This sparring match was not looking good for Weiss. Ruby was literally running circles around her and getting far more hits in than Weiss was, even if Ruby's hits were barely chipping at the aura that Weiss had been training and improving of the last little while. Weiss was sure that Ruby was just toying with her, but it was still too much for Weiss to combat like this. It was time for Weiss to try something new, or at least it was better to try it out now than while she was out dealing with Grimm or in a less friendly fight with another person. Weiss used a glyph to push Ruby away, sending Ruby skidding backwards a few meters and giving Weiss some breathing room. She then focused her aura within her, letting it fill her body. As she did, her body began to rapidly expand, filling out all over, her chest, her belly, her rear, she even grew a few inches. All the while she silently thanked herself for investing in stretchier outfits, as she quickly filled this one out within a few second, ending up very portly. This was just in time for Ruby to recover from being pushed back. Ruby took a breath and focused her aura, but instead of growing, rose petals began to appear, gently falling from Ruby's body as she prepared to use her semblance. In an instant, Ruby became a red blur as she shot between Weiss' legs, sliding across the ground before hopping up behind Weiss. Weiss tried to turn and face Ruby, but her extra heft slowed her and reduced her agility, something Ruby was taking full advantage of. Ruby swung Crescent Rose, hitting Weiss with the tang of her scythe, spinning Weiss around to face Ruby and disorienting her. In a blindingly quick triple pirouette, Ruby smacked Weiss in the face with that part of the scythe, taking chunks out of Weiss' aura before taking a mighty swing back, stunning Weiss. Ruby then dashed at Weiss, jumping at her and kicking off of her round belly into a backflip. As she hung in the air, Ruby quickly changed Crescent Rose into its rifle form, her semblance making everything so slow that Ruby could see the individual parts of her weapon shift to allow it to change forms. The moment it was fully in its rifle form, Ruby pulled the trigger, landing a big hit to Weiss' aura shield right in the middle of Weiss' forehead. Ruby's shot hit with such force that Weiss' body hit the ground with a loud thud and bounced up into the air, up to twice her own height. Ruby then used her semblance to dash under the airborne Weiss, shifting Crescent Rose back into its scythe form. Timing it just right, Ruby swung in a big crescent slash, connecting with Weiss and sending her flying. As Weiss hit the floor and rolled head over heels, a loud buzzer rang out, signifying that Weiss had hit the red zone for her aura, meaning that only about 15% of it was left. Ruby quickly went over to Weiss as Weiss slowly and unsteadily got up.

"That… didn't go according to plan," Weiss admitted, her voice slow as she was still dazed from the combo that Ruby just hit her with.

"Lemme guess, your plan was to get big and overpower me. Am I right?" Ruby asked as she put her scythe into its inactive form and put it on her back. Weiss nodded as she sheathed her rapier, Myrtenaster. "That'll work against some people, but speedsters like me or people who know what you're doing, also like me, will just take advantage of it. You lose some agility with that extra size, and that's just another weakness to exploit. What you should try instead is just funnelling the aura into supercharging your abilities, both your physical abilities and your semblance. As far as your opponent knows, you just got a little bit more badass al of a sudden instead of getting really big and basically telling them that something crazy's going on," Ruby explained as Weiss listened intently, taking in everything. "Now, I can explain more if you want while we get some water, but you might wanna get back to your normal shape before someone sees you. Then they'll be all 'What the hell happened to Weiss?' and that'll be a whole thing," Ruby quickly added as Weiss looked down, blushing with embarrassment as she realised that she had forgotten all about her increased size.

"Right, of course," Weiss agreed. She took a few slow, deep, steady breaths and her body shrunk down, going back to its normal, skinny shape and size. Little did the pair know, but there was someone seeing them. It was their Faunus teammate, Blake Belladonna, with her amber eyes wide with shock as she could barely process what she was seeing in front of her. It was literal shapeshifting, and it seemed impossible, however it worked, but she trusted her own two eyes and four ears. As far as she could tell from what she was overhearing, Ruby seemed to be the expert on this, but didn't want anyone else to find out about it. As Blake ducked out of the training arena, she quickly thought about how she could get more information about this. She began making her way back to the team's dorm room when an idea came into her head. Yang might know, Blake thought. After all, Yang was Ruby's sister, and maybe Yang might even know how it works, not just what on Remnant was happening.

