Chapter Text
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More to Learn
Ruby Rose's eyes opened slowly to the ever present visage of Zwei, the most adorable corgi in the world, laying down on her chest. It only took her a moment to realize what waking up meant. "Zwei, can I get up?" she asked, whispering into his ears. They perked up, and he stared at her adorably, as all adorable puppies do, gave her a lick...and went back to sleep. "That's a no, then."
She could get him off of her, easily. It wouldn't be difficult. She could do all kinds of things now to make it so he wouldn't even feel a thing. But sleeping in was such a rarity for her, and she had multiple hours until the shop opened in the first place. The clock and calendars were starting to count down now. She had two months left with the shop.
She was Vale's primary, as she found out not too long ago, weaponsmith. She forged all kinds of custom weapons for the Huntsmen and Huntresses of the various academies around Vale. "Zwei, I'm being serious, I need to get up." He barked at her, before he licked her cheek, and went back to sleep. "Zwei!" she called out, knowing that she absolutely could just pick him up, he wasn't exactly heavy, and then put him back down somewhere.
But it was corgi-gravity. It's like cat gravity for those with cats, except with corgi's. Also because his paw happened to be right on her throat.
Yeah, she should probably do something about that. She had dozens of ways now, although an old favorite was probably a good way to handle it. She flushed aura into her body and her heart, quick starting her Semblance. Petal Burst, it was called, and it allowed her to move surprisingly quick, and become near impossible to hit. She had to phrase it as 'near impossible', if only because the last time she had fought Ozpin, he had managed exactly that.
The petal formed around her, and in an another instant she was on the other side of the room, small rose petals flowing from her path. Zwei fell onto the bed with a loud bark of annoyance. Yeah, she'd bet he was annoyed. "Zwei I said I had to get up!" she countered. The dog panted a bit before he tilted his head, curling his body up into a ball right where she had left anyways. "I probably should feed you though..." she admitted.
At the words of food, he immediately hopped up and went to grab at his food bowl, dropping it at her feet. "Oh, so that's what makes you get up, I see how it is," Ruby rolled her eyes as she went to set up his dog food. She poured a bit of the dry food for him, ignoring the way that he immediately tried to dive headfirst into the bag. Without a moment's thought, she activated "The Second Semblance", crafting a small wall of wind to keep him out. He gave a huff and went back to his bowl.
Although it really wasn't a Semblance at all. It didn't just resemble magic. It actually was magic.
About a year ago, when she was the weaponsmith for the Vytal Festival Tournament, Ozpin had revealed to her one of the greatest secrets that she'd known. The presence and existence of the Four Maidens. And by 'greatest secrets', she'd meant a general fairy tale that literally everyone knew about. Called the Story of Seasons, was about a man who got visited by four young women, helped him out a bit, and in turn he gave them incredible power.
But it turned out that not only was that power real, but it was inheritable. Not by pure genetics, because otherwise Ruby had no doubt that there'd be a lot more sisters hurting each other in the world if that was the case, but by...some kind of metaphysical cascade...something something...or other.
She didn't know why it worked that way, but she knew that it did! Whoever the last person that was thought of was who the power would go to. Unless that person didn't have the requisite...prerequisites.
Either way, she was the Fall Maiden. She, Ruby Rose, was the Fall Maiden.
"You know, is this stuff even all that good?" Ruby asked Zwei. Zwei ignored her, continuing to munch down, although she was certain that she'd heard a quiet woof. Huh. Might not hurt if she tried it. It'd be more expensive than setting up breakfast for herself though, but in a quick pinch it would work right? Why not?
She grabbed a small bowl for herself, calling up the wind with the maiden's powers. She grabbed a scoop of the dry food, wondering what it was that dogs found edible about it. Oh sure, she'd had the regular dry food before, when she was healing back up the first time she'd done this, but that was regular dry food. This was dry food intended for aura-awakened dogs! The wet food as bland as dirt though.
