Chapter Seven: Trouble Brewing and first steps
(Unknown POV, Unknown Location)
The leader of the Fangbreakers stood before the tall window in his office, looking out at the sun setting over the sprawling city below. He was a big man slightly past his prime, sliver was working it's way through the neatly clipped black hair framing the brutally handsome face. Cold blue eyes looked out on the city of his birth, it would be the seat of his crusade to purify Humanity of the animals that had infected their gene pool, then, once Man had been freed of the taint that had weakened them they would finally begin driving the Grimm from their walls with the combined might of a pure Humanity, and he would be the one who ushered in this glorious age. Leader was so consumed by his dreams of a Human utopia that he didn't notice his assistant approaching from behind, he barely managed to suppress a startled twitch as the man behind him cleared his throat.
"Ah, what do you have for me, Brother?" Leader was fastidious in enforcing the rule that all members refer to each other as Brother or Sister within the main headquarters, advancements in information gathering technology, especially within the city they were currently residing in, made him paranoid about their identities being discovered, as that would compromise many important operations.
His assistant, a tall, skinny and extremely competent young man, bowed and spoke in his usual calm, measured fashion. "Sir, the Winter Wolf has made another move in Vale, he killed Foraker's group, it shows all the signs of an attack of opportunity."
Leader frowned and stroked his clean shaven jaw in thought. "That means that he lives in Vale, or that he's hunkered down there in preparation for another attack, we've finally pinned down a location on that Kingdom hopping mutt, send a Tracker to Vale with orders to hunt the Winter Wolf, choose someone particularly vicious."
Once again his assistant bowed deeply at the waist. "As you command Sir, I'll send her in."
Leader felt a satisfied smile form on his face, with that woman on the job, the Winter Wolf would be dead within two weeks.
(Ruby's POV, Beacon Academy)
Ruby Rose was bored out of her mind and looking for something, anything to take her attention away from Professor Port, who was busy telling the "thrilling tale" of how, in his youth the portly professor had defended the town from a herd of Nightmares. Ruby caught enough through Port's ramblings to know that if anyone else had told her this story it would actually have been really good, but Port's habit of adding boasts and bad jokes in at every opportunity kind of ruined it for the hood wearing leader.
"Psst! Ruby!" A male voice hissed from behind her, the voice caused Ruby to jump in her seat and turn to look over her shoulder at Jaune who had leaned over and was smiling down at her, Ruby's heart fluttered slightly as she smiled back at her dorky friend, though she refused to dwell on the cause.
"Hey Jaune, how are you?" The two leaders had been busy with their respective teams yesterday, so they hadn't had much chance to catch up after initiation.
"I'm doing ok, my team seems great, and the schoolwork doesn't seem too difficult, how about you?"
"Well, other than some grumpiness from Weiss yesterday it's been fine, but apparently Indigo talked to her, because after class Weiss came to me and apologized for how she'd been acting, then she bought me coffee and we talked until curfew, it turns out that she's a lot nicer than how she's been acting so far, she's still pretty much the same, just not angry at me anymore."
Jaune was glad Ruby had been able to resolve the problems she and Weiss had been having ever since their first meeting, with their reconciliation Team RWBY would finally become whole. The pair spent the rest of the class chatting.
(Jaune's POV)
After class Jaune waited for Ruby to finish packing up her stuff, he didn't really have a reason for it, he just felt like spending some more time with his friend.
When Ruby saw Jaune hanging back her head tilted slightly to the side and her large silver eyes narrowed slightly, Jaune thought she looked a little like a confused puppy for a second before a smile lit up her features and made caused Jaune to feel a little lightheaded for an instant, though he ignored the reaction as nothing more than hormones reacting to a pretty girl.
"Hey Jaune, do you wanna hang out for a while? Neither of us has a class for three hours after this." Ruby asked, a soft, hopeful smile tugged at her mouth as she waited for his reply, Jaune didn't have it in him to disappoint that smile, not that he would have if he could.
"Sure, let's go down to Vale, we can catch the next airship back and have half an hour before class starts."
"Okay, but let's go change out of our uniforms first." Ruby suggested.
"Alright, meet you at the landing pad."
Ten minutes later Jaune stood on the landing pad wearing blue jeans, a sky blue t-shirt and an open white button down shirt watching Ruby making her way toward him wearing a dark red t-shirt and black jeans, the metal rose emblem she usually wore at the waist of her combat outfit was clipped to her belt.
"Hey." He greeted his friend, it sounded a little lame in his opinion, but he didn't hear anyone asking for his opinion.
