Something woke Ruby up, she immediately sat up, weapon in hand, and scanned the room. Everything was set in the slight red tinge that told Ruby it was pitch black in their room right now. Blake was similarly sitting up in her bed and looking around, though she didn't have her weapon with her.
"They probably aren't up right now." The voice was little more than a whisper on the other side of the door to her team's room, but Ruby heard it clearly. Cautiously Ruby got out of bed and moved to the door, weapon in hand. She could sense someone on the other side, their Aura seemed familiar but there was an added level of exhaustion and sadness that prevented Ruby from picking out who it was. What Ruby could tell was that the figure she was sensing was female, but the voice she heard was obviously a male. Ruby reached the door and opened it slowly.
"Yes?" she asked. On the other side stood Ren and Nora from team YRVS.
"Hello, Ms. Ruby." Ren said.
"Oh. My. Word. your ears are so cute!" Nora said, all semblance of exhaustion and sadness dropping away from her Aura. She was then nugged by Ren and sheepishly said "Sorry."
"What's going on?" Ruby asked, her ears flicked as she heard the sound of arguing voices from the other side of team YRVS door. "Are they?"
"Yeah." Ren answered, "they argue almost everyday, but they normally are done by now, it just got to where Nora and I couldn't sleep." Ruby nodded and took notice of the pillows and blankets bundled under the duos arms.
"Well it won't be comfortable but you're welcome." Ruby said as she opened the door fully and stepped aside, "we were already asleep so don't make too much noise."
"Thank you we won't" Ren said.
"Thanks Ruby." Nora said. They both moved into the room and set up their bedding in a corner. Ruby looked back at YRVS door.
'This has to stop' Ruby thought as she shut her dorm room door and went back to bed.
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The next morning everybody gets up and goes about getting ready for their day, Ren and Nora head back to their dorm room to get ready. While they finish getting ready and take off towards the chow hall for breakfast Ruby thinks back to the night before and how to get Yang and Weiss to stop fighting. As she is thinking about how to handle the situation with her sister team she loaded up her tray with food and makes her way towards the table team RANB and YRVS usually sit at. So preoccupied with her thoughts was Ruby that she missed an Aura nearby giving off malicious intent. What Ruby did notice however was when a hand coiled around her tail and pulled. The sudden loss of forward momentum caused Ruby to trip and fall forward, the food on her tray went everywhere and Ruby fell on her face. As Ruby was getting up the hand on her tail, which had not moved, pulled again, hard. Ruby could hear laughter and people talking about her being a "freak" she was already reaching for her weapon when she heard a loud *thwack* sound. The hand on her tail released almost at the same instant. Ruby quickly pulled herself up and looked around at the situation. The tail puller appeared to be another student named Cardin Winchester, Ruby knew he was in her class but after watching his first fight in combat class had decided he wasn't a threat. Out of the corner of Ruby's eye she could see Jaune, fist still extended and an angry determined look on his face, an expression Ruby had never seen him make.
"What the Hell!" Cardin shouted while reaching for his nose as if feeling for blood. Ruby could see Cardin's team get up and start to move towards them. At the same time she felt at least four more presences come up behind her. Cardin's team stopped moving as Pyrrha, Blake, Ren and Nora all moved to block them. Cardin looked over the standoff, his face red with anger, but he looked at Pyrrha and every other person standing against him and his team, then he spotted the collapsed weapon in Ruby's hand. Realizing that he was outnumbered and outgunned, Cardin called his team off and the four of them left the cafeteria.
"Despicable." Pyrrha said as they left, "Are you alright Ruby?" Ruby clenched her weapon as she tried to calm down her other half, who at this point had lost its ability to form coherent words and was just snarling and growling for vengeance. Eventually Ruby's appeals to the beasts age and wisdom won out and her other half calmed down, though it was still quiet after it did so.
