AN: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Thank you for all the positive reviews!
Ozpin took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. Initiation was both a roaring success and an unmitigated disaster.
By all accounts it was successful, many would-be students were weeded out of the program and sent home, while the teams that remained deserved their spot at his school. That's what the council told him, that's what his eons of experience told him, but that's not what the teacher, the father inside told him.
After Glynda and the other teachers did a headcount of the returned teenagers, both those who passed and failed, they came up four short. Deaths were unavoidable in the line of work these children wanted to pursue, but Ozpin wished they didn't have to experience that or pay that price on his watch.
He had informed the families of the four students that they were currently MIA and that the staff at Beacon were doing their utmost to find them, which was true.
The staff had searched for twenty-four hours after initiation had ended, rotating in and out of the Emerald Forest in shifts, but so far only one initiate had been found alive, unharmed, but scared out of her mind hiding in a cave away from a Scorpio, which Port had handled himself.
Two were found dead, one, a male, was found in the nest of a sleeping Nevermore, bisected and half-devoured. Ozpin had not been merciful, and now the Nevermore wouldn't be waking up either.
Glynda had found the other dead initiate, a female, who had been crushed by the Hydra the now aptly named team JNPR had killed. From what Glynda could glean, the poor girl had landed near its den and disturbed it.
He let out a sigh, He had sent a message to Mistral's government, demanding answers as to why a Hydra was in Vale, near Beacon of all places. At first, they had the gall, the stones as Qrow would say to deny any involvement, either in the past or present, of smuggling Grimm into Vale. Ozpin had pointed out that Mistral was known for doing so during the great war, he had to remind them of their history. He reminded them that all the nations had committed atrocities during the war, it's why the Concord of Vytal and the Vytal Festival even exist in the first place.
He told them, over a conference call, face hard as stone and voice firm, that Atlas had a pension for torture, Vacuo loved to send POW's armed and drugged to the front lines against their own people, Vale partook in biological warfare, raining noxious fumes and poisons down on its enemies and allies alike, and Mistral? Mistral liked to use the Grimm. They would take young, weak Grimm and smuggle them through the front lines into settlements across the nations, with Vale being the main target due to its proximity.
He reminded them that the Hydra that JNPR had slain was at the right age to have been alive during the Great War, and he demanded compensation for the family that was now missing a daughter because of it.
They refused, of course.
But they changed their tune pretty damn quickly when he threatened to get Atlas and the Council of Vale involved. After all, Vale and Atlas were close allies now, compared to one hundred years ago, and both had thrived because of it.
Mistral was stagnating, with only its northern provinces prospering due to the safety the proximity to Atlas brought.
Northern Mistral might as well have been a territory of Atlas at this point, but he was digressing.
He knew monetary compensation would not bring that family's daughter back, but it was the best he could do.
And then he glanced at the picture his goddaughter had sent him, and his frown grew.
Grimm were annoying creatures, he had decided that long ago. Part of him wished he had the power to kill the Brother of Darkness for creating them as part of his jealous feud.
His thoughts were cut short when Glynda came into his office. He glanced up at her, questioning in his eyes and she merely shook her head.
Damn.
"We have searched most of the forest at this point, we have no clue where she could be." Glynda began with a sigh, she was only in her mid 30's but at that moment, Ozpin thought she looked twice her age, he resolved to force her on vacation after this semester.
"Tell the staff to call off the search, for now, the students take priority," Ozpin stood, hand on Long Memory for balance. "How are teams RWBY and JNPR fairing?" He hadn't gotten the chance to check on them since the end of initiation. Team RWBY didn't even know that it was an official team as far as he knew, while JNPR learned from Glynda once all the students were patched up.
Hindsight was 20/20, what he had told Miss Schnee was true, he had ordered the recovery of JNPR first since their injuries seemed more severe and RWBY, at the time the order was given, were handling their opponent better.
That didn't last though, and by the time they had arrived to relieve RWBY, the fight was over and the wounded were taken care of.
Most of Team JNPR's wounds were superficial, acid burns, puncture wounds, standard fare for a hydra. Mister Arc and Miss Nikos were the only two unharmed, but that was mainly due to their respective Aura's, they had taken damage in that fight.
Lie Ren had multiple puncture wounds through his left leg, and honestly, he was lucky he didn't lose them.
The same could be said for Miss Valkyrie who in all honesty should have lost hers, but by some miracle didn't.
