Disclaimer: See last chapter.

Belladonna

Ruby stood next to the counter in her shop, not surprised when no one was here. Zwei was napping on his pillow, the good little pupper that he was who could no wrong in his or her mind, and she...was staring down at her scroll. The words were making no sense to her though.

The news cycle was on repeat, as it always seemed to be. More and more information was dropping, some of it emailed to her by Ms. Goodwitch who seemed to understand that Ruby wasn't out there to battle the thing but to save Yang from doing something stupid.

And Ms. Goodwitch had made quite sure that she knew what Yang and most of her team was doing had been 'something stupid'. She knew that, deep down, but it was still a surprise to hear that one of the teacher's was actually doing something about it. She could almost recall it as if it was happening right in front of her. There was another message from Blake though, although the words made no sense the meaning was clear.

Blake, however, had not been offered, or forced depending on who was asked, to join her team in a detention that lasted longer than a week because they now had to plan the dance themselves. A worse fate, Ruby did not know.

No, she hadn't needed to join because she'd gone upstairs to the CCT to let her parents know, who were somehow in town already, to avoid the highways and if they were anywhere near the highway to come nowhere near it.

In other words, the smart thing.

Also, Ruby had no idea that Blake's parents were in town. Especially because the only time that she'd called them that hadn't been on accident was the time she'd told them Blake's number, and thus heard a purred rumbling behind the phone, a sound that quite literally sent shivers down Ruby's spine.

She didn't even know who they were the first time she'd talked to them. But she had, and that was how they knew who she was originally! What kind of crazy reasoning was that!?

Actually in hindsight probably not that crazy. Menagerie was small, and they really only had one way of calling out or in internationally.

"Of course Torchwick was piloting it," Ruby grumbled. "Man, that guy just gets away with everything, doesn't he!?" she said loudly, sitting down on the chair.

"Why Little Red! If I didn't know better, I'd think you were sad that I didn't die in there!" Roman Torchwick's voice called out. Her bell wasn't broken, and she had reset security on her workshop.

Her heart beat faster as she tried to figure out how, in the entirety of Remnant, had he snuck up on her!? Right in front of her, Roman Torchwick, complete with bowler hat and that weapon of his.

He twirled it around in his hands, not caring that he was in her shop in the middle of the day. She hoped this was a dream. It'd be a nightmare though. It would make things much, much better...well it would still be a bad dream but if it was a dream that she could bring in a forest rather than her shop and then Zwei could turn into a gigantic fire breathing dragon and it would be so cool she'd have to make a weapon for him like that-

"Really? No words? Little Red, you hurt me," Torchwick said as he glanced around her stock. "I thought I saw your pretty face out there last night."

"I did get a good look at Goodwitch thrashing you," Ruby piped up. Torchwick groaned, his cane hitting one of the smaller pistols she'd had lying around. It shattered into glass and sparks.

"That wasn't a thrash, that was just her taking out the trash," Torchwick rhymed. "And honestly, you'd think those Atlas robots would be better. So...why aren't you calling the police yet?" he asked. "Don't tell me you already have."

Okay, she wasn't going to tell him that she had. There was a tiny silent alarm on the bottom of her desk, but the small light that flashed out from the hard light arena that told her it wasn't working. She was pressing it as hard and fast as she could.

"Ha! You're just letting me rob you now. Oh this is great Little Red, just little old me walking in and you're too scared to-" he said, walking into a face full of chest. When had he started to walk? Why?

The bell. Again. Had not gone off. And yet there was now a giant of a man with a half open coat standing in her doorway. He had a large black puff of hair on his chest, and yet his eyes were full of both kindness and bitterness.

"I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me," he said quietly, his voice booming across the shop. It was almost too low, it seemed. "But I think I might have business with the proprietor."

Ruby perked up, but her eyes were still on Torchwick. "And what would those-"

"Ruby," she heard that same deep voice say as he walked up to her. "Ruby, you should wake up," she heard again. A bit of a much higher pitch, coming from everywhere around her.

She felt herself be shoved by air, nothing was there, and she felt herself slam into the wall going far too fast, Roman was attacking her now-

Her eyes opened as she glanced around. Still in her shop, her arms were crossed and her head was lying down. In front of her was that giant of a man and a dainty, comparatively, woman next to him. She was tanned, almost unfairly so, with two large cat ears on her head dancing around. She had on a purple coat, just as Ruby noticed the man did too.

