Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts, of a forgotten past.

Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness – creatures of destruction – the creatures of Grimm – set their sights on man and all of his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void.

However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named "Dust".
Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, an-

''NYA!''

...Ahem. Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, an d in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, an-

''NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!''

...Oh damn it all. Yes, Ruby?

''Do we have to do this?

What do you mean, 'have to do this?'?

''Well, it's just, nya knyow, do the readers really have to read this for, what, the one Meowlionth time nyow?''

Way to break the immersion but alright. Yes Ruby, they have to read this, it's very important lore.

''But it's so meowverdone! You see that in, like, a lot of Fics and it's kinda getting a bit... I dunno, repetitive I guess?''

'Overdone'? Heavens above it's the godsforsaken introduction!

''Yet you're nyot even there for a while, so it's kinda confusing to start this off with an introduction by someowne who doesn't even appear for the first third of the show, isn't it?''

Just because I do not appear until Volume 4 does not mean that I am by any means unimportant. And may I also point out that due to you, this introduction has been greatly dragged out. The dear reader would already be getting into the story had you not interrupted me.

''...fair. But my point stands, that thing is boring and repetitive.''

I will not win this, will I?

''Nyope!''

Fine, we will skip the introduction, you impatient little cat.

Walking around Vale, one Ruby Belladonna found Herself... perhaps a tad lost. Even if She knew how to navigate big, packed places due to having grown up on Menagerie, the more modern, rural Vale was still a stark contrast to the very tropical Kingdom She hailed from. It also did not help that She found Herself drawn to pretty much every little thing, though that was more so because She was naturally curious. So all She could do was wander this new kingdom She found Herself in.

Now, we couldn't start this story without having a good look at who we are going to follow, now can we?

Black hair adorned Her head, cut short and reddening at the tips, though it was such a dark red it could easily be mistaken for black unless you were up close. A pair of reflectively bright, Silver, cat-like eyes, and long, thin Whiskers dotted around Her cheeks. Around Her neck was a large, red cloak, 2 cat pins keeping it stuck to Her body.

A black shirt, sleeves stopping just short of the elbows, accented red around the collar and wrist, over which a corset with red laces was cinched, the back of said shirt having a big, red rose printed on it. A belt wrapped around Her waist, sporting multiple pouches, some for ammo, others for tools and, most importantly, one dedicated to snacks. There was also a roughly hand sized pendant shaped like a Silver Rose, sparkling in the afternoon sun. Most notably, a sleek, black tail weaved its way out of a hole located on Her shirt, sitting low, near the ground and swishing back and forth slowly. On Her back was a decently large backpack, containing Her weapons.

A skirt ran down the length of Her thighs, ending slightly above the knees,under which was a pair of shorts -She'd be crazy to not wear those considering how much She moved about when fighting- . Leggings, starting black and going red the further down they went, hugged her legs. It all ended in a pair of black combat boots, colored red at the soles and laces. They were designed to look like a cat's paws, having lines to split them in 4 and indents to look like the pads on the soles.

As for why She was here? 3 simple things:
1. Visit an old Family friend -and totally not the reason both Her and Blake were such bookworms- , Tukson,

2. Hopefully find anything on where Blake, Her older Half-Sister, skedaddled to,

3. Make sure that the White Fang do not commit horrible crimes and bad activities that could potentially really screw up stuff.

And the fun thing was, going to Tukson meant Ruby could do all of those at the same time! She'd see how He's been doing, ask if He had anything about Blake, and, since He was at one point in the White Fang, make sure Uncle Ghira's organization is behaving.

Now if only She could find the dang place.

''Alright, let's see, I gotta head to... what was it again, 282 on 27th? Lemme check.'' She pulled out her scroll, a quick search providing the location of the bookstore She was headed for.

''Ok, so, take a left there... little bit of walking, and then it's the third building on the right.''

And just like that, a few minutes later, She found Herself in front of 'Tukson's Book Trade'. It wasn't much, per se, a few plants and a sign hanging from the wall, the sign above the door emblazoned with golden, fully capital letters telling of the store's name, with the number 282 on both sides and tinted windows, one having 'TBT, Home to every Book under the sun' and the other 'TBT, New & Used Books' written on them, all completed by dark wood and stone.

She pushed open the door, the bell attached above giving a little 'ding!', and entered. Immediately, Ruby was met with books upon books, organized on shelves with different plaques to tell customers what category each is from.

Opposite of the entrance was the check-out, a few stacks of books -and some specific ones on display stands- , the till, and a bell present on the desk. A pair of doors, leading to what is most likely the employee only area, found itself behind that desk.

''I'll be out in a minute!'' Yelled someone, most likely Tukson, from behind the pair of doors. Seeing as She had a little bit of time, Ruby began perusing the different Shelves, taking a quick glance at each plaque. Her eyes stopped at one... labeled 'Romance & Erotica'. She looked around the store, making sure that no one else was around, then started looking through the catalog of books available.

'Let's see... 'Regents', nyo, read that one... went through this one like three times... 'Pupetta'? Wait nyo read that too. Hm, Darkside, don't think I-'. She was so absorbed looking through... adult literature totally normal and not at all weird books YepMhmYupTotally!, that She didn't notice a certain person walk back into the front of the store.

''Welcome to 'Tukson's Book Trade', Home to every Boo-'' He stopped mid-sentence when He saw just who happened to be in His store. All the man got in response was a rather High pitched squeak, followed by the cat faunus in front of Him scrambling behind the nearest bookshelf.

''Ruby? Is that you? And why are you hiding?'' Tukson was really perplexed. He had gotten scared for a moment, thinking that the White Fang had sent someone, but then realised who it was, looking at- was that the smut section?

''Um, nyo...?''

''Ruby, you are, I'm pretty sure, the only person I know who talks like that. You can come out, I won't judge. I will however wonder what Ghira and Kali think about your reading preference.'' Ruby slowly stepped out from behind the bookshelf, clutching a book to Her chest, tail puffed up and frantically swishing around behind Her. Suffice to say, Her face was about as red as the cloak She had on Her.

''So...'' ''So, care to answer what brings you to my store... and why you're buying erotic literature?''

''Well, um, I kinda meownaged to convince Mom and Uncle Ghira to let Me go to Vale so I can see how you've been doing but I actually wanted to see if I can find out stuff about Blake and also make sure the White Fang aren't causing problems.''

''Well, that answers one question, still doesn't answer the whole smut books thing.''

''That's... nyone of your business...?'' She weakly answered. ''Alright, I'll let it go. As for Blake... sorry, can't say I got anything. And I‘ll try to see what I can get on The White Fang. Will probably take a while so You‘ll have to check by later.''

''Ah, well thanks anyways. I'm gonna pick a few meowre books and then go.''

With that, silence settled back in again, Ruby looking through the shelves once more. A few titles stood out to Her: Herlock Sholmes, Qon Duixote, and Doby Mick. Picking those out, She walked to the check-out, placing them, plus the... first book She grabbed, on the desk for Tukson to ring up.

''Alright, that'll come out to... 60 Lien.'' She handed over two cards, one worth ten and the other fifty, taking Her books and carefully placing them in Her Backpack, so as to make sure they don't get damaged by Her weapons.

She walked out of the store, both saying goodbye to each other. Standing outside, She contemplated what to do next, for all of ten seconds before She decided to just walk around a bit. It was fun to see Vale, all the sights it had to offer. Be it a Boba shop, or an electronics repair shop, Ruby found the sheer amount of stuff to see and explore amazing.

Hours passed as She explored Vale, the sun slowly going down as it went from afternoon to evening. Eventually, Her wandering brought Her to 'From Dust Till Dawn', a quaint shop.

Taking off Her backpack, She took out Her weapons, a pair of clawed Gauntlets and Greaves, the first called Scratch and Claw, and the latter Shadow and Step, suppliable with a multitude of dust. Each Gauntlet also contained a grappling hook, and a gun, capable of single, semi and automatic fire respectively.

The dust was stored in canisters on each side for both Gauntlets and Greaves, the guns above and the grappler below the hand. Looking over the canisters, it seemed She was running low on Fire dust, and Wind could do with a refill as well. She took one of the Fire dust canisters off and put everything else back into Her backpack.

So, Ruby entered the shop, a 'Ding!' ringing out. Looking around, it was rather well stocked, offering multiple forms of dust, from raw crystals, cut and uncut, to pipes on the walls holding powdered dust. It also sold a plethora of other things, books, tools, magazines, heck they even had ammunition.

She went towards the powdered dust first, filling up Her Fire and Wind canisters, and a few refills each as well, before browsing the wares a bit. Stopping at ammo, She picked up enough to last Her a while.

Before She went ahead and paid for the items, She went by the magazines. While most didn't quite pique Her interest, there was one about weapons.

Ruby was about halfway through the magazine when the bell 'Ding!'ed again. Looking over Her shoulder, She saw a group of people walk in.

Most of them wore a simple outfit, consisting of a black suit, with a red tie, and shoes, black fedora and... were those sunglasses?

The last one, probably the leader, was dressed far more uniquely. A white suit with an inner red lining, black pants and shoes, a small gray scarf wrapped around His neck, a bowler hat with a red band, a feather tucked into it, sat atop His orange hair, which also hid His right eye -those being a . And gloves with- were those buckles?

The thing that worried Her was that, aside from the leader -He had a cane, which She supposed could be used as a weapon, but overall not necessarily the best for fighting-, they all had weapons with them. Those were then promptly pointed at the shopkeep.

''Can you believe how difficult it is to find a dust shop open this late?''

''Y-You can have a-all the money you want, please don't hurt me!'' Begged said shopkeep.

''Shh, calm down, would ya? We're not here for any ol' Lien.'' He reassured, then pointed to the tubes of dust on the wall. ''Grab the dust.''

Whilst they were moving to those, Ruby was busy quietly putting on Her weapons, making sure everything was properly secure and in place. After making sure they were refilled and reloaded, She moved up to the nearest shelf, pressing against it. Peering around the corner, She saw the Leader lean against the counter, looking over a dust crystal whilst smoking a cigar. The rest were gathering whatever merchandise that they could.

One was moving towards Her, so She hid behind the shelf again, waiting. As the goon walked past, He turned towards Her, and they locked eyes. Before the man could do anything, She moved. In one fluent motion, a Gauntlet clamped over His mouth, the other being driven into His stomach. He slightly bent around Her hand, then stumbled back, letting go of the red sword that He'd been holding in favor of clutching His stomach.

Before it could clatter to the ground, Ruby snatched it out of the air, carefully placing it on the ground. She gave another, swift smack to the man’s head to ensure He was out cold. Dragging the guy behind the shelf, She took another peek. She could try and take these guys out slowly, one by one, but eventually someone would notice, and She really didn't want to deal with how that would go. Plus fighting people near a buttload of dust was a Grade A recipe to getting blown sky high, and Ruby would prefer to stay unexploded thank you very much.

So, taking the fight outside it was. Activating Her semblance, She turned into a dark red ball, spilling petals as it rushed out the door of the shop, a wispy, shadow-esque trail following it.

Landing on the sidewalk opposite the shop, She quickly set Her backpack down. All but one of the black clad goons rushed out – the last staying in the doorway-, two with guns, three with swords.

The sword wielders moved into a semi circle around Her, one in front, the others on one side each. Ruby simply waited, letting them move in. And move in they did, all with very telegraphed attacks. At the last moment, She used the Wind dust in Shadow and Step to push into the air, the swords crashing into each other with a loud metal 'Clang!'.

She landed on the blades, crouched, slamming both arms backwards, right into the faces of those two and, pushing forward with that, sent both of Her knees right into the man in front of Her. The ones to the side connected with the wall, slumping down, unconscious. The guy Ruby drove Her knees into was out before He even hit the ground.

While She was still in the air, Ruby aimed the grappling hooks on Her Gauntlets at the shop, both cables latching onto the wood next to the door. Before He knew it, the guy standing in the doorway found a pair of cat themed boots planting themself solidly in His face.

She let herself fall after drop kicking that guy, pushing Her arms towards the ground. As soon as Her hands connected, She tucked, rolling into a back handspring. She launched past the last two gun wielding goons, skidding to a stop. Once more, She used Her grappling hooks, this time aiming at the heads of the two gunmen. Latching onto the backs of their heads, Ruby pulled Her hands together, the two's heads following after, smacking into each other.

As those goons stumbled and promptly fell over unconscious, the leader leisurely strolled out, a puff of smoke escaping His mouth. ''Well, can't say I expected much from these third rate Morons for Hire, but this is, frankly, a new level of incompetence.'' He dropped His cigar, stomping it out with His cane. ''So, kitty, nice night, eh? Plenty of action, and as much as I hate to stop this, I am a pretty busy guy. These dust shops won't rob themselves.''

''So, how about we call it a day here.'' He raised His cane, pointing it right at Her. Huh, now that She looked a little closer, it looked like a Trigger was near the handle, neat. As a crosshair popped out of the end opposite the handle, revealing what looked like a barrel, it hit Her why He raised His cane at Her.

'Oh, it's a gun!'
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'Oh, it's a gun!'

Ruby panicked, scrambling into Her semblance to get out of the way as a very loud, very large, and very bright flare rocketed out of that cane. Once the thing impacted into the road and She landed again, She looked around, trying to find where the criminal disappeared to. Somehow, in those few seconds, He had managed to not only run to the fire escape ladder -which was like 3 buildings away- but also was already a good ways up the damn thing.

She rushed after Him, though only after making sure that the shopkeep was alright, and wincing at the goon heavily embedded into the counter. Hooking onto the ledge of the building, She launched Herself upwards, landing with a yell of 'Hey!'.

The man let out an irritated sigh, muttering ''damn persistent little-''. He turned to face Her. ''Welp, ya got me, I'm completely out of options, trapped on a roof with absolutely no way out.''

She was going to yank Him forward with Her grappling hook, when She picked up the sound of Bullhead starting. Within moments, it ascended to the top of the building, shining its bright headlights right at Her.

Ruby let out a Hiss, quickly putting Her hands in front of Her face. As She was busy rubbing the spots out of Her vision, the criminal jumped into the bullhead, turning to face Her.

''This is farewell, kitty! Oh, and I'll be so kind and leave you with a parting gift.''

She looked at Him, as best as She could, seeing Him reach into His coat. Her eyes widened as a decent sized, red crystal got thrown towards Her, stopping within arms reach. Before She could so much as try to kick it away, another flare shot out of the criminal's cane, colliding with the crystal.

A very big explosion rocked the building, smoke completely covering the area.

''Woahohoho! That packed one hell of a punch!'' He hollered. ''Alright, we can go, pretty sure kitty there didn't have something up Her sleeve to get out of that.'' He turned towards the cockpit, when, suddenly, His bowler hat flew straight off His head. He looked back towards the roof, smoke cleared enough to reveal two silhouettes. ''What the- oh you've gotta be- Gah!'' a bullet nailed Him right between the eyes.

On the roof, two people slowly became visible. One was Ruby. The other, a middle aged Woman with short, blonde hair and green eyes covered by a pair of glasses. Her outfit consists of a white, long sleeved blouse, black, high-waist pencil skirt, heels and a cape, black on the outside and purple inside. Ruby recognized Her, Glynda Goodwitch, Vice-Headmistress of Beacon Academy.

Whilst still recovering from being shot, He yelled to the other people -two from what Ruby could make out- in the bullhead. ''Hey! We got an actual damn Huntress on our asses now, could one of you two take care of that, kind of not in my pay grade.''

Stumbling into the cockpit, He swapped places with someone else. Not much was able to be seen about that person, aside from a dark green, collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, pale green skin with what appeared to be scales, and bright yellow eyes. There was also a big clock hanging from Her hip.

Before the faunus -because those scales had to be a faunus trait- could do much, Glynda raised Her weapon, a riding crop of all things, pointing it at the bullhead. Summoning a purple glyph, wisps of the same color shot out, slamming into the Vehicle with considerable force, shaking it violently.

The faunus simply stabbed one of the swords She had on Her into the airship, anchoring Herself. Seeing an opening, Ruby aimed dead center at the faunus, having loaded one of the high-caliber pistol rounds into Claw. The bullet would have hit, had there not been a yellow glow that suddenly enveloped the faunus, who had started the clock at that moment. It harmlessly bounced off of the woman, plinking to the floor of the bullhead. The woman didn‘t even so much as flinch from being shot.

That glow then slowly moved down Her sword, draining from Her and into the airship. Glynda swished Her crop through the air in smooth, graceful movements, resulting in a glyph, summoning a storm cloud above the airship, dozens of icicles shooting downwards.

Whilst they seemed to put slight dents into the bullhead -a few spots going decently deep where multiple hit-, it essentially did nothing as the ice shattered against the yellow glow.

''Heh, you're gon' need more'n that to get through this!'' She exclaimed. Looking over into the cockpit, She seemed to become annoyed. ''Oi, care to tell me 'ow long this is gonna be, ain't exactly got all day 'ere!''

''Hey, you try to pilot something like this when you've got a headache from getting a bullet between the eyes!'' The hatted criminal yelled back. ''Also, this thing isn't all that easy to figure out.''

''Oh like you can talk, ya just had to get the dust, and then get out, simple as. But nah, ya had to drag in the damn big dog from Beacon!''

Glynda and Ruby exchanged glances, unsure exactly what to do as the two in the bullhead continued shouting at each other. They would have continued fighting them, were it not for that glow, so they just sort of stood there, letting the argument continue.

It continued for a little while, the shouting picking up in Volume, until, finally, it seemed the last of the criminal trio had enough of the other two shouting.

''Quiet, both of you! I can hardly think. You will get us out of here, and quickly. And you make sure it goes well. I will take care of them, alright.''

Suddenly, a line of glowing orange glyphs appeared in front of them. From those, pillars of fire launched skyward, blocking the airship from view. By the time they dissipated, the Bullhead was already flying away, too far for either to do anything.
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''So, could I meowbe get an autograph...?''

''No.''

''Aww, dang it...''

Chapter Text

‘Oh, Mom and Uncle Ghira are gonna be so mad…’

Well, Ruby certainly hadn’t expected this. Being stuck in a police station's interrogation room, getting scolded by a very angry Glynda Goodwitch. Her tail had long since tucked itself away, wrapped around Her stomach, and She ducked Her head, not able to find any amount of confidence to look at the woman currently ripping into Her verbally.

A knock on the door interrupted the Vice-Headmistress. She went over, letting someone in. Ruby’s brain did the rough equivalent of a Computer blue screening as the actual Headmaster of Beacon Academy walked into the room.

As He sat down, the man placed a… plate of cookies on the table? Why would He just have that with Him?

‘’Miss Belladonna?’’ His question snapped Her out of trying to figure out why the Headmaster had cookies with Him. ‘’Are you alright? You looked rather out of it.’’

‘’Huh? Oh uh, nyeah, I’m okay. What’s with the cookies though?’’ She assured, then questioned.

‘’Well, I assumed a little treat would perhaps help lighten things up. I do know how scary Glynda can be, seeing as I have been on the receiving end of that anger myself plenty now.’’

‘’Ah, uh, so funny thing is… I kinda can’t eat chocolate. Let’s just say that last time I did, I may have ended up needing a trip to the hospital. Probably someowthing to do with Me being a cat faunus, so some stuff that applies to cats works with Me as well, but I’m nyot really sure about that.’’ It was true, She had scared Her family half to death when She just keeled over after having a bit of chocolate. Turned out it didn’t take all that much to be poisonous. But that was a story for another time.

‘’Alright, in that case I suppose it best to move onto what I came here for.’’ He held His hand out to Glynda, who, begrudgingly, handed the tablet sized scroll to Him - understandable really, seeing as they were all of 2 steps away from each other.

He placed it onto the table, showing pretty grainy footage of the robbery, up until Ruby flew off screen. Once the footage looped, He gave the tablet back to Glynda.

‘’So, may I inquire as to why a young, ambitious girl like yourself finds such an interest in becoming a Huntress? Surely, there are other ways to help with things. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, that in only a few years you could take over as Chieftain, if you so wish.’’

Ruby pondered on that question. What drove Her to train to become a Huntress? Fighting Grimm was a part of being a Huntress. But it wasn’t why. It was purely a part of the job, a necessity. Nor was it stopping bad guys, making sure they couldn’t hurt anyone else anymore. Both were things She’d gladly do, but they weren’t her reason.

It hit Her then, and as She looked into Ozpin’s eyes, determination burning brightly within Her, She spoke. ‘’’Why do I wanna be a Huntress?’? Nyeah, you’re right, I could be Chieftain, or someowthing not as dangerous, while still helping people. But those can only do so much. A police officer wouldn’t be able to stop a pack of Beowolves from tearing apart a Village. A Chieftain would be stuck doing politics all day, and that can help too, but I just can’t see that as someowthing for Me.

No, I’m gonna be a Huntress, just like my Mom. Summer Rose was the most kickass, amazing Huntress - well, that’s what I’ve been told - there ever was, to Me at least. I can’t say for certain, but I imagine She was the type of person to fight to the end, and still have a smile on Her face. Someowne who could lose half Her body and still fight, all the way until it gave up. And She’d smile no matter what.

And that’s the reason I want to be a Huntress. Not to fight Grimm, or stop bad guys, but to be like my Mom. Someowne who never gives up, and stares even death in the face, smiling or grinning or whatever like a madman. Someowne who will always give people hope, even when it seems impawssible.

And I will do it. I will become a Huntress who faces down hordes of Grimm, smiling all the time, just so nyo one else has to suffer anymeowre. To give hope to a hopeless situation. To save the day, be the Hero others need, even if I nyever met mine.’’

By the end of Her speech, Ruby’s tail had unwound itself, staying low to the ground, signaling that She was wholly serious. And She was, having meant all of it.

Going by Ozpin’s genuine smile, it seemed to have been a rather satisfactory answer. ‘’Miss Belladonna, I must say, that was an amazing speech. One could practically feel how heartfelt it was.’’

And just like that She was back to being the shy, social wreck of a cat faunus She ended being in practically any situation.. ‘’Oh, uh, please, it’s really nyothing. I mean, gosh, is it really that impressive?’’

He nodded. ‘’It is, quite so in fact. Now, I would like to make an offer. You have quite the ambitions, but it would still be 2 years until you would be capable of enrolling in one of the main academies.’’

Where was The Headmaster going with this? ‘’Uh, nyeah, I kinda kynow that?’’

‘’Well, what if I said I could perhaps allow you to enroll this year?’’
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Huh? ‘Huh?’ ‘’Wha- really?’’

‘’Yes, really. It would take some bending of the rules, but I believe it to be worth it. The earlier you would be allowed to attend, the earlier you can get to accomplishing your dream. From what I saw, you are already a rather capable fighter, and considering your family, I am sure you do possess a good grasp on certain topics. Just some remedial lessons and I believe you would be able to keep up with Beacon’s curriculum.’’ He explained.

‘’Ny-Nyou’d do that for Me, sir…?’’

‘’I would.’’ He pulled an envelope out of His pocket, a wax insignia of Beacon’s symbol stamped on it, sliding it over the table to Her. ‘’Here. This is an acceptance letter. Simply keep it on your person, and present it to faculty when you land. It will detail where to go and when.’’

Ruby grabbed it with utmost care, tearing up at the fact She just got admitted to Beacon Academy 2 whole years early.

‘’I-I’ll be there, Headmaster, I promise!’’

‘’Then I shall see you next week, Miss Belladonna.’’ With that, Ozpin stood up, turning to leave. Stopping in the doorway, He spoke one more time, leaving only a cryptic hint ‘’Oh, and before I forget. I believe a certain someone will also be attending this year.’’