Team RWBY's wounds were slightly more severe. Miss Belladonna's arm was broken in three places, along with her shoulder being fractured from her impact with the tree. Miss Xiao-Long was relatively fine, suffering from a deep gash on her stomach. It would scar, but she would be fine. Miss Schnee was also fine, she mainly stayed out of the physical confrontation, much to her credit, and attacked from range, so she didn't receive any damage from the beast in return.
Miss Rose… Ruby was almost as bad as Belladonna. She had been slammed back into an oak tree and like Blake, had shattered her shoulder. She was also suffering a very bad concussion from where her head had impacted the tree.
Ozpin let out a sigh through his nose and looked at Glynda who had yet to answer him.
"JNPR is recovering fine in their dorms," She said succinctly as always, "RWBY, both the girl and the team, are up and about, they have also been informed of their status as a team, as well as Miss Rose's role as team leader…"
Ozpin nodded, "Good."
Glynda continued "Miss Belladonna is annoyed about her cast, but her Aura was drained during the encounter with that...thing, she won't be using her left arm for a few days while it recovers." she paused, which Ozpin noticed.
He steepled his fingers in front of his face, "And Miss Rose?"
Glynda looked unsure for a second before she spoke "She's...perfectly fine? It's strange, not twenty-four hours ago she was suffering a shattered shoulder and concussion, but now she's fit as a fiddle worrying about her weapon and Mister Arc."
Ozpin didn't answer after that, and Glynda took that as her dismissal. She turned to leave when Ozpin stopped her. "Send Mister Arc and Miss Rose up here, would you, I'd like to debrief them."
And that's all he said, when she agreed and went to do her task he leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee, thinking back on Mister Arc's treatment of Ruby, as well as the glow he emitted, which must be his semblance.
Curious indeed
Ruby wanted to resurrect the Grimm they had fought and murder it again.
Yang had unfortunately vetoed Necromancy, even though Blake claimed to own the Necronomicon, but she refused to share with Ruby and Weiss, her own partner! Refused to even side with her.
Traitors, all of them, this was why Democracy sucked.
She wanted to reforge Crescent Rose, she wanted to stab that Grimm with Crescent Rose, and she wanted Jaune to snuggle her, in that order.
According to Weiss he had basically done that on the airlift back but she was in a coma at the time, so it didn't count.
She glanced at Crescent Rose in the corner and resisted the urge to cry. Her baby was in shambles. The barrel had a jagged crack down the middle of it, and the mechanisms that allowed for the weapon to shift and compress into its compact form were non-functioning.
It was something she could fix but it would take time, especially since classes were postponed while the teachers searched for the missing initiates.
"Are you seriously thinking about your gun again?" Weiss groaned out, she had just got done using the shower and she must have caught Ruby's longing glance at her daughter.
"She's not just a gun!" Ruby growled which caused Weiss to roll her eyes.
"Yes yes, she's a one of a kind masterpiece, you gave me the rant last time, but dwelling on Crescent Rose isn't going to bring it back, we've already ordered the parts, you just have to wait to put her back together again, as we told you last time," Weiss said, not unkindly.
Ruby knew she couldn't be mad at Weiss, after getting to know the other girl over the last 24 hours she wasn't as bad as she had thought. Weiss had even offered to pay for Crescent Rose's parts, which instantly shot her up a few places in Ruby's book.
Luckily though Ruby's old Blacksmith professor (and master) Professor Burnfire had somehow heard about what had happened to Crescent Rose, and had immediately told Ruby that he'd be sending the needed materials for a full reforge up to Beacon.
Ruby loved that man like a father, just don't tell Taiyang that.
Either way, Ruby wasn't sure if she wanted to just do a routine repair on Crescent Rose or if she should reforge it into something new. She sighed and jumped down from her bed, startling the other three girls in the room.
"I'm going to go find Jaune." she said with a stretch "Maybe he can help me figure out what to do about Crescent Rose."
Blake didn't reply, she was too busy reading some book about Ninja's, Weiss nodded and went back to organizing her stuff. Yang, who was scrolling through her texts, waved at Ruby on her way out, though she did glance up at Ruby's retreating back with a look of slight concern, which Ruby didn't notice.
"I really do not understand her obsession with that boy…" Yang muttered. Ever since they had gotten back from the forest, Ruby had constantly been going on about either Crescent Rose or Jaune. They hadn't gotten a chance to see JNPR since they had gotten back, so maybe Ruby just missed her friend.
