In the city of vale two people had woken up for the first time in nearly a week having been kept in a medical coma so that they wouldn't aggravate their injuries.
Sky Lark and Russel Thrush had been woken up earlier in the day with most of their injuries healed and where currently scheduled for rehab.
"So I never expected to be among the living after that fiasco." Russel said breaking the silence between the last to members of team CRDL.
Sky merely grunted, "I'll say."
"There was too many of them, I saw Cardigan and Dove go down after I did, how did we survive?" Russel asked.
"I don't know Russel I remember someone else showing up but at that point I had given up, I think it was that red haired girl, um Ruby I think it was. How did she even get us out?" Sky answered and asked.
"She probably had help, she had two teams with her the last time I saw her." Russel said.
"Still Russel I can't help but feel I'm missing something."
"You'll think of it," Russel let out a yawn "I'm going to take a nap." with that the boy was out. Sky laid awake for a bit trying to remember just what he had done as his memory started to blur, after a while he fell asleep without recalling.
xxx
Winter heaved her bags as she stepped off the bullhead and stopped, looking around.
It had been over a week since she had boarded the ship for travel. She had stayed confined to her room on the vessel for much of the trip lost in her own thoughts. so many things had become clear, the near senseless hatred of the Faunus that had been ingrained into her and Weiss's upbringing, why her father had always seemed so disappointed with both of his children. and now that she found just why she had been slated for death by her own father she found her hatred of her sister for being chosen heiress slipping away now that they had the full story.
Spotting her sister and her team winter continued down the ramp. When the two sisters stood face to face they stood in silence for a moment.
"The world feels a lot lighter now Weiss all things considered." Winter said breaking the silence
"It's good to see you knowing we're not about to fight each other," Weiss said.
"Well let's get moving, introductions along the way before the press spot us." Winter said looking around.
"Good point let's go." Weiss agreed.
They were soon moving away from the airport and onto the streets of Vale.
"So how have you been Weiss, eating well any new hobbies?" Winter asked.
"I've been well Winter, started trying to advance my Glyphs faster, and to work on my Aura control." Weiss responded.
"So, any progress on that one?" Winter asked
"No and I'm not sure if there ever will be now." Weiss responded.
"I can see why, but it is still a large advantage in a fight. I'll see about working with you on it later for now are you going to introduce me to your team Weiss or do I have to do so myself?" Winter asked half joking.
"Well I wanted to find a place to sit but you probably want to meet with someone. For starters we have Ruby Rose, my partner and leader of team RWBY," Weiss said introducing her team.
Ruby waved "Nice to meet you"
"Next we have her sister Yang Xiao Long." Yang waved giving a "Hi there."
"And finally we have Blake Belladonna." Blake gave a wave. "Our fellow Faunus. All of them are why I've made it this far"
Winter gave a nod, "It's good to meet you. I have a contact for a job and housing for a while at beacon."
At this team RWBY looked appalled at the notion of having Winter teach them. Weiss was more confused her sister already had a job, but she would ask later..
"I'm teaching advanced dust applications so I don't think I have any of you,"
They relaxed hearing that she wasn't teaching anything that they were taking as a course.
"Well let's get moving, no point putting this off." Winter finished as they kept walking taking the lead.
"You do know the shuttle for beacon won't leave for another five hours and we have no other means to get to the academy." Yang lied causing Winter to deflate as the rest hid their grins.
xxx
The group spent the next few hours wandering around the city of Vale showing winter some of the more local sites they had found over their time there getting to know Winter. and relaxing in general.
They arrived back at the school on the "first" shuttle back. Winter bid them farewell before walking off to meet with the headmaster as team RWBY went back to their dorm.
"You know Winter was a lot different than what I thought she would be like." Yang said as they entered their room.
"If you remember Yang both me and my sister have had rather life changing experiences in the last few weeks neither of us were overly nice and we would fight over things that hold no value now, always trying to gain that man's attention and now there's nothing. All the animosity is gone. its like Winter said it's like all the weight is gone." Weiss said with a sigh.
At this they nodded having some idea of what Weiss had been under.
xxx
Winter stepped out of the elevator into Ozpin's office, looking around at the Spartan interior only a desk with a large window behind it overlooking the school yards.
