Ozpin was growing concerned. Despite his claims the test set before the students in which they must retrieve the relics was never random, or at least never completely random. The boy Jaune had been a bit of a wild card with his forged transcripts and Ozpin was well aware that he lacked combat capabilities. However, his being here was a remarkable sign of bravery. And before the Camera's had been taken out in their battle Ozpin had watched as the boy came up with rather intelligent strategies which combined with the silver eyed warriors ability to seemingly see everything allowed the battle to go well.
Yet the cause of Ozpin's worry remained, this level of cooperation between Grimm was not something these students should be able to deal with at their level and so he had already asked Goodwitch to take a bullhead to aid them. With her expertise it should be easy enough to deal with the Grimm. Ozpin just hoped she would arrive before anything bad happened to the students.
The terrain simply did not favor the students in this situation and the cooperation of the Grimm made it worse. As the Nevermore launched another wave of feathers at the students, most took shelter in nearby buildings. Only for the Death Stalker to crash into one of the walls causing it to collapse on top of Yang, Weiss, Nora, Blake and Ren.
Ruby had remained outside, she was able to protect herself from the feathers well enough and wanted to keep an eye on everything. When she saw the building collapse she was scared for those inside. Huntsmen were tough and chances are they were still alive under there, but a collapsed building wasn't the only problem facing them as the Deathstalker closed in on an unconscious Yang.
Jaune and Pyrrha may not have been caught in the collapse, but the two of them had been backed against the ravine and the Nevermore was swooping down on them. Even if they were able to use the structure built over the ravine to make a successful landing, neither of them had significant ranged firepower and the two would quickly be overwhelmed by the aerial combatant. It would only be a matter of time before they were overwhelmed if they were forced to go there.
Ruby wanted to be a normal girl with normal knees. Sure she also wanted to be a hero, but she was so embarrassed by her semblance's appearance that she had not even told her family. Still, she drew the line at people getting hurt because she wouldn't take action. And so tendrils emerged from under her hood.
Jaune and Pyrrha were getting ready to make a last stand against the Nevermore, the two of them were well aware of their combat capabilities. Pyrrha knew this was a possibility when she became a huntress, although she had thought she would have gone on at least a few missions before dying. Jaune was surprised at his own acknowledgement of what was happening. He, more than anyone, knew about his lack of combat abilities and so when faced with his own mortality was surprised at how he still stood his ground.
What the two were not expecting as they stood side by side ready to land at least one good blow before meeting their fate, was for the Nevermore to start falling. Before it had been diving at them, but the rate when it stopped flapping its wings and drifted off course it became clear that it was falling. Amazingly it had already started disintegrating before even touching the ground. Still this was no time to rest as they looked to the Death Stalker hoping that they could somehow help the others. Only to see half a Death Stalker. It had been in the middle of an attack on Yang when the Deathstalker simply lost the front half of its body.
Bewildered by the sudden turn of events the two looked to the other member of their group only to see that two tentacles had emerged from under the hood. A bit more cautious the two approached the young girl.
"Ruby?" Jaune questioned, a bit uncertain as the strange appearance was a little unnerving.
Turning, Ruby wasn't sure where to start with her explanation of what the two had just witnessed. On one hand she had just saved all of them from the Grimm, but on the other hand what she had just shown was significantly more dangerous than Grimm and didn't paint the best picture of her if she could do that the whole time. Still as Ruby went to explain a Bullhead quickly began descending on the students and Ruby quickly retracted the stalks.
"I will explain later, just please don't say anything!" Ruby said in a panicked tone.
Goodwitch wasn't sure what had happened to the Grimm as both were mostly disintegrated by the time she got there. She did find it a bit odd how quickly the Death Stalker disappeared, but just assumed it had been taken out first.
More importantly were the students currently trapped in the rubble, but Glynda was a powerful telekinesis user herself and unlike Miss Rose, Glynda was capable of lifting most of the collapsed structure in one go allowing for a quick extraction of the students. A quick check showed that all of them would be okay, nothing that a few days of rest wouldn't take care of.
The trip back to Beacon was a quiet one. Jaune and Pyrrha were not too subtly looking at Ruby who was in turn making herself as small as possible while watching over her sister. Glynda had moved to the co-pilot's seat and was making sure a medical team would be ready when they arrived.
