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RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.

Chapter 7: Revenant's Return

Now, I could continue with my story in two ways. The first is by expanding on Ruby's training with me and my siblings, thus extending the length of this tale considerably, or I could just jump ahead to when things get interesting.

I'm going with the second option for a couple reasons. First, Ruby's training was long, and would make for a rather tedious story. Second, Ruby's training is for Ruby. It was specialized towards her specific learning, and I only discuss Revenant training with my family or other Revenants.

That being said, I will inform you of some of the things I did teach her. Keep in mind, these powers aren't her semblance. Ruby's shattered soul technically doesn't have a semblance. It could, but it would need the half of her soul that was torn away by the soul thief. No, these powers are what I gifted her. You see, I don't actually have a soul… neither do my siblings or Keira now that I think about it. So, our power is a manifestation of our will. As a manifestation of will, it was what allows me to grant some of my power to others. The rest of my family, minus Bianca since she actually does have a soul, could potentially do it, but they either chose not to learn or are too young to do it.

Anyways, the powers that I taught Ruby… Well, the first, and probably most important, is portals. She can't teleport, per se, but like me, she can create portals between Remnant and the Necropolis. Theoretically she could create a portal to the Fields of the Lost, but she has been mindful of Ozark's warning. Alongside that, I trained her in the usage of a scythe. I was most pleased when Ruby and Keira began sparring with scythes. Apparently, more often than not, their spars end in a draw. It irritates War to no end.

That's not what's important. What is important here is the style of scythe that Ruby and Keira both learned. They had learned to fight and, subsequently, create a scythe like Thine End. Remember what I said earlier, my power is a manifestation of my will. No truer does that hold than with my scythe. It is my greatest creation. It is me giving form to a function. A literal construct of will. That is actually how I'm able to literally summon it from thin air.

Keira picked up the creation of such a scythe rather quickly. She named hers Execution. I never expected Ruby to get that particular power from me, but she did, though hers is slightly different. Hers is a will-based construct fueled by her shattered aura. Oddly enough, it doesn't drain her aura like one would think. I think it's one of the thorns on her soul, I'm not a hundred percent certain though. I do know this, when Ruby describes weapons as being an extension of ourselves, that is quite a literal description for her. After I informed her of the oddity that was her blade, she named it Death's Thorn.

Other than that, her training was mostly in learning how to control the power I gave her. The best part, I was able to teach Ruby how to use her soul to defend herself. Now, it won't shield her like the aura of a normal person. Rather, if she were in danger, I taught her to channel her aura into attacks. The best defense is a stellar offense. It wasn't perfect, and it did drain her aura relatively fast, but it was far better than nothing.

Much of Ruby's powers as a Revenant are self-discovered. I can't teach her everything, only the basics. She hasn't developed her power very much. However, what she has done is something I could have seen coming from a long ways off. She developed the ability to shift Death's Thorn into any melee weapon she sees fit. It's horribly inefficient, and she doesn't have the same skill with other melee weapons that she has with a scythe. I'd be lying if I called her a master with the other forms for her scythe. With some practice, she could reasonably use them. Still a cool development.

The only other noteworthy development she made with her power was her last resort. She told me that it is incredibly painful to use, but it works. Essentially, she envelops herself in a combination of her aura and power, grants a physical manifestation to her thorns and ejects them from her soul. It is a complete aura drain, but I haven't seen anything survive it. Hell, she barely survives it.

And that about covers the important things that Ruby knew by the time she turned sixteen.

There are some other things though. The Soul Thief search had yielded no promising results. The ability to hide from me had long since been destroyed. So, it was worrying that he knew how to do it.

Finally, this wouldn't be Ruby's first time returning to Remnant. Shortly after she learned how to portal to and from her original world, I laid down a few rules. Until she mastered the art, she could not portal alone, and she had to tell me or Bianca when, where and why she would be portalling to Remnant. Most importantly, she was to not, under any circumstances, reveal the existence of the Necropolis, our family, or my reapers. The rules were simple, and she understood them.

