A/N: Dun dun di duuuuun...
Dun dun dun Duuuuuuun...
Dun dun dun Duuuuun, Dun dun dun Duuuuun, Dun dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
Yes people, I know. I can't believe it, you can't believe it, but it is. it is finally here after long last. The long awaited sequel and beginning to season 2 is finally here~!
And no you didn't smoke anything cause that would imply I did do and have been suffering from a drug induced dream for the last 4 hours of writing XP.
Lol, omg I am so happy to be back... is probably what I should be saying, but I'm not jinxing it for myself. There are so many thanks I want to give to my fellow fans for following along and putting up with the aggravatingly long hiatus up till now. I know it's been a long wait here, but for those of you following along, I've had a number of issues come in and out. Refer to past A/N's if you want full details.
Now previously I said this would be a Pyrrha and Nora bit, but sadly that might be on hiatus as well as I slowly come back into things. I know it's been a long wait guys, but, hopefully with the feedback I love and cherish, I'll indefinitely get the next update sooner than a freaking year XP. With that said, there are some things I want to point out- specifically, as said... it's been a year. As such, writing after the first 1/5th (after the last preview), might be a little sloppy. Give it some slack, it's been a year since I last did any of this, the fact I wrote the food fight scene at all is nothing short of a miracle. Season 2 will take a little getting used to since I watched season 1 multiple times, and no so many times season 2.
But whatever, we're here now and it's FANFIC TIME! With that said, sit back, relax, prepare for either really fun or really awful-after-being-absent-for-a-year writing, It's RWBY TIME!
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Clear blue skies often brought numerous things with them. A sunny day, birds chirping overhead, several flying contraptions soaring across the sky. Oh, and the illusion of peace.
There were never any peaceful times around Remnant, that's what Ruby knew. They were always filled with the empty promises and lies of the fellow hunters, the people she's been pretending to work under for the last week, who claimed that everything was fine, the world was peaceful, and that they would be the ones to protect them. They always went on with how strong they were, showing off their prowess just to impress the public, and giving them the false image that everything was fine with the world.
What garbage!
The Hunters were absolute nightmares! They only did what they did for the glory and respect they earned when they completed their missions! They only cared about filling their pockets with Lien, showing the world that they were the greatest single person in the world, and that every word they said could be trusted! They didn't know what was really going on! They didn't have a clue about how many people suffered on a constant basis!
How about the people tat were murdered each and every day? How about the people who robbed them, unlike Ruby's family, for their own benefit or just to instill misery in the rest of humanity?! To claim that everything was peaceful made people simpleminded. It made them go along with whatever crap they heard on the news so academies and military didn't have to worry about them interfering with anything they did to make a profit. They didn't care period about anything unless it was to better themselves, only making things more sickening to Ruby when they finally DID do something good, not out of decency or kindness, but just to widen that smug grin on their faces for the rest of the world to see.
That's why Ruby was here. She came all the way to Beacon to accomplish one of two different tasks: Find the Fall Maiden, and then, if possible, kill her. It took her several weeks, almost a full two months at that, for her to accomplish the first part. It wasn't so much having trouble blending in with everyone so much as trying to figure out where the maiden was actually hiding. With an immense academy like Beacon, it was all too fortunate that she managed to find her anywhere at all! She would have a better chance finding a needle in the haystack, at least that would only take several hours. From entryways that were for staff only to all the corners around this floating landmass, there were too many possibilities to where the Maiden could've been.
If it hadn't been for Blake's unknowing assistance, she might've never found her at all!. Thanks to her general big sister, she reminded Ruby of all the fun times they used to have and the numerous times they used their imagination to get involved, like with super secret spy sisters or something, and in those times, Ruby realized that the only thing she had yet to check were the elevators themselves! What better security could there be than having a secret location accessible via only the elevator?
Of course, this brought it's own dilemma to how Ruby would get access to the secret floor, seeing how she didn't have a means to actually finding it, and asking any of the staff for some secret access card or something to the room was out of the question. Thankfully, being the resourceful little scamp she was, she found an alternative solution to her problems, one that was both efficient and completely subtle! ...At least to her it was in idea. And what possible solution did she come up with?
Blowing up the elevator's floor of course!
Thanks to her clever and igneous idea, personally speaking, she found herself dropping immediately down to the farthest reaches of the academy, way below anything the elevator gave the students immediate access to. It only took half a minute for her to come upon the secret final floor of the academy, the Vault which housed the school's many secrets only known to her and those aware of the true tales of the Maidens themselves.
It was there that she had found what she was looking for, found what took her so long to accomplish. Within the mysterious Atlesian device itself, was the maiden of Fall, Amber, the one purpose that kept her separated from her family for so long!
Unfortunately, that's also where things went from bad to worse in her line of work. Immediately upon arriving at the scene, she was greeted by the all-too-familiar sound of the Headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin himself, standing behind her. On some ounce of luck, or maybe the Headmaster was just really incompetent, she came to believe he thought she was nothing more than some treasure hunter, coming all the way to Beacon to study more about the Maidens themselves and to see if they're real, never realizing just how deeply he new of her true intent. At the same time, she also came across a different... problem... he set upon her.
Doubt.
She didn't doubt everything she had done up to this point, nor did she even think that what she was doing was wrong. The maidens were forces of destruction, people who needed to be snuffed out in the grand goal of making the world a better place, one her family had been working towards for who knows how long, especially her dear grandmother. But were these really the methods they needed to resort to? Did they really need to flat out kill the people who were responsible for making the world a terrible place?
At first, Ruby's reaction to this would've been "of course!" all the time. Why wouldn't she want to destroy anything that presented itself as true evil? But Ozpin said something that she had yet to get out of her mind even the week after; who was truly evil? The Maiden, or the person who would try to kill someone so weak and defenseless in the dire state she currently found herself in? Ruby always fought fight against people like those who would take advantage of others, advantage of the weak and helpless. So what did this make Ruby herself?
The question and line of doubt had been plaguing her for the last several months, the detention due to the destruction of one of the School's elevators not helping, since then. It was never a worry of whether or not she felt like she would or could betray her family, just something that's been nagging at her in the back of her mind since.
Thankfully today's outing with two of her favorite people, albeit not most favorite of course, in the world would help clear that up.
*plip*
"Ah-!" Ruby yelped in surprise, practically startled by the pebble flicked at her forehead. She had no idea how long she was deep in thought for, just that she wasn't aware of anything else until just this moment. Turning to the direction of her pebble-assaulter, she saw the face of her self-proclaimed big brother of the group grinning slightly back to her.
"Hello? Earth to Ruby, you there?" He asked as the two continued leaning against the wall.
"Huh? Oh, sorry Merc, I was just thinking." She apologized staring back into the sky.
"Don't hurt yourself."
"Haha, very funny." She rolled her eyes, lightly tapping his shoulder with her fist.
Out of the two new "siblings" she's acquired over the last several years, Mercury was definitely her favorite. Unlike Emerald, he didn't seem to mind her company as much, and actually came to enjoy it if it meant getting involved in any shenanigans with her. At the same time, he also needed to be wary of what sort of pranks he pulled with her, or, more importantly, on her, less she incurs her mother's fiery wrath.
