Notice Me, Ruby!

Chapter 7: Testing Time (Part 2)

It had been a few days since what happened between Weiss and Ruby over Professor Peach's test. Right now, things were worse for team RWBY than they had ever been, as now two of their members were distancing themselves from the rest of the group. Ruby was obviously one of those two, as she still felt it was necessary to stay away from her team for the sake of her future as a Huntress. The other member was Weiss, who was keeping her distance from her teammates after what had happened in Peach's class. This was most likely done out of fear, as the heiress had turned the rest of her team against her by accusing her partner of cheating.

With half of the team now staying away from their other teammates, things had gotten rather uncomfortable for the whole team. Whenever there was a rare moment where the whole team was in the same place at the same time, the only people who were willing to communicate with each other at all were Yang and Blake, and even they were just whispering to each other. There was also a level of hostility within team RWBY, as not only was Ruby still very displeased at her teammates, but Yang was also openly angry at Weiss. The white-haired girl was lucky that the blonde had decided to show her anger simply through mean looks and insults at this point.

While Blake had somewhat gotten over what Weiss had done, which was helped by the cat faunus and her partner giving their punishment to the heiress, Yang was still more than willing to hold onto her hatred. The blonde felt like they should focus on getting Ruby back and abandon Weiss, as she didn't deserve to be on the team anymore. Blake might not have been as extreme as the brawler, as she still felt that they should give the white-haired girl a possible chance for the sake of the team. Although, she felt that Weiss herself needed to put in the effort and not just expect things to turn well on their own.

For now, Yang and Blake would be focusing their attention on fixing things between themselves and Ruby. Their situation with their team leader was something they truly wanted to fix, and the blonde claimed that she had a plan for it. So far, she had been observing how well Ruby had been doing in her classes and found out that the redhead was at the top of all of them. If she didn't get a perfect score on whatever assignment she was given, Ruby would only be missing one or two points. All the teachers were obviously very happy and proud of their student's progress, but Yang was having mixed feelings. While on one hand she was happy and proud of Ruby doing so well in her studies, the brawler also saw it as a problem. With the scythe-wielder already concentrating all of her attention to her studies, her success was only going to motivate her to keep doing so, which would only push her further away from her team. Not only was Yang worried about losing whatever relationship she still had with Ruby, but she was also worried that this would all be damaging to the redhead's already bad social skills in the long run. In the blonde's mind, something needed to be done.

At the moment, Yang was discussing her plan with Blake in their team's dorm. Both Ruby and Weiss were away, which meant they could talk about it without any worries. However, while the brawler was very confident and optimistic with her idea, the cat faunus couldn't help but be skeptical.

"Yang, would you mind and repeat your plan to me?" Blake asked while sitting on her bed. "I want to make sure I heard you correctly."

"I said that my plan is to sabotage one of Ruby's tests," Yang answered. "The reason why she studies so hard is to get great grades, right? So what if she were to fail despite her studying so hard all the time? I certain Ruby would give up on her studies, allowing us to come in, cheer her up and build back the relationship we used to have! Simple, is it not?"

"I feel you might be making it too simple," the cat faunus said. "Not to mention, don't you think your plan is a little... cruel? After all, Ruby has been putting an insane amount of work on her studies, so doing this could be damaging to her. Not to mention, if we get caught-"

"It's an if and not a certainty. We can get away with it."

"IF we get caught, Ruby is going to be REALLY angry at us. Do you still remember that Deathstalker incident we had with her?" Blake asked and shivered a bit at the memory of getting chased by her livid team leader. "I think I've developed a fear of pointy objects because of it."

"It's a risk that I'm willing to take, Blake. Not to mention, it's for the greater good," the blonde answered. "Thanks to how things have gone between us and Ruby, our team has become fragmented. I don't know about you, but I miss having the old Ruby with us, and I'm ready to whatever it takes to get her back. Also, we are not going to have her actually fail. We're only going to make it so that she barely passes, thus saving her from having to retake the test we'll be sabotaging. It won't affect her grades all that much in the end."

The raven-haired girl thought about her partner's reasoning for a moment. While she still wasn't fully onboard the whole idea, she still agreed that they needed to do something in order to save their team, and getting back the old Ruby was needed for that. They might feel guilty about it for some time, but Blake thought that it might be worth it to save their team. Not to mention, they didn't have any better ideas at the moment.