At least, I thought she did until she turned thirteen. This was about a month after she had actually been able to do it the first time. Keira, who had already mastered the power, took her into Remnant. Directly violating the first two rules. Together the two of them almost revealed our existence to Remnant as a whole. I'm still unclear of what exactly happened. What I do know is that they almost destroyed a carefully cultivated and masterfully run information ring operated by one of my reapers. What I don't know is why they almost completely disregarded my rules when they figured out that the leader of the gang was a reaper.

I had to call in a long-forgotten favor to sweep the incident under the rug. Keira was banned from returning to Remnant for any reason for the next few months. For the same period of time, Ruby wasn't allowed to do anything with Keira other than spar and eat. Harsh, but they had to learn. They did learn though.

Once Ruby mastered the art, and after I had ensured she understood the lesson from years earlier, I began to let her go to Remnant. It was never for very long, usually only small errands. Anytime she went for herself was to browse dust shops and look at weapons magazines. She wanted a diverse portfolio of tools that she could shift her thorn into.

For sixteenth birthday, War, Famine and Bianca worked together and gifted her a set of beautifully stylized Dust knives. It was really a set of eight throwing daggers, each affixed with a unique dust crystal that could easily be replaced. She was given a special bandolier to hold the blades from Keira. Conquest gifted her a pistol with a twelve-round clip, and an accompanying holster. She named it Red Line. A name that is just as creative as Horse. The gun has a red line sight, and two red lines adorn the sides of the gun. I'm about ninety percent certain that Conquest had a hand in naming the gun.

My gift to Ruby was… forgotten. Yeah, I completely forgot that it was Ruby's birthday. In my defense, I don't remember anyone else's birthday. So, while Ruby was getting gifts, I was internally panicking. We usually celebrate birthdays. At least of those who have birthdays. I just forgot the one. I had been pretty good at celebrating her birthday until now. So, for the time being, I would look elsewhere. I made it seem like I helped on the gift from War, Famine and Bianca.

Anyways, it was about a week later when my sixteen-year-old daughter decided to return to Remnant. She wanted to look at some new weapon magazines and get some new dust crystals for her daggers. The crystals in her daggers only got one use, and no one ever got her any extra crystals. My sisters and wife didn't realize how dust intensive Ruby's throwing daggers were. That being said, they were still excellent throwing knives.

By this time, among other things, Ruby's appearance had changed. Obviously, with becoming a Revenant, her eyes had turned silver. Interestingly enough, so had some of her hair. She has two streaks of silver in the back of her hair. I don't know why. I think it's the same reason her eyes are silver, she could have decided to dye it, or it's a prank that Keira pulled on her. I don't know. Anyway, since becoming a Revenant, she began wearing clothes that would more closely link her to me. She would regularly wear a black a padded leather red top and cargo pants. An interesting combo, but she likes it. She also wears black combat boots. Her whole outfit has red accents and suits her. Her gun rests on her left hip and the bandolier of daggers crosses over her chest from left to right. Finally, there is the symbol she has kind of become known for here on the Necropolis. A postmortem gift from her biological mother.

I'm sure I've made it no secret, but I can interact with the dead. As a result, I have spoken with her deceased parent a couple times over the years. One of the times I spoke with Summer, she asked me to find and give Ruby a cloak. It was a gift that Summer had made for her child when she was born. It was lost sometime after Taiyang died. I put it on the backburner for a while, until I chanced across it one day. I bought it for a hefty sum. Bianca took it, repaired it, and we gave it to Ruby, telling her who it was from.

Over the years, Ruby has asked to make some alterations to her cloak. It is a beautiful piece of red cloth. A small clasp, designed to look like a cross, attaches it around her neck. With Bianca's help, they stitched an emblem near one of the corners of her cloak. It is an elegant, yet simple, design of a rose with a scythe for its stem.

