-Ruby Rose: 28 July 132 Post-Great War 12:00 AM-

The door closes loudly and two silver eyes sparkle at the sight of a full moon. Ruby used to hate all the pent up energy she'd have past midnight during the full moon, but now the girl loves every minute she spends running through the nearby town. One step of the black boots on the cement outside her home and she's already a few dozen feet away. The fifteen year old doesn't even take two steps before vanishing in a flurry of rose petals and reappearing yards away. For an average man it would take an hour to make it to town by foot, but the five miles is covered in mere minutes with the help of an unlimited supply of energy and a semblance that lets her move faster than most cars. The first half hour in town is spent simply running along the rooftops, feeling the wind tickle the pointed ears sitting atop her head. The only thing held back is the howl rising in her throat, as she knows people are sleeping in the apartments nearby.

As she reaches the strip at the heart of her hometown Patch, Ruby slows down and surveys the area for her next destination. After a few seconds she settles on one of her favorite stores. It's a general outdoors store but she goes there for weapon parts more than any outdoors equipment. She skips up to From Dust Till Dawn and opens to door to be greeted by a ringing bell and an old man.

"Heya Gramps!" An excited wave follows her typical greeting.

"You're energetic as ever, Ruby." Comes the reply with a small smile.

Ruby quickly runs off to the "weapons and parts" section of the building, looking for any new stock. She barely manages to pass five minutes before realizing there's nothing new for her here. Over half of the attachments she's tried on her precious baby Crescent Rose and the rest either made no sense or were banned by her father for safety reasons.

"Yang is a walking sun and I'm still not allowed to attach a flamethrower…"

Ruby grumbles about her favorite of the forbidden items as she stares at the parts needed to make what's on her mind. She decides to pry herself away from her favorite section of the store before she gets too depressed about what she can't have. Her aimless wondering brought her to an area with dozens of different types of tents for camping, and Ruby slips inside a few to give them a test run. It's been far too long since she's spent a night in the forest opposite of town. Maybe she should have gone there tonight, seeing as the city has failed to keep her attention so far. A few shadow puppets and a short fairy tale later, she decides to leave the tents and continue roaming, this time stopping at a station with samples of many different types of music.

After sifting through the first three pages of sample songs the title This Will Be The Day catches her eye and she picks up the headphones to listen. She clicks her tongue in annoyance as she notices the headset is meant for humans going all the way over the user's head, and she can't replace them with in ear headphones due to the jack being inside the display case. Because she is awkwardly holding the headset to her ears instead of having them fully cover them, she's able to hear the ringing of the bell and shuffling of footsteps as another group enters the room. Ruby would have ignored them, but one decided to walk right up and stop less than five feet away from her. Upon turning around, she notices a man dressed in a completely black suit save for his red tie and red tinted glasses. He brandishes an equally red blunt weapon.

"Put your hands where I can see them."

"Are you robbing me?" The response came out with a slight tilt of the head, even though Ruby already knew the answer.

"What does it look like?"

Ruby takes quick stock of the thief and immediately notices his center of mass is much too far back to keep his balance and his weapon isn't in any position to make an immediate attack. After determining she has far more experience fighting than the man before him, she starts to slip her right hand behind her back, reaching for the crowning achievement of her fifteen years of life.

"Ah. Okay then."

She shakes her head in acceptance. In one smooth motion, the hunk of metal resting on her waist is whipped around in her right hand and extends into a scythe as tall as the girl wielding it. The extending end of the weapon hits her attacker directly in the stomach and sends him flying out the front window of the store. A quick burst of her semblance has her back next to her opponent, but not to fight. She only realized after her initial hit landed that her opponent might not have even had an aura, and rushed to make sure the thief doesn't need medical attention. After closer inspection, Ruby realizes he had a minimal amount of aura and was able to deflect the damage from going through a window. He was unconscious from the hit but the only visible injuries were bruises.

As she gets up from the downed man, three more have surrounded her. The only difference Ruby notices between them are the weapons they're wielding, one having a small caliber gun, one with a katana, and one with a fireman's axe. The three new challengers all look about as capable as the last was, so Ruby consciously tells herself to hold back, as she doesn't want to seriously injure anyone.

