Chapter 55

"So, any tips and tricks?" Ruby asked as she sat down on one of the black and purple cubes that could be made into walls or obstacles.

Russel sat down opposite her and drew one of his daggers. "Kinda. I'm not too good yet, but I've picked up a little. With Dust, the most people use it for is bullets or coating a weapon. Those are fine and good but we're here for the higher arts. Schnee-" He cut off for a moment and looked at her. Ruby rolled her eyes and waved for him to continue. He coughed.

"Sorry. Your partner could use her Semblance to form the more advanced stuff with ease, but we need to work harder. Now we could use raw crystals but that's obvious and dangerous. But coating our blades will only get the most basic techniques unless we get crafty."

He stood, stretching his arms for a second before he drew his second dagger. The chambers twirled as he selected the Dust he wanted. A bluish-white light suffused the blades. Russel clashed them together, drawing the edges over the top of each other quickly. A thin sheet of ice launched from the space in between the daggers and pierced a nearby box.

Ruby's eyes widened in surprise and she walked over to investigate. He had created a small, thin, sharp blade of ice and sent it flying out. She looked back to see him sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"That was definitely more than I can do."

"R-really? Well ah… I'm glad I have something to teach you I guess." Russel chuckled. Behind him his team, sat near the door, facepalmed.

"Hm. It'll be hard to do the same with my scythe… but if Weiss could use her Semblance to shape them for her, maybe I can do the same?"

"I don't know how a speed boost will help here…"

Ruby shook her head. "It's not speed. I transform into rose petals. I guess it spreads my weight around or something? The speed is a side effect anyway." Russel hummed in understanding.

"That could work. Though you might still be restricted in the forms you can make, it should be more than what you can do with a scythe."

Ruby pulled out a crystal of ice Dust. "Well, let's get to work shall we?"

"Yeah." Russel smiled.

The truck shook slightly as it hit a bump in the road. It wasn't a paved road, so there were many of those. Ruby stirred next to her but remained asleep. Penny couldn't help but feel pretty happy about Ruby sleeping with her head resting on Penny's shoulder.

A month had now passed since Ruby and her friends had arrived and things couldn't be better for Penny. She had her closest and best friend back and they even got to work together! The Defender and the Reaper were known in Mantle now. Of course, they weren't universally loved or accepted but that didn't matter. Neither of them cared about that.

I'm just so happy I get to work with her! I've wished for so long to be able to spend more time with a friend! We even got to do all the things I wanted to! Truly she was feeling pretty great about life these days.

Ding! A soft sound alerted her. Her vision changed, shifting into thermal vision and then zooming. Ahead of them were a few heat signatures. Human shaped. Switching out of thermal made it clear who it was. "Sir. Blockade." Penny called out.

Clover, who was in the back with Qrow, sighed. "Copy that. Stay inside and keep watch, Penny."

Penny gently woke Ruby, who wiped her eyes, yawned and jumped out once they arrived at the blockade. Penny let out a quiet sigh as she watched the trio gather in front of the truck. She could hear them at least.

"Clover. Been a while. Mind telling me what you're doing out here?" A woman's voice called out. Robyn Hill. Huntress. Leader of the Happy Huntresses. Candidate for the Mantle Seat on the Council. Has popular support. Semblance: Lie Detector. Penny's mind retrieved all the data she had stored on the woman ahead of them, from fighting style to eating habits. It had all been recorded and stored when she was a student.

"Robyn. Don't mind us. We might have been a little turned around but we'll be fine now. Thanks for caring." Clover replied with his characteristic smile.

"I know that Ironwood is doing something with Amity!" Robyn growled as Clover tried to leave. "He's taking supplies for Mantle! What is he doing there? We have a right to know!"

"Sadly it's confidential military business. As you aren't a part of the military you can't request that information. If you win the election you could."

"Oh, I plan to."