"Ah miss Winter I've been wanting for your arrival, I understand that several rapid changes have happened in your life over the past few weeks, and when you called looking for employment I was quite surprised at first at first considering your place in the Alas military, but everything was cleared up and yes all your arrangements have been made. Your quarters have been readied and your schedules will be sent to you within the week. Now miss Winter you've had a long trip and spent most of today out in Vale go settle into your room, miss Goodwitch will assist you if you need help, I would chat longer if I had the time but things are moving far too quickly."
At this Winter blinked not even having been offered a seat as Ozpin had kept working on the paperwork on his desk, she took in his appearance for the first time seeing just how haggard he looked he had bags under his eyes his shirt was buttoned wrong the collar of his jacket undone.
"Thank your sir."
With that Winter left his office never having left the doorway. Slowly she made her way through the school until she reached her room. Entering in Winter turned on the light and looked around taking in the room. It was large with a large bed in one corner with several desks lining one wall. A kitchenette and a small table occupied another area, two sat on her far right leading to a bathroom and closet. Walking over to the bed Winter dropped her bags and sat down.
Looking upward Winter clenched her hand this was her new life for now but she would make sure to do whatever she could to take her family's company away from that mad man. She had read the news reports that he had burned everything that he could get his hands on that was either hers or her sisters. And he had done it right on the front yard of the white manor before ordering the guards to shoot either of them on sight. Everyone was still guessing what had happened but they all had pieced together enough to know that there was a falling out in the Schnee family and both she and Weiss had been thrown out.
They had lost that battle but the war was far from over.
xxx
The following day found Ruby and Yang walking through the halls of the Vale hospital. They had just received word that Sky and Russel of team CRDL had been cleared for visitors, and Ruby was taking their team's weapons back to the last two members. Stopping outside of the room they were in Ruby swallowed.
"I can't do this Yang there goanna say I tried to kill them. You do it they won't say anything to you."
At this Yang let out a sigh. "Ruby sky entrusted his team's weapons to you when they were on their deathbed and now you're giving them back to the survivors, if they want to say otherwise all of their injuries were confirmed to be from a Ursa so they can say shit got it." At this Ruby nodded. "Good now get in there maggot!" Yang nearly yelled pointing one of her crutches at the door.
Ruby snapped to attention before hiking the bundle of weapons higher on her back "Sir yes sir." and with that she turned and walked inside.
Yang shook her head before turning to follow after her sister cursing that she still needed to use the crutches.
When Ruby saw Sky and Russel for the first time she was a little surprised, Sky looked fine other than the around his abdomen and a few bandages here and there, he was sitting up even. Russel looked like hell and physically he look fine but he was just lying there glaring at the ceiling.
Sky broke the silence first "That's what I was forgetting I gave our weapons to little red..."
"Yea well look at me she can keep them for all I care don't you remember severed spin and severed nerves. Look I'm happy you got us out of the forest in all but I just found out I might not be able to walk again." With that Russel shut up.
Ruby took a step back unsure of what to do,
"Um if you don't mind could you leave Azure Luna (blue Moon) in the corner by my bed the doctors don't want me to strain myself too much and I guess you can keep the rest of them if their families don't want them. I don't know their names either if you were going to ask don't let Russel get to you he's mad." Sky said seeing that they young girl wanted to get away.
Ruby nodded pulling out the halberd and leaning it in the corner away from Russel.
"If that's all then I'll be going then." At this Sky nodded as Russel let out a grunt. "Well by." And with that Ruby darted out of the room. Yang let out a chuckle from by the door before turning and following after her sister.
When she finally found her bouncing up and down by the exit Yang let out another chuckle "That wasn't so bad was it Rube's." At this all she received was a glare before Ruby turned to leave.
"And where do you think you're going?" Yang called after her, "Cause you're stuck here with me till my checkup is done. Remember?" At this Ruby deflated before trudging over to one of the chairs in the lobby as Yang laughed at her misery as she made her way over.
xxx
They finally made it out of there two hours later Yang was still confined to her crutches until they were certain that her insides had fully healed. this left Yang in a sour mood and Ruby was taking full advantage of it prodding her sister the whole way back to beacon.
