AN: The long awaited sequel to Meanwhile at Beacon academy is here. It was long awaited, don't question it. Well, I hope you like it. Without further ado let's begin. -xXx-
I opened the door to the room and turned on the lights. Only to find no one there. Well they must be out doing something I mused to myself as I entered.
"I don't think they are, kid." Rhaast suspected."Ruby, what did Pyrrha want to talk to you about?" Questioned Blake as soon as I was inside our room, with arms crossed and back leaned against the wall. She hid behind the door. Crap!
"Mostly training." I eeped, not having noticed her presence as I entered. She's a really sneaky one, to a scary degree.
"You're about to get interrogated without any distractions to save you. Good luck!" Rhaast teased her.
"I don't believe that for a second." Interjected Weiss, walking out of the bathroom together with Yang. They planned this. They had too why else would the room be empty at this hour. I mentally facepalmed. They do say hindsight is twenty twenty.
"Ruby, tell us what's wrong! We are a team! If we don't trust and help each other we aren't going to be good huntresses!" Yang exclaimed with a worried look on her face. She makes me feel guilty.
"There is nothing wrong!" I responded weakly while looking at Crescent rose or Rhaast now I suppose.
"Bull shit." Weiss separated the words to strengthen her point.
"Don't lie to us Ruby. You are supposed to be our leader and right now you are giving a bad example to follow." Blake added, grabbing my shoulder and forcing eye contact. She looked worried too.
'Any ideas Rhaast?'"You're on your own with this one kid. Say what you think you should." Rhaast declared.
"She's right sis, you need to tell us the problem so we can help." Yang supported her partner.
"I'm… sorry. I should have been honest from the start." I finally gave up on lying. I can't continue even if I tried and I tried.
"Blake, I didn't think I heard something. I actually did. It was a voice and it's still there. It actually told me to go at the wall. No, it made me able to go through the wall. It's inside Crescent Rose and helped me with quite a few things." I admitted, embarrassed beyond any level I was before. Please believe me.
"You're crazy. I knew it was a bad choice to make you a leader of the team. I'm going to Ozpin. You shouldn't even be at this academy." Said Weiss, visibly disturbed at my words as she headed towards the door. Rhaast erupted into maniacal laughter. His previous remark about the state of our sanity was proven correct.
"WAIT! I know my sister isn't insane, let her finish!" Yang stopped her by grabbing her arm and pulling her back. Thank you for believing in me Yang.
"I had a good enough laugh already. Just hand me over to whitey over there and I'll do the rest." Rhaast told me.
"Here see for yourself Weiss." I told her as I passed Rhaast to her. She snatched him from my hands with a sceptic and smug look. An eye appears and opens on the scythe looking directly at Weiss which made her jump and drop the weapon.
"I-I heard it." She barely got out, still a bit scared. Most likely because of Rhaast. Definitely because of Rhaast. I'll ask what he said to her later.
"My turn!" Shouted Yang as she crouched to pick him up. She gripped the scythe and lifted it high in the air presenting it, expecting something to happen. The only visible change was the eye looking directly at her. Right below her face I think. Or maybe even lower?
"This is so cool I heard him too! Blakey your turn!" Yang exclaimed as she threw the weapon to Blake. Blake caught it lazily with one hand and awaited the result. The eye started above her face, at her ribbon I believe. Blake's face reddened and her eyes widened at whatever Rhaast said. She passed me the weapon and avoided eye contact. I'll need to ask about this too.
"How does this even exist!" Asked Weiss who has now recovered from her previous reaction to Rhaast.
'Can I tell them?'"I already told you to say what you think you should." Rhaast reminded me. He trusted me.
"He got cursed into this." I said in a sad voice pointing at the scythe.
"By who?" Weiss questioned further. I don't actually know.
'By who?'"Old allies. Betrayal." Rhaast reminisced in a weaker voice than usual.
"His old allies betrayed him." I answered while looking at my weapon wondering what happened.
"I don't buy that." Weiss showed her disapproval. That's not nice!
