Here's chapter 21 everyone.
Yang snickered when she tapped Weiss' shoulder. "Princess…Time to get up already."
Weiss groaned, and moved her hand to try and move Yang away. "Let me sleep for five more minutes, Yang."
Velvet giggled. "But the airship just landed, Weiss."
Weiss eyes shot open and she looked at Yang, who had a grin on her face. "W-What are you staring at?" Yang pointed to her chin, making Weiss raise an eyebrow. She moved a hand to feel her own chin and felt the drool that was on it, causing Weiss to blush in embarrassment.
Yang chuckled. "Wow, I never thought you drooled on yourself while sleeping, Weiss. You're lucky Velvet made sure I didn't take a picture, or I would've had some pretty good blackmail material."
Weiss glared at the blonde. "If that would've happened, you wouldn't be alive to use that."
"Whoa, threatening a teammate, princess? Not cool." Yang said.
Weiss rolled her eyes and stood up. "Be quiet and help Velvet up."
"I can try to get up on my own, Weiss." Velvet said, and tried to get up, but felt Weiss hold her arm suddenly. "Weiss."
"You literally just got let out of the hospital a few hours ago. Don't try to rush through everything, and please let me help." Weiss said.
Velvet sighed. "I'm sorry, but I just didn't want to look like I can't do anything. I…spoke with Yatsuhashi before about that. Being this way is only going to make things harder to prove my point."
"Prove what point?" Yang said as she got to the other side of Velvet.
"When I spoke to Yatsuhashi, I made it clear that I didn't like how he was treating me like I was defenseless. I don't mind help, but…I don't know. I guess just the fact that I just told him how I felt about that, sort of make me feel like I said it for nothing." Velvet explained as she stood up with the support from Weiss and Yang.
"This is different though." Weiss stated. "You're injured, and really. No one besides Yatsuhashi would treat you that way."
Velvet let out small smile. "If anyone does…am I allowed to spar with them to show them how it's done?"
Weiss smiled at that. "Of course, but I'd let to watch."
Yang spoke up. "Hmm, maybe after princess and I have our one on one, you and I could spar too, Velvet."
"I wouldn't mind that…though sparring won't be for some time." Velvet's ears drooped at how she wasn't going to be able to do much at school.
Weiss walked Velvet out of the airship with Yang. "Velvet, I'll make sure everything goes well during your recovery so you won't have to wait long."
"Thank you, Weiss." Velvet looked over at Beacon and sighed in relief. "Finally, home."
Yang nodded. "Yup, we're home now. So, should we bring her to her dorm, or the infirmary to make sure she's okay, Weiss?"
"I think it would be best to not let Velvet wait any longer, unless you'd like to go." Weiss said to Velvet.
Velvet shook her head. "I've been stuck in that room for too long. If I'm going to be stuck in a room, I'd rather it be one that I've lived in for some time."
"Okay." Weiss nodded and with the help from Yang, they headed out to Team CFVY's dorm.
"Do you think they'll be here soon?" Ruby asked Blake.
"I believe so. Yang did message us about them getting on the airship not too long ago, though it seems that Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi will be coming a bit later, since they couldn't catch the airship in time." Blake replied.
Ruby sighed as she got out of her bed, and headed to the door. "I'm gonna go see if I can find them."
"Hold on. Why did you sigh there for a moment?" Blake inquired.
"With everything that happened, I don't know…I just felt so useless." Ruby admitted.
"Hmm? Ruby, exactly how do you feel useless? No one could've stopped that car from hitting Velvet." Blake stated.
"Not just that…I…I spoke with Weiss about some things. Honestly, it went…well." Ruby walked back over and sat on Weiss' bed. "Remember when you, Weiss and I met each other for the first time?"
Blake nodded. "You sneezed on her, and exploded."
Ruby giggled. "Yeah. I kind of thought about how much I wanted to make it up to her, and how she seemed to be…well…not happy to be around people, or even talk to them."
"I remember." Blake hated thinking of how she spoke to Weiss that day, even though she didn't regret the hate she has for Weiss' father.
"I've tried getting her to open up…and I couldn't. I did tell you about that one time she got me coffee, but still…I feel like I could never help my partner with anything..." Ruby frowned.
