Author's notes: I am so extremely sorry it took this long to get a second chapter out. I had meant to have it posted sooner, but my laptop broke so I wasn't able to get any work done until I got a new one. Now that I have a new laptop I can post more on a regular schedule. Again, so sorry about the inconvenience.


6 weeks earlier

Ruby was mashed up against many other people. They all stood watching the ring in the middle of the small, cramped room. There were two small robots in the ring. One robot was like a puma, with sharp claws, and it was being controlled by a man with very thick sideburns.

The other robot is slender standing upright holding onto a tiny bar. The man controlling it had a white jacket, and bright orange hair. Frequent goers of the bot fights knew this guy as Roman. He's the champion in this part of town.

The fight begun once their unofficial official signalled the two. Right off the bat, the puma robot pounced at the other. The slender robot spun out of the way while swinging its bar at the puma. The puma was knocked over, but quickly recovered by swinging its metal claws at the other bot. The other bot seemed to have expected this though as it used its bar to block the swipe. It kicked the puma back, and smacked the bar against it's head, leaving a dent. The puma got up and tried swiping again. This time though, the slender robot caught the other bot's arm with its metal bar. With the bar against the puma's shoulder, the robot gave a hard kick against to it's back. Tearing the puma's arm off. The puma tried to get back up, but the other robot hit its knees, forcing it down.

"Fore." Roman said.

And with one simple command, the slender robot swung its metal cane like a golf club, knocking the puma's head off.

"Better luck next time, Tukson." Roman taunted.

Tukson got up to pick up his bot, or rather, what was left of it. As he got out of the ring and left, Roman spoke up.

"So who's next?"

Ruby pushed her way through the crowd until she was right by the ring.

"I have a bot." Ruby announced excitedly. In her hands she held a red robot that was very box like. The left arm looked heavier, making it off balanced.

Roman looked at her incredulously.

"Kid, isn't it past your bedtime? Scamper out of here with your little toy." He said condescendingly with a wave of his hands.

"But I built the robot myself, and I even have money to enter in." Ruby said pulling a wad of cash out of her pocket.

Roman looked at her and the cash she held in her hand. He motioned for someone to take the money from her.

"Alright kid, I'll take your allowance. Just don't go crying to mommy when you lose."

Ruby gave her money to the person, and they put that money into a bowl along with Roman's own entry fee. Ruby sat down criss cross, and set her robot down gently. She then pulled out her controller that looked like a white tablet and turned it on. Roman already had his bot set up from the last fight.

The person who took Ruby's money stepped in between them to announce to the room.

"Let the next fight between the residing champion, Roman, and the challenger begin." They stepped out of the way as the bots powered up.

Ruby's bot lifted it's heavy arm and fired at Roman's. The first shot scraped Roman's bot's arm, the next Roman was ready for and blocked it with his cane. Roman moved to get his bot closer to Ruby's, but before he was in striking range Ruby shot at the ground. The force of the shot lifted Ruby's bot up and beyond Roman's. As it landed Ruby shot again, but this time away from Roman's. Like the last time she shot, the force pushed the robot. This time back into Roman's, knocking it down. Before Roman's bot could get back up, Ruby's had it's foot on the other bot's back. It's left arm unfolded, revealing a blade. Roman tried to move, but before he could do anything Ruby put the blade under Roman's bot and fired. The force of the blade pushing up tore Roman's bot in half.

Roman was dumbfounded at the sight before him. He slammed his controller down and shouted at her.

"You cheated! I know you did. No kid wins that easily." Roman whined.

Ruby picked her bot up, ready to bolt if this guy got angrier. But before he could say another thing, a woman's voice spoke out.

"She won, Roman. Deal with it. Let her take her winnings, and she'll be off. Isn't that right?" The woman had a smooth voice, and dark black hair that was gray at the ends. Her hair partially covered one of her amber eyes Ruby noticed.

Ruby responded with just a nod as she grabbed the money. Without looking back she ran off.

She was relieved as she got outside. The cool air filling her lungs made the horrible smell of the alleyway not so bad. Ruby's sense of relief was gone, and replaced with dread as she spotted the orange motorcycle parked by the street.

An arm suddenly came around Ruby's shoulders.

"Heya sis. Is this where that friend lives that you said you were going out to see? Cause it kind of looks like an illegal bot fighting place."

"How did you find out, Yang?" Ruby asked as her head dropped.

"You left your computer on with the bot fighting website pulled up on screen. Wasn't entirely a mystery." Yang said.