And just like that, Ruby was left alone in the interrogation room - well there was the plate of cookies, someone should probably take care of those -. She got up, leaving the room, thinking about what He said.

‘A 'certain someone’? Who could He mean? The only person I can think of would have to be-!’

As She stepped out of the police station, realization struck Her. 'Blake?!' Her Sister was attending Beacon?!

So here She was, absolutely freaking out over that fact being dropped on Her just like that.

‘OhMyGoshOhMyGoshOhMyGosh! I gotta tell Mom!’ She quickly pulled out Her scroll, selecting Her mother’s contact. It rang a few times before going through. Kali Belladonna’s face appeared, looking a tad intrigued to get a sudden call like this.

‘’Ruby, what is it?’’ She asked.

‘’Mom, I found Blake! She’s here in Vale, attending Beacon!’’ The girl exclaimed, a tad loud. Her tail quivered behind Her, mirroring Her excitement.

Ruby watched Her mother’s face go from slight interest, to surprise, then shock and finally, it landed on excitement.

‘’You found Her…? Ruby, that’s amazing! Oh, We’ve been so worried for Her. I will go tell Ghira immediately!’’ Kali disappeared from view. A minute later She came into view again, Ghira Belladonna following after.

Her Uncle wasn’t as visibly excited, but it was clear all the same. ‘’Is it true, Ruby? Did you actually…?’’

‘’Nyeah! It’s kinda a long story, but I knyow where She is!’’

‘’So Blake is actually attending Beacon? She plans to become a Huntress as well?’’ Ghira asked.

‘’Mhm, and the best thing is, I’m gonnya go to Beacon too!’’ Came the enthusiastic reply.

‘’...Ruby, you are 15, how did you manage to get in early? You didn’t do anything bad, right?’’ Kali asked.

She froze up, only now processing what exactly She said. Well, She would have had to tell Them eventually, but She wanted to wait, let Her mom and Uncle at least process the news about Blake.

‘’Um, so promise nyot to be mad?’’

‘’We will try, but can’t guarantee anything.’’

‘’Okay, so I, um, kinda meowbe… stopped a robbery and then got chewed out by the Vice-Headmeowstress of Beacon, but then the Headmaster came in and He meowbe let Me in 2 years early…?’’ Ruby squeaked the last part out, hoping that They didn’t hear it.

They very well did. ‘’’’You What?!’’’’ Her mom and Uncle exclaimed simultaneously.

Ruby shrunk back from Her scroll, wincing at the volume. This was gonna be a long night.

Ruby currently stood outside of the very thing that would take Her to Beacon. It was a little surprising how quickly the week went by, but here She was.

‘’Nyes, I got everything I nyeed packed, Mom. And nyes, I’ll be careful. Nyo, you don’t nyeed to send Me stuff, I have enyough Lien for nyow, and I’m sure I won’t nyeed to spend that meowch.’’ Ruby reassured, currently on a call with Her mom.

‘’Alright, alright, I understand. It’s just, I want to make sure that you’re really prepared for this, dear.’’

‘’Nyeah, I knyow. Oh! I gotta go, the airship’s gonnya take off soon! Love nyou Mom!’’ She started getting on. It was spacious, that was for sure.

‘’Okay, love you too, sweetie! Call us when you find Blake!’’

‘’Will do! See nya!’’ With that, the call ended, Ruby pocketing Her scroll. Immediately, She started to look around, trying to spot that familiar head of black hair. Sadly, the crowd of would-be students was too big, too many heads all mingled together to properly get a good look at each.

A few did stand out to Her. There was a prim and proper looking Girl, and yeesh, was that a lot of white. Seriously, was She trying to blind people? Hm, that rapier She had on Her looked neat though. Nothing fancy per se, but that rotary dust cylinder meant good versatility, always useful.

There was also some guy with… blue hair? Well, Ruby supposed that She couldn’t judge when it came to hair color, but blue seemed like such a weird color to dye your hair. His weapon - a rifle by the looks of things - didn’t seem like much. Its shape was unique for what appeared to be an assault rifle, but overall She felt it lacked.

And then, just as She lost hope, a girl with black hair and a Bow on Her head popped into view. At first, She was going to skip over them when Ruby saw the accessory on the girl's head instead of cat ears, but then the bow twitched.

That had to be Blake! Ruby began moving towards who She assumed had to be Her sister, squeezing through the mass of people, quietly apologizing along the way. Just as She made it halfway, their eyes met, and Ruby knew it right then and there. For ambient Amber stared right into shining Silver.

And then… Blake began to move away? What? Why would She do that? Wouldn’t Her sister be excited to see Her?

Confused, Ruby continued moving after Blake, the feeling only mounting more as She noticed how much Her sibling seemed to try and avoid Her. Blake looked scared, eyes wide and constantly looking over Her shoulder, checking the distance between them.

Eventually, however, She lost track of Her sister, who had managed to dip into a particularly big crowd, simply just vanishing.

She stopped, staring dumbfounded. Was Blake afraid… of Her?

She searched out a bench, plopping down onto it, trying to figure out just why She would do that. Surely, after all this time, Blake would be happy to see Her again, not scared.

Perplexed, all Ruby could do was sit there, mind running hot as She came up with ideas for what could have happened. Had She fallen in with bad people? Was Her sister mad at them? Did She… hate them…?

That. That singular thought was what terrified Ruby the most. The possibility of Blake, the older Half-Sister She so looked up to, hating Her own family. But if that was the case, then for what reason? Was it because of Her? Or did it have to do with their parents? Because Uncle Ghira stepped down after… that happened?

As Ruby continued spiraling deeper, She missed the other person that sat down beside Her. They said something, going completely unheard.

She got snapped out of that depressing train of thought when, out of nowhere, a bright yellow, noticeably furry tail waved itself right in front of Her, slightly tickling Her nose, and moving Her whiskers around with it.

She turned to look at whoever it belonged to, getting met with… a rather casually dressed monkey faunus. She had to admit, it took some courage to openly walk around with your chest exposed to the world like that.

‘’Um, Hi…?’’ Ruby hesitantly asked.

‘’Hey, name’s Sun, Sun Wukong.’’ He replied.

‘’Uh, okay. I’m Ruby, Ruby Belladonna.’’

‘’Huh, ya know, I think I heard that name before. Anyways, saw you sit down all gloom and doom, and thought ‘Hey, you looked like you could do with some cheering up’. Oh, uh, sorry if I scared you with my tail or anything.’’ He rubbed the back of His neck at the end, looking away sheepishly.

‘’It’s nyokay, I actually kinda nyeeded that, so thanks for snyapping Me out of my thoughts like that!’’

‘’Alright, Sun 1, Sad 0! So, what were ya-’’ He stopped, head snapping back to stare at Her ‘’Wait, Belladonna?! As in, Chieftain of Menagerie Belladonna?’’

‘’Um, nyeah, as in that. Is there someOWthing impawtant you have to tell Me or someowthing?’’ She hoped not. Ruby had to deal with enough Messengers over the years, telling Her about ‘this important political Event’ or ‘that very necessary banquet’ which She absolutely despised because damn it all She may be able to hold a conversation half okay but that didn’t mean She wanted to talk to people all night! And yes, She was still mad about all that valuable reading time She lost!

Sun did not seem to notice Her internal rant ‘’Uh, no, no. Nothing like that, just uh, realized something. Holy bananas I’m talking to Blake’s little sister.’’ He said that last part more to Himself, muttered under His breath.

Ruby heard Him, getting right up in His face. ‘’You knyow Blake?!’’ She exclaimed.

Surprised by the cat faunus suddenly yelling, Sun pulled His head back on reflex, just barely avoiding getting smacked upside the chin by the very excited girl.

Pushing Her face back with a finger - which almost got chomped on in retaliation -, He calmed down, then talked. ‘’Uh, yeah. I actually came here with Her.’’

Ruby got up, looking at Him with a sparkle in Her eyes. Her tail shared in the excitement, quivering happily behind Her. ‘’Oh, Sun, you are ameowzing! Come on,-’’ She grabbed one of His hands, yanking Him off of the bench ‘’-Nyou can take Me to Her!’’

‘’I can?’’ The boy asked, rather perplexed.

‘’Nyeah! Nyou came here with Blake, so… oh.’’ She realized at that moment just who She was holding onto. Ruby let go of Sun’s hand.

‘’Yeah, She kinda ditched Me the moment we stepped on. Sorry.’’

‘’Nyo, nyo, it’s okay, nyot like nyou could do anything about it…’’ She sighed ‘’I just… I haven’t seen Blake for so long, and nyow She’s here, but… She’s avoiding Me or someowthing. I… I just want to knyow what’s going on.’’ Ruby curled in on Herself, tail wrapping around Her stomach - it was a thing She did since She was a kid, whenever She got really scared. To Her it was like a friend giving Her a big ol’ hug.

‘’Whoa, hey, calm down! Just because I dunno where She is, doesn’t mean I ain’t gonna help you find Her.’’

‘’Ny-Nyou would…? Why? We just met.’’

‘’Okay, true. But I wouldn’t feel right if I left ya alone even though ya need help, now would it? After all, what are friends for, eh?’’ He draped an arm around Her shoulder, walking Them through the airship. ‘’We’ll find Her, believe Me!’’

‘’Nyou actually wannya be my friend?’’ She asked, hopeful.

‘’Um, yeah? You look like someone who’d get along with anyone really. What, do you… not have any?’’

Ruby winced ‘’That’s kinda putting it lightly. Turns out nyot a lot of people wannya be friends with the shy, awkward kid who’d rather read books by Herself than actually interact with others. Well that and being the daughter of the Chieftain of Meownagerie really makes it difficult to socialize when Nyou get dragged to a bunch of events.’’

‘’Yeesh, yeah, that doesn’t sound fun. How’d you make it through those? Cause lemme tell ya, I am not the kinda guy you put in a suit.’’ He muttered something about ‘neck traps’ under His breath, but Ruby didn’t exactly catch it.

She chuckled ‘’Barely. Seriously, if I had to do any meowre social stuff than what I needed to, I’m pretty sure I would have started crying.’’

They both laughed at that, completely forgetting about their actual goal. Huh, maybe making friends wouldn’t be so hard.

They continued talking, completely missing the broadcast behind them.

‘’...local criminal Roman Torchwick continues to evade police capture, seemingly always able to stay one step ahead. Though a close case was the attempted robbery last saturday evening, where professional Huntress, and Vice-Headmistress of Beacon Academy, Glynda Goodwitch nearly managed to bring Him in.

She stated that He had accomplices with Him, capable of holding Her off until He could escape via Bullhead. Should you have any information on Torchwick, or any person with ties to Him, it should be handed over to the proper authorities as soon as possible.’’ Lisa Lavender, a reporter for VNN, the arguably most well known News Channel, reported.

‘’In other news, a protest held by the White Fang had turned violent. Going over to you, Cyril.’’

‘’Thank you, Lisa. It is true, just two days ago, a simple, if not arguably somewhat aggressive, act of protest became, to put it simply, a near bloodbath. From what was told by witnesses, a rogue group consisting of Faunus started randomly attacking anyone in sight. The amount of casualties is currently unknown, but estimated to be in the dozens.

Furthermore, they wore what seemed to be an altered design of the White Fang’s logo. We are currently awaiting answers from both the High Leader, Sienna Khan, and the original founder, Ghira Belladonna, to understand whether this group is affiliated with the Fang, or simply using their Image to gain more attention. That is all, back to you, Lisa.’’

Standing in front of one of the Holo-screens, one Blake Belladonna found Herself horrified at what had been shown on the news. She knew about that protest, had been there personally to discuss and plan it.

And worst of all, She recognized the leading figure of that group.

‘Oh, Adam, what are you doing? This isn’t right…’

Stepping off of the airship, Ruby and Sun took a good look at the impressive, castle-like structure that was Beacon Academy.

For all of a minute. Their gazing was interrupted by… one of the faculty?

They looked down at the elderly lady standing in front of them, unsure how exactly to proceed. She looked back up at them, expectantly, a pair of… goggles over Her eyes?

‘’Well?’’ She asked ‘’Will you two hand Me that letter, or will I have to throw you off that cliff myself?’’

What? What lett- Oh!

Rummaging through Her backpack, She pulled out the envelope that Ozpin gave Her a week ago. It was a bit wrinkled, and had a rip or two from being stuffed in there haphazardly, but overall in good condition.

They both handed the woman a letter each. Said woman opened them, gave a cursory glance through both, then handed them back. ‘’Everything looks tip top. You two can go in.’’

Well, that was something. Walking past whoever that was - questioning if that even was someone from faculty -, they once more astounded themself at the marvelous sight of the academy.

‘’Man, still can’t believe I’m actually attending this place. Feels weird, but good.’’ Sun remarked.

‘’Nyeah, it, I dunno, feels… surreal? Is that the right word?’’ She got a ‘Think so’ from Sun in response.

‘’So, Ruby, where do ya wanna head first? Pretty sure we got like, at least an hour ‘til that speech, and a few more after that.’’

‘’Hm, how about…’’ She pulled up a map on Her scroll, giving it a good once over. She pointed at one, the cafeteria ‘’There! Haven’t had anything to eat yet. Well anything meowjor, did have some snacks.’’

Sun got curious at that. Snacks She says? Well don’t mind if He do. ‘’Ooh, snacks? Watcha got on you?’’

She reached into the third pocket from the right on Her belt, popping it open and grabbing a handful of what looked like tiny little kitty cat faces.

She offered it to Him. He looked at the little bits, thought about it with the patience of a toddler, and grabbed one. Chucking it into His mouth, He chewed on it, pondering just what He was eating. It was difficult to figure out.

Swallowing that, He asked ‘’What are these? Can’t tell what they taste like.’’ He grabbed another, inspecting it carefully.

‘’Made my own mix of stuff and shaped ‘em like this. Technically just modified cat food. Tastes better over all.’’ She threw the rest into Her own mouth, chomping down on the treats. Her tail was pointing skywards, a sign to show She was completely content right.

His eyes widened, looking at Her, then the small bit of cat food He held. Well, it wasn’t bad tasting. So, shrugging, He ate the treat.

They continued walking, checking out the few areas they had time for. Beacon was grander than they thought. Ruby and Sun managed to check out the cafeteria - where Ruby almost immediately dove for the fish - , forge, a few of the classrooms and even one of the training rooms.

Before long, only a couple minutes remained until the Headmaster’s welcoming speech.

Making their way into the Amphitheater, they settled for a spot towards the end. All talk got shushed as the man Himself walked on stage.

He addressed Them ‘’Good day to you all. I am glad to see that we have such a plentiful amount of promising people here today. Every single person among you has made it here because you have all proven to be capable of successfully enrolling at this Academy. However, such will not be simple.

Most of you, I imagine, think this to be simple. Get through initiation, and then get through the next 4 years without trouble. That may have been so during your time at one of the preparatory academies, but not here.

Similarly, those with weak mindsets or simple wants of attaining wealth or fame should reconsider. A Hunter can never waver before an opponent, be they Grimm or Human. In this profession, you will put your life on the line, so if any of you feel that you cannot hold up that promise, then please, leave after this speech. There is no shame in choosing something safer. It is better to understand that here, than on the battlefield.

No, we do not need either of these kind of people in this profession. Those who do not challenge themselves, or cave in the face of the enemy are going to find themself ill equipped to become a Hunter.

What we wish to see in every person here, is the will to fight for Humanity, to create a better future. A Hunter must be selfless, willing to throw even their own life on the line. In short, in order to thrive here, you must be a little… crazy, so to say. Only those capable of fighting to their very last, to protect others, can truly say they are a Hunter.’’

And with that, He left, a stunned quiet all that remained in the once lively building. Glynda quickly added that they will spend the night in the ballroom, and that dinner is at 7.

With a soft ‘Thud.’, Ruby let Herself collapse onto the sleeping bag they were provided. They were actually pretty comfy, all things considered.

She looked around, seeing the other prospective students mingle. She could too, but then again, it was already pretty late, and She really wanted to read a bit…

With an equally as soft ‘Thud.’, Sun landed on His sleeping bag. He turned to Her, laying Himself on His side. ‘’So, Oz’s speech was… something.’’

‘’Nyeah. I mean, it does make sense, but it’s kinda depressing. Nyot really what I expected as a welcoming speech.’’

‘’Well, can’t fault Him, I guess. Aaanyway, got something on your mind, or just ogling dudes?’’ He waggled His eyebrows at Her with that last part.

Sun’s face promptly met a very well aimed pillow ‘’Ew, nyo, Sun! I’m nyot a creep who spends Her time looking at people!’’

Throwing the pillow back at Her, He responded with ‘’Okay, okay, but like, does someone here catch your interest?’’

‘’Why? And also-’’ She looked around again, not really finding anybody here that interesting ‘’, hmm, nyot really.’’

‘’Wanted to know. And huh, really, nobody. In that case, what’s ya type?’’

‘’Wh- huh- Why does that matter?’’

‘’Dunno, just felt like asking. So, what is it?’’ He insisted.

‘’Ugh, fine, if ya gotta kynow…-’’ She thought about that. Who was Her type? Someone nice? Well, that was kinda just expected. Strong? Not really. Smart? No, not necessarily.

‘’I wanna say… someowne who’s high energy, can keep up with Me, maybe a little silly? Just fun to be around I guess?’’ She answered.

‘’Ah. So what you’re saying is: I’m your type, eh?’’ Came a cheeky question.

‘’Wh- Sun, nyo, stoooop, that’s weird! You’re more like, I dunno, a really cool older brother or something.’’

‘’Oh, I uh, okay, never heard that before. You’re welcome?’’

‘’Look, can we please talk about something else?’’

‘’Alright, alright, fine. Hmm. What about your favorite food?’’

They moved away from that topic, chatting about whatever came to mind. Eventually that girl that had way too much white in Her outfit came up to them, asking them to be quiet. They complied, whispering to each other for a bit longer.

And as Ruby closed Her eyes, letting sleep claim Her, She found that, just maybe it wasn’t so bad to actually interact with people. Sure, books were fun, but people could be so interesting as well. She hadn’t expected to talk so much with Sun, or share stuff like romantic interests with Him. It was… nice.

And maybe, just maybe, She’d get a chance to talk with Blake tomorrow. But that was for another day. For now, sleep.

Chapter Text

As morning came, Ruby awoke. Lying stomach down, She pushed Herself up, stretching just like a cat - arching Her back, then letting Her upper half slump. Getting up, She checked Her scroll, seeing that it was 6 in the morning. A bit early, but that was usually around the time She got up - another thing She chalked up to Her being a cat faunus.

After taking a nice, long and warm shower - and no, She didn’t hate water, that was Blake’s deal -, Ruby made to get some breakfast, all the while keeping an eye out for Her sister.

Arriving at the cafeteria, She went ahead and got Herself breakfast. It wasn’t anything extravagant, but She wasn’t one to argue over a different selection of food - Fish and tropical fruit were only appetizing for so long. Her meal consisted of: a bit of fruit and vegetable, some scrambled eggs, a bowl of yogurt - dairy free, of course -, and finally, the meat.

Her eyes were practically sparkling, mouth drooling as She beheld the variety presented. From sausage, to salmon, heck they even had steak of all things available.

Piling on a healthy amount, Ruby sat down at a random table. As She dug in, thoughts about initiation came up. Of course, what they would have to do was the first. Maybe something as simple as taking out a certain amount of Grimm. Or maybe they had to get to a specific place that they’d be assigned.

There was also the matter of Teams, and partners. Now, obviously She’d gun for Blake, but in case that didn’t happen, She would be okay with Sun as well. Aside from that, though, Ruby couldn’t think of any other Person She would want as a partner. There was that girl that asked Her and Sun to be quiet last night, but She seemed a bit… cold, to put it simply.

Eh, in the end there was little She could really do other than hope to run into either Her sister or newly made friend, so She’d just see how it went.

Finishing up with Her meal, Ruby got up, put the tray She took away, and went to the locker room to get ready.

Taking out Her weapons, She started inspecting them, being extra thorough with each.

First, Claw and Scratch ‘’Let’s see… wire spools look good… topped up dust last week, so nyo problem there… firing meowchanism seems good, nyo rust or anything… everything looks secure…’’ then, Shadow and Step ‘’Dust is full… claw retraction and extension mechanism -’’ She hit a button on Her gauntlets, a pair of claws popping out of the greaves ‘’-is working properly… paw pads on the soles are good…’’.

Ruby didn’t know how long She spent looking over Her weapons - which was normal, She could get very carried away when it came to weapons, or really engineering in general -, but when She was done, a good amount of people had arrived. Once more, She looked around for any sign of Blake, again not seeing Her.

Sighing, She put on Her weapons. Before moving away from Her locker, Ruby’s eyes were drawn to the singular Item laying beside Her backpack. It was nothing more than a cute little plush cat - Black in color, with yellow eyes - , but to Her it was one of the most important things in existence. It, alongside the cat pins, was the only thing that Blake left for Her when She… ran away.

Giving it a quick pat on the head, She closed Her locker, moving about the, rather extensive, locker room, taking the occasional glance at the people around Her. While She didn’t find who She was really looking for, a familiar face did pop up.

‘’Oh, hey Sun!’’ She announced, finding Him warming up and getting ready.

‘’Hm? Oh, hey Ruby!’’ He returned ‘’So, you exited for today? ‘Cause I most definitely am!’’

‘’Nyup, as ready as I’ll ever be! Say, who do nyou wanna have as a partner?’’

He thought on that. ‘’Well, there is you, also Blake I guess… honestly, does it matter that much? As long as I get along with ‘em, then no problem for me. And you?’’

‘’Huh, I guess nyou got a point, and, uh, either Blake or nyou. Nyot like I knyow anyone else here.’’

‘’Yeah, feel ya there, haven’t really talked with anyone here. Haven’t even seen Blake since we got here yesterday.’’

‘’Wanna go look around for anyone interesting? Pretty sure we’ve got, like, an hour until initiation actually starts.’’ She offered.

‘’Eh, why not? Got nothing better to do.’’

So, They went walking, only finding a few who actually seemed interesting. They ran into that boy with blue hair. His name was Neptune Vasilias.

Sun actually got along with Him pretty well, immediately starting a conversation. The two went back and forth over various things, nothing important really, with Ruby giving the occasional input when asked, or possible.

Eventually, it turned to weapons, a topic She certainly knew a lot about.

‘’So, what do nyou guys use? Mine are-’’ Ruby raised Her gauntlets, using those to also point at Her greaves ‘’-a pair of gloves and greaves! These-’’ She waved Claw and Scratch a little ‘’-are Claw and Scratch! They nyot only have access to a variety of Dust, but also pawsess grappling hooks, handguns capable of firing a plethora of calibers, and trigger the claws in Shadow and Step - that’s uh, the greaves by the way.’’

She continued ‘’And these, as I have already said, are Shadow and Step! A pair of awesome greaves with, like my gauntlets, access to Dust. But they also got claws! And paw pads, can’t forget those.’’ She ended Her explanation by demonstrating said claws, popping out of the front, which had noticeable slots for them there.

Neptune saw something that confused Him. Namely, the claws ‘’Say, where do those-’’ He pointed at the extended pieces of sharpened metal ‘’-go? Like, it doesn’t look like there’s enough space to actually hold them.’’

‘’Oh, that! Easy, they fold in on themselves, and then flip sideways. See how there’s a horizontal slot at the bottom of the vertical ones, a bit rounded at the corners? That’s how!’’ Ruby responded.

