43

They failed.

That was the first thought circling through their minds after Ruby told them that despite their efforts people had still died.

Immediately, Yang tried to move closer to comfort her sister but to everyone's surprise, Ruby had moved further from her and even shot her a harsh glare. At least by Ruby's standards.

Realizing that she was the best when it came to emotional interactions, Pyrrha knew that it was her duty to help their leader deal with the guilt.

"Ruby… It's not your fault. What were we supposed to do? Blew up Roman on the highway and fight right there with all the people around?" She tried to explain while giving Ruby a sad but reassuring smile. "We did our be-"

"It's not about that!" Ruby interrupted. "Nobody died on the highway. There were about a dozen people in critical condition but so far nobody died and all of them are stable." She heatedly spoke. "No, all nine dead were White Fang members." She glared at Yang. "I looked at the autopsy, two of them died in a bullhead that had its front smashed in and they looked like they took a frag grenade at point blank." She switched to Weiss. "Two others died of hypothermia due to being fully encased in ice and one other had a gaping hole in his chest, as if pierced by a talon."

Weiss' expression didn't even twitch.

"The last four died in a bullhead crash." Ruby finished.

Yang backed off and just let Ruby wail on them, knowing that after she got it out of her system she would be better. She would still do something big and nice to make up for it but for now she would just sit back. She blamed Adam though. The bastard went after her baby sister, he should be happy that it wasn't him in that bullhead.

"What of it?" Weiss didn't have the same attitude as Yang.

Ruby stared at her wide eyed. "What of it?!" Ruby shouted. "We are huntresses! We save people and slay monsters!"

Weiss just raised an eyebrow. "Then we did the right thing." She evenly replied. "They looked like grimm and were spreading mindless destruction. You know what they say, if it looks like a duck…"

While Ruby was still staring at Weiss with a gaping mouth, Pyrrha couldn't stay silent. "How can you say something like this? Yes, they made some wrong choices and became criminals but they are still people!"

Weiss scoffed. "That makes things even worse…" She sighed. "Destruction is everything grimm knows but they choose to run around the city with guns."

"So you would just go ham on every member, is that what you are saying?!" Pyrrha accused.

"Of course not. There is no reason to hurt some confused, poor and scared people who don't know what they are doing." Really, did they expect her to massacre a recruitment rally or something? "But if they want to wage war against humanity, then they should know what to expect. Honestly, this might actually give them a reality check about what they are really part of."

-BBW-

Glynda stomped her way into Ozpin's office, who was already preparing himself for yet another rant. He only hoped that it wasn't anything really important so he could just tune it out.

"Good afternoon Glynda, coffee?"

She glared down at him but decided that her business was more important. "I've done a psych evaluation on team RWPY, considering their latest…mission." And also the fact that Oz ignored the standard procedure when inviting miss Rose.

"Judging by your attitude, the results weren't good." Ozpin remarked and gave Glynda his full attention.

Glynda fixed her glasses before starting. "Frankly, Miss Nikos is the only one who is within deviation. Miss Rose is professional as far as work goes but otherwise… I'm not the professional to give any diagnosis." She made a pause to let it sink in. It wasn't anything new for a huntsman to become slightly extra over their carriers but that was the problem. Those things should appear after a couple years of service, not in the first year. But those two were fine. One might need some guilt counseling and the other… As much as Glynda loathed to admit it, James might have had the right idea to keep her in the lab so she could chug out better weapons. Then there were the other two…

"While Miss Xiao Long shows some minor improvements over her first evaluation, the main problem still remains. While she now cares more about other people, this only applies to those she is in direct contact and has some bond with. When it comes to others, her commitment to being a huntress goes only as far as her…obsession with Miss Rose." That was putting it somewhat mildly. She had directly asked her about the two men she killed during the fight and her 'remorse' started and ended with her sister being upset about it.

