After the wait, here's the new chapter.
Thank you all for your input into this story and helping me in how I should steer this clustertruck of a fanfiction. I will do a blend of the two suggestions, following the main episode-to-chapter structure, but with OCs in the mix, until the storyline deviates enough to become a different story.
Speaking of which, who remembers that pink-haired girl from chp.2?
"And there we were, In the middle of the night…"
"It was day."
"We were surrounded by ursai…"
"They were beowolves."
"Dozens of them!" Nora abruptly stood up.
"Two of them," Ren corrected. Nora continued her far-fetched story as Ruby looked between Pyrrha and Jaune, as Jaune sadly picked at his food, and Pyrrha looked sadly towards him.
"…She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now," Ren sighed.
"Jaune," Pyrrha spoke to her blonde team leader, "Are you okay?"
"Huh? O-oh, yeah. Why?" Jaune distractedly replied.
"It's just that... you don't really seem okay," Ruby answered, "Like, at all."
"Guys, seriously I'm fine, look!" Jaune gave a thumbs up along with a weak grin.
"Yeah, no," Ruby frowned at her friend's denial. The rest of the group did similarly. They were distracted however, by the rather loud taunting of team CRDL bullying a faunus girl.
"Jaune," Pyrrha spoke, knocking Jaune out of his train of thought, "Cardin has been picking on you since the first week of school."
"Who? Cardin Winchester? Naw, he just likes to mess around y'know, practical jokes and all that."
"Jaune, he is a bully," Ren said to his leader.
"Oh please, name one time he's 'bullied' me."
"Well, he smacks books out of your hands in the hallways," Blake answered, a certain venom behind her words.
"He activates your shield as you're going through doorways," Weiss pointed out.
"On several occasions so far," Yang added.
"And he shoved you into a locker before launching it with you in it," Pyrrha noted.
"I didn't land that far from the school." Jaune defended.
"That's nothing to be happy about Jaune," Yang told him. She then looked around for a moment. "Hey, where's Ruby?"
"She said something about paying back Cardin scaring the living daylights out of him," Nora answered offhandedly. The two teams leant over to see Ruby approach CRDL and the rabbit-eared faunus girl.
"This ought to be good," Yang commented with a malicious grin.
"Hey!" Ruby exclaimed at Cardin and his team, hands on her hips. "What are you doing?"
Cardin scoffed. "Making sure this animal knows her place, obviously."
"Well, other than the fact that's wrong, haven't you heard about Lycanthrope disease?" Ruby asked, lying through her teeth. Cardin and his lackeys flinched slightly.
"W-what?" The faunus asked in a thick accent.
"Just play along," Ruby whispered to her.
"And what's 'Lycanthrope' then?" Dove asked in a haughty tone.
"Apparently it can turn humans into faunus." Ruby lied. "You can catch it off sick faunus, it's been popping up recently."
Sky chuckled worriedly. "There's no such thing."
"Eh, believe what you want, just making sure you know." Ruby shrugged. "Place I don't think that…" Ruby looked to the girl.
"Oh! Velvet, Velvet Scarlatina."
"Velvet looks very sick, so you should be fine. Have you?" Ruby gave a wink.
"O-oh! W-well I've been a-a bit sniffly lately…" She said, giving a fake sneeze.
"See, nothing to worry about!" Ruby said with a smile. A pair of wolf ears springing up from her head. CRDL recoiled. Ruby looked at them confused, feigning ignorance. "What?"
"Y-y-y-you…" Russel pointed at Ruby's new set of ears.
"Is something wrong?" Ruby asked, a tail now wagging behind her.
"A-a-a-a-a t-t-tail…" Cardin stammered.
"Huh?" Ruby asked. She brushed it off and smiled again, a few fangs poking out of her upper lip. "Don't worry, it's like you said. There's no such thing as Lycanthrope disease."
It was at this moment that team CRDL chose to run away, screaming in terror. Ruby laughed as she watched the bullies scamper away. Velvet was staring wide-eyed at Ruby. Ruby caught her gaze and smiled again.
"Don't worry, there really isn't anything like Lycanthrope disease. These are just a few tricks of mine." Ruby reassured. Velvet nodded.
"Well, t-thank you for helping me." Velvet bowed.
"Any time!" Ruby grinned before heading back to her friends, ears and tail retracting back into her body. As she sat down, most of the table was staring at her, except Yang who gave her sister a high-five.
It was Wiess who voice the question they were all thinking.
"Okay, what, was that?!"
"Which part?" Ruby asked, shoving some food into her mouth.
"The part where you grew a second set of ears!" Weiss shouted her clarification.
"Oh, I can shapeshift, but nothing too major, only people and traits," Ruby answered her partner.