Responding with an ‘I see.’, Neptune went next. ‘’Well, it’s not much, but this-’’ he pulled the rifle from His back ‘’-is Tri-Hard! As is obvious, it’s, well, an assault rifle, but! It’s also a Trident, and a Guandao! And since it has a compact mode, I can store it safely. Not to forget all of its forms use electricity.’’

Nodding, hand to Her chin, Ruby followed. ‘’So, nyou have long range covered with the rifle, and decent mid-to-close range with both Trident and Guandao! And taking the electricity into account, it adds a layer of unpredictability and difficulty for nyour opponents.’’

‘’Mhm, and I gotta say, grappling hooks are a surprisingly good addition for gauntlets! It’s really versatile, you can both close and gain distance, but also just make it overall hard for anyone you fight to try and predict you. Not to mention potentially disarming…’’

Sun, wholly out of His element here, simply stayed silent, letting the two nerd out about weapons.

However, at some point it became a bit long winded, so He decided to intervene. ‘’So, if you two nerds-’’ Ruby exclaimed a ‘Hey!’ at Him, Neptune telling Him that they were ‘Intellectuals’ ‘’-are done with your nerding out over weapons and what-not, can we get to mine? Kinda feeling a little left out here.’’

They both let out an ‘Oh.’ at that, only now realizing that they had completely excluded Sun from their conversation.

Seeing that He had their attention, Sun proceeded to pull out His weapon, from right under His shirt. Neptune and Ruby briefly wondered just how it stayed on Him without any visible equipment to hold it there, but decided not to investigate further.

‘’May I introduce you to: Ruyi and Jingu Bang! As you two can see, right now it’s only a quad pack ‘a lever-action Shotguns, but when combined-’’ He unfolded them, turning it into a peculiar looking Bo staff ‘’-,Ta-da! It becomes a Bo staff! And I can turn these bad boys into a pair of Nunchaku as well, so I can really smack bad guys silly, and blast ‘em away as well!’’

Ruby’s eyes sparkled, beholding the staff. ‘’Ooh! It’s so complex, but it looks so simple too. How do they work though? I mean, can nyou actually reload them while swinging them around? That feels like it won’t work.’’

Sun chuckled. ‘’Yeah, I get that. They reload using momentum. Basically just swing ‘em at whatever I wanna smack, and boom! Reloaded, simple as.’’
‘’Okay, nyeah, that makes sense… wait, wouldn’t it be rechambering? Because reloading would mean loading in nyew ammo, but it’s just chambering in a nyew round.’’ Ruby questioned.

‘’...Eh, potato potahto. What matters is that it works, don’t gotta look too deep.’’

‘’Mmm, fair, fair.’’ Ruby relented.

They continued like that, talking and discussing whatever came to mind. Though at one point, Neptune excused Himself, saying He needed to quickly do something.

Both looked at where He was headed, seeing Him approach two people. It seemed like the conversation - if one could really even call it that - was pretty one sided.

‘’Should we, I dunno, stop Him?’’ Ruby asked.

‘’No, no, I don’t think we need to do anything. Just let Him cook.’’ Sun replied.

‘’...What?’’

‘’Say, Pyrrha, have you considered anyone as your potential partner yet?’’ Weiss Schnee inquired.

Said redhead thought on that for a little bit. ‘’Mmm, no, I suppose I haven’t. Though, that isn’t necessarily something I have really put much thought or care towards. In the end, I can’t say I have any issues with who I may get as a partner. Well, maybe someone who doesn’t focus on my achievements, I guess, but that’s neither here nor there.’’

Weiss cracked a small smile at that. ‘’So, what you are saying is that, in the case it happened, you would have no qualms on choosing myself as your partner?’’

‘’Not really, no. Like I said, as long as they aren’t too pushy with my career, then I don’t think I’d have much of a problem with whoever I end up with.’’ She responded.

Weiss turned away, holding back a laugh. Yes! This was going to plan. Now all She needed to do was ensure that they ended up as partners, however that would come about. Of course, there was the chance that some bumbling buffoon ends up partnering with Pyrrha, but the chances of such a thing were assuredly low.

‘Good, if the world hears about this, then it will surely help Winter with rebuilding the Schnee Dust Company. After all, a Schnee bravely fighting to protect those who can’t, alongside Pyrrha Nikos of all people, will most definitely garner positive support.’ She thought, a bit of a sour feeling rising within Her at the thought of what happened due to a certain group of individuals.

Yes, Weiss wasn’t utterly against Them, but She still harbored some… rather negative feelings. Had it not been for Her older Sister, then She couldn’t even imagine what might have happened.

‘’Weiss, are you okay? You look a bit… I want to say mad.’’ Pyrrha asked.

Snapping out of it, She turned back to Pyrrha. ‘’Hm? Oh, yes, of course, it is nothing. Just… reminiscing about the past, I suppose. Nothing you need to concern yourself with, I can assure you.’’

It did not in fact seem to assure Pyrrha, but She wasn’t one to pry or intrude on personal matters. ‘’Well, if you say so.’’

Weiss was about to reassure Her, when someone approached.

‘’Yo, Pyrrha! How are you?’’ Asked… an apparent friend of Pyrrha’s.

She turned to Him, evidently surprised. ‘’Neptune? I didn’t expect to see you here. Oh, and I’m doing alright. A bit excited for what Initiation entails, I guess.’’

‘’Good to hear. And well, here to become a Hunter, what else?’’ He replied.

‘’Not that! I meant more like, Why not Haven?’’ She asked.

Neptune gave Her a look. ‘’You know I could ask you the same.’’

‘’Ah, right, yes. I suppose you have me there.’’ She rubbed the back of Her neck, having Her own question turned on Her.

Weiss motioned towards Neptune, asking ‘’Say, Pyrrha, mind to enlighten me as to who He is?’’

Pyrrha turned to Her at that. ‘’Oh, this is Neptune! We’ve known each other for years now. I guess you could say we’re childhood friends, growing up in Argus and all that.’’

‘’Yep, we go way back!’’ He leaned down, putting His hand next to His mouth as if He was whispering a secret to Her. ‘’Hey, wanna know something? She actually used to be, like, really shy and introverted. Took me months to get Her to even say a word to me.’’ He added.

Weiss raised an eyebrow. That seemed… highly unlikely. ‘’Is that true, Pyrrha?’’

Blushing, She nodded. ‘’Yes, it was a rather… difficult time for me. I can’t say for certain how I would have turned out if Neptune hadn’t been there for me.’’

‘’Well, it’s not like you didn’t do anything for me.’’ He said.

‘’Oh, it was nothing, really. I’m sure you would have gotten through your aquaphobia at some point.’’
He didn’t believe Her. ‘’Yeah, no, I can guarantee you that I’d still be jumping at the slightest bit of water without you being there to get me through it.’’

Growing tired of being left out, Weiss inserted Herself back into the conversation. ‘’Neptune, was it?-’’ She got a ‘Yup.’ in response ‘’-Weiss Schnee, a pleasure to meet you.’’ She extended Her hand to Him.

He shook it. ‘’Same here. Neptune Vasilias. So, what were you two talking about?’’

‘’Oh, just wondering who we would like as partners, concerning teams and stuff. And that makes me wonder, who would you want as a partner?’’ Pyrrha responded.

‘’Huh, okay. Well-’’ He pondered, hand on His chin ‘’-, there’s you, obviously. Also Sun, seems pretty cool. Guess I wouldn’t mind Ruby, She’s fun to talk weapons and engineering stuff.’’

‘’Well, I suppose it makes sense that you’d want to partner up with me, being friends and all. It’s also nice to see you making more friends!’’ She said.

‘’I mean, not like I could avoid it. Can’t just hang around you forever, Pyrrha. Just happened to run into some people who I got along with.’’ He responded.

‘’That’s nice to hear. Why don’t you tell me a bit about them? I’d like to know who you met, Neptune.’’ She inquired.

He was about to respond, had Weiss not beat Him to it. ‘’Ahem! Look, Neptune, as much as you have a right to talk with Pyrrha, I was the one originally having a conversation with Her. So, if you would kindly let me resume it?’’

‘’Oh, uh, sorry, didn’t mean to. Just kinda got carried away, I guess. Well, guess I’ll have to tell you later.’’ He conceded.

‘’Ah, I guess so. Still, it was nice seeing you again!’’

Neptune shared the sentiment, then left. As Weiss was about to talk with Pyrrha again, the intercom blared to life, informing Students to head to the cliff at the edge of Beacon.

Pyrrha gave Her a pat on the back. ‘’I am sorry for getting so carried away with Neptune, but I do feel you were maybe a bit… rough with sending Him away? We could continue after initiation?’’ She offered.

Weiss could only accept that, internally fuming at being cut off multiple times like that. ‘’Yes, I suppose we must, not like we have any other choice.’’

‘’Then I’ll see you later, Weiss.’’ With that, both headed out.

Finally, they could get to the action! Or, well, they were closer to it. Eh, good enough for Ruby.

Finding Herself standing on one of the many platforms scattered about Beacon’s cliffside, Her excitement was noticeable, considering the currently waving tail - going at a considerable pace at that.

She took a look around, trying to spot anyone She recognized. She saw Sun, who waved back happily - His tail, if a bit more relaxed, was also noticeably showing excitement -, Neptune, who gave Her a thumbs up, and- Was that Pyrrha Nikos?!

How had She missed Her of all people? Oh, now She was even more excited! She’d read all about, and watched, Pyrrha, specifically Her weapons. In Her defense, it’s not often that one gets to see a tri-shifting weapon… okay so She supposed Sun and Neptune both counted but still.

Every time Ruby saw that weapon, She could only marvel at the amount of work that must have been put into it. How it transitioned from one form to the next so flawlessly, the way Pyrrha could cover all distances in a fight. She could truly have spent hours just taking it apart and putting it back together, learning all about what made it tick.

Snapping out of that - when Pyrrha looked Her way, looking a tad confused -, Ruby went back to inspecting who was there. Still, no Blake to be found. She sighed, not like She wouldn’t find Her eventually, so no point in mulling over it.

After a few more minutes of waiting - which felt particularly awkward for Her because She got caught staring at, and subsequently internally rambling over, someone's weapon, and She’d even promised Her mom and uncle to not do it anymore after that talk -, the Headmaster finally showed up.

He got right to it, not wasting time. ‘’Good morning to all present. Now, I won’t keep you for long. One by one, each of you will be sent to the Emerald Forest, wherein you will then make your way to a set of Ruins roughly located to the north. Once you arrive, inside there will be a set of Relics, with each pair of partners taking one.

‘’These relics can be opened, revealing a specific location, to which you must travel. There, you will find two pedestals, where you will place the relics upon. After they have sunken into the pedestals, and locking in to ensure nothing will get disrupted, one of the staff will arrive to pick up the two pairs, thus forming a team.

‘’Be warned that, along the way, you will encounter Grimm. Even though we here at Beacon make sure to regularly keep them in check, we cannot guarantee that it will be wholly safe. If any of you happen to encounter something you cannot handle, then it is perfectly fine to retreat, you will not be judged for it.

‘’Now, lastly, you might wonder how it will be that people will become partners. Simply put, as soon as two people’s eyes meet after landing, they will be considered such. Do note that, even if you try, we will know if you attempted to bypass this rule. Should you dismiss someone you made eye contact with, in order to find someone who you would prefer to partner up with, I can assure there will be consequences.’’

With that serious note, Ozpin wrapped up. ‘’With that all explained, does anyone have any questions? If so, then please, ask now.’’

Seeing that no one had any, He proceeded as planned. ‘’Good, then, let us begin.’’ With that, He pressed something on that big scroll He was holding.

Suddenly, with not a singular hint of a warning, one of the platforms activated, launching the person atop it skyward.

Ruby jumped at the intensely loud noise, which was followed by the startled yelp of the poor sod who was now flying at who-knows-how-fast. Her tail puffed up, almost comically appearing like an exclamation mark with how ramrod straight it went.

Well, if She didn’t have any questions before, She absolutely had some now. ‘’Uh, sir, why are we, um, being thrown into the forest?’’

‘’Because it would be a quick way to get you all there.’’ He responded, more following the first, all with varying reactions of surprise.

‘’I… guess? It’s just, I dunno, doesn’t this feel kinda… nyot safe…?’’ She asked.

‘’I suppose so, but if a Hunter-in-Training couldn’t handle something as simple as a surprise drop in elevation, then I believe them to be unfit for this profession.’’ Ozpin elaborated.

That made sense, Ruby could see the logic, still… ‘’And the best way was to… catapult us one by one into a forest full of Grimm?’’

‘’No, that was because it was the funniest way to do it. I could have you all get transported by way of bullhead, but I feel I am allowed this one jest, if at the cost of my to-be students.’’ He answered, as if that made Her feel any better. ‘’Would that be all?’’

‘’I guess? Nyothing’s coming to mind right nyow.’’ She answered. By now, about half of them had been launched. She saw some blond girl - who appeared very relaxed, hands interlocked behind Her head at that - pull out a pair of sunglasses, putting them on mere moments before going flying.

‘’Then I wish you the best of luck, Miss Belladonna. I hope to see you this afternoon.’’ He told Her.

She nodded, crouching slightly as the platform below Her let out a low conglomerate of clicks, mechanisms and gears, signaling what was to come.

Moments later, it activated, the ground quickly disappearing as it got replaced by the lush greenery of the forest below Her. She noticed Sun in the corner of Her vision, sitting cross legged as He flew through the air, seemingly not at all caring about how He would land.

Ruby wished She could be that relaxed, currently more focused on how She would land. Hm… Oh! Of course, grappling hooks, how could She forget?

Letting Herself just fly for a bit, She waited until Her altitude was low enough, just passing through the treeline. The moment She passed through, Ruby activated Her grapplers - pressing Her middle and ring fingers to Her palm, the rest of Her fingers staying extended, which, admittedly, didn’t actually do anything, as they were activated by a tiny burst of Aura -, hooking onto two trees in front of Her.

Pulling them taut, She swung Herself forward, just barely scraping against the ground. Reaching the peak of Her swing, Ruby unhooked Her grapplers - using the same method -, using the momentum She gained to rocket forward.

Once She slowed down enough, She went at a more leisurely pace, having most likely gained enough distance into what She roughly guesstimated was north to allow it. Switching to using one grappler at a time - going between each once She swung past a tree -, Ruby got into a rhythm of sorts, not needing to think much about it.

‘Press, attach, swing, detach. Press, attach, swing, detach…’ She mentally recounted. It had been ingrained into Her mind at this point, a practically second-hand routine She didn’t need to worry about messing up.

Putting the action of swinging to the back of Her mind, Ruby focused on things pertaining to initiation. ‘Alright, if I remeowmber right, Sun should probably be someowwhere west of me, and I think Neptune was on one of the platforms to the right of me. Of course, Blake’s also somewhere here, dunno where though… who else… huh, that looks like someone. Wai-!’

Distracted, Ruby didn’t notice that She was swinging towards someone, back turned to Her. Unable to stop in time, all She could do was yell a warning, hoping they would react. ‘’Nyou there! Watch out!’’

It proved ineffective as She rammed into that person forcefully. The sheer force built up from Her swinging kept Her going for a good bit, tumbling across the ground. It took Her slamming back first into a tree to arrest the built up momentum, body painfully dropping to the ground.

‘’Oww… gah, that hurt.’’ Ruby noted, feeling as though She’d just taken one of Her Uncle’s punches straight to the chest.

Getting up - slowly, because if She moved any faster, something inside Her would surely disagree with the notion-, She rubbed Her back, slightly hunched over. After a minute of soothing the pain as best She could, Ruby remembered that She might also have bowled over another person - in a rather poor imitation of a bowling ball aiming for a strike.

Looking over, She saw them sit up, rubbing their head, groaning as they in turn looked around.

Moving toward who She knocked over, Ruby began profusely apologizing. ‘’Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hit nyou, it’s just I was kinda nyot paying attention, and i knyow that doesn’t really excuse it so again I’m really really really sorry! Are you okay though?’’ She asked, holding a hand out to them. Hm, now that Ruby looked a bit closer, they seemed… familiar. Long, brown hair in a ponytail, tan skin, freckles… wait a minute-!

Staring at each other, neither could quite get themselves to say anything, completely surprised at seeing each other here. Eventually, however, one of them managed to process who they were staring at.

Ruby, getting over the shock of seeing one of Her only friends - and one of Her best childhood ones at that - here, wholeheartedly glomped none other than Ilia Amitola right back to the ground.

‘’Ilia! Oh, it’s so good to see nyou! How have nyou been?’’ She exclaimed.

Being pushed back into the ground, Ilia could only look down at the form of Ruby, hugging Her with all the might of an overly enthusiastic fifteen year old girl. Seems She also didn’t lose the habit of rubbing Her face against the people She hugged - sort of like a cat would, though She didn’t know if Ruby had the scent glands as well or if that was just a Her thing.

She put a hand on Ruby’s head, tussling the girl’s hair ‘’Yeah, I’m doing good. Nice to see you again as well… Wait, shouldn’t it still be, like, two more years for you?’’ She asked.

Blushing, Ruby rubbed the back of Her neck, looking away. ‘’Well, it’s kinda a long story, and I don’t think we have the time to talk about it here. But I’ll tell nya when we’re done!’’

Chuckling, Ilia took the compromise. ‘’Alright, but I will hold you to that. Now, could ya get off of me? Kinda getting a little crushed here.’’

‘’O-Oh, of course! Sorry, got a bit carried away.’’ She got up, only then processing what Ilia said. ‘’Wh- Hey! Are nyou saying I’m heavy?’’ Squinting Her eyes at Her friend, She pointed a very accusatory finger.

‘’Is that what I’m saying?’’ Ilia said, giving Her a smug look ‘’You took it like that, never said anything about weight.’’ She completed it with a shrug, feigning the image of pure innocence She most certainly was not.

‘’But nyou implied it! How else was I supposed to interpret that?’’ Ruby countered.

‘’True, but you do eat a lot of meat, can’t be good for that figure.’’ She returned.

‘’Nyou’re so mean!-’’ She gave Her friend a light bop on the shoulder ‘’-I don’t even knyow why we’re friends. Hmph.’’ She huffed, turning away, barely hiding the smile trying to break out.

Putting a hand over Her chest, Ilia acted as though physically struck, gasping for extra dramatic effect. ‘’My dearest, sweet childhood friend Ruby Belladonna, I cannot believe you just called Me mean! Oh, the horror, the utter pain! How shall I ever cope with losing you as my friend!’’ She spun around, also doing Her best to keep the laughter at bay.

Both stayed quiet, until they burst into laughter, spinning around to face each other again. Oh, it had truly been too long since they saw each other.

They stayed like that for a bit, just laughing. It was nice, spending time with Her friend like this, even with the circumstances of where they were and what They were supposed to do.

Letting out the last of Her laughter, Ruby spoke up. ‘’Heh, I nyeeded that, thanks, Ilia.’’

‘’You know me, always here to please. Now, I’m pretty sure we spent enough time in one spot. How’s about we get going?’’ She offered.

Ruby nodded, though She had a question. ‘’So, um, I wannya knyow. Why are Nyou here?’’

Ilia looked a little confused. ‘’You mean, like, reason, metaphorical, or philosophical? ‘Cause that’s gonna be a way different answer each time.’’

‘’Reason? What else could I mean?’’ Ruby asked, now also confused.

‘’Oh, that, easy. Blake.’’ She answered, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Now She was even more confused, and also a little concerned. ‘’Blake? What about my sister?’’

Ilia, realizing She almost confessed to having a crush to said crush’ sister of all people, immediately started deflecting the question, Her freckle-like scales lighting up in a bright pink. ‘’Oh, i-it’s nothing. Just, uh, ignore that, it’s not actually that important.’’ She answered, picking up Her pace.

‘’Ilia? What about Blake? What do nyou mean ‘nyour reason is Blake’? Ilia?’’ Ruby asked, watching Her friend rush off ahead of Her. What did She mean.by that?

She stood there, trying to think of any possible answer to whatever the heck Her friend had just said. Only when Ilia disappeared through the foliage ahead did She snap out of it.

She ran after Her friend, keeping that thought in the back of Her mind as She did so. She’d get Her answer eventually.

Elsewhere, two figures, practically the polar opposite in terms of color, were walking through the forest, paying great amounts of attention to the area around them.

Well, they would, were one of the two not wholly insistent on the fact they were lost.

Blake watched as Weiss, once more, came stumbling out of the trees to Her right, looking just a tad more roughed up than the last time She did. What was this, the 13th time now?

Blake sighed, moving in front of Weiss to block Her. ‘’Look, I know you’re adamant on finding the way to the ruins, but walking in circles for about a dozen times isn’t going to do anything.’’

‘’Oh, and you just so happen to know where we have to go, don’t you?’’ Weiss questioned.

‘’Yes, I do. Because unlike you, I actually have basic outdoor navigation and survival skills, something any person with even a day of experience surviving in the wilderness would possess.’’ Blake sassed back.

She turned, ignoring the offended gasp that emanated from behind Her. Looking around, She found what She was looking for, a particularly large tree. It reached well over the rest around it.

Looking over Her shoulder, She addressed Weiss. ‘’Here’s the options you have. Either you allow Me to climb up there and figure out the rough location of the ruins, or I continue amusing myself at watching you tumble through foliage like a baby kitten. I’m not opposed to either.’’

Huffing, She got a complying nod. ‘’Fine, just don’t take too long. We have wasted enough time as is.’’

Not giving a response, Blake began Her climb. It went mostly well, up until about halfway up, where She missed a jump and almost got a face full of branch, saving Herself with a Shadow Clone.

Blake cursed the fact that She trimmed Her whiskers, but it wasn’t like She had a choice. They were too recognizable, meaning that it was necessary if She wanted to blend in better. It was just really annoying how much they impacted Her balance. A tree of this height wouldn’t have taken nearly as long to scale as it did now.

After a few more minutes of slowly climbing the tree, She reached the top. It was honestly breathtaking, but the time for admiring a view like this wasn’t there. Locating where they were supposed to go wasn’t too difficult, considering the decently big patch of free space planted right in between the cluster of trees.

Taking a few more minutes to get down, and needing to save Herself a few more times with Her semblance, She finally touched solid ground again. She pointed in the direction of where the ruins most likely were. ‘’Found an empty spot. Pretty sure the ruins are there. Let’s go.’’

Walking ahead, Blake tentatively didn’t pay attention to the huff behind Her, instead having more important things on Her mind.

‘So, Ruby is here, huh. That’s… I can’t really say how I feel about it. I want to be happy to see Her again, but… can I face Her, or mom and dad? It’s been so long, they most likely already moved on- No, no they didn’t. Don’t try to deny it, Blake, you saw how desperate Ruby was yesterday. And again, you run, hide behind others.

‘First, you make sure Khan doesn’t tell your parents, then make Sun and Ilia - good job ditching them as well - promise not to tell anyone either, and now you run from your own sister. What next, huh?

‘Oh, right, the next step is disguising as a human, of course. Because instead of actually getting the courage to face your family after running away and hurting them like that, you just had to go and play the big, grown up girl who thought She knew better than Her own parents.

‘And instead of at least being proud of your own heritage, you hide it. Tie your ears up, cut off your whiskers, even start speaking more ‘normal’, purely because you can’t face it.’ Her own inner voice, taking the form of Adam, ranted to Her. She couldn’t deny it, all of that was true.

