Disclaimer

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

Any of the names other than RWBY cast are fictional and resemblances to real people are purely accidental.

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

Gentle rose - a sabre sword.

Scarlet rose - rifle

Age - 14 years 2 months 2 weeks

My timeline of V1-3: imgur com /a/ZyoijxK

CHAPTER 21

After taking the sleeping bag and checking the tent layout on map, Ruby bid her goodbye and left the command tent. She made her way through the camp to Blake's tent, where she had been assigned and stood in front of it for a moment, making sure it was the right one and then unzipped slowly the zipper in front of it.

After opening the tent, she saw that Blake was already inside lying on a mattress, looking at her with a book in her hands, that she closed, but left her finger inside, to not lose a page.

"Hey, got assigned as your roommate for a week, or more. Can I come inside?"

"Yes, you can. Just don't make a mess inside" Ruby heard a response in bored voice, as Blake then continued to read her book.

Ruby came inside and looked around, she found some free space to place her sleeping bag and a bag with her stuff, then unclipped her sword and lastly her gun in full size, letting all of them rest on the ground. She saw Blake looking at her weapons, then at her and lastly towards her two pistols lying near her and then again towards Scarlet Rose Gentle Rose duo.

Ruby smiled proudly and tapped her right arm saying "This one I won't be removing, as it is quite a helpful hand in life".

"What the fuck? How did you fit that?" Blake whispered in shock looking at a sheer volume of Ruby's weaponry.

"This is Scarlet Rose, a high caliber sniper rifle capable of breaking through light armour, with a spear end holding four blades. It has a second, more compact rifle mode with twenty rounds magazines that goes through the smaller barrel, that now is uncovered" Ruby presented her weapon, now in assault rifle mode "it has a single and a burst mode, since full auto mode would generate too much heat with eight point five caliber. The third mode is just for carrying it on my back, since it is the most compact form. As for the sword it is called Gentle Rose, a sabre type sword without any modifications" Ruby continued, as she placed her rifle fully compacted on the ground and unsheathed her sword "curved blade, finger protector, sharpened on both sides. That is all. As for an arm, it has retractable claws on fingers, but I would not show it now, since it would break a fake skin finger layer, unless I were to take them off, but then it would make people cautious, so it is more of a surprise thing. All of my childrens were designed and made by me. What about your weapons?"

"Name Gambol Shroud, two rapid fire pistols, with a long spring loaded long ribbon, strong enough to hold a grown person, it has a blade that can switch for various modes, from short katana, cleaver and smaller versions" Blake answered with an interest, before asking "You have to train a lot if you want to use these weapons without problems. How good are you?"

"Well I train almost every day for hours, unless I have a task to do. You can trust me that I know how to use my kids. We can spar now if you want, I would be more than happy to finally be able to fight somebody, since it is more exciting than just a lonely training".

"No, you will be able to spar later as you heard before. Now how old are you?"

"Fourteen, and you?"

"Sixteen, so it is no wonder why you are so short" Blake laughed at her expression.

"I am not small! I drink milk! A lot of it!" Ruby pouted with an angry expression on her face, before sitting on top of her sleeping bag and looking with jealousy on the Blake air mattress she was sitting on.

After a moment Ruby heard "fine you can sit here with me if you want. Better than that sleeping bag of yours, just don't make holes in it kitty".

Ruby stood up and sat next to her and said "thank you pussy".

They looked at each other, before laughing. After managing to calm down, Ruby wore her earphones, she recovered from a bag and started to listen silently to her music, as she didn't want to bother other feline faunus next to her, as she continued to read her book.

After a while as they sat together, Ruby took a look at Blake's book and started reading it, before muttering "how is that possible? Such a position would be really uncomfortable…", causing Blake to take a look at her, before reddening and closing the book stuttering "you, y-you are too young to read this book".

"Why? I was seeing worse and better things already. Also the network got much better things, if you are in range. Also age restrictions should be based on mental age, not physical one in most cases" Ruby said looking at Blake with a little tilted head and with a thoughtful expression, as she inside enjoyed watching and teasing the other resident.

Blake got even redder than before and pushed Ruby away with her left hand, who just fell on top of the mattress, as her right was holding a book. Seeing her reaction, Ruby could not hold it anymore and started laughing and Blake muttered "you will pay for this", before placing her book closed and jumping on top of Ruby and tickling her.

"I give up! I give up!" Ruby yelled, but Blake onslaught did not stop, but continued, as Ruby laugh and begging was still there, until Blake raised Ruby shirt to tickle her in stomach and stopped seeing full set of muscles underneath, causing her to compare to her own stomach and falter back onto mattress with feelings of totally losing and muttering "you won".

