Author's Headnote: Excluding the Prologue, this is chapter number 10. For those of you who have decided to re-read the previous chapters, I've made some hindsight retcons, mostly due to me writing the certain parts at 3 AM. Why I don't leave an update notice on those chapters, I have no clue. You don't need to worry; you're not going insane. It's just me being a dick and changing things without telling you. As for this chapter, another short few-hour time skip. We're going straight to Ruby on the perspective. So, without further a do, let's just jump into the chapter!

RWBY: Festival of Blood: Curiosity and Continuity

Character Change: Blake Belladonna - Ruby Rose

Ruby Rose:

Aura Status: 62%

Thirst: Thirsty

Semblance: Wilted Petal Burst

Grades: Unchanged

Team Activity (Required for advancement to second year): Undecided

Team Relations:

-Weiss Schnee: Hopefully spending time with Blake and JNPR won't undo Ruby's progress on thawing out the Ice-Queen.

-Blake Belladonna: Ruby is thankful for the sacrifices Blake has made; she may also be feeling more.

-Yang Xiao Long: Need to get her contact lenses, a bullet was dodged last night.

End of Main character status report

Beacon Academy, 3:31 PM (Daylight warning), Wednesday, RWBY Dormitory.

Ruby just got out of bed, thankfully Weiss hasn't changed the alarm this time. Either that, or Blake came in and changed it back. Ruby's fine with either possibility. The red scythe wielder sees Blake is not in the dormitory. Ruby opened up her scroll and began to text Blake, notifying her of Ruby's awakening.

'hey Blake, I'm up. Gonna need to bite on something, if you catch my meaning.' Ruby texted Blake.

Ruby prepares for her after-feeding shower, she doesn't know if she'd smell like blood after feeding on Blake, and she doesn't want to find out. She gets her clothes out to change into, a long with a towel. However, she isn't hopping in just yet, she needs to wait for Blake to come in and help Ruby replenish her yellow-ranged aura. Her aura is closer to 50% than 75%, which is not a good thing. Once Aura drops below 50%, it begins to work less efficiently, and begins shield less than all attacks. There's a reason for why tournaments disqualify their opponents at 15%, at 15% aura, even fatal attacks can slip past through.

Typically, she'd make herself something to eat, but given that eating and using the restroom are no longer necessary for Ruby, she doesn't see the point in it. Ruby is also curious if the taste of food is affected by her vampirism. She doesn't want the taste of strawberries and cookies to be ruined by something out of her control. Yet again, her new cravings don't desire them unfortunately. She decided to check up on the news on her own to wait for the time to go by. She didn't do this back when she was alive, she'd go by the flow. Yet again, 'going by the flow' is exactly how Ruby ended up on a strict blood-only diet.

Speaking of blood, she's only consciously had it three times. Once from Blake, once from a carton of frog's blood, and once from a white fang mook. She never really had to time to savor the flavor of faunas blood; she hasn't even fed from a human consciously. Sure, she had human blood when she went feral, but Ruby doesn't want to count it. Ruby caught herself thinking about the taste of blood, she disgusted herself about that. Sure, she needs to drink blood to stay sane, but that doesn't mean she enjoys the thought of it!

After 10 minutes of waiting, Blake finally arrives at the dormitory. Ruby is relieved, she just wants to grab a bite, head into the shower, and get on with her night (although it's still daytime).

"Let's just get this over with Ruby, just don't kill me when you're feeding." Blake said, stretching her neck for Ruby to bite on. Ruby can feel a sense of worry from Blake, and Ruby can understand why.

Ruby lowered her bandanna and opened her mouth, biting down on Blake's neck. The blood entering Ruby's mouth and later the rest of her body from Blake's neck fills her taste buds with it's taste. Ruby lets go of Blake's neck, because she doesn't want to kill her. That, and she's full. No need to overfeed on blood now. She puts the bandanna back over her mouth, covering it to conceal her obvious symptom of vampirism. Ruby also stopped a bit to continue tasting the blood, she may as well get used to the taste of the one thing she's supposed to drink. She also doesn't want to drain Blake unconscious or to death.

Ruby checked her aura with her scroll, it's at 87%. It has gone up by 25% from when she woke up. Although Blake would think it has only gone up by 15%, so Ruby will have to let Blake in on the loop on why her Aura's not at 97%.

"How's your Aura Ruby?" Blake asked, holding her hand over the bite mark.

