Disclaimer - I do not own RWBY

The Talons

-Chapter 9 start-

YANG - THIS IS SO BORING!1!

RUBY - What class are you in?

YANG - Grimm Studies, since Dad's at home with you Scathach is running the class, I can't do anything because she's just looking for an excuse.

RUBY - What is that about anyway? Dad won't tell me.

YANG - I'll tell you later.

RUBY - That's what you always say.

YANG XIAO-LONG HAS BEEN SET TO BUSY

RUBY - Yang?

Hello?

Anyone there?

YANG - Dammit she noticed that I was typing on something and she took my scroll, I'll talk to you after this class.

RUBY - Alright, I'll talk to you later Sis.


"Now what am I going to do?" Ruby sighed as she dismissed the window, the screen disappearing into the now ever-present portrait of Yang. Three bars came off from the side, coloured red, blue and green, representing Hp, Ap and Sp. It was almost exactly like a party icon in a game, though she supposed she shouldn't be surprised at that.

Glancing to her side she spotted the pile of textbooks her sister had given her a few days before, all the second year textbooks as well as several first aid books. Ruby had mentioned that she could grind levels by studying and Yang had pulled out all the books she didn't need anymore. She had gained nearly 50 levels in her various subjects, each going up by 5-10 levels.

Her intelligence had increased by 6 over the past week, getting her to 26 and unlocking her a new ability.

{Trained Aura (Basic)} (Passive) [MAX]

[Your Aura has grown more potent. Ap*2]

1560\1560 Ap

That was definitely a welcome skill, even if it caused her father to panic when she told him about her Aura suddenly doubling.

Apparently a person's Aura increasing at the rate Ruby's did usually led to an Auric Collapse, a state where the Aura begins to overload the body and mind and cause damage to the person. It can cause the mind to degrade, the body to collapse and even cause death.

After that she had spent an entire day being watched by her father, being unable to even study because it would only increase her aura even more. She couldn't work out because of her injuries, she couldn't study because of her father and the only thing on TV was daytime talk shows that made her want to rip out her remaining hair. So she took to trying to train Zwei, with mixed results.

Good news, she gained 3 levels in her {Animal Training} skill.

Bad news, he only listened to her about 1/10 of the time and even then it was just sitting.

More good news, all the skill ups had caused her to level up. She was now level 18, by a single experience point. Literally only 1.

Bad news, her father had noticed her looking towards the books and was now confiscating them.

"Ugh, you have to be the only father who stops their child from studying." She whined, looking away with a pout. A small chuckle being the only response as he placed the books out of her reach.

"You have to be one of the only children who defaults to studying." He retorted, walking back over to her and sitting on the sofa next to her. "It's just until I'm certain that your aura isn't going to cause any harm." He tried to placate her, picking up the TV remote and putting the news on. "Let's just watch the news."

With a click of a button the small hub activated, a light streaming from the top, projecting a hologram into the air. The image flickered before suddenly turning a deep blue that lightened the further up it went. Suddenly it flicked to an image of a group of faunus with picket signs in front of the Schnee Dust Company Mistral Distribution Headquarters.

"With the leadership change still ongoing within the White Fang tensions are high, with a schism building up between two halves, the half who want the current High Leader Ghira Belladonna to remain in power and the other half who want power to be fully handed to the more militant Sienna Khan." A male voice spoke calmly over the image. "Violence once more broke out at what should have been a peaceful protest after a brick was thrown into the protesters hitting one of the younger protesters. It was quelled swiftly by Belladonna but this is the third Civil Rights Protest in a row that has ended in violence causing concern over the next planned protest in Vale. The next protest will be at the Schnee Dust Company's Vale Distribution Headquarters on June 4th."

"Thanks Cyril, now we go over to April with the weather." The voice of Lisa Lavender spoke as the piece ended, changing over to a map of Vale and the surrounding areas.

[Event added to Journal]

"Wait." Ruby blinked, getting her father to look at her as she looked at thin air. "{Journal}."

A new screen appeared containing nearly a dozen tabs with sub tabs beneath them. "{Help Journal}." She intoned hoping to get some more information, she was rewarded with another pop-up.

This is the Journal, it is the repository of all the information you have recorded with the {Gamer}.

The Journal is split into sections that cover the main information stored within. Events, Character Bio's, Enemy Bio's, Equipment Bio's, Item Bio's, Geographical Information, Global Lore, Local Lore, Crafting Recipes, Collected Documentation and Personal Notes.

You can get more information by clicking on each tab.

"Now you tell me I have this? Why wasn't this mentioned before?" She almost yelled, flailing her right arm in frustration, almost hitting her father.

"You know, I think we should play some games just so you know what most games have in them." He father admitted, watching her carefully. "Your power seems to be based off of RPG systems so it would probably help to play a few."