Weiss rolled her eyes but didn't answer. Blake on the other hand just giggled a bit, probably at her book. Whatever.
Yang looked at her phone once more, glancing at the two draft messages she had written. One for Uncle Qrow, the other for dad. They both said the same thing, that Ruby had a boyfriend and she didn't trust him to do right by her.
She had the power to ruin that boy, she didn't know how Qrow would react, she was never as close to him as Ruby was, but she knew how her dad would act. He'd come to tear Beacon apart trying to find the fool who dared look at his youngest daughter that way.
Yang didn't send the messages though, with a sigh she put her scroll in her pocket and stared up at the ceiling. She wasn't a tattletale, and she knew Ruby had covered for Yang when she had gone out with some guy (or girl) plenty of times. She also owed Vomit Boy for saving her skin earlier against Ruby's rage. She knew she'd end up sending the messages eventually, but for now, she'd wait and see.
Luckily for Ruby, she didn't have to walk far to reach Jaune's room, since it was basically right across from hers, but the process of getting to Jaune was expedited by him already being outside his dorm room door the moment she stepped outside on her own.
His back was to the door, and he looked like he was holding it shut. The look of fear on his face reinforced that notion in Ruby's mind and she opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong when the door exploded outwards with a thump.
"Nora! No using grenades on the door!" Jaune shouted back at his dorm.
A muffled "You're no fun!" reached her ears and Ruby suppressed a small giggle as Jaune sighed.
"Why are you out here oh Husband of mine?" Ruby asked, sliding up next to Jaune and looping an arm through his. He blushed at the contact, which she thought was cute, and rubbed the back of his head.
"Nora learned I was a blacksmith and kept asking me to make upgrades to Magnhild" Jaune answered with a sheepish grin "She wouldn't listen to me when I said that I wasn't the best at working with Mechashift, she just got it in her head that I could turn her Grenade Launching Hammer Shifting weapon into a Grenade and Sloth Launching Hammer."
Ruby looked up at him with a frown "Why sloths?"
Jaune shrugged and the two began to make their way to the dorm common room "I have no idea, I've only known the girl for twenty-four hours."
"You've only known me for like...thirty-six, Maybe forty-eight, maybe." Ruby reminded him, which caused him to laugh.
"Yea but we clicked, you know?"
Ruby blushed and smiled with a nod. "Look at you being a smooth talker."
"You are way too easy to impress if that's your idea of smooth-talking." she punched him in the shoulder for that, which he barely felt compared to the last time she did that, God bless Aura.
"For that, you owe me snuggles." she pouted up at him and it took all of his considerable willpower to resist the pout.
Jaune had seven sisters, and even they couldn't weaponize a pout as effectively as Ruby could.
It wasn't fair.
Jaune patted her on the head "Fine, fine just tone down the puppy dog eyes, you're going to stop my heart with all the cuteness."
Ruby's pout turned into a grin at her hard-earned victory, but sadly cuddles were not to be. As the sharp clearing of a throat reached the two love birds' ears. They turned just in time to see Glynda Goodwitch staring at them, though not harshly which surprised both of them.
Didn't Beacon have PDA rules or something? Maybe she was luring them in with a false sense of security?
Goodwitch tilted and adjusted her glasses with a frown. "The headmaster would like to see you."
"But I haven't even gotten to smooch him yet!" Ruby complained before she slammed a hand over her mouth. Goodwitch raised an eyebrow at her, and Jaune felt his face begin to reach critical overload levels of blush.
The deputy headmistress coughed into her hand and gave Ruby a stern look "Save...that for your own time Miss Rose, now go tell your teams that you will be gone for some time, the headmaster wishes to debrief the two of you as team leaders about your respective encounters in the forest."
Jaune had never seen a person switch from being well… the way Ruby normally is too serious so quickly. It was like a switch flipped, one moment she was embarrassed about admitting to wanting to 'smooch' him in the common room (something he was now looking forward to eventually trying), and the next she was frowning, her silver eyes hard as the Valian steel that made up her precious weapon.
She let go of his arm and nodded to Goodwitch, with a quick Yes Ma'am she jogged back towards her room to let her team know. It was disconcerting if you asked Jaune, and judging by the look on Goodwitch's face, she thought so as well.
Jaune began to make his way back to his dorm when Goodwitch's riding crop was placed in his way. He looked at her and flinched back at her stern glare.