And yet, She felt compelled to argue against it, to proclaim it wrong. ‘No…’

‘It’s true, Blake. You’re a coward, can’t face anything without hiding behind other people. Adam would have taken advantage of you, had Sun-’ Now it turned into the aforementioned boy ‘-not told Khan about how much of a monster He was.’

‘No…’

‘Yes, and let’s not forget how you don’t acknowledge Ilia’s-’ It changed to Her now ‘-obvious feelings towards you. Again, a coward, once more hurting others.’ She picked up Her pace, not paying attention to where She was going.

‘No…’

‘Stop lying to yourself, Blake. What good would come from deluding yourself into thinking you’re not a coward, when you are nothing but a fraud, riding on the coattails of everyone you know and meet. Face it, the fault lies solely with you, Blake.’

‘Stop.’

‘What, the truth? How you left your family behind with nothing but a goodbye note and some cheap ‘gifts’ that you bought for Ruby? Face. It. You’re always responsible for the pain others go through when you interact with them. Once again, the fault lies with you, Blake!’

‘Stop…!’ She started running, breathing picking up in pace. The environment blurred around Her, going out of focus.

‘You can’t hide behind that delusional facade forever. Eventually, all of those things will crash down on top of you. And you know the worst of them all. The greatest sin, the one thought you can never forgive yourself for even considering.’

‘No.’

‘Oh, you know what I’m talking about. Try as you might, you can’t fool your soul, and it’s true, about how you felt towards poor, little, innocent Ruby back then.’ No, not Her too.

‘Don’t go there…!’

‘Try to stop me, I dare you. I am you, Blake, just as much as you are me. Whatever I feel, think, do, you do so as well. Now, remind me, what was it, that great sin? Something something, never should have-’

‘SHUT UP! Sh-Shut up… I know that I messed up, and that I only caused more issues. I beat myself up again and again and again. I told myself that, no, next time won’t be the same, and then it is! I just… I want it to stop. But I can’t. Every time I try to do something, I falter.

‘So, yeah, I fucked everything feasible up when it comes to my family, and even my friends, but don’t try to use my own mistakes against me. Especially not that. Don’t try to torture me with that. I do it plenty myself.’

The ghostly form that She had mentally conjured up disappeared, though not without leaving Her one last, devilish smile, having turned back to Adam.

Breathing heavily, Blake moved to the nearest tree, letting Her back drop against it. Sliding to the ground, pulling Her knees to Her chest, She couldn’t get Herself to focus. She knew for a fact that having a panic attack like this, surrounded by grimm, was a death sentence. But Her body refused, heart hammering into Her ribs, eyes tearing up as they darted around the forest.

Sitting there, She curled into Herself, not knowing how far She had run, how far from the path She had strayed. But it didn’t matter, because Blake Belladonna felt as though She could get crushed by even the faintest push, and crumble into a million tiny pieces.

Not having the strength to hold them back anymore, the tears flooded out.

‘’Ruby! Come on, we can’t keep getting distracted like this, we gotta find where we’re supposed to go. Dammit Ilia, how do you lose track of a hyperactive cat girl?’’ Ilia shouted, mumbling the last part to Herself.

For the last Five minutes, She had been wandering through this damn forest, trying desperately to keep Ruby from running off again. At first, She thought that maybe someone was in danger, given Ruby had perked up and bolted off in some random direction. Turns out, it had actually just been a rabbit, being chased in circles by Her friend. At least it was funny, for the first time. The 5th and onward weren’t.

She internally cursed whatever damn animal took Her attention every time the girl ran away.

So it was a process of finding Her, getting Her attention back, and promptly losing Her again no more than Fifteen whole seconds later. Rinse and Repeat, and here She was, doing this for the dozenth time, if She had to guess.

Walking through some shrubbery, She found Ruby again. This time, She picked a rather difficult thing to hunt, a bird. Perched on a tree, eyes dilated and glued to the flying rat of a distraction, tail slowly swishing back and forth, slightly twitching at the tip.

All Ilia could do was wait, seeing Ruby do minute adjustments to Her position as She got ready to pounce. And then… She jumped!
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And utterly missed the bird, which was by no means a surprise, considering that thing was about Thirty meters away. Letting out a particularly high pitched yelp, She plummeted, landing face first on the ground.

Wincing, Ilia walked up to Her, looking at the downed form of Her friend, face firmly planted in the dirt. She fought back the chuckle building up, addressing Her. ‘’So, Ruby, you have enough yet, or you gonna keep insisting you’re a ‘ferocious hunter’?’’ She said.

Ruby’s spoke, voice slightly muffled. ‘’Hmph, say what nyou want, I am sure I was close to getting it that ti-!’’ She pushed Herself up, coughing out a little bit of dirt. Her whiskers seemed to mirror Her slightly roughed up state, appearing a little bent. ‘’-Anyway~, I think I got that out of my system nyow.’’

Ilia gave Her a questioning stare. ‘’You mean it? Because if you don’t, I will pull you to the ruins.’’ She threatened.

Fully getting up, brushing off the dirt on Her t-shirt and skirt, She turned to Ilia. ‘’Ok, ok! Yeesh, nyou didn’t have to go there.’’

‘’I wouldn’t have to, if you hadn’t been running off for the last 5 minutes. Look, I’m all for having fun and stuff, but we are kinda on a timer here. You can goof off all you want once we’re done, but please keep it mostly serious for now?’’ Ilia asked.

Ruby’s gaze turned to the ground, index fingers pushing against each other, mumbling out an apology. Damn it, why did She have to be so adorable?

Ilia sighed. ‘’It’s okay, just… try to keep it down for now? Please?’’

‘’Okay.’’ Ruby conceded.

‘’So, you know where we gotta go? Kinda lost track when you started running around.’’ Ilia asked.

Eyes widening, Ruby looked around, realizing just now that She had no idea where in the forest they were. ‘’Aw crud.’’ She said, slumping forward slightly, whiskers bending down a little as well.

Ilia gave Her a pat on the back. ‘’Come on, I’m sure we’ll figure out where we gotta go.’’

‘’Nyeah, nyeah, I knyow. It’s just, I’m really sorry for getting us lost like that.’’ Ruby apologized again.

‘’Yeah, you messed up. But, you’re trying to make up for it, so it’s not that bad. Now, come on, let’s get going, not gonna get anywhere just standing around talking.’’ Ilia encouraged.

‘’Okay, nyeah, let’s go, we’ve got a set of ruins to find!’’ Ruby said, cheering up again.

‘’That’s the spirit.’’ Ilia said. ‘’So, you got any idea how to find those ruins?’’

Thinking, hand on Her chin, Ruby took a look around. ‘’Hmm.’’ Her eyes landed on a tree. Quickly climbing up and taking a look, She saw a spot free of trees roughly west of them.

Getting back down and relaying the information, they began their trek there. It was… rather quiet as they walked there. They had yet to encounter any grimm. Hm, well, not like that was bad. A bit boring, but they’d take it.
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Ok, where were the Grimm? They had been walking for a good 20 minutes now, and not one had run into them, or they into one.

Ilia commented on the weirdly empty forest. ‘’Hey, do you feel like, I don’t know, something’s wrong?’’

Ruby looked at Her. ‘’What do nyou mean?-’’ She gazed at the forest around them, not seeing anything off here. ‘’-I don’t see anything weird here.’’

‘’Not that, it’s just… shouldn’t we have run into at least a Grimm by now? We’ve been here a good hour, I think, and there hasn’t been a single one we ran into so far.’’ She explained.

‘’Huh, nyeah, nyow that I think about it, where are they? Sure, We've been pretty casual and keeping positive and stuff, but not running into any?’’ Ruby agreed.

They looked at each other, then shrugged. Not like they were gonna complain about less fighting, and it was good to save up their energy anyway.

After another good ten minutes of just walking, with only the occasional animal popping into view, they finally arrived at the place they were supposed to find. And wow, Ozpin had not been exaggerating when He said they were ruins.

Getting closer, they could see another pair up ahead, already at the ruins. Oh! It was That blonde with the sunglasses and Pyrrha!

Waving Her hand, Ruby yelled to get their attention. ‘’Hey~!’’

The two turned towards them, waiting until they got close enough in order to not have to shout. Once Ruby and Ilia got up the stairs, now on the platform the other two were on, they greeted them, a ‘Hello!’ and ‘Sup.’ respectively.

‘’So, why are you two waiting here?’’ Ilia asked. It was a reasonable question.

‘’Eh, Pyr’ here though it’d be better if we waited for others to show up, instead of waiting at the spot we’re s’posed to be. Oh, name’s Yang by the way. Yang Xiao Long.’’ The only not yet named person introduced.

They quickly introduced themselves, moving into the ruins. About half the relics, chess pieces, were left. Ruby asked what Pyrrha and Yang chose.

Yang held up a yellow - near gold - Tower. The rook.

She then went ahead and picked up a different piece. A Horse. The knight.

Ilia looked at Her, confused. ‘’Why did you ask, if you were gonna pick a different piece anyway?’’

‘’Well, it’s… I knyow Blake is someowwhere here, and if I pick one that another pair also picked, then I won’t be on the same team as Her. And I knyow that’s really selfish, but I just…’’ Ruby replied.

Ilia shook Her head. ‘’No, it’s okay. Would have been nice to be asked first, but I can understand why.’’

‘’Really? But… is it okay to just force you to choose like that?’’ Ruby asked, unsure.

‘’Hey, no, you’re not forcing me, Ruby. Yeah, you should have considered asking me first, but, honestly, I’m fine with your decision.’’ Ilia told Her.

‘’N-Nyou mean it?’’ She asked again.

‘’Yeah, I mean it.’’ Ilia reaffirmed. ‘’Now, do you wanna wait? Probably nicer than just walking around, again.’’

‘’Nyeah, let’s do that.’’ Ruby confirmed.

And that’s what they did, wait. The four present talked a bit, just some casual small talk to pass the time.

Eventually, however, Ruby reacted. In the middle of replying to Pyrrha, Her body went rigid, eyes snapping to a direction of the forest. She lowered Herself a bit, Whiskers puffing out, eyes narrowing as She kept them trained there. Ilia knew, from working with Blake, what that meant. Taking out Lightning Lash, She told the other pair to get ready.

And it proved worthwhile, as, mere moments later, Sun and Neptune came tumbling out of the forest.
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Oh, looks like that was i-

Just as the two boys had gotten about halfway to the ruins, the ground rumbled as something was rushing after them. Said something came plowing through the brush seconds later, swinging off of a tree branch, consequently ripping that off as it swung forward, taken with it.

Landing, a cloud of dust got kicked up from the sheer force of its landing. It revealed itself to be a Beringel. Though, this one was… unique.

Whilst height wise it wasn’t much bigger than the average Beringel, that wasn’t the thing that drew attention. That would be two things:

The first was its rather abnormal looking bone plating. Instead of the usual, located primarily on the chest, it seemed to be armored almost fully, only missing some on the joints. Additionally, its faceplate - scarred and chipped - made it look like it had an extra pair of eyes, with lines of red running around them, patterns like those found on regal clothing fit for royalty.

The grimm plating also ran up its head, coalescing at the top into a crude estimation of a crown.

The most worrying however was that it possessed an extra pair of arms. Located under the first pair, this extra set smoothly fit in right under. They weren’t for intimidation either, as it drummed all four on its chest shortly after landing, roaring to the skies as it did so.

Gripped in its lower right arm was that branch it ripped off, held almost like a weapon.

It stayed there, simply watching as the two it had been chasing ran to the four located at the broken structure.

Once they got there, Sun and Neptune slumped over, taking deep breaths.

‘’Well, that thing’s… interesting. So, any of ya got an idea on how to deal with that?’’ Yang asked.

They shook their heads.

‘’Great. So we’re essentially stuck here, ‘cause I’m certain it’s gonna try to get us the moment we step down there.’’ She continued.

Ruby looked on the bright side of things. ‘’Well, at least it’s only one? That’s nyot to bad, right?’’

Just as She got done saying that, the forest once more rumbled, even stronger tremors this time.

‘’Ya just had to say it, didn’t you?’’ Yang deadpanned at Her.

‘’Eheh, sorry…?’’ she weakly attempted.

Running out of the forest, with much more grace, came that White themed girl and… Blake!

Ruby perked up, finally seeing Her sister after so long. She bounced in place, practically vibrating with excitement.

As the two got up the stairs, panting a little, Blake noticeably a bit more out of it, Ruby moved.

‘’BLAKE!’’

Before She knew it, Her older sister was wholly rammed into the ground, Ruby hugging Her, refusing to let up. She nuzzled Herself into Blake’s shoulder, relishing in being reunited with Her.

‘’Oh, I’ve missed nyou so much!-’’ She, reluctantly, pushed Herself up, looking Blake in the eyes. ‘’-We’ve been so worried about nyou!’’

‘’...Ruby…?’’ Blake asked quietly, seemingly not quite processing it yet.

‘’Nyeah, it’s me, Blake! I have so much to ask nyou!’’ She exclaimed, getting up and holding a hand out for Her sister.

Pulling Her up, Ruby moved a few steps away. Now that She was calming down, She could get a good look.

Maybe She shouldn’t have.

‘’...Blake, where are nyour whiskers…? And nyour-’’ A hand clamped over Her mouth, shutting Her up. Blake shot Her a look, silently pleading with Her to stay quiet.

‘’We can talk later, when we’re alone, okay? I’ll… explain what I can then.’’ Ruby nodded, accepting the compromise. She still gave Her a concerned look, but let it go.

Sun, suddenly, slung an arm around Blake’s shoulder, dragging Her away, complaining about how She ditched Him yesterday and what not. Meanwhile, Ilia came up to Her, clearly worried.

‘’Hey, you doing alright?’’ She asked.

Wiping away the tears building up in Her eyes, Ruby turned to Ilia. ‘’Nyeah, I-I’m fine. A bit scared over… someowthing I saw with Her, but She said I’d get an explanation.’’

‘’...Alright.’’ Ilia said. She looked at the person that came along with Blake. ‘’Wait a minute. Is that a Schnee?’’ She asked.

‘’Wha-’’ Ruby took a look, only now connecting what Ilia saw. ‘’-Huh.’’

‘’So, you still up for getting on a team with your sister?’’ Ilia questioned.

‘’Well, nyot like I have a choice, really. I’m nyot losing my sister again, meowven if I have to… deal with someowne I may nyot get along with.’’ She responded.

Ilia was about to respond, had it not been for what burst through the trees.

And it truly was something to behold.

A quadrupedal wolf, gargantuan in size, broke through the trees with ease. Standing at a staggering Fifteen meters in size, it towered over all present.

Its head was almost wholly covered in bone, the rest of the body being only partially so, protecting only the most vital parts. What looked like symbols appeared etched into the plating, almost glowing a burning crimson.

Its fur almost appeared… fluid, seeming to shift around with every move the wolf made.

In place of a tail, there found itself a Taijitu, twisting around to gaze at them, venom dripping down to the ground, acidic enough to carve away at the dirt it landed on. It had not a speck of armor on it.

A deafening roar escaped its maw, shaking even the foundation of the safe haven found in the ruins.

This was bad, really bad.

Chapter Text

At the ruins, all present could only stare, pretty dumbfounded, at the two Grimm standing at the forest’s edge. These were… not normal. Something was wrong, shouldn’t the school faculty have noticed these?

‘’Alright, please tell Me you’re all seeing this. Because unless I suddenly hit my head, there are… whatever those are.’’ Yang asked, tense.

She got an affirmative from everyone else. It did not reassure Her whatsoever.

‘’Great! So I’m not hallucinating, just staring at what I can only guess are two extremely dangerous Grimm. Awesome.’’ She continued, talking to Herself in an attempt to calm Her nerves.

Calming down a bit, Yang turned to the rest. ‘’Okay, anybody got a plan? I’d really like one right about now.’’

Sun was the first to answer. ‘’We pummel ‘em until they stop moving…?’’ He offered.

He got a unanimous ‘No.’ for that. ‘’Eh, was worth a shot.’’ He conceded.

Everybody gave their suggestions on how and who to fight. The two impromptu teams ended up as: Ruby, Blake, Ilia and Weiss against the Beringel, and Sun, Yang, Pyrrha and Neptune against the Beowolf.

Ruby ushered the three on Her ‘team’ over to Her. ‘’Alright, I think I’ve got someowthing of a plan for Me. Since I-’’ She motioned to Herself ‘’- have the best options when it comes to close-range, I’m gonnya keep its attention. I’ll count on nyou three to give Me openings and nyuse the ones I make. Actually, I’m gonnya nyeed a quick rundown of what each of nyou can do. Well except nyou Ilia.’’

A few minutes of explanations later, and Ruby now knew exactly what all of them were gonna do.

‘’Okay, Blake, Ilia-’’ She turned to both ‘’- nyou two are the Hit-and-Runners. If nyou can, try to attack it, preferably a weak point. If either Weiss or Me nyeed help, then do what nyou can.

‘’And nyou, Weiss-’’ She pointed at Her ‘’-, do nyour best to suppawt us. Nyot to say nyou can’t take a stab at it, but with the dust, and how nyou said nyour semblance works, I feel it’d be best if nyou help however nyou can, Ok?’’

Ilia and Blake nodded, Weiss huffing at being delegated to the backline like that, but agreeing nonetheless. Not like they had anything better on the spot.

As they got ready, Ruby remembered one more thing. ‘’Oh! Blake, Weiss, nyou still nyeed a relic!’’

But She didn’t need to remind them, as Blake held up the one She had taken when Sun had dragged Her away. It was a knight.

‘’Ah. Well then, who’s ready to go?’’ She asked.

Ilia gave Her a thumbs up. ‘’I’m ready. Lash’s loaded.’’

‘’Ready as I’ll ever be.’’ Blake answered, katana and cleaver in hand.

‘’Of course, I’m always ready.’’ Weiss responded.

‘’Okay, then… let’s go!’’ She yelled, rushing ahead.

Ruby practically flew down the stairs, skipping multiple steps at a time. Landing, Her eyes met Her opponents.

The Beringel, having sat down as its prey strategized - the Grimm feeling as though it had enough leisure to do so - perked up. Returning to standing, branch held firmly, it stared the girl in front of it down.

Both moved ahead, coming to a stop only a few meters away from each other. It noted the other three, keeping their distance - particularly the white one - but still at the ready. Circling each other, they analyzed one another, looking for any openings or weak spots.

As one, they both advanced. Once within striking distance, the Beringel reared back its upper right fist. Ruby saw it, dodging under at the last second, reacting with an uppercut. Using that, She grasped onto the outstretched arm, vaulting over it and delivering a kick with each leg as She jumped over the appendage, changing Her hold and grasping on with both hands as She did so, now facing the Grimm.

Swinging with that, She tucked Her legs, launching up and stretching out, delivering a kick to the chin with both legs. As She passed the Beringel, She grasped onto its head with a hand, anchoring Herself. Maneuvering around, Ruby kicked into its back, yanking the Grimm’s head as far back as possible.

Activating the ice dust in Scratch, She planted Her palm squarely on its nape, center on the big bone plate located there. Frost immediately started creeping outwards. It struggled, a futile effort, attempting to swat at the girl on its back.

Switching now to earth dust, a big, bulky fist materialized. With a grunt of exertion, Ruby swung it forward. The rock slammed into the ice, shattering not only that but also the bone plate beneath it!

Staggering forward - dropping the crude approximation of a club in the process -, it was given no breathing room as She laid into it, punch after punch being delivered to the now open and weak flesh beneath its protective armoring. With each strike, the Beringel grew more enraged.

In the middle of Her punch, Ruby got interrupted as Her opponent finally recovered, and calmed enough to rationalize. Just as She was about to land Her next punch, it grabbed Her wrist - or, more accurately, roughly half Her forearm, hand and all -, the one that was holding its chin back.

‘Uh Oh…’ Was all Ruby could think before… huh? Shouldn’t something have happened? She saw that the Beringel’s wrist had been restrained, stuck to its arm by a sheet of ice, courtesy of Weiss. It grunted, clearly putting in effort to break the ice.

Ruby used the opening provided, fire blazing outwards, slowly scorching its hand. It reflexively let go.

Quickly jumping off its back, Ruby retreated a few steps. She could try another attack, but the Beringel looked pretty angry now.

With a roar, it broke the ice, and subsequently the ground, as it slammed its fists into the ground. A cloud of dust covered the area - swallowing up both Her and the Grimm -, bits of dirt flying outward in all directions.

Backing up, lowering a bit to the ground, Ruby kept Her eyes locked on the rough location of the Beringel.

Her eyes widened as, flying at high speeds, a sizable piece of earth got chucked at Her. She scrambled to the side, just barely avoiding getting hit. Almost immediately after, another flew at Her. A veritable barrage of dirt clumps got thrown Her way - each one keeping the cloud up when it struck, creating a continuous cover of dust -, dodging and weaving the only thing Ruby could do.

Avoiding one, She was completely unable to stop the second chunk - thrown slightly to the right - from impacting Her solidly in the chest. Air driven from Her chest, Ruby stumbled back, slumping over. Coughing as Her body worked to get itself back into a working state - and also get the few bits of dirt that She accidentally inhaled out -, She couldn’t react in time to the fist headed right for Her.

Focusing on the same spot, the Beringel drove its lower right fist into Her gut. It didn’t give Her any reprieve, capitalizing on Ruby staggering back and dropping to Her knees, hands clutched onto Her stomach

As She sat there, feebly attempting to reel in any amount of air, the Grimm continued attacking. Feeling both sides of Her head get grabbed, Her eyes moved up in a panic, met promptly by the Beringel’s knee.

The strike utterly laid Her out. Getting knocked onto Her back, Ruby could only stare up at the sky, vision wobbling and warbling - almost nauseatingly so. She was utterly defenseless as the grimm moved towards Her.

However, instead of continuing to attack - as if saying She wasn’t worth the effort -, it simply picked Her up by the front of Her shirt.
.
.
.
Blake watched the cloud, worry mounting every second. She couldn’t see what was going on inside, and as much as She wanted to run in and help, that could be exactly what the Beringel wanted. They weren’t able to simply shoot into it either, or they’d risk hitting Ruby.

She didn’t have any good feelings about it though. Those last few hits sounded a bit too much like skin being struck, not bone.

Eventually, there weren’t any sounds of a scuffle coming from the cloud. It also thinned out enough for a silhouette to be visible, and when Blake saw it, Her heart skipped a beat.

Emerging was the Beringel, looking only barely worse for wear. It had a hand holding onto Ruby, still slightly smoking, and while one of the plates of its back got broken off, it was practically untouched.

The Beringel tossed Ruby ahead, the girl’s body skipping over the ground a few times before stopping. ‘’Ruby!’’ Blake yelled, rushing for Her sister.

Sliding to a stop next to Her sister, She looked over Ruby’s body. She wasn’t too roughed up, but Her nose was bleeding, and there was a noticeable splotch of blue developing on Her chest, only visible due to the shirt having moved, revealing it.

Carefully sitting Her sister up, Blake giving Her support with a hand on the back, She asked Ruby if She was alright.

‘’Nyea- ugh, okay, nyot quite. Man, that Beringel packs a punch. Pretty sure my brain’s still rattling around in there.’’ Ruby tried to reassure. It didn’t work.

‘’Ruby, please, this is serious. Don’t run in again without our help, alright? It’s clear that that one isn’t normal.’’ Blake reprimanded.

‘’Oh, sorry. And, nyeah, it does seem pretty smart. I mean, it fought meowre like an actual person, really.’’ She explained, only now noticing Her bleeding nose. ‘’Ow.’’

