Pieces out of Line

Original Concept: RWBY/Fate/Stay Night

Chapter 7

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Created by: Rooster Teeth Productions/Type-Moon

written by: wrathie


Author's Notes: I would like to welcome XoreandoX as my new beta-reader/co-author. Along with bowpurity, the three of us discussed lots of details that has us pretty excited about the whole story. Hope you guys would like what we had planned and went through - I know I am. Thank you, both of them for the beta!

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bowpurity's Note: Happy international tabletop day! Wrecked ticket to ride at 146 points, hahahaha.
Sometimes, you realize anime grabbed inspiration from real life. I actually met a bunch of amazing people, whom fit really well into anime. The hip bouncer, the straight man, the exclaimer, the cute innocent maiden and the mischievous vixen. If i was a writer, I would write about them. Heh…

Anyway my beta point is, go explore life. If you're into creativity, you'll need that life experience to develop amazing things.


'That went pretty well.'

Blake gave her partner, Ruby Rose, a smile as they settled for the night. All four of them had gone through their introductions and had spent most of the night learning about each of their strengths, abilities and weaknesses. They had gone on with the second part – all the girls coming together to discuss how they were going to work together as a team.

Fighting in a team was different than fighting individually or in a pair after all and from the initial discussion earlier, it became apparent that Team RWBY had issues with ranged adversaries while being very stacked in the close ranged department.

They really needed to remedy that and they had discussed several formations that would help mitigate the team's weaknesses together. The four of them had bounced off ideas, debated and shared their experiences together in a gradually lively manner till it was time for dinner.

Ruby hoped that by having this discussion it would break down the barriers and walls between the team and help set the tone for how they were all going to work together.

The young leader had been relieved when Weiss had more or less grudgingly accepted Ruby's role as the leader after she was named as such, but she knew that would only be true as long as she worked hard to show that she was deserving of the position that has been given to her.

..

This was what she came up with after discussing with Blake on what she could do. Ruby was not book smart, she was more of a practical kind of person but since the person she had to win over the most was Weiss, who was a smart person – she had decided that she would try to at least impress Weiss with a well thought plan for them all to work together.

Ruby was a realist, in that she knew that it was impossible for her to win over all members of her team and to expect to lead them without some objections from them, even from Yang and Blake, because she was too inexperienced.

Weiss aside, neither did Ruby expect her team mates to just take over leadership like that and to not let her at least try. So if she was going to try to be a good leader, she should show effort to prove that she wanted to and could lead.

But since she was inexperienced and knew next to nothing about her team mates besides Yang, the best way to do so is to learn from those who knew the best – her team mates themselves.

It was a classic case of a team working together to solve a problem through the use of discussion and free flowing information. Stil, this method would only work if all of them trusted each other to some extent. Ruby reasoned that since all of them were in the same boat, having to depend on each other for the next four years in both missions and combat training meant that they would have to learn to contribute to the team and not hold anything back.

Thankfully, none of them did and Ruby was very relieved since it allowed them to be closer to each other. Weiss hadn't even grumbled about Yang being loud or annoying as they had dinner.

Her older sister and her partner were actually discussing possible combination attacks they could use together, after Weiss showed interest in how Yang's semblance was generating fire. Combined with Weiss's semblance of creating glyphs they could potentially create a very devastating attack. However right now she could only manipulate one particular dust at any single time and amongst the elements that she could produce was fire itself. With Yang being her partner and her semblance being fire itself, it freed up one of Weiss's dust containers for something else.

Ruby learnt something interesting today too, and that was Blake's semblance didn't increase her speed and agility in the same way as her own, which simply sped her up. Blake's speed was a technique born of her semblance and even if it wasn't fully developed, it was a terrifying ability nonetheless.

Blake's semblance allowed her to cover great distances in a single step, and as a secondary effect, allowed her to create solid copies of herself that could act independently from herself.

Ruby as a result found her own semblance of being able to speed herself up being somewhat… mediocre, but she was still learning how to refine it in order to control how fast she wanted to be and how much aura she needs to use to power her semblance. It was still a work in progress unfortunately.