"I do not know what is going on between the two of you, but know this, She may be emancipated, but she is still fifteen years old."
Jaune gave a quick Yes Ma'am to that, before excusing himself to inform his team about his appointment to see the headmaster.
Now that he thought about it, he had never asked Ruby how old she was, fifteen wasn't that bad all things considered, especially if her birthday was sometime soon, which he'd have to ask.
Don't get him wrong, Fifteen was still young, but a two-year gap wasn't the end of the world.
They'd just have to be careful.
He quickly informed his team about where he was going, before heading out once more, locked in arm with Ruby towards the Headmaster's office.
They arrived at the headmaster's tower and stepped off the elevator. Ozpin looked up from the paperwork he was looking at and smiled at both of them.
"Mister Arc, Miss Rose, please take a seat." He stood and motioned to the seats in front of his desk, before taking his mug and walking towards the kitchenette connected to the office. "Would either of you like some tea? Or perhaps coffee?"
The two took their seats and declined a drink, and the headmaster just shrugged and went to refill his drink before returning to his desk.
He took notice of the two entwined hands but otherwise didn't bring it up, instead, he began the debrief by steepling his hands in front of his face and leaning forward. "Now then, Mister Arc, your debrief is more of a...formality than anything, we pretty much know everything that happened between your team and that Hydra…"
Ruby looked at Jaune and mouthed "Hydra?" at him which made him rub the back of his head nervously.
Ozpin took notice and chuckled "Yes, Miss Rose, Team JNPR did indeed encounter a Hydra, one that was about one hundred and ten if its size were to be believed."
Ruby let out a low whistle at that and gave Jaune's hand a quick squeeze which made him blush. "That's impressive, but how did a one-hundred-year-old Hydra get over here from Mistral?" she asked though she blushed when she realized that she had basically broken protocol by asking for clarification from a commanding officer.
Ozpin though didn't seem to mind, he was a teacher first, after all, military leader second. "How familiar are both of you with the great war? And the Concord of Vytal?"
"Well I know the Concord of Vytal was a kind of...ruleset of war, right? It was made after the great war to keep war...civil? Whatever that means." Jaune answered with a small shrug of his shoulders. "Things like making the use of gas illegal, no torture of POWS, etc."
Ozpin nodded, pleased at what Jaune knew "Very good Mister Arc, something else that was included in the Concord was the absolute ban placed on any use of the Grimm in warfare."
Ruby leaned forward in her seat "Wait, the Grimm were being used for War? How does that even work?"
"Very devastatingly, Miss Rose, as the population of Vale found firsthand." Ozpin sipped his coffee, "At the time of the Great War, Vale was very sparsely populated, outside of the city of Vale proper most of the settlements in the country were small, with less than a thousand people in some of them. These small settlements were important to the City of Vale since they provided most of the agriculture and food for both the city and country as a whole and Mistral knew this." he paused to sip his drink once more. "So they devised a plan, you see in Vale most of the Grimm native to the country don't normally grow that large. With the biggest being the rare Nevermore and Scorpio, with maybe a Draco if you are unlucky. Even with those Grimm however, they take time to grow to maturity, a Nevermore won't get to be the size of a small building in a year, a Beowulf won't eclipse a man within six months."
He looked at the two students who were listening with wide eyes, "Mistral has the opposite problem, where most Grimm native to the continent grow big very very quickly, but start incredibly small. A hydra, for example, starts out no bigger than my hip, but as you can see they grow incredibly quickly." once more he sipped "Hydra's can get to be nearly ten feet tall in a week, and they grow to be the size of a small cottage in months. The downside to this quick growth is that, unlike most Grimm, Grimm from Mistral, especially the Hydra, tend to stop growing with age, instead, they require sustenance to grow larger."
The two looked disturbed at that though and Ozpin decided to get to the point. "So, during the war, Mistral would hire Grimm trappers to hunt down and capture any of the fast-growing Grimm species they could find. Hydras, King Taiju, and others would then smuggle them into Vale and set them loose near a small settlement. After a week the settlement would be gone before any soldier or huntsmen could respond."
Both students looked upset at that, and Ozpin decided to get to his point. "So you see Miss Rose, that Hydra was a holdover from the great war, one I am ashamed to say that we, the staff and upperclassmen of the school, missed during our weekly sweeps of the forest."