Speaking of siblings, the second of the two older ones made herself known as she finally walked out from the side of the building, Mercury giving a slight grin after hearing the conversation she had with the old man a few seconds ago. "I knew you were lost." Just like all good times, Emerald rolled her eyes at the statement. Nearly every conversation had to start out with either bad news, or him making some snide remark that really irritated her. It only got worse when the person she was incapable of yelling at felt like getting involved.
"Somebody owes me five Lien~" Ruby sung grinningly. Nothing felt great like winning a bet from an older sibling.
"Guys, I will pay you both to be quiet until we're finished with our task." Emerald said almost pleadingly, offering the wallet she just stole. Both Mercury and Ruby looked at each other for a few seconds, getting the same vibes from the other person as they looked back.
"Nah." They agreed in unison, getting the look of annoyance and irritation from the green-haired girl.
Annoyance and irritation pretty much summed up Emerald of the two siblings. It's not that Ruby found her annoying or anything, quite the opposite. Emerald had a tendency of finding Ruby herself to be rather annoying, and a handful since she apparently had just about as much authority over her aas her mother did, and was expected to respect her and everything she said or did as if she was addressing Cinder herself.
And that's what made things really confusing to Ruby. Personally, she liked the older step-sibling even if Emerald didn't show any interest in her herself. She was sympathetic with Emerald's lonely past, she was interested in her cool mind manipulation powers, and she just had that sporting attitude most teens had in this day and age. Plus she taught her a great deal of how to successfully pickpocket someone, a skill Ruby later found most useful in her life when she needed to steal something for her family or the White Fang they were slowly rebuilding a relationship with.
Plus it was nice to be able to have another sister to hang out with when Neo wasn't available, not that she could ever replace her mind you.
"Besides, it's not even your money." Mercury added.
"Speaking of which, why are you even stealing to begin with? You know you can just ask if you need to borrow some." Ruby reminded. Emerald rolled her eyes at this again before the trio began continuing the walk to their destination.
"You know your mom keeps nagging on me every time I ask for it." She replied. "I don't want a repeat of the last twenty minute pep talk she gave me."
"Well maybe next time you ask for money, you don't waste it on something pointless like getting your hair done." Mercury retorted.
These just about summed up the numerous kinds of conversations Ruby and her other "siblings" tended to have as they made their way down the city, which was just about the way Ruby liked it. It gave her a chance to have a time of decency, quietness, and overall peace. Be it going on missions with them, sparring, or just trying to find a way to pass the time after Ruby did her homework from Watts, these two managed to give her enough peacefulness to relieve whatever tension was built around her life.
"How much farther?" Mercury continued to complain.
"Just a few blocks." She answered. Out of the three, nobody wanted the day to end faster than her.
"This place is so dull..."
"Hey, it's not that bad." Ruby said with a puff of her cheeks. "I've spent a good couple weeks around the city. It has a decent number of stores."
"I know, right?" Emerald nodded in agreement. "It's a big city but nice and quiet. Tall buildings, diverse cultures-"
"And nice dopey people to pickpocket." He joked again, looking back to the two.
"That's every city."
"Oh, Emerald! Master Thief! Please don't take my money! I barely have enough to get by!" He gasped sarcastically. While it definitely wasn't brightening Emerald's mood, it was enough to leave Ruby with a few good chuckles as she decided to tag in.
"Grrr! I don't care about your family," she said in a low teasing tone, "I need enough money to buy some soap. I haven't bathed in weeks!"
"Mhh..." Emerald groaned as she pushed herself past the two, leaving them a small glare beforehand. Both teammates looked at each other with a small shrug, tagging along behind her wondering if they might've pushed it a little too far.
...
*ding-a-ling*
The three were greeted by the sight of a seemingly-abandoned bookstore, the only light penetrating the room being the one from the clear windows. This was Tukson's bookstore, one of the few bookstores Ruby ever knew about, ad, more importantly, the location to their current mission. There were multiple fond memories Ruby had of this place while growing up, specifically all the times one of her favorite comics ever came out, or the one and only occasion she could recall them having a book signing for said comics.
The owner of the bookstore, Tukson himself, was even a really nice person! There were multiple times Ruby found herself dawdling around the bookstore, reading one comic after the other if she and her friends or family ever found themselves hanging around this part of the city for an extended period of time. Often on he was nice enough to let her read to her hearts content, even going as far as to let her remove some of them from packaging just so she could read them there.
Maybe a good part of that had to do with his affiliation with his other line of "business", one that was more than aware of Ruby's status and the group she belonged to, or at least how strong that group was. None of the White Fang, those higher up with authority and status who knew of Ruby's background, would dare get themselves involved with the girl out of fear for their own lives. Because of this, it was hard to say how many people from the White Fang actually liked Ruby, and how many of them were just saying they liked Ruby.
Regardless, she had many good memories and times here from her days of exploring the city and all it's people.
Too bad this was most likely going to be her last visit.
"I'll sure miss this place." Ruby mumbled as Emerald walked up to the counter, tapping the chiming bell. Almost immediately the owner appeared through the doorway at the back end, walking backwards into the store with several large stacks of books in each hand.
"Welcome to Tukson book trade!" He greeted as he set the books away. "Home to every book under the sun. How may- uhh..." He was cut off by the sight of his apparent customers, recognizing them all too well, especially the one in the White Hood. "H-How may I help you?"
"Just browsing." Mercury replied, sifting through the numerous books trying to find something, slamming shut any he finished with.
"The comics are over here, Merc." Ruby said, already reading one of the many mangas at the front of the store.
"Actually, I was wondering. Do you have any copies of The Thief and the Butcher?" Emerald asked with a curious smile.
"Yes we do." Tukson nodded.
"That's great."
"Are you interested in a copy?"
"Nope. Just wondering..." Nothing about her pleasing smile brought any joy to Tukson's own, and Mercury continuing to slam books shut eerily wasn't helping. "Oh! Oh! What about Violet's Garden? In paperback?"
"He's got it." Mercury spoke up, looking through the rows of books.
"He's even got it on hardback." Ruby looked over the book, giving it a quick skim of it's contents.
"Ooh, options are nice." Emerald commented rubbing her chin.
"No pictures though... what a bore."
"Oh, wait! I know! How about... The Third Crusade?" All ambience and all sound within the room suddenly became silent as she said this. While not directly, Tukson himself could feel all eyes on the shopkeeper himself as silence filled the room. Everything slowly made sense to the anxious bookkeeper as he looked around the room. Mercury was smiling to him, Ruby was smiling to him, and Emerald was smiling to him. They all wanted something from him, and not something you could find in a bookstore.
"Um... I-I'm sorry, but we don't carry that one." He said with a quick gulp.
*Bam*
"Oh." A disappointed Mercury sighed slamming a book.
"What is this place called again?"
"Tukson's Book Trade."
"And... you're Tukson?" Emerald asked raising her brow.
