It was Cecilia that emerged from the cave, scuffed and burnt in a few places but otherwise upright and stumbling towards Ruby and Roman. The huntress-in-training had thought she had seen a silver glint but all of that running must have tired her out to the point of seeing lights.

"Cecilia!" Ruby called to the faunus, running towards her with an open arm. One step in and she almost tripped. Roman had grabbed a handful of her cape, stopping her from getting any farther. She looked back and for the first time, Ruby saw real fear in Roman's eyes.

Having to drop a sincere 'please' for any reason was difficult enough for Roman without the word tasting sour on his tongue. In comparison, asking for help from anyone like Ruby was the same as voluntarily sticking his hand into a wood-chipper.

But here, injured and defenseless with a tiny poppy standing between him and certain death, Roman would crawl and beg.

"Don't," The crippled Kingpin whispered, green eyes wide. "Please."

Speechless, Ruby turned back to face the mouse faunus who was steadily making her way towards them with a twitch in her smile.

Ruby hadn't just been seeing lights. There really was a silver glint and it was from the suspicious metallic gloves Cecilia had put on catching the moonlight. Taking her attention from those gloves back to Cecilia's face, Ruby realized that the faunus' unnerving grin wasn't for her.

"Cecilia…" Ruby moved slightly to block Roman from Cecilia's view and the faunus' smile fell into a frown. Gripping Crescent Rose tightly, Ruby hoped with all her might. "Can we talk about this?"

The faunus flexed her fingers at her side and her gloves made a crackly noise.

"We did," Cecilia nodded and despite being outside under the cover of a forest, she felt more cornered than ever. "And you said that you wanted to help me. You could help me and so many people if you step aside. Let me take care of that monster. Please."

Roman dug his fingers into Ruby's cape, gripping the red cloth to the point of almost tearing it. This could have been the moment to jump into the conversation and shower Ruby and Cecilia in promises of wrongs being righted. Thing was, Roman could lie until he was black and blue but he knew the difference between someone looking for justice and someone out for blood.

"Red?" He began again, voice hushed and struggling to stay steady.

Ruby heard him but didn't turn back. Swallowing, Ruby shook her head and her heart ached at how Cecilia looked ready to cry.

"I'm sorry," Ruby said, watching Cecilia's slow shift from distraught to enraged. "I know he's done bad things and I know he won't stop. But I can't let you kill him. Despite everything, we can't call him a monster. He's a person and he'll be brought to justice properly."

"Not a monster. He's a person," Cecilia hadn't stopped walking towards the two. "Don't you mean, he's a human? That's why, isn't it?" She screamed and it was so jarring and shrill that Ruby flinched behind her scythe. "I've seen it before. You ignore the crimes of your own but shoot faunus where they stand."

"That's not it at all!" Ruby tried to protest but Cecilia laughed.

"So if that's not it, is it because he's pretty like your fireworks?" Cecilia asked and Ruby's stomach dropped. Roman swore at their bad luck. Of all the times a faunus' keen ears could have eavesdropped on them, it had to have been back in the cave.

"Cecilia, it wasn't—"Ruby started, swinging her scythe just in time to block Cecilia's reach.

"Then you can burn with him!" Cecilia's hiss melded with the clash of her metal laced gloves against Ruby's scythe.

Those gloves had been painstakingly sewn with whatever dangerous scraps Cecilia could piece together. It was meant for stealth missions where the faunus could sneak up on an unsuspecting victim. Not for head on rows but Cecilia blocked out every coherent thought save for fear and anger.

Ruby strained against Cecilia's gloves, her aura almost near depleted by the previous explosion and sprint. When her arms began to buckle, Roman panicked and started to drag himself away from the deadlock.

"No!" Ruby shouted as Cecilia shoved her scythe away to chase after Roman. Grunting with the effort, she swung Crescent Rose back around, slamming the blade in between the faunus and the criminal. Using the scythe's handle as leverage, Ruby lifted and swung herself at Cecilia, kicking the faunus farther away from Roman.

