I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth.

Daughter of the Gods

Chapter Twenty: A good fight

With the tournament officially beginning in a few days, I decided I had some time to do something that needed to be done. Sure, hanging out with Saphron and Terra and their little munchkin was awesome, but something had been bothering me.

A little bird.

After informing my team to keep training, and that I'd be gone until the tournament, I left with very little protest. Running hard, I headed for a port.

Hopping on a boat and getting off in Mistral, I headed to the forest in the unclaimed territories. When I was far enough away from the train station, I activated my maiden powers, letting me track my prey. Thankfully she wasn't to far as I sped off, maybe about twenty miles or so. While I was running, I put my hood up and Demon mask on, much like I knew she would be wearing her own mask.

Appearing outside the wall to the Branwen tribe, a guard came out to greet me, attempt to steal from me, or try and kill me. I honestly was never sure with these people. When he was close enough to see the flaming eye sockets of my mask, he froze in his tracks.

"Bring her to me." I said simply. He scrambled through the gate as fast as possible, tripping over his feet several times. I heard a scream from inside several seconds later, and then She was in front of me.

"You know damn well I'm not here for you Vernal." I hissed, venom practically dripping from between my teeth. She was at least a little scared of me.

Good.

"We both know why you're really here." The voice of my true target spoke.

"Get your ass out here Raven, before I fry you just on principle." I spat. She showed herself, the guard from earlier following behind her with a bloody nose.

"Explain to me…why you come here and have the nerve to order my tribe around." She said.

"Because they know who they truly have to be afraid of Raven." I grit. "What the hell is wrong with you anyway?" I asked angrily.

"I saved my daughters life!" Raven snarled.

"All you did was dig up painful memories and tear open old wounds. I could've just as easily been there to help her. You only did it to tell yourself you ever actually cared for her. If I know you, and I know you very well, you'll say you'll never have to intervene in her fights ever again. That that was your one good deed." I said.

How dare Raven dact like this was no big deal. How dare she rescue Yang and then act like it never meant anything, like Yang never meant anything. How dare she treat Vernal like a daughter…Especially after what happened with Sarah

"I was doing what any mother would do." She said loudly.

"Well congratulations! You're now one for a hundred seventy-five. Certainly better than the big fat Zero you were sitting at! Real mom of the year material!" I shot back at her. I saw her flinch, ever so slightly under her mask.

"I saved her life!" She shouted in anger.

"Don't tell me you abandoned her and call it love." I said softly as I walked closer.

"You and I both know why I had to leave." She said, it almost sounded like it had a twinge of regret for just a second. This was a mistake coming here, it's like talking to a brick wall that goes in circles. Turning away, I spoke.

"Stick to our deal Raven. I let your tribe run around and steal things without killing innocent people so long as you never leave the Kingdoms borders." I reminded her as I began walking away. "I know you think you're being a mother, but you seriously suck at it. Oh, and if I ever hear you using your maiden powers like I did from one of my agents who was in that town, Kivona, I'll take your power too.

"You won't." She challenged. In answer, I held up my palm and produced the small bit of power I had taken from Cinder.

"This is from the half maiden. If you come anywhere outside Mistral, I'll take your stolen powers and find someone better." I said as I sped off. I didn't even need to look back to feel her powers flare in anger and sadness.

Hopping back on the train, I headed back to beacon in time for the tournament.

"Good. You made it. We're fighting team ABRN as the opener." Weiss explained.

"It'll be a good warmup fight then." I said with a smile.

It was totally a good warmup fight. ABRN fought hard, but our team was better balanced then theirs. Not to toot my own horn, but it also helped that I can literally speed through the enemies ranks.

"I'll meet up with you guys later. Oh! Remember the plan, if anyone asks who's going on to the duos, it's Weiss and Yang." I remided.

"We know!" They chorused. I smiled and zipped off to the carnival to meet up with Terra and Saphron. Thankfully I was able to find a babysitter for them so we could hang out and I could officially return a small portion of Terra's maiden powers.

