RWBY: The Redeemer

Important (probably) announcement at the end of this chapter!

Beta-read by Starlight's Poet

Chapter 29: Second Term (III)

"Welcome, one and all, to Beacon Academy. All of us are gathered here today for an event that has shaped Remnant and its Four Kingdoms for many years…"

In the middle of Ozpin's welcoming speech in the opening ceremony for the visitors from the Four Kingdoms, team RWBY and team JNPR were sitting around the front rows.

Around them were the students from the other Kingdoms - Atlas Academy with their white and grey uniform, Haven's greenish black uniforms, and Shade Academy's…. Free outfit, safe for the Academy-issued IDs on their person.

Turned out Ruby and Yang decided to tell team JNPR, as well as their latest friends from Haven - Sun Wukong and his partner, Neptune Vasilias, about Claude's real identity - at least the abridged version she could come up with, in order not to make things too complicated to explain.

Much to their surprise and relief, their friends accepted and believed about Claude being Ruby's distant relative from her mother's side, who had been on a secret mission from the headmaster himself and had to maintain his fake identity for some time until the headmaster cleared things up.

Currently, the first-years were sitting near the front rows, watching the speech from the headmaster. Ruby was trying to find where his uncle was sitting among the staff, until Yang elbowed her and pointed at the direction, which caused her to snicker upon seeing.

The young huntsman was sleeping on his seat, judging from his crossed arms, his head bobbing up and down and of course, his closed eyes.

"...And that is the Vytal Festival!" Ozpin raised his voice slightly at the mention of the tournament. "Where huntsmen and huntresses from across the four Kingdoms will showcase their skills, to challenge themselves, and to make name for themselves." He added a small joking tone at the end. "But beyond that, remember that this festival's purpose is for cooperation, to celebrate the peace between Four Kingdoms. An opportunity to learn more about each other, and to strengthen the relationship between all of us. We are not just Vale, Atlas, Mistral, or Vacuo - we are all The World of Remnant, and together we all stand."

Everyone applauded at Ozpin's speech. Despite his faults and eccentricities, the headmaster most certainly had a way with words to really the mass. Claude seemed to finally awake from the sudden clapping noise around him; he blinked his sleepiness away and ran his hand on his face to wake himself up.

"I shall end this 'boring' speech of mine." Ozpin began to end his session with another light joke. "...With a small announcement and apology as well, particularly towards the students of Beacon Academy."

The audience, especially the students from Beacon perked up at the sudden shift in the speech's direction - what would the headmaster apologize for?

However, team RWBY and JNPR were different - Ruby in particular, was looking excited.

"First of all, I would like to introduce you to our latest addition of our teaching staff, Mr. Claude Rose, who will serve as a part-time combat instructor and student counsellor."

When Claude walked up to the stage, everyone from Beacon - sans the first-year students, seemed to be confused as to why Sterling Cole came up as Claude Rose.

From their seats, both Barty and Peter smiled when they noticed several teachers and huntsmen from other Kingdoms shifted on their position as their eyes bulged wide open at the sight of their leader.

Overall, Ozpin delivered an apology for the misinformation about Claude's identity; taking the blame as he explained about Claude's secret mission outside of the Kingdoms that forced him to assume a fake persona until the headmaster could deem the situation could be safe for Claude to come clean.

Claude himself also offered a few words of apology as well, along with his promise and words that he did not mean any ill-will towards any of them; truth to be told, Barty and Peter had helped him to revise the script on the night before.

Then, much to the teachers' relief - miraculously enough, their confession was greeted with a warm reception, as the students began to applaud and cheer at them. Although, team RWBY and JNPR had the credit for instigating the response by clapping their hands first - with Yang and Ruby being the loudest, followed by General Ironwood and his entourage.

oXo

The staff of Beacon Academy were currently taking a break inside the teacher's lounge - with Claude, as well as those involved, 'reconnecting' with Ann and Harold regarding his identity - a few jabs and jokes were shared as laughter filled the room.

Soon enough, Harold and Ann had to leave - the former needed to supervise the forge that had been opened for the visitors, while the latter wanted to prepare for her lesson for the students of other Academies as well; leaving Claude with the other 'veteran' teachers.

"You know, I think we're lucky that everything went well." Claude remarked after taking a sip of his coffee.

"Tell me about it." Glynda was more relaxed than usual as she swished the tea in her cup. "It was quite a miracle that everyone accepted the cover story Ozpin has made up, and I'm a little surprised that James agreed to this."

"To be fair it is an agreement neither Oz or James can really refuse. Oh, I also met one of the guys Jimmy brought with him, and I gotta say, he's quite a cool dude." Claude replied.

