Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Weapon Training

Ruby swung Crescent Rose around and around, the scythe's blade bouncing off of the hard light walls. Taiyang watched from the side, his head tilted as he watched her go.

She panted a moment later, putting the weapon down onto the ground. She was tired...she'd been up since nearly four that morning, working on Jaune's new weapon. It was almost done too, but it had a few more kinks she had to iron out first.

And then her dad had shown up, wanting to see how far she'd managed to push herself. She wasn't planning on keeping the shop closed forever, but these were the days she'd planned on having them closed...she needed at least some days for things like groceries! And forging, but that was technically 'work'. Although it never felt like work, so did that mean it ever actually was...?

"Not bad Ruby. How far have you gotten on some of these other weapons?" her dad asked her. He was standing there unimpressed, as if she hadn't just shown off how she can easily kill Grimm.

"Uh...pretty good?" Ruby lied. She hoped he wouldn't be able to tell. But she simply hadn't had the time, each night it was to go upstairs and bake something and in that same timeframe there was more work that needed to be done so she'd never had time to actually practice with this stuff!

"Right. Then let's see it," Taiyang said, easily calling her bluff as he tossed in a small flail; one of the ones she'd made at her last forging, actually.

"Do you even know how to use a flail?" Ruby asked. "Because I don't know about you, but if I didn't know how to use one I wouldn't be able to grade it!"

"Ruby, I'm a teacher. At Signal. I've heard the best of bullshits, and that was far from it," Taiyang deadpanned. Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Don't give me that look, you're supposed to be practicing with more than just Crescent Rose. You're supposed to be average, if not excel, with everything you make. You remember that?"

"Yeah, but it's not like someone's come in here and asked 'hi, how do I use this weapon I bought from you!?'"

"Doesn't mean you shouldn't learn," Taiyang nodded. "Now show me what you can do with base instincts. I'll fill in the rest," he said.

Ruby grumbled, but lightly tossed Crescent Rose onto Zwei's bed on the counter. It landed softly, a perfect cuddle, before the weight tossed both it and the bed off the counter, crashing down behind it. Zwei gave a soft yip of despair as he went to salvage what he could of his poor bed.

She gripped the handle lightly, feeling the weight in her hands. Just show her base instincts, right? She could do that. Nothing fancy, not until she was used to the weight. Crescent Rose's weight was balanced, but particularly towards the front end. The flail was much the same; a handle, a chain, and a steel ball with spikes sticking out of it.

What she could tell immediately; it wasn't a bladed weapon, like Crescent Rose was. It wasn't going to be used for slashing, but rather for pure crushing force. She gripped the handle with both hands as she roared, slamming the flail down onto the ground in front of her. It crashed down, the spikes poking into the floor as Ruby ripped it back up.

It had some momentum now. And just like Crescent Rose, she needed to keep it. She spun around, gripping the handle with one hand now to keep her balance and give the edge some more momentum. She had to keep going; that was the basic instinct she'd had. Not all weapons were like Crescent Rose, but Crescent Rose had similarities with almost all weapon types. It was one of the reasons Qrow had taught her specifically for nearly a year just how to use a scythe effectively.

The flail slammed into the hard light walls, making them flicker only a bit before she pulled away, crashing it against another of the hard light pillars. Each movement had a spin, some way to wind up momentum. Was it effective? In her mind, absolutely.

"Alright, alright, stop, stop," Taiyang shouted. Ruby panted heavily as the flail hit the ground, its handle finally dropped from her hands. "Not bad, especially since I know you haven't used that one before. What can you tell me about it, without me saying anything?" he asked.

"It's a weapon. Heavy in the front, so you need to find a way to keep momentum. Spins, flips, general acrobatics...find a way to use that to keep it going."

"Good, good...now where was the dust?" Taiyang said simply.

Ruby stared at him. "I...didn't use it?"

"Why?"

Honestly, because she didn't want to pay the SDC more than she absolutely had to, and this particular flail was going to be a dust guzzler because it needed seventy five percent purity dust, and that was expensive! "Because...I didn't put any in?"

"None of these are stocked?"

"Dust is expensive!"

Taiyang chuckled. "Just checking Ruby. I'm not worried. I know dust isn't cheap, and I'm guessing you already know most of the actual facts about that. Now, you did pretty good. You figured out momentum is key, and you kept it up. But what happens when you actually hit something?"

"...Hit it harder?"

"With a flail? Absolutely. There's little technique there besides 'hit it' and 'hit it harder'. There are a variety of cool things you can do with it, but those are far beyond a beginner, and something you just need to learn how to do on your own," Taiyang lectured. And boy, was he lecturing. It'd been a long time since she'd been lectured by him, seeing as how he was the final two grades of Signal. The two grades that she had been forced to skip and had been expelled for, for something that hadn't been her fault! "Throw it back to me," his voice cut through her inner monologue, and Ruby tossed it gently back towards him.

