Ruby

I wasn't sure how long it was until we got back to the mansion, I guess I was too distracted by what had happened out there at the bank to keep track of the time. That one woman whom I fought out there wasn't like the normal White Fang thugs that walked the streets. She was something more, something dangerous. Someone like that would definitely cause us some problems.

Whoever she was, she certainly knew what it was that she was doing. She certainly seemed trained to face people like me, hell she even had some powers of her own to back up her fighting style. That was also another really weird thing, I thought that only people who had powers were on our side. If the White Fang has people like that, then this isn't going to be as easy as we originally thought.

"Ruby," Penny said to me once we reached the grounds. "You've been distracted the entire trip back. Is there something you want to talk about?"

I looked over to her and saw the mask she wore start to shift and reveal her face in an almost mechanical way. I still found it funny that her mask looked so intimidating, yet underneath was just a freckled girl who had a bright smile on her face.

"Nothing really too bad," I said. Though I was technically telling the truth, I couldn't help but feel as though there was a little bit of a lie in that statement. "It's just that woman we fought while out at the bank has me thinking."

"It does raise some concerns," Yatsuhashi commented. He had pulled the helmet off of his head and I could see the sweat dripping from his face. He may be super strong, but even that jog would have most people sweating, especially in this blistering heat. "Most important being who she is and why she was acting the way she was."

That did raise a good point. She certainly wasn't acting like the rest of the White Fang that was there. It was almost as if she was hesitant to kill me. Even what she said threw me for a loop. This is why I prefer to avoid meeting new people if I can help it, they confuse me way too much. Somehow, I always knew I'd end up doing something that would just drive me nuts in one way or another.

"I'll probably talk with Professor Ozpin about it later," I ended up saying. "For now though, let's just relax and savor the fact that we managed to take down the White-"

"Ruby Rose!"

And there was one thing I was hoping not to hear at that moment. Weiss Schnee yelling at me again for one reason or another. Honestly that's become one of the most common themes between the two of us. She would yell at me over something, and in return, I'd just stand there and let her yell. Honestly, it worked out because by the time she was done yelling, she actually gave me some useful advice once she calmed down.

"Yeah, Weiss?" I asked in return.

She walked over to me slowly. Some reason, I got this vibe that I wasn't actually going to be yelled at over this. "I saw the reports of what happened on the news," Weiss mentioned. "You got a long way to go, but that wasn't too bad."

"I appreciate it, Weiss," I said, scratching the back of my head in the process. "However-"

By that point, I realized that I still had my hood up, and my voice modulator running. Holding my hand up in pause, I pulled the hood down and let it rest on the back of me neck. "Sorry about that," I said. "Forgot I was still wearing the thing. Anyway, I don't suppose you heard that there was someone different from the White Fang there as well."

"Clarify."

Yatsuhashi took a step towards us and brought himself into the conversation. "One of the White Fang operatives had powers like us, and she managed to, quite literally, trip young Ruby here. There was something about her though that is a little concerning to us, but Ruby will explain it more to the Headmaster in a little bit."

Weiss just nodded, her hand resting against her chin as she was trying to understand what it was that we were talking about. "Well, regardless of that, you've done a fine job, Ruby," Weiss eventually said. "Credit where credit is due, but now we have a much bigger mystery on our hands that needs to be solved."

"I'll head up to Professor Ozpin's office now then," I said as I started to walk away. Unfortunately, I couldn't get anywhere before Weiss grabbed my hood and held me back.

"You do know that you still need to create your own weapon, correct?" Weiss said, reminding me that I'm in the middle of the process. "I know you were out in the field just now, but you can't skip out on putting it together."

"I'll work on it after speaking with Professor Ozpin," I mentioned. "Now, I really should get to that."

I used that as an excuse to head inside. As much as I wanted to get my weapon fully made, I needed to speak with Professor Ozpin about this whole thing. It's still strange seeing people refer to him solely as Headmaster. All my life, the only thing I've known him as is Professor Ozpin, nothing else at all.

As I walked inside, I passed by my sister, and she grabbed me and pulled me off to the side. "Yo, how was it out there?" She asked me.

"I'm sure you heard about the bank robbery, right?" I said in response. "Short version, I helped put it to an end, but there was someone there who really threw us off, and I need to go speak with Professor Ozpin about it."

"Wait, what happened?" Yang quickly asked. I knew she would do this. She would always stress out over whether I was fine or not. I didn't blame her, but sometimes she could be a bit over the top with keeping me safe from everything. It's like she doesn't remember that I have superpowers now and can take care of myself.

