Here's chapter 45, everyone.
"Alright, Ruby, maybe while I'm training, you can do some on the side too. It'll be better than sitting around waiting on me." Weiss reasoned as the team got into the training room together.
"Uhhhhh, yeah that sounds fine to me." Ruby grinned happily, pulling Crescent Rose out. "Whatcha gonna try doing first though?"
The white wolf thought about it for a moment and nodded to herself when she knew. "I would say try to get a better grip on my aura. I tend to just use my semblance without thinking about how much aura I'll use up."
Yang spoke up. "Good idea. My semblance is more passive, so I can't really train it on that level, but keeping my guard up even more is how I get better so I don't rely on it too much."
"You don't want to use your semblance as much?" Blake asked.
"It's not that I don't want to, it's like I called it. It's more passive, and works better when I take damage to throw it back. Soooo, y'know, taking damage is kinda not the best thing to do in a fight." Yang commented as she activated her gauntlets.
Blake was impressed with how she worded that. "Makes sense. But it's still not that bad of a semblance if the enemy doesn't know about it."
"Oh trust me, I don't hate my semblance. I think it's awesome and let's me get into a fight a lot easier than others. Y'know, since I can almost be certain to dish out enough damage back to end a fight." Yang remarked.
"Hmm, well remember, I do know your semblance. So don't think you'll be able to end a fight with me as easy as you did last time." Blake reminded, getting Gambol Shroud out.
"Like I said, I don't wanna rely on it." Yang smirked in return, the two partners getting to the side where the dust was stored. "So, dust or nah?"
Weiss overheard the two, so she walked over. "I would recommend dust."
"Hmm? Oh, ice wolf. How come?" Yang asked.
"It'll help you learn more ways to utilize the dust you have, that is, if you want to learn that here." Weiss explained, her ears perking up when she heard Ruby yelling as she sliced a combat drone in two. "Ugh, impatient."
Yang chuckled a bit. "You know Ruby, ice wolf. And thanks for the suggestion." Weiss nodded and went back to where she was, wanting to train on her own for a bit. "Well, dust it is then."
Blake nodded in return, loading some dust rounds in her pistol. "Before we do… Can we… Talk? I was hoping we could when the entire team is around."
"Oh, yeah, sure, Blake." Yang said as she followed her partner to one of the seats. "So, did you just wanna talk with me, or Weiss and Ruby too?"
The cat Faunus was feeling even more nervous after that question, but she nodded, not wanting to wait any longer. "Yes. I know they just started training, but I need to talk about this."
Yang was happy that Blake wanted to talk, but she noticed how nervous she was. "Hey, if you need a little bit more time-."
"No, honestly, I hate how I've been." Blake remarked.
"People are different, Blake, but if you are ready to talk," Yang looked over to the other two team members. "Ruby! Ice wolf! Get over here for a second!"
The two partners groaned in response, since they wanted to train, but they walked over, wondering what the blonde could possibly want. "Yes?" Weiss spoke.
Blake answered for the blonde. "I wanted to talk with you three…" She took a breath and looked at Weiss specifically. "You already know about this, but I wanted to say thank you for not telling anyone about it."
Weiss looked a bit confused, but when she thought about it, her eyes widened. "Oh. Blake, are you sure?"
"Yes. I don't want to hide it from the team I'll be with for four years." Blake explained, reaching up to the top of her head as she began to undo her bow.
Ruby and Yang were confused for just a moment, but they gasped when the bow came undone and revealed two cat ears. "B-Blake? You're a-."
"Faunus." Blake finished for Ruby, while Weiss stayed silent.
Yang examined the cat ears that her partner had, not as shocked per say, but more so connecting the dots at why she didn't like the Schnee family name. "So… That's why you don't like the Schnee Dust Company."
Ruby frowned, remembering how Weiss told her that Blake wasn't fond of her family. "Yes." Blake's ears flattened against her head. "But seeing how you," She looked to Weiss. "And your mother are, I can't think much else of it."
"Well, why did you hide your ears from me and Ruby then?" Yang asked, looking a little sad since that secret was way too big to keep from her.
Blake sighed. "Because I've experienced enough discrimination to want to hide in plain sight." She got up, but Yang gently grabbed her arm. "I wasn't trying to say you and your sister are like other people… But I can't just know that."
Yang wasn't dumb. She knew Faunus were discriminated more than anyone on Remnant, so she got up as well. "Blake, I don't blame you for wanting to use a bow. I just… I don't want you to feel like you have to hide around us."
Ruby cut in. "Yeah, we're a team, and your friends now." Her pure innocent smile was the final one Blake needed to see to show her that she truly was part of the team. "Wait, what kind of ears are they?"
The cat Faunus blushed a little. "C-Cat ears."
It was the first time Weiss saw her ears as well. "I've actually met several cat Faunus back in Atlas." The white haired teen admitted. "They were actually acquaintances of my mother."
Blake's ears perked up. "T-They were?"
Weiss let out a small smile, nodding to the cat Faunus. "Yes. I know it sounds unbelievable, but when my father would go on business trips, she'd invite them over." She sighed sadly though. "It was… The only real time mom felt like she could ask them to come over though."
Ruby reached her hand over to rub her partner's back, earning a few tail sways, while Blake spoke up. "I'm… I'm sorry for assuming anything else, Weiss."
"Don't be. That's over now, and besides," Her tail swayed faster. "I'm just happy you wanted to show us the real you."
Blake returned the smile and yelped when Yang wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Yeah! I get to know even more about my badass shadowcat of a partner."
"Please don't call me that." Blake begged.
"Sorry, Blake, but when this oaf finds a nickname to give, she sticks with it. Just look at what she calls me." Weiss reminded.