"Weiss!" I reprimanded her. Disappointed at her behavior and insensitivity. If he trusts me I should trust him too.
"It's too convenient!" She defended herself.
"So far he only helped me! And you'll notice if anything about me changed or if I was hiding anything. You showed off that ability already." I proposed the solution.
"Fine but I still don't like it." Responded Weiss, looking away.
"Who else do we tell?" Asked Blake. A good question.
"Well Pyrrha almost found out but I came up with an excuse. I need to talk to her tomorrow if I want to reinforce it." I told my team. It was a good excuse too.
"We don't tell anyone. They will think we should all be in a mental asylum." Weiss answered. Good idea.
"Let's just go to sleep. We have field training tomorrow and we don't want to be sleepy while fighting grimm, do we?" Yang mused. She's right we don't.
"Yeah let's just head off to sleep." I agreed and walked to the bathroom to get ready. Once everyone did the same we turned off the lights and went to sleep in our pyjamas. I fell asleep with my weapon on the bed.
-xXx-
Surprisingly I was the first one to wake up. So I had time to do something. I couldn't eat cookies or hunt so I'll settle for the next best thing after those. Weapon modifications! But first a visit to the bathroom. Hygiene is important.
After getting washed and dressed I opened one of the magazines I bought this weekend and skipped to the weapons section. Today's feature was a serrated blade. It said serrated blades helped hack and saw through tougher grimms hides if used with longer slicing cuts instead of pushing ones, a straight edge is best suited for those. It was a bit worse at destroying the armour though so it was a trade off. Crescent Rose is usually bad against armour. It doesn't have the necessary mace-like bluntness. Actually I have a better idea.
'Rhaast, if you can change your size can you also switch the blade type?'
"I like how you think, kid. And you'd need to tell me what exactly you want me to do but it sounds doable." Rhaast confirmed her thoughts.
'Well, rapid transitions from straight edge to a serrated or even blunt one.'
"Can do." Rhaast claimed. Great this opens a lot of opportunities for the future. I thought as I heard a movement from one of the beds. Blake woke up. Well time to stop for now.
"Morning Blake, I already washed so you can go ahead." I whispered to her when she sat on the side of her bed. Wearing pyjamas and her bow for some reason. Don't know why she never takes it off. Rhaast laughed at that thought. That reminds me.
'What did you say to them?' His laugh only grew louder.
'Different question: What did you say to Weiss?' Even louder laugh.
'Okay how about: What did you say to Yang?'
"A compliment. A honest one at that." Rhaast said and then returned to laughter.
'I'm just not gonna ask for you to elaborate, because you won't. What did you say to Blake?' I remember she had an extreme reaction too.
"A compliment. To her unique features to be exact." Rhaast answered after which he returned to his previous occupation. Doesn't really explain what he said but I didn't expect much.
Next to wake up was Weiss. Once she came to her senses and sat up her eyes darted towards Rhaast laying against the chair I was sitting in who stared back at her.
"Morning, Blake is in the bathroom so you'll have to wait." I inform her and get a nod in response.
"You woke up first?" Weiss asks me in a sleepy voice followed by a yawn and stretch. I nod as confirmation.
"That's a first. Is it his fault?" She observed and laughed at her accusation, I joined in on that. Rhaast did too or I think he did because his still present laughter grew louder.
"Why are you all laughing down there?" Questioned a now awake Yang.
"Ruby woke up first so I was worried it was the scythes fault." Weiss explained to my sister. She snorted and started laughing too.
"Everyone is awake huh?" Asked a now properly dressed Blake as she left the bathroom. Weiss stood up and went inside the bathroom next. Blake sat down at her desk and did a checkover of Gambol Shroud. As leader I enforced a daily weapon lookover rule. They deserve to be treated well and it's a good thing too. A hunter needs to trust their weapon not to fail. It makes the difference between life and death.
Yang jumped off of her bed and headed to her desk. She took Ember Cecila carefully out of the drawer and placed it on the desktop. For an inspection I suspect. Well no need to watch them work. I need to count my own ammunition amounts of normal, different shells and dust rounds.
