Note: They said it couldn't be done, but here we are: back-to-back-to-back chapters! This was originally supposed to be the second half of the previous chapter, but that was getting too long so we decided to break it up into two halves. We don't know what has been inspiring us to write so quickly, but we are so incredibly happy to see everyone following along, and all of the engagement we've gotten with you has made this completely worth it. You guys are our energy, and we can't say thank you enough. Keep at it, friends!

Also, an important announcement. As we've said before, we are around halfway through our retelling of RWBY Volume I. However, we know we've gotten requests in the pasts, and for the first time since this story has begun, we have begun to consider expanding this story into Volume II and beyond. Granted, that would be a long way off, and it would depend on a whole bunch of factors. We've dealt with sequel burnout before, and if we did, we would likely just continue one long story instead of splitting it into a sequel. But most importantly, this all depends on if there is an audience for it and if you are willing to read it. We have some developmental ideas, but if that is something you would be interested, now would be the time to tell (and TELL US LOUD) so that we have time to work out all the details.

Anyway, as we left off, a lot of you had guesses about what was going to happen to Ruby and Weiss, and sad to say, but no one quite predicted what would come next. Hopefully, you'll enjoy what we have in store. Without any further delay, enjoy.

Ruby twiddled her thumbs, sitting on the edge of her bed, staring anxiously at the door to their bedroom. The time was just past noon. The day of the week: Friday. It was one of the very few times of the week she could reliably find herself alone in her dorm, though she knew it would not last long. Blake and Yang usually took that time to eat lunch and study together. Where did they go? Ruby wasn't sure. She had previously tried searching for them in the library, the dining hall, and almost everywhere else inside the castle, but she couldn't find them. She was partially concerned that they weren't actually spending their time studying—almost everyone knew what kind of chaos Yang could get up to in her spare time, and Ruby suspected Blake would only enable her. However, Yang's test scores had been increasing, so she didn't have major reasons to be concerned as of yet. At the moment, however, it was the absence of her other teammate that was causing her duress, or rather, it was her impending arrival that was the source of her trouble.

Weiss was going to hate her, which was a shame because she had just gotten over that part of their relationship. They were making such delightful progress, so the fact that Ruby knew she was about to throw all of the hard work in the garbage was quite disappointing. That did not mean that Ruby regretted what she about to do. If anything, it only made her actions more necessary. But Weiss didn't take certain actions very well, and when she didn't take something well, she had a tendency to scream and rant, and when she screamed and ranted, the odds were good that Ruby would end up in tears, and she would prefer not to cry anymore, because she had cried more times in the past few months than she had for the rest of her entire life. Ruby tried taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. It would be worth it, she told herself. Weiss would understand in the end. Everything would be okay.

The door handle rustled, and Weiss Schnee entered the room. Everything would not be okay.

"Hello, Weiss," Ruby said cheerily. Too cheerily in her opinion, but Weiss did not seem to notice. The Atlasian walked over to her bed in a slump, and collapsed onto the mattress, sighing into her sheets.

"I despise math," she muttered. "Who thought it was a good idea to put electromagnetism into the Huntsmen curriculum."

"Yeah… crazy…" Ruby said, scratching the back of her neck. Weiss turned her head off the mattress to look at her teammate, her eyes narrow.

"What?"

"What?"

"What's going on?" Weiss asked, suspicious.

"Wha—nothing! Nothing's going on," Ruby said nervously. As she talked, she casually moved her hand over to her Scroll, which was discretely lying beside her hip, just out of view of Weiss. Without taking her eyes off the girl, she opened her messaging app and typed quickly, ignoring whatever obvious spelling mistakes that were bound to appear: Tatget had arrivd.

"Nothing?" Weiss asked unbelievingly.

"Yeah, nothing. I was just thinking how crazy it is that we don't have any plans this weekend," Ruby explained.

"I mean, you make the schedule, so—"

"It's just crazy," Ruby said with forced wonder. "I mean, we don't have anything planned to do this weekend. We're totally, completely free. We can do whatever we want. Isn't that fun?"

"I… guess so," Weiss said carefully. "Is there something you want to do?"

"Pssh, nooooooo," Ruby said, dismissively waving her hand. "I have no idea what we're going to do this weekend. We could train, or we could study, or we could hang out and see a movie. Whatever. It doesn't matter."