Anyways, this particular night, about a week after her sixteenth birthday, Ruby entered a portal and found herself in the streets of Vale. Like I said, she needed more dust crystals. She entered a quiet Dust shop, one of the few that were open late. From Dust till Dawn. I still chuckle at the pun.

It didn't take her long to purchase the crystals she needed from the old man running the store. I had given her more than enough lien for such a transaction. I needed to make up for forgetting her birthday. She purchased several crystals, reloaded a crystal into the daggers that needed it, and headed to the back of the shop. A rack of weapons magazines were what caught her attention.

While she was quietly browsing the magazines, she heard the front door to the shop open and close. She turned her head slightly to pay attention to the new arrivals. Only one voice spoke.

"You have no idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late!" The voice belonged to an orange haired man with a rather fabulous hat, a prim white suit, and a deadly looking cane.

"Just take the money, I don't want any trouble." The shopkeeper said.

"I don't want your money. I want the Dust." The man, who was definitely a criminal, said. "Crystals, I want all of them."

Ruby sighed and put the magazine back on the rack. With a deep breath, she summoned Death's Thorn to her hands. One of the criminals had begun to make his way back towards her. She quickly ducked behind one of the shelves.

"What the?" She heard the goon say.

Ruby grinned and prepared to leap out and attack.

"Don't move." a goon commanded.

Ruby sighed as the man pressed the gun to her head.

"You might want to reconsider." She said, far calmer than most people would be.

"Or what?" The goon said, pressing his gun harder to her head.

"Welp, can't say I didn't warn you." Ruby said.

The man was thrown through the building's front window by the unseen force that was Ruby's aura. The rest of the criminals turned towards the commotion.

"What-" one of them started to say.

Ruby's heel connected with the man's face before he could finish. It was barely a second before the rest reacted and Ruby was dodging and rolling around the bullets from the enemy guns. She focused on taking the fight outside. Another goon was downed by a slash of her blade. The criminal's leader growled and followed the fight.

"Well… this was brilliant." He snarked as Ruby knocked out the fifth the goon the guy had. "These men cost a pretty penny and you've downed them all. I'd say I was impressed if you didn't cost me so much."

"You shouldn't have robbed the store." Ruby said.

"Sorry to disappoint." The man responded. "But I do believe it's past your bedtime, Red, and I've got a plane to catch."

The man raised his cane, as if to fire something. Ruby had already begun acting. She sprinted towards her opponent in a zig-zag pattern, in an attempt to keep him from getting a good aim. Her methods worked. The man grunted as Ruby brought her scythe down and he had to block. With a great heave, he pushed her off. Ruby was already swinging at him again. The man managed to parry the attack and knock Death's Thorn from her hands.

It was about this point that Ruby realized he had aura. Normal people should have been unable to block such a swing, let alone parry it. Ruby's distraction would have gotten her yelled at by War. The man capitalized on the break and swung his weapon at Ruby's head. It hit. Hard. For both of them.

Ruby stumbled and fell to one of her knees. Her vision swam as she tried to regain her balance. The man was thrown back towards one of the nearby buildings. Ruby's aura had reacted instinctively to protect her. Ruby could feel the agitation in her soul. She stood up and forced her soul to conform to her will. She reformed her scythe and turned to the criminal. He had recovered far quicker than she and was near the roof of the building he had been thrown into.

Ruby allowed her thorn to dissipate. With a quick glance to ensure that she didn't have to fulfill her duties as a Revenant, Ruby scaled the building. She reached the top far quicker than the criminal, but that didn't matter all that much. He was just stowing away his scroll when she landed.

"You're persistent, Red. I'll give you that much." The criminal yelled.

"And you're under arrest." Ruby responded, before realizing that she held no actual authority.

"Only in Vale's wildest dreams!" The man yelled.

A bullhead had flown low. Close enough that he would be able to easily jump into it from the building. The airship turned and opened for the man. Ruby pulled her earth Dust knife from the bandolier and threw it. Years of practicing with War paid off as the blade sunk into the criminal's calf.