"Yes, yes, the members of the Ace-Ops." Glynda shrugged. "I saw one of them too; Elm Ederne - she's rather loud for my liking, but I have to admit she knew her way around students.

Suddenly, the door was slammed open, causing everyone to turn and see someone was standing by the entrance.

That someone was a tall, middle-aged man with a bulky muscular figure. His body was well-rounded not unlike Peter, but his height and the visible muscular arms made him a very imposing figure.

He had bright red hair with gray streaks along the right side of his bangs that reach from the tip of the fringe near his scalp and has dark blue eyes. He wore a brown cloak over a leather armour topped with a few plates and tattered jeans and leather boots. Over his right shoulder is a pauldron and on his right hand is a black gauntlet with silver highlights. His appearance was completed with a thin, shaven beard on his face, as well as a pair of fangs jutting up from his lower jaw, signifying him as a boar faunus.

The said man was out of breath with his eyes honing at the youngest teacher in the room. "...Claude?"

The said young huntsman blinked at the man addressing him, and it took him a couple of seconds to finally recognize him. "Waldo?" Claude stood up, approached the man and glanced back at his colleagues while pointing at the newcomer. "Griswald Leicester? Is that you?"

A second later, Claude was engulfed in a big hug by the heavy-built man.

"Hahahaha! Oh, boy! It's so good to see ya!" the large man - Griswald or Waldo, laughed joyfully as he swung Claude around.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, alright, Waldo! Waldo! Put me down!" Claude asked between his laughs as he finally stopped swinging and was held up high by Waldo.

"What in the world happened to you? 20 years and you didn't even grow a wrinkle! Theodore is not gonna believe this!" Waldo asked with fascination in his tone.

"Trust me, Waldo. Nobody, not even me has any idea what was happening. Hell, even Jersey still can't figure it out!" Claude replied.

Suddenly, Claude was abruptly returned to the ground. Waldo's smile grew nervous somehow as he looked around. "...She's not here-here, is she?"

Claude raised his eyebrows at the sudden shift of behaviour, but somehow he could understand with the faunus' anxiety. "It's okay, Waldo. Jersey's still preoccupied in her workshop…. Did she do something to you?"

"Thankfully, no." Waldo sighed before looking over everyone. "...Though she showed me her latest… breakthrough."

At the word, as well as the slightly paling colour on Waldo's face, everyone's danger sense suddenly flared.

"Did she-?"

On cue, everyone else stopped the faunus from carrying on.

"No!"

"Do not speak any further about what that woman has done."

"We might as well pretend that she had never existed."

Waldo blinked at the strange line of answers from Peter, Barty and even Glynda, with Peach looking confused. When he returned to Claude, the younger man was meeting his eyes with his silver orbs.

Claude pointed a finger at Waldo's chest. "See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil about Jersey."

Both men regarded each other for a few seconds until Waldo caught the message. "You got it."

"...Good." Claude nodded and patted Waldo's arm before looking around. "Let's change the topic, shall we? How have you been? I heard from Glynda that you're teaching at Shade. How's Theodore, by the way?"

"That I am. I think by this time you've heard that Theodore is currently the headmaster of Shade Academy." Waldo nodded as he threw a quick glance at the aforementioned woman. "And… I'm actually seeing someone."

"Oh?" Claude raised his eyebrows again in amusement. "Good for you, though, why are you telling us this?"

"Obviously, because you know her." Waldo replied with a lop-sided smile.

"Is that so? Who is it?"

"Err…" Waldo trailed off as he looked around awkwardly. "Here's a hint - Tuff."

Claude stared at Waldo for a second before he looked down in contemplation - wrecking through his brain regarding that single hint. Clock ticking and a few seconds later, Claude's eyes widened as he connected the dots.

"...No fucking way." Claude commented with wide-eyes.

"Yes fucking way." Waldo was grinning both anxiously and excitingly at the same time.

"I-but- How?! How did that happen!?" Claude turned to his colleagues. "It's already shocking enough to hear about Jimmy and Glynda, and now this?!"

"Um… What, or who are you talking about?" Barty asked after sharing a confused glance with Peter.

"That woman who put us in the hospital for a month!" Claude shot at his friends.

The silence from stone-faced Barty and Peter was telling enough of their surprise, while Glynda and Peach only let out a silent 'oh'.

Claude then returned to Waldo, "Did Theo have anything to say about it?"

"Surprisingly, not much, all things considered. He just laughed everything off and wished me luck…. Which I probably will need in near future." Waldo nervously grinned.

It took another second for Peter to finally reply, "Ha! Now that's something you don't hear everyday, isn't it?" He said as he slapped his lap boisterously, before he stood up and approached the boar faunus. "Congratulations, my friend! No offence, but I do wonder which one of you will break first."

