Ruby

I was leaning on one of the parapets, looking down at the trapdoor in the ground, when Yang came sprinting out of it. I called out to Blake as Yang stopped running and spun to face the trap door. Where's Weiss? I thought. Why isn't she coming out? My heart was in my throat as I watched, waiting for Weiss to come out. But she didn't.

I leapt onto the parapet, ready to jump down and save Weiss, but Blake wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me back.
"What're you doing?" I yelled. I struggled and kicked in an attempt to break free. "Let me go!" I yelled when I couldn't escape Blake's grip.
"Stop it Ruby!" Blake yelled. She flipped over, so that she was on top of me, and pushed me into the floor. "Stop it!" she yelled again as I bucked, trying to push her off. "You can't go down there. You can't help them if you can't even get close to them."

I stopped fighting as I realised she was right and just laid limp on the floor. Blake rolled off to the side and laid next to me, panting. I pushed myself up and leant on the parapet again, gazing over the side.

Yang was still gazing into the tunnel. Weiss was still nowhere to be seen. I leant forward in a pointless attempt to look closer.
"Yang, where's Weiss? Is she okay?" I called down to my sister. Yang looked up and gave me a thumbs up. If she's okay, I thought, then why isn't she with you?

I felt a tremor pass through the wall beneath my feet and saw Yang stumble slightly. I shared a worried look with Blake, who was looking down at Yang as well.
"What was that?" she mumbled.
"I don't know…" I whispered. Is Weiss okay?

My head whipped around as Yang let out a shout. I looked back down as Weiss emerged from the tunnel. She was cool, calm and collected, not a hair out of place. She exchanged a few, quiet words with Yang, but they were too far away for me to make them out. I itched to jump down to them. I itched to wrap Weiss in my arms. But I held myself back. I still remembered Blake's warning.

I watched as the two guards lowered down ropes for them and pulled them up the wall. I waited impatiently, hopping from one foot to the other, for Weiss to come over the parapet. I let out a mew of excitement as I caught a glimpse of her clambering over. I trembled while she untied the rope and passed it to the guard who'd pulled her up.

Then I dashed towards her, accidently bumping into Blake on my way past. I cried out Weiss' name as I ran towards her. She turned towards me, smiling, just in time for me to plough into her and wrap my arms around her. She stumbled back a step from the force of my hug. I heard a short laugh as she hugged me back.

I'd almost expected Weiss to push me away. But I wanted to hug her anyway. So I was surprised when I felt a pair of arms wrap around me in return. My heart filled near to bursting with joy as I felt her squeeze me back, just as tightly as I held her. I pressed my face into the curve of Weiss' neck and felt her rest her head on top of mine.

"I'm glad you're okay." I whispered to her. "I was scared."
"Do you really think I'd go down that easily?" she asked me. I laughed and shook my head.

Weiss pulled back from the hug and held my face gently in her hands, wiping a tear off my cheek with her thumb. My heart raced as I realised how close our faces were. Her lips were inches from mine. My breath caught as Weiss' lips parted slightly and edged closer. My heart was in my throat as I gazed at her in anticipation. I closed my eyes and felt her soft, gentle lips press lightly against my forehead. Wait… My forehead?

I opened my eyes as Weiss pulled back and looked at her in surprise. She smiled and patted me on the head.
"Don't worry about me, Ruby. I'll always come back for you." Weiss said. I looked up at her with conflicting emotions. For a second I'd thought that Weiss was going to kiss me, I'd hoped that she would. And I didn't know why I'd hope for that. Weiss and I were just friends. Aren't we? I asked myself. I mean, sure, we're close. But we're still just friends… Even more confusing was the fact that the phrase 'just friends' seemed to drive a needle into my heart. But Weiss' words made me happy. I'll always come back for you. My heart filled with joy once more as those words and I found myself smiling back at her as I gazed into her beautiful, pale eyes.

