Author's notes here.

This is your one and only warning. Comedic and cute moments will be a major presence here, but there will be gore, violence, and bloodshed. This will not always be an easy read.

That being said, please enjoy.

Chapter 1

Summer sobs, curled up in the corner of her bedroom with her white hood wrapped tightly around her. Her suspicions were finally confirmed, and the wrenching pain in her chest forced her to gasp for air and tilt her head back, tears freely flowing down her face.

She could never have a child to call her own.

It had been her own fault, her own stupidity all those years ago that got her injured in a way that even aura could not completely fix. She wails, unsure how she'll tell Taiyang, unsure how she will handle, her only child a reminder of her love's past and her own team.

She'd do anything for a child of her own.

"I hope that you realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady. You put yourself and others in great danger."

"They started it!"

Goodwitch, the stern blonde pacing across from the table Ruby's sat at, continues without bothering to notice Ruby's response. "If it were up to me, you'd be sent home with a pat on the back..." Ruby smiles at that. She did good! "…and a slap on the wrist."

Ruby squeaks as Goodwitch slams the table with her riding crop. Okay, maybe she didn't do that good.

"But… there is someone here who would like to meet you."

For a moment, Ruby's stomach grumbles. The feelings inside of Goodwitch had come back, if only slightly what they had been the last time they had met.

Fear.

Goodwitch sidesteps and allows a man in green with silver hair to step forward, holding a mug and OMIGOSH COOKIES!

"Ruby Rose…" The man states with hesitation, setting the plate of cookies down in front of the small girl and squinting at her. "You have silver eyes."

Ruby, halfway through eating a cookie already, stops and looks up to the man, quickly nodding her head. She's pretty sure her uncommon eye color always tended to be the first thing people noticed about her, even if red eyes like her uncle and sister always looked way cooler in her humble opinion.

The man stands back up straight, gesturing to a video of her fight against Torchwick. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"Um, Signal Academy!"

"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?"

"W-well, one teacher in particular."

"I see… It's just that I've only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before. A dusty old crow... Tell me, what is a… an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"

Ruby, deciding to stop shoveling cookies into her mouth for a moment, wipes her face and looks up at him with her wide, silver eyes. "I want to be a Huntress."

"You want to slay monsters?"

"I want to slay Grimm. I only have two more years of training left at Signal, and then I'm going to apply to Beacon! Ya see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it, heheh! I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool and really, gosh, you know?!"

The man studies her closely for a moment, having noticed her distinction. "Do you know who I am?"

Ruby nods quickly, trying to hide her excitement. "You're Professor Ozpin, the headmaster at Beacon."

He smiles, though it's a slightly false one. "Hello."

"Nice to meet you!"

"You want to come to my school?"

"More than anything," Ruby replies with a firm nod, eyes gleaming.

Ozpin looks to Goodwitch, then back to Ruby, both of them with a somewhat confused expression, though the headmaster hid it well.

"Are you aware what it means to have silver eyes, Miss Rose?" Ozpin asks, tilting forward slightly.

Ruby tilts her head, very softly nibbling at a cookie in her hands. "Uhm… Nope? I just figured it was super rare."

"It means that we are aware of what you are," Ozpin utters grimly as Goodwitch moves to stand in front of the one and only door. Ruby knows there are more people beyond it, as well. She doesn't care, however, wide eyes locking with Ozpin's cautious gaze.

"You do…?" She asks, barely above a whisper, her entire body trembling.

"We do," Ozpin confirms, the grip on his cane tightening.

"Ohhh…" Ruby mutters with huge, innocent, childlike eyes. "Then can you please tell me?!"

Ozpin unconsciously takes a step back. His calm demeanor is quick to recover, but that was obviously the last response he had expected. "I'm sorry?"

"W-well, I mean, um, what do you mean when you say that?"

Ozpin looks to Goodwitch, who shakes her head in exasperation. He looks back, taking a sip of his mug.

"How many people are standing outside of this door, Miss Rose?"

"Um… Five," she answers, apparently right at the wave of apprehension that she feels from Goodwitch.

"That would be correct," Ozpin explains with a nod. "But how could you know that?"

"Um, well…" Ruby nervously nibbles at a cookie, not answering for a few moments as she gets lost in the social anxiety and yummy sweets. "I can just, sorta, feel them? It's weird and that's why I was hoping you'd know why! Right?!"

Ozpin nods, sighing very softly and stepping closer to Ruby, likely feeling just slightly less cautious. "I will not pry into your past. I have not done so with the rest of my students, and you are no exception despite the… circumstances."

