"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace."
-George Washington
Chapter 8-
Ruby was nowhere in sight meaning she was already heading to the hall, meaning Neo was going to go there as well.
On the way she ran into the rest of her team, where Weiss was quick to start asking. "Where have you been? And where's Ruby? You've missed almost all your lessons this week." Weiss stated harshly.
Neo turned to look at the girl, ignoring the way she was acting as she simply replied, "Family business." Neo said flatly.
Weiss was about to reply when another voice interrupted them before she could. "Hello dear sister, how are you doing?" Winter said happily while walking towards the group.
Blake just carried on walking towards their lesson while Yang remained with Weiss to see her sister, while Neo smiled towards Winter, which was returned before heading to the hall.
Ruby was nowhere to be seen in the hall but Neo knew she was here already and was waiting patiently.
Neo watched as other students started to file inside, first was JNPR who seemed to look around in confusion as to where the teacher was. After that came team CFVY, causing Neo to flash them a smile, she hadn't really spoken to them outside of saying a polite hello around the school.
Next was the rest of team WBY including Winter who looked amused at something as she met Neo's eyes, and it seemed Weiss was glaring at her as well. 'Should be interesting later.' Neo thought to herself.
What surprised Neo the most was the fact that CRDL came waltzing into the room, Neo was sure that they weren't meant to be there but Ruby could easily handle that.
"Welcome everyone to combat 101, sorry that we didn't start at the beginning of term but there were a few things to do first." Aria spoke in place of Ruby.
Ruby seemed to just appear on the other side of the hall to the students, her mask was firmly in place keeping her identity secret however Neo was still concerned about the cape.
Everyone was shocked that Ruby or rather Red Reaper was there in front of them, and going to teach them. Only Winter and Neo were not surprised and while each team reacted differently, CRDL reacted the worse.
"It's the Red Reaper. Get her!" Cardin shouted as he drew his weapon and charged straight towards Ruby, while his teammates were more reluctant to go against the woman.
Ruby cocked her head to the side as she watched the man rushing her, as the weapon came swinging down towards her she threw up her fist to knock the mace away from her while her other fist slammed into his face.
The man was thrown back as his aura seemed to break in a single hit as the man landed on the floor as his team quickly gathered around to see if he was alright.
"That took a lot of courage or stupidity thinking you would win that. We have been brought in by Ozpin to teach you how to fight." Aria stated, slipping up as she spoke.
"Now Mr Winchester, please take your team and leave this area. I will not be teaching you." Aria stated coldly.
Ruby watched as Cardin was about to say something back as he managed to sit up, but Ruby beat him to it. "If you worry about not having a lesson on this day, I share speak to Glynda to get you extra classes. Now leave this hall." Aria stated firmly.
All it took was Ruby to take a threatening step forward did they finally scramble away and leave, making Aria laugh aloud to the class.
"Where was I? Oh yes. I will be teaching you combat training in addition to what you are already doing, any questions?" Aria asked as Ruby turned her attention back onto the group.
"Why are you here? You're a wanted criminal." Weiss stated, her hand moving ever closer to her weapon as was most of the students.
"Ozpin brought me here. And officially I am a wanted criminal, unofficially I have the support of the police and the Hunters. As long as the police don't catch me and I keep giving them actual criminals we have an unofficial agreement that I am left alone, however to save face in the public eye they must seem as if they are hunting me." Aria explained.
"Anything else?" Aria asked.
"Why are we having combat training? We already have it with Professor Goodwitch, why do we have it with you?" Pyrrha asked, confused at the change.
"With Glynda she is teaching you how to fight each other and Grimm with your own weapons, this is all well and good but you should know more." Aria informed them.
"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked once more in confusion.
"Each and every weapon in this room I can use. While I can also use my own body as a weapon, as can Neo and to a point Miss Xiao-Long." Aria informed them all.
"So you shall be using these three hours each week to either train using different weapons or if you wish I can teach you hand to hand fighting. The choice is yours however you cannot do nothing or study for another lesson in this class." Aria stated as she moved away to watch what the students would do.
CFVY were the first to try different weapons, attempting to try them between their team which was almost comical to watch where Velvet attempted to lift Coco's minigun or the large sword another member had, only Coco seemed to be able to do it.
WBY and JNPR eventually followed this lead as they swapped between themselves which once more made for interesting viewing however this was fairly simple as most had swords or a form of a sword.
Neo was the only one who took up the hand to hand training however as Winter had come over to talk to Ruby, Neo was made to run some simple drills with training dummies and agility training while she spoke with Winter.