In a moment she reached into herself, feeling for the weapon that was the base of her powers. She could imagine it as a version of Crescent Rose or Sundered Crescent...every bolt and screw, every piece of metal and plastic that had gone into it.
And she found the bolt that harnessed a different variant of the magic. It glowed to her inner sight, and she eagerly leapt into the change.
A moment later a large black wolf was sitting on the kitchen floor, with small red marks running on the edge of her head and tail. Nearly four or five times the size of, height and weight included, of Zwei, Ruby shook herself out as the form of Notte sat over herself. She couldn't talk like this, for obvious reasons. Even if she was aura-awakened. Zwei could talk, somehow, but he almost never did. He was still busy munching away on the smaller bowl that was...
Her food. Not his.
The wind picked him up gently and deposited him at his bowl. He gave a small yap of defiance, but went back to his bowl as he chowed down hungrily. She knew he was hungry, but still! Also, the aura-awakened dog food was much, much better than the regular dry food. Hopefully it wouldn't give her a stomachache, although she doubted that it could really hurt her. Also, having a stomachache in one form did transfer over to the other. She'd made sure to check!
Breakfast done in record time, Notte commanded the wind to push the bowl up to the sink, turning on the water and washing it gently. Unfortunately that also had the secondary effect of splashing water straight onto her head. Notte growled lightly as she commanded the wind to turn the water off. Not that it did, because for some reason the faucet liked to catch every once in a while, which usually was because her Uncle Qrow was around.
But as far as she was aware, Qrow was on Patch trying to find something or other that Torchwick stole right out of under her Dad's nose!
Admittedly, it was probably Neo that did that one. Neo who still held a grudge against Ruby for what she did. For what she did though...Ruby wasn't sure. Torchwick kept mentioning something about getting food poisoning from eating her chicken, which was...petty, but believable.
Not that Ruby would forgive them! The water kept splashing down on her wolfy face, and Notte growled again before she changed back into her human form. This time with her clothes and not even being a bit wrinkled! Ha!
The first time she'd transformed back she'd somehow forgotten that bit about the clothes, and that had been embarrassing beyond belief.
Instantly she reached and turned the water off as her stomach gave a growl. "Note to self, don't change after eating so quick," Ruby muttered as she took a quick drink. She glanced at the red and green clock on the wall, the types of colors that she couldn't see as Notte and that she hoped Zwei couldn't see either.
It was part of an epic prank she'd planned for Yang the next time Yang's team, Team Peabody, watched over the shop. Whenever that may be.
Peabody, or PABY as Ruby often shortened it down to, was made up of Pyrrha Nikos, a fantastic fighter who Ruby still wished she could beat in a fight, Jaune Arc who Ruby wished was good enough to actually challenge her in a fight, Blake Belladonna who was...well, her girlfriend now. Which Ruby was still slightly concerned about because she had no idea what she was doing when it came to anything similar to that, and her sister Yang Xiao Long.
As for why Ruby wasn't Ruby Xiao Long, Ruby wasn't sure but if she knew her mom and dad it was probably because they flipped a coin for it and it ended up that way. That seems like probably the most right way for that. "Shop opens in thirty," Ruby shouted over to Zwei. Sure, she worked alone nowadays seeing as the only two employees that she'd had ever had gone off on their own, flying their wings into the abyss that was Vale...
Granted, both of them were older than she was and probably more worldly. But Ruby was going to keep saying that they spread their wings and flew the coop because it'd be funnier that way.
She burst into Petal Burst down her stairs from the studio above the shop, seeing the mostly whole weapon shop of "Summer's Weapons Shop". Ruby had named it after her mom, Summer Rose, after only a few minutes of thinking about it. It took only a few minutes for her to do the necessary preparations. Dusting the weapons off from the dust overnight, making sure the security system was online everywhere, dusting the dust crystals that were still in display at the front of the shop eager to be used by random Hunters in an effort to combat the eternal threat of the Grimm!
