Hello again (gosh, I miss you Pyrrha)! Hope you'll enjoy what will certainly be, for various reasons, the last chapter of CRDL's Realization.

More on that in the end note, 'cause now it's story time:

Chapter 13 - Greyscale

"Excuse-me professor...!" Ruby called through Port's class, in an uneasy manner. The man stopped ranting and hummed interrogatively, showing her that she had his attention. The tiny leader continued: "I don't feel well at all... May I go to the infirmary pleaaase?"

"Please, eat healthy, children." said Weiss with a sigh and a fake pout, audibly enough for the whole amphitheater to hear. With her overreacted performance, the redhead needed that kind of push to obtain her ticket out. She was glad her partner-in-crime quickly reacted and supported her scheme. Heck, the ice queen even managed to season her line with some healthcare innuendo.

"Urgh, I hate you!" Ruby played along.

Port scratched his mustache while pondering his decision, and then approved: "Fine. Any volunteer to...?

"GoshNeedToHurrrryyyyyyy!" In a literal flash, Ruby exited the room, her last syllabe fading the further she went.

This drew a smile for some, including the professor, and laughter for the others, but Weiss and Blake knew better what it was all about.

Risking severe punishment several times for both running in the corridors and far exceeding what could be qualified of non-threatening speed limit, the girl reached the medical wing in a couple minutes.

And here she switched to a normal pace, because as concerned as she was, it was disrespectful for patients and doctors alike.

That, and she was deliberately infringing headmistress Goodwitch's schedule for visiting her dear sister. Better safe than sorry.

Now she was a mere corridor away, ready to make the turn, when she was suddenly pulled back with a weak yelp.

"Shhhh." Sky advised her, with the according finger-on-mouth gesture.

"What are you doing?!" The tiny leader asked aggressively. All the while she tried to escape his grasp on her hood, but it soon proved to be impossible without causing a ruckus.

"And you?" The boy was a bit shaky, obviously not sure of what he was doing, but he was holding well.

"I'm going to see my sister." Now, let me go!" Ruby sounded determined. It was the absolute truth after all.

"Can't let you do that." Sky answered, flatly.

"And why is that? If you think that you can keep me here, you're mistaken!" She was ready to struggle if it was some kind of bad prank.

"Well, you're not on schedule. What would Goodwitch say?" He had a point. Escaping forcefully would trouble the infirmary's calm, and she indeed wasn't supposed to be here in the first place. But...

"How do you know about..." Ruby asked in an inquisitive whisper. She and her team should have been the only one to know about the visits. "No..." And then it all made sense. The schedule, Sky here to preventing her from meeting a certain someone... "He is here?!"

"Oops..." It was inaudible, but he knew for sure he just screwed up. There was no point in lying anymore. "Yes, he is." But on the bright side, she was still bound by the headmistress' rules. He had a chance to talk this out rather peacefully.

"How dare they let him go near my sis again!" Ruby was trying her best not to shout in rage. She felt betrayed by the battle teacher she respected.

"Listen. I don't know what you think, but Cardin isn't a murderer." Sky told her, with conviction.

"He is a butcher!" The redhead retorted.

"Hey!" The quarrel stopped upon hearing the weaker than normal voice of a convalescent Jaune.

"Hey Jauney..." And that was definitely Cardin with him. Curiosity temporarily overcoming the previous argument, Ruby and Sky both creeped around the corner to see what was going on.

The blond knight sat on the waiting bench in front of Yang's Room, just next to the orange-haired one. The latter was in what appeared to be a position of deep thoughts, hands hiding the lower-half of his face.

"How long has it been?" Jaune desperately tried to get the conversation going.

"You should know better, I sent you here at the same time." Nothing but the average blunt and aggressive Cardin tone.

"Ow, hehehe..." The blond boy regretted his choice of opening topic, but he kept going regardless. "Yeah, sure. Three days. How could I forget...?"

"Cut the crap, Jauney." The bully faced him with rising anger. "If you want explanations, there aren't! I'm sorry. Now piss off, I still got 10 minutes to kill, alone!"

"Sorry boys, but that's an infirmary you know?" And now a third person just appeared from the opposite end of the corridor. From her hidden position, a certain redheaded girl held her breath in to muffle an incoherent string of words, fortunately happy ones.

"Sorry." Said Jaune weekly, while Cardin breathed in to calm himself.

"No harm done." The stranger answered, reassuringly. He kept on approaching and looked at the door. "Room 102..." Then at the boys. "Seems she didn't lose any time. Who's the boyfriend?" He asked with a joking smile.

"Heeee?! No, we aren't..." Jaune started to refute the affirmation with a furious blush, but then something tilted as he observed the man further. "Holy...! You look so much like her!"

Cardin finally took the time to look at the stranger, whose hair and overall style betrayed obvious family ties with the comatose girl in the next room. His heart began beating hard.

"That much?" The man answered calmly.

"I'm Jaune, Jaune Arc!" Jaune welcomed the newcomer with enthusiasm. If he was blind to love hints, it was the exact opposite for family ones.