He cried out in pain as the earth dust activated and encased his foot in rock. The rocks rooted him to the roof and pitched him forward. Not enough to break, but enough to cause serious pain. The pilot of the bullhead must have realized what was happening because the airship had closed once more and turned. The turrets began to spin.

"DON'T SHOOT!" The criminal yelled, panic entering his voice at the sight of the turrets leveled against them.

Ruby cursed and ran forward. She pulled out another Dust knife, this one empty. She inserted one of her new earth Dust crystals into it. She slid in front of the criminal and slammed the blade into the roof. The turret began firing as a wall of rock sprang up and separated the two humans from the airship.

"I hope you have a better idea, kid. That's not gonna hold for long, and I don't fancy being turned into swiss cheese." The criminal said.

"It will hold for long enough." Ruby snapped, as she reformed her thorn.

The criminal watched in confusion as Ruby slammed the blade into the roof and carved a hole into. He blade cut through the solid roof like a knife through butter. They fell through the roof as the ship's guns were beginning to punch through the solid rock. They found themselves in an empty apartment. The criminal sighed in relief when the ship stopped firing and flew away.

"Great. Now you can let me go and we can forget this ever happened, right?" The criminal asked.

"Nope." Ruby replied, leveling her pistol at the man's forehead. "You're going to stay with me until the authorities get here."

"Go figure." The criminal replied.

They sat there before the telltale song of police sirens woke the night. What happened next is a bit of a blur to my daughter. The police came and arrested them both. The criminal was taken in for being Roman Torchwick, a small-time thief who had made a name for himself stealing Dust. He wasn't the most stellar fighter, but he had built up quite a bit of notoriety. Ruby was arrested because they didn't know if she was an accessory to Torchwick's crimes or not.

Now, my daughter, both my daughter's actually, can't sit still to save their lives. The entire time Ruby was waiting in the interrogation room, she was fidgeting with something. Mostly, she was tapping the table to a beat only she could hear. Otherwise, she was practicing with her weapon. Namely forming and dissipating it. She picked that up from me. When I get anxious, which does happen every so often, I will form and reform Thine End. It helps calm my nerves.

The door to the room opened, and Ruby allowed her scythe to dissipate. In walked a rather stern looking blonde-haired woman, and a bespectacled man garbed in green. The woman stood to the man's right as he sat across from Ruby. He opened his scroll and set it between them. Ruby glanced at it and saw her fight with Torchwick and his goons on repeat.

"You are quite the enigma." The man said.

Ruby remained silent as she watched herself take down Torchwick again and again.

"I shouldn't have let myself get distracted." Ruby said after a few seconds of silence.

The man in front of her, raised an eyebrow.

"Pardon?" He prodded.

"I was trained to fight. I let myself get distracted, that's how we ended up on the roof." Ruby spoke.

"Who trained you to fight?" The woman asked.

"My trainer. I don't like to give information about him." Ruby responded. "Who are you?"

"You don't know?" The man questioned.

"I don't… get… out… much." Ruby answered lamely.

"I see." the man said. "How about a trade. I give you our names, and you give us yours? My name is Ozpin. Headmaster of Beacon, and this is my deputy, Glynda Goodwitch."

"I'm Ruby Rose." Ruby replied.

"Rose…" Ozpin muttered as he picked up his scroll.

He looked through it and glanced up at Ruby every few seconds.

"You are quite the puzzle, Miss Rose." Ozpin said. "Fortunately for us, I like a good puzzle."

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"Puzzles are a great way to stimulate your brain. They get you to think logically, and they're good fun." Ozpin answered.

"No, why am I a puzzle?" Ruby asked.

"Ah… well, you don't exist." Ozpin answered. "You don't look to be older than eighteen, still I broadened our search to mid-twenties, and no one bearing your name matches your appearance. So, the puzzle is who are you?"

"Dad has tried to keep us off the radar." Ruby said.