Although...that wasn't necessarily true anymore, Ruby knew. The Grimm were powerful, and they were a threat, absolutely. She herself had been needed to help defeat two Kaiju-class Grimm that had been attacking the island of Menagerie just a month ago. But it always seemed like the most powerful enemies she'd faced...were other people.
Whether they be faunus like Tyrian Callows, or human like Cinder Fall. Ruby shuddered as she imagined either of them. Tyrian had been part of the duo that had kidnapped her out of the middle of the street right at nighttime. And had fought her, and the Summer Maiden Gillias Asturias to a standstill.
They'd managed to kill him with the Headmaster of Shade Academy, Theodore Night's, help. Meanwhile, Theodore had been busy keeping Hazel Rainart busy by himself.
And Cinder...Ruby liked her even less than she did Tyrian. Cinder had been the reason she was the Fall Maiden. Cinder was the reason why she had made Sundered Crescent rather than still having Crescent Rose. Because Cinder...had murdered Crescent Rose.
She'd melted the head right off of the staff, cutting the rifle portion off halfway. Unfortunately, the mechashift in the scythe had been too difficult to do a repair, and so Ruby had re-made it entirely, using her own memory copy of her mother's weapon, Sundered Rose.
Sundered Crescent was still impressive though, as much as Ruby loved her baby Crescent Rose. And it wasn't a perfect copy of Sundered Rose and Crescent Rose mixed together, either. For she'd done something that many people, including Professor Ozpin himself, had thought impossible.
She'd made it a magic weapon. As in, the weapon itself had magic in it. It could choose from a variety of effects that, according to Yatsuhashi of Team CFVY, varied based upon how hard she pushed her aura into it. From the blade of metal suddenly becoming fire, or summoning an ice shield or a wave of water, or a massive blast of air, the weapon could do a lot.
It was just unfortunate that Ruby had almost no idea what he had meant by 'how hard she pushed her aura into it'. She'd have to ask him next time that he came down. But Team CFVY had been her minders for a while, and recently been recalled back to Beacon. Ozpin had told them that it was unlikely for her to be the target of an attack so soon after the previous one failed. Ruby wasn't sure if she believed him or not, but she'd contracted with a Vale security firm anyways. So now she had...Atlas and Valean security!
The clock ticked gently in the corner, and as soon as it hit opening time, Ruby didn't even need to check her scroll or do anything as the light on the door switched from the red light to the green light. Summer's Weapon Shop was back in business!
Which was made even better as the shades went up automatically. The light glistened off of the dust in the front, and Ruby took a deep breath of the shop air.
It had taken a long time to get to this point. But now that it was here, she was starting to get even more frightened by the possibilities in the future.
She had marked this day on the calendar for a reason. She was two months away from starting at Beacon Academy. Her position was already guaranteed. At least, she thought it was. It should have been, Ozpin kept telling her it was, but...yeah she should probably look into that. But as she was starting Beacon and opening a new chapter for herself, that also meant that she was going to have to close her current one. And that meant shutting down the shop.
Sure, it'd only been running for a little under two years now. One year and ten months, if she had to be honest. But she wasn't going to have the time to handle Beacon and the shop. She'd have to choose one, and the only one that really spoke to her was her original reason for opening the shop; to kill the two years before she could go to Beacon!
Not like...literal kill. She only somewhat doubted that she couldn't literally kill time. Considering that Professor Ozpin could pull off a magical trick called 'Temporal Sundering' and he was teaching her how to do it that was awesome!
Admittedly, she wasn't very good at it. Time continued to keep speeding up and down as it was wont to do. Oh well. She'd learn! In time, once she had enough of it. But her shop was going to be shutting down now in a little under two months. And that meant that all the preparations had to be set. Storage put away. Dust sold or used, her experimental ammunition hopefully tested and getting ready for mass production...
She had so much to do!