"Huh, Blake, are you feeling okay?" Ruby was confused at the strange reaction from her tentmate.

"How did you get these suntanned stomach muscles? Just how? These types of muscles belong to the body builders and you do not look like one and you are also younger and smaller than me! I feel like I have totally lost since I am older and training too…" Blake pouted at the end with a sad expression on her face.

"Oh these?" Ruby raised her shirt and started feeling them with her left hand absentmindedly with thoughts running down her head "I just wasn't doing anything special, but already for years I was working and training hard, plus my semblance is allowing me to strike things extra hard…" she pressured one of her stomach muscles absently by trying to squeeze it "which makes my body to absorb a shock generated… As for suntan, that just lazing on a roof on sunny Sundays".

Blake, hearing this just lied down murmuring "I think I will give up for now… " as she pulled her book above her and continued reading the way that Ruby would not see inside anymore, but the title 'Samurais of love - book one' was visible.

As the silence continued, Ruby pulled out her scroll and started playing on it for an hour, after that she put it back in her pocket, wore mask, took a sword and left saying "Gonna talk with Adam, see you later"

"See ya" Blake's short reply sounded as Ruby left the tent.

Walking slowly and memorising the camp layout, Ruby made her way towards the Taurus tent and saw it open, with him sitting in front of a small desk with a dust laptop on it, a mug full of some hot brew. The desk had a couple of empty seats surrounding it and as she stood in front of the tent and said "Hey can I come in?".

Adam looked at her, with his mask on and then nodded with his hand pointing towards an empty chair in front of him, which Ruby walked towards and sat.

"Hey Ruby, wanna drink something? I have a black tea, sugar, milk, coffee and water here" said Adam with a smile on his face.

"Can I have a glass of milk?" She asked unsure, but he just poured her a mug full of milk and placed it in front of her, before going back to his seat.

Taking a sip of a little chilled milk, Ruby said to him "You invited me to talk, so I came"

"Well I am curious about you, as we both survived Schnees bastards. So I wanted to trade our stories and points of view on these humans" Adam answered with a grin full of distaste when he was ending speaking.

"Well I got put into mine, could be worse, but luckily for me it was carrot and stick rule, where stick was horrible gruel" Ruby shuddered at that mention remembering how some people literally vomited after, or during eating it "or what you wanted to eat, or drink based on points made from your performance in excavation of fire dust crystals. People were dying fast during explosions, when somebody accidentally, or intentionally struck one, or killed whore shaft of people if the explosion was big enough, which happened at least once a month."

Ruby took another sip with a grim expression on her face and continued "After the fire stopped, there was a dead body cleaning duty, some people were still alive, but without any chances for survival" Ruby stopped and looked down at her hands "for them it was a mercy for somebody to finish them off, so they would stop feeling pain and crying for nonexistent help".

Looking up she saw Adam knuckles whitening, as his fists closed for a while with face full of rage, so she waited for him to calm down, before continuing "one day hope came, as the news of White Fang militarisation and active fighting was brought to us and the guards became more afraid of us, thus stopping their snatching of young adult womens. We could not escape with the chips inside our arms, that also had a number tattoo" Ruby showed then her right arm ending stump, that had what remained of her marking, causing Adam to feel even bigger fury, so she waited for him to calm down.

After a while and another sip of milk, causing her mug to be half empty, or half full, depending on who you ask, she continued "One day I managed to save a person from accidentally striking one crystal and later he helped me escape, after somebody pushed me into the nook at the start of explosion and I was not able to escape that time, which cost me my right arm, but also destroyed the chip completely, so I could leave the range. I was unconscious when he helped me, but when I regained my consciousness, he explained everything to me and even smuggled out a fire dust crystal for me, to cauterize the stump outside. For a few days I wandered, until I found the city and the white fang cell that later performed the attack and rescue operation on that mine. I also managed to get revenge by killing the manager on a mission later. Now your turn" Ruby smiled and looked at her mug that was one fourth full.

"I was sent to mine in Atlas continent and kept refusing to work for humans, then at night they took me somewhere and tortured me, before burning their logo over my eye. I lost my consciousness for a moment and when they untied me and dropped their guards I managed to wake up and grab one of the humans, steal his weapon, before breaking his spine and shooting down the rest I finished him off. Took their guns and managed to find the rest of our kind, which I gave weapons and building by building, we killed all humans, taking their stuff and armouring ourselves in meantime. After that they followed me and we managed to find a road that led to the city, where we joined the white fang under old leadership, which we opposed, due to their cowardice and reluctance to arm us. What remained of my men are following me to this day, to this camp with new faces joining us. Sienna should fight the humans more, than just reaction shots. We need to prevent things, not just react."

