The Forest of Forever Fall was a beautiful sight to behold, the leaves on the trees mostly a deep red with a few yellow and brown ones hidden between them. Even the grass seemed to be red in the little daylight that breached through the foliage of the thick, old trees.
'The only thing disturbing this spectacular view', Ruby thought to herself,'are we students and professor Goodwitch'
The aforementioned teacher was leading the students on an excursion through the forest to gather samples of the red sap of the trees for professor Peach to study.
"Now remember students, the sap is said to attract the creatures of Grimm living in this forest so stay alert while filling your jar. Do not grow comfortable just because we haven't encountered any Grimm so far.", Glynda explained, her riding crop held at the ready to discipline anyone who dared to not pay attention, "Now we will meet again here at 3 which gives you roughly two hours to gather a jar full of sap each. Stay with your teas, the Grimm will find us sooner or later."
Unheard by the professor, the young half Grimm let out a silent groan, after all she and her ever growing pack had spent the last few nights to claim this part of the forest as their Territory so the class would not be disturbed. Ruby was just glad she had taken the Command and Logistics electives, otherwise she probably would not have been able to coordinate the three dozen Beowulfs who made up her pack.
"Hey Ruby you coming?", Yang asked, the fingers drumming on her thigh displaying her impatience.
"Coming Sis", the wolf eared girl replied, quickly catching up with her team. They made their way a bit farther from the group than most others before they found themselves before a small grove of trees they decided to draw the sap from. They agreed that two of them would fill the jars while the other two kept looking out for any nearby Grimm. But that plan broke apart as soon as Ruby cut into the tree in front of her. Her senses were assaulted by a strange aroma, it seemed to be similar to a deep fear of someone near her, but not fresh, more like what she had always imagined her dad and uncle meant when they were talking about aged whiskey and wine.
Whatever it actually was the half Grimm knew two things about it with absolute certainty. One it came from the tree's sap in front of her and two she needed to taste it as soon as possible. So Ruby took the, to her at least, obvious action and bend down to lick up the sap dripping out of the incision in the tree's bark. It tasted even better than it smelled for the first few moments, but after a while an unimaginable vile taste took over in the young half Grimm's mouth, not unlike the few times she had bitten down on another Grimm strong enough to draw blood. This caused her to stop consuming more of the sap and she stood back up. Looking around she noticed a few things that had escaped her with her mind so focused on the sap.
For one team JNPR had joined them and were now staring at her along with her own team. the next few things she noticed were about herself, her claws seemed to have grown a bit as her gloves seemed to be pierced slightly at the fingertips. She also was standing on her toes unconsciously, trying to stand normal, she soon noticed that her heels would raise just a tad if she did not concentrate on putting them on the ground.
The last thing she noticed was how Nora, normally hyper active and cheerful, was cowering behind ren, seemingly ready to vanish in his shadow at a moment's notice, a little leftover sap glistening around her mouth, just like it must be around the half Grimm's own.
But before any of the students could voice their questions, Glynda's voice cut through the air from behind Ruby her tone not stern but concerned, "Miss Rose and Valkyrie come with me immediately."
'What in Remnant were those two thinking?', Glynda asked herself as she stared at the two girls in front of her, their mouths by now cleaned of the remaining sap that had clung to them.
Interestingly, where Nora Valkyrie looked more afraid than a civilian cornered by a creature of Grimm, Ruby Rose seemed a tad confused, with a hint of a smile on her lips.
"You two will stay with me until we return to Beacon, where you will go straight to the infirmary, who knows what drinking that sap does to you.", she informed the students as she slapped her weapon into her palm for emphasis.
"Ah, professor Goodwitch", the Faunus before her said, fidgeting with her hands nervously, "I think there is something I need to tell you in private, before you send me to the infirmary."
Bringing her hand up to her temple to massage away the headache that was sure to be coming her way soon the teacher replied.
"Miss Rose, what could possibly be more important than making sure you won't react badly to that sap?"
The masked girl before her took a slightly suspicious look around, before she grabbed onto a strand of her dark red hair and cut it off with a knife she seemingly drew from her sleeve.
Holding onto the cut of hair, she held them out for Glynda to see, blocking the view onto it for everyone around them with her body and remaining hand.
