A few months had passed since Ruby arrived in Vacuo, and already she had a fierce reputation as an elite huntress, she had made a killing hunting in the harsh deserts of Vacuo. Many of the high level missions in the region had been cleared by Ruby's hands, and she was quickly gaining notoriety. Unfortunately for her,When an elite huntress shows up out of nowhere and makes a name for herself, certain groups take notice.
Headmaster Theodore was perplexed, he had heard rumors of an elite huntress wiping the mission boards, so he looked at the recent mission history to see just who this mystery woman was. And what he found was very confusing. The same woman had accepted 28 Separate high level bounties and missions, and had cleared all of them within a week, some of the bounties were for Grimm that had been plaguing the deserts for decades, and a few of the missions were clearing out areas that had been infested for years, and in just 7 months almost every high level mission was cleared. Furthermore, when he looked up just who this mystery woman was, it was listed that she was a graduate of his very own academy. Now that in and of itself wouldn't be all that strange, if not for the fact that Theodore knew each and every graduate that had ever left the halls of Shade, and Aurum Lazuli was not among them, nor did a team LMBR ever exist.
Deciding to get to the bottom of this mystery, Theodore kept a lookout for the woman returning to the mission boards, and when she did, he would approach her.
Theodore saw the woman inspecting the mission boards and walked up to her, she appeared to be inspecting a mission to clear out an abandoned temple to the south when Theodore tapped his finger on her shoulder,
"Excuse me, would you happen to be one Aurum Lazuli?" Theodore asked the hooded woman
"Depends on who's asking." The woman replied, turning to meet the man's eyes, the Headmaster looked up and down at the woman before him, her cloak hid most everything about her from view, save for bright Sapphire eyes, her jet black hair that faded to blue, and the clasp holding her cloak shut. It was the clasp that held the most interest to Theodore, for it seemed awfully similar to what Ozpin had described the Relic of Knowledge to look like.
"I am Theodore, Headmaster of Shade, Though judging from your file, you should already know who I am, seeming as it states you graduated from Shade academy in the class of 62."
"Hmmm, well, I tried... Would you like to move this to someplace a bit quieter. Just so we can catch up." Aurum replied
Aurum followed Theodore through the labyrinth that was Shade Academy until they reached the uppermost floor of the Pyramid like School, once they did they were met with large double doors, Theodore pushed open the double doors, revealing a large well kept office space, hanging along the walls of the office were paintings and photos of several people, of whom Aurum recognized Ozpin, Ironwood, Lionheart, and her Uncle Qrow, also on the wall, right next to the photo of Qrow, was a photo of Summer Rose. Behind the desk in the room was an old grandfather clock that ticked away slowly, filling the room with a nice ambience.
As the doors shut, Theodore turned to Aurum,
"Now, who are you? Why have you claimed to have graduated from my academy, and where do your loyalties lie?" The normally jovial headmaster asked with his eyes narrowed,
"To answer any of those questions, I need to request you not inform Ozpin of my being here." Aurum
"Why."
The Headmaster was now looking at the woman before him with much caution, and was preparing for a fight.
"If Ozpin finds out that I know what I know, or that I have what I have, it might break him... I don't want that, I don't want to place that burden on him, not yet." Aurum said as she pulled her hood back, revealing her long flowing hair and a tight frown on her face.
"And what exactly is it that you know? What could break such an esteemed headmaster?" Theodore asked cautiously
"More than you... More than any of the headmasters... Before I say anymore, I need your Word. Ozpin cannot learn of what I know, not yet."
Theodore reluctantly spoke, "Very well, your secrets will be safe with me, this isn't the first time I've withheld the happenings within Shade from old Oz."
Nodding her head, Aurum asked, "I know about magic, the gods, Salem, Ozpin... I know about the Relics, each hidden under the schools, I know about the vaults, and how the maidens are the keys... but, Headmaster Theodore, Did you know that there are actually five relics?" As Aurum finished her hands extended from her cloak, and sitting right there in her hands, was a box that was matte gold with blue highlights.