One might have taken Peter's comment as offensive, but not Waldo, considering the context. "I hope neither… Though technically I kind of ended up breaking her ribcage during our first fight."

Both Claude and Peter were both amused and cringed at the same time. "I don't even know how to comment on that, man. I mean, look at you! I know you've been training a lot, but right now? I think you can win against Theodore, since… y'know, you're dating her." Claude then smacked his lips a few times. "...Damn, that still tastes weird in my mouth when I say it."

The room seemed to fall into an awkward, yet amusing silence; when the door was opened again, revealing the chaperones from Atlas.

Clover Ebi entered the room and noticed the awkward atmosphere inside the room. "Um… Is this a bad time?"

Claude quickly approached the newcomer with a friendly smile. "No, no, it's just your imagination. Things are good here." He offered his hand which Clover shook firmly. "Good to see you again, Clover."

"Likewise, Claude." The Ace-Ops leader nodded.

Claude then turned to everyone in the room. "So, guys. This is Clover Ebi, one of Jimmy's bodyguards."

The man in question nodded to everyone. "Good to be here, I'm looking forward to working with you all."

Being the deputy headmistress, Glynda took it upon herself to personally greet Clover. "Welcome to Beacon Academy, Mr. Ebi. We also look forward to working with you as well." She then took a brief look around. "I didn't see Ms. Ederne with you, where is she?"

"Oh, Elm was having a quick visit to the restroom, so she told me to go on ahead. She should be here any minute now."

As if on cue, another person had entered the room. Claude had to say - a buff, tall lady with tanned skin, but he had to admit that she had a fair face.

"Sorry for the wait, everyone! Beacon is a lot bigger than the last time I visited!" the woman apologized with a somewhat boisterous voice, not unlike Peter when he was teaching. She then grinned at Glynda. "Good to see you again, Professor Goodwitch!"

The deputy headmistress nodded cordially in return. "Glad to have you here, Ms. Ederne. Allow me to introduce you to the latest addition of our faculty. This is Claude Rose, though I believe you have seen him during the ceremony."

"Hi, there." Claude gave a friendly greeting.

"It's nice to meet you!" Elm then proceeded to shake Claude's hand - the latter had to keep the rest of his body from being shaken along as well. "It's funny to learn that you share the same name and the appearance of Lightning Emperor himself! The world is sure a big place, eh?"

Knowing what Elm was referring to, Claude pushed down the urge to blush as the rest snickered at his predicament.

"Y-yeah, what a coincidence, huh?" He managed to play it off somehow. "Still, nice to meet you too, Elm. Looking forward to working with ya."

"Likewise, let's make this Vytal Festival another best one of the generation!" Elm energetically replied, a sentiment that everyone could appreciate.

Later that night, Ruby was on her way to retrieve the board-game she had left in the library earlier during the day. Having left the dormitory building and closing towards the library building, Ruby inwardly regretted having left the game in the first place. It was already night, the last people she saw on the way were some exchange students back in the dorms.

Now that she was outside, she did not expect the complex to be so dark - yet not overly so thanks to the light from the broken moon above. The library building with most of the lights turned off turned out to be eerie, much to Ruby's chagrin.

Then again, not the first time for Ruby to walk in dark places; so what if the building without people was dimly lit? She had traversed through a dark forest filled with Creatures of Grimm back in Patch and she kicked asses.

And Grimm inside Beacon Academy? Ha, it sounded funny rather than scary.

Still, back in Signal Academy, some of her friends used to share stories about ghosts and spirits wandering around the school during night time. Now she started to feel chills; what if there was a ghost? Could she even hit them?

Brushing off the chills as the night air playing tricks on her, Rub steeled herself as a huntress and walked inside the building complex.

It was not hard to navigate her way through the building, but it sure took some time. When Ruby got into the room where she spent the afternoon with her team, she heaved a sigh of relief to find her board-game was untouched.

When she walked through the shelves towards the table, she could not help but cast wary glances at the dark corners of the room. She arrived at the table, grabbed the game, and quickly made her way back to the door.

However, as soon as she stepped out, she found herself nearly run into something, or someone - causing her to yelp and lose her momentum to balance herself.

She thought she was about to land on her rear, if not for a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders, keeping her from falling.

"S-sorry…" Ruby apologized when her silver eyes were met with a pair of dark grey eyes.

It was a woman with a formal suit that was worn rather casually, judging from the losen tie and a few loose buttons on her shirt. She could not make out the details due to the dark, but Ruby could note the woman's faunus feature being her tail.

