While on a solo escort mission, Ruby comes across a destroyed Faunus-centric village. While searching the village, Ruby finds a deceased Raven amongst the victims. That's not all Ruby finds, however, She also comes across Raven's sword and a suspiciously red-eyed Faunus baby.
Flame's Shade
is a RWBY fic by AYangThing where Ruby and Yang take care of their baby sister. The story is set a few years after the main characters have already become hunters. Flame's Shade contains Blake/Ruby, Weiss/Pyrrha, and Yang/Yatsuhashi but the latter two relationships are not the focal point of the plot.
Flame's Shade - Revisited is a rewrite of the story.
This fic provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Weiss' father was emotionally and likely physically abusive.
- The Alcoholic: Taiyang relapses after Raven's death. He had always hoped that she'd come back someday or that at minimum she never had a Second Love, but instead she got pregnant with another's baby and then died without ever contacting Tai. To make it worse, Taiyang's daughters are adults so he doesn't feel the responsibility of cleaning up to be there for them like he did when Summer died.
- Alternate Universe Fic: The Fall of Beacon never happened.
- Death by Adaptation: The very premise of the fanfic means that unlike canon (by the time of Volume 8), Raven is dead.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The differences between Faunus and human cultures is discussed a bit. For example, Faunus are generally more homophobic than humans because Faunus generally have stronger urges to rear offspring.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Fox is depicted as being blind before it was canonized.
- Little Bit Beastly: Faunus are presented as more individualized from humans than they are in canon. For example, cat Faunus have thick, retractable fingernails that are comparable to claws. Cat Faunus also have strong night vision and a strong sense of smell to the point where they can identify a person's sex by scent alone. Blake refers to babies as "cubs".
- Family Eye Resemblance: Ace has Raven's red eyes.
- Furry Reminder:
- Cat Faunus are lactose-intolerant, like cats.
- Blake's eyes can slit like a cat's. Ruby finds it unnerving the first few times she sees it.
- Interspecies Romance: Blake and Ruby are the main one. An obstacle in their relationship is Ruby learning to become comfortable with how inhuman Blake is. Blake might normally look and act like a human with cat ears, but there are deep biological and behavioral differences between humans and faunus. This is especially noticeable when they're intimate and Blake's more feral side shows through.
- Missing Mom: Ruby finds Raven dead in the wreckage of the village. She even buried her herself. Raven left a nameless baby motherless, leading her sisters to take care of her.
- Polyamory:
- Implied between Summer, Taiyang, and Raven. It's mentioned that they all loved one another.
- Coco, Fox, and Velvet are a triad.
- Practically Different Generations: Yang and Ruby are both young adults when they meet their infant sister.
- Promotion to Parent: Ruby and Yang are in charge of a baby sister after finding her alone in a wrecked village.
- Transparent Closet: Weiss is closeted but Yang knows. It also helps that she's seen her Porn Stash.