The festival grounds smelled lovely as I got there, hot cakes, noodles, fish, fried foods. All lovely smells to my grumbling stomach.

When I spotted a blonde holding a brunettes I ran over and wrapped them in a hug.

"Thanks for coming." I grinned. Saphron looked at me.

"Anytime Ruby." She said fondly. Terra looked at me in amusement and suggested we go get food.

"Oh, that's a great idea. Who's buying!" I said with a grin. I couldn't hold in my laughter at the looks each of them gave.

"I'm kidding. Lunch is on me."

We each got a bowl of noodles and chowed down before we really got too talking.

"How's Jaune?" Saphron asked.

"He's good. Taking his training with Pyrrha seriously from what I've seen." I explained.

"Pyrrha? Pyrrha Nikos! My baby brother is training with the Mistrali champion!" Saphron said with excitement.

"Yup. Gotten a lot better since they started." I informed the eager sister. She looked proud.

"Speaking of getting better." I said quietly. I looked around to make sure no one was watching as I brought out a glowing orange ball. "I believe this belongs to you. Thanks for letting me borrow it by the way. Worked well." I held out my hand. Terra nodded.

"Anytime." She held out her hands, cupping them around the small fragment of her powers. At the same time, I used my magic to cover up the small power surge Terra had as the magic went into her body.

"How did it go with Raven?" She asked quietly.

I sighed. "Not great. We got into a fight unsurprisingly. Things were so much simpler when we helped to train Sarah…honestly…I miss those days." I said nostalgically. Saphron put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me out of the memories.

"That's natural to want to go back to the way things were…but after what happened with Sarah…the damage was done, and nothing could ever fix it." She said sympathetically.

"She never said WHY she killed Sarah. She only ever said Sarah was weak, but I know that's not why." I sighed. "Yang's gonna hate me if she ever finds out about the deal I made with Raven." I sighed again.

"No she won't. What you did…I don't necessarily agree…but it's for the best, especially since Yang would only be more hurt if she knew the whole truth." Terra said.

"You're right…as always." I joked with a small laugh. Terra gave a small smile.

"Wanna watch team JNPR?" I asked after a few minutes of silence. Saphron shook her head.

"Jaune and I haven't talked in a while. Besides, if he somehow saw me in the stands, after thinking I don't know he's here, it might distract him and get him hurt. I couldn't do that to him." She said. I nodded. "Besides, we should be getting back to Adrian anyway." She said softly. Terra nodded.

"It's been fun catching up with you." I said as I stood up.

"Same." Terra said as she pulled me in for a hug.

"Be careful." She whispered in my ear. I nodded against her shoulder and we parted ways. I went to find my team, who I knew were getting into the fairgrounds now.

I pretended not to notice when I saw Emerald using her semblance to steal something from Yang.

Damn that's an annoying semblance.

"Hey guys!" I said cheerfully. Emerald whipped around in surprise, her real hand inches away from Yang's pocket

"Whatcha been up too." I asked as I walked closer.

"Oh nothing. Emerald was just complementing our fight." Yang said with excitement.

"It was pretty awesome." I said lightly. Emerald nodded.

"Anyways, we're going to get food. Would your teammates care to join us?" I asked, mostly to keep up appearances.

"No. Merc is…Antisocial at best." She said while he was sniffing a boot. Gods above if I wasn't immortal and stupid, I might've fallen for the act. As it was I rolled my eyes.

"How did your fight go?" I asked. I knew who her fourth member was after some of my agents had managed to get ahold of the forged transcripts from Haven.

Which reminded me…I needed to pay Leo a visit.

The fourth was Neopolitan, the girl who saved roman and fought Yang using her illusionist semblance. Not the same as Emeralds, but quite powerful in its own way.

She was in disguise, clever since my team would know her on the spot.

"It went okay. We won." She said.

"Good. Who do you think is gonna be moving onto the doubles round?" I said. I was fishing for answers, but I didn't really care. The question was innocent enough.