When they reached their dorm they found it empty.
"So where do you think everyone got to?" Ruby asked
Yang for her part let out a yawn "Don't know, don't care, call them if you're worried, I'm taking a nap." And with that Yang crawled onto Blake's bed, that she had been using since she wasn't allowed to climb into her own.
At this Ruby nodded, setting down her new babies and pulling out her scroll. and sure enough there was a message. Both Blake and Weiss had gone with team JNPR for some more training and practice.
"I'm going to go meet up with the other's they went to train." Ruby said pulling out Russel's daggers and slipping them into one of her belts before putting crescent rose onto her back.
Yang only waved when she walked out.
xxx
Ruby found her friends at their usual training spot. most of them were resting, though Nora was still standing, it looked like she was trying to do something but couldn't and was now waving her arms in frustration.
Walking over to her friends Ruby greeted them
"Hey guys," They all waved, said hello and asked how things went; though Blake looked like she had just woken up. "Yang's still on crutches Sky took his hauberk back, Russel was mad because the doctors say he may not be able to walk, and even if he can he won't be able to use his Daggers... he still didn't tell me their names." Ruby stewed for a moment, "So um what's with Nora?"
"Nothing she's just trying to charge her semblance with her nervous system." Pyrrha supplied.
"Oh Well couldn't we just make something to generate electricity when she moves?" Ruby's asked.
"We told her that but you know Nora." Weiss quipped from where she was reloading Marnester. "And any plans on how to give me a faster reload time for Marnester?"
Ruby hung her head, "No everything I've come up with requires major modifications to the dust mechanism or risks setting off the dust, sorry"
"Well let's hear them"
"What?" Ruby asked in confusion
"Let's hear your ideas, I don't know about you dolt but I don't want to be overrun with Grimm because I ran out of dust." Weiss nearly snapped.
Ruby quickly began giving her idea's.
"Well the first obstacle is the part of the safety mechanism so the dust doesn't mix when you're reloading; it's just a simple rotating plate with a single hole for access and a track for stoppers to hold the dust in place. but this means you can only load each individually. My first idea was to make as spring loaded container that could put a set amount of dust into each container. But dust is largely to volatile for that and if there's some left over in there then we risk letting some out.
The second idea was to modify the exhaust port but remaking one way valves when dust is involved is not a good idea.
So we really have one option left just get more cylinders that you can swap out you can already pull the one you have out for maintenance so we just make more of them and tada fast, safe reload any where."
"I would have liked to not have to disassemble my weapon in the middle of combat." Weiss commented. "I need to remove the guard to do maintenance on the cylinder."
"That's where the work needs to be done" Ruby explained, "we need to make it so that you can pull the cylinder after you've used the break action for a normal reload instead just hit a switch or just pull and swap them out. We just need to re work the center pin and the guard so that we can pull the cylinder without the guard coming with it. And it shouldn't be too hard to insure that the exhaust port and the chambers in the cylinder line up if we don't adjust the teeth on the mechanism."
At this point everyone was looking at Ruby
"That's actually well thought out just how long will it take?" Weiss asked a little surprised.
Ruby thought for a moment. "Not sure never had to mill out a custom cylinder before unless you can just buy more and grind the front of them down so they can't lock in or modify the guard so it won't lock. thats where most of the time will go, playing with the design modifications to insure that everything continues to work right, and in your case doesn't explode in your hand. Also have you tried using a shield yet, Weiss?"
"I have not and I fail to see how this affects you making one for me."
"It's more of the type of shield take Jaunes for example standard halter shield design it covers a large area but can be difficult to move, or Pyrrha's hoplon styled much smaller however while it covers less it can be moved faster to block, or I could get you a tower shield a massive thing that most of us would have a hard time even lifting, but it would cover all of you." Ruby finished with a smirk as Weiss glared.
"Fine you win, can I borrow a shield?" Both Jaune and Pyrrha both offered their shields to her. She grabbed Jaunes without looking and tried to placed it on her right arm.
"Now normally you would use a buckler shield with a Rapier but you wouldn't be able to effectively block most blows as its only about a foot in diameter with only a single point of contact with your arm at the handle in the center of the shield, putting all the strain of blocking on the wrist. Stop a swing to late and kiss your arm goodbye with most Grimm. So we aren't going to try and teach you so for now you can try out those, and I get to try out these." Ruby finished holding up Russel's daggers.
