Disclaimer

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

AN: Info for ease of writing and reading :P.

Gentle rose - a sabre sword.

Scarlet rose - rifle

Age - 13 years 4 months 1 week

RWBY timeline is a mess at the start… Let's say that V1 school starts somewhere in February and V3 in November. That would make the school year a ten month period with winter break and Ruby turning 15 for season 3. For weather - the beacon is close to the tropical site, which means longer summer and shorter winter. Ruby implied that the Vital Festival is at the end of the school year and she was at beacon from beginning. The robbery then should be late January , or even early February, which would excuse her for being late at night in the shop, as she was having a break period, while making it possible for her to be in Vale to prepare for school.

Chapter 12

"Good job Ruby, you made quite a mess in Atlas making them question and fear the authorities, also what did you think that shooting from the roof of the police department was a good idea!?" Sienna praised and yelled at her at the same time.

"It was the only position that I could find with a view on that room" Ruby answered with a squeaky voice, while standing on shaky legs in the middle of Khan's bedroom.

It was afternoon, just after she finished placing her backpack in her room and went immediately to report the successful mission directly to the high leader.

"Do you realize how dangerous that was? You were practically sitting on a hornet nest. If any of them would have seen you, then you would be captured, or dead. This is not a game. Why did you not target him before or even after the meeting?" Sienna angrily questioned Ruby, as she was worried that in future she would make a mistake and pay the ultimate price for it.

"I did not know the way he would travel, or anything about his car. His house was a stronghold with many defences and guards in place, making breaking in and killing him harder, as if I were to do it an alarm would start. It was a backup plan, where I would be most likely seen. Killing him in a room with Jacques Schnee would hit the other person's reputation and place fear on them. And with fear, he would need to respect us and abolish slavery in his company and subjects"

"You convinced me, but promise me to be careful in your next assignment after a two days break. Your actions might push our case ahead, but they need to know who they should be afraid of in future. You made them question the authority and turn part of the public opinion against them. You need to leave some kind of proof that it was white fang in revenge striking them, not a madwoman on a killing streak. Make your actions justified in public eyes, while placing fear and respect in others. I think that the best way will be to leave some kind of proof of their crimes against our kind with our white fang logo. Now take a rest and relax. Your lessons resume tomorrow and you are spending the night here".

Ruby nodded and left the room quietly. She then went and unpacked her backpack along with the stolen things from the apartment in Atlas and her gifts for doctor and Sienna, which she had gotten on her last day in the city. Deciding to give one present before sleepover and second at the start of lessons, she stripped herself of the clothes and took a long, warm bath. She missed it for these two days of sleeping in the factory.

'I need to learn about lockpicking, since not everywhere I would be able to just cut my way through, and being not able to close and open doors later would be troublesome' Ruby thought as she recalled using window as entry and leaving point, leaving the chair to block door handle back in apartment and realized she forgot to remove it.

'Poor team, I wonder how long it took them to get inside, only to find out that somebody just cut the lock and placed the stool under the handle' Ruby started laughing with this thought in her mind, while relaxing in a tub of hot water.

Half an hour later she left the tub relaxed and hungry for good food and no more pre prepared food to eat on a field. The fresh stuff was always better than the pre prepared food. The only thing that could beat fresh food were strawberries and cookies.

After wiping herself and wearing a new set of clothes, Ruby put the dirty ones in the laundry box for later. She then went to eat a feast and to visit the doctor to say hi and show that she is alright. The rest of the day passed by her searching for somebody to teach her lockpicking and found out it was the shooting range master backup skill, as he often forgets his keys. Ruby approached him and asked "could you teach me lockpicking? It would help me a lot on the missions".

"Sure, you need to have a good sense of touch, hearing for clicks and proper tools. I will let you practice with my set for now under my eyes, but you need to get your own ones. Hope you understand Ruby" Range master that she never learned his name, even though she tried in many ways.

"Thank you. When will we start?"

"I am free now, so I can teach you a little, but it would take you a month, or more to master the skill. It's not hard, when you get a trick and you will be able to open most locks in less than a minute, with some taking more, or breaking due to a trap, your mistake, or better security features"

She then learned from him about tools, the builds and types of locks and how they worked. Later before going to sleep, she gave a gift, a small tiger plushie, to Sienna, which resulted in her being extra cuddled for most of the night. She was not embarrassed as she got used to unusual weakness in fast to anger the high leader of white fang.

Next day she gave the present to the doctor, who accepted the cup with 'best teacher' with a smile on his face, but did not go easy on her. Later she learned more about lockpicking and was able to open a common type of padlock and before sleeping, she made her own set, by abusing her semblance a couple of times and a steel sheet and a steel ingot in her personal place inside the workshop.

The last day during noon Ruby came into the Khan throne room fully prepared for the next mission.

"Your target is a human woman named Margaret Gera. She is the owner of a couple of small shops in Mantle, Atlas and now getting some inside Vacuo. The rumors say that she wants to get in control of all faunus friendly dust shops and ban our kind from these places. She is going to Vacuo capital to negotiate and to buy as many establishments as she can. What we know is that in the Solitas continent her shops ban faunus from working and shopping. You need to investigate these rumors, collect the proofs via pictures, or a recorder that you will receive on your leave with money for travel expenses and if you find her guilty of crimes against our kind, then you will decide her fate. Dead, or alive. Remember to mark it as our job and leave the proof behind of her crimes. You will be transported to Mistral in twenty minutes and from there you will be on your own. Any questions Black Rose?"

"No high leader".

"Good, now go to landing pad three and good luck".

"I will come back in one piece, fine and well, high leader" Ruby left the throne room with these words and picked up her mission equipment. Then slowly approached the landing pad to get inside the bullhead.

