Book One

Beacon Academy.

An illustrious destination for those who had what it took to become huntsmen and huntresses. Defenders against the dark, champions and heroes. Everything these young students here would hope to become.

It was in this very school where this story begins, within a very specific classroom.

~~

A flurry of rose petals flashed across the arena, effortlessly avoiding the swings of a very slow boy, with a big mace. Miss after miss, the boy couldn't even come close hitting them.

As rose petals danced in the air, a girl could be seen within the crimson flora cloud. Black hair with red tips down to her neck, silver eyes and draped from head to toe in gothic lolita esq. gear. A black blouse with red frill linings, a matching corset and combat skirt, also lined with red frills on the inside. Finally, black leggings and boots with red bottoms to finish.

In her hands, was her self-proclaimed masterpiece of weapon. Her baby, Crescent Rose in all of its red and black glory, twirled in her hands as she dissipated into petals once more. She took complete advantage of her opponents slow movements to maintain an obvious advantage over him.

This was Ruby Rose, fifteen year old prodigy and the most socially awkward girl you'll probably ever meet.

Her opponent, Cardin Winchester. Academy bully, pretentious jerk and just not a nice guy to be around. His strikes, ridiculously telegraphed, are far too easy to avoid for Ruby as she giddily flows around him, delivering critical swipes and slashes at breakneck speeds from nearly every angle. The poor boy was powerless to resist her onslaught.

"Go Ruby!" Her sister, Yang Xiao Long cheered happily in the stands. The sheer excitement could be heard in her voice.

Yangs partner, resident ninja and goth number two; Blake Belladonna, nodded in agreement while reading her novel.

"Well, at least she can be competent in battle." That snarky response coming from none other than Weiss Schnee. Filing her nails as she absentmindedly watched her partner fight.

On the other side of her own team, her sister team, also cheered her on. Her first friend, Jaune Arc smiling proudly at her and pumping his fist in the air. His own partner, the champion Pyrrha Nikos was waving at Ruby with a smile. The sloth lover of the group, Nora Valkyrie was nearly jumping out of her seat with a big, white flag with the words 'Go Ruby, Go,' in big red letters on the front. Nora's long time friend and somewhat babysitter, Lie Ren trying to calm her down to no avail.

Upon hearing her friends cheers, she stopped for a moment to wave at her team with her trademark smile. Unbeknownst to her, our favorite bully wasn't one to waste a chance for payback. Sprinting into action, Cardin held his mace with both hands as he pulled them above his head intent on a downward strike and as he swung and Impacted the ground. A massive shockwave came rolling directly at the little reaper.

Before she'd even realized what had happened, Crescent Rose was knocked out of her hands and she was thrown aside by the blast. Cardin rushed in quickly to finish the job, as Ruby was just coming to. Seeing him charging toward her but being far too dazed to move, she did what most people do when you've lost control of a situation.

She froze. She panicked. In that moment, she was completely stuck like a deer in headlights.

Cardin's Mace was raised high once again, he brought it down with all the force and strength he could muster. He was so angry for being made a fool of, he didn't care what damage he could've caused to the little rose.

His Mace made impact, dust and dirt plumed in all directions.

"Ruby!" Her team yelled in unison, their cheery attitudes evaporated in wind as quickly as they came. Though, as the dust settled and Cardin looked to the end of his weapon for confirmation, he found nothing but rose petals. In fact, the entire arena was now filled with them and they danced and fluttered in the air around him.

'Huh?'

Was the first thought in Ruby's mind as she looked about, she tried to look at her hands but quickly realized that she couldn't see them. Though her sense of touch remained, what she felt now was far, far more. She could feel herself shifting through the air as if solidity was no longer viable option.

Before the panic could settle in, she noticed that her vision was massive. The revelation of it shocked her to the core. She could... see the entire arena, no angle of it was hidden from her sight which now encompassed the area. She could see Cardin from every side and view, she could see Prof. Goodwitch and the look of confusion and slight shock plastered on her face.