"Oh, shoot, I'm so sorry-" Ruby started, before the man bellowed a laugh.

"You don't need to be sorry for sleeping! From what I hear, you had a rather stressful night as it was," he said, a wide smile on his face. It gave him the illusion of being a rather genial man, the laugh lines obvious.

Ruby thought she recognized him from somewhere, but she couldn't quite place him. Next to him, however, she easily placed the woman as an older Blake. They looked near identical except for skin tones, and even that can be excused as being from Menagerie's much more tropical climate than Vale's rather northern one.

But what were the leaders of Menagerie and the original leaders of the White Fang doing in her shop? "How can I help you?" she asked, defaulting into her 'customer service' mode while her mind was trying to both wake up and come to terms with the dream.

"We were just looking around. Ghira remembered that you were the one to originally call us about Blake," the woman smiled.

Right, yeah she did do that. That wasn't a dream her, she'd done that. Blake still somewhat refused to come down from Beacon because of it, although it's more like a 'please don't do it again' rather than a 'traitor!'. At least now that things have settled down. "Oh yeah, I'm glad you were able to make it. Vytal Festival?"

"Originally yes but then Headmaster Ozpin decided to invite the leaders and headmasters of every nation! So we came early to scout things out!" What was her name? Ruby couldn't quite place it. She'd been told it, or she'd answered it, or something, but her mind wasn't quite-

"I believe we haven't introduced ourselves," the man said, his voice deep and booming. "I am Ghira Belladonna, chieftain of Menagerie. This is my wife, Kali Belladonna," he said, motioning to his wife.

Right, that's what it was. Kali and Ghira. Ruby nodded, trying to remember those names. They'd probably pop up again at some point. "You...know what happened last night?" she asked.

Kali pointed to her scroll, still stuck on the news casts that had invaded her sleeping dreams. "It's kind of hard not to, those news things are all over the place," she said. "And you have yours on speaker."

Ruby felt her face flush as she hurriedly turned it off and put it away. No wonder her dream was so bizarre. Getting invaded by both Torchwick and then Ghira..."Sorry!" And of course her head still wasn't on straight yet...

"There's no need for that. We just wanted to say thank you for getting Blake to call us again," Kali answered finally. "And for taking care of her while we couldn't."

"She's a friend!"

"Then let's hope she has more friends like you around. The world would be a far better place if more people had friends like you," Ghira grinned. He looked around and ignored the glare from his wife as he leaned down and tried to fake whisper to her so Kali couldn't hear, "And I really wanted to see your shop too, but don't tell my wife that."

Kali rolled her eyes. "It's not as if I can't hear you," she deadpanned, before she turned to Ruby. "I'm glad to see you carrying Menagerie weapons, and slightly surprised. How often do they sell?"

"Not too often. Most of the time it's Blake who needs her ribbon replaced, but other times it's others who want to try something 'exotic'," Ruby explained. "It took me a while to get the hang of making the dust infused ribbons and chains." She also didn't want to explain the numerous amounts of accidents that occurred as she was training herself on how to use the things.

"I would hope so! It took us years to be able to do the same!" Kali said. "You didn't have anyone to teach you, did you?"

"Just the basics," Ruby admitted. "Everything else I learned from my own," she said.

"I'm surprised the shop is so quiet. I'd expect that with the Vytal Festival just around the corner that more people would be in here," Ghira asked, looking around the empty shop. Kali reached out with one hand and pet Zwei on his head, getting a small woof as he rolled over for her.

"It varies. It's the quiet time of the day. Most people generally show up in early afternoon, but it also depends on Beacon, Flare, or Pharos. Or Signal, if they come from Patch."

"Oh. I wonder then if we can get an academy started on Menagerie. What would we call it? They usually have something to do with some kind of safety thing, such as a Beacon, Haven, Signal...what are they in Vacuo?"

"Vacuo has Shade or Oscuro," Ruby answered. "And I think the more academies Remnant has, the safer we'll be from the Grimm."

