Miracles of Ancient Wonder [RWBY/Exalted]

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 2.4

~~~​

"All you need to do is put more money into the bus and train systems. This would lower transportation costs for workers and improve the economic activity in the outer city."

"And better transportation within the city still does nothing to help those who live outside of the city. Though, it might work if more railways were built."

Ruby woke up to another debate between Weiss and Blake. It had become a daily ritual for them. Each time some new piece of news started it. They always went on and on about topics that she barely knew anything about.

"That would never happen. You can't turn a profit by serving those communities and the average cost of rail maintenance per mile would be…"

She rolled over and looked at them. Weiss was leaning against the wall and gesturing into the air; whereas Blake kept referencing her scroll. Ruby didn't get what Weiss having a perfect memory meant until now. She could pull all sorts of facts and figures out of thin air. They almost always wound up being accurate too. Or at least, Blake thought that Weiss believed they were true, and trusted her. Ruby was pretty sure about this because Blake didn't twitch whenever one was used that sounded weird.

"We can't just leave vulnerable people alone in the wilderness because it isn't worth it to build new rails." Blake countered, drawing a frown from Weiss. She always knew just what to say to make Weiss annoyed and throw her off of her game, usually something that the heiress overlooked regarding how other people did things.

"If they don't see an economic benefit, then the people who have the money to build it won't. Rails are notoriously hard to protect from the Grimm. The only good method is to build them underground, and I don't think the people of Vale would want to try that again anytime soon." And Weiss pivoted to a new argument, a new method of attack.

It was a fascinating way to fight with words. Each would try to throw the other off balance, but needed to enter the other's domain in order to actually make the attack. Kind of like a knife on spear fight where the knife-fighter was trying to taunt the spear-user into overstepping. Then she'd grab the shaft with her off hand and close in for the kill. Only the knife was really a multi-weapon gun-knife, but they were also different spears that worked better against different sorts of armor so… That analogy only went so far.

Ruby shook her head and looked around their room. Weiss and Blake were ready to go, but Yang was still out like a rock. Somehow, her sister was able to sleep through all of this arguing.

After a moment of deeper listening, Ruby hopped out of bed and started getting changed. The pulses of Aura weren't present, it must be because the topic was so boring. If they weren't really fighting, then it was safe to interrupt for breakfast. She never wanted to be on the receiving end of both glares again.

"In the process of expanding the city, they found subterranean Grimm that destroyed all of Mountain Glenn. We still don't know where all of these underground pockets are, so it would be very dangerous to build within the border." Weiss shifted the topic all the way back to yesterday's debate. Blake grumbled under her breath.

"As you said before, we've improved our surveying technology since then. Are you telling me that you wouldn't invest in being the only person to have trains like this and potential access to the other areas in the countryside?" As Blake spoke, Ruby flinched. That was really close to the topics that stirred the flames. So long as they didn't directly talk about the SDC or White Fang, they were usually good.

"Maybe. I would need the right subsidies from city districts that benefit from the additional work force." Weiss nodded and smiled, ending the debate.

Blake rolled her eyes and smiled back. Ruby looked from one of them to the other and back again.

"Eeeeeee!" She squealed and dashed over to them. Ruby wrapped both of them into a hug while yelling, "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!"

"Grah, Ruby why?" Weiss fought back slightly, Blake just froze like always.

Ruby let them go after a moment and hopped back to the center of the room. She and Yang would get them used to random hugs, eventually. "You both were smiling. At the same time!"

"What? That-that's not. You-you argh!" Weiss blushed and turned her back to Ruby, who laughed in response.

"Come on Weiss," Yang said with a yawn. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up. "You really don't smile all that much."

Weiss gave Yang a look and shook her head. "I suppose that's because I've never had a chance to match wits with someone on my level." She smirked at Blake, who returned it.

"Aww, Weiss." Ruby stepped forward for another hug. She was being so nice today.

"Not you."

"Aww… Weiss." Ruby sulked in an exaggerated manner, sinking as far down as she could. Then she fell into a fit of giggles. She collapsed to the floor, drawing an eye roll from her monochromatic teammates.

Eventually, Yang pulled her up and they finished changing. When team RWBY left their room, they found Jaune walking back from the locker rooms.

He was soaked, just wearing a towel, and had one hand pressed against the side of his head. Weiss immediately rubbed her forehead while Ruby and Yang ran up to him.

"Jaune!" They cried. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"Oh, umm…" He looked at Weiss and blushed all the way down to his chest. "It's nothing really. Cardin just replaced my shampoo with superglue. I was going to find Ren because Nora glued her hand to her desk last weekend he had something that helped."

"Why are you...?" Ruby pointed at his towel.

"Oh, Cardin kinda hid my clothes too. They'll show up again sooner or later."

"Jaune, if you want us to do something about him…" Yang slammed her fists together.

"No, no." Jaune waved his free hand, then snapped it down to grab the knot of his towel before it fell. "He just likes to mess around. There's no problem."

Ruby and Yang looked at each other with a grimace, but let him go by. If Jaune didn't want help, who were they to interfere.

~~~​

Lunch right after fighting was the best!

Ruby got a chance to spar this time and burned a lot of energy! Her opponent was a little disappointing, but it was still fun. Sparring class with actual sparring got her full approval.

Her friends being together also got full approval. Getting them all in the same place was really hard, meals were about the only reliable time. Especially since she was going into the lab as often as Doctor Oobleck let her. She wasn't allowed to have her own key because of all of the other dangerous things in the room.

Ruby sat down in the middle of the group. She was between Weiss and Blake, and across from Nora. She'd been trying to get Nora to consistently remember her all week. Some days she did, on others it was like meeting a very sorry and very huggy friend all over again. Nora was kind of like her dad in that way.

"Hey, Nora." She waved.

"Mmph? What's up, Ruby?" Nora mumbled through a mouthful of noodles.

"You remembered me!" She thrust an arm into the air. "Also, cookies."

With her mission accomplished, Ruby looked over to the end of the table where Jaune, Yang, and Pyrrha were continuing their endless game of who would beat who from their favorite stories.

"No way, Major Marvelous would totally beat Lucy Skycutter." Yang drew a circle in the air with her fork. "He'd be all like, whoosh, binding chains on her arms and legs. No Dust blade could save her from those."

"How would she get caught? Lucy can see the future." Jaune brought his hands up to his face like they were googles. "She'd figure out what he was doing before he even thought of it."

Weiss groaned. She didn't join in on the more silly conversations very often. Instead she just played with numbers on her scroll. It looked like a business game of some sort, but Ruby didn't know why anyone would want to play those.

Of course, Weiss still participated more often than Blake and Ren, who were all the way at the other end of the table. Today they were reading 'The Darkness Within' and 'Ancient Mistrian Recipes' respectively. Ruby had been borrowing some of Blake's happier books, what few of them there were, but she couldn't keep up with how quickly Blake devoured new ones.

Without taking her eyes off of her book, Blake proved that she had been listening. "Seeing things doesn't matter if you can't react fast enough to prevent them from happening."

"Yeah, but how hard can dodging magic be compared to parrying bullets?" Jaune shot back, but got no response.

Ruby couldn't help giggling because he'd just taken several rounds to the face in class, only blocking one of them by accident. She felt a little bad about laughing because Jaune had gotten a lot better. Even so, he was still missing a lot of what she thought of as basic skills.

Nora slammed her fist on the table and made all of their dishes bounce, drawing everyone's attention. "I think there's a much better 'who can beat who' question we could be asking."

She grinned and looked from one side of the table to the other. "We've only seen three fights between our teams so far. Sooooo, bets on who can beat who for the next sparring class?"

Ruby looked at everyone nervously. She was pretty sure she'd be up there, but hadn't done an all out fight with Yang since the summer. That was before everything happened in the woods. She was a lot better now, but then again so was Yang.

"Pyrrha." Weiss broke the ice without looking up from her game.

"Wanna justify that?" Nora leaned over the table, leaving her only a few inches away from Weiss. She met Nora's manic grin with cold indifference and looked back down without emoting.

"I think it should be obvious why she'd win."

"Thank you Weiss." Pyrrha rubbed the side of her neck and stared at her salad. When Ruby thought about it, she was the most obvious choice. Pyrrha was a multi-year combat tournament champion. Though, it was a little weird that Weiss mentioned this fact more often than Pyrrha herself.

"Ok, yeah. I've gotta go with Pyrrha too." Nora sat back down. "Sorry Ren, but you've already lost one." She gave him a shoulder pat.

Ren smiled at Nora, then shrugged. "I think Yang has a good shot."

Ruby nodded. "I'm giving it to Yang too, sorry Pyrrha."

"Aww, thanks sis." Yang leaned over Weiss and lightly punched Ruby in the arm.

"Well, I think Weiss could do it!" Jaune chimed in next. He gave Weiss a goofy smile. She responded by shaking her head.

"Come on you guys. We're tied." Nora poked Pyrrha and Blake in turn. Yang was just out of arm's reach for her, but she tried anyway.

"I'm really not sure. Each of us has a different style and would match up better against different opponents. Judging an overall winner would be difficult." Pyrrha said while looking at her plate.

Blake shrugged and continued to read her book. "Ruby, I guess. She has the biggest weapon."

Pyrrha looked at Blake for a moment, then laughed. "I can't really argue with that logic, I suppose. However, if I were considering rate of improvement, I'd pick Jaune." She paused to smile at him. "But Ruby is two years younger than us and is still incredibly talented. By the time she's our age, she'll have surpassed all of our current skills."

"Who?" Jaune looked around the table, passing over Ruby twice before he noticed her.

Ruby groaned and waved to him. "Jaune, open your scroll and look at the note titled 'I forgot about Ruby again'." She'd asked Blake to write him a note to make this easier. It usually worked, but he still hadn't managed to remember to read it without prompting.

Nora groaned and dropped her head to the table. "You two suck! Now we have a three way tie."

Ren gave her a reassuring pat on the back while almost everyone else laughed. Blake and Weiss rolled their eyes instead.

Nora rolled her head to the side to get a look at her new target. "Alright. Yang, it all comes down to this." She suddenly sat back up and pointed at Yang. "You need to break this tie! Who will win?"

"Uhh." Yang looked down the table and bit her lip. "Well, I'm not really sure, you know? Everyone's pretty good."

Nora slammed both of her palms on the table and scowled at Yang. Yang groaned and looked around. "Ok fine. I pick…" She paused and ran her fingers through her hair. "Blake."

"What?" Everyone else said at once. Blake was good, but she made no sense as far as Ruby could tell. She hadn't fought much and her Aura was so quiet that Ruby almost missed it whenever she did something.

"I mean, she's faster than me and still hits really hard. She's also good at all ranges, just like Pyrrha. So… yeah, Blake."

All eyes turned to Blake, whose cheeks were bright red. She raised her book up to cover her face. "Uhh, thank you, but I really don't think I could do that well."

Nora's head hit the table again.

Everyone waited for someone to break the silence. Pyrrha, Blake, Ren, and Yang were just looking around, their faces forced to be as close to neutral as possible. They alternated between each other mostly. Weiss and Jaune were engrossed in their scrolls, the former occasionally glanced at Ruby.

Weiss kept making weird facial motions when their eyes met; a nod toward Yang here, a raised eyebrow there, and sometimes she held eye contact for several seconds past the point where it became uncomfortable.

Ruby had no idea what Weiss was implying; so she just played with the crumbs of her cookies. Cookies and milk were a complete lunch; no matter what dad said.

"Ohh, you're the one who helped me with my 'Beowolves Suck!' paper," Jaune said as he finished reading the note, looking right at Ruby. After a moment she giggled. Then Yang joined in. Shortly followed by Pyrrha. And then they all were laughing again.

"Huh? What'd I say?" Jaune laughed along, even though he hadn't been paying enough attention to know why.

"Nothing Jaune." Pyrrha laid a hand on his arm. She pulled it back quickly, to wipe the sides of her eyes. "Hehehe, thank you. We just, really needed that."

"Umm, ok." He grinned and scratched the side of his head. "Well, I'm still kinda hungry. Who else wants ice cream?"

~~~​

"...not very subtle Nora."

"..worked didn't it?"

Their voices were muffled as they came through the walls. Jaune bumped his head against the mirror while he brushed his teeth. He tapped it several times with his forehead before pulling back.

Ok Jaune, you can do this. You're a team leader now and you need to act like it.

He rinsed his mouth, splashed his face with water, and stopped right in front of the door. After a deep breath he opened it. His teammates were sitting on Pyrrha and Nora's beds, the furthest part of the room from where he was. All three of them went quiet after he came out.

"I could still hear you in the bathroom you know." Pyrrha avoided looking at Jaune when he said that. Ren and Nora just shrugged. He shook his head before continuing, "Come on guys. You heard Professor Goodwitch. We should be making friends, not this. Team RWBY are our friends, so… So why are you so worried?"

The rest of his team gave him a look of disbelief.

"Ok, ok. Stupid question."

"Jaune, we're worried because they are our friends." Pyrrha started slowly. She held her hands in her lap and ran her thumbs over each other. "They're our friends, so we don't want them to be…"

She made a fist and stopped speaking. Nora cut in before Pyrrha could find the right words. "We don't want them to get hurt. If one of them winds up being, you know." She tapped her forehead. "Then the others are gonna get messed up worse because they're probably already messed up a little."

"It's best to think about this early, before you get too attached," Ren said softly.

"Ren, you're talking like it's a sure thing," Jaune plopped down onto Pyrrha's bed. "Come on, you can't really believe that? Can you?"

He shook his head, but still looked very uncomfortable. "I hope not, but some things feel too similar for me to ignore them."

"There are other, more subtle, signs than just the ones we've been told about in class so far." Pyrrha kept her eyes on her lap while she spoke. "Multiple semblances, inhuman abilities, and implausible skill: each of these can also be important to look at."

Jaune wasn't sure how she knew so much about this, but nodded anyway. "Ok, but if they were well, you know what, then they're supposed to be man-eating demons who want to destroy the world or something, right? They're all good people. I mean." He said while scratching his head, "I kinda freaked out when Yang first did her fire thing and Weiss is kinda scary and really smart, but I'm sure she's also a good person and just… amazing."

"That. That right there is why I'm worried." Nora waved her finger at Jaune, but he didn't really get why.

"What? Weiss? I mean, you've seen her right? And heard her singing? Anyone would.." Jaune waved his hands for emphasis, but Nora just shook her head. He grumbled. "Ok well, you're a girl so that probably doesn't… Unless you… No... Ren, you know what I mean, right?"

He looked at Pyrrha, who was staring at her lap, then shook his head.

Jaune sighed. "Alright, I can tell when I've lost. But, back to my point. Yang had a good explanation for her fire and none of the Professors are doing anything."

"They're doing a lot Jaune." Nora frowned at him. "Us and Team RWBY... we're the only teams who've had everyone fight more than once. We also get called on a lot in other classes."

"Urgh, don't remind me." Jaune dropped his head down in a very exaggerated movement.

"Doctor Oobleck does pick you more often than anyone else." Ren smiled.

"He has it out for me, I swear." Everyone else laughed a bit and the heavy air in the room retreated. They were just four friends complaining about classes again.

And then Pyrrha spoke up, bringing the tension back. "What Yang said today made me realize something. I've been paying so much attention to Yang, that I missed how Blake fights with the same degree of skill. Only, she doesn't showcase the discrepancy as much."

"What do you mean?" Jaune groaned slightly. He wanted them to get off of this topic.

"Jaune, how would you describe Yang?" Pyrrha finally looked up and met his eyes.

"Uhh, blond, tall, kinda," He gestured towards his chest. When the others just looked at him confused, he made large, curved motions in front of it. Pyrrha narrowed her eyes and made a fist. Jaune bit his lip and continued, "Ok, fine. She's really strong, aggressive, and showy. When I fought her, she literally ran circles around me until I got dizzy."

Pyrrha smiled, but her voice was wavering, unsure. "Right, she's showy. She wastes movement and leaves a huge number of openings. This is all so that she can show off more when her opponent fails to follow through properly. She fights like a champion going up against a novice, even against very skilled opponents. And she wins each time. She doesn't just win, she wins decisively."

"Pyrrha, you do the same thing!" Jaune said much louder than he meant to. Pyrrha pulled back, bringing both hands up to her mouth to stifle a gasp. "You're amazing in the ring. When you get out there, it's like watching some action movie heroine wiping the floor with everyone around them."

Nora winced and hissed. "Oh no, Jaune. You didn't just-"

Jaune looked up and saw the shock on Pyrrha's face.

"I'm sorry!" He cut Nora off and grabbed Pyrrha's arm, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that, I just…"

"No, no," She didn't pull away, but also didn't look at him again, "Don't worry Jaune. I-I understand what you meant. I hadn't thought about it like that is all… I learned how to fight in that manner to please the crowds. It has become, something of a reflex."

Jaune leaned forward and stared at the floor. He went over what he wanted to say a couple of times before looking back up.

"Look guys, I really don't think we should be worrying about this. I might've missed what our Professors were doing, but all of you caught it. That means there's probably other stuff we're not even aware of." He locked eyes with Ren and then Nora. "Your old teacher did the same thing and they weren't even trained Hunters. So, really I don't think you should be stressing about this. We should trust them. Can you all do that, at least?"

After a few moments, Ren and Pyrrha nodded. Nora rolled her head back and forth while the rest of them looked at her expectantly. Eventually she sighed and caved. "Ok, fine."

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 2.5

~~~​

Ruby reached up to her room's doorknob and tried opening it again.

It was still locked.

She sighed and tapped her empty mug against her leg. It had been awhile since her last cup of coffee and the inevitable sugar crash was going to hit her soon. Moving around to warm up would also be a good idea, the hallway floor was too cold for just pajamas.

She stood up with a yawn and looked both ways down the hallway. No one was there and she couldn't hear anyone walking. There should be enough time to grab more coffee.

With a quick burst of her Semblance, she was at the machine. It wasn't anything special, just an automated caffeine dispenser with generic coffee. Unfortunately, she couldn't make it go any faster by glaring at it.

While it brewed, she dashed to the hallway, made sure no one was there, and dashed back to the kitchen. The machine was still working. Ruby drummed her fingers on the counter, resisting the urge to run back again and make sure she caught Blake.

Blake had been napping in the afternoon, so she could stay out later at night every day since Nora's RWBY vs JNRP thing. Ruby didn't worry about it first two times, since Blake had done something like that about one a week. But now they were on the third night in a row and it was becoming too much.

So, she overloaded on caffeine to stay up later, but didn't expect how much later it would need to be. When she stepped outside for her first refill, it was just past midnight. She'd had two more cups since then. Because she forgot her keys and scroll in her room, she didn't know what time it was.

Ruby could knock on the door until she woke up Yang or Weiss. But Blake had to come back eventually, so there wasn't a point to disturbing them. She just needed more coffee to stay awake and to be in the hallway at the right time… Unless Blake came back in through the window, but that would be silly.

She heard footsteps coming down the hallway. A couple of seconds later, Ruby tried to skid to a stop as she rounded the corner. Instead, she clotheslined herself on Pyrrha's arm. Ruby flipped heels-over-head and landed on her back.

"I'm sorry." The other girl gasped and ran over to help her up. "Are you alright?"

Ruby coughed a couple of times and gave her a thumbs up. "I'm good. Sorry about running into you."

"It's not a problem. Though, you should be a little more careful." Pyrrha backed up once Ruby was on her feet again. "What are you doing up so late?"

"Waiting for Blake to get back." Ruby looked down the hall again, then back to Pyrrha when she found it empty.

"Oh…"

"What about you? It's really late and…" Ruby paused, trying to find the right words. Pyrrha had all of her combat gear with her and was glistening from a light sheen of sweat. "... and you've got all of your stuff."

"I couldn't sleep and..." She looked down and paused.

Ruby focused and pushed hard. You can trust me.

After a moment, Pyrrha continued, "Things have been a little tense lately. There are have been some… disagreements between Jaune, Ren, Nora, and myself." Ruby nodded while Pyrrha spoke. "Because I couldn't sleep, I went outside to do some drills while the weather's still nice. Being by myself like that is more calming than almost anything else I can think of. No one watching or judging, just me and Miló."

She laughed softly. "It sounds sort of silly to say it out loud."

"It's not silly. I do the same kinda thing." Ruby walked over to a window and pressed her hand against it. She looked into the night sky, but didn't listen enough to hear the music. "Looking at the stars and just listening to everything. Sometimes I do that for hours on end."

"I see." Pyrrha stepped next to her and looked up as well.

They stood there for a little while, watching the movements of the night sky. Each star had its own pattern, as did the rotation of the moon. It was most of the way to a full shatter, where the moon was seen on the smallest side and most of the body was fragmented.

Ruby listened deeper. The constellations each had their own style and melody, but it was the moon that changed the tone. Its influence slowly changed with its phase when it passed over the stars. Tonight it was partially obscuring the Gauntlet, shifting the song to an intense and dissonant sound.

The constellation was lined up so its fingers would move right into the full shatter in a couple of days. That would be something incredible to hear, she'd need to stay up for it.

"Ruby," Pyrrha said softly, "Do you believe in Destiny?"