"Alright, let's say that this plan will work and we're going to go for it. How exactly are we supposed to pull this off?" the cat faunus asked. "I can't really think of a way for us to really sabotage any of Ruby's tests in such a way that we won't get caught."

"No need to worry about that! I already have a plan!" Yang said with a grin. "Remember what Professor Oobleck told us today?"

"You mean how he's been so busy with work that he hasn't been able to grade them yet and most likely won't be able to do so for a while? Yes, I remember that," Blake answered.

"Well, those papers are most likely still sitting in his office, right? And he most likely hasn't gone through them yet," the blonde began to explain. "If we could get our hands on Ruby's paper, we could alter her answers in such a way that she'll lose points! And the professor won't know that there were changes, as he hasn't looked at the answers yet!"

"But won't Ruby know the difference?"

"If she remembers EXACTLY everything she wrote, she might notice something's wrong. But even if she does, she can't prove that someone altered her answers."

Blake thought about Yang's explanation. This plan could actually work, as Ruby wouldn't have any proof that someone actually tampered with her paper. Not to mention, if she were to say that someone did, no one would really believe her. The raven-haired girl just hoped that things wouldn't go too out of hand, as it could hurt the redhead a lot.

However, there was still one thing that needed to be thought about.

"Alright, that's well and everything, but how exactly do we get our hands on Ruby's test?" Blake asked. "It's inside Oobleck's office, so we can't go there during daytime, as we would most likely get caught, and it's locked during night. Not to mention, if Ruby sees us sneaking around in the middle of the night, she is going to get suspicious of us."

"That's where YOU come in!" Yang replied. "Since you used to be part of the White Fang, I'm sure you can get into the office with ease. And with your Semblance, you can just leave a clone here, so Ruby won't suspect a thing!"

"...For the record, I would like you to NOT assume things about me due to my past with the White Fang. I would like to leave that life behind, remember?" the raven-haired girl said with a frustrated sigh. "While it's true that I could possibly get into Oobleck's office, that other part of your plan doesn't really work. Once I get too far from my clone, I can't give it anymore instructions. It pretty much stops dead in it's tracks and remains stiff like a statue. Pretty much anyone could tell that it's not really me. And when I get too far away from it, it becomes harder for me to maintain the clone. One slight slip in my concentration and it disappears completely. Even if I somehow manage to keep it up, there's the risk of Ruby seeing me come back to the dorm while the clone is still around."

"So... You're not willing to do it?" the blonde asked.

"Yang, your plan has more holes in it than Port has boring stories. It wouldn't work," Blake answered. "It's way too risky for us to pull off."

The brawler let out a sigh and sat down on Weiss' bed. She had been so certain that she had gotten the right idea on how to set things right with Ruby, but it seemed like they were back to square one. However, Yang suddenly had another idea.

"Hey, Blake. How about we have someone else do it?" the blonde asked. "That way, we won't risk having Ruby or anyone else get suspicious of us."

"I guess that could work..." the raven-haired girl said thoughtfully. "But who are we supposed to get to do such a job for us? Not only would they risk getting detention if they were caught, but we would also have to worry about them telling the truth of our involvement."

"Hmmm... That's a good point. What we need is someone we can bribe easily. Someone who is brave and crazy enough to do this, but also loyal enough for us to not need to worry about ratting on us," Yang said while thinking about it, before a mischievous grin spread over her face. "I think I have the perfect person for this."

It didn't take long for Yang and Blake to find the person they were looking for. This individual was honestly perfect for the two girls' plan, as they were willing to do a lot of crazy things just for the fun of it. The only problem would be to find the perfect payment to give them.

"Alright, Nora, do you understand what we need you to do?" Yang asked the ginger. The two girls had just explained to their friend what they needed her to do.

"Sure! You want me to break into Oobleck's office and go mess up Ruby's test!" Nora said answered. "Although, I do have to ask, why do you want me to do this? If it's supposed to be a prank, it doesn't sound all that funny."

"It's for the sake of our team," Blake answered. "Since Ruby is focusing so much on her studies, she has essentially alienated herself from the rest of the team. We are hoping for this to allow us to get closer to her, so we can hopefully fix our relationship with her."

"Okay, I get it that you want Ruby to be closer to you guys again," the ginger said. "But can't you guys just talk to her? I mean, is it really necessary to go through all of this just for the sake of getting her to spend time with you?"