Weiss cocked her head, pushing herself up onto her elbows, eyeing Ruby with studious intent. "Do you have to take a pill to be this stupid, or is it some kind of genetic disorder?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ruby said innocently, which only caused Weiss's stare to narrow further.

"You are ungodly terrible at hiding things from me," Weiss stated. "What's going on? Is this like that scene in that dumb film you showed me, where they played a prank on that one girl that was really mean? Are Blake and Yang going to jump out of the closet and throw paint on me, or rip my clothes off, and then you record it and laugh as I run around all embarrassed?"

"No, I would never do that." That statement was honest, though it wouldn't be honest to say that Blake and Yang never tried to convince her to do something similar.

"Then what other stupid thing is about to happen?" Weiss asked.

Ruby shrugged. "I really don't know what you are—" Suddenly, there was a loud series of knocks on the door, and Ruby sprang to her feet, hurrying to answer it. "I wonder who that could be," she asked loudly. She dramatically flung the door open, and Weiss was mildly surprised to see, of all people, the two girls of Team CFVY—Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina—posing happily in the doorway, their hands artificially waving in the air.

"Hi, Ruby," Velvet said with a giant smile. Ruby gasped.

"Wow, Velvet! Coco! What are you guys doing here?" she asked with painfully terrible fake surprise.

"Well, you know, we were just stopping by to check up on our favorite freshmen. See how you guys are doing," said Coco. Unlike Ruby, she was completely relaxed and natural, and Weiss realized that whatever bullshit she was peddling, she was very good at it. Though, admittedly, her opinion may have been swayed by the fact that she was literally still wearing her very cool sunglasses.

"Yes, how are you?" Velvet said far less naturally.

"We're good," said Ruby. "Do you want to come inside and talk for a bit?"

"No, I'm afraid we really can't," said Velvet. "We just wanted to say goodbye before we headed out."

"Head out?" Ruby asked curiously. "Where are you two going?" Weiss's gaze bounced among the three of them, and as her suspicions grew, so did her worries.

"Well, I'm sure you know that I'm very big into Faunus activism," Velvet explained, for once sounding genuine in her delivery. She pointed to the pair of fake bunny ears on her head. "One of the things that I really like to do is charity work, so I spend a lot of time looking around for volunteer work. A few days ago, I discovered this amazing opportunity."

"Really? What is it?" Ruby asked inquisitively, leaning forward to demonstrate as clearly as possible that she was inquisitive.

"It's this Faunus shelter located just on the edge of the City of Vale," said Velvet. "You probably know that the city has a very bad Faunus homeless problem, and this shelter does a lot to help them when they're in need. It also provides food and clothes, and they're having a program where you can stay over for the weekend and help out all day and night. It's a really incredible experience that I wish more people would get involved in."

"Wow, that's great, Velvet," Ruby said enthusiastically. "It does sound incredible to be involved in something like that."

"Yeah, but," said Coco, shaking her head, "we're probably going to end up disappointing them."

"Why's that?"

"See, you have to register with them before you show up, and Velvet actually registered all of CFVY as a team," Coco told her glumly. "Unfortunately, Yosh and Fox are feeling pretty under the weather. I'm personally immune to the sniffles, so I'm all good to go, but unfortunately, that means we're going to be two men down at the shelter."

"Yes, and that's very unfortunate because they need all the help they can get," Velvet continued.

"Yeah, that's terrible," said Ruby. But then, her eyes went wide, and she gasped excitedly. "Hey, wait a second… Weiss and I were just talking about how we didn't have any plans this weekend. Right, Weiss? I know it's kind of short notice, but maybe—"

"Stop. What is this?"

Ruby froze, startled as Weiss casually rolled off the bed onto her feet. She pursed her lips, entirely unimpressed with them, and Ruby began to mentally prepare herself for the rant.

"W-What are you talking about, Weiss?" Ruby asked, poorly trying to maintain the ruse of innocence.

"First of all, you must think I'm incredibly stupid to buy any of this acting," Weiss explained. "You're worse at this than Yang is, and that's saying something. Velvet, no offense, but that goes for you too."

"I'm not…" Velvet began to protest, but she sighed, depressed. "No, yeah, you're right."

"Velvet," Ruby whispered to her through clenched teeth, but Velvet gave an embarrassed smile.

"I'm sorry. I've never been very good at lying," she admitted.

"You aren't," Weiss stated. "Coco is pretty good though."