Ruby drew up in front of him. "Hey Jaune, are you sure you'll be okay on the airship?"
Jaune felt like he'd forgotten something. "Huh?"
"Your motion sickness? Did you forget how we're going down into the city?"
The blood drained from Jaune's face, he'd actually been so focused on the trip to Vale with Ruby that it had slipped his mind what the obstacles to their time together would be. The ride down was hell for the blond knight, he spent it with his head buried in a trash can while Ruby rubbed his back. When the airship landed Jaune felt himself recovering almost immediately, thank Oum for aura, Jaune supposed.
As they stood Ruby gave him a concerned look. "Are you going to be ok?"
Jaune smiled over at her. "I'm fine, if I could get some gum I'd be great, my aura is taking care of the last bits of nausea right now, let's go, we've only got a few hours."
"Alright, this was your idea, so where to first?" Ruby asked, accepting his assurance without hesitation.
"Not sure, I'm not from around here, so why don't we wander around, see if anything catches our interest."
Ruby shrugged, she wasn't from Vale either, though she did live nearby so she likely knew the city better than her companion, but the area around the Beacon landing port was pretty new to her as well, they could have fun exploring together. The thought excited the energetic scythe wielder. the pair walked off the exit ramp, there was a large crowd milling around, citydwellers walking to and from work, other students taking advantage of free time and a riot of other people. Ruby grabbed Jaune's wrist as the pair headed through the crush of people, they wove through the crowd and came out the other side with slightly pink faces, Ruby dropped her friend's wrist once the risk of separation in the crowd had passed and Jaune found himself missing the contact, though he refused to dwell on that.
(Ruby's POV)
Ruby hated crowds, the press of people always made her feel overwhelmed, but today, as they had woven through a large, bustling mass of Humanity (and Faunas) Ruby hadn't felt as overwhelmed, just holding onto Jaune's wrist made her feel like she wasn't alone. Like even if she got lost in the crowd he would help guide her out, it was an extremely comforting feeling and to feel it for her sweet, goofy best friend was an awkward realization, but not one she was willing to think too deeply about.
Deciding on impulse Ruby grabbed Jaune's wrist again and dragged him off down a street where she saw signs for a weapon shop, her previous embarrassment was totally forgotten at the prospect of seeing cool new weapons, a girl needs to have her priorities straight after all.
(Jaune's POV)
"Come on! I see a weapons store!" Ruby exclaimed, the next second Jaune felt thin, soft, and warm fingers close over his wrist again, the welcome sensation preceded Ruby dragging him off with surprising strength for her small frame. Ruby burst into the weapons store ready to scrutinize guns and blades of all descriptions, the joyous weapons lover let go of her friend in order to dash over and fawn over a pair of sawed off shotgun/machetes. Jaune couldn't help it as a smile broke across his face, there was something pure about the little red reaper's love of weapons, despite how incongruous that thought may be. When given the chance to examine a new instrument of destruction Ruby's face lit up with a childlike excitement bordering on euphoria, Jaune found he liked seeing his friend so happy, and he would do nearly anything to keep seeing that smile. The blond knight felt blood rush to his cheeks at that realization, no, I don't like Ruby like that do I?
(Indigo's POV)
Indigo was walking down the halls of Beacon when he came across a familiar bow-topped head of long black hair. Blake was sitting between the wall and a pillar, with her back to the wall, her knees drawn up to her chest, and her nose buried in a book, the title of which was concealed by a brown paper dust cover. Just for the heck of it Indigo took a look under the dust cover with his Semblance, the book was Ninjas of Love, and the faint blush on the Faunus girl's cheeks told him all he needed to know about it's subject matter.
"Enjoying yourself Kitten?" Blake jumped a foot in the air at the sound of Indigo's voice four feet away from her little niche, the now embarrassed girl glared at Indigo, who just grinned.
"Geez, you'd think a girl with cat ears would be harder to sneak up on, especially one who specializes in stealth combat herself." At that remark Blake moved, Indigo suddenly found himself slammed against a pillar with edge of a tanto pressed against his throat.
Ever the wiseass, Indigo's smile didn't fade, despite the blade pressed to his Adam's Apple. "You know, I've had fantasies that started pretty similarly to this, not about you of course, I hadn't met you at the time, but I'm willing to best you can say the same Miss 'Ninja's of Love'."
Blake blushed furiously as she glared at the cocky sniper. "How did you know about my ears, or-or my book." She stumbled slightly on her words as her embarrassment briefly eclipsed her anger, before once again giving way to anger.