The one with the katana rushes in first, throwing a horizontal strike out once he gets close. Ruby jumps above the strike then fires a round from her weapon's sniper form. As the force of the shot sends her spinning, Ruby notices the axe wielder attempting an overhead strike from the opposite direction. In one smooth motion Ruby drives the butt end of her weapon into the katana wielder's temple while the blunt end of the scythe drives into the axe user's right side. She finishes the spin as the two fly in opposite directions and lands with one knee on the cement, staring directly at her last opponent. Before the man can even take a shot of the pistol in his right hand, a .50 caliber sniper bullet rips it out of his hand and put's it through a wall behind him. He immediately puts his hands up in defeat.

"Good choice," is the only thing Ruby manages to say before her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a large explosion from the top of a building near her. She turns towards the sound and catches a glimpse of an airship high tailing it out of a massive cloud of dust. Seeing as the last of the thieves has run away, Ruby folds her weapon again and places it back in the holster along the back of her waist.

"Hey gramps you okay?" Ruby calls out jogging back into her favorite shop.

"I'll be fine, thanks to your help."

"Heh, no problem, I wanted a good workout anyway. Oh and don't forget to call the cops or something, I don't k-"

"That's not necessary. We can handle them from here."

Ruby quickly turns towards the new voice, Crescent Rose already deployed again. Before her stands a woman who looks to be in her thirties, with curly blonde hair and green eyes. Her right hand holds a black riding crop and her left contains a badge signifying a licensed hunter. Ruby folds her weapon and quickly slings it back into its holster under her cape. The blond woman, Glynda, according to her badge, signals a few other people to handle the four men ruby took care of and start surveying the damage caused by them. After giving orders her focus falls directly on Ruby. The younger girl shrinks under the gaze of the full-fledged huntress, gulping audibly.

"You," the green eyes stare directly into Ruby's soul as the words are spoken, letting her know her next statement is an absolute command, "come with me, now."

The emphasis put on the last word confirmed Ruby's fear; she had made this lady very, very angry.

- Ruby Rose: 28 July 132 Post-Great War 2:15 AM-

Ruby takes deep breaths to try and calm her nerves while staring at the one way mirror opposite the chair she was sitting in. Glynda immediately took her to the nearest police station and sat her in an interrogation room before stepping out to without saying why. While normally a fan of getting painful events over quickly, Ruby would happily take a minute or two away from the deadly stare of the huntress, even if it's just delaying the inevitable. Unfortunately, she didn't even get that as Glynda reappeared mere seconds after leaving. The door slowly opened as the older woman walked in taking a deep breath with her eyes closed.

Well, at least she's calmed do-

*WHAM*

The sound of the door slamming instantly proves Ruby's thought wrong, and Glynda begins to rant in a tone barely below shouting that hurts the wolf ears hiding beneath Ruby's red hood.

"The men you took out today were being led by a man named Roman Torchwick. We have intel suggesting he's stealing large supplies of dust for a terrorist organization that threatens the entire country of Vale. We finally get the chance to tail him and find just who he's working for when some kid with an oversized scythe comes in and risks her own life while only managing to ruin my operation and endanger the people around her more. Do you have any idea how much trouble you managed to cause tonight?"

"I was just trying to help gramps!"

"And your attempts to help broke both his front windows and put a hole in his wall from a sniper bullet. If it were up to me I would have your weapon confiscated-"

"You can't do that!"

"And have whatever hunter that taught you suspended indefinitely… But, luckily for you, one of my superiors demanded he speak to you before making any decisions."

Glynda steps towards the door and from it appears a man dressed in a black suit with a green turtleneck underneath. On the bridge of his nose sits a pair of small, round glasses. He strolls up to the chair and lays down a batch of chocolate chip cookies from his left hand while taking a sip from the mug in his right. She's seen this man before, but she can't quite remember where.

"Ruby Rose…"

"Yes…"

"That was quite a display you put on earlier tonight, might I ask where you learned to fight like that?"