"But they're so slow paced." She whined. "I used to get bored of them so easily."

"Well, just think about it as semblance training, if that journal comment says anything you just proved you can miss very simple things. Best to see what might be possible." He responded pulling out the remote to the TV and switching it to the games setting. "Just sit here, I'll load up an RPG you can play with one hand and then I'll make some lunch for you. Just relax."

"Fine." She sighed, grabbing the scroll which acted as a controller and placing it on her lap.

"Once again, I don't think that there are many other kids who would complain in your position." Her father remarked as he selected a game. Dungeon Quest 15. "Have fun."

Rolling her eyes she reached down to the controller, activating it as the game popped up. 'Fine, let's see how this goes.'


"Miss Xiao-Long please stay behind." The blonde mimed from where she was sat, her friends laughing at the impression from where they surrounded her. "I wasn't even using my scroll and now she's taken it for the day." She rolled her eyes, getting a noise of commiseration from the group.

"You know how Scath is, any opportunity…" Her friend Blau replied, letting it trail off. Yang sighed at the reminder, grabbing the sandwich off her lunch tray and taking an angry chomp out of it. "C'mon Yang, this isn't anything new, she hates your family."

"She's not even a huntress, she's just a duelist." The largest member of the group snorted at that, deep, rasping chuckles following.

"That doesn't stop you from almost pissing yourself every time she looks at you." He chuckled as a handful of fries hit him in the face, the blonde not even looking up from her sandwich. "Hey, I'm not wrong."

Swallowing the bite she put the sandwich down and turned to the boy, raising an eyebrow. "And what are you implying Gregory?"

"Yeah Gregory." Blau theatrically raised her own eyebrow, watching the larger boy with a smirk.

[Signal Academy Student]

Blau Leandra - Lvl 17

[Signal Academy Student]

Gregory Flavo - Lvl 16

'This is still so cool.' Yang thought, looking at the levels above their heads. "Oi Sett, what do you think about this?"

[Signal Academy Student]

Sett Khenet - Lvl 19

The faunas' fluffy ears flicked in response, his eyes slowly creeping open to reveal tired golden eyes. A yawn filled the air as he sat up, rubbing his eyes irritably. "What?" He asked looking at Yang with a light glare. "You know what, I don't care, I just wanna nap."

"Oh c'mon Setty." Blau chirped, dragging him over to her. "You can't sleep your whole life away."

"Hey, my family is nocturnal. You humans are all the idiots who insist on being awake during sleep time." He snapped back, his voice lacking any heat as he subconsciously snuggled into Blau's side.

"Yes, yes, us humans and three-quarters of the faunus are the idiots who don't go to bed at a reasonable time." You could hear the fond smile in Greg's voice as he spoke, a small thud sounding as he lightly kicked Sett's shoe.

"I need to sleep before my next class. Shut it." He hissed, closing his eyes and resting his head on Blau's shoulder.

"Well this looks cosy." Jeanne had walked over as they were speaking slapping her hand down on Yang's shoulder. "I need to borrow Yang for a moment." Before anyone could speak she had pulled Yang up and was dragging her away from the table. "I'll give her back in a few minutes."

"At least let me walk on my own." Yang's voice floated over to them as she was dragged off.

"Silence at last." Sett sighed, his face relaxing.

"I wonder what the seventh years want with her." Greg wondered, looking at the blonde that was being dragged off. "So we still going camping on the weekend?"

"Yep, I've got the tent and mine and Sett's sleeping bags." Blau nodded, glancing down as Sett's right eye opened to glance at her. "I know you Sett, there is no way you brought a sleeping bag all the way from Menagerie."

"I remembered what was important." He defended himself, closing his eye again.

"Sett, other than clothes and your weapon kit, the only thing you had in your bag was snacks from Menagerie." Greg snorted, taking a bite from his lunch.

"As I said, the important things." He grunted, decidedly keeping his eyes closed.

"Anyway, you're bringing the food aren't you." Blau asked looking at Greg who immediately grimaced.

"No, I'm bringing snacks." He immediately rebuffed her. "I'm on a tight allowance and living in the dorms, I can't afford to buy four people six meals. Foods on Yang, she said we can raid her cupboards."

"Where are we setting up?" Sett spoke, his voice quiet, like he was barely there.

"We're setting up in a clearing near Yang's house, it's far enough out for some good camping and if something goes wrong her Dad'll be only a few minutes away." Greg told the boy, leaning forward with a teasing grin on his face. "Of course you would know this if you weren't sleeping all the time."

Blau let out a short snort before slapping down Sett's hand. "No Sett, no middle fingers for you." She shook her head at the boys before glancing over the room at the table Yang had been dragged over to." What do you suppose that's about?"

"Hell if I know." Greg shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Do you have any idea?" He addressed Sett getting a grunt in response. "Translation?"

