Wow, I wrote this chapter in less than two weeks!? That's a record.

Now, Ilia… Ilia! Where are you?

Ilia, flushed: ''I'm here! I'm here!''

Where were you?

Ilia: ''You're the one who said it'd take over a month to write the chapter. I thought I could relax until then.''

… By relax, do you mean you were looking up Blake's rule 34 on the internet, again?

Ilia: ''… Hey, don't look at me like that! There are literally thousands of drawings of the Bellabooty. Who wouldn't want to look at that everyday?''

… Do I need to bonk you?

Ilia: ''Please, don't.''

Then start with the comments already.

Ilia: ''Alright, alright. Reader 451 says that hugs with Ruby must feels great. Something about hugging someone a foot shorter than you being awesome because your chin is right on top of their head… He's got a point.''

Yes, he does. Gemini sure must be happy he's finally got that growth spurt.

Ilia: ''After that, we have Rotten Sarcophagus, who says that Gemini could screw up Remnant's economy by using the radioactive material that nobody cares about.''

He could. Introducing hydroelectricity alone will mess with the economy enough as it is. And he's just getting started.

Ilia: ''Then there's Kolomte'49. Thanks god his comment is shorter than the last one.''

Aww… but I like long comments.

Ilia: ''Yeah, well I'm the one whose job gets harder, not you. Anyway, he points out that Gemini mingle with high-class people, own Duel Monster and now has his own scientific team. He compares him to Kaiba.''

I was waiting for someone to point out the parallels XD. The funny part is that I didn't even plan this when I began the fic, it just happened like that. To add to the parallels between the two, you could add Gemini trying to get into space, though he's not trying to do so to duel aliens.

Ilia: ''He also said that it was a nice duel and wonders if Ruby could have Summoned Skull. Says that even if it's not a reaper it's still a skull. He also thought that Yang could have Red-Eyes Black Dragon.''

Well, Ruby doesn't care much for the skulls part, having a scythe was really what made her pick her monsters. But yes, Gemini eventually convincing her to upgrade her monsters is gonna happens at some point. Haven't decided yet, but Summoned Skull is being considered. Though, Yang with Black Dragon… Well, I could see her going for the dragons.

Ilia: ''He also asked me if I changed colors like Koro-sensei… Who is that?''

Ah yes, Assassination Classroom. That was a good watch. *Takes the time to show Ilia a few pics of the colors Koro-sensei takes*

Ilia: ''Uh. Yeah, I guess I kind of does? Anyway, we're finished with the comments now.''

No, we're not. You forgot this one.

Ilia: ''What? But I thought we only did the comments of last chapter. It's a comment left on chapter one.''

Yeah, but Eragon135790 points out something that I've been waiting someone to do so since the beginning.

Ilia, sighing: ''Fine! He says that since Gemini is reincarnated, him saying ''adults are strange'' doesn't fit.''

And that points to a persistent problem with reincarnations fics on this site. Most of those have the mc's mental age being (years lived in last life + years lived in this one.) This isn't how mental age works. Mental age is at least partially, if not mostly, affected by the chemical make-up of the brain, which changes as the years passes and the individual grow up.

So in real life, mental age correlates with the number of years lived, hence the confusion, but that correlation goes out the window the second reincarnation is involved.

Ilia: ''Okay, but even if he's not mentally older than his body, wouldn't the 'increase knowledge and insight' you mentionned still make the ''adults are strange'' not fit?''

Uh… (Shit, I didn't think about that.) It's to show that he still hadn't 'digested' all the information and memories he suddenly got back all at the same time. He internalized it all gradually.

Ilia: ''Nice save. He then goes on to say that Gemini shouldn't have trusted Roman and Neo with that much information about his semblance.''

… That's his family. Kids naturally trust their parents. Well, they usually does. It's not like he was abused by his family or anything. Plus, even if one ignored everything but pure pragmatism, Roman was the one overseeing his training. How could he have done so if Gemini lied about his semblance?

Was Gemini supposed to pretend to train normally and stay at the same level during the entire fic? By the time Volume started, he'd have been weaker than Cardin if Roman didn't know about the xp mechanic.

Ilia: ''Yeah, I don't get that one either. Anyway, where done now?''

Yep. Though before I finish, I have a small announcement. In his comment on chapter 9, Kolomte'49 gave me an idea for a YangxIlia oneshot. If anyone is interested, the oneshot 'Colors of the Rainbow' is out.

Disclaimer: RWBY is the legal property of Rooster Teeth. Yu-Gi-Oh is the legal property of Shueisha. I only own my OCs.

In Volume 3, Weiss fails her summoning because it works by thinking about a fallen ennemy but she gets frustated and the emotionnal turmoil messes up her concentration, making the summoning attempt fail. Emotions = failed summoning, got it.

In Volume 4, Weiss gets very emotionnal and accidentally summons a Boarbatusk that almost gore a civilian. Emotions = successful summoning, Volume 4 cannot be canon to Volume 3.

Enjoy the chapter.

''My pride! And my soul! I decide my future! Obelisk! Gadget Soldier! For my loyal servant, you shall be sacrificed!'' Kaiba yelled.

''He sacrificed Obelisk…? God!?'' Thought a shocked Ishuzu.

''Ishuzu, I'll show you! The embodiment of both my pride and soul, my loyal servant! Come forth! Blue-eyes White Dragon!'' The madman continued, taking his card games just as seriously and dramatic as ever, as Ruby, who was sitting in her home's living room and watching the episode on the holographic TV, watched with attention.

''Sheesh, I don't think I've seen a single scene of this cartoon where this Kaiba guy chilled out a bit. Does he even know how?'' Yang said, as she was standing behing the couch and leaning on it lazily.

''Shhh, I don't want to miss anything.'' Ruby said, her eyes glued to the screen.