"Like, destiny with a capital D? Big important stuff that's going to happen to you no matter what you do?" Ruby waited for a nod from Pyrrha. "Nope."

Pyrrha leaned back, eyes briefly going wide. She pointed to Ruby, then glanced to the stars, then back to Ruby. "But you… Given the way you described the stars, I was certain you would've."

"Why's that?"

"There is an old, not commonly known, sect whose priests look to the stars for guidance. It's said that the wisest among them can see the movements of the world in the sky and make predictions about the future. Though, because of how ridiculous that sounds and the lack of any verifiable predictions, few give much stock to such beliefs."

She pointed to one of the constellations, it was just barely visible through the clouds. "According to them, I was born under the sign of the Ascending Spear." Her voice brightened. "It's supposed to represent those who would be great warriors, who would be honorable and disciplined in their fights."

"I trained since I was young, in part because of this, and my first sponsor came to me because of my birth sign. He thought that it would make for a great story about my abilities and talent. Pyrrha, the Invincible Girl, who was Blessed by the Stars." She laughed softly. "It seemed so silly at the time, but I really got into it."

She paused and closed her eyes. "This has been on my mind more and more often since our initiation. How much of my success was me and how much was Destiny? Is there a divine plan or was it just good marketing?"

"I've wanted to ask everyone in Team RWBY about their own signs because of your skills as well. However, I couldn't find a way to without it sounding strange."

Ruby gulped and nodded. Pyrrha had been there when she did that splitting thing and had so many hard questions afterward. She was also really hard to stop once she got going. But, this seemed like it was really important to her.

"I don't really know too much about it." Ruby shrugged. "But, Mom always said that we could do anything, be whoever we wanted to be. Yang and I took that to heart."

She raised a spread hand to the stars and closed it. "If you see something that you want, you grab it and pull as hard as you can. Though, I don't think she wanted both of us to follow in her footsteps and become Huntresses. She kept pointing us at other options whenever we asked."

They stood in silence for a few more minutes. Ruby listened to the Spear as much as she could. It was a little tricky because of how faint the music was. It was part of the red grouping and really was very similar to Pyrrha's aura.

"Hey Pyrrha. What's the constellation for Hunters?"

"The strongest association would be the Banner, for glory in battle. Though they do align each of the symbols of Mars."

"Mars?"

"One of the Holy Maidens who preside over Destiny. They're worshiped both in mainstream practices and lesser known ones."

"Gotcha, there was just the one main god worshiped in our town in Patch. According to the priest, he was like a super Huntsman. Someone who people should emulate and follow on the path to greatness. But neither mom nor dad placed much faith in him since they also said to not bother him by asking for stuff."

"Each of our gods have their own associations, though the Maidens are considered the most important. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn: each controls different parts of the world."

Ruby took a deep breath. If this was going where she thought it was going, she was pretty sure she knew what the answer to her question was. But she asked anyway. "What are the other things that Mars has?"

"Well…" Pyrrha paused. "She is associated with six constellations: the Banner, the Gauntlet, the Lightning Bolt, the Quiver, the Shield, and the Spear."

Ruby held her breath. If she listened to those six at the same time, it was very similar to her own Aura. She really didn't know how to feel about that. It wasn't too bad though, all things considered.

"She rules over all forms of conflict and strife, both large and small. Forging weapons and armor are also within her domains. As are strategic games." Pyrrha looked at her, a little worried. "Red is her color and summer her season."

Ruby gasped. "S-Summer…" She couldn't help stuttering while she tried, and failed, to keep her new anxiety from showing. "S-so, you could call her the Maiden of Summer? Like in that old fairy tale?"

Pyrrha blinked a couple of times. "I suppose so, but I don't think the four maidens from 'The Story of Seasons' have any connection with the five Holy Maidens."

"But they're..." Ruby coughed. Nothing made any sense! Well maybe one thing she'd been wondering about did now. But nothing else made any sense!

Ruby thought back to the forest with the beowolves, where all of this started. Gods don't actually- but if they do, or did, and the maidens are also gods… But that would mean that she was a- And she said I would be- And that means Yang… No. no, no, no, no, no. That's impossible!

"Ruby!" Pyrrha grabbed her arms and made her lose her train of thought. "Ruby are you ok?"

"Maybe? Sort of? I don't know." Ruby cringed and looked away from Pyrrha. "I just, umm… There's a bunch of stuff that is making some sense, but not other sense and..."

"What you're saying doesn't make any sense."

"I know. I know. I… Umm…" Ruby grit her teeth and closed her eyes. One, two, three: she took deep breaths and counted to herself. After a moment, she looked right at Pyrrha, who had her hands clasped in front of her chest. "Ok. One last question. Does Mars have any particular symbols?"

Pyrrha gulped. "Well… There is a different one for each of her aspects, but also one which is universal. The spear and shield... It looks identical to the symbol that appeared on your forehead during our initiation."

"Oh, I see." Ruby said flatly. She was rubbing the part of her back where Crescent Rose normally sat.

That confirmed it. There was undoubtedly some connection, too many things were the same for it to be a coincidence.

"Is that what has you so worried? Having your Aura shine with the symbol of Mars would be considered a great blessing." Pyrrha laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"I… Umm, thank you, but..." Ruby didn't know how to describe her worry without it sounding really bad. She'd have to explain about all of the other stuff she'd figured out how to do that she shouldn't be able to.

"But?" Pyrrha furrowed her brow briefly. "But you're worried about… About the attention that it might bring?"

Sure, she could go with that. "Yeah."

Pyrrha let go and stepped back. "That's understandable."

"I don't think I'd be able to do something like that." Ruby awkwardly grinned. "Being someone that people might associate with a god. It sounds… Really stressful."

"It may give people more hope than you'd expect." Pyrrha smiled at her, then continued with a strained voice. "But, being in the spotlight all of the time and maintaining your mask can be… Trying."

"I wanted to be a Huntress to fight evil and give people hope but… I never wanted to be anyone special." Ruby paused and looked at Pyrrha. Her smile was mostly real, but Ruby could see her cheeks twitching as she held it. "There's no audience here Pyrrha. There's no one you need to impress."

Pyrrha dropped the forced smile and looked down. She partially crossed her arms, letting one dangle while the other held on. "I wish it was that easy. Once you've built particular habits, it's hard to break yourself from them."

After a moment of hesitation, Ruby stepped up and hugged her. Pyrrha froze, then leaned into it. "That's fine, we can wait. What else are friends for?"

"Thank you." Pyrrha mumbled and joined the hug after a moment's hesitation. They held it for a while before she spoke again. "If you want to read more about astronomy… I have a good book."

~~~​

Soon enough, Ruby was close to nodding off again, even with another coffee refill. Pyrrha's astrology book didn't help with staying awake much since it was a lot closer to a textbook than a story book. Studying was hard enough at the best of times.

She was looking at the star charts, and comparing them to the song of the sky, when she heard the sound of heels scraping against the carpet. She snapped her head up and turned to the side just as her teammate rounded the corner. Blake was shrouded in darkness, standing just outside of the moonlight falling through the window. Ruby met her surprised gaze.

"Hi Blake."

"Ruby? What're you doing out here?"

"Waiting for you to get back." Ruby smiled and fiddled with the knob. "I also locked myself out."

"You didn't need to wait for me."

"Sure I did." Ruby stood up and walked over to her. Blake was dressed just like Pyrrha had been, wearing her combat gear. She was way less sweaty though. "I'm your team leader and your friend. So, if something's wrong, we should be able to just talk about it. But..."

Blake looked out the window. "Nothing's wrong, I just wanted to get some air."

Ruby grabbed Blake's shoulders and turned her so their eyes met again. "You keep going out like this without telling anyone. I'm- We're worried Blake."

"You don't need to be worried." Blake raised her voice just enough to make it echo through the hall. "I just needed to get some air."

"Blake I-"

"It's nothing you need to worry about!" She shook Ruby off and stomped over to their room.

Ruby skipped to the side with her Semblance and stood in front of the door. "You wouldn't have reacted like that if there wasn't something I should worry about!"

"It's-it's not…" Blake hesitated and Ruby felt the pressure build. She pushed on the world as Blake drove past her again. You can talk to me.

Ruby waited while Blake fumbled with her keys. She opened the door partially and turned back to Ruby. Blake took a deep breath and said. "Professor Goodwitch asked me to meet with her this weekend."

Both Weiss and Yang suddenly took quick breaths. Ruby moved to the side of the door so she could look in. Yang was sprawled out like she normally slept, her eyes were closed, and her mouth was hanging open.

Blake raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"Sorry I thought I heard something." Ruby laughed awkwardly. Both of them were breathing normally again. It must've been a coincidence. "Anyway, isn't that a good thing? She might have some cool project for you."

"I don't think so…" Blake grit her teeth. "She asked me to bring my weapons with me for it."

"That… It could…" Ruby stumbled over her words.

Professor Goodwitch was their combat teacher, so maybe it had something to do with the next class. She might be asking Blake to do a weapons demo since they were finished with martial arts. That would make sense, right?

Ruby couldn't delude herself like that.

Blake had been very confused when Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha talked about being investigated before. Since those three still wouldn't tell her or Ruby what it entailed, they had to assume it would be bad.

Blake wouldn't have any problems though, Ruby was sure of it. She hadn't done anything terrible like take over a town and make kids kill their parents. She didn't glow or have any weird symbols and her Aura was… Her Aura was black. Just like Ruby's was red, Weiss's was white, and Yang's was yellow. Sure, they each had other colors mixed in thanks to various techniques, like Professor Goodwitch had blue and purple, but there was nothing bad.

"There's no problem, you'll be fine." Ruby laid a hand on her shoulder. Blake's eyes narrowed briefly. "You're a good person. And… and if anything bad happens, we'll be here for you."

The corner of Blake's mouth twitched before she responded. She looked down and to the side. "Thanks. That… That makes me feel a lot better."

Blake pulled away and stepped into the room. Ruby let her go, arm falling to her side.

I was just trying to make her feel better. What did I do wrong?

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 2.6

~~~​

It was the last day of the week. Classes were over with and it was time for the weekend! No lectures, no homework, and no responsibility!

Ruby just wished she could make everyone else feel as good as she did about it. The tension in the air was thick enough that she could cut it with a spoon.

Blake and Weiss had an all-out argument that morning about the White Fang's masks. Ruby didn't know how they got to that topic from villages outside of the kingdoms, but it ended about as well as the first big one.

They were sitting on opposite sides of the table, not looking at each other. Well, mostly not looking, Weiss did glance at Blake every once in a while.

Team JNPR didn't seem to be doing much better. They weren't talking to each other because Nora went behind Jaune's back and did something she promised not to. No one would tell Ruby what that something was though.

It made for a really awkward dinner conversation, which was mostly silence. After a few topic failures such as weapon mods, new music, and the really cool thing she found in Doctor Oobleck's lab, Ruby figured out one that might work. Or at least, it wouldn't make anyone mad at a teammate start another fight.

"Hey, Pyrrha. I've been reading more of the book you loaned me. It's pretty, umm, intense? Yeah, intense." Ruby had been expecting something more like a storybook, not a technical manual. It had star charts, huge lists of associations, and equations as complex as the ones in her advanced materials textbook. Though, a lot of it just made sense to her, unlike the materials book. For example, the color associations of different constellations were all spot on.

Her big problem was the stated themes for each of the constellations. At first glance, they all matched what she could hear. But, once the moon got close to them, everything changed and the book stopped making sense. Cloud cover also made a big difference. She was pretty sure there was another missing factor as well. Everything that she heard was a little off when compared to the ideas in the book. Unfortunately, she had no clue what it might be.

"The math's kinda hard to keep track of, but I think I'm close to figuring it out." Ruby rubbed the back of her head and smiled. "The formulas for the moon's phase keep giving me weird results too."

Pyrrha stared at her, eyes wide. "You're that far in already? I still don't understand all of those sections."

"Well, it seemed really interesting and something about it just sort of clicked. So, I've been reading it before going to bed every night." Ruby also really wanted to know more about her constellations. She could recognize and hum the tunes of only three of them so far. Even then, she messed up a lot of the notes.

"Have you tried making any predictions?"

"Yeah, but none of them came out right. I tried reading my own birth sign too, but got nonsense back every time." Which was to say, the book didn't have any examples of what her birth arrangement actually meant. She was sure that five of Mars's constellations aligning around a full moon should have had some sort of special meaning.

"It's an art that normally takes years to learn. Coming this far in such little time is still incredible."

"What're you two talking about?" Jaune joined in right after he finished reading the 'remember Ruby' note.

"An astrology book Pyrrha loaned me."

"Astrology? You mean like figuring out what your sign is or seeing the future?"

"Looking at signs and interpreting them is a major part of it. But, making predictions about the future is more of a fun thing to do, than something to be relied upon." Pyrrha pulled up a web page for the Mistral Junior Combat Tournament on her scroll. She pointed to the total betting pool for the next fight; it was huge. "People spend a lot of time and money trying to predict fight results, among other things. If anyone could see the future with any degree of accuracy, they would be immeasurably wealthy just from gambling."

"Yeah." Ruby nodded. "It's much closer to things like…" She snapped her fingers a couple of times, the word stuck on the tip of her tongue. "Like, will the next few days be good or bad?"

"Alright, so… How's this weekend going to be? Any luck coming my way?" Jaune glanced over at Weiss, who ignored him.

"Uhh…" Ruby was pretty sure the answer was bad for all of them. Something felt off and it wasn't just how much everyone was fighting. There was a looming danger in the air that gave her shivers whenever she tried to piece together what it might be. Jaune asking Weiss out again wouldn't cause that, no matter how annoyed with him she was.

"Jaune, predicting something like that requires a lot of personal information, in addition to several hours worth of work." Pyrrha saved her. "But, I could look into some aspects of your future tonight... If you want me to."

"Yeah, that'd be pretty-" Jaune was interrupted by a girl crying.

"Owww!" A voice that Ruby recognized from their history class cried out from behind Pyrrha. Her name was Velvi… No, Vela... Vel-something.... She was quiet and didn't get called on much.

Ruby leaned to the side while the others turned around. A few tables down from them, Cardin Winchester was yanking on a poor rabbit Faunus's ear. He was sitting down and pulling her so low, her face was nearly on the table. The rest of his team was laughing.

Pyrrha growled. "Atrocious."

Jaune sighed. "That… That really sucks."

Ruby winced when the sound of warping metal hit her ears. Blake was squeezing her knife hard enough to bend it a little. She placed one hand on the table and was about to push herself away when Weiss stood up.

"Blake." Weiss locked eyes with Blake, her gaze frigid.

The pair stared at each other for several seconds, their expressions changing ever so slightly. Once more, Ruby really wished she could figure out what Weiss was trying to say when she did this. The anger and intensity in both of them were obvious, but there was an undercurrent of something that she couldn't make out. Well, probably more than one undercurrent, they all flowed together in Ruby's eyes.

"What're you going to do?" Blake broke the silence.

"Help her."

Blake nodded and set her knife down. She kept a close eye on Weiss as she slowly walked towards Cardin. The way Weiss moved sent shivers down Ruby's spine as it shifted from that mysterious anger to something new, something dangerous.

Weiss stalked forward with a smug smirk on her lips. She was smooth and ready, every motion that of a confident hunter sizing up her prey. Prey that had no idea what it was in for.

"Oh hey, does Princess Schnee want to play too?" Cardin leaned back and laughed, yanking the girl again. He held the fist holding onto her ear out to Weiss. "Come on, we're trying to figure out if these things are real."

Weiss smiled and laid her hand over his. A moment later, Cardin screamed.

"Why would you think I would want to partake in your lowly actions?" She spoke slowly, keeping her eyes on his teammates.

She squeezed the fleshy bit next to the base of his thumb between her nails, harder, and got another scream from him. Weiss slowly twisted his arm down, but he threw her off before she could get very far. His hand spasmed slightly as she backed away.

He started to stand up. She swept the legs out from under his chair before he could and sent him crashing to the ground. Cardin caught the tablecloth on the way down, yanking his dinner off the edge as he fell.

"Trash should stay on the ground where it belongs." Weiss looked down at him and then over to the girl. She laid a hand on the her shoulder and nudged her to the side. "Go."

The Faunus hesitated, stepping back slightly. She looked at Weiss with terror all over her face. Weiss glanced at Cardin and gave her a vicious smile in response. She ran for the entrance to the dining hall.

The other members of team CRDL pushed their chairs back and stood up. They stepped past the table and surrounded Weiss, cracking their knuckles and glaring at her. She ignored them, playing at checking the nails she pinched Cardin with. She twirled her other hand in a circle, pointing at each of the boys' feet in turn.

Cardin staggered up, noodles peeling away from his face as they fell off of him. He loomed over Weiss, his shadow covering her entire body, and clenched his fists. "You're gonna pay for that, Schnee."

Weiss raised an eyebrow and waved her hand. A pure white glyph appeared above each boy. An instant later, the ones she'd conjured beneath them started glowing. They glanced up and then down, their mouths hanging open as they finally noticed the glyphs. She flicked her hand up and sent them flying before they had the chance to dodge. Each boy was blasted up and away from her with a surge of white light.

A second wave smashed them into the ground. They crashed onto the furniture, snapping chair legs and shattering tables. None of their Auras broke from the attack, but the force of it left each boy woozy.

Everyone nearby jumped away from the destruction. The other conversations in the dining hall fell off. All eyes were on Weiss.

"I didn't give you mongrels permission to stand." Weiss stood in the center of the carnage, spotless.

Cardin tried to force himself up again. Weiss summoned a glyph right in front of his face. He hesitated, grit his teeth, and stopped moving. She dispelled it and smirked. "Good boy."

Weiss clasped her hands behind her back and paced around Cardin. "Now then. Do you have any idea what you were just doing?"

"I-" Before he could get more than a word off, she kicked him in the side of the head.

"I also haven't given you permission to speak either." She pulled back and continued pacing. "Now then. Where was I?" She paused for a moment, looking right at him. "Oh yes! The despicable action you were performing."

Weiss waved a hand at the crowd. She turned, catching half of the room in the motion. "Look around you. How many Faunus students do you see?"

She waited for Cardin to take the bait again. He just clenched his fists tighter, not speaking out of line.

"Beacon has a Faunus population of only two percent, compared to Vale's five percent. It's also the second-best academy in terms of representation and has more than enough money to bring disadvantaged students up to speed. It's almost like they don't want to attend, even considering the benefits they would gain doing so. I wonder why that is?"

"Could it be because they can see filth like you mistreating their brothers and sisters with no reprisal?"

He spit at her, but missed. "Big talk coming from you."

Weiss snapped her fingers and bounced his head off of the ground with a small glyph. Cardin groaned and curled up into himself, hands wrapped around his temples.

"Are you done?" Weiss said venomously. She loomed over him, tapping her foot and waiting. He whimpered; she smiled. "Good."

She moved back to lecturing, without missing a beat. "They see their friends and families in pain, so of course they would stay away. But do they really shy away from the responsibility that attending Beacon would entail?"

"When I last checked, almost nine percent of registered Hunters were Faunus. Most of them hadn't even gone to a combat school." She paused. "So, not only are the Faunus not attending elite academies, many aren't even going to regular schools. And yet, they disproportionately sign up to defend humanity from the evils of the world."

"They have less training, they have worse equipment, and they have to put up with people like you, even amongst their comrades-in-arms." Weiss's tone got a lot colder as she looked over the four of them. "What might happen if you had to retreat in the middle of the night? Would they stay with you and help you find your way? Or leave you to the Grimm? I would hardly blame them for assuming that you would throw them under a charging Ursa to save your own skin and acting in kind."

Weiss's image held the room in silence. People were glancing around, eyeing each other with suspicion. The handful of Faunus students received most of the looks, but they were all shaking their heads no. Abandoning someone to the Grimm like that would be a terrible thing to do. It would go against everything Hunters swore to protect.

That sense of danger was growing again. Ruby could see some people getting ready to speak up or object. They hesitated just long enough for Weiss to continue. Her voice was low, sad. "However, that isn't the worst thing that I saw, just now."

"People like you exist all around the world. Those who would hurt others for their own enjoyment. Because they have the power to. Because they know they can get away with it. That is an obvious evil that should be fought, but it isn't the real problem here." She stood up straight and turned in a slow circle. Piercing blue eyes met the crowd. With a snap of her fingers, a new glyph appeared in front of her mouth.

"The real evil of today is those who saw something bad happening and didn't do anything to fight it. The people who proved that Cardin was right, that he could get away with what he did." Her new glyph amplified her voice and made it resonate across the dining hall. Weiss conjured another one as a platform, and stepped onto one of the tables. Now that she was above the crowd she continued.

"Each of us is here to become a Protector of Humanity. A symbol of hope and justice in a world drowning in darkness. To see so many of you watch what was happening here avert your gaze is sickening."

"You would call yourselves guardians, but you can't even protect one of your own." The crowd flinched. "When I first stood up, there were only three people who looked like they might do something. Three."

"What were the rest of you afraid of? Four freshmen?" She gestured to team CRDL. "Ha."

