PROLOGUE
'Arragh, that girl again,' Cinder thinks as she reflects on the events that had taken place that night. 'How does she keep showing up to interfere with our plans.'
She had kept a calm tone and casual attitude with her underlings, but if that brat had shown up any earlier, she could have ruined everything. They hadn't even considered her as a possible obstacle, that's why she hadn't told Mercury and Emerald to keep an eye on her at the dance. Her cronies were good, but they couldn't keep an eye on everyone that had attended.
'I'm going to have to keep an eye on that pest.' Cinder thinks. 'She's not a big enough player to belong on The List, and I think I'd rather keep an eye on her personally.'
With that thought in mind, Cinder decides to get up and start researching her new project. As she moves to get out of bed, the girl beside her stirs, murmurs something and opens her eye just a crack.
"Whassmatter Cin?" Emerald asks sleepily.
Sighing inwardly at the affectionate nickname, Cinder replies in a soft voice, "Nothing, you know I don't need much sleep, and I wanted to do some research on something."
"Something fun?" the girl asks, a hint of interest in her voice.
"Not sure, that's why I want to check it out. Most likely it'll turn out to be a minor annoyance that we can ignore," was Cinder's casual answer. "Now hush, and go back to sleep." She reaches over, gentling the girls hair and then lightly kisses her temple.
A slight tremor runs down the girl's body. "Ok, g'night. Wake me in the morning."
"Of course." With that Cinder gets up and goes over to her desk. Turning on the light, and angling it so it wouldn't disturb her roommates, she pulls out her scroll. With a few taps on her screen, she overrides the school's security protocols and is into the administration records.
Tonight was actually the third time she had seen the girl. The first was when she had taken pot shots at her after Cinder had battled Goodwitch to a stand-still. The second had been when the girl had literally run into Emerald in one of the dormitory hallways. It was this second encounter Cinder was bringing to mind as she closes her eyes and concentrates. There in her mind's eye the picture of the girl and the hallway materialize, and Cinder can clearly see the number on the room the girl had just run out of.
Opening her eyes, Cinder brings up the registrar information and searches for the room number, bringing up the names of students assigned to that room. Let's see, team name RWBY, team leader Ruby Rose, and there she is.
Cinder looks at that for a minute. 'So, she's a team leader, that would probably explain why she was gung-ho enough to barge in on her at the tower in a ball gown and heels, which she obviously wasn't used to.'
She brings up the team roster, and opens up Ms. Rose's folder. Her age immediately catches Cinder's attention. Only 15, when the normal age of entrance to Beacon is 17, interesting. Immediate family Father: Taiyang Xiao Long; Mother: Summer Rose(deceased); Sister: Yang Xiao Long(team affiliation RWBY). 'So, her sister is on her team.' She then spots the similarity between her sister's name and her father's. 'The father named one of his daughters after himself, how conceited can you get?'
Top of her class in Weapon's Theory and Design, near perfect marks in Practical Combat and Combat Theory, average scores in History and Grimm Studies, below average in Practical Dust Applications and Dust Theory. 'So, she's more a hands on combatant, not someone who relies on Dust,' Cinder concludes.
Weapon of choice: Crescent Rose(custom made Sniper-Scythe) designed & built by Ruby Rose. 'Interesting, it wasn't uncommon for students from combat schools to build their own weapons, but the kid actually designed the thing, giving her an intimate understanding of her own weapon.' Semblance: Speed Burst; Special commendations: See attached files. 'Special commendations? A 15 year old, first year student has special commendations?'
Cinder quickly scans the rest of Ruby's transcripts, nothing much out of the ordinary, and then brings up the commendation attachments. She sees there are a couple video files attached as well. Opening the older vid file, simply labeled Entrance, the footage starts out with a shot of a red hooded figure standing at the back of a shop looking through a magazine of some type. Cinder recognizes the video quality of a surveillance drone, someone had Ms. Rose on their radar apparently.
Suddenly, the drone darts up and spins around. Up the street come five men, four in black suits and wearing red sunglasses the fifth is wearing a white suit and a black bowler hat. 'Smile Roman, you're on candid camera,' thinks Cinder. The five men enter the shop, and the drone footage pans and tracks them. Roman exchanges some banter with the shopkeeper and then the four other men start their job of clearing out the shop of dust products. Cinder smirks to herself, 'Roman and these buffoons were so intent on robbing the shop, they never bothered to check if there was anyone else there.' Just as she's thinking this, one of the goons, who she now recognize as some of Junior Xiong's men, spots the girl, whips out a red-bladed sword and yells something at her. Surprisingly, there is no reaction from her, and the man advances on her, continuing to holler at her. Still no response from the girl, and Cinder begins to wonder what kind of game the girl is playing. By this time the mook has closed with the girl, he grabs her shoulder and spins her around. As he does this, the girl's hood falls back to reveal that she was wearing headphones. 'Ahhh,' thinks Cinder, 'no games, she just couldn't hear what was going on.' The mook points to his ears, and the girl, Ruby Rose, lowers her headphones. Cinder can't hear what Ruby and the henchman are saying, but she can read Ruby's lips. Junior's man says something, to which Ruby questions, "Are you robbing me?" The goon replies with, what is obviously, an emphatic yes and Ruby replies with either a "No" or an "Oh", but from Ruby's posture, and the look in her eyes, Cinder believes it's most likely an "Oh" filled with anticipation.