Yang raised an eyebrew at that. Ruby used to only watch this show once in while when she happened to have the TV when it played, and she had no issue talking and making quips about it. Now? Now missing an episode was a tragedy and she watched those almost religiously, and Yang had no idea where that change came from.

Hell, Ruby now cared more about this show than she did about Magical Maiden, her favorite show since she was eight. How did that happen?

Suddenly, Yang's eyes widened, and she had to hold back from gasping out loud. Did her baby sister develop a crush for one of the characters in the show. Not that Yang would judge, it was nothing dramatic, just a phase that some girls went through. Ruby would get over it… hopefully.

There was no way Ruby was gonna turn into some kind of NEET that was obsessed with her 'husbando'(or whatever weird word Mistralian came up with), right?

Fortunately, Yang's erronous theory was proven wrong when the episode finished. Unfortunately, it only left her confused and with more questions than she had before, as she watched an ad about Duel Disks, which played clips of a duel between two people. One of the player wasn't put in direct focus of the camera, as if only part of the footage that didn't give a clear look at him was chosen, but the other…

The other was Ruby.

The ad showed clips of her either doing some pretty cool plays or showing how much fun she was having.

''Gem, whyyyy?'' Yang heard Ruby whisper, as the face of the youngest of the two turned as red as the tips of her hair, worrying that this was gonna make her the center of attention at school. Or that it may make her be recognized when walking in the streets.

Okay, now Yang had to admit she was completely and utterly lost. What did Gemini had to do with this?

None of them noticed that Ruby's eyes in the footage had been edited to be grey, instead of silver.

/-/

Secret McAgent (why did he had to be stuck with a stupid codename like that?) was in the middle of shifting through several pieces of media, either videos or pictures. The job honestly seemed useless to him. He had signed up into the VSS to serve his country, not… whatever this was supposed to be.

Moving onto the next material, Secret McAgent opened a video, some ad about a new fancy high-tech toy. Something caught his eyes and he groaned. Great, now he was gonna have to put actual effort into this one instead of just closing it and moving to the next.

He zoomed in on the girl's face and used a computer program to improve the resolution, giving him a clear look at one of her eyes who now took most of the screen.

And… grey. As all potential matches ever were.

Secret McAgent didn't know why the council(or rather, the powers behind them, he was certain the councillors were just as much in the dark about this as he was) cared so much about some rando showing up with silver eyes. At this point, he didn't even believe it was a real eye color.

Fuck, he hated his job. He couldn't believe he was stuck on this useless assignement while Phantom, that incompetent bitch, was investigating why the White Fang was suddenly kidnapping random people, whose only common point was their very rare first name; Waldo.

He should have just become a veterinarian like his old man was. Or a cop like his mother. Anything would have been better than this shit.

The only silver(ugh, he was starting to hate that word) lining to it was that, as a secret agent, it paid well. Being able to give his wife and his kids the rare opportunity to grow up in their own house was the only reason he was putting up with this bore of a chore.

/-/

I grinned as I slid my hand accross the hull of the ship, my ship.

I loved having so much money. I could afford lots of cool stuff, like this ship.

This customized ship, crafted on measure according to my demands. It cost 5 time as much as a Bullhead, but the result? It was so worth it.

It was purely a troop transport ship, not a multi-purpose cargo/troop transport like Bullheads. I could only transport 10 people in it, not included the pilot, unlike the Bullhead who could easily take more. Unlike the Bullhead, it also had no weapon.

It didn't need a weapon, it made up for the lack of those by being optimized for speed. This baby was fast enough to take me from Vale to Kuo Kuana and bring me to Atlas all in the same day (Well, I'd need to refuel at some point, but still.) This was why it had no need for weapons, because no Grimm could fly fast enough to catch up to it anyway. Yes, even a Giant Nevermore sky diving was slower than this aircraft, and that was the fastest an airborne Grimm was know to get.

It's maniability was fairly lacking, though. It couldn't make sharp turns when it was flying above a certain speed. But that was just the price to pay for me to be able to go anywhere on Remnant. I didn't care for airborne acrobatics, anyway, as long as it took me from point A to point B. I said it a long time ago, but I wasn't walking all the way to Mistral.

I also paid for it to have thicker plating and being structurally solid enough to still being able to fly after having crashed. It was a must because while I managed to learn how to take off and fly it, thanks to the training simulators, I couldn't get the hang of landing. The stronger frame did make it look pretty ugly, though.

Whelp, time to name this ugly child. Let's see, it was really fast but turned like shit. It was really though, to the point of crashing it wouldn't make it stay down, but it was difficult to look at…

There was only one appropriate name I could think of for this ship. Everyone, meet 'The Brick'.

I was taken out of my private time when my scroll ringed. Annoyed, I looked at who was calling me, only for that annoyance to leave me as I saw it was Onyx.

''Did you find her?'' I asked, not wasting any time.

''I… Y-yes, but…'' I frowned as I heard Onyx's voice shake. ''I found her, or at least what was left of her.''

''What!? What do you mean, 'what was left of her'?'' Maria was dead? That was bad. So, so bad.

I heard him take a deep sigh through the phone, a subconscious way for someone to take a second to gather their thought before talking.

''… I tracked her down until I found out she was dead, then I found the morgue her body was kept in and confirmed it was indeed her.'' Onyx said, before having another moment of hesitation. ''I… Her body was in several pieces. I don't think I should give too many details to a kid.''

In pieces… I could think of only one of Salem's agents who would kill in such a barbaric way and that was Tyrian, the sociopathic maniac.

… Except, was it really the only one?

Salem's Seer searching Ruby on Patch was one thing. The island was huge and there was no guarantees she would have found her, and the two remaining members of Team STRQ living there was in the public record. For all I knew, Salem had conducted the same search in the canon timeline as well but gave up when it ended up fruitless.

This? This made it very clear that Salem now had access to knowledge she shouldn't have, which could only mean one thing.

The Cackler said that I was merely one of four people he had made that deal with.

One of them must have joined Salem.

