Disclaimer

I don't own RWBY, or any company related to it.

Chapter 10

In the next few weeks Ruby got busy with disguising her arm to look either natural, or be cowered the way it would not render any planned function useless. In the end she decided to draw a fake sleeve for arm and a dress to hide it. For a hand part a glove, but she liked having it out for a symbol of who she became and would only put it in need.

After planning it, she presented her plans to Sienna, who approved it after a couple of questions and confirmations, while fixing some mistakes on Ruby's part.

One week later Ruby received her new clothes with special sleeves designed by her for the arm. It was an optional wear attachable to the main dress, but strictly fit into the corresponding places, making the hidden openings reachable. Her favourite one was black styled with dark red rimming Gothic style dress with a skirt, that could hide a small pistol under it if she wanted.

She then started thinking about a melee weapon with a doctor. She originally wanted a scythe with in-build high velocity sniper rifle, but he pointed out that the weapon would be useless in close quarter combat with small space available, useless against fast moving enemies and moderate at mid range, due to time it would take to aim it with a complicated design making it hard to maintain.

"Also I don't see too much point in making a single multipurpose weapon with many drawbacks, when you could make two of them" Doctor Links said and she realized how true it sounds. One major weapon failure could mean death for its user, as he would not be able to repair, or use it on the battlefield.

"What if I made a high velocity sniper rifle as primary mode with the ability to collapse into an assault type of gun chambered with smaller rounds, separate barrel and firing system? For a melee weapon it would be a fast one handed sword with good thrusting capabilities, moderate length, two way sharpened light and a highly mobile blade with some type of protection for fingers".

"The sword you are looking for is called a sabre. Forgotten, but a great sword used once by cavalrymen and line infantry. The old families with lines full of officers in them still use it as a symbol of status and deadly weapon. The blade it's also curved for which you could use for advantage over a straight type of weapon. The drawback is that it is weak against armor plates as almost all of them and require a strong grip, but that should not be a problem for you"

"Will you help me make one of these sabres? Never heard of them before"

"I will gladly recreate one of them. Let's start with planning, then we will move onto the materials and make it. We should then get you a fencing teacher to teach you how to properly use it. Now we need to go back to the lessons. We already missed a lot of today's material" he smiled at her, causing a small groan to escape her lips and ears to fall down a little.

"That's not fair. Doctor, you were engrossed in this discussion as much as me".

"Maybe, but I am a teacher and you are a student, so supporting and helping your development is my duty. While I am happy to do it, I cannot yeaporize your education. We will spend up to two hours a day on your activities and hobbies and we will go back to the lessons" Doktor answered with a smile, as he opened the book and resumed yesterday's lesson.

In the end it took them three weeks to make a sabre that was properly shaped and perfectly balanced with all of the features present in it. Ruby was surprised at how hard it was to make a proper blade and a sheath for it and promised herself to take care of it. After the lessons, she approached Sienna and asked, while handing her a blade "I wish for somebody to teach me on how to properly hold and use this sabre that I made with Doctor Links".

Sienna removed the blade and gave it a couple of swings to test its balance. "It's a very nicely made sword. I am proud of you. For a teacher, there is a guy named Grick teaching melee combat between three past afternoons to seven every day at the third training hall. Go there and show him this sword and ask him if he could teach you. The thing he hates the most is a good blade in hands of ignorant and incompetent person".

"Thank you, high leader" Ruby answered, taking back her sword and leaving the room, before using her semblance to move as fast as possible to the training hall number three.

Reaching her destination, she opened the door and came inside. Looking around the room she saw a lot of people training here with various blades and a man instructing one of the faunus on how to properly strike using a dagger. He was an imposing man with goat antlers on top of his head. His body had numerous scars, which most of them were hidden by working out clothes. Assuming he was Grick, she slowly made her way to him and asked when he started looking at her "Excuse me, but are you perhaps Grick?"

"Yes that's me child" his deep neutral tone of voice reached her.

"I would like to learn how to use this sabre and I heard you are the best person here. I would be honored to be taught by you" Ruby said while giving him her sword, in which he resulted in laughter "hahaha… There is no need for pleasantries and as long as you want to learn, you are welcome here. Now what's your name and what do you know about this sword and about wielding"

Ruby then said everything about what she knew about this sable with all parameters. "As for how to use it, I am completely untrained and uneducated with melee and I want to change that.