His eyes gained a hard edge to them "Two Initiates died, one specifically because of that Hydra." he looked directly at Jaune when he said the next part "So take heart, young man, you and your teams may have sustained injuries, and lost equipment but in doing so you avenged a fellow Huntress." he paused "The Concord of Vytal covers cases of war crimes done during, and after the war. Be they purposeful or as a holdover from the war. That girl's family is already being compensated by Mistral as we speak because of the Hydra. Your team will be given a sizable bounty for killing it, off the record of course."
Jaune was about to object when Ruby poked him in the side with a finger.
"You can't say no, it's part of being a huntsman, you get paid for slaying monsters." she muttered to him "Even if we don't want to sometimes."
"Indeed, If it bothers you, think of it as a way to fund a replacement for Crocea Mors, though I doubt Nicholas will be pleased about the loss of your ancestral blade," Ozpin muttered over his coffee.
Jaune winced when Ruby's grip on his hand tightened "What! You lost our baby!?"
Ozpin nearly spewed his coffee across the room at that sudden proclamation while Jaune sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Well, when I was working on it…"
"Him…" Ruby growled causing Jaune to wince
"Yea, him, when I was working on him for my dad I found out that the sword had a secret compartment for dust, which would make it into an elemental blade if you put dust in the hilt and activated the dust with some force." he swallowed some spit as Ruby's glare got a bit more intense.
"Jaune, sweetie, what did you do!" she growled
They both heard Ozpin whisper in shocked awe "Sweetie?"
"I...may have loaded the sword with thermite to help kill the Hydra?" Jaune tried to scoot away from Ruby but her grip was too strong.
"Was it cool?" she scowled at him.
"What?" Jaune looked at her like she was a hydra and suddenly sprouted another head.
"Was it cool!? Did our son die in a blaze of glory?"
"Umm...yes? He killed like three heads, and then Pyrrha shoved a grenade down the last one's throat, she's still bragging about it."
She suddenly let go and crossed her arms "fine, but did you at least collect the pieces? We could reforge him, you know."
Jaune raised a finger to say 'of course I did when the realization hit him, he actually hadn't. Weyland was going to kill him if Ruby didn't, he broke field blacksmith rule number fifty, always recover what you can. He groaned and slammed his head into Ozpin's desk, denting it because of his stupidly powerful Aura.
Ozpin was too distracted to be upset, what was all this nonsense about sons and sweeties? Did he have to murder this boy? He glanced at the boy "Mister Arc, I understand you're upset but that dent is coming out of your bounty."
The Arc boy just gave Ozpin a thumbs up, which caused Ozpin to chuckle, and Ruby to giggle.
"Well, Mister Arc, rest assured I will have someone return to the place of your encounter with the hydra and retrieve your broken weapon" Jaune looked up from his little head crater with a small smile.
"Thank you, Headmaster."
"Of course my boy, should I have them look for Miss Nikos' weapons as well?" Ozpin asked.
Jaune shuddered "No, that girl doesn't understand that weapons aren't meant to be broken on your enemies."
Ruby looked at him with wide-eyed confusion "Wait she purposefully breaks her weapons?"
Ozpin swore she growled that last part but he ignored it and waited for Jaune to speak.
"She's a tournament fighter." He began and Ruby let out a small oh as if that explained everything "And as a tournament fighter, weapon maintenance and repair was the bottom of her worry list. If she broke a weapon during a tournament she could just get a new one."
Ozpin nodded "Ah, that makes sense, she is used to having the means and ability to replace any weapon that broke, I'll have to make a note to have Glynda and Port work to wean her out of that habit." He then turned to Ruby "Now then, the creature you encountered is much more...concerning. I need you to tell me everything that happened leading up to the encounter with it."
Ruby told him and by proxy Jaune everything. How it mimicked human speech, how it used a mimicked voice to lure team RWBY towards it, and how they eventually killed it.
"Wait, you can't get mad at me for breaking Crocea Mors when you literally did the same thing to Crescent Rose!" Jaune complained, which caused Ruby to stick her tongue out at him.
"Yeah well I at least brought my baby home!" she giggled at his groan and once again Ozpin was perplexed by their relationship.
"Well, weapon malfunctions aside, that Grimm being in the forest is...disturbing to say the least, more so than the hydra even." he pressed a button on his desk and a holographic image of the beast in question appeared over it. It was the same image Ruby had sent him during the encounter.
"That creature was an Elder Grimm." He started only to be cut off by Jaune.