"That's right."
"So then I take it you're the one who came up with that catchphrase?"
"Such a catchy one too..." Ruby muttered, slowly dimming the lights to the outside and in.
"What was it again?" Mercury knowingly asked.
With another uneasy sigh Tukson replied, "Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."
"Except, the Third Crusade." Mercury corrected with a small grin.
"It's just a catchphrase-"
"It's false advertising!" What nerve! What kind of place would falsely advertise their own catchphrase? And a book store no less!
"You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson." Emerald stated. Typical. Not a single witness or civilian in sight. And this morning all he thought he had to deal with was a stubbed toe. "I heard you were planning on leaving. Moving all the way to Vacuo."
"Vacuo? Hoo boy, that's quite a ways." Mercury gave a small nod to Ruby's detail. "Bet it would take quite a bit of money to move that far away. I bet you wouldn't even have enough money to come back for who knows how long!"
"And your brothers in the White Fang wouldn't like that." Emerald added. "And neither would we." At this, Mercury's smirk widened as he dimmed the remaining books while Ruby slowly put the comic book away.
Dark building? Check. Malicious intent? Check. No witnesses in sight? Check. These were the usual steps you would see before a murder took place, and, unfortunately for Tukson himself, he knew who the victim was going to be. The biggest question in his mind was was it all worth it?
At this point, it was hard to say, but what was he supposed to do anymore? He joined the White Fang originally in the hopes of making things better for Faunus' everywhere, not to become a part of some terroristic group that harassed and harmed the innocent! Maybe his real mistake was not quitting sooner? Before all the violence started, before the White Fang came to be feared, maybe that was around the time to leave? It used to be such a peaceful place where any Faunus could live without worry or regret from abandoning the cause! Now every member who was a member had to follow through to the very end, less they risk their lives on the line.
And that's what Tukson did! He joined all of this in the hopes of getting out of this alive! Sure, he had friends, plenty of friends who were still in the White Fang! After al the time with them, he could even come as close as to calling them brothers and sisters. But with all the violence and mayhem currently going on, he just had to get out of this! He couldn't stand it anymore! He just had to get out of it, even if it meant risking his life.
"You know who we are, don't you?"
"...Yes." Tukson said blatantly.
"And you know why we're here?"
"... Yes." His response seemed to encourage Mercury to come closer to the two, Ruby sitting back and watching as the show was about to play out.
"So. Are you going to fight back?"
"...Yes!" Tukson growled as he leapt to the Counter, pulling his sharpened claws straight from his fingertips. He didn't care anymore. And what choice did he have? His options were to either die, die, or, his least favorite, die. At least this way, he could die on his get.
All it took for him was one grand leap from the counter as he swiped at her, and one dodge to end it all. He wouldn't be able to prepare himself for what came next, the look of confusion overtaking his overwhelming fear. The very next thing he saw was a grinning Mercury, who needed to deliver one quick blast from the soles of his metallic heels.
And the last thing he ever heard was a simple bang...
...
...
"Phew." Ruby sighed as she exited the book store with Mercury and Emerald following behind him.
"Are you okay?" Mercury asked as he checked to make sure the coast was clear.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just... processing." It was a hard subject for Ruby to bring up for multiple reasons. She always had a problem with the idea of killing, but she could understand it's importance.
People were destined to die. That was the Ultimate Law of the universe. You could try to prevent it, even prolong it, but death eventually came for everyone.
The idea of it did slightly scare her as a child, but she eventually came over it thanks to her loving mother and sister. They taught her to appreciate life and what it had to offer, and didn't have a single reason to say otherwise. That was the best way for her to overcome her minor fear. The part she couldn't get over, however, was being the force that would take someone's life. There were a lot of bad people in the world, some worse than others, that deserved to die. They were horrible, evil, people who cared not for who they hurt or what they did, they were simply awful people. And while Ruby wouldn't like to say it out loud, she could easily agree that some people needed to die, just like Tukson.
He was a fool. Nothing more, nothing less. Actually, scratch that. He was a lot less, more than less. He was a total and complete coward! Did he have any idea what he was doing? He would've left the White Fang behind, and everyone that took the time to help him in any time of his life. They were always there for him when he needed it, and they fought by his side during their time in the White Fang. And what did he do? He planned on leaving them, everyone, everything he ever fought for!
All those times he fought by someone's side, all that time and energy spent on him to help support and encourage his line of work, he was about to make it all pointless. After all that time, he was practically spitting on the face of his friends and their families. He only looked out for himself, and on the likely chance he was weak of heart, he most likely would've turned his brethren in to the police too for amnesty, all just to save his own skin!
Those were the kinds of people Ruby hated. People who would backstab others just for their own gain, their own selfish desires. They were worse than scum, and almost as bad as the Hunters and Huntresses themselves. That's why Tukson had to die. It wasn't a matter of being a traitor, it was a matter of how many people helped him and believed in him, only for him to waste all their effort into him just like the rat he was.
Well, not literally since he was a Faunus, but close enough.
"You know you didn't have to come if you couldn't handle watching." Mercury said while continuing to skim through the comic he took from the store.
"I don't mind watching it, it's just..." It all came back to the same problem again. "I just can't force myself to kill someone for some reason. Every time I'm ready to pull a trigger or swing at someone's head, I just freeze up..."
"Well have you tried just picturing them as something you can kill? Like the Grimm?" Emerald suggested. "You hunt them on a weekly basis in your school anyway, so why not just try that?"
"It's kinda hard to when the people are full of color and life though." That among other certain reasons. She spent a good portion of her life constantly surrounded by the various Grimm, so to her they were just as much alive like any other animal in existence. And even if they weren't, it was almost impossible to find anyone around the world with any resemblance to them, save for her grandma. "That's why I wanted to tag along today, just so I can get more used to it. Plus I had nothing better to do before eleven, so it was a good way to pass the time." On a more curious level to her, the last statement made the two older step-sibling exchange glances with one another. "What?"
"Ruby, you do know it's almost noon, right?" Emerald asked.
"What? No it's not, it's eleven." Ruby assured, rechecking the small clock on her scroll to- "Why does it say 11:58...?"
"You knew last night was daylight savings, right?" Mercury reminded, briefly looking up at her from his comic.
"Whaaat? Nooo it's not, that's next week. Because if it was this week, that would mean..." Ruby's face slowly began to pale the same shade as her white-hooded cloak. "That I'm missing lunch...CRAP!"
And just like that, Ruby was took off with a burst of her semblance. This was just about the same old Ruby the two had the semi-pleasure of growing up with for the last several years. Some days were off, some days were a little bit whacky coming from the strangely sheltered girl who could make Grimm come out of her shadows. but either way you looked at it, she was still one thing that the two of them had gotten used to since the first meeting.
She was still a klutz.
"Do you think we should've told her about Cinder's so-called surprise?" Emerald asked Mercury as the two began walking down the street.
"Meh, let her find out for herself..."
...
...
"Awwwwhhhhhnnn!" Blake let out a long drowned out yawn as she rubbed her eyes sleepily.
