Author's note: Let's start with the result of Ruby and Russel upgrading the latter's weapon.
Ruby stood by the shooting range near her workshop and put her scroll away again, and Russel lowered his short bow after firing a few simple arrows to get a feel for the weapon. When he looked over to Ruby, he immediately saw that something was amiss.
"Everything alright?" Russel asked, catching Ruby's attention.
"Not really, no," Ruby answered, "Yang is helping the police clear out some Grimm, but for some reason, a lot of Grimm are headed their way, and I'm a bit worried about their safety."
"You want me to go and help?" Russel asked, separated his bow into twin daggers again and put them away.
"No, I've got this," Ruby answered, "Thanks though." She went back inside and grabbed a light-fire-dust crystal, then came back out and made a Healing Circle. Holding the crystal in her right hand and focusing on the Grimm heading towards her sister, she created a ball of swirling purple energy in her left hand and summoned almost a dozen wolves made from fiery red energy, which immediately ran off to kill their targets.
~o~
Yang smashed a Geist's body, forcing the Grimm to escape. Before it could enter another body, a police officer shot it. She punched a Beowolf's skull into its torso, killing it and setting off both Daybreaker and Spectral Assault again. She ran towards a charging Deathstalker and dashed underneath it, then kicked its underside. When the Grimm came down, it was impaled on a steel beam that was coated in golden flames, and caught fire.
"Grimm!" Alizarin called out just as Yang destroyed another Geist with a flurry of blows. She turned around and saw that the police was completely surrounded by Grimm, even though they were still a bit away and easier to take down. Suddenly, several wolves made from fiery red energy ran into the Grimm, bit the monsters, and exploded in large fireballs that killed multiple Grimm. Each dead Grimm left an ember behind, which floated over to the police and dove into their weapons.
"That's Ruby for you," Yang said, and went back to killing the larger Grimm, while the police dealt with the weaker ones. One of the fireballs had ignited a dumpster, and the Grimm refused to get close to the fire, so the police used it as defense to safely eradicate the Grimm.
~o~
Adalwolf Star walked through his village, using his aura-based predator sense to target any Grimm within ten kilometers. Due to doing this for years, the practice had become second nature to him, so he just went about his day until a pack of Beowolves strayed close enough that he could sense them.
"Let's see how this works, then," Adalwolf said and stomped his left foot, covering the town square in an icy mist, and created an orb of purple energy in his right hand, with some ice blue lines mixed into it, as if he augmented it with ice-dust. The Grimm split up to get around some obstacles, and he sent fifty spectral wolves made from icy mist after them, one for each Grimm. In his mind's eye, he saw the wolves chase through the woods, jump the Grimm and bite their necks before exploding in jagged ice spikes. Just as he was about to turn in for the night, Nora floated down using her maiden powers, while carrying Yang, and landed in front of him.
"Adalwolf Star?" Yang asked after Nora let her down, and Adalwolf knew immediately that he couldn't beat both of them if it came to a fight. The people, previously only intrigued by the Icy Terrain, now focused their attention on the newcomers, except for a few children that were too occupied watching the water in a bucket freeze over a bit.
"Don't worry, we just want to talk," Nora said and the people calmed down again, and went back to looking at the icy mist floating around the marketplace, as well as the bits of ice forming on various surfaces.
"That would be me, yes," Adalwolf answered, "But let's talk somewhere else. This way." He walked ahead and led the two huntresses to the edge of the village, where they saw a large longhouse with a small staircase leading up to the door, and a wooden wolf sitting on either side of the stair.
"Looks nice," Yang said when she and Nora entered the house and looked around. It had a rustic charm to it, with cobblestone walls, fabricated Grimm pelts hanging on wooden support beams, a large fireplace, and leather chairs with wolf pelts lying over them.
"Thanks. Please, take a seat," Adalwolf said, gestured them to sit down and asked, "So, you're friends with Ruby, right? What brings you here?" The three sat down on the leather chairs, and Yang and Nora took a second to process just how comfortable they were.
"We are, yes. I'm her sister, actually," Yang answered, "Well, we have the same dad. I'm also on her team. Anyway, we came here for more semblance-related business."
"I figured," Adalwolf said and asked, "So, what is it this time?"
"For starters, we saw the petrified Grimm on our way here," Yang said and asked, "Did you see any lights before those appeared?"
"I did, yes," Adalwolf answered and asked, "How did you know?"
"That light was Ruby's soul," Yang answered, "Basically, when you looked into it, she copied your semblance, and you copied hers."
"Wait, really?" Adalwolf asked, "And you two came here just to tell me that?"
