A/N: sorry if this is a bit short or lesser, entire thing done on phone during a car ride.

She was woken by a rough shake by her shoulder, and initially thought that it must've been Weiss or her sister, up to bother her about whatever. She shook off the initial attempt, but quickly capitulated when she felt a harsh slap across her face. She realised that she wasn't dealing with a teammate, rather a much more intimidating figure they'd recently come to follow who happened to have access to their dorm. Quickly, and trying to not seem panicked, Ruby scrambled to her feet and stood at attention to her master, who seemingly managed to get into their dorm unnoticed. It was midnight, so she couldn't bring herself to understand why he'd be waking her up so early.

"Master… I haven't done anything wrong, h-have I?" Ruby stammered out quietly, but Carolus did not say a word, merely gesturing for her to follow. She held onto him as he teleported out of the room, a much quieter woosh sounding out compared to the crack of lightning she'd heard earlier. She'd question how he'd done that later, but currently, she just wanted to know what she was wanted for, and out of her armor, too.

He'd led her to the edge of the forest, before picking up a mace from a rack he'd set up and handed it to the girl. She looked up in slight confusion to her master, only seeing him nod towards another figure in the shadows. She stood ready, the mace held in, what she believed, was a good stance.

"Your form is sloppy, loosen up a bit, hold the mace a bit higher." The figure stated, before quietly stepping out of the shadows to greet Ruby. It was Cardin Winchester, the schools' already most infamous freshman bully. Ruby groaned in slight frustration, annoyed to see this boy here waiting for them.

"Rose." Carolus stated, catching his apprentice's attention easily. "Cardin mainly utilizes a Mace, the very same weapon you wield now and the same class of weapon you'll be using should you complete this training." Ruby nodded, slowly connecting the dots. As much as she may dislike the boy, he knew how to use his weapon, if to a basic degree. "He is… amatuer, but he'll serve as a good sparring partner, and can show you the basics of using the weapon."

"Have I only been brought out here to learn basics?" Ruby tested, slightly offended that she'd be paired up with a fighter that was merely amatuer.

"Patience, Apprentice. You cannot learn the advanced forms until you've mastered the basics. He'll merely be acting as an assistant for the time being, while I deal with more… delicate matters." The Chaplain stated bluntly. She felt the need to push for details, but she also knew that she was in no position to question him on such… not yet, at least.

"Winchester." he called out, successfully grasping the boy's attention. "You'll teach her the basics until breakfast. However, if I find her understanding lacking come 4:30 this afternoon, there will be consequences for both of you, am I clear?" The boy nodded calmly, seeming rather indifferent to the whole affair, though Ruby frantically nodded, fearing that Cardin's failure might have repercussions on her. After the Space Marine was sure his point was through, he'd swiftly stalked off back towards the school, the CCT tower specifically.

Once Cardin was sure the man was out of earshot, he yawned and rested his mace on his shoulder. He looked Ruby up and down before rolling his eyes and cracking his knuckles on his free hand against his breastplate. "Okay, pipsqueak, I don't like you, and I know you don't like me… But that guy honestly scares the crap outta me." He said, spitting in the dirt at the end. "So, I really don't wanna see whatever the hell he has in store for us should we fail to meet his expectations or whatever, so try to keep up."

"Worry not about me." Ruby said, surprising herself with how similar her speech pattern was compared to her master's in that sentence. "Just don't fail as a teacher, whatever your punishment will be for failure, mine will be ten times worse."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Let's just get this crap over with…" Cardin spat, annoyed by the younger girl's tone.

The morning dragged on for only a few more hours, but to Ruby, it felt like she was there an eternity. She'd learned the basics to the first three forms, simply named Form I, Form II, and Form III. The first was a defensive form, more focused on deflecting strikes, delivering parries, blocking attacks, and dodging them. The second was a much more offensive form, it was looser, more nimble, and relied on heavy blows, vicious counterattacks, and overall just straight out mauling an opponent. The third was a much more complex form compared to the first two, mixing elements from both to form a more versatile combative form, with the addition of some light punches and kicks focused more on disorienting an opponent than actually doing damage.