"Ruby, you just said that you spoke with her at the hospital. And it looked to me that she wasn't as depressed afterwards." Blake reminded.
"It wasn't just me who got through to her." Ruby fell back on her bed, and looked up at her own from Weiss'. "Do you think Weiss would be better off with having Velvet as her partner?"
"First of all, that wouldn't be possible for a first and second year student to be partners. And second, no, she wouldn't. Velvet was the person to…get through to Weiss. We know that, but that doesn't mean you can't be a good partner for Weiss as well. Honestly, it really doesn't sound like you when you say something like that, Ruby." Blake said.
"I…I just want to prove I can be a great leader for you guys. I'm not really doing that when I can't get my own partner to trust me." Ruby closed her eyes.
"Weiss does trust you, Ruby…even if she is a bit more vocal about some things, and you know that while you are the leader of our team, that doesn't mean you have to solve all of our problems." Blake noted.
Ruby opened her eyes and sat up. "Even if that's true, I want to try to help when I can, but how can I do anything if every time I try, it just doesn't help?"
Blake sighed and stood up. "You can continue to question yourself, or you can go find Weiss with me."
Ruby blinked in confusion at that. "H-Huh?"
"I'm suggesting speaking with Weiss about this, instead of questioning yourself. Don't you think that's a better plan?" Blake asked.
Ruby looked to the door. "Do you really think she'd even want to see me right now? I mean, she's probably busy helping Velvet."
"Well she might not even be here yet, but besides that, I don't see any reason why Weiss wouldn't want to see you." Blake answered.
Ruby got out of bed, and walked to the door. "Alright, let's go find them, but I still don't think Weiss would be free to talk, with how Velvet is right now." She opened the door, revealing Nora and Ren. "Whoa…Um…hi?"
"Hey, Ruby!" Nora greeted. "We were just wondering if they got here yet." Nora looked past Ruby's shoulder, but was a little disappointed when she didn't see Weiss or Yang. "Aw, I guess they haven't."
"No, but they'll probably be here soon." Blake said as she walked out into the hall, and closing the door behind her. "Is Jaune and Pyrrha in the dorm?"
"Nope, Jaune went to go train a bit, and I think Pyrrha is helping him." Nora said.
Ren spoke up. "Are you two going over to the airships to see if they've arrived?"
Before Ruby could answer, she got a message on her scroll. "Oh, Yang just said they left the airship. They're gonna be over at Team CFVY's dorm. Let's meet them there."
The others nodded and made their way over to Team CFVY's dorm.
Velvet looked around the halls as she was being walked over to her dorm, thinking about how some people would know that she was injured. "Um…Could we get there a little faster?"
"Huh? Why are you in a hurry, Velvet? Is your leg hurting, or do you have a headache again?" Weiss frantically asked while still walking.
"N-No, I was just…thinking about how people are staring." Velvet frowned.
Yang wanted to yell at the people who were staring, but she didn't get the chance, since she heard her teammate yell. "Do you all not have something better to do?!"
The students were a little shocked by the sudden outburst and turned away, though a few students muttered some things about the heiress being a jerk.
Weiss paid no attention to that, since her main priority, was getting Velvet back to her room.
"Wow…I honestly didn't see that coming, prin…Weiss." Yang admitted.
"Well if those dunces would stop being so nosy, then I wouldn't have needed to yell like that." Weiss remarked.
"Yeah, who knows who else will have to listen to your annoying voice next." Cardin suddenly said when they rounded the corner.
Weiss turned around and saw the brown haired boy turn the corner. "Excuse me, but what do you even want?"
Velvet was turned around as well, and her eyes widened when she saw Cardin. "You were the one who was bullying that boy." Velvet started to grow a bit angry at the boy.
"And you're the nosy Faunus who decided to rat me out…So, it looks like you managed to get yourself pretty messed up." Cardin smirked, and Velvet felt her anger being replaced by shame.
Yang glared at the boy. "What's it to you, huh?"
"Oh nothing…I'm just not surprised that a rat like you managed to get so messed up." Cardin laughed.
"What did you say?!" Weiss yelled.
Cardin crossed his arms. "You heard me…though it's kinda weird to see a Schnee getting mad about something like this."
