So slight spoiler at the bottom for the first episode of Volume 3, it's something you discover very early on anyway and fans have worked out easily, but j just in case someone doesn't want any spoilers than go watch the episode then come back.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
-Sun Tzu
Chapter 13-
Neo looked up to see WBY come walking out from behind the door, looking sheepish at being caught.
Neo didn't move from her position on Ruby but her hand had taken a hold of one of Ruby's hidden knives.
Ruby didn't stop the woman from doing this as she looked up towards the sheepish women. Blake looked on with amusement at the position of the two girls while Weiss just looked nervous and awkward at the two girls.
Yang on the other hand had a look of shock on her face as she took in the scene, and could only assume what the words they spoke about meant.
"If you're done gawking at us, would you care to explain why you are listening in on us?" Neo asked threateningly.
"We wanted to see Ruby but when we saw Neo leaving the room we tried to see Ruby but when we got no answer Yang wanted to follow Neo, and we ended up here." Blake explained.
"Why were you looking for me?" Ruby asked softly, the women straining to hear her.
"We hadn't seen you for a few days and were worried about you." Weiss stated.
"I see. Well I'm fine." Ruby stated bluntly.
"You're a wolf Faunus. Why did you never say?" Yang stated, the first thing she could think of when she spoke.
"Would you tell everyone you're a Faunus? Look at how you all reacted to Blake, if Ruby told you then it would have been worse." Neo stated harshly to the group, or rather just to Weiss and Yang.
"You knew?" Weiss asked to Blake, noticing that she wasn't surprised.
"I could smell her, but I didn't know she was a wolf until recently but that's because of another reason." Blake said.
"Are you sure?" Neo asked, looking down to Ruby who had grown silent. "Ok then. Aria would you mind coming out here." Neo called out, confusing the women in front of them.
"Of course mother." Aria said, appearing in front of everyone in her standard outfit. "Hello, it's nice to finally meet you in person." Aria said, bowing to WBY.
"What the? You're the Reaper!" Weiss stated, recognising the voice instantly, "But you're an AI!" Weiss exclaimed, working it out from the semi-transparent nature of Aria.
Neo stood up from her prone position on Ruby's body, who also got to her feet as well. The knife Neo held in her hands was clearly on display but she made no move to put it back.
Aria giggled at the comments made to her as she stated in reply, "I'm not the Reaper, merely her voice." Aria informed them.
It seemed to dawn on the two women just who the Red Reaper truly was as everything they saw all clicked into place within their minds.
"Finally." Neo exclaimed, "Yes Ruby is the Red Reaper, but she much prefers being called Ruby." Neo said, taking glee from the fact she was stunning these two women into silence.
"But how? She's just a student." Yang stated.
"There is a reason she doesn't attend lessons, especially those where we're taught by her." Neo explained, "And before you ask Ozpin knows alongside the teachers, Mizu and Winter." Neo informed them.
"My mother and sister know? How?" Weiss asked, confused.
"Of course. Mother wishes us to go somewhere more private." Aria informed them all.
With Neo, Ruby and Aria all moving them along towards their shared room where they sat down on the bed or the chairs in the room. "Your mother knows who Ruby is because Ruby saved her life and revealed herself to her. Winter was the one who came to check on Mizu and the details were shared with her." Over the next hour Neo and Aria both explained the situation, and while leaving out certain details like Mizu's plan to take over her company again and their own information on the White Fang and events.
It took them hours to get through the questions about everything, although a lot were deflected or went unanswered. Especially ones pertaining to Ruby's personnel history but they happily answered what they could about Ruby's involvement in attacking the White Fang.
Eventually they were satisfied and the groups went their separate ways however by the time it finished Ruby was already asleep in Neo's arms.
Over the next few weeks Ruby had completely changed her lessons, now she had everyone in one large groups being trained in hand to hand combat as she sought to raise their endurance so they could fight for longer.
She also taught them basic Aura manipulation to better defend and protect themselves but what she drilled into them was the need to have multiply forms of fighting.
The training was brutal, at least that's what Neo told her about her routines as she constantly pushed the students to their limits and pass them.
In those few weeks Ruby noticed something slightly disturbing about team WBY, or rather just one member. Weiss and Yang were focused on this dance the school would be hosting but over the course of a few weeks she saw Blake getting worse.
According to Aria she was the only one who did not seem to relax after her lessons with Ruby, nor did she sleep as much as she should. Deciding the best method was to confront Blake over this she pulled her away during her next lesson.
"Neo please run them through basic warm up drills while I speak to Miss Belladonna, in private." Aria stated to the entire class.
"Of course." Neo said, getting everyone to run around the hall a couple times and stretch while Ruby took Blake up to the stands overlooking them all.