"You should be ashamed of yourselves. What would your family think if they heard about what you allowed to happen? Would they look upon you with pity, with sadness, or with scorn? Would you have abandoned them when they needed you?" Weiss turned around again, meeting everyone's eyes one by one.

Ruby saw her mom and dad in Weiss's gaze. They were looking away from her, tears forming in the corners of their eyes. She saw Yang, gritting her teeth and shaking with rage at her cowardice. Uncle Qrow, pushing her away and shaking his head. Even Yang's birth mother, looking at her with cold indifference and walking away.

Ruby dropped her elbows to the table and caught her face with her hands. Tears flowed down her cheeks. She sobbed quietly, her fingers shaking.

She wasn't alone.

Yang was barely holding herself together, clenching her eyes shut so hard her face was turning red. Jaune blubbered into his arms, head on the table. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora had their eyes closed while they shivered in their seats. All around the room, tears were flowing like waterfalls. Muffled apologies hit Ruby's ears as people started moving. Yang crept up on her with a hug.

"I'm sorry sis. I would never..." Yang whispered onto the top of Ruby's head.

"I know." Ruby leaned into her.

"No, no you don't. I-if I..."

"I know. I know." Ruby reached up to hold onto her and looked through the curtain of blond hair separating her from the rest of the world.

Blake was one of the only people who hadn't been affected, but the corners of her eyes were still wet while she watched Weiss.

Weiss had her head bowed and her hands folded in front of her. Ruby couldn't see her face, but she could hear her voice. "It doesn't have to be this way."

Weiss's voice was soft. So soft that no one should have been able to hear her, but they did anyway.

She slowly raised her head while the room silenced itself. "We can be guardians. We can be protectors. We can be Hope.

"All that we need to do is act."

The glyph in front of her faded away. She stepped down from the table and slowly walked back to her seat.

A few faces in the crowd looked up with their eyes brighter, but most remained downcast. They were still processing what she said.

The hair on the back of Ruby's neck rose.

Blake stood up and looked at Weiss.

"How much of that was real?" She whispered, not meeting Weiss's eyes.

"Does it matter?" Weiss raised an eyebrow and turned her head, looking at all of the people questioning themselves. Tears stained her cheeks, but her eyes were crystal clear.

"Of course it matters!" Blake hissed "You implied that the main reason people should-"

"Could you two PLEASE not do this right now!?" Yang snapped at them and wiped her nose on her uniform's sleeve.

Ruby pushed Yang's arms away and stood up. There were still tears on her cheeks, but she could wipe them off later. Weiss was right, she needed to do something. "Umm, we... We should…" She looked to team JNPR, each of whom was still staring at the table. "We should go."

Weiss smiled at her and nodded. "Yes. I'm glad that you're finally starting to understand."

She really wasn't, but that didn't matter. Ruby could feel the danger surrounding them in the depths of her soul. If they didn't leave right now, something terrible was certain to happen.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 2.7

~~~​

Team RWBY took the long way back to their dorm at Weiss's insistence. She led the way through Beacon's halls, making sure that they passed through the main hallway which led to the professors' offices. They were getting very close to the point of intersection.

She glanced back at her teammates to check on how they were handling everything.

Blake was still eying her with suspicion, hardly a surprise. She was understandably testy about any negative comparison that was made to the Faunus; especially when it wound up being slightly similar to part of their argument earlier in the morning. But, that part of the speech would have been weaker without it.

She'd apologize and explain her reasoning when they had more time. Blake understood the value of rhetoric, even if she came from a different school of thought regarding its use.

Yang was also worried, but for different reasons. She had reacted much worse than expected and seemed to be waiting for a fight that Weiss had no intention of giving her. Weiss was skilled and near the top of their class in combat, but the gaps above her were very large and Yang contended for top of that ladder. She would prefer matching wits with Yang, if it came down to it. That would be as one sided as them fighting physically, but the result would be in Weiss's favor.

It would be trivially easy to tear into Yang. The girl didn't have issues, she had subscriptions.

Ruby had finally calmed down, thankfully. She'd been on edge during dinner for who-knows-what reason, though Weiss trusted it to be a good one. Ruby alternated between impeccable acuity and utter naivety within the span of a single sentence so often that Weiss hadn't been sure what to make of the girl at first. But she'd proven to be a very quick learner.

Weiss would've been shocked if Ruby had understood the value of leaving before anyone could respond with questions or accusations when they first met.

Not having to introduce and push that course of action was a very welcome surprise. Undermining Ruby's perceived authority and leadership over team RWBY would have been a necessary, if unpleasant, blow to her confidence that was best avoided whenever possible.

Though, Ruby's confidence problems reminded her of another issue she needed to handle. There was a middle manager in refinement facility sixteen that needed to be removed. He was a blight on morale and the resulting efficiency loss was higher than the disruption replacing him would cause. It would also be good opportunity to push for additional representation as well. Unfortunately, none of the Faunus at that facility had a enough experience for the role.

She pushed that line of thought to the side, planning in abstract, because her real targets had arrived. The next conversation would require all of her focus, especially because her teammates were present.

"Good evening Professor Goodwitch, Professor Port!" Weiss bowed her head to the Professors and curtsied slightly. "I apologize for the disturbance, but something needed to be done."

The Professors were tense, likely expecting a fight or at least an argument, though neither had their weapon drawn. They were the ones with real power here, but most students did not recognize that and would challenge them at any point they could. Receiving a straightforward apology threw them off guard. Unfortunately, it did the same to her team. All three of them failed to so much as nod or wave to their Professors.

"Good evening Miss Schnee." Professor Goodwitch spoke first. Her tone still held a completely justified edge of suspicion to it. "We heard about what was happening in the dining hall from Miss Scarlatina."

She stopped there and met Weiss's gaze. She'd been left to fill in the missing information. Normally, this would be an excellent interrogation technique, but Weiss had been counting on it happening. There was a reason that she sent someone out of the room before she began her speech.

Weiss nodded at Professor Goodwitch and slightly smiled. "I intervened when team CRDL was tormenting her. I don't know how many other Faunus they've mistreated, but..." She looked to Professor Port. "I felt like it was important to act as soon as I noticed the problem. 'To lead by example and show them the world that I want to live in.'" She quoted his own words from yesterday's class at him.

Professor Port briefly frowned and wiggled his moustache. It was another tactic to throw them off balance. So many students slept through his class or failed to take proper notes. Eventually, he nodded."An action befitting a true Huntress. But that was not all that we heard. Miss Scarlatina compared your state to the first time she saw a Grimm bearing down on her."

Weiss barely resisted flinching from how obvious he was being. He was directly comparing her to a Grimm! He should be better at this; from the way Professor Goodwitch tensed her fingers, she likely agreed. She also kept glancing at the rest of team RWBY, who were still stunned by the situation.

"I was…" Weiss briefly paused for effect, looking up and to the side as if she was searching for the right word. "Quite angry when I spoke to her." She paused for a longer period, only looking at Professor Port after a proper amount of time had passed and he was about to speak. "I've been told that my gaze is very intense before, but would never have thought it would have that sort of effect."

Blake reacted at the worst possible time, narrowing her eyes as soon as the words left her mouth. This tendency of hers made their debates much more interesting than they would've been if Weiss could embellish more, but it was a massive hindrance now.

Weiss cursed internally, but didn't miss a beat as she continued. "It may be due to my name. The Schnee are not known for good relations with many Faunus. She might have suspected I would do something worse to her, instead of helping." She spoke with a resigned tone, but laced her words with feelings of understanding and coherence.

Weiss glanced down and to the side of the Professors for a moment, letting a bit of guilt show. Before they had the chance to challenge her theory, she looked back up.

"I'll need to apologize to her as well. I didn't mean to scare her, but I meant every word that I said." And Blake reacted again. All Weiss could do was hope that the Professors hadn't figured out what this tic meant. It was a subtle movement in her eyes, but not so subtle that someone normal would miss it. "You don't need to worry about team CRDL, I only wounded their pride. Their Auras never broke."

The casual displays of what would otherwise be incredibly lethal violence were some of the hardest parts of Hunter culture for her to get used to. Truthfully, she still didn't know exactly where the line between a fight not being a problem and it going too far fell. However, the point where someone suffered bodily injury seemed like a good one to avoid crossing.

Earlier that week, she saw Professor Goodwitch break up a lover's spat that resulted in one of them getting punched through a wall and into her classroom. They got punished for disrupting class, for not endangering others or the incredible amounts of property damage it must've caused. Though, her ability to reconstruct any damage probably had a great deal to do with the leeway students were given for the later.

"Though, I will admit that the way that I accused those who sat by and watched may have been a bit harsh. Their inaction and avoidance of the issue was what made me so angry in the first place."

Ruby nodded in agreement at the same time as a glint of comprehension struck Yang's face. Some help in this matter would be incredible. Ruby… Ruby was a child adrift in shark infested waters. She likely didn't know what they were really talking about, but wouldn't do too much damage either way. Her earnestness about fighting the Anathema could be a huge boon, if it was capable of being directed properly.

Yang, on the other hand, understood the value of appearances and plausible deniability. Her nighttime escapades proved that fact. Even if the blond chose to act in a salacious and heedless manner, most of the time.

"Yeah, you really have a way with words." Yang chimed in, grimacing. "I couldn't help thinking about what Ruby would think of me ignoring her like that."

Both Professors narrowed their eyes at Weiss, their suspicion greater than before. She resisted the very strong urge to pinch the bridge of her nose and sigh.

Yang, you're not helping. Weiss grumbled internally. She gave the Professors an honestly nervous smile and folded her hands behind her back. As soon as her fingers were out of sight, she twirled them, crossing an X in the air.

"But, considering how often you and Blake do that stuff, I wasn't too surprised."

Yang stop helping! What wouldn't Weiss give for the ability to communicate telepathically right now? Truthfully, a large number of things were far more useful than that would be, but it would make this situation so much easier! Though, it was still salvageable.

Weiss waved a hand to the side to draw their attention back to her and met both Professors' eyes before speaking. There was an avenue which Yang inadvertently opened for her. "Blake and I have been debating current events and practicing how to form effective arguments. Practice makes perfect, and many of our classmates may have never been exposed to such things in the past. Leaving them more vulnerable than otherwise expected."

Doing that again was a risk, she knew that. Drawing on any more of her Aura would leave her exposed. But, not doing it was not an option. Not with the stakes being both her and Blake's lives!

Thankfully, both Professors seemed to accept this argument. They relaxed their stances and moved back to neutral expressions. Weiss smiled as they glanced to each other, eyes meeting. Professor Goodwitch nodded slightly, then looked at Weiss.

Professor Port cleared his throat and looked right at her as well. "Miss Schnee. This weekend, I'm going on a blood-pumping, Grimm-trapping mission. It would be a fine experience for a young Huntress-in-training such as yourself."

It was an offer that wasn't truly an offer. Refusing him would be suspicious, so would accepting without any thought. Weiss moved her jaw back and forth while licking her lips, even though she already knew what she would ask for.

"That would be quite an experience and I would be honored to take part in it. But…" She paused for effect. "Could we call it extra credit? I'd thought that freshmen don't go on missions until their second semester."

Professor Port brought a hand up to stroke his moustache. He hmmed for a moment before snapping his fingers. "All yes, of course. Extra credit would definitely be in order."

Weiss smiled and nodded. The Professor's looked at each other again, then to each member of Team RWBY. They hesitated when they reached Blake. Hopefully, this would take some of the heat off of her.

"Hmm." Professor Port wiggled his moustache in thought, again. He suddenly stopped and laughed. "Glynda, what do you think about me taking over your meeting as well?"

She was as surprised as Weiss was. Both of their eyes went wide as they stared at him. Taking both of them on a mission like that? That made no sense at all! Why would he even consider it?

"I, umm." She recovered quickly with a sudden comprehension in her eyes. "Do you think you can keep watch over all of them?"

That was an interesting way of phrasing things; which made even less sense! Why would she ask about all of them? As far as Weiss knew, they were just looking into her and Blake right now. Also, why was she going along with this crazy idea? It was completely against standard procedure!

"I think it would be a good experience for all. You don't really know someone until you've hunted a great beast alongside them."

Professor Goodwitch scanned his face for a moment. "Very well. Miss Belladonna." Blake looked like a deer in headlights. "I do still wish to speak with you, but we can delay that until you return."

"Woo!" Ruby thrust an arm into the air while she cheered. "Adventure time for Team RWBY!"

Weiss, Blake, and Yang all turned to Ruby, stupefied.

Weiss could not think of a good reason why she would be excited about this. It just threw more variables into the equation. The entire team coming along made it that much easier to lose control of the situation and make a fatal mistake.

Unless... Did Ruby realize what they were talking about? Was that why she was so excited? Did she suspect one of them?

Ruby was naive, not stupid. Hidden behind her reckless energy and child-like love of simple things was a highly intelligent mind. Though it normally only showed itself when she spoke about technology or combat tactics.

Weiss searched Ruby's eyes for a hint of malice, but found nothing except for joy and a bit of worry. Weiss wondered, What does she know that I don't? What level is she playing this at?

~~~​

That night, the shattered moon glowed over top of Beacon's central tower.

Blake liked looking at the moon. It was the main source of light in the night sky when she was at camp outside of the Kingdoms. She never took part in the Anathema worship, but those who did described it as beautiful and soothing. She wouldn't go that far, but it was still nice because of how much it let her see.

She still felt the adrenaline coursing through her as she looked up the cliff face to the campus, away from the fallen Grimm.

Ruby had protested when she went out again, but she needed this. The morning was bad enough. Now she had tomorrow's mission to worry about too. Sleep had to come second to staying in control.

After a moment of listening, she focused her Aura in her legs and pushed off. One giant leap sent her up to the top of the cliff, landing at the edge of a small grove of trees. It was the type of leap that veteran Huntresses might be able to do if their Semblance aligned with it correctly.

This grove was a very popular spot for a lot of students for a number of reasons.

For Blake, it was because she could afford to practice moving like that here. This was one of the few locations on campus without any cameras watching it and people were rarely here late at night.

She landed on soft grass, in the shadow of a tree. While she hadn't heard anyone talking, she could tell from the smell alone that she wasn't alone tonight. The harsh mingling of hard liquor and sweat permeated the air.

Blake crept up to the nearest tree and peered around it. Two boys were passed out, leaning on a nearby building. A bottle of rum was on its side between them with a second, with an additional empty bottle next to it. She couldn't tell how much had spilled on the ground, but the boy's faces were bright red, even while they slept.

She let out the breath she'd been holding and stepped out into the light. She was far enough away from them that they might not have seen her even if they were awake. She'd need to be more careful when they got back. For now though, she needed some sleep.

"Blake," Yang's voice echoed from behind her, "We need to talk."


Blake pivoted in a quick circle, looking at all angles for Yang. She reflexively reached for her blade, though she didn't draw it. After a moment of searching, she found her target.

Yang was in her combat gear, standing on one of the branches with a stupid grin on her face. She wasn't even bothering to hide, just leaning on the tree. Blake frowned and let go of her weapon. How did I miss her?

Yang hopped down, landing quietly on the grass.

A shiver ran down Blake's spine. Had Yang seen her jump? While she'd never been as vehement as Ruby or Weiss, Blake didn't know where Yang actually stood on a large number of very important topics.

For better or worse, Ruby wore her heart on her sleeve. Blake knew that she would never be able to be completely honest with her.

More confusingly, Weiss lied through her teeth whenever she ranted about the inherent evils of the Anathema, but Blake didn't know which part was a lie. Did she think they weren't evil, which would be strange, or just that the evil wasn't necessarily inherent? Until she knew which one it was, Blake couldn't talk to her either.

Yang deflected or ignored the question whenever it came up. But, she seemed like she agreed with Ruby, at least in broad strokes.

Blake needed to choose her words very carefully. The Professors already suspected her and if her own teammate gave her away, that would be it.

While she thought about what to say, they stared at each other's eyes. Yang shifted her expression a lot. Blake could tell this wasn't a conversation she could just walk away from when Yang was practically screaming "Come on already. I'm not going away."

"There's nothing that we need to talk about." She tried anyway.

Yang crossed her arms and frowned. "I'm not my sister. You're not going to get rid of me that easily."

At least Blake's suspicion that Yang had been awake that night was confirmed.

"It's nothing that you need to be worried about. I…" Blake paused and chewed on her lower lip. She had an argument prepared for this, but checking her scroll would just look silly. If she could just get Yang to back off, it would be fine. "I just needed to get away from it all. To get ready for tomorrow."

Yang's frown deepened. "The mission tomorrow is why we need to talk."

She stepped forward and drummed her fingers on her arm. Blake wasn't going to get out of this by staying on the defensive. She took a moment to think about Yang, about what she cared about and what made her give up on things before. There was one giant target.

Blake closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again. Hopefully this wouldn't hurt her partner too much. "Why do you even care? You're around less than I am."

"I'm… There's a good reason for that." Yang lied, barely covering her flinch by clenching her teeth.

"Well what is it? You take a new person for a bike ride every third day. Do you think we're stupid? We can see that you're avoiding us." The accusation wasn't entirely fair. Yang always came back smelling only of dirt, motor oil, and Dust. Blake knew what hadn't happened, despite appearances to the contrary. But, if it got Yang off of her back, she'd take it.

"I think that you, of all people, would understand why I'm doing that."

"Doing what? Avoiding making any sort of real connection with people?" Blake twisted the knife. The pain on Yang's face was obvious, so was the anger simmering behind it.

"Yeah, because Ice Queen counts as a real connection. How do you think she'll react to the real you?"

Blake ears strained against her bow and her blood ran cold. How did Yang know about that? On second thought, which of the things that she was hiding was Yang talking about? She couldn't see Weiss reacting well to any of them.

In the end it didn't really matter because she wasn't about to admit to hiding things. Yang was definitely hiding something though. Blake took a shot in the dark. "How will Ruby react to you?"

Yang's eyes flared red. "She's the reason why I-" She slammed her mouth shut, her teeth audibly clicking.

"You know what? Fine. If you're going to be like this, we'll do it the hard way." She uncrossed her arms and stomped towards Blake, her gauntlets deploying. "I meant what I said before Blake. You're one of the only people I can't beat if I go all out."

"If you care about fighting so much, then challenge one of the seniors to a duel." Blake back pedaled, keeping her distance. She'd definitely pushed too hard. Yang had never been this angry before.

"Stop ignoring what I'm really saying." Yang's eyes blazed as she moved faster.

"Stop projecting your own issues onto-" Blake was cut off by her back hitting a tree. Her hand went to her weapon again, but she was too late.

Yang grinned savagely and surged forward. When she was two steps away, she reared up and stomped, practically kicking the ground. A wave of dirt rippled out from her foot. Blake fell onto the tree as the earth shifted underneath her. Yang stepped again and came in with a straight, not wasting any of her momentum.

The form was the same as her fight with Ren, but everything else about it was utterly inhuman.

Blake felt time slow as her partner's attack moved towards her. The air in front of her fist warped and spiraled to the sides in violent ribbons. Yang punched through the shock wave, tearing it to shreds as she moved closer.

Her hair blazed with a painful light. Its rays bounced off of her gauntlet, right into Blake's eyes. The flash left her seeing spots. It made her miss the second, stronger flash from Yang's off-hand. Everything was only light and darkness now, barely any color or texture. Yang was like a Grimm, faded red eyes on pitch black skin.

She could barely make out Yang's arm as white hot flames ran up it and ignited the fractured air. But she didn't need her eyes to know what was coming.

Blake tried to move, but knew that she wouldn't be fast enough. She was staring death in the face. Even a glancing blow would shatter her Aura and her body. She needed more than just speed, more than her Aura or her Semblance.

Blake reached deep inside of herself to a fragment of a memory she never wanted to relive.

She'd only done this once before, moved through an attack that would certainly destroy her. She needed to walk with certainty, to move without moving, to declare herself unassailable and force her way through any barriers in her path.

She pushed off the tree and moved forward. The heat from Yang's punch seared her face as it came closer and closer. She couldn't see it, but she didn't need to.

Blake stepped between moments.

She ended back to back with Yang. Blake spun around just in time to catch sight of the impact with the tree.

The black wood crackled and burned where Yang's knuckles connected. A web of fire spread through the valleys of the bark. A wave of force pulsed through the surface, making the bark ripple outward. At the same time, it twisted, tearing at the tree's flesh.

The tree exploded into hundreds of splinters, bright fragments turning into an incendiary whirlwind. Blake raised an arm to cover her eyes.

She was tapped out, her Aura broken and her body vulnerable. Any yet, most of the splinters bounced off of her skin as if it was still present.

A few large ones caught her in the arm, some more hit her head, but most of them failed to do anything. When she lowered her arm, there were a few tiny cuts. She focused on them and flexed. The wounds sealed themselves. A second thought stopped the blood running down her face from getting any worse.

The only real problem was the splinter that pierced her bow. Her hidden ear throbbed, but she could deal with that later.

Blake blinked color back into the world as Yang moved back to a neutral position. She slowly turned around. "I didn't say you were the only student I couldn't beat."

Blake wiped the blood from her forehead before it fell into her eyes. Her eyes were locked on Yang's brow. Something was there now, shimmering in the darkness.