"Taiyang Xialong." There was something in his voice. The blond knight could bet that Yang inherited her golden heart from him. The only difference would be that her father's matured from an outgoing teenager to a more focused parent. "I assume you were here when it happened?"

"Well I..." Jaune started confused, not sure how to explain. "I wasn't there. I only heard about it. I just recovered, and this is my first time here visiting her. And actually..." He paused to look at both ends of the white corridor, narrowly missing the spies who hid in time. "I thought I would see Ruby here."

"It's still classetime. I'm sure she will be there a minute after the bell."

The girl felt a tiny ping of guiltiness in her heart at that statement.

At the same time, a feint scroll alarm ringed. Cardin stood up, bluntly stating "I have to go."

His time was up, so he took the opportunity to get away from what was by far one of the worst situations he could have imagined. If the atmosphere between Jaune and Taiyang could be perceived as friendly, it was one of suffocating pressure for him.

Neither of them stopped him, the orange-haired knight couldn't have been more fortunate.

"Jaune." Taiyang asked, with a suddenly monotonous tone.

"Uh...! Yes?" The boy was taken aback by that sudden shift.

"That boy. It's him, right?"

This, the blond knight couldn't answer. Because it wasn't something that he should say. It wasn't his role, nor his right. But his silence spoke volumes.

"So it is him." The man's expression became melancholic. So much that Jaune felt obligated to ask:

"Hum, sir? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. More so than you anyway!" Taking a deep breath, Taiyang collected himself instantly. "Sorry, boy. That was a bad joke..."

"Baaaah, that's the truth! And we're all kinda used to weird humor anyway." Jaune snickered.

Both paused for nearly a full minute, enough for Ruby to seriously consider revealing herself and meeting her father after so long. But Jaune prevented that with an hesitant new question.

"Sir... I don't know if it's invasive or not but..."

"Don't worry, go on." Taiyang already figured out what kind of question it would be.

"Well, if you knew Cardin did... Well, you know the guy who was there with us and... Well, you see who and... Anyway, if you knew, why didn't you say anything?"

The man laughed heartily at how puzzled Jaune's speech had been. The latter scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. At the corner, Ruby pricked up her ears, interested as much if not more than Jaune about what her father's reason was.

"You see... Nobody... Nobody is fully black or white. You can't put a target on someone's back on impulse, judging that this person is bad, and that you're good as well as in your right." Taiyang paused, pondering how to explain his point. "I loved a girl. With my previous example, you could say that she was a total eclipse! But even so, I was attracted. She opened my eyes, taught me how to see the bigger picture, how to go past what appeared to be simply Manichean. That immense amount of darkness in her heart was in fact what fueled a scarce, but incredibly bright light." Taiyang stopped suddenly, seeing Jaune's overattentive expression. "What?"

"Eh? Nothing! That's super interesting! And then what happened?"

"Just remember the black and white thing..." The man hastily concluded his rather personal display of knowledge. In fact, I've already said too much. He thought to himself.

Ruby, hidden in the corner all along, discovered a side of her father she didn't know. The description didn't match her mother Summer at all, so it certainly was her big sister's mom he mentioned. She felt sad that he never spoke to her nor Yang of this, and in a way she was also incredibly jealous of Jaune at that particular moment.

Something just changed in her quick-witted mind. She could relate experiences she recently had to her father's speech:

Weiss and Blake were textbook examples of grey girls, no wordplay intended, but their respective good sides are those which shine the brightest. Then, she knew she had deliberately done the target thing with Cardin. It was driven by rage and hatred. However, those negative emotions aren't the fabric of a real huntress. So, in the end, she still resented him, but was now ready to accept that a part of him really regretted this accident, and that good part may grow by letting him tend to her dear sis.

On a side note, a certain someone just forgot why he went there in the first place, and ended up hearing everything. Sky was now carefuly backing away from Ruby, not wanting any attention from the person described earlier if she happens to be her mother.

"Excuse-me sir?" Jaune once again interrupted Ruby's attempt to reveal herself.

"Yes?"

"Does... Does that mean that Yang will fall for Cardin?!"

(bonus quote) "For the love of…! Don't think about it too much!"

that may seem useless now, but still: Review - Follow - Favorite

So first I'd like to thank Spring Dragonfly for betaing this chapter. Hope you'll still be around if I ever resume writing.

I said before that I had ideas, but they don't fit my current vision of RWBY anymore. The balance of power has shifted too drastically, simply killing my original goals and characters. I just can't write them now, they feel far too AU for my likings.

And then, there's also the total disappearance of team CRDL. I had a feeling they would be left behind, at least for volume 4, and while I still can't say if it's for good, the future is looking grim(m) for them.

CRDL's realization started as an end-of-volume-2 "what if" fic, and it will die this way.

My sincere thanks to all of you who took a liking in my story and its mere 30.000 words!

Know that I have other RWBY-related ideas, but they're very experimental. PM me if you want to know more, but you're warned: !EXPERIMENTAL!

papyLaPlage, out!