"And you're sure about this?"

"Positive. I know what I heard."

Ruby and Yang were currently informing the rest of the team about everything they heard in Ozpin's office.

Blake began to pace through the dorm. "If this is true… we should prepare. Even if it isn't for certain, it would be wise to be ready for an attack. We know what we're up against."

Weiss nodded in agreement. "She's right. Honestly, I think we should go to Ozpin and confront him about this news. I know we're only students, but we've fought this thing before."

Ruby crossed her arms behind her back and gently kicked the floor with one of her feet. "But… then they'll know we were listening in on them when we shouldn't have been."

Yang placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Hey, I'll be in just as much trouble as you, but we need to do something about this. If those things are on the loose here, we need to do something about it."

The younger girl looked at the determined faces of her teammates. "Alright, let's go."

They started to make their way out of the dorm, but Weiss stopped them. "Wait. Before we go to the office, we should go grab our weapons, just in case."

"Good idea." Ruby opened the door and started heading down the hallway. "But let's make it quick."

The hurried down the hallway towards their lockers. Each one of them quickly pulled out their weapons, then made their way towards Ozpin's office. Once they were outside of it, Ruby stepped forward and gently knocked on the door.

Yang rolled her eyes and pushed past Ruby. "Ruby, this is important, no time for that." She opened the door and stepped inside, followed by her teammates.

As they walked into the room, they noticed Ironwood, Ozpin, Qrow, Taiyang and Glynda surrounding the large desk towards the back of the room.

Taiyang stepped forward until he was standing between the desk and Team RWBY. "What are you girls doing here? And… why do you have your weapons?"

Yang stepped closer to her father. "We know about the Grimm."

"Uh… What do you mean?"

"We know that there's Mistrae at the school. We want to help."

Ironwood walked towards the team. "Girls, there is no reason for you to be here. We have the situation under control."

"C'mon, don't lie to them. We don't know the first thing about this situation."

"Qrow!"

"Don't get all snippy with me because I'm right." The hunter took a drink from his flask, then joined Ironwood and Taiyang. He looked at the team before him and smiled. "Besides, they have more experience than either of you two with these things. Let's at least hear 'em out."

"Thank you, Uncle Qrow." Ruby stepped forward and stood straight. "If there is a threat, especially one that we are familiar with, we deserve to know anything that you do. Keeping us out of the loop not only isn't fair, it's also dangerous. You are limiting yourselves to a smaller group of people, when it would be far more efficient to expand the team, then search for the threat and neutralize it."

Weiss smiled at her girlfriend. The sight of how mature she had become made her proud. Qrow's face had the same expression as hers, while Taiyang was unsure whether to be shocked or proud. "Ruby..."

"Furthermore, if you want to keep this quiet, it would be smart to at least have a few students going around the school with this knowledge. It would be quite suspicious to have a bunch of people that don't even live here wandering around the school with their weapons."

Qrow nudged Taiyang in the side and smirked. "She makes a good point, Tai. What do you think?"

The blonde man looked at Ironwood, who simply gestured towards Ozpin. The headmaster stood up and walked over to the small team. "Ruby Rose."

The sight of Ozpin standing before her intimidated Ruby, but she held her ground. "Y-Yes, sir?"

"You never cease to amaze me." He looked at the faces of the men next to him, then turned back to Ruby. "Very well. If I may ask, how would you handle this situation?"

Ruby looked at her team and grinned. "First, I would make sure the student body is somewhere secure. Get them away from any high-profile areas. Keep them inside the school and in their dorms, if we can. Without causing mass panic, of course."

"Alright, what would be your next step?"

"Find a way to isolate the Grimm, then eliminate them."

"And how would you do that?"

"Narrow down the suspects of possible Mistrae, then lure them all into one spot. Keep guards by the students just in case something manages to slip by. Everyone involved will obviously have to prove that they are not a Grimm."

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, then smiled. "Very well. Team RWBY will stay here and help us decide our plan of attack. Come this way, please." Ozpin walked back over to his desk and sat down, and the team quickly joined him.