Immediately, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose from the ground and rushed after Cecilia. Aiming to pin her down, the girl slashed at the faunus with the blunt side of her weapon. Cecilia was knocked off her feet and caught a branch to keep from flying away. The branch was shredded in the faunus' grip and she charged back at her enemy.

Ruby parried each punch and grapple Cecilia tried on her and twirled Crescent Rose around herself. It gave Ruby space to work with and kept Cecilia's gloves from grating her skin into ugly chunks but the mouse faunus was unrelenting. Even worse, she had no sense of self preservation.

Though Ruby had experience with this kind of match up thanks to her practice fights with Yang, Cecilia fought with far more abandon. No matter what Ruby tried, Cecilia threw herself towards the sharp edge of the scythe to get at her. It forced Ruby to continually step back, struggling to keep herself from accidentally cutting Cecilia open.

Watching from beside a tree too close to the action for his liking, Roman attempted to pull himself up but shifting even a smidge of pressure on his broken leg felt like he was stabbing swords into his shin. Dragging himself across the grass made him wince the same way.

"If I was planning to go down, it was going to be in a rain of flashing bullets and money. Not getting put down like a broken show horse." Roman found the energy to joke badly though he was breathing almost as hard as Ruby was. He could tell the girl was almost at her limit. The scythe was becoming heavy in her hands and her wounded legs made Roman's own ache in sympathy.

Cecilia, on the other hand, as driven as she was by vengeance and desperation, was worse for wear. All Ruby needed was one more opening and she was the one with huntress training.

Heartbeat pounding in his ears, Roman braced himself and gripped the grass, worming his way closer to the fray.

"Hey rat, get a load of this!" Roman's shout was amplified by the pain that made his vision go white. With a huge gesture, Roman threw a handful of nothing at Cecilia.

The faunus, catching the movement from the corner of her eye, glanced towards Roman and Ruby slammed the side of Crescent Rose into her side. Shouting with the effort of that swing, Ruby sent Cecilia crashing into a tree with a brutal crack. She crumbled into a motionless broken heap against the tree, halting Ruby's heart.

"Cecilia!" Ruby rushed to the faunus as Roman clapped.

"Nice going, Red!" He called to her, sitting back to brushing hand through his orange hair. "You snapped her back better than a mousetrap! Ha, it still took you long enough. Yeah, this is why I hire the kids that hug their pets too hard."

Frantic, Ruby ignored Roman and turned Cecilia over to check if she was okay. Cecilia was rolled on to her back, her eyes empty and staring into nowhere. A stream of blood ran down her forehead and Ruby placed Crescent Rose aside to help her.

"I'm so sorry." Ruby murmured, going on her knees to reach for Cecilia again. The faunus' fingers were trembling and as Ruby leaned over her, Cecilia's eyes refocused and she swiped at Ruby.

Cecilia's gloves tore into Ruby's dress and ripped into her stomach. Ruby's breath caught in the back of her throat. With nothing but the dregs of her aura protecting her, Ruby couldn't stop the blood gushing from her wound or Cecilia when the faunus pushed her aside.

"Huh?" Roman watched Ruby collapse, clutching her jagged gash as she bled out on the grass. Terror ebbed back into him and stammering with words he couldn't piece together, Roman tried to back away.

Cracking her neck, Cecilia wobbly got on her feet. Whether it was because of her injuries or because she wanted to enjoy her moment in power, she took her time stepping over to Roman.

"Wait! Please, wait!" Roman managed, holding his hands up in front of his chest. Suddenly, Cecilia was standing over him with a ravenous glare that gave Roman shivers. "We can negotiate. Figure something out! Wipe that pretty slate clean! There's no need to stoop to violen—AH!" He cried out when Cecilia kicked his chin, knocking him on his back. She dug her heel into the shin of his broken leg next, squeezing out another scream.