I was pulled back to reality as Weiss pulled away and walked over to join Yang and Blake. I shook my head, trying to clear it, before joining them myself.
"So what happened?" I asked as I approached. Weiss and Yang's faces fell and they shared an almost regretful look with each other.
"We need to get back to Beacon as soon as we can." Weiss said. "It's about to be under attack."
"W-what do you mean?" I stuttered. "Who's attacking it?"
"We don't know," Yang answered. "But there's a cave filled with hundreds of Grimm underground. And plans to unleash them on Vale,"

Blake and I gaped at them in horror, lost for words.
"Look," Weiss said with a ring of authority. "We can discuss this later. Right now, we need to tell Professor Ozpin. We can go through the details with him." I nodded, pushing down my own horror and focussed. Weiss was right: we needed to tell Professor Ozpin about this.
"Okay," I said with a steady voice. I was beginning to focus. There was a job that needed doing. "Let's go."

We ran towards Beacon as fast as we could. The streets of Vale were surprisingly empty, which was helpful to us, but it seemed weird. I shook off my concern. We had more important things to worry about. Weiss and Yang had said that the attack was coming at dawn, but those involved could decide to bump up their schedule now that they'd been discovered.

We staggered through the doors of Beacon, each of us exhausted. But, with no time to rest, we forced ourselves to keep running. We all caught strange looks from the student we passed on the way, but we never slowed. Not until we skidded to a halt in front of Ozpin's office. We stood there for a minute, trying to catch our breath. Then, with a sigh, I knocked on the door.

There was no answer. I knocked again, with the same result. I looked at Weiss worriedly.
"Uh… Does anyone have an idea where he might be?" I asked, though I already knew the answer. Sure enough, Yang, Blake and Weiss all shook their heads. "Right," I said with a heavy sigh. "Well, we need to find a teacher then."

We all turned back the way we'd come and began to run back down the hall. Our run didn't last very long. When I rounded the corner, I ran headfirst into… something. I looked up, dazed, at whatever had knocked me over and saw, not Professor Ozpin, but the next best thing. Glinda Goodwitch was standing over, and not looking too pleased. I cowered slightly as she glared down at me. Then I remembered why we were running and shot to my feet.

"Beacon's going to be under attack!" I said hurriedly. Her expression didn't change at all. She just looked at me silently. "Uh… Someone's going to attack Beacon tomorrow morning, but they know that we know, so it might even happen today." I blushed and hunched my shoulders slightly under her continued gaze.
"They have an army of Grimm," Weiss interjected. I breathed a sigh of relief as Goodwitch's gaze turned to Weiss. Thank you Weiss, I thought. "And the man in charge, whoever he is, seems to be able to control them somehow."

Goodwitch's eyes narrowed at Weiss' words. It was the first time her expression had changed at all since I'd bumped into her. She looked back at me and nodded approvingly. I swelled with pride as she turned away from us.
"Come with me." She said as she led the way down the hall.

We followed her as she wove her way through the school, turning down hallways and taking us through doors with not a trace of hesitation as to which way to go. How does she know where we're going? I thought as she took us down the eighth seemingly random hallway. But she clearly did know where she was going because within five minutes of leaving Professor Ozpin's office, we were lined up on a balcony, standing in front of him.

"…and that's all we found out, sir." Weiss finished explaining the day's events, in detail, to Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch. Ozpin nodded and took a sip from his mug as he looked away, deep in thought. It was the first time that I'd heard the details of what had happened to Weiss and Yang while they were underground, and I was gaping at them in shock.

"They had a Death Stalker?" I gasped. "And it was just standing there? Doing what he said?"
"Yes, Ruby." Weiss said. "He also said he had more of them." I thumped to the ground and sat there, cross-legged, gazing disbelievingly at Weiss. She squatted next to me with a frown. "Come on Ruby. Get up. We don't have time for this." She whispered. I met her gaze and nodded as she patted me on the shoulder. She was right. We didn't have time to be overwhelmed. Things needed doing, and we had to do them.