"So Ruby, a teacher? Quite different from the role of a Huntress and a fighter such as yourself." Winter said.
"Mother taught Neo how to fight with different weapons when they first met. She enjoys teaching however she struggles to be able to really do it." Aria informed her.
"Hello Aria. I don't suppose Ruby is there somewhere to talk to?" Winter asked carefully.
"Mother doesn't like to talk." Aria stated plainly.
"Hmm, but she was talking a lot over the last couple days." Winter said.
"She only talked as much because she had to. Otherwise I speak for her." Aria explained calmly.
"And how do you know what she wants to say? If she doesn't talk that is." Winter asked, trying to learn more.
Aria seemed to pause, as did Ruby as they seemed to converse with each other and decide whether or not to share.
"Ruby alongside Neo both have a Neurological link implanted near the ear, they use this to talk to each other without needing to verbalise the words. I use this link to jump between them and any other data point I can find. I can also use this link to hear what Ruby would like to say and thus speak for her." Aria explained, making sure only Winter could hear them.
"But that technology is only in pre-development, last I heard they had a series of setbacks that stopped the process completely." Winter stated, shocked at the idea of the technology being available.
"That setback was the stolen prototypes. What they didn't tell you about the tests was the simple fact that they burnt out the users brains when they attempted to use them." Aria stated bluntly.
"What! That never came out in any reports I heard. All they said was they had some setbacks but that's it." Winter practically shouted out.
"They kept it in house as they had a major military contract with General Ironwood, so they didn't want to lose it. We discovered what had happened and stole the technology while wiping any record of it." Aria informed the older woman as Neo seemed to come over, noticing the conversation.
"But surely the scientists could still build it again?" Winter asked.
"Maybe. We left them a note so they wouldn't." Aria said cheerfully.
"A note?" Winter stated.
"Yes, it worked. But Ruby was able to almost perfect the technology and decided to try it on herself, and then later with Neo when she had gotten it correct." Aria informed her as Neo joined them.
"Would you like to spar?" Neo asked.
Ruby just nodded her head as she moved to the area left by the other students as she and Neo took up opposite sides.
This attracted attention of the other students as they all came over to watch the fight between Neo and the Reaper, curious as to how this would play out.
They all stood around the edge alongside Winter who hadn't seen Ruby fight except for the short attack on Cardin and when she held her scythe to her neck when they first met.
"Rules?" Neo called out.
"Three body hits or submission. No hits to the head. Hands and feet only." Aria verbalised for Ruby.
"Ok." Neo said, bowing to her opponent as Ruby followed suit.
The fight was quick, or rather it looked quick but it was put on for the students watching them. If Neo revealed she was on par with Ruby then it would make for dangerous questions being asked.
Just at the end of the fight Neo had noticed where Ruby seemed to slip up, although subtle there was enough for Neo to land a hit against Ruby's chest but in the strike she had left herself open to Ruby's third and final hit. Ruby dodged around Neo's thrown punch to land her final hit against the woman's back.
The fight lasted all of five minutes which Ruby quickly got everyone back to running drills and other training pieces for the rest of the lesson, she also got Winter to join in with Neo and Ruby who was practising hand to hand combat.
After the fight Ruby had addressed the entire class, telling them all. "Your entire body is a weapon. Remember that, if someone throws a punch at you, you can deflect it or use your momentum against them to launch them onto their ass. Remember, the best weapon you have is your body." Aria told all of them.
At the end of the lesson Aria dismissed them as Ruby told Neo she would meet them at the cafeteria shortly, however she would change first.
As the class left the room Neo made sure to talk with Winter throughout the walk as to avoid her team and the burning questions they seemed to have.
When they arrived Neo quickly got her food and she spotted Ruby already sitting down, eating a small amount of food in front of her.
Ruby changed out her normal outfit for black jeans, a black t-shirt and her corset with a black and red leather jacket over the top wrapped up in her red cloak to cover most of her body, alongside with storing her weapon at the small of her back and other weapons dotted around her body.
"Good enough?" Ruby asked as she looked over to Neo, the voice coming in her head.
Neo approached the table as she sat down next to Ruby as the others got their food, looking over Ruby's new outfit.
"Mmm." Neo hummed as she looked over Ruby, "That's much better, is that my jacket?" Neo asked.
"It was your present to me." Ruby stated playfully with a smile.
"Present? When did I give that to you?" Neo asked, confused.
