Author's Note: Hello folks, I'm back with another chapter! This one was a bit longer in coming because of the whole retcon business, specifically in that I had to rethink what was going to take place in that time while I continue to write that story on the side, but that problem is resolved now and this remains my primary project, and I'm going to deal with Weiss's prejudices later. For now though, enjoy the final exams chapter and look forward to winter break! As always, any feedback you can provide would be helpful and welcome, so please, enjoy!
Weiss set down her pen.
That's it then… let's hope all that studying paid off.
First she glanced at the clock; it was ten minutes of noon.
It's almost over…
She surreptitiously glanced to the side to assess the status of her teammates, Blake was setting down her pen at that very instant, and though Yang was still busy at work, she was plainly disinterested, despite the gravity of the circumstance, as evidenced by the bored expression on her face as she blew a stray lock of golden hair out of her face. Least impressive was Ruby, whose exam paper was absolutely covered in impressively detailed doodles, yet she was only on the seventh of twelve pages. It absolutely dumbfounded Weiss that one so talented could be so lazy…
Letting out a sigh, Weiss turned her exam over to indicate that she was done and leaned back in her seat, looking about the rest of the room as Oobleck zipped forward, collected her test, and was back at his desk, sipping his coffee in an instant. Across the room where team JNPR was seated, Jaune was visibly struggling, but at least the poor guy was trying… On the other hand, Pyrrha and Ren were also sitting patiently for class to end as well, though Ren was perhaps exhibiting the more patience of the two, as Nora had decided to amuse herself by flicking paper footballs folded from blank sheets of her notebook at him.
Eleven fifty-five…
Jaune was mercifully spared Ren's fate as he finished the last page off his exam because Cardin, situated behind him, was too busy juggling various expressions of frustration and anxiety, occasionally glancing down to no avail; Jaune was unwittingly obscuring his paper as he hunched over it. The rest of Team CRDL wasn't doing much better…
Two minutes…
Oobleck took another sip of his coffee, "Two minutes, ladies and gentlemen,"
Ruby made a noise somewhere between a startled squeak and a groan.
Well at least she's on the tenth page now…
RWBY's team leader was scribbling furiously now as all three of her teammates watched with concern. She sped through the last two pages of questions faster than she could possibly have actually read them, though Weiss's worry and disappointment was somewhat mitigated by the fact that the last two pages were all multiple-choice.
"Pens down ladies and gentlemen," Oobleck set down his coffee for the first time that class period for the instant that was required for him to dash about the classroom and collect the remaining exams.
Ruby made a piteous attempt to resist, cringing as Oobleck pulled it from her fingers.
"Well… That was a thing…" Yang commented, lacing her fingers together and stretching her arms out in front of her as she leaned back in her seat, ""My head kinda hurts though…"
"History is important Yang," Blake chided, albeit with a friendly smirk.
"Indeed," Weiss nodded; it was an admittedly conditioned response, brought on by years studied diligence, but true enough nonetheless.
"I don't think I did so well…" Ruby whined.
"Perhaps if you'd dedicated half of the energy that went into those lovely doodles," Weiss rolled her eyes, "You need to put more effort into studying, Ruby,"
"Nope!" Ruby's expression instantly brightened as she announced her defiance, "'Cause last we have Goodwitch!"
"That's still a final Ruby," Weiss raised an eyebrow.
"It is combat training though," Blake put in with a shrug, getting up from her seat.
"Exactly!" Ruby sprang up from her own seat, "In other words: the only fun exam!"
Yeah Ruby… Weiss fumed as she slid out of the way on a glyph, The fun one...
A sizable shaft of ice embedded itself where she'd been standing.
If I didn't know better… She mused as Jaune caught the brunt of dust-fueled hailstorm with his shield, getting buffeted to the ground in so doing, I'd say Goodwitch was actually trying to kill us… Oh CRAP!
Weiss pirouetted, dodging a volley of needle-sharp icicles by inches.
WAY… TOO… CLOSE…
Clenching her teeth, Weiss turned back in Professor Goodwitch's direction as the instructor was amid pelting Ruby, Yang and Nora all at once. She needed a plan…
Think Weiss… You've got dust too, you've got Myrtenaster, and sixteen-, Russell Thrush and Dove Bronzewing went flying, Well… Fourteen of us to just the one of her…
Goodwitch's idea of a final was for half of the combat studies class to come at her at once. Apparently their scores would be determined based upon how long they could stay in the fight and how well they worked as a unit. In terms of the objective, it was a simple exercise really, but for the fact that the ordinarily collected and Professional Goodwitch was a one-woman army.