She could see her friends and their own shock and awe, along with the rest of the audience and students. Finally, she noticed the petals that seemed to pulse and writhe with her very thoughts. She tried to move again and this time, she felt the entire cloud of Petals shift and move with her. After that, putting two and two together was pretty easy.

'Woah... So cool!~ Im the rose now!' She exclaimed loudly in her thoughts. 'Did my semblance do this...?'

"Where are you, Pipsqueak!?" Cardin angrily roared. Shaking her from her own musings, she focused on him for a moment then spotted Crescent Rose underneath his foot.

'My baby! Grrrrrr...' Ruby's spike in anger caused a shift in the petal movements, what was once a calm, fluttering dance was now a tempest of petals. A hurricane of red now surrounded Cardin, closing in on him and trapping him within.

"Yang? Is this a part of Ruby's Semblance?" Blake asked, now fully invested in the match and observing the display before her.

Yang sputtered, "I-I don't know, usually you can at least see her change but she just vanished..." she spoke with a slight tinge of worry.

"Well thats new." Nora expressed her honest opinion as she shrugged in an obvious 'I don't know,' manner.

Meanwhile, Ruby was not happy with how Cardin was so carelessly stepping on her beautiful, perfect, Crescent Rose. 'Grrrr Cardin! If I had my Weapon I'd-,' In that exact moment, a stray rose petal streaked across Cardin's chest. The swipe cut into his aura deeply as he winced in obvious pain.

She inwardly gasped, she had no idea she could do that... so many new ideas formulated in her mind.

As she "glanced," at the aura meters, she quickly realized her own was dropping steadily though she was still higher than Cardin.

Ruby Rose...Aura 55%

Cardin Winchester... Aura 27%

'I guess I don't have time to play around with this anymore, I'm coming Crescent!' Steeling herself for the finale, she starting throwing more individual petals at Cardin, dicing through his remaining Aura like butter and effortlessly tossing him around the red petaled raging winds like a rag-doll in the process. As soon as his Aura shattered, she simply dropped him like trash.

Now that he was taken care of, she needed to return to normal. But how? She was starting to panic again until she thought about herself, and the roses responded. One by one, they conglomerated and fused themselves into a dark red, bulbous mass. Its outer petals shifting and morphing into the familiar form of a teenage girl. She gracefully fell to the arena floor, down to her knees in a power pose and as she slowly stood up, her face held a smile. Not one of just happiness however, but one of ambition and determination.

Needless to say, the other students were blown away. Most of them trying and failing to hold their jaws up. Even her own circle of friends couldn't believe what they just saw. Ruby Rose just reappeared from solid ball of her own roses... and that only happened after said roses completely decimated Cardin Winchester.

Prof. Goodwitch, now clearing her throat to regain Ruby and the classes attention.

"By depletion of Aura, Ruby Rose wins. Though, do be more aware of your surroundings next time Miss Rose. It's moments like the one you displayed earlier that could cost you or someone else their lives. With that said, Sky could you please take your leader to the infirmary?"

"Yes, ma'am." Ruby said quietly, a bit humbled now but still determined all the same.

After combat class, the little reaper was met in the cafeteria by her friends. Bombarded with questions and jokes by her sister along the lines of 'how did you do that,' and 'could you always do that Rubes?' To which her response was always no, not before today.

This development in her semblance really made her take a new look at just what was truly possible for her now. How far could she go with her newfound abilities? It was gnawing at the back of her mind for rest of the afternoon. So much so, that when it came time for bed, she faked it so she could sneak into one of Beacons many training rooms later in the night.

Normally, she would've told her team about her thoughts and opinions about her semblance, however she didn't want to worry them with her own issues. That and frankly, she had something to prove being the youngest of the entire school. Her accolades got her this far, but now she was going to hold the torch herself. Besides, it was all to become a better huntress in the long run.