"No your not" Ren cut in gaining everyone's attention.
"WHAT why not, Russel said to keep them and I want to learn to use them." Ruby wined.
"Because" Ren explained, "You need to learn your semblance before you should start work on something else. Besides those are dust daggers you need to learn how to use raw Dust to truly use them." Ruby just kept pouting not arguing as Ren continued. "Something Russel never did by the looks of it. Now look where it landed him. So," he tossed a sack to Ruby "Try and hit Weiss with those while she blocks."
Ruby opened the sack to find it full of steel ball bearings about three quarters of an inch in size. She pulled one out, seeming to weigh it in her hand. "Won't these hurt?"
"No worse than one of Yang's hits that's for certain." Most of them had a slight shiver at this, they had all seen what Yang could do, or had been on the receiving end of one of her punches. Even if she had been holding back they still hurt.
Weiss let out a sigh as she finished getting Jaune's shield on to her right arm the right way around. "We'll let's get this over with." getting into a ready stance feet spread shoulder width apart one foot slightly forward, shield held straight in front of her body her rapier held ready to thrust beside the shield, her stance was to high but the form was good.
"Bend lower at the knees and angle your shield to the side some." Pyrrha called to advise
Once Weiss was better prepared Ruby got into position herself, pulling out a few of the ball bearings and getting into a lose pitcher's stance.
"Try and use the smallest movement you can go for discretion you don't want to choreograph your attack." Ren called.
Ruby let out a huff, "let me learn to do it first." With that she threw the ball at Weiss who rolled to the side as the bearing flew through the space she had just been. It was slow to the point that it looked like a child had thrown it, but she had still reacted as if the shield wasn't there.
"Put your aura into it, charge it" Ren called
Ruby had already pulled out another one out and was holding it ready to throw, "I know that." Ruby yelled before she hurled the steel ball at Weiss.
The ball while thrown faster and harder still didn't have any of her semblance in it.
This one hit Jaune's shield and bounced off. Before anyone could say anything Ruby threw another one this one this one aimed to hit Weiss and forcing her to move the shield sending the ball ricocheting off the top edge.
Another one followed just afterward with even more speed. Weiss was moving before she even threw it, still it struck the shield.
Ren sat back and watched a small smirk on his face while not the way intended Ruby was making it happen, it was uncontrolled and sporadic, but it was working; and form and precision could be worked on latter.
But this was workable.
Everyone else was looking on with rapt attention as Ruby sent a near unbroken stream of
steel at Weiss, who was doing everything she could to not be hit with the projectiles, as Ruby was learning to be more accurate and hit around the shield if Wiess stayed still. and had a rate of fire to whittle away any walls she made with dust.
Eventually Ruby ran out of stamina and ammunition, and was forced to stop after nearly a half hour of continuous fire. Now the two were sitting down by their friends as Jaune and Blake spared under Pyrrhas eye helping to correct Jaune as needed.
"So what type of shield should I make Ruby?" Weiss asked as they rested.
"Not sure, on some of your dust attacks I've noticed you use your right hand normally while two hands on others so that complicates things, then there's the fact that you've never really used one before and would have to relearn how to work around one.
Your best bet may be to get a heavy gauntlet but it will cover less of you. However you had no trouble dodging all my shots so you don't need a shield for that."
"So in short I just need something small but strong enough that that ever hit's it won't get to me."
"Pretty much Weiss."
"Alright should be doable." Weiss said "So Dust dagger's I'm assuming that you want to learn to use them?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Ruby asked, "Are you going to teach me?" The young girl perked up. "Please Please."
"Not with that attitude I'm not." Weiss cut her off, "And first you need to finish your Aura training to a more than passable level. Think of it as incentive."
"Fine I'll keep working on my Aura." Ruby let out.
"Good, think of it as motivation." Weiss said cheering her up "My sister is going to start training me soon and that will soon take up most of my time so it will still be a while before before I can begin your study into Dust work. Truthfully it will take quite some time so we will only get to the basics in the foreseeable future."