"87%. Gone up from 62%." Ruby replied.

"62%? what happened last night?" Blake asked.

"Well... I was at the forge last night testing my new weapon aaaaand..."

"Huh, that would explain the noises Jaune heard last night." Blake interrupted.

"Jaune heard them? How!? The forge is nowhere near JNPR dorm!" Ruby yelled.

"Beats me, I'll go ask him when I see him again."

"Did you find out why the cops were away from their patrols in uptown last night?" Ruby asked.

"Apparently they were pursuing Torchwick before he even arrived at the scene of the crime." Blake replied.

"That's weird, how would someone know a crime is being a committed before it even happened?"

"I don't know, it spells all sorts of suspicious."

"We'll figure it out later Blake, right now I'll need to take a shower." Ruby said as she's leaving to the bathroom.

"If you need me, I'll be at the Library until 4:15, then I'll come back here." Blake responded.

Ruby enters the bathroom and locks the door, she than follows by stripping her clothes, preparing to shower. A girl needs privacy, just because the dorm is occupied by four girls doesn't mean modesty stops existing! Ruby hops into the shower, washing herself with cold water. She applies the bodywash to her entire body, followed by rubbing herself with a soap bar. She's also brushing her teeth in there. Ruby spits out the liquid from her mouth (toothpaste, shower water, small essence of saliva) into a cup. The shower plumbing does not like toothpaste, she learned that the hard way when she was younger.

The scythe wielder applied shampoo and conditioner onto her hair. Since she's clinically dead, this is all the hair she's going to have, she needs to take care of it dangit! After fifteen minutes of showering and hygienical maintenance. She hops out, and dries herself off. She gets fully dressed in her usual outfit, then exits the bathroom.

Ruby is now ready to prepare for the... night. She's a vampire, so she can't go outside just yet. And even if she is indoors protected by a window, that cursed daystar mocks Ruby with its very presence. She closes the curtains of the bedroom window, because the very sight of daylight puts her in a bad mood. Ruby would not like seeing daylight of course, the stuff would cook her dead if it weren't for the layer of glass called a window.

On the bright side, now she has an excuse to not go out and expand her list of friends. Ruby is not good with talking to new people, especially if they are girls. But her sister insists the only way to fix that is to talk to more people! Yang has way more friends than Ruby ever has. Although Ruby can bet that none of them know Yang's full name. Which, by the way is 'Yang Warbler Xiao Long Branwen'. Although, she just goes by 'Yang Xiao Long' because it's shorter. Ruby's fine with her small group of friends anyway.

Ruby's a bit curious about the things vampires could do. Sure, she's not a fan of using anything other than her semblance, but the fact that she has more powers piqued her curiosity. She focuses on her left hand and has it take up it's grimm claw shape. Out of curiosity, she continues to concentrate on it. The claw's more animalistic features recede, although they are still present, making the claw look much more humanoid. Ruby wonders if the claws could be sheathed or moved. She focuses on the claw blades on her claw, and suddenly they sheathed from her fingertips and re-appear on her knuckles. Now she's thinking about one of those superheroes from one of Yang's comic books.

Of course, to avoid any awkward conversations with Weiss and Yang, Ruby reverted her claw back into human form. Ruby prefers her hands in that shape anyway. Now she's curious if other parts of her body can take different shapes. Although, she wouldn't do it now that she's fully dressed to avoid any risk damaging her clothes.

Ruby went to play some video games by herself until 4:15 PM, where she'll go to JNPR's dorm about their plan on Sunday night.

Beacon Academy, 4:20 (hehe) PM (Daylight Warning), Wednesday, JNPR Dorm

Ruby and Blake took off their shoes when they entered JNPR's dorm. No need to get Ren passively angry again. When they entered the room, they saw a whiteboard with a picture of Penny, Coco, and a Scribbled stick man with angry eyes (likely as a fill-in for the third year). There is also a White Fang logo on it. The four images are aligned in a chart, likely to place clues and hints to line up and see who is responsible for the Blackout.

Currently there's no hints on Penny, other than 'hasn't been seen since first arrival'.

On Coco's side there has been one note: 'assaulted an officer of the law, twice.'

On the angry scribbly stickman there is: 'hasn't said a thing in the interrogation'

On the White Fang there is: 'likes to steal dust?'