This was beyond bad, if Salem had acquired the same knowledge of the future, or worse, if she had access to knowledge of Earth… I didn't know why this fellow reincarnated one would side with Salem, or what his goals were, but if he was mad enough to share the secret of the atoms with her…

Kekekekekekeke

I jumped in fright.

For a moment, I thought I heard… Was it just my imagination?

Anyway, if Salem was accelerating her plans and striking early, then I had to counter her. I had no plan for the possibility that she would launch her attack on Beacon before the canon time.

I must slow her down, at least long enough that I had everything prepared for open conflict against her and her agents. That included a Ruby with mastery of her silver eyes. That, and a few other things.

… I just thought of something. Well, actually, I had thought of it before, but discarded the idea both because I had no idea how to find her and she was an unknow. But with how things were getting, I had to try anyway. Try, and hope for success against all odds.

''You will receive the Lien I promised you.'' I told Onyx.

''Eh? But I failed.'' He said with naked confusion in his voice.

''You didn't, the job was to find her. You found her. I was the one working with outdated information.'' I said. Hey, I lied and cheated to achieve victory, but that didn't mean I wasn't able to be fair. ''I have another mission for you. Finding someone again.''

''Is it someone still alive?''

''I hope so. If not, then knowing about it will be worth the Lien spent to hire you on its own.''

''Alright, who is it?'' He asked.

''It's someone with tanned skin, shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes. I know it's not very distinctive, but you'll mostly recognize her by her weapon, a staff with dust crystals, fire on one end, wind on the other.'' I said. ''She's… I'm not entirely certain, but I believe she's somewhere in the wilderness between the border towns south of Vale.'' Couldn't be to the east, as there were no villages on the other side of the mountains. The Grimm were just too strong.

''The wilder- How am I supposed to find her, then?''

''She still need to resupply, which means she has to enter towns and villages for a short time to buy food. Ask from town to town and you should eventually find her.'' It was something I couldn't do. Between my own training, my business and helping Ruby become stronger, I would never have the time, the opportunity to search for the elusive woman.

''… Fine, I'll see what I can do.'' Onyx said, agreeing to take the job. ''What's her name.''

''Her name is Amber Autumn.''

/-/

''… Do you understand the gravity, and the possible consequences, of what you said?'' Sienna Khan's face bore a severe expression as she asked Adam.

Adam nodded.

The Albain's brother claimed that Ilia's death was due to having been poisoned, blaming it on the Human child who attacked them. When Adam brought up that their now deceased comrade was… off, a little before she talked to them, they deduced that she must have been feeling unwell because of the poison's effect, and simply didn't realize she had been poisoned. Maybe she thought she was just sick.

There were two things that bugged him, however. The first was that while Ilia was acting strange before her death, it struck him to be more because of some kind of personal problem. As far as he could tell, nothing about her 'unwellness' appeared to be of a physical nature. The second thing was… Why kill Ilia?

Sure, that kid attacked them, but every time he beat one of his men, he left them tied up and disabled, but very much alive. He even left every one of them with enough aura to survive the explosion, which Adam wasn't sure was on purpose or not. So why kill Ilia when he spared the others? What made her so different? The only motive Adam could think of to explain the kid's inconsistent actions was that Ilia was too much of a threat to him compared to the other members of the White Fang, so he choose to kill her to be able to get away?

But then why did he use a poison that would kill her hours later, instead of as fast as possible? That didn't remove her as a threat, at least not during the span of the fight. Plus, he easily got away from her by using a flashbang, so there was no need to use poison anyway. The narrative the Albains gave didn't makes sense.

Everyone bought it without question, they trusted the Albains after all. Even Blake believed it, she was usually the one to notice small descrepancies like this, but this time, her judgment seemed to be impared because she was too involved. Ilia was her friend, a recently made friend whom she hadn't know for more than a handful of months, but a friend nonetheless. Plus, Blake was the one who thought of bringing Ilia with her to try and find their opponent. She felt responsible, even though she shouldn't.

If the Albains lied about the real circumstances of Ilia's death, then the most obvious conclusion was that they were the ones who murdered her.

Adam didn't dare approach the subject of his suspicions to Blake, he didn't have any proof and his reasons were too light to risk saying it out loud, as Sienna just pointed out. That was why he came to her, to talk about it in private with the only person he could both trust and had the ability to help him search for proof.

This was why they were talking in Sienna's private quarters, both sitting on their knees around her short-legged table. It was a conversation he couldn't risk someone else hearing.

Sienna let out a tired sigh. She had always found the Albains to be untrustworthy, but that was something she had to keep to herself, lest the White Fang faced internal conflicts it couldn't afford.

''I understand why you're suspicious of the Albains, Adam. Amitola's death is odd.'' She said. ''But I'm afraid mere speculation isn't enough to move against these two.''

''That's why I'm asking for your blessing to investigate. All I need is the permission to access the White Fang's archives.''

''And I cannot give it to you. If the word were to spread that the leader of the White Fang was at odds with the Albains brothers, our troops would start dividing themselves into two sides.'' Atlas wouldn't miss the opportunity either. ''The White Fang cannot survive without remaining unified.''

''But we can't let them betray our own without impunity either!'' Adam said, half rising on one of his legs with his hand brought barely above his raised knee, tightening into a fist.

Sienna stared at him, unimpressed. ''Your passion is appreciated, as is the truth in your words, but that is no excuse to lose your self-control.''

''… My apologies, High Leader.'' Adam said, sitting back down.

There was a moment of silence, before Sienna spoke again.

''… Sometimes, the White Fang needs a certain task to be accomplished, a dirty task. The kind of tasks which are better off not being know by the rank-and-files. These tasks were what the Albains were supposed to handle, and even I does not know the full extent of what they do.'' Back when that descision was made, Sienna hadn't know the two bastards as well as she would come to know them in the year that followed. Insight was 20/20, with how shady the Albains have been since then, she regretted giving them that much power. ''Unfortunately, I can no longer reduce their power and put them under more oversight, not without causing a schism in the White Fang.''