Taiyang caught the ball one handed, his aura flared out just enough so he wouldn't get poked by it. He tossed in a rifle axe a moment later.

It wasn't a dual bladed axe, but rather a single blade axe with rifle sights on the other end. It wasn't mechashift, but it would do well enough to see how her sharpshooting was on something not named Crescent Rose.

"Now, show me what you can do," Taiyang asked.

"First, can you pull me up some .38?" Ruby asked. Her dad blinked, before he laughed, tossing in a small box of the ammunition. She didn't keep any of the weapons stocked with their ammo, just in case there was ever an accident. Just as she kept all the dust far away from all of it.

She opened the cartridge, putting in a small amount. Ten bullets should do nice for a test run. It would also be a good way to see if her calibrations are on point. This was one she hadn't made yesterday, but rather Qrow had 'gifted' it to her.

The axe was fairly light, despite the ammo and rifle component. It was half as long as her arm, and would get a good slice in. Like most bladed weapons, she could increase the power by spinning first, but this one wasn't really long enough to really get up a lot of power for it. No, this weapon needed pure strength.

And a lot of dummies. Taiyang tapped something on his scroll, and there was a stuffed dummy of hard light dust in the center of the ring. He hadn't used it the last few times, but Ruby guessed that now she was moving forward he would.

She gripped it in one hand, feeling that it was better for the weapon. It wasn't quite long enough for two. Unlike both Crescent Rose and the flail. Her finger found the trigger easily, and she went to town.

She preferred the quick strikes, darting in and out using her Semblance when she could. Rose petals filled the air as she darted from in front and behind, the dummy taking damage from every angle. Just as she finished one slash, she fired the rifle part, feeling the recoil hit her arms.

Just like Crescent Rose, she could use it. She spun around, darting around in midair as she kept spinning and firing. Slashes after slashes appeared on the dummy, and she could envision the kind of damage she was wrecking on the poor hardlight system.

Faster, she could go. Faster, and faster, harder and harder. "Ruby!" Taiyang shouted. She could hit it harder, she could hit it faster, shot after shot, slash after slash. This was actually a pretty good weapon, she knew, although it was nowhere near as good as Crescent Rose. Then again, could anything really ever compare to Crescent Rose?

The dummy suddenly disappeared out of view, and Ruby felt the cold wind start to hit her as she froze in place, the hard light system dwindling. Rose petals filled the air, slowly hitting the ground. Ruby absently flared her aura, making them disappear as she stared in shock at the hard light system...failing?

"Uh...what just happened?" Ruby asked. She put down the rifle axe, checking to make sure that everything had discharged as it was supposed to. It had. All ten shells had been fired, and she could see ten shells dotting the floor of the hard light projector.

Or rather, the broken remains of the hard light projector.

"It couldn't keep up," Taiyang grinned. "It tried. Quite valiantly too. It was able to keep up at the start but after a while the damage total just kept adding up and you were moving too quick."

"...So I broke it by moving? How come I haven't done that with Crescent Rose yet? I hit a lot faster and harder with Crescent Rose than Alderbaran!"

"Named it already?" her dad smirked. "And no, I have a feeling that it's been on the fritz about to go for a while. I'll have Qrow swing by and see if he can't fix it by percussive maintenance."

"Isn't that just hitting it until it works? Wouldn't his Semblance make that difficult? Or near impossible?"

Taiyang grinned. "Now Ruby, would I ever send Qrow to do something like that just to irritate him?" he asked.

Ruby thought about it. There was the time her dad had sent Qrow out to the grocery store when he knew that one of the ladies there hated him, there was the time he sent Qrow out to Vale in the dead of night, there was the time he sent Qrow out to try to find Raven...

"Yes, yes you would."

"Good to know you know me well, Rubes."

Ruby grabbed the rifle axe and looked closely at the edge. There hadn't been any major damage to it, and just a little whetstone grinding would be enough to maintain its edge. It was still going to be in saleable condition.

And now her hard light projector was broken. "I hope it won't cost too much to fix..." she muttered.

Taiyang waved off her fears. "It'll be fine Ruby. So, show me this new weapon of Jaune's. That's Yang's partner, right?"

"No, that's Blake, remember. We met her at the dinner a few weeks ago?" Ruby reminded him. "Jaune is Pyrrha's partner, but they're on the same team. And yeah, it's not quite ready yet, but it should be done by tomorrow!"

Her dad grinned. "I'll be excited to see it then," he said. Ruby returned it, her Semblance kicking in as she rushed into the back section, where her workshop was.

Ozpin

Ruby stared at the clock, wishing for the time to slowly edge towards the end of the day. She still had a few hours left, but there was nothing more for her to do.