Kali nodded. "Unfortunately I doubt the other nations would let us. But let's not discuss work at the moment. Or for that matter, anything similar," Kali said, her arm still petting Zwei. "Who's a cute little puppy...yes you are..." she muttered to the corgi, who had his tongue out and was desperately keeping them there for pets.

Ruby giggled. "I'm surprised. Most faunus, especially Blake, don't like Zwei."

"Oh, who could not like the tiny little cute pupper..." Kali cooed. "He's so adorable, yes he is..."

"Blake is just...odd. Most faunus can tell an aura-awakened animal, and it bugs them sometimes. We ignore it easy enough. Most of us aren't like Blake," Ghira rumbled.

"She does seem to be every cat stereotype under the sun, doesn't she?" Kali grinned. "The fish, the playful demeanor when she's comfortable, the hiding in boxes-"

"Hiding in boxes?" Ruby asked. She didn't want to know, but at the same she had to know! Ghira grinned and pulled out his scroll, an ancient model that was at least four or five generations behind her own. He brought up a picture of a young Blake, who couldn't be much more than four or five, hiding in an open box with her ears popping out of it, curled up in a little ball. "That's adorable!"

"She doesn't like being reminded of it," Kali answered. "Which is why we're naturally going to show it to her entire team! Who is on her team, by the way? If you know. She didn't tell us anything."

Ruby grinned. "Let's see, there's my sister Yang Xiao Long, team leader Pyrrha Nikos, and her partner Jaune Arc. Team Peabody," she said, stopping herself from giggling at the name. Ghira had no such compulsions. "And they're in room 202, second floor, second room on the right," Ruby answered.

Kali grinned, a sense of evil beneath it. "Oh thank you! So good to know exactly where they are."

It might be mean, but Blake hadn't called them for years. Ruby thought if that meant a little revenge, then who was she to get in the way of that?

Punishment?

Ruby waited impatiently at the steps of Beacon's hallowed halls. She'd taken two hours off for this, and of course Drunkle Qrow had to be late for it. Although she was only mostly sure why she was there.

Next to her was Ms. Goodwitch, who seemed also impatient for her uncle to show up. He wasn't normally this late, only around fifteen minutes, but he also did seemingly like to show up at random times.

Next to Goodwitch were the four members of Team PABY, who seemed...well, subdued would be a good word for it. Jaune and Pyrrha were both looking downcast, as if waiting for their execution. Blake seemed untroubled, if only because she was probably still working off her original set of detentions.

"I swear, he seems to get worse the more I have to meet him," Ms. Goodwitch muttered under her breath. "First stark, and now PABY."

"You mean team STRQ?" Ruby asked suddenly. Ms. Goodwitch glanced at her before nodding.

"Among the most troublesome of teams," she said, pushing her glasses up a bit with one hand. "Currently the second record holder for most detentions in a year. Current record holder is truthfully Bart's old team. Oobleck, for you four," she said, glancing at them. "Thank you again, Ms. Rose, for agreeing to come up here and assist."

"Thanks for inviting me! I can't wait, this is gonna be great!" Ruby grinned, despite the groans of the four in detention. After all, it was rare that she was going to be going one on one with every member of Team PABY under the instructions of Qrow and Goodwitch.

Originally it would've just been the four, but then Qrow rememebered that Ruby, too, had gone to try to assist with the mech. And by 'assist' she meant coming up with the plan and doing awesome things against it but she also knew that Uncle Qrow would not think that highly of it. But that was enough for Qrow and Goodwitch to come up with this, as Yang put it, 'sadistic training exercise'.

It was a one on one extravaganza where each person would be swapped out the instant their aura hit a certain amount, regardless of who that was. And to make it fairer, both Qrow and Ms. Goodwitch were going to be there to...toss things up.

Honestly Ruby was thrilled to get training time with an actual Beacon teacher, two years ahead of time, without the homework that it usually came with. Granted, her usual homework had long since been done, although she still needed some help with history and geography...

Was it Haven in Mistral, or was Haven in Atlas? And where was Mantle in all this, or Argus? Who needed to know? She certainly didn't. She wasn't going to either of those places, she was going to Beacon!

In a few years.

"Where do they stand on that record?" Ruby asked with a sassy grin. Ms. Goodwitch glanced at her.

