Chapter-27

Ruby

Ruby opened her eyes and sat up, having slept like the dead. It was the weekend, so they didn't have any classes.

Yet Ruby had woken up at 6:00 AM. She groaned rubbing her eyes. Why had she woken up so early?

Ruby shrugged and laid down again, trying to fall asleep. But, she couldn't. Ruby stared at the ceiling, closing her eyes and trying to fall sleep.

After an hour, Ruby got up. She couldn't fall asleep, so she didn't know what to do.

Maybe I could go to the terrace. She thought getting off the bed, changing into a red shirt and black shorts before walking out.

She could see some of the staff walking about. At that moment, Ruby remembered a few days back when she had consistent breakdowns in front of Ozpin and Professor Saber. Ozpin gave Team RWBY a little break for the day, but Ruby mostly stayed away from her team. She just needed some time to herself and calm down after her failure.

Ruby went to the terrace and stood there, watching the sun rise.

"Couldn't sleep?" She heard Blake's voice and noticed her walk up. Ruby pouted. "You heard me." She spoke as Blake shrugged. "Plus, I'm a light sleeper." She spoke before standing beside Ruby.

"You know...We haven't really 'talked' ever since you called us to the bullhead."

Ruby continued to stare with a frown. "Yeah, I-I just needed some time alone."

"I know. I heard you were the last to see Onyx. Speaking of him, Ozpin assured us he's safe. Just a leg wound."

"But Cysgod's been destroyed." Ruby replied before closing her eyes. "We were supposed to keep the people safe, not encourage the enemy to burn down their homes."

"Ruby…"

"Who was this person, though? How did they infiltrate our ranks?"

"Ruby…"

"If I had known earlier, then maybe this wouldn't have…"

A hand clamped down on her shoulder as Ruby gasped in surprise.

"Ruby, relax." Blake spoke. "You're behaving like I was after Nepotain." She spoke as Ruby stared at her. She was right. But…but…

Why can't I say anything? Ruby thought. She just thought of a retort to Blake's statement, but it slipped out of her mind.

"I can see that you want to retort, Ruby." Blake spoke as Ruby pouted. "Just relax." She spoke as silence fell.

Ruby looked at Blake. "How's things with Weiss?"

Blake furrowed her eyebrows. "It's…fine. Mine and Weiss' relationship has improved a lot."

Ruby smiled softly. "I can see that from when she did her best to stop Perseus."

"Yeah. And…in these few days, I learnt her reason to become a huntress. I have to admit, I could not believe that the Weiss we first met had such motivations."

Ruby tilted her head. "Weiss wants to right the wrongs her father has committed. Of course, earlier she didn't consider faunuses among those wrongs. But I can see the doubt."

"That's nice." Ruby spoke. "Its good to see we're starting to function as a team."

Blake nodded. "And that speaks volumes of your leadership skills, Ruby."

Ruby's eyes widened. "What? You can't mean we became buddies because of me?"

"Ruby. Just remember what we four were like in the first time we met. Extremely dysfunctional led by a really nervous youngster like yourself. You were shy, Weiss was snobby, I was spiteful and Yang was ill-tempered, she still is. In short, we all checked out the boxes of a team that could not get along. I personally think that most likely Team RWBY would have ceased to exist in a few days. Yet, it didn't and look at us now. Have you seen Ms. Goodwitch's grading regarding teamwork?"

Ruby shook her head. "No?" She knew that miss Goodwitch kept a board outside her office showing the performance of students in her class. JNPR had always been at the top in terms of teamwork while RWBY was very low. Maybe they moved up the board finally?

"We're at the top."

Ruby's eyes grew at comically large proportions. They were first in teamwork?! Ruby thought they moved up a few spaces, not just jump straight to the top!

"When did this happen?! I thought no one would beat JNPR!" She exclaimed in shock.

"I am as surprised as you, Ruby, even though I'm not showing it. I couldn't believe it myself when I saw it. Team RWBY, who everybody called the 'team that would last 3 days' is considered to show the best teamwork among the first years. And its all thanks to you. You pretty much the only one able to see what is important instead of falling to your own personal feelings. Us three don't have that clarity, so I admit we wouldn't have made it this far."

"That's…" Ruby felt overwhelmed. This was the first time Blake had ever been so nice. Not that she treated her badly, but she never had this much to compliment anyone.