Taiyang stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed. "When did..." He smiled and a small tear appeared in the corner of his eye. "Ruby… She's really grown up, hasn't she..."

Qrow placed a hand on his shoulder. "Both of your daughters have. You should be proud of them. It's not easy to have this job and be so carefree and happy at the same time, but still stay focused."

"I am proud. I just… I wish I could have been around more to see it happen." Taiyang stared at his daughter with wonder. "Can you imagine the look on Summer's face if she could see her now?"

Qrow chuckled. "She would probably cry a lot, then make a ton of cookies for her like she always did."

"Probably."

Qrow threw an arm around the blonde man's shoulder. "You know, she reminds me of her a lot."

"Me too. The cape, the focus, the never-ending desire to help people… she really is just like her mother."

Qrow craned his neck to the side and groaned as it popped several times, then patted Taiyang on the back. "Well, not that I don't love walks down memory lane, but we have more important things to talk about right now."

"You're right. Let's get started."

"Okay, if General Ironwood was right, and those soldiers are Grimm, then we need to play around that. An impromptu training exercise would be a good idea, I think. You could do it in the morning."

Ironwood, who was sitting in a chair, leaned forward and clasped his hands together. "There isn't time for that. These Grimm are on the school property around all of the students. We need to act fast."

Ruby shook her head. "I don't mean to disrespect you general, but I couldn't disagree more. These Mistrae have been here for two days already. If they were planning something along the lines of a surprise attack, I think we would have seen it by now. I think they're waiting for something."

Ozpin couldn't hide a small smile tugging at the sides of his lips. "She makes a fair point, James."

The general leaned back in his chair and sipped a cup of coffee. "… Very well. Ruby, please continue."

Ruby nodded. "Like I was saying, a surprise training exercise could isolate the soldiers away from the student body, should anything bad happen. You probably won't be able to get too far away from the school, so try to at least get them away from the campus."

Ozpin pulled out a map from under his desk and placed it on the table in front of the young girl. He dragged his finger across it, stopping on a small green patch to the south of the school. "There is a small, empty plot of land that we reserved for a new arena for Glynda's class. We never made use of it. It could prove very fruitful for something of this nature."

"Great. So, the soldiers will be there. Professor Ozpin, can you make sure all of the students stay in their dorms somehow?"

Qrow pointed to a large room on the map. "No need for something like that. Just hold a meeting in the main hall. Every student would be right under our noses."

"Oh… yeah. That would be better. I guess that slipped my mind." A worried expression appeared on Ruby's face.

The hunter smirked and softly nudged his niece. "Don't worry too much about something like that. I'm on board with this plan so far. Keep going."

Ruby nodded and pointed to a small room on the map. It was positioned between the back side of the school and the main hall. "Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"You and Uncle Qrow stay here. If anything bad happens on either side of the school, you can react fast."

"Alright, sounds good. What's next?"

"While everyone is biding their time, my team and I will scout the rest of the school out to find anyone lingering. We will have to be at the meeting in the main hall at some point, though. We would be suspicious otherwise."

Weiss was in shock with just how put-together Ruby's plan was. She didn't have that long to plan for this thing, and the fact she could come up with a strategy this quickly was mind-boggling to the heiress. "Ruby?"

The younger girl looked towards her girlfriend. "Yeah, Weiss?"

"Won't patrolling the school at all be out of the ordinary? It wouldn't exactly be safe to roam around like that without weapons. Seeing as this would be during class hours, it would be very out of place."

Ruby pondered the statement for a while. "Right..." She furrowed her brow and smiled after a moment. "Okay, we put our weapons all in one locker. We will be roaming around as a group, so it won't be that bad, as long as we only have to wait for one locker."

Taiyang stood up and walked close to his daughter. "That would be extremely dangerous. You girls would be defenseless."

Ruby grinned at her father. "That's why you and Uncle Qrow will be so close. That way, if our weapons don't get there in time, you will."

The blonde man sighed. "Alright… just be careful out there."

"We will, Dad. Besides, We can't carry our weapons around without being suspicious, but that doesn't mean you can't. You two are professional hunters that just got back from a mission. Nobody should bat an eye if you have your weapons on you. You will already be good to go."