"He knows, but he can't be bothered to say." Blau responded, glancing at the faunas. "You're lucky I speak grunt." She chuckled at the grunt Sett let out before seeing Yang on the way back. "Speak of the devil, we can ask her now."

The blonde threw herself down into the chair, grabbing the remains of her sandwich and taking a massive bite from it. "That bad huh?" Greg asked, taking a sip from his soda.

"My sister has a lot of fans in seventh year." She snorted at that, taking a swig of her own soda. "They were asking after her, that was fine… then Sollise was Sollise."

"He isn't the easiest person to get along with." Blau agreed, shifting slightly. "What did he say this time?"

"He was insulting my Uncle." She admitted with a sigh. "I shouldn't have snapped as much as I did but… family's a sore subject for me at the moment." Shaking her head slightly she hung her head backwards, not looking at her friends. "Anyway, I think Jeanne is planning to kidnap my sister this weekend. She's quite fond of her."

"Are you gonna tell your sister about this?" Blau asked with a grin.

"Hmm… Nah. Let's leave this as a surprise."


"So she's just been sat here all day?" Yang asked from the kitchen, glancing out at her sister who was still just playing the game. "So this is why she didn't answer me when I messaged."

"Yeah, she's just been playing that game." Tai sighed, watching as the girl manipulated the controller with one hand. "She's never had this level of concentration before. Normally she'd be bored after a few minutes, it'd be just too slow paced for her."

"But she didn't have her semblance before." Yang sighed, bringing up her own ability list. "When I joined her party I gained some skills of my own. Gamers Mind (False) part of it basically keeps me calm, I'm guessing that Ruby has the true version of it which means it's even more powerful on her."

"So she's able to pay attention for much longer than normal." Tai nodded, stroking his beard. "That's why she was able to study for ten hours without complaining. But she hasn't eaten either, I've left sandwiches next to her but she's completely blanked them."

Yang turned her head slightly, pulling up Ruby's character profile. "She has plenty of stamina left, 1400 points of it, that's just under twenty three and a half hours left without food before she would run out." Yang shook her head as a timer went off, she quickly moved over to the hob, picking up a saucepan full of pasta and draining it through a colander into the sink. She quickly threw the pasta back in the pan before pouring a jar of sauce into it, stirring it around. "Still, this can't be healthy. Hey Dad, serve the food I'll grab Ruby."

She quickly swapped places with her father, almost throwing the wooden spoon into his face before walking over to the television. "Ruby, it's time to eat." She waited for acknowledgement, standing there for nearly ten seconds before deciding enough was enough.

Her hand slammed down on the controller, ripping it from her hand and sending it clattering across the floor, almost immediately Ruby started blinking stupidly, glancing at her empty hands. "What?" Slowly she looked up, catching her sister's eyes, her expression pinching in confusion. "Yang? Aren't you supposed to be at school?"

"Ruby, I got back two hours ago." She sighed, reaching her right arm forward to help her sister stand. "You've been so engrossed in that game that you completely ignored me when I got back. C'mon, it's dinner time."

The girl blinked a bit before reaching forward with her right arm, allowing Yang to grab the splinted limb. She stumbled slightly as she stood, Yang having pulled just slightly too hard. "Up you get." The blonde said as Ruby regained her balance. "I bet you'll be glad when you get that cast off."

"Only four more days." She nodded, stretching slightly. "Then a week more before my arms'll be fully healed."

"Then the eye." Yang nodded, walking back towards the food bar. Their father was just placing the bowls down on the bar as they arrived, the pleasant smell wafting through the air.

[Dried Pasta with Premade Sauce]

[Item Type - Food]

[Quality - Average]

[Effect - Restores 40% Sp when consumed]

"Average? I think that's a damn sight better than average." Yang almost yelled upon seeing the description. Her father looked at her slightly confused before shaking his head. Ruby's head jerked slightly as she read the description.

"I think it's because everything's premade." She piped up, her eyes running over the words in front of her. "It says the quality is affected by the quality of the ingredients." Ruby finished as she sat at the bar. "What's your cooking level?"

"Skills" Yang said to the air, looking at the pop up in front of her and scrolling through. "It says I'm a level 57 {Intermediate Cook}. That means I'm good enough to… work the line in a diner." Her face was beginning to purple, her eyes lighting up red with an unholy shine. "I'm starting over."

The blonde turned around, stalking into the kitchen before beginning to rummage through the cupboards, pulling out a slightly dusty cookbook. "Yang, we've already got food done, you don't need to start again." Her father spoke, moving over to the girl who just elbowed him away.

"I'm not serving 'average' food." She grumbled, finding the page she was looking for. "I need flour, salt and eggs." She murmured, going to the fridge and grabbing the eggs.

