Chapter 20 – Tattered cloak and blunt dagger

The Beacon library was a very busy place. Every day, hundreds of students visited the library to pick up books, either material for their assignments or simply novels to pass the time. In the end, the library could pretty much satisfy everyone's tastes and needs and it was not only due to its sheer size. The place was just as large as the school's cafeteria and shelves heavy with books reached almost all the way to the ceiling. Though it allowed the library to store enormous amount of literature, it was mildly impractical when a student realized the book they were looking for was out of their reach; in that case they had to ask the personnel for assistance that usually involved a scissor lift or a simple ladder if the former was not available. Aside from books, the library offered a reading room, a plenty of tables to sit at and even several computers.

It was a day after the infamous food battle in the cafeteria, when two guests showed up at the library's entrance.

"Library, Sun? Really?" The blue haired boy with crimson coat chuckled. "I didn't know you could read."

The monkey Faunus named Sun gave his friend a look of (not entirely) feigned annoyance. "That was not cool, Neptune."

Neptune raised his hands in surrender. "Just kidding, man. But seriously, why library of all places? We both know you're not exactly a fan of books."

"I overheard the girls talking about planning something in here, something fun hopefully. I thought we'd drop in and say hello." Neptune rolled his eyes when his friend was not looking. He already knew what this was about.

"Say hello to everyone, or just one particular person?" He said teasingly.

Sun got a bit defensive, much to Neptune's amusement. "Now listen, buddy. Those guys are pretty cool people, nothing weird about trying to get to know them, alright? Besides, I know I said that Blake is cool and pretty and all but that doesn't mean I'm gonna try and make a pass at her or something when we met only a few weeks ago."

"Whatever you say, my friend." You got it bad, Sun, you won't fool me, Neptune thought to himself. "So… why are we still standing here?"

"Oh, right." Sun said with a sheepish face. "Let's go."

As the boys found out the hard way, the size of the library made it quite challenging to find anything, be it a book or a person. Five minutes of walking around and they still caught no hint of RWBY's presence.

Eventually, they heard a quartet of familiar voices engaged in a quiet but heated conversation.

"Are you sure this is the right shelf, Nick?"

"Should I have written down the directions from the librarian? Of course it is the right shelf!"

"Hurry it up! I can't keep this up forever, you know!" The male voice sounded strained.

"Hey, I'm not hearing any complaints from Desmond, and he's in a worse position than you."

"Are we there yet?"

"Just a few more minutes, big guy. Go to the left a bit and don't drop us!"

"How we haven't all fallen down yet I'll never understand… We should've waited for the damn scissor lift! Or fetched a ladder at least!"

"I have to agree with the walking armory down there; this is pretty risky."

"You too, Nick? Look, we can do it; just don't lose your balance and we'll be fine!"

Sun frowned as he listened to the conversation. "What the heck is going on in there?"

"Well, maybe we should go out there and have a look instead of eavesdropping from here and looking like some weirdos." Neptune suggested with a wry smile.

"You'd take the fun out of everything, Nep." Sun chuckled. "Fine, let's go."

Sun and Neptune left their cover and went to investigate… and were greeted with a very interesting sight.

As the Faunus suspected, it was team TNDR, but in a position he would never anticipate. These four particular Beacon students were stacked on top of each other in order to reach one of the otherwise inaccessible levels of the bookshelf. Desmond was the base of this "human tower" with Roland sitting on his shoulders who in turn supported Tanya and Nicolaus, with the latter sitting on the former's shoulders and sifting through the shelf. The human tower seemed rather unstable, wobbling slightly every once in a while. Amazingly, Desmond did not appear to be bothered by the weight of three people on his shoulders; Roland on the other hand fared worse despite having only two people to carry.

While Neptune stared dumbstruck at the display of acrobatics, Sun appeared amused. "What are you idiots even doing?!" He exclaimed with a laugh.

Desmond turned his head towards him, causing the tower to sway unsteadily. "Careful!" Roland hissed.

