DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the world of "RWBY", which is owned by Rooster Teeth. All the characters in this story are created and owned by Rooster Teeth and I do not claim any ownership over them or the world of Remnant. I am not profiting financially from the creation and publication of this story. Please support the official release.

Knock, knock, knock

Getting Ruby on board would be easy.

He was sure of it.

He put on his best smile while he waited for the door to slide open.

"Hey, Jaune," she greeted brightly.

"Hey, Ruby, any plans for the weekend?"

She mused for a moment before shaking her head with with a nope.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story but to sum it up, I need your help with a weapon."

She cut him off with a sudden gasp and dashed back into her room.

Jaune blinked in surprise. He knew she'd be interested but - wait, how did she know about the bow?

She didn't, she couldn't, that much he was certain. He peered inside her room to see what she was doing and caught the reaper heading back to him with an armful of blue scrolls.

She let the stack of paper fall on the floor and immediately went to her knees to start checking them.

"No… No… Nu-uh…"

"What are you looking for?" he asked peering over her shoulder.

She located her target amongst the last few scrolls that remained, "This one!"

She jumped to his side to try and show him her drawing but the paper stubbornly attempted to return to its rolled up form.

Jaune noticed her distress and quickly grabbed one end of the scroll while Ruby repositioned her fingers to the other two corners.

"I designed it a little after we met," she told him while he took in the sight.

They were blueprints for a sword of sorts.

A longsword with two fullers on either side, a double crossguard and a firing mechanism of some kind in the hilt with a pommel loaded magazine.

"What is it?"

"Well, you only had a pair of swords when we first met. I thought you could use one that also works as a gun."

"I'm a lousy shot," he confessed and took another look at the blueprints. He checked the scale and made the calculations in his head. It'd be unwieldable at that size but he didn't have the heart to break it to her.

Besides, he was quite happy with his current armaments.

"I call it X-Caliber, do you like it?" she asked him with a hopeful smile.

"It's, uh, it's really cool but," he let go of the paper and let it roll back up, "it's not why I came to see you."

"Oh," she couldn't hide her disappointment.

"Sorry."

She fiddled with the scroll before handing it back to him, "You can still keep it, I mean, I made it for you." Her eyes widened over what she just told him but before she could correct herself the knight already accepted the gift.

"Thanks, Ruby, I appreciate it," he told her.

She smiled with a light blush as a silence filled the air.

"So. what did you need?"

"Oh, right, umm, so I need your help with a weapon - but you already know that part - umm, right, I need your help to make a bow but not for me, it's for Ren. Can you help me?"

"Jaune, a bow isn't exactly dust science."

"Ruby, hear me out," he paused for effect and looked the reaper straight in the eyes. "I don't want to make just any old bow… I want to make… the greatest bow anyone has ever seen."

He waited for a reply but Ruby remained frozen. He called her name, snapped his fingers, waved a hand in front of her face but she just stood there staring into the open air. He was afraid he had broken the poor girl and wondered if he should go look for her sister to see if maybe she knew what to do.

"On second thought, I don't want Yang to kill me," he reasoned.

The reaper surprised him with a gasp, "I've got it!"

"You've got what?"

"I - the - it, just… meet me in the library in half an hour," she told him, "I need to get started on this right away."

She ran off leaving behind only a trail of rose petals.

Jaune blinked at the outburst, "What have I gotten myself into?"

With a thermos full of coffee and Ren's sketches in hand he entered the library. He spotted Ruby's red cape by the computer area and made his way over to her. He looked over her shoulder and observed the drawing on the holographic projection.

"It definitely looks cool. How does it work?" he asked.

"Laser beam generator, fires beam through a prism, it bounces back off a second prism in the center of the bowstring and gets stopped by a beam trap in the riser. When you let go of the string the trap opens and the beam passes through a dust crystal."

"Laser bow? I don't know, it sounds a little dangerous."

"It's not, trust me, the beam's harmless but it's strong enough to excite the dust crystals. That's where the magic happens."

"Will it work?"

"Well… we'll need to fine tune the trap so we get a normal length arrows out of it and there's still the matter of cooling… but I think I can get it running."

"What about battery life?"

"The bowstring will be woven with energy dust. It'll use elastic energy to charge up. What do you think?"

"You made all of this in just half an hour? Ruby, the best I could come up with was a compound bow and a quiver full of trick arrows. This… you're a genius, thank you."

"Oh, you know, just…" she started mumbling flustered by his compliment..

He pulled the notepad from his pocket and showed it to her, "You think we'll be able to fit the electronics into the riser?"

"It might take some tweaking but I think we'll-"

She suddenly went quiet when she turned towards him and realised just how close their faces were.

In her panic she jerked backwards. The chair rocked back past its tipping point and she started flailing her arms but to no effect.

"Whoa - umph."

She stopped falling.

"Huh?"

Jaune leaned over her with a smile, "Sorry, I startled you.

He helped her back up and finally took a seat next to her.

Ruby remained silent and instead decided to focus on the projection.

"So... should we get started?"

The reaper nodded in response.

The two spent the next couple of hours transfering Ren's sketches onto the computer. The basic design was easy enough to catch and most of the decal could be either hand drawn or engraved afterwards. When it was all drawn out it was only a matter of picking out the material and sending it to a 3D print shop.

"Please allow us 3-5 working days for your transaction to process," the reaper read in a mock voice.