"I don't know what that strand of hair is sup-", the teacher's words refused to leave her mouth at the sight of her student's hair dissolving like the cut of limbs of a Grimm. When the hairs had completely dissolved into mist, she had composed herself enough to continue their conversation.
"What is the meaning of this miss Rose?"
"Before I tell you professor, could we please step away from everyone else for a moment? I don't want everyone to know what I am about to tell you, after all at the moment only my family and the headmaster know about it."
Taking a deep breath Glyna replied, "If you insist, mr. Ren, would you please look after your teammate until we return?"
After the green clad student had nodded in acknowledgement, the professor led her red haired student a bit further into the forest, until they were out of hearing range for the other students.
"Now can you tell me why your hair dissolves like a dead Grimm?", Glynda asked, arms crossed before her chest.
"Because, at least technically, they are Grimm fur."
Glynda had to suppress the urge to facepalm at the girl's ridiculous claim.
"Miss Rose, despite that mask on your face, you are not a Grimm, so please tell me the truth."
"Half Grimm actually, but if you really don't believe me let me show you something else. YOu did note earlier how there weren't many Grimm in the forest to day right?"
When the teacher just gave a confused nod, the Girl before her let out a howl that had no business escaping from a Faunus' throat, "[Show yourselves]",before she continued, "That is because this is my territory and I told my pack to stay away for now."
As the girl finished a group of Beowulfs closed in on the two persons in front of them. As Glynda readied herself to defend her student and attack the monsters before her she was interrupted by the young huntress in training, who hadn't even drawn her weapon yet.
"Wait! they won't attack unless told to! [Lay down]!", the student shouted slightly panicked, before she let out a growl, just as inhuman as the howl before.
Immediately all the beowulfs dropped on their bellies, lowering their heads to the ground in submission.
This surprising sight, coupled with the mask the girl was wearing, brought back to mind an old rumor Ozpin once told her about their enemy.
It is rumored that long ago, she was just a girl with feathers in her hair and a Grimm's face infront of her own.
Which opened her mind to the possibility that Ruby Rose was indeed telling her the truth, which left her with one question to ask for the moment.
"Why was I not informed about this?"
"Because I asked professor Ozpin not to tell anyone else about it." the young half Grimm responded. Thinking about it, of course the Headmaster would do his best to respect Miss Rose's wishes, the last thing any of them needed were two people able to command Grimm and with a grudge against them.
"Very well, in that case I will talk about this with the headmaster later. Could you please tell you 'pack' to leave so we can join your classmates once more?"
After another howl from the young girl, the two of them rejoined the group of students, while the Grimm returned to the shadows between the trees.
Later that night, Blake laid in her bed, pretending to sleep. 'Why did Ruby suddenly start liking up all that sap? After all it was perfectly odorless and according to Nora it also did not have any taste at all.', The black haired Faunus mused, her ears twitching inside her bow, 'Just another thing I'll have to the list of strange things I noticed about Ruby I guess.'
The creaking noise of their window opening, interrupted Blake's thoughts. Intrigue by the the sound , as she had assumed the rest of her team were asleep, she turned to look at it. Seeing a trail of Rose petals leading out of it and towards the forest, Blake decided to follow it before all of them dissolved. jumping out the window in nothing but her yukata might have not been her best idea, but even so she landed on the ground with a grace and ease only surpassed by actual felines, before she followed the trail of petals, which slowly started to dissolve.
It took her nearly fifteen minutes, the last few of which she had been following the traces of reddish smoke, but just as she was about to give up as she couldn't see any traces of her team leader anymore, she heard Beowulfs howl as well as Ruby's laughter. Following the sound a few hundred meters, the Faunus arrived at the edge of a clearing at the outskirts of the Forever Fall Forest. "Ruby where are -", was all she managed to say before the scene before her fully registered in her mind, the resulting confusion overwhelming her for the moment. In the center of the clearing sat Ruby, one of her hoodies sleeves torn open, revealing fur the same near black red as her hair, as well as white stubs where the Beowulfs around her had spines and bone plates on their arms. More confusing than that was the fact that she was sitting on the back of a Beowulf and scratching its ears, as if it was some oversized puppy.