"Geez Blake, you look exhausted." Nora commented as she continued to scarf down her morning pancakes.
"Sorry, just a bit... tired."
"You've been saying that for the last few weeks now." Yang mumbled as she ate. "You need to think up some better excuses." Blake rolled her eyes mentally at this.
Of course that would be her line of thinking. Why not take the easy way out and just confess her dilemma? Better yet, why not just tell all her surrounding friends everything until she reached her last breath? Oh, that's right, how clumsy of her. BECAUSE SHE WAS IN THE WHITE FANG!
That was the sad life Blake had been living in all this time. Not even before she came to Beacon, Blake had been leading a double life as a member of the White Fang for as long as she could remember. Attacks, heists, protests gone wrong, all of those things in the last several years se had a direct hand in, all in the hopes of making things right. Not right in the hopes these violent outbreaks and incursions would get the humans to treat Faunus with respect, but in the hopes f restoring the White Fang to it's former glory, back when the White Fang was known for being peaceful, known to accomplish their tasks through peaceful protests and banding together, not setting fires to shops or making head figures Faunus labor miraculously disappear. Unfortunately, these following weeks have dashed any and all hope she had of restoring the White Fang to it's former glory. Now she'd be lucky enough to even get out of the White Fang alive!
And who was to blame for that little detail?
...Honestly? Herself.
Not two weeks ago, Blake discovered the identity of her newest informant- the lovable and silly "Uncle Roman" she came to know Roman Torchwick as growing up alongside Ruby as a kid. All things considered, she wasn't that surprised by the turn of events. Nobody else was a criminal master of the underworld quite like Roman Torchwick, the entire city had numerous warrants for his arrests and almost every shopkeeper (all of whom looked coincidentally identical to that of a very old man) knew his face. Not a single shopkeeper wasn't unaware of Roman's dealings within the city, nor the corruption he was capable of and the dozens of people he managed to pay off on multiple occasions throughout his job history.
Which made it all the more sensible that he of all people would be the new informant. What's more, it became clear from the first two minutes of meeting him that he was going to both enjoy and cherish the time they had together. Not out of old times, not out of some sense of family or familiarity that was close between them. It was all because of one dark secret Blake had been hiding for nearly the last seven years since she parted ways with Ruby oh so long ago.
She was the reason they had separated.
To be more accurate, she was the very reason the White Fang became the sort of troublemaking lawbreakers that they were today, a fact not even her parents were aware of. Back when she was a kid, when she was still considered "Ruby's big sister", Blake made the worst mistake of her entire life. From what she used to call friends, she was entrusted by several various members of the White Fang to bring back different pieces and items from Roman's numerous Warehouses and back to her friends after each visit.
At first she thought it was a means to help both her family and her fellow Faunus. After all, how proud would her parents be if she was helping her family at such a young age! They would cherish her even more, they would see how useful she could be to the White Fang as she got older, she might even get to convince them to let Ruby become a full-fledged member too with the right convincing! After all, when the following months took hold and she got to reveal to her family about how helpful she could be, who were they to say no?
Sadly, even to a small child, fate was just too cruel. Not eight months after doing this, taking a little this, a little of that, enough of anything without either child's parents finding out, she discovered the true purpose of everything she was taking. She was taking the parts of several weapons and even an explosive mechanism, which thpe new White Fang required to make their grand depute, which was considered the first of many violent outbreaks since the White Fang's rebirth. On the plus side, nobody was killed during this initial riot, though the property damage was enough to make the day memorable. Numerous buildings were set ablaze, dozens of fellow humans injured. It'd be almost impossible to forget such a day, especially one Blake was present at.
And the worst part, the absolute worst part was, it was all her fault. Immediately after that incident, her parents cut all ties with the White Fang. What choice did they have? Their entire family was known at the time as the fellow heads of the White Fang. Even if they tried to fix it from within, everyone would always see them as the figurehead of the group, and that would constantly put their family at risk, especially their precious girl. Along with this, this also resulted in her family cutting ties from Roman and Cinder's line of work, forever cutting off any and all funding, provided they could even get that anymore, and disbanding all relationships with them. Which, at the end of everything, meant Ruby and Blake could no longer see each other.
All because of Blake's one mistake. A mistake Roman took full advantage of.
Ever since the meeting on the docks, Roman had been putting the poor Faunus through a living nightmare of work. Cargo thefts, briberies, illegal dealings, everything and anything Blake tried to avoid under her chain of command, by both her own hands and the ones who followed her. Thankfully, the only thing she managed to continue preventing was needless violence. Whether or not Roman was easing up on her, he couldn't afford to risk any injuries to civilians or those working under him. It was bad enough if one of his own workers got injured, but it would become way more problematic if civilians got involved. If a civilian was injured from their heists, the police would double down on their work and attempts at apprehending Roman and Blake's followers, and that would make any and all future heists and crimes unpredictable.
Still, the remaining free time Blake ever did have for herself when she wasn't with her friends or working on homework was spent going through mind numbing hours of physical work, pushing her to the point of exhaustion each and every day. Maybe he had some right to be angry, though. After all, her causing the White Fang to split apart from Cinder's line of work wasn't the worst part about their breakup. The biggest dilemma Roman faced from that day was how nearly all the loot he collected and stored within warehouses were emptied. Barely a single Lien remained after the White Fang snuffed out all the remaining supplies for their own agendas, forcing Roman and Cinder to restart all the wealth and work they accumulated over the years back to square one.
He had every right to be angry, she could admit at least that. And it was only going to get worse as time went on, until he felt like she paid off any and all debts she owed.
She would never be free.
"Heads up!" Nora chirped again as she tossed another meatball at the brunette, Yang casually catching it in one bite.
These were the only things that brought any ounce of peace to Blake's mind these days, just being out here and being able to socialize with her friends. Right now they were the only thing keeping her from literally ripping her hair out in frustration, the only thing that kept her from breaking down on the spot whenever the past caught up with her. It was the only thing that managed to bring a smile to her face anymore.
It did nothing to hide her tiredness, however.
"By the way," Pyrrha spoke up as she gazed around the room, "has anyone seen-"
"RIGHTHERE!' Ruby stammered as she burst to the scene at the end of the table. Like they've seen several times within the last week, she was quickly out of breath as if she ran a marathon, still donning her white cloak over her school uniform as always. The only new addition she brought to the table aside from her lunch was the oversized white binder she slammed on the table. "Sorry I'm late, I was-"
"Serving detention again, yeah yeah, the usual." Yang interrupted, catching another piece of food that Nora tossed.
"Heh, sorry." It was almost too perfect that her last several weeks of detention actually worked to provide the perfect cover story for her outings.
"Would ya mind telling me why you melted the inside of the elevator again?" Jaune asked. No matter how many times he heard it, there was just parts and pieces of it that sounded weird to him. Not that it didn't make any technical sense to it, just that there was something off about it as a whole.
"Look, when a girl has to use the restroom badly enough, she can't allow herself to be stalled by an elevator that suddenly suffers a power outage." Ruby replied.