Nora's around playing with a flash drive, so no need to get that for Ren tonight. Well that just leaves the 50,000 Lien for Jaune and Nora. Time to discuss the good news on Ruby and Blake's side.

"Good, you're here Blake and Ruby, now we can begin." Jaune said in a professional tone.

"We got the disguises we needed last night, had to fight a bunch of mooks though. But we pull through." Ruby said cheeringly.

"That would explain why some of the arrested mooks from downtown were missing clothes... which you should wash by the way." Pyrrha commented.

"Although that doesn't explain the weird piercing marks on the guys hand!" Nora commented on Pyrrha's comment.

"From what I know from forensics... that looks like bite marks. The guy must be into some weird stuff, but that's not why we're here ladies and gentleman." Jaune commented.

"Where did you get that whiteboard?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Oh, I found it in a junkyard!" Nora answered.

"You took a whiteboard... from a junkyard?"

"YEP!"

"CAN WE GET BACK ON TOPIC!?" Jaune demanded.

"Alright, you don't have to be a buzzkill about it." Nora said.

"Good. Now that we have gotten 2.5 out of three things needed for our operation on Sunday, we need to discuss the operation on Sunday." Jaune stated.

"We can use the disguises to sneak into a White Fang rally from the back, appearing as official members of the organization." Blake stated.

"I thought you two would just take the masks and appear as recruits." Jaune commented.

"It wouldn't work with Ruby, too many White Fang mooks would recognize her on the spot with just the mask on alone."

"Oh. Right."

"We plan on discarding the uniforms anyway after the operation. It's a bit pointless to keep them afterwards."

"Sounds reasonable, no need to keep something like that around."

Nora hands ren the flash drive, because Rend doesn't want her to break it.

"I'll be hacking into the CCT and copying data about Atlas and the SDC into this flash drive." Ren stated, holding the flash drive.

"And I'll be accompanying him incase a distraction is needed getting in to the building." Pyrrha stated.

"What would you do once you're inside the building? There has to be more guards inside than outside." Blake commented.

"I've been an expert at stealth since I was young Blake, I had to rely on sneaking to survive. Nora did as well." Ren replied to Blake's comment.

Ruby and Blake looked at Nora and found it hard to imagine her being the 'stealthy type'. Yet again, the two don't know what her stealth game actually is like. Ruby herself snuck outside a vampire-infested catacomb out of sheer luck though, so there's the possibility that Nora's just really lucky. Yet again, there's always Yang who for some reason tends to be there playing incidental music at the right time out of nowhere sometimes. So, Nora having experience in stealth is not an impossibility.

"Speaking of Nora, her and I will be attending a nightclub to ask a guy that tends to know things. Hence why we need so much Lien, it takes a lot of money to get him to talk about somebody selling a dust capacitor, or having one. We've already got half the funds we needed... we'd have more, but Nora bought an arcade machine for 10,000 Lien." Jaune summarized.

Ruby now notices the arcade machine that wasn't there yesterday. Why Nora bought it is beyond her, but at least they have an arcade machine. So that's good for them? They can play one game that's over 30 years old... good for them. Sure, Ruby plays video-games, but she isn't a huge nerd for them like Yang.

"On to our suspects. Does anyone have a picture of the third year? I do not have one." Jaune requested.

"Didn't you see the third year when they walked into the interrogation room?" Blake asked.

"He was facing away from the door." Pyrrha commented.

"Why?"

"I didn't want people think I was eavesdropping on them." Jaune answered.

"Yet, he found you out anyway." Blake said.

"Did you get any information on them?" Ruby asked.

"If you payed attention on the board, you'll know that they didn't say anything at all." Jaune answered.

"Nothing?"

"Not a thing. They may be mute, or was messing with me or the chief."

"Speaking of suspects, do you know anything about the 'thwarted' dust robbery last night?" Blake asked out of curiosity.

"Wait, that was real? I was just making stuff up to get the cops away when we sneak in a bunch of lien." Nora commented.

"Yes, it was real. and apparently only a coincidence. Wait, how did you tell them without being seen?"

Nora pulls up a police radio which she has... for some reason. Ruby's not sure where or how she got her hands on that, and she doesn't want to find out. Considering it's Nora of all people, chances are a lot of people were pummeled.

"Uhhh..." Ruby uttered.

"Don't ask." Ren commented.

"It's okay Ruby, I had the same reaction too." Jaune commented on top of Ren's comment.