And yet here she was behind the glass counter in her shop, waiting for the first customer to come in for the day. Whoever it was. She had no idea who it was. She hoped for Blake. Or Yang. Or anyone from Peabody, or Coffee.
Especially because the last bit that she'd heard from Coffee was a 'no worries'.
They had been her minders when she'd been kidnapped by Tyrian and Hazel, although it wasn't their fault and Ruby certainly didn't blame them. No one expected the duo to suddenly change how they acted and attack her directly.
Although there had been that one man on the radio...she'd mentioned it to Ozpin, right? Before she'd sunk their boat in the coast off the Darklands and Sanus, and then had to go into a massive fight against most if not all the Grimm. And there were a lot of different kinds of Grimm out there. The kinds in Menagerie were a lot different than the ones out in Vacuo. Or the ones in Vale! or Anima! She could only think of how much she would learn once she got to Beacon, but of course that meant she had to get to Beacon first.
The bell rang, and Ruby immediately looked up, hoping to see either a familiar face that she wanted to see, or an unfamiliar face that meant a new customer.
Instead, it was a familiar face all right. "Hi Dad," Ruby answered instantly. He was carrying another cardboard box. "Please don't tell me that's from Signal."
"Alright, I won't tell you then," Taiyang said as he left it on the glass counter with a grin. "By the way, most of that's due today. And I won't be back until next week. Oz wants me to keep looking on Patch for Torchwick and Neo. And he wanted me to tell you to keep an eye out on them, but mostly focus on your schoolwork."
That did sound like Ozpin..."Did he say when he next would be down here for a beatdown?" Ruby asked. Of course, she didn't mean a beatdown on him. No, she was the one being beaten, time and time again. At least she was up to half a minute now!
Dad stopped for a moment, before he scowled and stared at her. "Please don't phrase it like that," he answered after a moment. "And no, with initiation in a few months, and finals soon for the current grades, he's not gonna have much time."
"Time is kind of his thing!" Taiyang scowled at her, and Ruby gave him a cheesy grin in return. Then some of the words that he'd said percolated through, and she stopped. "Wait, if this is due today, and you won't be back until next week...does that mean that it's automatically late?" she asked.
"Oh good you figured that part out," Taiyang said with a fake wave as he left out the door. The bell happily jingled away as he practically skipped out of the shop. Ruby watched him as he made a face right out of her front window, stalking back to the airport.
"Oh come on!" Ruby shouted out. "I don't even get a chance to get this in on time!" she growled as she glanced at it. Almost all of it was geography too. She wasn't good at that one. History, sure she was okay with, math she was excellent on, weaponsmithing and ammunition crafting she'd passed out of because she was the weaponsmith. For Vale.
Like...all of Vale. Signal from over in Patch, the preparatory academies like Pharos or Flare, and Beacon itself.
Honestly she'd done pretty well, she thought. Considering that this was a half-brained and hare-assed idea in the first place, she'd taken it pretty far! And now look at her. Even excluding the things that were from other people, like most of her initial inventory, the Fall Maiden powers, and she'd even throw Sundered Crescent in there, she'd done well for herself.
The shop had stayed open the entire time, and it'd only been closed a handful of times. So what if she was technically a gun runner for the White Fang? So what if she'd somehow managed to get Dad to lose the relic of Vale? She'd get it back! Not that it looked much like how she imagined a relic would look like. She'd been a kid, okay! And crayons hadn't wanted to stay on for long, so she made sure to press really hard to get it to stick!
She was a weaponsmith. She was the magicsmith. Her shop had been open for nearly two full years.
And in that time she'd...almost blown up Beacon twice. Right...it's a good thing that Professor Goodwitch didn't give out detentions for people that didn't go to Beacon.
She had blown up Signal...she was a favorite of Professor Port who really liked explosives, and she imagined that Professor Oobleck probably wouldn't mind her that much.