Naturally, that was the furthest thing from the truth, but what other choice did she have? She couldn't just go on and explain how she melted an elevator to access a top-secret portion of the academy in order to execute a supposedly make believe maiden from a fairytale. Aside from the thousands of problems that would bring, it was also the small deal she made with Ozpin on the side.
Considering even half the staff of this academy didn't even know about the fall maiden being located within the academy, the amount of trouble it would bring the likes of Ozpin and those who worked with him would be never ending. Thus, to ensure secrecy on both Ozpin's AND Ruby's end, the two of them agreed to whatever convoluted story Ruby could come up with, while also serving several weeks of detention thereafter for the remains of the semester.
After all, even if there wasn't some sort of secretive underground Vault at the bottom of this school, that was still an elevator located at an elite academy as prestigious as Beacon. It'd be a miracle if Ruby somehow didn't get detention.
...Though come to think of it, when all's said and done, it might''ve been more unbelievable if Ruby did tell everyone the truth...
"But I don't remember hearing anything about some power outage on the day you did it." Blake commented, noticing the flaw of logic.
"Wellllll of course you wouldn't, because too many people would be more focused on the destroyed elevator." Ruby quickly reminded.
"Gngh argm with dat-." Nora paused as she swallowed,. "Can't argue with that logic."
"I don't know about that..." Ren remarked.
"Look the point is, I have gathered each and everyone of you here for a very important meeting." Ruby continued as she gestured amongst the group. "Friends, allies, Weiss-"
"Hey!"
"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."
"This outta be good." The blond commented with another bite of the thrown food.
"A dream that one day, all eight of us would come together as a team, despite our strengths, weaknesses, and Weiss-"
"Stop that!"
"-and together, would have the most fun anyone has ever had, ever!" She declared with a raised fist.
""Did that also include ransacking and stealing my binder?" Weiss asked knowingly with a small irritated twitch. The white-hooded figure just grinned as she gave the peace sign.
"I am not a crook. Nor a criminal. I'm just a simple leader with the dream of starting this year out with a bang!"
"I prefer to start my year off with a Yang~" The blond joked with a grin.
"Booooooo!" Nora sneered as she chucked an apple at the nose of agonizing punner.
*whack!*
"OUCH!"
"Sorry..."
"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks, or... well I guess normal weeks around here." She rephrased. As much as she wished otherwise, the two weeks since the confrontation had been anything but nice, especially for some more than others. "And between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But classes start up again tomorrow. Which is why I've taken the time to come up with a series of wonderful events for all of us today!"
"Wonderful for everyone or a specific few of us?" Jaune asked curiously. "I can't say I share the same enthusiasm for fighting wild Grimm here and there like the rest of you."
"Oooooh, or maybe we'll fight each other!" Nora cheered with excitement. "I can see it now, I kill off Ren, Ren kills off Ruby, Ruby kills off Yang, Yang kills of Weiss-"
"Wait, why is Yang killing me off?!" Weiss stammered, only becoming flustered when she realized what ridiculousness she was arguing about.
"Look, why don't we just calm down for a bit?" Pyrrha suggested, trying to ease the growing tension of the table. "I'm sure Ruby came up with an even and fair amount of things for us all to enjoy-"
*Whap!*
"Ow!" Pyrrha yelped as she rubbed her slightly bruised nose. Nothing could prepare the redhead for the oncoming salmon Yang threw at her head, missing the intended target that was Nora.
"Whoops, my bad..." Yang mumbled in apology, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head.
"Mmmmmh..." Now normally, Pyrrha was usually the most levelheaded of the team, if not tied for first place with Blake. But there was just something about having full fledged piece of salmon thrown at her snout that really, really, irked her.
Well that and the rotten smell that accompanied it.
...
...
"Man, that's harsh." Sun's blue-haired friend commented as they walked along the building of the lunchroom.
"So then we were fighting side by side, and she was super fast! And then I threw a banana at the guy, which sounds gross, but it was so awesome!" Sun continued his incredible tale.
He couldn't help going on and on about the glorious tale of his heroism about how he single handedly saved Blake and her friends from the dreaded evils of the White Fang and the notorious Roman Torchwick who made his presence known to Blake. Thankfully he was well aware of the situation to not mention anything about Blake's involvement with the White Fang, or the fact she was actually one of the head captains of the White Fang. All he was concerned with was detailing the important facts, aka, his awesomeness and heroicness. That's all he needed to know out of all this.
"Nice!"
"Right? And the best part is, she's a Faunus!" Too little too late did he realize that other detail he meant to keep quiet. "But it's a secret, okay?"
"Got it." His pal replied nonchalant.
"And not a "I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back" secret. I'm talkin' secret secret!" Sun emphasized, having been through this multiple times, usually with the same result.
"Woah, chill out man, okay? I got it. I got it." It was hard to tell how genuine his closest friend was being when he spoke with such a sly tone. Either he actually meant what he said, or he was going to expect a favor from him in the future.
"You better. I just don't wanna screw this up, you know? The people here are the coolest!" And not even the windows he passed along the way revealing the current carnage of a food fight could change his mind! Within a single day of coming here from the boat, he met a pretty cat Faunus, one that strangely had both a tail and cat ears, and by the evening of the next day, he helped several students from Beacon take down an entire gang of White Fang criminals, practically labeling themselves as heroes! How could they possibly top that!? "The people here are the coolest! No offense to you guys."
"None taken."
"Ok, they're just in here. I'm really excited for you to meet them so be cool, okay? ...You're going to be cool, right?" Sun quickly asked as he prepared to enter the double doors to the cafeteria.
"Dude." His friend shot him a quick teethed smile, light sparkling off his teeth as he grinned.
"Heh, good point." And with that, the two marched their way into the entrance of the cafeteria, being met with countless students running out of the cafeteria, while hearing two particular words that made Sun's grin only widen.
"FOOD FIIIIGHT!" A student shouted, several dozen others continuing to run past the duo in fright and defeat.
This day just got a whole lot more interesting.
...
"Mwahahahahahaaaa!" Ruby's voice bellowed from atop the pile of Cafeteria tables.
The entire cafeteria had become the most recent victim of a warzone. Pizza splattered across the walls, pies were up on the ceilings, and various juice drinks sprayed upon the floor. What the two students from Vacuo saw before them was carnage. Nothing but bloody pizza sauced carnage. Many of the students who left the cafeteria would find themselves scarred for life, many of whom were unable to comprehend why such a horrific sight such as torn apart pieces of bread and gorey pasta noodles would be dangling from the ceiling, all that mattered to them was that they made it out alive.
Their children, and their children's children, would forever recount the saucebath that took place within the forbidden realm of horror. And who was to blame for this?
Honestly, that was the question of the day. What started out with a simple food toss between Nora and Yang feeding each other slowly evolved into the two of them tossing larger and larger pieces of food at each other, growing from crackers, to grapes, to strawberries, to meatballs, to oranges, to apples, and so on until Nora accidentally clocked Yang right in the nose with a solid hard apple. As opposed to being the sensible and understandingly calm and patient girl that no one knew her as, she returned fire with a nearby piece of salmon, a whole one at that, only to strike Pyrrha square in the nose.