She'd done all of her accounting, Jaune's weapon was done, she'd finished grinding down most of the other pieces, and now could build them at her leisure. Assuming, of course, that she actually got some more special orders in.

But what kind of special orders would they be? That was the reason they were called 'special orders'. They were special, unique. Like a snowflake.

The bell rang, and Ruby looked up as Zwei gave a chirpy little bark of his. A man in a green sweater, graying hair, and a long cane. Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon, had just walked into her shop.

"Ruby Rose...I see you've done quite well," he said as he walked in, his eyes missing no detail as he looked through the various accouterments of Grimm destruction that she had stocked.

"Professor Ozpin! What are you doing here?"

"Just...interested to see how a prospective student was doing," he answered. "It's not often I have my hands tied so firmly as I did when handling your case. I wanted you to come to Beacon, you know."

"I know. I wanted to go! But maybe I wasn't quite ready yet."

"Or perhaps you were, but fate decided to stay its hand," Ozpin answered. "There are many reasons for why things are the way they are. But we can only control so much of what happens to us."

"How are Yang and the rest of her team doing?" Ruby asked quietly. She got the reports from Yang, but those were...basic. 'Killed a few more Grimm today!' 'Asked Blake out to lunch, want to come with?'. Basic.

"They're doing quite well, from what I've been hearing. With a leader like Pyrrha Nikos though, I suppose it's hard to do badly. Although Ms. Goodwitch has some...unsavory things to say about Ms. Xiao-Long."

Ruby laughed. "That sounds like Yang. She's always the kind to punch before she thinks about not punching."

"I've been hoping that Beacon will dull that temperament as her skills rise," Ozpin admitted. He looked around, his uncanny eyes staring at everything around him. "You seem to have quite a collection here. Did you forge these yourself?"

"Some of them. Most of them, now. When I got started all I had was Uncle Qrow's collection."

Ozpin chuckled. "Yes, I remember him vividly asking me to send him out on more missions so he can 'regain his collection' again. Stuffy old bird."

"Well, his collection is his collection now. I've got enough to get by on my own. I even pay my own rent now!" Ruby cheered.

It had been a harrowing experience, so much of Ruby's funds going towards something that she couldn't tell if she'd done it right until she got the 'thank you' notice from the landowner. She was proud of it, after all. Who'd ever heard of a fifteen year old paying rent for a shop before?

"That's quite a feat," Ozpin nodded. "It's rare for one such as yourself to hold such responsibility. You might've done well as a team leader."

"Might do," Ruby corrected. "I'm getting to Beacon, one way or the other. I just need to get better...and older."

Ozpin chuckled again as the bell rang. "I see you have other customers coming in-"

"No, they aren't customers, those are repairmen," Ruby said. "Hey guys, center's broken down again. It's not a dust replacement, otherwise I'd have already done it," Ruby admitted as two rather small men in blue overalls came in. They had a small kit full of wrenches and screwdrivers.

One of them raised his hand, "Yeah, I remember putting this in. Where's the service duct?" he asked. Ozpin tilted his head before he took a step back, a small smirk on his face.

Ruby pointed to a tiny hole in the floor. "Service duct's over here. Let me unlock it for you," she said, racing over with petals in the air as she used the specialized key to open it. It was almost too tiny, Ruby knew, but somehow both of the repair guys fit into it just fine. Ruby couldn't have fit in it, unless she went in Semblance first.

"Repairs? Everything seems like it's working normal," Ozpin asked quietly.

"Yeah, I broke the hardlight training thing Qrow and my Dad bought for me to keep up my training. Something about me going so fast that it ended up burning out the processors? I'm a mechanics person, not a computer person."

"I see. I'm much the same, honestly," Ozpin admitted. "I've never quite figured out how you younger people can spend so much time on your scrolls without getting neck pain."

"Most of us do," Ruby admitted.

Ozpin looked over some of the weapons on the side, before his eyes peeled to one in particular. It was a rifle and an axe in one, slight cream on the end. "This one...why did you make this one? The coloring and shading on it reminds me strongly of one person."

"It's not quite the same, I know. But...her memory spoke out to me one day," Ruby said. "And I felt I needed to make it. It's not Sundered Rose-"

"It's quite close none the less. I believe Summer would have loved seeing you remake it from memory alone," Ozpin said quietly. His eyes had that far off glaze in them, as if deep in his memories.

"...Did you work with her a lot, before she disappeared?"

"I did. Her team, team STRQ, was...one of the best that Beacon has ever seen. They helped defend Mountain Glenn, and it was only when Raven decided to head back to Anima that the team truly broke up, I felt."

Ruby felt grief wash over her mind. "Do you...know why she took that mission that she did?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, Ruby. I have looked as hard as I can, using every available resource to me. Taiyang and Qrow both thought that I was the one to send her out on that, but it was just as much of a surprise to me."