For Ozpin it was…tolerable. While not exactly the ideal outcome, he learned a long time ago that things usually don't go the way he would always like. Xiao Long would be a monster in the field but if her sister took priority… Well, somebody had to keep an eye on the last silver-eyed warrior. And now he even didn't have to worry about loyalty if his prior observations were anything to go by.

Glynda took a deep breath. The last member of the team was perhaps the most concerning. "Miss Schnee… While I was aware that there were some issues due to her upbringing and especially prior encounters with White Fang it would seem that I had underestimated the depth of it. Honestly, I would advise to remove her from the academy altogether." Oh she did say that she felt guilty over what happened. After ten seconds of sitting quietly, her face went through a lot of different emotions and the delivery was so impossibly fake. "I lack the knowledge necessary to give a proper diagnosis but she will most likely become a liability if any of their future missions will involve White Fang or a group of similar dispositions." Damn it. Damn it all. She was somewhat used to dealing with that kind of problems with veteran huntsmen, not first year students.

Ozpin sighed and told glynda that he would think about what to do. Once she left his office, he made himself more comfortable in his armchair and sipped his coffee. How troublesome… This team was shaping up to be the best Beacon had ever produced but, as it was somewhat of a norm with huntsmen, the stronger they were, the crazier they would be. And three out of four was really bad for a first year.

/

"Pietro, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

The elderly inventor gave him a polite smile. "Oh, I'm just being a worried father."

"I assure you that Penny is in good care, even if I would prefer she would choose her…friends better." General Ironwood dryly answered.

"About that…" Pietro Polendina slowly started to reply. "She had some questions about various topics after her little adventure and those gave rise to some of my concerns."

"And those would be?" James asked with a raised eyebrow. He didn't want to antagonize the scientist but Pietro should have known what purpose his creation was meant to serve.

"You intend for her to fight in the tournament." It was his opening statement. The answer was obvious so he continued. "Penny told me that Pyrrha Nikos, someone she would definitely meet there, has a semblance that deals with some sort of metal manipulation. Some sort of telekinesis, magnetism or what not, that's not important right now. I think you can already guess what worries me."

Ironwood inwardly cursed. Penny was supposed to win the entire thing and prove to Oz that his idea of 'artificial' maiden was the right one. Even if he was changing his mind about Nikos, he still could propose to have Penny become Spring or Summer later on.

"Everything is under control. If it becomes too dangerous, I'll tell Penny to forfeit." He would. If Nikos by some stupid acident outed Penny as synthetic being, the fallout would be catastrophic. "Anything else?"

"Yes. Penny described some sort of side effect caused by Ruby Rose's semblance. From what I understood it appeared as an area of effect aura suppression." Which was quite strange. One's aura could be suppressed but it usually required either a lot of resources and preparations or a very skilled huntsman and a direct contact. For it to appear instantly, only to grow in intensity as a mere side-effect? His scientific side wanted to either come in person or tell Penny to investigate further. His fatherly side wanted to get her as far away from there.

"She also told me that Yang Xiao Long and Lady Schnee seemed to be somewhat immune to its effects and while Miss Nikos wasn't, she was neither surprised by it."

James sighed and filled the information under 'Ozpin creating supersoldiers against Salem' file. "I'll look into it if it becomes important. For now, we have to focus on our work."

-BBW-

"Really? After all the progress we've made you are giving me the cold shoulder again?"

Weiss simply ignored the retort and made a point not to look at 'her' reflection in the mirror.

"Besides, how can you blame me for it? You were the one who froze them to death…"

"That was an accident! I…I didn't know they would…"

"That two morons who went to fight without their aura unlocked wouldn't be able to handle being frozen? I suppose you couldn't know that but the consequences are on them."

"And the pilot?! How…how could you just..!" Weiss was at the loss for words with how livid she was.

"As I told the rest: If they want to wage a war on me and mine, I will grant it, but I'll show them no mercy for such actions!" Ivory was also fuming at this point. "And don't act so innocent! You don't care about killing two fangies. You are upset about being told off! So much so that I had to step in and run damage control."

