RWBY: Beacon's Fading Light
Chapter 21
oxoxoxo
The city of Vale was abuzz with activity. Workers scurried about the streets, sweeping up any dirt in sight, hanging banners and balloons up all over town, and doing all in their power to make sure the city was presentable for the arriving guests from the other kingdoms. The streets were alive with people as citizens of Vale gathered to see and greet the soon to be arriving guests from the other kingdoms.
Among these crowds were five teenage girls, each one different from the last. They were huntresses from Beacon Academy, the newly formed Team RWBY and their guest for the day, Alison Zu.
It was the morning after Maria's loss to Pyrrha in Goodwitch's class, and since it was a Saturday, the beginning of the weekend and the source off all things good in the world, the girls had opted to go into town, and, surprisingly enough, it was Yang's idea to bring Alison along, stating that 'she needs to really meet the rest of the kingdom at some point, why not now?' The day's activity, however, was Weiss' idea. With the Vytal Festival quickly approaching, the heiress had suggested they go into town and see if students from the other kingdoms had begun to arrive yet.
Both, however had ulterior motives. Weiss' was easy for anyone with knowledge of her mind to comprehend, but Yang, Yang had a plan for her guest. She knew how her old friend Thatch felt about the artist, and knew that if she made the offer to talk to her for him, he'd refuse without a second thought, all that manly pride and what not. That's why she didn't ask him. She knew that it would be good for the artist to get more experience with the rest of the world, so that was the excuse she'd used, but she was also looking for an excuse to bring up the topic of the renegade in conversation. Easier said than done since Alison wasn't exactly a chatterbox, and when she did talk, it was never about anything Yang could turn into the type of conversation she wanted.
"The Vytal Festival!" Announced Weiss, hauling Yang out of her thoughts. "Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!"
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss." Ruby remarked, looking quizzically at her partner. "It's kind of weirding me out..." Alison nodded silently in agreement.
"How could you not smile?" Weiss responded, turning to face her younger partner. Normally, she would have said it with a more venom, and maybe thrown the word 'dolt' in there for good measure, but ever since her conversation with Thatch and Francois the night before... well, she felt more tolerant of her partner's occasional childishness. "It's a festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances, parades, a tournament!" The heiress gushed, spinning back around and walking off. "Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!"
Yang scoffed at the girl in white. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring." She said.
"Quiet, you..." Weiss shot back as she continued to lead the other girls to the docks.
Alison giggled softly at the other girls. Thatch had once said that they should sell tickets to their bickering. He was right. And there she was, thinking about the renegade again. She let out a soft sigh before she felt a hand land on her back. The artist looked up to see the hand belonged to Blake.
The other quiet girl looked directly into her eyes, jade meeting amber. It was a silent question of whether or not she was okay. Alison held her gaze, indicating that she would be fine.
"Remind me again why we're spending our weekend visiting the stupid docks." Yang said, breaking the silence and pulling Blake and Alison back into the real world.
"Ugh, they smell like fish." Ruby complained, holding her nose. Alison mimicked the action, nodding her head in agreement.
"I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today." Said Weiss, looking out over the water. "And as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom."
Blake rolled her eyes in amusement. "She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament."
"You can't prove that." Weiss hissed in reply. She may not have wanted to be harsh with Ruby, but her other teammates, they were fair game.
Ruby rolled her eyes at her teammate's response. She was about to continue walking when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look at it and was, to say the least, surprised by the result. "Whoa..." she muttered as she looked down the street at what was once a dust shop. The windows had been smashed, the door was knocked off its hinges , and the entire building was blocked off by police lines.
The girls followed the reaper up to the store where she approached one of the detectives on duty. "What happened here?"
"Robbery," the detective answered "second dust shop to be hit this week..." he said as he walked back to work. "This place is turnin' into a jungle."
"That's terrible." Said Yang.
"They left all the money again." Another detective noted, catching the attention of Ruby. Alison followed the red haired girl's eyes as she looked at the shop.
"It don't make a lick o' sense. Who needs that much dust?" asked the first cop.
"I don't know man, you know what I mean?" replied the other one.
"You thinkin' the, eh, White Fang?"
"I'm thinkin' we don't get paid enough for this."
"Hmph." Weiss scoffed. "The White Fang, what and awful bunch of degenerates."
"What's your problem?" Blake asked, accusingly.
"My problem?" Weiss answered "I simply don't care for the criminally insane."
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths." Blake responded. "They're a collection of misguided faunus."
"Misguided?" Weiss spat. "They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!"
"So then they're VERY misguided." Blake replied. "Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale."