Helping Ruby up, They faced the Beringel again. It was mostly lax in its posture, but they could see the slight tensing of its muscles.

It watched them as they spoke to each other. They made a new plan: use its size, and their numbers, to their advantage. It clearly couldn’t deal with agile opponents all too well, so if they kept attacking from odd angles, it would, hopefully, go down.

‘’Okay, meowveryone got it?’’ Ruby asked, getting confirmation in response.

With that, they all moved in. Ruby rushed straight ahead, Blake and Ilia moving to a side of the Beringel each.

Just as Ruby got within striking distance, it moved. It proved useless, as She ducked under once again, this time continuing into a slide. The Grimm got a rock to the face as a reward. Ruby moved under and past its legs, Gambol Shroud flying over Her and to Ilia.

She quickly jumped up, turning and firing both of Her grapplers into the Beringel, stabbing into the unarmored section of its back with a fleshy ‘squelch’.

As the ribbon from Blake’s weapon went taut, Ruby pulled with all Her might, managing to unbalance it. It tried to take a step back, only for its footing to disappear as the ribbon pulled its other foot from under it.

Ruby moved in, slamming Her fist into the ground, a jagged spike of rock and earth jutting upward. It intercepted the Beringel halfway through its fall, jamming right between two bone plates, suspending it mid-air.

Unable to move, it could only watch as the four to-be students fought back. Ruby started, jumping onto its chest, fire dust blasting out of Shadow and Step, slowly burning through its plating. It tried swatting Her away, only for its hands to get pulled away, Gambol Shroud and Lightning Lash restraining one side each.

The Beringel started thrashing as best as its impaled self could, desperate to at least shake Ruby off of it. It yanked on the restraints, Blake and Ilia having to dig their feet into the dirt so as to not get thrown around.

‘’Wei- whoa! Weiss, nyeed a little help he- ah!’’ Ruby shouted, doing Her wobbling best to stay atop the Grimm. Black glyphs spawned, stabilizing Her. ‘’Thanks!’’

The plates around Ruby’s feet were starting to glow bright orange, with Her sinking into the Grimm’s chest slightly from how much they melted. The Beringel was moving even more intensely, roaring at them.

Switching to air dust, She launched Herself a good distance upwards. As she descended, Ruby once more changed dust types, this time using gravity dust. With it, She rocketed down, cratering into its body. The plates cracked immediately, shortly after giving in and allowing Ruby to stomp down onto the Beringels' chest full force.

She drove it into the ground, the spike of rock piercing through and towards the sky, black blood spurting out. Its arms - now no longer restrained - fell limp, unmoving. It completely ceased, not a hint of life - if it even could be called that - left.

Hopping off, She and the other three met up, Ruby celebrating, fist-bumping Ilia. ‘’Nyeah, we did it! That was awesome!’’

‘’Yeah. Gotta say, that combo move at the end there was cool. How’d you deal with that thing so easily Ruby? Like, you knew pretty well how to fight it.’’ Ilia said.

‘’Oh, that. So my Uncle, uh, Blake’s dad - it’s kinda complicated - is, like, way bigger. And stronger. So, He taught Me how to deal with oppawnents who are bigger, stronger and meowre durable. It pretty meowch just boils down to using their own size against them. They are gonna be slower, so it’s easier to avoid them. And all I have to do is hit a weak spawt or stay in their blind spawt, and they’ll go down pretty quickly.’’ Ruby explained.

Weiss looked between Her and Blake skeptically. ‘’I guess that makes sense- You two are related? But you-’’ She pointed at Ruby ’’- are a faunus, and She isn’t. And both of you have different hair and eye colors. And not to mention-’’

Seeing Blake tense up, sheer panic overtaking Her, Ruby scrambled for an excuse. ‘’Well, uh, we’re kinda half-sisters. Same mom, different dad- well I mean nyot for me but still. So I’m a faunus and She isn’t.’’

Weiss’ confusion, visible, cleared up. ‘’Ah, I see. Of course. Excuse Me for potentially insinuating anything untoward.’’

Ruby waved Her hand, dismissing it. ‘’Oh, it’s nyothing. We’ve had people react like that for years nyow. So, nyo harm and all that.’’

‘’So, since We don’t have anything to do now, I guess We should help the others?’’ Blake suggested.

Getting agreement from the rest, they turned to where the other four were, only to find out they’d taken care of the Beowolf as well. It was lying on its side, though, interestingly, there wasn’t any smoke coming off of it.

Oh well, maybe it was just another part of these weird Grimm. Maybe they didn’t turn to smoke. Who knew?

As they began moving towards the others, they didn’t notice what was going on behind them, as what they thought they had put down… arose once more.

No more than having taken a few steps, Blake felt something was… off. What could it be? She looked around. Nothing stood out to Her. Actually, no, now that She focused on it, there was this… cracking sound? What was that?

‘Wait, no. It couldn’t be… right? Shi-!’ She looked over Her shoulder, staring in horror at what shouldn’t be. And that thing was staring right at Ruby.

Turning to Her sister, She screamed. ‘’Ruby, Move!’’

Blake moved towards Ruby, managing to shove Her to the side, just as a piece of that spike of rock hurled past. It was… not enough, as it pierced Ruby’s side.

With a cry of pain, blood spurting out, She fell over, grasping at Her side in an attempt to make it stop. It did nothing, red - red, red, oh fuck it was so much red, how was there so much WhyWasThereSoMuch - pouring past Her hands, staining the grass below Her an ugly, deep shade of the same color.

Blake immediately was at Her sister’s side. ‘Shit, what do I do? What do I do?!’ She couldn’t think straight, felt light-headed. Her eyes darted around, desperate to find anything to use to stem the bleeding. Her sister’s cape? It was the best She could think of at the moment.

Ruby tried to speak, getting interrupted by a spike of pain from Blake pressing down on the wound. ‘’Fi- AGH!’’

Jumping at the scream, and letting go of the cape because of it, Blake focused on what Ruby attempted to say. ‘’Fi- what? Ruby?’’ She asked.

‘’F-Fi-Fire…’’ She managed to get out.

‘Fire…? Why would She… right! Fire! Cauterize the wound!’ Blake realized, mentally slapping Herself for not thinking of that.

She looked towards Ilia and Weiss. ‘’I need some fire dust, now!’’ She yelled.

Ilia checked Lightning Lash, shaking Her head after. ‘’...Sorry, don’t have that one.’’

Weiss opened Her rapier, taking out a vial. ‘’It isn’t much, but I believe it should suffice.’’ She handed it to Blake, who ripped the stopper off.

‘I’m sorry, Ruby, because this is gonna fucking hurt!’ She thought, pouring the red powder over the wound, activating it with a small amount of aura. Ruby reacted at once, back arching in a silent scream, ripping into the dirt below Her.

Blake looked away, not wanting to see the gruesome process. She did Her best to ignore the horrid smell of flesh cooking as the wound burned closed.

Once all the dust was used up, the wound sufficiently closed, Ruby fell back down, breathing heavily. It was really hard to stay awake right now. It still hurt, being especially tender now. Squeezing Her eyes shut, She focused on the fact that the bad part was over, now She just needed to lie there.

As Blake stood up, a wave of shame washed over Her. How could She let Ruby get hurt like this? She was the older sibling, it was Her responsibility to protect the younger one, and yet She’d failed.

‘This is my fault. I should have noticed, done something. Had I just paid more attention, then Ruby would still be alright. How…? What was the point of all of this, if I can’t even do something as simple as protecting those I care about? Did any of it actually matter?!’ She berated Herself mentally.

Ilia seemed to notice. ‘’Blake? I know that you’re probably not taking Ruby getting hurt that well right now, but we are kinda facing an enemy. Not to be rude or anything, but I’d rather you put the whole ‘beating yourself up because of your own feelings of inadequacy’ on the back burner for now.’’

Blake wanted to argue, say that it was rude, and She deserved to beat Herself up over it, but the Grimm in front of Her argued otherwise. As much as She wanted to be angry with Ilia for what She said, there was a point to be made. Trying to fight while She was actively distracting Herself with Her own mistakes wouldn’t end well.

So, She took a few deep breaths, calmed the tumultuous thoughts running rampant in Her mind, and responded. ‘’I’ll… I don’t want to say ‘fine’, but alright enough. I should be calmed down enough to fight.’’

‘’Okay. Then, do you want to take the first shot at it? Feels right to allow you to.’’ Ilia asked.

‘’Yeah. Yeah, I think I’ll do that.’’

Blake dashed forward. The Beringel met Her, upper right fist already rearing back. As She got close enough, it swung forward. She was about to dodge, when it suddenly stopped. Before She could process, its lower left shot out.

Dodging just barely with a use of Her semblance, the clone getting sent flying in Her stead, Blake landed on the outstretched arm. It attempted to grab at Her, such being denied as She slammed the cleaver of Gambol against its hand mid-swing, the appendage being pushed back. Keeping the momentum, She turned with the strike, aiming at the hand of the arm She was standing on.

The Beringel had no chance to react, its hand flying off. As the Grimm stumbled back, She moved with it, kicking it in the face. Slamming it into the ground, Blake went for the kill, aimed straight at its neck.

It almost worked. Gambol got about halfway through the Grimm’s neck, getting caught on one of the bone plates. Trying to pull out Her weapon, She realized it wouldn’t budge. Continuing to attempt to free Her weapon, the pair of hands reaching for Her went unnoticed.

They wrapped around Her, squeezing painfully as fingers dug into Her skin, nearly drawing blood, were it not for Her Aura. Blake grit Her teeth, letting go of Gambol’s cleaver. Aiming with the pistol built into Her weapon, She unloaded round after round into its face, not leaving even a scratch.

The Beringel’s remaining hand made to take the gun, only for it to get skewered by Ilia. Pinning it to the Grimm’s chest, She activated one of the chambers in Lightning Lash, ice dust freezing it - as well as Gambol’s cleaver blade and part of the hole made by the spike - in place.

As that happened, Weiss came in from the other side, a wave of fire hitting against the Beringel’s arms, singing them and making It drop Blake. When Her feet touched the ground, She moved back, holding Gambol’s remaining half by the ribbon. Spinning it, She slammed it into the Grimm, again and again.

Face, chest, face twice, chest again. Over and over, She struck, not giving the Beringel any time to counter. Eventually, She hooked onto Her weapon’s other half. Blake pulled with all Her strength, actually managing to get it to move this time!

Slowly, but surely, She got Her weapon free, yanking it out and taking some ice with it. The grimm, unbalanced by the action, stumbled forward.

Ilia took advantage, jumping onto its back - finding footing on the hole in its chest - and wrapping Lash around its neck, pulling the weapon taut, slightly digging into the wound there as well. Arms trying to swat Her away, the Beringel left itself wide open.

Blake moved in, both halves of Gambol Shroud raised, ready to cleave downwards, into the wound left by the spike. Just as She was about to make contact, its upper right hand blocked, enveloping Her weapon in its hold. The Grimm’s left hand shot out, Blake dodging with a shadow clone.

She found Herself straight in the path of its, currently free, remaining hand, hammering into Her. The force was enough to knock Her away, tumbling over the ground once.

‘’Blake-! Whoa!’’ Ilia exclaimed, interrupted as the Beringel finally got a grasp on Lightning Lash, being quick to fling Her right at Blake.

Recovering, Blake came face to face with a very fast-approaching Ilia. Raising Her arms in an attempt to block, one crashed into the other, both flying back.

It made to move after them, only to be stopped by a glyph. Turning, it faced Weiss, Myrtenaster held at the ready.

Before it had a chance to move, Weiss sprung into action. A line of glyphs covered the ground, running at, and past, it, Weiss gliding across them at considerable speed. Closing the distance, She slashed downwards, the action blocked.

Using that, She pushed Herself up and over the Beringel, quickly delivering a series of stabs to its back, landing with a flourish of Her rapier. It roared in pain, trying to smack Her away as it turned around. Weiss was faster, parrying the attack and following up with a slash at its armpit, targeting its unarmored joints.

She cycled Her weapons chamber, switching to lightning dust. Jabbing upwards, She jammed Myrtenaster into its unprotected back, electricity surging through the grimm, paralyzing it.

Once more cycling, this time to fire, She aimed a precise strike to its left arm, the one with a still attached hand. It rang true, hitting the joint connecting arm to shoulder, cleaving it off smoothly.

Continuing as it remained unable to move, Weiss circled back ahead of the grimm. She struck into its chest wound, beginning to burn it from the inside.

The effect of the lightning dust wore off now, the Beringel capable of moving again. It immediately acted, fists aimed at Her. A glyph promptly shot that down. It tried moving away. Another glyph. It then, completely recklessly and unexpectedly, moved towards Her, Myrtenaster stabbing further up, going out of the back of its neck.

Unable to react, Weiss had Her weapon wrenched out of Her hand, the grimm pulling it out of its chest and tossing the rapier away.

She moved backwards as its hands came careening down, dust and dirt flying outwards. Forced to block a chunk of earth with Her semblance, She couldn’t do anything against the pair of fists slamming against it, shattering through.

Eyes widening, Weiss scrambled together multiple glyphs, though fainter colored. A few in front of Her managed to absorb most of the damage, so when it did connect, it was considerably weaker; even though it still sent Her a few meters back.

The Beringel kept up the onslaught, not giving any ground for Her to work with, the glyphs Her semblance created the only thing keeping Her in the fight.

She deflected a strike, directing its right fists into the ground. It threw up some dirt that loosened from that, blocking off a good part of Weiss’ vision. It followed up the motion, a kick being delivered to Her side.

Tumbling over the ground, rolling to a stop, Weiss was unable to do anything. That last attack made it hard to breathe, to focus on anything. Trying to get up, She was denied such, a fist hammering into the back of Her head, driving it into the ground and taking Her consciousness from Her.

Lying on Her side, Ruby watched in horror as, one by one, the Beringel defeated Blake, Ilia, and Weiss.

Straining Herself, She turned onto Her stomach, the wound on Her side screaming in burning pain at Her to stop. Ignoring it, She struggled, pointing Her arm at the grimm.

A shot impacted its head - bouncing uselessly off of its head -, stopping it in the middle of its stride towards the downed form of Blake. It turned to Her, both confusion and annoyance seemingly apparent in its eyes.

Slowly, exhaustion and pain trying to keep Her down, Ruby managed to sluggishly pull Herself to Her feet, almost going back down to the ground when a new burst of pain radiated from Her side. Gritting Her teeth, She kept Herself upright, swaying side to side a little, tail wrapped around Her waist.

The Beringel just stood there, watching Her in assumed sadistic satisfaction. It was seeing just how much damage it could deal. Even if it was a bit peeved at its prey being stubborn and refusing to stay down, it was still mostly satisfied.

‘I… I’m sorry, guys. It was my respawnsibility to deal with the Beringel. I should have kept a better eye on it. Because I didn’t do what I was suppawsed to, I let it get the jump on us. It’s my fault.’ Ruby thought, expression pained, yet also apologetic.

She advanced towards the grimm, more stumbling Her way there than anything. It just stared at Her, almost dumbfounded.

She tried to attack, arm fumbling past it as the Beringel simply twisted its body to the side, sending Her right back to the ground. Her wound lit up in pain once more, Ruby biting back a scream.

Slowly getting up, She tried attacking again. And again. And again. Time after time, She sent Herself flying past the grimm. It didn’t even bother, just watching the girl as She continued to throw Herself at it, the girl painfully forcing Her body to get up every time.

The Beringel, perhaps feeling something akin to pity at the sight of Ruby feebly attempting to keep fighting, finally did something.

As She launched Herself at it again, it struck Her on the way past its body, fist embedding in Her gut. She got flung back a bit, just barely keeping Herself on Her feet, coughing up a small amount of blood.

‘’I… I-I can’t… let nyou… get past Me. They’re relying… on Me to… take care of this. So… bring it!-’’ She straightened up as best She could, staring into its eyes. ‘’-Throw whatever nyou want at Me! I don’t care, I’ll take it on! I’ll keep fighting, even if my body tries to say nyo! Becawse lives are on the line, and I would nyever be able to live with myself if I just gave up!’’ She exclaimed, breathing heavily.

She yelled, charging right at it, fist rearing back! The Beringel simply awaited Her. Once She got within range, it threw out a punch, aimed at Her head. It actually landed…

But Ruby took it! Reinforcing Her face with as much Aura as She could afford, She stood Her ground, pushing through the pain and retaliating with a strike of Her own.

Punching it in the face, the Beringel found itself caught off guard as one of Ruby’s high-caliber rounds impacted against its face. The follow-up uppercut into the hole in its chest managed to knock it off of its feet.

With a small burst of Her semblance, She positioned Herself over the Grimm. As they descended, their eyes met. Her fist flew out, slamming into its head - another bullet accompanying it -, further accelerating its descent.

The Beringel’s head solidly cratered into the ground. Dazed, it was left defenseless as Ruby pinned it to the ground and began laying into its face with a ferocity similar to that of a wild, cornered animal, foregoing finesse for pure, unadulterated strength.

Slowly, but surely, She chipped away at the bone plates covering its face. There was what appeared to be actual, real fear in the Grimm’s eyes as it got pushed further and further into the ground.

It got an opening when Ruby faltered due to the sheer exhaustion and pain She was in, stopping short, grabbing at Her side. The Beringel quickly pushed up - as best as it could with its arms pinned down -, sending Her off of it.

Managing to stand up, it made to grab Her. Ruby rolled away, transitioning into standing. She was forced to block a punch sent out by the grimm, pushing Her back a bit. It advanced, this time striking with its handless left arm.

It continued laying on the pressure, keeping Her on the defensive. Ruby tried to get an opening, but She was simply unable to get the breathing room to do so, continuously forced to dodge, deflect, or block attacks.

One eventually managed to slip its way past Her defense, hitting her in the gut and throwing Her backwards, right into a tree.

She could do nothing as Her body hit it, consciousness flickering. The Beringel didn’t stop, pounding away at Her.

Only when the tree started to creak, and a sizable dent had been made, did it let up, stepping and turning away to finish up what it had started.

Slowly, Ruby’s body, having been thoroughly embedded in the tree, peeled off, slumping forward as Her mind went dark.

Before She could truly fall over, Her feet moved, as if of a mind of their own, keeping Her standing.

With lidded, unfocused eyes, She stared at the Beringel, a distinct, yet dim glow present. She swayed from side to side. Her consciousness was gone, yet Her body persisted, moving entirely off of instinct, a deeply ingrained, primal necessity to survive.

In the blink of an eye, Ruby blitzed ahead, moving so fast She didn’t even appear to change into that ball of wispy petals that made up Her semblance, only the trail of petals evidence. Her left hand shot out to the side, alight with fire dust, deftly smacking into the back of the Grimm’s head as She passed.

Skidding to a stop, She immediately continued, elbow flying back - momentum assisted by a gunshot - and impacting into its face with a solid ‘Crunch!’ of its bone plating.

Once more zipping past with Her semblance, She delivered a right hook to the back of Her opponent's skull - once more accompanied by a gunshot -, sending it forward, staggering. Bursting ahead, She threw a devastating uppercut into the thing’s chin, a round from Claw sending it into the air.

She launched above it, striking it downward. Then, circling back down to the ground, She readied Her fist, a blade of burning rock forming.

Once the Beringel got low enough, Ruby flung it upward, fist landing against its neck, the stone instantly shattering, but managing to crack the plates there. Once more going above it, She formed a club made of earth dust, battering it into the Grimm’s face.

Giving it no reprieve, She descended with it, fire-laden punch after fire-laden punch landing against its face. Even with the fire sputtering out, Ruby kept on laying into it, uncaring of how much Aura She was using up to reinforce Her hands, nor Her surroundings.

She ended things off with a gravity dust-fueled, double-fisted down-slam into its head, cratering the ground around Her and caving in the thing's skull. This time, it was truly dead.

Getting up, still swaying side from side, Her head lolled around, twisting to and fro with nothing keeping it upright. Her eyes landed on Pyrrha, and they locked onto Her.

The thing standing there was no more Ruby Belladonna, now something rather akin to a wild, unmitigated force. A beast of reckless abandon, aimed at the strongest, fangs bared to the most powerful opponent Her instincts deemed so.

Without warning, Ruby’s body burst forward, twisting into a high kick aimed at Pyrrha’s head. It connected, sending Pyrrha tumbling to the side. It was on Her in a second, next attack primed.

It slammed against Pyrrha’s shield, Akoúo̱, driving it into Pyrrha. Bouncing away, It was going to launch ahead to attack, when something hit against Its legs, head being pulled back at the same time.

Yang was holding on with all the strength She could muster. ‘’Whoa-kay there, let’s just calm down, huh? Dunno why you went to attack Pyr’, but there’s gotta be a good reason for it.’’

She got no response, Ruby’s body simply moving Its arms up to grab at the offending appendage holding It back, ice quickly seeping across.

With a yelp of pain, Yang let go, allowing Ruby’s body to move. Zipping behind Pyrrha, it swept out Her legs, fist rocketing out right after. Driving Her into the ground, It was forced to jump away from the Bo staff that went for It. Turning to Sun, It hooked onto Him, sending the boy forward, right into Its awaiting knee.

A blast of buckshot impacted the ground ahead of It, drawing ‘the thing that was Ruby’s attention back to Yang.

Rushing forward, It was met by Her. They quickly got to trading blows. Its right hook got blocked, a retaliatory gut punch coming in, which was swiftly side stepped. Striking down on the appendage, It threw out Its right arm, backhanding Yang. Following that up, It sent out Its left, aimed at Her chin.

Yang took an involuntary step back, left open to attacks. Ruby’s body went in, a flurry of attacks flying out. Yang took all of them head-on, blocking as many as She could.

Eventually, Yang found an opening, managing to avoid a left hook, sending It past Her. She grabbed onto Its arm, moving behind It and wrenching Its arm along. It struggled, writhing in an attempt to free Itself.

‘’Come on, Ruby, snap outta this would ya?’’ She grunted, genuinely having difficulty keeping this thing of a person down. It, completely unexpectedly, wrenched Its body in such a way that It broke Its arm.

Horrified, Yang let go, receiving a hook to the face in return. Ruby’s body simply stood there, panting as it scanned for who to go after. Seems It wouldn’t have to wait long.

A few bursts of electricity impacted against Its left side, bursts of pain - going wholly ignored - lancing through It.

Turning to face Neptune, It didn’t notice the figure coming up behind It. Before It could react, the handle of Pyrrha’s javelin, Miló, smacked against the back of Its head, knocking Ruby out

The four looked at each other, concern present in each.

‘’What… was that? That couldn’t have been Ruby, could it? I mean, the way She just… threw Herself at us. I don’t wanna sound racist, but it reminded me of a wild animal. There wasn’t any technique, She just fought whoever was in Her sight.’’ Yang said.

‘’And did you all see Her eyes? I’ve fought a lot of opponents, but not one of Them had the… bloodlust that She had in them. I… don’t think She was holding back, at all.’’ Pyrrha commented. ‘’Oh, and is Her arm alright? What She did at the end there looked rather painful.’’

Sun crouched next to Her, poking at Ruby’s left arm. ‘’Nope, it’s broken.’’

Yang shivered, still feeling disgusted at being partially responsible. ‘’I… why would She… no sane person would do that! Who just yanks their arm like that to get free?!’’ She exclaimed.

‘’Well, I have encountered some people during my time in the tournaments who would do some… rather dangerous maneuvers. One person dislocated their arm to get free, and even won against their opponent, but nothing close to this.’’