"Are you sure it was Myrka?" Ozpin asked. He was standing at the edge of the balcony with his back to us, gazing out over Vale.
"Pardon sir?" Weiss asked.
"The name you heard," he said, turning back to face us. "Are you sure it was Myrka?"
"Yeah," Yang said. "I'm sure of it. We didn't get a last name, or the name of the woman with him, but it was definitely Myrka." Ozpin turned away from us again with a sigh.

"Professor," I began. I got to my feet and tried to focus once more. "Have you heard of this guy?"
"Yes, Ruby, you could say that." Ozpin took another drink from his mug as he leant on the balcony's railing. "Myrka Vald is the man you saw in that cave. He was a student here at Beacon until five years ago, when I was forced to expel him."
"Expel him?" I asked, shocked. "What did you expel him for?"

Professor Ozpin turned back to face us once more before answering, taking a few steps forward in and standing just in front of us.
"I expelled him for killing a fellow student." He said in a solemn tone. The four of us let out a gasp at his words. I gaped at him wordlessly.
"He killed someone?" Yang asked.
"Well, not directly." Ozpin said. "If I'm going to explain this properly, I'd better tell you the whole story."

"Myrka Vald," he began. "He came to Beacon eight years ago to become a Hunter. He was a gifted student, not exceptional, but certainly in the top ten students of his year group. He was an interesting student. He was the only person I've ever seen who fought Grimm, and won every time, without ever using a weapon."

"No weapon?" I asked. "How could he possibly beat monsters without a weapon?" Ozpin smiled ruefully before answering. His answer, when it came, was surprising, to say the least.
"He didn't need one. And, before you ask, no; he didn't fight with Dust. He was unique in that he was capable of fighting, and defeating monsters, purely with his semblance."
"His semblance?" Yang muttered.

"Yes, his semblance." Ozpin said. The rueful smile was still on his face. "He possesses the most unique, and perhaps one of the most powerful, semblances I've ever seen. He has the power to distract, weaken and subdue Grimm with his mind."
"Wow…" I whispered.
"Wow indeed. That was the general opinion of him on campus during his time here. No one on his team ever got injured before the incident. I could probably count the number of time they were hit by monsters at all on the finger of one hand. He was very close to his teammates, they were all inseparable. But one of them died in a horrific accident in their third year…

"Myrka had come to me a week or two prior to the incident with a proposition for new ways of fighting Grimm. He felt that, given enough training, he would be able to develop his semblance to the point where he could control Grimm with it. He wanted to use it to create an army of Grimm, one that he could direct to attack other Grimm. It was a wonderful ideal, using monsters to kill monsters and not having to risk human lives. But I wasn't as confident as he was. I said no, and sent him away.

"Needless to say, he didn't take that very well. He stormed out in a rage, and I knew that he was determined to prove me wrong. I was tempted to stop him, but I thought I'd give him a chance to test his hypothesis. I thought he would go away and practice, train, get better, make sure he could do it. But, instead, he went and tried it straight away. Despite my prohibition of it, he snuck out one night with one of his teammates to test it.

"They cornered two Ursa, and he tried to bend one to his will. Apparently he succeeded, after a fashion, and he pitted the Ursa against one another. But something went wrong, and his control slipped. Caught unprepared, Myrka and his teammate were attacked by the Ursa and overpowered in seconds. Myrka escaped in the struggle, but his teammate was killed. Myrka returned to the school holding his friend's body, emotionally broken. They teammate who died had been his partner in initiation, and the two remained incredibly close friends during their time here.

"So Myrka sank into a deep depression. He was shattered over the loss of his friend and witnessing it robbed him of the will to fight. He was in care for weeks, we owed him at least that much. But, when he recovered, we had no choice but to hold a tribunal into the incident. And when all the information came to light, I had no choice but to expel him. He had gone against the express orders of the staff, namely myself, and it had resulted in the death of a student.

"He was distraught of course. He railed against it. He said that the only reason he had to live on was to make his 'research', as he called it, a success. Or else his friend would have died in vain. But I couldn't risk any more accidents like the first. I couldn't risk the lives of my students, so he was sent out of the academy. One of his teammates, Shinu Ao, left with him. She was devoted to Myrka and wouldn't believe a single word against him. I would guess she's the woman you saw with him. So they left together, both bitter and angry at me and the school for casting them out. And if what you girls say is true, then he was right. He can now completely control Grimm with his mind."