"It's scary down there, right? Squashed under someone's boot?" Cecilia asked. Roman's whimpers were music to her ears and she savored the way he was cowering behind his arms.

"Pl-please! I'll d-do any—AH!" Roman needed to stop screaming and come up with anything and everything to get the faunus to stop but it was impossible. Cecilia might as well have been sawing into his bones. Roman's neck was arching from the agony spreading from his leg to his head, feeling like he was being torn to pieces. He reached back, grasping for anything. Anyone. "He—help! HELP!" His voice broke on the word.

Cecilia's face twisted in disgust.

"You're pathetic." She said, taking her foot off of Roman's leg to smash his face.

All at once, everything stopped.

The pain went away. All Roman could feel was a breeze brushing against his face and the elation in his chest at the flash of red.

Ruby, having heard Roman, came to her senses and rammed herself against Cecelia, hard. Stray rose petals fell around Ruby weakly. She followed them, sinking to her knees before she fell over Roman's stomach, straddling the leg that Roman hadn't broken.

It wasn't her semblance that propelled her. That was gone along with her drained aura. The rest was strength from pure force of will and now, it was all spent too.

And Cecilia wasn't done.

The faunus, dragging herself up-right in no time, went towards them. She wouldn't make the mistake of wasting time again.

This was it. The end. Roman was going to die in the middle of nowhere, broken and shamed. Ruby was struggling under her cape, maybe trying to cover her wound. Roman didn't know and thought that it wouldn't make a difference.

"To…Torchwick?" Ruby was struggling to right herself, her breaths fast and shallow. In some form of wordless gratitude, Roman strained to sit himself up and help Ruby do the same. If they were going to die like this, they at least wouldn't go lying down.

Ruby's back was still hunched, leaning her head against Roman's chest. She clutched the lapel of his bloodstained coat with one hand and hid the other under her red cape.

It was then that Roman remembered the first thing Ruby had done when she woke up in the cave. She got on her hands and knees to search through the rubble. That giant red hedge trimmer was already on her at the time. Roman recalled that clearly.

So then, what could she have possibly been looking for?

The answer came to him when Cecilia approached them from behind Ruby.

"I'll make sure—"Cecilia balled her reddened hand into a fist, raising it for one last blow. "—you both rot."

The fist flew down at Ruby and the girl tugged the handle of Roman's cane out into the open, tilted the end up at Cecilia, and fired it from under her cape. The shot hit the faunus' stomach point-blank, thrusting her back several yards.

This time, she didn't hit a tree and she didn't get up.

Acrid black smoke rose up from the barrel of Melodic Cudgel and from the hole that it burned into Ruby's cape.

"Third time's the charm," Roman muttered tiredly. He would have preferred Ruby pulling out that trump card sooner but there needed to be a certain finesse when handling his weapon. At that one moment, Cecilia was too close for a shot to not miss and Ruby's adrenaline drunk wits couldn't come up with another answer. "So, what now, Red? You went through all that effort just to lock me away?" He looked down at Ruby and she slumped against him. "Red?"

That wound was deeper than Roman had first thought. It wasn't apparent to him thanks to that animal menacing them but he was completely drenched in Ruby's blood. His clothes were sodden with it and a pool was gathering around the two of them.

"Red!" Roman shook Ruby a little. The girl groaned and looked up at him. Her cheeks were deathly pale and Roman had to shout again to keep her from drifting off. "Red, don't go falling asleep on me. I know you gave me a lift back there but personally, following up on favors is the worst way to spend an evening."

Ruby couldn't concentrate on Roman's face. It was a confusion of color to her but what stood out the most was all that nauseating red.

Reaching up towards Roman's chin, Ruby asked "Are you hurt?"

Grimacing, Roman laid Ruby against his chest and took off his coat. The whirring in his ears was steadily growing louder, deafening Roman and numbing the pain in his leg as he moved. He couldn't exactly tear through his coat or his shirt with how much strength he had left so he had to settle on tightly tying the sleeves of his coat around the gash marring Ruby's side.