"W-wait, I'm your student?!" Ruby asks, jumping out of her seat in excitement. Goodwitch draws her weapon, but Ozpin remains unfazed.

"That depends, Miss Rose, on my next question," he calmly states, sipping from his mug. "How old are you truly?"

"Fifteen! W-wait, is that too young? I can still go to Signal! Oh, but my sister is going to Beacon this year…"

"You were born only fifteen years ago, Miss Rose?" Ozpin looks to the floor in deep thought, then almost too quickly does he look back up. "Your mother was Summer Rose. You two have incredibly similar looks, other than your eyes."

Ruby blushes, awkwardly shuffling in place and rubbing the back of her head. Was. "Heh, thank you, sir. I got everything from her, I guess."

"I… believe I have the answer as to why, but it will take time. Time we do not have, at the moment. As for you, Miss Rose…"

Ozpin smiles, just slightly. Ruby starts taking larger bites of the cookies as the feelings of deviousness emanating from the headmaster reach her.

"I cannot welcome you to Beacon Academy."

Ruby can feel her heart shattering and her eyes start to water, but she nods anyway. She can last two more years, that was the plan from the start anyway…

"…However, Miss Rose, I have something else I can offer you."

Ruby looks back up at Ozpin with wide, confused eyes, ones which Ozpin himself does not meet the gaze of.

"Miss Rose, if I may… I seem to have had the fortune of several… unique individuals like yourself attempting to enter Beacon."

Ruby tilts her head, voice still slightly shaky from the somewhat odd news. "Who…?"

"You will meet them in time, if you accept my offer. I want you to join their ranks, and to fight more than just Grimm, Miss Rose."

"What about Signal? And my sister…?"

"I do not believe either of those will be issues, given that you are far above the skill level of someone your age, and Miss Xiao Long has been given my offer as well."

"Y-Yang too?"

Ozpin nods. "She refused, I assume because of the overwhelming paperwork in working under a headmaster, but perhaps she will reconsider if you were to accept."

"P-p-p-paperwork?"

"That was your sister's reaction, yes. Not to worry, of course, as it is but a small part of what you will do for us."

Ruby stares at Ozpin deeply, a near minute of silence between them before Ruby awkwardly shuffles. "Can I sleep on it? Heh."

"You may, but if you do, it will be too late for Miss Xiao Long to reconsider."

"O-oh. And… if I refuse?"

"You will return to Signal, but…" Ozpin sighs, taking a sip of his mug. "I will have to have you supervised until you enter Beacon."

"W-wha? Why?"

Ozpin's gaze suddenly hardens, as does Goodwitch's, which shouldn't have been possible. "I believe you know why."

Ruby trembles and wrings her hands. "I'll, um, accept. Only if Yang comes! Where, um, are we going exactly, though?"

"Beacon Academy."

"But… not as students?"

"That would be wasteful for… a delightful girl such as yourself, Miss Rose."

Yang blinks, sitting down on her bed as Ruby sits beside her, the two of them in their comfy little cabin, though Taiyang is out teaching.

"He what?" Yang finally asks, after minutes of confused apprehension.

"He asked me too, Yang."

"And you accepted?!"

Ruby gulps, squeezing her hands together. "Only if you'll come too."

Yang lets out a long breath in both relief and pure despondence. "But Rubyyyyyyyy! I don't wanna work under the headmaster! That'll be super boring!"

"Yang… He knows."

"Then all the more reason not to accept!"

"N-no, I mean…" Ruby says, scooting away from Yang on the bed. "He said he knows what I am."

Yang instantly swivels to look at Ruby, her eyes wide and glowing red. "And?"

"And he said it'd be hard to explain without time…"

"R-Ruby, that's just a tactic to get you to accept!"

"He knew stuff I knew, and said it had to do with my eyes, I think…?"

Yang sits back, frowning deeply before pulling Ruby into a bone-crushing hug. "Fine. But if it's boring, you're doing my paperwork!"

"So in other words, you want to fail?" Ruby mutters, face pressed into Yang's chest, though somewhat comfortably.

Yang snorts and ruffles Ruby's hair. "If it'll get me out of paperwork, Rubes, hell yeah."

"Swear jar," Ruby manages to mumble as she tries to fix her hair.

"Hell isn't a swear! Dad said so!"

"Should I ask him?"

"Rubes, you won't even say it when you ask, you'll just be like 'dad, is H-E-double-hockey-sticks a swear word?'"

"I don't even know what hockey is," she grumbles with a cute pout.