"Just now." Ruby said with a teasing smile as she leaned in and kissed her cheek.
"Sneaky devil." Neo said but her face had a full smile on it as she started to eat.
It didn't take long for the others to sit down, the entire class sitting together on one of the long tables.
"Ruby why weren't you in our lesson?" Weiss asked as they sat down, oddly polite.
"She was busy talking with Ozpin and she isn't being taught by the Reaper." Neo answered, using the pre-planned excuse they had come up with to tell about Ruby's absence.
"Oh so you're not as good as you think you are then Ruby? If you're not being taught by the Reaper." Weiss said, trying to act superior to the younger girl.
"Actually she doesn't need to be taught by her, she's already on par if not better than the Reaper." Neo stated, this caused Winter who was taking a drink to almost choke on her drink as she started to laugh.
"Sorry, something got caught in my throat." Winter explained, trying to keep her laughter hidden.
"Ruby can speak for herself, you don't need to answer everything for her Neo." Yang stated almost harshly.
Neo was calm as she turned to look at Yang, "I know she can, she's very capable of speaking however she dislikes speaking." Neo explained.
"Sure." Yang said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Yang I would be careful what you say, neither Ruby nor I would be happy if you are implying what we believe you are." Neo said carefully, her words measured and hinted at carefully veiled threats.
Blake seeing the change in demeanour of both girls she quickly steered the topic away, "How do you speak to Ruby? Like how do you know what she wants to say?" Blake asked.
"We have a system worked out where we can speak to each other without needing verbal words." Neo said, as she had her hand on Ruby's leg as she tried to calm the girl down.
"Are you sure?" Neo suddenly asked, turning her attention back to Ruby. "You've barely eaten your food." Neo stated, referring to Ruby's plate full of half eaten food.
"Fine, but you need to eat later." Neo stated as the pair seemed to have half a conversation.
"Winter would you mind taking Ruby to see your mother? I believe she is seeing Ozpin. I will follow shortly after I'm finished." Neo informed her
"Of course." Winter said, having finished her salad already as she watched the interesting conversations.
"Come on Ruby." Winter said, as they took their plates back up before leaving the large hall to go to Ozpin's office.
Yang and Weiss left barely a minute after, not wanting to be near Neo it seemed while Blake, Coco and Velvet all remained behind as they were still eating.
"So that was interesting." Coco stated.
"It was, however Yang might need to learn to watch her words soon." Neo said calmly.
"Seems so. So what did you all think of the Reaper? Far from the criminal we've been told about in the news." Velvet said.
"It's because she's not. She's labelled as one by the media and the public, however she hasn't killed anyone or stolen anything. Instead she's only stopped actual criminals and the White Fang, so she's more of Vigilante than anything else." Blake informed them, her voice neutral but spoke of her in high regard.
"I guess, though that robotic voice is creepy." Velvet stated.
"Maybe, though it's a little odd isn't it?" Coco asked.
"What's odd?" Neo asked, interested to see what they would think.
"The voice, near the start of the lesson when Cardin tried to attack her. The voice said 'we' but it seemed to pick up on the mistake. So either there are two people here with her or the voice she uses is self-aware at the very least." Coco informed them all.
"You worked that out by a single slip up?" Velvet said.
"It's just a guess until we speak to her more, but why else would she say 'we'?" Coco stated.
"Well I better go catch up to Ruby and Winter, so I shall see you later." Neo said, getting up as she started to walk away.
A/N
So I cocked up majorly, I may have caught it before at least partly but for the purpose of the story I'm changing Ruby's age so she is now Nineteen, alongside Neo who is the same age. However this presents a problem, Winter was going to be twenty one years old which would be wrong.
Mizu would have likely kept "traditional" marriage and the like, so only having sex on their wedding night and not before meaning that Ruby would be older than Winter based on the fact Mizu would become pregnant that night.
Basically I've changed the ages so Winter is actually eighteen while Weiss is about a year younger, while Ruby and Neo are nineteen each. Of course there could be some errors but its rough maths after waking up early the last couple days so very little sleep.
Also I've made Yang distrustful of Neo because of how she perceives the relationship between Ruby and Neo and also in the show where Yang fights Neo, she just doesn't trust her. It will get better but that'll be much later on. Not much more I can think of currently so hope you've enjoyed and sorry for the explanation over all this.
Oh also I wonder if anyone understands why Aria asked to be at the dinner table in the last chapter or two ago? Hmmm I wonder.
Oh and FORESHADOWING EVERYWHERE.
Until next time ^_^