Ruby Rose sat in the center of a sofa in the library, a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and a platter of cookies on the seat beside her. Silver eyes swooped right then left then right again as Glenda Goodwitch paced back and forth in front of her. General Ironwood and Headmaster Ospin stood to the left by a roaring fireplace. It would be hard to tell that the two men were good friends, even if it was only through both their need to protect the four kingdoms.
General Ironwood projected the notion of power, from his dark hair and tanned skin of his face with a metal plate above his right eyebrow, down to his full white and blue Atlas Military uniform, where as Professor Ospin was more kind looking, with deep brown eyes that peared over his round specticals which never quite seemed to be fully present, grey clothing and the silver cane he held. Both men held themselves, portraying a calm deminor. The only tell to how worried they may be was a slight tremor in the generals hands.
Glenda on the other hand was doing nothing to keep her feelings hidden. The usually stoic huntress was pacing back in forth at a fast pace, and her half-moon glasses kept slipping down her nose every time she turned, only to very angerly be pushed back up the bridge of her nose. Her thin crop was held in a hand clenched so tightly, her knuckles, though usually pale were paper white.
Ruby too a sip, silver eyes eyeing the adults over her mug as they all seemed to be lost in thought. "Sooooo..." The huntress in training started trying to break the tension, but was interrupted by a furious Goodwitch.
"Unacceptable." The woman stated her lime eyes blazing in fury as she continued to pace. Ruby half expected the Huntresses shirt to be dripping wet by the time the night was over. If history was any indication, she had been pacing for the better part of the night and would not let up until forced to stop.
"Glenda, calm-" Ospins warm voice started from the back of the room, but it was too late, a pebble had been dropped and the avalanche had just begun.
"Unacceptable!" She stated louder and stopped pacing directly in front of Ruby who had just begun to reach for a cookie, but drew her hand back seeing that now was not the time for sweets if she wanted to escape unscathed. "There is a second breach in the wall in the dead of last night and several Grimm get into the city, and what did they see?"
"Glenda." Ospin said again trying to catch her attention.
"Ten Children! Ones who are armed and seemingly have semblances!"
"Glenda!" The voice had more force and volume this time.
"And who were the only children who matched that description who had not yet checked into their dormitories past curfew?" Glenda paused for a second, her electric emerald eyes boring into Ruby who shrank back slightly. She would rather be battling an army of Grimm right now than be facing off with Glenda Goodwitch. "Teams RWBY, JNPPR and Ms. Adel and Ms. Scarletina! And whats more-" Glendas rant was interrupted by a loud shout.
"GLENDA!" Ospin yelled. He had barley raised his voice, but he finally caught the Goodwitches attention. Three pairs of eyes stared at him. Green, silver and blue met brown and brown looked back at them. "Lets not incriminate the children without letting them defend their situation."
Ruby relaxed. Something in the Headmasters voice relaxed her and made her feel like he already knew that they were innocent. She sighed in relief, her heart which she'd not even been aware to be there slowed its thumping. "Now Ruby, could you please tell us where you were at yesterday when it was past curfew that was more important than your sleep and a clean record for when you graduate?" General Ironwood spoke softly in a way that was soothing to Ruby but also made her feel small and worthless just for breaking a silly rule.
"Can't you just look at the security cameras?" She asked brightly looking around at the three adults.
"We have reason to believe our security cameras have been...compromised." The General said carefully after a moments hesitation. "Now please if you would answer our questions."
"I guess I'll have to." She said with a nervous chuckle that was not mirrored across the room. "Well um...we were you know...sparring..." She said thinking back to what had been merely hours ago.
*FLASHBACK*
"Yang Xilo Long, prepare to face the wrath of Myrtenaster!" The high, regal voice of Weiss Schnee Heiress to the Schnee dust company called out to her opponent, the feared brawler of Vale.
"Not so fast Ice Queen, Ember Celica is more than a match for your toothpick of a sword!" The blonde haired brawler taunted back watching the Heiresses pale complexion turn a deep red and her eyes narrow to slits.
"It's on!" She responded and a glyph appeared at her feet, the blue snowflake pattern spinning in a slow circle underneath her.
"Go Yang!" Ruby Rose instinctively cheered and jumped up and down on her toes as she watched them from the edge of the slightly sunken sparring pit. The pit was about fifteen feet wide and circular. It was sunken about eight feet down and the sides had a slight inward slope to them. Ruby continued to cheer until the Heiress took the time to shoot her a withering look. "I mean Weiss!" The younger girl corrected herself. "Go Weiss, my valued teammate!" The pale girl just rolled her icy-blue eyes and looked back at her opponent.
Ruby watched the two stare each other down. Yang looked relaxed and was grinning from ear to ear with a cocky smirk. Weiss had one foot forward and was crouched in perfect form, the glyph under her continuing to spin faster and faster. Yang held up her hands, ready to throw punches. Ruby looked beside her toward the shy cat faunas beside her. Blake was watching with a subdued interest, but Ruby could tell she wasn't so much interested in watching the match and she was in watching Yang. She may be a bundle of innocence, but some things were hard to miss even for her.
Looking into the sunken in rink, she watched as the match began. Yang hit her two fists together as hard as she could, Ember Celica helping slightly, and creating a fallout that Ruby could feel from as far as she was. If Yang got angry enough she could create a massive fallout by doing this. Out of the Corner of her eye she saw Blakes hair ruffle slightly. She looked to see Weiss whom she expected to have at least stumbled from the fallout, only to see her graceful partners Ponytail blow backwards while Weiss's feet stayed firmly glued to the floor.