She didn't dare admit it, but using the mace was not easy. Being a one handed weapon, it was very different than using a polearm like her scythe. Hers was a flanged mace, similar to Cardin's own weapon of choice. They were both currently wearing steel training plates over their shoulders, upper body, and wrists, along with leather padding over their thighs and shins. They both adorned a similar steel training helm, the masks drawn over their faces for protection. This was it, after six and a half hours of training with the three forms, it was time for Ruby to test what she'd learned.

Word had apparently spread, and a small body of the student population had gathered to watch the fight, Ruby and Cardin's teams included with JNPR too. Her own and JNPR shared worried looks with each other and glances at her, the various other teams merely talking among themselves as they waited for the fight to begin…

"Alright, you've had your chance to train, now it's time to see what you've learned." Cardin stated, resting his mace on his shoulder. With his free hand, he reached down into his pocket and fished out the orders laid by the Space Marine. "These instructions state a brawl, no semblances or ranged weaponry, until either you lay unconscious, or my aura is depleted completely."

"Alright then, guess I better brace myself." Ruby said. Cardin should be going easier on her this first time, only using one form to fight and not switching in and out of different forms. She was would have to thank him later for that, seeing as he knew all 12 forms and she only knew the basics of the first three.

Doctor Oobleck stood off to the side, a gun loaded with a blank ready so as the signal the start of the match. Oobleck looked at Ruby with some slight sympathy, feeling sorry for the girl that this was the training she'd be experiencing so soon. He sighed, knowing there was nothing to be done about it. Ozpin had given Carolus tier III access, meaning that this Space Marine now held just as much authority as he did, if not more simply in the case of him being… well, a Space Marine. He was, however, fascinated by him. He'd never imagined he'd ever actually see a living Space Marine in person, much less one in terminator armor. But, shaking the thought away, the eccentric doctor gave a quick look around to take in the scene, before raising the gun into the air.

Yang growled, seeing her little sister pitted against that dick Cardin. Were it not Carolus setting the fight, she would have gone down there and knocked out his lights just for looking at her funny. But as it was, she knew first-hand just how powerful the man- er… Astartes was. Nevertheless, she was left with an uneasy feeling about this fight, especially since semblances were prohibited in this one. Ruby simply lacked the strength to compete, last she checked, and Cardin, despite being a fool, was a very strong fool even without his semblance. Only advantage her sister had in this fight was that she'd be harder to hit from an evasive standpoint…

The gun fired, and immediately the two assumed their stances, Cardin was in form I, Ruby form III. She swiftly analyzed his form, looking for an opening or something, anything she could use to gain an upper hand. After some swift analyzing, she'd determined he was focusing his guard on his right side, and came up with a plan.

Rushing forward, she swung high on Cardin's right side, swiftly feinting as he moved to block her attack and coming back around on his left. Her blow failed to land as Cardin shifted his defense and parried her attack, returning the strike with a hit from the back of his mace to her helm before kicking her away.

"Speed up your attacks, Rose. That was pathetically predictable." Cardin mocked, spinning his mace in one hand. Ruby grunted before fading back and delivering an overhead strike down on Cardin. The move was blocked, but she'd closed the distance now. While their maces were still locked, with her free hand she punched him in the face, disorienting him before grabbing hold of his armor, and throwing him behind her. He'd managed to catch himself, but not before Ruby managed to deliver a heavy blow to his left shoulder pad.

His aura took a hit, albeit not a game-changer, being knocked down from 100% to 87% on his aura levels. He snorted, honestly caught off guard by her play. It seems she wasn't totally incompetent with a mace. He resumed his defensive stance, waiting for her to make the next move. It came shortly enough, an attempted uppercut trying to knock him off balance. Sidestepping the attack, he spun about around the attack, knocking her off balance with a bash to the side of her head with the back of his mace, and finishing his attack by spinning himself back around, slamming his mace into her face.

Ruby was sent back a few feet, dazed and somewhat confused from the Blows she'd taken. That strike was devastating, having knocked her aura down a significant amount from 100% to 36%. That was not a mistake she wished to make again, and decided to commit that lesson to memory. She analyzed the situation before her, and after some momentary decision making she decided it'd be best to keep the offensive.