"Right..." The thought of having to be fast enough to save his daughter made Taiyang very nervous. But he would trust her for now, as long as things didn't get out of hand.

"Now, once everyone is in place, we need to check to see who is Mistrae. Naturally, the fastest way would be to cut everyone so that they would bleed, but we can't really do that."

Ozpin pulled his coffee cup away from his face and sat it on his desk. "I believe I have a solution to that problem. Do not worry about that part of your plan. Although, it only affects the students. James, you will have to figure out how to handle the investigation of your men."

"Understood."

"Sweet." Ruby looked at the expectant faces of those around her. "I, um… I guess that's it. Is it… Is it good?"

Qrow ruffled the young girl's hair. "I would be lying if I said I didn't have my doubts about some things, but it's nothing you could help. Besides, I don't see anyone else coming up with a better plan."

Ruby let out a sigh of relief and relaxed her shoulders. "Okay… So, what now?"

Ozpin sat down in his chair and placed his hands on his desk. "Now, we wait."

Weiss tugged on the bottom of Ruby's shirt. "Come on, let's head back to the dorm. It looks like we've got out work cut out for us."

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

Ruby and Weiss began to make their way towards Ozpin's door and were met by the other half of Team RWBY. Yang was grinning and scooped her sister up in a hug. "I'm so proud of you! You're such a great leader!"

Ruby struggled against her sister's embrace. "Y-Yang… can't breathe..."

"Sorry." Yang sat the young girl down and smiled at her. "I couldn't help it."

Blake placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "She's right, though. We're all proud of you."

"Well… thanks, you guys."

Taiyang walked over and opened the door. "Ruby, you've grown up so much. I wish…" Taiyang's eyes wandered for a bit, then returned to his daughter. "I'm sorry I couldn't be around more while you were growing up."

"Don't worry about that, Dad. I know it's not your fault."

"That doesn't mean I don't regret not being around more." The blonde man threw an arm around Ruby's shoulders and hugged her from the side, then grabbed yang and pulled her closer to him. "I love you girls."

"We love you too"

The hunter kissed them on their foreheads, then stepped aside. "Now, you girls go get some rest. You're gonna need it."

"Thanks. See you in the morning."

Ruby was shaken awake by Weiss the following morning. "Ruby, it's morning. You need to get up."

The scythe wielder rolled over on her side and faced away from the heiress. "… Ugh."

She could hear Weiss let out an aggravated sigh. "Ruby, don't be like that. We need to get ready for your plan. You're the one that made it, after all."

Ruby sat up and rubbed her eyes. "What time is it?"

"It's seven."

The younger girl yawned. "But class doesn't start until nine… Why did you wake me up?"

"Because, you dolt, we have things to do before class starts."

"Like what?"

Weiss sighed and crossed her arms. "We should make sure everything is in order and I think it would be wise to go to Ozpin's office and see if there has been any new developments with the Grimm."

A groan escaped from Ruby's mouth as she stretched her muscles. "Alright, fine. Just let me wake up a little more first."

"Well, try to hurry."

"Yeah, yeah." Ruby got out of the bed and slowly walked into the bathroom. "I'll be out in a minute." After a few minutes, Ruby stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed. "Okay, I'm ready." Her eyes scanned the room and noticed that the other two beds in the dorm were empty. "Where are Blake and Yang?"

"They went down to the locker room already. They're probably waiting for us to get there."

"Okay, then let's go."

They walked out of the dorm and made their way to the locker room. While they were walking down a hallway, Ruby leaned into Weiss and placed her head on her shoulder. "I'm… so… sleepy."

The heiress rolled her eyes. "What time did you go to sleep last night? The last thing I remember you doing was reading something on your scroll."

"I… might have stayed up a little too late. I was just too nervous to go to sleep."

Weiss leaned her head on top of Ruby's and entwined her fingers with the younger girl's. "There's nothing to be nervous about. If we're careful, everything should be fine. I mean, I know these Grimm are strong and we've only fought them once, but they're only Grimm. This is what we were meant to do as huntresses."