Ding! Another soft sound came from Penny's sensors. Movement behind the truck. Thermal showed two extra people sneaking towards the truck. I don't want this to be a fight. Therefore I need to interrupt.

She opened the back door and flew into the sky. "Robyn Hill! Please ask your friends to cease sneaking towards the truck." Penny announced.

"The Defender of Mantle?" Fiona, the sheep Faunus behind Robyn asked.

"Then that must mean…" Robyn trailed off with a glance at Ruby. She then sighed and nodded. "May! Joanna!"

The field of invisibility faded, revealing the pair of women that had been drawing closer to the supplies they were shipping. Their info entered Penny's head, revealing as much as Atlas knew about them. She processed it all in a moment and knew immediately how to deal with them if the time came to battle.

"Look, Clover. Mantle needs those supplies. Just tell me what Ironwood needs them for." Robyn asked, holding out her hand.

Clover looked at it with exasperation. "We're running maintenance on the coliseum."

"The tournament isn't for months and it's not like the Kingdom's are talking enough to organise one." She sighed and looked to Qrow and Ruby. "How about you Reaper, Five-o-Clock Shadow? Wanna tell me what's going on?"

"We're just working guard." Ruby responded. "You'll have to take it up the chain."

"I see. Well then. I guess I won't keep you." Robyn said with a sigh. She motioned for Fiona to open the blockade they had formed.

"Oh, and Robyn," Clover called out. "I hope you win." He said with a wave. Everyone then piled back into the truck and were off again.

"Interesting…" Ruby mumbled, once again in the front with Penny.

"What is?" Penny asked.

"Robyn and Clover. I think he genuinely wants her to win. Even though she'd probably try to slow us down." Ruby kept her voice low so that Clover couldn't hear her.

"Right. Robyn's trying to keep Mantle safe and we can all support that."

"Can we?" Ruby asked but then shook her head. "Sorry. It's just… despite having people guarding the wall it doesn't feel like Ironwood really… cares about Mantle. Amity is important but not repairing the hole in the wall?"

"Do you think his priorities are wrong?"

"I don't know. All I know is that I would do it differently and I don't like this. Whether it's right or wrong… I don't know. We'll see, I guess."

Penny thought for a second. "Are you regretting agreeing to help?"

"No. I think the goal is important. Bringing communication back online will help us beat Salem. That's true no matter what. And I think the pros of telling the world about Salem outweigh the cons. I just don't like that Mantle has to bear the brunt of the damage while we get this working."

"I understand. But that's our job, right? I'm the Defender of Mantle and you're my partner now. We protect Mantle because we don't have the resources to fix everything."

Ruby nodded. "I guess you're right. Either way, whether I like it or not isn't the important part. I'll just keep fighting. That's all I can do."

"Well, you'll always have me! I promised to stay by your side after all!" Penny grinned.

"Yeah." Ruby smiled back. "With us working together can anyone really stop us?"

"-and then it roared! The massive beast raised its great claws and struck! But the giant machine took it like it was but a toothpick!" Nora excitedly said. Sky and Russel leaned in over the table to hear better as she continued the, very exaggerated, tale of the battle between the Leviathan and the Colossus in Argus.

Ruby shook her head but was grinning all the same. It felt like they were back at Beacon, although they would never have had lunch with team CRDL back then. After a week of training with them however Ruby decided to ask them to join her and JNPR at lunch. Surprisingly they accepted.

"Hey, Cardin." Ruby looked at the larger man. "I've been wondering about all of your guy's upgrades. Especially your armour."

"My armour? I get that. It does look too heavy for snow doesn't it? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Gravity Dust is embedded into the metal. It keeps the armour nice and light. Plus I have some in the palm of my main hand that connects to the Dust in my mace. I can call it back to my hand if I need to."

"Oooooo. That sounds really nice. Let's you keep your high defence without sacrificing mobility or agility." Ruby nodded appreciatively.

"Yeah. Aside from that I just got a stronger crystal in the middle of Executioner and added some Frost Dust. They guys are pretty much the same there. Standard stuff." He shrugged.