"Blake's got a point." Said Ruby. "Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago, maybe it was him."
"It is what he does." Alison added.
"That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." Weiss huffed. "Those faunus only know how to lie, cheat and steal."
Weiss may have missed the angry glare Blake shot at her when she turned her back, but Alison sure saw it. The look more than worried her.
"That's not necessarily true." Said Yang.
Unfortunately, her point was interrupted by a loud cry from the dock of "Hey! Stop that faunus!"
The girls all rushed to the docks to see a tall boy in a white, unbuttoned shirt, red metal gauntlets and a monkey tail poking out of his rolled up jeans run off a docking ship. He turned to the sailors with a smirk. "Thanks for the ride, guys!" Before chuckling and leaping off the ship.
"You no-good stow away!" one of the sailors cried.
The monkey tailed boy, who had taken to hanging by his tail from a street light peeled a banana as he responded. "Hey, a no-good stow away would have been caught, I'm a great stow away!"
Team RWBY and Alison watched, some even laughing, when the faunus boy hurled his banana peel into the face of a police officer and bolted up the stairs from the dock and away from the cops, taking a moment to wink at Blake as he ran past, something only Alison with her keen sense of sight noticed.
"Well Weiss," said Yang "You wanted to see the competition, and there it goes."
"Quick!" cried Weiss "We have to observe him!" she declared before breaking into a run after the monkey boy.
The other girls followed behind her, Blake and Alison hesitating to look at each other before they ran with the rest of the team.
Unfortunately, Weiss bolted around a corner right into something solid and tripped over it, sending both to the ground and allowing the faunus to get away. "No! He got away!" Weiss cried in despair.
"Uh... Weiss?" Weiss turned to see Yang was pointing beneath her. She turned to look at what Yang was pointing at, only to come face to face with a smiling, orange haired girl wearing a white blouse, a grey dress and black and green pants. The white haired girl immediately recoiled in shock with a cry.
"Sal-u-tations!" Said the odd girl.
"Uh... hello." Ruby replied.
"Are you... okay?" Yang enquired.
"I'm wonderful!" Said the girl "Thank you for asking."
The girls took a second to look at each other, all of them asking the same silent question: what?
"Do you... wanna get up?" Said Yang, honestly confused and worried.
The girl grimaced and hesitated for a second before blurting out "Yes." The odd girl leapt off the ground, the other girls taking a step back as she did. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"Hi Penny," said Ruby "I'm Ruby."
"I'm Alison." The artist mumbled.
"I'm Weiss." Said the heiress.
"Blake." Said the girl in black.
"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Yang asked before being elbowed in the gut by her partner. "Oh! I'm Yang."
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny blurted out.
"You already said that..." Weiss responded.
Penny stopped. The wheels were obviously turning in her head as she tried to come up with a response. "So I did!" she said, a smile on her face.
"Well... sorry for running into you." Weiss said as she turned to leave.
The other girls soon followed her, Ruby turning to say "Take care friend." To the odd girl and Alison nodding in agreement.
About thirty seconds later, Yang turned to the other girls. "She was... weird."
Surprisingly, it was Alison who spoke up next. "She seems almost like the anti-me." She muttered.
Yang let out a chuckle at that and grabbed the artist around the shoulders. "Hah, yeah you're right! Good one!"
"Now," Weiss interrupted, looking about the street. "Where did that faunus riff raff run off to?"
It seemed like it was a whole day of surprises, however, as when Weiss looked back down the street, there was Penny, less than three feet away. "What did you call me?"
Weiss looked back down the street where they had previously left Penny while Yang tried to stutter an apology. Penny, however, was having none of it as she pushed past both of them. "Not you," she said as she approached their red hooded leader. "you..."
Ruby leaned back as Penny got ever closer and began really invading her personal space. "Me?" she squeeked. "I-I don't know-"
"You called me friend." Penny said, leaning even closer. "Am I really your friend?"
"Uh..." Ruby looked past Penny to where Yang had her arms in an 'x,' Weiss was running her hand under her throat, Alison was shaking her head, and Blake was waving her arms to indicate the negative. "Yeah, sure... why not?"
Time seemed to stop for the other girls as they all simultaneously fell over.
Penny, on the other hand, was overjoyed. "Sen-sational!" Penny cried, laughing out loud. "We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"
Ruby groaned before turning to a now rising Weiss. "Was this what it was like when you met me?" she muttered.
"No," said Weiss, grumpily "she seems far more coordinated." That was partially true, but there was something about this girl that, in a way, reminded her of her partner. She was just... mission something.
"So..." said Yang, somewhat awkwardly. "What are you doing in Vale?"