"Ugh, well I don't want you calling me that in public. The whole shadowcat thing might be a dead giveaway on you know what." Blake stated, pulling away from the blonde as she began putting her bow back on.
"No problem." Yang gave her a thumbs up "Come on. Let's get sparring, partner."
The way she said it simply made Blake smile, so the two partners walked back over to the arena, while Ruby was glad to see Blake doing better on the team. "See. I told you we just needed time." Weiss reminded.
"Yeah… Still, if anything comes up like this again, please tell me. I wanna be able to help my team out too." Ruby said, both her and Weiss heading to the other side of the room.
"I know you do, and you have, Ruby. Remember that you've helped me more than I can ever ask for." The white wolf smiled, getting ready to focus on her aura. "Now, how about you maybe take it a little slow on the training. You literally cut a combat drone in half."
Ruby looked over at the drone, chuckling nervously as it was reassembled after she pushed a button on the console she was using to train. "Heh, sorry. Just got a little excited. But hey, at least it's not too hard to fix."
"Only because the Atlas tech that was offered is being used here." Weiss reminded. "I'll be over here, so do what you feel is best for training." She sat and closed her eyes, getting a feel of her aura.
"Right." Ruby ran over to where the combat drones were being set up for her.
Weiss thought about what her mother told her. How she was training her semblance and aura, so it inspired her to work harder to not fall behind her team.
About an hour in, and the team seemed to be having an easy time with their training, except for the white wolf who was still unable to get a good grip on how much aura she's able to use with her 'semblance'. "It still feels like I'll use too much…" She sighed to herself. "I'll have to at least try." Weiss looked over at her partner, watching as she dodged a punch from one of the white and grey combat drones, and in return she cut the legs of it right off.
"Take that!" Ruby grinned in triumph.
"Ruby, could you come over here for a moment?" Weiss called out to her partner.
The rose girl heard her, so she quickly ran over to the console and turned off the remaining combat drones. "Yeah, one sec." She ran over to the white wolf and stretched a bit. "Woo, training is still fun."
"I'm glad at least one of us is having a good time with it…" Weiss said in a somber tone.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked, wanting to rub her fur to help her feel better, but she wanted to hear what Weiss had to say first.
"I still can't get a good read on my aura, so… Um, can you look at my aura levels when I use my semblance?" Weiss didn't want to bother her partner, since it meant having to supervise her for a good bit of time, but she couldn't do it alone.
Ruby smiled, pulling out her scroll to show her partner that she had her team's aura levels on hand at all times. "Of course I can, Wolfy."
Weiss blushed from hearing the nickname, but her tail wagging showed she was enjoying it too. "I'm sorry for bothering you with this."
"Stop. You know I'm happy to help you, Weiss." Ruby assured and stood a bit away from her partner to give her some room. "Okay, I'll let you know how much of your aura you use from this point."
The white wolf nodded, taking a deep breath as she thought about changing her size. "Not like that pup size again… Maybe like how I was when I first got here." Her aura began to spike a bit, surprising Ruby as the light shined on Weiss' body. Moments later, she had shrunk back to the pup size she was in the day before. "Ugh! I didn't want to be this size! I was trying to get to how I was during initiation!"
Ruby still found her to be way too cute when she was that size, but she wasn't going to bring it up, since she wanted to be helpful for her partner. "It's okay, Weiss. You only used up about, thirty percent of your aura. So you can still use some to change back."
Weiss' ears perked up a bit, the encouragement from her partner getting her to not be as distressed, so she nodded and closed her eyes again. "Stay calm, Weiss… You can do this. Just don't think too hard on it."
Her aura levels were about at sixty three on Ruby's scroll, so it meant that she would be able to use her 'semblance' at least once more if it didn't work.
The light shined on her body again, that time getting her to about the size she was when she first got to Beacon. "You're not a puppy anymore, Weiss!" Ruby cheered, and the white wolf looked down, seeing that she wasn't as big as she was before, so it made her sigh in relief.
"It really worked…" Weiss was thankful for that, her tail wagging happily as she walked over to Ruby. "How much aura did I use there?"
"Let me check." Ruby brought her attention to Weiss' aura levels. "Looks like you used about… Huh, twenty nine percent that time."
Weiss was okay with that, since even one percent less usage of her aura mattered in her eyes. "I see. Okay, well… I think a break may be needed for me. I don't want to expend all of my aura in one go."
"Good idea." Ruby put her scroll away and rub her back, making her blush. "Rest up for now. I'll sit with you."
"You don't have to, you dolt. I only needed help on my aura levels." Weiss said as she laid down, watching as her partner shook her head and sat next to her.
"Nope. I wanna rest too, and besides, I said I'd help you rest up before. So I'm keeping my promise." The rose girl's smile was one of Weiss' favorite sights, so instead of arguing with her partner, the white wolf chuckled and rested her head on Ruby's lap.
"You're a dork." Weiss closed her eyes, feeling Ruby rubbing her neck a little.
Ruby loved spending time with Weiss, and even then, she wanted to spend even more time with her. "If being a dork means I help you feel happy, then I'll live my whole life being the biggest dork in the whole world."
Just her saying that brought a blush on Weiss' face. "Ruby Rose…"
Glad to see people liked the info that was given last chapter. This one was more for Blake's reveal, and Weiss' training. Not much else to be said here.
To JJ- Yeah, there was a lot for sure, and there's still more to be learned. With her comment on Willow being Weiss' mother, even if Willow didn't birth her, yes, it's how I view it too. She was raised from birth, and Willow loves Weiss like she was her biological daughter.
To GoldElite245- Wow, it's been a long time since I've seen the first shrek movie. Would be funny to do, but sadly it doesn't call for it. With Raven and Lazuria, yeah, they both have their issues with their daughters, and we'll see if they can overcome those issues.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 45. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 46.