Judging from her height, she was an adult, and Ruby could somehow tell from the way she presented herself, that the woman was a huntress, although she never saw her before.

"You should be more careful." The woman replied. She was not smiling, but her tone was not harsh and kind of gentle, in fact. "I assume you are a student? Why are you not in your dormitory?"

"Um, sorry." Ruby apologized again. "I just left my board-game in the library and came here to get it back." She smiled sheepishly.

The woman let her go, allowing Ruby to stand on her own feet. She glanced at the door leading inside and looked at the game in Ruby's arms. "...I thought the library is a place of reading?"

Ruby slightly felt like a child getting caught with her hands in the cookie jar. "Um, well… If it's worth anything, me and my team did study before playing, and we made sure to keep it down."

The woman regarded Ruby for another few seconds before she sighed. "No matter. Not that I'm your teacher here. What is your name?"

"Err, it's Ruby - Ruby Rose, of team RWBY."

The woman seemed to react at the sound of Ruby's surname. "Rose, huh? You do have silver eyes, after all." She said as her lips twitched into a tiny smirk.

Ruby blinked at the remark, which brought her memories to the moment when she met Ozpin for the first time - he also mentioned her silver eyes; and the woman relating her surname with her eyes, what's with that?"

However, before Ruby could have asked further, the woman suddenly turned her head to regard another individual standing behind her. The younger girl peeked out to see a familiar face standing not far from them.

"Claude!" Ruby could feel herself smiling at her uncle.

"Hi, Ruby." Claude greeted her briefly before he turned to the woman. "...And hello, Brune."

"Claude." The woman - Brune, returned the greeting with a hint of amusement in her voice. "So you truly are back."

Ruby immediately noticed the faint tension between her uncle and the woman. Claude was calmly smiling, but for some reason the smile did not really reach his eyes. Moreover, he even had his gears and weapon on him, as if he was expecting trouble.

However, Claude's smile became a little more genuine as he spoke in return, "It's been a long time, Brune. How are you doing?"

Ruby watched the two shook hands, and she felt the atmosphere lightening up as Brune returned the smile with her own small one. "Surprised when I heard the stories of a dead man returning to the realm of the living, and even more surprised when I saw you on stage during the ceremony."

Claude chuckled lightly, "Yeah, sorry about that, then. I've heard you're working at Haven now?"

"That I am. I was just sightseeing Beacon Academy while doing some night patrol… Until I met this young lady." Brune gestured towards Ruby.

His eyes then glanced to his niece, who was still watching. "I see you've run into my niece…. Come to think of it, Ruby, what were you doing here?"

Ruby blinked and it took a second that the adults' attention had been directed back to her. "Oh, um, I, err…. Just wanted to retrieve my board-game." Ruby sheepishly chuckled this time.

Claude looked to Brune, who merely shrugged in return. He then sighed softly, "...Whatever. Ruby, let's get you back to your room."

"Oh, right. Okay!" Ruby nodded at her uncle beckoning at her to come along, jogging past Brune to give her one last glance.

"Let's talk some more tomorrow." Claude nodded at Brune, who replied with her own nod.

"Yes, good night."

Ruby noticed that Claude wrapped his arms around her shoulder as they walked away. Her uncle appeared as his usual cool self, but she could not shake off the feeling that beneath the casual persona, he was looking out for something.

"Claude."

Ruby found the hold Claude had on her shoulder tightened ever so slightly - noticeable, but nowhere near to the point of uncomfortable; as they stopped so Claude could look back to the huntress. "Yes, Brune?"

"...I'm sorry about what happened to Summer. She deserved better."

Ruby blinked at the woman as she felt touched by her condolences. In fact, Claude's hold on her felt more relaxed as he replied. "That she did. Thanks, Brune."

Ruby watched Brunesteid offered one last nod before she finally walked away to the opposite direction, leaving her and her uncle to make their way back to the dorms.

"She seems… nice. A little scary, but nice." Ruby decided to start a conversation, as she noticed that her uncle had relaxed again. "Is she one of your old acquaintances?"

Claude smiled at his niece, "She is. Brunesteid Shamir - she hailed from Mistral, and I first met her during the Vytal Festival at Vacuo."

"Oh…" Ruby nodded before asking again. "So does she… know about you, then?

"Yeah, she does." Claude replied with a sigh. "Along with a select few people who recognised me when Ozpin called me up on the stage."

"...Ah, right." Ruby nodded in understanding.

"Just be careful around that woman, okay? Last time I heard she was sort of infamous back in Mistral." Claude met Ruby's gaze as he gently squeezed her shoulder.

"Okay…?" the girl was not sure if she followed, but she ended up nodding along.

