Biggest. Hiatus. Ever.
Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've had a lot of things going on, and I kinda lost interest in RWBY for a while (shock, horror!). But now I'm back and READY TO RWBY, yay!
I'll be updating Elements of Change and my other fic 'Tale of the Junipers' whenever I have the time and energy.
I hope you enjoy the fourth chapter!
"Whoaaah, there's just so much cool stuff in this car! What does this button do?!" Ruby gleefully fawned over the various chromium controls on the dashboard of Weiss Schnee's Mercedes sports car. She clumsily prodded her finger onto yet another button - and the brunette was rewarded with a blast of cool air in the face.
"Gahh! I don't like this button! Weeiiiiis, make it stop!"
Weiss rolled her eyes with a sigh, and quickly adjusted the air conditioning with one hand before returning her attention to the winding road ahead.
"Ruby, could you do me a favour? As a friend?" Weiss said in her softest voice, with her sweetest smile. Ruby perked up and nodded enthusiastically.
"Sure Weiss! What can I do for ya?"
"STOP. PRESSING. BUTTONS." Weiss whispered through clenched teeth.
Sensing the imminent possibility of a lot of shouting, Ruby withdrew her prying hands from the Mercedes' dashboard and sat silently with her hands in her lap. She waited a few tense seconds before creeping her hand towards a very alluring red button.
Ruby yelped as her hand was slapped away from the button, and Weiss gave her a glare which clearly threatened to boot Ruby out of the car if she even looked at any more of the luxurious sports car's features. Meanwhile, Weiss's driving had become increasingly more aggressive as a result of Ruby's meddling.
"I must have been out of my mind...to invite you to a concert of this importance." Weiss gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles as she accelerated around another corner. "You've done nothing but fidget and irritate me for the last half hour. Let me make this clear, Ruby; you do not behave like this in the theater, understand? You do not act like a child whilst Ernest di Rocchio is playing."
"Ernest di whoosit?" Ruby questioned. Weiss's frustration only seemed to grow further.
"Ernest di Rocchio! The classical pianist I told you about when I invited you! Do you listen to a word I say?!"
"...I listen to some of the words you say. It's the taking part that counts, right?" Ruby chuckled nervously, whilst Weiss seethed in the driver's seat, at the limits of her patience.
Ruby made sure to wait a few tense minutes before she prepared her next 'prank'.
"Hey Weiss? I have a question-"
"Oh for God's sake-"
"Nooooo, it's a serious question! I wanted to ask you a really important question about Ronald di Rocchio!"
Weiss clenched her jaw with narrowed eyes. "Ernest di Rocchio. Ernest."
"Yeah yeah sure, that guy. It's a really important question about him, about...about his life's work as a piano man. I thought that because you're so clever and cultured and amazing, you could answer my question?" Ruby finished with a heart-warming smile.
Weiss seemed to temporarily calm down in response to the flattery. She cleared her throat and exhaled gently.
"Well, it's nice to see you're finally taking an interest. As someone trained in classical music myself, I'm sure I'll be able to adequately answer your quest-"
"Are we there yet?"
"RUBY ROSE!"
Blake slunk down the dimly lit hallway cautiously, meticulously positioning her footsteps in such a delicate manner that even the gentle breeze outside triumphed over the impossibly quiet placement of her feet. She shifted over to the right of the hall, her slender form clad in jet black attire which seamlessly blended the girl into the long shadows cast down around her.
She froze.
A voice - distant - reverberating down the hallway.
She ducked behind a sturdy bookcase just as the torchlight swivelled around the far corner. Careless whistling accompanied the approaching illumination. Blake drew in in air silently and held her breath, ensuring every fiber of being was utterly motionless.
"Wait, wait - Brad, did you lock the cabinets or did I?" said one of the night guards. Blake carefully peered around the bookcase, observing the conversation.
"Uhh...you know what man, I can't even remember..." the second guard replied with a chuckle.
"Should we go back and check, or...?"
"Uhmmm...nahhhh!"
With that, the two night guards chortled and continued on down the stretching hallway, finally allowing Blake to exhale and anxiously continue her infiltration of the Beacon University Archives. She smirked to herself at the foolishness of the night guards, and their decision to leave the archive cabinets unchecked...their carelessness might be her fortune.
Mere minutes later, Blake had navigated through the dark, winding corridors without further incident and arrived at the highly coveted archives. Records of every student and every one of their endeavours were catalogued in this immense, pitch-black repository. Not even Blake's naturally keen eyesight could discern the edges of the room - if it could be called a room at all.
"Better get to work..." she whispered to herself.
Blake paced between the immense bookcases which filled the entirity of the archive, straining her eyes to read the titles of various academic volumes. The only light available to her came from the moonlight which seeped in through the enormous glass dome ceiling above.
"S...S..." Blake repeated the letter to herself as she searched high and low for it, darting between the looming bookcases silently. "..S...Got it."