Yang was staring at her forehead as well. Blake laughed nervously. "Oh… That's what you… I didn't think… Umm... I guess we do have something to talk about."

That answered one of her questions, and explained a lot about why Yang was so nervous around Ruby, but opened up so many more.

Blake looked from the exploded tree to the, mercifully, still unconscious boys. "Follow me."

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 2.i

~~~​

Glynda sighed as the door to Professor Ozpin's office slid open. She'd finished compiling the observation reports and knew that he wasn't going to like the results. She almost stepped in, but hesitated when she saw what he was currently doing. However, the door had been unlocked, so it must not be too secret.

A hologram of General James Ironwood was standing on the desk, hands clenched tightly behind his back. He was in his full uniform, with the same regulation haircut that he'd worn for the past twenty years.

She called out, "Excuse me. Am I interrupting something?"

Professor Ozpin waved his hand. "No, no. Please come in. The results of those reports may decide our argument."

"Glynda." The hologram turned around and bowed his head. "It's been a long time. Wonderful to see you."

"Likewise James. I hope your autumn flurries have been light this year." Glynda nodded to him and walked up to the desk. She checked the icon next to the hologram, confirming the secure line. "Is the room secure?"

Professor Ozpin pressed several keys on his desk. The heavy locks on his door loudly shifted into place while the windows dimmed.

"It is now." Professor Ozpin nodded and leaned back in his chair.

A quick swipe on her scroll threw the results up for both men to see. "Unfortunately, we are no closer to finding the Anathema than we were two weeks ago. All four primary suspects are still performing substantially above average, yet also too similarly to each other to rule any out. I can only hope that Peter's investigation will result in something more conclusive."

"I'll need to talk Klaus down when he hears of this." James sighed. Dealing with the Schnee patriarch was not a task Glynda envied him. "He was not happy with Weiss's decision and her being investigated by anyone, except a Schnee, will just make him more irritable."

"He's fully recovered then?" Glynda hadn't heard of how his treatment was going. The attempted assassination was no surprise, he'd been the highest priority target for the White Fang since they changed tactics. How close they came to succeeding was a shock.

It occurred shortly before Beacon received Miss Schnee's confirmation of attendance. A White Fang sympathizer had gained employment at the Crystal Palace and almost succeeded in killing him. Of course, all investigations into it were performed by Hunters on the Schnee payroll. As a result, there was a substantial amount of spin on any information released. The fact that actual injuries were sustained was only reported to senior Hunters in order to prevent the SDC from taking a larger stock hit.

"A man with his Aura and money? He'd physically recovered within a month. Mentally and financially…" James paused. "He still spends most days sequestered in his castle and runs the SDC remotely. Their policies have changed for the better for their lowest ranking employees, Faunus in particular. This is something that their investors have not been happy with because of the lowered profit margin."

He chuckled slightly. "Maybe his brush with mortality has thawed his heart some."

Glynda nodded. "While any event such as that is tragic, and I do wish that they never happen, I can hardly disagree with those results. Especially since better opinions on such matters seem to have spread to Miss Schnee as well." She paused for a moment. "Regarding your eventual conversation with him. There are also some things that we've found which may make it easier."

"Our initial gambit confirmed several of our suspicions. Miss Schnee is most definitely aware of what the standard stage two investigation procedures are. Whenever we broke from them, she reacted differently than expected. Her father knows the danger of telling someone what to expect if a formal investigation is called."

"You broke from them so significantly that I was shocked, even though I knew it would happen." James shook his head. While Glynda agreed with him, she would not give him the satisfaction of her direct approval. She would never hear the end of it if she took his side after she came up with the plan in the first place.

"We had planned for a large number of exceptions to be made considering the number of people we're looking into. Peter also succeeded at provoking further reactions from the other members of team RWBY. While none of them were terribly surprising considering their histories, I would still call the plan a success."

Professor Ozpin hmmed before speaking. "And the incident from last night?"

"Nothing substantial." She shook her head. "Neither Mister Azure nor Mister Persimmon can recall anything that they did after ten PM. Security footage shows Miss Belladonna, Miss Xiao Long, and Miss Nikos leaving the monitored portion of the campus prior to the explosion. All three returned after it occurred, from different directions. They each had enough time to move to the site and back to where they returned."

"Nothing useful then."

"No." She shook her head. "Of the three, only Miss Xiao Long could accomplish something like that. Even then, she would have needed to take a significant number of hits first to use her Semblance. All that can be said about this incident is that it decreases the chance that our target is Miss Schnee or that there are none. However, it also increases the chance that we're dealing with multiple Anathema. Which, if true, means that many of our previous observations would need to be reconsidered."

Glynda's greatest fear was that possibility. Having multiple Anathema active at the same time wasn't unheard of, but it was incredibly rare for any to last more than a few weeks. They drew too much attention to themselves and were often civilians with no combat capability. The last time it happened was decades ago, when she was still a novice who didn't appreciate the true danger they posed.

One appeared in Mistral, a fighter participating in one of their annual tournaments. Only three days later, another was found among Vacuo's Hunters. They both went to ground quickly and remained hidden for months. Their existence was only barely kept from becoming mainstream knowledge through a very costly information blackout and restricted travel between Kingdoms. A lucky break revealed the first before their obfuscation fell.

He was found in Atlas while his stolen airship was refueling. He had been en route to meet the second and would have succeeded if it wasn't for a beggar, who knew the ship's actual captain, reporting the stolen vessel.

Having one appear among their students would be bad enough. Two, especially two that had remained hidden for so long, would inspire a panic the likes of which she would prefer not to have to contemplate.

"There are other options." James threw Miss Rose's profile to the screen and highlighted their current appraisal of her. "You're still overlooking the most obvious candidate."

Professor Ozpin sighed in response. This must have been what they were arguing about when she arrived, again. Though this time they didn't have any prying ears around so more could be said on the topic.

"I don't understand why you and Qrow are both adamant that she cannot be target. She fits the profile in every way except for color and the shape of her sign."

"As I've said before, I am incapable of explaining why I am so certain. I would need to show you directly or the knowledge would be forgotten by the time we next spoke."

"Then you can show me when I come to inspect the grounds for the Vytal festival."

Both Professor Ozpin and Glynda blinked at him.

"What? It's a good enough excuse as any other."

"You would need to master the Bleached Soul technique before I can safely show you."

"An ancient technique from Vale that requires being isolated and tortured for weeks to learn." James said deadpan and shook his head. "I still don't have the time for that, none of us do. Not while Her agents still walk through our lands freely."

"The technique is vital because we would need to travel to the edge of Her domain."

"You can't take a picture or bring it here?"

"No, it's magical in nature."

Glynda sighed and rubbed her temples. The number of things to which that statement applied infuriated her. Especially considering how often it was said when it came to their strategies against Her.

They all knew who their enemy was, but avoided speaking Her name in case it drew her attention. Even if it was just a silly superstition passed down from ancient times, one needed to be careful when working against magical forces beyond their comprehension.

Day by day, they solved the mysteries of the world and reduced Her influence. Victory may not happen within any of their lifetimes, save perhaps Professor Ozpin, but she was certain that humanity would eventually triumph over the darkness that surrounded them. Though this particular topic was one that they had a great deal of success in, which may be a key tool for their next steps.

"The technique is not as dangerous or time consuming to learn anymore." Glynda broke the silence. "I've been working on mastery since the beginning of the Semester so that I can see the truth about Miss Rose with my own eyes." She shook her head and looked right at the hologram. "I'm sure that even someone as busy as yourself would be able to-"

"Send me the manuals, I'll have it done in four weeks." He cut her off, accepting the challenge before she finished it. Some things were still predictable, even after all these years. "Though that does bring me to another, very worrying, topic…"

He paused and sighed, clenching his hands again. "There have been… Problems with the excavation."

The Atlas military had been investigating a ruin that was unearthed by one of the most recent, deep Dust, mining operations. From what they could tell, it dated before the Colorless Period. Everyone was very excited about the possibilities because of the incredible artifacts they found at the last site of this nature.

"Is there anything that we can do to assist?" While Glynda herself was hardly an expert, they could have Doctor Oobleck on-site within a week.

"If only you could." He sighed. "These are problems that may require the action of one of the Maidens to resolve."

"Calling them out of hiding isn't something that we can do lightly." Professor Ozpin said softly.

"No it isn't. However, we may not be able to proceed without their assistance." He pulled up an image of two enormous doors. They were inlaid with complex ruins that seemed quite similar to the walls in the depths of Beacon's foundation, though they were much more ornate and complex. The doors, and the walls next to them, also appeared to be carved from solid Orichalcum.

"The opening mechanism requires the use of more Aura than any of our sorcerers can control. Even when they're augmented by high grade Dust, the doors remain still."

Both of them nodded. That would be something that one of the Maidens would be able to assist with without much issue. They had succeeded at making use of highly taxing equipment in the past due to their magical abilities.

"Would you be able to gain access in any other way?"

"Potentially. I wouldn't have brought the matter up were it just this, but there is a larger problem." He shifted the screen to a time line of reports. "My men reported seeing someone lurking in the shadows near the ruin. We attempted to flush them out and took as many precautionary measures as we could: improved lighting, extra patrols, and as many cameras as we could place. Since then, we've suffered from an improbable number of equipment failures and malfunctions."

"Lights explode, cameras break, and rifles go off exactly when someone steps in front of the barrel. My men were spooked. We suspected sabotage... Instead we found this." He shifted the image to a grisly scene. A man was slumped against the side of the doors, sword at his feet. His chest had exploded outward, leaving a trail of blood and gore on the ground. His face was twisted, frozen in terror and pain. At the side of the image, there was a white mist which flowed away from the man.

"The soldier who took the picture reported that she saw a pale woman, wearing ancient armor, tear his heart out. She supposedly threw the heart to the ground, screeched at the solider in tongues, and then faded away. Of course, there was no other proof of what happened, only Private Rios's word and this image."

"It's possible that it could still be sabotage with the soldier covering for the murder. Alternatively, a Semblance or a new type of Grimm." Glynda said softly. She was not convinced this was the case, but needed to put the idea out there to make sure they covered all of the possibilities.

"We thought so at first." James paced back and forth. "She was removed from the site and interrogated. Nothing came of it." He stopped and closed his eyes. After a moment he continued. "The Semblance idea was disproven by yesterday evening's discovery."

He shifted the image again. This one just had police chalk around the blood. "Two more bodies were found in the same state. These were miners who were hundreds of feet above the ruin. The witness described the woman passing through the tunnel wall to touch them and then pinned him to the wall with an iron spike."

"We set up Aura monitors around the location. Which have produced nonsensical results: a negative background energy level, random blips with no discernible pattern, and the occasional surge strong enough to overwhelm the sensor's feedback response. The sensors always break shortly after the surge. But, the surge only occurs if nothing is watching the sensor." The hologram didn't have the resolution to show it, but Glynda was certain that James was grinding his teeth. "There's something unnatural happening in the ruin. Something that's beyond the capabilities of my specialists."

Professor Ozpin closed his eyes and laced his fingers. He sat like that for nearly a minute, his face completely still.

He relaxed before speaking. "I'll contact Leo as soon as we finish this call. It is a risk, but this may provide us with rewards which more than justify it."

James nodded. "Thank you."

"It will likely take several weeks for them to arrive. What do you plan to do in the meantime?"

"We've shut down access to the mine and placed an elite Specialist team at the entrance. They, along with all nearby personnel, will be monitored by at least two people and one camera at all times."

"There is something else you may wish to try." Professor Ozpin paused. "Salt."

"Salt?"

"Ancient mystics were said to use circles of salt to hold in wayward spirits. A superstition, but one that may be of use."

"It would be difficult to justify such a strange method to most specialists…" He raised a hand to his chin and paced. "Schnee may be the most receptive considering some of the stranger experiments that the SDC has performed in the past."

Glynda tapped her scroll while she thought. Winter Schnee would be an ideal candidate to assist for a number of reasons. "If you can convince her to help you, then you may be able to convince the others that it's an experimental form of Dust that is not to be touched by anyone except for experts. While this wouldn't stand up to any real scrutiny, it could buy time."

James nodded. "Good idea."

He bowed his head to Professor Ozpin and then to her. "Ozpin, Glynda, thank you for the suggestions. I'll keep you posted on the results."

The hologram winked out.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 3.1

~~~​

"Students!" Professor Port stood in front of the rear ramp of the Bullhead. "Our mission takes us to the northern coast, outside of Vale. The border patrol reported a pack of Beowolf Alphas moving with a horde of Beowolves towards the upper Forever Fall two days ago. Normally this would not be a cause for alarm, but there have been several tremors in the area. As for why that's important, do any of you know the reason why the forest has its name?"

"The trees?" Ruby quirked her head to the side, swaying back and forth with the turbulence.

"Yes and no. While the eternally red leaves were a major component of the choice, there is a second part. The sheer cliff that protects the northern border of Vale. No Grimm can survive a fall from such a height. I should know, my team and I spent a great deal of time throwing them off of it in our youth. Ahh, border duty." He laughed deeply and loudly, voice echoing in the cramped ship. "Long nights under the stars, a fine companion by your side, and none of the distractions of the city. There's nothing else like it.

"However, the river of time causes all things to eventually crumble. If part has collapsed, and formed a tall enough scree for the Beowolves to land on, then the nature of our hunt will be very different."

Ruby pulled up the map that he'd given them on her scroll. It showed the route they'd take along the upper cliffs. It wound all the way along the border and was way longer than she'd been expecting, even though he told her to pack heavy. She picked up her ammo bag and tested the weight. It was way more than anything she'd carried at Signal, but would it be enough?

She looked at her teammates, who all seemed to be thinking about the same thing considering how they were looking at their own bags. Weiss was probably the one most hurt by that limit. Even though her rapier was a masterpiece, it needed a lot Dust to reach its full potential. Yang also burned through her shells really fast and they took up more space than raw Dust. Blake, whose Dust needs were small by comparison, had volunteered to hold onto the sleeping bags so everyone else could bring more ammo.

Of course, a long trip did explain why they were bringing ATVs instead of just walking.

"But, we'll only worry about that if we find one. Otherwise this will be your standard deep scouting and trapping mission. With our luck and skill, we'll bag three Alphas and be back to Beacon by Thursday."

"Question!" Ruby raised her hand, only continuing after Professor Port nodded. "Why are we going to be out so long? Can't we just take on the pack and whittle them down to the ones we want today?"

"An excellent question!" Professor Port laughed again. "While the five of us would have the might to simply charge in and destroy them, such a solution would not always be the best choice in the field. What would you do if such a horde was approaching a group of refugees traveling on foot?"

"Uhh…" Ruby considered it for a moment. With that many Grimm, a few would break away to go after the civilians no matter what they did. "Encircle and corrall them with someone designated to take out any that get through. Someone with good speed and ranged power so… Anyone in our team would be ok. But, I'd put you, Weiss, or myself there if I had a choice."

If they were all equally experienced, she'd never assign Professor Port to that role. His build and weapon would be better suited to a different position, something where he could stay relatively still and use his raw power to take out big targets. But in this case, he should be so much better than four students that it wouldn't matter where he went.

"Indeed. A very good strategy against Beowolves" He nodded. "Now. What would you do if several Ursa and Boarbatusks were included?"

"Hmm." Ruby thought harder. Both the bear and the boar Grimm could barrel through many light defenses without any problems. The Boarbatusks could also spin up and roll fast enough to break through a gap. They'd need the wall to be tighter, with heavier Hunters, but you'd need more people to manage that thanks to the slower speed.

"Easy. You lure them away." Yang chimed in. "Get the nasty ones chasing someone, then everyone else pounds on the weaklings." She slammed her fists together and smiled.

"Quite right Miss Xiao Long! And that is what we will be practicing once we find them. That along with our endurance." He paused to take a breath. "The horde was spotted three days away from our landing zone by its speed. We'll test your vehicular skills and lay a basic sensor grid, in case they swoop around behind us, while we move towards their last known location."

He patted the ATV nearest to him. It was a beautiful machine, built with Hunters and their capabilities in mind. A lot of the comforts that went into normal models were missing because their Auras rendered them immune to minor shocks and bumps. The engine was much bigger and the entire body was armored, with extra heavy plating on the front.

"These puppies will go for almost two thousand miles thanks to all of the Dust we're bringing. And don't worry, we're going to use every last ounce of it. I hope you girls got a good night's sleep because it's the last one you'll have until we get back to Beacon. It'll be short watches for all of us if we're going to get everything finished on time."

Yang and Blake both gulped. Ruby had no idea how long they were out last night. But, considering the bags under their eyes, it had to be pretty late. She'd done her best to get a good night's sleep, by comparison.

Though, Ruby had been planning to spend a lot of time staying up while they were out here. She suspected that she could see and hear the stars much more easily this far away from all of the passive energy that surrounded Beacon.

"That being said," Professor Port continued, "We're spending most of the first day getting acquainted with everything these machines can do. Who among you has ridden before?"

