Unbrightled knowledge

We find ourselves in Beacon academy. Team RWBY is walking through the halls with their faces in anticipation. "I've been waiting for this all day, this time we're gonna wail on Cash and make fly out the roof!" Ruby said raising a fist in the air! "Yeah." Yang cheered doing the same.

"I don't think it's gonna be that easy." Weiss said with a worried tone.

"I haven't seen him in live combat, So I think we better take Weiss's word for it." Blake said.

"C'mon you two, with Ruby as our leader we can overcome any obstacle!" Yang said with a wide smile and a thumbs. Ruby with a open mouthed smile did the same as her sister. Blake and Weiss shook their heads as they entered the class room holding the arena.

They took their seats, and started talking to Team JNPR, Weiss ignoring Jaune. Nora was, acting hyper, telling a story. Ren sat quietly reading like Blake, and Yang and Ruby were listening to said story of Nora's while Pyrrha was sitting awkwardly besides Jaune as he was repeatedly shot down by Weiss.

The students came to attention as Glynda walked in with Cash in tow through the door to the arena.

"Attention students Class has now started." Glynda declared as moved to the back of the arean.

"Volunteer if you want go first." Cash shouted to the students. Team RWBY had immeditately junped down in front of him wheeling out their weapons. "Hmmmm, someone's eager today." He said with a smirk, pointing this out to Glynda. While she said nothing in response she did look intrigued.

Cash drew his blade for the class room to see. It was a O-katana length blade, along the blade, attached was a Revolvers chamber make, from the front you could tell it housed 6 bullets. The handle connected to the chamber had a trigger on it, with black grips and a steel finish on the bottom.

"A gunblade, nice!" Ruby exclaimed happily.

"Have we suddenly become "worthy" of the champs full skills?" Yang asked said sarcastically flipping her hair.

"If that's the first thing that comes to your mind, you've lost more than just a grade." Cash warned as took a stance.

Weiss scrunched her nose as she took stance, and Blake drew her sword. Ruby spun her scythe so the sniper rifle facing Cash. Weiss sped in to attempt a lunge attack, Cash raised his sword and blocked, as Weiss tried to push in, Blake ran in behind her and made a lunge with her sword. Cash moved his head left to avoid the blade and proceeded to block both girls swords back handed, their blades in an x as they were pushing against Cash. He gripped the handle and moved it slightly to block bullets coming from behind Blake and Weiss being shot by Yang and Ruby. Cash pushed his hilt downward breaking the X that Weiss' and Blake's swords made and jumped back. Yang shot up in the air and went for a Super Man punch, Cash dodged, and stepped around Yang as she floated in the air from her momentum. He locked both his arms around her, then performed a mighty suplex making the arena shake.

"Aaaaaagggh…" Yang groaned.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled as she ran to her sister. Weiss ran with some Glyphs speeding her towards Cash. Cash dashed in under her sword strike, and moved his sight to Blake. He homed in on her and as he approached she dodged to the left leaving behind a clone, he ignored it and chased after Blake, who again made copy to escape, but Cash did not so much as breath their way and continued after Blake. Unnoticed to Blake Cash sped past her, which resulted in her bumping into his chest. A gasp left her throat as she looked up at Cash stunned at his speed.

"Running isn't going to help you in this." Cash advised staring down at her. Blake blinked in confusion, not quite understanding, as she was still trying to regain herself after Cash outpaced her.

"Yang you alright!?" Ruby said slding to a stop next to Weiss. She spun Crescent Rose and stuck it into the ground with the rifle's end pointing at Cash. Weiss setup a glyph in front of the gun and Ruby began firing bullets Cash.

"Yeah….agh." Yang struggled to say as she gave a weak thumbs up. Blake Jumped away from Cash as Ruby fired bullets enhanced by Weiss. Cash side stepped one shot and began walking towards the girls. As the shots kept coming Cash sidestepped left and right avoiding them, bluring from one space to another. In the mean time Yang had gathered herself with Blakes help, and focused on Cash.

"Ruby, switch with me!" Yang said. Ruby unstuck her scythe from the from ground and jumped away. Yang looked to Blake, who shot out her tether, and gripped it as Yang took hold. Blake spun Yang around and with one hard swing launched her though Weiss's glyph!

"Yaaaaaaaaaggh!" Yang with a furious shout reared back her arm, and began to launch her self one more time with a shot from her other gauntlet.