It was all he could do and the blood was still seeping from the cut. Ruby's eyes were half-lidded and he gently tapped her blanching cheek to keep her awake.

Roman wasn't questioning why he was helping her or why it felt like he was the one losing the ability to breathe when it was Ruby who was dying. All that mattered was that Ruby was very small and needed a blood transfusion as soon as possible.

His hands felt useless and empty. All he could do was sit like some drooling idiot, clutching at the girl's clothes and listening to the frail sound of her breathing being drowned out by that whirring. That insane whirring kept escalating as Ruby grew colder.

"Red? Don't give me the silent treatment," Roman tried to get the girl's attention. "Red, you're breaking my heart here."

"Nnn…" Ruby groaned into Roman's shirt, grasping at it. He reached for Ruby's hands but she mumbled again. "No."

"No?" Roman, noticing that he was hugging Ruby too tightly, relaxed his arms as she tried to move.

"Not…red." She turned her head towards Roman, trying to look at his blurry figure. "I'm…"

"You're what?" Roman leaned closer to Ruby, struggling to hear her.

"Ruby."

The meaning of that word didn't hit Roman until he realized that he didn't actually know her real name.

"Huh, a real gem, aren't you?" Roman said, prompting Ruby to squint. Not at him but at the source of the whirring.

A light shined down on them and Roman turned, finding that the whirring wasn't from his terror high but from two approaching aircrafts overhead. They had been scanning the area near town looking for Roman and had been attracted by the smoke from his weapon.

He recognized those carriers. They were the same ones Roman rode towards Vale once. The thief was relieved beyond measure all the way until he peered at the open door and saw a familiar face waving at him from inside the craft. It was the same face that belonged the man who knocked Cecilia's explosive towards him and Ruby back in the shop.

Oh, he wouldn't forget that face.

The carriers found a space between the trees where it could fit nearby and Roman watched them land.

"Ruby? Can you stay awake?" Roman asked. He didn't need her to stay conscious for too long. His men knew if they took longer than six minutes, they'll be six feet under the wrong side of the grass.

Ruby's eyelids felt terribly heavy and she couldn't feel her fingers but she was tenacious. Gripping the arms wrapped around her, she tipped her chin down in a firm nod. Straining her eyes, Ruby focused for long enough to see a small smile.

"Ruby? Can you move?" Roman continued, suddenly tightening his hold on Ruby. "Don't try if you can't."

Ruby could barely clench her teeth now and it took so much effort just to shake her head.

"Good."

Roman unclipped his cane from Ruby's belt.

His men rushed to him with a stretcher, gradually coming to a stop at the confusing sight of their boss cradling the girl that had threatened to cut his head off in the shop. The stretcher was meant for Roman should he have sustained any injuries from the explosion, which he did, but he didn't want it.

"It's one of Beacon's students," He told one of the men that went up to him. "Get her on the stretcher," Though he was baffled, the man knelt to pick Ruby up and found the end of Roman's cane jabbing the underside of his chin. "Carefully."

Gulping, the man motioned for two others to help him carry Ruby to the stretcher.

Roman forced himself up to lean on his cane. His leg still hurt like one ugly mother but Roman clenched his teeth and took the discomfort to keep an eye on little Red. Warily, he watched the others lay Ruby down, pressing dents into his cane as they worked.

One of the hired help was absolutely astounded at how Roman, the preener that he was, ruined his own coat to help this pest. Roman noticed.

"On the off chance we don't get any new info from her, we'll still have a hostage for that rickety old headmaster to cry for," Roman paused when he heard Ruby groaning. "We better have something to plug that nasty leak."

