"I wonder if she'd like tea...of course! every young woman likes tea! Why wouldn't they?" twirling his thick greyed moustache around in his fingers, he sighed, twirling the wooden spoon around a wooden stove, heated by his semblance.

Who was he? He was a gentleman, a scholar, an inventor, a husband, a father, and a headmaster for one of the greatest combat schools- just behind Beacon Academy- in the whole of Remnant. And with these impressive job roles, various titles came with them and the numerous messages, both filled with hatred and encouragement. So why was he, with these infinitely more important titles and responsibilities, labouring over a hot stove to stir up some soup for a girl he had barely met, who had walked in with blood and ash covering every inch of her?

Because she was polite enough not to ask for permission to enter, she simply stumbled through, as if not noticing he was a human; funny, he thought, that a gentleman should ask for permission before anything, but with this girl, the moment he laid eyes on her, she was something different entirely, something...grand, something to be figured out without touching the puzzle, or investigated without searching. She was what he would call occasionally, unique. He saw her eyes, as dimmed and battle-weary as they were, light up with fear and pain at the mere sight of him; why? What had people done to this girl in her past that got her so...terrified?

It was only when he undressed her to dress up her wounds did he notice why...the numerous amounts of scars on her body could have turned this unknown girl into a jigsaw for all he knew.

Yes, he had no idea of her name, but sir Reginald Hammerlock the fifteenth was not about to let that get him down. He was a gentleman, and gentlemen always preserved the right to ask questions to a fully conscious individual who looked like she would be able to speak soon.

With that massive slice across her throat that just barely missed her jugular and other important parts, he feared she'd never speak again.

He looked down at her mangled and broken body, watching as her mechanical left eye swivelled around behind closed eyelids, and her robotic right arm twitched uncontrollably while her human left one remained still. Hammerlock had many robotic prosthetics; a robotic leg, to help after he was viciously attacked by a band of beowolves and torn apart, and a robotic arm for basic movement.

He drifted his green eyes behind black tinted reading glasses to her right arm, watching as the case began welding itself shut, preventing what he assumed to be the thousands of cogs within from jamming due to outside materials or exposure to air for the more oxidising of the metal components used.

He heard a feint voice from the girl, barely a whisper, barely a single stutter of a name breezing past cracked red lips, and cherry-tinted cheeks. The round jaw of hers moving in part with the other side of it, mechanical wires and pieces of metal showing through the torn skin of the girl; he had no doubt it would heal in time.

It wasn't the word that caught him off-guard, no, it was the fact that she could speak at all.

"Blake..."

(^^^^^^)

Four days ago...

Ruby dodged Emerald's attack, spinning past her dagger with ease akin to a leaf blowing through a gentle breeze. She used Emerald's tiny but noticeable stagger against her, tilting the hilt of her sword to butt the end of Emerald's fingers, causing the girl's hands to shake violently, even after she picked up her dropped weapons and spun angrily on her feet.

Ruby was faster, spinning the blade with expert ease in a reverse grip, slicing every part her sword could get at, never sloppily stabbing or thrusting, only taking the moment to slightly dash her sword forward when the time was right: When a chink in the armour became visible not only to her, but the audience as well. If that were the case of the former, Emerald would be dead, and she seriously did not want to have more blood on her hands already.

Emerald managed to launch three strikes, but Ruby used her speed semblance just enough to slow the world around her, spinning around the slowed down daggers and delivering three vertical and two diagonal slices and slashes to the girl, who- rather comically- backpedalled once Ruby sped time back to normal.

Weiss Schnee now woke up from her rather grand beating, and watched on with what could be anger and ill satisfaction that Emerald was up there taking the beating and not her. She needed, desperately, to know everything there was about the enigma known as Ruby- previously as Reaper.

But, alas, to her demise, her sapphire eyes could not see movement from Ruby's hands; they were either still, or moving at a speed so fast not even the Faunus eye could watch. She could see Neo, the strange girl form earlier, watching every single detail of the combat arena herself, but not once watching Ruby fight; was she that confident in her old friend's abilities? Or was she just that bored?

Ruby's hands were moving so fast that Emerald felt the stabbing and slicing of the blade a full ten seconds after the hits landed, or, when she thought they landed. For all she knew, with the speed Ruby was moving at, the slices weren't intended for her at all, and weren't even hitting her; for all she knew and could see, this Reaper girl was clearly the best this school would ever house, train and see for many, if not never, to come.

