She was talking with Weiss about the Vytal Festival and what kind of strategies they could use, they were on their way to their dorm when her scroll started buzzing:
-come qck
-grmm in bcon
-bring oz
-we r in the entrance
"...and if the enemy team has someone with a semblance similar to the girl that was with Roman I think the best course of action could be..., are you even listening to what I'm saying?" Weiss stopped talking once she realized that Ruby stayed behind.
"There is a Grimm on the loose here in Beacon," Ruby turned around, "you go and help Yang and Blake, they are in the entrance, I will go for Ozpin" she screamed as she started running towards the clocktower.
"Ruby this is a Huntsmen Academy, a single Grimm shouldn't be a problem big enough that requires that we bring Professor Ozpin" Weiss responded irritated.
"Yang was the one who asked for help" Ruby stared at Weiss with a serious face, the implications of what she just said should be enough to convince Weiss, right?
"I will go and help them, you go and bring Ozpin" Weiss started gliding with the help of her glyph towards the school's entrance.
"Take care" And without waiting for an answer Ruby disappeared in a cloud of roses.
And now here she is, with Ozpin seeing this new Grimm, it didn't look like any other Grimm that she had ever fought before or read about, if it weren't for the red marks all over its body she would have thought that she was looking at the shadow of the Grimm for just how black it was, it almost feels like staring some abyss, and because of how calm the Grimm was when she arrived, she didn't expect for this abyss to look back at her.
"AaaaaaAaAaAaaAAAAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" Ruby covered her ears from the Grimm's piercing screaming, she almost passed out because of how deafening and painful it was.
"rrRuu..bbyYy RooOooOsSeEe!" Hearing her name come out from a Grimm was probably the most terrific thing that Ruby ever lived in her short life, so she never reacted when the Grimm suddenly appeared behind her, with a blade towards her neck.
"Ruby!", She hears her friends scream for her, but she couldn't even react, so when she realized what was happening it was too late, but the edge of the blade never made contact.
"Ruby, I would recommend that you and your team start running towards the school and tell Professor Glynda to activate protocol Ajax, she will know what to do" Ozpin had created a green shield around him that protected both him and Ruby, outside the shield the Grimm was viciously attacking the shield with its blades and tendrils in frenzy, completely ignoring the attacks of Blake, Yang, and Weiss who now were now trying to protect their leader.
"I will count up to three, at that moment I will lift the shield, while you and the rest of your team escape I will distract this beast, if I'm honest with you Ruby, I don't know for long I will be able to distract it, and considering the fact that it's going explicitly against you, it will probably ignore me so it can go for you, so I want you to run and don't look back no matter what" Professor Ozpin had a somber tone, being so concentrated in maintaining the shield that he didn't turn around to see the expression of fear in Ruby.
"Guys, we are going to follow Professor Ozpin's plan, it would be for the best if you all start running towards the school instead of wait for me" Ruby said, trying to keep her voice in check, she couldn't show her friends that she was afraid, after all, how could a huntress in training be afraid of the very thing she is training to fight against.
Yang, Blake, and Weiss stooped their attacks to look at Ruby, they didn't want to leave her will they ran with their tails between their legs.
"Aaah sis? did you hit your head?" Yang sounded between angry and exasperated, her eyes turning red "Because if you haven't noticed, A TALKING GRIMM WHO IT'S PUSHING OZPIN AND ITS SEEMINGLY IMMORTAL IT'S TRYING TO KILL YOU!" Yang almost tore strands of her hair just for how angry.
"I know!"Ruby stared at her sister in the eyes "but right now this is our best strategy, Professor Ozpin is the only one who can fight it and if we stay here we will be only on his way, please, you have to trust me"
"Of course I trust you" Yang cooled down "But you can't blame me for being worried for my sister" She looked at Blake and Weiss, "Let's go, girls, we better hurry up"
As the three girls started running towards the school, Weiss stopped.
"You better come back, we haven't decided what will be our strategy for the tournament, and there is still a lot of things that we have to do," she said as she turned around to look Ruby in the eyes, only to turn around again and start running.
"Are you ready Ruby?" asked Ozpin know that the rest of team RWBY has agreed to the plan.
"Uh-huh," Ruby affirmed as she prepared to spring towards the entrance, now with Blake and Yang waiting for her.
"One..."Ozpin took a deep breath, "two..." he put more strength in the grip in his cane "THREE, NOW!" and as he throws himself against the Grimm, the shield shattered.