Zwei wandered down the stairs, practically leaping the last few onto the glass counter, knocking over the cardboard box that had been full of her books. "Hey Zwei," Ruby said absently. She wasn't worried. She could pick that up in an instant that the next bell rang for the next customer!
Zwei gave a small ruff as he grabbed his small bed, doing circles around the plush material before he scratched his back legs towards her, laying down on it. "Do you think it's weird?" Ruby asked suddenly. "That I'm both terrified and excited for Beacon?" He stared at her. "I mean, I feel like I should be! It's Beacon, you know!? Where Mom and Dad got...I actually don't know when they got together because Yang's older than me..."
And hadn't that been a shocker. Ruby had fought Raven. And learned some uncomfortable truths about Yang at the same time. But Yang was her sister, and Ruby didn't care about what was thought at the time.
Also, Raven was the Spring Maiden. Winter Schnee, was the current Winter maiden, although before it'd been an older woman named Fria.
Ruby had met Fria, and that was how she'd discovered that she could make magic weapons in the first place. She'd been trying to make new cutlasses or curved swords for Winter, whose other pair had also been brutally murdered by Cinder Fall.
Ruby's scroll started to buzz, and Ruby glanced down at it. A message from her Uncle Qrow, currently stationed on Patch to look for Torchwick. "Any sign of the duo yet, kiddo?" it read.
Rather than messaging back, Ruby just hit the call button. The scroll started to ring, but as soon as it got picked up there was a flash of green and blue before the screen went black.
"Uh...Uncle Qrow?" she asked, seeing that the screen was still black.
The call was disconnected, and Ruby raised her eyebrow for a second before she got another message, from Uncle Qrow's second scroll that he kept on him. "Scroll slipped out of my hands, fell into the water. Can't charge scroll, can't talk."
Right. That was his Semblance acting up then. Bad luck aura for everyone. He was one of the best Hunters that Ozpin had on file, really, but his Semblance had made it difficult to stick with a person or group. The longest group that had ever been around him asides from the Branwen Tribe of bandits, whose butts Yang had kicked quite well, was Team STRQ. Stark. Summer, Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow.
That thought led her down the path of whether or not her mom would like where her life had lead. Ruby had to assume that she would have. Dad always told her that she would have. She'd have been ecstatic to see Ruby embracing something different, and just as excited as Ruby herself was to see her in Beacon.
Ruby glanced down to the books on the floor again. "I really don't want to do it..." she muttered, but she knew that the clock would only go slower if she didn't do it.
Although that was what the time manipulation magic was all about. And Professor Ozpin had made her promise that she wouldn't even begin to think about slowing or speeding up time while activating the maiden's powers until he okayed it. It was so dangerous that he was honestly trying to devise a way to seal the power from the maiden power's forever.
Which...would have sucked, in Ruby's mind, but she understood why. A force like time wasn't one that should be messed with so casually. But she wasn't doing it casually, she was doing it for the sole purpose of doing homework!
Seeing no one walking around yet, as Vale was kinda sleepy in the mornings, Ruby walked around the counter to grab at the books, putting them back up. She could do it.
Two more months, Ruby Rose, she told herself. It wasn't that long at all, not really. And this way she had more time for the faunus transformation! Although she already had that one down, at least for wolf faunus.
That was another thing, that she'd discovered recently. The actual history of the faunus. She'd found out that they had been a lot like her, when the gods had vanihsed into the stars, and had let off a giant bomb that would kill off all humans. Keyword there was humans. A lot of the mages at the time quickly tried to turn into animals, and only managed partway.
The partways? Became known as the faunus.
And that had been a heck of a bomb to learn. She was slowly learning Blake's culture, generally through osmosis, and she knew that almost all of the creations myths did not have any mention of simple magical accidents.
But there was a lot more for Ruby to learn, she knew. And only two more months before she could do it. She would do it. She would be a Huntress for Beacon. After that...
She'd help people. That's who she was, after all.