The room was in silence for a bit after Jaune said that. Things have gotten very, very, very awkward. That is until they remembered they were planning something important, finding the perp who caused the blackout is a huge responsibility they put on their own shoulders, they cannot forget that.

"Now on to Penny and Coco." Jaune announced.

"No new information on Penny, not a lot of people even know who she is." Pyrrha said.

"That's not surprising, Penny only showed up for one day and than vanished. For all we know, only us, Weiss, and Yang are aware of her existence." Blake commented.

"What about Coco? What makes her a suspect?" Ruby asked curiously.

"All we have is that she attacked the police chief... twice. Not really pinning anything, but it's suspicious." Jaune said.

"Eh, she's just always like that. According to Velvet." Blake stated.

"Better safe than sorry, surprised she wasn't arrested for assaulting an officer." Jaune said.

"Huh, must be very lucky." Ruby said.

"Yep. She really has luck on her side. Yet again, he kind of deserved it for the second time." Blake commented.

"Oh. And I just realized something. We need information on the third year." Jaune said in realization. "Ren, as soon as you are done with the CCT, sneak into the Beacon archives and get anything on the third year."

Ren nodded.

"On a different note, has anyone figured out what that noise was at 2 AM? It was loud." Jaune asked.

Ruby and Blake shrugged. If either of them said anything about that, it would draw suspicion at Jaune, and furthermore would have him investigate Ruby behind her back. Can't have JNPR finding about about her vampirism. Jaune's lips are looser than Yang's and that's saying something.

"Nobody? Well, one thing at a time I suppose. Does anyone else have anything to add?" Jaune asked professionally.

"I think we should also be discussing battle tactics incase things go south, Blake come with me for combo names." Ruby said, inviting Jaune and Blake to a private discusson. Whilst Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren continue on discussing on the potential suspects. Ruby wonders what sort of combo attack names Blake will come up with. She's also curious to why there isn't one for her and Yang. There's so much potential for attack combos with her and her sister.

"Alright first thing's first Blake. Do you have any combo attack names for me, you, and Jaune?" Ruby asked tactfully.

"... Lancaster and Nightshade." Blake said embarrassingly...

Jaune giggled when he heard Blake answer that.

"What's so funny?" Ruby asked.

Jaune continued to muffle his laughter... "Oh... nothing." He said.

"Anyways, we'll be training combo attacks with you and your team, and I'm using these names to make it easier to synchronize." Ruby stated.

"It's also how you got a 'C' in tactics Ruby." Jaune remarked.

"You know our tactics professor hates thinking outside the box!"

"Your 'combo-attack' names need to actually prepare ahead of time. My methods are quicker and more straightforward."

"It isn't as cool and stylish though."

"This isn't a video-game Ruby, you aren't graded for how stylish your attacks are. It's about efficiency."

"Clearly you haven't seen team RWBY at work."

"I've seen how your team fights on their own."

"Same goes with your team."

"Can you two please stop arguing and please focus on combat tactics?" Blake demanded.

"Oh ya, sorry. Too busy debating on who's strategic prowess is better." Both Ruby and Jaune said at the same time.

Both Ruby and Jaune went on to discussing tactics. But given that all time JNPR is up and training is during daytime, save for Jaune's tutoring. Ruby's not in a position to enforce her way of tactical thinking. But that doesn't mean she'll just give up and go by Jaune's way, dangit. As a compromise, Ruby promised only to do her way when it comes to combo attacks that are with her and Blake, and that Jaune can do it his way otherwise, along with permission to use Blake for solo commands. But hey, he's leading the operation, it's a victory in Ruby's book for all she cares.

Throughout this discussion, Ruby's actually relieved nobody is questioning her bandanna. Guess they just see it as a regular part of Ruby's outfit now. Yet again, none of them were awake at 1 AM looking for Ruby only to find her smelling like death and blood, along with the bandanna. Ruby's relieved people see her as a normal fifteen-year-old girl and not for what she really is, a blood-sucking monster. Albeit, she's only been one for two nights. Although Ruby wonders how long she can pull off this ruse until someone finds out on their own.

The tactical discussion went on for a couple more hours, that is until it reached 8:30 PM. And the meeting had to end. Ruby and Blake left the dorm and put their shoes back on. Ruby insisted on heading outside. Because it's night-time and she could only be out at night.