''I know that already.'' Adam said. ''But surely, there must be one way, right?''

''I'm sorry, but my hands are tied.'' Sienna said, shaking her head. Then she took a key hidden in her clothes and showed it to Adam. ''Do you know what this is?''

''A key?'' He didn't see where she was going with this.

''Wrong. This is nothing. This little 'key' that you think you see doesn't exist.'' Sienna said, confusing him even further. Unless she meant… ''The Albains have their own little corner of the archives that they alone have the key to access. I totally didn't go behind their back and made a copy of their key in secret, just in case I would one day need it. I'm also not leaving this non-existant key on my table and I don't care if it doesn't mysteriously disappear.'' She put the key on her table, right in front of Adam.

Adam didn't move immediately, but after a few seconds he slowly reached for it.

Then Sienna's hand snapped and grabbed his wrist. He looked at her, with only his mask hiding his confusion.

''Wha-''

''Adam,'' she cut him off, ''you need to keep this in mind. If you get caught rummaging through the Albains' business, I won't be able to protect you. I'll have to pretend I didn't know and had nothing to do with this, and you'll be left to suffer the consequences on your own.''

''… I understand.'' Adam said. He knew this was risky, but he also knew it was the right thing to do. That it was what he needed to do.

Sienna nodded, releasing his arm and allowing him to take the key.

''Thank you, High Leader.'' Adam said, slightly bowing his head before getting up and walking out of her quarters.

He had a job to do.

/-/

I knocked on the door of the Xiao-Long family's house.

''I'm coming!'' I heard Ruby from inside, a few seconds before she opened the door, wearing a new outfit.

''So, how do I look?'' She asked, her face arboring a grin. She seemed pretty happy with it.

I blinked at the sight of her new outfit, before giving her a smirk.

''Pleasantly familiar.''

Ruby needed a second to understand what I meant, but when she did, her eyes grew wide.

''Is this what- in your… you know?''

''Yep.'' It was indeed her original outfit, the one she wore(will wear) during the events of Volume 1 to 3.

Neo looked at the both of us, confused by what was a very strange exchange to her. Sorry sis, but no, you weren't going to receive an explanation. Maybe in a few years, once Cinder will be defeated and I could share the truth with you and our father without the both of you locking yourselves in a bunker while 'the danger passes'. It wasn't going to pass.

It was at this moment that Yang joined us at the door, coming from behind Ruby. She too looked at the awkward atmosphere and, not having heard our previous word's, was confused by it.

''Uh, did I miss something?'' She asked.

''Not really, Ruby was just showing off her new outfit and asking if it looked good on her. She does look pretty cool.'' I said.

Yang looked at me, who maintained my poker face, and her little sister, who smiled because she'd just been called 'cool'.

''Oh ooooh… I see.'' The blonde said with a mischevious glint in her eyes.

Why did I get the feeling she misunderstood something?

''Ugh. Yang, please, don't start.'' Ruby grumbled. ''Didn't you want to lose against Neo again?''

''Who's gonna lose? It's gonna be different this time.'' Yang said, before turning to my sister and punched her own hand. ''C'mon Ice cream, let's go throw hands in the sand.''

Sis smirked, before breaking into glass, revealing that she was already waiting to fight Yang. And yeah, Yang had taken to call her Ice cream. She really searched far for that one…

This was going to be the 9th time these two would spar. So far, the score was 8-0 in favor of Neo, and I wasn't expecting her winning streak to end today.

To be fair, Yang had progressed by a lot since their first fight. Now my sister had to put in actual effort to win without getting touched, something she had learned on their 7th fight when Yang managed to score a solid hit for the first time. If they continued like that, I was expecting Yang to be significantly stronger than in canon by the time her first Beacon year started.

I idly wondered if Yang might end up being as good as Pyrrha (semblances put aside, I mean.)

Of course, Yang wasn't the only one getting stronger from this. The rivalry had encouraged Neo to train a little harder than she did before recently, not wanting Yang to catch up to her. She was improving at a slower rate than Yang due to just how skilled she was already, but still.

Either way, while these two were sparring, Ruby and I were watching them, sitting next to one of the trees surrounding Mr Xiao-Long's home. This gave me the perfect opportunity to talk to her without having to fear indiscret ears.

''We'll start trying to have you discover how to use your silver eyes soon.'' I told Ruby.

''You found that Maria woman?''

''… In a manner of speaking. Unfortunately, she was already dead, likely before I even started searching for her.'' I said, causing Ruby's head to spin abruptly toward me with a look of shock.

''She's dead!?'' Ruby said, keeping her voice low despite how the news agitated her.

I nodded. ''I'm sorry, Salem is moving much faster than I expected. We're going to have to figure out how to use your eyes on our own. The sooner we start, the better.''

''R-right.'' Ruby slightly stammered, before taking on a more determined look. ''I've been praticing a lot with Crescent Rose, give me a week or two more, and I'm more than sure I'll be ready to go fight the Grimm. I mean, not alone, but you'll be there with me so that's alright.''

''Good. My sister will probably come too, so we're guaranteed to be safe even if things turns south.''

''Wait, didn't you say you wanted to keep this secret?'' Ruby asked, confused.

''Yes. At least concerning the secret of your eyes, I wanted to keep this on the low until Maria was here, at which point it would have been alright to let the secret out. Unfortunately, Neo's not going to let me go hunt Grimm without her keeping watch over me, so we'll have to accept that. We're going to avoid telling her anything and leave her to be confused by what we're doing, at least until you figure out how to use your gift. Then… I'll handle it.'' In part because when Ruby used her eyes at the end of Volume 3, she lost consciousness, but also because I was Neo's brother so she'd be more inclined to listen to what I had to say.