Remember you advantages Weiss… She took a few deep breaths in the momentary reprieve provided Cardin's headlong charge and subsequent tumbling trip back to the rear courtesy of the professor, She's a master of Dustcraft but…
Not that anyone had gotten close enough to test the theory, but that wand didn't seem like much of a close-quarters weapon…
Weiss nodded silently and readied herself, Now you just need a distraction…
Weiss cringed as she saw Velvet sprang just barely out of the way of a sheet of ice that plastered the rest of her team against the nearest wall.
Eleven…
Weiss grew nervous. They'd only been at this for… ninety eight seconds…
Then She saw her opportunity; Nora fired round after round at Goodwitch from Magnhild, forcing the stern instructor to conjure purple glyphs to halt the pink explosives. In itself this wasn't much, but Nora was positioned almost directly opposite Weiss relative to Goodwitch and Yang, Blake, and Ruby were further distracting her with volley after volley a position perpendicular to Nora.
This is it!
Weiss took a ready stance and launched herself forward, Myrtenaster ready to thrust.
Then Goodwitch struck back.
Dark clouds formed above Nora and the rest of Team RWBY even as Ren and Pyrrha sprang into action to pick up the slack when the ice showered down upon Red, Yellow, Black, and Pink The P and R of JNPR were swiftly repulsed as well with a more direct response in the form of two columns of ice. It was too late to stop now though.
Almost there…
Goodwitch turned back to deal with Weiss, raising her wand.
No! No! No!
Weiss switched Myrtenaster's setting to white and cast a glyph before her as she continued to hurtle in the instructor's direction. The move proved more successful than she could have hoped, as the barrier absorbed the onslaught as the gap was closed. Accumulated rime fell and shattered upon the floor as Weiss dispelled the barrier and made a stab for Goodwitch's torso. Her luck didn't hold though, as Goodwitch drew her wand in an upward arc, parrying Weiss's own weapon. Anticipating a counterattack, the Heiress ducked, and then launched herself into a flurry of spinning strokes, forcing Goodwitch to defend again; If she let Goodwitch take the offensive again, she was finished. Unfortunately, Goodwitch recovered before Weiss could restore her own footing, forcing her to spring skywards assisted by the glyph on which she stood as the ground beneath her froze, and then conjure another between her and the Instructor when she readied a salvo of Dust-born ice shards were screaming her way. When the volley had finished shattering upon her shield as she remained airborne, Weiss saw that the opportunity had passed, and with a gesture, the glyph launched her away and back toward her teammates.
Two minutes… Weiss thought as she slid to a stop between Ruby and Yang, I wonder how long we have to stay in this? Have we passed y-
"That… Was… AWESOME!" Ruby glomped the startled heiress in the spare moment, "You hit her! And she's like- AWESOME!"
"Ruby!" Weiss objected, prizing her team leader off of herself, eyes widening as she saw the incoming blast of hailstones, "This is NOT the time!"
"But-!" Ruby was silenced as she barely stumbled far enough back to avoid the flurry of hailstones, "Oh…"
"Seriously though," Yang clapped Weiss on the shoulder, "That was some serious guts goin' up there to take Goodwitch like that,"
"And look all the good it did us," Weiss muttered, "We need a plan,"
Team JNPR all surged to the fore at once now, providing another momentary reprieve for Team RWBY to collect themselves in a huddle.
"We could… Throw Cardin at her?"
Blake shook her head at Yang's suggestion, "that last hit he took laid him out pretty good… and I don't think Sky Lark weighs enough to be a threat…"
Ruby winced, "Well… it doesn't matter now… and Velvet just bowed out,"
Come on, THINK!
"Ooh! I've got an idea!"
"This is going to have to be better than that stunt at initiation Ruby," Weiss cautioned.
Blake nodded her agreement, "She'll see that coming,"
Ruby shook her head, "Nothing like that; Blake, Yang, you and I are going to rush in and hit her with everything we've got,"
"That's it?" Yang raised a concerned eyebrow as she shot a sidelong glance towards the fray as Jaune went flying, finally out, "'Cause…"
Ruby went on, ignoring her sister's reservations, "Weiss, can you back us up if you hang back?"
A small smile threatened to take over the heiress' face as she caught on, "I can…"
Blake nodded again, this time with comprehension, but wasn't totally sold yet, "Can you manage three of those glyphs at once though?"
