Chapter 3

Ruby let out a wide yawn as she stretched her arms over her head in an attempt to loosen her stiff shoulders. They had been flying for several hours now and they had just now arrived at Vacuo.

"Seriously, why did I have to pick the short straw?" Ruby mumbled to herself as she clutched her bag while the airship began to land.

She had just arrived back home after an extended mission and was promised a week of downtime, but the moment she made her report to Ozpin she was suddenly assigned a new mission.

"I'm terribly sorry miss Rose, I know that you just came back but I have another assignment for you." said Ozpin, sitting at his desk.

"Are you serious?!" Ruby exclaimed. "I just got back and now you want me to head out again?!"

"I understand that it's inconvenient, but you're the only one that I trust to handle this situation and is currently available." replied Ozpin.

Ruby pouted while puffing out her cheeks childishly before relenting. "Fine, I'll do it. What is it you need me to do? It isn't another Grimm subjugation is it? I just got back from one."

"No it isn't as strenuous as that." said Ozpin smirking.

"I hope so. And one more thing! Once this mission is over I want an entire month off!" Ruby demanded, then quickly added. "With pay!"

Ozpin's smile never left his face. "Of course, miss Rose I will see to it."

Ruby let out a sigh, pulling the large envelope with all the details of her mission staring at it as if willing for its contents to change.

"I should've known something was fishy with he accepted my terms so easily. . ." grumbled Ruby. "An entire semester as a special professor at Shade Academy? I can't believe I said yes without even knowing the mission." she said to herself.

"Miss we've touched down at Shade Academy." said the pilot in the cockpit.

"Thanks for your hard work." said Ruby, unbuckling herself from her seat and walked to the hatch of the airship which opened.

Ruby was greeted with a harsh blow of hot wind and dust, she squinted her eyes and raised up an arm to protect her face, her long hair whipping around her. When the sudden gust died down the first thing she saw was the sight of a huge step-pyramid.

"So that's Shade Academy." Ruby said to herself. "It's a lot bigger than I thought."

The sun shone brightly and the moment she stepped out of the airship the sun's glare assaulted her with its heat.

"Are you Spinel Scarlet?" a voice asked.

Ruby turned her head to see a young woman standing at the edge of the landing platform. She had dark tanned skin and wore a beige and white flowing dress.

Ruby walked towards her and the woman extended her hand. "Welcome to Shade, Spinel my name's Latte I'll be escorting you to the headmistress' office."

Ruby shook her hand, "Nice to meet you, Latte."

"I'll be taking you to see our headmistress and afterwards I'll show you to your quarters." said Latte.

"Well lead the way." replied Ruby.

Latte turned around and began to lead Ruby towards the giant building.

Ruby's eyes wandered as she took in the sights Shade academy. From a distance they building appeared to be simple, but upon closer inspection the entire building's design was quite modern, with large windows and angular shapes gave itself its own identity when compared to the other the other huntsmen academies. The moment they entered through the main doors of Shade, Ruby noticed that the air was significantly cooler, glad that the heat was no longer baring down on her.

They walked through the long halls within the pyramid until they reached an elevator. They both entered and with a press of a button the elevator began to rise, after a few minutes the elevator's doors opened revealing a lavishly decorated office.

Ruby stepped off the elevator and the doors closed behind her, her eyes homing in right to the older woman sitting at the desk.

"It's nice to see you again, miss Scarlet. Or should I say, miss Rose." said the woman.

"It's good to see you again too, Professor Dorothy." replied Ruby, walking away from the elevator and towards the headmistress' desk.

"That disguise is quite well done." complimented Dorothy, her eyes moving up and down, taking in Ruby's appearance. "If I didn't know about your disguise beforehand I wouldn't have even known it was you."

Ruby chuckled, "It was just something I quickly put together," spinning around slowly, showing off her ensemble. During the months that they were going up against Salem they were all too preoccupied with more life and death situations to count to notice, but Ruby had somehow gone through an extraordinary growth spurt during that time. She ended up being slightly taller than Yang and filled out in all the right places. She wore a more tight fitting dress, closer to an evening gown with a long slit running up its side. She had to forgo her usual cloak, but she had another one that Weiss gifted to her, it was much longer just barely skirting along the ground, it was light and durable from the Dust impregnated into its fibers. She just couldn't settle down without a cloak of some kind. Ever since the final battle and her…injury, Ruby had gotten into the habit of wearing her hood up at nearly all times.

"It suits you." complimented Dorothy.

"Thanks, it isn't something I'd usually wear, but I can still fight in it at least." said Ruby, "Though it's a bit of a pain having to wear contacts for this mission." she pulled her hood back slightly, pointing a finger to emphasize her eyes, which were now a deep green instead of silver.

"That's true. Haha" chuckled Dorothy, "After the final battle with Salem your eyes have become iconic after all."

"They have, haven't they?" mused Ruby, "But at least that's all that the public knows about me. Makes me glad I turned down all those public awards and interviews back then, not that I could do them after everything was all said and done."

"Well despite that, you are still a fairly high profile huntress after all, along with your teammates and friends." said Dorothy

"Another reason why I'm not very suited for this kind of mission, even Ozpin realizes that, but I'm the only one that's available right now." Ruby explained.

"He told me that you had only just returned from a mission when he assigned it to you, not only that but you immediately travelled here with little to no rest. For still coming despite that, I am very thankful." said Dorothy.

"So what're the details for the mission?" asked Ruby, waving the dossier in her hand. "I got the gist of it from this, but I'd rather hear it from you." placing the envelope on Dorothy's desk and took a seat.