''Okay.'' Ruby nodded. ''But what about you? I remember you told me once you were having trouble with Beowolves, because of their numbers.''

''It's been getting better on that front, now I'm only worried if it's a large pack lead by an Alpha to coordinate them.'' Of course, Alpha Beowolves were rather rare on Patch in the first place. I had only seen one since I'd started hunting Grimm on Patch and I had stayed far away from his pack. Or at least, I used to be careful to stay away from it, Mr Branwen saw it a couple month ago and got rid of it like it was nothing. ''Here, look. I'm level 29 now.'' I said, activating my semblance on my scroll and handing it to her.

If I continued to train at the rythmn I was, I would be Level 30 in barely over a week. Then, gaining Exp would go just a little faster as I started hunting Grimm with Ruby during the day.

''Uh, those stats are finally starting to raise, aren't they?'' Ruby said before handing it back to me.

''Yep! It was a lot of work getting it there, but all I needed was to stay patient.'' I took a last look at my stats before closing my semblance.

Name: Gemini Alexandrite Torchwick

Level: 29

Exp: 1921/2900

Age: 13

Sex: Male

Aura: 6000/6000 (60%)

Stamina: 490/490

Strength: 32(52)

Constitution: 20(20)

Dexterity: 55(75)

Agility: 42

Intelligence: 128

Skill Points: 5

Honestly? Part of me wishes I had gotten the usual overpowered Gamer power instead of the cheap knock-off I was stuck with. With that, I could have easily crushed Cinder and ensured the safety of those I cared about. As much as I cringed at how most of those gamer fics were obvious 'mc kicks everyone's ass' power fantasy were everything quickly ceased to be a threat, I couldn't care less about telling a good story when my loved ones were the ones in danger.

But I refocused myself, there was no point wasting time on what wasn't.

''Oh, and Gem!'' Ruby suddenly exclaimed as she got up on her feet. ''Look at this.''

She took a red object that was hidden under her cape and unfolded it, deploying Crescent Rose in all of its glory.

I got up as well, to get a better look. ''So that's Crescent Rose.'' I said, amazed at the weapon she made. ''To think I finally get to see it for real... He's beautiful.''

''Thanks, I'm happy with how he turned out, but sometimes I kind of wonder if I went a little overboard. Do you think I did?''

''Yes.'' I said without missing a beat. ''Yes, you totally did and it's a good thing. You should always go overboard when making a weapon, Ruby, especially if it means you make something as awesome as this.''

''Eh eh, oh you, stop it.'' Ruby said, smiling and radiating happiness at having her weapon praised. ''You'll make me bl- Wait, what did you say?''

''That Crescent Rose is awesome?'' What did I say? I couldn't think of anything that could have offended her!

''No, not that. Before!''

''... It's a good thing you-''

''Before that!''

What did I say before that again? ''Uh...''

''You said he was beautiful.'' Ruby said, smiling as her eyes sparkled. ''You're the only other person I've met who actually got this right, everybody else just looks at me like I was crazy.''

... Was she talking about the whole 'weapon gender' thing she did from time to time? Because if that was it, then me getting this 'right' was... a coincidence? I think? Sorry, Ruby, but you were still the only person who understood this because I sure didn't.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, by all accounts, it didn't make any sense. Trying to follow the logic just made me more and more confused.

''Actually, I think I got this right because I know you enough to guess you'd think of Crescent Rose as a boy, instead of 'getting' of this works?'' I said, still unsure of what I was talking about.

''Oh, right. Sure, that makes sense, I guess.'' Ruby said. ''But yes, Crescent Rose is my baby boy and I'm so proud of him.''

Suddenly, we both had to jump back to avoid Yang, who was thrown away by Neo and crashed on the tree next to us.

She got back up on her feet with red eyes and on fire, before charging at my sister with her semblance activated.

''Hey, Ruby...''

''Yes?''

''Doesn't Yang's aura has to be on the low side for her to activate her semblance?'' I asked.

''Yep.''

''... How much aura does she has left, exactly?'' That spar was still agreed to be a loss when one reached half of their aura.

Ruby took out her scroll to check on her sister's aura. ''About a third of it left.''

''So... she already lost the spar, then.''

''Yep.''

''... Should we tell them?''

''Probably.''

/-/

''Grrrrr!''

The foul beast looked at us with its baleful glare, attempting to intimidate us.

Of course, it wasn't very successful at that, considering that it had its four limbs broken and was basically immobilized, only able to growl and move its head.

Ruby, sis and I found a Beowolves' pack and the three of us made short work of it. Once there was only one Beowolf left, Ruby and I then broke that last Beowolf' arms and legs. This earned us confused looks from my sister, who had no idea what the hell we were doing.

Then again, Ruby and I had no idea what to do from there either.

''So... What now?'' Ruby asked, looking at the now rendered harmless Beowolf.

''I dunno, try staring at it?'' I said, just as much as a lost as she was.

''That's what I'm already doing, though.''

''Stare harder?''

Ruby threw me an annoyed look. No, see, you're supposed to aim those eyeballs at the Grimm, not me. ''And how am I supposed to 'stare harder'?''

How should I know? I wasn't the one with the magic not-sharingan.

''Have you tried the power of friendship?''

Another annoyed look. ''Gem, this is real life, not Magical Maiden or another cartoon.''

Oh yeah, Magical Maiden. It was a popular show on Remnant, some kind of magical girl show taking inspiration from the story of 'The Four Maidens'. (And now I was imagining Cinder dressed as a magical girl.) I didn't really care for those type of shows, but Ruby was a fan so I ended up learning a bit about it.

Fun fact: the 'it's a combat skirt' line followed by Ruby rushing to Weiss' side for a low-five? That was from that show. Guess Weiss must be watching it too.

''What about happy thoughts?'' I asked.

Instead of being annoyed, Ruby now looked at me like I was an idiot. Okay, that was fair.

