this, especially now, since she knows you have another sister."

"Sasame-n-...Sasame is my adoptive older sister," said Ruby firmly. "But I consider her a more real sister than Yang ever was."

"That's not fair to Yang," said Blake. "She's been trying to find a way to connect with you, ever since the school-year began. It's tearing her apart, the way you're treating her."

"Oh!" snapped Ruby, a feeling of sheer rage welling up within her. "It's tearing her apart is it?" Her voice took on a sarcastic tone. "Poor little Yang. Everybody's worried about her after she spent years working with our father to try and squash my dreams and turn me into some kind of stupid doll who could only live at home. Yeah, I feel really sorry for her."

"Ruby!" Blake cried out, utterly shocked by the sheer vitriol in Ruby's voice. "Don't talk about her like that."

"Why shouldn't I?" hissed Ruby.

"Look," said Blake. "Yang made mistakes, it's true. But that was six years ago. I know she wants to make amends. She hasn't talked about dragging you back home or taking you out of Beacon. She hasn't said a word about telling your father that you're here. All she wants is to be able to talk with you. The fact that you keep giving her the cold shoulder is making her...well...difficult."

"What do you mean?" asked Ruby, frowning more as Blake averted her eyes. "Blake, what did she do?"

"She flew off the handle the other night," said Blake. "I mentioned your other sister and she blew up, slammed me against the wall. Nora had to pull her off me and hold her down."

"What?" gasped Ruby, her eyes going wide with shock, then narrowing in anger. "How dare she..."

"Ruby, you need to understand-" began Blake.

"Oh, I understand plenty," snarled Ruby. "She doesn't like the fact that I have another sister, a way better sister than she ever was, a whole family who, for all that we don't share a drop of blood, actually treated me with love and appreciation, and did everything in their power to help me, not lock me in a box."

"Ruby..." Blake didn't know what to say. At the moment, Ruby was being every bit as irrational as Yang.

"Tell Yang this for me," said Ruby. "What I do and do not call my family are my business, not hers. If that really makes her so mad, she can come to me and I'll gladly set her straight about it." Ruby's fingers strayed to the handle of her sword. Blake swallowed. "That's all," Ruby finished before turning and marching away.

Blake watched her go, a sick feeling welling up inside of her. This can't go on, she thought glumly. As much as she liked Ruby, and as close as RYNB and RASP were overall, the rift between the two sisters was only going to be a source of more discord. Ruby had basically absolved herself of any connection with Yang, leaving Team RYNB to manage Yang's behavior, difficult when Yang's anger fed so readily into her Semblance and made her into such a destructive powerhouse. The sad thing was that Yang only had so many targets to vent at.

At least I didn't mention what Yang did to Jaune, thought Blake, remembering Ren telling her about that little incident. She was scared to think what Ruby might have done, had she learned that Yang had thrashed Jaune to within an inch of his Aura breaking, just for the crime of being close to her when Yang couldn't be.

The problem was that Blake didn't see any resolution to this, at least not one that ended up with things ending well for all involved. As much as Yang's irrationality caused them trouble, the fact was that she was a member of RYNB, and Blake's partner to boot. If they didn't resolve this problem, then Yang was likely to get worse before she got better, which would only mean more problems for their team.

But what can we do? Blake wondered. She frowned and lowered her head in thought. Perhaps they needed help from the people they normally wouldn't have considered asking. Perhaps it was time to talk to Ruby's teammates about this.