"We don't even have a pasta cutter." Her father called after her as she walked across the kitchen. The blonde ignored him continuing to grab the ingredients before pulling out a bowl. "C'mon Ruby, let's eat." He sighed, moving back to the bar with the cooling food.

"You're going to be eating this whether you want to or not." Yang called after them, her father rolling his eyes in response.

"You can force feed your Uncle when he gets back, we're eating the normal food." Tai shot back, sitting down slightly harder than he needed to. Ignoring his eldest daughters protests he started serving the pasta into two bowls placing one in front of Ruby and one in front of himself. "Now why were you so engrossed in that game?"

"Hmm?" She glanced up from where she was grappling with her fork, trying to grasp it in her splinted hand. "Oh, I get skills when I finish the game. I don't know what but I'll get a skill." She nodded, finally getting the fork in her hand.

"Is everything semblance related for you?" He asked, sighing at the nod he got back he started to stab at the pasta, more than slightly annoyed.

"I think it's cool." Ruby defended, picking up her fork and awkwardly shovelling some pasta into her mouth. "It gave me an awesome pair of knives."

"It gave you a pair of knives?" Her father slowly asked, his brows furrowing as he looked at her. "How?"

"Oh, the quest I was doing when I was injured said it would give me a unique weapon upon completion." Ruby replied, nodding as she spoke. "So when Uncle Qrow killed it, it counted as me completing it so it gave me a pair of knives as my unique weapon. I know they're called the [Raven's Talons] but I haven't been able to pull them out because of my arms." She continued, waving her cast towards her father at the end.

Taiyang stilled upon hearing the name of the knives, his face going blank. "Did you say Raven's Talons?" His eyes bored into hers with an intensity rarely seen. "Show me." It wasn't a request.

The blades tumbled to the table, her splinted hand unable to hold them as they were pulled from the inventory. They were sheathed in hard black leather sheaths, a point of metal on the very end, capping the sheath. An intricate picture of a raven taking flight was etched into the leather the pictures filled with red, a red dust crystal being placed in each eye.

With shaking hands he reached forwards, picking up one of the blades and pulling it out of the sheath bringing it up to his face to examine it. The blade was single edged, curving downwards early before curving back up, creating a larger belly on the end. The metal was a metallic red, the metal being impregnated with burn dust. "How?" He whispered, swallowing as he stared at the blade. He pushed away his food before pulling out the other blade, examining it. This one was impregnated with gravity dust, the blade a metallic black.

"Those look fancy." Yang commented as she looked at the blades, flour staining her face. "Why do you look like you recognise them?"

"These knives, how?" Tai whispered, placing the blades on the table.

Suddenly he jumped up, running to the door and outside, the dogs chasing him out. The sound of the shed door slamming open echoed through the open door. His frantic rummaging could be heard as boxes were wrenched open from where they sat, the contents could be heard scattering across the floor as he threw the boxes away. "Where are they, they have to be here." He yelled as he tore through the shed.

It was nearly five minutes later that he returned looking defeated, his eyes turning warily to the pair of knives sitting on the table. "Summer was making them as a surprise present for Raven, they were supposed to be ready for your birth but you were born early. They fell to the wayside after she left, they were never finished, Summer just couldn't look at them without crying."

Yang's spine had gone stiff at this, her eyes staring at the blades. Ruby had tilted her head, looking at the blades in confusion. "If they weren't finished how do I have them finished?"

"That's what I want to know." Tai quietly said, looking at his younger daughter. "Because I saw the incomplete blades the day before you were injured, but you're saying you had the complete versions a mere day later. That… I need to talk to your uncle about this."

With that he turned around, grabbing his scroll as he walked out of the house the door locking behind him.

"This semblance is fucking weird." Yang was just staring at the knives and glancing at the door their father had just left.

"Yeah." Ruby agreed he eyes lingering on the pair of knives, the silver orbs shining as they drank in all the details of the knives. "I guess we just have to wait for Dad and Uncle Qrow to get back."

"Yeah." Yang agreed as she almost reluctantly returned to cooking. "They'll figure out what's going on."


"Should I have told Dad that I think my semblance is sentient?"

"...Yes Ruby, yes you should have."


OC Names (that aren't obvious)

Skye Scathach - Scathach was a Scottish celt that was famous for training Cú Chulainn. She lived on the Isle of Skye.

Sollise Madadh - Sollise is based off of Cú Chulainn, Sollise Madadh means Light Hound in Irish Gaelic… I Think. Cú Chulainn was known as Ireland's Child of Light and the Hound of Ulster.

Sett Khenet - Sett - Set the Egyptian god of the desert, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners, Khenet is the currently accepted way of saying Yellow in Ancient Egyptian.

Ask for anymore you want explained.

Authors Note - That one took a while.

The Recovery Arc is now over, we have a new arc next chapter. Sorry it took so long I have had a lot happen in my life since I last posted.

Now time for BFA