"What did you eat last night?" Ruby asked as Blake laughed. "Nothing, Ruby."

"I don't believe it. You don't talk this much." Ruby spoke.

"I can be pretty friendly if I want to."

"I can see that."

They both shared a laugh. "But jokes aside, Ruby. You don't need to bottle up your guilt. You've got friends who're willing to listen. I know its ironic I'm telling you, but speaking from personal experience, just tell us when you want to talk." Blake spoke.

Ruby nodded and went back to watching the sunrise with Blake.

Soon, the entire team sat in the cafeteria for breakfast. Although she felt a bit better after her talk with Blake, Ruby still felt a little down.

"Hey guys!" She heard someone exclaim as they noticed JNPR come up with their food.

"Yo." Yang replied with a smile, although a bit restrained. Ruby knew that was because of her concern for her sister and frustration at their failure. Even though her teammates didn't show it, Ruby knew all of them felt guilty about what happened at Cysgod.

"You look…different." Jaune noted as JNPR sat down.

"Agreed. You all look like you just came out of a difficult mission." Pyrrha spoke as well.

Well, it was difficult. Ruby thought. "What was your mission?" She asked.

"Oh! It was just following a sheriff in the villages. We fought some grimm, although Jaune claims he saw a tiny little monster that didn't look like a grimm.

Ruby's head shot up. "What?" She spoke standing up. "What did that monster look like?" She spoke as Jaune leaned back in fright.

"Ruby…" Ruby heard Weiss and sighed. "Sorry, got a bit excited."

"It's alright. I saw a little bird watching me at night. I got curious and got up to take a closer look, but then that bird just turned into a tiny person with sharp fangs, who threw a branch at me before giggling, turning into a bird and flying off."

RWBY exchanged nervous glances. It looks like even JNPR had an encounter with the knockers.

"But other than that, nothing much. What was your mission?" Ren asked as Ruby was silent. "Our mission…was to clear a bunch of shadow humanoids in Cysgod."

JNPR's eyes widened. "You were at Cysgod?!" Jaune exclaimed in shock before noticing everyone at nearby tables staring at him.

"Sorry." Jaune squeaked sitting back down. "But Cysgod was just…oh gods…" Pyrrha spoke as realization hit her. "You were there at the siege of Cysgod, weren't you?"

"…"

"Are you alright?" Jaune asked as Weiss nodded.

"Yes, we are fine, Jaune."

Maybe physically, but not mentally. Ruby thought.

"Ok…"

"Are you sure? I heard there were a lot of dangerous things there." Pyrrha spoke. "We just had to deal with some grimm."

"Yeah, ours was much crazier." Yang spoke. "But we came out of it. It's fine."

"Can we stop with the grouchy behavior!" Nora yelled as RWBY jolted. "You all look like someone kicked a puppy in front of you! Lighten up. We're done and dusted with it!"

The two teams shared a soft laugh at Nora's enthusiasm before they heard someone exclaim in pain.

Ruby looked to her right and her eyes narrowed. CRDL was on it with their antics, pulling on the ears of a poor rabbit faunus.

The two teams shared a scowl. Cardin was known for being a bully to almost anyone, especially faunuses. But he had picked on Ruby and Jaune a few times before. Of course, he stuck to insults to Ruby while Yang was not around while he actually used to blackmail Jaune until the forever fall trip happened.

Earlier, Ruby had been willing to shrink away and ignore the scene, but now…

"What a freak." She heard Russell speak.

…Now she wanted to smash his teeth out. Onyx had to watch his village get burnt down and so many of his people die to the enemy, even then he did everything to save whatever he had left. With people like Onyx, the whole 'faunus are monsters' is a foolish concept and she's happy Weiss is slowly coming out of it.

Ruby got up as the other 7 stared at her.

"Ruby? What…?"

"Hold on, guys. I'll be back." Ruby spoke in a cold voice as she marched up to CRDL, firing up her semblance and carrying Velvet away from Cardin's grasp.

"What the…?!" He exclaimed as he noticed Ruby standing there with a scowl. "Oh, pipsqueak." He spoke scoffing. "You keep out of this." He spoke walking as Ruby stood in front of Velvet. She did not noticed the wide-eyed stares of some of the first-years, who were right now watching the most shy and socially awkward of their batch stand up to Cardin without a shred of nervousness.