"We're looking for one particular book." Nicolaus replied without taking his eyes off the shelf. "And as our luck would have it, that book happens to be on the top levels of this damn thing."

"Why didn't you borrow a lift?" Neptune wondered. "Or a ladder at least?"

"None available!" Tanya shot back. "And waiting is not an option, not when we can take care of this ourselves!"

"I think I found it!"

"Finally!" Roland cheered.

"I've got the book!" Nicolaus announced. "And I'm pulling it out now!"

"This is gonna be great!" Sun whispered, choking back laughter. Neptune remained silent, only wishing those fools would survive this crazy stunt in one piece.

TNDR could have pulled it off… if it weren't for a seemingly innocent speck of dust floating nearby.

The treacherous piece of filthy substance just happened to find its way towards Desmond's face and be sucked into his nose as the boy inhaled, thus contributing to the disaster that was about to take place. Half-lidded eyes, scrunched up nose, jaw hanging open and fast shallow breaths told volumes; the poor boy was about to sneeze.

His teammates noticed what was about to happen. "Don't you fucking dare, Desmond!" Roland barked with a panicked undertone. It was too late at that moment, though.

A loud barking sound reverberated through the library, followed by a quiet "Oh no".

As Desmond violently sneezed, irritated by the dust that made its way into his nose, his head and the most of his upper body snapped back and forth. With such a sharp movement, the human tower lost whatever stability it had and began lurching from side to side. Despite Desmond's attempts to save the situation were useless and the swaying was only getting worse.

"They're gonna fall." Neptune said worryingly as he watched the catastrophe unfold before his eyes.

"They'll be fine, Nep." Sun answered, in no way disconcerted by the TNDR's alarmed cries.

And then Desmond tripped and the tower collapsed.

Sun and Neptune watched, the time seemingly slowing down.

The four stirred up a cloud of dust as they fell.

The giant fell face first on the floor. Roland ended up on top of him, lying on his back. Tanya, the only girl in the team, was (un)lucky enough to fall straight on top of the gunslinger and land in a very… awkward position… with her face directly against his crotch… and vice versa.

Someone up there must have been laughing their head off at her expense, she surmised.

As for Nicolaus, the fox Faunus ended up lying on his stomach across Tanya's back, pressing her down onto Roland, and the book they worked so hard to get hit him straight in the head and knocked him unconscious.

For a few seconds, there was only silence. Neptune stared in shock at the pile of bodies, convinced that he had witnessed the demise of four potential hunters.

Sun, on the other hand, was rolling on the floor holding his stomach as he howled in laughter.

"Where's my Scroll I gotta take a picture… Pffffhahahahahaha!"

"Uhh… Am I dead?" Roland groaned, his voice muffled by his leader's… you-know-what.

Tanya was not hit as hard as him and realized immediately what position she had been in. Another body on her back kept her from getting up, however. "Nick, would you please get off of me?" She asked politely, unaware that Nicolaus had been knocked out.

"Guys, I'm really sorry." Desmond moaned from under the pile of bodies.

The ruckus had attracted attention of team RWBY that, unbeknownst to those involved in the accident, had been hanging out nearby, on the library's higher level. "What in the world was that racket?" Weiss demanded in her trademark shrill voice.

Ruby leaned over the railing. Her eyes widened in shock when she noticed TNDR piled on top of each other. "Ohmigawd what happened?! Are you guys okay?!" The crimsonette cried out. "And why are you laughing, Sun?!"

"What's going on?" Yang went to see what her little sister was fussing about, followed by Blake and Weiss. As soon as she saw what had Ruby so scared… she simply burst out laughing, collapsing on the floor as she cackled uncontrollably. Weiss simply shook her head in disbelief, recognizing instantly that her fellow students were pretty sore but very much alive. She wondered how they got themselves into that particular position, though.

As for Blake, her initial reaction was similar to Weiss'… at least until she noticed that Tanya and Roland lay on top of each other in a very suggestive position. Thankfully no one noticed the furious blush on her cheeks, though.