For long distances I mostly use open tip boat tails because of their accuracy and piercing capabilities. If I want to stop something in its tracks I use ballistic tips with boat tails. For really thick armour I use AP boat tail rounds.
I have incendiary rounds made from fire dust. Stopper rounds from ice dust. Flash rounds from light and combustion dust. Smoke rounds from steam dust and dyed water. And last but not least propulsion rounds from wind and gravity dust. They help with movement and give an extra kick to attacks. Though right now I only have incendiary and purely gravity propulsion rounds. I'm having difficulties with choosing the correct amount of dust for the rest and failure tends to be explosive.
I need to get Yang to try out different ammunition. Her gauntlets are based off of shotguns which have so many great types available for different occasions.
-xXx-
"I'm done." Weiss called out as she left the bathroom in her huntress outfit. Yang nodded at that and entered next.
"Weiss, can you help me balance a good amount of dust for a few bullet ideas I have? I'll do your weapon check over for the next week if you agree." I proposed to my partner.
"Two weeks and you have a deal. I'm curious what you came up with." She responded, rubbing her chin in thought.
"Sure!" I told her as I moved my chair over to her desk. I grabbed Myrtenaster and began my inspection.
"Well I came up with a few types but let's start with this one. Stopper rounds which are meant to slow down or hopefully stop a grimm with ice dust. You inspired the idea to be truthful." I confess to her.
-xXx-
Pov change woosh
"The idea is possible. But that depends on if you think you're accurate enough to aim for their legs. Dust for a full encasement without something like my glyphs wouldn't fit in a bullet." I explained to Ruby. It wasn't the worst idea she heard, she was quite honestly impressed. Despite her childish behaviour her rules and ideas are deserving of the leader position.
"So it is possible! I think I can hit shots like that. We can discuss the proportions of dust to gunpowder later. Okay now onto the next idea! Flash rounds! Their goal is to create a bright burst of light that can disorient and scare off grimm. I was thinking of light and combustion dust for that one." Her partner explained. This isn't something that was done or even thought of before. It sounds possible in theory.
"If we explode a hard light construct with combustion dust it could achieve an effect like that. It would need excessive testing though, combustion dust can be hard to work with especially on such a small and precise scale." If the last idea was good this one was groundbreaking if it actually worked it could change the hunting world quite a bit.
"Great! You know how fire dust produces smoke? I wanted to recreate that effect with my Smoke rounds but with steam and something to make a lasting and thick smoke. It could reduce visibility, serve as a signal or maybe even be explosive or flammable." This was another great idea. The reduction of visibility and signaling aren't as useful as the other ideas but they still have some places where they could prove helpful. What made this idea great is the potential of growth. Explosive, flammable, corrosive and many more!
"This one is the one that would take us the longest, especially if you want extra effects. But it sounds within the realm of possibility. For example what if we spread out small pulverised plant dust using wind dust for the flammable idea!" I responded matching Ruby's enthusiasm. Oh no, has she infected me with her love of weapons?
"The final idea I had right now was adding wind dust to my Propulsion rounds. I only use gravity dust inside them but I think wind dust would increase the power a lot. I use them mainly for repositioning and adding power to melee attacks but still I think there is potential here." A simple concept idea. But it was quite difficult to mix the two. If it is done the increase in power would be considerable.
"That will be tricky because of the nature of those dust types but after a bit of fiddling with it we could do it. This one will probably take the shortest amount of time except the Stopper one." I explained to her.
-xXx-
Pov change woosh
"Okay I'm ready, let's go for breakfast then we have field training." Yang exclaimed when she left the bathroom.
"Aww." Both me and Weiss said sad we had to stop our current project.
"Later?" I ask her.
"Later." She assured me.
-xXx-
Today's breakfast was toast, bacon and eggs with either water or orange juice. It was quite tasty. The eggs were a bit runny but also had some harder parts, a balanced mix anyone could enjoy. The bacon was nice and crispy while the toast was softer.