"Last warning." Cardin warned stepping closer, now looming over her. Yet Ruby did not falter. At this point, she'd faced things much scarier than Cardin and his goons.

"Or what?"

"Or we'll have to go through you. You wouldn't be able to stop us, just looking at those arms of yours." Cardin spoke as the boys shared a laugh. Ruby noticed Yang smiling, although her eyes were turning crimson.

Oh, I have to get this done before Yang gets angry. Ruby thought before stepping back to avoid a swing from Cardin and dashing forward, her boot slamming into Cardin's chest, the boy letting out a pain grunt as the force of the kick sent him crashing back to his table.

After that, she spun around to land a spinning kick on Russell's temple, slamming him to the floor. Before Dove and Sky could go, Yang came up behind them.

"Boys~" She spoke as the two immediately paled and stepped away, helping up their leader. Cardin let go of them and growled, charging towards the two sisters in a mad rage. Yang shrugged and clotheslined him, stunning him before Ruby sent another blazing kick at his chest and this time sending him back to the table, breaking it.

"Ms. Rose." Ruby heard a familiar voice and hung her head with a pout.

Aw, right when my mood actually improved. She thought. She had to admit that giving Cardin the treatment he deserves really lifted up her spirits. But of course, her little moment of satisfaction was ruined by being caught.

"I don't have to make a long explanation. Port's office after recess." Ms. Goodwitch spoke as Ruby sighed.

She then found herself wrapped up in a hold by Yang who ruffled her hair.

"Who are you and what happened to Ruby?" She asked laughing as Ruby struggled and got out of her grip.

"Nothing, Yang. Nothing."

"What do you mean, nothing? I just watched my innocent little sister be a bad girl. I'm so proud!"

A blush formed on Ruby's cheeks. "U-Uhm…"

"You didn't have to do that. But thank you." Ruby heard the faunus girl say. "You're welcome." She replied. "I don't think I've seen you a lot."

The girl winced. "That's because I'm a second year…" She spoke as Ruby stared at her. She was Cardin's senior?! That just made his bullying even worse!

Good thing I stepped in. Ruby thought. "Well, what's your name?"

The girl smiled. "Velvet Scarlatina. I suppose you're Ruby Rose?"

Ruby tilted her head. "Huh? You know my name?"

"Well, almost all the teachers have something to say about your…energy." Velvet spoke as Ruby coughed, her face turning even more red.

"Well, ok. See you later." She spoke quickly dragging Yang back to the table.

"This is the first time I've seen Ruby this serious. And its giving me the creeps." Nora spoke as Weiss shook her head.

"Really? You managed to get a detention on a weekend?"

"But still, great going on Cardin." Blake spoke. "Although I never knew you could do close combat."

Yang wrapped an arm around Ruby's shoulder. "Don't get fooled by her cute looks. This girl is a real wild one, especially with her legs. She accidentally kicked one of her classmates in the crotch once. The poor guy said it was the hardest kick he'd ever gotten in his life."

"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed in exasperation.

I'm already flustered, and here is Yang making it worse! She thought in frustration.

Pyrrha covered her mouth to stifle laughter, Ren closed his eyes, Nora grinned while Jaune snorted.

"Oh, oh! And then there's this time she kicked Uncle Qrow in the jaw…"

"Wait, hold on!"

"And then…"

Ruby watched in despair as Yang launched into a number of embarrassing stories of her accidentally kicking people. Weiss' face scrunched up in disgust at those stories, Blake laughed softly along with JNPR.

Ruby sighed looking at her team chatting with JNPR.

Even though we were gone for a few days, it already feels like we've returned to Beacon after a long time. Home sweet home, I guess. Ruby thought before sitting back down.

Ruby was pensive going to Professor Port's office. She wished Ms. Goodwitch had assigned her to a different teacher, but it had to be Professor Port.

It wasn't that she was mad that Professor Port. No, she'd gotten over that. She did not feel comfortable to face him after what happened in Cysgod.

She entered Professor Port's office. Inside, Professor Port sat writing on some papers, numerous skulls of grimm that had been clearly preserved through aura, hung on the walls. There were also multiple pictures of Professor Port smiling. The one that caught Ruby's eye was Professor Port and a woman with short black hair just barely reaching her shoulders wearing a teal tunic and a dark blue cloak and a blindfold over her eyes. In the center, stood an old man taller than both of them with greying hair that was short at the back and spiky at the front. The old man wore a black overcoat with a white shirt and a grey ascot tie. He wore round shades on his silver eyes.

