Disclaimer: I do not nor do I claim to have any ownership to RWBY or any other media referenced in this story, all rights belong to their respective owners. The only thing I lay claim to are my OCs (which do not enter the story until way later down the line).

"Hmm? What's this?" the old lady ponders as she spots a bundle of cloth in the middle of the woods. She hears the faint - but unmistakable - crying of an infant emanating from the bundle

She hobbles over to it and picks up the bundle, peering at the babe wrapped in what seems to be blood splattered cloth. The babe is small, with dark hair, light skin, and two wolf ears poking out of their hair. The woman checks the babe over for any injuries that could be the source of the blood. The babe - a little girl - has all ten fingers and ten toes, no missing parts, and no injuries whatsoever. She holds the babe close to her and looked around for the blood source.

She finds it soon enough.

A cloaked woman with the same dark hair, wolf ears, and pale skin, bleeding horribly from a wound to her abdomen. She isn't dead, not yet. And the woman's eyes locks with the old lady's artificial ones.

"Take care of my Rose. They'll be after her, for her eyes. Please, take ca..." she tries to say, before she succumbs to her wounds.

"I will care for her like she was my own… and I'll make sure no one can hunt her for her eyes," the old lady swears as she hobbles her way out of the woods, baby in her arms, towards the cottage she had been living in for the past few months. She settles the little one on a couch and pulls out a bottle of milk from the fridge. Carefully lifting the babe's head to the open end of the bottle, she tips a bit of milk into their mouth, hoping that she would be able to drink like that, at least for the time being.

Once fed and swaddled in some clean cloth, the old lady puts the babe into a basket.

"A baby. How am I supposed to raise a baby after I failed with my own?" she moans to herself before shaking her head. "Get yourself together Maria, always keep your promises," she scolds herself. She can go into town tomorrow and buy a proper feeding bottle and formula along with some proper clothes. The little girl can probably sleep in the basket for a little while longer before she needs to buy a crib. "Oh, dust, this is going to be hard," she mutters to herself as she settles into bed, getting ready for the sleepless night ahead of her.

~Time Skip: 5 years~

"Abuela! I want to be a huntress too! Can I? Please?" a young girl pleads with her abuela. The news is playing on the radio and a segment on a group of huntresses that had saved a village just finished. The girl's little brother holds her hand and nods furiously.

"Me too! Me too!"

"Of course. I was planning on teaching you to fight soon anyway. Might as well start now," the old lady replies carefully, visions of her own daughter flashing before her. "But Oscar, sweetie, you're still a bit too little to fight yet."

Oscar pouts, but the girl beams.

"Really?! What weapon will you teach me? I didn't know you could fight! Were you a huntress too?! What-"

"Hush, Rosa, I'll answer all these questions in time. We can start your training in the morning."

~Time Skip: another 5 years~

"Geists."

"Geists are grimm capable of possessing objects. While they are possessing an object, they are very hard to separate from it, however, their natural state is very vulnerable. A well-aimed bullet can easily kill a Geist," The ten-year-old girl recites.

"Ancients."

"An Ancient is any Grimm that has survived for a minimum of 300 years," the eight-year-old boy chimes.

"Good," her grandmother tells them, ruffling their hair fondly.

"When will I get to be the new Grimm Reaper?" the girl asks.

"Not until you are a bit older. Once you have mastered dual wielding your scythes I'll let you go out as the Grimm Reaper. Until then-,"

"I know, I know. I just, I want to fight grimm like you did. The only time I get to actually fight is to clear grimm out of the woods," the girl mumbles.

"At least you get to fight grimm," the boy prods.

"Rosa, do you know how old I was when I first started clearing grimm away from the town where I grew up?" the old lady asks.

"No."

"I was fifteen. That's five years older than you are right now, and five years older than when you first started doing it. And I was twenty when I made my first appearance as the Grimm Reaper. You are already so strong, but I want to make sure that you are as trained as I can get you before you make your mark on this world. I don't want you to make the same mistakes I made. If you don't learn from the past-,"

"You are destined to repeat it. I know, Abuela," Rosa chimes.