We stared at him silently. Not only was this the most Professor Ozpin had ever said to us at one time, the story was shocking enough by itself.
"And you think he's out for revenge?" Weiss asked quietly.
"I'm surprised it hasn't come sooner actually." Ozpin said matter-of-factly, taking a sip from his mug. "I've been expecting him to try something. I never thought it would be this big though…"
"And why hasn't anything been done to prepare for this?" Weiss asked, her voice growing heated. "If you were expecting it, surely you should have done something to prevent it, or to get ready for it!"
"I've had more important things to deal with." Ozpin said, shooting a quick glance at Goodwitch.

"Either way," I said quickly, cutting Weiss' next tirade off. "Do you have any idea what to do to defend the city?" Ozpin thought for a few seconds and nodded.
"With the time we've gained from your warning, we can prepare the teachers and seniors to defend the city and the academy should an attack come. It is also possible that Myrka's discovery will deter him from attacking. If no attack comes tomorrow, then we'll send a few teams into this tunnel you found and root him out. In the meantime, we need to prepare the school for an assault."

Ozpin began to leave, but Weiss cut him off.
"Professor Ozpin," she called out to his retreating figure. "If I may ask, how did his semblance specifically work?" Ozpin pondered for a few seconds before replying.
"If I remember correctly, he let out a high pitched whistle in a certain radius around him. When they heard the whistling, they would cower from it. And when he focussed it on one individual, it would have a much more potent effect, while releasing the others around him from his influence." I looked at Weiss, impressed that she'd thought to ask, before looking back at Ozpin.
"But sir," I said. "Both Blake and I couldn't get near the trapdoor with passing out from hearing a high pitched whistling. And we're not monsters."

"No," he answered. "You're not. But while he was here, we did some tests on his semblance, to examine its range, effectiveness, and the like. It seems to ring out at a frequency just on the edge of human hearing, so most humans aren't affected. Faunus can hear it, they're hearing range extends a little higher than human's."
"But that doesn't explain how we could hear it." I said.
"Well, it may be on the edge of human hearing. But it's still within it. But few people's hearing is good enough anymore to hear that high. Tell me, have you ever heard of presbycusis?"
"Yes," Weiss said. "Age related hearing loss."
"That's right. At around the age of eighteen, humans' sense of hearing begins to decay. We lose our ability to hear the higher registers of our natural range of hearing. Its effects can be exacerbated or accelerated by long exposure to loud noises, the discharge of ballistic weapons for example."
"So," Blake said. "What you're saying is, Yang and Weiss can't hear it because they're too old? What about me?"
"More or less," Ozpin said with a smirk. "They've also been exposed to the sounds of combat and firing weapons for two years longer than Ruby here. So she can still hear it, though I don't know about you."

"Are you saying Blake's a Faunus?" Weiss asked in an almost offended tone.
"No, no, no." Ozpin said placatingly. "Presbycusis affects everyone a little differently at different times in their life, maybe Miss Belladonna here just got lucky. Maybe she hasn't been around as many guns being fired as you two. Maybe she's not the age she says she is." he added jokingly. "There are a plethora of reasons, any of which could explain it. To be honest, we don't actually know that much about Myrka's semblance, so I can't adequately explain it to you. Presbycusis is simply the best theory we've come up with." He began making his way towards the door, heading back inside. "I'd suggest you girls rest up for the day, you need to be fresh and ready for tomorrow. Come and see me an hour before dawn tomorrow morning, I'll have a job for you." Goodwitch followed him inside as they went to get the academy ready for battle, leaving us staring blankly at each other on the balcony.

Author's Note: Had to make an edit to this, cause someone pointed out that I really messed up. So if you're reading this again at any point and it seems different, that's cause I fixed my screw-up. Thanks all.