Coco nodded, flashing a sly grin. "I grew up in a house of theatre nerds. It rubs off on you."

Ruby threw down her fist in frustration. "Both of you are so bad at this."

"Ruby, what exactly are you trying to do?" Weiss asked impatiently, crossing her arms. Ruby froze. The plan—as expected—was a horrible failure, but that just meant she had to improvise. Giving up wasn't an option. For the good of her team, for the good of Weiss, she knew she had to continue, and so she took a deep breath, steadying her nerves.

"Look, Weiss, there's something we need to talk about," Ruby said calmly.

"And what exactly is that supposed to be?" Weiss asked, her frustration growing.

"It's about certain… opinions that you have that are very troubling to me," Ruby explained.

"Oh, this nonsense again?" Weiss groaned. "Ruby, I promise you that I don't have any bad feelings towards the Faunus."

"Well, you say that," Ruby noted, "but I'm not really sure that you don't actually believe any of these things or understand these issues as well as you could. That's why I decided to bring Coco and Velvet along because they're really knowledgeable about these things. We want to help you get over some of your prejudices. It's a… um…"

"It's a racism intervention," Coco said in celebratory fashion.

Weiss stared at them in disbelief. "A racism intervention."

"To make you less racist," Coco said with a proud nod. "We're gonna wring all of those racist opinions right out of you. It'll be great!"

Weiss groaned, smacking her face into her palm. "I am not a racist!" Weiss protested. "How many times do I have to say that? Remember Zelina, Ruby, and how much I defended her from those corrupt police officers? I'm more than willing to defend the Faunus."

"Well, yeah, but," Ruby said uncomfortably, "being nice to one woman doesn't mean that you treat the Faunus the way that you should. Besides, even outside of that one nice thing you did, you didn't exactly treat Zelina very well most of the time. You were really rude to her, and you looked disgusted to be around her, and you turned on her at the slightest provocations."

"From what Ruby told us, you have massive trust issues," Velvet explained carefully. "It seems like your base instinct when it comes to Faunus is to be very distrustful of them, and you force them to prove themselves to you when they shouldn't have to. That generally comes attached with a lot of other toxic behaviors that you might need to work on."

"Can you blame me for having trust issues?" asked Weiss. "For all of the terrible things that the Faunus have done to my family? For all of the people in this Kingdom that want to destroy my home? For you, my own teammate, going behind my back to pull off this elaborate stunt?"

"Okay, so this wasn't the best way of getting you to go along with us," Ruby claimed, "but I don't think it's a stretch to say that if I did the exact same thing and I happened to be a Faunus, you would be way angrier with me than you are right now."

"You don't know that," Weiss said defensively. "I mean, you're acting ridiculously. You come out of nowhere and tell me you want to take me to a Faunus shelter this weekend? A Faunus shelter filled with people that don't know anything about basic hygiene or how to take care of themselves, and probably are the ones responsible for their own issues in the first place?"

Coco snapped. "Oh, sweet, this is an elitism intervention also."

"Not funny," Weiss snapped. "Ruby, in Atlas, we don't do handouts. We believe that if you need help, you work hard and earn your way through success, no matter what life throws at you. If you are really so desperate to prove that I'm not a racist, I'll donate a thousand dollars to a random civil rights charity or something. I can live with that. But this kind of behavior isn't something that I'm comfortable with."

"Weiss, it's not just about proving something," Ruby explained earnestly. "As Velvet said, it's about the experience. I really think that if you see these problems firsthand, you might become a better person afterward. We both will be. I know I'm not nearly perfect when it comes to the Faunus either. I barely paid any attention to the things happening to them when I was growing up, and until I met Zelina, I didn't start to have any idea about how much they needed our help. I'm not going to force you to do something you don't want to. That wouldn't be right. But I'm going to go no matter what, and I would really appreciate it if you were willing to come along with me and give it a chance. Please?"

Ruby smiled warmly, and it was enough to make Weiss give pause. One of the benefits of Ruby's terrible acting was that it also became very easy to determine when her leader was being sincere, and in Ruby's silver eyes she saw nothing but unabashed honesty. Perhaps it wasn't completely truthful of her to say that all of her problems with the Faunus had disappeared. She was a follower of Decem Luna, a faith dedicated to the practice of loyalty, honesty, and above all else, respect. No matter which of the Gods were chosen to watch over someone, they all demanded the same: that a person never be judged unfairly to another. They could be criticized for their actions, and the Gods did not call for ignorance in the eyes of misdeeds, but Weiss knew deep in her heart that she wasn't supposed to treat the Faunus differently than she would any Human. But, as Ruby was aware, and Blake was aware, and Yang was aware, and she was aware, she did. She shouldn't have, and she knew it, but she did, because time and time again when she tried to put her faith in the Faunus, they betrayed her.