"Do you think we haven't tried that?" Yang asked. "We have tried to talk to her countless of times and even asked her to come with us to all sorts of things! But even if we do get to talk to her, she immediately rejects whatever we are offering! Remember that time she chased us throughout Vale? That pretty much happened because we kept asking her to join us at the amusement park continuously."

"Oh, I remember that, alright!" Nora snickered. "It was pretty hilarious to see her chase after you three with those Deathstalker stingers. I'm surprised no one recorded it or anything. You guys were running through Vale in the middle of the day, after all."

"I doubt it would have been hilarious to you, if you had been in our position, you little-"

"ANYWAYS, are you willing to do what we asked you to do, Nora?" Blake quickly asked, cutting off her partner's angry response. "It's very risky, so we understand if you don't want to do it."

"Sneaking into Oobleck's office? Please, I do WAY crazier stuff just for the heck of it on an almost regular basis," Nora said. "Although, I think we still haven't discussed one important thing."

"And that is?"

"My prize," the hammer-wielder answered. "What do I get from this?"

"The biggest possible plate of pancakes," Yang answered. "Cooked by none other than myself."

If there was one thing that Nora liked, it was pancakes. The ginger was honestly so obsessed with them that she was willing to do almost anything for them. In fact, Ren often made them in order to stop whatever crazy rampage Nora was on.

However, the two girls didn't know that they had actually overestimated the crazed girl's love for pancakes. Only by a little bit, though.

"Oh, please, you're going to have to do better than that," Nora said, surprising both Yang and Blake. "I can easily get Ren to make them for me. Even if asking doesn't work, I just have to do something crazy and he'll be making them in no time! Why do you think I go pulling pranks and other such things so often anyways? It's all for the sake of Ren's pancakes. Not to mention, I heard that you mix salt and sugar with each other, Yang."

Both members of team RWBY were looking at each other with concern on their faces. Their plan required the help of an outsider and Nora was the only candidate that could pull it off. If she wasn't willing to help them, the two girls feared that they didn't have anyone else capable enough for the job.

"How about some high quality pancakes?" a familiar voice called out. The three girls turned around to see Weiss walking towards them. "Back in the Schnee manor, I had a special pancake butler. You can probably guess what his specialty was. With one call, I can get him here to come make you pancakes like you've never tasted before. Pancakes that makes you think gods themselves made them. If you agree to the deal, I'll have him make you as much of those treats as you want."

Yang and Blake looked at each other, wondering why their white-haired teammate had suddenly come to help them. They had been certain that after the whole issue with Peach's test she wouldn't want to even get near any of her teammates for obvious reasons.

"F-For real?" Nora asked as drool was dripping from her mouth at the thought of the sweet treats the heiress had described for her. "You'll let me taste something like that?"

"Of course. That's the deal," Weiss said while being slightly disturbed and disgusted by the ginger's drooling, which had made a small puddle at her feet. "By the way, you might want to wipe your chin a bit."

"Thanks. I got a bit excited," Nora said while wiping away her drool. "But I still have to ask, is all this really necessary? I know that Ruby has been focusing a lot on her studies lately, but isn't that a good thing? Ren is constantly bugging me about having to study more."

"Nora, the problem isn't that she's studying. The problem's in the amount of studying," Yang answered. "For some time now, she has been doing nothing but bury herself in her books, while avoiding anything that's even remotely fun. She is like a mix between Weiss and Blake, a lifeless hermit that does nothing but read books and acts all cold and mean to everybody around her."

"Hey!" both Weiss and Blake yelled, angered by what their teammate had said.

"Oh, be quiet, you two!" the brawler told her two teammates, before turning her attention back to Nora. "Like I said, we really need to do this for Ruby's sake. Can we trust you to handle this?"

"Gosh... I knew that Ruby had been focusing on her studies a lot more, but I never imagined that it could be that bad. Just imagining a person that's a mix of Weiss and Blake is horrifying enough," Nora said with fearful eyes, causing the monochrome members of RWBY to fume. "I'll do it. But I'll still want those pancakes you promised."

"It's a deal then," Yang said with a grin and shook hands with the ginger. After the deal had been made, the three members of RWBY started to head towards their dorm, while Nora went somewhere else.

However, before the three members of RWBY got anywhere close to their dorm, Yang took a hold of Weiss' shoulder and took her to a more secluded part with Blake following closely behind them. Now that they had some privacy, the blonde could have a talk with her white-haired teammate.

"Weiss, what are you up to?" Yang asked with a serious look on her face.