"Excited for today?" Asked us Nora who already ate her meal.
"I'm mostly interested to see what it will be. We only heard 'field training' which is not very descriptive. Is it?" Weiss answered.
"Most likely a simulated mission of some kind, with actual grimm." Ren jumped in to add his guess.
"I agree. I doubt we would be asked to prepare well if there weren't any possible threats." Pyrrha said insightfully.
"Maybe defending a town?" Proposed Jaune.
"Hopefully it's something like sneaking past grimm." Blake stated illustrating her idea with two fingers walking around the food on her plate.
"Well whatever it is we just have to do well right? We're huntsmen in training after all." Exclaimed Yang. She looked quite excited at whatever the exercise was going to be. Everyone joined her in her attitude, lifting the mood up quite a bit.
"AHH! STOP!" A female voice rang out through the cafeteria.
"Or what? You filthy beast?" A male voice mocked. I looked at where the sound came from and saw the mace wielding boy who lost to Weiss and Yang holding a faunus girl by her bunny ears.
"SLAUGHTER HIM!" Rhaast yelled and my body began moving. I used my semblance to go above, under and even through tables to reach my target. When I did I changed back from the petal cloud into a human using my feet to stop myself right before the pair. My scythes blade near his throat not quite touching skin, but touching the light badly shaven hair.
"She said stop." I threatened him. He looked at me in horror and let the girl go. Everyone at their table dropped their silverware from shock. The second he did, I pulled back Rhaast and changed his form back to the compressed one.
"Thank you" Muttered and bowed the faunus as she left. I casually turned around and started walking back to my table as realisation of what I did struck me. Everyone was quiet now and looking at me. The once bursting with life and chatter cafeteria was dead silent. I heard my heart beat grow stronger and faster.
"I'm sorry for exploding. I hate it when my kind gets treated worse than it should." Rhaast apologised. So because of my want to help and his anger I just jumped into action? Also he was a faunus?
"You went a bit overboard there Ruby." Said Yang as I sat down.
"She was effective and helped someone who was getting bullied, I wouldn't call what she did wrong." Blake defended me.
"She didn't touch him. I would have broken his legs." Nora added. Honestly that fits her… Noraness. No one said anything after that. We just finished our meals and headed out to the main hall at the time we were meant to.
-xXx-
"I'm sure you are all interested in what the planned field training is." Ozpin stated, the responses were nods and vocal confirmation.
"You will be divided into sectors which you will get dropped into together with your team. The issue is. It is grimm infested territory. Your goal? Kill all grimm in your sector." He explained.
"I like the sound of this already." Rhaast sounded excited. I agreed with him internally.
"Head over to the cliff face on the back of the academy campus. Transport to your sectors awaits there. You already received maps of your sector and its borders. Good hunting." He ended and walked off stage. We left and began heading to the transports.
"Okay looking over the map this is a mostly flat forest area. Plan is to drop in at the top right corner and work our way through this clockwise. We will discuss details while we fly there." I proposed to my team which accepted it judging based on their nods and determined expressions.
We arrived and saw multiple teams getting on board different vehicles. I took out my scroll and looked at which of the empty ones the arrow pointed. Having found the one I gestured for my team to follow as we boarded and lifted off.
"Alright. I and Yang will act as the frontline while you two cover our flanks. Call out if you ever need help. Weiss could use her semblance or dust to help you get out of trouble. And I can achieve a similar effect if this new ammunition type works as intended. And we are confident it will." During the last sentence I look at Weiss to see her nod confirming my thoughts.
"Well get ready to land then." I command as I sit back and relax in my chair. I get to rest for about two more minutes before the door opens. We all give ourselves one last look before we jump towards our predetermined spot.
"Do you think you can trust me with taking over this landing?" Rhaast asked with excitement showing in his voice.
'Go ahead.'