"I love you so, so much, and one day, you will be the Grimm Reaper I wish I could have been," her grandmother tells her. The old lady turns to the boy and strokes his cheek. "I may not be able to teach you everything I know, and while you may never be the Grimm Reaper, you'll still be able to reap Grimm much better than I ever did."

~Time Skip: 2 years later~

Some say that 12 years old is too young to be fighting Grimm. Well, not 'some', but most.

Maria Calavera is not one of those people.

She can see how ready her Rosa is, how prepared and strong she is. There are days when she wonders if she had pushed her old ambitions onto her dear grandchild, but then there are days when she knows even in her bones, that her granddaughter will be a Grimm Reaper like she never could be.

Her grandson, he isn't ready yet, but soon he would be. She can see it in his eyes, how he looks at his sister, how he focuses on becoming as strong as her.

And Rosa truly is a sight to behold.

Shoulder-length, spiky bone-white hair framed her pale face. A bone-white skull mask made of titanium covered her face and hid her silver eyes. She wore a black combat dress with bone-white 'ribs' wrapping around her torso and over her chest. Dark grey leggings covered her legs and disappeared into black titanium-toed combat boots. There were six daggers sheathed on her body, one in each boot, one on either side of her waist, and one behind each shoulder. At her waist, rested two high-impact, customizable, scythe-sniper rifles painted in black with red blades, in their compact form. Just below that, at the base of her spine, sat a black titanium box that held all her ammunition, dust rounds, emergency supplies, and extra clothing/disguises. Covering her entire outfit was a black cloak and hood that had dust woven all throughout the dark material.

Overall, Maria is proud. She raised this girl to be strong, to be better than she was. And looking at this girl before her, she can safely say that she succeeded in that.

"Rosa, my dear," she starts to say as her granddaughter grabs her hands.

"I will bring honour to the name 'Grimm Reaper', I promise," the armed girl swears.

"That wasn't what I was going to say. What I was going to say is that I love you so much, and no matter what happens, I am proud of you."

Oscar hugs his sister around her waist. "Kill some grimm for me, Ojos Plateados?"

"You know I will, Ojos Avellana," she murmurs into his hair. "Be good for Abuela."

With that, Rosa departs from her small family, ready for her first mission.

That night, the world gets their first glimpse of this new Grimm Reaper. Qrow Branwen is even there to see her. He can't believe his eyes when he sees a skull-faced, dual-scythe wielding warrior, smaller than his niece, seemingly fly out of nowhere and start slicing through the pack of Ursa Major he had been fighting for hours.

He watches in near shock as she decimates them, fading in and out of reality the entire time. It is over in a scant few minutes.

"Who, who are you?" he asks, eyes blown wide. She turns to face him.

After a few seconds, her voice softly echoes through the canyon they are standing in. "I'm the Grimm Reaper."

And just like that, she disappears. Gone.

Over the next three years, the Grimm Reaper becomes more and more widely known, her kills more extraordinary. No one can tell if they were tall tales or true, but one thing was for sure, this Grimm Reaper is a force of pure destruction aimed at the Grimm.

Meanwhile, Rosa continues training. She continues to master her semblance, matter manipulation. It is easy to use on herself, not so easy on things she isn't touching. She has two swords that she can dual wield well enough to make it seem like she was a regular huntress-in-training using her favoured weapon(s), despite it being her third choice in weaponry.

She wants to fight, wants to become a proper huntress. Her dream is to help people, to slay monsters, to be the Grimm Reaper AND a proper huntress.

At her side is her little brother. Oscar. They both know they aren't blood, but who cares? Family is family. Family helps each other.

Unlike her and their Abuela, he doesn't like wielding scythes. Instead, he uses a long staff with a mecha shift point allowing it to have a mono bladed, dual bladed, or tri bladed tip. He also has a long dagger that is linked to the staff with a magnetic capability, allowing him to use the two to fly around a battlefield, much like Rosa can. Much like their Abuela used to.