Ruby thought for a moment, before saying "and how do you want to prevent things? High leader already tried to do it, but can't find a way".

"By killing the Schnees completely and everyone that supports them, make people afraid of us, know that we are better and stronger than them. If they fear us enough, then they won't act against us anymore, as all of them are the same. You can never trust a human".

"I have to disagree, we might be better at some things, but they are the ones ruling most of the world, that isn't Grimm controlled, also fear would make them lash out strongly like from us, killing Schnee family would make Atlas military attack us at full force, which would mean the end of White Gang, as for trusting humans, there are two kinds of them and I know that due to my family roots, I have a human father and human half-sister, though we were raised as sisters".

"And where are they? Do they know you are there in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by White Fang, you are part of it?"

"They don't know that I am still alive and many years have passed already, I don't think it is a good idea to show myself to them after so much time".

"Because you know that they already made a peace with you gone from their lives and most likely forgot you Ruby, you know that they would never accept you back, with who you became, a scarred former slave and a killer, there is no way for you, because if you return, they would send you to the prison, or observe you like a thief, a bandit that just waits for them to drop their guard. They are humans and this is human nature".

"Don't end my words with your fantasies" Ruby growled out, before standing up and leaving, but her face was full of thoughts and fears such as 'would they really hate me? So much time passed, did they forget me? Would they accept me? Would I accept them?' As she left, she made her way back to the tent and lied down next to Blake, who just looked at her and hugged her to her side, as she continued to read her book.

Ruby cried softly and silently for a while, with her face hugged to Blake's side, before saying "thank you" and falling asleep.

Ruby woke up to a gentle shake on her arm and saw Blake looking at her from above, as she had unknowingly placed her head on top of Blake's legs during her nap and heard her saying "It is a sparing time now, get ready sleepy cat".

Ruby slowly got up from her lying position and armed herself fully, while also removing fake skin from her right metal hands fingers, so she could use her claws and left with Blake, who was waiting for her at the entrance of the tent.

Together silently they made their way to the sparring ground and saw that most of the people were already here, but they still had to wait a while for rest to join, with the last running towards them yelling "sorry for being late! Got stuck in the toilet!"

Adam made his way towards the centre of field and started exclaiming rules such as no maiming, no targeting the crowd, no leaving the circle that was twenty meters wide during fight, no striking when one person aura reached critically low level, under ten percent and the first one to yield or fall below ten percent was losing a match.

"Now who wants to go first".

Ruby amongst the few others raised their hands and saw Adam looking at her "So let's first be the youngest of all of us" he pointed at Ruby "and your opponent will be…"

"Adam Taurus" she injected looking at him, which he nodded and answered with "if that's what you want, then let's go" he unsheathed his blade, no gun mechanism.

Ruby seeing this, reached for her back, took out her Scarlet rose and yelled "Blake catch", before throwing it towards her, which she caught but took a step back at the heavyweight of the rifle, as Ruby made her way towards the centre of the circle and unsheathed Gentle rose.

"So you will be a referee" Adam pointed at random faunus.

Standing in front of each other with unsheathed blades, they waited as the referee took the tablet with an aura count function and performed a countdown "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, start!".

Both of them launched at each other, Ruby held her sword in right hand, as she parried the first strike from the side and thrusted her sabre, nicking Adam in the torso and leaving a red mark on his chest for while, as his aura took a hit, that would leave a small wound, smirking Ruby took a step right to evade another swing and then took another couple of steps to attack his side, leaving another red scratch on his arm, as he was a little too late to parry the hit, but counterattacked almost instantly, making Ruby to use her semblance to evade the hit.

Dematerializing, Ruby managed to evade the hit that would make a deep red mark on her whole torso and with swirl of rose petals, she flanked him and materialising, she made a strong swing at his unprotected back, leaving another deep red mark and while still being at the safe zone, Ruby followed the strike with another one from down side, hitting and cutting him from an ass to the upper side of his back, leaving a jagged line across his back side. He was already striking at her with a rotated swing from her right side as a yell stopped the fight.

"Stop! Black Rose wins the match with an aura level of ninety seven percent, compared to Adam Taurus of eight percent".

Both of them backed off each other and Ruby returned to a crowd full of murmuring and mentally thanked her right arm for holding his strike, as if she were to use her left arm, she would have struggled with strength needed for that parry to be effective and would not be able to counterattack and would be forced to use more of her aura in fight. She took her rifle from a shocked Blake and stood next to her, as people started sparring each other.

An: Blake is more open for now, because there are less things and fears haunting her, compared to when we meet her in canon.

Also a surprise early release. Damn that one day will also take part in another chapter, as a briefing will have to happen.