Maybe I should lay off those damn novels for a while, she told herself while trying to get certain thoughts out of her mind.

"That's what I call "on the floor and give me twenty"! Or more like "nine-and-sixty"! HAHAHAHA!"

"Confound it, Yang, you fiend!" Blake hissed under her breath as her blush deepened.

In the meantime, Neptune finally managed to recover from his shock and tried to get still unconscious Nicolaus off his teammates. Given that the fox Faunus was the shortest of TNDR, it was not a difficult task, even when Neptune had to do it himself because Sun simply would not stop laughing. As soon as she felt the weight on her back was gone, Tanya rolled off of her unfortunate teammate. "Thank God!" She exclaimed with relief.

Mere moments later, Roland sat up; the gunman was beet red in the face, probably realizing how embarrassing position he was in minutes ago. "Guys, let's never do this again. Ever." There were times when I'd have had wet dreams about that, Roland thought to himself, he would never say that aloud, though.

Then Desmond picked himself off the dusty floor, unwittingly throwing Roland off his back. Only a pained groan reminded him of what he had just done. "I'm sorry!"

"At least we got the damn book." Tanya remarked as she dusted herself off. "And quit laughing, dammit! This isn't funny!" She barked out when she heard Sun laughing his head off.

"What's up with Nick?" Roland asked when he saw his Faunus teammate slumped against a bookshelf.

"The book you were trying to get? It knocked him out as you guys fell down." Neptune replied.

Roland winced. "Ouch."

"Nep, you should've taken a picture!" Sun called out, his voice hoarse from laughing too hard. "This is not something you see every day!"

"I've got pictures!"

All six heads snapped towards Yang who was waving at them from the upper level with a Cheshire grin.

Reactions could not be more different.

"Oh sweet!"

"Are you kidding me?!"

"GET HER!"

The fact, that they were in a library, stopped them from engaging in any violent scuffle. That did not stop Tanya from threatening to shave Yang's head clean if she did not keep the photos of TNDR's mishap to herself. The thought of losing her glorious mane made the blonde agree to Tanya's demands. But needless to say, nobody would forget about their accident for a long time.

Only a few minutes later, RWBY and TNDR plus Sun and Neptune were gathered around a table on the library's upper level. On the way, they passed team JNPR that was in the library for one of their numerous studying sessions.

"Remnant: The Game, huh?" Tanya wondered at the sight of RWBY's pastime. "I know I shouldn't be surprised that you're into board games but still."

Yang and the other players sat at the table. "Now, who's the next one to get a beating?" She announced with a wide grin.

"Pretty confident, aren't you?" Roland remarked.

"And I've got skills to back it up!"

"She's not kidding." Ruby groused. "Guess who obliterated my army just one turn ago."

"You're not the only one who was humiliated, Ruby." Weiss stated with an annoyed tone.

"Hey, don't put all the blame on me, princess." Yang replied wryly. "You attacked your own forces a while ago, remember?" A low growl was the only response she got.

"What's going on?" Nicolaus sat up, finally awakening from his involuntary slumber. "Where am I?"

"You were knocked out by that book you guys were trying to get." Neptune helpfully pointed out.

"Dammit." The fox Faunus muttered. "We're definitely getting a ladder next time."

Tanya snorted. "No kidding."

Desmond hung his head and whimpered. "I'm really sorry!"

"You've said that at least a hundred times." Roland sighed.

"It's your turn, Blake!"

Blake's head snapped up at Yang's call. "Uhh, sorry. What am I doing again?" The Faunus girl seemed distracted, not even paying attention to the game.

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the kingdoms of Vale!" Yang said, pointing out the obvious.

"I know that!" Blake snapped back a bit irritably. "What I mean is that I don't know how to play this."

"Hey, can I play?!" All attention was now fixed on certain Jaune Arc that made his appearance.

"Sorry Jaune, we've already got four players." Ruby apologized.

To everyone's surprise, Blake put her cards on the table. "Actually, you can take my cards. I'm done playing anyway."