"Y-yeah, that just really kinda hurt, no one has ever done that to me before." Ruby answered after her inner conflict concluded, to Ruby's surprise however the pain in her tail did not subside or dull, "Actually it still hurts, like allot." Ruby said. Blake suddenly got a very concerned look on her face and came over towards Ruby.
"Ruby can I have a look at it?" she asked, to which Ruby hesitantly nodded. When Blake touched Ruby's tail a sharp jolt of pain lanced through it again causing Ruby to yelp and jump back. Blake turned to the others, "Ruby needs to go see the nurse, her tail might have gotten broken or dislocated."
Before anyone had a chance to respond to that statement Blake was dragging Ruby by the wrist towards the Beacon infirmary. As much as Ruby wanted to complain about being dragged around the pain in her tail gave her something else to think about.
"You need to remember to keep your Aura up, and let us know when it feels weak." Blake said to Ruby as they wound through hallways, "you're in the city now, people aren't going to be as Faunus friendly as they are out in the reaches." Ruby winced and nodded, Blake was not wrong and Ruby actually did keep her Aura up most of the time, but her tail was one of the few places her Aura didn't or rather couldn't cover.
Eventually they burst through a door labelled with a red cross and found a woman in her mid-thirties sitting behind a desk wearing a lab coat. Even through the pain she was experiencing she could feel the concern radiate off of the woman as she got up and helped Blake move Ruby towards a bed, which Ruby absentmindedly sat down on. Another jolt of pain shot through Ruby and caused her to miss what the nurse had said.
"What?" Ruby asked as she shook her head to clear it unsuccessfully.
"I asked where it hurts." The woman said.
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Ozpin sighed as he looked at the message he had just received from Professor Carmen Vera, the third year's medical course teacher and the head of the school infirmary staff. Normally altercations and disputes between students would fall under Glynda's duties, however when such altercations resulted in serious injury to one or more of the parties involved, it became his problem. As such right now the elevator was riding up with team CRDL and the AN of team RANB, as well as team YRVS who witnessed the incident. Apparently Cardin Winchester had decided, for some reason to pull on the tail of Ruby Rose, which resulted in three vertebrae being dislocated in the poor girls tail. It was somewhat mild compared to most of the injuries that got people sent to his office, but the fact that it occurred outside of any designated training area and was apparently an unprovoked attack brought it to his attention. There was another issue in this situation that also demanded his attention. Ruby Rose was not an ordinary student, and not just because of her eyes. She was the Red Ranger, a vigilante from the reaches, one who enforced justice at the point of a sword. With this knowledge Ozpin sent his reply to professor Vera requesting Ruby to come to his office as soon as she was cleared from the infirmary. As soon as he had pressed send he heard his elevator ding and the doors opened revealing the three teams, standoff in progress.
"Ah there you all are, come in, have a seat." Ozpin said diffusing anything that was about to happen. The ten students entered his office and sat down at the seats he had set up earlier. "Now I understand there was a bit of a scuffle in the cafeteria earlier today." Ozpin said. To his surprise it was Cardin that spoke up first.
"Yeah this bas-" Ozpin interrupted him with an *ahem* "This idiot attacked me and punched me in the face." Ozpin raised an eyebrow, he hadn't heard about this happening.
"I see is this true Mister Arc?" Ozpin asked.
"Yes sir it is." Jaune answered boldly, defiantly. It cheered Ozpin's heart to see how much the boy had grown since initiation and, if Ozpin's guess was correct, for the sake of his team.
"But-!" Nora cried out, though Ozpin held up a hand to stop her.
"And was this before or after Mister Winchester pulled on Miss Rose's tail?"
"After" Pyrrha answered instantly and matter of factly. All of team YRVS nodded along.
"We were just playing around, harmless teasing." Cardin answered quickly. He could see that Jaune, Pyrrha, and Nora were all glaring at the boy. Ozpin sighed and got up from behind his desk and walked around to the front and leaned on it.