Ruby mentally face palmed. How stupid could she get leaving that site up? Bot fighting wasn't illegal, but everyone knows that a ton of illegal gambling took place at these fights. Unless you were some type of criminal, you'd probably avoid them. The bot fighting website itself didn't help the cops, it has an encryption on it. The encryption changed routinely, so hacking it wasn't an option unless you were some type of computer wiz, which the cops weren't. You had to be invited to the webpage to actually see it. So being caught on that site would be a tag that you're no good.

Yang started pulling Ruby along towards her motorcycle. Ruby kept her eyes on the ground and Yang kept talking.

"Ruby, you could get in a lot of trouble for this. What if it was Uncle Qrow that found out? Or the cops?! What would you do then?" She scolded.

"Well... I'd have you help me out I guess." Ruby mumbled.

Yang sighed as she put on her yellow helmet. She grabbed the spare, a white helmet with a snowflake design, and handed it to Ruby.

"I'll always have your back, and you know that. But I might not always be able to be there save your butt when you get in trouble. You're gonna need to make the smart decisions sometimes. Now let's get home before Uncle Qrow gets suspicious." Yang said as she hopped onto her bike. Ruby got on right behind her.

As soon as they got back, Ruby headed straight for her computer. The bot fighting website was still pulled up. Ruby almost entirely forgetting her talk with Yang, checked the website for upcoming bot fights. Of course, Yang caught her red handed right away.

"What is it about bot fighting? Do you need the cash? Cause I can help you get money legally if that's the case." Yang asked.

Ruby spun around in her chair while groaning at her sister. Suddenly stopping herself, she pointed at Yang.

"My dear sister, I'll have you know that the money is not why I love bot fights. I love them because… Well… They're fun!" Ruby exclaimed, "I get to see all the bots other people make, and the ingenuity and love they put into it. Like tonight, this guy had a-"

"Ok, ok, I get it." Yang interrupted.

Ruby picked up her robot as she headed towards the door.

"Now if you'll excuse me. I can still make it to the bot fights downtown if I leave now." Ruby was stopped by her sister.

"Hey, at least let me drive you there." Yang said begrudgingly.

"Really?!" Ruby asked energetically.

"Yeah, let's go." Yang said as she pulled the keys to her motorcycle out of her pocket.

The place Yang brought Ruby to was not the bot fights. It looked like a school with a lot of the lights still on inside. The school was big and grand like a castle out of a disney movie, but it had a more modern look to it. A sign on the ground next to the walkway read, "Beacon Academy of Sciences."

"What are we doing here?" Ruby asked as she took off her helmet.

"Just needed to check on something real quickly at the lab. I'll be out of here soon. You can come in with me if you want." Yang said, putting the kickstand in place.

"I think I'll just stay out here." Ruby said, rubbing her arms.

"Okay," Yang said as she hopped off her bike. "but it's a lot warmer inside."

Yang put her helmet under her shoulder, as she walked towards the entrance. She glanced over her shoulder a few times to see if Ruby had decided to follow her. But Ruby was still on the bike.

A couple minutes after Yang went inside, Ruby started to get really cold. She didn't really want to go into Beacon, but she was freezing. She put the helmet Yang lended to her in her backpack with her robot.

She got off the bike, and headed inside. Once she got into the lab, her jaw practically hit the floor. In the lab, Ruby was surrounded by inventions of all kinds for all types of purposes. As she gawked at everything around her, she walked into someone. The person she had walked into had dark skin and piercing gold eyes that looked unfocused. A bow was on top of her head of black hair.

"Oh sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Ruby apologized.

But the girl didn't say anything. She stood there rigidly, unmoving. Ruby waved her hands in front of the other girls eyes.

"Uhm, hello? I'm really sorry about that? Are you ok?" Ruby asked.

The girl suddenly faded away. Ruby's eyes widened. What had just happened? She had never seen before someone just disappear before her eyes.

Before Ruby could worry anymore, the same girl walked to where Ruby was standing, but she had a lab coat on this time, and her hair was tied up.

"That's coming along nicely." The girl mumbled while looking at where her copy was a moment ago.

"Uhhhmm… What?" Ruby said confusedly.

She took notice of the smaller girl. After jotting down some notes, she spoke.

"Hard light holograms. I almost got them down, but at the moment they only last a few

seconds." She explained. "I'm Blake, and you must be Yang's little sister. She's told us a lot about you."

"Oh, that's good… I guess?" Ruby said.

Blake chuckled under her breath.

"Don't worry. She only told us the good things." Blake put her hand to her chin in thought for a moment. "Well, mostly only good things."