"I'm just going to head into Vale, Abuela! I need to pick up some more dust!" she calls out one afternoon. "Oscar, you need any?"

"Think you could pick up another book on finding semblances?" his voice calls out.

"You have them all!" she calls back, trying and failing to hide her laughter.

She's wearing her civilian outfit, although one that can morph into that of the Grimm Reaper's at will. She has black goggles with a dark blue glass screening that completely blocks her eyes from anyone looking at her and are capable of morphing into her skull mask. Her hair, while still cropped short, is pitch black. She wears a dark blue combat dress with a white corset. At her neckline is an extra piece of white fabric acting as a scarf (ready to be let out and become her black cloak at any point. She's wearing black stockings and heavy titanium-toed combat boots. At her hips is a white belt that she can secure dust vials, ammo, and her titanium supplies box. In her titanium supplies box are her scythes, hidden beneath medical supplies. Crossing over her back are her twin swords.

While her appearance closely matches that of the Grimm Reaper, it is different enough that no one would think them to be the same person. She'd had a lot of practice in keeping the two identities separate.

"Make sure to keep an eye out for thugs. There have been way too many of them roaming Vale in the past few months," Maria calls out.

Rosa just rolls her eyes behind her goggles and heads out.

The trip into Vale is quiet, and she heads to her favourite Dust store 'From Dust Till Dawn'. She purchases a lot of dust, probably a lot more than a huntress-in-training would need, but she buys it anyway. Most of it is burn dust, one of the more versatile types for offence. While there, she notices that her favourite magazine has come in too. So, she pops on her headphones and starts reading.

She gets maybe ten pages in when she feels a tap on her shoulder and she turns around, taking off her headphones.

"Yes?"

"Put your hands in the air!"

"Are you… robbing me?"

"Yes!"

"Huh." That's the only warning he gets before he finds himself sailing backwards through the air and through a window. Two more thugs come running towards her and she just barrels right towards them, sending them out the window as well.

She stands up in the street, grabbing her swords from their sheathes on her back and near-expertly fends off the thugs, which are in much higher numbers than she was expecting. Over a dozen at least, and they are being led by the notorious Roman Torchwick himself.

Growling under her breath, she launches herself into fight mode. Hitting hard enough to punch straight through aura and break bones and one of the thugs even found himself impaled a little bit. She yelps a bit at seeing her sword impale the thug, not actually wanting to kill these guys, before pulling the sword out and butting the hilt into the head of another thug that had tried to sneak up behind her. It takes less than a minute to incapacitate the thugs, leaving only Torchwick left.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were. Unfortunately, this is where we part ways," he states as she catches her breath a bit. He aims his gun-cane at her and fires. It's easy enough to block the shot with her sword, but it's enough of a distraction for him to start running for the top of a building across the street.

"You okay if I go after him?" she asks the clearly shaken shop keeper.

"Yes, I'll be fine. Just don't get yourself hurt, okay?"

"You got it," she says before chasing after him. She bats him around on that rooftop, him being easily able to block her deliberately slowed movements. Growling, she starts to speed them up and he becomes less and less able to block or dodge her strikes.

He's good, she'll give him that, but he's fighting one of the most dangerous women in the world. You don't get to be the Grimm Reaper just by wearing a cloak and swinging a scythe around.

She can hear airships above her, but she doesn't let that distract her. Unfortunately, one of them was allied with her opponent and she gets hit with a blast from behind, knocking her swords out of her hands. It is enough of a distraction that Torchwick gets a chance to escape.

"Damnit. I can't let him get away," she growls under her breath as she levitates her swords back into her reach. Stepping onto one of them, she grabs the other in her right hand and rockets towards the now retreating airship. Grabbing her one vial of earth dust, she secures it in the groove running down the centre of the sword in her hand. She points it towards the retreating airship and sends spires of earth rocketing up towards the airship, aiming to trap and wreck it enough that it can't escape.

