Weiss sat in her Film Theory class. Frankly, the subject held little to no interest for her, but it should be an easy A, and serve to keep her GPA at stratospheric levels undreamed of by the other merely mortal students at Beacon Academy. The credits rolled on the semester's first film, The Shawshank Redemption, and their instructor, Doctor Oobleck (although what he was a doctor of exactly no-one seemed to know) turned on the lights. The rest of the students scattered around the dingy lecture hall stretched and groaned as they roused themselves from the semi-torpor they'd descended into while watching the film. "Well, students, that was our first film of the semester. Now, my first question to you is this: Who is the protagonist of this film?"
Weiss raised her hand, a smug smile on her face. It was always good to start off a class by impressing the teacher with a correct answer. Oobleck pointed at her, and she answered "Andy Dufresne, sir."
"Very good, Miss Schnee. Now-"
"But he's not."
The entire room turned to look at the figure in the back row, hunched under her red hoodie with the hood pulled up, covering her face. Oobleck frowned. "Ah, a contrary hypothesis, Miss...?"
"Rose, Ruby Rose."
Weiss groaned as Oobleck pushed up his glasses. Of course, it was school weirdo Ruby Rose who had spoken up. She was always hiding in the back of the classroom, not seeming to pay attention to the class as she wrote or drew in one of her countless notebooks, the right answer to whatever question the instructor posed tumbling carelessly from her lips despite her obvious distraction."So wonderful to hear one of the new faces in the class this year speak up. Now, what makes you say that Andy Dufresne is not the protagonist of this particular film, and instead, who would you put forth in his place?"
"Because Andy's obviously the antagonist. Red's the protagonist," Ruby muttered, her hand chin resting on her hand.
Oobleck sipped his coffee with an hmm. "Ah, I see. Most people would say that the warden is the antagonist, but why do you place Andy in that role?"
"Because he's the disruptor. Everyone is happy, just trying to get through their time at Shawshank, but along comes Andy, changing everything. Red's just cruising along, serving his time, the warden's just doing his job. Then along comes Andy, disrupting the order of things at Shawshank. It's Andy who enables the Warden's corruption, then drives him to suicide by exposing it." Ruby slouched back in her chair, clearly uncomfortable by the attention of everyone in the room.
"I see, I see. Alright then, I do love to see someone thinking in an unconventional direction. Therefore, I am changing the first writing assignment for this first film. I want five hundred words discussing the possibility that Andy Dufresne is not this film's protagonist but its antagonist. Due upon our next class period on Thursday. That is, everyone but Miss Rose. Miss Rose, I want one thousand words defending your premise. Class dismissed."
Weiss was scowling that afternoon as she stalked the corridors of the southwest hall of Beacon. Beacon had literally been open for hundreds of years, and the southwest hall was one of the oldest buildings still standing on campus, if not the oldest. The lighting seemed to go out with little or no notice, the wiring was questionable at best, and large sections of it seemed to be under perpetual renovation. Frankly, Weiss was surprised it was still standing, much less still used.
But used it was, mostly for storage, or club activities that didn't merit or couldn't swing the use of space in a newer building. Or, as in the case of Weiss' current mission, one-on-one tutoring sessions between students. Vice principal Goodwitch had neglected to tell her who she'd be tutoring this time, only informing Weiss that student in question was excelling in most other areas but currently struggling with algebra.
Unfortunately, the room they'd been assigned was in the basement, one of the most unpleasant parts of the building still in use. Now, where was it? B-17, B-18, aha! Room B-19, the numbers barely visible on the worn brass plaque on the door. Steeling herself, Weiss put her best 'helpful and friendly' smile on her face and gripped the doorknob, twisting it to open the door and step inside.
Unfortunately, the student within was her nemesis from film theory class this morning. "What are you doing here?" she shrieked at the figure in the red hoodie seated at the table in the center of the room.
"Getting tutored in algebra," Ruby muttered, shrinking in more on herself, something Weiss wouldn't have thought possible. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"Tutoring you in algebra, apparently," Weiss sighed, taking a deep, calming breath. No wonder Goodwitch had neglected to inform her as to who she'd be tutoring.
"Great," Ruby muttered again, closing the notebook she'd been writing in and pulling her textbook out of her bag. "I'm being tutored by queen bitch Weiss Schnee."