"Probably me and Merc. What about you guys?" She asked. I nodded.

"Well, we decided as a team that Yang and Weiss would be going. Better balance that way." I answered. Yang and Weiss thankfully played their parts.

When all was said and done we began walking away.

"Alright, food. My treat." I said. They all looked at me like I was god.

I never really thought about it before, but I am technically their daughter.

Did that make me a demigoddess?

Oh well.

Everyone ordered, including me, thanks to my high metabolism. Yang and I got the regular order, Weiss got the regular as well but believed it had low salt, and Blake. Well…

Lets just say I think she was in love with her fish and noodles.

I coulda sworn I even saw her eyes sparkle a bit as drool fell out of her mouth. I handed the man the card, and it went through as expected.

Good thing I had a lot of money or all our meals would've made me go broke.

"Hey girls!" Someone called over just as we were about to start eating.

"Pyrrha!" I shouted as JNPR walked over.

"Mind if we join you?" Jaune asked.

"Of course. The more the merrier." I said. They all sat down and ordered their own food.

"Don't eat it too fast, wouldn't want you to puke in combat." I warned. Pyrrha nodded, but it seemed Nora didn't care.

To be fair, Nora has the stomach constitution of a rock. The rest of JNPR chowed down with us as Nora finished in less than a minute. Once we were done, everyone was satisfied. Nora even let out a loud belch! I chuckled to myself before I looked at Jaune.

"So, Ready for the fight?" I asked. Pyrrha nodded as Jaune put his head down. He had probably eaten to much. Well…If he felt the need during combat…It was a viable if gross strategy.

Nora answered with a long rant. Sorta. Honestly It was a bit concerning hearing the usual ball of hyper energy ranting in such a depressive manner. That was until she began to turn grey.

The intercom crackled to life, Oobleck calling for JNPR impatiently.

"Don't fret. We should be thankful we're fighting with actual guidelines instead of Grimm or murderers." Pyrrha said optimistically. It was always nice to see someone with a positive outlook like hers. Refreshing, even.

We all went to the coliseum together, but I barely watched JNPR fight, choosing instead to watch Cinder and her crew. It was easy to spot them when Cinder used a small portion of her powers for something. They were watching Pyrrha the entire time, studying her fighting style.

It wasn't a surprise when they ended up winning, and I was only aware of that when the crowd was cheering.

I didn't even stick around for team SSSN's fight, though I was aware my team was watching me as I left the arena.

"Leaving so soon? There's popcorn." I heard behind me as I was about to head to an airship.

"I'm starting to think you don't need that cane old man." I said with a small smile. Turning around, I saw Ozpin walking towards me.

"Sometimes. But mostly it's for show, and a keepsake from a long time ago." He explained.

"Yeah I understand. There are a lot of books and small trinkets I cant bear to part with either." I chuckled.

"So why were you leaving early?" He asked.

"Fights are fun, don't get me wrong, but I have a lot on my mind, namely, stopping the little infiltrators from doing anything serious." I said as we sat down on a bench.

"I know. It took me a long time to learn, but you can't bog yourself down on one objective." He said wisely.

"I know that Ozpin. Believe me I do. But this…This is big. The brothers told me to help you, and right now…I don't know how to help other then keep track of and end the threat. Ironwood has got the army covered. You're the leader, and I've got my information network. Qrow is good at long distance missions…And yet we're still no closer to understanding the big picture other than the end of the world." I finished with a small growl.

"Patience. Everything will work itself out in the end." He said calmingly. I relaxed a bit.

"Yeah. Speaking of Qrow, I know he brought Saph and Terra here, but where is he? Where's winter for that matter?" I asked. Ozpin looked at me.

"You know Qrow. He's probably at a bar or a brothel. As for Winter, she got called away on an important mission halfway through moving the Cotta-Arc family." He explained. I frowned.

"Didn't Ironwood know who his specialist was transporting?" I said with a bit of anger. Ozpin looked at me.