She threw her punch as strong as she could to Cash. A loud crash rang out, but the students and the members of Team RWBY were awed to find Yang had not been the cause. Atleast from her punch. Cash with his gunblade in his hand, had knocked Yang away hitting her face with the back of his hand. She flew off the side and crashed into the wall.

"Sis." Ruby shouted as her sister fell with a thud, seemingly unconscious. Weiss bared her teeth and raised her sword and Blake drew her Cleaver. Cash put away his weapon.

When they were about to act, they heard a fumbling from the side of the arena, and looked to see Yang putting her self back up. Ruby turned to Cash with a smirk and snickered. Yang raised her head and she erupted in a blaze as her eyes turned red and her hair glowed a bright gold, almost burning.

Cash turned his eyes to her, but did not re-draw his sword.

Yang with a cry launched herself with more force than before, and went for one another air punch, aiming straight for his jaw, but this was not to be. Another loud crash and bang rang out in the room, leaving her teammates shocked at happened next. Cash's fist was planted in her stomach as a fire round from Ember Cilica went past his head with Yang's fist, her eyes still red and her body a glow her mouth held agape as she faltered and fell to her feet but was kept up by Cash's fist in her abdomen. "This is the force from one who's base strength exceeds yours naturally. Remember this pain, and let it thrive for your development" Cash finished removing his fist from Yang's stomach, letting her fall to her knee's. Yang's eye's returned to Lilac and the energy erupting from her disappeared, her hair returning to regular blonde. She fell altogether as her face hit the floor and went unconscious.

Her teammates ran to her side, and tried to wake her. "I think this is done." Cash said walking to the center of the arena. "Good effort, melt some ice dust into her face to wake her up." He added.

"Uh ok?" Weiss asked. Weiss opened up her dust chamber and pulled out two cases that was red and dark blue. "Now what?" Weiss asked, with Ruby and Blake also unsure of what was to be done.

Cash shook his head, and walked to Weiss. "Turn her over." He commanded Ruby, who did as he asked and he took the vials and proceeded to smash them between his hands surrounded in aura, this resulted in a flash of red and blueish light, Cash separated his hands above Yangs head and with a puff of blue smoke, that shifted purple as it vanished water splashed down upon her face.

"Aaaaaagh…" Yang groaned as she slowly came too. "C'mon shake it off." Cash said as he helped pull her up. When she found her balance he let go of her, letting her team ensure she would stay up.

"I've…never thought of doing that." Blake admitted quietly.

"But why not regular water dust?" Weiss asked.

"You've heard of a cold shower for drunks right?" Cash said blandly.

"Oh yeah." Ruby said, picturing her in drunken frenzy. Weiss however cringed.

"Water from ice dust is much colder and makes it the same process." Cash explained.

"Oh, I get it." Weiss said with a nod.

"Why not teach more with words than fists." Blake inquired.

"I'm not down on sermons, but broken bones teach better lessons." Cash cited, as walked to the center of the arena. He halted for a moment. "Next time don't try to one shot me, though." He said without looking at the girls.

"Isn't it the girl that's supposed-" Yang tried to joke

"You can go to your seats now." Cash said quietly while cringing. Glyndas expression turned slightly sour. Ruby urged her into the stairs out of the arena. "Next Team!" Cash barked.

The rest of the teams took their turn and proceeded on till the class ended and Glynda dismissed them. As the students filed out Weiss seemed to be urging her teammates to do something which annoyed Yang. They followed her down to the arena where Cash and Glynda were conversing. When they reached the lower level, Glynda had already started opening the door out the arena. Cash had put his arms up and stretched, with his back to the girls.

"Uh excuse me." Weiss said raising a hand. Cash turned to see them as shifted his neck side to side. "Yeah?" He replied.

"We were wondering-" Weiss Started.

"Mostly her." Yang interrupted.

"Hush! How exactly are the Team Assessments graded." Weiss finished.

Cash stared at them for a moment and closed his eyes. "It's in the name, "Team Margins". Nothing else to it." Cash said, as he opened his eyes again.

The girls stared confused, and question marks popped over their heads. "….Can you add anything else to that, I mean are we supposed to beat you, knock you out the ring-" Ruby was interrupted mid sentence by Cash.

"Beating me isn't the point, fighting me is. Trying to beat me is a bad way to go about this." Cash said making Yang perk up, with Blake.

