Welcome back everyone. I apologize for not getting this chapter out on Saturday like I said I would. I'd already been up for over 24 hours trying to write this chapter when I finally got the inspiration I needed. My body finally decided enough was enough and started going into hibernation so I figured I'd lay down for a couple hours. Sixteen hours later I wake up and realize I'd forgotten to set the alarm to get me back up. This chapter is a bit different from the previous ones, so I hope you enjoy it. Here we go, a day late and a lien short.

Chapter 24

Ruby watches smiling as her friends return to their camp. She and Weiss had had a productive day. Another memory had surfaced, nothing major, just an incident where Weiss had been embarrassed while out in public, but the heiress had repressed the memory. After that, the two of them had worked on gaining control of the other's semblance. Ruby's glyphs were no larger than they had been, but she was getting the hang of summoning them quickly, and Weiss had been able to successfully activate and then deactivate the speed semblance without running into anything, and without needing Professor Goodwitch's assistance.

Ruby was smiling at the scowls on the faces of her two teammates. She had told them that morning that she wanted them to gather edible and medicinal plants, and apparently the two of them had gotten distracted, or more likely her sister had distracted her partner, and they had forgotten to bring anything to carry their cargo in. Velvet had remembered, and had a canvas sack almost filled with various plants. It looked like Blake had decided to make a crude basket out of some willow branches, and had stored her collected plants in this for transportation. Yang, being Yang, had simply opted to carry everything in her arms, and had likely dropped a fair portion on the way.

The three girls sorted out their collection into edible and medicinal piles. Velvet had a wide variety having decided to collect samples of all the plants she saw that she knew so as to show the depth of her knowledge. Blake's collection consisted of fewer varieties, but larger quantities of each. Yang's haul included a third pile, that consisting of plants that she thought she recognized but couldn't recall for certain, but what drew Ruby's eyes was a pile of bright red berries displayed very prominently at the forefront of Yang's collection.

"Y-Yang, where d-did you get those berries?" Ruby stammers as her eyes grow large.

"I found a small field of plants with these berries on them and I figured they looked too good to pass up." Yang says in an offhanded way.

"Y-you didn't eat any of them, did you? Those can be toxic if eaten, you know that, right?" Ruby asks, looking at her sister in concern.

This catches the attention of the other three girls, while Shadow looks on with a bemused expression on her face.

"Oh no, whatever shall I do. I ate a couple handfuls while I was picking them." Yang gasps out, placing her hand over her heart, a look of shock on her face.

As the others look on, Yang's face splits into a wide smile. "Ruby Rose, do you honestly think I wouldn't know what wild strawberries look like? I was the one that taught you to recognize them, and then had to keep you from eating an entire field full of them after your first taste."

The rest of the group snickers at the display, and Ruby sighs in defeat. "Alright Yang, you got me. Now, are you going to tell me where that berry patch is, or do I have to threaten you for the information?"

Laughing at her sister, and teasing her with her love for the red berries, Yang says, "I'll tell you later Rubes. Right now I'd like to find out from you what had you so upset this morning."

Looking at the three who didn't already know, Ruby lets out a sigh. As was her habit, she had checked the drone footage before returning to the campsite. So she knew how much Shadow had already told them, and exactly how much she had left out. She knew Shadow had barely skirted the edges of the full story.

Beginning with the discussion the two of them had had the previous evening, Ruby explains what had transpired between them. She explains about Shadow interrogating her about what had happened while Zezolla had been in control, the demonstration of how to create the powerful acid from dust, the effects of that acid on the corpse of the squirrel and the not so subtle threat to Weiss's voice.

At this point Weiss makes a very unladylike choking noise and holds her hand over her throat. "Ruby Rose, why didn't you tell me that this woman had threatened my voice earlier?"

Looking at the heiress with a sheepish expression Ruby replies. "I'm sorry Weiss. We didn't really talk about what happened last night, concentrating more on this morning's discussion. I know you would have wanted to know about this sooner, but it never came up before now. I'm sorry for not telling you about the threat, but I don't think it's something we need to worry about for now. It takes her a while to prep and create the acid and I honestly believe that she would have to catch you while you were asleep for it to be effective. She would have to catch you while your defenses were down, and, really, I doubt you, of all people, would ever lower your defenses while around anyone other than the rest of team RWBY."