It's just her luck though that the spires miss completely, letting the airship escape as she very nearly runs into the earthen spires the created.

"Damnit. He and whoever else was helping him got away. At least they didn't get the chance to steal any dust," she mutters under her breath while using her remaining earth dust to sink the earthen spires back underneath the ground. "But now I need to buy some more earth dust. Great."

Just as she goes to turn back towards the dust shop, she hears someone clear their throat.

"I'm going to have to take you to be interviewed on what happened this evening," the person says and Rosa turns to face a woman who is quite clearly a huntress.

"Okay," she says sullenly.

This was not how she had planned to spend the evening.

She ends up sitting in an interrogation room and is almost immediately lectured by the huntress.

"I hope you know that what happened this evening won't be taken lightly. You put yourself and others in grave danger."

"They started it! They were robbing the store, and me. If I didn't fight back, they quite possibly would have killed me and the shopkeeper. If I let them get away, even if they didn't kill us, then there's no telling what they'd use that dust for. They could have been planning to use it to kill way more people. Because of my actions, they didn't get away with any dust, and most of them were even apprehended. Torchwick and whoever was piloting that airship were they only ones to escape. Yes, others were in danger, but I did my best to minimize that danger. Also, I'm a minor. My guardian should have been called in by now," Rosa snaps.

"Your guardian is being notified as we speak. And regardless of your intentions, you should have let the professionals handle the situation."

"What? Like you? You didn't arrive until after Torchwick escaped! At that rate, the chances of you or any other professional arriving in time to do anything were slim to none. If I hadn't acted, there was every chance I could've died!"

"ENOUGH! You are a fifteen-year-old girl. You do not have the qualifications to make that judgement."

"No. I will not be silent and let you verbally attack me. I may be fifteen, but I have the same rights as any other person. Or does me being a faunus make me lesser than a human such as yourself?" Rosa yells back, leaping to her feet. The huntresses slaps her riding crop down onto the table and Rosa feels her chair tucking itself under her, forcing her to sit down.

"You will sit down and be quiet," she near enough hisses out.

"No. I told you, I will not sit here and let you verbally attack me. I know my rights, and you have no right to verbally attack me. You have no right to lecture me in this way, nor do you have the right to question me without my guardian present or her permission. You are breaking laws, and I refuse to have my rights violated," Rosa growls back.

"You are acting like a child."

"I am a child! I'm the minor here! You're the adult, and yet you can't even act like one!"

"ENOUGH!" a male voice booms from the doorway.

Rosa and the huntress turn to look at the man as he walks in and sits down.

"Glynda, I asked you to keep Ms Calavera occupied in a calm manner while I spoke with her legal guardian. I did not ask you to get into a yelling match with her," he scolds the huntress.

"Professor, I-"

"No, I do not want to hear any excuses, Glynda. Now, I believe it to be best if you waited outside while I speak with Ms Calavera," he cuts her off. She nods shortly and leaves the room. "Ms Calavera, do you know who I am?"

"I don't think there's a self-respecting hunter or hunter-in-training in the world that doesn't know of the youngest headmaster of a hunter school since their founding days, and most would also be able to recognise that same headmaster if they saw him. You're Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy, the hunter academy residing in Vale," she states coolly.

"I'll start this off by informing you that I have spoken with your legal guardian and have recorded permission to ask you some questions. Would you like to hear the recording?"

"Yes please."

He places a tape recorder on the table and presses play.

"Is this Maria Calavera?"

"That is my name."

"My name is Professor Ozpin. One of my colleagues has brought your granddaughter, Rosa Calavera, into the Vale Police Department for questioning after a robbery she assisted in thwarting. I'd like to speak with her about her future as a huntress, however, as she is a minor, I am requesting your permission on the matter."

"Hmmmm. Alright then. I, Maria Calavera, legal guardian of my granddaughter, Rosa Calavera, give permission to Professor Ozpin to speak to my granddaughter about the subject of her future as a huntress."