Or at least, that was what it always seemed like. If Zelina Zaripova taught her anything, it was that the lives of Faunus were far more difficult than she had any knowledge of. Then again, as Ruby herself admitted, Zelina was not all Faunus, and her extraordinary circumstances couldn't be the same across the entire species. But, on the other hand, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she would not really know what the average Faunus experience was like one way or the other. Maybe their problems were overblown. Maybe they were all living in luxury off the hard work of others, gladly thieving and degrading themselves to get by like the animals they were. But maybe, it was entirely possible that they were a very nice people who were born into very unfortunate lives they could never crawl their way out of. Or, maybe it was somewhere in the middle, or beyond the extremes, or anything else, because the truth was she had absolutely no idea what to expect from the species that had such a personal relationship with her family.

Weiss was racist, or she was correct. Or, she was neither. Visiting a single shelter probably would not tell her either way, but if it could do anything to ease the uncertainty and ignorance that was swirling in her mind. And if Ruby was willing to go and get her beliefs challenged, that frightened little child who cried at the slightest nudge, it would be dishonorable if she could not withstand a single night under the same circumstances. Plus, there was the way that Ruby was looking at her.

That smile. Those eyes. How could Weiss say no to that?

They were so annoying.

"How much am I going to have to interact with the Faunus there?" Weiss asked curiously.

Coco scoffed. "Jeez, I didn't know you were that racist and elitist."

"It's not like that," Weiss moaned. "I want to make sure I don't do anything that could be seen as disrespectful. I don't understand Faunus culture very well, and the last time I talked to a Faunus I repeatedly brought her to tears."

"It's really not that hard," Velvet promised. "You help feed them, hand them clothes, and smile a lot. They like it when you're friendly. I like striking up conversations with them, but you don't have to talk to anyone if you don't feel comfortable speaking."

"That's probably for the best," said Coco. "You could cut the hull of an airship with that tongue."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Weiss sighed. "Fine. I'll come along with you on you're little… 'intervention' or whatever this is. What time are we going to be leaving tomorrow?"

"Oh. Tomorrow?" Velvet laughed nervously. "Actually, when I said we were going over the weekend, I actually meant that it was a three-day weekend. So, we're actually heading out in about… I don't know, two hours?"

"Two hours?" Weiss shouted.

"Yeah, and don't forget, they're actually giving us a place to stay overnight," Coco said with a shrug. "Hope you're a quick packer."

"I am very much not a quick packer," Weiss said sternly.

"We're going to grab our things. Oh, but before we go," Velvet said with urgency. She reached into the bag hanging around her waist, rummaging around its insides until, with a happy smile, she pulled something out and hurriedly placed it onto Weiss's head before the heiress could react. Velvet beamed happily at her work, and Weiss reached up to feel the strange addition, her hands finding two tall, soft, felt bunny ears attached to a black headband lying crookedly on her head. "We have to go get our things. See you two soon!"

Weiss opened her mouth to protest, but with a pair of peace signs, Team CFVY vanished from the entryway, and Ruby politely shut the door behind them. Weiss simply stood there, in the center of their dorm, bunny ears strapped to her head, entirely unsure of what was happening.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

Ruby scoffed. "I'm sure it will be fine. At least I'll be there with you."

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

In the next two hours, Weiss managed to hastily assemble her belongings and anything that she might require for a sudden three-day trip across the city. Ruby herself had already packed for the occasion, and she was excited at the prospect of getting closer with Weiss and working out their problems together. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that their weekend together would be a turning point in their relationship. As for Blake and Yang, while she felt bad about abandoning them, but she was sure that they would understand. Just for the sake of clarity, before she left, she hurriedly scribbled a note down on a sheet of paper explaining where they were going and why, and she left it on her bed. Unbeknownst to her, that note would never be read, and Blake and Yang would head out into the City of Vale shortly after them on a mission of their own, one of a far more insidious nature. Regardless of their different goals, for the girls of Team RWBY, there was one striking constant.

It was going to be a very long weekend.