"Alright, I've got it time to get to work then. We can't do anything less than perfect we've seen good enough and it won't cut it in the real world." Ruby said jumping up.
"Yeah. Nothing but the best survive." Weiss agreed
Ruby started gathering up the steel ball bearings that had been scattered around, to fire them again. Weiss was watching her friends spare, lost in thoughts. Ren and Nora were sitting near by, Ren looked to be meditating while Nora was all but bouncing in her seat and looking everywhere no doubt working in their own ways.
This was the start of their bid to get stronger they couldn't afford to not grow if they wanted to live, they all knew it and even when they were resting they were doing what they could to strengthen themselves.
Reaching down to where the others couldn't see her hand Weiss tried to form a glyph with just her Aura and hand.
A spot of light formed slowly expanding before it collapsed and vanished. Weiss glared at this, before taking a breath and trying again.
xxx
Yang sat to the roof of the dorm, red eyes looking up at the sky. She didn't like lying to Ruby but she didn't want anyone around for what she was trying. She had been up here actively pulling in energy since she came up after Ruby had left. If someone saw her they would think a sun had formed over there.
Yang let out a breath as she felt her Aura and for the first time she felt like she was full, but she knew she couldn't hold this right now something was going to break if she kept this up; as she could feel the energy seeping away from her by the second. With a sigh Yang pushed herself off the roof so she could stand before slowly taking a stance.
One foot forward and straight, the other back and angled, her knees and hips were bent, left hand in a closed fist at eye level. Her right was pulled back and to the side level with her shoulder.
Yang scanned the horizon for a moment looking for a free area before bending at the waist and looking up, finding a clear path through.
With a cry she threw the punch causing a shockwave and sending all the energy she had gathered flying away looking much like a comet as it streaked away. Yang watched it go, holding her arm out, she could still feel it for a while before she lost all control and it destabilizing and exploding miles beyond Vale.
Letting out a breath she turned to grab her crutches only to stop when she saw the state of the roof, it was on fire and in some places around her molten, she could only locate the remains of her crutches by the one charred and blackened rubber foot that was just passed the circle of destruction that Yang now found herself the epicenter of.
"Well shit."
"That's one way of putting it young lady." Yang stiffened hearing Miss Goodwhitch. Turning to look at the headmaster's assistant Yang swallowed "Hi."
"Miss Xiao Long would you mind pulling the heat out of the roof for me." Yang could tell it was an order.
"Yeah." Yang let out, before looking at the ground under her feet only to see that she was standing in a pool of molten material from the roof that, had burned away her shoes, and she had been sitting in moments before. At the moment Yang really didn't care for the implications for that.
Using her Aura she began pulling the energy out frosting the area over. once she was done she was picked up by Glenda and pulled towards her, setting Yang down next to herself, before turning back to the burn zone and beginning to undo much of the damage.
Yang just stood by and watched while looking down at her ruined clothes, the seat of her shorts were burned out with her panties, the edge around the hole was charred and flaking away. Her shirt was still intact and would survive with several new holes.
Glenda finished fixing most of the damage and turned to Yang crossing her arms and leaning on one leg. "Now miss Xiao Long just what happened here?"
"I'm too hot for my own good..." Yang said with a half hopeful look.
Glenda just started tapping her arm and foot.
"Can we have this later my rear is kind off hanging in the wind here and the draft is not wanted"
Glenda slowly grabbed her nose pinching it before pulling off her jacket and tossing it to Yang, "My office twenty minutes."
"Yes ma'am." Yang said, tying the jacket around herself as they both started walking to the door Yang moving as quickly as she dared with her injures.
When Yang entered Miss Goodwhitch's office she found the women seated behind her desk, working on some paperwork.
"Good you're here. Now just what happened on the roof?" she asked before Yang could take a seat.
Yang took a chair before answering. "I was working on my Aura control; I knew that it could be dangerous so I sought out an area where no one would be. I just never thought I would do that."
"We do have places set up for this Yang and you should know of them, so why aren't you using them?"
"Did you see the blast I let go, I've tried before none of them would let me gather that much energy. And what damage could I do to them if one even half as powerful got loose I had been working for nearly an hour and was at that level in a fourth of that time. Those rooms don't work for what I'm doing so I improvised. Truthfully I didn't think that I would melt the roof or light the building on fire.