"Yang, I'm sure your sister is appreciative of your concern," Yang and I turned and saw Pyrrha say from down the hall as she approached us. "But don't you think that you're being a little too overbearing on your sister? I'm sure she can take care of herself."

I wasn't about to argue with that logic, plus she was on my side in this situation. Then again, it's not like I was actually saying anything back to Yang over her concern, so I'll just let this play out as it is.

"She's my little sister," Yang said. "I'm still gonna look out for her no matter what she's doing."

"Yang," I cut in. I needed to get this off of my chest. "I appreciate your concern, but please, it's not as bad as you think. I want to do this, so don't be so worried over me. If anything is going on that I need help with, you know that I'll come to you with it no matter what."

I could see the trouble in her eyes, the divisiveness of whether she should fight against me on the issue, or agree with me. I know this won't be easy for her, but it is what needs to be said. I'm growing up now, and while I'm still gonna need her in my life, I can survive on my own if I need to. I'm sure she'll understand and adjust to this with me.

"Alright, fine," she finally said to me. I couldn't help but smile when she said that, the feeling of having my sister willing to let me be a person. "But don't be surprised if I worry about you from time to time."

"That's fine," I replied, before wrapping her up in a big huge hug. I could feel the smile coming from Pyrrha as she watched us have a moment. "Anyway, I need to get going, Professor Ozpin needs to hear about what I saw earlier."

"Alright," Yang replied as she started to walk away. "I have to help set up some guest rooms in parts of the mansion."

"Really?" Pyrrha asked. "What for?" That actually did pique my curiosity as well.

"Well, a team of Huntsman from Mistral is gonna be joining us to help combat the crime here since Vale has quite a large sum of the problems. Between the White Fang, and the Fall Crime Family, we've been getting hit pretty hard. There's even been rumors running around that they've started to try and work together for jobs."

"Oh really, is your 'friend' Poseidon gonna be coming over?" I teased her. As much as I needed to go see Professor Ozpin, this was an opportunity I couldn't resist passing up.

"Oh haha, very funny, Ruby," Yang grumbled. I knew she would be able to handle it, but with how she was talking about him in the past, I found it funny that she wouldn't be more energetic about this. "For your information, yes, he is going to be here. As well as the rest of his team, Monkey King, Sandstorm, and Captain Sparrow."

"Captain Sparrow?" I asked. It sounded too weird to be a superhero name for anyone. "What kind of hero name is that?"

"You can ask him when they get here," Yang shrugged. "They'll be arriving in the morning to join up with us. I'm sure they'll be jet lagged to all hell though, so don't be surprised if they aren't exactly the friendliest of people starting out."

She continued to walk towards the rooms, probably to set everything up for the others. Now all that was left was myself and Pyrrha, who was just standing there in the middle of the the mansion foyer.

"So...shouldn't you be making your way up to the Headmaster's office?" Pyrrha asked me after a few moments in order to break the silence.

"Yeah, I guess I should," I agreed. I started to walk up towards his office, taking note that Pyrrha was walking up there with me. "You know, I'm still not used to you guys referring to Professor Ozpin as 'the Headmaster'. To me, he's just Professor Ozpin."

"I think that mostly comes from the fact that you know him from a different life, compared to us," Pyrrha explained. "Most of us only know him as Headmaster, because we only know him from this line of work. You, Yang, the two of you know him from your childhood, it's different for you."

"Yeah, I guess you have a point," I concurred. "Anyway, how was your day so far? I'm sure you heard from my talk with Yang how mine went."

"It was quiet for most of the day," Pyrrha replied to me. "I got the chance to sleep in today since I'm going out later tonight and taking a night patrol. Other than that, I've done a bit of training, and there is this new book that I've been reading called 'Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way'."

"What's it about?" I asked. Honestly, the one thing that has always given me a smile is whenever I talked with Pyrrha. We just seemed to be able to chat with each other about anything for hours on end, and it wouldn't ever get dull. We both found out that we like reading pretty early on and would often talk about what books have caught our eye recently. It's been really fun comparing the different stories that we've read.

"It's about these two women who are split apart by the one girl's family," Pyrrha started to say. "She is forced into working in her father's business against her will for ten years and finds out her lover dies along the way. The only thing is, her lover isn't dead, and instead joins a mercenary company where the main qualification is that everyone on their payroll is listed as deceased. As the story goes on, the first girl finds out that her entire life has fallen apart, and despite having found out her lover is alive, she has nothing left in the world. So she joins up with the mercenary company in order to have a second chance at life, as well as keep her relationship with her long lost lover alive. I'm only part way through, and right now they are literally in the middle of a warzone."

"Wow, sounds really interesting," I mentioned. "When you're done reading it why don't you let me take a crack at it?"