..

Ruby smiled at Blake as the two of them went to grab dessert for their team, leaving Weiss and Yang to debate among themselves about the possibilities for their combination attack. Blake had confessed earlier that the plan worked a little too well and she was spooked at the thought of having to deal with Yang's silly ideas with Weiss's backing. Just thinking about it made Ruby shudder in panic.

Yang's crazy plans never truly went just as planned, and normally it was easy enough for Ruby to put a stop to her antics due to the lack of planning. But if Yang somehow managed to get Weiss to help her on on one of her outrageous plans and support it, they were in a world of trouble.

'I know, I'm relieved that it actually worked… we just… needed a reason and the time to be friends with each other… I mean, at least for Weiss. I know I could be friends with you, Blake. Thank you for your help when I was researching for what we could discuss about earlier.'

Ruby was being very modest, a little too much so for Blake and the raven-haired girl frowned just a little before petting Ruby on the head despite knowing that Ruby really disliked that. It was something Blake had noticed from spending time together with the two siblings for three days now.

The younger Ruby was trying her best to be the serious and dependable sister while Yang was the opposite, doing her utmost best to get Ruby to relax and have fun a little bit more instead of being so stressed over her new status as a leader.

It made Blake feel slightly jealous at how the two of them could accept the other so easily despite them both being radically different.

Blake could see that Ruby was trying her best to live up to what others expected out of her while trying to grow up to be the woman that she could and would be. Yang did nothing to stop her and that made Blake a little torn. Should she help the younger girl with her problems now? Maybe she could guide Ruby through this difficult phase as it might still be too obstacle for her handle.

Doing that would make Ruby grow more comfortable with the position of being their leader for the next four years.

Or should she just let Ruby struggle and fight her way out of that difficult predicament. It was not impossible – Ruby had to pull Weiss into the group seeing she and Yang intended to support and work with Ruby for the duration of her learning process.

There was a third option but it was blocked out when Ruby asked for her opinion in what made a good leader while sharing her own thoughts on what made a good one. Ruby had apparently even consulted Weiss and Yang for their opinion and was trying her best to learn and grow up to meet those expectations by working hard.

'You are doing very well, Ruby. You have to be more confident in yourself. You shouldn't be too obsessed about your age.'

There, Blake said the one thing that Ruby would never said out loud, not even to herself or to Yang. Blake had either wittingly or unwittingly poked the lion in the cage with her fingers.

..

It was the one thing that Ruby was always sore and sensitive about and Yang had learnt to never use Ruby's age as a teasing card in her book, lest she be faced with the true extent of her little sister's wrath.

Ruby had a lot to live up to and she had covered most of her innocence and her youth with a facade of maturity. The pressure from that had been lessened somewhat due to Yang's good performance in her first two years at Signal but it was amplified when Yang went out of hand.

Ruby had always been jealous of Yang being able to be true to herself while she couldn't. If it wasn't for the fact that her parents' dream and her own were the same, for her to be a huntress, she might even be a little resentful no matter how much she knew Yang loved and cherished her.

But her age, it was a sore point as it reminded her that she was still someone different as compared to the rest of them and had to be compared to a different yard stick. It doesn't matter whether she was considered to be strong or weak, she just simply did not wish to be singled out as different.

She might have gotten into Beacon in different circumstances but she truly didn't wish to cause a ruckus or to stand out amongst the crowd. All she ever wanted was to be treated as an equal in Beacon. It was incredibly difficult growing up, always being compared to her elder sister or being remarked as being more mature, better or anything akin to those lines that tries to put her in a flattering light.

Ruby never wanted that, and regardless of how true the statements were, it was a hollow compliment that meant nothing, did nothing and only grated on her nerves.

She had hoped that being at Beacon would have made it stop and although Yang hadn't jinxed her by saying that everyone was going to know about her. Blake had been the one who had recognized and identified her and told her how special she was as the youngest student of Beacon for quite a while.