Only Ruby and Yang raised their hands. Professor Port smiled slightly before nodding. "Very good. Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long. You'll be out first scouts. Let's go over your route."

~~~​

Her seat rumbled underneath her. A whirlwind of red leaves and grass trailed in her wake, blinding her enemy. With her opening made, Ruby took a small sensor orb in hand and lined up her shot. Steering with one arm when she was going this fast was tricky, but she couldn't afford to slow down. Every bump threatened to yank the handlebars from her grip and send her spinning out of control.

She held her breath, took aim, and threw the orb as hard as she could. It flew through the air in a lazy arc. It bounced once, twice, and landed on top of a big rock. The ball swiveled and started flashing. Ruby could just barely make out a 'beep... beep...' coming from it.

"Woo! Score one for Ruby! I'm catching up," Ruby cheered and slowed down enough for Yang to catch up. She held her hand out to the side, getting a high five as Yang passed by. It was a little hard, she actually felt her Aura drop a bit thanks to the hit.

They were the deep scouting team for the entire first day because Weiss and Blake needed more practice before Professor Port would let them out of his sight.

"Why did you announce that over the radio?" Weiss's annoyed voice came out of her headset.

"Miss Schnee," Professor Port called next, "If you have time to talk, you have time to drive. I saw you go around that rock instead of ramping off it."

Weiss groaned before cutting out. Ruby giggled while Yang shook her head.

"Umm, Ruby out!" Ruby switched her mic channel to just Yang's. Her sister had gotten off of her ATV and was making sure the sensor was setup right. They were supposed to be placed down carefully and then they'd stabilize themselves. But, the sensors were designed to attract Grimm with noise and be tough enough to transmit how heavy each hit was. Since they could take a lot of punishment, Ruby and Yang made a game of it.

Once they found a good place for them, whoever could throw a sensor from the ATV and land it first got a point. Yang was winning twenty-two to sixteen, thanks mostly to her Semblance. It was really hard to beat her to a spot because of how much further she could throw. While a few of her sensors wound up embedded in their targets instead of on them, that wasn't a point Ruby was going to argue. Her losing control of her strength like that meant she'd be on a hair trigger and Ruby wanted today to be as fun as it could be.

"Nice one sis. Right on target." Yang gave her a thumbs up and went back to her own ride. Ruby pulled up alongside her as they went further North.

They were building a big net with these things and needed to place a sensor every mile or so. That seemed a little excessive to Ruby, but there had to be a good reason for it. At least, she really hoped there was. Her only other idea for why Professor Port was doing this, was to make them bored and practice pointless things that could only be fun if you really tried.

That option didn't really sit well with her. Professor Port was taking over part of what Professor Goodwitch was going to do. That meant that Weiss and Blake were being investigated during the mission. So, she and Yang were being given something else to do to get them out of the way. But, just being bored out of your mind with simple things didn't seem like something that would make Yang this agitated. It also wasn't something that Ruby couldn't be told about, which Yang and Weiss kept insisting on whenever she asked them about the investigations.

Ruby heard a crash over the radio when they were halfway to their next stop. It was followed by Weiss screaming, "Why did you ram me?!"

"You need to be able to keep hold of your vehicle even if it comes to a crashing halt. While you did prevent injury to yourself, you lept from your seat to do so. You'd be snatched up by Grimm in seconds if you did that. Change your grip so it's more like this and squeeze with your knees." Professor Port continued shouting over the everyone channel, "Excellent! Now, let's try it again. Miss Belladonna, you hit her this time."

Was that a technique to check if people were Anathema? The only way it made any sense was if they were so easily startled that they started glowing as soon as they had any problems. From everything she'd heard about them, that couldn't be the case.

"Why me?" Weiss groaned, over everyone's headset.

Yang laughed over their private channel. "I think Ice Queen needs to take her own advice."

"She probably hit the 'Team' button by accident." Ruby slowly increased her speed.

"Yeah, but still. She doesn't need to try to tell us what to do all the time. 'You should be studying more,' 'Stop staying out so late,' 'Pull up your other sock.' I mean, you're supposed to be the one doing stuff like that, but you don't because you're awesome." Yang continued sniping at Weiss.

"Yang, that's…" Ruby bit her lip and reconsidered what she was about to say. It was really weird for her sister to be passive-aggressive about this. Yang was always aggressive-aggressive about pretty much everything. "I thought you liked Weiss."

"I do," Yang replied quickly. A little too quickly. "It's just… Something about her bugs me and I can't put my finger on what it is... I think Blake said it best. Is anything she does real? Or is it just for show?"

"I think that… I think that some of it has to be real. The things she and Blake argue about, those're real. When we're just talking about stuff though… Yeah, I've wondered the same thing." Ruby didn't want to admit it, but Weiss and Blake were both kinda weird. Those two seemed like they came from a completely different world.

"It's other stuff too. Some of the stuff she's been saying or doing, I can't get those things out of my head either… It's like I'm-" Yang cut herself off and grumbled into her mic. She was clenching her handlebars hard enough for her knuckles to turn white.

"It's like you're?" Ruby squeaked. She hated seeing Yang like this, but her sister always clammed up when she pushed too hard. Instead, she had another target.

She felt the familiar pressure build and shoved it with all of her might. 'Yang, you can talk to me.'

It shoved back.

Ruby blinked a couple of times. Ya- The world just shoved her Aura back!

She'd pushed and run into a metaphorical wall before. That happened a lot with some people, but it was never a rejection like that. Yang was having a problem with something, so they should talk about it! But... something didn't want them to.

Ruby went to Yang with all of her problems; well, almost all of them. She'd be a horrible sister if she didn't!

Yang growled over her mic and revved her engine. She dug deep ruts in the ground and shot off in a flurry of grass and dirt. Ruby kicked her speed up in response. If Yang wanted to race so badly, she should've said something. Ruby was always up for a race too.

Ruby sank low, her head right above her handlebars. The wind howled in her ears as she pushed her machine harder. She kept her wheels on the ground, weaving around obstacles that Yang smashed through. Their armor was thick enough to ram an Ursa to death, so a fallen tree wasn't any danger. Going through them bled a bit of Yang's speed with each crash. It was just enough to let Ruby keep pace.

For several minutes, they weaved through the trees, occasionally running over a Creep or Beowolf that was dumb enough to be nearby. The Creeps were so much funnier to do it to. They'd get up on their tails and try to kick the front of the ATV. Then she'd ram them and send them flying through the air.

Yang kept her lead for most of their ride. She'd been riding her motorcycle a lot and while the ATVs weren't anywhere near as agile, she was still a much better rider than Ruby. The only thing that kept them close was Ruby's slightly lower weight and Yang's tendency to go out of her way to jump off of things.

As they neared the next sensor drop distance, Ruby spied an opportunity. There was a huge tree that fell at a perfect ramp angle. It was also facing at an angle away from what would be a target to drop it on.

"Rotten log at eleven o'clock." Ruby pointed to the target and waited for Yang to give her a thumbs up. Yang pulled a sensor orb out instead of grabbing her handle again. Ruby kept her hands on the handlebars and watched from behind.

They were a long ways away from the target, far enough that Ruby was pretty sure Yang couldn't land her shot. She was still aiming it though.

Yang drifted to the left so she could get lined up correctly, riding over flatter ground. She had her handle bars in an iron grip around the center, for stability, while the orb was held aloft. Ruby waited for the right moment, then accelerated as fast as she could.

She rammed Yang's bumper from the side, then braked hard. Her sister spun to the right and sped towards the fallen tree ramp. Ruby cut tightly to the left, then straightened out. As soon as she was under control, she pulled her own orb out. She briefly spared a glance at Yang, while the blonde veered off course and up the tree.

Yang looked back to her and grinned. She flipped her throwing arm over and looped her wrist underneath her right handlebar. Her left shifted over so it was grabbing the left handle.

Ruby took a deep breath and listened, Yang was up to something. As soon as she finished focusing, Ruby could hear Yang's Aura sing.

Her sister slammed her heel into the tree, spinning back on track. As soon as she was straight, she heaved her body to the side. Her ATV followed, first going up on two wheels and then over the edge. It flipped over once, rotating around Yang.

She landed right next to Ruby, again on two wheels. Yang's ATV finished its rotation and slammed into the side of Ruby's. It forced her up and over while Yang settled into her seat with her shocks groaning.

Ruby tumbled over and over. She pressed herself into her seat as hard as she could, pulling on the handles and squeezing with her knees. Each impact ate into her Aura, but in the end it didn't matter. She had more than enough to weather a couple of light impacts. Once she was righted again, she sighed and slumped into her seat.

"Stupid Semblance, making it easy." She grumbled into her mic while Yang tossed her orb onto their target, not bothering to get any closer. Again, her Aura sang and her aim was true; even though she was further away from it than Ruby was capable of throwing.

Yang laughed and turned towards her. "What was that?"

"Your Semblance. It makes it so much harder for me to score any points." Ruby pouted and jumped off of her ATV. A bunch of her sensors had gone flying when she tumbled, so she needed to pick them all up.

"Uhh, what'd you mean?" Yang quirked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow.

Ruby blinked a couple of times before turning to her. Did Yang forget about this?

Ruby tapped the side of her head, because her ears were covered by her headset, and mouthed, "I heard it."

Yang opened her mouth, but didn't say anything. The color ran out of her face and her pupils shrank until they were barely visible. Yang gulped before mouthing back, "What?"

"I…" Ruby started responding, but stopped after the first word. Sure, they hadn't talked about this since she first told Yang weeks ago, but it was really important! She still remembered Yang's advice about not telling anyone else, even if it was really hard to not sometimes. How could Yang just forget like that? She'd always remembered everything else.

Ruby felt a lump form in her throat when she considered how easy it was to forget her without all of the written reminders Blake made. Yang had probably forgotten that entire conversation. Of course she did. She must've, it happened so long ago. Ruby dug her nails into her palm and grit her teeth.

She couldn't just explain everything all over again, not over her mic. But, she also needed to say something to jog Yang's memory.

"Umm, you know… That thing we talked about on our first day. It was right after Professor Ozpin's speech?" Ruby crossed her fingers and held her breath.

Yang slowly nodded, but the fear in her eyes hadn't gone away.

Ruby's hands trembled while she turned away to pick up more of her fallen sensors. "Yang… Are you ok?"

"Yeah…" Her response was forced and had none of her usual energy. "Yeah, I just... Forgot…"

"It's-It's ok, everyone forgets about me at some point. D-Don't worry about it." Ruby tried to sound reassuring while she crouched down and wiped the sides of her eyes. She wasn't crying, but she would be if she left those there.

Almost everyone had forgotten about her at some point, no matter how hard they tried. Now she had to add Yang to the list too. Weiss was the only person who hadn't and here they were, waiting to see what would happen to her.

Please be good Weiss. Please.

~~~​

They needed to sleep in shifts.

Two would stay up for four hours at a time. They'd keep the camp safe from wandering Grimm and pass it off to someone else later on. Only one person would get a full night's sleep each night.

Ruby and Blake had the first watch. Ruby'd gone camping with Uncle Qrow and Yang, so she knew what to watch for. Blake said that she'd lived outside of the Kingdoms for most of her life, so she was good too. They'd wake Professor Port and Yang up at midnight.

So far, it had been a quiet night. Ruby sat on one side of the camp, pouring over Pyrrha's book. Normally she wouldn't be able to make anything out when it was this dark, but she figured out another trick.

She could make her forehead sign glow in a way that only she could see. Though, the bright red light make it a little tricky to read some of her charts that relied on colors. It also made keeping watch much easier. This would've been perfect for watching, if it wasn't for the cloud of bugs that surrounded their camp. Thankfully, they didn't seem to want to get too close to the Dust fire in the center.

She could hear the stars a little bit better too; thanks all of the interference from Beacon being gone. It still wasn't perfect, but it was easier to make everything out than before. She hoped that this might make predictions work better, which is why she was using the book. After a couple minutes of quick calculations, she came to her answer.

The Corpse was starting its descent towards the moon tonight, but would only partially pass through it. It was moving in an arc that would be tangent to her own signs in a few days and also pointing to the Pillar when it did. Someone close to her, a friend most likely, was going to be painfully, but not seriously, hurt.

That didn't make any sense.

They were just going to be fighting Beowolves, which could hardly be called threats. Also, when fighting a horde of Grimm without backup, the line between fine and dead was a very thin one. Maybe it meant that someone would get into a bad wreck before the fight? That would still take a lot of force though. Ruby was pretty sure that she could take a head-to-head collision at the highest speed the ATVs could go without any problems.

Could it be based on how people without an unlocked Aura would respond? Light fractures would be healed in days by most Hunters, but for the rest of the world they could be crippling. That was better than anything else she could think of so far, even if it did render astrology much less useful.

She groaned and flopped onto her back. Maybe Pyrrha was right and she couldn't see the future this way. That didn't feel right either though. The flow of energy in the stars must mean something important.

"Ruby, are you ok?" Blake whispered over the radio. They'd taken opposite positions around the camp.

"Yeah, just…" Ruby grumbled into the mic. This would be so much easier if she could just ask Blake and Weiss about stuff. She'd heard steady pulses of Aura coming from Blake all through the night, which was a little worrying. Though Yang was doing that too, and she fell asleep as soon as she hit the ground.

Ruby shook her head and finished her sentence. "Just listening."

"To what?" Blake looked up from her little book and turned to Ruby. Ruby wasn't sure how she was reading it in this light, but weirder things had happened.

"Uhh." Ruby bit her lip. "Everything? Umm, the forest. Uhh… Have you been out here before?"

Blake took a long time to say, "Yes."

"Gotcha…" Ruby sighed. That wasn't a very happy tone.

She tapped her heels against the ground while she tried to word out what she wanted to ask. Yang wasn't answering her at all, but Blake had last time, sort of.

Well, being straightforward couldn't hurt her too bad. "Blake. What did you and Yang talk about last night?"

There was another long pause. Blake wasn't looking at her anymore and she was so quiet Ruby had a hard time hearing her. "Nothing important."

"Yang wouldn't be acting so weird if it wasn't important."

Ruby was waiting for the moment when she could shove the world and get an answer, but it never came. Blake just stopped talking.

"Blake?"

She tried calling her a couple more times, without success, before turning to the others.

Professor Port and Weiss were both sleeping soundly. Yang was surprisingly still, considering how violently her Aura was pulsing. Each burst came with a twitch of her fingers, a tensing of her body, or a pained look on her face. The movements were so fast that Ruby would miss them if she blinked.

She balled her fists and squeezed. There was nothing she could do to help.

...

The shift finished in silence.

Yang looked like she'd barely slept; unlike Professor Port, who had far too much energy for a man his age.

Ruby laid down with the pulse of the Lightning Bolt echoing in her mind. For the first time, she could heard the the sign of sudden and reckless violence clearly. It permeated her, begging to be channeled. She grabbed it and held it inside. No matter how much she wanted to just do something, it wouldn't help right now.

She dreamt of a poem that resonated with her soul. When she woke up, she couldn't remember the verses.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 3.2

~~~​

Ruby and Yang were on deep scouting duty the next day too, though they didn't get to fool around on the second trip. Professor Port had given them a very long route that was full of difficult terrain; which meant that they needed to split up and be serious about it. The next day, he said that Weiss and Blake knew enough to ride without his supervision, so they started rotating positions.

Today, she and Weiss were surveying the cliff with him. It was a windy strip of rock that lacked any vegetation. Driving along it required no thought and just enough attention to remember that it curved occasionally.

They were going almost three hundred miles west, away from the Beowolf horde. That would put them close to the border towers and within sight of Vale's tallest skyscrapers. At least, they would be in sight if the fog ever let up. Right now, she couldn't see the tops of the trees at the bottom of the cliff, let alone buildings which were miles away.

That also made an already boring ride even worse. The view should've been amazing, an endless sea of bright red trees which was dotted with farms and factories. Instead they had a murky soup.

The most interesting thing that had happened was knocking a Creep as far off of the edge as she could, then listening to its screeches as they faded away. Before and after that, everything was more rocks and slight turns.

There was nothing to do besides go forward. She couldn't listen to music thanks to the headset. Trying to listen to the stars didn't work because of how loud both the sun and her engine were. Maybe Yang was doing better.

Ruby changed her channel and tried to sound happier than she was. "Yang?

"What is it?" Her response was unusually terse.

"Are you and Blake having fun?"

"No."

"You still have too many places to hit?"

"Less than yesterday. But yeah, still too many."

"We've gone almost a hundred miles so far and killed a single Creep so… Yay."

"That sucks," Yang grumbled. "Here's my next spot. Yang out."

Ruby sighed. Maybe there was something to be said for making Anathema so bored that they snapped and revealed themselves after all. If she could control people's minds, then doing so would be really tempting right now. Not to do anything really bad, just… Just make them talk about stuff.

She looked over her shoulder.

Professor Port was a little ways behind her, riding smoothly. He was calm, eyes focused on the road ahead. He eased into each movement, using the smallest amount of energy needed. Occasionally, he would tap some control without looking at it, steering with his legs while his arms were folded on his lap. He must've ridden like this hundreds of times.

Weiss was further back and very haggard. She had another bout of crash training yesterday, along with not a lot of sleep. Each of her movements started slowly, then jumped, showing just how tired she was. It made her look around too much and over-correct when she needed to change course. Every half hour or so, she'd mess with her controls to try the legs-only steering option, but inevitably changed it back when she lost her balance.

They'd all practice that tomorrow. It was an important skill for riding combat; even if Weiss, Blake, and Yang wouldn't need it as much because their weapons only needed one hand to use. It also made long trips much easier, which explained why Professor Port was saving it for after they finished the surveying. They wouldn't appreciate the benefit until they had to do it the hard way. Also, the hard way made it worse on Blake and Weiss.

Speaking of that, Ruby changed to Weiss's channel. "Hey, Weiss."

"Yes?" She sounded less exhausted than she looked.

"Uhh, I was just wondering how you were doing."

"As well as can be expected."

"Ahh… Umm..." Ruby tried to think of something nice to say that didn't sound hokey. "You're doing a lot better with your riding!"

"Thank you." She seemed sincere. "Was there anything else?"

"Not really." After a moment Ruby sighed, "Ruby out."

She looked down to her scroll, which was held in a protected display. They were still so far away from the end. Once they got there, they had to ride all of the way back too. Which would take just as long as it did to get out there in the first place. She idly tapped her finger on her scroll for a couple of moments before clicking on 'Hands free mode.' The engine roared as panels deployed.

They lightly pressed into her thighs, shins, and calves. She could feel her footrests and seat shift too, now they rotated. The seat felt a little weird since each half could rotate on its own. She didn't have too much to worry about besides a little discomfort though. Her Aura would keep her tights in one piece if they got pinched by it.

Controlling it was another story. As soon as the panels finished deploying, Ruby turned sharply towards the cliff. She shifted all the way over to the other side and spun around. Her tires squealed on the stone, one slipping and causing her to stutter forward. The force of her turn threatened to rip her from her seat, but the leg panels held her firmly in place. Her second circle was larger, bringing her perilously close to the edge. She straightened out after it, slowly regaining her balance.

Left, right, left, right: she alternated which side her weight was on. Ruby snaked forward, her ATV suddenly accelerating or braking whenever she moved her weight forward or back. She had to hold her arms out to the sides to stop the swaying, but soon enough she was able to go at a semi-steady pace. It was kind of like riding a bike without hands, a really heavy bike.

Even if it was tricky, it was more interesting that just riding normally.

"Hoho, good show, Miss Rose!" Professor Port shouted from right behind her. "Harder than it looks, isn't it?"

"Yeah, eep!" She squeaked as she braked and then shot forward again to avoid getting hit. "I didn't expect him to be so sensitive."

"Hmmm?" He pulled up next to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, my ATV. He just feels like a he, you know?"

"I do indeed." He nodded and pulled his blunderbuss-axe free. "To call my sweet Yasha anything else would be a travesty."

"Yea!" Ruby patted Crescent Rose. The movement made her press down with one leg. She swerved towards the cliff, again. "Ahh!"

After another sequence of rapid turning, she evened out. "Whew, ok. I'm all right."

"You'll need some more practice before you can fight like that, but it's a good first attempt."

"Thanks." She grinned and focused on smoothing out her motions for the next few miles. Professor Port continued to ride next to her and keep track of her progress. It was still really jerky, but not as bad as she'd been expecting.

It also gave her enough time to figure out what to do. There was only one option left for her if she wanted to figure anything out.

"Professor Port, can I ask you a question?" Ruby flipped her headset to his channel and whispered into it.

"You already have." He laughed deeply before shaking his head. "Yes you can, Miss Rose."

"Is everything going to be ok?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know… With Weiss and Blake being investigated."

He sighed. "Miss Rose, there are questions that you shouldn't ask."

"Everyone keeps saying that."

"We say it for a reason. The more you know, the harder we'll have to be on you."

He looked off into the distance and stroked his mustache. "Many would describe it as the worst day of their lives. Of course, when they're tested, they're normally so young that their first bad relationship will eclipse any unpleasant experience that might happen."

"However, there is no reason to make the investigation more painful than it needs to be. And every scrap of knowledge that you acquire will heighten it."

"Could you at least tell me what's going to happen to Weiss?" Ruby pouted at him. Once more, she couldn't feel an opportunity to push the world into the shape she wanted it.

"No. No, I will not." He looked back at Weiss. "Miss Schnee knows a great deal and you are a very kind person."

"What?"

"Miss Rose." Professor Port locked eyes with her. "What was the first thing you thought about after you figured out how to ride like that?"

"Uhh… That it would make it really easy to use Crescent Rose like this?" Ruby smiled and laughed nervously. He gave her a withering look. She continued holding the smile for a moment before groaning. "That I could let Weiss know and make it a little easier on her."

"Exactly. Your kindness and connection to her mean that you would be one of the least qualified people to oversee an investigation, even if you had learned how to perform them."

Ruby frowned and grumbled under her breath. She could handle doing everything they'd done so far just fine.

"But, that same kindness is why you're a good team leader and will be a wonderful Huntress someday."

She rubbed the side of her neck and turned away, looking out to the mist again.

"If you still want to tell her, I won't interfere." Professor Port pulled ahead of her and smiled.

Ruby leaned back, slowing down until she was next to Weiss.

"Yes?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Weiss, have you ever ridden a bike?"

"No."

Ruby tightened her lips. Maybe this would be harder than she thought.

"A skateboard?"

"No."

"Roller blades?"

"No."

"Uhh… Ice skates?"

"Yes."

Ruby exhaled suddenly. "Whew, ok. So the legs mode is kind of like skating."

"No it isn't. If it were like skating I wouldn't have so many problems with it. It over reacts to every movement, no matter how natural they feel."

"It's not just that. You also need to move your hips, shoulders, and legs either separately-" Ruby shifted her upper body to one side and her lower body to the other, while slightly twisting her hips. She slowly drifted towards Weiss without losing her balance.

"Or all together-" She moved back and forth all at once, snaking her path again. "Depending on what you want to do."

"Do that again." Weiss pursed her lips while watching Ruby's torso very carefully.

"Also, your lady stilts probably aren't helping."

"My what?" Weiss looked at her puzzled.

"Uhh, you heels. Because of the angle they put your foot at, it's much easier for your to rotate your foot pedals back and harder to go further forward so you're losing out on a lot of the range of motion and the rest of your leg is probably moving differently than its expecting."

Ruby poked the menu on her scroll a couple of times. "Come to think of it, there's probably some setting which would compensate for that."

Weiss sighed and nodded. "Very well. In order to control it, I need to sway correctly and use contra body motion when appropriate."

"What?"

"It's a dancing term."

Weiss raised both of her arms and sat up with her posture straight. She lowered her right hand to her scroll and shifted her ATV to leg mode. She steadied into the transition without wildly swinging or breaking.

When she tried to turn, she was shifting and twisting correctly now. Ruby gave her two thumbs up and smiled.

Weiss softly smiled back, her eyes brightening. "Thank you, Ruby."

~~~​

Yang slowed her ATV down and leaned to the side. She'd been following this stream for a long time and finally found what she'd been looking for.

There were supposed to be a lot of caves under the Forever Fall, but they hadn't found any entrances so far. She'd been hoping that one of the streams that randomly ended would lead to a cave. The first few she checked didn't work out. One dried up, another turning into a pool of smelly water. This one had its own pit and turned into a tiny waterfall.

Yang walked over to the edge and looked down. She couldn't even make out the bottom thanks to the darkness and the mist. It billowed up and sprayed her face with a refreshing coolness that made her sigh. This was exactly what she needed. Something new and nice. Something to distract her from the endless red plants that looked a little too much like blood if you saw them in the right light.

A memory that she'd pushed away came unbidden to the front of her mind. The grass bled into the water and shifted it to a deep crimson.

It flowed from the fallen gladiator's throat to an Orichalcum edged pit in the center of the arena. The man's life slowly swirled into the depths of her Shining Colosseum of the Dawn's Light. As it fell upon the central altar, the stone around her neck pulsed with power in time with the beating of his heart.

Her glorious champion saluted his Empress. Droplets of blood from his sword splashed onto her, marring the pure white silks she wore. She could have deflected them with ease, but he should never have caused such a situation in the first place.

As punishment for such an insult, his final fight would not be a painless one.