"They're getting up there. If they have another big set of detentions again they may get third or fourth," she answered. Pyrrha looked ashamed the most. She must have never broken rules when she was younger. Jaune, too, looked more downcast at that. Both Blake and Yang didn't look too bothered.

"Any other potential takers up this year on our record?" Qrow's voice called out from behind them. He walked behind the headmaster Ozpin, his steps carefully measured with the omnipresent stick on his side.

"None. Team PABY has the lead by far this year," Ms. Goodwitch answered. "I was wondering when you would deign to show up."

"I'm afraid that's my fault, Glynda. Qrow was assisting me with dealing with the aftermath of the Paladin," Ozpin said gently. "And if I understood right, we have here four troublemakers and one weaponsmith. Where are the other two?"

"Sun Wukong is on suspension...again...and his partner Neptune Vasilias is currently assisting Peter out in the Emerald Forest for some extra credit," she answered quickly.

They were interrupted by a bullhead coming into the landing pads nearby, heralded by a blue haired boy hanging on the bottom of the machine. "He was assisting Peter out in the Emerald Forest," Ms. Goodwitch clarified instantly.

"Ms. Rose, I'm surprised you agreed to come out to this," Ozpin said congenitally.

"Eh, she probably wanted more training time. She hates that arena of hers, it's too small she says," Qrow interrupted. "Hence why we're out here."

"Uh...yeah I was about to ask about that," Yang piped up. "There's no walls."

"That's because our field is this," Ms. Goodwitch said, pointing to the entirety of the Beacon quad. "You want to fight like Huntresses do, Ms. Xiao Long? Then we shall fight on the territory of Hunters."

"Yeah. So Ruby and the..." Qrow said, looking at the team of four, "I know the champion's outta her league, no offense Ruby, but scraggly doesn't look like he could put up a fight. So. Ruby, fight your girlfriend?"

Blake sighed. "She's not my girlfriend," she said at the same time as Ruby said the same thing, but a bit louder.

"Oh my, forces of love against each other on the battlefield," Ozpin trolled as he slammed his cane down onto the ground, and Ruby felt a small push on her back, pushing her into the field. Blake joined her a moment later.

The cat faunus glared at the teachers, who were staring at her without remorse, before she sighed and pulled out Gambol Shroud. Ruby nodded and pulled her own Crescent Rose. She'd never fought Blake before, nor had she ever fought alongside the girl. She'd caught small sights when she had been fighting the White Fang, but that was also months ago.

It took only a moment for Ms. Goodwitch to sigh. "You can start at anytime. Sooner, preferably," she said. Immediately Blake darted in, and Ruby was forced to defend.

It was obvious that Blake had gotten better. Back then, she was quick, but still visible, her attacks coming out with an obvious aura burst to strengthen the hits. Now the aura burst was minimal, and she was much, much faster. Sword strikes and cleaver swings ducked by where Ruby was, the girl only barely able to dodge. Blake was good, there was no doubt, but Ruby had been doing training too.

She swung low, letting the blade try to trip the girl up before she came and changed to sniper form. Blake's visage shimmered for a moment before shattering into ice, forcing Ruby to use her Semblance to dodge, going high into the air before coming down, blade fully extended.

But where Ruby had only one blade to worry about or block, Blake had two, and Ruby quickly found out she was just as good with the second. The cleaver was used to block Crescent Rose, the blade sliding just against the edge and barely cutting against Blake's shoulder while she brought up the sword part, trying to cut right where Ruby's stomach was.

Ruby felt her aura flare, and a moment later she was behind Blake, the scythe constantly being rolled and swung in circles, near impossible to dodge. But Blake was doing the best she could, small cuts on her clothes showed all the minimal damage that Ruby was doing. She wasn't even seeing any aura bursts, which meant either she wasn't actually hitting skin, or Blake was a master with her aura.

"Faster. Faster," Ruby repeated as her arms started blurring, rose petals coming out. The edge of Crescent Rose was a constant circle, a constant sphere of red and blurred blade.

Blake was up a tree now, taking potshots with her gun. "Ruby! You're done, Yang, in!" Qrow shouted. Immediately she felt Ms. Goodwitch's Semblance, an uncanny knack of telekinesis as it picked her up and punted her outside of the field, close to the teachers. Yang was pushed in a moment later, and Ruby breathed hard.