Weiss is about to refute that, but then realizes that Ruby is one hundred percent right. "You're right. I always seem to have my defenses up, no matter who I'm around. You three are the only ones I seem to be able to relax around. Still, you should have told me about the threat before this." She smiles at her girlfriend to remove any sting from her words, but then flicks Ruby's forehead, causing the younger girl to jerk back in surprise. "Don't try to shelter me from the threats against me, dolt. It's not as if I haven't been threatened in the past, it comes with the territory."

"Heheh, okay princess. I'll tell you about any other threats I learn about more quickly in the future." Ruby says as she rubs her forehead.

After this brief exchange Ruby continues telling her friends about the rest of the discussion she'd had with Shadow the previous evening and then their conversation that morning. She also explains how she has come to terms with her role in the deaths of some of the Faunus that didn't make it out of the tunnel. She intentionally leaves out any mention of what Weiss had revealed of her past, leaving it up to the heiress whether or not to talk about the incidents. An almost imperceptible shake of her head tells Ruby that Weiss doesn't feel like talking about them at the moment and Ruby gives a tiny nod of understanding.

The Bumbleby pair know that something is being left unsaid, but realize it has something to do with Weiss rather than Ruby and so decide not to push the issue, yet.

80km South of Team RWBY

Ash closes his eyes, asking the spirits around him which of them he had offended and what he could do to appease them. That's all he can figure would cause him such bad luck. He had requested assistance from Beacon to help secure his employer's dig site against the grimm. The last cargo transport that was supposed to have brought in some of the defensive weapon emplacements as well as some valuable mining equipment had been brought down by Nevermore and the forces he had on site weren't entirely adequate for the task.

His employers, Athéhsa and Brúnt Okwari, had also placed a request for a team to clear the grimm out of the area around the crash site so that a salvage operation could be launched and they had informed him that a team from Beacon had accepted the assignment. He could only hope that team was more competent that what he had received.

Of the four young men that had arrived the previous afternoon, he had already been forced to discipline two of them. He'd seen their kind far too often before, self-entitled bigots the lot of them.

Previous afternoon

Not even thirty seconds after the bullhead had departed Ash hears the short skinny boy with the green mohawk mutter something about the hunter sending his pet dog to greet them rather than coming himself. Time to remind these pups of their place in the hierarchy here.

As he approaches the four would be hunters, he mutters to himself, but loud enough that they can hear him. "I sent a request for hunters in training and they send me four yapping pups, one of them doesn't even have its eyes open yet."

"Who're you calling pup you mongrel?" said green mohawk.

Ash growls inwardly thinking, 'Strike two kid.' "I'm calling you four pups, and pups you'll remain until the second one drops and your voice settles into a single octave. Now I suggest you shut your trap and listen up. My name is Ash Ma'iitsoh and I'm the hunter you were sent to shadow. You're here to help defend this mine from predation by the grimm, not to question my leadership position. For those of you who can't see clearly, I am a Faunus and the next one of you who calls me a dog or a mongrel will learn the difference between a dog Faunus and a wolf Faunus such as myself. Come with me and I'll show you the barracks you'll be staying in, hope none of you are shy as you'll be sharing the bunk house with about a dozen of the workers here, and I warn you to keep a civil tongue. Start spouting any of your human supremacist anti-Faunus garbage around here and someone will take you to task, seeing as how there is currently a grand total of four humans at this base."

"Fine, house us with the humans." mohawk says.

"Shut it Rus." the tallest of the four growls out a bird with its wings outstretched emblazoned on his breastplate.

"No Cardin, if there are humans here we should be housed with them, not forced to bunk with a bunch of animals." mohawk replies.

"I'm with Russel on this one, Cardin." says the boy with shoulder length blue hair.

The boy with the seemingly permanent squint just facepalms and shakes his head as big bird (or Cardin as these two have called him) says with exasperation. "Rus, Sky, you two are absolute morons aren't you?" At the confused looks from mohawk (Rus) and blue bell (Sky), big bird (Cardin) continues. "He just told us there are a grand total of four humans here, so, unless one of you is a closet Faunus, we are the only humans on this base."