"Hey, that's really nice but you didn't have to!" Jaune tried to subtly refuse her kind gesture. "I could wait for another game, you know?"

"Yeah, what's the matter, Blake?" Ruby cut in.

"I just can't seem to get into it, okay? Maybe I'll try playing again next time." Blake said with a sigh and rose from the table. "I'll see you guys later." With that, she excused herself and walked away.

"Umm… Thank you!" Jaune called after her.

"I wonder what's eating her." Sun muttered.

"It's probably nothing, she's just gonna read those books of hers." Yang dismissed his concerns and shifted her attention to the newcomer. "Alright, Vomit Boy, show me what you've got!"

"Let's go, people." Tanya suggested. "They'll make do without a bunch of gapers standing around. Besides we've got some stuff to take care of."

Nobody really argued with her and while Neptune and Sun chose to observe the game, with the former getting rather well acquainted with Weiss, TNDR marched out of the library with the book that brought them so much pain and misery.

Later that day…

While her teammates and friends continued their fierce battle, Blake retreated to her team's dorm and busied herself with reading one of her less particular books. She thought it would help her distract herself from the recent events that never ceased to plague her mind. Her novels turned out to be no help in that regard, though. Before she even realized what was happening, Blake caught herself flipping idly through the pages of her old journal she kept during her time with White Fang. Since her departure she did not write a word into it but it still was a reminder of how her comrades eventually became her enemies.

With a deep sigh, Blake put the old notebook into the drawer in her night table. It was difficult enough to think about how White Fang strayed from their once peaceful path but now that they joined forces with a wretched criminal, and a human at that, Blake could not go a day without having to think about what forces were at work here. What was White Fang planning, what was their next step in their covert war against humankind? Despite her bias against Faunus, Weiss was right when it came to her views of the Fang; even the fox Faunus from TNDR, Nicolaus, agreed with her, despite being an ex-White Fang himself. Blake would laugh at the sheer irony if she did not have to worry about whatever nefarious scheme her old organization could come up with. Worse, it was possible that no one would be there to stop them the next time.

This thought unsettled her more than anything.

The hate towards humanity that White Fang tried to stir up among their brethren was definitely a bad thing and a threat to the people of Remnant but it was also a kind of a constant. Hatred towards humans made White Fang somewhat predictable as it limited their course of action to a certain degree. However with their unexpected alliance with Torchwick, that constant was gone.

And this uncertainty was driving her insane, knowing that White Fang is out there plotting and she could not do anything to stop them.

Sitting on her bed, alone with only her thoughts, Blake recalled her conversation with the headmaster after the incident in the docks.

oOo

"This certainly has been an eventful evening." Ozpin remarked casually as he sat at the table opposite of Blake, carrying a cup of coffee as usual. "I'm sure that after a night of thwarting an attempted robbery you'd rather go home and take a nap, but I was hoping we'd have a chance to talk."

Blake sighed internally. As if it was not enough that Goodwitch was grilling them about what exactly happened at the docks, headmaster had decided to give her a "special" treatment; the thought was almost laughable considering what she was. "What about?" She asked in an even tone.

"As you know, to enroll at my academy, students must first pass a rigorous entrance exam." Ozpin spoke. "Most applicants spend many years training at one of the many combat schools around the world. You were one of the few that did not." Where is he going with this, Blake wondered. "And you passed the exam with flying colors."

"I was raised outside the Kingdoms." Blake replied simply. "If you can't fight, you won't survive."

"Well, you definitely did." Ozpin seemed to chuckle. "I admire you drive and I'm proud to run a school that accepts individuals from all walks of life. Rich, poor, human, Faunus…" Blake flinched involuntarily at the last word… and the headmaster noticed. "Why do you wear that bow, Blake? Why hide who you are?"

"You may be willing to accept the Faunus but the most of your kind is not." Blake shot back bitterly. She expected someone of Ozpin's caliber to know the answer already.

"True, but we continue to take stride towards lessening the divide."