Before the Grimm could attack Ruby, Ozpin used his semblance to attack it, making it back up, the Grimm tried to chase after Ruby but Ozpin blocked the path between them. "grrrr" the Grimm growled, only for it to start attacking Ozpin with its tendrils and blades, but Ozpin was too fast, blocking all the attacks and counterattacking, if he was struggling he didn't show it, when it looked like the Grimm was going to lose, the Grimm exploded in a cloud of black particles that surrounded Ozpin. Suddenly a tendril materialized attacking Ozpin in the back, "Ahh!" when he turned around there was nothing but the particles in the air, and then two tendrils slashed him in the eyes blinding him temporarily and in his right arm making him drop his cane if it wasn't for his Aura he would have lost the fight in that moment, but he knew that the Grimm wasn't trying to win the fight.
Once Ozpin started to see again, the cloud of particles wasn't there but behind Ruby.
"Ruby get down!" Yang screamed as she threw a punch at Ruby's direction, Ruby dodged the punch by sliding in her knees while Yang punched the cloud, but the cloud divided itself into two halves that passed around Yang, when she turned around the Grimm had already materialized, and before she could react the Grimm wrapped a tendril around her leg and send her against Blake who was now behind the Grimm trying to go for a sneak attack, a sound of broken glass resonated when the two huntresses collided.
"Yang, Black!" Ruby screamed when she saw her sister and friend being sent flying against a wall, but before they could crash a glyph appeared mid-air, catching them.
Weiss jumped out the school window, moments later an energy shield surrounded the school and then a shield of ice surrounded her with Weiss inside it.
"We are good" Yang responded with a little grunt still on the ground, she sounded clearly tired and that sound was probably her Aura giving up.
"You stay here and rest," Blake put her hand in Yang's shoulder, squeezing it a little, "I'll help them" She tried to comfort Yang who now was trying to get up and failing.
Before she could say anything the sound of ice breaking made her turn to see the Grimm attacking the ice's barrier.
"Plase help my sister," Yang said almost tearing up in tears, Blake only nodded and run towards the Grimm, but before she could arrive the Grimm finally broke the barrier, sending both Weiss and Ruby against the school's barrier.
"Ruby run!" Weiss screamed at her but before she could do anything a tendril stabbed her cape to the ground, stopping her from escaping. Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and parried the first wave of tendrils, but when the Grimm attacked with its blades and they made contact with Crescent Rose, Ruby suddenly fainted, the Grimm without missing a beat, shot all its tendrils towards Ruby now in the ground to finish her. But Weiss stood between Ruby and the Grimm with her weapon pointed against the Grimm, the tendrils stopped an inch of Weiss.
"Get. Away. From her" Weiss's voice was filled with rage, she tried to maintain her composure but her hands trembled in fear, the Grimm stared at her for a moment, then it looked at Blake who approached Ruby, lifting her in her arms, to Yang who was now slowly walking towards them, and finally to Ozpin who was behind the Grimm with its cane ready to attack the Grimm.
"You seem to be smart enough to know that it would be the best for you to run," Ozpin said in his usual calm voice.
"wee..iss" Ruby whispered as she tried to wake up, only to faint again, the Grimm stared at Ruby for a moment, only to return its gaze to Weiss.
"WeEe...IiIsSs" the Grimm spoked now in a more calm voice, it sounded like two people were speaking at the same time, its voice was raspy, and for the way, it speaks it seems like it hurt the Grimm the act, and before anyone could react, the Grimm dissolved in a cloud of black particles, leaving Beacon.
"Soooooo..., did we win?" Yang asked now that the Grimm wasn't there anymore.
"I wouldn't say that, but considering that nobody suffered any major injuries, yes we won this battle" Ozpin answered Yang question, "Blake if you could take Ruby to the infirmary, I will go after I attend a few affairs of extreme importance" and with that, he started walking towards his office.
"The students that were attacked during the infiltration, are ok, a few bruises but nothing serious, and regarding the student 'Cinder Fall', leader of team CMEO (Cameo), I think I found something interesting," Glynda showed a holographic image copy of Cinder's documents to Ozpin, who was now in his chair in his office evaluating the damage of the attack, "Just like Mr. Arc, there seems to be so discrepancies in her papers and from her teammates, and if I'm honest, she does look a bit older than 19 years old" adjusting her glasses she showed the papers of the two other students.
"Emerald Sustrai, she claims to have been studying all her life in Mistral yet has numerous police reports that range from theft to armed assault, Mercury Cobalt also claims to have lived all his life in Mistral, but his appearance coincides with that of another Mercury, Mercury Black, the son of Marcus Black, famous assassin, he was found dead in his house, nobody knew he had a son until a photo of both of them appeared in the ruins along with some documents of Mercury, because the body was never found they concluded that he killed his son, and in his grief, he set himself on fire" Glynda paused for a moment to give Ozpin a worrying face.