Yang sat in silence why Glenda thought it over
"What am I to do with you, I know that it was not your intentions however you did risk not only your own life but the lives of everyone in the building. Your semblance is incredibly powerful more so than everyone I've seen in terms of raw power. It truly is something else. What you threw was enough to bring down any just about everything I've seen.
I know that you won't stop if I ask you to, but I can't have you endangering the students, staff and facilities.
They haven't been used for some time however we have several outdoor facilities that should work for you. Follow me."
Glenda stood up with Yang following her. They made their way through Beacon eventually leaving the normal school grounds. A short trek through the forest to the side of the school and they turned coming to a steep embankment nearly three times their height, following around they came to a gap with steep wall showing the hill was nearly as wide as it was tall.
Passed the gap was a clearing, there was grass around the edges and a few trees same with the walls but the center was floored with concrete a hole filled with rain water in the center.
Yang stopped now knowing what she was looking at, the remains of a weapons test facility left over from the war.
"What."
"Come along." Glenda said not stopping.
Yang nodded and walked after her into the old test facility. "If you guessed that this is a remnant from the great war you are right, while ordered to be dismissed and dismantled the former head of Beacon at the time decided against it and instead covered the whole thing in heavy tar paper followed by over two feet of dirt. over the years different students and staff have used different parts of the facility and insured that they are maintained if they should be ever needed again. And now we come to you, I know that your friends will find this place if you use it but they are moving into dangerous territory themselves and may require use of this place as well, so does this suit your needs?"
Yang could only nod as her mind was still processing that she had been given free access to a military testing ground for Dust knew what, it would take everything she could throw at it she was damned near certain.
"Well then get to work." Glenda said motioning out to the center of the area. Yang grinned walking forward this would be good.
xxx
A week later and classes started up again as many of the staff and students had finally been relieved by the Vale army. Many of the teachers for combat oriented classes changed their normal classes moving along the pace. Peach started teaching emergency Dust use for everyone in first aid, and how to use it as a weapon from loose rounds.
Port began emphasizing on weak points of grim and how to take them down quickly with his stories. Goodwitch had them fighting more often with different groups, higher year students, to unfavorable odds, and bringing in live Grimm from Ports stash for them to fight against, finding her exceptional students in different fields for development later. Even going as far as to advising students openly of what they needed to work on and how in many cases.
Ruby had taken to bringing the ball bearings with her and tossing them with her semblance or hands when she was board.
Weiss would work with her glyphs when she thought no one was looking, or even just under her desk during a class, they had measured and planned out her gauntlet and now only needed time to make it.
Yang and taken to seeing how much energy she could hold before her hair started to catch fire and spent much of her free time out in the woods working on her semblance. she had also picked up weights for everyone and most of them used them.
Blake was without a skill she could focus on was often sneaking away to work on her skills or found working on her Aura or hoping to find another lead on the White Fang.
Jaune was taking every opportunity to work on his Aura, in and out of class, causing him to be drained of energy on many occasions; he did his best not to slack off on any other training ether.
Nora spent much of her time working on designing some light armor trying to make it generate electricity without Dust, after Weiss revealed how with magnets and copper.
Ren continued to work on his Arua more frequently leaving him even more exhausted.
Phyrra had, after Weiss telling an alternative method of creating electricity, put magnets into Akou enabling her to electrify the shield. She also practiced much like Ruby moving steel ball bearings with her Semblance.
Other students had begun following their trend of finding any way to train as odd habits started to pick up. Many were seen holding Arua active or leg and arm weights as well.
xxx
It was now three weeks since the ill-fated mission to forever fall forest the nearly the entirety of beacons student body and all of the staff with several strangers, no doubt the families of the newly fallen, stood around a set of plane stone obelisks on a secluded spot overlooking the emerald forests. many of the students still sported injuries.
Ozpin made his way to the front of the crowd slowly with Glinda following shortly behind him, with Ironwood. He stopped at the obelisk. The entire clearing was silent save for the occasional sob. After a few moments he spoke.