Ruby instantly recognized the photo.

Its Professor Port with Thane and Grandma Maria… Ruby thought. Maria Calavera, who Uncle Qrow idolized a lot, visited their house many times and was basically her godmother.

"That picture was taken after the faunus revolution ended." She heard Professor Port speak as she looked at him staring at the picture too. "Last I heard Maria's in Atlas getting her eye checkup done. She'll be coming over in the Vytal festival."

Ruby smiled. She was going to see grandma Maria soon!

"Take a seat, ms. Rose." Professor Port spoke as Ruby sat down. He put forward a bunch of papers. "These are the answer sheets of a test I took for the second year students yesterday. Just sort them out and that will be all."

Hm, sounds simple enough… Ruby thought before flipping through the tests. She soon found herself critiquing some of the answers, since she had received a lot of extra knowledge on grimm from her family. Many were correct, many were wrong. But Ruby was engrossed in reading them.

"So, how are you feeling?" Professor Port asked.

"Better. Although a little tired." Ruby replied.

Professor Port nodded. "You're thinking about Onyx, aren't you?"

Ruby exhaled. She just had the talk with Blake this morning. She didn't want to go through it again.

"…"

"I'll take that as a yes. I won't probe further. Next, do you want to ask me something?"

Ruby was silent before she leaned back.

"Professor Port, was it truly necessary to kill Assassin…"

"Semiramis."

"…Semiramis."

"Yes. Tristan had explained that she was the reason there were so many shadow servants active in the region. If she were killed, the shadow servants would disappear."

Ruby pursed her lips.

"But, that does not mean I wanted it. I grew up in a Remnant that was still unstable from the effects of the great war. Murdering and stealing was common outside the kingdoms and the grimm were very active. Killing each other would only lead to our greater destruction at the hands of the grimm. So no matter how arrogant, brash and insensitive I had seemed as a boy, I hated killing. But, Thane showed me that when it comes to a profession like ours, the only people who ever get through with a clear conscience are those who are either killed by grimm before they commit such a deed or they leave behind their jobs early on. If you are to be a huntress in the long term, then you must be prepared to face situations where you are forced to take someone's life."

Ruby shook her head. "Surely we wouldn't willing kill someone?"

"Heavens no. But there will come times in life where the stakes are too high for mercy. Like a criminal is about to take an innocent's life and you don't have time to restrain the criminal. That, however, does not mean you have to face those situations. I always hope that when my students face such situations, it is when they have a fair amount of experience, not like what happened to you."

"…"

"Anything else?"

"No. I have my answers." Ruby spoke, a lingering sense of fear lurking within her. She always tried to do her best not to use excessive force, yet as Professor Port described, what if something happened where she had no choice?

Coming out of Professor Port's office in the afternoon, Ruby headed for the dorms, where her team would be. But as she walked, she noticed Professor Saber and Lancer ahead of her. They cut a corner and as Ruby was about to do the same, she heard them speaking.

"So, Mount Glenn, huh. From what I heard, it's a pretty risky place to put up their base of operations with all the grimm." Professor Lancer spoke.

"Agreed. Although I suspect it has something to do with the rogue servants." Professor Saber replied.

Ruby perked up. Professor Saber knew of these 'servants'. He could tell her about them. She kept note of that and continued to listen in.

"Whatever, Ozpin's mobilized almost everybody here in Vale to take flush the white fang out of Mount Glenn, although he was hiding something. So, it'll be chaos once the fighting begins."

"Which could be problematic. But we'll worry about that when we leave next weekend. Right now, our newest buddy's feeling a little low from whatever happened in Cysgod. Let's go talk to him." Professor Lancer spoke before the two walked off, leaving Ruby in deep thought.

White fang…Mount glenn. She thought before her eyes widened. The white fang had set up camp just above the wyvern's corpse. If they started digging…

"All Onyx did would be for nothing." Ruby spoke before she dashed to the dorms.

"Guys! We have a problem!" She spoke frantically slamming the door open.

Her teammates looked at her. "What? What's going on?" Weiss asked.