"I guess you're right."

They reached the door to the locker room and Weiss stepped in front of Ruby and placed her hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry about today too much. I won't let anything bad happen to you, okay?"

"I'm not worried about me, I'm worried about everyone else."

"Just relax. You know as well as I do that everyone is perfectly capable of taking care of themselves."

Ruby nodded slowly. "Yeah… I just-"

Weiss cut her off with a kiss, which shocked her. "… What was that for?"

"It seemed like the only way to get you to stop worrying about today. Everything will be fine, I promise."

"Okay… thank you."

The heiress smiled and gestured towards the locker room. "You're welcome. Now let's get this whole thing set up."

They walked into the room and noticed Blake and Yang grabbing their weapons. "Hey, are you two ready?"

"Just about. We were waiting for you two to show up do we could put our weapons into your locker?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Why my locker?"

"Well, you're the leader, after all. It kinda makes sense."

"Okay, fair enough." Ruby walked over to her locker and opened it. "Alright, put your weapons in. Weiss, go grab yours."

The heiress opened her locker and picked up Myrtenaster, then placed it in Ruby's locker with the other weapons. "Done. Now, let's go see Ozpin."

Team RWBY slowly walked into Ozpin's office and looked around the room for any other people. They had grown accustomed to seeing at least one other person in the room besides the headmaster. Seeing nobody, Ruby cleared her throat, which caused Ozpin to look up from his desk.

"Oh, hello, girls. Can I help you with something?"

Weiss walked closer to the desk. "We were just curious if the plan is still being put into motion today."

"Yes, it is. Actually, Qrow and Taiyang our patrolling around at the moment, then they will head to the area Miss Rose designated for them."

"Thank you, Professor."

Ruby stepped forward until she was next to Weiss. "Um… professor Ozpin, can I ask you something?"

"Certainly."

"How are you going to get all of the students in the main hall?"

"I plan to make a simple announcement to gather the entire student body together. Why do you ask?"

The young girl shrugged. "I was just curious. I'm just… nervous, I guess."

Ozpin sat up straight in his chair and brought his coffee cup to his mouth. "Well, that's understandable. What you have been tasked with is very important. Having a few jitters is completely normal."

"What if… something goes wrong? It would be my fault."

"If something does happen, it will have nothing to do with your plan." Ozpin leaned onto his desk. "Ruby, not only am I your headmaster, I am also a professional hunter, which is something I have been for a very, very long time. If I thought your plan was flawed, I would have spoken up last night. There is nothing to worry about."

Weiss softly nudged Ruby in her side. "Told you."

The room grew silent, then Ruby spoke up. "Well, I guess we're just waiting around for the right time now, huh?"

"So it would seem."

"In that case, we'll get out of your hair. Thanks, professor."

The headmaster nodded and smiled. "You're welcome."

Team RWBY made their way out of the office and down the hall. As they turned a corner, they bumped into Taiyang and Qrow. "Oh, hey, Dad. What are you doing?"

"Ruby, you and the other girls come with us to Ozpin's office."

"What? Why? We were just leaving from there."

"We just had a little chat with Ironwood. Something… unexpected happened and he's gathering his soldiers together right now. The plan needs to happen sooner than we thought."

Ruby's eyes widened. "So… that means..."

"Yeah, it's time to start your plan."

Okay, I might as well get this out of the way... I know the chapter is almost an entire day late and I know it's a bit shorter than normal, and I'm sorry.

I really didn't have much time to write this week. I probably could have managed to write it in time if I really pressured myself, but it would have been rushed and sloppy, which is something that I don't think is fair to all of you. I hope y'all aren't too mad at me. I really am sorry. I'll do my best to make next weeks chapter extra long to compensate for this.

Now, since that's out of the way, it's time to do a selfish plug of another story. My first one-shot is up! It's been up for a few days, but I couldn't really mention it until I posted another chapter in this, so... yeah.

If you feel like reading something on the sadder side, go give it a read and leave a review if you want.

Anyway, Once again, I'm really sorry about this chapter being short and slightly delayed. Next week will be better. See you guys then.

:D