"And until now, it would seem that he's been rather successful in that endeavor." Ozpin said. "Now, is it too much to ask who trained you to use one of the most difficult weapons to wield? I only know one man on Remnant capable with a scythe like that. A dusty old crow who wouldn't keep something like this from me."

"Don't know any crows, but I learned the scythe from my dad." Ruby said.

"Why? Why would a young girl like you want to learn to fight with a scythe?" Ozpin asked.

"I want to help my dad." Ruby answered.

"And what does your dad do? Is he a huntsman?" Glynda questioned.

"Not exactly. But I can't tell you what he does." Ruby answered.

"Can't, or won't?" Ozpin asked.

"Both. Dad said that unless you are working with him, then you can't know what he does." Ruby stated.

"All right, then why do you want to help your dad?" Ozpin asked.

"Dad helps people by performing a service that no one will ever thank him for. I want to help people. I think I can best help them by helping Dad." Ruby said.

"You want to help people?" Ozpin questioned.

Ruby nodded. Ozpin turned to Glynda. The two appeared to be in silent deliberation over what to do. At the time, Ruby had no clue what they were communicating to each other. She's never been the best at reading body language.

"Miss Rose," Ozpin spoke up. "What if I were to offer you a place at Beacon?"

Glynda huffed at the Headmaster.

"That… that depends on what Dad says." Ruby answered.

Ozpin raised a questioning eyebrow.

"A few years ago, Dad said that becoming a huntress would be a fast track to helping him. I want to know if I can still take that path." Ruby clarified.

"Well, you don't have to know until this weekend. Orientation is Sunday. If you don't attend, then your name will be removed from the books." Ozpin stated.

"Thank you, sir." Ruby replied.

There was a knocking on the door. Ozpin, Glynda and Ruby looked towards it as it opened.

"Ruby, you better have a good reason for this." Keira announced as she stepped into the room.

Ruby rolled her eyes at Keira's wide smile. Keira swept Ruby into a hug and turned to Ozpin and Glynda. Ozpin's eyes widened ever so slightly at seeing my daughter.

"I can take her, right?" Keira said.

Ozpin nodded. Keira saluted the two Beacon staff before leaving the police station with Ruby in tow. They walked to an empty alley. Keira opened a portal to the Necropolis and the two stepped through.

"Dad was getting worried." Keira said. "So, what'd you do?"

"I didn't plan on getting arrested." Ruby protested.

"No one does Ruby. But whatever crime you committed, just know that I'm still your sister." Keira joked.

"I didn't commit a crime. I stopped one." Ruby retorted.

"Yeah, and you were just having tea with your interrogators." Keira grinned. "Now go on, Dad wants to know what happened."

Ruby smiled and came up to my study. I was busy looking over some of Ozark's notes regarding a recent experiment when she arrived. The door opened and shut quietly. Ruby sat in front of my desk. I finished the page and turned to her.

"So…" I began. "What happened? Do I have to clean up another mess in the mortal world?"

"No." Ruby answered before telling me about her night.

I was impressed and incredibly proud of my daughter… and she provided the perfect opportunity for me to give her a belated birthday present.

"So… is that an option I can still take?" Ruby asked.

"I don't see why it wouldn't be." I answered. "I'd be a pretty poor father if I said it was one you could take and then not let you take it, it can be a late birthday present."

"Really?" Ruby asked with a wide smile.

"Of course." I responded. "I'll just have to talk with Ozpin. Even at Beacon, I still plan to be the one training your aura and powers."

"THANK YOU, DAD!" Ruby exclaimed flinging herself into my embrace.

I smiled and hugged her back. Ruby left my study, presumably to go and tell Keira. I turned back to Ozark's notes. My mind was on other topics, however. Primarily, I wondered if I should just portal into Ozpin's office, or if I should actually show up and walk across Beacon campus. Either way, it would be good to see the immortal again.

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Thank you to all who read this, your feedback and views are much appreciated. Feel free to leave ideas and recommendations for the future.

Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.

End Log S.T.K.