Chapter 4: Take A Stand

Focusing on Professor Port's lecture wasn't easy. She wasn't tired: Ruby found the energy to pack her luggage and renovate Team RWBY's new dorms with some masterfully crafted bunk beds. This Grimm Studies class wasn't as exciting as that, and all she felt like doing was sleeping, or drawing some funny pictures.

Maybe rushing to beat the bell wasn't her best idea, but she didn't want to be late to her first class at Beacon, and she really did want to learn. Unfortunately, she was already lost, almost as lost as Professor Port was in the vigour that coursed through his old veins as he told everyone how he'd captured a particularly wily Beowolf.

There were finely detailed diagrams of each Grimm and their list of weaknesses on the board, but she'd already copied them down ages ago. Blake was scribbling down every word Professor Port said, Yang was toying around with her pen, and when Weiss wasn't taking notes, she was watching her every move. It would be forever until the lecture ended.

"Who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these virtues?"

Weiss' hand shot into the air.

"Ruby does!"

"Is that true, Ms. Rose?"

Ruby blinked, trying to remember what Professor Port said last, before drawing a blank.

"Yes?"

The old professor chortled. "In that case, come on down and face your opponent!"

Weiss shot Ruby a sly smile. Blake shook her head, muttering something Ruby couldn't make out. Yang scowled, clutching her pen so tightly that it nearly snapped.

That was when Ruby noticed the rattling cage, the red eyes that peered from within the darkness.

What had Weiss gotten her into?

Ruby got permission to enter the nearby changing room, immediately hailing her locker. Thank goodness for rocket-propelled lockers. Getting changed wasn't difficult, but Ruby clung onto her locker door until the metal began to creak. There was no reason to be afraid.

Worst-case scenario, the beast within was just a Grimm. Not another living being. Ruby could beat a Grimm, and if she couldn't... Professor Port was there, ready to kill the Grimm with his axe.

Ruby closed the locker. When she returned, clad in her outfit and clutching Crescent Rose, she heard Yang whistle.

"Show 'em what you're made of, Ruby!"

Blake shot her a thumbs-up. Ruby wanted to smile at them both, but she also heard a smattering of whispers about her cherished weapon. She breathed in deep.

"I'm ready, Professor," Ruby said.

Professor Port released the hatch, and a Boarbatusk broke out, glaring with all four eyes, its bone-white tusks gleaming as it kicked off the floor. It had enough space in the impromptu arena to move around without being boxed in.

Getting gored by those sharp tusks would really hurt, and with the armour plates covering its burly body, it could take a slash from Crescent Rose and survive. It probably wouldn't be hurt if it slammed against a wall... but that didn't mean it couldn't fall. She quickly formed a plan: get its soft belly exposed and cut through its bloodless hide.

Ruby waited for the Boarbatusk to make its move. In spite of its swift speed, Ruby was faster, swerving to its side and forcing it to crash into a desk. Just before she could slice through its hind legs, the Grimm kicked out, catching her in the face with its cloven hooves. Her head whipped back, but her Aura held fast, protecting her from the worst of its attack.

It wouldn't happen again.

The Boarbatusk recovered, racing towards her. Ruby slipped around its rapid sprints, manoeuvring herself between it and the wall next to the entrance. This time, when it moved, Ruby went low, hooking Crescent Rose's blade into its front legs.

Then, she heaved, using its momentum to flip it over and cleaving through its leg in the process. Before it could flip through the air, crash against the wall and take her prized weapon with it, Ruby pulled her scythe away and spun on the spot, twirling Crescent Rose into a horizontal position.

"Go away!" she shouted.

She blazed forward as fast as possible and sliced through the Boarbatusk's belly, her desperate scream drowning out its dying squeal. Smoke billowed from its ashen remains as she sheathed Crescent Rose.

Her job was done.

"Way to go, Ruby!" Yang said.

Blake was clapping, along with a few other students.

"Excellent work, Ms. Rose!" Professor Port said. It sounded like he was happy, but since his moustache covered his mouth, she had no clue if he was smiling. "It looks like your early entrance into Beacon was well warranted."

"Thanks, Professor," Ruby said.

The other students began to murmur among themselves, but Weiss wasn't shocked. She just gave Ruby a single nod, as if she expected that the Boarbatusk would be beaten this quickly.

It made Ruby's sweet victory turn a bit bitter, like spoilt milk or ashes burning her tongue.