"Here at Beacon, we have non-involvement policy when it comes to bullying," Ozpin began, "You are all warriors and we expect you to be able to take care of your own problems, so long as you do not cause harm to others in the process." Ozpin paused to take a sip of his coffee, "therefore I don't care that Mister Arc saw fit to punch you Mister Winchester, however we do intervene if an altercation leads to a serious injury."
"Is Ruby okay?" Pyrrha interrupted him.
"Your team leader will be fine, she narrowly avoided breaking any bones," Ozpin said before turning back to Cardin, "she has three dislocated vertebrae however, and it will prevent her from participating in combat class for a month, therefore making it a serious injury."
"But-!" Cardin began to speak however Ozpin cut him off.
"No buts Mister Winchester!" Ozpin said, "we bring students here to train to kill Grimm, by injuring Miss Rose you have prevented her from doing that very thing for a month. What possessed you to act in such a way?"
"If she's so weak that she got injured by that then why is she here?!" Cardin shouted back.
"Victory does not always come in strength, Mister Winchester," Ozpin said softly, "Miss Rose is someone who is here merely to gain her official license, she is already well known in the reaches and has probably saved as many people from Grimm as some of the teachers here." He looked Cardin right in the eye. "You will be under detention for the remainder of your stay here at Beacon, if you step out of line you will be expelled if you harm another student you will be held accountable with the appropriate charge, and I suggest you avoid Miss Rose until I have had a chance to speak with her." Ozpin informed him.
"That's ridiculous!" Cardin shouted, "All I did was pull on the mutt's tail!" he huffed, "the freak shouldn't even be here."
"Mister Winchester, Racism is very unbecoming of a huntsman in training." Ozpin spoke, "Part of this punishment is for your sake." Ozpin elaborated when he got several questioning stares. "As I said before, Ms. Rose is here under special circumstances, in the reaches she is known by a different name, as a slayer of Grimm… and those who willfully harm the innocent." Ozpin looked at Cardin there wasn't any dawning of realization on his face, truly disappointing, "as you just did to her in the cafeteria Mr. Winchester. She has a code, which you have just violated, if I were not to punish you satisfactorily she would take it upon herself to 'right this wrong'"
"So?" Cardin said, "if the pipsqueak wants to fight me…"
"She wouldn't fight you Mr. Winchester." Ozpin interrupted, "she would kill you." Cardin's face paled for the first time since coming into Ozpin's office.
"Y-You wouldn't allow that here, would you?" one of his teammates asked.
"Ms. Rose is by her very nature a law unto herself." Ozpin said, "She would do what she feels is right and would leave before anyone could contest such actions."
"H-How do you know that?" this time it was Weiss who asked.
"Because she has done it before, out in the reaches." Ozpin said.
"YOU LET SOMEONE WHO KILLS PEOPLE INTO BEACON?!" Weiss was incredulous.
"She is hardly the first student who has." Ozpin said, you're own team leader has dealt lethally with people before." Weiss turned to look at Yang who was fiddling around with her nails.
"What?" Yang shrugged, "they had it coming and I was justified."
"Indeed Ms. Rose just happens to have a slightly higher count than anybody we've gotten before." Cardin and his team paled even further, surpassing the limits of how white a person could get, meanwhile Yang actually perked up in interest.
"Really? Wow." she said.
"Mr. Winchest you will submit to the punishment directed towards you or Ms. Rose will deliver her own judgment" Ozpin said, the boy nodded slowly, "and I sincerely hope you will learn that your strength does not allow you to do whatever you want."
With that Ozpin motioned for the teams to leave.
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Ruby restrained a growl at the speed of the elevator. It had taken almost an hour for Professor Vera to figure out a dosage of painkillers that would be remotely effective on Ruby, due to her Aura and its effects on her she would have to take the dosage once every hour, even then it didn't remove the pain, only took the edge off. Her high resistance to drugs had always served her well in the past, but now it seemed that very advantage was betraying her.
"Ruby you shouldn't fiddle with your sling." Blake said. Ruby looked down and sure enough she had been messing with the belt like sling that currently held her tail against her body in a way that it wouldn't hit anything while it healed. Ruby mumbled an apology and sought something to distract her from the pain. She eventually landed on the predicament befalling her sister team.
