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Ruby closed the door as the last of her friends filed in and settled, exhausted, on whatever furniture was available. Penny was still shut down where she rested and Ruby shivered at her still body. Klein had excused himself when she asked for some privacy and Nora looked on curiously from the bed where she was wrapped in bandages.
"Guys? What's going on?" Nora looked around nervously. She chuckled as Ren sat on the bed and wrapped an arm around her. "Should I be worried?" Yang shrugged.
"I don't know. I hope not. Ruby said she needed to talk to all of us. So spill Rubes, what's going on?" All eyes in the room turned to her curiously as she leaned against the door, her right hand nervously clutching her left bicep. She looked away, unable to meet anyone's eyes.
"I need to tell you all something. Something that I've never told anyone. A secret that Mom asked me to keep." She heard several sharp intakes of air. Yang narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to say something. No doubt something scathing.
Ruby cut her off before she got the chance, wincing as she revealed her reason. "I wasn't sure before, but I think it has something to do with why she disappeared!" Yang's mouth dropped open as her eyes widened alongside everyone else's.
"I didn't think-" Ruby's eyes dropped to the floor before she sighed and met her sister's gaze with newfound determination. "It wasn't relevant before, or at least I didn't think it was. But after seeing that Hound... after seeing what was inside it, I know that I can't keep it any longer."
She took a breath and continued. "So many things have changed. So many secrets are no longer secrets. The Maidens. Salem. Ozma. The Relics and the Vaults. I couldn't tell you this before, but at this point, I don't think there's anyone left to protect. Just me and Maria and she won't care."
She turned her gaze to Oscar. To Ozpin, who she could feel sitting behind his eyes. "You asked me once what my favorite fairy tale was and I said I didn't have one. Or maybe I said something stupid like The Golden Tower, I don't remember." She waved a hand absently to dismiss her own tangent. "Nevermind. The point is, I lied."
Ruby looked around the room, meeting each of her friend's gaze before moving on. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I'm going to tell you now; it is an old story, and a secret one, that my mom told me. And her mom told her, whose mom told her, whose kin told her, and so on, as far back as the memory goes. Please, don't interrupt me."
She took a breath and let her voice fall into the familiar rhythm of the story her people had told since the earliest days of their existence.
Once upon a time, long before the advent of Dust, there came into being a Grimm. This Grimm was not like its kin. It was smarter, learning quickly from its experiences, and crueler, reveling in drawing out its victims' suffering to further sate its hunger for fear and pain. As time passed and the Grimm grew older it began to learn from its prey, from the humans and faunus it hunted. It began its studies with their habits, the better to stalk them; then their strategies, the better to best them; and their fears, the better to horrify them.
Eventually, to the mortals' misfortune, the Grimm learned to do something new. It learned to mimic them. It began with their voices, luring them into the dark. Then, it learned to take on their form, approaching without fear. Finally, their behaviors, so that it could hide among them.
And so the Grimm became the first Deceiver.
Others began to learn from its example. Though never numerous, a Deceiver was the most fearsome Grimm of all, for it could infiltrate the home and settlements of faunus and humans and open the doors for its more monstrous brethren. So effective were their slaughters that even at the Deceivers' most prolific, their existence was never more than a whisper to be dismissed as foolishness.
Even after mortals discovered the secrets of Dust, as the creatures of Grimm were pushed back and the light of true civilizations were lit, each Deceiver delighted in snuffing those lights out. They were feared in those moments, more than any other. They drank in the betrayal, the fear, the horror as the people around them realized in their last minutes of life that the Deceiver was not one of them.
There were only two ways to tell that a Deceiver was a monster in disguise. Its coloration, which remained similar to all Grimm no matter what form it took. And its empty eyes. For Eyes are the window to the soul and no matter how well it could mimic a mortal form, no Deceiver could imitate a soul.
But one day, a Deceiver, which at the time wore the form of a human and called itself Dunn, realized something rather abruptly. It had been living amongst the mortals of a walled town for some time so that it could better learn their weaknesses, the better to destroy them. It realized... that it no longer cared about the weaknesses of the mortals; and more importantly, it no longer longed for their destruction. It was simply... curious.
Well. Curiousness was a curious thing for a Grimm to feel, for no Grimm had ever felt curious before. And so Dunn began to learn in earnest from the people around it. Their passions and their interest. Their dreams and their hopes. Their community and their love. And as Dunn learned, it slowly grew into them. They grew to care for the people around them and that care continued to grow until it became love. And so Dunn the Grimm curiously loved the mortals that surrounded them.
And so the next time that the Grimm outside the walls poured forth to snuff out the light of this small civilization, instead of opening the gates to let them Dunn stood shoulder to shoulder with their friends and neighbors and fought alongside them.