"To day we gather to honor the memory of the newly fallen, all of them taken far too soon. they lie under the cost of Humanities and Faunuses fight for survival. Those of you who bear arms with them do not let their sacrifices go in vain, but do not seek to readily follow them into death. Treasure what time you still have form bonds with those around you and grow in strength, and remember their sacrifice."
He waved to the numerous obelisks
"Here are the names of the fallen hunts men, all of those who have paid the price of our continued survival; this is perhaps the highest honor that hunters can achieve. To be immortalized in stone with those who came before and those whose their sacrifice in able to come after them until we are finally all safe."
Ozpin let his words hang for some time looking at those around him.
"I cannot tell you to remain on this path. Any of you are free to leave just as you are free to join. But know this, this fate that we will without a doubt face, could you let another pay that price. Would you let another take the burden you've chosen just so you can live easy?
How many of you are still able to stand your ground against this dark tide we face, how many of you would be willing to play their final hand to insure our survival? and that others will be free of the nightmares made of hatred we face?"
They were all quiet as Ozpin finished, he looked into their eye's each one individually seeing their wills tempered and resolve hardened in fire.
He smiled knowing that none his students could be called that any longer they were soldiers and hunters now every last one of them.
"Death is not guaranteed here those of us strong enough to survive can thrive and became known for it and still hold full hands to play. It is then your job to ready the next generation as the staff here does their best to prepare you.
I wish you all the best of success in your work as Hunters and as protectors of life. It is then your responsibility to train the next generation"
Ozpin turned placing a white flower before one of the obelisks and stood aside. Ironwood and Goodwitch followed after him saying a few words and placing a few flowers, slowly the rest of them payed their respects.
Slowly they all departed till only the families and a few friends were left Sky and Russel where among them. Slowly Ruby made her way back with Cardin's mace and Dove's sword back in their original condition.
She approached slowly standing off to the side waiting to be approached.
Eventually she was noticed.
"Girl you had better have a damned good reason For having my sons mace." this had to be Cardin's father. He was massive standing well over six feet , blonde hair, and more muscle than anyone she knew.
Ruby steadied her nerves, "It was entrusted to me along with the rest of the weapons of team CRDL when they were nearly all dead in the forest, I came to ask what the families of the deceased wanted done with their sons weapons not to be yelled at. Now what do you want me to do with their weapons."
At this the Winchester was taken aback but he recovered quickly.
"You think that you can use it you little twerp, you look like you can barely lift Breaker let alone swing it. Yet I hear that you used it, and I call rubbish." He leaned down getting in Ruby's face. "Prove that you're worthy of carrying the legacy of a Winchester. Fight me with Breaker, show me that you're stronger than my son." he challenged.
"I will, I'll show you that it was more than just chance that I was given these weapons." Ruby said not backing down.
"You'd better." With that he turned and walked away calling to his wife to follow after him. She followed swiftly behind not looking back.
Ruby watched them go waiting until they disappeared before dropping to her knees.
"What have I done?" She despaired before falling onto her back staring up at the sky.
Only to have her view blocked as Sky stood over her.
"Opened a can of worms I'd say."
Ruby just groaned, "I know. Um do you know anything about Mister Winchester?"
Sky shrugged, "Not really, though from what he talked about Mister Winchester he said he could teach everyone here a few lessons, doubt that though, and he taught him everything he knew."
"So I'm fighting a bigger version of him then lovely." Ruby let out.
"Well good luck." With that Sky turned and walked away leaving Ruby on the ground. Ruby stayed there for a moment before looking around to see that she was now alone by the memorial.
Dropping her head back to the ground Ruby glared at the sky. "Couldn't you have helped me up first?"
After gathering herself up Ruby pushed herself off the ground and went running off leaving a trail of rose petals.
Weiss, Blake, and Yang all jumped when the door to the dorm slammed open. Weiss faced the door a Glyph already formed in her hand ready to unleash it. Blake vanished from where she was on the bed. Yang was ready to jump from her bed and strike whoever barged in her hair having burst into flames.
They stopped when they saw it was Ruby, they had dropped their attacks.
"I picked a fight with Cardin's dad." Was the first words spoken causing shock to show on her team's faces.
Weiss was the first to recover. "YOU DID WHAT!"