"Okay, stand here and grab the saber" He then started instructing her step by step about correct holding and foot work. She also had to change her weapon hand all the time he gave her signal in order to train ambidexterity.

Taking lessons with the doctor every morning, taking break for dinner and sabre training, which she named 'Gentle Rose' for it's deceptive fragile looks, took most of the day out, but before going to sleep, Ruby always found some time for research and planning on her ranged weapon.

In time she started to improve with her swordsmanship skills, allowing her to last a couple of seconds more against Grick and he started to train her hand to hand combat, by utilizing her speed, small size and metal arm as an advantage in fight.

Two months later, a thirteen year old Ruby finished making plans for her weapon, which she named 'Scarlet Rose'. The next morning she showed them to her teacher and after a short discussion and Ruby defending the plans, he agreed to make them reality.

Again Ruby abused her semblance to make all the parts perfect and started assembling them with the help of Doctor Links. It took them two hours to complete it and test the moving components. "It looks good, but we don't know if it's working properly, until we shoot it. Let's make some ammunition and magazines now"

Doctor Damian then started teaching her about the right proportions of dust in rounds as too much might cause the explosion of the round inside a gun making it unusable without replacing the barrel and firing mechanism. "Also remember that using not enough dust, might make you miss a shoot, due to decreased bullet velocity, or even stay inside the barrel and cause a jam".

It took her another hour to make five magazines for each type of caliber on her rifle.

"Now Ruby, let's go to the shooting range to test the scarlet rose".

Ruby collapsed her weapon into traveling mode and attached it on her back, under the cloak on a specially made magnet for ease of access. Her sabre, gentle rose, was hanging all the time on her right side, as she refused to leave it for a moment.

On the range, she loaded a smaller caliber first and prepared to shoot, while aiming in the middle of the target under watchful eyes of people, who for safety reasons took a step back. Ruby herself utilized aura on her body and arm to defend herself.

"Go" voice of a rangemaster's voice went through the speaker and she shot one bullet, hitting the target where she aimed.

"Full mag. Go again" Ruby switched to full auto and started shooting. Her metallic arm effectively stopped all recoil effects, making her all round hit in the middle of the target.

"Nice. Reload and shoot again. Now randomly switch targets. Five rounds each in full" Ruby did as he said. The challenge was hard now as she had to hit at least six targets, but she managed all of them in the middle again.

"A great talent here I see. Now switch to sniper mode and hit these three targets at the end of the range and that steel can sitting next to the wall behind these targets". Ruby switched again and used her scope to aim, take the distance to the target and shoot. The knockback pushed her back a little, but she repeated it, managing to score a direct hit each time, even on the can. Every shoot required her to eject a casing and grab a bullet from a magazine via pull action. The exit gas would destroy the rifle if she were to use it for loading her gun like in assault mode.

"Reload and do it again twice" she still had one bullet in her rifle making the magazine empty, so she loaded a new one and had effectively six bullets total. She managed to score her targets again.

"I am impressed. We have a new little sharpshooter here with a nice and deadly gun. Congratulation for breaking a record here"

Ruby was shocked at how easily she got tricked into making a new record and her skill, when she was supposed to just test her weapon.

"You tricked me! It was supposed to be a scarlet rose test, not a record breaking!"

"What can I do when I see a talent, I want it to shine" he replied through a speaker making her red from embarrassment and she left the room while being congratulated by everyone.

Later that day after getting a congratulatory extra long session of cuddling from Sienna, which makes her even more embarrassed, but happy at the same time, she realised that her arm needed some upgrades. One of them to allow her arm to firm into some kind of spike and penetrate armor platings, better strength grip and wrist, material to resist the use of new tasks, a saw to cut metal if she were to be imprisoned and a hidden sheathed blade inside her wrist. She started drawing plans again and experimenting.

Three months later her new arm was ready to be installed. Doctor this time personally attached it to her stump. After a little jingling sensation it calmed down and they tested it. The max grip strength was now 330kg, which means she could bend four millimeters thick stainless steel plate, or six millimeters thick steel plate. All new add ons were working properly and a new blade on her wrist could stab and hide at high speed and was even able to pierce a small steel plate.