Ruby was seconds away from giving her so-called teammate a piece of her mind, but Yang whisked Weiss away before she could get the chance. That left a bunch of curious students for her to deal with. She'd rather deal with Weiss.

"Let's get going, Ruby," Blake said, already next to her.

How did she even do that?

"Okay," Ruby said.

Faced with the choice of either spending time with her new partner or talking to people she didn't know, she immediately knew what the right choice was.

Blake kept the other students from approaching while she changed. It was quiet, but Ruby didn't mind; she had all the privacy she needed.

"You did great against that Grimm," Blake said, after Ruby sent her locker away.

She actually smiled, and Ruby was more than happy to return it.

"Thanks."

Blake suddenly frowned. "I don't know what that girl was thinking."

Ruby's face fell. "I don't know, either."

They made eye contact. Blake's eyes were firm.

"You don't need to tolerate her garbage at all. The next time Weiss tries something, make sure she gets the message."

If only she knew what would make her stop.

Ruby was able to put Weiss out of mind as she attended the rest of her classes – from World History with Professor Oobleck to her favourite class so far, Weapon Crafting and Upkeep – and did her best to learn. Professor Mulberry was attentive and very methodical, qualities that were absolutely necessary when it came to providing the love and care a weapon needed to function to the best of its ability.

The only problem with this amazing class was that Professor Mulberry wanted to examine their weapons in the flesh. It wasn't as if she could pass off Crescent Rose as someone else's weapon, since transforming scythes were pretty rare. So far, barely anyone had connected her to Torchwick's killer. She hoped to keep it that way.

Since she wasn't attending this class with her teammates, Ruby left on her own after the bell rang, pulling her hood up. It wasn't right that she had to skulk around, but this was for the best.

Unfortunately, a girl with a kind smile on her face approached her, right before she could reach her last class of the day.

"Hello," she said.

Ruby bit her lip. There was no escape in sight. "Hi."

"I saw you fight that Boarbatusk in Professor Port's class. You were so cool!"

Ruby took another look at the girl, and vaguely recognized her dark brown ponytail and forest green hairband from her Grimm Studies class.

"I just did what anyone would've done."

She still appreciated the compliment. Although, from the way the brown-haired girl's brown eyes widened, this conversation was far from over.

"You made it look really easy. I might have beaten it, but not as quickly as you did."

Ruby shrugged. "I guess. Do you... want advice or something?"

The girl shook her head. "Not really, but I do want to ask something else, if you don't mind. You use a scythe, right?"

If she could talk about Crescent Rose without concern, she'd loved to gush about how awesome it was. Instead, Ruby's face tightened.

"What about it?"

"Did you hear about what happened to Roman Torchwick? He was this big gang leader who got killed in a fight with someone who wielded a scythe. Since you have one, maybe you're curious about who that scythe belonged to?"

This girl didn't seem to be all that bad, but she didn't even know her name. Not that she really wanted to know that right now, since she was just fishing for gossip.

"It might be cool to pick their brain, but I'd rather leave them alone."

The girl nodded in understanding. "I see what you mean. It's just, can you taking someone down like that? Roman Torchwick smuggled a lot of Dust, so does that mean there'll be a scramble to claim his resources or his turf? Maybe this killer was a rival of his, so if they're here at Beacon, does that meant they're serving their sentence here?"

She went on and on, asking questions that Ruby couldn't afford to answer. There had to be a way to stop this conversation without being rude. Even if she never saw this girl again, it wouldn't be right if she hurt her feelings for no good reason.

"Can't you see you're making her uncomfortable?"

Ruby's heart skipped a beat. Weiss had joined them, arms crossed as she sneered at the brown-haired girl. Said girl flinched, wilting from Weiss' imperious glare.

"I didn't mean to! Sorry, I don't have anyone to talk to about this stuff."

"I don't care," Weiss said. "Find someone else."

The girl's jaw wobbled, and she looked Ruby's way, hoping for some kind of defense.

"Whoever did it probably just wants to be left alone."

"That's... actually a really good point. Thanks for listening."

Then, she turned tail and left them behind.

"You couldn't have told her to get lost?" Weiss asked.

Ruby frowned. "No. Why did you volunteer me to fight that Grimm?"

Weiss unfolded her arms, and to her surprise, she grimaced. "I knew you could handle yourself, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't wrong. I wasn't, by the way. Your sister made it clear that I might not have made the wisest decision."