The battle went on and on as more creatures of Grimm than the town had ever before seen attempted to overrun them. Dunn realized that the greater numbers were because the Grimm could sense them within the walls and longed for the wholesale slaughter that the presence of a Deceiver promised. So Dunn began to plead with their kin to stop, to listen, to let the mortals teach the Grimm love as they had taught Dunn. But the Grimm did not stop; they didn't even falter. As Dunn watched the town's defenses begin to fall to the endless tide of Grimm, they felt, for the first time in their existence, grief for the end of the ones they loved. They knew the battle was lost. In one last instinctive attempt to stop their now former brethren Dunn did something that had never been seen before.
Dunn gathered up all the love they found within their soul-for they had somehow come to possess a soul of their own without ever realizing-and poured it out into the Grimm surrounding them. But the other Grimm had no souls of their own with which to hold that love and so their bodies faltered and failed when it filled them, obliterating them entirely.
And when the light faded, there remained only one Grimm. Dunn stood alone, their eyes no longer empty but shining silver with the light of a soul they were never meant to have.
So came to be the first Silver-Eyed Warrior and the shining example for every one of our kind.
A long, stunned silence filled the room as Ruby finished the tale. The others in the room stared at her with their eyes wide, even Oscar (and by extension, Ozpin) looked flabbergasted. Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for the judgment of her friends.
And waited.
...and waited.
Eventually, she sighed heavily at the circle of gaping, shocked faces and raised her hands towards them, palm up, in an exasperated shrug. "Well?! Is anyone going to say anything?!"
"Ruby... I..." Yang shook her head dumbly. "I don't know what... and mom-"
"Yup. Mom too. And Maria. And whoever else got baked into one of those terrifying hybrids that Salem cooked up." She rubbed the back of her head and let out a small, nervous laugh. "All one, big, secret Grimm family!"
She wobbled her hand. "Kinda."
Blake finally composed herself and joined the conversation, "What do you mean by 'kinda'?"
"Well, for one we're only distantly related. For two," Ruby listed off a second finger as she continued, "We're only mostly Grimm. Silver Eyes have been interbreeding with humans for thousands of years, it's just that essentially every one of our genes are dominant, so every child of a Silver Eyes is basically full-blooded."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
There was a pause as the room processed that tidbit before Nora, in typical Nora fashion, shattered the tension like she had hit it with Magnhild. "Sooooooo, you aren't some crazy old Grimm thingy that had to, like, pretend to be a baby for years? That's good, that sounds like a nightmare." She slumped forward relieved.
Everyone stared at her for a moment. Then, there was a snicker. Then a snort as everyone's head whipped in Weiss' direction just as she burst into laughter.
"Hahahahahahaha! Can you-hahaha-imagine-hahaha- Ruby! Pfffthaha! Trying to pretend-hehehehe-to be a baby!?" The heiress continued to snort as she struggled to get the words out. "She can't even sit still-haha-long enough to write an essay! Hoohehahahaha!"
At that the laughter began to spread, contagious in its path around the room. Pretty soon everyone was laughing to some degree with Weiss and Nora being the loudest. Yang only gave an amused huff while Oscar, who was still recovering his wits, chuckled lightly. As the room began to wind down, Ruby realized that at some point her laughter had stopped. Her legs gave out and she slid down the door as her laughter transformed into sobs of relief. She hadn't realized how worried she was until it became clear that her friends still saw her as Ruby.
Tears filled her eyes as she wept, the heels of her palms coming up to try to wipe them away as they flowed. With her vision blurred, she felt more than saw as Yang approached and wrapped her arms around her. Weiss and Blake followed, reaching out from each side. The four girls clung to each other as the youngest cried until she couldn't anymore.
As her tears petered out Yang leaned back on her heels in front of Ruby and reached up to wipe her face. Ruby sniffled as Yang cupped each of her cheeks and looked her in the eye, a solemn and determined look on her face as she said the words Ruby had feared she'd never hear again.
"You will always be my sister."
Weiss put a hand on her shoulder, as Blake held her other hand. "And our friend." the faunus added. Weiss pouted and muttered,
"I was gonna say that. Phooey."
" I must say, Miss Rose," Ozpin spoke up through Oscar's mouth, "I have never in all my years learned the history of the Silver-Eyed Warriors. Despite my best efforts non of them were willing to part with a shred of their story. If that tale is true then I can see why. The necessity of secrecy to keep their kind safe. Well, perhaps I am not the best judge of what secrets should and should not be kept, but I think I speak for all of us when I say this: Thank you, Ruby, for trusting us."
A round of agreements rose at that ("HELL YEAH!" "Nora, a little much?" "Sorry Ren") before the huddle on the floor separated. Ruby sat on the bed, her team settling around her. She swiped her eyes one last time before setting her shoulders.
"So, I suppose you have questions."