"W-What do you mean?" Weiss asked, confused by the sudden question.

"Don't play with me. Just a couple of days ago, you were all enraged at Rubes and accusing her of being a cheater of all things. Yet here you are, helping us out in trying to get close to her again," the brawler explained. "Just what is your game here? What are you trying to accomplish by helping us out?"

The heiress started to sweat nervously and looked at Blake, hoping that the faunus girl would offer at least some sort of help or at least sympathy. Unfortunately, Blake had a similar serious look on her face as her partner did. Both of these girls were suspicious of their teammate and wanted some answers.

With a deep breath, Weiss went on to explain herself.

"I guess what I'm doing is... trying," the heiress answered as she looked down at the floor and played with her ponytail a bit in order to calm herself.

"Trying what exactly?" Yang asked. "I want to know what you mean by that."

"What I'm trying is to be a better person and a friend, if that makes sense," Weiss started to explain. "The thing is that I have a lot of problematic things hammered into me and it's going to take a lot to get rid of them. And those things have come from my father and the way he raised me."

"Your father?" Blake asked. "What does he have to do with any of this?"

"Most people make the assumption that since I was born into a wealthy noble family that my life has been easy and completely perfect. While there are certainly the positive sides to growing up like that, it's not as great as most would think," the white-haired girl continued her explanation. "As the heiress of our family, there were a lot of high expectations placed upon me since birth. My father made it clear to me that I have to best and perfect in everything I did. Nothing less was good enough. If I were to not achieve these high standards of his, I could expect a harsh punishment coming my way."

"But you're no longer at your home. Your father isn't here," Yang argued. "Why do you still feel the need to achieve the standards he has set up for you?"

"You have no idea how hard it is to break away from something you've been living with your entire life. Even these days, I expect my father to get angry at me for not being the one student with the best test score or best performance in a training exercise," Weiss answered. "Not only that, but he still manages to find out about things that happen in this school as well. When team RWBY was formed and I wasn't made the leader, I got a call from my father the next day, asking me to explain how something like that had happened. I was only able to get out of it by lying about the reasons I wasn't made leader."

"And what exactly did you tell your dad in that case?" the blonde asked as she narrowed her eyes.

"You don't want to know. Even I'm ashamed of the things I said back then," the heiress quickly said, hoping to avoid angering her teammate further. "Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that the reason I... well... snapped at Ruby the way I did was because of how I've been raised by my father. No matter what I try, I can't seem to escape his unreasonable expectations for me, and it still affects me."

"Are you saying we should forgive you?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.

"As much as I wish I could, I know it's unreasonable. The things I said to Ruby aren't exactly easily forgiven, especially after I promised to try to be the best partner possible. I didn't exactly live up to that promise," Weiss answered with a sigh. "But I do wish that you'll give me a chance at least. After we had our... disagreement, things have been hard for me as well. The moment I realized you all wouldn't be my friends anymore, I was reminded of how alone I used to be back home. I don't want that and I'm ready to do anything to fix things between us. All I need is a chance."

There was a moment of silence, where Yang and Blake simply stared at their white-haired teammate, trying to see even a hint of a lie in her. However, they couldn't detect any deception in her, causing the blonde to let out a deep sigh.

"Sheesh... Now look at what you did," Yang said while rubbing the back of her head. "You made me feel all bad for what Blake and I did to you."

"You shouldn't. I did step out of line pretty badly," Weiss said. "Although, you might have gone a bit too far when you used the toilet-"

"Not apologizing for that," the brawler quickly cut off the heiress, causing her to frown a bit. "However, I am willing to give you chance. If not for anything else other than to keep our team together."

"That is all I ask. Thank you," Weiss said with a smile and even gave a small bow to her teammates, causing them to smile. "By the way, what is this new plan of yours?"

Yang and Blake looked at each other in confusion for a second, before looking at the white-haired girl again.

"Wait a second. You didn't know what our plan was and yet you were willing to help us out?" Blake asked.

"Well, I did say that I wanted to fix things up between me and my team, right?" Weiss said with a small smile. "So what is your plan this time?"

"Oh, it's a simple one," Yang began with a grin.

Meanwhile in Atlas, Winter Schnee was sitting in her office, looking through some of her soldiers' latest reports on the White Fang's activity, when she suddenly heard something.

"YOU'RE GOING TO DO WHAT!?"

"...Was that Weiss?" the white-haired woman asked herself with wide eyes.