That was the day, or in this case second, everything turned dark. Much to Weiss' very own surprise, Pyrrha returned this with a full-fledged cake from the table behind her, using her semblance to launch the massive projectile square into Yang's face, the excess splatter striking the rest of team WYJR who sat near her. It was ten that Ren found himself incapable of resisting, quickly grabbing several nearby pretzels and throwing them like shurikens at the red head, which would've struck her had Blake not grabbed her out of the way in time.
Unfortunately, this resulted in the pretzels striking several students behind them, some of them several tables away due to the accuracy and precision of the throws. This is what escalated the entire lunchroom into a full-on food brawl. Nobody knows who was striking who, nobody could tell which person targeted them directly. All anyone knew at this point was that it was survival of the fittest, and by the very end of that very brief two minutes it took, the members of Team RBPN found themselves at the center of the establishment, having driven out all the remaining students save for one other team.
The evil, dreaded, arch nemesis of the greatest team ever that was Team RBPN- Team WYJR.
"All puny subjects must submit to my rule of the Kingdom of Lunchton, or be destroyed!" Ruby decreed.
"Kneel to the queen or perish!" Nora chanted.
"Hmhm, I can't deny this is rather fun." Pyrrha chuckled, standing alongside Blake at the bottom of the mountain of tabletops.
"Eh, if we're going to get in trouble anyway, we might as well enjoy it." Blake shrugged smiling. Whether or not the group of students remaining got into trouble with what was about to commence was irrelevant. All Blake cared about at that moment was spending some fun time with friends, along with her self-proclaimed "younger sister".
"Silence!" Ruby commanded. "All those present not under my rule must submit to my judgement!"
"And that judgement would be...?" Weiss asked with the roll of her eyes. The remainder of the students found themselves at the opposite end of the cafeteria, nothing but an entire assortment of food and discarded tables between them and the supposed "Queens of the Cafeteria".
"You must either offer us all your deserts, or admit the superiority that is Team RBPN!"
"Never!" There was no way on Remnant Weiss would ever admit to that, joking or otherwise, that Weiss would ever admit to something so appalling. "We'd sooner die than admit to anything so horrid!"
"Are you sure you're being serious or are you just having fun with all this-" Jaune tried to question before being quickly interrupted.
"SHADDUPTANDHITSOMETHING-!" Weiss sputtered.
"Caaaan do!" And with Yang's pounding of her own fist, the war began.
(Now would be the time to play the foodfight theme while watching)
The blonde boxer dove straight down the long cafeteria room, leaping directly for the several turkeys found lying around to use as weaponry. To some, using the bulgy instruments of meat might've been one of the weirdest choices of weaponry, yet no one would dare question Team WYJR's powerhouse's choice of weaponry, less they find themselves on the receiving end of her gargantuan might. With both fists properly equipped she pounded the close end of a nearby long table, briefly lunging it into for Team WYJR's most agile warrior, Ren, to blast it away with a single kick, using his momentum and Yang's shoulder to get the necessary leap he needed to blast it away with full might.
Not a single member of Team RBPN was prepared for the colossal table as it struck the mighty fortress of Solitude. Fortunately enough, there was enough support for the massive structure to take the brunt of the attack, but everyone felt the wobbly vibration of the aftermath, Ruby barely maintaining balance being at the very top of the structure.
One more hit like that and RBPN's glorious empire was sure to come down.
"By the power of all that is delicious, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" Ruby's decree was met with a resounding "huzzah!" from her fellow comrades. This wasn't just a measly fight anymore for the right to call themselves the greatest team in all of Beacon.
This was war.
Blake quickly dashed ahead, dodging several projectiles of lethal cherry soda that was thrown her way, before grabbing several nearby sturdy baguettes, throwing one to Pyrrha as she continued down her path. The first of many resistances she was met with was Ren, the latter having equipped himself with a just as durable and fairly lengthy celery stick. It was here Blake took notice of Ren's physical improvement over the last several weeks as their weapons clashed amongst one another, the cat Faunus finding herself struggling to push through Ren's defensive stick despite the extra weapon she had over him.
Meanwhile, just passing through the two of them riding a metal serving tray as a surfboard, was the leader of Team RBPN, Ruby Fall, grinning ear to ear as she sped her way towards the leader of Team WYJR, the greatest "Frival" of Ruby, Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee company and indefinitely one of the prestigious genius' within Beacon. The Schnee looked to Ruby almost mockingly as she approached, seeming confident in whatever counterattack she had up her sleeve at a moment's notice.
Said moment came to Ruby no more than 3 yards away from her intended target when she found herself attacked by Yang, one of the two devilish cretins responsible for damaging her beloved castle. Luckily, with her talent of speed, she managed to swiftly stop any and all sudden momentum as she turned, grabbing onto the table itself as Yang attempted to swipe her at the head from above. However, much to Ruby's surprise, Yang's quick follow up to this caught her completely off guard as she struck with a dreadful uppercut, not only knocking Ruby off her own two feet but also blasting all the way back into the castle, the massive structure collapsing upon her giving her no room for rest. All her fellow comrades could do was look in horror at the death of their beloved queen.
"Queen Ruby's been killed!" Blake fretted, narrowly backflipping out of the way of Ren's last strike.
"Grrrr I shall avenge her!" Nora screamed. Following along with the hyperactive comrade's shout, Pyrrha quickly gave her a boost with her own two hands, the Valkyrie stepping leaping off of them as she lunged into the air. Who needed a war hammer when all the easily-excitable girl needed was a steel pipe from the ceiling and a watermelon down below?
Not the Queen of the Valkyries, that's who!
She didn't even need to think about who to approach out of the trio- it became personal when the evil wicked witch of the Yellow slaughtered their generous Wolfe-summoning Queen, Ruby Fall. Without any hesitation, she bashed the makeshift war hammer atop the blonde, Yang blocking with both her gauntlets as the full force of Ruby's general of the guard struck her. Despite not landing a direct blow, Yang could feel the intense might behind Nora's powerful crushing might, nearly bringing the blonde down to her right knee, and barely managing to push the Valkyrie off herself as the war went on.
As opposed to Ruby, Yang found herself more outmatched by Nora's crazy attack patterns. One of the many things Weiss practiced with her was always fighting from the defensive before launching a massive counterattack. Needless to say, Yang was more of an active head-to-head fighter rather than a patient individual who watched how one's fight would play out. Too bad too because if she had learned anything from Weiss' many teachings, she would've been able to protect herself from the sudden massive swing of Nora's hammer striking her from right under her nose, the poor boxer suddenly blasting off into the far reaches of space as she launched to the sky.
"Waahhhhhhh~!" Was echoing scream the remains of Team WYJR heard as Yang left their atmosphere. The fight had now been broken down to an uneven 2 to 3.
Team RBPN had the advantage.
"There goes Yang..." Ren mumbled briefly distracted.