"Your grandmother went on to say that she is unable to come and pick you up, something about your brother needing her attention, but that she is more than willing to let you make the trip home on your own," he says as the recording ends.

"That is more than okay, Professor," she chirps happily.

"Now. My first question for you is, what are your plans for the future? For example, are you planning on going to a hunter academy, or taking the licence exam once you are of age, or are you not planning on being a huntress at all?" he asks.

"I'm mostly self-taught and home schooled. My Abuela, my brother, and I move around a lot, which means we never really settle in one place. I was planning on just taking a licence exam once I became an adult. I figured that would be the path of least resistance to get where I want," Rose explains with a shrug of her shoulders. "That's three years away though, more depending on which Kingdom I'm in. So, I'm not too worried about specifics at this point."

"What if I told you that Beacon had an open position in its First-Year cohort this year? Your age wouldn't be an issue if you can pass a written academics test which I've had sent over."

"I… I would need to speak with my Abuela about it. Like I said, we move around a lot, and I'm not sure if any of us are ready to be apart from each other for that long," she says softly.

"If that wasn't an issue though, would you be interested?"

"I… I guess so. The chance to learn from licenced hunters and have access to cheaper dust of higher quality, as well as to form bonds as part of a hunter team would be priceless."

"How about this, I'll let you take the written academics test and I'll have it marked overnight. You can talk with your grandmother tonight and I'll call you sometime tomorrow to discuss what you would like to do. How does that sound?"

"Okay. Even if I decide not to attend if I pass, then at least I'll know where I stand, and what subjects need work."

Ozpin sets the test papers down in front of her and passes her a pen to write with.

For an hour and a half, she sits there writing. She barely stops to turn the page before she continues writing away. Once that hour and a half is over, she stops writing and starts rifling through the pages, checking her answers.

Ten minutes later, she declares herself finished. Ozpin collects them and sees her to the door, letting her go on her way.

She talks with her grandma and brother when she gets home, and they end up deciding that she should take the opportunity to go to Beacon.

Not waiting to find out her results – she knew she had done much more than passed – she began packing. Trying to pack what seems like her entire life belongings – because her entire life revolves around training to be the best huntress in history – is hard. There's very little that she leaves behind, but for a moment she is struck by how empty her room is without her things, her things which she managed to fit into three rucksacks.

She then manages to stuff it all into two rucksacks, the third stored inside another one.

Morning comes and like clockwork the phone rings at nine in the morning.

Ozpin confirms what they already knew, she had passed the exam.

They tell him that she will attend, and that is that.

The next few days pass in a haze and all too soon, Rosa is on the airship to Beacon.

This is a new battlefield, one she has never navigated before, but she'll just have to learn how to navigate it.

A/N: Hi and welcome to my story The Grimm Reaper. This started as me just wanting a story of Maria raising Ruby to be an even more fearsome scythe wielder than she already is in canon, and it has evolved into a story that loosely follows canon for a while but then flow on effects start happening and changing things. I am a sucker for story lines where the bad guys screw themselves over by doing something that shouldn't have mattered in the long run (and I strongly believe that this is the case even in canon. Torchwick's choice in robbing from Dust Till Dawn should not have mattered, but it has changed the world of Remnant forever. I can rant on that but I will leave it for another time if people want to hear that), and it certainly holds true here. Killing Summer early should not have mattered, but it is the tipping point in this story even if the flow on takes in world years to be seen.

Currently, I have written 23 chapters (working on chapter 24) and it adds up to almost 100k words so far, and I'm only up to beginning of volume 6. Depending on how canon goes and how much I like the direction it takes in volume 8, I probably won't be following it very closely from then on due to having made my own plans for after volume 7. I intend to release chapters once a week for now until I use up all my pre-written stuff and I'll go from there.

I'd also just like to say that while I'm generally busy with assignments for uni at the moment, these are really tough times and mental health is important. So if you need someone to talk to just to help keep yourself sane, feel free to PM me for a chat and I'll try and get back to you when I have time.

Take care,

- RebeccaMagic9