''What part of what you told me you saw has anything to do with 'happy thoughts'?'' Ruby asked, referring to how I described her eyes activating when watching Pyrrha die.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if canon Ruby had been happy to see Pyrrha die.

Oh, and now Neo was even more confused. And she was going to stay confused for the moment.

Now, where was I? Oh, right. How did Ruby's eyes work?

It activated first when witnessing a friend's death… Was it the trauma? I knew it had to be because of one of the emotions that she'd have felt due to the event, but which one exactly? According to Maria, the eyes were activated by wanting to protect those they cared about. This fits with when canon Ruby's eyes activated when Jaune was fighting Cinder (well, more like Cinder was playing with Jaune), along with when the power was used in the story of 'The Warrior in the Woods', but I wasn't too sure with Pyrrha, as it was less a reaction to the red head being in danger and more to her death having happened. Plus, there were other situations before were someone she cared about was in danger while Grimm were around before Pyrrha's death, so if it was that simple, Ruby would have unlocked her eyes before that.

So while the desire to protect her loved ones might be how using it at will worked, the trigger for the initial activation might be a notch above that.

Well, if all I knew for certain was that they first activated when watching a friend die, then all I had to do was to reproduce these circumstances… I had to die in front of Ruby while Grimm where around.

… Maybe I just needed to make her believe I was dying? If it was an emotional trigger, then it didn't need to be real, just convincing enough.

''Um…'' I thought about it for a moment, before deciding to try something. It was probably not gonna work, but hey, gotta starts somewhere. ''Hey, you know about lion tamers in circus?'' I asked, thinking about the trick where the tamer would put his head inside the lion's mouth, trusting the lion to not bite.

''Yes?… What does that have to do with… Gem, No!'' Ruby said as she watched me pry the Beowolf's jaw open with my hands and putting my head in it.

Gem, yes! ''Look! I'm a Beowolf tamer!''

The confused Beowolf froze for a moment, not used to his prey putting their head in his mouth on their own, before going along with it and do what Grimm did.

Namely, try to eat my face off.

''Owie!'' That hurts! I mean, yeah, I expected that to happen, but that didn't stop it from being painful.

My sister and Ruby reacted as soon as the Beowolf's jaw clamped down, immediately stabbing and shooting it respectively.

Whelp, guess it was bound to fail.

I supposed that knowing I was still full of aura took the panic and horror out, so she reacted with what she could do to prevent my death instead of her eyes activating.

''What's wrong with you!?'' Ruby yelled, angry at how stupid what I just did was. ''Why did you think that was an okay thing to do!?''

''Pull something like this again and I'm putting a stop to these little hunts'' My sister, just as unhappy as Ruby, conjured a sign post with her semblance.

''Alright, alright! I promise I won't do it again.'' I said, holding my hands up in front of me.

''You better not!''

We resumed the hunt afterward, but they both kept a close eye on me for the rest of the day, so there was no proggress made about Ruby's eyes that day.

/-/

I ducked to avoid an horizontal strike from a Beowolf, before stabbing upward and killing the beast by striking it in the throat.

As the Grimm dissolved into nothing, I heard Ruby shot her weapon, killing a Beowolf while the recoil sent her next to another which was quickly cut in half by Crescent Rose's blade. She then moved her weapon around the next Beowolf's neck and shot, simultaneously decapitating it using the recoil and blowing a hole in the middle of another one's chest with the bullet.

God, if the Red Trailer was a joy to watch, then watching her fight in real life was even more impressive.

''Grrr.'' A Beowolf growled from my left.

''Shut up, I'm busy watching somehting cool.'' I scolded the beast.

''Grr?'' A confused sound came out of its throat, before it decided to lunge at me.

I easily side-stepped it before cutting its arms and following by stabbing it.

''That's what you get for being so rude.'' I thought out loud, turning my back on the dissolving body. ''Monsters these days, I swear they're not as polite as they used to be.''

In the corner of my eye, I saw a Beowolf attacking my sister, only for her and the air around her to break apart and reveal another Beowolf right where the illusion of her was, leading to the attacking monster to kill a member of its own pack. Right before Neo appeared behind it and stabbed the beast in the back.

Ruby then brutally cut a Beowolf's arms, before turning with her weapon's momentum and slicing its legs, leaving it as a limbless, agonizing body as she struck a pose, using her arm to stop her weapon and be able to readjust it in time to cut two Beowolves that were charging at her in half.

We've been hunting Grimm together for close to a month, but we still hadn't managed to unlock her eyes. This was proving more difficult than I hoped for.

'Well, at least she was having fun.' I thought, as I looked at the smile on her face. Dropping Ruby in the middle of a bunch of Grimm was like leaving a child in a candy shop and telling them they could eat as much as they wanted. Cue cries of joy.

Suddenly, a Boarbatusk attracted by the sounds of the fight came out from behind the trees. The boar like Grimm used its signature spinning charge, rolling toward Ruby.

I was about to warn her, but before I said anything, she looked behind her and saw the quickly approaching Grimm. She angled Crescent Rose and shot, using the recoil to spin faster than she could otherwise with a weapon that heavy, aligning her blade so that as the Boarbatusk was about to ram into her, she stabbed it in the side of its body, stopping it dead in its track and killing it.

Man, this girl was so cool. How did I managed to become friend with someone like that?

But enough admiring Ruby's deadly dance, we were there for a reason.

I eyed the cliff that wasn't that far from us, before charging at a few Beowolf that were in the way.

I jumped on the first one, using it as a platform to jump and land in the middle of the group before using a circular cut around me. This killed 3 of them, before another attemped to hit me with its claws. I knocked its arm away with the cane sheath of my sword before exploiting the opening I created to stab it in the chest.

The neat part about a cane sword was that on top of having a blade in one hand, it left me with a blunt weapon in the other.

A Beowolf lunged at me, jumping in the air as it aimed to land on me and bite me. I twirled around its body, moving my blade on its neck before decapitating it and giving my attention to the last one standing, the one I had jumped on.