"With all due respect, Professor Ozpin, you need to take some larger strides since it was your people who installed this divide in the first place!" The Faunus all but spat out. "You of all people should know how humans look down upon our kind, like if our difference was enough to wrong them! I want others to see me for who I am, not what I am; if they are unwilling to do so, I won't expose myself to unjustified hatred by revealing my nature."

For a moment, Blake thought she might have gone too far with her tirade. To her surprise, Ozpin actually smiled. "You and Doctor Oobleck would get along wonderfully. Bartholomew was always against any kind of ignorance, including racial bias and prejudices; I'm sure he'd be glad to have someone listen to his opinions. Anyway, what I wanted to ask you was…" The headmaster's demeanor completely changed; now he was serious. "How did you know the White Fang would be at the docks tonight?"

"I didn't. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time." Blake replied; essentially, she was telling the truth but did not want to give away anything more than necessary. She did not want Ozpin to suspect her because of her previous affiliations… and if he already knew the truth then he would reach the conclusion himself.

"You wouldn't have been the first." Ozpin stated. "But what happened there was not an isolated incident. I may be your headmaster but I'm also a huntsman and it's my sworn duty to protect this world from the forces conspiring against it." The headmaster leaned forward. "Blake, are you certain there is nothing more you'd like to tell me?"

You think if I knew what the White Fang was up to I wouldn't tell you?! Blake almost wanted to scream. She left them over a year ago and thus could not have any knowledge of their plans. What they were aiming for after joining forces with Torchwick... that was hard to say. "I am." She answered finally. There was nothing else she could say… for now.

"Very well. Thank you for your time, Miss Belladonna." The headmaster rose from the table and began walking away, but not before turning around in the doorframe. "If you ever need to talk to me, don't hesitate to ask."

"I won't, Professor."

oOo

Back in the present, Blake let out a deep sigh. There were no recent news of White Fang activities since the fateful night at the docks; there were no traces she could follow. Worse, no one seemed concerned by the Fang's operations.

Blake was brought out of her musings as someone knocked at the door. She kind of wanted to be left alone at the moment, but on the other hand she was curious to see the visitor since her roommates never knocked.

"It's open."

Roland was fighting the urge to yawn as he strolled down the corridor. Eventually he lost and the resulting sound was loud enough to alert everyone to his presence.

TNDR's studying session was relatively short but not necessarily less tedious. Roland finally managed to obtain the book he needed to finish his essay and only had some finishing touches left to do before he could hand in his work. Tanya finished her work about early multi-purpose firearms days ago and Nicolaus was also done.

That had left only Desmond; while the big guy was a good enough fighter, his studying performance was severely lacking and not because of a lack of effort on his part. He simply could not do it without some assistance along the way or rather a lot of assistance. Desmond was not the smartest person in the world and that was putting it mildly; it took a lot of time and effort explaining something to him. On more than one occasion Tanya found herself in awe of the forbearance Nicolaus showed when dealing with his partner. Over time the other students noticed Desmond's subpar intelligence and some of them referred derisively to him as "that dumbass"… not that they'd actually have the gall to say that right in his face, of course. However, despite what many idiots thought, his teammates saw it as their duty to help him get past his limitations, no matter how strenuous it was sometimes.

Thanks to their help, Desmond was almost finished with his own essay about comparing passive and active Semblances. It took a lot of effort, though, and Tanya decided to call it quits for the day.

After wrapping things up in the study room, Roland went to look for Blake. It did not escape him that the cat girl seemed restless lately and got even more withdrawn than usual. Now, he had no idea what was eating her but he decided to find out; there was a fifty percent chance she would tell him to go away but to him it was still worth a try. In those few months at Beacon he and Blake became good friends and he hated to see her in such low spirits. Roland had no idea where she might have gone but RWBY's dorm was his best bet.

On the way to dormitories, he witnessed an argument of Cardin and Pyrrha. The two were standing in the park that separated the dorms from the main building; the latter appeared relatively composed, unlike the former. Roland chose not to intervene since Pyrrha seemed to have everything under control, but he was ready to step in if Cardin tried something.