"Well, at least two of you know how to use your heads for something other than to keep your ears separated. Please tell me one of you two is the leader of this group." Ash says with a chuckle.

Big bird nods his head. "Cardin Winchester leader of team CRDL. These are my teammates Russel Thrush," he indicates the kid with the mohawk, "Dove Bronzewing," indicating squint, "and Sky Lark," indicating blue bell.

Ash looks at Cardin. "Winchester, as in the Winchesters?" he asks.

Cardin nods his head, and Ash lets out a whistle. "Try to keep your family name under wraps around here. The only way you could wave a bigger red flag around here is if you'd introduced yourself as a Schnee. I'm sure you understand that your family doesn't have the most glowing of reputations among the Faunus."

"Why are we standing around here talking to this mutt? We need to contact the bullhead to come back and pick us up. I'm not sleeping in a zoo with a bunch of wild animals!" Exclaims mohawk.

"Listen runt, the only way you're calling that bullhead back is if you can get past me to the communications building." Ash says, indicating a moderately sized building located next to a one hundred foot tall transmission tower. "Now shut your trap and follow me to the bunk house." Ash turns his back on the four and starts towards the barracks.

The whisper of steel on leather is the only warning he gets, but years of experience in the field and battle trained reflexes ensures that warning is enough as mohawk pulls a pair of long daggers, almost short swords, from the small of his back and lunges.

With practiced ease, Ash draws his Yatagan sword from its sheath on his right hip, the slight forward curve of his blade easily catching and deflecting the strikes as he quick draws his pistol/kukri from the holster on his left hip. Noticing that each dagger appears to have a MAD cylinder above the handle Ash decides not to waste any time on the off chance that they aren't merely ornamental. The yatagan in his right hand continues to direct the blades away from him as he strikes out with the left hand, the back of the blade/barrel of the gun connects solidly with the boy's forehead rocking him back. Ash follows through with a leg sweep and as the youth lands on his back Ash's booted left foot is across his throat and the barrel of the pistol is pointed directly between his eyes.

A shout to his right indicates that one of the others has decided to join the fray. A quick glance shows that blue bell is wielding a halberd and is bringing it down in an overhead chop. Ash could easily dodge the blow, but the moron would then, likely, chop his own teammate in half. Instead, Ash steps into the chop, as he does the kukri/pistol barks loudly and mohawk's body spasms once and goes limp.

The side of Ash's sword connects with the handle of the halberd between blue bell's hands and Ash allows the edge of the blade to slide down the handle towards his opponent's trailing hand. Aura is a wonderful thing, keeping one safe from most harm, but it can't overcome millennia of ingrained reflexes. The natural reaction for anyone when a sharp object is racing towards one's hand intent on removing at least a couple fingers is to move the hand. In that instant where Ash's blade is racing towards his hand instinct kicks in, overcoming the boy's combat training and he releases his grip leaving him badly overbalanced. A quick shift in momentum and Ash pushes the halberd from its previous path and slams the back of his blade into the wrist of the youth's forward hand, numbing the fingers just enough that the heavy weapon escapes his grasp and lands in the dirt several feet away. Stepping forward and around the youth, Ash slams the back of his blade into the base of blue bell's skull. The boy's eyes roll up into his head as his knees buckle and he pitches face first into the dirt.

Looking over at the other two, Ash sees Cardin gripping the shoulder of the other boy, Dove, preventing him from charging forward as well. "Dove, stop!" the taller of the two shouts.

"But that grimmspawn shot Rus in the face without any remorse. Don't you care that he just took out two of your teammates?" Dove shoots back.

"Yes, I do care that he took out those two morons, but Forever Fall, need I say more. Anyway, that wasn't a gunshot. I've been around firearms all my life and I can tell you what type of ammo someone is using just from the sound of the shot." Looking over at the wolf Faunus, Cardin says, "Sonic dust, unless I miss my guess. At that range it knocked Rus out. He'll wake up with a headache and ringing in his ears, but his headache will be nothing in comparison to what Sky will experience when he wakes up."

Seeing that the other two aren't going to be immediately attacking him, Ash sheaths his weapons and kneels down, rolling blue bell onto his back so he's not inhaling dirt. Standing up and dusting himself off he says to the two remaining boys. "If you want to collect your friends and their gear I'll show you to the bunk house now."