Two hours later Ruby left the bullhead with the hood on her head near the white fang base and went into the city of Mistral. There she bought a map from a local news shop and localised the airport. Unlucky for her it was on the other side of the city, making Ruby decide to make a small tour of the city on her way there.

The city was built on a cliff and the newest buildings surrounding it. The architecture was a mix of cultures, races and criminals. Home of many law breakers and people who wanted to just hide away from the world. Ruby then saw an old human woman with prosthetic eyes looking at her from a coffee shop in front of her and panicked a little, before calming down and she decided to go straight to the airport. The woman stood up and blocked her path and did not let her pass, when Ruby tried to evade her.

"Kid, we need to talk for a moment. There is a great enemy that will try to kill you in future, due to yours eyes"

That made her stop and reach the Gentle Rose, but the woman staff hit her hand, causing Ruby to retreat and shake it from pain.

"What do you know about it? I haven't told and let anyone see me using them. Wrong choice of words and I will kill you grandma" Ruby said with a low, serious and threatening voice, completely different from her high volumes.

"Enough as I had them too in my younger days. I think we should talk somewhere private and have a little lesson about your manners too".

"I will follow you for now, but try anything and I will be gone before you see it"

She was then led to a coffee shop, where the old woman waved her left hand and the staff member led them into one of the private rooms. The woman then pointed her to a seat, while taking one at the other side of a table.

Ruby waited for the stranger to sit, before sitting herself, while unsheathing and placing her sabre on the blade and lowering her hood allowing her cat ears outside, where they scanned the sounds as she had a hand ready near the blade.

"At least with your horrible manners you know better than to not trust strangers. I am Maria Calavera. A retired huntress, traveler and a former silver eyed warrior, until I made a mistake and lost them. Some people call me a witch too" she added the last one with a small chuckle.

Ruby did not answer anything yet, but relaxed a little seeing that the woman did not try anything and didn't show any hesitation, nervous ticks, or any signs of lying. Her ears focused on the heartbeat of the woman during the speech and also did not pick up any tries of lying. She then processed the woman's words and sheathed the Gentle Rose, while relaxing. Dropping all the hostility she answered "Ruby Rose, a silver eyed warrior from my dead mother side".

"Your parents did tell you about the eyes, but what about the dangers? Also condolences for your mother" Maria answered in a gentle way.

"They haven't told me anything, as last time I saw them was years ago. After unlocking them I tried to train them, but it didn't work all the time. I did research through books, fairy tales and legends. I do not know what is false and true, but at least I have a starting point".

Calavera stood up and hugged her "It's must have been a hard for you young Ruby"

After a couple of minutes in silence Maria stopped hugging her and one of the staff members came to take the orders. Ruby asked for a strawberry shake and cake, while Calavera took herself a coffee. Maria then started telling her about the silver eyes, Salem, Grimm, Ozpin and the brothers. After two hours it evolved into a storytelling from both sides, with both of them laughing at each other for being a cripple. Ruby omitted the part of being a part of white fang, due to it being widely recognized as a terrorist organization.

"It's getting dark. You can take a guest room above the cafe. It was nice talking to you Ruby. Tomorrow I will have something special for you*.

Looking through the window, Ruby realized that due to her being here, she forgot about her task and accidently said "shit… My mission. I need to go now".

"What is it about a mission? I think you forgot to tell me something important and it's too late for you to leave now. I know you are way too young to be a huntress, or academy student, also that language… it is unbecoming of such a young lady to use it".

Ruby knew that she made a mistake, but there was no way to fix it. She reached to her and took out the white fang mask to place it on a table. I have a mission in Vacuo and I need to get there. Need to investigate and make decisions for the good of my kind".

Maria looked at her and with a sign of giving up answered "Tomorrow at twelve there will be a transport plane leaving from the airport to Vacuo capital. You can buy tickets for it tomorrow. Also… good luck on your task and thank you for listening to the old woman".

"It was a pure pleasure to listen to you miss Calavera. I hope we will meet again. I learned a lot from you today".

"Well next time we meet I will train you in combat and eye usage. Remember to not use eyes, since you can be knocked out alone in the forest full of Grimm. I am staying in this city for the next two months, before hitting the road to somewhere. Remember to call me if you have something important, or even less important things. See you tomorrow at breakfast at ten in the morning".

Ruby nodded happily and went to get a fast shower. After finishing it, she fished out pyjamas from backpack and went to sleep. Next time she ate a good breakfast with Maria, said goodbyes and left the cafe. Inside the airport twenty minutes later, Ruby bought the ticket and boarded the plane. She took the seat near the windows and watched how turrets put a small series of bullets every couple of minutes during the flight. Checking the arrival time, she realized that it would be a seven hours long flight. Ruby relaxed in her seat and started playing on her scroll.

AN: yep another author note.

Well in short: expect bigger breaks between chapters, while I will try to keep them at least 2K words or longer. I had run into some problems.

1: Lack of time

It takes me like 3-5 hours to write between 1,500-3000 words.

Which I have been taking from afternoon and sleeping periods.

2: My phone that I am using as my "writing machine" met a slipping piece of wood striking it in my pocket from the side, breaking its glass screen, while leaving the protective screen shield outside not even touched. Lucky this time the insides are not touched so no dead view.

3: My battery bloated and I have to use the old original one that causes my phone to shut down when it's in my pocket and I move. Lucky I save it all online, since I am using google docs, but sometimes I lose like 200 words and need to write them again.

4: Weekends are really busy days for me, so it's hard to write for me and I need to sleep more.

5: Doing research in RWBY, like finding out about Maria Calavera and deciding to add her here. Continents, cities, academies and other things are confusing and time taking too.

Hope you are healthy in this covid situation. Stay safe and if you can't then good luck :}