"But it's just you and a team down here in 4 on 1 fight, we just gang up on you and the rest just happens?" Blake asked.

"Yes. Teammate cooperation is what sets this and your chinks." He took a step towards Weiss. "Weiss you role in this team is limited to mostly supporting, despite your handy uses of your glyphs, due to your stamina issues."

Weiss blinked in hostility. "It's so not!" she said in denial.

"Weiss, Ruby's idea to use that Giant Nevermore to get across the forest may have been crazy, but it got you to the temple. If you tried to run all the way there, you would've died doing it. " Cash declared.

"That might be kinda true." Ruby said reluctantly.

"Is it?" Yang asked.

"Ugh!" Weiss shrilled crossing her arms.

"Blake." Cash turned to her. "The first time I engaged in fighting with you, you didn't follow up with Ruby right away. It wasn't a bad idea to wait for an opening. You see the size of Ruby's scythe, it's a fairly big weapon and it has range. You didn't take advantage of the space behind me and you didn't help Ruby push me to the wall." Cash explained.

"There wasn't really that much space." Blake argued.

"There was enough space for you, and I left it there on purpose. At first I thought "give more chances to close in with Ruby, but I thought it would be better to give you a chance to stretch your thinking. You waited until AFTER your ally was hit to act." Cash finished. Yang and Weiss colored themselves impressed with how Cash explained his method, Ruby seemed to deep tin thought.

Blake was silent for a moment. "I still got a hit on you though." She said. "With luck and the fact that I didn't take you seriously, but once again beating me isn't the point. You didn't have to attack, if you got behind me, a simple fake out could've meant the chance for Ruby to put my back against the wall, and for Yang and Weiss to cut me off." Cash said. Blake racked her brain around the explanation, and closed her eyes in thought.

"Ruby!" Cash said. Shaking her to attention, and blurt out "What?"

"I've seen you shoot, your better than most pro huntsman, you communicate well with your team, granted your slow on getting the action started, I never would've guessed you were the stage fright type." Cash said.

Ruby became down caste and frowned. Yang put an arm on her shoulder. They both knew she had certain performance anxiety somewhat.

"With her around, and your new friends, this can be dead moot soon enough, so just keep working like you have." Cash said giving encouragement.

Ruby smiled and nodded at him.

"And me? Mr. Smart guy." Yang said cockily with a flashy grin. Cash took steps to get in front of her. He pointed a finger at her.

"Learn defense." Cash he said simply, as he walked away from Yang, leaving her with confusion and disbelief. "What?"

"You all have individual talent, this is class is to show how well you bring those talents together and where to improve on them. Lucks runs out, skill will echo. Glynda makes sure to pound that into every student she can, whether she teaches them or not." Cash declared.

"Well…I originally intended to get answers from Ms. Goodwitch yourrrr?" Weiss paused trying to get a reaction in response.

"My mother." Cash said like it was an odd question.

"Your Moooooommmm!" all 4 girls said in surprise.

"Glynda GoodWitch is your mom!? That's sooo awesome!" Ruby cheered in her usual fashion.

"Yes. She is." Cash said with a small smile, turning to the girls.

"Well now we know for sure where the last name fits." Blake said still shocked.

"I mean look at him.." Weiss said as they looked at Cash and compared it to Glynda's appearance.

"Anyway that's all I"ve got to say, I"ll see you guy next rotation." Cash said whisfully as put his back to them again. The girls looked to each other and walked out the class room, with Ruby last. When it seemed they'd gone Cash looked to the exit door and began to walk but stopped at hearing a voice call out from behind him.

"Hey." Said Ruby a bit awkwardly.

"Hmm?" Cash uttered.

Ruby held out a pen and blank paper in front of him. Cash looked bewildered for a moment. He was about to utter a response but Ruby had started chirping;

"Can you get your mom's autograph for me!?" Ruby pleaded in a hyper fashion. Cash grunted at her request, but then gave a little chuckle. He smiled and said "Ok, yeah, I know when I can find her in a good mood." He took the pen and paper from Ruby and she cheered "Yehaaeahhhh!"

"Come early tomorrow to my room "CSHS" in the 6th floor dorms to pick it up." Cash said. Ruby nodded happily and exited the arena as Cash did the same.