Back with the WBY, Yang was desperately trying to keep Weiss quiet, who seemed to be determined to scream with all her might.

"Shhh! Stop screaming, Weiss!" the blonde said, hoping to get her teammate to quiet down. "We don't need the whole world to hear our conversation!"

"Are you insane, Yang!?" the white-haired girl asked angrily. "Do you have ANY idea what Ruby is going to do to me, if she finds out about this!? She'll think I tried to sabotage her test out of spite! I doubt I'll get away from it with just getting thrown to the ground!"

"She won't find out about this! I have made sure that she won't have any reason to suspect any of us!" Yang said. "Trust me, nothing can go wrong."

"I hope that's the case, Yang! Because after Ruby threw me to the floor that day, I think I saw a terrifying side of her that makes even Grimm look adorable!" Weiss said with a haunted look on her face. "For your sake, I hope you won't have to see it."

Later that night, Nora was going to hold her end of the deal and had managed to sneak into Oobleck's office. While most people would think that sneaking into the office of one of Beacon's professors would be impossible, the hammer-wielder knew a way to do it easily. The doors to the offices might be locked in a way that required a very skilled person to open them, but the windows weren't as protected. The windows were very easy for Nora to open, allowing her to enter Oobleck's office without any trouble. Now that she was in, all the ginger needed to do was find Ruby's history test and she would be almost done.

"Alright, now where is it?" the ginger mumbled to herself while going through the test papers in the teacher's desk. Eventually, she found the papers of her class, meaning Ruby's would be in there somewhere. "Yes! Now I just need to-"

However, Nora's excitement quickly died down upon finding out that the test had already been graded. She looked through some of her class' other papers and saw that it had been done to them as well. It seemed like Oobleck had finished grading the tests for one of the groups.

"Dang it! What am I supposed to do now!?" Nora cried out in frustration. "If I don't do something with Ruby's test, I won't get those pancakes! If there was only a way for me to switch the scores between her and someone-"

A sudden idea came to the hammer-wielder's head. She quickly dug through the papers and took out one of the other students' test and made some changes. With her work done, Nora quickly made her way out of the office and back to her team's dorm.

The next day, the members of team RWBY were sitting in Oobleck's class, waiting for the teacher to start. As they waited, Yang looked at Nora briefly, who gave her a thumbs up, signaling that she had done her work. With that confirmed, the blonde glanced at Ruby, hoping that everything would turn out well.

"Alright, class, let's begin!" Oobleck suddenly announced. "Now, I have been rather busy with all sorts of work, which has prevented me from grading most of the students' latest history tests. However, just recently, I found enough time to grade the tests for your group, meaning that I will be returning them to you now!"

For a moment, students just watched as the professor zoomed around the class in a fast pace, giving all of his students their papers. Eventually, it was the turn for the members of team RWBY, but while Weiss and Blake were interested in seeing how well they did, Yang didn't even bother looking at her paper. Her attention was focused completely on Ruby.

Once the redhead got her paper, she looked down on it and her eyes went wide. Her expression was one of disbelief as she looked at the low score she got.

"W-What!? How is this possible!? I studied like crazy! How could I fail this badly!?" Ruby said, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"It's alright, Rubes. Sometimes you mess up even if you do work hard," Yang said in a comforting tone as she walked up to the younger girl. "Overworking yourself can actually be more harmful than not working at all. Anyways, you shouldn't worry too much about it."

However, Ruby wasn't listening to the older girl at all. She was too busy looking through her test, hoping to see what she had done wrong. Upon seeing the answers written on the paper, the young team leader's expression changed first into one of confusion, before taking a look of anger.

"Hang on a second! What the hell is this!?" Ruby yelled angrily, which was noticed by Oobleck.

"Is something wrong, Ms. Rose?" the green-haired man asked after making his way to the student in the blink of an eye.

"There certainly is! This can't be my test paper!" the redhead said. "I know for a fact that I wrote an answer on every one of these questions! And my answers were a lot better than the ones that are actually written here! For example, I didn't write that the third king of Vale was called "Some dude"!"

Oobleck took the paper from his student in order to take a closer look. Upon seeing what Ruby was talking about, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"This certainly is odd. I remember that you did remarkably well on this test," the caffeine-addict said. "Certainly a lot better than whoever THIS belongs to."

"You know, that's pretty strange, because my test isn't what I expected either," Yang said while looking at her paper with a smile. "I mean, I'm not complaining or anything, but a full score!? I didn't even write answers on some of these questions! I even said that the third king of Vale was named some... dude..."