I dodged its strikes with minimal movement, flowing around its attempts to hit me in a manner reminiscent of how Neo avoided Yang's punches in their train fight. My sister did help train me after all, including on how to dodge. Although she was much more proeficient at fighting than I was, of course.

While dodging the beast's assault, I was slowly stepping back toward the edge of the cliff. The idea I had was insanely risky, and I could very well die for real if I messed up.

As another one of the wolf-like Grimm approached me, I countered the first one's attack, cutting its arm's off and then piercing its skull.

I needed to keep this under control as much as possible, dealing with two Beowolves at the same time was just too likely to make this backfire.

With the cliff right behind me, the Beowolf pressed the attack and swiped at me with it's claws. Throwing my weapon and its sheath away from the cliff to avoid losing them, I stepped back and used the distance to prevent the wounds from being more than shallow. When the strike hit me, I held my aura back. The beast's claws cut my left arm, slicing a little into the muscles but still not too deep., spilling my blood on the ground as I screamed in pain.

Then, faking being thrown back by the hit, I fell down the cliff.

/-/

When the girls heard Gemini scream, they both turned toward him, just in time to see his blood being ripped out of his arm, right before they saw him being thrown off the cliff.

If they had been thinking calmly, they might have wondered how the Grimm broke through Gemini's aura so quickly. It shouldn't have been possible for Gemini to go from full of aura to empty without them having more time and opportunities to come to his help than they needed.

Yet, it was deeply ingrained in their mind, and that of anyone on Remnat, that as long as one still had aura left, injuries wouldn't be suffered. So it the moment, their mind only registered that Gemini didn't have aura anymore. That he was vulnerable.

They also knew that the cliff was not only high, but also a large one. Without aura, there was no way he wasn't going to break something, if he didn't die from the fall. And even if he did survive with broken bones and without aura, there were Grimm below too.

Horrified at the sight of her baby brother's death, a desesperate Neo started running toward the edge of the cliff. Only to be interrupted by the heart-wrenching sound of Ruby, who's feelings echoed her owns, screaming her friend's name.

And then, everything became white.

/-/

''GEEEEEEEEEEM!'' I heard Ruby scream, as a burst of light engulfed everything.

I'd managed to grab onto the side of the cliff, as I'd planned to. Ignoring the pain in my left arm, I pulled myself upward, climbing to the top. With the heightened strength aura offered on top of the muscles this body had, raising my own weight was child play and I reached the top of the cliff in little time, even with an injured arm. Thanks God I managed to grab onto the cliff before falling any further, though, because being on the verge of falling wasn't a state I liked.

And thanks God I had some experience climbing from my past life, even if I wasn't very good at it back then and this time there was no safety equipment to save my life if I messed up.

I wasn't afraid of height per say, just of falling… And the moment of impact.

Rolling on the ground, away from the cliff. I took a look at the scene before me. All Grimm in the vicinity had been purged, leaving only Ruby, who was sprawled on the ground, unconscious and covered by her cape, and my sister, who fell on her butt and was looking at Ruby with her mouth open, shocked from what happened.

I took my weapon that was left on the ground and sheathed it, before attaching it to my hips. My sword might be disguised as a cane, but I still added something to my outfit to attach it to my hips, since I never knew when I might need both of my hands. I very much needed both of them right now.

''C'mon sis, we're done here for today.'' Neo jumped as I said that while passing by her.

I continued to walk until I reached Ruby and crouched to scoop her up in my arms.

''You did it, Ruby.'' I whispered as I held her.

With my right arm around her shoulders and the other under her legs, I lifted her up. As I did so, she wiggled a little and rested her head on my shoulder, one of her hands lightly grabbing my blazer's cloth. Well, she may be unconscious, but it was a good sign that she wasn't completely unresponsive.

I preferred a sleeping Ruby over a comatose one.

As I turned around to bring her back to her home, my sister stood before me, her stern look demanding answers.

''Can you pick up Ruby's weapon, please? I can't lift both Ruby and Crescent Rose at the same time.'' I asked her. Not that Ruby was particularly heavy, but… Okay, yeah, she was much heavier than you'd expect from a girl her size. She needed muscles to be able to wield as weapon such as Crescent Rose, and muscles were heavy. I kind of wanted to laugh at all the fics that described her body as 'soft' or 'light'. Did people really think Ruby didn't need strength to use her giant scythe? Her clothes hid it well, but under those, she was just as fit as Yang. ''I promise I'll explain everything once she's resting in her bed.''

She didn't look too happy at being told to wait a little longer, but accepting the need for priorities, she switched Crescent Rose to its rifle form to make it smaller and thus easier to transport. Sure, it didn't change the total weight, but a small but heavy object was easier to move with than an equally heavy object that was bigger. Less cumbersome.

She huffed when she lifted the weapon. She wasn't weak by any means, but her lithe body was built more for flexibility and agility than pure strength. It shouldn't be too much trouble to just bring it back to the Xiao-Long house, but she sure wouldn't be able to fight with something like that.

I believe Neo realized it, too, given the look of begrudging respect she gave to Ruby's sleeping form.

So we went back to Ruby's home, hidden from the Grimm on the way by my sister's semblance.

/-/

Opening the door, the first thing I did was to call out for Mr Xiao-Long.

I received no answer.

Right, Mr Xiao-Long wasn't here yet today, as was Yang. He was giving Yang detention at school, Ruby told me earlier today, before we started hunting Grimm. Something about Yang getting into a fight with some of the girls at Signal. I didn't know anything else about it, even Ruby didn't know why that fight happened, only that Yang threw the first punch.

It looked like they weren't back yet. Oh, well.

I crouched and let go of Ruby's legs to take off my shoes, only using one arm as I kept the other around her shoulders. Then I took off her boots, leaving her in her stockings (don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it), before lifting her again and walking up the stairs toward her room.