"Elder Grimm?" Jaune looked at Ruby to see if she knew what Ozpin was talking about but she looked just as lost as he did.
"Elder Grimm are Grimm that have managed to live long enough, and kill enough people to evolve further than they normally would.'' He zoomed the image of the Beowulf in and highlighted some areas of its body. "Look at its arms, its legs, and even its face. The face plating is much thicker than a normal Beowulf, its spikes are larger and its arms and legs more heavily armored."
He paused before continuing "That's not to mention its ability to speak and use deductive reasoning, something normal Grimm cannot do." He looked at Ruby "But this Elder Grimm managed to deduce that Miss Belladonna was saving your teammates from taking damage using her speed and semblance, so it took her out at its first opportunity, and it mimiced a humans cry, likely someone it had devoured, to lure initiates too it to feed."
Jaune felt cold sweat drip down the side of his face and Ruby put a hand on his knee to keep it from bouncing up and down because of his worry. "Grimm aren't that smart though…"
Ozpin nodded "under normal circumstances they wouldn't be, but as I said, a Grimm gets smarter with age, and more powerful the more humans they consume." he motioned to the Elder Grimm on-screen "This….Fenris we've begun to term it since it's very much not a Beowulf anymore was nearly two centuries old based on testing done by Doctor Oobleck, the fact that your team had managed to kill it at all is a miracle." he said that with a look at Ruby, with a touch of concern and pride, Ruby noted.
Ruby blushed a little bit "Well, we only did what any other huntsman team would have…" she trailed off at Ozpin's laugh.
"Professional huntsman would have run the moment they recognized the Frenris for what it was, Miss Rose." he smiled at her "Only exceptional hunters like your Uncle and Mother would have even bothered to fight it."
Ruby smiled and Jaune patted her on the back, they all stayed silent for a few moments before Ozpin checked his watch and stood. "I must get ready for my sweep of the forest, there is still one student left to find after all." He made his way over to his kitchenette to drop off his mug "You both are dismissed, like we told the students, School is not starting for another week, so spend the time to get your equipment in order and prepared."
Jaune stood with Ruby to begin making their way out of Ozpin's office, when they reached the elevator though Ruby paused. Jaune turned and held the door with a confused look on his face. "Ruby?"
Ruby grinned and just leaned up on her tippy toes to kiss Jaune on the cheek, which caused Ozpin to silently choke, "Go on, I'll catch up! I have to ask Professor Ozpin something in private."
Jaune nodded and let the elevator door close, his face and mind blank from getting his first cheek kiss from a girl that WASN'T related to him.
Ruby turned to Ozpin who had made his way over to her. "You could have just waited for me to get on the elevator, you know."
Ruby shrugged "Yea but my Husband is a dork and would volunteer to go if I did."
For once Ozpin was glad he was immortal because if he hadn't been his heart-stopping would have killed him the moment she uttered the words husband. Instead, he calmly looked at Ruby, though his grip on Long Memory tightened, which Ruby's trained eyes noticed.
"I'm sorry what?"
Ruby chuckled, "That was Yang's response too!" she clapped a bit "Cliffnotes version! He and I met before initiation in the courtyard, we gushed about weapons, learned that we are both Journeyman Blacksmiths and we agreed that we were going to get married and open a weapon shop."
Ozpin had a million different responses that were floating in his head to that. The first was would Taiyang let you? But he knew the answer to that. The second was did Qrow know? But knowing that old bird he probably wouldn't care, he was a Branwen, and though he didn't act like it he did take some traditions of his clan seriously, such as marrying young, the only reason he hadn't done so was because of his Semblance and Alcoholism. The final response was to try and dissuade her himself, but even though he was her godfather, he had no real right to do so. So instead he just simply muttered a quiet "I see." before getting to the matter at hand.
"What do you mean by, if he'd volunteer to go?" he was already dreading the answer, he was starting to realize how alike Summer and Ruby were.
"Well duh!" she grinned up at him "I'm coming with you into the forest! I gotta get my son out after all."
So, the responsible thing to tell Ruby in this instance, the answer that would allow him to go another day without Glynda hiding his secret coffee stash was to just say no. Deny his goddaughter and tell her that she had no business going into that forest for anything, much less melted slag that used to be a weapon.
But looking down at her with her puppy dog eyes, he couldn't help but see a younger Summer, asking to go on adventures with him back when he was still a traveling huntsman, at least in this Incarnation.