"The last teammate of Cinder is this girl, Onice Dust," Glynda showed the documents of a girl with black hair in pigtails, she was rather small for her age "She was the daughter from a rich family in Signal until one night she was found dead from an overdose in some alley in the bad side of the city" Glynda's tone was somber "Ozpin I think I don't need to tell you what this could mean, the attack on the Autumn, the White Fang in mountain Gleen, all the large amount of stolen Dust in all the kingdom and the infiltration in the CCT" Her voice showed just how worried she was with all the implications.
"I understand your worries, but right now, because of James actions I have my hands tied if I try to leave the school without a clear motive, who knows what the council could do," Ozpin paused to take a sip of his coffee, "But I already have a plan, if you could go and see how Ruby is, I will follow in a moment" Ozpin stared at Glynda awaiting for an answer.
"Ok, I trust that you know how to deal with the affairs related to 'The Witch'" Glynda didn't dare to pronounce Salem's name, it wasn't that she was afraid, it was more than she feels that just saying her name was inviting the misfortune to her life, she marched towards the elevator only to stop at the door, looking at a device on the wall, "Weird, the thermostat it's on, but this place is freezing" she started tinkering with the device.
"It's okay, I will have it fixed another time" Ozpin responded, hearing his answer Glynda showed him a smile of worried before exiting the office, like telling him without words that she was worried for his wellbeing, "I know that you are here, show yourself," Ozpin said after he knew that he was alone in the office. Or he was before clouds of dark particles appeared from the dark corners of his office, gathering to form the Grimm that he fought earlier.
"In all my life I have seen a lot of strange things, but nothing like you, your body looks like that of a Grimm, but this tentacle of yours," Ozpin pulled the tendril that Blake cut in their fight from his pocked, "Is just a piece of cloth infused with Dust, this would normally make me think that you are a Faunus or Human if it wasn't for the fact that any other person would have died after my first attack, aura or not, and those blades that you pulled from your arms reminded me of how some Grimms can manipulate their body," Ozpin got closer to the nameless creature "What are you?, and Why you attacked my students" Even though he didn't raise his voice, his anger was palpable.
"..." The creature didn't respond to Ozpin, it looked more interested in the documents of the alleged allies of Salem.
"I watched the videos of your fights, and that made me curious" Ozpin retreated to sit on his chair, he played a recording from one of the security cameras in Beacon, showing the fights between the creature and the students of Beacon, "You tried to kill Ms. Cinder, easily breaking her Aura in a single attack, and any other person that attacked you, you either ignored them, broke their weapons or their Aura, but with Ms. Xiao Long and Ms. Belladonna, you took your time fighting them, but you never tried to hurt them, is there any reason for that?" Ozpin raised his eyebrow curious for the answer.
"...PlaYIng" The creature whispered in a deep and raspy voice but the echo of a female voice followed, never showing any reaction.
"Interesting, but you stopped fighting when Ms. Schnne showed up, what happened, did you got bored from playing?" Ozpin continued with his interrogation.
"...ToO FraaiIiLL, AfRaiD, tOO..." The creature stopped before it could continue with its answer, Ozpin seemed genuinely surprised at the answer of the creature.
"I suppose that you won't share any more information about that, right?" Ozpin asked, only receiving silence as an answer, "One last question, why Ruby Rose? You completely avoided hurting more than necessary any other person that wasn't Cinder but went you saw Ruby, you really tried to kill her, not even to Cinder who I suppose was your original target didn't attack her so viciously" Ozpin took another sip from his coffee before staring again to the creature.
"...HaATTe" That was the only response of the creature, it sounded more agitated at the mere mention of Ruby, and before Ozpin could ask anything else, the creature pointed with its tendrils the archives of Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury, "WheEErRe?" now the creature was the one asking.
"I'm sorry, but I can't give you that information until we clear up some doubts regarding their past, and affiliations, but even if I had given you that information and you killed them, then what?" Ozpin took his cane as he stared at the creature.
"...KiIiLLl SaAalEEemM" and with that, the creature started fading in the cloud of particles.
"Wait, how do you know Salem?! how do you plan to kill Salem?! who are you?!" Ozpin stood up now clearly agitated and more confused than before.
"MaanYY NamESSss, I fORgot, OnE iS GHooSsT" and Ghost finally disappeared in the cloud of particles from Ozpin's office, "ThaAnK YoOU OozZmA" whispered Ghost now leaving Ozpin alone.
Ozpin sat in his chair, now more confused than before, he pulled his Scroll and called someone, "Glynda, please bring Pyrrha to Autumn, and call back Qrow" and before she could say something he hung up, only to call someone again "James, there has been a change in our plans".