"Good." Claude smiled as his expression brightened, much to Ruby's small confusion. "So, how was your day?"

oXo

"We should send out a hunting squad and apprehend those three and Shamir as soon as possible."

Claude sighed, Glynda rolled her eyes while Ozpin remained impassive as ever upon hearing the words coming out from Ironwood.

It was later into the night where Claude attended the meeting with Ozpin, Glynda and the headmaster of Atlas Academy, where the former shared the intel Claude had gathered to the latter. Suffice to say, the general was quick to jump the gun regarding Brunesteid, Cinder, Mercury and Emerald.

"Look, James." Claude replied. "One, hunting squad sounds too strong, and two, it's way too soon to bring out the torch and pitch-forks at this point."

"And why would we wait? I don't trust Torchwick, even though the intel he shared with us has turned out to be reliable. We can't afford to take chances."

"We can, actually. In fact, your definition of taking chances might not be the same as ours now." Claude retorted. "Following Roman's intel and what I found on Emerald Sustrai, at least one of our three suspects had intended to infiltrate Beacon by posing as a student from Haven, yet Barty and Peter told me that they couldn't find anyone matching our profile. I've already spooked them away, James. We can't have your troops drive them out entirely from our radar."

"Then we will broaden our radar." James pressed on. "We can spread our net even outside Vale, ensuring that they won't even make it to the next settlement."

"That's good and all, but with me accidentally compromising them…" Claude sounded like he emphasized the word 'accidentally', "They will be on their toes, and as soon as they catch a single wind of you mobilizing your army, they will do everything they can to shake us off, even if that means turning the entire city upside down. They've already gotten enough Dust and manpower to do some serious damage thanks to the White Fang."

"Then we'll catch them before they can act." James put his hands on the table.

"I'm telling you that's not possible at this point." Claude pressed on. "As soon as they see a single wanted poster, or even a single personnel snooping around, they will either disappear like a smoke, or blow several city blocks to the kingdom come to create some diversion so they can disappear like a smoke. Things are already bad as it is, James. We can probably set out a manhunt on the White Fang, but not only it doesn't solve the problem in the long run, it can send out a wrong message for the Faunus populace around the globe. Just trust me on this, James. Using a hammer won't cut it anymore, we can only use surgical strikes at this point."

James sighed harshly, "Your approach is way too risky; one single oversight and we could let our enemies succeed right under our nose."

"That's why we will be careful. Our enemies are resourceful and powerful with actual backing from possibly Mistral officials." Claude then turned to Ozpin. "...Speaking of, anything from Lionheart? What did he have to say?"

"Leo has replied to me that he would look into this matter, and would prepare a list of suspects at the earliest convenience." Ozpin replied.

Claude, however, caught on something. "...Did he say those words in person?" Much to his chagrin, Ozpin scowled slightly.

"...No. His reply came to me in the form of a message. I did try to make a direct call, but it was always answered by his secretary at the time, and saying that the headmaster was busy with some… investigation."

Claude narrowed his eyes, while Glynda and Ironwood frowned.

"Let me say first that it's still too soon for us to go after Leo. He's one of our oldest allies and he's contributed significantly for our cause." Ozpin spoke.

Claude scoffed, "Oz, please. All of us here know that Leo is a pussy."

"His choice of words aside, Claude has a point." Glynda commented. "Leonardo might have a good head on his shoulders, but who says he cannot be swayed? Anyone can be a suspect if this keeps up."

The room fell into a tensed silence, nobody could come up with viable tactics to proceed with.

"...I still believe we should not remain silent while our enemies are improvising as we speak." Ironwood finally spoke. "At the very least, we need a few more men who we can trust to be our look-out. No offence, Claude, but I still don't trust Torchwick."

"...Fair enough." Claude shrugged.

Glynda then turned to the headmaster. "Any news from Qrow?"

Ozpin leaned back on his seat. "Qrow is still scurrying the areas outside the Kingdom, double-checking if the Queen had prepared any forms of back-ups or reinforcements outside the Kingdom's borders. So far, no news is good news."

"We're gonna need Qrow to return to Beacon as soon as he finishes his current job. If there's anyone who can scout around without being noticed, it'll be him." Claude commented, earning nods of agreement from the rest. "Now, onto the next one…"

It was during the next day when team RWBY were preparing themselves and gearing up for their next quest - investigating the White Fang operations across Vale.

"Right, does everyone remember their roles?" Ruby asked her team before they set out.

"You and I will go to the CCT to check on the SDC records about the Dust heists to see if there's any leads." Weiss answered first as she stood up from her own bed.

"The White Fang has regular meetings to hand out new orders and recruit new members. If I can get in, I might be able to find out what they're planning." Blake answered next.