She shrugged the shoulder of her gown off and snapped her fingers. Her favorite concubine and concubinus approached with her sword and shield.

Yang slapped her cheeks and pushed the memory back down. Her eyes burned; she rubbed them as hard as she could. Her mouth tasted of bile; she gasped for air, choking out words between breaths. "No. no, no, no, no, no..." She repeated it again and again, growling more than speaking.

The vision slowly disappeared. The water was just water and the pit just a pit. There was no colosseum, no manse, no slave, no anything! Only the nature surrounding her and the fuzzy white noise in the back of her head. The noise tried to make itself louder again, she slammed it back down.

Yang panted and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She couldn't keep doing that. She needed someone- NO! - something else, a way to make all of it just go away. Her options were so limited, it wasn't even worth listing them.

She flipped her headset back on and turned to Blake's channel. "Hey. I found something you should see."

"You're twenty miles away."

"I can wait." She was in no condition to drive right now.

"Don't you have more sensors to place?"

"Eh, I'm good." She lied.

"Yang." Blake had a very accusatory tone.

"I'll drive around while you're on your way."

"Yang." This time it had more of an edge. How was she able to tell that Yang was still- Oh right, that thing she said she could do... That was actually kind of annoying.

"I can make up for it later."

Blake sighed and gave up on fighting her. "I'll be there soon. Blake out."

Yang sat down, her back to the pit, and closed her eyes. She could feel those thoughts threatening to break through again. Getting rid of them was impossible, so was staying calm. What she needed was a wall. A mental fortress that would hold everything back.

If only she knew how to build something like that.

Instead she focused on keeping everything even. The trees and grass were red. There were no enemies nearby, no distractions. It went against everything she wanted to do, but right now she couldn't trust her own instincts because she couldn't tell whose instincts they were.

She used all of her focus to keep them down until Blake arrived.

Her partner pulled up next to her and stopped to look down the pit.

"A waterfall," She said deadpan.

"A waterfall!" Yang smiled and stood up. "I'm going in. You want to join me?"

She backed up until she was on the edge of the pit and held out a hand. Yang focused on the feelings of cool water seeping through her hair and falling on her skin. On the way that the streams fell on her muscles, massaging the knots away. On how they could be hidden by a wall of water and a cloud of steam, left to do whatever they wanted to.

Blake looked at her like she just suggested they eat dung beetles.

Yang frowned. "What are you, afraid of getting wet?"

Blake blinked at her a couple of times before the joke set in. She pinched the bridge of her nose and her bow moved so it was forward and out. After a long sigh, she shook her head and smiled slightly.

Yang was halfway through pulling off her jacket by the time Blake responded. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Hmm, nope." She lied again and waited a moment. Going into the hole was an excellent idea, she just couldn't say why until they were in it.

Blake crossed her arms and gave Yang a look. Maybe she could have fun with this after all.

She tossed her jacket and skirt onto her ATV, then changed her channel to 'Team.'

"Yang here," She announced, getting a wide eyed response from Blake. "I'm going off comms for like five minutes."

"Wait what?" Weiss said.

"Yang, why?" Ruby said at the same time.

"Found a waterfall. I'm jumping into it." Yang pulled her first boot off.

"Miss Xiao Long, you have to place more sensors." Professor Port harrumphed loudly, "You can have fun later."

"Yea, yea, yea, no." She waved a hand back and forth, even though only Blake could see it. "You're hundreds of miles away and I'm going in this hole. Deal. Yang out."

She pulled her headset off and tossed it to the ground before anyone could respond. Yang rolled her neck and sighed, that felt nice.

Blake was frozen in disbelief, mouth hanging slightly open. She opened it some more, exhaled, and shook her head. She didn't say anything.

"You have no idea how much I've wanted to do that," Yang whispered. She was just loud enough for Blake's hidden cat ears to hear her, but the mics couldn't. Blake continued shaking her head.

Yang gave Blake an exhausted smile and waved her over again. She wanted to do a bright and happy one, but that wasn't happening. Not until they were home at least.

Blake walked up to her, stopping just a few feet away. She met Yang's eyes with a smile and a sigh. Blake looked much less tired than she was, but the worry was still there.

She raised an arm, raised a finger to the sky, and shoved Yang back. She windmilled her arms to try and catch her balance. "Ahh."

It was no good, she was going over. On her last rotation Yang grabbed ahold of Blake's wrist and jumped off the edge. Blake tried to resist, but she was no match for Yang's strength.

She pulled Blake into a tight hug, even though her partner tried to squirm out of it. She and Ruby had made a point of trying to get Blake and Weiss used to more physical contact, but it was going very slowly.

Yang wrapped her arms around Blake's back and spun in the air, cheering as they fell. Water splashed over them. It soaked her clothes, and remaining boot, through.

She hit the ground on her back with a huff. Blake bounced off of her chest and landed on top of her. Blake's headset was missing. She must've thrown it off as they fell.

"Heh," Yang laughed. "If you wanted to be on top so badly, you could've just aske-"

Yang cut herself off as soon as she realized what was coming out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! That wasn't-" She stammered until Blake cut her off with a glare.

"Yang. What is this about?"

Yang sighed and pushed herself up. She lowered her head and let the water pound her neck. "I don't know how much more I can take. I'm…"

She raised her head just enough to meet Blake's eyes. "I'm dreaming again. And… It's not just at night anymore."

Blake winced and looked away. "I'm sorry."

"I've needed to use them too." Yang shivered at the memory of that other person's thoughts leeching their way into her mind. "If I hadn't, I would've said some really stupid things."

Blake lowered her head and raised an eyebrow.

"Ok fine, stupider things." Yang raised her arms and shook her head. She let them fall a moment later.

Blake hesitated for a moment, then laid a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

A part of Yang wanted to scream yes, tackle Blake, and deploy Ember Celica. A slightly more sensible part said to just tackle her. She ignored both of them. "Nothing that I'd ask you to do."

"I…" Blake started to speak, then stopped and looked at her own lap.

"Blake… You're the one being investigated right now. I-" Yang grit her teeth and forced another memory back down. "I just need to tough it out."

She inhaled and exhaled slowly, breath growing hotter each time. When it was almost too much, she held a very deep one for ten seconds, then let it out slowly.

Fear was plastered on Blake's face. It wasn't really justified since she would still win.

She should fear you.​

Yang shook her head again. "That isn't all I wanted to talk about though."

"You need to be careful around Ruby. She was able to tell when I used my Aura. She thought it was my Semblance… It wasn't."

Blake grimaced. "Yang… That's not something someone should be able to do."

"I know." She spoke through her teeth.

"Ruby… Nothing about what she can do adds up. She has to be-"

"SHE ISN'T ANATHEMA!" Yang shouted and unleashed her Aura. Flames licked her arms, boiling the water as it fell on her. Her hair ignited with power, glowing so brightly that Blake had to squint.

"Ruby isn't like us. She's good." Yang tried to cap her seething anger, but just reduced it to a boil. They'd went over this before they left. Ruby couldn't be Anathema, she just couldn't.

The light died down and her fire retreated, but Yang could still feel it smoldering within her soul. Blake looked at her again, her fear dissipating.

Letting go like this, it felt right. Yang could be honest with Blake in a way she couldn't with anyone else. She could show her the feelings and thoughts she had to hide from everyone else. Most of them anyway, others were best locked away until she could sort her head out. It wasn't completely fair, but they were both damned and Blake had her own problems which Yang was prepared to help her with when they came up.

"There is one way I could help you…" Blake said softly.

"What're you thinking?"

"I could write something for you, something that would argue for calmness and control. Or maybe for channeling your anger to the thoughts themselves." She couldn't meet Yang's eyes. "I'd pour everything I could into it."

Such impudence!​

The water hissed as it boiled again. Yang closed her eyes and tried to force it back down. Her fire continued to bubble through.

She opened her eyes again. She was lounging in her throne room while discussing a new trade agreement. Negotiations were not going well. The young Solar in front of her laced each statement she made with barely concealed derision, implying that she would let her baser instincts control her every action.

The girl wasn't even a tenth of her age. Her 'kingdom' was barely visible on a map of Creation.

Yang dug her nails into her thigh and blinked the vision away.

"Blake, you're asking me to let you mess with my head when it's already this messed up."

"Can you think of anything else that might help?"

Take retribution.​

Yang growled. "How can I be sure you won't make it worse?"

"You need to trust me."

Subdue her.​

"No."

Blake laid a hand on hers. "You need to trust someone."

Break her spirit.​

"No!" Yang didn't know who she was shouting at.

Blake grabbed her hand when she tried to pull away and squeezed. "Then what am I supposed to do? You're going to lose-"

Make her yours.​

"Shut up, shut up, shut-" Yang grabbed the fire burning inside of her and let it blaze forth in one mighty shout. "UP!"

She fired a blast of searing flames to the heavens. The explosion of steam forced the falling water away, vaporizing it as heat pushed through faster than it could boil away. Blake let go of her and flickered.

Yang panted as new water fell onto her. The cold seeped into her, quenching her rage. She looked at the shadow in the mist. Blake's eyes were the only color she could see, yellow orbs piercing through the mist and darkness.

"Blake... Do it now. Before I change my mind."

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 3.3

~~~​

Ruby and Weiss were waiting for them at camp, along with Professor Port. He was leaning on the side of his ATV, weapon in hand. As they approached, his grip tightened. He waited for them to come to a complete stop before speaking. "Miss Xiao Long."

"Professor Port." Yang locked eyes with him and held her hands open.

"What exactly were you thinking?"

"That driving around like that was so boring I might pass out behind the wheel." She tensed her fingers, curling them slightly and then opening them again. She hadn't deployed her gauntlets, yet.

"I would think that someone your age would be able to handle a little tedium." He scoffed and stood up.

"Yeah well…" Yang tensed her arms, then suddenly relaxed. Blake let out the breath she was holding, her commands worked. Watching it made her heart almost skip a beat with excitement, then the reality of what she did came back and she no longer felt any amount of pride. They shouldn't have to resort to that.

"Yes?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing."

"You disobeyed orders for nothing? If this were a real breach, those sensors could save hundreds of lives. Placing them as quickly as possible would be of utmost importance."

"If this was a real breach I'd be on the front lines, not playing delivery girl!"

"A true Huntress needs to be prepared to take on any task, no matter how boring."

Yang growled under her breath. "Bite me."

Ruby suddenly sat straight up and looked at Yang with wide eyes. Blake squinted at her. She would have be hard pressed to hear Yang from that distance and she was a Faunus with exceptional hearing. Just how good was Ruby's?

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"You've been saying a whole lot of nothing, Miss Xiao Long." Professor Port paced in front of them. "Is that all you have to say after you dragged both yourself and Miss Belladonna away from your assigned tasks?"

"Who said Blake joined me?"

"You both stopped responding at the same time. Do you have a better explanation for that?"

"I-" Yang started stepping forward, but Blake grabbed her shoulder and held her back.

"Professor Port." Blake met his eyes and let some of her fatigue through. "Can I talk to you... alone?"

Silence fell over the camp while they each looked at each other. Yang alternated between Blake and Professor Port. Weiss watched all three. Professor Port eyed everyone except for Ruby. And Ruby split her focus between each of them equally.

Eventually he nodded and jumped onto his ATV. "Very well. Follow me."

Blake let go of Yang and jumped back on her own. She caught Yang's gaze before leaving and slightly smiled at her. This would be a hard conversation that had their futures on the line.

As she got seated, she tried to remember everything she could about Professor Port. What he said in class, who he looked at, and how he responded to any challenge from a student.

She needed to find an excuse that he would believe. Something that wouldn't result in Yang getting caught now. They could worry about what to do later, after they survived the next few days.

They drove several miles away from the camp. Professor Port checked his scroll as he pulled to a stop. Only when something was confirmed, did he got off. He rolled his shoulders as he stood, axe still in hand.

"Miss Belladonna." He started before she'd gotten ready. "What were you and Miss Xiao Long doing in that cave?"

Blake took a deep breath. There were not many things she could say which would be acceptable.

"I didn't want to go in initially, but Yang insisted. She thought it would be fun for both of us." True enough, for now. She'd gotten vibes that Yang thought it would be great, even though it was guaranteed to leave Blake soggy and miserable.

Professor Port nodded and waited for her to continue.

"She wanted to talk about… private things."

He sighed. "Miss Belladonna. Why are we here?"

Blake waited a moment, suddenly very aware of the weight of her weapon on her back. She licked her lips before responding. "To investigate both Weiss and myself for potentially being Anathema."

She didn't understand why Professor Port was so worried about Weiss. When Blake compared the things that Yang and Ruby could do against Weiss' feats, it didn't look like she could be a threat. Weiss was a smart and very persuasive girl, not someone who felt completely out of place. Even her best didn't inspire Blake to action like some other people had.

Even so, Professor Port tensed slightly more at the mention of Weiss's name."Then, I hope you understand the gravity of the situation. Miss Xiao Long wasn't the only one who ignored orders by doing that."

"I know." She nodded slightly and met his gaze.

Blake took a deep breath and relaxed her eyes enough that she didn't feel the need to blink. Professor Port was one of the oldest professors at Beacon and old Huntsmen were old for a reason. If even half of his stories were true, then he might be the most dangerous member of the teaching staff in single combat.

Yang considered him a member of the very short list of people that she couldn't beat. While Blake was also on that list, she didn't know how they compared and had no intention of finding out. While there were some things she could do to even the odds, she was supposed to have left hurting people in that manner behind her.

After a long moment, he sighed and relaxed slightly. He spoke with a resignation and sorrow she had never heard from him before. "Miss Belladonna. If you found out that one of your teammates was Anathema, what would you do?"

You mean another one? Blake asked herself, while pushing any bad reactions down. She needed her mind to be clear and her soul frozen. She needed to wear a mask of ignorance and find his weaknesses. She needed to be like Weiss and use whatever words would be the most convincing.

"I don't know." Blake lowered her eyes and whispered. She could see more of someone through their eyes and face than anything else. "I… I would tell you or one of the other professors, but…"

"Would you fight against them to vanquish the demon wearing your friend's skin?" He voice echoed in the darkness.

"If it came down to that … I'd try." She barely resisted shuddering. He couldn't know how right he might be.

"Would you resist its honeyed words, even if your other friends were seduced by its power?" He was closer now.

"I would try." She'd resisted Yang before, probably Ruby as well.

"She would offer you power, influence, whatever you desire. Would you deny her?"

"I-I would try." Blake couldn't keep from trembling. She focused on the emptiness.

"She loves you. You would do anything for her. But she is evil. Could you betray her?"

"I-" Blake stuttered, her mouth dry. "I think so." What was one more betrayal?

For a long moment she stood in silence, her eyes closed. She was barely breathing.

"Could you kill her?"

She knew what she needed to say, but coldness wasn't the right feeling for it. She thought back to the moment when she realized she needed to leave her old life behind.

Blake envisioned Ruby and Yang. They were dressed in black with Adam's insignia on their shoulder, a red rose overlayed on a white tulip. Their weapons were dyed red with blood, as were their Grimm masks. They held a human in place for her, offering her the final kill.

"Yes." She hissed, her breath turning to mist. Their headlights flickered.

Blake looked at him. His head was down and stance unbalanced. If she drew right now she could win. A swift blow to the side of the head to disorient him, followed by a cut to the elbow or knee. It would be almost easy.

She grimaced. How could she even be considering that? She came to Beacon to get away from people who casually crippled their enemies. Besides, there was a better path to take. Professor Port had given himself away with the amount of feeling in his words.

"Who was it?" She asked softly.

"My oldest grandson. He was in his final year at the Atlesian College of Advanced Robotics and fell in with one of them. I'd been so happy that Rackley found a good friend, that I missed something that should have been obvious. He practically had stars in his eyes when he described their project. Years of progress in only a month." He sighed. "Rackley fought to the death to protect his new Master. If his Aura had been unlocked, he might have survived."

Blake nodded, though she didn't understand part of it. Every real member of the White Fang, that she knew of, had their Aura unlocked. The ceremony was the final part of the proving for new recruits. Even those with pathetically weak Auras went through it.

In the kingdoms, barely anyone had one.

"It's as much my own fault as it was that monster's. If I'd seen the signs earlier, he might still be alive." He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "The job of a Hunter is to protect the innocent and the vulnerable. The Anathema can be anyone, strike anywhere. We must be vigilant against their threat."

Professor Port looked up and walked back to the ATVs. He patted the front of his. "My own blindness almost tore my family apart." He squeezed his eyes closed, but Blake could make out the water in them when he looked back to her.

"Always remember what we spoke about tonight. So that it may never happen to those you love."

He waited for her to get back on before moving. Blake couldn't help wondering if she had anyone to love anymore.

…

They'd planned to go over advanced riding techniques the next day, but the Beowolves found them first. As the first light of dawn struck the forest, the sensors began going off one by one. Their scrolls chirped again and again as another orb was disturbed, tracking the progress of the horde.

~~~​

Ruby heard the pounding of the Alpha's paws behind her. She leaned back, Crescent Rose, in rifle mode, in hand. As soon as it jumped, she slammed on the breaks. The gigantic Beowolf passed over her, swiping wildly.

Its claws bit into the side armor of her ATV and tried to punch through her thigh, but her Aura protected her. Ruby fired a round into the beast's shoulder and sent it spinning off to the side. She shifted her entire body and turned away from the tumbling Grimm, just before the others could catch up.

This was her third rotation as lure. They had most of the alphas separated from the pack and she wasn't supposed to kill any of them. She needed to keep them close enough that they'd keep following, but far enough away that they couldn't catch her. Alphas were also much smarter than regular beowolves. If they saw her coming up on a turn, they'd cut the corner and try to catch her off guard.

It was all much more exciting the first time; just like everything else she'd done on this mission.

Ruby glanced at the pack following her, six alphas and twenty regulars. They were right on her tail, seconds away from reaching her. Ruby was sure could take all of them without any problem. She'd be tired, and definitely glowing, but they would be dead.

Even if it would be easy, she just kept driving. Every so often one got close enough that she needed to blast it away, but there was no real danger.

"Ruby coming back in. ETA five minutes." She announced to everyone else as she drove up a steep hill. The Grimm lept after her, only to end with their faces in the dirt.

"Good pace, Miss Rose. Miss Schnee, you're up next." Professor Port shouted over the roar of a Beowolf.

Ruby sighed. He'd been changing what the lure order was each time they rotated around and she just wanted to get this over with. They'd been at it for over an hour because getting all of the alphas to break away was really hard.

"Sounds good. Ruby out." She said brightly and changed her channel again.

"Hey, Yang." Her sister had been doing much better now that they had something else to do, but Ruby wanted to check in, just in case.

"What's up?" Yang had numerous Grimm-on-steel impacts in the background.

"I was just wondering how it was going?"

"We're still not allowed to kill any of them."

"Yeah…" Ruby glanced back to make sure she had a good lead again. "So, when we get back, do you want to go out and do something?"

"Just us or the whole-" Yang cut herself off with a shout. Ruby could make out three of her explosive rounds being fired before she continued, "Sorry, the Beowolves tried climbing to get away. That'll teach them. Anyway, just the two of us or the whole team?"

"All of us. I was thinking maybe something like going into the city for a day."

"That'd be nice. I could get all of us into one of the better clubs, even if you're still underage. We just need the right clothes."

"No, not that." She'd seen what Yang went out in for those nights.

"Come on. It'll be fun."

"Ut uh." Ruby whimpered. While she'd never been to a club with Yang before, she did know how people danced there thanks to TV and movies. All of that was in the long list of things she never wanted to watch her sister do.

"But we could get such an adorable outfit for you. Hmm, something dark with a mesh top."

That didn't sound too bad actually; provided she had veto power over all parts of it. But, Ruby had a feeling she wouldn't like how many times they'd need to try thing on before finding something. She let the silence be her answer.

"Come on sis. We'd look great! A cute outfit leads to cute boys, or girls. Or, maybe even some nice, curvy weapons."

Ruby groaned, she could practically hear the wink. Yang was never going to let her live that down.

"Which leads to-" Yang suddenly cut herself off. She'd been doing that more often, ever since she and Blake went into that hole. It was really weird, but right now Ruby didn't care.

"Nooooooooo..." Ruby shouted, even though Yang had stopped, and dragged the word out, increasing her pitch slowly. She expected a laugh from Yang. The laugh never came.

She ended when the long note forced her to cough, there was still no laugh. Ruby grit her teeth. Something was going on here and Yang still wasn't talking about it!

Ruby trapped mute, glanced back, and shot the Beowolves a couple of times to make them back off. Even a gun as powerful as Crescent Rose needed to hit a vulnerable spot to take out an alpha, so she didn't need to worry about accidentally killing them. It also felt really nice and she needed that right now.

She took a deep breath and grumbled. Her entire team was keeping things from her, things that she was pretty sure were really important.

"Yang?" Ruby said, now that she could keep the frustration from coming through.

"Would it really be that bad?" Yang didn't sound like Yang. She was like a combination of the worried-Yang from a year ago, right after she was investigated, and the weird-Yang from a few months ago, when she vanished for a week without letting anyone know where she was going.