"Signal Academy." Ruby relaxes as the man doesn't appear to be here to lecture her. With her more relaxed state she feels free enough to reach for the cookies laid before her and finishes the entire plate before the next question is even finished.

"I take it you worked closely with Qrow? He's the only fellow professor I know who could teach someone to wield a weapon that dangerous."

That's Professor Ozpin. The realization finally hits her that the man before her is the headmaster at the most prestigious hunter academy in Vale. Beacon Academy, the place Yang worked all summer to get into and she dreams of going in two years' time. Suddenly her nerves return, but for an entirely different reason.

"Hehe, that's my uncle actually. He's taught me everything I know and then some. I strive to be as good with a scythe as him some day. I've been pra-"

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yo-You're Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ruby."

"Actually, I saw you in person once before. My sister went to visit Beacon last winter and I tagged along. We met you during a tour of the campus. Oh, we weren't formerly introduced though, so I'm no-"

"And do you want to become a huntress like your sister?" Ozpin expertly cuts the rambling teen off before things get out of hand again, bringing Ruby back to the reason he came here.

"More than anything in the world."

"Then how about attending Beacon starting next year?"

… … …

Ruby sits in stunned silence over the offer, mouth agape. Her shock is the only thing keeping her from hugging the man while blurting out her thanks. However, there's one problem that always haunts her when making a decision like this. The ears under her hood droop slightly, lowering the hood an almost unnoticeable amount.

"I don't know if someone like me would be able to go to a place as renowned as Beacon…"

"I'd like to mention that Beacon is an equal opportunity School that boasts a 70/30 Human/Faunus ratio. That's much better than you'll find at most hunter schools in Vale. And if you mean your financial situation, I am able to take one student of each class without tuition, so your father's financial burden would be lessened by you attending."

Once again, the girl was left speechless. On top of being given the deal of a lifetime, Ruby is amazed by Ozpin's clairvoyance. Either he read Ruby's mind, or he had done extensive research on her before coming here. Either way, there was no way she could turn down the deal now.

"I'll take your offer. You have no idea how much this means to me sir." It took all the restraint in her body not to give Ozpin one of Yang's signature bear hugs. This has to be the best day of her short life.

Immediately following her decision, Glynda reappears with a stack of ten books and a backpack. She splits the books into two stacks of five, and points to the half to her left.

"These are the books you will need for your first semester classes. They are to be returned to me directly at the end of the semester." She then points to the other set of five books.

"These are the materials you are to learn before the start of the semester. They contain the main concepts you are supposed to learn in your last two years of primary school, and you will need to know these books cover to cover by the start of classes on August twenty-fifth. I suggest you begin studying immediately, as poor grades could lead to you losing your scholarship. These books need returned by the end of the year, but you should have finished all of them by the end of August."

Ruby shoulders and ears drop at the sight of the books and suddenly she doesn't know if she made the right choice. Losing the free ride Ozpin is giving her would essentially mean she's no longer able to attend Beacon, and if only one of these scholarships are given a year, she's expected to be top of her class. Trying to hide her worry, she quickly shoves the books in the backpack Glynda provided and slings the weight that's on par with Crescent Rose over her shoulder with ease.

"No problem, I've been told I'm a quick learner." She the biggest smile she can muster while saying her final thanks and goodbyes before heading home.

- Ruby Rose: 28 July 132 Post-Great War 3:30 AM-

Ruby walks through the door to her house and straight to the kitchen. She spies Yang in her usual spot at the table, looking up from her scroll to acknowledge her sister's return. It's not surprising to see Yang up at this hour, as she always managed to stay up later than Ruby, even when Ruby goes out on a full moon. They usually meet at the kitchen table when Ruby gets back from her adventures, giving her a chance to calm down before going to bed on restless nights like this.

"Got enough excitement for one night?" The older sister asks with a warm smile.

"You wouldn't believe what happened." Ruby doesn't even take the time to sit down before dropping the backpack she got from Glynda and letting the books spill on to the table.

"What are you doing with all my textbooks?"

"These are mine, and I'm preparing to go to Beacon Academy next semester." A face of confidence only a Xiao Long could produce emanates from the younger sister.