"What was she like? I...don't want to ask Dad or Qrow. I want to know her, all of her."

Ozpin sighed. "It's...she was a hard person to describe. In her youth she was quite energetic, wild. She'd charge in without thinking, because she didn't need to. She fielded well, always learning and never trying to take the lazy way, in battle at least. But during those few times when she was relaxing, one could see the kind and caring person she would eventually turn out to be."

Ruby nodded.

"Although she was a prankster at heart too. Oftentimes we'd see Qrow or Taiyang running through the school on another of Summer's wild goose chases. She did that to Raven a couple of times before her Semblance kicked in, and then it became, in Summer's mind, 'too much of a chore'."

Ruby giggled. She hadn't heard that side of her mom before! And she wondered if her Dad or Qrow would have ever told her that?

"Team STRQ's years were quite...shall we say, eventful. And then...well, everything changed with Mountain Glenn. After that, Raven decided to leave, but not before leaving Ms. Xiao-Long with her father."

Ruby nodded. "I remember hearing that story. Dad mentioned it once. A trial at trying to build outside of Vale for the first time in...a long time."

Ozpin nodded. "Yes. It was my idea, sadly. I thought that we had enough time...unfortunately the Grimm piled in, and countless lives were lost as I sent Hunter after Hunter inside it. A hundred lives were lost that day."

"And how many did you save?" Ruby asked.

Ozpin stared at her. "Excuse me?" he murmured.

"And how many did you save?" Ruby repeated. She stared directly into his emerald green eyes, matching them. Ozpin looked even older now, wearier, as if he'd seen far too much in his life and was just now feeling his age catch up to him.

"I... am not sure. Most, I know. Several thousand, at least. But-"

"I think that you did the best you could, professor. It's not just about looking at the numbers, but looking at the results too. Yes, people got hurt, and yes that's terrible, but those people you sent in, the ones that got hurt? They knew what they were going into. They knew what they were going to be facing. And I think, deep down, no matter how they were on the outside, they would have gladly done the exact same even if the outcome was known."

"You're saying that because they knew what they were getting into, they would have done it again, just to know they were going to save civilians? People who would never fight a day?"

"Isn't that the purpose of being a Hunter?" Ruby asked. "Isn't it to make sure that those that don't fight don't need to? That's the purpose behind Atlas, behind Shade, behind Haven. Behind Beacon."

Ozpin chuckled. "Yes. You are quite correct there, Ms. Rose. Sometimes I feel like I need to do quite more though. It's not easy, being the one to oversee everything. To be the one in the back lines."

"I'm surprised you don't talk with Ms. Goodwitch about this. Or Uncle Qrow! He's good at these types of things."

Ozpin gave her a quick glance. "I do, at times. But it's refreshing to hear a younger perspective. Thank you, Ms. Rose, for listening to an old man's story time."

"Of course! But you're not that old, Professor Ozpin."

"Older than you think," Ozpin winked. "Have a good day, Ms. Rose. And tell me...do you think you would make it through the Beacon Initiation, given what you know of it? As you are right now?" he asked.

Ruby nodded. "Easily!"

"I have no doubts then. I will see you in a few years' time then, Ms. Rose. I am eager to see how far you'll go..." he said, his cane hitting the ground softly as he walked out the door, the bell chiming his leaving.

Ruby watched him go. That was weird. It was almost as if Ozpin was...saddened by the reminders of his failures. But they weren't failures, not to her. Yes, he had lost people, but so had she. And look at her now!

There was a knock underneath the floor as one of the repairmen came out of the far too small hole. How he managed that, Ruby had no idea. It was as if he was part cat or something.

"Alright, that part should be fixed here. Turns out you burned out the main CPU, and so we had to go and install a new one and added a few more fans and cooling ducts. What exactly did you do to make it blow up to begin with?" he asked.

"Uh...attacked a dummy at nearly fifty times per second while slamming off the walls?"

"Yeah, don't do that. Huntresses, I swear," he said, helping his coworker up out of the same vent. "Well, we'll send you an invoice. Should be the same price as the quote. When you need us again, just give us a call."

Ruby sighed as he walked out. "Thank the gods it's the same price. If it was much more I don't' think I'd have been able to afford it. And I still need to save enough for rent next month...and Zwei's food! Oh no, Zwei's food!" Ruby panicked, staring at the empty food bowl next to the counter. The corgi was still sleeping in his basket, only to be awoken as Ruby rushed out of the door with a small 'be back soon!' sign on the top of it.

Ruby vs. Ozpin! Idealism vs. realism! This is actually the last of the chapters I wrote before I went on a six month hiatus, right after I finished Aion. Hopefully Ruby's not too out of character!

Until Next Time!