CHAPTER XXIX

Old and New

Although Teams LILY and APEX had technically agreed to go out and relax prior to the tournament, which was starting in less than forty-eight hours, Lilly spent most of her time catching up with her mother, talking to her about nearly everything, including information she had already shared during her long distance calls back to home. The only things she left out were her rune powers and her excursions into that parallel world. She wanted to master her runic abilities before she showed Weiss. After all, she was the only Schnee who did not possess the Schnee Semblance. She had to have something to show off to her mother as an alternative, but not until she was ready.

As for that parallel world, there was no way she was going to tell her mother that she had been making incursions into some alternate reality that was clearly dangerous and with no real clue what in the world she was doing. Maybe some day she would, when she had her runic power mastered and when she was fully capable of emerging victorious no matter what. But she still had that one family to save. She made a promise to herself to take care of it before the end of the Vytal Festival.

"Lilly," Weiss said.

"Yeah, mom?" Lilly replied.

"I know you really want to catch up with me, but don't forget about your team."

"Oh, um—"

"We will have plenty of time to continue these conversations throughout the month."

"You're staying through to the end of the festival?"

Weiss smiled. "Of course I am."

"Oh! That's great!"

Weiss kissed her on the forehead. "I told you I'd be here, didn't I?"

Lilly gave her mother the biggest, brightest smile she could muster. There was a knock on the doorframe and both turned to the sound.

"So," Leon said. "We, uh, goin' out?"

"I don't think I'm in your age bracket," Weiss said.

Leon instantly went rigid. "Uh, I-I mean—" He was not about to say that he wasn't talking to her, even though he wasn't, but then—

"I'm joking," Weiss said. Lilly turned to her and they shared a giggle. "Go on, Lilly. Don't leave your team waiting."

"We'll talk again later!" Lilly said, giving her mother a hug before standing up from the bed.

"Honestly, though, how did you four manage to erect such well-built bunk beds?"

"Leon's great with tools!"

"Ah, I see."

"Th-They were pre-built that way!" Leon said quickly. "I-I mean, yeah, Yuan and I and Ingrid and Lilly, we all worked together to assemble the beds, b-but it's not like I built them from scratch or anything!"

"What in the world are you getting so nervous about?" his mother's voice startled him from behind, making him jolt around.

"N-Nothing!"

Ruby sighed. "You know, that shy act doesn't work with girls. Ask your father."

"Man," Yuan said from down the hall. "Perseus was right. Roses have thorns." The instant the words left his mouth, he sensed both Ruby and Leon glaring at him. She wasn't present, but he could swear Athena was also sending negative vibes in his direction.

"What's wrong?" Ingrid said to him. "You look like something just crawled up your back."

"I-It's nothing," he said. "C'mon, let's go. Athena and the others are waiting for us downstairs."

"Are you sure they're there?" Lilly said.

"Yes. I have a very strong feeling she's down there waiting for me—I mean, for us."

Team LILY assembled at the bottom floor of the dorm along with Team APEX. They were joined by a number of other faces as well.

"You're not gonna leave us behind again, sis!" Francine, Justine, and Nadine said in unison.

"Especially not you!" Fiona said, pointing directly at Leon.

"Psh!" he said. "Of course not! I wouldn't dare leave my favorite kitty behind!"

She squealed before jumping on his back. "I'm gonna ride you all the way to wherever we're going!"

He chuckled.

"She hasn't changed at all," Han said, standing with Perseus and Xanthus. "Sup."

"You're Ingrid's bro, yeah?" Perseus said.

"Damn right. Hanuman Belladonna, but you can call me Han."

"Perseus." He extended a hand, but ended up shaking with Han's tail. "There's a first time for everything, but I never thought I'd ever shake, uh, tails?"

"Hey," Yuan said to Ingrid as he glanced over at Lilly. "Does our leader seem a little bit tense to you?"

Before she could answer, Francine and Justine took either of Yuan's hands and clung to him. He smiled at them sheepishly as they fawned over him.

"Oh, believe me," Ingrid growled. "I know how she feels."

"Huh?" Yuan said.

"Buddy," Perseus said, leaning in, "you done fucked up."

Xanthus also leaned in, pushing up his glasses before nodding in agreement alongside Han. Naturally, Yuan had no idea what in the world they were talking about, at least until he noticed Ingrid's scowl, simultaneously realizing that both of her younger sisters were practically hanging off his arms.

"You seem to be having fun with my sisters," Ingrid said.

"On the contrary," Yuan began, "I think they're the ones having all the fun."

"That's it." She stomped at them before prying both loose from his body. "No touch. Look only."