"We're all tired of you flaunting yourself everywhere you go, Nikos!" Winchester seethed. "You think that since you're the oh-so-famous Goddess of Victory, nobody else matters?!"

Pyrrha scoffed. "Oh you're one to talk, Winchester; the machismo who thinks that he's entitled to everything in this world!"

"At least I'm a real man unlike that pipsqueak you call your leader!"

To Cardin's surprise, Pyrrha actually laughed. "You have a really skewed idea of what is a 'real man'. Jaune may not be perfect but he'd never stoop down to dirty tactics to achieve his goals-"

"That fraud cheated his way to Beacon! Bet you didn't know that, eh?" Cardin spat out, seemingly sure that he had just won the argument. "Unlike him, I worked hard to get where I am now!"

"And you nearly blinded Roland because your over-inflated ego couldn't stomach a defeat!" Pyrrha countered. "Jaune had cheated, yes, but because he wanted to help and protect the innocent! He has ideals and morals; he'd never fall so low as to bully his way through life, unlike you! He cares about others while you only look out for yourself and no one else; and he saved your life while your own team left you to die! Jaune is a better leader and a better person than you'll ever be!"

A tense silence ensued. Cardin was clenching and unclenching his fists in barely restrained fury, unable to come up with a retort on his own. Pyrrha gave him a victorious smirk and began walking away… but then his voice stopped her in his tracks.

"Fight me." He grounded out through gritted teeth.

"Excuse me?" Pyrrha said, turning around to face him.

"The next combat class; you against me and my team." Cardin elaborated.

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious." Winchester growled in response to her slightly condescending query. "I'm as good a leader, if not better, as your precious Jaune Arc, and I'll prove it to you." Pyrrha simply stared at him blankly, prompting him to continue. "If you're as good as everyone says than you probably have nothing to worry about, if you're not afraid, that is. You're not… are you?"

Pyrrha was not touched by Cardin's mocking remarks. "I accept." She replied simply. "And I'll gladly show you why your expulsion from Beacon is only a matter of time." With that, she spun on her heel and walked away, leaving stupefied Wichester behind. Cardin stood there for a good few seconds before he left as well, muttering insults under his breath along the way.

Not one of them noticed the gunman's presence.

It was already dark outside when Roland finally reached his destination. No sound was coming from inside the room; it was possible that there was nobody in there. Well, I'm here, might as well try it, he told himself and knocked softly on the door.

"It's open." A familiar voice replied tonelessly. Roland slowly opened the door and walked inside.

Sure enough, Blake was sitting on her bed; the lights were off and her cat-like eyes glowed in the light from the hallway, betraying the pain hidden by her usual stoic mask. "Am I intruding?" Roland asked hesitantly.

There was a long moment of silence before Blake finally replied a terse "No." Roland closed the door behind him and went to sit on a chair at the writing table. "You won't mind if I leave the lights off?"

"It's your room, Blake, I'm just a guest." Roland replied. The rising moon provided enough light on its own.

"Why are you here?"

Roland could not help but chuckle at the question. "What? Am I not allowed to be worried about my friend?"

Blake shook her head. "A nice gesture but there's nothing to be worried about, really."

The gunman sighed. Blake was not making this easy for him… and he would rather avoid another day of traipsing around the Vale City if he could help it. "Oh come on, Blake. Don't you clam up on me." He pressed. "I know you're not exactly a people person but lately you've been turning into an anti-social. You barely talk to your own teammates, let alone the rest of us. While you may find it completely normal, it's pretty unsettling to me." When Blake offered no response, Roland stood up and went to sit down on Blake's bed. "Blake, whatever the problem is, you know you can talk to us, right?"

"I… I guess." Blake shrugged.

The gunman rolled his eyes. "Come on, what's the matter with you? It's not like you'll have to kill me if you divulge that super secret information of yours."

Blake did not appear amused by his joking remark. "I don't know, alright?" She finally relented. "I don't want anyone to think I'm paranoid or something, but…"

"But?" Roland raised an eyebrow. "Is this about the White Fang?"