Ruby felt like that should concern her, but she was too busy wondering where Yang went off to.

"Speaking of my sister. Do you know where she'd be?" Ruby asked.

Blake looked back to her check board, ready to start working again. She didn't even look at Ruby as she answered.

"If she's not with Weiss, then she's in her own personal lab. Working on something that she says will be big. Those are the two places I'd check first." Blake stated while writing something down.

Ruby stood there awkwardly for a moment before she shuffled off mumbling,

"Okay, thanks. It was nice to meet you."

As Ruby looked for Yang, she suddenly felt herself be pulled by her backpack. Ruby flailed about as she was forced backwards through the room. She only stopped getting pulled as her backpack pressed itself on someone's hand.

"I'm so sorry." They apologized. Ruby turned her head to see a tall girl with bright green eyes and red hair tied up in a ponytail. "Are there any large pieces of metal in your backpack? I'm working with polarity, and this project still has a few bugs in it. That's probably what caused all this." The person said, their hand still on Ruby's back.

Ruby tried to turn around and face them, but they were both still stuck.

"Oh, right." They pressed a button, and Ruby was instantly released from the grip they had on her.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you. I was just looking for my sister, Yang." Ruby explained.

The person's face lit up at the mention of Yang.

"So you're Yang's little sister. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Pyrrha. And if you're looking for Yang then Weiss' lab section is just over there. And her own lab is right across the room from Weiss'." Pyrrha said pointing. "I'm sure she'll be at either of those two places."

Ruby mumbled a thanks before turning around and coming face to face with a black bear that had a big smile on its face. Ruby flinched at the suddenness of it. The bear reached up and pulled off it's head, revealing an orange haired girl.

"Did you say you're Yang's sister? You two don't look that similar. Ooh, maybe she invented you, like a test tube baby. And you aged faster than all the other kids, so she couldn't pass you off as being her child, which would be kind of weird if she did have one of those, so she says to everyone that you're her sister." She said rapidly.

Ruby got a look of confusion on her face. Before she could say anything she heard Pyrrha sigh behind her.

"Nora, this might not be the best way to leave a good first impression." Pyrrha groaned.

Nora laughed a she stuck out her hand. Or more accurately, since she was still almost entirely in costume, her paw.

"Sorry about that. Name's Nora by the way. By day I'm a school mascot, but by night... still a school mascot."

Ruby shook the bear paw.

"It's ok. My sister and I are step sisters, so we get that alot... not the whole test tube baby part, but... Anyway, I was looking for Yang. I better get back to finding her." Ruby explained.

The three of them flinched as someone started shouting. The person shouting had a shrill voice.

"What are you doing?! You're being completely idiotic!" They exclaimed angrily.

Nora nodded while pointing to where the shouting was coming from.

"That was Weiss, and that's where Yang is. Not a doubt in my mind about it."

Ruby nodded and walked towards the shouting. She eventually saw Yang with her hands held up defensively being shouted at by Weiss. Yang, despite being shouted at, had a big smile on her face.

"C'mon Weissy, I just wanted to show up and see how you're doing. Maybe get you a coffee if you needed it. You've been working on this project for so long, a couple minutes of rest would be good at least." Yang said. She moved her arms around the girl, who reluctantly accepted the embrace.

"Thank you, Yang. But I have these safety procedures for a reason. While I'm working you're not allowed to cross the yellow line on the floor. It'd be terrible if my girlfriend got hurt because she wasn't being safe." Weiss sighed.

Ruby walked up to them to remind Yang that they needed to get going and soon or else they'd miss the bot fights.

When Yang noticed her, her face lit up. Looking to Weiss she said, "Oh, you gotta show Ruby what you're working on."

"Why?" Weiss asked.

"Cause it's super cool, and it gives you a chance to show off how smart you are." Yang said with a goofy grin.

Weiss smiled as she broke away from Yang's embrace. She grabbed an unsealed vial off of her lab table and showed it to Ruby. Inside the vial was a red powder, but there was so little of it that it didn't even fill a quarter of the test tube.. Weiss looked proud of what she was holding, but Ruby wasn't quite sure what she was looking at.

"Behold Ruby, the thing that will revolutionize the power industry. Wind turbines, dams, solar panels, this will be able to produce more energy than all of those. It's the elements put into a powdered form. One small vial, like this one here, is enough to keep electricity going in a family's house for a fortnight. Yang thinks I should call it, 'Dust'." Weiss explained.

Ruby held her hand out to take the vial from Weiss to get a better look at it. Weiss handed it to her gingerly.