Weiss was taken aback by that. "Y-You don't know anything. So stop acting like you do."
"I know enough, Schnee. Honestly, I kinda like how your dad runs things. Faunus don't really know what they have. All they do is complain about how unfair things are…idiots." Cardin grinned.
Velvet spoke up. "Someone like you couldn't be a huntsman…"
"What?" Cardin questioned.
"You don't know a thing of how the world works. All you can ever do is make other people feel bad, and hurt them. Just for your own amusement…It makes me sick." Velvet stated.
Cardin pulled his mace out. "You know…You have quite the mouth on you…Maybe I should fix that."
Weiss' eyes widened at how the boy threatened Velvet, so she whispered to Yang. "Take Velvet…and get to the dorm."
"What?" Yang whispered back.
"Just go…This dunce needs to understand how stupid he is." Weiss said in the same hushed tone.
Velvet whispered as well. "What if he-?"
"Don't worry about me, Velvet…This dunce is barely a problem, but I don't want him coming after you with your leg like that…And no, I'm not insinuating that you can't fight back. I would just rather deal with him myself." Weiss assured.
Yang did her best to keep Velvet standing when Weiss slowly moved away from them. She took the rabbit Faunus away, since she knew Weiss would be too worried about Velvet.
"So, Schnee…Are you really about to fight me to protect the Faunus?" Cardin questioned.
"Her name is Velvet…Now, are you just going to stand there like a buffoon, or are you going to try and strike me down at some point?" Weiss challenged.
Cardin growled and charged at Weiss, with his mace. Weiss raised her right hand to bring up a glyph, right in front of the boy. "What the heck?! Oh, so you're just gonna hide behind this thing…Okay. Well I can play your game." He started bashing at the glyph.
Weiss shook her head. "And this is why Velvet was right about you not becoming a huntsman…Even my brute of a teammate has better strategy than you."
"That's a lot of talk for someone staying behind a shield!" Cardin continued to hit the glyph with his mace.
Weiss chuckled to herself, and brought out a second glyph under Cardin's feet, though he didn't notice. "You should look down for a moment."
Cardin did so, but couldn't process what he was looking at for too long, since Weiss used her glyph to shoot the boy up against the ceiling. He gasped in pain when his head hit the ceiling, but Weiss wasn't done. Before he could fall back to the ground, she used jumped up and used a glyph to propel herself forward, and kicked Cardin on the way down, sending him to the ground with the added momentum of the kick.
When he skidded across the ground, Cardin growled and imbued his mace with red dust. He threw his mace at Weiss when the heiress landed on the ground, but the heiress blocked it with a glyph, though the explosion of the red dust imbued mace hitting the glyph made Weiss fall on her back.
Weiss was stunned by the explosion, so she couldn't prepare for the boy to grab her by the neck. "Not so tough now, eh?" He smirked and slammed her against the wall. "You're about to learn about what happens when you mess with me."
Weiss struggled against the boy's grip on her neck, attempting to kick him off, but to no avail. She felt sudden pain when Cardin kneed her in the stomach.
"Ha, see…I knew you weren't tough. After I deal with you, I think I'll go add on to that Faunus' injuries." Cardin said. Weiss' eyes widened at that, causing her to kick wildly again. "You won't be able to do anything, so just stop already. You're embarrassing yourself."
Weiss clenched her teeth and a closed her eyes. She felt something, and suddenly, Cardin was on the ground, and she fell. The heiress opened her eyes and frantically looked around for who had helped her, but she saw no one. "W-What?"
Cardin slowly sat up and looked around as well. "Who the hell thinks they could attack me like that?!"
Weiss shook her head, and turned her attention to Cardin. "I don't know who, or what that was…but I'm not done with you if you still think threatening Velvet, or anyone is okay." She growled.
Cardin got up and glared at the heiress. "What's your deal, Schnee? You of all people should hate these damn animals."
Weiss clenched her fist. "They are not animals! Stop thinking that way for one second, and see how much you hurt people when you say something like that!" Cardin ran at the heiress again, ready to punch her, but Weiss didn't let him. She yet again used a glyph to run and kick him to the ground again. "You know…You're just embarrassing yourself." Weiss mocked the boy.