"Ooh! Ooh! Do Weiss!" Nora requested excitedly. Ruby's hair began shifting from black and red to a snow-white, her face shifting until she was a perfect replica of Weiss, wearing a set of red clothes.
"I'm Wiess, and I'm rich," Ruby-Weiss said in an indistinguishable Weiss voice. Everybody except Weiss laughed at the impression. Weiss' face then shifted into a sly smile.
"Ruby. Can you do…" she scanned over the table as the laughter abruptly halted. "…Yang?"
Yang gulped.
In a few seconds, as white hair shifted in beautiful golden locks, Ruby grew a head taller and her outfit became particularly tight in some areas.
"Hey guys, it's me, Yang!" Ruby-Yang said. "Ever wondered what I'd look like with short hair?" A pair of scissors materialized out of nowhere. Ruby-Yang went to snip at her yellow hair when the real Yang grabbed her hand, stopping her.
"Please… Don't do this to me." A pale-faced Yang pleaded. "Not again. Never again."
Ruby obliged, putting down the scissors, before returning to her normal form, Yang breathing a sigh of relief.
"How can you do all these things, Ruby?" Pyrrha asked.
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"Well, isn't your semblance speed?" Ren said.
"Yes?" Ruby answered the question, unsure of where this was going.
"So far," Blake began, "you're flown, made invisible barriers, used an attack to directly inflict damage to one's soul and that's not to mention whatever you did to that nevermore."
"Well, that is…" They all leant in to hear the anticipated answer.
"A secret!" Ruby smiled. Everybody at the table fell over animatedly.
"Ruby get up."
"enghhh?" Ruby grunted, being woken up by somebody. "What time is it?"
"8 pm." The voice told her.
"8 pm? Why do I need…" Ruby shot up as she recognised the voice, turning to see Grim standing over her bed with Dust on her shoulder.
"Good evening my cute little apprentice." Grim greeted as she gave a warm smile.
"Grim!" Ruby exclaimed, "What are you doing here? We don't have training until the weekend!"
"Ah, yes, about that. I came to tell you that I am increasing your training regimen. Training will be now held each night from 9 until 3 in the morning. I will also be increasing the level at which you train at." Grim told her.
Ruby faltered. Grim just couldn't let her catch a break, could she?
"B-but I have school tomorrow!" Ruby protested.
"Which is why this session will be about energy repletion. It is quite useful, especially on prolonged missions where you may not sleep for weeks. As long as you have breaks to let your soul rest, you can go without sleep for, well, pretty much forever."
Ruby groaned. Grim always had some reason for her not to get out of training. Dust cawed.
"Shut up dust."
Grim laughed. "Come now, I'm sure I put a training room in here somewhere."
After a lengthy session of energy repletion, and how to combat the well-known huntsman dilemma of stamina working separately from aura, Grim departed and allowed the newly reinvigorated Ruby to mull about.
Still being too awake thanks to training, Ruby decided to take a walk around Beacon before the rest of her team awoke and, more importantly, the ford court opened. Slipping on her alternative clothes, consisting of a red hoodie and black sweatpants, Ruby quietly unlocked the dorm door and tip-toed out of her team's room.
Out in the Beacon gardens, Ruby took in the beautifully arranged dew-covered plants that filled the garden beds and hung from trellises. She went around, naming each plant like Grim had taught her in one of their many, many, lessons. Ruby sighed.
Ruby really liked Grim and absolutely loved her lessons, but sometimes they were a bit much for her. At least, in the end, it would help her be the best darn huntress she could ever be. Everything, apart from horse riding and bird handling, has only made her better and better at using her pure aura and fighting.
"Rather early to be out for a walk isn't it, Miss Rose?"
Ruby looked up to see none other than Professor Ozpin standing next to her, cane in one hand and mug in the other.
"I'd say the same to you, Professor." Ruby smiled.
Ozpin smiled back and turned to the garden. "This one I acquired under quite difficult circumstances." He gestured his cane to a lily flower, with golden petals and a white pad, floating in the air.
"The Angle Lily," Ruby commented, "Only know species of plant to fly on its own. It is speculated that generations of its predecessors were exposed to gravity dust, evolving it into what we know today." Ruby looked back to Ozpin, "Grim drilled my pretty hard in flora."
"And rightly so. Huntsmen should all know what plants do what. Wouldn't want to get something wrong in making medicine." Ozpin nodded. "Can you tell me what best use the Angle Lily is?"
"Contrary to its name, the Angle Lily is best used as a poison. It affects human, faunus and grimm alike, slowly shutting down their senses in a couple of minutes."
Ozpin hummed in approval. He turned and walked to a bench, motioning for Ruby to come and join him, which she did. The student and headmaster sat there in comfortable silence before Ruby voiced a question that had been bugging her ever since she met the Professor.