With a sigh, Sun stood up. ‘’Welp, not like We’ll get any questions out of…-’’ He looked at the other three who were with Ruby, all equally not in the world of the living right now ‘’-Them. So, how’s about we get moving? These guys gotta get medical attention, and waiting around ain’t gonna help ‘em.’’ He suggested.

With that, they each picked up one person, careful of Ruby’s broken arm, and trudged to the location their relics told them to go.

Slowly coming to, Ruby took a while to get a grasp of Her surroundings. There was a dull, pulsating throbbing in Her left arm, unpleasant yet not too much so.

‘’Wh- huh…? Wh-Where am I- gah…!’’ She sluggishly looked around, mumbled question cut short as a spike of pain radiated from both Her arm and head. She made to move the arm in question. Bad idea.

With a louder, actual scream, Ruby quickly stopped what She was doing, looking down at Her concerningly unresponsive and limp arm. ‘’Wha-’’

The person carrying Her - something She only now took notice of - perked up at the sudden noise. ‘’Wha- Who- Oh! Ruby, you’re awake!’’ Sun exclaimed. ‘’Hey guys, She’s up!’’

‘’Sun? What’s going on? Where are We? And, uh… why’s my arm nyot moving?’’ Ruby asked, reasonably concerned.

‘’Well, don’t got the entire story, but ya did just start attacking Us outta nowhere. No idea why, as for the arm…-’’ He sucked in a breath ‘’- yeah you kinda just broke it when Yang had you pinned.’’ He explained.

‘’I did what?! Oh my gosh, Yang, I’m so sorry!’’ She quickly apologized.

Yang waved it away. ‘’Hey, it’s alright. Freaked the hell out of Me when you did it, but it’s just a broken bone. Thing’ll heal soon enough. And now I really want to fight you, too. Those were some good moves back there.’’

‘’Really? Nyou think I’m that good?’’ Ruby asked, confused yet happy at the compliment.

‘’Yup, wasn’t half bad. Who taught ya? Would love to meet ‘em.’’ Yang asked.

‘’Oh, well that’d be my Uncle. He nyused to fight, like, a while ago, and when I asked Him, He said that it wouldn’t hurt to knyow how to defend myself. My gawntlets actually belonged to Him, just modified them a bit.’’ She explained. ‘’Also, really, where are we? And where are the others?’’

‘’Well, We should be at the place We’re ‘sposed to go to. And Nep and Pyrrha-’’ He hiked a thumb over to the left, where the two were checking over Blake, Ilia, and Weiss’’- are taking care of them.’’

That brought some relief. ‘’So… We just wait?’’ Ruby asked.

‘’Yup.’’ He responded.

‘’Cool.’’

So, they did just that, making some small talk all the while. It took a few minutes until the airship arrived. Inside was the Miss Goodwitch.

‘’Ah, students, it is good to see each- goodness! Miss Belladonna, what happened?’’ She asked.

‘’Well, it’s kinda someowthing. Long story short, there was this Beringel that was really weird. We fought it, and then… huh. I don’t remeowmber. The last thing that comes to mind is Me getting absolutely pummeowled by that Beringel, which ouch by the way. And then I woke up here, with a broken arm.’’ Ruby explained.

‘’I suppose that explains why you are in such a state. Still, I insist that, as soon as We arrive on campus, you take yourself to the infirmary. An injury such as that must be tended to as early as is possible.’’ Goodwitch said.

Carefully, She helped them load the unconscious students on, careful of any injuries.

The Team Naming Ceremony was there and gone quicker than Blake felt it was. It wasn’t much, 4 people called up, given their team’s name and leader, and on it went to the next. She would have paid more attention to the teams, but Her mind was occupied with other things.

Her sister had… Blake could hardly grasp what Sun - the now-leader of Team Sunny, SNNY - was telling Her. Ruby, mindlessly and bloodthirstily attacking people? It made no sense, wouldn’t fit with anything.

On top of that, said sister had been named the leader of their team, Raspberry, RASB. So, yeah, Blake was kind of in Her own head right now.

She numbly followed Ilia and Weiss, the latter seemingly also taking quite a lot of time processing things.

‘’-ake…? Blake? Blake?’’

‘’Huh?’’ She blinked, snapping out of whatever that was.

‘’You doing good? You looked like you were spacing out.’’ Ilia asked.

Shaking Her head to clear it, She addressed Ilia. ‘’Y-Yeah, I’m… it’s… okay I don’t know what I feel about this.’’

Ilia hummed questioningly, prompting Her to continue. ‘’It’s just, I don’t know. One the one hand, I guess it’s nice to be on a team with my sister, but on the other…’’ She trailed off.

‘’Scared to face the consequences?’’ Ilia guessed.

‘’Yes, that. I… what if… They hate Me? Don’t want Me back?’’ Blake asked.

‘’Hey! No, none of that. What did I tell you? None of that self doubt. Really, are you trying to tell me that Ruby, sweet little Ruby Belladonna, could bring Herself to hate you?’’ She asked.

‘’Well, no, but-’’ Blake tried.

‘’And would your parents really reject you? Blake, you were barely 8! You were a kid who saw their dad step away from the good fight, and did what you thought was right! They couldn’t possibly hold that against you.’’ Ilia stopped walking, Blake following suit.

‘’But-’’ She attempted.

‘’No but’s! Beside’s, what can you do now? You’re here, your sister’s here. What better chance than this?’’ She retorted.

Blake sighed. ‘’I guess, but I guess I’m worried about Ruby not being ready for this…’’

‘’Why? She seems capable to Me.’’ Ilia asked, confused. Ruby handled Herself pretty well usually, so what was the fuss?

‘’Mostly, yeah. It’s… when We were young, like I was 6 or 7, I don’t quite remember, I… had some arguments with Dad, about Him stepping down. I kept insisting every time that He get back to it, pick up the fight again. And every time He refused, saying He was busy enough as Chieftain, and taking care of Mom and Ruby.

‘’And in one of those, I… almost yelled, at the top of my lungs. About… ‘Why do they matter?’, that ‘Our people out there need us more’ and that ‘Mom and Ruby don’t need you that much’. I didn’t, but it was probably the reason why I did do so later on.

I.. fuck… how do I forgive myself for that, Ilia? I said something I shouldn’t ever have!’’ Blake exclaimed, breathing heavily.

‘’Well, I can’t say anything for you, but I’d say maybe try to make up for it? Repent? What was it you said anyway? It can’t have been that bad, right?’’ Ilia asked.

‘’I-It is, Ilia. I… screamed at Dad, asking Him why He let ‘that Woman’ into our lives. How, maybe if He had rejected Her, then everything would have been good! That maybe Ruby shouldn’t-... shouldn’t have been born… I… how, Ilia? How could I say something like that? I’m… I’m a horrible sister…’’ Blake explained, tears stinging Her eyes.

Ilia, hesitantly, put a hand on Blake’s shoulder. ‘’I don’t think you’re... that bad. Yeah, you fucked up with that, but again, you were a kid, and it’s clear you regret it. You messed up, you realize that, and you want to work towards fixing that mess. Seems like something a good person would do.’’ She gave Her a small smile.

‘’...Really…? You think I can… make up for it?’’ Blake asked, unsure.

‘’Yeah. Now, come on, We’ve got a dorm to decorate.’’ Ilia reassured, taking Blake’s hand and dragging Her forward.

Surprised, Blake stumbled after with a yelp.

‘’Finally! Where were you two? I’ve been waiting here for minutes now! Seriously, did you get lost on the way or something?’’ Asked Weiss, impatiently tapping Her foot.

‘’Sorry, sorry, We had to… take care of something real quick. Not gonna happen again.’’ Ilia quickly apologized, putting the scroll that would technically belong to Ruby against the door. Not like the girl could make use of it, so they handed it to them.

the door opened, revealing… a space that was most certainly not big enough for 4 people.

‘’Whu-?’’ Came the rather eloquent reply from Weiss.

‘’What, never had to bunk with others before? Come on, this is luxury. Oh wait, right, you wouldn’t know what having to share with others would be like. Or being poor for that matter.’’ Ilia asked, taunting at the end as She walked inside.

Sputtering, Weiss tried to retort, following after now, Blake going in last and closing the door. ‘’Wha- I will have you know that I am not as spoiled as you may think. I have faced my own share of hardships thank you very much.’’ She huffed, turning up Her nose at the other two occupants.

‘’Pfft, right, as if. Let Me guess… daddy buy something and it wasn’t what you wanted? Oh boo hoo, cry Me a river.’’ Ilia turned around, continuing to aggravate.

Weiss seemed to bristle at that, visibly getting angry. ‘’Why you-!-’’ She turned away, calming Herself with deep breaths. ‘’- It is not worth the trouble, Weiss, just ignore Them. They don’t… They don’t know what happened.’’ She muttered to Herself.

‘’You may get your humor from these little jokes of yours, but know that I will not let them affect Me from here on out.’’ She promised.

Ilia took it as a challenge, leaning forward to be face to face with Weiss. ‘’Oh, We’ll see about that. I’ll get you to react, Snow Princess.’’

‘’Oh plea- ‘Snow Princess’...? What?’’ Weiss asked, befuddled.

‘’Snow Princess, ‘cause you’re a cold person, and a princess. Fitting.’’ Ilia explained.

‘’Could you stop acting as though I am royalty? I did not have everything I ever wanted.’’ She demanded.

Ilia didn’t believe it, even going so far as to snort at the answer. ‘’’Not a Princess’?-’’ She made air quotes with Her fingers ‘’- Right, of course. Says the person lugging around two dozen suitcases of Dust. Like that isn’t expensive. And the way you act. It’s like everyone is beneath you. Oh, am I required to refer to you by ‘Your Highness’?’’

‘’What is your problem with Me? Whatever could I have done to you?’’ Weiss asked, wishing something made sense.

Ilia quieted at that. ‘’More than you could know. Tell Me, does ‘Schnee Dust Company: Mining Settlement Aethos’ ring any bells? Because it sure does for Me.’’ She asked.

Weiss’ eyes widened, taking an involuntary step back. ‘’What…? No, you… couldn’t be… that…?’’ She asked, horrified.

Ilia took one forward, jabbing a finger into Weiss’ chest. ‘’Yeah, yeah it is! You know exactly what I’m talking about! Don’t try to deny it!’’ She confirmed angrily.

She was going to continue laying verbally into the girl in front of Her, when She felt a pressure on Her shoulder. Turning to its source with a glare, She found Blake, having placed a hand on Her shoulder.

‘’What?’’ She snarled.

‘’Ilia, stop. You know it isn’t worth it. We both have our… issues with Her, but She’s still our teammate. Causing problems won’t help anyone.’’ Blake reprimanded.

Ilia shrugged it off Her shoulder, huffing. ‘’It’d most definitely make Me feel better. That’d be something. But, fine, I won’t.’’ She breathed in, calming. She only now noticed the slight tinge of red Her skin had taken on.

‘’Look, how about We unpack? It’d help to get our minds off of stuff, and We wouldn’t have to deal with it after classes tomorrow.’’ She offered.

‘’...Fine. But only because You asked.’’ Accepting the offer, they each went to their, admittedly small, luggage. It was over faster than they thought, seeing as they packed only the necessary stuff. Well Sun didn’t, but it was Sun, so that was expected.

Sitting down, now calmed, Ilia wondered what they should do, asking Blake.

‘’Well, either go to bed, or wait for Ruby. Actually, wait a minute-’’ She moved towards the aforementioned person’s luggage, a dark red suitcase with various cat themed stickers adorning it. ‘’-, knew I forgot something.’’

‘’Are you sure you should be rooting through Your sister’s stuff like that.’’ Ilia asked, brow raised.

‘’Well, I am Her older sister, She hasn’t unpacked yet, and it’s not like anything She owns could surprise Me.’’ Blake retorted, opening it and beginning to empty its contents, sorting the items within into individual piles.

She got about halfway through before stopping at the thing held in Her hand.

‘’Blake? Uh, what’s going on?’’ Ilia asked, not seeing due to Blake facing away from Her. ‘’Alright, you’re starting to creep Me out. I’m-’’ She got up, walking over ‘’- checking out what’s got you quiet.’’

She halted next to Blake, looking down at the object. She quickly turned away, hand clamping down over Her mouth to muffle the laughter that was breaking through.

Blake was holding a copy of Ninja’s of Love. Specifically, Her copy of NoL. It had all the marks, the scratch on the corner of the cover, the dog ear She left on page 97 - yes, blasphemous, She knew -, the tears on a few pages. It was unmistakable.

She, slowly, stood up, doing everything in Her power not to crush the book in Her hands. Ilia crumbling to the floor and hammering a hand down on it while laughing Her very soul off was certainly not helping.

‘’Ilia, I swear to whatever may be able to listen out there, that if You so much as hint towards anyone about this, that I will personally make Your life hell.’’ Blake ground out.

‘’Y-Yeah, I-I-I’ll keep that in- in mind! Pfft-’’ She tried to promise, failing miserably.

‘’Amitola, I mean it. Do not make Me pull out the ‘Fly Window incident’.’’ Blake threatened.

Ilia immediately shut up. ‘’You wouldn’t!’’

‘’I would.’’ Came the response.

Getting up, Ilia turned to Blake. ‘’Alright, alright, yeesh, talk about extreme. I hereby solemnly swear not to tell anyone.’’

‘’And you mean it?’’ Blake questioned.

‘’Mhm. Won’t even tell Your sister.’’ She assured.

‘’Good.’’ Blake sighed in relief, going back to sorting through Her sister’s belongings. Once everything had been sorted and put away, She let Herself drop onto Her own bed.

‘’So, now what do We do?’’ Ilia asked.

‘’I don’t know about You, but I will be going to sleep. It’s late enough and I do not have the mental willpower to handle anything more.’’ Blake answered.

Anything more just so happened to be Ruby, slamming the previously closed door open.

‘’Guess who’s back!’’ She happily exclaimed. As expected, a cast was on Her left arm, support by a sling as well.

The action startled everyone, Weiss - who had situated Herself under a particularly big, fluffy looking blanket - almost falling out of Her bed.

‘’Ah… oops…?’’ She asked, blushing slighty as Weiss grumbled, throwing a glare Her way before settling back under the blanket with a content sigh.

‘’Hey Ruby.’’ Ilia greeted.

‘’Hey Ilia. Uh… is someowthing wrong with Blake?’’ Ruby asked. Blake was, conspicuously, looking anywhere but at Her, blushing heavily.

‘’Oh, no, She’s doing fine. Just remembered something embarrassing’s all.’’ Ilia lied.

Ruby nodded, understanding. ‘’Ah, okay!-’’ She yawned, moving to the only available bed ‘’-Well, I’m gonnya head to bed, I’m tired. Nyight Ilia, Blake, Weiss.’’ With that, She laid down in it, snuggling Herself into the covers. Sighing in contentment at finally being able to rest, Ruby readjusted Her position until She was really comfy, beginning to purr.

Ilia bid Her goodnight, then went to bed Herself. Tomorrow was gonna be something, She was sure of it.

Chapter Text

‘’Well, seeing as we’re done here, how abou- huh…?’’ Blake began, stopping Herself mid-sentence. She looked around, feeling an odd sense of something.

‘’Blake?’’ Ruby asked, looking at Her.

Blake’s eyes narrowed, brow creasing as She mulled it over. Taking a look around, She couldn’t identify what it was. Yet, She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

Shaking Her head, Blake decided that it probably didn’t matter that much. ‘’It’s nothing, just a weird feeling, but it’s gone now.’’ She said, shelving the whole thing for now.

‘’Oh, nyokay, if nyou say so!’’ Ruby responded. ‘’Nyow, what was it nyou wanted to-’’ She continued, or would have…

Were it not for the sharpened piece of earth suddenly embedded well into Her chest. ‘’What…?’’ She asked, eyes wide and slowly moving down, as if not quite comprehending what was now lodged inside of Her.

She coughed, a bit of blood flying out with it. A shaky hand grabbed at it, feebly attempting to pull the offending object out. She swayed slightly, vision blurring. Her legs, too weak to hold Her up anymore, buckled, and Ruby quickly met the ground, blood slowly beginning to pool around Her.

‘’Ruby…?’’ Blake, voice weak and broken, asked. She staggered forward, mind numb and not comprehending the sight in front of Her. She dropped to Her knees next to Her sister, just staring as more and more red fluid left Her sister’s body.

She was panicking, breath quickly going out of control. No, not now, not when She just got Ruby back.

‘’Ruby, come on, You can do this. Please, come on. I… I-I can’t lose You. I just got You back, so please, please don’t- don’t die!’’ She begged, unable to figure out what to do.

She could only watch in horror as the life slowly left Her sister’s eyes, clouded over shock forever painted onto Her face.

‘’...No. N-No, please, please no.’’ Blake begged once more. ‘’Ruby…’’

‘’RU-!’’

‘’-BY!’’ Blake screamed, eyes shooting open. Gasping, She sat up, eyes darting around. ‘’...Ruby…?’’ She asked. ‘’Huh… I- What?’’

Suddenly, something wrapped around Her midsection, another yell almost ripping out of Her. Looking down, She saw the alive and very much not-impaled form of Her sister, clinging onto Her desperately.

‘’Ruby? Y-You’re okay? But- how? I-I saw You…’’ Blake wondered.
‘’Blake, it’s nyokay, I’m here. Nyou were having a Nyightmare.’’ Ruby answered, and only now did Blake notice how much Her sister was shaking.

Slowly, still not quite fully recovered, She wrapped an arm around Ruby’s back, the other coming to rest on the back of Her head. Hugging Her sister back, She was quick to reassure Her, ‘’I-I’m fine now… mostly. Just a little shaken up from… whatever that was.’’

‘’Do Nyou mean it? It looked pretty bad, and believe Me, I’d knyow. So just please be honest with Me.’’ She asked.

‘’I-’’ She was about to answer that She was, in fact, fine, but stopped Herself. Because She wasn’t. Truthfully, She was anything but fine right now. ‘’Okay, I’m… not. I- I almost- You-’’ She tried, the words not coming out.

‘’Me? Did it have to do with Me? Was it… really bad?’’ Ruby questioned.

‘’I-It was. I-I didn’t push You a-away in time, so…’’ Blake trailed off.

‘’Oh…’’ Ruby seemed to follow what Blake was referring to.

‘’I-I felt so helpless, just staring as You… di-died.’’ Blake continued, whispering the last part.

Ruby just hugged Blake tighter, if that was somehow possible. It didn’t do much to help Blake, but then again She was missing out on almost a whole decade of Her sister, and it warmed Her heart that Ruby still cared for Her this much, even after… everything.

Eventually, however, Blake broke the hug, gently pushing Ruby away, until They could look each other in the eyes. ‘’I… I’m sorry, Ruby.’’

Confused, Ruby tilted Her head slightly, ‘’For what?’’ She asked.

‘’For… everything. For running away, for having those arguments with Dad, for… not being able to protect You. For not being there for You all these years. For hurting You and Mom and Dad and… Everyone.’’ Blake explained.

‘’Wha- Nyo, Blake! Nyou don’t have to apawlogize for any of that!’’ She whisper-shouted, mindful of the other two people in the room, who thankfully didn’t seem to react to the outburst.

‘’But I do! I’m Your older sister, so it’s My responsibility to look out for You. But I haven’t, not in a long while. I was barely there to look after You, when… Aunt Summer disappeared. I just left that to Dad, even though He already had enough on His hands.

‘’And then I said all those horrible things, and ran, all because I couldn’t accept what was in front of Me. I didn’t see that all of You were hurting too, just that Dad chose to focus on You and Mom over people I didn’t know, but thought needed it more. I chose strangers over My family. I hurt all of You again and again, and thought I was right at that.

‘’I even almost got My friends hurt because of My delusions of justice, of righteousness. I let someone I thought I could trust manipulate Me, and They almost managed to turn Me against Them. If They hadn’t been too forward, and Sun hadn’t been there, then I don’t know what might have happened.

‘’And now, after all this time, all this fighting, I can’t even do something as simple as be there for You. I let You get hurt, again. So, I’m sorry. Sorry for being this… childish, self-righteous idiot who can’t do anything but hurt the people around Her, all because She thought She was right.’’ Blake spiraled, squeezing Her eyes shut, tears welling up. She couldn’t bear to see the look of disgust and contempt that was surely on Her sister’s face.

They shot open in surprise when Ruby wrapped Her tail around Her, hugging Blake tightly again. ‘’Nyou’re wrong, Blake. Nyeah, Nyou were a bit… distant, after My Mom disappeared, but Nyou were there for Us! …Nyot a lot, but still, some is better than nyone. And, nyeah, Nyou did argue with Uncle Ghira, but Nyou meant well! And of course Nyou wouldn’t see Us hurting! Nyou had to deal with Nyour own grief!

‘’And it did kinda hurt when Nyou ran away, true. But, again, Nyou did it because Nyou wanted to help, to do what’s right! Nyou didn’t want to hurt Us. It just… happened. I can’t say anything about Sun or Ilia, but I doubt Nyou’d intentionally do anything to hurt Them. If anything, it was whoever tried to pit Nyou against Them that’s respawnsible, nyokay? Nyot Nyou.

‘’And think about it. If Nyou didn’t push Me out of the way, then what happened in Nyour Nyightmare would’ve actually happened! So, Nyou did protect Me! See, Nyou’re nyot an idiot, and even if Nyou think that Nyou didn’t help anyone, Nyou probably did! I… dunnyo where Nyou went, but I believe that wherever Nyou were, Nyou helped people, even if Nyou don’t think so.

‘’So, please, don’t think Nyou nyeed to apawlogize for anything. Because nyobody can blame Nyou for anything that happened, especially nyot Me, or Mom or Uncle Ghira, after… what happened with My Mom and all that.’’ Ruby explained, holding back tears of Her own.

Sighing, Blake conceded. Not because She felt Ruby was right, but simply because of how tired She was right now. All of this had been draining. ‘’Okay, I won’t apologize. Won’t stop Me from feeling bad about everything though. But I am exhausted.’’ She said, finishing it off with a yawn - fitting, given They were both on a bed right now.

Yawning, Ruby agreed, ‘’Nyeah, I’m tired. Nyou mind if I sleep with Nyou, like We nyused too?’’ She asked, a hopeful sparkle in Her eyes as She looked at Blake.

‘’No, no I don’t. In fact, I’d love to, Ruby. It’s been too long since We got to do this.’’ Blake said, laying down on Her side and shifting Ruby with Her.

With a content sigh, Ruby snuggled into Blake, ‘’Nyight Blake.’’

‘’Goodnight, Ruby.’’ Blake responded. ‘This is… nice. Not that I deserve this, but maybe, just maybe, I can make an exception just this once.’ She thought.

Blake let Her eyes fall closed, sleep overtaking soon enough and lulling Her into a nice, deep sleep.

Weiss was currently slumbering peacefully, snuggled into Her self-heating blanket.

‘’Blake, I swear to whatever will listen, if You don’t get into that damn shower, I will drown Your entire book collection!’’ Came a muffled voice.

‘’Do what You want, Ilia, I will not have You dunk Me into that hellish liquid! You can rip My comfortable dryness from My cold, dead hands before You can get Me anywhere near it!’’ Came another voice, equally muffled.

‘’Blake, come on, just get in there! Nyou gotta take a shower!-’’ Was the response from another voice, also muffled. There was a short pause, followed by what sounded like retching. ‘’- eugh- Blake, when was the last time Nyou took one?! Nyou reek!’’

Weiss stirred slightly, shifting around a little.

‘’I refuse! Refuse I say!’’ It was slightly louder now.