"Damage control?!" Weiss shouted out. Immediately after she felt quite embarrassed about it because she was quite sure somebody could have heard her outburst. You call that damage control? You made me sound like some merciless psycho!.

"I only made my point of view clear."

/

Pyrrha didn't have a moment of proper rest since Ruby brought the news. While she may have scolded Weiss and Yang, she got away scott free. Despite being the worst of them.

Out of all the bullheads that they shot down, only one didn't crash on the elevated platform they were fighting on. The one she herself sent into an uncontrollable spiral.

And no one seemed to notice or care.

It was like she was supposed to be above it.

Ruby blamed herself for not keeping Yang and Weiss on a shorter leash and not handling the situation better. Which led to her locking herself up in the forge and getting way too immersed in her work. The only people she seemed to interact with as of now, were only her and Blake and that interaction only accounted for bringing her food. She was rather surprised that none of the staff seemed to care about one of the students going into a self-imposed isolation.

Frankly, her entire team was a mess.

Weiss was…weird after her outburst. While very cutthroat, her response did hold some logic to it, even if Pyrrha didn't want to admit it herself. Since then Weiss seemed to be constantly lost in thoughts, barely paying attention to anything happening around her. And gained a weird obsession of covering up any reflective surface that was too close to her.

Yang, predictably, didn't take nicely to being shut off by her sister. Which led to their dorm being full of sweets, newly bought mechanical equipment and Brothers know what else, all of which was just sitting there while Yang was pacing around and trying to figure out how to approach Ruby.

"Miss Nikos." Pyrrha's musings were cut short when professor Goodwitch quietly approached her. "Would you kindly follow me to the headmaster's office?"

Pyrrha could only nod. She already went through a very…demanding talk about what happened so paying a visit to the headmaster as well wasn't anything new.

/

Three knocks came from the door.

"Go away! I'm in the middle of something!" Ruby called out without turning away from working on her darling. It still wasn't good enough, even after half a dozen disassembling and reassembling, polishing, sharpening and small adjusting it still wasn't good enough.

Nobody answered but a few moments later, the door groaned and was ripped off the hinges.

"Salutations!" A ginger head popped out from behind the broken door.

"Penny… go away, I'm working." Ruby grumbled at her overexhuberant friend.

"Negative!" Penny replied with a wide smile. "Jaune said that when a friend is sad, that I should help! So… how can I help?"

"By going away?" Ruby answered with a raised eyebrow before shaking her head. "Just…let me have some time to myself. Working on something always helped."

Penny took a second to come up with a reply. "Well, didn't you want to work on the hard-light shielding for Floating Array?"

"...fine." Ruby obliged. Penny obviously wouldn't let go and well, she could only tinker with her darling so much.

Two hours later, Penny was laying on her stomach with her now upgraded swords splayed around. Her back fully opened as Ruby was carefully connecting controls and power supply to Penny's main battery.

"You will probably have to carry a backpack for hard-light dust. Infusing it into blades wouldn't give the right results and there is not enough space otherwise." Ruby remarked when she was about to be done.

"Give me a second." Penny quickly stood up. "How much space do you need? I can alter myself, if only a bit. Maybe it will still fit."

/

"You need to breathe out and sit down already." Weiss tiredly spoke as Yang walked once again by her. She could deal with her being worried but her endless pacing was getting on her nerves. "It's Ruby. She will come around. I'm pretty sure she can't even hold a grudge properly!" She would know.

It was honestly quite sad seeing Yang like this. Usually she was absolutely unshakable but one small chastisement from her little sister and she became a nervous wreck…

At least team BLAN was trying to be helpful.

Ilia was back to her attitude towards her that she had when the year had just started. So no big deal, she would calm down.

Nora and Ren… Ren was supportive in his strange quiet way, enquiring only once about how we were handling the news. Nora on the other hand asked how many broken legs equaled one corpse so that she would know the current score.

She didn't get to talk to Blake but so far she was on the joint operation with Pyrrha to not let Ruby overwork herself.