"Professor, how... did you meet Grim?"
Ozpin chuckled as if Ruby had just told an amusing joke. "It was actually her own master that introduced me to her."
Ruby's eyes widened. "You knew Grim's master?!"
"Yes. I was quite younger than I am now, but I did know them. In fact, my own... family, have been closely associated with Grim's teaching lineage. I'm actually quite honoured to have one attending my school." Ozpin gave a knowing smile to Ruby.
"Is there anything you can tell about her?" Ruby pursued her burning questions.
Ozpin sighed. "Not much more than you already know, unfortunately." He answered, causing Ruby to noticeably droop. "Grim will tell you her own secrets in time," Ozpin tried to cheer Ruby up, "But I can tell you that her training will make you one of, if not the strongest Huntress to date."
Ruby smiled at that.
"Now, I believe the cafeteria would be open by now, and I require a cup of coffee, care to join me, Miss Rose?"
A few weeks went by and RWBY had fallen into a comfortable routine with their school life. Morning classes, lunch with JNPR, afternoon classes, 'homework', free time before curfew that was usually spent playing games or watching shows and then sleep, except for Ruby who had training with Grim. They mixed things up on the weekend with some training and library study, and Yang attended Ruby's training on Saturdays.
Ruby was currently in the library, working on a dust assignment. She would have asked Weiss to help her, but she was apparently doing an extra-credit assignment with Professor Port.
Ruby smiled at the thought of Weiss' improvement. Ever since their duel on the first day, Weiss had really tried to improve herself, at least in the academic field. Ruby believed she treated it as some kind of friendly rivalry with her.
"Hey, Ruby!" A voice suddenly appeared to Ruby's left. Ruby turned to have her vision filled with vibrant Pink, knowing who it was as soon as she spotted the colour.
"Hey, Sam," Ruby replied as the pinkette pulled up a chair. Ruby had met Sam in one of her extracurricular classes that team leaders had to take, Sam being the leader of team SKRA (AN* SKRA = Sakura) herself. She and Ruby had immediately hit it off, Sam being a fighting style enthusiast, which melded well with Ruby's weapon fetish ("It's not a fetish!" – Ruby).
"Wat'ch do'n?" Sam asked, propping her head up on her hands.
"Dust assignment," Ruby answered. "Practical Dust uses in modern infrastructure."
"Mhmm. Sounds boring."
Ruby groaned. "It is! But apparently we need to know it for urban combat scenarios!"
"Heh, sucks." Sam chuckled at Ruby's dismay, earning a displeased glare from Ruby. Sam laughed before sitting up straight. "Don't you have Ice Queen to help you?"
"Weiss is doing something with Professor Port," Ruby told Sam.
"Most likely falling asleep knowing Port." Sam joked.
"Heh," Ruby chuckled, "Good one."
"One of my many talents. Well if this project isn't too urgent, wanna go spy on BLBR?"
Ruby looked at her work and debated if she wanted to finish it now or go have fun with Sam.
...
"What are they doing?"
"Apparently Leigh is trying to bench a tree."
...
Fun with Sam it was.
"Dust, how long till they get here?"
"I would say a minute or two longer."
Grim nodded, going back to washing up the cups that were in the sink before her, humming as she did so. Once she finished, she took a slice of cake out of the fridge and a book from the shelf before sitting down at a table, waiting for her company.
Just as Dust had estimated, two minutes into her book, Grim heard the jingle of the bell by the door saying that they had arrived.
Not looking up, Grim sensed the two move over to her table and sit down. Finishing off the last of her cake and setting down her book.
"Good to see you both again." Grim greeted, receiving no response in return. "Hope everything is going well on your end, information has been slow over here."
Still no response. Just blank stares.
"Oh well, Ruby's started at Beacon if you wanted to know."
This got a reaction out of the shorter one.
"Oh, she's fine. Doing splendidly, keeping up her training. She'll be a fine successor." Grim chuckled at the obvious concern for the little red reaper.
The person nodded and relaxed.
"Now, do you have it?" Grim asked, mood growing serious. The two looked to one another before the taller one reached down and pulled out a scroll. Grim smiled as she took it. "My thanks. Would either of you like anything before you leave?"
Both nodded and Grim smiled. "Alright, I'll get some sweets for you both."
And with that, another move had been made, and nobody was any the wiser.
And with that, we close another Chapter. Hopefully, it won't be as long until the next one. Anyway, you know the drill, if you want a character or chapter to appear, then leave a review telling me about it and they may just show up! Thank you all for supporting this fic, I love you all and am very pleased with the general response.
Wounder if anybody can guess who those two mysterious people were and why they were meeting with Grim?