‘’Damn it all, Blake! What is it with You and water?!’’ And louder.

‘’Stop! No, no no no! Ah! Nooooooo-!’’ And louder.

‘’Hah! Alright, Blake, nyow Nyou just stay in there and clean Nyourse- Ack- Blake- Stop struggling- Whoa-!’’ And loud- Alright, that was it.

Grumbling, Weiss opened Her eyes, getting up. She shivered at the cold air assaulting Her, and oh how She wished She could simply jump back under the covers of Her nice, warm blanket. But alas, She was clearly not getting a wink more rest due to whatever those three were doing in there.

Banging on the door of the bathroom with all the fury of a woman scorned, She demanded to know what was going, ‘’Could You three keep it down in there? I can scarcely get any rest with how loud You three are being! Seriously, how difficult is it to take a shower?!’’ She practically hissed at the door.

There was a short moment of quiet, before someone spoke up, ‘’Sorry!’’

Well, She supposed that would be enough for now, ‘’Alright, but please keep it quiet from now on. And I expect an explanation as to what You all could possibly be doing this early in the morning-’’ She took a quick glance at the clock above the door, reading the time as 6:30 AM. Oh, not as early as She thought. ‘’- as to cause this much of a ruckus!’’ She finished angrily.

Weiss stepped away from the door, staring expectantly at it. After a short while of nothing happening, She decided to focus on something else that was actually productive. Like Her bed, which She quickly made.

As She got back up from Her hunched position, She stretched. Weiss stopped in the middle of the action, a realization slamming into Her. ‘Oh no…’ Was it that time again? Surely, 2 months couldn’t have passed already, right? Pulling out Her scroll, She saw the date, realizing that, yes, that much time had in fact passed.

She let out a quiet groan. This could not have been happening at a worse time. ‘’Of all the times…’’ She muttered, pulling the front of Her nightgown forward to look inside. Sure enough, She saw the scales covering Her entire chest and part of Her neck, the pristine white coloration They should have been, looking slightly dulled.

She got snapped out of Her lamenting over the fact that She was molting when the door to the bathroom opened. Weiss wasn’t quite sure how to feel about what She saw. On the one hand, She wanted to cackle at the sight of an absolutely sopping wet Ruby and Ilia, but She did also felt a little bad. Only a little, seeing as Ilia was rather rude, and Ruby disturbed Her sleep, if only slightly. What? She could be petty.

‘’So, would You mind explaining what exactly could have occurred in there so as to leave You two like this?’’ She asked, watching as Blake walked out looking perfectly fine.

Wringing out a considerable amount of water from Her ponytail, Ilia was the first to respond, ‘’Blake has… always been kinda not really all that good with water.’’

Ruby followed it up with, ‘’Nyeah. Nyou wouldn’t believe just how much My Uncle struggled with Her when We were younger. Though, our Mom never had any prawblems. Dunnyo why.’’

Blake looked at Her. ‘’You remember that?’’ She asked.

‘’Nyup. Barely, but I think Nyou actually almost pulled Uncle Ghira into the bathtub once! Heh, good times. Our Mom nyever struggled though.’’ She answered.

‘’Yeah, that She did. I still wonder how She managed to keep Me calm.’’ Blake said.

Weiss moved into the bathroom, ignoring the two as They reminisced on childhood memories. Closing the door, She went to the mirror. Well, there was no denying it now, considering how Her eyes appeared slightly clouded over.

Seeing as She didn’t have much to do about it but bemoan the absolutely horrid timing, Weiss went and got Herself ready for the day, especially careful with Her scales, paying extra attention there.

Weiss changed into the school uniform, making sure that it had a long enough collar to hide the scales running up Her neck. They thankfully stopped about halfway, making Them relatively easy to hide, but She was still cautious. There had been one too many close calls back in Atlas when She was younger.

Stepping outside, once more giving a quick check of the uniform as She did so, Weiss saw the others also in a reasonably presentable state, though She did wonder about one thing.

‘’Ruby, are You sure that Your cloak is allowed to be added to the uniform?’’ She asked.

‘’Hm? Oh, Nyeah… probably.’’ Ruby answered.

‘’Probably?’’ Weiss asked, confused. Did Ruby not make sure that the cloak was okay to be put on?

‘’Well, um, I didn’t actually check if it’s nyokay… but I have a feeling it is! So, uh, that’s someowthing?’’ She said nervously.

‘’Ruby, You can’t just assume something like that. For all You know, You could very well be violating Beacon’s dress code.’’ Weiss said.

‘’Oh… really? I didn’t think of that…’’ Ruby said.

She was about to give a perhaps somewhat very angry response, but caught Herself. She needed to stay calm. She always got like this when molting. More irrational, easier to annoy or aggravate.

‘’Look, just make sure that You keep Yourself up to date with the school’s rules, alright? I would rather You do not get Us in trouble due to a lack of knowledge on Your part.’’ She explained, some annoyance leaking through.

‘’Nyokay! Nyow, with that out of the way… what are We gonnya do about the space?’’ She asked, gesturing around Herself. It wasn’t the most cramped per se, but it was clear that the room was not built with 4 people in mind.

‘’Hmm… We could throw some stuff out?’’ Ilia suggested.

‘’I don’t think any of Us would be willing to do that.’’ Blake countered.

‘’True. Then what? Short of somehow adding to the room, there’s not much We can do.’’ She asked.

Ruby put a hand to Her chin, deep in thought. Shortly after, She perked up, ‘’Bunk beds!’’

Weiss turned to Her, confused. ‘’Bunk beds?’’

‘’Mhm! Think about it! If We stack the beds, then We’ll get way meowre space!’’ She confirmed.

‘’Honestly, sounds fun. I’m in.’’ Ilia said.

‘’But how? It’s not like these were made to be put on top of each other.’’ Blake asked.

‘’Hmm, what do We have on hand? I’m sure We could scramble something together.’’ Ilia suggested.

Ruby seemed to agree with the notion, ‘’Nyeah, Ilia gets it! Nyow, I think I have some spare cable We can nyuse, so that should cover one of Them. Anyone got anything else?’’

‘’I do have some leftover cloth from Gambol Shroud, but I don’t think that would do much. It’s durable, but probably not that durable.’’ Blake said. She turned to Ilia. ‘’Do You have anything to use or…?’’

‘’Mmm… no, don’t think anything I’ve got could be helpful.’’ Ilia said after a short bit of thinking.

Weiss, growing progressively more irritated, butted in, ‘’Or, how about We don’t? I’d rather not have a bed fall on top of Me in the middle of the night, thank You very much.’’

Ruby gave Weiss the best kitty cat eyes She could, even putting Her hands in front of Her like a cat would it’s paws, ‘’Come on, Weiss, please~?’’

She tried not to, seriously She did, but eventually Weiss caved, if only partially, ‘’Alright, fine. I can agree that bunk beds would be useful when it comes to extra space. However, I refuse to let You three cobble together these make-shift death traps. If You want these, then We will go to Miss Goodwitch and let Her handle this, understood?’’

‘’Huh, a Schnee, agreeing with a faunus? Color Me surprised. Must have taken some real effort to stoop this low so that You could actually grace Us peasants with Your presence.’’ Ilia said, actually a little surprised, though She would be damned if She let it show.

Irritation changing into anger, Weiss addressed Ilia, ‘’Listen, I know that what the SDC has done to U- to Faunus is unforgivable, and I truly am sorry for what You must have gone through, but could You please not pin the blame on Me? Just because I am associated by name does not mean that I, in any way, endorse what the company has done in the past.’’

Ilia put a hand on Her chin, thinking things through for a grand total of no seconds, ‘’Hmm, let Me think… how about no? Your sister may have done a whole bunch of good for the faunus, but You are not Her. So until You can prove to Me that You mean it when You say You care, I’m gonna keep doing what I am right now.’’

Weiss went to respond, but Ruby intervened, not wanting another argument like the one yesterday to break out, ‘’Nyokay! How about We just… calm down? Weiss, I knyow that Ilia is being… a little mean, but give Her a chance, nyokay? And Ilia, could Nyou please be a bit nyicer with Weiss? Nyeah, I knyow Nyou don’t like the SDC and all that, but Weiss hasn’t done meownything nyet, so that has to mean someowthing, right?’’

Both just stared at each other, trying to get the other to back down and give in. Eventually, Weiss reluctantly started, sighing, ‘’Alright, fine. I can understand where She is coming from, and I have not given Her much reason to believe Me. However, I would like for Her to stop blaming Me for things that are far out of My control. Or, at least, tone it down.’’

‘’Ruby, You can’t be serious. You think I’m just gonna apologize to a Schnee, like that?’’ Ilia asked.

‘’Ilia, please. Weiss already agreed to try, so it can’t be that hard, can it?’’ Ruby begged.

Ilia, very reluctantly, gave in, ‘’Fine, fine. Okay, yeah, I guess I have been a bit… harsher than I should’ve been, and You haven’t really done anything bad yet. But, I’m not just letting You off the hook like that, got it? Just because Your sister’s running the SDC now doesn’t mean I’m giving You the same kindness, until You’ve earned it at least.’’

‘’Thank Nyou. Nyow, with all of that taken care of, the next thing We have to get to is~... classes…’’ Ruby said, groaning. She sat down on Blake’s bed - it was the one nearest, and it wasn’t like Her sister objected or anything -, pulling out Her scroll to look at what classes They would have.

‘’Nyokay, so according to this, the first two classes are with Professor Port on Grimm studies and tactics, then two with Professor Oobleck on History, one with Professor Calavera, doesn’t say what though, then lunch and finish it up with three with Professor Goodwitch on Combat.’’ She listed, somewhat confused as to why the one class with Professor Calavera simply read as ‘Undecided’.

She checked the time, it was 7:30 AM right now, and the first class started at 8:00 AM. ‘’Hmm, We have half an hour until We nyeed to be at Professor Port’s. That should be enough to get some food into Us.’’

Ruby stood up. ‘’So, let’s go!’’ She opened the door and walked out, heading left.

Weiss pinched the bridge of Her nose, then yelled after Her, ‘’You dolt, the cafeteria is to the east of the dorms!’’ She rushed after the girl, Blake and Ilia following behind at a more calm pace.

They, thankfully, arrived a few minutes before class started, having gotten a quick bite to eat - due in part to Them perhaps getting a bit lost. Sitting down in one of the front rows, They waited for the teacher to arrive.

About a minute before the bell chimed 8 AM, the doors burst open, a particularly frazzled Team SNNY tumbling through in a hurry.

Every student in the room fell silent. Sun, untangling Himself, shot a look at the clock, triumphantly raising His arms as He saw the time and whooping in success. ‘’Yeah! Guys, We made it!’’

He walked down to the only seats left open - those being directly behind Team RASB -, sitting down. He did not seem to notice, or perhaps care about, the state of His clothing, seeing as His Uniform’s shirt was left completely open.

The rest of His team followed after Him, also in various states of disarray. Yang was fussing over Her hair, as it had gotten somewhat tangled.

As They also sat down, Blake asked, ‘’So, what exactly happened?’’

‘’We, uh, may have gotten a bi~t distracted.’’ Sun answered.

‘’Sun overslept.’’ Yang threw out.

He sighed, ‘’Yeah…’’

‘’But honestly, We all kinda screwed up at least a bit. I may have taken longer than I needed with My hair, Water Boy over here took like 5 minutes just to get Himself ready to take a shower, and Pyr… huh, She didn’t actually do anything.’’ Yang continued.

Pyrrha blushed, ‘’Well, I’d say Me not doing anything would count. I should have woken Sun up, or maybe urged Yang to get done with showering faster.’’ She argued.

‘’So, seems You had Your fair share of monkeying around.’’ Ilia joked.

Team SNNY and Weiss, except for Sun, all stared at Her, ‘’What? I’m a Faunus, I can make jokes like that. And Sun doesn’t mind.’’ She said.

Sun shrugged, ‘’Eh, honestly, I really don’t see what’s wrong with a friend making a joke like that. Like, yeah, if some dude on the street says something like that about Me, I might get offended, but even then, not all that much? I mean, go off, but it’s not like I’m gonna care. Now if They said something about one of My friends, then We’d have issues.’’

Before any of Them could continue, the doors at the opposite side of where the students sat opened. In walked a rather short and portly man, the most notable thing being the thick beard and mustache covering the lower half of His face.

He walked to the desk facing the students, introducing Himself, ‘’Good day to all of You. I am Peter Port, Your teacher for any and all things concerning the Grimm. I do apologize for My tardiness, as I had misplaced My materials for today and thus had to spend quite some time finding Them.

‘’Now, before I get drawn away, let Us begin! The Grimm, most curious if I do say. Around since We can tell, a continuous and persistent threat of Humanity, They are a true mystery. For Millennia, people have tried to understand Them. Where They come from, how They work, why it is They hunt Us relentlessly. All of this, and more, shall be covered throughout Your years at this academy.

‘’However, the philosophical will be left for later, today We will simply go about introductions, seeing as it is the first day. After that, We will have a look at a Beowolf, and all of its unique intricacies. So, would someone like to volunteer?’’ He explained, gesturing in grand strides, pointing here and there in a theatrical display.

Yang raised Her hand. ‘’Ah, thank You! Now, please, stand up, give Your name, a reason as to why You wish to be a huntress and why You chose Beacon academy. That would be all.’’ He said.

‘’Yo! Name’s Yang, Yang Xiao-Long. Why do I wanna be a huntress? Honestly, I just want to go explore, and thought, ‘Hey, if I’m gonna be going all around Remnant, why not make sure to get some action while I’m at it?’. So, yeah, I’m here so I can learn how to really kick Grimm ass. And I chose Beacon because it’s where My old Man and Uncle went, plus it was the closest.’’ Yang said.

He considered what She said for a few moments, then said, ‘’Hmm, a free spirit with a yearning for adventure and action! While simple, one cannot deny one’s own curiosity for the unexplored. I do hope You potentially find something more than simple adventuring, but that can happen as You learn. Now, the next person?’’

On and on everyone went, reason after reason given. From Yang and Sun having more simple reasons such as a thrill for combat or exploration, to more complicated ones, like Blake wishing to fight against or outright end Faunus discrimination, which did get Her a weird look from Weiss.

Eventually, it was Ruby’s turn. Standing up, She addressed professor Port, ‘’Um, Hi, I- uh, My nyame is Ruby Belladonnya. I want to be a huntress because, well, My Mom was one. I don’t knyow a lot about Her, but what I do knyow is that She always made sure to give people a smile, even when things were bad, or while fighting Grimm or bad guys.

‘’She is what I’d say a Hero is. Someowne who tries to do whatever They can to help nyo meowtter what, and smiles all the while. That’s why I want to be a Huntress. To give people some kind of hope. To be like My Mom. As for why I went to Beacon, it’s the same as with Yang. My Mom went here, so why nyot?’’ Ruby answered.

Port stopped, then clapped, speaking, ‘’Marvelous, Miss Ruby! Truly, an honorable reason. To wish to follow in the footsteps of Your parents is quite admirable, and to show positivity is exactly what a Hunter should do even in a seemingly unwinnable situation. Be it to raise the spirits of Your comrades or to keep people from panicking, a Hunter must always keep calm, and ensure a clear head, free of negativity. It could end fatally otherwise.’’

‘’Now, with all of You having introduced Yourself, I believe that We should get to the actual topic of the lesson. The Beowolf, one of the more common types of Grimm that You all will encounter. However, just because They may be often found when on a mission does not mean They are inherently easy to fight.
‘’You see, Beowolves have a kind of hierarchical system, based on strength. Whoever among Them is the strongest is the leader. They move together, hunt together, pretty much do everything together. Therefore, if one were to run into a Beowolf, more are sure to be in the vicinity…’’ He explained, continuing into the specifics of how a Beowolf pack operated.

He went from topic to topic, going over specific and unique facts about Beowolves. Weiss was dutifully writing down the information, making sure not to miss a detail. As She flipped Her paper over, something in the corner of Her eye caught Her attention.

She saw Blake and Ruby, using a textbook to hide another book inside, reading that instead of paying attention to the lesson in front of Them.

‘’Would You two care to pay attention?! In case it slipped both of Your minds, We are in the middle of class right now!’’ She hissed quietly.

They looked at Her, each other, then back to Her, and decided to ignore Her, going back to their book.

Weiss moved, grabbing the book, ‘’I do not know what it is You two were thinking, but I will not tolerate You two to so blatantly disrespect our teacher like that!-’’ She almost slammed the book on the desk, barely restraining Herself. ‘’-Now if You both would please take the care to actually pay attention?’’ She asked.

‘’Come on, Weiss, is it really that bad if We spend our time reading? I mean, this is stuff We already knyow, so wouldn’t it make sense for Us to nyuse it for someowthing else?’’ Ruby asked.

‘’Whether You know does not matter! It is the principle of giving Your teacher the respect They deserve by paying attention in class! If something as simple as that is too difficult, then maybe something else would be a better choi-!'' She berated, getting cut off mid-rant.

‘’Ahem. Miss Schnee, if You would be so kind as to not distract Your teammates from My lesson?’’ Port asked.

Weiss flustered, trying to defend Herself, ‘’I- They- It wasn’t Me, professor! You must believe Me! They were the ones who were being distracting! Sir, They were reading in the middle of Your lecture!’’ She pleaded.

He looked over to Blake and Ruby, then down to Her, still holding the book, ‘’Hmm, then, pray tell, why is it that You are holding a book, yet accuse Them? And I spotted You talking to Your teammates, so it would mean that You distracted Them, wouldn’t it Miss Schnee?’’ He reprimanded.

Weiss tried to come up with an excuse, mouth moving without a sound, yet She couldn’t, ‘’I-... I apologize for distracting My teammates, Sir. I will refrain from disrupting any further.’’ She said.

That seemed to be good enough, ‘’Good! Now, where was I? Ah, yes, the unique tale where a good friend of mine managed to play fetch with a Beowolf! Truly, ‘tis a story to behold!...’’ He continued on.

Fuming, Weiss turned to the perpetrators responsible for getting Her in trouble. They were, interestingly, looking anywhere but at Her, suddenly finding the lesson very interesting. And Ilia was holding Her laughter back, how kind of Her.

She spent the rest of the class decidedly ignoring Her team, especially the chameleon Faunus desperately trying not to fall over in laughter.

‘’Good day, students! Now, unlike Peter, I will not bother with something like introductions, We have far too little time for such eccentricities! All You will need to know is that I am Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, and that I am here to teach You all about the vast history of this world!’’ Came the, rather high pace introduction from their next teacher. It hadn’t even been a minute after the lesson began.

Like He had said, He got right into it, starting on a more simple topic. It was pretty difficult to follow the man, given the speed at which He was talking. Even Weiss, studious as She was, had given up about halfway through with taking notes on Her first paper, unable to write down much of anything.

‘’Wow, and I thought I could ramble on. How meowch coffee has He had?’’ Ruby asked, surprised.

‘’Mmm, I wanna say like a few pots. He’s going… about 2 and a half, maybe 3, times as fast as I’ve seen You go, I’d say.’’ Answered Ilia.

Ruby let out a quiet whistle at that. ‘’Well, guess that explains the thermos. But, like, that can’t be healthy, right? And- wait, Nyou knyow how fast I ramble?’’

Ilia nodded, ‘’Yup. I mean, with how much You’ve talked about weapons when We hung out, it kinda just became something I could guess.’’

Ruby blushed, ‘’I-It wasn’t that meowch!-’’ She got a raised eyebrow from Ilia ‘’-Nyokay meowby it was…’’

Nearing the end of the lesson, Oobleck suddenly, and rather loudly, slapped a ruler against the chalkboard, ‘’So! Could someone here give Me an answer on when it was that the very first recorded altercations between Humans and Faunus occurred?’’

Weiss raised Her hand, Ruby only a few seconds behind. Oobleck pointed to the first. Standing, She answered, ‘’Sir, I believe it was roughly 150 years ago. If My memory serves correctly, there had been a meeting between both sides, where it had been reported that just as it was about to end peacefully, one of the Faunus present had attacked. Outraged, the Humans struck back, and things escalated from there.’’

He put a hand to His chin, ‘’Hmm, interesting. Indeed, that is the version many believe to be true.’’ He said.

That confused Weiss, ‘’What do You mean, Sir?’’ She asked.

‘’Well, it is simply as I said. What You have just told is the commonly believed misconception of how the events went down. I do not fault You for making such a mistake, seeing as the records of how it truly happened are mostly lost to time, only a select few remaining. Though as it stands, They are kept within primarily Faunus communities, as most had been destroyed by Humans.’’ He answered.

He turned to Ruby, ‘’Now, Miss Ruby, do You happen to know the answer to My question?’’ He asked.

‘’Nyup! Or, well, I think so. A friend of My Uncle actually has one of the only records left. Though, it’s been a few nyears since I looked at it, so I might nyot remeowmber meowverything.

‘’So, it’s actually nyot all that well knyown when exactly it started, but the best guess people have is about 300 to 400 nyears ago. A small group of Humans visited a Faunus settlement. Meowverything went pretty good, until I think one of the Humans spread some kind of a rumeowr or someowthing. I think it was about Faunus being meowre likely to get sick.

‘’Anyway, eventually, one of the Faunus heard about that, and of course got angry. Things got pretty bad between both sides and They ended up fighting over it. It’s still nyot knyown how meowny made it out of that, but it’s guessed that someowne from the Humans had to, who went on to talk about how dangerous We are, or someowthing.’’ Ruby explained.

‘’Though You have missed a few of the smaller details, You are mostly correct. Given, this is only what was recorded, it is quite unknown just how far these things went. Now, onto the next topic!...’’ Oobleck said.

Both sat back down, Weiss sulking. She was trying, it’s just that Atlas wasn’t exactly the best place to get any information regarding anything about Faunus.

Ruby cast a concerned glance to Weiss, before focusing back on the lesson. She could only hope things wouldn’t get worse.

They got to their next class, which was situated in one of Beacon’s combat arenas.

Standing in said arena was Professor Calavera, who turned out to be that old lady that Ruby and Sun had run into when They got off the bullhead. Suffice to say, confused yet amused looks were had.

‘’Yes, yes, I know. I don’t exactly look like I should be teaching, or doing much of anything.-’’ She said, having noticed the looks She was getting. ‘’- But I can assure You all that I am more than capable of wrangling some rowdy children.’’

Nobody seemed all that convinced.

‘’Hmm, well, seems My sense of humor may have rusted a bit. Anyway, I’m sure You all are curious as to what this class is about. Simply put, I am here to do whatever it takes to get into Your thick skulls that You are not invincible.’’ She explained.

Now that got their attention. ‘’Um, teach, not to be rude, but honestly You don’t exactly look like You’re gonna be doing that.’’ Yang said.

Maria grinned, looking at Yang, ‘’Oh, Miss Xiao-Long, I can say with confidence that I can and will do that. Actually, how about You come on down here. I do need an example after all.’’

Shrugging, Yang complied, ‘’All right, if You say so.’’

She quickly got Her weapons, stretching a little. Getting into Her stance, She looked on in confusion as Maria simply stood there. Interestingly, She had two canes with Her.

‘’Um, so, what now? You gonna do anything or…’’ She asked, lowering Her stance.

That was a mistake. Before She knew it, Maria was on Her, a blade jutting out of the side of Her cane, now resembling a kama.

Caught off guard, Yang scrambled to dodge, just barely doing so as the weapons blade whizzed past Her. ‘’Whoa! Give a lady a warning next time, would ya?’’ She asked, chuckling a bit as She weaved.