She lowered into a lower stance, before making a mad dash back towards the older boy. He swung in a wide arch in an attempt to hit her, not expecting her to roll under the attack and catch him in the back of his knee with her mace. He was brought down to a knee, only a moment later she struck him in the back of the head with her mace, forcing him to catch himself from falling face first in the dirt, ending by spinning herself and using the momentum to deliver a heavy upward strike on Cardin's head. The blow knocked him onto his back, which Ruby tried to capitalize on, but was kicked off of him. The combo of strikes lowered him by at least 50%, lowering him to 37%.

"Hah, not bad… lucky, but not bad." Cardin said, spinning his mace. He guessed it should have been expected that she'd pick up on this combat type quickly, after all, she was in two years early.

He decided he'd take the offensive for a moment, if only to mix up the situation. Taking a large step forward, Ruby expected him to swing from his right, so she put her guard appropriately. Unfortunately, his plan was somewhat different, tucking his arm in tightly and driving the back of his mace into her face. She fell back, dazed, before having the wind knocked out of her by a knee being driven into her gut.

Ruby doubled over, the air being knocked out of her, before taking another hit to her head and sending her falling back into the dirt. Her aura was now gone, reduced to zero, but it was very clear she was to fight until either his was broken, or she was knocked out. She was bleeding, a small cut made into the side of her head from one of the flanges on his mace. She was dizzy, and pretty sure she'd been concussed from the blow. Grunting she forced herself forward, swinging down on Cardin, only being blocked and kicked back in the process.

She barely caught herself, but it was too little, too late, as by the time she'd regained her composure, the last thing she registered, was her opponent swinging hard to the left, before everything went white.

Yang watched as the final blow was struck, sending her unconscious sister reeling out of the ring. It was very difficult to watch, but her sister had performed much better than she'd anticipated. Rushing to Ruby's side, she started to push some of her own aura into her little sister to heal injuries and make sure there was no permanent damage done. After she heard Ruby groan, barely awake, she sighed in relief. Gesturing for her friends to come forward and help, they began removing her armor and getting her on her feet.

"Not bad, Rose." Cardin said, shouldering his mace. Yang looked up at him with an unamused glare, though Ruby herself just merely nodded. "You'll probably wanna learn how to properly use heavy armor as well, but I'm gonna assume your mentor already gots that underway. I'll go ahead and inform the teachers you're gonna be in the infirmary most the day." He finished, before dropping the extra heavy plates off and making his way towards their first class.

Looking back down at her sister, she decided that Ruby really didn't need to be on her feet after a blow like that, so picked her up in both arms. Nodding to Weiss and Blake, the they all headed towards the infirmary.

Unbeknownst to them all was the one figure watching from elsewhere, a simple camera to capture every moment for him. He pressed his fingers together and scrutinized every movement, their postures, how they went about attacking.

He was not amused. Her form was decent, if sloppy, and he wasn't necessarily a poor teacher of a mace for an amateur, but his apprentice he found to be even more lacking in upper body strength than he'd originally anticipated. He would need to remedy that if he wished to make her worthy of being part of the Chaplaincy.

He would not reprimand them for incompetence, he'd decided, instead deciding that he would merely leave it at that and focus training today on her upper body strength. Cardin he supposed he could reward for his assistance, perhaps put in a good word with a combat instructor or whatnot.

Pushing himself away from the small screen, he turned about 180 degrees in his chair and stared out at the city before him. It was plain, boring, and small to him. Yet he supposed there was some appeal to it, being the sky clear of polluted smog and the sea beyond the harbor the most free of pollution or trash. Nevertheless, it was pathetic that it held very little in the sense of defense. Were anyone with any actual tactical acumen were to wish to assault the city, they wouldn't have a difficult time given they have the numbers to actually assault it.

He grumbled to himself in idle disappointment, being thus far unimpressed with this world in every aspect, save his apprentice's first worthy kill. This world needed some true imperial influence to truly progress, and crush these measly "Grimm" things. Of course, this world was a very… delicate, situation, he knew. With tensions between these pathetic faunas and normal humans rising at an alarming rate, it wouldn't be long, he thought, before there might be a civil war, and despite knowing he'd relish the chance to slaughter these abhumans by the thousands, he knew that such would be a colossal waste of time, and the war would ultimately be pointless. Not mentioning the fact that it would make these Grimm even more difficult to rout, despite being the pathetic beasts they are.