"We do!" The especially apologetic henchman nodded enthusiastically from beside Roman and he released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"I want one of you to go crawl around the woods back there. You'll find an animal carcass that I'd like to have torched. No need to stand around and watch. It can burn down the entire hick side of town for I care. As for you-" Roman narrowed his eyes at the man who accidentally threw the explosive in his face and jabbed a thumb in the direction of Ruby's scythe. "—go get Red's giant can opener. Be quick about it." He said before hobbling after Ruby's stretcher as dignified as he could.

Once they lifted the stretcher into the aircraft and hooked Ruby up to a portable blood transfuser, Roman found that he could bring himself to sit on a seat by Ruby's side. His men wrapped her up as much as they could before leaving Roman and Ruby for the pilot seats. Ruby was mumbling about something Roman couldn't make out, touching the temporary bandages they had wrapped around her injury. Even with the stitching coming later, it was going to scar.

"Sir?" The guilty henchman said after he jumped into the aircraft. The carrier lifted off and the man hit a switch to close the door behind him. Ruby's heavy weapon was in his arms and he was having a hard time keeping it there. Roman kept his gaze on Ruby but signaled for the man to set the weapon in the seat next to him.

For Ruby, warmth was flowing back into her system but she had been too light headed to understand how she managed to float from a forest to a small grey room. Sleep might help her figure it out. Was that a good idea? She could have sworn she was fighting…someone. Did she win? Were they going to be safe? Wait, who's they? Are they okay?

"I'm fine," Roman chuckled at the questions Ruby didn't know she was slurring out loud. "I'm going to be shoving rat poison in every crack I see for a while but yeah, still vaguely alive. What can you do?"

Ruby actually tried to answer him, managing to get out a croak.

"Sleep," Roman said, leaning on the stretcher just in time for the aircraft to hit turbulence. It made Ruby's head bounce up and Roman slipped his hand under her head to cushion it despite there already being a pillow there. He decided to think about insulting the pilots instead of thinking on that oversight. "Huh, you can't trust these idiots to stick a landing into anything but a drainpipe but that's what I'm here for. You trust me, don't you, Red?"

To Ruby's credit, she did wonder if she should believe this voice but her eyes decided for her. They closed and she went limp so fast that it startled Roman. She was breathing steadily at least, making short gasps every now and then in her troubled dreams.

He didn't know how long he kept his palm under Ruby's head but once the scenery below went from green woodsy hills to dark waters, he turned his attentions to the man sharing their space.

"You made a big mistake today," Roman said, scaring the man close to death. "A real bad mistake. Boy, I can still feel your mistake blowing up in my face." He stood, using his cane as a crutch to go fill the space beside the shaking henchman. Roman gripped the small carrier's railing and glared at the red faced idiot. "Then, you flew two noisy planes all over Vale's backyard to track me down and took your sweet time faffing around too?"

"I-it was my mistake, sir!" The man stammered, holding his hands up. Roman hoped he didn't look that sad when he had been knocked on his back. "After the wall collapsed into that cave, we tried digging but someone called the authorities on us. We thought that faunus was digging that hole to get out of town so we rushed out to the forest to find you as quick as we could!"

"And what if that faunus didn't finish that cave? What if I was still stuck in the ground, hmm? Did you think about that? Did the thought ever cross the empty space where your brain's supposed to be?" Roman asked, digging the end of his cane into the man's foot.

"Bu-but you weren't!" The man was wincing, struggling to speak as Roman worked on crushing his bones.

Then, Roman laughed, easing up on the man. More relieved than nervous, the man laughed along with him.

"Oh man, you were lucky," Roman grinned, hooking his cane on his thumb as he thumped the man's shoulder. "And I gotta say, it takes some real nerve to own up to a huge mistake like this."

"Is…that a good thing?" The henchman asked warily.

"You aren't off the hook, if that's what you're asking," Roman replied and the man went stiff. "But trust me, I'll go easy on you."

The man wasn't completely happy with the turn out but if it wasn't the worst thing that could happen, he'll count this as a blessing.

"Thanks, boss," He said. "I really appreciate it."