"See," Perseus said, leaning over to Xanthus. "That's a girl who knows what she wants."

"Agreed," Xanthus said, noting how tightly Ingrid clung to Yuan's arm as she shooed off her sisters. He turned to Athena, who was approaching them with Echo standing beside her. "Just like our leader."

"It's so nice being surrounded by strong women, huh?"

"Yes. It makes them all the more beautiful."

"Like Penny, right?"

He flinched. "Why do you bring her up all of a sudden?"

"Oh, nothing. I just noticed you sorta, I dunno, have stuff in common with her? I mean, you did join in on that conference with her and you've been coordinating with her a lot lately."

"It's important for a class president to have strong ties with faculty."

"Oh, yeah, you're building strong ties indeed."

Xanthus reddened. "I do not enjoy where this conversation is heading!" He looked Perseus in the eye. His partner was grinning suggestively.

"Where is she, anyway?" Perseus said.

"How am I supposed to know?"

"I wasn't asking you specifically, dude. Jeez."

"She's probably hanging out with the old people again," Echo said.

"Anyway," Athena said, "I think they've already finished setting up the fair and stuff for the festival. Anyone down to go on the rides?"

"Let's get funnel cakes!" Lilly said, jumping up and down as she held hands with Ingrid's triplet sisters.

"Can you believe this was our old room?" Ruby said as she looked at all of Team LILY's belongings.

"I know," Yang said, looking through their videogame inventory. "And Team APEX took Team JNPR's old room across the hall."

"What are the odds of that?" Blake said.

Without a word, Weiss stood up from her chair and held all of her old team at once.

"I've missed you guys so much," she said, holding back tears.

"Weiss," Ruby said, returning her embrace tightly.

"Don't hold them back," Yang said. "You need to let 'em fall."

"Yeah," Blake said, leaning her head against Weiss's. "You don't have to hide them around us. We're family."

Weiss sniffled as she let her tears flow freely. She pulled away from them and they all stood hand-in-hand, forming a small circle in their old room. Weiss took a deep breath before letting it out all at once and returning the three smiles that were directed at her.

"Let's go hit the fair," she said.

"All the old gang back together?"

They turned to the doorway, where Jaune was standing. Behind him, Nora was exploring their old room, Team APEX's new home base. Penny and Ren were standing in the hallway, watching Nora from outside.

"You know what," Ruby said, "heck yeah. Let's go ride a Ferris Wheel!"

"I mean," Yang began, "that's boring as fuck, but whatever."

"You're no fun!"

"Dude, I'm just saying they're boring."

Ruby stuck her tongue out and Yang grabbed it, cackling as her younger sister shrieked and fled.

"Athena definitely took after you," Jaune said with a chuckle. "I don't ever do anything that mean."

"Anyway," Penny said.

"You mean, Pennyway?" Yang said, flickering her eyebrows. Penny gave her a high five while the rest of the group sighed. "Yo, real talk, though, this Hillphire arm is awesome."

Penny was just barely able to suppress the flinch that fought to the surface at the sound of that name. "Yeah, it's great tech, isn't it?"

"It's what you're made of now, right?"

She nodded.

"Sweet."

"Okay!" Ruby said. "Let's go already! I wanna get some ice cream!"

"Ice cream!" Nora echoed, jumping on Ren's back.

"Ice cream's first, then," Jaune said, leading the way out of the dorm.

"Oooh!" Lilly said as she ran around from booth to booth. "Look at all the games and stuff!"

"And the main show hasn't even started," Athena said, holding hands with Echo as they walked along the main promenade. "It won't be until Monday. The opening ceremony is supposed to accompany a whole host of other stuff. You know it's not just the combat tournament happening this year, right?"

"Yes, I heard about that," Xanthus said, pushing up his glasses. "They're adding new events and sports such as running, ball throwing, long distance jumping, things like that."

"No wonder this one's gonna be a month long," Perseus said. "All of July. I was trying to figure out the crap they'd fill the month with, but I guess these events are pretty big. And here I thought the tournament was gonna do it, but I guess not."

"Hey!" Lilly yelled, surprising Leon and causing him to fall along with Fiona.

"My head," Leon said, rubbing his temple. "Fiona, why did you have to knee me like that?"

"Sorry!" she said, tending to his injury. "Is it better when I rub it like this?"

He chuckled before glancing at Lilly. She didn't seem as tense as earlier, but he could still detect something there.

"Anyway!" Lilly continued. "Let's go take some pictures at that booth!"

"Oh, it's the kind where you can add borders and effects and stuff," Ingrid said. "But our scrolls do that already. I think we all have that new filter app thing that came out as an add-on to our built-in cameras."