"Not just that. We just figured you should know," Yang answered, "We actually came here because Nora wanted to teach you how to let people copy your semblance. And maybe, you could let us copy it in return."
"My semblance sure is popular these days," Adalwolf said, "Well, alright then." Nora got up, walked over to him and used Mentor, and Adalwolf held up his right hand to shine the light of his soul into her eyes, then got up and repeated the process with Yang.
~o~
After dinner, while Ruby went to take care of some more personal matters before heading to bed, her friends met in the train station, except for Yang and Nora, who were inexplicably missing, and had only told them that they went to take care of some personal matters.
"And, what did you two find out?" Glynda asked, looking at Qrow and Dove.
"It's a semblance alright," Qrow answered, "It's called Sleepless, and removes the need for sleep as long as her aura remains active."
"Of course, that means her aura has to stay active," Dove added, "If it breaks, she falls asleep immediately."
"I see," Glynda said and asked, "So in other words, she hasn't slept at all since that day?"
"What has she been doing all that time?" Coco asked.
"And why didn't she tell us?" Yatsuhashi asked.
"Ruby's like Summer, in a lot of ways," Qrow answered, "She has her reasons, and it's usually best not to question her. We just gotta trust that she has our best interests in mind."
"She was making weapons," Blake explained, "When she woke up after that attack on Beacon, Yang and I asked her a few questions, and she told us about this new powder she developed to propel bullets. It's more potent than fire-dust, so it's probably not safe for normal people, and weapons are too frail for it anyway, but explosives are pretty effective if they're made with it. The only major downside is the noise."
"I still can't believe she wouldn't want us to know," Jaune said and clenched his fists.
"I'm sure she doesn't mind us knowing," Qrow said.
"Why's that?" Bartholomew asked.
"She's got Raven's semblance now," Qrow answered, "She used it on us when we got here, so now she can keep tabs of where we are and what we're doing. It also alerts her when we're in danger, and she can set her own conditions for alerting her."
"She's been watching us this entire time?" Ren asked, a bit shocked.
"I doubt it, since she's not the type," Qrow answered, "But she could have made Kindred Link alert her whenever we tried to figure out what was going on with her, and then come in with some excuse or another to get us away from whatever lead we had."
"So, what do we do now?" Weiss asked, "I mean, do we tell her that we know about it, or what?" Suddenly, the door opened, and when the group looked, they saw Ruby enter.
"It's fine," Ruby answered, "I set Kindred Link to let me know whenever someone found out, and already sent a message to Yang and Nora about it, since they're the only ones who don't know about it yet." She walked towards the stairs, but Glynda walked up to her and stopped her in her tracks.
"What else have you been hiding from us?" Glynda asked and said, "We can't keep working together like this if we don't know what everyone else can and can't do." Ruby paused for a moment, to use Telepathy, then sighed.
"Alright, fine," Ruby said, drew Thief's Respite and opened a portal for Yang and Nora, which closed once they came through, "Sit down, I'll explain everything." She put the weapon away again and everyone sat down in the meeting room.
"So, what is it?" Yang asked, "How much didn't you tell us? And why?"
"For starters, I didn't just make gunpowder," Ruby answered, "I also made light dust, but right now, I only have fire and water. Also, there is somewhat of a side-effect from my process, which is why I didn't tell anyone about it."
"Wait, you made dust?" Cardin asked, "How?"
"Dust is just crystallized aura," Ruby answered, "With my alchemy, I can force ambient aura to crystallize, and mix it with other things to give it its effect. And for the light variants, I mix in some positive emotions from the environment."
"Did you make dust just now, too?" Qrow asked.
"I did, yes," Ruby answered and pulled a light-fire-dust crystal from one of her satchels.
"That explains that, then," Yang said and explained, "Earlier today, when you used Wolfpack, a dumpster caught fire, and the Grimm wouldn't go near that."
"But back to the topic of making dust," Glynda said and asked, "What kind of side-effect are we talking about exactly?" Ruby shifted uncomfortably in her seat, but her friends were determined to get that answer out of her.
"Well, I'm taking away the negative emotions from the area," Ruby answered, "That results in a surge of negativity, because surrounding emotions fill the vacuum in equal measure. And eventually, that surge reaches the tipping point, and Grimm manifest." Her friends looked at her like she had grown a second head.
"You have got to be kidding me," Weiss said and asked, "You've been making Grimm?!"
"They're just a waste product, ok?" Ruby answered, "They reset the vacuum when they manifest, and I have Emerald kill them immediately anyway, so it's fine. Not to mention that we get dust out of it."
"Let's talk about this tomorrow," Glynda said, "And since you don't need to sleep any more, you will be on night guard duty from now on." Ruby let her head hang, got up and walked outside.