Walking over to the dropped halberd, Cardin picks it up, triggering the transformation mechanism and collapsing it into its travel form. He hooks the collapsed weapon onto his own belt and then hauls Sky up into an upright position and proceeds to drape him across his shoulders in a fireman's carry.

Dove retrieves Russel's weapons and replaces them in the sheaths on his back and then lifts him into a fireman's carry as well.

Seeing that they are ready, Ash leads the way to the barracks. Before they enter he points out the infirmary, where they can grab their friends some pain killers for the headaches they're going to have when they wake up. He also points out the mess hall informing them that, because the mine operates using three eight hour shifts, food is always available, but what is being served and how much is left depends on what the cooks last placed out in the food service area and how long it has been since the area was last filled. The meals are provided by the company and deducted from the worker's pay, but the prices are reasonable. Seeing as the four of them are students at Beacon, all they need to do is scan their scrolls at the register at the end of the buffet line and their meal will be added to the report being sent back to Beacon. With that he leaves them to their own devices, informing them that, starting the next day they would be on first shift which was from 08:00 to 16:00.

Present

Ash shakes his head in exasperation, thinking once more, 'I asked for trainee hunters and I get, not just pups, but pups who should still be at their mother's teat.'

He had roust them out of bed at 07:00 that morning. Sure he had told them their shift started at 08:00 but he suspected that they would likely laze about until almost 08:00 and then rush to try and find where they were supposed to be or simply sloth about and show up late. Neither option was acceptable as far as Ash was concerned.

Once he had them up and fed he led them to an open area and told them he wanted to inspect their weapons.

He'd started with blue bell's weapon. It was a simple collapsible halberd, no dust receptacles, no gun features, nothing. The thing wasn't even well balanced. His inspection revealed no maker's mark, for which he was glad. Any smith who would have sold this weapon shouldn't be allowed near a forge. All the parts were off the shelf equipment and he suspected he knew where the boy had gotten it.

"Which combat school did you go to?" He asked the boy.

"I was home schooled. You got a problem with that?" Blue bell responded.

"I've got a problem with your attitude, but not with you being home schooled. Who taught you how to build a weapon?" Ash suspected the answer but needed confirmation.

"I taught myself." Blue bell answers, puffing up his chest.

"I thought as much. If you were in a class I was teaching on weapon construction I'd give this a D... minus... tops. That's only because it collapses properly. Your center of mass is too far down the handle so it's unbalanced. Like any axe or hammer type weapon you want your center of mass in the head of the weapon, to maximize your striking power. This weapons center of mass is actually in the handle which lessens the impact. Let me guess, you read that all the great hunters built their own weapons and wanted to be like them?" At the boy's nod, Ash continues. "Great hunters are great, not because they made their own weapon, but because they are just that good and had a weapon they could rely on. This weapon will make your hits weaker and tire you out quicker. Honestly, why hasn't your combat instructor at that school not chewed you out for using such a rotten weapon?"

Blue bell mutters something under his breath, but Ash's Faunus hearing catches it anyway. "What was that? Speak up so your teammates can hear you."

Gritting his teeth in anger, blue bell repeats what he had said. "I've never submitted the weapon for inspection before. I built it but never registered it as a new weapon."

"You see, this is the type of teammate you have. He gives himself a major disadvantage, and puts your lives at stake all because he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of registering a new weapon and having it inspected." Ash glares at the boy, handing him back the weapon. "Put that away and don't ever let me catch you using it. Once I'm done inspecting the rest of the weapons I'm taking you over to the armory and getting you a replacement weapon to use while you're here."

Ash moves to stand in front of Dove, extending his hand for the boy's weapon.

Dove silently hands over the sword, and Ash can already feel that it is well balanced, something that can be tricky since the revolver's barrel is to the side of the blade rather than above or below it. He doesn't find a maker's mark on the weapon so it's not a commissioned piece, but it doesn't look as if it was built by the boy so it's likely a high quality production weapon.