Beacon Academy, 8:32 PM, Wednesday, Beacon Courtyard

Back at the courtyard, where the sight of the shattered moon can be seen. Ruby looks up at it, enjoying the night-time. The night sky would have been coated with stars if it weren't for the quantity of outdoor lights.

Blake meanwhile, was sneaking out of Beacon with Ren to get some things for plans on Sunday. Likely the rest of the Lien Jaune needs along with some other stuff. Ruby would join her, but she needs to stay at Beacon to pick up the tickets for the event on Saturday night, so she may aswell enjoy the moonlight.

Ruby browses her scroll for team activities that can be done at night. Let's see here... Community service... nah, Weiss wouldn't put up with that. Medical assistance at the clinic... that was taken by JNPR. All that leaves is... Night-shift police internship? That's way too coincidental. Anyways, Ruby selects it and gets it approved, it starts at Thursday on 7PM. Which clashes with her pickup on Yang's contacts. Ruby's going to do a lot of sneaking.

"Why are you up now of all the times you could have been up, Ruby?" Ruby heard Weiss say.

"Gah! Why did you sneak up on me like that Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"I didn't sneak up on you, you were daydreaming while sitting on the bench." Weiss responded.

"Does it matter when I'm awake? I'm awake now!"

"Yes, it does. Our classes resume next Monday and we haven't even picked a team activity!"

"I've picked one already, we're doing police internship tomorrow at 7PM."

Weiss smirked and twitched her eye when she heard that. "Great... at least we can advance onto our second year now." She said with her mouth closed, twitching her eye. Ruby can feel the envy, anger, annoyance, stress, fear, hate. She's a pretty negative person. Well considering the first time the two met... not surprising. She's gotta go get that fixed, she just needs to relax.

"Relax Weiss, unload some of that stress. You have time off, use it to unwind." Ruby said.

"unwinding doesn't prepare me for the Vytal tournament." Weiss stated.

"It may not, but it won't over-stress you to a degree you overwork and end up losing every battle you're in."

"I'm not overworking!"

"When was the last time you took time off?"

"playing a competitive match of mahjong with Ren."

"Competitive playing doesn't count Weiss; it's just turning something fun into something stressful."

Weiss stopped a bit and appeared to be thinking.

"If you can't think of anything Weiss, you're overworking." Ruby said.

"This is a school, we're aren't supposed to be having fun, we're supposed to-" Weiss ranted before she was interrupted.

"I get that Weiss, but this entire month off was for us to relax and unwind! And what do you do? You snark at everyone and Tsundere over Jaune. Study and focus on improving your combat skills. The only exception was that competitive Mahjong thing with Ren. Even Blake is unwinding! As team leader, I order you to relax save for the Thursday activity until Classes resume. No studying, no training. just relax and unwind. You likely have so much pent up stress you'll explode and try and kill someone, and I'll receive the punishment!" Ruby interrupted and had her own rant.

"Fine... I guess I'll relax." Weiss said, sitting down on the bench.

They look at the moon. Ruby's not sure what Weiss is thinking, but Ruby for sure is thinking about all the things she'll miss out on again, that and for some reason... Blake. Sure, she sees her as a friend, and she even willingly gave her blood to Ruby to keep her thirst sated. Is it possible that Ruby may feel something more? She doesn't know what the feeling is, it felt familiar, but not in the same way she's feeling it now.

Ruby's thankful Weiss can finally relax, maybe than she'll loosen up and stop being 'Ice Queen'. She's also worried about her sister's contacts. If Ruby doesn't get them during her team activity, she'll just have to get conferrable wearing her glasses until she can a regular set of contacts. Besides, she doesn't want to throw away 6,000 Lien. Those were some overpriced contacts, and they better be worth it for Yang.

Author's Footnote: If you are reading this, you have read through 11 even chapters (Including the Prologue) of my fanfiction. Sorry it took so long, a series of events in real life have occurred that slowed down my progress. By that, I mean my desk chair broke and I had to get a new one. By that, I mean I stole a chair from the dining room no one uses. I've included a Ruby/Weiss dialogue because the two haven't had a conversation yet. That, and I need to remind you and myself that the 'W' in RWBY means 'Weiss', not 'Warbler'. If it was 'Warbler', what would the 'Y' be? Would they count Yang twice? I got lost by my own analogy, god darnit! If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, suggestions, and anything else. Leave them in the reviews for me to read. Well, see ya guys next chapter!