"Aria would you mind keeping an eye on everyone?" Ruby asked softly, her voice slightly distorted by the mask.
In silence Aria jumped away from Ruby and towards Neo as Ruby sat down with her back facing the students below.
Reaching up Ruby removed her mask so she could look at Blake directly, "You look like shit." Ruby bluntly stated.
"Thanks, you really know what to say to make a girl feel better." Blake replied dryly.
"How much have you been sleeping?" Ruby asked."
Blake remained silent at the question, choosing instead to look away from the silver eyes staring at her.
Sighing Ruby just said, "You need to sleep, I know I'm not one to talk but you need to take naps at least. And not the ones you have when you pass out from exhaustion in the library." Ruby told her.
"How do you know about that?" Blake asked, stunned that the woman knew about her passing out in the library.
Ruby laughed gently at Blake as she said, "How do you think the blanket gets there each night?" Ruby informed her.
"That was you? I thought that was the librarian or something." Blake stated.
"There isn't one, its run by students who volunteer to run it and I sometimes look through the collection." Ruby informed her, "I also noticed you asleep so I put a blanket over you." Ruby stated.
"Thank you. But I'm fine, I can't sleep knowing Roman is out there working with the White Fang doing god knows what." Blake said, her voice getting steadily louder.
Ruby raised her hands in surrender to calm Blake down before she said calmly, "Oh the Fates know what he's planning, but they won't share with me what it is. I'm looking into what Roman and the White Fang are up to. I don't want you, or anyone else looking into it." Ruby stated firmly.
"But we can help!" Blake replied.
"Blake, I mean this in the nicest way I can but I've been hunting the White Fang for almost all my life. I've watched them changed from the peaceful organisation to the violent and aggressive one they are now. I promise you I will stop them and keep you informed but you can't keep doing this. I can see the bags under your eyes from a lack of sleep." Ruby explained.
"Take a break, sleep and relax. Go to the dance either on your own or with someone but just spend a night relaxing without any concerns or worries." Ruby said gently.
"But how? I can't think of how the White Fang are planning something but we don't know what." Blake replied.
"Push these thoughts from your mind. At least for a little while, you don't need to be plagued by these thoughts constantly." Ruby told her. "If it only helps for a little while then it is good."
"But how do I do that? I don't know how to push these thoughts from my mind." Blake said, the exhaustion sounding clear in her voice.
"Imagine a door. Push these thoughts behind that door and close it, and lock that door away. It might not help for long but it might provide a little relief. The dance is in two days, you're excused from classes until the dance is over, got it?" Ruby stated.
"What am I supposed to do until then?" Blake asked, worried about the inactivity.
"Sleep. Read, nothing stressful. If you're struggling to rest or find somewhere peaceful then you can use our room, just give me a heads up." Ruby informed her. "Now go before I show you true exhaustion." Ruby said, quickly shooing Blake out of the hall as she replaced her mask to carry on the lesson.
No one asked her about Blake and where she was going, they could all guess the words exchanged between the two women but they were thankful as they could all see how tired Blake truly was.
After the class was over with further hand to hand drills and sparing in pairs while Ruby advised and pointed out flaws everyone left exhausted while Neo remained behind to talk to Ruby.
"Blake getting some rest?" Neo asked.
"Hopefully, Mother told her to rest at least until the dance and to try to relax but it's up to her what she does." Aria informed her.
"That's good. The students from the other schools should be arriving shortly, do you think she really is coming here? In person." Neo asked.
"Yes, I trust my source completely and the fact my source is in the group arriving with her." Ruby said.
"But isn't it a huge risk she's taking?" Neo asked.
"Not really, there aren't many people, if any that really know who she is so it's relatively safe." Ruby stated, removing her mask from her face briefly.
"I see. How are we playing it?" Neo asked.
"I'm going to pay her a visit. You are going to see Ozpin and explain the situation to him, under no circumstances are the staff or students meant to know who she is." Ruby stated firmly.
Nodding Neo left the room with her towards their own room where they found Blake asleep on the small couch in their room.
Smiling Ruby picked the young woman up and carried her over to the bed without waking her up, laying her down Neo cover the woman with a blanket while Ruby went about getting changed into her other outfit from before.
Leaving the room Ruby was walking through the halls with a wide smile on her face and youthful enthusiasm that was so foreign to her that some of the people she saw in the halls had to do a double take.
Finally after half an hour of aimlessly walking through the school she finally found what she was looking for. Pulling out her scroll Ruby started rushing through the hallway until she ran into someone.