Looking a Dove, Ash says. "You were home schooled as well I take it." Dove nods his head. "You didn't make this weapon yourself." Dove shakes his head. "So it's an off the shelf weapon?" Another nod. "It's a decent enough weapon. I'll want to see how accurate you are with it later though. Also, you might want to think about hiring someone to do a commission piece for you. They'd be able to balance the weapon specifically for you, giving you better control over your strike. Still, as I said, it's a decent enough weapon to train with." Ash hands the sword back to Dove and moves on.

Mohawk presents his weapons hilt first so that Ash can't misunderstand his intentions. Ash chuckles inwardly asking, "Which school did you go to?"

"How did you know-" he begins to ask, but is cut off when Ash holds up his hand.

"Your three teammates all have a bearing that screams money, but your bearing says you grew up on the street." Ash takes the paired weapons and begins his inspection. "I'll ask again, which school?"

Mohawk mutters something and Ash tells him to speak up. "Lantern Institute."

Ash looks at mohawk, checking for any deception in his stance, seeing none he says to the boy. "I've heard of Lantern. It's not as refined as Signal, but if you graduated from there and made it into Beacon then there must be something more to you than you've shown me so far." As he inspects the daggers, Ash notices mohawk (Russel) shooting glances at his teammates. 'Kid mustn't have told his team what Lantern is. Upper crust pups likely think it's some sort of boarding school.'

Ash sees that the MAD cylinders are real, but that only one chamber in each has an actual dust crystal, the other three on each dagger are colored glass. "How good are you, really, at manipulating dust?"

"A bit above average." Russel responds.

"Then why are three out of the four chambers on each weapon loaded with colored glass? I know Beacon provides it's students with access to dust as they need it." Ash asks.

Russel looks at the ground as he speaks. "In order to draw more than one type of dust per weapon you have to be enrolled in the dust manipulation classes."

"And you'd rather hang out with your team than spend more time in class. It wasn't so long ago that I was young and just wanted to hang with my friends, but you're holding yourself back. Your team could also use the support of a dust mage, unless Mr. Winchester is actually a dust mage that is." Seeing the grimace on Cardin's face, Ash continues, "I'll take that as a no. After we get your teammate a replacement weapon, I'll show you where the dust stores are. I want you to load up your weapons with dust and I expect you to practice using the dust this afternoon." Ash hands the blades back the Russel. "Those are well crafted, you should be proud of your work."

Stepping in front of Cardin, Ash notices a slight smirk on the boys face. As Ash holds his hand out for Cardin's weapon, the boy triggers the activation stud initiating the transformation sequence. "A mace, interesting. Not many people go for crushing weapons, preferring swords and axes."

Cardin shrugs. "As a huntsman my primary foes will be the grimm, which are protected by bone armor. Unless a bladed weapon can generate a significant amount of force, it's unlikely to penetrate the armor of the more heavily protected ones. With a blunt weapon, even if I can't crush their armor, I can turn their insides to paste if I hit them hard enough."

Ash nods his head at this reasoning. "This is a commission piece, I recognize the maker's mark. I see you've augmented it with a red crystal for some extra punch. Have you tried using a sonic crystal?"

The boy nods. "Made my ears ring too much."

"That is one of the problems with sonic crystals unless they're properly channeled away from the user." Looking closer at the handle, Ash continues, "Add a bit more insulation to the handle and you could use a lightning crystal without having to worry about electrocuting yourself. That might work better for you. I don't see any mechanism for a gun transformation though." He looks questioningly at the boy.

"I was never particularly good with guns." He says simply. At the questioning look he's getting, Cardin continues, "Yes, I know. It's the height of irony that I'm a Winchester and I can't use a gun. Haha, let's all laugh at Cardin who can't hit the broad side of a barn with a bazooka." The heat in the boy's voice indicates that this has indeed happened to him, likely at every family gathering.

"Why would I laugh at you? You're smart enough to recognize that you're not good with guns, so instead focus on your strengths rather than try to become mediocre in your weaknesses." He hands the mace back to Cardin.

"Now that the inspection is out of the way, we need to get a replacement weapon from the armory and some crystals from storage so that you can actually fight up to your potential. This afternoon I'm going to spar against you so I can judge your combat proficiency, then tomorrow you'll be on the wall keeping an eye out for grimm. They've been getting bolder recently so stay alert." With that Ash starts off in the direction of the armory.