She discovered the 'S' section - an entire row of archived alumni records for thousands of past students. Blake began her exhaustive search for one name in thousands: Schnee.
As a passionate bookworm, it seldom took Blake much time at all to narrow down her search and pinpoint cabinet she needed to investigate. Her luck had failed her, however; the cabinet was indeed locked.
"Rats!" she hissed to herself. The black-haired girl was prepared for this eventuality, however, and produced a pristine set of tools from her pocket. She inserted the lockpick and calmly began to deal with it.
Clack.
Blake grinned and wordlessly congratulated herself on a particularly speedy break-in.
Within the space of seconds, the girl had scanned through the collection of journals and found her prize.
The uncensored, fully fledged academic record of Victor Schnee.
Blake wandered over into a spot of moonlight, and flipped through the pages. Following the contents page, she arrived at exactly what she wanted...his post-bachelor's research work.
"Genetics, transgenics...pharmaceutical experimentation...wait...discharged from the university?!" Blake's whispering halted as she read over the words again and again, with unwavering focus.
Victor Schnee had done something in his research...something which broke multiple strict moral regulations. He'd been removed from the university - and none of this was public knowledge. It had all been kept under wraps, kept secret in this archive.
Until now.
Blake paused and thought to herself. She had a responsibility, a duty to make sure society and the media knew that the CEO of Schnee Pharmaceuticals was not a man to be trusted. What he'd done wasn't clear. Not even the record seemed to dare mention whatever it was. But it had been terrible enough to have him removed without question, and that was reason enough to put him in the public spotlight - and ensure that Victor Schnee lost his company and his job.
Blake froze on the spot - the whistling was back.
The night guards were returning.
Panic raced through her mind. She didn't have time to return the record and seal the cabinet. Her only choice was to escape the Archive - and take the book with her.
She scarpered to her left, melted into the shadows where she became practically invisible - and slipped out of the Archive without a trace, Victor Schnee's record in hand.
Ruby stumbled merrily towards her bedroom, clutching onto Weiss for support.
"Weiiiiiissss!" she sang, barely standing upright as the heiress reluctantly kept the brunette steady with a heavy sigh.
"What?!" Weiss seethed.
"Huh?"
"You're the one who shouted my name, dunce! What do you want now?!" Weiss harshly replied. Ruby stared back at the white-haired girl, puppy-dog eyes in full force.
"Weiiiisss...please d-don't hate meeee!" Ruby whined, tears brimming. Weiss rolled her cerulean eyes disbelievingly.
"Oh good lord, don't start crying...I should never have let you have even one sip of that wine...you do realise that the theater is a cultured establishment, right?! I can't believe you got drunk at a concert...at an Ernest di Rocchio concert, too...such an embarrassment-"
"I only g-got drunkified because - because Ernest wasn't playing -hic- my favourite songs!" Ruby proclaimed through intoxicated hiccuping.
"Your favourite songs are all teen-pop nonsesnse. Ernest is a classical pianist Ruby!" Weiss heaved Ruby upwards onto her feet again, essentially dragging the younger girl to her room. "That's the last time I ever take you to a sophisticated evening..."
"NOOOOO, Weiss! We have to -hic- go on MORE ADVENTURES!" Ruby shoulder-barged her way into her bedroom and clambered onto her mattress, immediately begining to jump up and down on it - much to Weiss's irritation.
"Ruby, get down from there! Just...just go to bed already!" Weiss yelled.
"I can't, I can't! I've just got so so so so SO much energy!" Ruby shouted back, a toothy grin adorning her face.
"Fine. Guess I'll have to keep you down." Weiss sweeped Ruby's legs from under her, causing the brunette to flop onto her bed. With a series of delicate flicks from her wrist, Weiss casted ice upon Ruby's arms and legs, restraining the over-energetic girl.
"AHHHHH NOOO, Weiss! You can't do this, I gotta jump some more, I gotta - uh, Blake?" Ruby paused and perched head up. Weiss gasped and span her head around to face the door too.
In the doorway stood a bewildered Blake, her jaw agape and her eyes wide open.
The colour drained from Weiss's face as she realised what she'd done.
Blake stared at the impressive ice blocks Weiss had casted upon Ruby, a battered red book in her arms.
"Uh, h-hi...I, uhm...R-Ruby, I was just going to...to say I found some information on...on Victor..." Blake trailed off - her attention solely focused on the display of impossibility in front of her.
The tense silence lingered.
Ruby shattered the tension as she broke into amused, drunken giggling. She prodded a finger at Weiss.
"Well, youuuu can -hic- have fun explaining this one, princess Weiiissss!"
Hope you enjoyed Chapter 4, I had a LOT of fun writiing this one!
Another update for Elements of Change will come soon (as well as an upate for Tales of the Junipers)!
Please rate/review if you'd like!