"I know someone in the city who knows pretty much everything going on in Vale. Getting some information from him shouldn't be too hard." Yang finally finished.

Ruby positively beamed as she pumped her fist up, "Great, we'll meet up later tonight near Yang to talk about our findings and our next move. Let's do this!"

"No, you're not."

The girls slightly jumped and took a step back as the entrance to their room was opened and Claude made himself known standing by the door.

"Claude!" Yang exclaimed, "...How did you get in?"

The young huntsman waved his Scroll around before pocketing it back. "Teachers and staff's privilege, basically. Anyway, once again, no, you're not doing this."

"Whaaat? I mean, we're not going to do anything that you don't want us to. I- I mean, we don't know what you're talking about" Ruby replied evasively, which failed miserably as Weiss and Yang rolled their eyes. Blake on the other hand, looked as if she was about to blow a fuse.

"Ruby, the way you acted and talked when I walked you back to the dorm last night highly suggested that you are planning something with your team; you're kind of a worse liar than your mom." Claude retorted with a small amusement at his niece's 'eep' sound at her blunder.

Before Blake could have voiced her own opinion, Claude's eyes turned towards the window, "Oh, and boys? Can you two just come in? It's dangerous to hang around out there."

The girls blinked and turned towards their window to find two boys they met on the other day, standing by the window-sill.

"Sun?" Blake called out in recognition.

"Hey, Blake, everyone." Sun greeted her with his signature grin as he hopped down along with his blue-haired partner, who seemed relieved for some reason.

"Sorry for intruding, and thanks for letting us in." the boy with goggles smiled at Claude. "...We were pretty high-up."

Claude only hummed as he only met the boy for the first time. "You're welcome, um…?"

The boy then straightened himself up. "Neptune, Neptune Vasilias, sir. His partner from team SSSN." He pointed his thumb at Sun.

"Claude Rose, a pleasure. Now, back to you, girls." Claude returned his attention to team RWBY after the brief introduction with Neptune.

"Um, excuse me? Before you roast them, assuming you are about to do so…" Sun held up a finger, garnering everyone's attention to him. "...How did you notice us hanging out there?" He asked Claude.

"Perks of being a badass; but we're not talking about me." Claude replied dismissively before narrowing his eyes at the boys. "...Actually, let's get you out of the way first. What were you doing?"

Sun and Neptune shared glances before the former replied, "I, err… Just want to check on Blake." He grinned at the girl in question, who was not in the mood in humoring his answer.

Claude raised a brow as he regarded Sun's answer for a second before he shrugged, "I see… But I'm afraid you need to go back to your team for now. I need to have a word with these girls."

Under Claude's pointed look that demanded no argument, Sun and Neptune shared another glance, with the latter shaking his head without a word. The former then nodded dejectedly. "Err, yeah, sure. Sorry to bother, we'll see you all later!" Sun and Neptune then brought themselves out of the room via the door this time.

Once the boys were out of sight, Claude exhaled and crossed his arms. "...I wish I won't say it for the fourth time, but you four will stay out of this case and leave it to the cops and the pros."

"We can't rely on them anymore." Blake glared defiantly at Claude. "This is my responsibility-!"

"Your responsibility? That's strange, because I thought you came here in the first place in order to leave that part of your life behind." Claude interrupted with his own incredulous glare. "You even still conceal yourself and pretend to be something you're not. What do you really want, Belladonna?"

Blake glared angrily, wanting to retort; but before she could have blown up the fuses, Weiss stepped in.

"Look, Mr. Rose, while I do understand about leaving this to the professionals, this is something that also impacts my family. Isn't it our duty to be concerned and act on it? We are huntresses."

Claude bluntly replied, "No, you're not. Not yet, at least. You're still first-year students learning to become actual huntresses. The time for you girls is still far away."

"Hey, this won't be the first time we tango with a bunch of terrorists. Remember the docks? I think we held ourselves well there." Yang put in her own two-cents.

Claude glanced at his older niece. "That you did, good job on that. But I expected that to be a one-time thing. Besides, you should consider yourselves lucky back there, you did realise that things got pretty bad for you when those bullheads showed up, didn't you?"

Yang grimaced - Claude had a point; they might have had aura, but its protection would not last long in front of that kind of firepower. Even with her Semblance, she knew better than chasing after a highly mobile aircraft while she herself could not fly.

"So, there you have it. If I end up hearing news with the word White Fang, students, Beacon, and one of your names; there will be detentions." Claude finished with a tone of finality.

"You can't do that!" Blake protested.

"I can, and you bet I will." Claude stood his ground. "I'll say this again, you are students. You are not supposed to get involved in this kind of stuff. You're not ready."