‘’Hmm. Well, You have some good reaction speed. Now, what if I were to-’’ Maria said. ‘’- Do this!’’ Yang’s eyes widened as the cane got thrown at Her, managing to side step the thing.

Once again confused, She didn’t notice the purplish glow coming from it, the same occurring on Maria’s other cane. ‘’Okay, I guess that’s a move. Kinda missing a weapon though.’’ She said.

Maria smirked, ‘’Oh, I wouldn’t be so quick to think that. After all, if I threw My weapon, there’d have to be a reason for it, be it a plan or desperation.’’

‘’And that plan would be- agh!’’ Yang started, getting cut off by the thrown cane wholly smacking into the back of Her head with a good amount of force. Her balance thrown off, She stumbled forward.

Before She could recover, Maria hooked one of Her canes around Yang’s legs, pulling Them out from under Her. With a yelp, Yang’s back met the ground, a blade against Her throat stopping any attempts at getting up.

Slowly raising Her hands, Yang surrendered, ‘’Okay, okay, You got Me!’’ The blade was removed, allowing Yang to get back up and dust Herself off.

Maria tapped Her right cane on the ground once, ‘’And with that, You’ve proven My point. You not only let Your guard down because You thought I wasn’t going to do anything, but also didn’t account for the possibility that My weapon could be recalled in some way.’’

Yang sighed, ‘’Man, this is embarrassing. Well, at least dad isn’t gonna hear about this.’’

Maria chuckled, ‘’Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Word does travel surprisingly quickly, and I’m sure Taiyang would love to have more to tease His daughter with.’’

‘’Ah dammit.’’ Yang said, already knowing She was not getting out of this.

‘’Well, I’ve tormented You enough. So, does anybody else think I’m not capable?’’ Maria asked.

Everybody now seemed very convinced.

And so it went, most of the student body - with Pyrrha and Ruby being the exceptions, the former still having a good bit of a struggle, and the latter being obvious as to why She didn’t participate - getting their behinds handed to Them by Maria in quick succession.

‘’Well, I think this does it for today. Now, hurry along, You all have lunch to get to.’’ She said, waving Them all goodbye.

As Ruby made to leave, Maria intercepted Her.

‘’Miss Ruby, Before You leave, I would like to discuss something. It’s about initiation.’’ She said.

Ruby looked to Her team, who noticed the hold up and looked back at Her, then back to Maria. ‘’Nyokay…? Um, guys, Nyou can go ahead, I’ll catch up when I’m done here!’’ She called out to Them.

They did so, leaving just the two in the classroom. ‘’So… what did Nyou want to talk about?-’’ She gasped ‘’- I’m nyot in trouble, am I?’’ She asked.

Maria waved away that concern, ‘’Oh, nothing like that! No, it’s about what happened when You fought that Beringel. Say, do You remember what You did?’’

‘’Um, nyo, should I? Honestly, I don’t remeowmber meowch after getting this.-’’ She pulled up Her shirt somewhat - a rather difficult task considering that She had to pull the left side with Her right hand -, showing the wound. It wasn’t really hurting anymore, but it did still act up slightly if She stretched too much. ‘’- It was all kinda really blurry. I think I got smacked into a tree at one point, but after that it’s all just blank, until I woke up being carried by Sun.’’

‘’Hmm, so You don’t know about Them.’’ Maria remarked.

‘’About what?’’ Ruby asked.

‘’Tell Me, has anyone ever said anything about Your eye color?’’ She asked.

‘’Uh, well, I knyow that silver eyes are pretty rare, but that’s about it. There’s theories and stuff, but nyobody really knyows meowch about Them. But what does My eye color have to do with meownything?’’ Ruby said.

Maria tapped Her goggles with one of Her canes, ‘’Well, it just so happens that I had silver eyes as well. And before You ask, it’s quite a story, one We don’t have time for right now. Maybe some other time.

‘’Now, these might just seem like a somewhat rare coloration, but They are far more than that. Did You know that every person who has had silver eyes has been remarked as being quite the force to be reckoned with? Tales have been told of a single person being capable of decimating hordes of Grimm with not even a sweat broken. They were like warriors, You could say.

‘’However, that would only be one aspect. Not only are They a terror to the Grimm… but to people as well, should the situation get dire enough. That is the exact thing that happened to You, Ruby.’’ Maria explained.

‘’To Me?’’ She asked, tilting Her head as She racked Her brain ‘’Wait, nyeah, nyow that I think about it, Sun and Yang mentioned someowthing about Me attacking Them.’’ Ruby said.

‘’And that is what I mean. Yes, They are very helpful if, or when, You find Yourself pushed into a corner, but They can quickly become just as much of a threat to the people around You, not just the Grimm. So, what I want to say is that You should be careful. If ever You find Yourself in a very bad situation, then it would be best to get away and call backup.’’ Maria said.

‘’But couldn’t I-!’’ Ruby tried to protest.

She bonked Ruby on the nose, cutting Her off, ‘’No, none of that! That is exactly the kind of mindset that will get either You or someone else hurt. Yes, these are an incredible power, but You need to be responsible with it. Thinking that You need to help every person You can, or are invincible is exactly how You will get Yourself killed. I’ve witnessed enough people die because They think They can’t be beat, or have some kind of moral obligation to help everyone. I mean, I thought I was invincible, and yet here I am, missing my eyes!

‘’So just remember that with the amount of power You have, comes a great deal of responsibility. Don’t be overconfident, alright? You are too young to throw Your life away in some attempt to be a hero, and I’d hate to see someone so ambitious die so early. Just… think about how You plan to go about things, that’s all I’m asking.’’ Maria said, walking away.

Ruby was quiet by the end of the talk, thinking about what She’d been told. Slowly, She made Her way to the cafeteria, mind running fast as She processed all of the new information.

Ruby didn’t really pay much attention to Her surroundings as She got lunch. She sat down, barely registering the pieces of meat and fruit that She ate. Her tail was mirroring Her mood, this time however wrapping around Her leg, spiralling downward.

‘’... And then I jumped in and slammed that thing on the head! And after that, Yang over here came in and completely decked it! Lemme tell ya, it did not know what was coming for it.’’ Sun enthusiastically exclaimed, gesturing in a lively manner. Ruby would have found it amusing, but She was too preoccupied with what Miss Calavera told Her.

Neptune butted in, correcting Sun, ‘’Yeah so everything He said? Disregard it. Not saying We got trashed or anything, but He’s definitely overselling Us.’’

‘’Come on, man, You don’t gotta do a guy like that. Can’t I make it at least a bit entertaining?’’ He asked.

‘’Entertaining isn’t not telling about how You got tossed into that tree and almost took Me down with You, or Yang got a face full of snake. That would be lying.’’ Neptune retorted.

The two started squabbling over what counted as being entertaining or not, the rest of the group tuning it out.

‘’So, ignoring those two, how’d it actually go down?’’ Ilia asked, stabbing a piece of watermelon and promptly chomping down on it.

‘’Well, it’s honestly kinda hard to explain. I mean, that had to be the weirdest Grimm ever. It didn’t have fur, but some kind of… goop or something, so anytime We hit it, some of that would fly off. Doesn’t sound that bad at first, but then it’s suddenly got a bunch of arms and mini-Grimm to throw at Us! And They were slimy too, eugh.’’ Yang said, shivering slightly as She remembered one of the things grabbing ahold of Her at one point.

‘’And don’t get Me started on the armor on that thing! One second You think You’re gonna hit it, and then the next there’s a piece of bone in Your way! We had to resort to prying the damn things off by having Pyrrha or Neptune under ‘em and then pry ‘em off one by one. And that was not easy when there was also Grimm goop trying to yank You into the ground every time We took a piece off, or a giant snake tried to eat You up.’’ She continued.

‘’Seems like You had just as much trouble as We did.’’ Blake commented.

Yang chuckled, ‘’Yeah, I’d say so. Though I think You guys had it rougher than Us. Actually, speaking of that, Ruby-’’ She turned to the girl, who was still not paying attention ‘’, You, uh, doing okay? I mean, You were pretty messed up when We were done.’’

That seemed to finally snap Ruby out of Her mind, attention turning to the others at the table, ‘’Huh- oh, uh, nyeah, I’m meowstly nyokay. Have to be a bit careful with stretching because of, well-’’ She pulled up Her shirt somewhat as best as She could with the arm opposite Her injured side ‘’- this, and My arm’s gonnya take like a week to heal, but other than that, nyeah.’’

Not one person seemed convinced.

‘’Mhm, and You totally weren’t spacing out there.’’ Ilia pointed out.

Ruby sighed, seeing that She was not going to get out of this, ‘’Well, it’s just, when Miss Calavera talked to Me, She told Me stuff about, um, My eyes, as weird as that sounds.’’

‘’Your eyes? What could They have to do with anything?’’ Yang asked.

‘’That’s the thing. Appawrently, They’re like, really impawtant or someowthing? It was all kinda a lot to take in. Long story short, people with My eye color are these really strong fighters or someowthing. But also that I nyeed to be really careful, because it can become dangerous to people as well.’’ She explained.

They stared at Her, specifically Her eyes. ‘’That is… certainly a lot. It would fit with what happened during initiation though, I suppose.’’ Pyrrha said.

Yang nodded, ‘’Yeah, there was that weird glow, now that I think about it.’’

‘’Glow? Wait, could Nyou explain what happened? I don’t think any of Us actually knyow what went down.’’ Ruby said.

Explain They did, describing how Ruby had suddenly just started attacking Them, how She seemingly had no restraints.

Once They were done, Ruby looked down at Her hands, ‘’I… what do I do nyow?’’ She asked.

‘’What do You mean, Ruby?’’ Blake asked, reasonably concerned.

She closed and opened Them, ‘’Well, it’s just, what if I can’t control this? What if-’’ She started.

Yang cut Her off, ‘’Nope, nuh uh, not gonna let You continue with that.’’

‘’Huh?’’ came the so eloquent question.

‘’Think about it, Ruby. You didn’t even know about this until yesterday. Also, You’d have to be in a pretty bad state to even have that happen. And can You even do much about it right now?’’ She continued.

‘’I- Well, I… guess nyot. But I still feel like I should do someowthing about this.’’ Ruby said.

‘’And You will, just not right now. You can worry about weird eye power-y stuff later, especially since there isn’t much to do or worry about right now anyway. Yeah, on a mission maybe it’d be something to be careful with, but I doubt it’s gonna trigger in the middle of Vale or whatever. So until You get that under control, just be careful I guess. Being reckless is more My thing anyway.’’ Yang said.

Ruby looked back down at Her hands again, taking Yang’s words into consideration. Yes, She couldn’t reign… whatever happened to Her in when it did, but She had to be beaten into unconsciousness for it to even happen. And as long as others were around who could handle Her, then there would hopefully not be too much danger for anyone.

She looked up at Yang, ‘’I… thanks. I think I nyeeded that.’’

‘’Hey, it’s not a problem. Take it from someone who’s thought like that before, and still does somewhat, it’s not Your problem, or responsibility, or anything like that. It’s not Your fault You’re like that.’’ Yang said.

‘’Now, moving on, I wanna ask something. How do You two feel about puns including animal stuff?’’ She continued, pointing at Ilia and Ruby.

Ilia pondered that for a little bit, ‘’Mmm, I guess I don’t have any problems with You doing Them. Just not too many, alright?’’

‘’I’m nyokay with Them.’’ Ruby said.

‘’Sweet, been looking for some new stuff in My re-pun-toir! You two are not gonna regret this.’’ Yang said.

They continued on like that, talking about this or that until lunch was over, hurrying along to the last class of the day.

Miss Goodwitch’s class went by with not much to remark. Granted, it was the first day and They had to go over rules and all that, but it did make things kind of boring.

That wasn’t important anymore though. Now, They had no more school stuff to worry about anymore for the day, and Ruby already had an idea as to what She would be spending Her free time on!

She turned to Her sister, ‘’Blake!-’’ said sister looked Her way ‘’- How about We head to the library?’’

‘’The library? Why go there?’’ Blake asked.

‘’Because We haven’t read together in forever, that’s why! Come on, it’ll be like when We were kids! Just Us two, sitting down for hours and reading away.’’ She answered.

‘’Ah, I’d… actually forgotten We used to do that. But, yeah, I’d like to. It has been far too long.’’ Blake said.

Ruby grinned brightly, grabbing Blake by the hand, ‘’Then let’s go! Books, here We come!’’ She exclaimed, rushing out of the door.

Blake stumbled forward, being quick to follow Ruby. That left Ilia and Weiss, the latter putting all of Her focus into one of the various textbooks She had on the table as soon as Blake and Ruby left.

‘’So, mind telling Me what exactly has You so… annoyed? I don’t want to say You're angry, but You most definitely seem like something’s bugging You.’’ Ilia asked, sitting down on Her bed - the bunk beds would take a few days, so They were currently still stuck with the single ones.

Weiss stopped what She was doing, looking over Her shoulder at Ilia, ‘’What do You mean?’’

‘’Well, it just looked like You didn’t exactly take it too well when You got in trouble, or got something wrong. Just asking, since Ruby wants Us to try and get along.’’ She explained.

Weiss huffed, ‘’That is none of Your concern, thank You very much.’’

Ilia shrugged, ‘’It actually is, but if You insist, I’ll leave You be.’’

With that, Weiss turned back to the books on the table.

This was nice, Ruby decided. Just sitting down in a cozy little corner of the library with a good book, simply reading for hours. She didn’t quite remember the last time She had the freedom to do this.

It wasn’t because of a lack of interest or anything. But being the niece - officially daughter, since that made things easier when it came to all that complicated public and social stuff - of the Chieftain of a Pseudo-Kingdom - and also the previous leader of a group dedicated to fighting for equality - meant She was dragged to a lot of stuff She really did not want to, or needed to in Her opinion, go to.

Seriously, She did not need to know half of the stuff She did, and that was something Ruby was certain of. How would something like the stock market help Her fight Grimm, huh? Well, She was going to make up for all of that sweet, sweet lost reading time right here and now!

‘’-uby. Ruby?’’ Blake asked.

Ruby snapped out of Her lamenting of robbed free time at that - and man, She was doing that a lot more recently, wasn’t She? -, ‘’Nyeah?’’ She asked, blinking down at the book the two of Them were reading.

‘’You haven’t been reading along have You?’’ Blake asked.

‘’Uh, w-well, I, um…’’ Her eyes ran across the page, trying to skim just enough that She could defend Herself.

Blake put a hand on the book, pushing it away, ‘’Ruby, calm down, talk to Me. What’s on Your mind?’’

She sighed, ‘’It’s honestly… a lot. I don’t really knyow where to even start.’’

‘’Start with what was on Your mind a minute ago, and We’ll go from there, okay?’’ Blake offered.

‘’Nyokay.-’’ Ruby agreed ‘’-So, I was just thinking… this is nyice. Just Us two, sitting down with a book and nyot having to worry about anything. Nyo pawlitics, or complicated equality stuff or whatever, just Us, right here, right nyow, nyot having to worry about anything else.’’

Blake chuckled lightly, ‘’Heh, yeah, wholeheartedly agree with that. I don’t even know the last time I could just relax with how much I’ve had to do over the years.’’

Ruby turned to Her, ‘’Huh, nyou knyow, nyow that I think about it, what have nyou been doing all these nyears?’’

Blake rubbed the back of Her neck, looking away and mumbling something Ruby couldn’t quite make out.

‘’What was that?’’ Ruby asked, leaning a bit closer.

‘’I’m with… the White Fang…’’ Blake said, just a little louder.

‘’Oh, nyokay. Nyeah, that-’’ She started, stopping short when She actually processed what was said. ‘’- wait what?!’’ She exclaimed.

‘’Ruby!’’ She whisper-shouted, quickly slapping a hand over Ruby’s mouth.

Ruby, noticing the curious glances They were getting from some of the other people in the library, quieted down, ‘’Right, sorry, but still… The White Fang.’’

‘’Mhm. It’s where I went, after I ran away. I didn’t know where else to go, and at the time it felt like the best idea.’’ Blake explained.

Ruby looked at nothing in particular, blinking a few times as She took in what She was told, ‘’That… makes so much sense, actually. But why were We nyever told? Sure, Uncle Ghira wasn’t the leader anymeowre, but wouldn’t He be informed about someowthing like that?’’

Blake fidgeted with Her hands, wringing Them, ‘’Well, I asked Miss Khan to not tell anyone. I just… I didn’t know what to do. I just ran from My family after I said all of that. I guess I was… scared. Scared about what You would all think of Me, about if I really did the right thing. So I asked Her to make sure no one knew where I was.’’

‘’Blake, what did I tell Nyou? Nyone of Us would think badly of Nyou! Nyot Me, or Mom or Uncle Ghira! Nyou did what Nyou thought was right, and I’m sure nyobody would blame Nyou for what Nyou did!’’ She said, lightly glaring up at Her sister, though there wasn’t any actual anger behind it. Ruby’s tail was thrashing a little angrily in annoyance.

‘’I… I know. But try telling that to an 8 year old child who just really messed things up-’’ She started, getting stopped by Ruby’s tail tapping against Her forehead.

‘’Nyope.’’

"What-" She tried.

‘’Nyope.’’ Ruby cut off again.

‘’Ruby, I-’’ Blake attempted.

‘’Nyope.’’ Once more, denied.

‘’Could You please stop-’’

‘’Nyope. Nyot gonnya let Nyou talk about Nyourself like that. Nyobody blames Nyou, because Nyou were doing what Nyou thought was right. Nyow, are We gonnya continyue reading or do I nyeed to tell Nyou that Nyou didn’t mess up meowre?’’ She asked.

Blake sighed, conceding to the fact that She was most likely not winning this argument. Ruby - from what little She remembered - was always stubborn, though that was more just a Belladonna thing than anything. ‘’Alright, You win. What page were We on again?’’

Ruby, excited to get back to reading, pulled the book up, opening it on a random page, ‘’Hmm, I think We were on page 90-someowthing, but let Me see…-’’ She flipped through the pages, skimming through until She found where They stopped, ‘’- There! Page 97.’’

Sitting next to each other, They continued reading. Before They knew it, hours had passed.

After going to the cafeteria to get dinner, Blake and Ruby headed back to the dorm, chatting about the different books They’d read.

‘’I have to say, You were right, Ruby. This was nice.’’ Blake said, opening the door and walking inside.

‘’Nyeah. Plus, We got to catch up on a bunch of books! We’ve gotta do this again!’’ Ruby exclaimed, following after and closing the door.

‘’Hmm, how about We do this every now and then? When We have the time for it, maybe once every week or two? It’d be nice to just have something for Us two. Some time to sit down in a quiet corner and talk about stuff?’’ Blake asked, sitting down on Her bed.

Ruby sat down next to Her, ‘’Of course! Like I said, just Us two, a bunch of books and nyobody to bother Us!’’

Blake went to respond, when something in the corner of Her eye caught Her attention. Turning to look at it, She found Weiss, sitting at the desk by the door. ‘’Weiss?’’

Weiss looked over Her shoulder, ‘’What?’’

Ruby followed Her sister’s gaze, ‘’Um, are Nyou alright? Nyou look a bit tired.’’

Weiss scoffed, ‘’Of course I am. Now, if You two would kindly let Me return to what I was doing?’’

‘’And that would be?’’ Blake asked.

‘’Studying.’’ Weiss curtly answered, patience already beginning to run thin.

Blake and Ruby looked at each other, wondering if They should do something or not. Ilia spoke up before either of Them could, ‘’Don’t bother with Her. Already tried to figure it out Myself, and She’s very insistent on it being none of Our concern. I mean, hey, at least I don’t have to deal with Her for the time being.’’

That didn’t exactly sound like a good thing, ‘’Are Nyou sure? Also, what do Nyou mean, ‘deal with Her for the time being’?’’ Ruby asked.

‘’As sure as I am about the fact I’m a Faunus. And She’s been hunched over that desk since You two left. Combine that with Her not wanting any of Us to try and figure out whatever is going on with Her, and I have the feeling We won’t be getting much out of Her for now. So, My advice is to just leave Her be. Either She comes clean on what it is that’s got Her like this, or something will make Her.’’ Ilia explained.

Blake seemed to accept that for what it was, acknowledging that there wasn’t much They could do if Weiss didn’t want Them to do anything. Ruby however felt that there was something She should do. She just didn’t know what it was that She should - or really could - do.

Not coming to an answer, She decided that it would have to be a problem for tomorrow. It was getting pretty late, and She was tired from everything that happened today. She just hoped Weiss wouldn’t stay up too late studying. It was important, She knew that, but not if it meant not getting enough sleep, or eating or anything health related.

Yawning, She laid down in the bed She had been sitting on, mindful of Her left arm.

‘’Ruby, what are You doing?’’ Blake asked, looking down at Her.

‘’Hmm? What is it?’’ She asked, tilting Her head to look back at Blake.

Blake pointed at Her, then the bed, ‘’This is My bed, Ruby.’’

Blinking, She sat back up, realizing that She had, in fact, laid down in Blake’s bed, ‘’Oh.’’ She didn’t make a move to get up though, just sitting on the bed.

‘’Ruby, do You… want to sleep in the same bed as Me again?’’ She asked, noticing how Ruby blushed at the question.

Ruby looked away, fidgeting with the tip of Her tail, ‘’W-Well, it’s just… when Nyou let Me this morning, it felt like how Nyou nyused to let Me sleep with Nyou whenever I got scared. I guess I just really missed it.’’

‘’Of course I’d let You, Ruby. Like I said, I’d love to. Maybe not every day, but if You ever need to, don’t be scared to ask, okay?’’ Blake reassured.

Ruby brightened at that - though it was a tad subdued from Her being tired -, ‘’Nyokay! Oh, one meowre thing!-’’ She got off the bed, hurrying over to Her own to grab something, ‘’- Got it!’’ She turned around, proudly displaying the plush cat to Blake.

‘’You… kept it…?’’ She asked, staring at the item held in Her sister’s hands.

‘’Of course! Why wouldn’t I? It’s one of the only things I had to remember Nyou by, so I kept it. Like a sorta mini-Nyou.’’ Ruby said.

Blake stood, moving forward slowly, ‘’Can I… take a look at it?’’

Ruby held it out for Her to take, so She took it, holding it carefully in both hands. It looked pristine, as if it had been newly made. ‘’You’ve been taking care of it all this time? But… why?’’

‘’Blake, it’s like I said, because it’s important to Me. It’s a remeownder that, despite meowverything, Nyou do care! Why else would Nyou leave Me with someowthing like that?’’

Blake hugged it to Her chest, squeezing Her eyes shut as She felt tears build up, ‘’Th-Thank You.’’

‘’For what?’’ Ruby asked, tilting Her head.

‘’I guess… for showing Me how wrong I was. That, even after everything that happened, You do still care about Me. I just… didn’t feel like I deserved it.’’ Blake answered, opening Her eyes to look at Ruby, a grateful smile on Her face.

Ruby hugged Her, ‘’Took Nyou long enyough, heh. Nyow-’’ She yawned again, ‘’-, let’s actually go to bed. I’m tired and today was long enough as is.’’

Blake sniffled, wiping the tears away, ‘’Yeah, yeah let’s…-’’ She looked down at the plush one more time, reaffirming to Herself that Her family truly did care about Her, that They didn’t hate Her ’’- let’s do that.’’

Blake got into bed, pulling the blanket over the both of Them as Ruby - like She did this very morning - snuggled into Her, the latter’s tail wrapping around both Her and Blake.

They wished each other good night, sleep quick to pull Them away, the plush cat resting between the two.