The ceremony in which the teams were named was a bit of a somber one as those who had lost consciousness had not regained it yet. Still Ozpin made it clear that surviving had itself been quite the ordeal because of what the eight of them had faced off against and stated that he hoped no one would think less of them for what happened. Thus, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie were christened team SYLV or Team Silver led by Weiss Schnee. Meanwhile, Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos and the absent Blake Belladonna received the designation of team RANB or team Rainbow.
An hour later Ruby was in her room facing Jaune and Pyrrha. Blake was still recovering in the medical ward and the door was locked so there would be no one interrupting them.
"...You… Probably have questions…" Ruby started nervously.
"It's just I thought your semblance was telekinesis. Sorry if I was assuming things." Pyrrha questioned apologetically wondering if she was in the wrong here.
"Well, that is what I have shown. Even my family doesn't know my… actual semblance. IT'S not that I don't trust them or think they won't accept me it's just well... hmm"
"So what is your semblance if you don't mind." Jaune questions still kind of wondering what a semblance is. Still this question gets a sigh from Ruby.
"I guess I have to show you now. Just… keep it a secret… please?" Ruby begs getting a nod from Pyrrha and Jaune. With a sigh Ruby begins bringing out her tendrils.
"Alright, so I have a bunch of extra eyes and each of them has a different power. My right eye is what actually allows me to use telekinesis. My left eye is able to nullify things like aura and semblances. It also stops my own powers from working so it is pretty situational and also pretty dangerous. The rest are a bit harder to keep track of because they can go anywhere. I always know what they do, but I guess there isn't really a way for you to keep track of them huh." Ruby rubs the back of her head, this feels weird already.
"How about you just name the powers you get from them?" Jaune suggests realizing that this must be awkward for Ruby.
"Right well. There are a couple that don't work on Grimm so… uh those are the charm, fear and sleep powers. I haven't actually used them on anyone aside from the sleep one so I don't really know what they do."
As far as Pyrrha could tell these already sounded like really situational abilities, but her mind as a fighter was already thinking about how they could work in battles against criminals. Surprisingly Jaune was having similar thoughts to Pyrrha, however due to having less experience with these sorts of abilities he is mainly considering ways of testing them safely. He didn't exactly relish the idea of becoming a guinea pig after all.
"There are three that are good for… recoverable damage. One just slows opponents kinda like time distortion only I can impose it on others. The other turns things to stone, but I already found out I can change people back with my left eye so it isn't too bad probably. The last one does temporary paralysis. It probably won't work well on anything too big, but it lasts about a minute."
Once again this had the two listeners considering possibilities. Pyrrha had kept her semblance well hidden only disrupting her opponents so that they missed an attack or dropped their weapon at an inopportune moment and if the slow could be adjusted it wouldn't be hard for Ruby to replicate it. She had admittedly started feeling a kinship with Ruby as both of them had hidden their semblances even if it was for different reasons.
Jaune was more interested in the ability to turn things to stone. Was it just people and Grimm or could it be used on inanimate objects like plants. If they used it to keep people trapped would they be too heavy to move later?
"The rest are a bit more… deadly. I uh, don't entirely understand one of them, but I know it is called an enervation ray and it really weakened the beowulf I used it on. The other two you have actually seen me used. I got rid of the Death Stalker with a disintegration ray and the Nevermore with a death ray. They're actually invisible, but I do need to see my target with those eyes to do it and there is some travel time so… ray works." Ruby finishes fidgeting worried and hopeful.
This actually left the partners blank due to how destructive the later two powers could be. Sure they were training to be Huntsmen, but for it to be so easy to kill something was… unnerving. Unbidden the thought came to their mind of what would happen if that power was used against other people. If for whatever reason Ruby was driven to criminality the results could be… disastrous.
After a few minutes of silence Ruby decides it may be best to give the two some time to think and so she proposes that they go to bed for now and they can talk more in the morning, or whenever the two of them were comfortable. With a nod from the two of them the lights were turned off and the three slipped under the covers. Still no one got a restful sleep that night.
A/N
I realize that a lot of the end was just going over Ruby's powers again, but it is kind of important to get reactions to what she is capable of.
Also any tips for how I can write fight scenes would be appreciated translating RWBY combat into written format is difficult and I don't really have experience with it. Especially as there has to be a reason for Ruby to not just end any fight as soon as it begins.
Which brings me to my last issue how to deal with Ruby being OP. I am going to go with the superman excuse of she can, but is intentionally holding herself back to not accidentally hurt anyone. The lethal moves are obvious especially as disintegration isn't as accurate, but... shh.