Yang had once again walked past her, the golden locks a bit frazzled from the lack of care.

Having enough, Weiss stood up and grabbed Yang by her wrist. "That's it, you are taking a shower and we are going after your brat!"

-BBW-

Just a bit over a semester. That was how long it took for Oz to call him back to Beacon to deal with his nieces.

Qrow wasn't complaining. He wouldn't mind paying them a visit.

In hindsight, he should have made a bet with Tai about it. The fool was thinking that the two of them would be able to go without troubles for at least a year or two.

Right… With the family they were born in? They were probably lucky that Glynda hadn't dragged them in during the first week to run damage control.

Unfortunately, it was still business before pleasure for him. Oz wanted to bring Amber's successor into the fold and wanted him there as a backup. Along with Ironsides. And the girl in question was part of his nieces' team.

He already knew all of it would turn into a shitshow. If not immediately then as soon as the girls figured it out.

At least Tai was smart enough to send a 'pick me up'. Why he sent it through the Ice Queen was beyond him but whatever. Her mini-version was also on team so he could deal with it. But if she tried to badmouth him in front of them he would shoot back. And damn, he had quite a bit of ammo on her.

/

It was very, very surreal.

Here she was, the undefeated champion of Mistral, huntress in training, standing in front of a life-support pod of a woman whose successor she was supposed to become.

And that wasn't even taking into account all of the fantastical madness told to her by her headmaster and supported by the general of Atlas and Ruby and Yang's uncle.

And she thought that she was having a headache over fighting White Fang. Now, they were asking her to find some…demigoddess(?) of grimm.

On the bright side, Weiss had sent her a message that they had managed to drag Ruby back to their dorm.

Even if she couldn't talk about all of this magical stuff, she would still prefer her team alright and together to at least have some pretense of normalcy…

/

"Well, this is an interesting development." Ivory spoke to the three people in the room.

Weiss was staring wide-eyed.

Yang was smirking at her while using Ruby as an oversized teddy bear.

Ruby was still trying to act all grumpy and disappointed but the warm hug melted her quite a bit and she was also looking on in badly concealed wonder.

The small crystal-like bird descended from Ruby's weapon closet and landed on the table in front of the window.

"Can any of you open it?" Ivory's voice came from the bird with a strange echo. "I want to see how far my freedom stretches."

-BBW-

*Bounce*

Jaune wasn't the most…observant of individuals. At least that's what he thought about himself. Most of his attempts to speak to females seemed to support that as well.

*Bounce*

He was never able to notice any signs about Penny. Her running off with local teams to hunt White Fang. The strange thing about hiccups when lying. Being a super awesome fighting robot…

*Bounce*

Right, about that. He assumed that due to her body not being truly alive, she would only change by somebody else making changes to her. Or she could do that on her own? It was a bit over his head.

*Bounce*

So he wanted to ask if she or somebody else made any changes. Specialist Schnee was very adamant about nobody finding out and the very obvious…difference could give rise to some rumors.

*Bounce*

But how the hell was he supposed to ask her chest growing up a cup and a half in an afternoon?!

His sisters would skin him alive if they ever found out…

/

/

/

Excuses as to why this chapter took so long: caught cold, fucked up my shoulder while being a drunk moron, took a small vacation, recaught my cold. Yes, I've gotten cold twice during a heatwave.

Replies

To kyunin9: If they took over entirely? Yes. Yang would just jump into the rally, caught Roman by the neck and dragged him to wherever they wanted him to be while Ruby would be putting down any pursuit with sniper fire from a mile away. If they were all decked out when he showed up in paladin? Not really. Fighting on the highway would still be a no go and frankly, things would be worse cause they have gear for clearing out swaths of grimm, not arresting terrorist with assault weapon. Sure, the fighting would have ended sooner and would be much more one sided but things would be uglier because instead of Yang having to rely on some moron trying to run her over, there would be a rocket launcher and a railgun.

To expandedhorizon: This fic is T rated so the answer is left to your imagination.