"Watch out!" Weiss nearly yelped as she pushed Ren to the side, quickly blocking the moment of opportunity Blake attempted when his guard was down.
There were many interesting weapons one could find within the confines of the cafeteria, only so many of them being worthy of being held by the Schnee Heiress. Out of the many and wide varieties of weaponry she could choose from, she stuck with the blue swordfish within her grasp, being sturdy and firm enough to act as her rapier. Mind you it wasn't as classy as her favorite weapon, nonetheless it proved to be an invaluable tool for the team's leader.
Fortune still seemed to smile upon Blake though as no sooner had Weiss entered the fray, Pyrrha appeared from behind her, quickly swiping away and allowing Blake to return to her previous bout with Ren himself, the latter quickly regaining footing and narrowly removing the cat from the arena as a result. If there was bright side given to Team WYJR in turn out of all this, it's that Weiss finally found sudden moment to speak to the professional Huntress of Team RBPN.
"It's not too late, Pyrrha," Weiss stated, "give up your evil ways and join our side, and we'll rule the cafeteria forever!"
"Give up?" Pyrrha grinned at the comment. "And leave this side? No way, we have cookies!" It was with that comment that Pyrrha subconsciously shifted her eyes to the side, a detail Weiss took easy notice of as she quickly looked behind her.
"You got that right!"
Apparently Pyrrha's strange and childish cookie comment wasn't unintentional or without merit behind it. Approaching at fast speeds, stealing the same idea Ruby had earlier, was Nora Valkyrie, riding atop a metal tray as she sped her way towards the party of food fighters. In her right hand was her handy dandy weapon, using it behind her as a means to steer the metal contraption and pick up speed where needed. In the other, was a massive array of chocolate chip cookies, some with nuts, others pure sugar, all of it completely lethal.
Without missing a single beat, Nora launched herself in the air with a twirl, firing a barrage of cookies at the two members of Team WYJR. It was here Ren found himself at a loss. Each time he attempted to block one of the cookies that struck him with as much force as a brick, Blake attacked him with her baguette. And every time he tried going on the defensive against Blake, he found his back pelted by several hard-hitting monstrous cookies, each expertly striking a joint or muscle of his, throwing his battle techniques and maneuvers out of whack.
It only took several more moments of this back and forth onslaught before Ren finally found himself defeated, having lost his footing from the under swipe of Blake's attack. With the ninja literally knocked off his own feet, it took just a single, albeit massive strike from Blake, blasting Ren back against the other side of the lunchroom.
The fight was now 1 to 3, all for just a mere moment.
Reacting quickly to the very minor distraction and room caused by Ren's defeat, Weiss quickly backed away from the elite Huntress that was Pyrrha, all while grabbing a nearby ketchup bottle with a plan forming in her mind already being set in motion. With one giant burst, across the tables and floors behind the Schnee, Weiss scattered the remaining sauces of the ketchup just as Nora came down. As expected, with the boost of momentum and gravity caused by her very own falling, Nora was helpless to stop herself as her feet slid against the sprayed continents, almost slipperier than ice itself, sliding her across the floors and right past a deftly dodging Weiss.
The same amount of deftness was sadly lost to Pyrrha however, as she found herself tackled by Nora in the oncoming rush, falling back alongside her and getting slid away from Weiss. Unlike Pyrrha though, Nora's sliding didn't stop when she was halfway across the lunchroom. At the same time that Ruby Fall had finally began pulling herself out of the massive heap of tables, she was just as suddenly knocked over by a tomatoey splattered Nora, Nora crashing into the broken heap of a castle right behind her just as soon as Ruby regained freedom.
"Nora!" Ruby cried out, quickly pulling her comrade from the rubble. Despite not taking the brunt of the entire castle like Ruby had, Nora did take a majority of the sudden launch straight to her noggin, dazing the girl just enough for her to be knocked out of the game. No amount of pleading or fake crying from Ruby's eyes could bring Nora from the brink of death.
"Ough-!" Nora coughed, weakly reaching for Ruby. "Avenge... me... Urk-! Bleh..."
"Noooooooooo!" Ruby's cries of anguish were found deaf to Nora. The Valkyrie had left this world and lead straight into the afterlife... at least until lunch was over.
With this tragic event, while Pyrrha was still struggling to regain her footing and return to the fight, Blake found herself going mono-a-mono with the ice queen. The Schnee had successfully brought this match to temporary 1 on 1, and if the rest of her plan fell into place, it would soon be 1 to 0.
A plan Blake already had taken advantage of as she lunged for the girl, now gripping, to Weiss' surprise, a long string of sausage links. The heiress took the brunt of the sudden and new attack as Blake whipped against her chest, knocking her several yards back and sliding across the rest of the way thanks to the recent Ketchup spill Weiss had caused earlier. The long range was definitely going to make things a bit more tricky for the remaining fighter of Team WYJR.
"Are you okay?" Blake asked as she saw Pyrrha return to her side. The redhead panted for a short while as she regained her breath, nearly losing her footing several times thanks to the long streak of ketchup Nora left behind.
"Yeah I'm fine..." She replied. "So now it's down to us, huh?"
At the same time, Ruby herself gazed over the battlefield. There were no true victors in war, only death was the ultimate victor. She had hoped whatever earthly angels watched over this planned could forgive her subjects for the carnage and destruction they had wrought. It was a necessary sacrifice all the same. "So let's see here..." She rubbed her chin as she examined the scenery. "We took out Punchy and Quicky, and Icey is on her last legs. So that just means-!" Ruby's eyes shot wide open at a great realization. "Wait a minute! Where's dorky!?"
*tweeeeeeeeeet!*
All eyes and attention was returned to the far end of the lunchroom where Team WYJR had originally started. No sooner had Dorky, aka Jaune, been called at he made a sudden appearance, gathering everyone's attention, friends and enemies alike, right alongside the masterpiece of Weiss' ultimate strategy.
"All the freezers are ready and unplugged, Captain!' Jaune called out, panting out of breath. Weiss grinned to herself as she quickly drew back to the far end of the Lunchroom near the several freezers. Along with this, Ren slowly regained his own footing as he trailed behind Weiss, shaking off all the minor injuries he had sustained in the midst of the great and bloody war.
No one from Team RBPN had even an inkling of what was going on, and they were going to pay because of it. Not once throughout this fight had any of them realized they forgot about someone, a certain and particular member from Team WYJR known as Jaune Arc. The kid was well known in his own ways, some positive, some negative. He was a rather weak fighter, perhaps the weakest of Team WYJR, but he was still a dedicated soldier who knew how to follow through on all the team's strategies and combat training. If there was one thing Weiss could even agree to, it was that he could pull through when the team really needed him.
Which is why she organized for him to prepare and wheel out several of the cafeteria's freezers while the rest of Team WYJR kept Team RBPN distracted, a successful endeavor as none of the teammates had anticipated this dilemma, and were just about to face the repercussions of this fault.
"Nice work on those freezers Jaune, perfect timing." Weiss complimented, knowing the warrior had earned some form of praise.