Cardin got up again, picked up his mace and rolled his eyes. "You know what…screw this. I don't need to listen to what a Schnee has to say about those animals." He turned and walked away from Weiss.
The heiress wanted to use a glyph to stop him. She truly did, but held it back when she realized it wouldn't do her any good. Weiss sighed and ran the other direction to catch up to Yang and Velvet.
"D-Do you think she's okay?" Velvet asked worriedly.
"I'm sure Weiss is fine, Velvet. She'll come running around that corner any minute now." Yang assured.
Instead of Weiss, they both saw Ruby, Blake, Nora and Ren turn the corner. "Yang! Velvet!' Ruby exclaimed and ran over to try and hug them, but stopped when she realized that Velvet was still in some pain. "Oh…Right, no hugging."
Velvet smiled. "It's okay, Ruby. Just try not to move my leg, and it'll be fine."
Ruby nodded and gave the rabbit Faunus a gentle hug, and then looked around, a little confused at something. "Hey, where's Weiss?"
"She had to go deal with an idiot." Yang answered.
Blake spoke up. "What are you talking about?"
"Like I said, she's dealing with an idiot who had some crap to say to Velvet. Honestly, I'm a little jealous that she gets to beat the crap out of Cardin." Yang said.
"Cardin Winchester?" Blake growled. "He's a bully."
Velvet nodded. "I've seen how he can be…I just wish I didn't have this cast on."
Nora walked over. "Hey, if Weiss doesn't do it, can I break his leg? It won't be that bad…as long as I keep it to one leg."
Ren rolled his eyes. "Nora, you'd get in trouble for assaulting another student."
"Aw, but Weiss is getting to. Why can't I hurt him?" Nora asked.
Ren sighed, and Weiss walked around the corner. "Oh…You're all here."
They turned around and saw Weiss, so Ruby ran up to her. "Weiss! Did you beat that guy up?"
"You know about that?" Weiss asked, though she looked over at Yang and Velvet, realizing they must've told them.
Ruby nodded. "Wait, you don't have your weapon."
"I didn't need it. I had my glyphs. He decided to walk off when I knocked him down one last time, so if he ever tries to do something stupid, I'll just remind him of how today went." Weiss walked over to Velvet. "Are you feeling okay, Velvet?"
Velvet smiled. "I'm okay, but after all that's happened, I just wanna get in the room and rest on my bed."
Weiss nodded. "Do you have your scroll on you?"
"Uh…Actually, I think Coco might have it." Velvet said. "Wait, actually, with how this works, I can just give you the password on your scroll to open the door."
Weiss walked over and used her scroll on the door after Velvet gave her the password. "Come on, Yang. Get her in the room."
"Right." Yang walked Velvet in the room and looked around. "Which one is your bed, Velvet?"
"That one." She pointed at her bed and Yang walked her over to it.
Weiss and Yang helped her onto the bed. The heiress made sure the pillow was comfy enough and got the pillows from the other beds. "Here, these pillows should be good for you to lay your leg on." She put the pillows under Velvet's leg and Yang gently lowered it down on them.
Velvet winced in pain. "Ouch…It still kind of hurts, but this is a lot better with pillows. Thank you, Weiss."
Weiss smiled and felt Ruby tap her shoulder, so she turned to her. "What's wrong, Ruby?"
"Um…is it okay if we talked?" Ruby requested.
Weiss looked to Velvet. "I'll be right back, Velvet. Yang, stay with her while I speak with Ruby."
Yang nodded, and Weiss walked outside the room with her partner. "What did you want to talk about, Ruby?"
"A few things…so can we talk in our dorm?" Ruby asked.
Weiss sighed. "Fine, but I don't want to take too much time on this."
"I promise it won't take long." Ruby assured, and the two headed to their dorm.
I don't know how long I should have her leg recovery go for to be honest, but I'll figure something out. I also wonder if anyone caught what I had in this chapter.
To JJ- Well, I'm glad you thought so. I just felt like I was dragging on, but some of you guys have expressed that it was a good amount of chapters for it, so I won't complain. And yes, more of those two being together will come. I just want to make sure the pacing on how they feel is right. Also glad you liked Pedigree.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 21. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 22.