For all she did know and could see, she didn't know and could not see the metallic right hook coming at her at about four thousand miles an hour, smashing right into her aura and draining it completely.

But Ruby did not stop there, and no one could stop her, she was a simple red blur, and even if they tried, the students and teachers alike would both be losing limbs of even heads for even attempting to stop the girl.

But then, to everyone's utter amazement, Ruby stopped, the tip of the sword stopping its blurred path to end at the nape of Emerald's neck.

Blood trickled down Emerald's side, and the entire area was tense, muscles primed for pouncing with the teachers and hands clicking away at camera-phones, trying to catch the scariest person alive- Reaper herself- almost kill a student.

But Ruby simply brought the blade away, and flicked her wrist from left to right in a fast, blurred swish motion, before her sword disappeared, petals taking its place and her cloak materialising on her back, in its normal pinned position.

Then, everyone could be heard taking a breath as Ruby extended her hand to the fallen Sustrai, who accepted her hand with a smile; both of kinship as a great blade master, and respect as a brilliant fighter- never has a Sustrai been bested.

The entire crowd erupted in cheers, whistles, slow claps and more, but Blake was simply watching the green-haired girl as she made a form of peace gesture with a suddenly shy Ruby, who was flinching every time she spoke.

The cheers and applause lasted for an entire minute, and before it dulled to empty claps and bows of heads, Blake noted Ruby do something strange; she placed her closed metal fist in an open, vertical palm, and bow; an old sign of respect amongst the Faunus.

She smiled slightly as Ruby locked eyes with her when the green haired girl left.

Blake knew what she had to do.

(^^^^^^)

Present...

She groaned, slightly at first that he almost didn't hear it, but his ears did twitch. Again, another groan, louder this time causing him to turn around in surprise his green eyes widened in shock.

He almost sprinted over to the girl, slowly backing her down to the bed, stopping her from rising and further aggravating her scars- both old and new.

"Hey, hey, best not sit up, lass, or you'll damage those cybernetics of yours." He spoke; heavy Atlesian with a hint of Mystralian, but it was a lost tongue to her.

She simply tilted her head; why would a human be helping her?

...her eyes widened in fear, and she backed away in the corner of the bed, whimpering and shuffling further away every time he inched closer, his hands up the same placating gesture that...that...

...he sighed when he heard another whimper. "Please, I'm not going to hurt you, but you're hurting yourself every time you move." No response from the girl; not that he expected it anyway. "I want to help you, okay?"

No response, but she very reluctantly released her grip from the bed's sheets- satin, she noticed was the texture of the covers- and even more so as reluctant decided to drag her hands and feet in a shuffling movement towards the man.

When she was within range, he extended a hand, but noticed how she would flinch; he immediately retracted it, but the smile on his weathered face never lessened. "Hello, young lady! My name's Sir Reginald Hammerlock! But you may call me Hammerlock for short." His smile wasn't contagious, nor was his excitable behaviour- considering this man had to be at least fifty, if not more- but the girl still felt the need to blush at the gentlemanly act of selflessness; introduction first was always a well known rule of being an eccentric gentleman.

He led her down some mahogany stairs that she couldn't pay attention to- her mind was wandering- and into a kitchen area where two voices- one that seemed to belong to a teenager and one that seemed to belong to an elderly woman- came from.

He ushered her in, and as soon as she entered, she shrunk in on herself when the entire room had her presence known; good thing her cloak was on her, otherwise she'd be losing it to the blackness of- no, she won't go there again.

Hammerlock kissed the elderly woman, a woman who couldn't have been older than forty five, before simply nodding his head in affirmation to the younger girl, who was sat there, eyeing the newcomer very strangely.

Hammerlock then escorted her to a chair, where she sat very small in, her knees close to her chest and her robotic arm shielding most of her knees, leaving a small gap for her robot eye to peak through.

The girl across form her spoke up, and her blood ran colder than ice Dust.

"You're Reaper, aren't you?"

(^^^^^^)

If any of you can guess the references in this and the next chapter that will be up soon, then you get something very special...

...a shoutout and a request. I can't do much more than that, I'm afraid, but the first one to review or PM me with the info starting after the next chapter, gets a free request and a shoutout.

Remember this challenge starts next chapter.