As Blake quickly entered her team's dorm room, she found Yang relaxing on her top bunk, playing a game on her scroll.

"Yang, can we talk?" Blake said quickly. This immediately pulled Yang's attention from her game as she closed her scroll and sat up, slouching slightly to make sure she didn't bump her head on the roof again.

"Yeah, sure thing. What's up?" Yang asked.

"Remember when we walked on Weiss and she was huge?"

"I'm actively trying not to, but yeah," Yang said, grumbling slightly.

"Apparently, she can do it through shape shifting, or something like that, and it seems like Ruby taught her how to do it, or at least she knows more about it than Weiss does. Do you know what's going on with them?" Blake questioned. Yang let out a long breath.

"Hoo boy, you're direct, aren't ya?" Yang said with a smirk. Blake's face was stoic as she folded her arms over her chest. "Right, gotcha. Anyway, yeah, it's a thing Ruby can do too. Heck, she's been able to do it… hmm… almost as long as I can remember. I think Mom taught her how to do it, her mom, not mine. I, like, know the general idea behind it, but I'm no expert. You'd learn way more by asking Ruby," Yang explained.

"Can you do it? Shape shift, I mean," Blake asked bluntly.

"Ah. Should've expected that question. Unfortunately, I can't. On the bright side, it means that this bod is all natural," Yang bragged, gesturing to her whole body. Blake cracked a small smile for a moment, despite her best efforts.

"Well then, how does it work?" Blake continued.

"Like I said, I'm no expert on it. As far as I remember, it involves focusing your aura… somehow, and it feels like running a marathon if you haven't practiced it. I don't know if I'm doing it wrong, or if it's just a thing I'm not able to do, but I've never managed to do it myself. Either way, it's no biggie for me, I'm pretty happy with my body and I don't really see a need to change it." There was a short pause as Blake's mind went back to the conversation she eavesdropped, seeing if there was anything else that needed answering.

"Ruby mentioned something about using that ability to 'supercharge your abilities', her words, not mine, and, apparently, it's possible to do it without changing your body. Is that a thing?" Blake queried. Yang raised an eyebrow.

"Did she say that? Well now, I think I've got some questions of my own to ask her," Yang responded. "I wouldn't mind turning my super strength up a couple of notches. You wanna go find her and ask about it?" Blake pursed her lips in thought for a moment.

"I'll think about it."

Meanwhile, in an unassuming warehouse down by the Vale dockyards, Cinder Fall was looking over a large corkboard on information when Emerald squeezed in through the door, her plump rear squishing against the doorframe as she snuck in.

"Um, hello Cinder. Did you have a moment to talk?" Emerald asked quietly. There was a silent pause as Cinder slowly turned to face Emerald.

"I think I can spare a moment. Is there a problem?" Cinder asked with an eyebrow cocked slightly.

"Not exactly a problem," Emerald replied, "closer to a question, or maybe a couple of questions." Emerald took a seat at the table where Cinder was organising her notes, pictures and other miscellany that was destined for the cork board behind them. It was clear that this seat was not designed for someone as wide as Emerald, nor someone as bottom heavy as Emerald, as she felt her rear spilling over the sides of the seat and heard the seat creak with every slight movement that she made. "You told me to find more information about the students competing in the Vytal Festival, and that is what I have, but I think you know more about Ruby Rose than you're letting on," Emerald needled. Cinder's face went from an impassive façade to a barely hidden scowl.

"She's as unimportant as the rest of them," Cinder in a cold tone. Emerald hesitated for a moment, not having gotten the response she expected.