Yang growled and began to run at her, and the heiress drew Myrtenaster from the loop in her belt quick as lightning and held it stick straight in front of her face. Ruby glimpsed the chamber spin and saw the carvings on the blade light up in a icy blue glow. The glyph under her feet changed colors, going from a cool blue to a darker shade of midnight. Weiss spun on the spot and in the darkened gym, Ruby could see the faintest hint of a smile on her face as she summoned a glyph at the base of her sword and sent them one after another at Yang, who began to punch at them with her gauntlets.
This all happened in about three seconds and Ruby barley had time to follow it with her eyes. She could feel the expression of shock on her face, and knew it mirrored on the Cat-Fanaus's next to her.
Suddenly Yang was upon Weiss, and began to punch and kick at her with powerful, gauntlet powered punches. Weiss parried and blocked Ember Celica with Myrtenaster as bolts of fire met icy cool steel. Ruby watched her partner and her sister equally block each others attacks with superior defenses. Weiss created a circle of glyphs around Yang and hit her several times with her sword, but each blow never made it past the heated yellow of Yangs gauntlets. Yang would fire round after round and punch at Weiss only for each bullet to be blocked by a glyph and each blow to be dodged.
Finally Weiss's sword found its way to be inches from Yang's throat and both of Yangs Gauntlets were positioned in front of Weisses face. Both girls panted and had smirks plastered across their faces, both feeling that they'ed won.
Ruby broke them out of their trance by jumping up and down and cheering. "I declare this..." She nodded solemnly at Blake who nodded back and walked over to the closest bench and made a loud drum roll before the younger girl continued. "A draw!" She said jumping up and down before frantically waving her arms as she almost fell down into the sparring pit where a very tired Weiss and a Yang who was practically radiating heat were.
"Nice job Ice queen!" Yang told Weiss and lowered her gauntlets.
"Likewise." Weiss said primly and creating a staircase type chain of glyphs, walked out of the pit as they disappeared behind her, her perfect posture never dropping. Yang took a less ladylike approach and took a running leap while firing Ember Celica and almost flew out of the pit while landing hard on her feet.
"Nailed it!" She exclaimed and quickly walked over to the bench and sat down next to Weiss who was sitting primly in her seat. Ruby ran over to the two of them excitedly, Blake in tow.
"You two were so cool! Yang you were all Bam! Bang!" Ruby made a series of bad punches trying to mimic her sister. "And Weiss you were all like..." Ruby stood ramrod stiff and made slashes in the air with an imaginary sword.
"That they were! You did very well!" The voice of Pyrrah Nikos said. Team RWBY looked up collectively to see team JNPR crossing the expansive gym toward them.
"Thank you for inviting us!" She said, her long red hair bobbing slightly as she walked. "It will be nice to get some extra practice in." She said with a smile.
"Honestly Pyrrah you really don't need it." Ruby said with a smile. "Your top of the class and could probably beat out almost everyone here!" She exclaimed with a grin.
The green eyed fighter didn't accept the compliment. Pyrrah seemed to be allergic to compliments and praise. "One always improve themselves through practice." She said with a nod.
*FLASHBACK OVER*
"Ruby!" A voice snapped Ruby from her thoughts, a glazed expression covered her eyes and her who look was just dazed.
"Sorry professor!" She said quickly. "What were we talking about?' She added sheepishly.
"Where you were last night after curfew!" Glenda Goodwitch snapped at the young girl who shrank back slightly in her seat.
"Oh." Ruby said. "Sparring in the gym!" She said with a nod and a smile. She received three stares, so she went on. "Well you see we thought it would be nice to get some extra practice in before the tournament, and we kinda didn't remember there was a curfew. So we invited team JNPR along, 'cause it really wasn't their idea so please don't blame them. It was Yang's! Who got it from Coco, so please don't be mad at Yang...don't be mad at Coco either! We just wanted to practice and because we don't have any early classes tomorrow we thought well tonight then. The gym's always socrowded andwe nevergettousethesparringpits, andwedidn'twanttocauseanytroublesopleasedon'tbemad!" Ruby finally finished her explanation which had been gathering steam so the last part had been spoken at the speed of light and at a pitch only dogs could hear. Luckily the three adults in the room had superior hearing and could make it out.
"Is that all?" Ironwood asked, blue eyes meeting silver.
Ruby thought for a moment. "Well Yang and Blake left about half an hour later. They said to go study." Ruby had a glazed inquisitive look on her face
when she suddenly snapped back to reality. "Can I have a cookie?" She asked cheerfully.
"Of course. Thank you Ruby." Ospin said.
"Nuh prblom." Was made out through a mouthful of cookie.
"You may go. Would you please send in Ms. Schnee on your way out?" Glenda asked in a less angry tone though her eyes portrayed otherwise.
"Of course!" Ruby exclaimed and hopped away from the sofa. She started toward the door when there was a flash of red and a shower of rose petals and three more cookies disappears from the plate. The door to the library then opened and banged shut as a red blur left the room. A faint chuckle was heard escaping the corner of Ospins lips.
"Think she is telling the truth?" Ironwood said to Ospin, cold blue eyes meeting a warm brown.
"Little we may have talked, Ruby Rose is the most honest person I know."