The next day Ruby woke early on the Saturday morning and proceeded to look for Cash's room using the elevator to proceed 4 floors up from her own. She walked through the hallways seeing students much older than her going in out their rooms, as she walked down the rooms that started with C's she saw the room apparently was Cash's. After a shrug she knocked and waited. She heard a bustling and footsteps approaching. The door opened to reveal a tall man in a black coat that's collar cover his mouth. His hear was smoothed down and black. His eyes looked cold and almost lifeless. Ruby began to shake as he looked down and examined her.

"Are you Ruby?" he said in a polite manner, and showing more his face, showing he was young, this shook Ruby out her stupor and nodded with a "Uh-huh."

"Come in." The stranger said leaving the door open. She walked in gazed to see 4 beds in the form of two bunk beds, which looked more stable then her own rooms. A desk that had beakers with dust filling them and a few that were boiling and smoking. Another desk housed bullet casings with a black coat on the chair with a white furring.

The floor was covered with bags of snacks. And someone with Feline ears was standing in front of a holo Tv looking like he was playing video games, in a red sweater and darkblue pants. Another person was on the left lower bunk reading a magazine with weapons on its pages. The tall man in black walked to the desk with the beakers of dust and pulled out the chair he picked something up from it and walked towards Ruby.

"This is for you." He put a piece of paper in front of Ruby, that had Glynda's signature on it. Ruby gasped, with a fangirl type shrill took the piece of paper from the and held it up in the air in victory. To which made the unknown male amused along with seemingly the boy reading the magazine.

"Anything else, you got to get here?" the cat eared boy playing games asked.

"Mm, no, but where's Cash?" Ruby asked.

"Boss man's handling a few things with Ms. GoodWitch, before we head out to our mission in 2 hours." The boy with cat ears said without looking back.

"But I must say…you asking for Glynda's autograph really got us in a good mood." The boy in the black coat said with smile.

"Glynda's been good to our Boss and he kinda felt crumby for not being able to be here for her birthday, while were on this mission." The cat ears explained.

"Oh really? That sounds lame." Ruby said slightly dejected.

"Well you helped, when he came here to tell us about a 1st year that wanted his mom's autograph it cheered him right up. He decided to just try focusing on what he could give to her as a gift. I think we all feel that way. My Name is Julius Harway, he didn't give us your name, but it's nice to meet you." Julius said courteously.

"Sig Hall." Sig said still not looking away from the Holo TV screen.

"Ruby Rose." Ruby said cheerfully, she noticed the boy on the couch didn't say anything. "….And your name?" she hopefully.

"Squall." He said flipping a page in his magazine, not looking at Ruby.

"Don't let the late response get you down, Squall was just as happy as we were." Julius said.

"After all Glynda's his mom too." Sig added.

"You and Cash are brothers?" Ruby asked.

"Not by blood, well…we weren't born from the same person I mean." Squall closed his magazine.

"Oh, me and my sister aren't either, so your half-brothers?" Ruby asked trying to get a clear look at Squall. Squall turned to reveal his face had scar like Cash mirroring it, his hair was brown, and his expression cold, and his eyes were blue.

"Wow…" Ruby whispered.

"No, we became brothers in…a "very-different" way." Said Squall quietly.

"Oh." Ruby said with a hint of confusion.

"Squall did you think of anything to get Glynda for her birthday?" Julius asked.

"No, nothings came to mind yet." Squall said setting himself up straight on the bed, revealing he was wearing a white tank top and black leather pants.

"If I was gonna get something for my mom…" Ruby said catching the attention of all the boys. "I'd get her a basket of her favorite flowers." Ruby said quietly, not alert to all she was saying. Ruby shook herself out her moment of silence, and noticed that the 3 were staring at her. Ruby started stammering, while waving her arms around. "Uh-Uh J-Just stick with the basic! …Ya know." Ruby said with a nervous laugh.

After an awkward moment of silence, Squall got up from the bed, his face deep in thought.. "Hmmm, that does give me in idea."

"We'll take whatever we can get, since you're here you want go a few rounds?" Sig finally revaling his face to Ruby showing his spiky hair and slitted eyes both black. He held up a controller.

"Oh my gosh, is that an original Vale produced, Assassin's fighter controller!?" Ruby squealed.

"Yep, I know we can play games with our scrolls, but some things take a more applied tool." Sig said with a gleaning smile.

Ruby took hold of the controller. She stared in silence, gushing over the controller. "You guys are the coolest!" she exclaimed raising the controller over her head.

Chapter end.