"I know where the white fang is!" Ruby exclaimed as Blake quickly closed the door, her eyes serious. "Continue."

"I heard Professor Saber and Professor Lancer talk about how the Headmaster's mobilized the association for a massive attack on Mount Glenn."

Weiss sighed. "Ruby, we just came out of Cysgod, and you want us to now go with Professional huntsmen to Mount Glenn?! Do you realize the PR nightmare that would be created if we were caught?"

"I know. But we're not going with them. Ozpin hasn't told anyone about the wyvern."

"What?!" The other three exclaimed.

"Why hasn't he?" Yang asked in confusion.

"Most likely to avoid panic. I mean, Only one huntsman was sent to kill it earlier. So it's clear Ozpin's trying to hide the truth so that people don't panic." Blake spoke

"But if the White Fang still has dust crates, then…"

Her teammates' eyes widened.

"But still, we can inform them about it." Weiss spoke.

"And attract suspicion. The only safe option would have been to tell Ozpin, but he already knows yet isn't doing anything. We have to get rid of the remaining crates before the White Fang can use them."

Weiss fell silent. "So, we have no choice?"

Ruby winced. "Weiss, I didn't mean to say it like that, especially knowing how mentally drained we are from Cysgod…"

"We're fine with it."

"…we-wait what?" Ruby asked confused.

"Knowing you, you'll probably run off like the reckless dolt you are and try to do it by yourself. I'd feel better jumping into the face of danger with you then sitting back and letting you go in all alone. We're your team, Ruby. Even if we're still a bit drained, we'll still follow you." Weiss spoke.

"Same here, Ruby. If we're doing this, we're doing this together." Blake spoke.

"I'm not staying when my little sister is heading off to a dangerous place." Yang replied.

Ruby stared at her team, again stricken by what she was seeing. On their first day, they would go off in different directions. But now, they all seemed to agree on almost everything.

I guess Blake was right about us four coming a long way. Ruby spoke before smiling.

"Thanks, guys. You're the best." Ruby spoke.

"And you're a dolt."

Ruby slumped. "That wasn't even necessary!" She whined.

Weiss smiled. "Doesn't matter. So, now that we know about the attack, how do we accomplish our goals without getting caught?"

"For that…why not discuss it during lunch? We'll order some food and draw up our plans based on it." Ruby suggested. It was a weekend, so they were allowed to order food.

"Nice, I'm hungry for some Mistralan today." Yang spoke.

"I second that." Blake pitched in.

"A good meal does help clear our minds. I agree."

"Alright, go order food, Yang!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Me? Oh no no no, after seeing what you did today, I think you no longer need me to do the ordering. So, get to work, Rubes." Yang spoke tossing her scroll to Ruby.

Weiss let out a soft snort of laughter as Ruby's face slowly turned to horror.

A/N: And here we are. The little transition chapter from Cysgod to Mount Glenn. Again, just to show how much Cysgod affected Ruby, to the point she's actually standing up to boys two years her senior and kicking their butts. Since I skipped over Jaunedice, I thought that having CRDL bully Velvet would be a great way to show the change in Ruby's personality with all the craziness that's happened so far. Just assume some other event took place in the non-existent Jaunedice arc of this story.

I just hope I managed to get the shift of Ruby's mood from depressed to slightly cheerful right in the course of this chapter, because I need to make sure Ruby doesn't spiral down into a blank edgy persona. Keeping that balance is a bit hard, but I think I was able to pull it off at least this time.

Next chapter, comes Mount Glenn. I estimate it'll be around 5-6 chapters, after which there'll be one last chapter to wrap up Volume-2 and set things up for Volume-3. I'm right now on a roll with writing and uploading chapters, so that, along with the free time I'll get from school due to the second term just starting, I'll probably be able to finish Volume-2 by the end of the coming week. I'll start october with the PJO/RWBY fic and progress it to a certain point.

Hope you guys enjoyed and constructive criticism is appreciated!

Response to reviews:

Siegfriedfan1999: Sorry about that. There's no Sigurd tag so I had to use the Siegfried one. I was pleasantly surprised no one dropped a review complaining about the bait after so many chapters before this review came.

Also, I read your review while I was writing the next chapter, and the timing was so perfect that I started laughing. As for what that 'perfect timing' is, just wait for Chapter-28 and Chapter-30.