Blake gave a tired sigh. Bingo! "They're planning something big and it drives me insane that I have no way of finding out what it is."

"It's not just that, though." Roland pointed out. "I mean, they're working with that asshat Torchwick now."

"That's even worse. Nothing can explain why the Fang would cooperate with such a scum." Blake spat out. "Maybe Torchwick is using them for his own purposes or White Fang is actually leaning towards organized crime instead of fighting for their people… I don't know which is worse."

"Who knows what it is between the Fangers and Torchwick." Roland stated. "Goodwitch told us not to worry about them; Ozpin and co. can probably deal with this problem."

"I'm not so sure about that." Blake said and rose from the bed. "Ozpin may be powerful but I don't think he knows much about this; why else would he ask me about Fang's future plans?"

"So you're suggesting: what, exactly? That we take matters into our own hands?"

"It's still better than sitting around and doing nothing, hoping the problem eventually somehow sorts itself out!" Blake fired back with an undertone of agitation.

"You really think a bunch of students like us can make a difference?" Roland questioned. "I know we beat the Fang at the docks and then again at the rally but I don't want us to bite off more than we can chew."

"I understand you want to be cautious and I don't want us to engage in a full scale war with White Fang, unless we have no other choice." Blake leaned against the table. "It's just that I hate being in the dark; I would've felt more at peace had I known something, anything about the Fang's intentions."

Roland stood up and approached her. "Look, whatever the Fangers are planning I want to see them fail just as much as you do because from what I've seen, they are pretty serious about this 'war on humankind' thing. All I'm saying is that we should play it safe; as you said, we're flying blind."

"I know, but at one point or another, 'playing it safe' might not be an option anymore."

Without warning, the lights in the room suddenly lit up. The door slammed open and Yang entered, with Ruby and Weiss in tow. "We should've never let them play!" The bombshell blonde exclaimed in fake anger.

Ruby giggled. "You're just mad because Vomit Boy beat you!"

"Neptune isn't a bad player himself." Weiss murmured with a dreamy smile.

"See, if only you attacked when I told you to, none of this would've happened."

Yang appeared to completely miss her sister's words, her gaze fixed at Blake and Roland. "Are we… interrupting something?" She asked with an impish grin.

Blake knew her partner too well not to understand what she meant. "No!" She and Roland replied almost simultaneously.

"And here we go…" Ruby whispered, knowing what was about to happen.

"Oh, silly girl, you can't paw-ssibly think to fool me." Yang exclaimed with a beaming smile.

Roland smacked his forehead, muttering something under his breath.

Blake let out an annoyed sigh. "I really hate you right now, Yang."

"C'mon, you love me and you know it!" Yang threw her arm around the Faunus' shoulders. "Now, spill it! The juicier the details, the better!"

"Oh cut it out, you hothead!" Roland groaned.

At that moment, Blake wished the ground would just swallow her up. "Nothing like that, Yang. We were simply talking about… stuff."

"Was it some hot stuff?"

"Alright, that's enough, Yang." Weiss cut in and pulled Yang away from her teammate. Blake never thought she would ever be grateful to the heiress of all people… That is until said heiress subjected her to a different kind of interrogation. "Tell me if I'm right; you were confiding to him and didn't say a word to us, your own team?"

"Um, I… Well-" Blake stuttered.

"Ugh, I knew it." Weiss sighed, rubbing her forehead. "You remember what I told you? If something big comes up again, you should come to your teammates and not some- Ahem, someone else."

"I'm sorry, it's just-"

Weiss interrupted Blake mid-sentence. "It's just what? Roland here used his charm to make you pour your heart out to him? Honestly, you can do far better than him."

"OOOOOHHHH!" Yang called out. At that moment, Roland was redder than a ripe tomato while Ruby giggled helplessly.