"And we'll never be ready! Do you think our enemy will wait for us to graduate and ready by then?!" Blake shot back the same words she had told her teammates before.

Claude and Blake did not break their eye-contact until the former spoke, "...You still don't get it, do you?" He said with narrowed eyes. "This can be the second time you are committing vigilantism. I was able to cover for you last time, but if you get caught this time, you'll be lucky to only get suspension."

Blake then replied, keeping her stubborn look. "You can't stop us like this. We're the ones who know that the White Fang are planning something big and bad!"

"...And you think I don't know that?" Claude shot back. "I was there to save your asses and help you in putting Torchwick in jail. Of course I know what's happening."

"Then why have I yet to hear any progress? Why is Torchwick still out there?!"

"Because he's no longer our focus." Claude replied, "He might have been in charge of the robberies, but the White Fang is still ultimately the main instrument. We're currently working with VPD, and probably some of Atlas' military if General Ironwood allows it, to scan several locations that might be used for White Fang's base operations."

The girls could not say anything in return; they originally wanted to take things into their own hands because they could not rely on the authorities, but with their teacher claiming otherwise?

"...Again, there you have it. We don't really need help from a group of seventeen year-olds." Claude replied with a sigh after seeing the girls' dejected expressions. "Look, I'm proud that you girls have the initiative to do what's right, but there's time and place for you to act like huntresses. Trust me, be patient and the time where you are needed will come. Until then, study hard, prepare yourselves when the time actually counts."

His hand then reached out to pat Ruby's head, prompting her to look at Claude's reassuring look.

With one last inhale, Claude retracted his hand. "I gotta go back to work. You girls better behave yourselves, okay? Bye."

Once their teacher was out of sight, the atmosphere in the room went sombre. "You know, I did say that this might not be the best idea."

Weiss commented, earning a mild glare from Blake.

"Yeah, that happened, sure. But what are we gonna do now?" Yang turned to Ruby.

"I… I don't know." The young leader said with uncertainty in her tone, before she turned to her faunus teammate, who was regarding her with a mixture of glare and hopeful look. "Blake, I still want to help, but I also don't want to get behind Claude either."

Despite what Ruby said, Blake slightly calmed down as her leader did seem earnestly thinking for a solution, a middle ground. Still, now that she thought about it; the entire thing was proposed by her alone, her team simply wanted to tag along and help.

Eventually, Blake sighed as she headed to the door.

"Blake? Where are you going?"

"I need some fresh air." Blake replied without fully turning towards them. "I'll be back by dinner."

Weiss, however, sensed some implication. "...You're not going out to find the White Fang on your own, are you?"

Ruby and Yang stared at Weiss for a second before they turned to Blake, who finally turned to face them with a wry smile on her face. "Don't worry, guys. I'm not gonna look for them or anything. It's just…. At the very least, I need to see if there's anything going on out there, it puts me to ease."

Ruby, Weiss and Yang glanced at each other for a few seconds before the latter smiled and walked up to her partner, followed by her sister. "Welp, then I guess we need to stick together in case something does show up."

The blonde finished by throwing her arms around Blake's shoulder. The girl did not bother to shake Yang's arm off her as she smiled appreciatively.

Weiss looked torn between upholding rules and standing by her team, but not wanting to be left out, the latter won out. She heaved out a sigh of resignation.

"...I guess we're still doing this."

Omake

"Sorry about your car, Tai. It wasn't supposed to go that way, I swear."

Claude apologized to his brother-in-law as the two were sitting on the latter's terrace in Patch on another certain night. This time, the two were drinking hot cocoas to warm themselves up in the midst of cool night air.

"Well, I'm more worried about the damage on the bar rather than my car." Tai grumbled, albeit not in an overly bad way. "Didn't really peg you for the type who got carried away so easily. What happened?"

Claude sighed as he stared into his mug. "I was planning to simply enjoy one or two rounds… Until Qrow brought up the topic about Summer." Tai let out a silent 'o' in understanding.

"He was speaking gibberish, so I didn't really get what he's saying… But my mind realised that I missed Summer's first drink. Suffice to say, I got emotional."

Tai sighed, "...Well, what's done is done."

The two descended into a companionable silence until Tai broke it. "Actually, I know something that can cheer you up."

Claude hummed as he turned to see Tai fished out his Scroll and looked through the device.

"To tell you the truth, this is something that Qrow got his hands on and shared with all of our friends…. Summer asked us not to show this to you because she found it embarrassing, but the rest of us think you deserve to see this." The blonde man said while grinning, before he showed the screen to Claude.

"What is this? And are you sure to show me this if Summer asked you not to?" Claude asked.