And go ahead he did. Firing normal rounds for the recoil and aiming himself towards a nearby flying giant nevermore he brought the scythe blade high above us into the sky and began spinning. Accelerating the rotation rate with my semblance he stopped using it right above his target. We cleaved one of its wings right off which resulted in sending it crashing down.
Then I felt a familiar yet different sensation. It was like going through the wall but more compacted and without any movement. The feeling lasted a couple of seconds before a new one appeared. It was swift and satisfying. I slashed out of the grimms chest right before it fell to the ground. I raised my scythe and brought it down in one motion decapitating the bird. I then turned around to see my team watching in disbelief.
"I get walls but grimm too? That is way too cool!" Yang shouted as she hugged me. I returned her hug but started pushing away as I stopped being able to breathe. Yang seemed to have gotten the memo "Unlike Varus." and stopped holding me.
"I'm guessing Rhaast did his thing again?" Blake asked, looking entirely done with this and ready to move on.
"Yeah it was quite a nice feeling actually, but let's move on with the mission." I order as I see a pack of beowolfs approach us. I ready Rhaast and dash forward. Using the blunt blade I knock them into each other. I switch to the rifle mode and unleash for Stopper rounds keeping them in place for Yang to finish off.
I ran into the forest jumping from tree to tree looking for prey. I finally spot my targets in the form of an Ursa and beowolf group. I gesture for my team to follow as I jump into the crowd of black with my back turned to the ground. Flipping around in mid air I club an ursa major in it's armoured back using the blunt edge. Then I turn to red essence and petals as I disappear like I was sucked inside it.
Cutting my rest short I erupt out of it's chest with a straight edge now. I see Weiss was safely positioned above the pack in the trees unleashing fire dust blasts from bright red glyphs floating in the sky. Yang was fighting them off up close the glows of explosions from her weapon and a lighter one from her hair were quite easily visible. She had her semblance activated. Blake jumped into the thick of things fighting grimm off with her katana then jumping away leaving a combustion dust clone behind. Seeing one of the grimm about to catch her I keep it grounded with a well placed Stopper shot. I start swinging my scythe in wide arcs slicing weaker beowolfs in two or decapitating them, their heads and body parts flying in the air. While crimson bullets propel me and injure others. The first bigger grimm since my leap of faith is an ursa major a bit taller than the one I killed before.
I stand in front of it idly, resting on my scythe, the blade of which is leaning against the ground. As the grimm makes his charge at me I fire and jump landing on its back. I place my blade against its neck and keep firing till it's headless.
"GOOD! GOOD! CONTINUE!" Rhaast applauded me. I listened to his works and launched myself into the horde again.
"More grimm are coming!" Yelled Weiss. Great, we won't need to look for them. Time to continue the slaughter. I batted my scythe in a quick motion to clean the blood off of it and tightened my grip on it. I run forward cleaving a beowolf trying to pounce on me from left arm to right leg. Running through it's collapsing body like a wall I aim the barrel of Rhaast towards the group of grimm. Stabilising it by sticking the blade tip into the ground I begin firing incendiary rounds. Setting the nearby grimm on fire. The fire grew wilder as Weiss used her plant dust to spread out a thin flammable coat on the nearby area. The pack was destroyed completely.
"Good job everyone let's speed up the pace a bit though, Blake and Yang you two cut through the middle and go to the opposite corner. We'll keep going clockwise." I commanded. Blake used her hook on a ribbon to fling away while Yang ran and propelled herself up with Ember Cecila.
-xXx-
Pov change woosh
"What do you think about Rhaast?" I asked my partner while holding a beowolf by its face and unleashing a series of punches to it's stomach. I'm awesome.
"Not sure yet. He seems to be doing good but it's all a bit suspicious." She answered while swinging with her ribbon attached to a tree, shooting the grimm below.
"Yeah I feel the same. What should we do?" I questioned while punching through a group of beowolfs.
"Nothing, we just wait and see. So far there have only been positives. Anything goes wrong, we will act accordingly." She responds, jumping down to her, slashing the last grimm left on her way down.
"Sounds like a good plan, let's finish this mission then." I said as I began walking through the corpses to reach our destination.