"Alright," Ruby said and closed the door behind herself, while everyone else went to bed. She didn't quite know what to do, but knew that she would keep Grimm from even approaching her friends while they slept.
~o~
Wandering around Vale late at night, Ruby reached out with her inner eye, mapping out any Grimm within the city. There were still several leafy green Combat Drones around, and sprouts made from Power Root covered the ground in a green field that increased her damage output.
"Alright, let's try something," Ruby said to herself and walked up to a lamp post. She fused into Opal and created two clones, then brought out Emerald and Sapphire for help.
"So, the secret is out?" Emerald asked, and she and Sapphire activated Natural Sanctuary.
"It is, yeah," Ruby answered, "I'll explain everything to them tomorrow. For now, let's just try to make their job easier." She gripped the lamp post with both hands and used Emphatic Beacon to make some lamp posts attract Grimm. One by one, with a one minute delay, the lamp posts started attracting Grimm for ten minutes each.
"So, what do we do now?" Sapphire asked after Ruby let out an exhausted sigh. Through her inner eye, Ruby could tell that it was working. She sensed entire packs of Grimm being drawn to the lamp posts, and when the effect of one wore off, they headed to the next.
"Now, we just wait," Ruby answered, "I don't have any plant-dust, so I can't send wolves to kill Grimm and spread chestnut shells. At least I'm gathering up some of the Grimm in one spot, so they can be dealt with more easily. I just need to send Penny a message."
"Sounds good," Sapphire said, and Ruby pulled out her scroll to send Penny the coordinates of where she gathered the Grimm. After putting her scroll away again, she used alchemy to transmute the impurities in the air and make three plastic chairs for herself, Emerald and Sapphire. All three sat down to wait for any Grimm to show up, and every once in a while, Ruby sent a few spectral wolves after random Grimm all over the city.
~o~
Penny flew over Vale after killing another Leshy, with several boosters following her to increase her offense and defense, when she got a message from Ruby. She headed over to the coordinates, but along the way, she found a Bomber Deer, and decided to take it with her. She jammed one of her swords into its shoulders and sat down on it. A green lightning ran along the wire, and the Grimm's red markings turned green.
"Enemy combatant subjugated," Penny said to herself, and the Grimm began walking at her discretion. When she reached the coordinates, she made the Bomber Deer open fire, killing most of the Grimm present. She pulled her sword from the Grimm and flew away a bit, then manifested several crystal swords and hurled them at the remaining Grimm. Once all the swords were in place, she used Safezone through all of them, creating two dozen small fields and killing the rest of the Grimm.
~o~
The next morning, Ruby entered the train station just in time for breakfast, though she could tell, and understand, that her friends were still upset with her. She helped set the table and sat down, and everyone started eating in silence at first, before Yang spoke up.
"And, how are you?" Yang asked.
"I'm fine," Ruby answered, "A bit cold, but not tired or anything."
"That's good," Yang said and asked, "Made any more dust?"
"Nope," Ruby answered, "But I killed a lot of Grimm."
"I see," Yang said.
"Yep," Ruby said.
"By the way, I have something to tell you," Nora said, "It's kind of important, but so much happened that I sort of forgot about it." Everyone looked at her, and she shrunk into her chair a little.
"What is it?" Glynda asked.
"A few days ago, I ran into Mercury," Nora answered, and everyone stopped eating and gave her sour looks.
"A few days?!" Yang asked, and Weiss jumped ever so slightly, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"Like I said, a lot has happened," Nora answered, "We were all so focused on Ruby, it didn't feel right bringing that up."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Ruby said, drawing everyone's attention to herself, "If I hadn't kept all this a secret from everyone, Nora would've told us about Mercury sooner, and we could've done something about him. But I did, and we couldn't, so now we just have to make the best of the situation."
"How do you say we do that?" Qrow asked.
"I'll need to think about that," Ruby answered, "I'll go and use Tracing to see what happened, and then make my decision based on that."
"So, I'm guessing we won't be working on Beacon today, then?" Glynda asked.
"Sorry, no," Ruby answered, "There's no point in restoring Beacon if our enemies establish a foothold in the area and can just tear it down again once we're done."
"Anything else we can do?" Jaune asked.
"Of course there is," Ruby answered, "I want you and my dad to go and kill some Grimm. I'll have Ilia lure them to you with her semblance. Then you just set up a Grassy Terrain, and my dad takes them out with his semblance."
"So, we just go and kill Grimm all day?" Yang asked and said, "Sure."
"Kind of," Ruby answered, "Just don't get carried away. Stay in larger groups and preserve your strength. We'll try and clear out Beacon again once I know what our enemies are up to, so for now, prioritize establishing some defenses to make it easier for the police and military to fight off Grimm without us."