Then I slowly lowered her onto her bed. Now, it would probably be better if she was sleeping in her pyjama, but me changing her while she slept would be… severely inappropriate. So I only took off her belt, which had her emblem brooch and her munitions for Crescent Rose, and her cape.

I took a chair and sat next to her bed, before I threw a look at my sister and noticed the lack of sniper-scythe with her.

''Where's Crescent Rose?''

She pointed toward the stairs.

She left it downstair? That was alright, I guessed. As long as it was inside the house, it shouldn't cause any issues.

Then Neo pointed at the sleeping girl, looking at me with an expectant look.

I knew what that meant, she wanted the answers I had promised.

In silence, I took out my scroll to activate my semblance and retrieve one of my inventory's crystals out. From it, I took the box in which I kept some of my books. The books I took and opened were the ones I'd shown Ruby, the one with the old depictions of angels and the one with the original versions of valean fairy tales.

Neo watched my finger trace around the edge of a picture depicting a person with light coming out of their eyes.

''Mankind's past is filled with stories. Some of these stories are lost forever to the flows of time, others have remained, birthing fairy tales, myths, legends, and sometimes, even religions.'' I said, before taking a slow, deep breath. ''I've read lots of book, and ended up coming across stories of people able to fell the Creatures of Grimm with a mere look, mythical warriors that were said to be feared by the Grimm. The stories of these warriors always had two things in common: The first was the burst of light coming out of them. The second was the color of their eyes; silver.''

My sister looked between Ruby and I, pensive.

Then, her semblance conjured words in the air. ''And Ruby is one of those warriors?''

''Yes, as was her mother. It's an hereditary trait, but as far as I know, she's the last one alive.'' I was getting anxious just thinking about it. Looking at Ruby as she slept, she seemed so fragile. Too fragile. If something ever happened to her…

I needed Ruby to save myself and my family, but she was going to need someone to watch her back.

And that someone wasn't going to be a member of Team RWBY. Yang wanted to go on trips around Remnant, Weiss wanted to inherit the SDC, and Blake wanted to fix inequality issues between Humans and Faunus. Ruby was the only one who wanted to be a huntress for the sake of being a huntress, and without her Team with her, she was likely to go take missions alone.

Maria did the same.

Summer did the same.

If Ruby did the same… There was no reason to believe it was going to have a different result.

I needed to find something to keep her alive. Maybe by convincing her that she'd save more lives by working with me than by going on solo missions? I wasn't exactly sure how to do so, but I had until she graduated from Beacon to work on the idea. This was assuming we'll manage to defeat Cinder, of course.

More than that, the reasons I would give her needed to be true. A lie could only go so far.

''What is this power?'' Neo asked by changing the words floating in the air.

''Who know? Could be some kind of hereditary second semblance due to a genetic mutation. Maybe a wizard did it. Maybe these angel cults have a grain of truth and she's actually part divine. Place your bet.'' I said as I shrugged. The true origin of silver eyes was of secondary importance. ''What matters is that she can wipe out entire swarms of Grimm in an instant. This is the kind of power that can change the fate of nations.''

Not that Ruby looked the part right now. She was slowly munching on a strand of her own hair that fell down on her mouth.

''Are you sure you should mess with something like that?'' My sister asked, staring at Ruby with a skeptical look.

''Yes.''

''It'd be more prudent to not involve yourself with her.'' She 'wrote' in the air.

She wasn't wrong, per say. Ruby had a powerful heritage, but that kind of power tended to shift the balance of powers in the world. Salem wasn't the only one who would be inconvenienced by the rise of a fully awakened silver-eyed warrior. Whatever weird conspiracy surrounding her family put aside, the people at the helm of the kingdom wouldn't appreciate the threat to their influence.

Any trouble life would send her way (and there was likely to be a lot of it,) would no doubt affect the people around her as well. Merely associating with Ruby might easily become dangerous in the future.

''I don't care.'' I told my sister. Even if the ruling class decided letting her live was a risk they didn't like, I would always give her refuge.

With a finger, I gently pushed Ruby's lock of hair away from her face.

Neo stared at me with a stange look, a twinkle of understanding in her eyes.

''You like this girl.''

Well, that was an uselessly obvious statement. ''Of course I do, she's my friend. I wouldn't be friend with her if I hated being around her.''

Neo facepalmed.

What? What did I say?

Ilia: ''Wow, talk about being dense.''

Yeah well, it's a self-insert fic and I've had girls in high school literally ask me out and it still flew over my head. My mom complains that she's never going to be a grandmother for a reason.

Ilia: ''Guess I feels much better about myself now.''

Happy for you?

Ilia: ''Hey, if this Maria granny is dead, why is she not here with me?''

That's because she's been dead since before you were, so I kept her hidden in the basement to avoid spoiling the readers.

Ilia: ''You… kept her in the basement!?''

Don't worry, she's out now.

Maria: ''You damn well bet that I'm out.''

Ilia: ''Poor you, you must be angry at how he treated you.''

Maria: ''I mean, I'd be angry if he hadn't left me cashews in there. Being dead sucks, but at least I guess I don't have to worry about anything now.''

Speaking of being dead. Why are you old?

Maria: ''Uh?''

Souls don't ages, so why are you still old when technically, there's no reason to?

Maria: *suddenly turns into her younger self*

Ilia: ''Oh no, she's hot.''

Maria: ''Wow, it's been so long since I've felt this great.'' *Touch her face* ''Wait. My eyes are back!? I take back what I said about death. It doesn't sucks, it's great!'' *Proceeds to turn transparent and rise to the sky.*

Ilia: ''Wait, were are you going!? Don't leave me alone with him, I thought I was finally going to have some company''

She's resting in peace now.

Ilia: ''Why can't I!?''

Because your soul isn't at peace.

Anyway, this chapter was obviously named because Ruby got her silver eyes now.

I'm not quite sure what I'll call the next one, though.

Have a nice day, and happy new year.