"Well, it's just… I have found out about Ruby and her… unique situation." With that, Cinder's eyes focused on Emerald, a razor-sharp focus that had Emerald a little uneasy.

"Oh? And what is it that you heard?" Cinder asked rhetorically. Cinder was fairly certain that she knew what was about to come out of Emerald's mouth, but she wanted to hear Emerald say it.

"Well, to start with, she's older than the other students, by a lot. And this is her second time going through Beacon, for whatever reason, since it looks like she's already a trained and qualified huntsman. Also, she is working with Ozpin, but I'm not sure what she does for him and his people. And, finally, it looks like she was the one that taught Weiss Schnee and her partner… girlfriend… whatever they are, she taught them how to change their bodies, and it seems like she can do it herself through some sort of aura manipulation," Emerald informed Cinder, her confidence growing as she realised how much intel she had on Ruby and how useful it could all be for Cinder's operation. As Cinder silently appraised Emerald's information, Emerald's confidence deflated slightly, but it rose again as Cinder began to nod slightly.

"Intriguing," Cinder said, mulling over the information that Emerald had given her. "Could I ask what your source for all of this information was?" Cinder interrogated. Emerald gulped with nervousness. She did not want to give up her source, Neo, but she also did not want to lie to her boss, Cinder. Emerald did not have much time to weigh up the two sides of this dilemma, and so she decided to go with her gut on this one.

"No one. I found it all out on my own," Emerald said quickly, hoping that Cinder would believe what Emerald thought was a brazen and blatant lie. Cinder studied Emerald for a moment, while Emerald did her best to stay calm, even while the creaking chair was distracting her.

"Hmm, very well," Cinder commented. "I don't believe anything you actually said, however useful it may be, was actually a question. I certainly hope you still have a question worth answering," she added.

"I… I wanted to know if there was anything that I was missing. You just seemed to know a lot about her, or at least you seem familiar with her, and I just wanted to make sure I'm not doing something that could mess with our plans. Basically, what did I miss?" Emerald asked. Cinder thought for a moment, figuring what to tell her and what not to tell, or even if anything was worth telling her, when her thoughts were interrupted by her scroll beeping out a quiet ring tone as it vibrated on the table.

"Let me take this," Cinder stated, saying that it was happening, not asking for permission. Cinder looked at the screen and saw that it was Adam Taurus. Considering what she had told him last time, she figured that there were two ways this conversation would go. Either Adam would accuse her of lying, with something that could be interpreted as proof to someone that did not know better, or Adam was announcing that he had dealt with Weiss Schnee, either by taking her into his custody or killing her. Cinder figured that she would find out pretty quickly, so she answered it and awaited her answer as she greeted Adam.

"I hope you have good news for me, Taurus." Adam silently bristled for a moment at the other end of the line.

"We verified your information, it looks like it was accurate," Adam replied tersely.

"Of course it was accurate. I have very reliable sources," Cinder responded, turning to face Emerald as she talked. Emerald's heart raced from the excitement of being praised by Cinder, even if the praise was on the subtle side and even if she could not hear what Cinder was responding to.

"We found more information, and we have used that to locate and capture Schnee's partner. We have… plans for the near future," Adam informed Cinder, as if he were declaring it to be the most important fact in the world right now. Cinder raised an eyebrow, silently glad that this was a conversation over their scrolls and that he could not see her visible reaction.

"Very interesting." Cinder paused for a moment, a moment that Emerald assumed to be a dramatic pause. "Just don't get too hung up on your plans. After all, you and your underlings work for me, and I would prefer not to be forced to… remind you of that fact." The line went silent for a moment.

"Understood," Adam stated sternly. The line went dead as Adam hung up and Cinder put her scroll down.

"What was that?" Emerald immediately asked as Cinder began to slowly step towards the door.

"Progress," Cinder simply said as she opened the door, letting the noise of the small army of White Fang goons into the office.

[AN: Another commissioned chapter for Disturbed_Yui on DeviantArt, more of a plot chapter this time, less smut]