Blake hid her face in her hands. "You are a terrible influence, Yang." She croaked, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Now seriously, Blake." Weiss continued once the others quieted down. "Lately, you've been quiet, moody and antisocial. I understand that it's kind of your thing but you've been doing it more than usual and honestly, I find it unacceptable. You made a promise to us, to all of us that you'd let us know if something was wrong. So, Blake Belladonna, WHAT. IS. WRONG?!" What happened next was a blur of motions. All Blake knew was that when it was all over, Weiss was pointing her finger at her while balancing precariously on a chair, much to the amazement of everyone present. Thankfully the heiress realized soon what she was doing and put the chair back to its place while pretending nothing out of ordinary happened.

"Too much caffeine…" Roland mumbled to himself.

Seeing no sense in concealing it any longer, Blake decided to spill the beans. "I just don't understand how everyone can be so calm."

"About what?" Ruby questioned. "You mean the Torchwick guy?"

"Torchwick, White Fang, all of it!" Blake exclaimed. "Something big is happening and no one seems to do anything about it."

"Ozpin told us not to worry." Yang, for once serious, joined the conversation. "Between the Police and the Huntsmen, I'm sure they can handle it."

"And what if they can't?" Blake challenged. "They don't know the White Fang like I do!"

Weiss decided to cut in. "Okay, between blowing up nightclubs, stopping thieves, fighting for freedom and performing peacekeeper duties, I'm sure you people think you're all ready to go out and apprehend these ne'er-do-wells-"

"The what now?" Ruby blurted out.

"-but let me once again be the voice of reason. We're students; we're not ready to handle this sort of situation."

"None of us said we'd have to go straight to their hideout, guns blazing and shit, but-" Roland tried to reason before the heiress interrupted him.

"We. Are. Not. Ready!"

"And we might never be ready!" Blake shouted. "Our enemies aren't going to sit around and wait for graduation day. They're out there somewhere planning their next move and we don't know what it is, but it's coming! Whether we're ready or not."

"I agree with Blake." Roland added. "I realize it will be dangerous but I'd rather fight a known threat than be caught with my pants down, so to speak."

"Since when you of all people became to care so much about this?" Weiss questioned.

Roland looked her straight in the eyes. "Since I witnessed a guy perfectly content to toss a fucking explosive into a crowd of innocent bystanders." He said firmly.

"Okay." Ruby held her hands up. "All in favor of becoming the youngest huntsmen and huntresses to single-handedly bring down a corrupt organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale – say AYE!"

The tense atmosphere in the room was gone with Ruby's little lightning fast speech. "YES!" Yang cheered and bumped fists with her sister. "I love it when you're feisty."

"Well, I suppose it could be fun." Weiss conceded.

"None of you said "aye"." Ruby muttered, pouting in annoyance.

"So, we're in this together, right?" Blake said with a soft smile.

"I suppose." Roland replied. "If we plan this out carefully, we can get some good info."

"So what are we waiting for?" Ruby exclaimed theatrically. "Let's get to work!"

"YEAH!" Yang cheered.

Suddenly, Ruby's enthusiastic grin morphed into an expression of utter horror. "Ohmigawd I left my board game in the library!" In a blink, the crimsonette was gone. "I'll be right back!"

An awkward silence reigned in the room… until Weiss broke it with a sigh.

"We're doomed."

Author's note: So, we've finally made it to the events of Volume 2. I had a ton of fun writing this chapter; had a lot of ideas for humorous scenes (at least I hope they were funny; many of them didn't make it into the final version) to balance the more serious parts for once. Just to give you a fair warning, with the way I'm planning this, the story will eventually take a more serious tone (when that happens depends on RWBY Volume 3, heard it might come out soon if it didn't already) and even deviate from the canon. I have a few ideas for future development but nothing definite, probably will watch Volume 3 first and go from there. Just a heads up.

To OBSERVER01: Thank you good sir I aim to please... and to keep the quality of my writing on acceptable standards :-D (just assuming that your review went along the lines of "last 2 chapters quite good, keep it up"; there were some words missing :-) sorry in case I misinterpreted the message)

As always, thanks for reading, review, favorite or follow; compliments and/or critique always welcome :-)