"I'm not thrilled about having to tutor the school weirdo, either, Ruby Rose. But, we can't always like everything we have to do, so let's call a truce and see if I can help you with algebra. Now, where do you feel you're struggling?
"Polynomials. I, uh, I have trouble factoring them," Ruby admitted as she flipped open the textbook.
Weiss nodded and the two of them got to work. After an hour, Weiss stood, stretching. Something scurried in one of the dim corners of the room, making her glance over. "They should just demolish old building this old building and get it over with," Weiss muttered under her breath, making Ruby laugh.
"What's the matter, afraid of a few mice, princess?" Ruby snarked as she worked her way through a problem Weiss had set up for her.
"No, I simply do not enjoy being forced to learn in a building that is a safety hazard and should have been condemned before either of us were born." Again something scurried in the corner of her eye, making Weiss' head snap to look at it.
The same motion drew Ruby's eye, making her reach into her backpack and pull out something mechanical and complicated. Weiss rolled her eyes. Whatever Ruby had pulled out even had glowing blue runes painted on it. Before Weiss say something biting about the ridiculous object, something moved again just on the edge of Weiss' vision.
This time, she managed to get a good look at it, but what she saw made Weiss step back. It was some sort of monster, its shape a grotesque mockery of a man's, the skin inky black, red eyes boring a hole straight to her soul from a head like a bony skull, more bone spikes jutting out of its arms and shoulders at seemingly random intervals. "What the hell is that? Tell me you see that!" the white-haired girl screamed as the thing snarled at her.
Without answering, Ruby vaulted over the table, the object she'd pulled from her backpack unfolding and extending into some sort of a polearm with a curved blade. "Weiss, you need to run," she whispered, jabbing at the creature with her blade.
"Like hell I am," was the response, Weiss grabbing a chair and swinging it at the creature in what she thought was a threatening manner.
"Weiss, just go!" Ruby shouted at Weiss, and the beast took advantage of her moment of distraction to lunge at Ruby, claws slashing at her, jaws wide open in a snarl, Ruby fending it off with her polearm.
Weiss danced around it to bring the chair down as hard as she could on the creature's back. Enraged, it lashed out with a claw, shattering the chair into splinters as it turned back to Ruby. Weiss rolled across the floor, grabbing one of the largest, sharpest pieces on her way by. Coming to her feet, she brought it up like it was a rapier, then jabbed forward, driving the point about where its rib cage would have been. The thing screamed, swatting at Weiss, but she dodged out of the way, cursing as the heels she wore made her stumble.
Ruby took advantage of the monster turning its attention toward Weiss to dart in with the weird polearm, stabbing the creature in its chest. "Pull and twist," Weiss snapped, fending off another claw swipe with her improvised weapon.
"Say what?" Ruby asked as she blocked off a retaliatory strike with the haft of her weapon.
"Next time you jab that, that thing in with that overgrown can-opener of yours, twist before you pull the blade out, it'll do more damage."
Ruby's eyes lit up in realization. "Oh!" she said, matching her actions to Weiss' words, stabbing the monster in its belly. "And it's called a Grimm. More specifically, a Ghoul."
"No, that sort of weapon is called a naginata," Weiss said, jabbing the monster in its arm. She might not do a lot of damage to it, but she could at least help distract it from Ruby.
"Not the weapon, the monster," Ruby said, swinging her weapon high at the monster's neck.
Weiss yelped as she reflexively ducked, not expecting the strike to connect, but the monster's head went flying, the red stump spewing… black smoke? As she watched, the monster's body collapsed on the ground, its skin erupting in more black smoke. "What. Was. That?" she bit out, each syllable a hammer-blow to the shy girl as she glared at Ruby. "How do you know it's called a Grimm? And why do you carry a, a collapsing naginata in your backpack? And why in the hell is it covered in glowing runes? Honestly, I can almost, almost accept decorating a weapon, there are some exquisite Renaissance dueling swords in the city's museum of history, but glowing blue runes? You really are a weirdo, Ruby Rose. Start explaining, now, or I am taking this straight to Vice Principal Goodwitch."
"Uh…" Ruby said, backing up from Weiss. Oh hell.
Ruby, you got some 'splaining to do!
This story was brought to you by watching random things on YouTube because I couldn't sleep. Somehow I wandered across the trailer for I Kill Giants, and my sleep-deprived brain mixed it up with RWBY. (Although it's not really a crossover fic, because I haven't actually seen I Kill Giants.)