"This was a secret mission. He was handling something at the time, and the code you discovered at the CCT is some kind hacking code. Anyone who comes in contact with an infected point is liable to be hacked. I couldn't take the risk that his scroll was." He explained gravely.

"That's what that code does? I couldn't figure it out when I studied it?" I questioned.

"I only figured out when my desk flashed with the chess piece for a brief second. My scroll wasn't on it at the time so it wasn't infected. I have no way of knowing right now if James' has been infected." He explained.

"Great. That's perfect." I grumbled as we landed.

"We'll be meeting with James, Winter, Qrow, and Glynda later. I would like you to be there." He asked. I nodded in agreement.

"Good. We'll be meeting tonight." He answered as he walked off.

As I turned towards the docks to wait for the team, I saw Weiss waiting in front of some goofy looking airship with ribbons. Well…Schnee's do travel in style. When I saw winter get out, I sighed. Walking at a normal pace, I saw them begin talking. I was halfway there when Winter raised her hand to strike Weiss.

Hell no.

I growled and sped up, weaving in and out of people as I saw Winters hand begin to descend in slow motion.

Speeding up just a bit more, because any faster and I'd tear up the courtyard bricks, I reached them just in time. I stopped in front of Winter, her wrist in my hand and my head bent low with my hood covering my face. The caused by my running caught up with us and whipped my cloak around.

"Don't ever touch her like that again." I growled. It was one thing to get hit during sparring, sometimes it was used in discipline like a spanking, but too just hit someone, because you're frustrated?

That was unacceptable, and certainly more so because Weiss is my teammate.

"I don't know who you think you are, but unhand me this instant." She ordered.

"I'm not a soldier you can order around. Especially if you're about to hit my teammate and we're not in combat." I said slowly. "Got it." I looked her in the eye. She grit her teeth and was about to respond when Weiss jumped in.

"Ruby. Please unhand my sister. I'm fine." She said politely. I nodded.

"If you need me, just call." I said as I began walking away.

"So that's your leader?" I heard winter ask. I didn't here Weiss' response as I was too far away.

I went to the sparring ring, and began practicing on dummies, slashing at enemies long dead or very much alive.

I wasn't even a quarter of the way through my practice session when I heard my scroll go off. I huffed, and moved over.

I hadn't even broken a sweat.

The message was from Ozpin.

"We're meeting earlier. Meet me in my office." Simple message, but I groaned in response. I grabbed my scythe, stowed it on my back, and headed for the clock tower.

When I finally got to the office, I cursed when I heard arguing.

"Lovely." I grumbled as the elevator doors opened.

"He was Drunk!" Winter exclaimed as I stepped through the threshold.

"He's always drunk!" Glynda fired back. Suddenly they all looked to Qrow who was taking a swig out of his flask. I laughed lightly at the situation, and everyone seemed to finally notice me.

"Well," I said as I walked forward. "As entertaining as it would've been to hear the buildup to that, can we please get down to business." I said, adopting a more serious approach to get them back on track instead of arguing for another hour.

"You're not supposed to be here." Winter said, her eye twitching just a little bit.

"No, Schnee. I think it best if you leave, actually." Ironwood ordered.

"No. She did a fantastic job of taking care of Terra. I say she can stay." I said. Ozpin nodded but James looked affronted.

"Think of her as another ally, James." Ozpon said softly.

"Very well. It appears I have no choice." He begrudgingly said. I looked at him.

"There's always a choice." I said, speaking from experience.

"Who are you anyway? Weiss mentioned you were her team leader but you're clearly more than that. So who are you really, and why are you here?" Winter said. I looked at her and smirked.

"You may not listen to Ruby Rose." I paused as I pulled my mask from its pocket dimension. "But you will listen to a maiden." I said once the mask was in place and my powers shooting out form the eye sockets. Too bad I forgot the Demon was still a wanted war criminal, as I suddenly found a pistol from Ironwoods holster aiming at me.

Oops.

"Did I forget to tell you." I said with a smirk.

Messing with Ironwood has become one of my favorite hobbies.