The blonde's eyes went wide upon realizing what had happened. She slowly turned to look at Oobleck and Ruby, who didn't look pleased. But while the professor looked disappointed, the scythe-wielder looked absolutely enraged. If Yang was being completely honest, the look Ruby was giving her was the most horrifying thing she had ever encountered, and she fought Grimm practically on a daily basis.

"I do hope that you have a good explanation for this, Ms. Xiao Long," Oobleck said sternly.

"Uhhh... I really hope that as well," Yang said, while thinking about what Weiss had told her. 'I'm guessing that's the terrifying side of Ruby that she told me about.'

Some time later, Yang was running through the halls of Beacon, looking for Nora. Her friend had some serious explanation to do for what had happened. The brawler eventually found the ginger girl skipping down one of the hallways happily. She quickly grabbed her by the shoulder and started to demand an explanation.

"Nora, what the hell were you thinking!?" Yang asked her friend angrily. "Why did you switch the names between Ruby's test and mine!?"

"Well, you asked me to mess up her test so she would get a lower score, right?" Nora began to explain. "When I got my hands on her test, I found out that it had already been graded. But since I still wanted to hold my end of the deal, I thought that the best way to do it was by switching her name with someone else! That way she would still get the lower score you wanted her to have! And you got yourself a higher score as well! A pretty neat deal, am I right?"

"Neat isn't exactly the word that comes to my mind!" the blonde yelled angrily. "Not only did I get slammed with a lot of detention, Ruby is going to-"

"YANG!" roared a very familiar voice, causing the brawler's body to freeze up and her eyes to go wide. She slowly looked behind her and saw Ruby standing there, looking more angered than anyone had ever seen her. "Come here right now."

"Oooooh! She's mad," Nora said in awe at the younger girl, before whispering one more thing to Yang. "Don't forget about the pancakes you promised me."

The blonde gave her oblivious friend a glare, before making her way to her team leader. The two girls then started to walk around the school with the younger one leading the older one.

"Hey, Rubes... I need to say that-"

"Zip it, Yang. I am not interested," Ruby said in a stern tone, not in the mood for Yang's explanations. "Right now, there's not a damn thing in the world that could save you from what you're about to get, so make this easier to both of us and just stay quiet."

The brawler wisely decided to keep her mouth shut.

Soon, the two girls had made their way to one of the combat training arenas. Once they had made it to the middle of the place, Ruby finally stopped walking and turned her attention to Yang.

"Do you have any idea how damaging your latest stunt was?" the redhead asked with anger dripping from every word. "Not only did you try to steal MY work, but you also betrayed my trust and put me in a bad position as team leader!"

"W-What do you mean by-"

"CRAM IT, YANG! I'm not in the mood!" Ruby yelled, cutting off the older girl. "Because I am the leader of our team, I am expected to look after the performance of all of our members! And I am not talking just about combat exercises! While I do not need to worry about every little thing you do, I have to keep you, Weiss and Blake out of trouble! If any of you mess up like this, people are going to come after ME! Because I have to make sure none of you cause anything like this!"

"Geeze, I didn't know-"

"I don't care! Now, Professor Oobleck might have given you detention, but I am still expected to also discipline you! And I know just the method that should work on you!"

"...May I ask what that is?" Yang asked fearfully.

"It's rather simple," the redhead said before pulling out her scythe and glaring at the blonde with rage in her eyes. "Sparring. You and me. No holding back."

While most of the time, Yang would be excited to get to spar with Ruby, this was not like most times. This time, the brawler could only fear for her life, as she prepared for her toughest sparring session of all time.

Author's notes: This chapter became a lot bigger, as I wanted to end this "arc", if you can call it that. I decided to shove all the things I had planned into this one chapter, so I could get past it and move forward.

I also feel that this chapter might be what confirms whether or not I'll continue this story to the end. Don't get me wrong, I have been more than happy to see all the support from you people, but there have also been some problems, which I understand. However, I have this feeling that this chapter is most likely the last one that will either make it or break it for most people. Depending on what happens will determine the continuation of this story. Remember, it's your support that keeps these stories alive. If this doesn't get it, we'll just get rid of it and try our best to forget it.

Also, to the people who keep asking about the WBY hearing Ruby's recording from chapter 1, it's going to happen, okay? It will happen later in the story, so you don't need to worry about it.

Until next time.

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.