"Yup, it'll be quick." Roman jabbed a switch on the wall with his elbow, shoved the business side of his cane in the henchman's chest, and shot him out of the aircraft as its doors opened. The guy didn't get the chance to scream before his smoldering body disappeared into the water below.

Roman tapped the switch again to close the doors. It was just him and Ruby in the back of the carrier now. Ruby stirred in her sleep, disturbed by the commotion, tossing her head from one side to the other. Roman limped back to his seat beside Ruby. When Ruby groaned from the pain again, a word jumped out of his mouth.

"Sorry," Roman tsked at that impulse, dwelling on it for a beat. "Feeding fish overpriced food is real annoying business, I know."

Slumping back in the seat, Roman tugged off his gloves. Black material tended to hide stains well but wow did it not make it feel any less gross. He tossed them over by Ruby's folded weapon and rested his hand on her stretcher absentmindedly. It was a shock when a warm hand found his freezing fingers and gripped them tight.

Ruby's brow was creased deep and Roman wondered who she thought he was. One of her friends? That sister she mentioned? A sweetheart?

Deciding to entertain her dreaming mind, Roman placed his free hand over Ruby's and whispered to her.

"I'm right here, Ruby."

He turned several thoughts about this girl over and over as her dreams became peaceful. Ruby's scuffed face was framed by short dirt matted black hair and he could imagine those big silver eyes narrowed at him. Roman entertained the idea of them growing bright like the smile he had seen when Ruby reminisced about those fireworks.

It wasn't bad. It was far from bad. Cute in some ways, gorgeous in others. Roman wasn't sure when he figured that out. Definitely not at first sight and definitely not as late as now.

"Now, what to do?" Roman asked, laying his head next to Ruby's on her pillow. "How should I thank my courageous little Hero?"

In the depths of her deep sleep, Ruby heard the murmurs of sweet words. She squeezed Roman's hand and he squeezed back.

So it's been six whole months. Yikes...Well anyways, let me get these heys, howyadoings, and apologiesforhowfuckinglongthistooks. Ok good! Done with that.

About this chapter, I tend to write something and then prefer to never look at it again so that's what editors are for (xoxos for u). She fixed a bunch of typos but did it at 5AM so there might be some that got through the threshold. More importantly though, we had a talk about characters being in character. She said the final product looks fine but let me tell you, it is difficult and nerve wracking to put characters in situations without references to at least gauge how they'd react. Ruby in a situation where she has to fight someone out to kill her without hurting them for one and Roman in a situation where he literally can not do anything that can help him get out alive. So Ruby's very worried and Roman isn't running his mouth for once. Later, Ruby lost nearly 40% of her blood so she's half delirious and while Roman isn't in danger anymore, he's gone through some shit so it's a little tough for him to feel smart mouthed. That suspension bridge effect is messing with them too. Honestly, the series is still going (at the moment the upcoming one is vol 3 ep 11) so if they happen to get into something like this and act differently, I did this earlier so I can be safely wrong.

On that note, my editor also checked in and asked if this was going to result in a redemption for Roman or a corruption to the crime side for Ruby. It's going to be neither or maybe a really realistic twist on that kind of trope based on their characters. There IS going to be a plot featuring this ship but we all know that Roman is scum. His hobbies are the same things that fill his list of crimes and he's probably a racist (to faunus). I'm pretty sure it's implied that he'll literally kill for nothing too. His polar opposite being Ruby, she's not going to buckle. She's young and changeable and all but ultimately the nicest, sweetest person there is with the strongest of morals. Of course, they aren't going to come out of this the same way they came in. Now I could also be wrong. Maybe in vol 26 of RWBY, Roman is going to be the next pope and Ruby might play music at the ceremony with a guitar she made out of freshly peeled human skin. Who knows. And yet again, I can still safely be wrong because this is before vol 3 ep 11.

So otherwise, if you didn't notice, Roman is totally kidnapping Ruby. That's the focus next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one and I'll be seeing you hopefully before 6 months is up. Aha...