So against his better judgment, he nodded his agreement. "Very well, but a huntsman shouldn't go into an engagement unarmed, so let's remedy that." he turned to hobble back towards one of his many bookshelves. "Tell me, did Qrow teach you how to only use a Scythe? Or do you know how to use swords as well?"
Ruby let out a whispered yes before skipping after Ozpin "He had me practice using Harbinger, and he made sure I knew how to perform basic sword moves and parry's before he moved me onto its scythe form." She pouted again "He always told me" she coughed and cleared her throat so she could mimic Qrows deep voice "Little Bird, you gotta always have a backup, and have backups for your backups! Your mom beat that into all of us and even if Tai doesn't follow that rule I sure as hell am gonna make sure you do."
Ozpin let out a jolly laugh at the imitation but his heart ached at the mention of Summer, the ache didn't go away when he opened his bookcase to reveal a weapon rack, filled wall to wall with weapons of all kinds. Ruby let out a small gasp of awe, which alleviated some of the pain.
"Wow!" she started using her semblance to rush around looking at all the different firearms and swords available. "Is that a Mistrali Polearm Rifle? Oh my gosh, that's a Claymore Cleaver! How did you even get a Vacuo Revolving Shotgun? Those things are so rare!?" He let her go on for a minute before stopping her with a hand on her shoulder.
"These are all weapons donated to me by students who have graduated and moved on to better things, either they retired." he pointed to a pair of nunchucks and then a massive minigun "Or they passed on and willed these to me, they always have a place here." he looked down at her "And I know any of these students would have loved for you to use their weapons, so don't feel bad for using it if you have to." he frowned "But there is one weapon here that was never meant for me, it was donated to me under the requirement that I give it to a student once they make it to Beacon and pass my initiation to prove that they were ready."
Ruby tilted her head in confusion at that, she followed him with her eyes as he reached down almost tenderly to pick up a white box about a foot long, and she gasped when she noticed the symbol on the front of it.
It was the same symbol she wore on her own clothes, the same symbol her mother wore on her clothes as well. An ornate white rose stared back at her and she felt tears start to form in her eyes.
"Your mother wanted you to have this, when you were old enough, it was specified in her Will." Ozpin softly said as he opened the box to reveal a beautiful white and red long sword, it's hilt was red on one side, white on the other with a long trigger extending off of it. He pulled the sword from the box and handed it to Ruby who took it gently. "Grab it with both hands and pull the trigger."
She did so and the sword split in half. The heavy metal of the long sword split down the middle creating two much lighter swords in each of her hands, one of them was white with a red hilt, while the other was red with a white hilt.
He pointed to the sword in her right hand, the red bladed one "Rose" he pointed to the white one "Bud" he brought the two blades together slowly, once more seamlessly locking them into place "Rosebud when together."
Ruby felt her heart stop "Is that why she called me…"
"Would you find it odd that your mother was as much a weapon fanatic as you?" he chuckled "She called you Rosebud because she thought the name, tied to her weapons, would always give you comfort." he smiled "And now in a way they can give you protection as well." he pulled out a note from inside the box and handed it to her "Read this later, if you want to show Miss Xialong, sadly Summer didn't have anything to leave her, which she makes note of in the note, but for now prepare yourself." His demeanor went from soft to serious quickly. "We have a lost student to find." he turned and pulled one last thing out for Ruby, a scabbard to hold the sword, a simple black and red one.
She wordlessly took the scabbard and placed her mother's blades inside of it, before nodding to Ozpin. She whipped her tears and grinned "yes sir!"
Ozpin smiled again at her "Run down to your dorms and get ready, bring only the essentials, we shouldn't be out long, a few hours at most." He waved her off "if your team asks just say I require your assistance for the rest of the night but do not specify for what, I'll handle Glynda."
He was about to turn to do just that when a miniature missile crashed into him and he found himself being hugged quite fiercely by Ruby, her arms wrapped around his midsection.
"Thank you" she mumbled quietly into his stomach and Ozpin just chuckled while patting her on the head.
"Of course, dear child." she quickly made her way to the elevator and waved at him, the biggest smile he had ever seen on her face as the door closed. He quickly sat behind his desk and paged for Glynda to make her way up to his office before he sighed.
He looked at one of the pictures on his desk, a picture of a much younger Ozpin and a child who looked incredibly similar to Ruby, smiling at the camera, covered in flower and chocolate chips.
"Of course…"