Yang smiles brightly and ruffles Ruby's hair again, but Ruby fights back, quickly tackling Yang onto her back and messing with her hair as well, a death wish for anyone other than herself. The two giggling sisters, teenagers, wrestling and messing with each other's hair like little kids again… A nice feeling, for the both of them.

A feeling quickly diminished when Yang's scroll goes off, and she jumps out of bed to answer it.

"Yaaaaaang!"

"Rubes, it's a friend, if I accept Ozpin's offer I might not see 'em as much!"

"Okayyyy…." Ruby says, rolling out of Yang's bed and dashing out of the room, nearly slamming into a wall on the way out into the living room. She tended to do that on occasion, but she's been getting better! Sort of.

She flops onto the couch with a giggle, finding the remote and turning on the holographic television, HGTV, a wonderful invention that is honestly so five years ago, but dad is a bit too tight on lien to buy an HD3DHGVRTV, no way to afford one on a teacher's salary.

"…robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa."

Ruby frowns as Lisa Lavender, a rather two-dimensional woman, begins to explain the ever increasingly violent Faunus Rights Movement, and the White Fang's involvement. Is that what Ozpin meant when he said she wouldn't just be fighting Grimm? Would she be, like, a secret agent?! That's even cooler than a huntress! Well, okay, not really, but it's super cool anyway, and she'd probably also get to fight Grimm too! And she'd get special training and special lessons and her sister would be there and a bunch of other people too and they've GOTTA be cool since Ozpin made a big deal out of it and if he of all people makes a big deal out of somethingthenobviouslythatthingissuperduperimportantbutthenagainshedoesn-

Ruby's thoughts are interrupted by Yang jumping on top of her, enveloping her in a bear hug of epic proportions. "Rubes! Did you miss me?! I was gone forever!"

If this is the end… Tell dad… His cookies were the bestest…

"Oh, right! Sorry!"

Yang releases Ruby from her iron grip, letting her gasp for air and cough. Thank all that is holy for Aura, because if she didn't have that unlocked, she maaaay have died.

Maybe.

Yeah.

"W-why so tight?" Ruby finally manages to squeak out. Yang nervously chuckles and shifts a little.

"It was actually Qrow, and I told him about the whole group thing, and he seemed like he was kinda mad at first, but then he said he'd be one of the ones to teach us personally!"

Ruby gasps, silver eyes huge. "Uncle Qrow?!"

"Do you know anyone else named Qrow?"

"Well, I can't tell if you meant with a C or not."

"Qan't you tell?"

"Nope… Qan everyone else?"

"Nah."

"Ah."

Ozpin sits at his desk, listening to his office loudly tick around him.

He had known Summer Rose. A former student of considerable power, along with her team. They had been his previous attempt.

He could not let it happen again. Two shapeshifters, twins, on a single team, proved too much. A too direct, too callous approach that would need incredible luck to ever surface again. Perhaps it was not the shapeshifters that caused the real problems, though.

Perhaps the little Rose had thorns of her own.

Qrow had never known fully of the supernatural world, only bits and pieces. Even now, when he knows so much more, he could not tell his own honorary niece from any other human, a fatal flaw to be sure. A flaw that would need to be remedied, in time.

Ozpin sighs, taking a sip from his mug and leaning back. Far too much had happened far too quickly. An Arc, despite lack of any real talent, had sent in a submission. Two orphans, one with a stunning ability to remove teammates and himself from the eyes of Grimm and others, while the other held not only immunity to an entire element, but gained power from it.

The Pyrrha Nikos, as well… A prime subject.

Yang Xiao Long, with her curious parentage and combat strength, alongside an intensely powerful semblance and a familial connection to the previous attempt. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the most powerful company on the face of Remnant had decided to come to Beacon rather than Atlas, for whatever reason, and she had inherited the hereditary semblance that made the Schnees so powerful in the first place. Blake Belladonna, no stranger to criminal activity and with so much more room to grow with a team to help her.

Too much good luck at once, and it had finally proved too much.

Ozpin closes his eyes, the wide, silver eyes of Ruby Rose forever burned into his memory. A nightmare that would not soon leave him. Perhaps it is for the best to get her under control and supervision now, rather than lose countless valuable pieces in an attempt to subdue her by force?

The Queen has many pawns, but soon, so shall he.

A blonde-haired girl, no older than twelve, takes a step back, the putrid smell and horrid sight in front of her threatening to make her wretch, if not for the pure shock in her system.

"Y-Yang…?"

The blonde girl lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding, falling against the wall. Her ten-year-old sister, adorable and loving, stood in the dark room, hunched over and shivering with her glowing silver eyes shining a pale light over the gruesome scene.

She's surrounded by half-eaten corpses.

"Help me…"