"No, it's just… Are you-" Ruby paused. Despite how she'd sounded a minute, her sister was still really stressed out and going back into a funk. Ruby couldn't press Yang, no matter how much she wanted to.

She put the thought of pushing through aside and focused on the now. The entire idea of going out and getting in the middle of a crowd felt so weird to her. Especially since she wouldn't be able to bring Crescent Rose along. Yang loved being the center of attention, but Ruby couldn't see the appeal. "Going out like that. It's your thing, not mine."

"Yeah. I get it…" Yang went quiet. Ruby didn't know what to say, so she did too.

She thought about Yang's idea for almost a minute. Would it really be that bad? Yang could go into the dance floor. Meanwhile, she could… hide in the bathroom and play on her scroll. That wouldn't be so bad.

"Umm, Yang. If you really want to… I guess I could try going out line that. It could be fun." Ruby paused and considered what else to say. "I… It's like I barely see you outside of class anymore and even if it's embarrassing or uncomfortable for me, I still want you to be around."

Yang took a long time to respond, "We could find a quieter place with more… subdued dancing. Maybe a gaming store or arcade afterwards?"

"That'd be goo- Oh!" Ruby gasped and swerved to the side to avoid another Alpha's charge. Its claws scraped along her rear wheel guard, but didn't penetrate. She blasted it in the chest to force it away.

"Sorry, Beowolf almost grabbed me and I'm coming in soon . Games are good! Talk later. Ruby out." Ruby switched her channel back to 'Team.'

"You ready, Weiss?" She lined up with the side of their Grimm corral, in line with the direction Weiss was going.

"Coming around now." Weiss pulled free from the circle. She fired several blasts of wind to knock the Beowolves to the ground. Most of them started chasing her as soon as they got back up. Two more, that had been on her already, joined from the horde. Unfortunately, the one that Ruby shot the most ignored Weiss.

That was their biggest problem. Professor Port wanted all eight of the alphas chasing after the lure before they could take out the regulars ones. But, they wanted to keep chasing the previous lure instead of switching to the new one.

One of Yang's missiles smacked the side of its neck and it turned away. Ruby swung Crescent Rose, in rifle mode, at one of the little ones trying to escape and knocked it back into the group.

The Alpha lept at Yang, she met its paw with her fist. As they connected, she fired another round from Ember Cecilia and blasted it in front of Weiss, who promptly ran it over.

With a new, and closer, target in sight, it gave chase.

"Good shot, Miss Xiao Long!" Professor Port raised his axe high in the air and swung at one of the regular Beowolves, cleaving it in two. "Now we mop up the rest."

Ruby flipped a switch on Crescent Rose and shifted her to polearm mode. The scythe blade deployed upwards and aligned with the shaft, giving her even more reach than normal.

"Remember what we practiced and sweep through the center with your partner." He continued and nodded to Yang. They were on opposite sides of the circle, so they were partners for this exercise.

Ruby grinned at Blake and cut sharply inward. She swung her scythe in a figure eight, alternating which side she swept. Every so often their claws connected, but it barely bothered her. Blake had some more problems. She still needed a hand to steer with and her weapon was so short that she couldn't cleave through more than one in a single swing.

Professor Port and Yang had close to the same results. Larger weapons were just better when you needed to mow through lots of Grimm at once. Yang's best option was her explosive rounds. They were awesome! But she couldn't keep firing continuously.

Ruby got herself ready for another sweep when she noticed something weird. Professor Port was tapping on his scroll as she fought. He only did it for a couple of seconds; all while spinning his axe through the Grimm like a one-man blender.

After two more passes for each pair, the Beowolves were nearly done. A group of only thirty still held out. They kept jumping out of the way of attacks, losing limbs instead of being killed.

Ruby turned towards the Beowolves and held Crescent Rose ready. She had the most reach, so she should get at least two.

"MY ENGINE JUST EXPLODED!" Weiss's shout made her slam on the breaks.

"What?!" Ruby gasped too quietly for her mic to pick up.

"Or maybe it didn't, but there's fire everywhere and it's not moving and-" Weiss was cut off by the sound of tearing metal and growling Grimm.

Ruby looked at her own ATV briefly. How could that happen? These were supposed to be good for a long time, a whole other day at least! Weiss wouldn't just turn it off or break it. She would've called in other problems. Unless-

"Everyone, we have an emergency! The previous mission is now void. We must rendezvous with and extract Miss Schnee immediately." Professor Port shouted and pulled away from their circle.

"Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long, you're in front with me. Miss Belladonna, cover our backs."

Ruby cut her turn so tight she went up on two wheels. As soon as all of them were on the ground again, she leaned as far forward as she could. Her engine roared to life. Side panels opened up to eject flames as she poured on much speed as she could. The fire licked her legs, but her Aura protected her.

She needed to get to Weiss as soon as possible. Ruby would be hard pressed to take out that entire group on foot and Weiss wasn't as good of a fighter as she was.

Ruby pulled ahead of the others and switched Crescent Rose to rifle mode. As she rode, her mind raced.

Could he really have done it? Was that what the investigation meant, being left alone with the Grimm? Doctor Oobleck had said that they would do something like that in the past as part of training, but the past was terrible.

Ruby looked to Professor Port and tried to push her ATV to go faster. If she could've picked it up with her Semblance, and would've.

"Weiss, are you OK?" Ruby cried over their private channel.

After several seconds without a response, she shouted again. "Weiss, answer me!"

"I'm trying to concentrate." Weiss yelled back.

Ruby let out a breath and checked her scroll. She'd be there soon.

~~~​

"Weiss! Where are you?"

Ruby crested the steep hill she'd climbed not even fifteen minutes ago, flying through the air while she scanned the field for Weiss. The quickly decaying corpses of Beowolves dotted the ground. Thick walls of spiky ice turned the forest into a maze. The howls of the alphas echoed off of them. But her partner was nowhere to be found.

She threw her ATV forward as fast as it could go, Professor Port and Yang right on her tail.

Weiss's last update wasn't a good one. Her Dust was nearly tapped out, but she was still fighting. She was still fine. If they could just find her they could-

A pillar of ice exploded. Weiss flew from the shards and hit the ground hard, tumbling over and over.

Weiss staggered to her feet. Her hair was loose, her skirt was reduced to something Yang would wear, and blood was running down the side of her face. Her Aura was broken.

She looked at Ruby. Piercing blue eyes met her as Weiss's expression relaxed. She closed her eyes, despite the danger surrounding her, and muttered something to herself. Ruby couldn't hear it, but the words were easy to read from her lips. "They're here. You'll be fine. It'll be over soon."

"What?" Ruby said softly. Why would Weiss say that?

Weiss opened her eyes again. They were colder than they'd ever been before.

She turned to the broken wall and raised Myrtenaster. An alpha lept through the hole. Ruby swung Crescent Rose to her shoulder.

"No…"

Weiss barely blocked its claws.

Ruby fired. Her round bounced off of its skull, inches from its eye.

Weiss's arm was thrown to the side, a long gash appearing down it.

"No."

Professor Port swung his axe and shot a wave of energy at them. His attack move slowly, too slowly.

It was still advancing, still swinging. Why didn't he fire the gun instead?

"No."

Ruby watched the Alpha move, searching for what she needed to hit. The options presented themselves to her. She couldn't risk guessing wrong.

She split herself in four and took four, slightly different, shots.

Head, elbow, knee, knee: she connected with everything except the elbow shot. The Alpha fell forward, mid swipe, it's legs twisted from the impact.

It pushed off of the ground with one of its arms. Its claws slipped past Weiss's blade and slammed into her gut.

Ruby's breath caught in her throat. The Alpha lifted Weiss into the air, one bloody claw piercing through her. Myrtenaster fell from her hand.

The Grimm turned around, its eyes boring into hers. It was bearing its teeth, almost smiling.

Ruby pulled her trigger. Crescent Rose clicked, firing nothing; she hadn't ejected the spent case yet. She tried to fire it again, before she registered what was happening and pulled the bolt back.

The Alpha flung Weiss over its shoulder moments before Professor Port's attack sliced it in two. She spun through the air with her eyes squeezed closed and her lips held tight.

A spiral of blood followed behind her as three more Beowolves lept for her, their jaws open.

"NO!"

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 3.4

~~~​

What was the meaning of a gun?

Was it a symbol of individuality? Or one of oppression?

Neither.

A gun was a tool of killing, no more, no less.

Ruby had fought with Crescent Rose for a long time.

She'd designed and built her precious scythe from scratch. She also made sure to strip her down and oil her up after every major use.

Because of this, she was very familiar with the weight of her weapon. Because of this, she knew that she only had one round left.

One round left and three Beowolves to kill with it.

There was no way to do it. Three kills with one shot? Impossible!

She'd done plenty of impossible things over the past few months.

Ruby slammed the lever forward as the pulse of the Lightning Bolt sounded in her ears. She had denied it before, held it within when it was dying to be released.

If there was ever a time for sudden and irreversible violence, it was now.

When Ruby loaded the round, she closed her eyes and thought about how it flew.

A bullet traveled down a straight line, but there was no reason why that line had to connect two points.

She traced a line of bloody violence between the Beowolves and herself.

Ruby raised Crescent Rose to the sky and fired at the path. The blood showed the bullet the way.

It flew along the path of violence, a straight line between her barrel and her targets, not the physical world.

The three Beowolves exploded as they were struck. So did the fallen Alpha.

The trail of blood following Weiss's arc was her last target. It was a terrible smear on what should be, so she erased it.

Her bullet burned it away, tracing a new, crisp red line around her partner.

Someone gasped, she ignored them. Weiss was still falling and more Beowolves would be on her soon.

Violence had been done. Now she needed speed.

Ruby let go of Crescent Rose to free her hands. She pushed herself up, forcing her way out of the leg guards.

Her ATV's panels screeched in protest as they were forced to move out of her way. It kept moving forward, only slowing slightly. Ruby stepped onto it and leaned forward. She grabbed the middle of the handle while she tensed her legs.

Ruby lept from her ATV with all of her might. A mixture of rose petals and red particles followed her. The corners of her cloak cracked as they snapped in the air. As she flew, she spun herself around. Her cloak wrapped around her, turning her into an arrow heading straight for Weiss.

She matched her spiral to Weiss's. As she came in, Ruby scooped her up. One arm went under her knees and the other around her shoulders. She did her best to not pull Weiss's hair in the process.

Ruby held her tight, pressing Weiss into her chest so hard that Ruby could feel the blood seeping through her corset and one sleeve. She flipped herself over and landed in a crouch, leaning forward. Red grass and dirt flew in front of her as she skid to a stop.

A growl greeted her. Two Alphas stepped out from behind the ice and sank low, ready to pounce. Ruby held her position until they moved.

As they lunged, she charged. Ruby pulsed her Semblance and lept at the first one.

Before it could open its mouth, her boots slammed into its skull. She spun as she landed, digging her heels into its mask and coiling her legs.

Ruby released the tension and fired herself straight up, using her Semblance for a boost. She rocketed into the sky with her cloak wrapped around her to protect Weiss from the branches.

At the top of her flight, Ruby whipped back around and scattered a cloud of rose petals around them. She loosened her grip and looked down at Weiss as they landed on a branch.

She'd never realized just how small and fragile her partner was until now. Maybe it was the heels, the big sleeves, or just how she stood, but Weiss had always seemed bigger and in control. Now she was small, shivering, and helpless.

While Ruby avoided looking directly at the wound, the effects were hard to miss. Weiss had always been pale, but it had been healthy looking before, like a snow princess, instead of this terrible blue. Ruby could feel Weiss's heart pounding, but barely any of that force was reaching her legs. She was also shivering, even though she was drenched in sweat.

"Ruby?" Weiss whispered as her eyes flickered open, glassy and unfocused. She tried to move her head up, but fell onto Ruby's chest.

Ruby sucked in a breath, trying to not move too much and disturb her more. She hummed back, "Mmhhmm."

"What are you-" Weiss slowly raised a hand to Ruby's face and rubbed beneath her eyes. Her fingers were like ice. "Don't cry. It's ok. I'm safe now. I-"

Her eyelids fluttered and her hand fell. "I can finally…"

She collapsed again.

"No." Ruby's heart raced and her body trembled. "No, no, no, no, no. Weiss you need to-"

When she noticed Weiss's chest softly rising and falling, she stopped shaking. Weiss wasn't dead, just sleeping. Ruby held her close and took a couple of deep breaths. Her pulse slowed down, getting closer to Weiss's.

The tree suddenly shook.

Ruby teetered back and forth, clutching Weiss tighter.

"Eee!" She squealed as the shaking became more violent. Ruby glanced down, one of the Alphas had started climbing. Each time it lifted an arm up, its weight shifted and the tree moved with it.

She jumped to the next tree over, then the next one after that. Each time she got closer to the ground. The Alpha tried to follow, growing more and more off balance with each jump. Of course, Ruby was also getting closer to its claws.

If she wasn't holding onto Weiss, she could've kicked it down. It wouldn't be dead, but it also wouldn't be near her anymore. If it was a regular Beowolf she might've tried, but this one could have the reflexes to hit her. Right now that was an unacceptable risk.

"I've got Weiss and there's an Alpha chasing me." Ruby yelled over her mic. Moments later someone fired at it. Their rounds connected, but didn't do anything to stop it. After another jump she was only a couple of feet above it. "Hit it harder!"

Blake's katana burst through the leaves, spinning through the air as the alpha jumped again. It was caught in the elbow. The steel blade flashed and cut all the way through. The Grimm yelped and swiped at the tree with its remaining arm. It caught itself, but was left swinging.

This time Ruby did kick it. She landed on her heel, right on its claws.

It skidded down, but still held on. She pulsed her semblance and shot up. The Beowolf tore long strips of bark free as it fell.

Ruby stuck her tongue out at it. Then she hopped to a pair of branches she could easily keep her balance on.

None of the others were chasing after her, so she focused on trying to keep Weiss warm while the fighting finished. She wrapped her cloak around them and rubbed her partner's arms and legs as much as she could.

The shivering didn't stop.

Ruby wiped her face against her clean sleeve and waited. The battle beneath her was still raging, but she needed to keep Weiss safe. The other girl's breaths were so shallow she could barely feel them. No matter what she did, Ruby couldn't stop the heat from being leeched away. All she could do was slow it down.

~~~​

It didn't take long for the gun shots to slow down and the last death howl to sound. Ruby hesitated for a moment, confirming that she couldn't hear anything besides the ATVs.

Ruby hopped down a few more times, ending just above everyone else's heads. They all turned their weapons to her. Yang and Blake lowered theirs almost immediately. Professor Port gave her a long look before turning his to the side, but still kept it in a ready position, unlike Blake and Yang.

"Good catch, Miss Rose." He said over the radio and nodded at her. "Come down so we can take care of Miss Schnee."

"What're you going to do?" Ruby whispered into her mic.

"What?" He sounded almost offended.

"What are you going to do to her?" Ruby clenched Weiss harder and said each word a long pause between it and the next. There was no way that Weiss's engine would just die like that. He'd also used an attack that moved much too slowly to save her from being stabbed.

A brilliant red glow surrounded her. Both Blake and Professor Port looked shocked, but she was beyond caring about that right now. She glared at the ground, waiting for a real answer.

"I am going to look at her wounds and then get her to Beacon's medical center." He said just as slowly as she had. Ruby idly noted that his grip tightened so much he was shaking, but she'd been paying more attention to Blake.

Ruby wasn't good at figuring out when people were lying and she knew this. Blake had always caught her before and hadn't reacted to what Professor Port said. As soon as she had this confirmation, Ruby relaxed.

She hopped down from the tree and laid Weiss on the ground while the others got off their ATVs. It was so much worse than she thought it would be.

Professor Port pulled his shaving kit from the storage compartment of his ATV and pushed past her. He looked over Weiss very quickly, first checking her forehead and then focusing on the major wounds. There was one through her gut and one on her thigh that Ruby hadn't noticed. He propped her leg up on the kit, after pulling a silky handkerchief out of it.

"Miss Rose." He gestured for her to come over and pushed the cloth into her hands. "What remains of her Aura is keeping most of the internal bleeding at bay, but it can't handle everything."

He placed the cloth, and her hand, just above the gash on Weiss's thigh. "Keep her leg raised and put pressure here. You'll need to hold it for several minutes and wait for the Bullhead to arrive."

Ruby wrapped her hands around Weiss's leg and pressed down as hard as she could. The bleeding slowed to a trickle. He stepped back and nodded. "Good."

"Now then, Miss Belladonna." He hefted his weapon again. "We're going to clear a landing zone. Miss Xiao Long, you keep watch for any Grimm."

Professor Port ran off, Blake trailing behind him.

Yang walked over to Ruby and froze. Her breath hitched and her fingers trembled. For a moment, less than a blink, Yang's eyes flashed red and the tips of her hair glowed. Then, just as suddenly, she turned away. "Dammit."

Yang picked a razor from the side of Professor Port's kit and stomped over to Weiss's fallen weapon. Myrtenaster was stuck in the ground, leaning at an angle. Her blade was slightly chipped, but unbent. Yang plucked her free and spun the cylinder by hand. She kept swearing under her breath the entire time. "Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn…"

"Yang, what're you doing?" Ruby called out without moving more than her head. She needed to keep her hands locked in place.

Her sister ignored her.

She finished spinning Myrtenaster and pulled the trigger. A stream of fire shot from the handle. Yang stuck the razor into it.

"Yang!"

Yang continued holding it despite how dangerous it was to be so close to a Dust fire that hot. The flames deflected off of the blade and reached for her hands, but she still had enough Aura to not be burned. Yang poured the fire onto the blade until the steel glowed a dull red.

Yang dropped Myrtenaster and started walking over to them.

"Yang, what are you doing?" Ruby asked again, her Aura blazing brighter.

"She's losing blood too fast."

"What do you mean?"

"Port was wrong. If you don't move-"

"How do you know that?!"

Ruby knew nothing about healing people. Her Aura made everything irrelevant if it wasn't bad enough to need a doctor. Yang, who studied even less than she did, had never taken a course of anything resembling it and needed help remembering what medicine to take for a cold.

"Stop being a stubborn idiot and move!"

Ruby grit her teeth. "How do you know-"

"Ruby, if you don't move right now, Weiss is going to die!" Fire erupted from Yang. It shot backward, blackening the grass.

Ruby tried to hold her eyes on Yang's, but had to break away. She let go of Weiss and turned her back to whatever Yang was doing.

She needed to trust her sister. Yang wouldn't do something like this unless she had a good reason. But Yang hadn't been acting like herself for days.

Ruby walked to where she dropped Crescent Rose and looked her over. Her stock and handle were both bent. Deep cuts dotted her frame and a small gear was lying on the ground nearby.

She wrapped her arms around her darling and held her tight. She stood there, muttering to herself. "Yang's good. Yang's good. Yang's good…"

She ignored the sound of sizzling flesh and waited for the Bulkhead to arrive.

It had taken them over an hour to fly here, so it must've been called in while they were in the middle of the fight. Especially since two of Beacon's doctors were onboard with a lot of medical supplies. They pulled Weiss to a special bed and stuck a bunch of things into her.

They said that getting the needles in was surprisingly hard, like her Aura had already started recovering.

Yang told them about what she did, which seemed to explain enough for them.

Ruby didn't ask them if Yang was right.

She sat next to Blake on the way back and stared out of the window, thinking about everything that happened over the past few days.

She'd wanted to come and help her team. It also allowed her to finally see what people were warning her about. Now, all she had was an ashen taste in her mouth and a hole in the pit of her stomach.

What were we doing out here? What are we trying to become?

~~~​

Beacon's medical center was really small. It had only ten beds and a small team of doctors. Weiss had been rushed to the single surgery room as soon as they landed. The rest of them were given the opportunity to shower and change their clothes. Then they waited.

They sat in the lobby for so long that Ruby was afraid that the worst had happened. Then the doctors said that it was a success and she would be fine.

Now they were waiting again.

Weiss was still unconscious, laying on one of the beds with a bunch of needles and tubes feeding her more blood and other liquid stuff. Some of the color had returned to her face, but it still wasn't right. Her arm had a long strip that looked like tape holding it together. Ruby didn't want to see what was underneath the hospital gown.

Ruby was sitting on one of the other beds with Yang in front of her. She was softly rocking back and forth while Ruby slowly pulled a wide comb through her sister's hair. They'd picked the leaves and twigs free, but she had so many knots it was ridiculous. Blake probably had them too, though she didn't seem to care about them or want any help.

None of them had really talked since Yang helped Weiss; instead they sat and waited. The doctors said that Weiss should wake up tonight, but that was hours ago and it was already getting dark. Ruby didn't want her to wake up to an empty room.

Ruby paused when she hit one of the bigger knots. They were allowed a little spray bottle of conditioner, which she had in her lap. She spritzed the bottom of the knot and started working strands of hair free. It was slow going, but better than anything else she could be doing.

It was like when they were little again. Yang would do something ridiculous and get really dirty. Then Ruby would spend hours untangling the mess she made of her hair. Blake took their dad's role, sitting in the corner and reading.