The cost of human life to him was unacceptable for a situation with such a simple remedy. Despite his hatred for the mutant, he knew he could use said mutants to his advantage. There were easily enough of them to be used to wage a global crusade against the Grimm, given assistance from their human betters. Such a thought was pointless, however. These Faunas were very divided themselves, some wanting peaceful protest for "equality" and others wanting to gain respect from fear.

Growling, he turned back around and stood up from his chair. A Space Marine should not sit idle, he needed to kill something… or rather, some faunas.

Ozpin was surprised to find the Space Marine standing before him, his arms crossed and through his helm he could feel the Space Marine glaring at him. He pressed his fingers together in contemplation at the given request, being a difficult order to be able to give.

"So… you wish to destroy nearby White Fang terrorists, that is it?"

"The tolerance of these aberrations is an affront to the Emperor as it is… but these specific filthy bastards are terrorizing pure humans. I cannot stand by and let these heathens continue this."

Ozpin ran his hands through his hair, knowing a slaughter of these terrorists could go either very poorly or could advance his goals further. A backlash from the public would be the last thing he needed right now, but these terrorists were getting more and more ambitious every week…

He sighed, before pressing down on a button and bringing up a holographic map of the city. He'd made his decision.

"I'm marking key White Fang hubs throughout the city. There are ten in total, and all of them must be totally wiped out… but keep in mind, this cannot reach the news, at least not for awhile. The current situation is tense as it is, so I want this done quietly." He said. The Space Marine nodded, before looking to the map more closely himself.

"I will depart come nightfall, shortly after I've finished with my apprentice. She shall accompany me."

"Please don't do that."

"She's my apprentice, and this will be a good opportunity for her to become greater. She will accompany me. Now, aside from that, I want power cut off from those districts, and I want communication completely cut off at 2130. They will be silenced before they die." The Marine said in finality, before turning about and stalking out the room. The elevator doors closed behind the Space Marine, ending the conversation properly. He pressed his fingers together once more before calling up Glynda to inform her of the situation.

Several hours had passed since he'd informed Glynda of the situation developed, and she was both mortified and glad. Glad that terrorists were being dealt with, mortified that he was taking his much younger apprentice with him to do it. While yes, she has already bloodied her blade, that situation was different. This one, they're the aggressors… sort of. They were attacking the attackers, so she supposed it could also be interpreted as defense, or as a counterattack?

It didn't matter. The Lord Chaplain willed it, and so it must be done. Despite being only tier III access, it was very clear that he held almost as much power as Ozpin himself. So she went along with it, procuring the necessary resources for his "hunt" tonight. Much blood would be spilled tonight, some by Ruby, most, she imagined, would be spilt by the Chaplain. She knew Ruby would not enjoy this hunt one bit, though she was also keenly aware that it was all going to Carolus's plan.

He was a cunning one, indeed.

Though, with all necessary resources acquired, and the control procured of the power grid through some, she would guess, less than legal means thanks to Ozpin's discrete control of the city, she sent the means of completing the operation to Carolus. She could only hope now that this doesn't totally destroy his apprentice's spirits.

Ruby did not mind the extra bed rest, after the intense training the day before and the further training she'd been subject to this morning. Though training after classes (that she was more than happy to miss) was largely just focused in the weight room, specifically upper body strength. It wasn't really unexpected, he'd informed her that he himself was ashamed of her abysmally minuscule strength in that department.

It wasn't as bad as she was expecting it to be, though she was surprised when she was informed that he required her to meet him by the landing pads at exactly 20:00 sharp. She wasn't sure what he had planned, but something told her she would not like it. A premonition, if one would. Tonight, she just knew, there would be blood.

It was 20:00 precisely when she arrived at the landing pads, being met by her mentor and a small weapon crate. He gestured towards the crate, signaling for her to take equipment within the crate. There was a completely black body glove, some black metal plates, a black, metallic fiber cloak, a completely black mask with no markings, a sort of black cover for her weapon, some grenades, a handgun, a knife, and two suppressors.

"Get changed swiftly, apprentice." Carolus said quietly, raising Deathsong. "We're going on a little hunting trip tonight."