"But they're no fun!" Lilly said. "And besides, you can't print them instantly on our scrolls!"

"Good point."

The first pictures were with Team LILY, then with Team APEX, and then Leon surrounded by Ingrid's sisters, then Ingrid surrounded by all five of her siblings, then Yuan and Ingrid with her sisters photo-bombing in the background, then all the boys, then all the girls, and then finally every single one of them attempting to squeeze into the booth.

"We did it!" Perseus said. "Fuck yeah!"

"I can't believe we were able to get everyone's faces in," Xanthus said. "Wait, where's Han?"

"In the corner," Echo said. "He's the one hanging upside down."

"I'm glad that hasn't changed," Athena said with a chuckle.

After distributing copies of all the pictures to everyone, Lilly led the way to the Ferris Wheel, but Athena lagged behind with Echo, insisting they'd catch up.

"What's the matter?" Echo asked her.

"C'mon," Athena said, leading her into the photo booth. "We didn't get one of just us two."

Echo found herself reddening as she followed her partner inside. The first photos they took showed Echo's shy side, but as she got more and more comfortable, she joined Athena in the goofy poses.

"Okay, now we do romantic shit," Athena said.

"W-What?" Echo said, reddening.

"That's what couples do, right?"

"Uh, I-I guess."

"C'mon, then!"

The first pose was with Athena holding a visibly bashful Echo from behind, followed by one of Athena kissing Echo on the forehead as the other tried to hide her face from the camera. For the third pose, Athena told her a joke and the laughter captured was genuine. The final pose had them holding hands and facing each other, lips less than inch apart, but not touching.

"These are fucking perfect," Athena said, checking out the photos. "Okay, which ones do you want?"

"I think you should keep all of them," Echo said, shrugging.

"That won't do. C'mon."

Echo followed her as she went around in search of something.

"What are you looking for?" Echo said.

"Ah, perfect!" Athena said, rushing to a booth.

Echo wondered what she was doing as she walked up to join her. The gentleman behind the counter took the photos from Athena and made some cuts before installing them into two sets of teardrop-shaped pendants, which he handed to Athena as she paid for them.

"Perfect," Athena said, putting one of the silver necklaces on before putting the other on Echo. "Check it out."

Echo watched as a magnetic force pulled the two pendants together, forming a heart-shaped object.

"Neat, huh?"

Echo turned bright red. She didn't care how cheesy all of this right now was. She opened her locket, admiring the photo cutouts on either side. She got the one where they were laughing together and the one where they were face to face. Athena had the one where she was kissing her on the forehead and the other with her holding her from behind.

"If you call me cheesy, I swear," Athena said, putting her hands on her hips.

"N-No, that's not—"

"I'm just messin' with you!" She grabbed her by the hand. "C'mon! We're gonna get left behind!"

"You're wearing the necklace and earrings I gave you," Yuan said, looking over at Ingrid, who wore her hair up today, showing him her neck and shoulders.

"Oh," she said, reddening. "Yeah, I did."

"They look great on you."

She smiled back at him before shyly turning away. She spotted Lilly, who was grinning at her alongside her triplet sisters. Ingrid gave all four of them a look of irritation before she softened up as Yuan placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know if I can finish this ice cream," he said. "Could you help me out with it?"

"Oh," Ingrid said, turning around, "sure—"

Without warning, Yuan smashed the cone in her face and their entire circle gasped. Ingrid stood in complete shock, unable to process what had just happened. She wiped her face before looking up at Yuan, who was glancing around awkwardly, very apparently attempting to suppress his laughter.

"I hate you so much, Leon," Ingrid said loudly.

"Me?" Leon said. "What the hell did I do?"

"I think it's because you infected her boyfriend," Athena said as she and Echo joined them.

"Oh!" Lilly said. "You two got matching necklaces!"

"Wanna see something cool?"

Lilly squealed as Athena demonstrated how their necklaces magnetically connected and formed a heart. "Oooh! That's so cute!"

"Here, let me help you," Yuan said.

"No," Ingrid said, but before she could get away from him, he had her by the shoulders and he kissed her on the nose, taking some of the ice cream off with his mouth. He continued to do the same with the rest of her face wherever there was ice cream to clean off.

"Whoa," Perseus said, turning to Leon.

"Don't look at me," he said. "I didn't teach him that at all."

By the time Yuan was finished, Ingrid was as stiff as a steel beam, though she simultaneously felt like melting into a puddle.

"Ready to get on the Ferris Wheel?" Yuan asked her.