Dorothy straightened in her chair and with a tap of her finger on the desk images began to show up between them, showing various symbols and graffiti. "With the death of Salem and the spread of knowledge regarding the Gods of Light and Darkness we have been seeing cults forming everywhere. Most of them are harmless, but some…" she trailed off, and with swipe of her hand one of the images enlarged showing a corpse tied to a tree that was obviously killed by some sort of Grimm with a familiar symbol painted in what looked like blood on the tree. "are starting to get out of hand."

At this point of her life, Ruby was no stranger to such sights, in the war against Salem she had seen much worse tragedies. She nodded at Dorothy's words, "So what does this have to do with Shade Academy?" she asked. The dossier wasn't exactly specific with that part of her mission.

"We have started seeing signs that the academy has been infiltrated by one of the more dangerous cults and that some students being recruited into joining them." Dorothy explained, "As consequence, these students have started becoming more guarded and secretive towards our faculty. We needed someone from the outside and unrelated to the academy that they could trust and maybe recruit we might be able to smoke them out and find who their leader is."

Ruby crossed her arms against her chest, leaning back into her chair, "That makes sense, no wonder you asked me to hide my identity."

Dorothy nodded, "As part of your cover you will be a temporary professor that will teach in Specialized Weapon Engineering. When we were informed that you would be the one that Ozpin had sent we thought up of a subject that you were most familiar with." Dorothy gave Ruby a small smile.

Ruby smiled halfheartedly, scratching the back of her neck and chuckled nervously, "Ahaha thanks Professor. I don't think I'd be able to teach anything that doesn't involve weapons. I never really had the best grades while I was studying at Beacon, well apart from Grimm Studies."

"We need to have your cover as convincing as possible. It wouldn't help much if we had you teach something like World History, now would it?" teased Dorothy.

Ruby continued to scratch the back of her neck and chuckled nervously, "Ehehe. Yeah, that's definitely true." But on the inside, Goddamnit Ozpin! Did you send my old grades to her when I agreed to go?! Ruby screamed internally. You are so gonna get it when this mission is over!

Dorothy then pulled a new envelope from her desk's drawer and slid it across the dest towards Ruby.

"Here are some suggested material for your lectures, as well as the files of particular students we would like you to keep an eye on and, if possible, get close with." said Dorothy, she waved her hand once more and several pictures of students faces showed up. "Their files are in the envelope as well so be sure to read all of it."

Ruby picked up the envelope and pulled out its contents giving them a quick skim before putting them back. "Okay, I'll give them a read later." said Ruby, as she laid the envelope on her lap.

"All the information that we have on the cult is in there as well. We must protect our students from their damaging influence." said Dorothy, "Before it's too late." Her expression hardened.

Ruby's own expression mirrored Dorothy's as she nodded once more.

Then Dorothy's face relaxed, "Now I'm sure that you're exhausted from your flight here. Latte will guide you to your quarters and you can rest there. Your first class is in a few days, so I think you'd better prepare for it."

Ruby stood from her chair, picking up the other envelope and placing them under her arm. "Yeah, It's been rough I tell you." said Ruby, "Going from one mission to the next."

Well get some rest. I look forward to seeing how the students respond to your classes Professor Scarlet." said Dorothy emphasizing Ruby's alias.

"Well I hope I won't disappoint." replied Ruby, smiling as she turned around to exit the office through the elevator that she came in.

Days passed and Ruby was finally about to start her first class. She had read and memorized as best she could all the information written in them over the past several days while she was settling down in her new quarters. They were spacious for a single person, plus the food was good, even though she had to have it brought to her room from the cafeteria. Dorothy had sent her a message through her Scroll telling her that she should avoid contact with the students before the semester began.

During that time, Ruby had also gotten to know the other professors, all of whom knew who she was and what she was here for. Most of them were much older than her, but that was fine as they were all friendly and welcoming. A few of them even admired her from her contributions in the final fight against Salem.

Ruby made her way through the well lit, tunnel-like corridors of Shade, the cool air a sharp contrast to the blazing heat outside, eventually she stopped at a door. Ruby paused and took a deep breath, her heart was fluttering slightly. It was still a bit nerve wracking suddenly becoming a professor, albeit a temporary one, even though she had experienced many life-and-death experiences before.

She had her lecture notes and lesson plans in hand, but she still couldn't help her knees feel a bit shaky.

Come on Ruby! You've faced down hundreds of Grimm, Cinder, and even Salem! What's a bunch of kids compared to them? thought Ruby, giving her cheeks a light slap.

After her small bout of self pep-talk Ruby finally opened the door.

"Good after-BOOM" Ruby began, but was cut off by a sudden explosion of fire, ice, steam, and lightning. Covering her from head to toe in a light layer of soot.

When the smoke cleared, Ruby's eyes were wide as she let out a small cough as she blinked to get rid of some of the smoke that got in her eyes. Once she could properly see again, Ruby saw that everyone in the classroom were frozen in place, staring at her. The entire classroom was already a mess, one of the boys was standing on a workbench, another was asleep, some girls were sitting in one corner and tapping away at their Scrolls, the others just looked horrified, and lastly was one boy whose arm was positioned as if he had just thrown something.

This…has turned into a difficult situation. thought Ruby as she stared back at her students, still frozen in place right in the doorway.

Author's Notes: Hi everyone! Well this update took way longer than I was expecting, but it's finally here. Though like I said, this is my secondary fic and is lower priority to Ruby vs The Machines so updates will be sporadic. Sorry if any of you were looking forward to Roman and Neo this chapter, but they'll have to wait, Ruby needs her time in the spotlight of course. I hope you're all still looking forward to the next chapter (Whenever that'll be) and remember

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