"I'm here to fight in the tournament." Penny responded instantly.
"Wait," said Weiss "You're fighting in the tournament?"
"I'm combat ready!" Penny said with a grandiose salute.
"Forgive me," said the heiress "but you hardly look the part."
Blake scoffed. "Says the girl wearing a dress."
Weiss crossed her arms and huffed. "It's a combat skirt!"
Ruby was next to her in less than a second. "Yeah!" she exclaimed, high fiving her partner, much to the amusement of Yang and Alison.
That's when Weiss realized something. "Wait a minute." She said, approaching and grabbing Penny by the shoulders. "If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed... rapscallion?"
Alison didn't need her semblance of accuracy to notice Blake's face falling into a glare in the heiress' direction. She quietly approached Yang and pulled her close to whisper in her ear. "We should get out of here before this gets worse."
"What do you mean?" Yang asked.
Alison was about to explain when a full-blown argument erupted between Weiss and Blake over the nature of that stow-away faunus and the faunus people in general, with Weiss comparing all faunus to the White Fang, and Blake demanding that the heiress show more respect. It only got worse when Weiss essentially called ALL faunus criminals.
"That's what I mean..." Alison muttered.
Before long, Blake looked like she wanted nothing more than to add some colour to Weiss' face with a hard slap. "You ignorant little brat!" she cried, turning to storm away, enraged.
The team stood in silent for what felt like an hour before Weiss broke it. "How dare you talk to me like that! I am your teammate!"
Ruby, Yang and Alison watched awkwardly as Weiss and Blake continued their argument, even once they got on the airship back to Beacon they kept on arguing. Meanwhile, Ruby, Yang and Alison stood by, awkwardly watching and silently hoping they would stop. Any attempt to intervene was ignored entirely, no matter who tried.
Yang sighed, turning from the argument to the artist to her left. She might as well try to talk to Alison again, getting the usually silent girl to have a real conversation seemed easier at that moment than convincing Blake and Weiss to make nice."So," she began "how are things on your team?"
"Oh," Alison muttered "Things are pretty good. Maria's upset about something, but I'm not really sure what."
"The two of you are pretty close, huh?" Ruby asked, taking a new seat on Alison's other side.
Alison gave a small smile. "Yeah, she's good friend behind all that bravado."
"Glad to hear it." Said Yang. "You deserve a good friend."
Alison looked down with a small smile. "Thank you." She whispered.
"Speaking of good friends," Said Ruby "what about the rest of your team?"
"Yeah," Yang concurred "tell us about them."
"Well..." Alison muttered. "What would you like to know?"
"What about Francois?" Asked the young reaper.
"Well, he's a good guy." Said the artist.
Yang frowned. She could tell the other girl's heart wasn't in her words. "Is something wrong?" The blonde asked.
Alison turned away slightly. "It's nothing." She muttered. Alison wasn't normally a petty person, but if she were to be honest with herself, she could only describe her feelings toward the nobleman as jealous. She envied the relationship that was blossoming between him and Velvet while she had just the other day started to talk to the one she desired again. She knew the feeling was ridiculous. She should have been happy for them, but a part of her just... couldn't do that.
Yang could tell the other girl didn't want to talk about this right now, maybe it would be best to move on to who she really wanted to talk about. "What about Thatch?"
Alison's head came up in surprise at the name. "What about him?" she mumbled, her face turning just red enough for Yang to notice. She wasn't sure, however, if it was in anger or embarrassment.
"What do you think of him?" the brawler asked, her sister leaning in to listen.
Alison bit her lip as she thought of what to say. "Well," she began, hesitating slightly. "he's nice, I guess."
"Didn't you meet him even before Maria?" Yang asked "I mean, I saw the two of you sitting together for a bit during the first night in the ballroom."
"I guess you could say that." The artist said. "He was the first person at Beacon to really notice me. Everyone else tended to avoid the odd, quiet girl with the sketch pad."
Yang gave a short snort of laughter. "Yeah, you'd never guess that behind that badass front there was a nice guy."
"Yeah." Alison muttered with a sad smile. "How are things between the two of you?"
The brawler's face was a mask of confusion. "Uh, what?"
Alison mirrored Yang's expression. "Aren't the two of you..." She hesitated as she thought of the right word, eventually settling on the term used by the ever so eloquent Nora. "You know... together?"
Yang's face rapidly changed from confusion to understanding, and finally to amusement as she let out a loud laugh. "Wait wait, wait." She said in between her laughter. "You thought Thatch and I were together?"
Alison's face went red as she scrambled for a satisfactory answer. "But, you were... and you... but... what about your past at Signal?"