"I'll be sure to do so," Pyrrha said, beaming with enthusiasm over the idea. "Anyway, I'll wait out here for you to finish speaking with the Headmaster."

I hadn't even realized that we reached Ozpin's office, that's how drawn into the conversations I get with her. "Alright, sounds good," I replied to her before making my way towards the office door."

I knocked on the door to Professor Ozpin's office and waited for a response before entering. Before I went in, I looked back to Pyrrha, who was being true to her word in the promise she made to wait for me out there. I opened up and walked inside from there.

Ozpin was sitting in the chair behind his desk, looking down at it, it still had the mark from when I stabbed his desk all those months ago. I'm pretty sure that he's still upset that I pretty much ruined the mahogany. He gave me a smile though, one that I returned eagerly. "Miss Rose," He said to me once I closed the door behind me. "I hear you have some interesting news for me from out in the field."

"Yeah," I replied, taking a seat at the desk across from him. "I'm sure you're glad to know that the bank robbery was stopped and the money was kept from being fully stolen."

"Yes, it is good news to hear that this event was stopped before it could fully take place," Ozpin replied. "How was the battle from your perspective? Did you have any issues controlling your powers?"

"No, not really," I replied.

"Well, how about the fight itself?" Ozpin continued. "Did you find things went well for you out there?"

"Well," I began to elaborate, making hand motions that I did have something to say and just didn't know where to begin. "Let's just say that there was a pretty strange encounter while we were out there."

"Would you care to explain it to me?" Ozpin asked, curious at what I had suggested was going on.

"Ok, so while I was out there, I was helping Mat-I mean, Penny, with keeping all of the baddies from escaping," I explained. It was clear that I was going to still need some time to fully get this name thing down perfectly. "The strange thing was, while I was fighting, I got tripped up by this one person who looked like a major player in the White Fang operations. The only thing is, she had this really weirdly constructed weapon, something akin to a katana frankensteined onto a Pistol that acted as the handle, and a sheath that she was looking to use as a separate blade itself."

"Interesting," Ozpin said. "Go on."

"So when we were there, I asked who she was, and the funny thing was how she answered," I went on to explain, recalling as much as I could about the encounter. "She seemed like she regretted having to be there, almost like she was against what the White Fang was doing. She was telling me how she wouldn't let me bring harm to the Faunus anymore, even though I wouldn't ever do that to begin with. Yatsuhashi showed up soon afterwards and scared her away, but when she left, it was almost as if she did so with the use of powers just like the ones we have."

"Really?" Ozpin asked. Somehow, I could see that little tiny sliver of concern over this, but it was quickly masked by indifference. Still, it was there, and I knew that this was going to be bigger than I originally thought it would be. "It's not unheard of for a few members of the White Fang, or even the criminal empires themselves to have some form of powers, but they do not match in numbers to what we have. In any case, it is cause for concern and we should take extra care when handling those individuals."

Ozpin stood up from his desk and walked over to the fireplace, standing in front of it and watching the flames crackle and burn. It looked like he had a lot on his mind, but it wasn't something I needed to worry about. "Thank you for relaying this information to me, Miss Rose," He said after a few moments. "You should go get some rest now."

I stood up at that point and started towards the door before a thought entered my mind that I needed to voice. "Do you think we should offer that woman a chance with us?"

That question clearly threw Ozpin off, for he turned towards me quickly and looked really confused by what I had just said.

"I mean, if she really is feeling as though she doesn't want to take part in the business of the White Fang, like I felt she was," I went on to explain. "Shouldn't we try to show her that we can give her a better life, and a better way to make a difference in the world?"

Professor Ozpin took a few seconds to answer my question, but I really didn't have to wait long for a response. "Well, if you have the chance, I'm sure you'll be able to make that call."

In essence, Professor Ozpin just gave me the ok to try if I felt it was worth it. That itself is what I needed to know, since I had a feeling that I wasn't done running into that woman just yet. "Thank you, Professor," I said before actually heading out the door.

I'm happy to see that Pyrrha still waited for me through it all, though it wasn't a long meeting to begin with. Might as well relax while I could.

I can just tell that I have a long journey ahead of me.

AN: I know it's been a while since I updated this, or anything for that matter, but I've been busy with real life. Somethings worked out, some didn't, I'm not gonna get into the details. Long story short, I'm going to be working more towards getting more writing done for my own personal stuff. Hopefully you'll see some updates from more of my own stuff in the near future, and we'll see where things lead to.

Thanks for tuning in this week, I'm sure you can see what the next couple of chapters is going to be exactly. I'll see you guys in the next update!