All of a sudden, there is a burst of what appear to be rose petals, and Ruby is standing with her right leg extended in front of her in a classic side kick, and the goon is flying towards the front of the shop. As the man exits the bottom of the screen, there is a slight vibration in the pane of glass, and Ruby returns to a normal standing stance. 'Interesting, she used her semblance to impart more force into her kick.' The fight that ensues is quick and one-sided, the only time Ruby goes on the defensive is when Roman fires a round from his cane at her.
Cinder stops the playback when the huntress shows up, having first-hand knowledge of what transpired next. 'How interesting, Roman. You allowed me to believe you had been chased off by the huntress, and the kid just a bystander. We are going to have a talk, you and I. I hate being lied to, and lying by omission is still lying.' Thinking back over the footage she has just seen, Cinder realizes that Ruby had never once fired her weapon AT someone while she was fighting the goons, or even Roman himself. 'It wasn't until Glynda and I exchanged volleys, revealing I could use my Aura that she shot at me.' That night, after the encounter, Cinder believed the girl was simply trying to impress the huntress, but now, in light of seeing what actually transpired on the ground, she understood that the girl had seen her as an actual challenge. One that could defend herself properly and wouldn't be instantly cut in half by her rifle rounds. 'The kid doesn't have a killer's instinct, I can exploit that if I need to.'
Cinder now brings up the other vid file, labeled Initiation. Again, she can tell this was footage captured by drones, multiple drones, in fact, as the footage was pieced together from several different vantage points. She sees eight students gather near what appeared to be some ruins, when the viewpoint changes she can see most of their faces. Of the eight, Cinder only recognizes three of them, Ruby Rose, the subject of her current investigation, Pyrrha Nikos, who had just recently been placed on The List, and a little white haired girl with a scar over her left eye, Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. Cinder pauses the playback, now that there are multiple parties involved that she doesn't recognize, she decides to put some names with the faces onscreen. She searches the school records, and soon comes up with the files of the student involved. She doesn't read the files, just checks names and faces. She wants to get a first impression of them without any distractions. In addition to Ruby, Pyrrha and Weiss the players involved are Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Juane Arc, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren.
She resumes the playback, now able to at least put names to the players. The eight students are running from something, but seek cover as a Nevermore comes into view. Suddenly a Death Stalker bursts from the trees. The kids scramble to get away and soon a pair of fights break out, but the file she's watching soon concentrates on the fight between the Nevermore, and four of the students, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. At first the Nevermore shrugs off all their attacks, but eventually, with brilliant teamwork and a crazy play that should never have worked, the Nevermore is defeated.
As the playback ends, Cinder can only lean back and think to herself, 'How could those kids have done that? This is footage from their initiation into Beacon, and they're working together as if they'd been doing it for years.' Cinder now brings up the actual commendations that the vid files were associated with. Apparently, the incident with Roman, was used in lieu of the entrance exam into Beacon, and also proof enough of her abilities to warrant moving the girl up two years. The Nevermore incident allowed the four girls involved to claim the bounty for the creature, normally, initiates couldn't collect bounties on anything they killed during their initiation, but special dispensation was made due to the fact that the Nevermore was an Elder Grimm. At this, Cinder did a double-take, 'Those four initiates took out an elder grimm? Impossible!' After the description of the bounty, there was an additional annotation: See Also: Special Commendation Team JNPR.
She selects the link, and watches another vid file, this time it follows the other four students at the ruins, and their battle against the Death Stalker. This fight is much less razzle-dazzle, and much more straight forward beat down, but it ends with the large Death Stalker falling over the cliff, and only minor injuries on Team JNPR. Cinder reads the file that goes with the video and just stares at it in wonder. 'Another elder grimm? These eight kids took out two elder grimm in their initiation trial! Who are these kids?' She then brings up the files for both teams. Team RWBY is composed of Ruby Rose as team leader partnered with Weiss Schnee, along with Blake Belladonna and her partner Yang Xiao Long. 'So the Schnee and the kid are partners. That must make the Schnee's day.' Team JNPR is composed of Juane Arc as team leader partnered with Pyrrha Nikos, along with Nora Valkyrie partnered with Lie Ren. 'Interesting that Pyrrha wasn't made team leader.'
She memorizes the pertinent information, but concludes that it is Ruby Rose who is the instigator among these two teams. 'Be careful Miss. Rose. Interfere in my plans again and I'll make sure your petals are burnt to cinders.'