"Careful." Weiss mumbled.

Ruby shook it slightly to get a better look at the contents inside. This wasn't the best idea, as some of the Dust in the vial got out and caused Ruby to sneeze. A small explosion was the result.

When Ruby looked at Weiss she could tell two things. The first that Weiss' mostly white outfit had a large portion of it turned black, and that she looked extremely mad.

Luckily for Ruby, Yang started pulling Ruby away before Weiss could say anything.

"Ok, I'm gonna show Ruby my project now. Love ya, bye." Yang said as she and Ruby quickly retreated.

Yang sighed as they got to her lab.

"You know, Ruby, it doesn't put me in any good graces with my girlfriend when you literally explode in her face." Yang teased.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to." Ruby apologized.

Yang moved to the other side of the room.

"I know you didn't. Don't worry, Weiss will forgive you… Eventually... And really only if you give her a reason to forgive you." Yang said.

Ruby followed her, slightly relieved that Weiss wouldn't be mad at her forever... probably. Yang brought Weiss over to their house all the time, and while they weren't the best of friends, Ruby didn't want to be on Weiss' bad side.

"So what's this project you're working on that Blake mentioned?" Ruby asked.

Yang quickly spun around to face Ruby and punched her in the shoulder.

"OW!" Ruby exclaimed, "What was that for?" She said angrily.

A mechanical whirring noise started up in the room. Ruby looked around until she saw a girl in the corner of the room stand up slowly. The whirring noise got quieter as she stood up all the way. She slowly moved her head until she saw Yang and Ruby. Waddling over to the two, the girl said, "Hello, I am Penny, your personal healthcare companion." She waved her hand rigidly.

Ruby scrutinized the robot. Checking it over twice, and then a third time.

"It gets activated when a person lets out a sound of pain." Yang explained.

"It looks just like a person!" Ruby exclaimed.

Yang crossed her arms with a proud look on her face.

"I thought a more human look would be more comfortable for the home life." Yang said.

"Why's it named Penny?" Ruby asked.

"Cause it was my lucky day when I got it to work." Yang said, chuckling at her own joke. "Now watch this."

"On a scale of one to ten, please rate your pain." Penny said autonomously.

"Uhh, one." Ruby said.

"Scanning." Penny said as she looked up and down Ruby once. "Diagnosis; shoulder pain. Treatment involves active rest, and application of ice. Applying treatment." Penny then placed her hand over Ruby's injured shoulder. Ruby felt as the robots hands got a lot colder.

"Ooh." Ruby said in awe of the machine.

"Penny is going to help a lot of people. I just know it." Yang said.

"So how do you turn it off?" Ruby asked.

"What? And send this cutie away? I'm shocked Ruby. I thought you had better taste than that." Yang teased. "But to shut it off you have to say, 'I am satisfied with my care'."

"Ok. Penny, I am satisfied with my care." Ruby repeated.

Penny waddled back to her corner of the room and shrunk back down, deactivating.

"Very impressive, Ms Xiao long." A voice spoke out.

Ruby and Yang turned to see who it was. Standing in the doorway was an old man with a cup of coffee in one hand, and a cane in the other.

"Ah Ruby, this is Professor Ozpin, head of Beacon Academy." Yang introduced.

"Nice to meet you." Ruby said curtly.

"You must be Ruby Rose. Your sister has told me that you're quite the child genius." He said. "Have you thought of applying to Beacon?"

"Uh, well I'm more interested in inventing stuff just for fun." Ruby explained.

Ozpin stared at her for a moment. He seemed to be deep in thought.

"And going to a school to help you hone your craft makes it not fun? You are a smart child, and if you have fun inventing then why not make a career out of it?" He asked.

Ruby thought about it for a moment, but she didn't have an answer for him.

Ozpin straightened his posture. He turned around and left the room.

"Food for thought." He said before he was completely out of sight.

Yang was putting her jacket back on while organizing some of her tools.

"Alright, we're probably late now, but we can still make it to the bot fights. You ready?" Yang asked.

Ruby didn't answer at first. She tried to find the right words. Yang smirked, she could already that her plan worked. Her suspicions were confirmed true when Ruby spoke.

"Sis, I want to go to Beacon." She said quietly.

Yang gave her a rough pat on the back that pushed Ruby forward slightly.

"Well Ruby, it's not easy getting in. But they're having a show case in three weeks. If you enter in something really cool then you'll be accepted for sure." Yang said.

Ruby got a big smile on her face, ideas already forming in her head.

"Don't worry, Sis. I'll make something that's the bee's knees." Ruby declared.