"I can see through solid objects, it's my Semblance: Phase Vision. I've known about your ears since the day we arrived, don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I don't know why you're hiding what you are but you've presumably got a reason for it, so I won't pry. That said Kitten, could you please put the knife away? 'Cause I kinda like my neck the way it is." Indigo slowly raised his hand and pushed Blake's tanto away from his throat, she let him, slowly relaxing as she slipped the blade back up her sleeve.
"So... Do you always walk around with a knife up your sleeve, or was this just my lucky day?" Indigo asked, genuinely curious.
Blake shrugged. "A girl's got a right to defend herself." This didn't answer his question exactly, but Indigo accepted it as the only answer he would get.
"True, though most tend to carry something less lethal on them, then again most of those girls aren't kickass ninja Huntress trainees, so I suppose that's to be expected."
Blake smirked, then frowned. "Why do you keep calling me 'Kitten'?"
Indigo shrugged. "I give people nicknames, it's kinda my thing."
Blake snorted softly. "And here I thought being a wiseass was your 'thing'" The black haired ninja snarked.
Indigo found himself grinning, 'ah snark, how I have missed you so!' "It is, but so is the nickname giving, I like seeing people's reactions to them, it's fun."
As they talked the black haired ninja and blue haired sniper started walking down the hall together, though neither was in any hurry, they had both made a new friend.
(Weiss' POV)
Weiss Schnee was fuming as she hacked and stabbed at a training dummy with her rapier. The white haired heiress still hadn't gotten over her humiliating defeat at the hands of Indigo Aesir, but she had at least taken his advice to heart. "There's no use getting angry about it, just get stronger so that it doesn't happen again." Weiss growled and impaled the dummy through it's midsection.
The sound of a voice behind the heiress made her jump in shock. "You know, your problem won't be solved by hacking up dummies."
Weiss turned to glare at Indigo, who stood a good distance behind the heiress with his hands in his pockets and his sarcastic smirk firmly in place, though his eyes were serious and fixed on hers.
"Then what is my 'problem' as you put it?" Weiss snapped.
"You lack practical experience, you are one of the most well trained fighters I've ever met, but you fight like someone who has only ever had limited experience in real combat: You need to take time to line up your stance, you don't adapt well to sudden changes in your opponent's fighting style, you allow yourself to be provoked ridiculously easily, and you are completely predictable." Indigo's voice was neutral, he was simply answering her question honestly and without even a trace of mockery in his speech, but as he added each new criticism Weiss felt heat rise up the back of her neck and into her cheeks, however she held herself back from snapping at Indigo because he was right, no matter how much it stung her pride to admit it. While she had been taught by excellent instructors she had precious little true experience outside of regulated sparring, and against someone with real life combat experience she was at a distinct disadvantage, that much was clear from her sparring match with Indigo.
The blue haired sniper stood silently, waiting it seemed, for her to speak. "T-that may be true, but it means that there is no way to improve myself other than to gain experience, which I will certainly gain over the course of the school year."
"Or, alternatively, you can learn to improve yourself by accepting the advice of someone who has considerably more experience than you do, and I'm talking about personal tutor, not a professor, sure it's their job to train us, but they only have so much time they can spare for individual students."
"I assume you have a suggestion for a good candidate?"
"Me, of course, I'm going to take a stab in the dark that you wouldn't want other people to know that you're receiving extra training, and I do fit the bill, on top of that I'm a trained observer, so I can find the holes in your fighting that you need patched."
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Is there anyone else you'd recommend?"
Indigo shrugged, though his smirk didn't fade. "Blake, Ren, maybe Noctus, though he'd most likely refuse."
Weiss frowned. "Not Pyrrha?"
"Nope, while I'm sure your skills would improve dramatically under her tutelage she has the same problem you do in a way, her tournament experience is impressive and her abilities as a fighter are undeniably incredible, but just from seeing her one fight in combat class I can tell she fights like she's in a tournament match, not real combat, her flaws are different from yours and overshadowed by her strengths, but they are there."
"Fine, we can try this idea of yours, but if you annoy me too much I'm going to ask Blake to take your place." The icy heiress' warning barely seemed to faze Indigo.
"Whatever you say Snowy."
Weiss felt her eye start to twitch, she had the distinct impression that he was just going to test the limits of her patience for no other reason than because he could. Idly, the white haired girl wondered what it said about her that she was already starting to get used to him.
(AN: Sorry for the wait, please read, review, and enjoy for those of you who simply skipped to the latest chapter please check the author's note at the end of chapter six for a minor retcon update.)