Ruby immediately started apologising to the tall woman with dark black hair dressed in Haven's uniform. "I'm so sorry. I was looking for a friend of mine but I wasn't paying much attention." Ruby said quickly.
"It's fine." The woman said in a silky smooth voice, "My name's Cinder, the man is Mercury and the woman is Emerald." The woman, Cinder introduced herself.
"Oh you're Cinder? I've been looking for you, my friend said they really wanted to meet you but they couldn't. They said you'd be too scared to meet them." Ruby said.
Cinder looked in shock alongside Mercury and Emerald, although Ruby could see amusement behind her eyes as well.
"Who is this person? I'm not scared of anyone." Cinder said, rising to the challenge.
"Oh um they didn't give me a name but they wore a red cloak and seemed robotic, at least the voice did." Ruby said cheerfully before adding, "She said to tell a woman called Cinder, 'I'll be bringing them down, wherever they go, I'm right behind you there's nowhere to go.' "Oh I need to go, enjoy the rest of your day and time here at Beacon." Ruby said cheerfully, waving at the three people before rushing off.
Emerald watched as Cinder paled as the girl ran off, what confused her was how this girl knew of the Reaper but she didn't question it for too long.
Cinder quickly recovered and stormed off ahead of them all, muttering under her breath as she went however she never truly recovered all the colour in her face for the rest of the day.
Ruby was still smiling when she entered her room where Neo was sitting on the couch on her scroll when she came in.
"How did it go?" Neo asked.
"She's scared, I delivered my message. So we have to see how she reacts." Ruby said, laying down on the couch next to Neo.
"Doesn't it make you a target?" Neo asked.
"Maybe, but I think she'll have bigger issues to worry about." Ruby said, laying her head down onto Neo's lap.
Neo smiled as she placed one hand onto Ruby's head and absently ran her hand through Ruby's hair and over her ears. "The meeting with Ozpin was interesting. He's agreed to give us all the access we need and to leave Cinder and her group alone, unless they do something very big." Neo informed her.
Ruby just hummed in acknowledgement to what Neo was saying but she just closed her eyes while attempting to sleep.
"So about the dance?" Neo asked.
"What about it? We know Cinder will attempt to upload something in the CCT so I'm going to stop them." Ruby said bluntly, keeping her eyes closed.
"Ruby, look at me." Neo said firmly, moving Ruby's head to face her.
Ruby opened her eyes to see Neo glaring at her as she asked, "Um what's wrong?"
Neo just sighed, shaking her head in response. "What about the dance? You won't be doing that the entire time so surely you can spend some time at the dance relaxing." Neo said.
"But I will be." Ruby replied.
Neo glared at Ruby once more as she said harshly, "That doesn't count. It's not really you, I want you there not just vanish back to our room after the ensuring fight." Neo said angrily to Ruby.
Ruby looked at Neo confused as to why she was so angry about this, "What's wrong? It's just a dance." Ruby said, confused.
"It's not just a dance. I've never been to one before, neither have you! I want to go to one, see what it's like. I want to experience it with you." Neo cried out to the other girl.
Ruby remained silent as her mind started going through everything while she saw Neo looking angry and upset at Ruby.
"Would you like to go to the dance with me?" Ruby asked softly.
Neo looked in shock at Ruby at the question, however this last for only a few seconds before she answered, "Of course I do. But what about Cinder?" Neo asked.
"I'll only be gone half an hour tops, it'll be fine. Ozpin will need to deal with Ironwood afterwards but I can spend the entire time with you." Ruby replied softly.
"You would really do that?" Neo asked almost in disbelief.
"Of course, I love you." Ruby replied, pulling Neo down for a kiss.
A/N
So the new volume has started and it hits you in the gut a little at first but the music is fucking amazing and so is the action. That's all I'll say about that there.
I didn't want to go into too much detail about the girls speaking with Ruby and Neo as, well they don't really explain a lot and most of it comes later throughout the story anyway.
Now I plan on including another OC later on that will be connected with Naomi and the story, you may actually know this character if you're a fan of the AC series ;)
But I need to ask something, I need alternate names for Neo. And I don't mind things for Ruby or others to call her but like she's a different person completely, because I'm shit at names I'm opening it up to you lot because that first episode has really really helped me for an idea of mine to show more about Neo.
Also there are a lot of you, 135 followers and 99 favourites yet only a couple review. I can't say much as I don't normally review stories that often now but it'd be great to see what you're all thinking, even if it's just one word.
Also to the guest reviewer, sorry about the cliffhangers but I can't say it'll get better, only worse. ^_^
I think that's it, so thanks for reading and see you next time. ^_^
(PS: In case you haven't noticed I update Tuesdays and Saturdays, in case people wonder when they'll see another chapter.)