Yang clapped Alison on the back, causing the artist to lurch forward in pain at the power of the blow. "Thatch and I might have been friends at Signal, but we never even dated."
"Why not?" Alsion inquired, face going red as she realized she had been wrong about the two of them.
"Dating involves settling down," the brawler explained "and that's just not something I'm willing to do."
Alison gave a small smile as her face got even redder. This did not escape Ruby. "Ooh, someone's blushing. Who knew our favourite good girl would fall for the bad boy."
"Sh-shut up!" Alison stammered as the sisters burst out laughing.
"How dare you say that?!" Weiss demanded loudly, bringing Yang Ruby and Alison back into the real world. Seems this argument would take a while.
oxoxoxo
Maria took a deep breath as she approached the elevator to the office of Professor Ozpin. She had spent her entire day building herself up for this very moment. The hardest parts had seemed to be over, but this was worse than anything she had previously done.
She had ensured that her team would not intervene. Alison was still down in the city with Team RWBY, there was no reason she'd need to see her leader at her lowest point. Francois was shooting targets to impress Velvet, effectively getting him out of her way for the rest of the night. Finally, Thatch was playing a game of cards against team CRDL, and while normally she'd be against this, as far as she figured, Cardin and his team still owed her for pain and suffering in the caves at initiation.
With a deep breath, the centurion pressed the call button and awaited the inevitable arrival of the elevator. As the doors opened and she stepped in, she turned to look back out. She still had time to stop and go back to her room.
No. She decided. I need to do this.
And so, with a face of determination and a pang of guilt she watched as the doors closed behind her. There was no going back now.
oxoxoxo
Little did Maria know, but Alison was back on campus.
The second the airship had landed, Yang had suggested that Alison go and find Thatch. She said this for two reasons: one, so that she could get the artist as far from Weiss and Blake as possible, and two, so that they could enjoy some time together. So, going on the word of a few other students, Alison made her way to the library where she found Thatch. The renegade sat at a round table with all four members of Team CRDL, the cards scattered across the table mixed with his grin and the scowls of the other team were a clear indicator of what had just happened.
It wasn't long before he caught sight of her and shot her one of his trademark smiles. He turned back to the other team and began to collect all the cards. "Right then lads, that's all for tonight, let me know if you're eagle to lose more in the near future."
Alison giggled to herself at Team CRDL's muttered curses and glares in his direction. As the four other boys left, Alison approached her teammate. "Just how much did you win from them?" she quietly asked.
Thatch smiled at her. "Not that much, I'm pretty sure they were sorer about the loss than they were about what they lost."
"And just how often did they lose?" The artist inquired.
Thatch thought for a moment. "Not sure, but we've been playing for about two hours now and I haven't lost yet. These guys really need to work on their poker faces."
Alison smiled at the renegade. "How did you get this good?"
"I used to work security jobs on cargo ships." said Thatch "The skills you pick up when you work said jobs include, but are not limited to, playing cards and developing a good poker face."
"Did you ever get to fly one of those ships?" Alison asked, interested.
"Well, that's not something you usually pick up on security detail," Alison pouted slightly in disappointment at his words. "But, airship piloting is a course I took at Signal, and mentioning that to a captain did get me behind the wheel of a dust plane or two. I won't bore you with the details or flatter myself too much, but I was a pretty good pilot when they let me."
Alison giggled and picked up the deck. "And what about cards? How good were you at that?"
"Well," Thatch began "As bad as I beat those idiots, I'd be crushed by most of the men I worked with."
The artist smirked as she began to deal the cards. "Care to see how you fare against someone else?"
Thatch leaned in with a grin. "I'd hate to take anything from you."
"Then let's just play for fun." Said Alison as she looked at her cards. "Fun, and perhaps pride."
oxoxoxo
Maria stood motionless in the elevator to Ozpin's office, her hand hovering over the button that would take her to him. Something was stopping her every time she tried; the faces of her teammates, of Jaune, of herself, one of them would flash before her eyes right before she could hit the button. Could she really do this to someone?
Maria shook her head to clear it. This was what she needed to do. Jaune would be killed otherwise.
But was that it? She had seen him in combat, and he had definitely improved since Pyrrha took him under her wing.
But how much could she be trusted? For all Maria knew, her rival had a hand in every single one of Arc's victories.
But the boy was still learning.
But was it enough?
But then again, that wasn't what she was asking herself. The question was, was that the only reason she was reporting Jaune?
Maria shut her eyes and shook her head as she desperately tried to block out these thoughts. She shot out her hand and heard the distinctive 'ding' of an elevator button being pressed. Her eyes snapped open at the noise.