Ruby growled under her breath. Now that they were the only ones around, she pulled her hood down.

"Oh no, Weiss Schnee made a mistake. The horror."

Weiss scoffed. "You don't have to rub it in."

Ruby scowled. "Then don't do this again."

She fully expected Weiss to push back.

"Don't worry, I won't."

Instead, she didn't.

"Good."

And that was that. Ruby went ahead, and Weiss walked beside her. If Weiss was willing to admit to her mistakes, maybe she could try and extend an olive branch of her own.

"Thanks for helping me out back there, Weiss."

A frown lined her teammate's face. "Don't thank me, I'm only doing what you should have done. If you won't tell me the truth, you can at least extend that courtesy to everyone else."

Ruby's frown returned. "I'll tell you what you wanna know if you can show me that you won't tell anyone else."

Weiss' heels stopped clicking against the concrete. Ruby faced her, and saw a pensive look cross her face.

"Deal," Weiss said. "Do you want to know something, Ruby? Seeing you shy away whenever this story comes up is pretty pathetic. For your sake, you'd better shape up."

Weiss strode forward, leaving Ruby reeling from her harsh words. What really made them sting was that she wasn't wrong at all.

Over the next couple of days, the rumours surrounding Roman Torchwick's death had blown into a frenzy now that the possibility that his killer was attending Beacon was all but a certainty. Some of the things Ruby heard were pretty crazy, like the rumour where the killer was a sentient Grimm who devoured the souls of his or her victims, coming to Beacon so he or she could learn to infiltrate and annihilate their true enemies.

She wished all the rumours were like that. One time, she heard a couple of students talking about the 'Bloody Reaper', and they were pretty disgusted that Professor Ozpin would let a violent murderer to join his school. When she came close to those students, they clammed up, but they didn't look at her any differently.

It didn't make their accusations hurt any less.

Yang told her to own the story, but if she did, people would know that she killed a criminal. If they knew that she did it because she was trying to defend innocent people, would that keep her from being rejected? Would it wash the blood off her hands?

She didn't know, and she was too afraid to take the risk. It wasn't like fighting: she could battle Grimm without hesitation and take the fight to Roman Torchwick, but that didn't mean she was good at dealing with people.

That was why Ruby was so grateful for her teammates' support. Yang wasn't only her sister, she was the best friend Ruby could ever ask for. If Yang was the only one on her side, that would've been more than enough, but Blake was helping her, too.

Whenever Ruby lost focus in class, Blake would keep her awake, or share her very thorough notes with her. Blake was also a pretty good study partner, always willing to help her with her homework. When they walked to class, Blake would listen to Ruby carefully and share her own thoughts, even though she wasn't very talkative.

They were slowly becoming friends.

Weiss was a different story. Whenever they were in public, Weiss would get rid of nosy students hunting for more accurate gossip, and do her part in team lessons. She didn't put her on the spot again, and she didn't ask her about the rumours, either.

But that didn't mean Weiss had done a 180° turn on her attitude. She kept on scrutinizing her choices, taking her to task whenever Yang or Blake weren't around. When Ruby asked her about it, Weiss was quick to respond.

"You're our leader. Act like it."

Ruby never asked to be made Team RWBY's leader, but she'd been chosen anyway, and she wasn't sure why Weiss cared so much.

Since classes were over, Ruby was ready to chill for a bit before she took care of her homework. Since Yang and Blake weren't around to walk with her, Ruby hustled through Beacon's halls, hoping she wouldn't she come across anyone hungry for information.

Ruby had taken Weiss' words to heart, trying not to hide away from people asking her about the rumours, but it was better if she kept to herself.

"Hey, Ruby, wait up!"

Ruby stiffened, and looked over her shoulder. Then, she relaxed; it was just Jaune. Pyrrha wasn't around, which was kind of a relief. Even though Pyrrha was always polite and kind, it didn't seem like she was comfortable around her.

Once Jaune caught up, she kept on moving, but this time, she had company.

"Man, they're really putting us through the wringer, and it hasn't even been a week!" Jaune said.

Ruby groaned. "There's way too much homework."

"Tell me about it. It wouldn't be impossible if they didn't expect you to know a lot of stuff right off the bat. And if you aren't up to speed, well..."

Ruby smiled, immediately knowing where Jaune was coming from. "You have to catch up."