The sparring hadn't been as bad as it could have been. They definitely needed to work on their team coordination. Of the four of them only Russel and Dove seemed to have anything close to coordinated attacks. Cardin was very talented with his mace, deflecting most of the shots Ash had directed towards him and the one shot that got through Ash had to concede was simply a lucky shot. Blue bell, on the other hand, had difficulty defending even against melee attacks. During the group spar, Cardin had become frustrated at one point and ended up almost clipping one of his own teammates with a wild swing.

While it was past the end of their normal patrol shift time, Ash still had the four of them out on the practice fields.

Cardin was sparring with one of the most agile soldiers on the security team, all he had to do to be able to quit for the day was hit his opponent five times. So far he had landed one hit in the past five minutes, and Ash could tell that Cardin was getting frustrated, which was actually the point of the exercise.

Dove was squaring off against some training dummies. Ash had noticed that, whenever he wanted to fire the pistol part of his weapon, Dove would take a couple steps back before aiming and firing. Ash had tasked the boy with taking swings at the dummies and firing the pistol during the swing to hit vital parts of the dummy.

Russel was running through a similar exercise, but was learning to unleash his dust attacks in combination with his weapon strikes. At Ash's suggestion the boy had also included earth and ice crystals in his left dagger to augment his defenses, and he would occasionally erect a barrier with these while performing attacks with his other hand.

Blue bell still hadn't impressed him in any way, and was currently working to improve his defense against attacks. One of the soldiers who was proficient with staff weapons was showing the boy the proper techniques to use the handle of the weapon to parry and deflect attacks. The boy was either too dense to learn, or was so bigoted that he didn't think a Faunus could teach him anything since his technique hadn't improved a bit.

Suddenly a roar of frustration rings out from Cardin's location, followed by an explosion as his mace misses the target once again and the charged crystal unleashes its blast. Ash waves off Cardin's opponent and steps into the ring himself. "Alright, that's enough for now Cardin." he says.

"But I haven't finished yet. I've only hit him twice." Cardin's frustration evident in his voice.

"Actually, you're exactly at the point I wanted you. I was testing your limits. I noticed during the group spar that you almost tagged one of your own teammates with a wild swing at one point, and, judging by the way he dodged you've tagged them before. This exercise is to help you maintain control. Whenever you lose your cool, you will take a five minute break and then resume your spar, but your hit count will reset to zero. Now, go have a seat and cool down." With that Ash walks out of the ring.

Walking over to the ring where blue bell was, Ash signals them to pause for a moment. "Is he even trying to learn from you?"

"Not as far as I can tell. I get the feeling he thinks he's too good to learn from a Faunus." replies the soldier.

"I thought as much." Ash signals to three other soldiers nearby, who come over to see what their leader needs. "This pup needs to learn to defend himself, you've seen him getting instructions for the past half hour so he should have the basics down. Arm yourselves with staves and surround him. For the next five minutes I want you to take turns attacking him at random. If, at the end of those five minutes he's blocked at least seventy percent of the attacks he can have the rest of the day off. Otherwise, give him a two minute break and then resume." With that Ash walks away, leaving the boy and his soldiers to their tasks.

Ash walks over to where the dummies are set up. Dove and Russel are still both working on their respective tasks, but it seems they are getting more comfortable. Dove's strikes are coming quicker and his shots are more accurate. Russel has the chambers of his MAD cylinders spinning rapidly, coming to rest only long enough for him to send off an attack or raise a barrier.

When Dove next has to stop to reload, Ash calls out to them. "Alright, that's enough for now. Russel, your aura has to be getting low with the number of attacks and barriers you've been throwing around. Dove, it looks like you've gone through a couple boxes of ammo while practicing, police your shell casings and then call it a day both of you. Russel, you really should think about signing up for those dust classes, you are severely holding yourself back from your full potential if what I've seen is any indication. Now get going, grab some grub and rest up for your first day on the wall tomorrow. I'll probably keep your teammates here for another half hour before I release them."

Later that night a very bruised Sky and an annoyed Cardin return to their bunks, neither of them wanting to talk about their training, instead insisting that they all turn in to be ready for tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you don't mind that I switched to team CRDL and their mission. Believe me, this was an important chapter for the story. Next week we will return to team RWBY + 3. Reviews and comments are always welcome and remember to Keep Moving Forward.