She had been secretly dismayed at the attention she might receive, but since none of that ever did happen, Ruby was content until she was appointed as the leader of team RWBY.

At least Shirou had never looked at her this way, or at least publicly voiced out any comments on her age and how she should be treated differently due to that.

And after all her hard work and effort to be recognized and viewed as an equal and not as a liability, Blake had to say that to her!

..

Blake Belladona wasn't the most adept at reading human facial expressions when trying to gauge their emotions. Granted it should be an easy job for most people but Yang wasn't most people. It was partly due to her upbringing and how she loved blending in with the shadows, and found enjoyment more in solitude and silence than in the company of others.

She wouldn't call herself a social outcast or one who was socially awkward, but it was difficult at times to react in the right manner when talking to Ruby and Weiss. The two of them were unlike Yang and Nora, the two girls being as open with their expressions as an open book. Weiss was an interesting person due to how open her expressions and thoughts were at times while at other times, the emotions were hidden behind a forced mask that made it all but impossible to read, even if she wasn't fooling anyone.

Ruby however was just difficult due to the how the younger girl had so many extreme mood swings. She was very easily composed, but her mood swings break her mask a little too easily and it was in most ways, easy to read, if albeit difficult to predict.

Hence Blake was caught off guard when she somehow managed to tick Ruby off big time as she scowled angrily at Blake before aggressively turning away from her. Blake was hurt and she wondered what she had said wrong as she tried to get a peep at Ruby's face to reaffirm that Ruby really was upset.

Boy was that a bad idea as Blake was quickly abandoned as Ruby ran off faster than she ever thought someone could run.

Blake prided herself in having never been defeated in a straight out race due to her semblance. As long as there were no obstacles, Blake could out run almost anything or anyone. Her semblance, allowed her to cover a great deal of distance in a single step, and was usually mistaken for being able to run/move really fast and when used in conjunction with her clones, it made locating and catching her almost impossible.

But Ruby was forcing her to actually sweat as she finally managed to tackle Ruby just before Ruby cleared the entire school block. The two of them rolled to a heap before stopping with Blake on top. Who ever thought that the small girl had it in her to be so fast? Still, she didn't expect Ruby to just break off and run because she's upset like that. Maybe some habits died hard? If this was Ruby's coping mechanism when she's upset, Blake was both thankful and appalled that she was her partner.

How can a human girl run that fast? Even if her semblance was giving her control over her own speed, Ruby was moving so fast that she doubted that anyone could see anything but a blur of red and black before she had stopped her. Shaking her head, Blake stood up, and offered a hand to a still upset Ruby who while still pouting appeared to be calming down, especially after Blake apologized

'Was it something I said, Ruby? I... I didn't mean anything bad, so why did you run off like that...'

Blake had to ask, this was out of character for the calmer Ruby and this was honestly the first time she saw Ruby lose control of her emotions like this. Blake hoped it won't be a very common occurrence as she barely caught Ruby in time.

'… You... talked about my age.

Ruby scowled and mumbled. She normally didn't lose it like she did just now, but the culmination of all the stressful factors and the wave of relief after it was all over came crashing down hard when Blake had to bring it up again.

It was a lousy excuse, a flimsy one and should never be used but she had used it. The last time she had done so was when she had unlocked her semblance for the first time, allowing her to run straight out of Vale before she realized where she was and had gotten lost.

It was Yang who had found her then, but this time it was Blake, or was it just her?

..

'Honestly sis, if you don't learn to pace yourself... you'll wear your shoes out in no time. Man I'm all worn out... you don't need a bike at all...'

Yang remarked while panting, she looked exhausted and she was trying to catch her breath even as Weiss met up with them. The two of them looked completely wiped, how far did she run again and quick was she? She could've sworn she didn't run that long.

'… Haah... haaa... d-don't... ever... make me... run... after you... again.'

Weiss managed to choke out before she was unable to continue, allowing Blake to continue before she had been cut off.

'Are you sensitive about your age, Ruby? You are merely two years younger than us, it isn't that much of a gap for us to be friends.'

Blake missed how Yang blanched and looked nervous as she plowed on.

'There is nothing wrong with being younger or we being older. It all boils down to the individual and how they work with their apparent youth or experience.'

Yang blinked when Ruby didn't snap back at Blake, that was... actually a better line than she would have used to calm Ruby down and it seemed to be working for Ruby started to blush as Blake elaborated.

'Age doesn't really matter, it's your actions itself that show your maturity. I'm sorry if you misinterpreted my words as trying to belittle you, I don't mean that at all.'

Blake had a neutral expression on her face as Ruby stared back at her blankly as if she had just said something crazy. Blake didn't, but she might as well have as Yang pulled Weiss with her to sit beside the girl that was still sitting down on the floor.

'Blake's right. You shouldn't be too obsessed with this little sis. Let others talk whatever they want, you can't get others to stop talking you know.'

Yang nodded sagely and looked as if she was about to say more when Weiss interrupted her. She waved a finger in front of Ruby while looking both exasperated and mad at her.

'You performed spectacularly up till now, Ruby Rose, I was impressed with the thought and long term planning that you did with your team bonding session earlier. I certainly... didn't expect that.'

Weiss admitted with a small huff but she continued soon after Yang nudged her with an annoyed expression.

'I know you're missing a 'but' somewhere there, so just spit it out, Weiss.'

'How uncouth... but you do have a point.'

Weiss gave Yang a nod that only served to make Yang roll her eyes even while Weiss continued.

'To be honest, I was more than a little resentful in your appointment as the leader. But like I mentioned before, I told myself to accept your appointment as you had showed sufficient traits and skills to convince me to allow you to have your chance. Ruby Rose, you performed very well... till now and that is to be expected.'

Weiss's words made the three of them look at her and the Schnee heiress milked it for all she could before she continued.

'No one is perfect, not even me; but... I'm slowly getting there.'

Yang snorted at that and the blonde met the challenging eyes of the white haired girl before she backed off. Weiss' weakness was her pride after all, something Yang had exposed to the world.

'Having a minor breakdown like this is... certainly not the best way to show your frustration. But it is certainly understandable as everyone has to have an outlet... Especially since, I have been less than cooperative and was only adding on to your stress levels.'

Weiss conceded softly and Ruby's face was a mixture of confusion and relief a little till Yang interrupted.

'Well it's better than what I'll do at any rate, my little sister is as harmless as a kitty!'

Yang cried out in joy while the other three wondered why that was something to be proud of.

'Blake has apologized to you for the misunderstanding, but you would have to apologize as well to everyone for having such an over-exaggerated coping mechanism. Do you have any idea how far you ran? Do not make me run after you again, ever.'

Weiss ended her little speech with a scoff before being elbowed in the sides by a ticked off Yang.

'Seriously, could you stop being a frigid bitch and undoing what you just told Ruby? You made your point, you are awesome with words, but you have to know when to quit!'

Yang berated her partner Weiss, who spluttered before pointing a finger at Yang accusingly.

'Me?!'

She shrieked and the other winced as Weiss started chewing out the ticked off Yang.

'What about you, you uncouth peasant! Do you know who I am? I'm a Schnee, I'm loads better off than you would ever be. In fact, I am certain that if we rip off the fats from your chest, you would be nothing special. As expected from a blonde actually, the dumb blonde stereotyping isn't that false after all. If anything, you follow the trend very well, Yang Xiao Long.'

That definitely hit a nerve as the ticked marks on Yang's face doubled that very instant and the blonde looked ready to punch Weiss's face in when Ruby interrupted them.

'I-I'm sorry... please don't fight... we're supposed to be a team.'

Ruby's voice sounded very childish and pathetic and the two older girls looked at her as one before looking extremely awkwardly at each other. They were supposed to be lecturing her on how exaggerated her actions was, not to have an argument.

'That kind of defeats the purpose, right?'

'What the two of them are showing are exactly what teams should not be doing with each other.'

Blake chipped in with a small smirk as she finally helped Ruby up before pulling the other two girls up as well.

'Like what Weiss said, none of us are perfect. Ruby with her childish attempt to run away from her problems.'

Rub blushed at that while scratching her head. That was certainly true, but she had never heard of it being phrased in quite that way before though.

'Weiss... we all know her problems.'

Blake actually gave a wide smirk when Weiss fumed but decided not to chew her out this time.

'I'm sure Ruby can list down a whole list of what Yang could improve on.'

It was Weiss's turn to smirk as Yang spluttered while Ruby gave a solemn nod at that but the other three girls gave Blake a deadpan look when she decided to skip herself.

'And here I thought everyone aren't perfect, what about your imperfections, Blake?'

Blake kept a straight face as she explained to all of them, who prompted started laughing and giggling at what she said.

'My imperfections is getting involved with the three of you, as a team we are only as strong as the weakest member after all.'

Despite the giggling and laughing, yes, even Weiss was laughing as she tried desperately to hide it, Ruby managed to compose herself to get the team's attention on her again.

'We… We should start this all over again guys. So Team RWBY; Our… Our team is formed here, as friends...'

Ruby's smile only got wider as all of them nodded their heads with various levels of enthusiasm.

'With me... as the team leader. Before that, I… must just say, I'm... really sorry I did that but I... I just...'

Ruby blushed again while stopping in her explanations, there were plenty more that she could say but she was forestalled by Yang who grinned and rubbed her hair affectionately.

'No worries little sis, we understand and we haven't been the best team members when it comes to working together, have we? But, that team building session you got going there was great! What about you guys? Are you with Ruby?'

Yang grinned when the others nodded their heads and that alone made Ruby want to cry again as she frantically tried to hide her face at how happy she was. They were really going to accept her? Really?

'T-Thank you... I'll be the best leader for Team RWBY, I promise!'


'From this moment on you are officially suspended for one month, Mr. Winchester.'

The team leader of CRDL was in shock as he stared at Professor Ozpin who had handed him the sentence with a perfectly even face. He had not believed that the unknown boy, Emiya Shirou would even make good on his threat. But he had and with the Schnee Heiress as a witness, the Winchester family could hardly find anyway to stop the charges from being filed or even to mitigate the charges that were set.

'We would also be putting your position as the team leader of Cardinal under scrutiny. It is likely that you would have to go through a probationary period before we confirm or remove you from your position as the team leader.'

Cardin was about to protest but was preempted by Professor Ozpin who said that the decision was final, and no other pleas would be taken.

'But all that for a faunus girl?! What right does she have?'

Professor Ozpin raised an eyebrow before sighing and then subsequently starting to write again.

'It seems that you have not learnt anything from this experience, have you, Mr. Winchester. In the duration of your suspension you would be given several assignments to complete on your own. The Faunus girl, Ms. Scarlatina would be taking charge of your team as their interim leader. I will be briefing all of them together with Ms. Scarlatina first thing tomorrow.'

It was simply to add insult to injury and Cardin was about to blow up before catching himself. He had already received punishment once for speaking back to him, what would happen if he did it the second time?

'I understand... Thank you, headmaster.'

'You are dismissed Mr. Winchester. The assignments would be given to you every start of the week and I am expecting a reply by the end of the same week for each assignment. You are free to use the school's facilities but will not be allowed to leave the grounds of Beacon unless given express permission by the teaching staff. Good day, Mr. Winchester.'

Professor Ozpin dismissed the fuming boy and Cardin just barely restrained himself from slamming the door behind him as he headed to the dormitory rooms to prepare for the next month of torture.

Or would he?

..

As Cardin turned a corner, he found someone blocking his way and although Cardin dismissed him at first, after the third time the man reappeared in front of him, Cardin took the bait and asked him what he wanted.

'To make you stronger, regardless of the cost and time needed.'

The figure offered Cardin Winchester a smile as he waited for the boy to reply, a smile smile that grew even bigger as he spoke of his plans for him.