"You nearly had her there," Qrow said softly. "If Crescent Rose had just been a bit longer-"

"It throws off the balance if it's anything more than four feet. I tried five at one point and even with a counterbalance it doesn't do enough," Ruby answered. Qrow nodded.

"You did do well, Ms. Rose," Ms. Goodwitch said. "Belladonna, out! Nikos, in!" she shouted, pulling Blake out a few seconds later. The girl's clothes were all torn up from the strikes of Crescent Rose, and Ruby could see small burns from Ember Celica in there.

"Remind me not to fight you in close range," Blake murmured as she sat down on the stairs. "How's your aura?" she asked.

"We're going to eighty five for the first fight. Sixty five the next, followed by forty five. Once you hit twenty five, you're out," Qrow said. "And then you all get to hit the training machines for thirty minutes!" he grinned. Ruby nodded, before she caught up with that. After four fights in a row, then they were go on training machines? No wonder this was a punishment.

Yang and Pyrrha were surprisingly close, Ruby noticed after she caught her breath. While Yang and Blake hadn't been, on account of Blake already having a fight, Yang and Pyrrha traded blows easily. One with finesse and grace, and the other without any grace but plenty of strength behind it.

Then Ruby felt Ms. Goodwitch's aura flare as she grabbed Pyrrha's shield down to the ground and put her head right in the path of Yang's gauntlet. Yang pulled back last second but the shots were already in the chamber.

And then Qrow snickered, and Ruby figured out why. Ember Celica...jammed. With Yang pulling back her punch at the last second, the force of those shots needed to go somewhere, which was...right back into Yang.

"Nikos, Xiao Long, out. Arc, Rose, in," Ms. Goodwitch shouted. Jaune flinched as he was thrown in haphazardly, and Ruby for once knew what Jaune could do...exactly.

The boy had gotten a lot better since he'd first picked up Crocea Mors, and he'd left the name alone rather than renaming it. Not what Ruby would have done, but it wasn't Ruby's actual weapon, now was it? She was just the smith. But it was Jaune's weapon, through and through.

And that, more than anything, is what led to Jaune getting pummeled by Crescent Rose in under a minute. It was astonishing to Ruby actually, just how bad Jaune was at swordplay. He had a shield, but he barely knew how to block a quick strike. And when it came to a bladeblock...well, Crocea Mors wasn't intended to be able to take a hit from something as over engineered as one of the most over engineered scythes on Remnant.

Ruby would only use 'one of' rather than 'the most', if only because she was sure that someone out there also is gunning for that title.

It was also astonishing how much punishment Jaune could take. She was tripping him, throwing him, never getting hurt herself, and yet Jaune just kept getting back up. By the fourth throw, she glanced over at Qrow, Goodwitch and Ozpin. "You're sure he's not almost out?" she asked.

"Jaune can take a hit, that's for certain. You want a tank, he's a good one!" Yang yelled out. Ruby sent a look of disbelief towards her sister, before rolling out of the way of a few pistol shots. "Also he's pretty accurate nowadays!"

"Thanks, I couldn't tell!" Ruby yelled back. Jaune was resting his sword on his shield, using it as a makeshift resting pad for the pistol shots. That was...actually pretty smart. It increased his accuracy and took down the amount of time between shots.

Ruby changed her weapon back to sniper mode, and sent an alarming smirk towards the Arc. "Sniper fight!" she yelled with a grin, dodging back into a tree before aiming exactly where Jaune was.

"Arc, back! Xiao Long, in!" Ms. Goodwitch yelled suddenly.

Ruby blinked for just a second before the tree she was in suddenly exploded. Yang knew her fighting style way too well, just as she knew Yang's.

Little potshots wouldn't help much, but they were a lot less dangerous than letting Yang get within punching distance. "Rose, back, Belladonna, in!"

It was easily one of the best training sessions that Ruby had ever had. And now she knew; she was actually one of the better Huntresses in training. Now to just keep going, so when she was at Beacon...she'd take the whole thing by storm!

Canon went out the window ages ago.

Until Next Time!