"Oh, hi Blake", Ruby said cheerfully as she turned towards the Faunus, either unaware or unconcerned with the remaining Beowulfs littered throughout the clearing.
"Gues you found out my secret", the redhead continued slightly subdued as she stood up and began walking towards Blake, which the Beowulfs took as their cue to fall in line behind her, before she turned around and growled at them. As the Grimm returned to where they had been previously, Ruby had reached Blake and spoke to her once more.
"Before you ask any questions, would it be okay if we went back to our dorm room? I don't want to explain all this", She gestured to her exposed ar, before waving it towards the Grimm, "to Weiss all over again."
Following Ruby's gesture, Balke took a closer look at the Grimm in the Clearing, many of which were still looking at her with hunger in their eyes.
"[No threatening the Faunus]", As Ruby growled at them most of them stood down.
Unsure what to make of this situation, Blake just nodded, before following Ruby back towards the campus, to afraid to trust in her own voice until the Grimm were well out of sight.
"Ruby just one question, why weren't those Grimm attacking you?"
Turning her head around slightly the redhead replied, "Because I already had already beaten the strongest of them to become alpha, now no more questions till we get to Weiss and Yang."
Continuing on their way towards Beacon, Blake hoped that the answers she would get there would make more sense.
It took the two of them quite a while to return to their orm, climb back in through the window and get the rest of the team to wake up. Getting enough caffeine into their systems so they could actually think took another five minutes, but now there was nothing else to do for Ruby except to reveal the truth about herself to Weiss and Blake. Holding her exposed arm nervously, the half Grimm began.
"So there is something Yang and I kept from the two of you until now. But with what Blake saw tonight , I don't think I can keep it secret from you much longer. You see, I am not actually a Faunus, afterall how could I be with both of my Parents being Human. I mean there is adoption, but then how could I look so similar to Mom.", before Ruby could continue her rambling, Weiss interrupted her, "If you are not a Faunus, how do you have a wolf tail and ears? And what is up with your arm?"
"I was getting to that!", Ruby exclaimed, "See when mom was pregnant with me she was thrown into one of those tar like pits Grimm come from, which made me part Beowulf", at that revelation the two girls unrelated to her gasped in surprise but let her continue with her explanation, probably to shocked to interrupt.
"Which of course, means there are a load of things that are different about me than you, most prominently the fact I can 'talk' to other Grimm, although I never got any besides Beowulfs listenign to me. I also got all the same bone thingies of a Beowulf, including a face made of bone, as well as ears and a tail. I can tell you more about all that later though, any questions so far?"
It took a moment or two for Blake and Weiss to collect themselves enough to respond, during that Ruby could already smell the anger wafting towards her from Blake.
"So the story about your scars and that Faunus rally are all lies?!", the cat Faunus yelled at her, "Do you know what I agreed to do because of that Story?", Blake continued as she stood up and moved closer to Ruby, "I helped the White Fang destroy homes, steal personal belongings and even helped gather intel for a few assassinations of Faunus exploiting businessmen, all because of a lie you used to hide your monstrous nature?!", at this point the rage directed at her was intense enough that Ruby felt she would either throw it back up somehow or be sated completely for the coming month. Before she continued Blake ripped off her bow, revealing her cat ears to Yang and Weiss, "And then you Grimm have the audacity to tell me I should not hide who I am, all the while pretending to be a Faunus? what do you have to say for yourself!", blake finished her index finger poking into Ruby's chest.
"Blake I had no idea dad's story could have affected Faunus so strongly", the half Grimm replied, her eyes close to shedding tears from what she imagined Blake must have been through. Her voice was filled with a feeling of guilt as she continued, "Is there anything I can do to help you deal with everything you did?"
"Can you make five years of criminal and terroristic activity just vanish like your hair did a moment ago?", Blake suggested sarcastically, arms crossed before her chest and her Yellow eyes drilling into Ruby's silver ones. Ruby took a moment to think her next words through carefully before she took a deep breath to calm herself to answer. "I think I know exactly the person who can help you make that happen, at least if you are willing to make up for what you did back then. Do you want me to introduce you to him?"
Blake had definitely not expected an answer to that effect and it was evident on her face, her mouth hanging slightly open and her eyes widened in surprise.