It was the wrong button.
oxoxoxo
Francois stood on the roof of the Beacon dorms, Mademoiselle gripped tightly in his hand in rifle form. At his side was Velvet and in her hands the controls to a clay nevermore launcher. The carcass of many a shattered clay bird lay at the base of the roof as the nobleman had been both practicing his aim and impressing his companion at the same time.
The launcher had one more bird left in it. The marksman turned to his companion and nodded as he looked back to the quickly darkening skyline. Before long, the clay bird flew out over the grounds of Beacon, and in less than two seconds, Francois had lined up a shot and fired, the remains of the bird falling to the ground to join its brethren.
With a smile of satisfaction, Francois flicked the safety on his rifle and took a seat against the wall, Velvet soon joining him. The two locked eyes for a moment, but neither spoke, both simply wishing to enjoy the other's company.
As the sun sank behind the horizon, Velvet turned to the nobleman. "There's something I should tell you, I'm just not sure how to put it."
"Is something wrong mon cherie?" The nobleman replied, concern in his eyes when he turned to look at the bunny.
"Well, you see..." Velvet muttered, a small smile on her face. "After I beat Cardin the other day, the school began looking over my grades, and my overall performance in class and... I've been put on a team."
"C'est excellent!" Francois exclaimed, but Velvet's smile fell slightly. "What's the problem?" the nobleman asked.
"The team I've been put on," Velvet began, hesitating slightly "It's a second year team. I've been moved ahead a year."
"I fail to see the problem." Francois replied.
"Well, I won't be able to see you or your teammates in my classes anymore." Velvet said sadly, looking down at her lap.
Francois gently tipped her face up to look at him, her chocolate brown eyes meeting his electric blue. "Velvet, it's far more important to me that you are happy, and being moved up to second year can only be something to be happy about. Your skills have been recognized, you're finally on a team of your own, and, most importantly, you're finally away from Cardin."
"He was always a bit of an ass..." Velvet muttered "But what about you and your team? What about RWBY and JNPR?"
"You forget, mon cherie, we all live here." The marksman replied with a smile. "We'll still be here for you, just at a little more of a distance."
Velvet's smile could have lit up the night, her eyes brightening as tears began to leak out. The voice in her head that told her Francois wasn't what he seemed was being drowned out by her own happiness.
"Are you okay?" Francois asked.
Velvet said nothing, simply nodding once before leaning up to plant a kiss on the nobleman's lips, wrapping her arms around him as she did. Francois' eyes widened in surprise at first, but ever so slowly he relaxed, returning the embrace of the bunny faunus. In a few seconds the two of them separated, locking eyes in silence as each one searched for the right words.
After a while it was Velvet who broke the silence. "It's getting a bit late, would you care to walk me back to my room?"
Francois replied by rising to his feet and holding out a hand to the faunus girl who gladly accepted it and was pulled to her feet. The two stood silently once again, simply gazing into each other's eyes, the orbs glowing as if powered by the sun itself, the light of the shattered moon bathing them in pale white light.
The silence was soon broken, however, by the sound of frantic footsteps. Both Francois and Velvet turned to where the noise had come from to see a shadowy figure running through the grounds of Beacon. Francois drew his rifle, the safety on, and looked through the scope at the figure, Velvet, with her faunus night vision was easily able to identify the figure, even without a scope.
"What's Blake doing out here?" Velvet wondered.
"I do not know." Francois muttered as he continued to watch. His eyes widened slowly as Blake removed her bow, ever so slowly pulling off the black garment. Beneath it lay a pair of cat ears, each one perfectly covered by where the bow once was.
Velvet and Francois shared a shocked glance, neither one able to form words.
Words did eventually form in Francois' mind, however. Could this have been how she knew Lucius?
By the time the two of them looked back, the girl was gone. Francois turned to Velvet and said what both were thinking: "Team RWBY needs to hear about this.
Velvet nodded and the two ran to the team's room.
oxoxoxo
When Francois and Velvet reached Team RWBY's dorm, one thing they didn't expect was to find Team JNPR sitting in the hallway, Pyrrha with her hand on the Jaune's shoulder as the knight looked shocked and numb, eyes blank and his mouth hanging open. Even more surprising was seeing Thatch and Alison standing by them, Thatch with his eyes full of barely constrained rage, and Alison looking like she was about to cry.
"What happened?" the Faunus girl asked.
Pyrrha looked up from Jaune at the words, but when she attempted to speak, no sound was produced.
"I'll tell you what happened," Thatch growled, every note in his voice sounding like he wanted to strangle someone. "Jaune here might just be expelled from Beacon, and it's all our fearless leader's fault!"