-xXx-
Pov change woosh
I erupted out of an ursa landing on a beowolf pinning it to the ground and finishing it off with a single shot. I turned around to see Weiss surrounded by five beowolf and rushed to help her. She dodged out of the way of the first one's attack, then redirected the next into its brethren. By the third attack she decided to counter, stabbing the grimm from its neck to its brain. She swiftly finished the last one standing on its feet by piercing it's eye with her blade. She moved to the two that remained on the floor and finished them both with one precise stab.
"Good job! I thought I would have to help you there!" I congratulated her honestly.
"I can take care of myself and you should focus on protecting yourself. Remember communication is key." She gave me a smile as she stabbed her rapier right next to my head.
"Thanks for the save but I had it covered." I say as I fire a round into the beowolf she stabbed earlier. We both laugh a little before we move again towards our destination.
"Ruby, we see an unrecognizable grimm. How do we proceed?" I heard Blake's voice come from my scroll. This could be a problem.
"Just another challenge to kill!" Rhaast seemed excited at least.
"We'll get there soon, avoid contact till then and give me a description of it." I ordered as we sped up our walk.
"Tall, humanoid, antlers, exposed ribcage and unnaturally long arms with claws at the ends." She described it. And yeah I never heard of a grimm like that.
-xXx-
"Okay the unknown is only with two ursa. Weiss and Yang will take those out, me and Blake are gunning straight for him." I commanded and while waiting for responses I saw the humanoid's head whip around and lock eye contact with me.
"Attack now it spotted us!" I said and jumped down from the tree shooting behind me trying to abuse recoil to reach my target as fast as I could. The attempt proved futile as a thin black mist appeared and started forming clones of the grimm. I cut down the neatest one only for it to dissipate into mist.
"It can make illusions watch out for that." I called out to my team. But I received no response. The world was now surrounded by fog and filled with clones of the grimm. All of them motionless. They burst into an inhuman puppet-like movement spasming on their way to me. I cut down the first wave only for them to disappear. I started running forward, cleaving everything in my way in half. Still to no effect. This is gonna take a while.
"Sounds like fun to me!" Rhaast exclaimed.
-xXx-
Pov change woosh
Killing the two ursa was easy. The main issue was the orb of impenetrable black mist that contains Ruby and the grimm inside it. Checking on out scrolls our pick up was scheduled to arrive in ten minutes.
-xXx-
Pov change woosh
After killing what felt like hundreds of them and doing it for hours I was starting to get tired. I stayed inside the clones for as long as possible before rupturing out of them to have a moment of rest. I tried running to the walls of my prison but it seemed to stretch endlessly. So I just kept killing. Shots, slashes, guillotines, upward swings and all kinds of methods. After a while the clones stopped turning into the mist after dying. With each death the world was getting brighter and brighter. Then it popped.
"Ruby!" Yang shouted in a worried voice.
"How long was I in there?" I asked while using Rhaast as a crutch.
"Ten minutes." Responded Blake.
"I was in there for hours! I killed thousands of those things!" I exclaimed in an exhausted voice.
"I thought killing couldn't get boring. That proved me wrong." Rhaast mused in an annoyed tone.
"We'll talk about it later. Our pick up is about to arrive." Weiss said trying to hide her worry. After her words a transport vehicle landed next to us and we got on board.
Remembering I still had to answer Pyrrha I wrote her a message on my scroll.
Hi Pyrrha,
I checked and it was actually chromium. Hope that answers your question.
-Ruby Rose
We arrived at Beacon soon after.
"Tell Ozpin I'll give a report tomorrow. I'm almost unconscious after hours of fighting." I told my team as I headed to our room.
-xXx-
While washing my hair I noticed weird bumps on my head. Right now I'm standing in front of a mirror with my hair parted. Which revealed small grey numbs that resembled horns.
-xXx-
AN: Whaaat? Yeah that happened. Rhaast getting mad at cardin is mostly because of the similarities to ascended which he once was. Hope you liked this chapter!