"Hm. Standard but still good." Ruby replied. "You guys have any fun adventures?"

"Not really. Not compared to you guys anyway." He pointed to Nora, who had accrued a crowd of other students as she detailed an exaggerated version of the battle against the Grimm they'd met in Kuroyuri. Then again anything that wasn't 'Pyrrha killed it in two seconds with a bolt of lightning' was exaggerating.

"Not really? So there was something?"

"Eh. Just a fight with a Cenitour."

"A Cenitour?" Ruby cocked her head to the side.

"Yeah. Like a Centinel, but with an upper body. It's a big thing with bladed arms and acidic spit. The damned thing ruined my armour and nearly destroyed Sky's halberd. Took it down though. Made the others realise they needed to wear something that wasn't just a bit of leather or layered cloth. That was before we hit Atlas. The borders had just closed so we had to trek across the wastes. Wasn't fun."

"Wow. Sounds rough."

"Yeah not nearly as rough as you guys. I hear you met Robyn Hill yesterday. She's a tough one to deal with." Cardin leaned onto the cafeteria table.

"You know her huh?"

"Met once in Mantle a couple of weeks ago. Strong personality that's for sure. Drilled us on anything and everything Atlas. Though she seemed to at least appreciate that we were working in Mantle to protect it, she didn't like that we were working for the General."

"Oh yeah, you guys and FNKI are part of some program to take on missions in Mantle on Sundays right?" Ruby asked.

"Yup. Work experience for those who already have experience. AKA those who fought at Beacon and are sound enough to trust with work. It's good though." Cardin leaned back and chuckled. "I'll let you in on a secret."

"Oh yeah?" Ruby leaned in.

Cardin grinned and leaned back in. "I took a mission to guide some kids to a park. Some event was going on. The whole time the kids kept comparing me to a certain blonde."

"And?" Ruby smiled, looking down the table at Jaune through the corner of her eye. He was chatting with Pyrrha, as usual.

"According to them, he's basically a heroic knight in shining armour that all their mother's love. And now they idolise him. Once they found out we both went to Beacon they spent the entire day asking me questions about our time there, rather than enjoying the concert or whatever it was."

"Pft. That's adorable."

"So I told all his fans about how he saved my life against that Ursa and now they all think he's the strongest Huntsman around!"

"So you fed their fantasies about him."

"Pretty much. They said they'd bug him for stories from Beacon when they next saw him."

"He has been looking more tired recently…" Ruby trailed off. "Well, now it looks like you've still got a vindictive streak there Cardin."

He leaned back in his chair with a laugh. "Maybe I do. But hey, he's picked up the Pyrrha Nikos. If he can't handle a few fans then he'll never understand her."

Ruby's eyes widened. "Did… did you do it to help him?"

"Who can say?" Cardin shrugged and stood. "Anyway thanks for inviting us. Russ, Dove, Sky. Let's get back to training!" He called out to the trio.

"Yeah!" The trio called back.

The team hurried out of the cafeteria.

Ruby couldn't help but watch them go with a smile. That wasn't expected. He's definitely more mature. His confidence doesn't feel obnoxious anymore, but reassuring. They'll make great allies in the future.

She looked at Jaune and Pyrrha again. Now that she thought about it, Pyrrha did look amused by something.

Well. I should get back to training myself.

A/N: So there's a little on CRDL. They fought a Cenitaur on their way to Atlas! That's the big acid thing Blake and Ruby battled at the manor. Plus Cardin's much more mature. Meanwhile, we pass a canon event in the encounter with Robyn on the road. Whilst it's pretty much the same, the important part is Penny's POV and the convo after. Ruby's more onboard than she used to be, but she definitely is not happy with Mantle's situation. But hey, she's known enough for Robyn to have heard of her. That's good, right? After about a month of training and missions we're getting towards the election event and after that... well... Good fun is coming.

I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!