"Who is he?"
"Detective Viridian, he leads the VPD's anti White Fang task force, I've known him for quite a while, he had to interrogate me multiple times because of my face. I am also sure he will do the best he can for our case if you tell him what you still know about the White Fang."
"Do you think we could call him right now?"
A short nod from her team leader was all the answer she got before they left the room.
Unnoticed by the two of them Weiss at on her bed, utter confusion on her face for everyone to see. Seeing the heiress clench her fists, Yang sat down next to her,"Hey Weiss, I know Ruby being part Grimm must be quite a shock for you, is there anything you want to know she didn't already explain?"
"It's not about Ruby, while that is a big surprise, I am more shocked that Blake is a Faunus and an ex-member of the White Fang at that. And I never suspected a thing. Do you know what they did to my family, to our company? Board members killed, mines sabotaged endangering both humans and Faunus working there, and now I learn that if Blake was still with them I could have been the next casualty of those terrorists. If you don't mind I would like some time to think all that through on my own?"
"Sure, but I would suggest getting a second opinion on all this, it often helped me get my head clear once more. If you want mine, just ask ok?", Yang replied standing up and leaving her teammate on her own as she had asked.
"I will.", was the only reply she got before Weiss laid down on her bed and sunk into her thoughts or sleep.
Gruoni Veridian was sound asleep at the moment, at least until the ringing of his scroll ripped him from his slumber. A quick look at the picture of a young wolf Faunus, wearing a Beowulf mask and half a donut sticking out of her mouth, informed him of the callers identity. When he picked up the call he was surprised how awake the fifteen, or was it already sixteen, year old sounded at 5 am.
"Hello Officer Viridian."
"Morning Miss Rose", before he could continue further a yawn forced itself past his lips,"Are you aware what time it is?", He replied trying his best to sound at least half way awake as he made his way to the coffeemaker.
"Not really, but I just learned someone I knew quite the White Fang recently and I hoped you could help each other."
For once the Police Officer was glad that his coffee was not finished, as he would just have spread it over his wall when he heard what the young girl had said. Unwilling to wait until his coffee was finished he grabbed one of the cans of energy drinks he kept for situations like these where he needed to be awake sooner than his coffee could be finished.
"Give me moment to get fully awake.", he place his scroll on the counter before he opened the drink and downed about half of it in one go. taking a short breath he picked up his scroll once more.
"Ok I need to speak with them directly, I promise I'll do my best to get them as much of a pardon for their past deeds as I can."
"Okay, can't ask for more than that I guess.", the young Huntress in training replied.
After a short moment a different female voice spoke to him from his scroll.
"Hello? Ruby said you could help me deal with my past in the White Fang?"
"Well I won't be able to undo it.", he responded truthfully before taking a sip from his now finished coffee, "But I can definitely help you make up for it. Say how did you come to know miss Rose?"
"We are both on the same team here at Beacon, why do you ask?"
"I was just curious, now for the Important question, how long ago did you leave the 'Fang?"
"Not quite a month before the Semester began."
Silently pumping his fist at that piece of information, he continued,"Okay that is really good for us, now you will need to come to the police station to have your official statement taken, so could you please hand me back to Ruby?"
During the moment it took for the girls on the other end to switch the scroll around once more, he finished his cup of coffee.
"So what now Mr. Viridian?", Ruby asked him uncertainty in her voice.
"I'll send a request for assistance in our investigation into the Fang to your headmaster, asking for your team specifically to take this mission. You will then come to the police for your briefing next week, which we will use to take your friends statement as well."
"Okay see you then.", the girl replied way to cheerfull for this time in the morning.
After the young Faunus ended the call, Gruoni let out a shout of joy, hopefully not waking up his neighbours. Such a recent defector could be an unprecedented wellspring of information for their investigation. And with her being on a team at Beacon, there were no doubts that she had been more than some simple thug and willing to work for the good of everyone. Now to get his superiors of his case for involving first-Semesters in a mission and to arrange for Immunity for their newest informant.
So the Cat is finaly out of the Bag, or the Beowulf out of the hood to be more precise. Anyway as always Comments and Critique is appreciated.
Second chapter for today will go up in the evening(CET)