She looked over and checked the title, today was 'The Man with Four Souls.' Ruby'd been meaning to read the first one, but hadn't gotten around to it. Having that many souls would be pretty weird. Though, she wasn't sure if she'd even be able to notice it unless one of them fell off and started walking around.

Her Aura felt like one big blanket. It was nothing discret, like what some philosophers said it should be. But, Ruby hadn't studied those parts of Aura theory very much, so there might be something more to them.

She'd focused on practical things like weapon imbuement, material interactions, and combat techniques. Maybe Weiss would know more about how that worked. She seemed to know at least a little bit about almost everything.

Ruby sighed and tried, unsuccessfully, to shift her brain away from complicated things. If she had Weiss's, or any of the professors', help she could probably figure out the weird astrology things faster. She'd also be able to point Doctor Oobleck at exactly what he was doing wrong with the Dust turbine. But… Would telling them mean that she'd be in that bed next?

She looked at Weiss again, just in time to see her face move. Her lips pursed, her brow furrowed, and her eyelids tensed.

Ruby tapped Yang on the shoulder and pointed. They stood up as quietly as they could and crept over to the side of the bed. Ruby waved Blake over as well.

Blake shook her head, but joined them.

Ruby grabbed the edge of the sheet and twisted it while she watched.

Weiss kept moving her face slightly. Slowly, she got up to moving her head back and forth. Then her eyes opened.

She blinked twice before quickly shuffling backwards with her eyes wide open. She looked at each one of them in order, her lips held tightly shut.

"You're awake!" Ruby cheering and wrapped her arms around Weiss.

"Grah! Ruby why?" Weiss groaned and moved her hands in the way. She pushed Ruby away from her torso.

"Oops." Ruby dashed back, leaving a cloud of rose petals behind her. "I'm sorry."

Weiss waved the petals away and shook her head, but she ended in a smile. Then she looked at her injured arm and frowned. "How bad was it?"

Ruby opened her mouth and just let out a breath. She turned to Blake and Yang.

Blake answered first. "You almost died."

Weiss dropped her head and folded her hands in her lap. "Thank you for saving me."

"Weiss." Ruby gaped at her. "You don't need to thank us. We're your teammates."

"I was the target of an official Anathema investigation. I wouldn't have blamed you if-"

Ruby hugged her again. This time she was careful to just grab Weiss's head.

"What're you-" Weiss was muffled by her face being pressed into Ruby's chest.

"No. That- no. it was…" Ruby shook her head and squeezed harder. "It was terrible and awful and Professor Port shouldn't have-"

"Ruby." Yang and Blake both cut her off.

"I don't understand how he could do something like-"

"Ruby!" All three of them yelled.

"What?"

Weiss reached through Ruby's arms and pushed them away again.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Ruby, let's go out to Vale this weekend."

"What? Weiss why're you… How can you be so calm when-"

"Ruby." Weiss clapped her hands on Ruby's cheeks and held her face there. "I don't want to talk about that right now. Can we just relax for a bit?"

Ruby nodded. Weiss was the person who mattered most right now. So, if she didn't want to talk about it, then Ruby wouldn't bring it up.

"Good." Weiss let her go and collapsed onto the bed. She had a light sheen of sweat on her face and was breathing extra deeply. "I'm… Do any of you know where my scroll is?"

Ruby gulped. "Umm…"

"It's broken. Isn't it?"

"Yeah. Beowolves got it." Ruby nodded. Yang mimed claws and then an explosion.

Weiss groaned. "I have a spare in my locker that will suffice for now. I'll pick up another quality scroll in Vale."

Ruby looked at Yang, who nodded. Blake nodded too.

"Going into Vale's good. I was planning on suggesting it anyway and now I need to pick up some materials too."

"Why?"

Ruby dropped her head. "Repairs for Crescent Rose…"

Weiss paused. "Ruby, did you damage your scythe saving me?"

"Yeah. It's nothing really bad. The main body's still there, so're most of the internals. It shouldn't take too much to get going again, especially if Doctor Oobleck lets me-"

"No." Weiss shook her head. "You're not spending a cent on this."

"What?"

"You damaged her when you were saving my life. I'll buy whatever you need."

"Weiss, no. I can't ask you to-"

Weiss cut her off with a glare. "Ruby. I make more every month than you family does in several years. Let me buy this for you."

Ruby gaped at her. She knew Weiss was rich, really rich, but that was ridiculous. Yang looked just as surprised, but Blake didn't. She was giving Weiss a weird look, eyes squinted and mouth pursed to the side.

Weiss rolled her eyes at Blake. "That was slightly hyperbolic considering the amount of pay for Hunter bounties, but my point still stands."

Ruby gulped and looked to Yang. Yang smiled and shrugged. Ruby laughed nervously. "Okay, okay."

"We also need to buy you new clothing."

"No."

"Yes. Blood ruins fabric if it has a chance to sink in and your wardrobe is embarrassingly small."

"No." Ruby shook her head back and forth. "Yang back me up here. Parts are one thing, but…"

Yang's eyes lit up and she had an evil smile on her face.

"Nooooooooo!"

This time, Ruby got her sister to laugh.

 

[Graveless]

Miracles of Ancient Wonder

~

Chapter 3.i

~~~​

Bullets flew through the air. Steel rang as it clashed with claws. One man stood against enough Grimm to slaughter a small city.

But, he wasn't at any risk. He looked at the horde, took a drink from his flask, and twirled his sword in a figure eight. With each swing, a wave of energy fired down the street.

Creeps and Beowolves fell as soon as it touched them. Small Nevermore were pulled into its wake by the pressure and then shredded by shrapnel as the wave shattered the cobblestone road. Even heavy Ursai and Boarbatusks were knocked to the side, only to be downed by the second blast. At the end of the road, the waves struck the wall of the church tower and shook the bells. The deep bonging drew even more Grimm to his kill zone.

He flew along the street, sometimes by leaping and sometimes by launching himself with a Gravity Dust shot. Every enemy within reach of his blade fell within two strikes. There were no elder Grimm here, nothing that would be a true threat, only scavengers and chaff that dug through the still burning remains of the town of Redwick.

A scroll started buzzing in the midst of the battle. It started playing a twinkling, mystical sound.

It was Ozpin's special ring tone. Of course it was.

He only called on this line when something very important happened. Hell, he only called in general when it was important, but which line it was determined what they could talk about. This was guardian business.

Qrow knew it was critical if Oz was contacting him, on this line. But did he always have to pick the worst time to call?

Then again, Qrow had been ignoring the Beacon Headmaster line for the past few days.

He jumped to the roof of a general store and scanned the road for high priority targets. As he looked around, Qrow pulled his scroll out and held it to his ear with his shoulder. He took aim at an Ursa across the road. "What is it, Oz?"

"Qrow, I'm glad you picked up. We need to discuss-" Ozpin began, but stopped when Qrow's gun barked. It took five shots to put the Ursa down. "Are you in the middle of something?"

"Yep, still searching for a needle in a haystack." Qrow spun around and sliced a Beowolf in half lengthwise. He followed up with a quick cross-slash, killing two more, all while his weapon was in gun mode.

"Are you in a secure location?"

"Yep," He said, popping his lips at the end of the word.

"Are you certain?"

"Yep." He pulled the secondary trigger and his weapon shifted back to sword mode with a whir of gears. He'd need to thank Ozpin for the help with the timing of those mechanisms at some point, just not right now. The old man knew his way around machines in a way that almost no one else did. "Unless you think the Grimm care. All that's left of this place are them and bodies I need to lay to rest."

"Very well." Ozpin sighed. "We need to talk about your niece."

"Urgh, what did Firecracker do this time?" Qrow groaned. Yang had a knack for finding trouble and Tai couldn't keep her out of it, even in his own classroom.

Qrow also knew some of the things that she was hiding from her old man: the boys, the partying, the bar fights, the boys, searching for her mom, the boys. It would have been hard for Qrow to not know about them when he'd gone to several of the same places in the past year and some old friends recognized her. His old friends, not Tai's. Poor guy would have a heart attack if he knew. They'd just hoped that going to Beacon would calm her down a little.

"A number of things, but she isn't the primary topic of the conversation."

"Okay, who is then?"

"Ruby?"

"Who?" The name sounded very familiar, but he couldn't quite put a face to it.

"Ruby Rose, Summer Rose's daughter. The girl that you taught how to use a scythe." Oz had a 'We've had this conversation before' tone to him.

"Uhhh." He paused and wracked his mind. He had taught someone to fight with a gun-scythe, but that wasn't Summer's kid it was… Someone who was small, with red hair and... Qrow tapped his forehead with his flask.

All of it came flooding back to him. The long nights they spent working on her scythe's design. The exhausting practice sessions where both of them wound up collapsing at the end. The first time she caught herself with the blade when she tried to pass her scythe behind her back. The way she got quiet whenever her mom was mentioned, but always bounced back with a smile.

"Damn." He took a swig from his flask. He knew that this would happen, but knowing it and actually experiencing it were two completely different things. "How many times is this?"

"The second. It's also the second time you've answered your phone since it happened." Ozpin was probably annoyed, but he didn't let it show in his tone.

"Well, what about her then?"

"She has been far less subtle with her new abilities than I had hoped."

Qrow waited a moment. "Go on."

"Peter reported that she used something strange to shoot several Beowolves. Her gun was pointed away from them when she pulled the trigger, but all three were struck down at once."

"That's not so bad. Plenty of Hunters can develop skills like that." Qrow left off the very important 'after they'd graduated from Beacon and had a decade of field experience.' clause.

"She also lit up so brightly that it was hard for him to look directly at her. No where near the intensity that you would see from the other Anathema, but there is only so much probable deniability that people will accept."

"Uh huh." Qrow tightened his grip on his sword. "So what's the damage?"

"Right now, nothing. There are still other candidates and she has only done this in sight of her team and Peter. If she ever does it in public, then we will have a substantial problem on our hands."

"Good luck. Restraint isn't in that kid's vocabulary, especially if friends or family are involved." Qrow could remember how insistent Ruby was about her training. She bugged him for weeks, catching him between every class when he was teaching full-time. When that didn't work, she even went as far as hiding his favorite whiskey bottle. There's only so much a man can put up with.

"That's why I'm going to be bring James and Glynda to the eastern Drakon ruins."

"Whew, finally dropping that bomb on them then?" Qrow remembered his first time out there. A shiver ran down his spine. He hated that place. Just thinking about looking at it hurt his eyes.

"Would you care to join us?"

"Nah, I've got better things to do." Qrow could think of a lot things better than going back there, hugging an Ursa wasn't even halfway down that list. For instance, he could catch up with his sister. They could talk about a time when she wasn't making his life a living hell, there had to have been a point where that was true.

He took another swig from his flask. Maybe she'd remember it, because he'd done his best to forget. He took a larger gulp. Ahh, family.

"Besides, I'm gonna punch Jimmy in the mouth the next time I see him." Qrow had a lot of feelings about what the Atlas military was researching under the command of General James Ironwood, none of them good. Funding a project on directly manipulating souls was the most recent on a laundry list of bad decisions that Jimmy had been making. The nickname, which he hated, was the least damaging way that Qrow could get back at him. It was also so, very satisfying because objecting would make the General look childish. "By the way, how's Amber holding up?"

"She's stable."

"Glad to hear it…" He sighed and swirled the flask. "She deserves better than this."

"Indeed."

That poor girl never asked to be given phenomenal cosmic powers, but she did her best to be responsible with them. She'd always wanted to help people and tried to make the lives of everyone easier whenever she could. They could never be too overt, but even bringing small changes to the weather could impact thousands in a great way. In a way, she reminded Qrow of Summer… and his niece, Ruby. They were always looking on the bright side and remaining hopeful, even when they had no right to be so optimistic.

Then he failed at his job and she got locked in Jimmy's stasis machine. She was stuck between life and death while they searched for someone to accept a soul transplant from her. All that so they didn't lose access to the Fall Maiden's power.

Jimmy promised him that she wouldn't feel a thing. Qrow didn't believe that for a second.

Atlas could replace every part of someone's body and they'd still be the same person. Once you started messing with someone's soul though... That way led down a lot of dark roads which were best left forgotten. Oz mentioned that once, it sounded like he knew about it first hand, but he'd never elaborated. They all kept secrets from each other, 'need to know' was the name of the game. Though Oz had more than anyone else.

Qrow thought of the literal dark roads that they'd be traveling down. There was something else that they hadn't tested in Her lands yet, which might be important. "Considering all of the extra energy in the area, I'm worried that Jimmy might kick it. His iron heart might not be able to take all of the stress, especially with Glynda around too."

He was sure there was some sort of history between those two. They certainly argued like people who'd made some youthful mistakes together. He hadn't looked into it too hard though, they deserved their privacy and he wanted his own.

"I'm fairly certain that he hasn't had his heart replaced." Oz, as always, was above commenting further.

"Could've fooled me." Qrow shook his head and shot at a couple of Grimm that thought they were sneaking up on him. Two shots, two kills. "But seriously though. Are all of his bits and pieces going to be okay out there?"

"We haven't had issues with anything other machinery, disregarding enemy action, but I will send him a warning about potential Aura surges."

"Good, good." Qrow mumbled and watched the town burn. It had taken years to build, but only hours to destroy. Times like this were why he hated the job. They were also the reason why he would never want to do anything else. Teaching the next generation was important; but this would never have happened if he'd gotten here earlier. "How are the girls doing? You gave them some pretty impressive rating in that packet."

"We just concluded Miss Schnee' second official investigation."

"And?"

"She passed and is alive, but heavily injured."

"Such a shame." Qrow slicked an errant bang back up. If the Schnee heiress died during something like that, there'd be hell to pay for Beacon, but it would have been worth it. That was one family that the world could do without. They'd almost gotten lucky with Klaus' assassination.

"Miss Schnee was chosen to be investigated first due to an impassioned speech she gave in defense of the Faunus. It had a positive effect on many of the other students."

"Teh. Maybe she's better than the rest of them, but I'm not holding my breath." Qrow knew that Ozpin and Glynda disagreed with him about how bad the Schnee were. Jimmy was practically in their pocket and the other headmasters didn't seem to care. It was one of the few things that he and Raven still agreed on.

"She was also the most likely candidate from the initial results according to both Glynda and Peter. Bartholomew has other ideas."

"He nailed Little Red on his first guess."

"That he did. If he's correct with his other theories, then either they are the next team STRQ or all of them are Anathema."

"Huh..." Qrow fired another blast down the street, this time he collapsed a pavilion onto a pack of Grimm. If that was true, he knew the type of pressure RWBY would soon be put under all too well.

His team, STRQ, had been the top of their class at Beacon thanks to the lucky coincidence of four highly driven people all being placed on the same team. They nearly swept the Vytal Tournament as freshmen and kept rising from there. Everyone else thought they would be the next leaders of the world, glorious heroes who would succeed where the last generation failed and take back some territory from the Grimm.

They even had a shot at it too. Especially after Ozpin told three of them the truth and brought them into his cabal. Each was given an important post where they could pull strings and fight back against humanity's real enemy. Tai, the lovable goof, couldn't keep a secret to save his life, so he was their public face. Team STRQ became the Hunters that people put their faith in and tried to emulate.

And, for a time, it looked like things were turning around. The Grimm were being pushed back and Vale was trying to expand beyond its borders for the first time in decades.

Then Raven ran away, abandoning Tai and baby Yang. Keeping her whereabouts a secret strained his and Tai's relationship to a point where it never recovered. Summer stuck with Tai and pulled back from all the fame and secrets so she didn't have to lie. For a few years, they were stable again; but, the illusion of their unity was shattered. People stopped believing in them and they stopped helping each other. Without each other as support, they stagnated.

No man could be an island and there were precious few people that Qrow could really talk shop with anymore. Those who could were so busy playing politics, or dealing with personal drama, that they couldn't work with him to push to a new level and get within reach of the might of the Maidens... or Ozpin.

Tai would have been his go-to, but he fell off the horse when Summer vanished and could only be called the most powerful Huntsman in Patch. He and Summer moved there so they could get away from people who knew their faces, so it made sense for him to stay on the island and raise the girls. Meanwhile, Qrow could count all of his current peers on both hands.

If Summer was still around, everything would be better. Qrow would have someone else who got him on a fundamental level and both of them might be able to rein Raven in. Instead, her husband raised their kids alone and Qrow found his solace in alcohol, whenever he wasn't cleaning up his sister's messes.

"Mmh." Oz broke the silence, snapping Qrow back to reality.

That was what these conversations did to him, getting caught up thinking about the past and could-have-beens. "Those're big shoes to fill. It won't be easy for them."

"No it won't, especially if any of them are Anathema. Their souls may already have scars that we cannot see."

"Don't do this to me, Oz."

"It's a possibility that we have to consider."

"She's my niece." They already knew about Ruby, so he had to be talking about Yang.

"You're one of the few who I can rely on. If the worst comes to pass, we may need your scythe."

Qrow grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut. Tai would never forgive him. "If it comes down to it…You can rely on me. But we're doing it my way and only after we're absolutely, one hundred percent sure."

"I pray it doesn't come to that. But if she does have that unstoppable power, then I trust you to do what is best for the Kingdoms. For most, a painless death would be preferable to what they would receive on the run… or in Her service."

"You don't think I know that? I've spent more time outside the walls than anyone else. I know that there's nothing out here except for more Grimm than we can deal with. They would just drown her in bodies when she rejects the offer." Qrow sat down and took another drink. Even if it was true, he knew that there was no chance of Yang joining the Grimm. She'd bash her head against the endless horde until the bitter end.

"It wouldn't be the first time such a thing has happened. Especially if she's given an offer of sanctuary for whichever village she finds."

"Even if one of them could hold a city, it would be too obvious. They'd be found by other Hunters and that would be that. Worst comes to worst, one of the Maidens could ruin their land and starve them out."

Being out here, constantly under siege, was no way for people to live. The knowledge of what lurked outside of their flimsy defenses would grind even the strongest souls down to nothing. It was inevitable than any outer settlement would fall. New technology gave people hope that they could last for a decade, yet the most remote settlements were being lost faster than ever before thanks to the Grimm being more aggressive and Her agents sabotaging defenses. As each toppled, they took knowledge, food, and Dust that Vale needed with them. All of the nearby villages also suffered from the hopelessness that refugees brought with them, making them that much more tempting to the elder Grimm. "Oz… Can we even sustain this?"

"In some ways, we're weaker than we've ever been before. I fear what a sudden shock would do to us. If we lack the power of the Maidens to act as a stabilizing factor, then we can't respond to the waves that even a single great force would cause. I can only hope that we find the new Maidens soon."

Qrow winced. The old man was right in that regard, not that the public knew anything about it. The shadow war had a constant give and take. It was a complicated game of hidden identities and assassination where they never knew how many pieces were being fielded at once. The enemy tried to kill the Maidens and they tried to kill Her operatives. Success on either end cost years of time and effort for the other party.

They were down two Maidens, three depending on how you looked at it. Missing one, whether due to time spent searching for or training the new bearer, wasn't unusual. The Maidens displayed most of the secondary signs of being Anathema to those who knew what to look for, so new ones often hid their powers as well as they could. If the power wasn't passed to someone close to the original, finding the current bearer was incredibly difficult.

"We'll need more than hope there. I've had no luck identifying either Amber's assailants or the new Winter Maiden. Just more dead ends with Raven's fingerprints all over them. If she beats us to the new girl…" Qrow had heard rumors of a strange ice Semblance in this area. That was why he came out here in the first place. That and getting away from Vale. He couldn't cut loose in the city anymore; there were too many people who cared about property damage.

"There are other avenues of investigation we haven't touched on. Who else could she have thought of in her last moments? If you can't think of anyone, we could bring someone else in." Ozpin asked that question. That was the main reason why Qrow didn't answer his calls unless it was actually important.

"Oz." Qrow channeled his Aura into his blade and fired a wave through the ruins. The ground rumbled as even more buildings collapsed. He didn't care if any Grimm got caught in the rubble. "Don't make me think about that right now. I'm too sober for it."

He took a long gulp to make a point. "There are two people closer to her than I was, one of them has no idea what's going on and the other is my sister. Who, need I remind you, isn't exactly cooperating with the rest of us."

"Never underestimate the power of family, Qrow. Its influence can span lifetimes. You could still bring her back." More words of wisdom from Ozpin that made Qrow roll his eyes.

As far as he knew, Ozpin didn't have any kids or siblings. He'd never had to deal with someone who knew where all of your buttons were and didn't hesitate to push them as soon as an argument started turning against her. Qrow and Raven making up was about as likely as Tai's dog learning to talk, even if they could ever reconcile their opinions on what the Maidens should be doing.

Qrow raised his flask to his mouth again; it was empty. He grumbled into his scroll, "Oz, you owe me a drink the next time I'm at Beacon. You literally killed my buzz with this talk."

Ozpin didn't have a chance to respond because feathers don't transmit any signals. Qrow activated his Semblance. He shifted to his crow form and flew out of the desolated village, all of his gear merging with his new body.

Tenth one this year. Qrow thought as he looked around at the shattered buildings and mentally sighed. If this was all they could do, then maybe the world needed something better to believe in…