"You think Weiss'll notice we used her credit card?"

"Nah, Yang does it all the time."

They shared a laugh at that.

"Well, it's been fun," he stood up from his seat and stretched, "but I've got to head into the city before the stores close."

"Want me to tag along?"

"Nah, I just need to hit up a hardware store… metal shopping, I wouldn't want to bore you."

"Are you kidding me, that sounds way cool."

She kept looking at him with puppy dog eyes until he finally caved in, "Fine, Ruby… do you want to-"

"YES!"

It wasn't Ruby's first motorcycle ride and he was a way better driver than Yang, she told him. Mostly because he kept to the speed limits. They stopped at the store and picked up several ingots of various metals and then headed over to a weapons store where they bought most of the electronics for the bow. After that they made a final stop to pick up the miscellaneous materials he needed for the second project.

"My first time Yang tried to warn me stradling the bike in a combat skirt was a bad idea but I ignored her." She buried her face in her palms, "Everybody saw my underwear."

"Side saddling a bike is dangerous, you should've just worn pants."

"Combat skirts for life," Ruby proudly stated. She then observed their items on their way out, "What do you need the ray-skin for?"

"Just a little side project?"

"Ooh, can you tell me?"

"I shouldn't but…" he leaned down and whispered into her ear, "I'm making a katana."

This left the reaper gasping with excitement, "There's no way I'm missing that."

"Well, if you want to see how a real huntsman makes his weapon, I guess you can come."

"Maybe you can learn something from your real huntsman to.."

He glared at his fellow team leader who snickered in response.

"You've been hanging around Yang too much."

"I'm not as punny as her, though."

They both shuddered at that.

"No, just… no," he said.

"Agreed."

The two shared a pizza before heading back to Beacon. Jaune explained the entire metalworking process to the reaper the best he could. He half-expected to bore her to death with all the technical talk but she hung on his every word. He didn't understand the exact science behind each step but he had sufficient practical knowledge to pull the project off.

He called Ren right after they returned and headed to the forge. Ren joined up with them bringing the donor with him.

Stormflower

He was quite surprised how coldly Ren drilled through the rivets holding the verdant blades in place. He disassembled the weapon and put the guns away. They were still fully functional and he didn't want them getting in the way. The next part was much more emotional. Ren stared at the steel silently. It took him several minutes to gather the courage.

The raven haired teen raised the hammer high over his head then struck down on the steel.

The blade shattered and he repeated the process with the second one.

He dropped the hammer and braced his arms on the workbench. It seemed the reality of his actions finally caught up with him. A sigh escaped his lips along with a gentle sorry.

Jaune put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a nod in condolence.

"You can sit down if you need."

"I'll be alright, Jaune."

The knight took over from there on and tile stacked the fragments to forge welded together. In the following hours they drew out the ingot several times and folded it back onto itself doubling the layer count with each repetition. They completely lost track of time until Ruby pointed it out to them.

The next day they inserted the iron that would make up the sword's spine and started drawing out the shape. He could've easily made it a full length katana but when it came time to forge the tip ren insisted on taking off more material than he had originally intended. At just under 12 inches plus the tang it would fall into the tanto category. Still, there was enough leftover material for a second blade if he'd ever need it but right now, time wasn't on their side.

He had planned to complete the project in one weekend but that proved unrealistic. He apologised to Ren but he seemed less bothered by it. He still had his guns as well as his father's knife.

Those, however, proved poor replacements for Stormflower's versatility. The next day professor Goodwitch pitted him against Scarlet David, one of Sun's teammates. It was gun and knife against gun and sword. Needless to say, his teammate lost quite badly.

He was just glad team JNPR had Pyrrha to pick up the slack and bring in the points to qualify for the Vytal festival.

As soon as the bell rang they headed right back to the forge. Jaune readied the horizontal water tank and got a nice fire going while Ren applied the clay to the spine of the sword. The knight observed his teammates handiwork. He was astonished how even of a hamon Ren had created.

"Great work."

"Thank you."

"Of course, now comes the make or break part," he explained gazing at the water tank.

"Are you nervous?"

"A little, I mean we're probably on the safe side because of the length but still," Jaune replied.

"If it breaks, we can alway try again."

Jaune swallowed the lump in his throat then carefully placed the steel into the burning coals and waited. His stare burned with an intensity that rivaled that of the coal. He watched as the steel changed color with the rising temperature. Once there was an even glow he pulled it from the fire and brought it over to the tank.

He took a deep breath before lowering it for the quench.

The water sizzled when the white hot steel entered.

These next seconds were critical

But as long as it remained quiet

As long as there was no metallic ting

…

Nothing

Ren stepped back allowing Jaune to remove the blade from the water tank.

He observed the edge for any warping but the blade was as straight as when it went it.

The quench had gone perfectly.

"We did it."

For the briefest moment he could swear he saw a smile on Ren's face. He clamped the tang into a vice and removed his gloves and apron. They could finally behold their creation in all its glory.

"You'll need to grind off the clay, sharpen the edge, etch it. You can add some engravings if you want but I think that ship has sailed," he released a groan in frustration. They were pressed for time and he forgot to present him the option, "and the handle…"

"Jaune."

"Huh?"

"It's alright, you've done so much already but I believe I can finish it myself."

"Okay but if you need anything, don't hesitate."