"This, is The Relic of Hope, It has the power to alter probability... and the power to slay an Immortal."
Theodore was gobsmacked, on the list of things he expected from this meeting, a fifth relic was not even on the same planet, quickly collecting himself, he asked Aurum if she knew the words to summon the spirit contained within the Relic. Nodding her head once again, Aurum Spoke,
"Rose"
And time stopped, The clock in the back of the room slowed to a halt, and the box that Aurum held slowly floated away, then it unfurled into a massive scythe, as blue mist began to seep from the bright blue blade of the weapon, the body of it seemed to shrink and floated up into the blue mass of mist, then once a feminine body was just about to coalesce, a cloud of golden mist extended and enshrouded the whole figure, after that, two blue arms left the interior of the newly formed cloak and stretched high above the head of the spirit.
"aaahhh, Summoned once again, really Ruby you have got to physically summon me more often, it gets so cramped in that weapon of yours. Now tell me, What is it you Hope for?"
As she spoke, Rose stopped stretching and pulled her hood down, beneath it was the face of a young woman who looked remarkably similar to Aurum, save for the bright silver eyes and the pointed ears.
"I hope Theodore is true to his word about not telling Ozpin." Aurum told the spirit
The spirit chuckled lightly and responded, "When you're dealt 4 aces in a four player game, What's the chance you win?" And then she returned to her previous form, the scythe retracting into its compact form and floating gently to Aurum's awaiting hands.
Theodore watched with great interest as Aurum summoned the spirit, and he had paid close attention to the spirits words. And he heard something very interesting that the spirit has said, when the spirit first left the Relic and talked to Aurum, it called her Ruby, and its name was Rose, the spirit also looked very similar to Aurum.
"Would you happen to know of one Summer Rose?" Theodore cautioned to ask
Aurum just chuckled, and reached up and pulled out her blue contacts, revealing piercing silver eyes,
"Of course I know who Summer Rose is, seeming as she's my mother.
"So Aurum Lazuli is a fake identity? A Pseudonym?" Theodore said
"Yes, my actual name is Ruby Rose, born October 31st, 66 AGW to Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long, I have one half sister named Yang Xiao Long, I attended Signal Academy on Patch from 75 'till 81 when, at the age of 15 I was inducted early into Beacon Academy via a personal invite from Ozpin himself. In Beacon I was named Leader of Team RWBY, consisting of myself, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and my sister. During our second semester at Beacon, The 40th Bi-Annual Vytal Festival took place... and in the semi final round, a student was murdered on stage. Shorty after, Beacon was attacked, and that night Beacon fell."
As Theodore listened to Ruby explain herself, he only felt himself growing more and more confused, the girl was listing off dates several years in the future, and had stated that she was born just under two years ago, after the girl paused to start explaining how Beacon fell Theodore held up his hand.
"I'm going to stop you right there. Are you suggesting that you traveled in time?"
Ruby just sighed, and pulled out her scroll, tossing it over to the Headmaster. Theodore inspected the device and marveled at the level of miniaturization, nodding his head he tossed it back to Ruby.
"That Technology is incredible, what year have you come back from? And how bad was the future that you saw?" The headmaster asked,
"At the time I left, Beacon had fallen and was infested with Grimm, Headmaster Lionheart was revealed as a traitor, and Haven was shut down because it could not operate without its headmaster, and the Kingdom of Atlas had been obliterated off of the map, along with that, when I left my time, I did so by Dying, I died in the defense of Shade Academy, after you had been assassinated by Tyrian Callows, and Salem arrived with the Staff and Lamp to take the Sword."
"So in the future our enemy wins... I understand why you would want to keep this from Ozpin... Knowing that Salem was so close to victory in your future would indeed take a great toll on his mind." Theodore agreed
"So... Now that you know who I am, What do we do next?"