"Sure she can!" Yang dismissed Blake's concern, "She was throwin' em all the over the place against that Nevermore!"
Weiss nodded, "I can cover you, now… Do or die time-, Nora just went down,"
"Right, let's do this!" Ruby hefted Crescent Rose.
The huddle broke and Weiss took a few paces backwards, as the others sprang forward into action. As the Ruby, Blake, ad Yang closed the distance and Ren was battered out of the fight, Weiss set Myrtenaster to the red setting ad tried to soften the Professor's defenses with a salvo of fireballs. The teacher halted the attack with a purple glyph of her own, but it hardly mattered, Pyrrha was still coming at her from one side and three fourths of Team RWBY from the other. It seemed that Goodwitch noticed this, firing three shafts of freezing dust at Weiss's teammates.
No you don't!
Weiss flipped Myrtenaster to the white setting and conjured barrier glyphs before her teammates to absorb the blast until it tapered off as Pyrrha came back with new vigor. Weiss let the glyphs flicker out to conserve her strength, but then she saw a pool of frost dust collecting on the ground beside Goodwitch and surging in Ruby's direction even as Goodwitch sent Pyrrha reeling with a blast in the opposite direction.
"Ruby! Watch out!" Weiss called, but Ruby was going too fast to heed the advice.
Weiss took a deep breath and focused, conjuring a glyph beneath the younger girl's feet and used it to sweep Ruby aside as the glacier erupted from the floor where she'd been standing seconds earlier. Before Weiss let the startled team leader go, with a flick of the wrist she flung the red-cloaked girl at her target. That, it seemed, was enough for Ruby to get the point, as she managed to initiate her buzz-saw scythe spin as she collided with Goodwitch… or would have.
Panic seizing her, Weiss scrambled to put the mobility glyphs under her teammates and Pyrrha in time to pull them all away as Goodwitch summoned a blizzard to engulf her immediate vicinity. Blake was the quickest to catch on, tapping the Gambol Shroud's pistol function as she slipped backwards even as the blinding flurry rapidly expanded to obscure the whole room for several moments. When the frozen tempest abated however, Goodwitch was gone.
Where did she-?
Weiss was utterly blindsided by the column of ice that careened into her side, throwing her to the floor and out.
"Weiss!" Ruby's eyes went wide as her partner tumbled to the floor off to the side of the combat area, but hadn't the time to ask if she was alright before meeting a similar fate alongside Blake, Yang, and Pyrrha all at once.
Where did that come from? Weiss wondered as she shook off the impact and searched the room.
"Well done, Ladies," Goodwitch congratulated from the far side of the room, "Excellent work,"
How did she get all the way over there? Weiss puzzled for a moment, but let it go; aches and bruises aside, finals were over now, that was it. The pain probably wouldn't really set in until she got up tomorrow.
Wrong again Weiss.
She crushed the sheet of formal stationary in her hand.
You really should have known better…
She fought back the lump in her throat.
It's not like it this it any different than the last few years….
She threw the damned letter away.
But he couldn't find time to write it himself?
"Hey Weiss! We're going out for-,"
Weiss jumped at the sudden intrusion, frantically wiping the welling tears, "W-what Ruby?"
Ruby blinked several times from the doorway to their dorm, "Are you crying?" She was at Weiss's side before she could respond, taking Weiss by the hand with concern on in her eyes as she felt dampness on her sleeve, "What's wrong?"
Weiss gave a hollow laugh, "I'm sorry, I-, I guess that I seem to be making a habit of this…"
"You're not upset about the final are you?"
Weiss shook her head, looking wistfully out the dorm's window, "No… We were never going to beat Goodwitch Ruby, I'm not that full of myself…"
"Then what?"
She held up the envelope, its white wax snowflake seal broken, "I got a letter from home…Nothing new really; I'm just... Winter break's gonna be lonely again…"
"Agai-," Ruby caught the word before she finished it; maybe this was Weiss's first year at Beacon too, but her family life had been severely broken for a long time, and Ruby wasn't so dense as to dredge up that subject any further that her partner was willing to take it, "I'm here for you… You know… if you need me…"
Weiss wiped the tears from her eyes again and forced a little smile as realization dawned on her, Ironic, I guess… she thought, this only hurts so much because you've actually got people to lean on this time… what a joke…
Then she got an idea, "Hey Ruby?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Have you ever been skiing?"
"Uh…"