"The footage of Summer's first drink during Raven and I's wedding reception. You will see how intoxicated she could be, depending on how many drinks she had."

Claude raised his eyebrows in peaked-curiosity at Tai's reply before he turned his eyes towards the screen playing the video.

The footage showed the sight of Summer with a glass of spirits in her hand, sitting on the table among other party-guests - Jersey, Barty, and Peter.

She was laughing as she talked and bantered with them until she suddenly blinked, "...Wait, what are we talking about again?"

Claude glanced at Tai who explained on cue. "That's Summer on one drink - she became a little spacey."

"That doesn't sound so bad, does it?" Claude commented.

Tai's grin turned a little wider. "True, but watch when she drank more."

The scene changed to Summer stumbling her way towards Glynda's back, who was seemingly talking to Ironwood without knowing the former had arrived right behind her. When Glynda took a sip of her champagne, Summer suddenly screamed, "...WHAT 'CHA DOIN'!?"

Glynda choked and nearly spat her drink on her date's suit.

Claude snorted in amusement, "...Okay, that is funny."

"Right? Two-drink Summer was really loud." Tai gave a knowing look. "Now watch next."

The footage showcased Summer dancing around among the conversing guests across the ball-room, ignoring the confused looks directed to her as she kept changing her style without care.

"...Wow." That was all Claude could say with wide eyes.

"Say hello to three-drink Summer, or should we say, Summer Dance Pants." Taiyang put in his two-cents.

"She got the confidence, at least. Look at how she shook it." Claude was not sure if he was impressed or not.

"You call that confidence? See when she got into five drinks. But before that..."

Summer was seen facing the camera holding a carrot stick and a piece of onion ring. "Hey, hey, Qrow! Check this out." She inserted the carrot into the middle of the onion ring back and forth, all while giving Qrow a suggestive look.

"Oh my god…" Claude could not help but balk at the scene.

"Yeah, that's pretty much my reaction when I first saw it. Four-drink Summer flirted with pretty much everyone during the party. Hell, I even caught her making out with Jersey for a bit until your team and Qrow had to pull them apart."

Seeing Claude's paling face, Tai quickly calmed him down. "Things didn't get too far, I assure you, Summer didn't catch anything weird aside from the alcohol in her system." Claude slowly calmed down on that.

"Anyway, let's move on. Here's five-drink Summer…"

Summer was sitting on a round table with several bachelors seated around. Downing her fifth round with a revolver in her free hand, Summer slammed the glass hard on the table while glaring defiantly at the men in front of her. "Alright, you sons of bitches…" She then brought up the gun and pressed the barrel on her temple. "Let's dance!"

The crowd cheered as she clicked on the revolver.

Claude only regarded Tai silently with wide eyes.

"Yeah, she's weirdly confident in that state. And you know what's more amazing? She actually won."

"There were dead people?" Claude asked with furrowed brows.

"Thankfully, no. Everyone in that game had their aura fully up, so all they suffered was mild concussions from a point blank peace-maker."

"Okay, that's… good, I guess." Claude replied with a soft sigh and found the video had ended. "So, is that it? No six-drink Summer?"

"Qrow lost track of her because he got pissed-drunk himself. But if you want to see Summer after six drinks and above… I'm afraid you need to ask Jersey for details. I only knew that Summer somehow got herself a horse inside the ball-room all of sudden and everything went south afterwards."

"...Okay? I'll… think about it." Claude replied before asking again. "Do you think this is hereditary?"

"I'm afraid so." Tai replied with a sigh. "Eight year-old Ruby once mistook Qrow's booze for a juice and she emulated five-drink Summer; challenging Yang who just got her Aura unlocked for an arm-wrestling match." He ended with a nostalgic chuckle.

"Yeah, that'd be a sight." Claude found himself giggling at the image as well.

"And, err… I guess I need to confess something as well. I've been wanting to apologize to get this off my chest." Tai shifted in his seat uncomfortably; he even took a deep breath as if to prepare himself for what was to come.

Claude did not expect such a confession to come out from Taiyang Xiao-Long's mouth that night.

"...Four-drink Summer was basically the reason behind Ruby's birth."

Tai only felt the air become suddenly even colder, then his sight was obscured by what he assumed to be Claude's fist, followed by a blinding pain and everything went black.

Okay, I hope you guys like that chapter, but now - to the announcement!

I just started a poll - if I make some pairing/romance with Claude? Who should be the one? While I already have a few people in mind, I'd like to hear your opinion about this. However, let me just inform that the poll result is not absolute - it merely increase the chance as it gives me something to think about. Please do check it out!

Ahsoei, over and out.