"Got it," Yang said and asked, "Weiss, can you go with Jaune and dad?"
"Sure," Weiss answered and asked, "But, why?"
"I'd like you to set up Landmines," Yang answered, "You can use two dust types, so I figured plant- and light-fire-dust would make for a nice combination. Create wooden spikes and light them on fire, and drive away Grimm."
"Good idea," Ruby said, "Weiss, I'll give you all the light-fire-dust later. For now though, we should finish breakfast and get going." They finished breakfast, put the dishes away and cleaned them, and then moved out to take care of the Grimm.
~o~
Jaune stabbed his great sword into the ground and covered the surrounding area in ethereal grass and plants, with vines hanging from lamp posts, roofs, and other places. Weiss summoned a Seer and five Queen Lancers, and had the latter fly away.
"And there's Ilia," Jaune said, right before a Shooting Star hit the ground and created a small boulder in the Grassy Terrain. When a small pack of Beowolves approached, Taiyang flung spheres of leaf green energy at them, killing them and triggering Power Root with each kill. Meanwhile, Weiss used Landmine through the bone spikes of her summons to secure another section of the city. One of her Queen Lancers saw a Grimm run into a Landmine and get skewered.
"Looks like it's working," Weiss said happily, "Those things are dying, and then refuse to approach the fire. Too bad the wood only burns for half an hour, though."
"That's more than enough time," Jaune said, "That means the police can more easily kill them."
"You're right," Weiss said and turned back to her Seer. She decided to speed things up, and summoned another ten Queen Lancers.
"Guys, a little help," Taiyang said and flung four spheres into one of several charging Grimm packs in one fluid motion. Jaune fused into Arkos and created two clones, and all three fired their regular disks at another pack, although slightly delayed from one another. Weiss created three Glyphs in a triangle formation and sent Magnet Spheres at another pack from all three, albeit slightly delayed. Once the spheres got close to the Grimm, they fired green energy blasts at them in rapid succession, creating a single wooden caltrop with every hit. However, the spheres disappeared after traveling ten meters. In the middle distance, a small group of Atlesian Knight 200 units carried materials to aid in the reconstruction efforts.
"That's it," one Arkos clone said and shot a passing Knight in the head, causing the remaining five to send a distress signal, drop the materials they were carrying, initiate self-destruction and run into the nearest pack of Grimm. Another clone looked at their shield and switched to their special disk, just to see what would happen. As soon as the disk made contact, it released a wave of rainbow-colored energy that immobilized every Grimm in a twenty meter radius.
~o~
Yang sat on a bench after killing another pack of Grimm, including Beowolves, Creeps and Ursai. The police were busy checking the van and refueling it before they went on, as per protocol. Suddenly, the military sent a general distress signal, alerting everyone that a Knight had encountered problems.
"Let's see what that is about," Yang said and used her arm's connection to her scroll to hack into a camera drone. She flew it to the location noted in the signal, and when it got there, she saw four Arkos clones, Weiss and Taiyang kill motionless, rainbow-colored Grimm. Yang decided to help out and manifested a sphere of purple energy in her organic hand.
"Yang, what's wrong?" Diamond asked when she noticed that Yang looked a bit absent, and the rest of the police officers looked at her, too.
"Nothing," Yang answered, "Just some Grimm that don't know their place yet." She sent a single spectral wolf made from purple energy after one of the Grimm attacking her friends. It took about a minute for the wolf to reach the Grimm, but when it jumped at the Beowolf's throat and killed it, the Grimm exploded in golden flames that ignited any nearby Grimm, and stuck to the wooden caltrops Weiss' Magnet Sphere had created, while each hit also triggered Spectral Assault. Seeing her plan work, Yang sent more wolves once she saw that Weiss sent Combat Drones down the other roads, which covered the ground in fistfuls of wooden caltrops with each hit.
Author's note: Yang and Nora are, in fact, strong enough to take down Adalwolf, even though he has access to the Alpha State.
Also, Ruby's secret is out, and people aren't happy.
At least now, the others won't have to worry about night guard duty any more, since Ruby can keep going 24/7 as long as her aura remains active.
Arkos' special energy disk is based on Shiny Luminous' Heartiel Action from Futari Wa Pretty Cure: Max Heart, which immobilizes forces of evil and reinvigorates the Cures. However, Arkos' disk lacks the second ability. Another difference is that the Heartiel Action is a one-directional force field, while Arkos' disk is an AoE centered on the point of impact.
And Yang now has even more ways to kill Grimm. Because you can never have enough of those.