She didn't answer. She wanted to flee instead. He gently took her by the hand and she was instantly goo, mindlessly following him wherever he led her.

"I've never seen my sister like that," Han said.

"Yeah," Nadine said. "This is just, wow."

"Hey!" Fiona said, looking up at Leon. "Could you do that to me, too? We can skip the whole ice cream part if you want!"

He chuckled nervously. "I don't know if your parents would appreciate that," he said.

"Aww, you're no fun!"

He chuckled again before reaching up to play with her cat ears. Unlike Ingrid, she welcomed every time he did this.

Team RWBY and Team JNPR along with Sun roamed the Vytal Festival, casually going from booth to booth, enjoying each other's company and reminiscing on old times.

"I wish we could compete in the matches," Ruby said with a yawn.

"Oooh!" Penny squealed before pulling her scroll out and dialing quickly.

"What's gotten into you?" Yang said to her.

"Yang on a minute!" Penny said, waiting for the other end to pick up. "Yeah, Professor Ospine? I-I mean, Oscar!" She giggled. "Actually, Ospine works perfectly, but anyway, I wanted to ask you about the tournament. Have the lineups been decided yet? No? Okay, good. I wanna talk to you about an idea I have later on, is that okay? Sweet! I'll talk to you later!"

"Idea?" Blake said.

"Oh!" Nora yelled. "Am I thinking what you're thinking?"

They both looked each other in the eye and instantly connected. Grins spread across either's face.

"Okay, I'm mildly worried now," Ren said.

"There's no need for worry," Nora said. "There's no way we're going down."

"Seriously, what's going on?" Jaune said.

"Are you all combat ready?" Penny said as she and Nora pointed at the entire group.

"I mean, yeah," Yang said. "We've been hunting for the last...wait, what?"

"I think I get it," Weiss said. "But...are you really sure about this?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, leaning back to back with Weiss. "We do have the Silver Maiden on our team, ya know."

"You might have the Silver Maiden," Nora began, "but we have..."

"The Iron Maiden!" Jaune announced as he and Ren presented Penny, who folded her arms triumphantly across her chest.

"Roll credits," Blake said. "Seriously, none of us has fought a team battle in forever. It's gonna look like complete chaos out there."

"I think it'll be cool," Sun said. "I mean, it's not gonna be a real match, just an exhibition one, right?"

"Yeah," Penny said. "That's exactly what I had in mind."

They headed to the Ferris Wheel, where the youngsters were also gathered.

"What are the odds that they'd have the same idea we did?" Sun said.

"Hey, pops," Han said before bumping fists with his father.

"You kids having fun?" Sun said to the rest of the group.

"Yes, dad!" the triplets said in unison.

The big group separated out into smaller cells. Team RWBY and JNPR took a gondola together while Team LILY and APEX took another. Sun boarded one with the rest of his and Blake's children.

"You guys really need to stop teasing your sister," he said to Francine and Justine.

"But her boyfriend is so cute!" Justine said. "He's your old friend's son, right?"

"He is, but that doesn't mean you can just bug him like that."

"I wonder who's gonna be the first matchup on Monday," Perseus said as the Ferris Wheel stopped with their gondola at the very pinnacle.

"Oh, check it out," Athena said, looking out of the gondola. "We stopped at the, ahem, apex of the ride!"

Her team bumped fists and exchanged high-fives with each other.

"Very funny," Ingrid said dryly.

"Relax, Kitty Bae," Athena said. "Team LILY is just as important. Haven't you noticed everyone wearing the pins your boss gave us at the beginning of the school year?"

"Uh-huh."

Athena looked to Lilly, who was gazing out at the horizon. She hadn't said a word since they had gotten on the Ferris Wheel. She spent most of her time staring off.

"Hey," Athena said to her.

Lilly turned to face her fellow team leader.

"Something bugging you?"

She shook her head. "Just thinking about stuff. We've come a long way since we started here, haven't we?"

"Mostly you," Ingrid said.

"I'd have to agree," Xanthus said. "You went from lowest-ranked student to being among the top five."

Lilly looked at the gondola's floor. While it was true that she was among the top-ranked students in the first-year class right now, it sure did not feel like it. She still had a long way to go before she reached a level that her mother had achieved. Weiss was her age when she and the others saved the world all those years ago.

"You're not thinking about your dickweed of a cousin, are you?" Leon asked her.

"No," Lilly said. "I was thinking about you guys."

He gave her a smile and she returned it. But her smile wasn't as bright as it once was. There was a sense of longing behind it, as if her smile were hollow. At that moment, Leon made a vow that no matter what, he would find that smile again.