She stood at the center of the room before taking a deep breath. She closed her eyes and focused on her aura for a moment, after which she began to fly around the room with semblance. The part of her semblance that she was used to, the speed.

She started off slowly of course, she wanted to get a feel for her semblance again before trying to replicate what happened earlier, which brought forth another question: how did she activate that part of her semblance? She wasn't quite sure herself, the adrenaline and fear of being crushed under Cardin's mace was at the forefront of her mind when it happened. She was so out of it when his attack hit, that she truly couldn't think of anything let alone not being at that exact position, at that moment.

With that, she stopped her aerial laps and just observed her rose petals for a moment. The way they floated so aimlessly was quite the alluring sight. She'd never taken the time to really watch her own ability at work, hell she thought her semblance was just speed all these years.

How wrong she was...

While watching the flower petals dance around her, she began focusing on individual petals. One such petal was simply spinning in place in front of her face, as she watched it she took note of its shape and detail, it stopped in midair.

Ruby's attention was now solely on this one petal as it now hovered in her vision, unmoving from its position. She couldn't help but wonder if she'd made it stop by paying attention to it. So she tested the theory, she flicked her eyes upward and the petal followed. It shot up to the ceiling with incredible speed, completely surprising the little reaper as she gasped.

'I... I can control them,' She mentally told herself, shocked at this sudden development.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, she quickly set about testing her new skills. Moving petal after petal as if she were leading an orchestra, they danced and twirled in air by her command. One by one, she reigned them all in until she could completely control the entire rose cloud.

She took a look at her Aura meter on her scroll.

Ruby Rose... Aura 80%. "Ok... still got plenty to spare," she said aloud.

With her arms in constant motion, she started to slightly prance around the practice arena with her crimson cloud following her every step. When she spun, the petals would twirl, creating a ruby red ring around her. When she dipped, they would make a point to fall near lifelessly to floor. Just before they would touch the ground, they would rise with her again.

She had gotten so caught up in her prancing and dancing that she nearly forget she'd brought Crescent Rose along for the ride. Drawing her trusty scythe, she set about practicing her sequences. Her uncle made sure that she made a habit of always running through the basics and working her way up.

Checking her Aura again, Ruby Rose... 52%. "Ok, lets do this!"

Left swing, right swing, the rose petals followed. They added far more offensive options to her style of fighting then she realized initially. Spin, then upward strike, hundreds of petals shot up with the blade of the scythe. She giddily jumped in place, immensely happy with her newfound prowess. She knew this was just scratching the surface of her abilities, and she still hasn't figured out exactly what she did earlier but this was a plus to be sure. Wasting no more time, she got back into her practice.

Unbeknownst to her, the entire performance was being recorded. A small, blinking, red light on the farthest wall from her could be seen...

Words from the Author:

Incoming new fanfic!!!!

I've been thinking about Ruby's Semblance and I've always thought that she has a lot of potential. She and Cinder have pretty similar Semblances to a degree and I think Ruby's semblance could be able to do the same and I plan on exploring that a bit.

Let me explain why I say this: Scorching Caress allows Cinder to super heat whatever shes more or less in contact with and after that she can manipulate its shape.

Visually speaking, she way she manipulates what she heats ie. Glass, etc, looks very similar to how Ruby's petals move around her when she uses her semblance. Add that with the fact the ruby partially becomes the rose petals when she's in motion and you could definitely see where someone would think that maybe Ruby could manipulate her petals in the same fashion.

I could go one of two ways with this story:

My first idea was to follow canon, but to basically insert Ruby and her semblances development at the major fights and pivotal points up to the end of v3. Fleshing her out a an individual and maybe even giving her a bit of an unbeatable-complex after somewhat mastering her Semblance later.

The second idea was to just make this a series of short stories of Ruby's antics with her new skills. Some canon stuff, some not so canon.

What do you guys think?

P.S. Ill probably be updating this every other week so I don't get overworked with this and DIOB.

Baaiiiiiii