Ruby realized it was time for her to join officially. She was armed, trained, ready and deadly. Standing up, she slowly made her way to Khan's room and knocked on the doors.

"Come in Ruby"

Going inside with a serious face and straight back she kneeled in front of Sienna and said prepared with arguments in her favor "I wish to join the white fang. I'm ready and at yours command"

The high leader took a step into the shelf and removed a half top grimm mask lying here and gave it to her with words "I believe you are ready too. I was waiting for you to come, as that mask was waiting on this shelf. Tomorrow you will receive your first assignment. Rest now. I am proud of you Ruby".

Ruby was shocked as she expected the complete opposite, but accepted it while saying "thank you for everything. I will continue to serve our case for my whole life and I promise you that I will not disappoint you".

Sienna smiled and scratched Ruby cat ears earning a purr from her. They enjoyed the moment, as they knew that tomorrow Ruby will leave the base for an assignment.

"Tonight you will sleep with me" Sienna stated. Ruby stopped visiting Khan's bedroom at night after her eleventh birthday, since she decided to gather her resolve and start to sleep in her own room alone.

"Yes, high lider" Ruby answered with a serious voice of underling accepting her leader's orders.

"Now start preparing for leave tomorrow. Mission might take up to a week of time on hostile territory"

"Yes miss Khan"

Ruby then left the room and visited her own place. It changed a lot in these years. On the wall there was a big red rose symbol that was also present on her clothes. Her mom had the same symbol, but in white colors, but she chose red as it fitted her colors and personality better. After all, she wasn't as pure as her mother.

The desk and shelves were full of books, plans, spare parts, magazines with color strips at the bottom and various dust types of bullets lying around. Each color was assigned by dust type as it varied in looks.

Passing by them, she looked onto her collection of old tales, legends and notes about them and thought about how much is a truth or a fiction. Is the mage Ozma real? Did he die to be reborn again and again? Is Salem the witch and queen of grimm, who was cursed by a dark god for rebellion still alive? Are the maidens a young womens who were given the gift by the mage? A lot of research showed her that four womens with great power over nature existed up to a certain time, when they went silent, due to greed and war caused by people. Though the most important question was 'what happened to silver eyed warriors gifted with the power from a light god to fight grimm?'. Were they hunted down by Salem? Did they even exist, or was it a single bloodline from her mother to her now? Too many questions and not enough facts. What she found funny was that the youngest headmaster of the beacon name is actually Ozpin. Like he wanted to replace 'ma' with 'pin' to hide his name.

Well she aborted her thoughts, checked and loaded her supplies to a backpack. After getting ready Ruby placed the bag next to the door and left to share the news with the doctor and range master while keeping her mask on face all the time.

Both of them were surprised and made her promise to get back here safe and in one piece alive.

Later that afternoon Ruby worked out outside and practiced her semblance on an obstacle course. She remembered how in the past a nevermore was able to stop her with a wing, by blocking her approach. Thankfully to the course she managed to learn how to easily change her directory of movement and use terrain to her advantage. Now if somebody were to place a wall in front of her in semblance mode, she would be able to go around it, or climb it without rematerializing. It took her a total of two years to learn it, by increasing the curve of the wall every time she finished each step.

It was getting dark. Ruby went to the canteen for the last meal, while taking a couple of curious looks at her. She was quite surprised at the start, but later Ruby remembered that the mask was on her making it the focus of attention.

Deciding to ignore the looks, she took her meal and ate it slowly in her favourite place next to the plant box containing roses, that she put and grew here.

After eating, Ruby retreated to her room, took a quick shower, wore her black pyjamas and sneaked into Sienna's bedroom, who was waiting for her. Ruby then received a cuddling session on a bed, while also being used as a body pillow. After a moment both of them were asleep.

AN: time goes forward a lot faster than I anticipated… Ruby is now 13 year old with 4 months on her belt. Originally planned for her to be for two years a member of white fang before volume one. Also note that Ruby won't be attending beacon, or any huntsmen academy and Vale is not a place she will visit, unless something major would be happening here. If you wonder why I am so watchfull with time, then it's because there are actions happening, where Ruby has no direct or indirect impact and some things can happen, while others can be prevented, but no more spoiling.

Have a good day or night and be healthy