'Heh, sister team' Ruby chuckled internally, 'Y'see it's funny because it's led by my litteral sister and...'
'Again this thing you call humor evades me.' her other half cut her off.
'What are you talking about you laugh all the time?' Ruby thought quizzically,
'When things are actually funny'the voice said, 'like kids getting thrown off a cliff or people getting hurt'
'Ah. right, I guess Grimm can only have a morbid sense of humor' Ruby thought, then she noticed her missed opportunity, 'oh wait let me retry that one I guess Grimm can only have…'
'If you say Grimm sense of humor I will make your hair grow out to your ankles overnight' Ruby shuddered at the thought.
'No! It's already a pain that it grows out as quickly as it does, don't help it' Ruby protested. She could feel a level of smug satisfaction coming from her other half and realized that he had won this round.
"Ruby are you okay?" Blake asked from beside her.
"Uh, yeah, why?" Ruby answered quickly.
"You were making all sorts of weird faces." Blake told her, "Your not still in pain are you?"
"N-no! Well kinda yes, but it's a lot better than before!" Ruby said, "I was just thinking is all."
"About what?" Blake asked.
"Things." before Blake could press further the door to the elevator dinged and slid open.
Ms. Rose, Ms. Belladonna" Ozpin said as he motioned to seats across from him. Ruby gingerly sat down in her seat, being careful to avoid aggravating her injured tail.
"How are you feeling?" Ozpin asked.
"Not great." Ruby answered.
"I see and I'm sorry about that. I never imagined Mr. Winchester would exercise enough force to break through Aura and cause an injury like that." OZpin said. Ruby flinched internally, Cardin hadn't but her tail, like her ears, was not protected in any way by her Aura, after all they were completely Grimm appendages.
"My Aura's pretty weak so it probably didn't take much." Ruby said without technically lying, her Aura was very weak, another downside to having a Grimm reside inside of you, and unrelated to that it didn't take much effort for Cardin to cause that kind of damage.
"Even still." Ozpin said, "He has been punished for his actions and will be held on probation for the rest of his time at Beacon."
"HE'S STILL GOING TO BE HERE!" Blake was livid.
"Ms. Belladonna please calm down." Ozpin said, "the hope is that he will learn from this situation and become a model huntsman, he has been warned that if he steps out of line even once he will be expelled."
"What do you want Professor?" Ruby spoke up, causing Blake to look at Ruby quizzically.
"I want your assurances that the 'Red Ranger' will not strike here at Beacon. Ruby could feel the confusion radiating off of Blake, but she was honestly surprised nobody else had put two and two together.
"I will abide by the agreement we made when I came to Beacon," Ruby said, "as long as you enforce justice I will refrain from doing so." Blake's emotions switched from curiosity to surprise, then to awe, then to fear, and back to curiosity in the span of seconds.
"Good that's what I want to hear." Ozpin said, "unfortunately I will have to deliver news that I doubt you'll want to hear."
"I'm suspended from classes aren't I?" Ruby said, the resignation in Ozpin's Aura was all the answer she needed.
"Of a sort," Ozpin began, "you will be asked to keep up in your academic classes, but you will be unable to participate in combat class until your tail has healed." Ruby nodded unfortunate but not unforeseen.
"Is there anything else Professor?" Ruby finally asked.
"No you are free to go." Ozpin said and the two huntresses in training turned to walk out, "Oh, do enjoy your field trip tomorrow."
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A/N ahhh, another chapter finally done. I must apologize as my proofreader/writing buddy has begun his wonderful (terrifying) journey through College (assignment hell) and was not able to proofread this chapter before I published it. For those of you who don't know my brother Irlr Ori'kad is in many ways my writing partner. When I'm writing I'll bounce ideas off of him and I'll have him read my chapters to ensure that they feel and sound right. So if this chapter doesn't seem like my normal quality that would be why. Anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter.