A/N at the bottom.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
"What are you doing here?" Yang asked, unsure whether she was happy her father was here or not, "I thought you were still back home on Patch island."
Ruby nodded mutely in agreement.
"What, a father can't drop by unannounced on his two favorite daughters? Speaking of which…" He went up to them and scooped them both up in a massive hug. "I've missed you girls terribly since you left!"
"Yeah, we missed you too, Dad!" Ruby choked out. "...Could you maybe left us breathe?"
"I second the motion!" Yang concurred similarly.
"Right, sorry." He loosened his grip and let the two girls slide back onto their seats, each gasping for air. "So how's Beacon been treating you?"
"Pretty good, all things considered," Yang said, having regained her breath first, "Had to fight a bunch of terrorists, but you know how it goes..."
"Well, that's not all we do...," Ruby clarified.
The blond man chuckled and mussed Ruby's hair, "Don't worry, we'll have plenty of time to catch up; I plan on staying in town until the end of the Festival." He crossed his arms over his chest, "Now why don't you introduce me to you little friends here."
Weiss bristled slightly at being referred to as Ruby and Yang's "little friend".
"Oh, right!" The crimsonette cleared her throat, turned to her friends and gestured to her father. "Weiss, Blake, this our dad, Taiyang Xiao-Long. Dad, these are our friend and partners, Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna."
"A pleasure to meet you." He gave a short but respectful bow, "I've heard nothing but good things about you from my daughters."
"Likewise," Blake said, returning the bow.
"We've heard good things about you as well." Weiss gave a small curtsey.
"*bark*" Zwei barked.
"Hang on, you didn't explain why you're here," Yang pointed out. "Not that I'm not glad you're here and everything, but you could have called us or something to let us know you were coming."
"I did call," he said, "yesterday morning. I mean, I tried to call, but neither of you picked up, so I just decided to surprise you instead. Although, I would have thought the hint I sent would have clued you in a little better."
"What hint?" Ruby wondered, question marks floating above her head before suddenly changing into a large exclamation point, "Zwei was the hint!?"
"Yep!" he said proudly, popping the P, "I figured you girl would like to spend some time with him after being away for months."
"Excuse me, Mr. Xiao-Long?" Weiss interjected, "I have a question."
"Go ahead, Miss Schnee," he nodded, "so long as you promise to call me 'Taiyang' from now on; 'Mr. Xiao-Long' makes me feel too old."
"OK then," she continued, "Taiyang...WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU MAILED THAT POOR, INNOCENT DARLING HALFWAY ACROSS REMNANT?! I MEAN, WHO MAILS A DOG?" WHAT IF HE GOT LOST IN TRANSIT, OR CRUSHED BY A HEAVIER PACKAGE, OR…!" She scooped Zwei up and held him protectively against her chest, nuzzling him with her cheek.
Taiyang was completely unphased by the maelstrom Weiss unleashed, a stark contrast to his daughters, who were now both sporting the "windswept" look, their eye wide with shock.
"I gave him food," the father shrugged, as if that were the biggest point of contention.
Weiss couldn't find the right words to express how not the point that was.
"Besides," Taiyang continued, "as far as I know, he's never been even remotely injured; I don't even know if her can be injured!"
"Which reminds me, fire doesn't hurt him either," Ruby told her father, snapping her fingers.
"Really? And how'd you find that out?"
"It's...kind of a long story…."
"Well, I've got time. Regale me."
"Then you'd better pull up a seat." Yang patted the seat next to her. "We got a lot to talk about…"
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
"Have I ever told you how much I love this place?" Sun Wukong asked as he chowed down on his fair food, "Because I do."
"Not that I don't think Vale isn't cool and all," Neptune said, "but that's just disgusting."
"Dude, I'm telling you, you're missing out!" He took another bite of his food, "Seriously, whoever invented Pizza in a Cup should have songs written about them!" He licked his fingers with many satisfied smacking sound heard.
Neptune just sighed, shaking his head despondently. He loved his best friend, he really did, but there were just some things he drew the line at.
Artery clogging monstrosities like Pizza in a Cup being on of them.
"No thanks, I'm good." The blue haired boy once again scanned the crowd of festival goers, "Are you sure Team RWBY's going to be here?"
"Abfowoowy!" the monkey Faunus said through a mouthful of cheese, tomatoes, and pepperoni before gulping it down. "Like, twelve percent sure beyond a doubt."
Neptune raised an eyebrow, "And the other 88%?"
"They might be here," he said, tossing the now empty cup in a nearby trashcan, "with 7% of that being the possibility that they aren't here at all."
"...you just wanted an excuse to eat junk food, didn't you?"
"Possibly," Sun shamelessly admitted, appearing a banana seemingly from thin air and peeling it, "not like we get stuff like this that often." He took a bite of the fruit, "But I really do think you should hang out with your girlfriend; you two just look so cute together!"
"And since when did you becoming a matchmaker?"
Sun shrugged, "Since I decided you were fun to tease about dating Ice Queen." He finished the banana and chucked the peel behind him blindly. "...And maybe I also wanted to hang out with Blake a little."
"Following you so far," Neptune nodded, "and you think they'll be here because…?"
Sun made an about face. "Uh, have you met Yang and Ruby?" he asked rhetorically, "There's no way those two didn't drag their team here today!" He continued walking backwards, arms folded behind his head. "Great food, great people, great music, great food...Hell, I'd be surprised if when we find them, they aren't-"
Which was why he didn't notice the woman until both of them had already toppled to the ground.
"Holy crap, I'm so sorry!" he apologized, "Are you OK?"
"Yeah," the woman nodded, picking herself up, "just a bit startled." She bent down and offered sun a hand, "I was kinda lost in thought and wasn't paying attention to where I was walking."
"Ditto here," he said, taking the proffered hand. Once he was back on his feet Sun dusted himself off. "I normally don't make a habit of walking into people, not literally anyway."
"Eh, no harm done. Wish my cookies survived, though…" She stared at the ground, where the remains of a rather large chocolate chip cookie lay, in all their crumby tragedy. "I was really looking forward to it…"
"Would you like us to buy you another one?" Neptune offered. (He quickly smacked his best buddy for being clumsy.) "It wouldn't be any trouble."
"Thanks. By the way, the name's Crimson."
"Sun Wukong," Sun said, "Faunus extraordinaire and liberator of helpless, crescent shaped fruit everywhere!" He lazily jerked his thumb at his partner, "And this is my sidekick, Neptune."
"Neptune Vasilias," Neptune said, holding his hand out, "I'm the brains of this outfit. Pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," she said, shaking his hand in turn.
"You're not the same Crimson that everyone's talking about at Beacon," Sun asked, "are you?"
"Guilty as charged."
"Rad! I bet you're gonna kill it in the tournament!"
"Oh, I'm not competing," she said, waving the notion away, "it'd be unfair to all the young people if I wiped the floor with all of them."
"You think you're really that strong?" Neptune asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"Crimson" scoffed. "Well, considering I just made a third year team cry for Mommy and shrugged off a blow from Yang that would have leveled a building, I'd say so."
"She's got a point," Sun conceded, "Scarlet said he and Sage saw the whole thing."
"I guess we'll just take your word for it, then." Neptune reached for his wallet, "So want kind of cookie do you want?"
"Chocolate chip, same as the last one." Then she snapped her fingers, "Actually, could you make it two? I sorta promised someone I'd get her one."
"You're here with friends? Awesome!" Sun cheered, "Friends always make things better! Let's go meet 'em!"
"Don't you two have girlfriends?" the lady asked, glancing between the two suspiciously, "I don't know how they'd feel about you hanging out with an older woman."
"Yeah, but we can't seem to find them," Sun explained, "And it's not like we're trying to two time them, three pairs of eyes are just better than two."
"That sounds pretty weak, bro," Neptune chastised before turning to the woman, "Ignore him, for he knows not what he says."
"Well, aren't you a gentleman," she praised, "your girl must be really special, huh?"
"Yeah, kinda." Neptune blushed, rubbing the back of his head, "She could be a little rough around the edges, but she's making improvements."
After a short eternity of scrutiny, the woman smiled. "OK then, you two can hang out with me and my gal pals until we find your girlfriends." She slung her arms over both boys, "Now let's go get those cookies!"
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
"...And that's when we realized that Ruby was missing, just as Zwei rushed into the room. Weiss and Blake woke up and we were all like 'where did he come from?', and then Dr. Oobleck comes around the corner, looking all serious and stuff. He says 'Your leader is in grave danger', and Weiss is like 'Did she go off to hunt some Grimm? Because I totally believe that's something she would do'."
"I never said that!" Weiss protested
"I'm not that impulsive!" Ruby cried.
"Up bup bup!" Yang made a "shut your pie hole" sign with her hands, then gestured to herself, "Who's telling the story here?"
"You are…," the crimsonette grumbled, huffily folding her arms over her chest.
"Exactly! So please hold all questions until the end of the narrative, OK?~" She cleared her throat and turned back to Taiyang and continued the story, "Anyway, we all headed out into the city, Zwei dutifully leading the way back to the hole where Ruby fell-"
"I don't think it was entirely necessary to focus so much on your outfit at the dance," Blake interjected. "Or to reenact the impromptu dance number that JNPR did."
"Hey, I said no questions until the end!"
"I have to agree with your friend here, Yang," Taiyang shrugged, "as well done as your dancing was, it didn't really add anything to the overall plot."
"Well I thought it was cool," the blond harumphed.
"...I liked it," Ruby said in a small voice, bopping her fingers together.
"Anyway...," she said again, "We followed Zwei to the hole where Ruby fell, and Dr. Oobleck started ranting about how 'there's an underground city under here!' and 'I should have realized it!' and other cliches brainy types spout. He-"
"S'up, losers!"
The group turned around to find Sun Wukong waving at them from atop a trashcan.
"Oh, hey Sun," Yang waved back, "What's up?"
He shrugged, "Eh, you know, hanging out, taking in the local flavor." He looked over his shoulder, "Neptune should be around here somewhere- thought they were right behind me…"
"Who's behind you?" Blake asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Just Neptune and a lady we accidentally ran into," he explained. He hopped down from the can and sauntered over behind Blake, "Truth is, we were actually looking for you girls, Blakey and Ice Queen here specifically."
"Hey!" Weiss scoffed.
"Please don't call me 'Blakey'," Blake pleaded, blushing slightly as she sent a glare Sun's way.
"Sorry!"
"Another friend of yours?" Taiyang asked.
"Oh, that's Sun," Ruby explained, "he hangs around with us sometimes."
"Mostly with this lovely lady right here." The monkey Faunus plopped himself down next to his girlfriend, patting her on the shoulder.
"Stop it…," she protested weakly, unsuccessfully trying to hide her blush.
"You said something about Neptune being here?" Weiss asked, her voice slightly betraying the eagerness she felt.
"Like I said," Sun said, "he was right behind me, I dunno what happened." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe that woman's still trying to decide what cookies to get…"
Weiss was about to ask "what woman?" when she noticed Crimson emerge from the crowd, waving at them.
"I'm back!" she announced as she jogged over, slowing to a walk as she got closer, "I got the cookies, but I accidentally dropped them so I had to get more. And I ran into-"
"Summer?!" Taiyang shot to his feet, his eyes practically falling out of his head at the sight of his dead wife standing before him, looking like she was about to go to war or something.
Crimson looked equally shocked at the unexpected appearance of her father.
"Oh fuck…."
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
In all his years the last thing Taiyang was ever expecting was to suddenly see Summer Rose standing before him again. Granted, there were many things the man wasn't expecting to see, and quite a few he hoped never to see come to pass, but seeing his dead wife magically alive and well was most definitely at the top of the list.
He stared at her dumbly, his mouth unable to decide whether to hang slack or not. He couldn't believe it, he just couldn't! It was inconceivable! It was preposterous!
And yet….
The last he saw of Summer was when she was leaving for her last, ill-fated mission, when she was waving goodbye to him and Yang; she wore a tragic smile on her face, almost as if she already knew the outcome. Her cloak was blowing in the wind, making its wearer look even more graceful and ethereal than she normally was (at least to him, anyway).
And now here she was, sans cloak, perfectly alive and well.
Except for the eye patch, that was new….
"Well, this is awkward," she said, bopping her pointer fingers together, "Wasn't really expecting you to show up…."
"I think we should go," said Weiss, tugging on Blake's sleeve.
"Yeah…" The dark Faunus nodded and followed Weiss to a nearby stall, dragging Sun behind her despite his protests.
Now that the Xiao-Long family had some relative privacy, Taiyang took a second look and "Summer"; despite having almost identical features, both reason and his own eyes told him that the woman before him was not the same person as his late wife. Little details like the part of her hair and the way her lip turned up when she smirked (awkwardly…) were all things that told him she wasn't Summer.
"Oh," Ruby realized, also bopping her fingers, "I knew I was forgetting something…."
Then something clicked in his head. He glanced at his daughter, then back to the woman, repeating the process a couple of times.
"Let me save you the trouble," Yang said upon noticing her father's confusion, "they're both Ruby, one of them is just from the future."
"Call me Crimson," the woman added.
"...pull the other one," he said eventually.
"It's completely true," the woman said. Her face scrunched up, like she was struggling in deep thought, and after a moment she snapped her fingers. "And I know just how to prove it, too!" She stood tall and pointed emphatically at Taiyang, "You used to wet the the bed until you were twelve years old!"
Taiyang blanched, all color disappearing from his face like a curtain being dropped. This...this was witchcraft! He'd never told anyone outside of his parents (it had been unavoidable) about that dark chapter in his life, not even Summer! He lunged across the table and grabbed the woman by the collar of her hood, slamming her down hard on the table.
"How do you know about that?" he growled, startling Yang and Ruby into hiding behind Zwei. "The only people on the entire planet who that are my parents, so unless you learned how to speak with the dead, then you'd better have a real good explanation for knowing that!"
"You did," she grunted, "in the future! ...and your reaction right now is confirming it. If you let me up, I'll explain."
Taiyang looked over at his daughters, both of the nodding their heads emphatically.
"Fine," he sighed, releasing his grip, "Start explaining." The woman cleared her throat and took a deep breath.
The woman took a deep breath. "...SointhrfuturetheworldgetsreallyreallyshittyandyousortahaveaslightcaseofdementiaandonedaysomethingreallyreallyshittyhappenedtomeandIendedupatyourhouseaftermindlesslyragingforabitanywaylongstoryshortyoutriedtocheermeupbytellingmeaboutyourchildhoodandthesubjectofyouradolecentincontinencecameup!" she said in one long sentence. "...slightly."
Taiyang mulled it over.
"...what happened that made me think telling you my darkest secret?" he asked.
Now it was the woman's turn to blanch, an embarrassing grimace creeping onto her face. After what looked like a brief, internal struggle, she motioned for him to lean in close.
He immediately regretted doing so when he heard the answer she gave.
"Uh, Dad?" Ruby tried waving to get her father's attention, but what Taiyang just heard chilled him to the very core, to the point where he couldn't process anything else due to the words she said replaying over and over in his mind.
If that was what the future held, he was glad he got dementia before it happened.
"Hey, Dad, snap out of it!" Yang reached over and snapped her fingers in front of Taiyang's face.
"Uh-wuh!" the man gasped, shaking himself back to reality.
"What the hell did she say to you?" the blonde wondered.
The woman glared at Yang, "If I wanted you and Ruby to know what I told him, I would have said it out loud."
"Tch! Well excuse me, princess!"
"I'm not a princess!" both Rubies yelled at the same time.
"See?!" Weiss called.
"So...you're really my daughter?" he wondered aloud. He looked her over once more (she didn't noticed because she was busy flipping Weiss Schnee the bird). "My daughter...from the future!…" Slowly, he was coming to accept the notion that a future version of his late wife's daughter was currently sitting across from him. With this came a whole slew of question concerning her life and how it would end up turning out. One question in particular worming its way to the front of his mind until he could think of nothing else.
"Before you ask," she said just as Taiyang was about to open his mouth, "the answer's probably yes, especially considering the War goes on for over a decade."
"What'd he wanna know?" Ruby asked her older self, taking a drink from her soda cup.
Crimson shrugged, "Eh, probably if I've had sex or not."
Ruby then did the mother of all spit takes, followed almost immediately by Yang and her father. (Neither full blooded Xiao-Long was drinking anything, for the record.)
"...what?"
"You mean you've-" Taiyang said before cutting himself off, "Nope! On second thought, I don't want to know; as far as I'm concerned, you can take the secrets of your sex life to your grave!"
"Yeah, I suppose that's for the best," she shrugged, "we wouldn't want you get any more grey hairs or anything…~"
"Someone say something about grey hair?" Sun asked, suddenly reappearing with Blake and Weiss in tow. He reached behind his "girlfriend", pulling out Neptune. "We found this guy, by the way; turns out he was getting bombarded by a bunch girls who wanted his 'company' and he didn't have the heart to just walk away."
"Hey, cool guys don't just 'walk away'," the cerulean haired youth said, "I had to explain to them that I already had a girlfriend, and she's the only girl for me." He slung his arm around Weiss's shoulder, giving her a light kiss on the top of her head. "Right, Snow Angel?"
"Oh, stop it…~" she said, blushing slightly.
"Aw,~" Crimson cooed, "dat's sweet!" She stood up and plucked Weiss away from her boyfriend ("Yoink!"), dragging her off as she feebly reached for Neptune, "Unfortunately, we've got a symphony to get to, and Dad showing up ate some of that time."
"But- but- but…!"
"Now now, you were the one who wanted to hear some classical music, so we're going to do that right now," she said, "You can bitch at me about it later, when we get to that training you said was going to happen today."
"We should probably go after her," Ruby said to her dad as Crimson and her hostage (Weiss) assimilated into the crowds, "you wanna come with?"
"Thanks for the offer," he said, "but I have to check in with the tournament officials."
"What for?" Yang asked, "You not gonna compete, are you?"
Taiyang shook his head, "No, I'm going to be one of the referees; didn't I just mention that?"
"I don't think so," Blake said, "Yang was taking forever to explain how Zwei was fire resistant-"
"Hey!"
"-and Crimson showed up, so..."
Taiyang nodded, now recalling what information he'd actually shared. "Well, the short version is that I get asked to be a ref right as I was planning to come visit, but it seems I've lost sight of your friend and...yourself, I guess?"
"Just call her Crimson," Yang assured him, "or you'll go red from the aneurysm." She paused laughter, to which she predictably received none. "...geddit?"
Blake just turned around and mechanically headed in the direction Crimson dragged Weiss.
"Oh come on!"
"You guys wanna tag along?" Ruby asked Sun and Neptune.
"Pass," Sun said, "I'd rather go see Tower of Pimps."
"I think that show just ended," Neptune said, checking his Scroll.
"OK, then I'ma just get more food!"
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
"That was awesome!" Emerald exclaimed as the group headed back to where they left Pyrrha and Cinder, "T.O.P. rocks!"
"Bow to the Tower of Pimps!" Nora exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air like she just didn't care. (Which she didn't.) "...And the Queen of the Castle!"
"Eh," Mercury shrugged, "I've seen better." He folded his arms behind his head as he walked, "There weren't enough pictures."
Jaune looked confused. "How can music not have enough pictures?" he wondered.
"Ignore him," Emerald groaned, "he suffers from 'chronic asshole syndrome'."
"I'm...sorry?" he said, perplexed. "That's a real thing?"
"It's not contagious, is it?" Nora asked worriedly, hiding from 'patient zero' on the far side of Ren.
"It's not a real thing," Ren clarified, both for his partner's and his leader's benefit. "He's just being an asshole."
"Um, rude!" the silver haired boy scoffed, "Sensing a bit of hostility from you there, Ponytail."
Emerald rolled her eyes as Mercury tried to antagonize the stoic Lie Ren, (having both seen and been through this shtick many times before), though he seemed to be getting more of a reaction out of the Ginger girl.
Seeking respite from her partner's idiocy, she turned over to Jaune, who was looking somewhat subdued for just coming from a awesome rap concert. "What's eating you?" she asked, trying to sound sincere.
"Huh?" the scraggly kid started, looking up from the ground, "Oh, it's nothing…."
"It's obviously not nothing," she noted, patting him on the shoulder, "so what's up?"
"It's…," he said, after briefly mulling the decision over, "Should we really have left Pyrrha and your friend back there? I don't really know what kind of music Pyrrha likes, but I think she'd like just being included."
Ah ha, there it was.
"She kinda strikes me as the type who doesn't listen to a lot of T.O.P.," Emerald said before elaborating, "She reminds me of Cinder in a lot of ways, and I know Cindy isn't into 'that rap music', as she puts it, so I'm sure your girlfriend won't hold it against you that went without her."
"...she isn't technically my girlfriend," Jaune explained, somewhat reluctantly. "We're actually just normal friends right now."
"So you're single, then?" she asked eagerly, waggling her eyebrows. After he sputtered for a few seconds she mercifully put him out of his misery, "Don't worry, I'm not trying to make a move on you; you'd know if I were doing that!"
"Good to know…," Jaune said hesitantly, unsure whether to feel any better given this new information.
Emerald of course picked up on this.
"OK then," she said, "let's get back to our friends!"
She gave him another pat and cheeky grin and turned back to the other three in their group; Mercury and Nora had, at some point, gotten into a heated argument over whether X-Ray & Vav or Mogar was the better comic series.
"I'm telling you," Nora said, "Mogar is better; he's practically invincible!"
"But not completely," Mercury countered, "X-Ray and Vav could absolutely win with their reluctant teamwork and parkour mastery."
"Mogar can literally turn into a bear!" she enunciated, "All other arguments are invalid!"
"And Vav is 'British', what's your point?"
"This must be what Hell is like…," Ren moaned, pinching the bridge on his nose.
"Yeah," Jaune agreed, "let's get going."
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Cinder was really a fascinating and insightful young woman, especially for being as young as she was. She was intelligent, well traveled, and apparently a competent fighter, though Pyrrha had yet to witness that. She was also very well read, as the last fifteen minutes of their conversation could attest, quoting many of the well known Mistrali philosophers to back up her arguments.
And while she did ask about her time as a career fighter, it was a genuine pleasure to have a discussion that didn't revolve solely around hitting and shooting things.
"I believe that justice should be the responsibility of anyone able to carry it out," she said, "not just the government or the Huntsmen." She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, "If the world if ever going to change for the better, the people need to start actively wanting justice instead of just wanting it met out."
"...Socrati, right?" Pyrrha guessed, "I remember reading about him in primary school."
"Exactly. I've always found his views on the responsibility of the masses to be quite provocative."
"I prefer the one that goes 'man who runs behind bus gets exhausted, man who runs in front of bus gets tired'," Mercury said, plopping himself down beside the girls.
"You got that from the funny pages!" Emerald accused him, trailing behind with the remainder of team JNPR, "In fact, I know you did; I saw you reading them this morning!"
"Emerald, Mercury…," Cinder admonished. She glanced between the two of them, a knowing edge in her eyes.
"Sorry…," Emerald said, drooping sorrowfully. Mercury just leaned back, shooting off a lazy thumbs up.
"H-how was the concert?" Pyrrha asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a more friendly direction.
"It was awesome!" Nora cheered, "They completely rocked the house; you totally should have come!"
"Yeah," Jaune added, "we missed you."
Pyrrha fought to keep from blushing.
"I didn't mind," she said, "Miss Fall and I managed to entertain ourselves."
"Indeed," Cinder nodded, "We've been having quite an interesting discussion on politics; Miss Nikos is quite the intelligent young woman."
"What were you discussing?" Ren asked.
"Not much," she shrugged, "we were just talking about talking about the responsibility of the common man to take a stand against injustices before you all returned."
"Bo-ring!~" Mercury chimed, "If that's what we're going to be talking about that I'ma just take a little nap." He suddenly appeared an X-Ray & Vav comic from thin air and laid it over his face. "Wake me when something interesting happens," he said, his voice muffled by the glossy paper.
"Where did you get that?" Emerald asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow.
"On the ground back there," he said dispassionately, shrugging. "Definitely not from that noisy kid."
Pyrrha scanned the crowd of people and saw a young mouse Faunus, maybe seven or eight years old, bawling his eyes out while being comforted by a woman she assumed to be his mother or his aunt (she didn't have mouse ears like the boy did).
Before she could do anything, however, Emerald got up, swiped the comic off her friend ("Excuse you!") and headed over to the crying boy.
"Here you go," she said, kneeling next to the distraught child, "You dropped this before, right?" The boy choked back his sobs and looked up, his whole face lighting up when his saw his lost tome being offered back to him. He squealed for joy, scooping up the comic and hugging it gently to his chest.
"Thank you so much!" the woman said to Emerald, mussing the boy's hair playfully, "I don't know how to thank you!"
"It was nothing," Emerald assured her, only for the woman to protest.
"Please, there has to be something I can do to show how grateful we are," she insisted, "The bookstore where we bought it just closed down recently, and the owner said that this was a particularly hard to find issue."
"Well, just enjoy the book. And if you get the chance, have him read 'Third Crusade' if you can find a copy; it's a really engaging read."
"Tanksh, lady!" the boy called as Emerald made her way back to the group, the haven student giving a curt wave back.
"That was certainly nice of you," Cinder remarked as Emerald pulled up an extra chair.
"Yeah!" added Jaune, "That was really cool."
Emerald waved dismissively, "Oh, you know, just doing what any good citizen would do."
"And here I am without my trumpet," Mercury drawled, "or I would have played you a fanfare."
"You can play the trumpet?" Nora marveled, to which the silver haired youth smacked his head.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Well, as you've just seen, there was a bit with Jaune and Pyrrha there at the end.
Guess why it took so long to finish this chapter!
Anyway, in response to the call for suggestions about Taiyang's weapon(s?), I've come to a decision about what they and/or it will be. He's going to use twin tonfa with two alternate functions: the first is that they can each be used as short range flamethrowers, and the second is that they can be attached end to end and extend into a pole (a la Ruyi-Bang and Jingu-Bang). In keeping with the Bruce Lee thing I mentioned last chapter, I've decided to call them "Heavenly Glory". (On a completely unrelated note, I highly recommend watching "Enter the Dragon"; it's a really engaging watch.) He'll definitely be back at some point, possibly during the tournament, depending on how things go there.
THIS NEXT BIT IS IMPORTANT. I believe I mentioned this before, but if not then let me definitively state that you out there in reader land are free to submit simple OCs that will be featured in the tournament for the cast of RWBY to fight. (Or possible show up as White Fang if they're not used here.) The criteria are simple: state their race (Human or Faunus), general info about their appearance (Hair color, outfit, weapons, etc), their fighting style (again, keep it general; I can get a pretty good idea from their weapons how they'll fight, but things like "She's relentless" or "He favors doing this thing" help me choreograph the fight itself), and a name (bonus points if you can reference a historical figure or some classic literature). PLEASE DO NOT COPY PREEXISTING CHARACTERS FROM ANIME, MANGA, VIDEOGAMES, MOVIES, OR RECENT BOOKS. I can do that well enough on my own if I wanted to.
So, anyone want to take a stab at what Crimson's next nightmare is going to be about? It's coming up soon, so place your bets now.
Also, as of this chapter, RWBY Volume 3, Episode 1 has been premiered at RTX 2015, though I'm still undecided on whether I'm going to watch it when it gets put on YouTube. However, if (as rumors state) Winter Schnee's character model gets showcased, Velvet's mysterious weapon gets revealed, and we actually get a concrete character model for Qrow, then I will definitely make a point to watch it. If by some chance someone reading this has been to RTX and has seen the premier, then please let me know if any or all of these points get addressed. (Just a yes or no will suffice; I'd like to discover the details on my own.)