She was technically two years behind the rest of her peers, but most of their work hadn't been too hard for Ruby to understand, and when it came to combat, Grimm Studies and Weapon Upkeep, she was already ahead of the curve.

"I've tried, but it's not easy."

"Did you try asking your teammates to help?"

Jaune frowned. "Why should I? I'm their leader. They have to be coming to me, not the other way around."

Ruby frowned, as well. "Why would you say that?"

"Ozpin put me in charge. That means I have to live up to that responsibility, be the pillar of strength that Team JNPR can rely on. Don't get me wrong, my team's great. I get along with everyone and they've been really considerate, but if I ask for help, then I'm showing weakness. Can't have that in a leader."

That... didn't sound right to Ruby. All three of her teammates were more than willing to help her when she was stuck, whether she asked for it or not. She wasn't afraid to ask for help, either, because they were united on the same team. Still, she could see why Jaune wanted to be a pillar of strength and support. It was a rather intriguing way of thinking.

"I think you should let your teammates help you. You've listened to our advice before, so why don't you give it a shot?"

Jaune pressed his lips together. "I'll think about it." He let out a haggard sigh. "Between you and me? Your advice's helped a lot. Now I know I have to earn Weiss' respect, and I can only do that by improving myself. I want to show her and my team that I can work hard to get what I want."

Ruby smiled. "Sounds like you're on the right track. Just remember: you were put on a team for a good reason."

Jaune chuckled. "Can't argue with that."

In what felt like no time at all, they had arrived at their destination. It was pretty convenient that their rooms were on opposite sides of the same hallway.

"Well, it was nice talking to you, Jaune. Good luck with your studies and, uh, everything else."

He smiled. "Thanks, Ruby. I'll need it."

Once Ruby entered her room, she climbed onto her bed and stared at the ceiling, just trying to relax. While her breathing slowed down and her muscles began to loosen up, her brain was still spinning around in a wild whirlwind, the idea of leadership dominating her thoughts.

A true huntsman was supposed to be honourable, dependable, strategic, well-educated and wise. Ruby used this ideal as a guide for her leadership, but after talking to Jaune, she started to wonder if she was on the right track.

When she imagined a pillar of strength, she imagined Yang. She could always go to Yang with her problems, and Yang always stood up for her when she had to, but did that make Yang a good leader? She wasn't sure.

Since she wasn't around right now, Ruby was forced to figure out what being a pillar of strength meant on her own. First, she'd change into more comfortable clothes, but just before she made it to her closet, the door flew open.

Weiss stormed inside.

"It's just you in here?" Weiss asked.

Ruby shook off the gnawing dread. "Yep."

She smirked. "Excellent. I have a proposal: fight me, in a duel to determine who will be leader of Team RWBY."

Ruby flinched. Her mouth opened, then closed. She said the only thing she could think of.

"Why?"

Weiss' little smirk hadn't wavered. "You clearly have some skill, but your leadership leaves a lot to be desired. I know for a fact that I can lead our team to greatness, and by beating you, I'll prove that I'm more capable than you are."

Her fists balled themselves into fists. "You can't force me to do anything, Weiss."

"I'm aware, but let me tell you what I think."

Weiss' smirk evaporated the moment she made eye contact. The scar on her left eye never looked more intimidating, and her cold stare chilled Ruby to the bone.

"You'll be better off not having to bear the weight of leadership on your dainty little shoulders. Once I become leader, you can fret about those vapid rumours and leave what truly matters to those capable of handling the pressure."

Ruby frowned. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. Whatever I want, I seize. However, I've seen what you can do in a fight, so I'm giving you a chance to prove that Ozpin didn't make a mistake. You'll get until tomorrow morning to make your decision."

Weiss spun on her foot, treading towards the bathroom.

"Wait."

Her teammate stopped moving, and turned around. Ruby closed the distance, glaring up at Weiss until she blinked. She didn't care that she was taller or older or more confident.

This conversation wasn't over.

"When do you want to fight?"

A cruel smile curled Weiss' lip upward.

"Tomorrow. We'll be fighting in Professor Goodwitch's combat class. The first one to have their Aura depleted will be the loser, and if you lose, I'll lead Team RWBY. Do you agree to those terms?"

Ruby gave one hard nod. "You're on, Weiss."

Weiss' smile grew. "Then may the better huntress win."