"Huff... yeah... great work... huff... took forever... to find a set of wheels for them though... huff..." Juan panted. Naturally, without immense strength or assistance, a single man can't usually lift an entire freezer, much less a fridge, so easily. It was the only hiccup in the delay as to whether or not this plan could be pulled off, as it all hinged on the single detail of whether any of the nearby freezers came with wheels attached to them for transport.
The wheels were naturally found, and now it was time for the final phase of Weiss' great strategy.
"No matter. Now is the time to end this." When Ruby grinned, it was pretty common. When Nora grinned, it was too common. When Blake grinned, it was a rather rare sight to see, but you could tell she was happy about something. When Weiss smiled though, nothing good ever came out of it.
"What is she planning with those Freezers?" Pyrrha asked Blake, wondering if the Faunus had any more of an understanding as to what was about to happen.
"How should I know?" Blake responded. "They're just filled with ice... cream..." Both Pyrrha and Blake slowly began to realize just what the evil Schnee had been planning up to this point, the one attack Weiss knew would end this ridiculous fight once and for all.
"It's Weiss-cream!" Ruby's shout was left with silence as Weiss began gathering energy from her aura and projected a massive glyph upon the ground below her. To the surprise of her team and the fear to the rest, the massive glyph grew in size as it stretched far along the lunchroom, just far enough to cover a good 3/4ths of it, just ending at the halfway point between Ruby and her two currently-standing allies.
With a simple last smile upon her face, the mighty freezers began to shake violently as gallons upon gallons of ice-cream suddenly began to spill out from it's holding. The ice-cream came in many forms between vanilla, chocolate, strawberries, even some of the non-creamy products like popsicles and ice from the freezers slowly coalesced into a giant single wave as a giant misshapen ball of cream slowly gathered atop of Weiss' team, the giant ball being twice the size of any of the massive tables, and still growing. This wasn't just from the freezers, at this point Weiss' own ice powers slowly manifested along the giant glob, growing it's massive size into already unbelievable-proportions! There was no avoiding such an attack and there were certainly going to be no survivors from the enemy's team.
Just the way her master plan was intended.
With a simple smile and a swift thrust to the ground with her swordfish, the remaining combatants watched on as the giant ooze formed an almighty wave of ice-scream, watching the massive wave being hurdled towards Blake and Pyrrha themselves. Blake herself was just awestruck at the massive form, surprised Weiss had even come up with such an uncouth yet cunning plan, while Pyrrha slowly regained any feeling she had and attempted to flee the confines of the battleground and towards their shattered castle, where at least they could provide some form of necessary cover.
Sadly, fate did not smile upon the two heroes. It was all swift yet deadly as the giant wave suddenly swept up Blake and Pyrrha in it's grasp. Breathing within the massive cream wouldn't remain an issue for fairly long as the two knew it would be landing upon the remainder of Ruby's castle fairly soon. Yet that did nothing to hide the uncomfortableness of the ice-cream riding along the two, getting the cold cream along their legs, letting whatever inch of body had remained untouched to shiver uncontrollably.
As much as Ruby wanted to help, she knew she would be just as helpless had the glob of evil taken her too. Reacting with as much feeling as she could get back into her arms and legs, both being half-asleep after being pinned under the tables for several minutes, Ruby braced herself against a table as she blocked the incoming assault of Weiss' terrible attack, pushing against the table as hard as she could against the massive wave that tried to push against her. Somewhat thankfully, for a moment, Ruby noticed a familiar head sticking out of the inside of her cloak, a familiar canine trying to help her dear pup against the terrifying wave that would've swept her along with her allies. As much as Ruby wished she could've continued this little assistance, she knew she could never afford to let Wolfie come out anywhere in Beacon save for her own dormitories, and sadly called the mighty wolf Grimm back to the confines of her own shadow till she was finally needed.
After what felt like forever, which in reality probably was no more than twenty seconds of an endless ice-cream stream, Ruby finally found the massive assault had come to an end. All amongst her were her dear sweet comrades, lying beaten and battered. For what little did pass directly behind herself, Nora was pushed further into the heap of what used to be her castle, all of her hair covered in the evil cream that Weiss created. Past her she found the remains of Pyrrha, the cunning strategist of her team, half-beaten over the remains of a table and severely out cold, in no small part thanks to the ice-cream itself. And Blake, her dear beloved and faithful sister, by god the sight was too gruesome. All she could say was that the cat girl was just sliding along a cracked pillar, both the Faunus and the pillar completely covered in ice-cream, creating a rather irritating streaking noise as she slid down it.
This is all that remained of her army. They were good soldiers, each and every one of them. She would have to make sure their families knew they wouldn't come back from the war, but they would be avenged!
"Grrrrr!" Ruby growled to herself as she looked back. Much expectantly, there she saw Weiss grinning back to her teammates, remains of team WYJR having believed they eliminated each and every one from Team RBPN. In a way, they sort of did. They were each knocked down and casted aside thanks to the combined efforts of Weiss' leaderships and her teammates support. There was just one minor detail none of them had anticipated out of all this; Ruby wasn't as knocked out as they originally thought she was.
And she was pissed.
In the effort of playing along to the cliche of "fight fire with fire", Ruby rose to her feet for split-second, before making a quick and powerful beeline to the remainder of Team WYJR. If Weiss wanted to play using her semblance, then there was nothing saying Ruby couldn't do the same with her mighty semblance. With each second, her speed doubled. With each burst of speed, the surrounding scraps of food, including the glob of Ice-cream Weiss had basically thrown at them, began to trail. Following along Ruby was a literal storm of food, the likes of which no one in the field of war had ever seen before, and one no one would ever soon forget!
Reaching halfway, it was only then that Jaune noticed a slight trembling in the ground, having been too distracted by the cheers of victory he helped Team WYJR achieve. This same notice of trembling was soon felt by Ren, followed almost immediately by Weiss, as they looked back towards the source of the great Tremor. None of them had expected anything like this, for the last surviving member of Team RBPN to be able to muster a force of speed as powerful as the one they had been shown right in front of them. Weiss was the only one to react quickly enough to plant her weapon in the ground, holding onto it like a base as Ruby quickly dashed past her. Her two brave soldiers were sadly tossed along behind her as they were suddenly pulled by the mighty silver-eyed warrior's speed, getting thrown back against the wall as Ruby had eventually come to a sudden halt, one which created a shockwave against the wall as it had ended.
Weiss briefly thought she was safe when she felt that Ruby had come to a sudden and dramatic end. Her thoughts were shattered when she let out a silent "Aww" at the sight of a literal hundred gallons of food and other assortments heading straight at her, helplessly pelting her with just about every scrap of food that had been thrown throughout the entirety of this food fight, and strong enough to finally pull her off her feet and throw her against the wall with the others. It was at this point the other two comrades-in-arms found themselves getting destroyed by the onslaught of food that rained upon them, not having the ounce of strength needed to push against the barrage of foods and sodas that had set against them.
After a full minute of this heinous attack had everything finally settled. With the remains of Team WYJR being a splattered mess on the wall, the team members themselves slowly falling off the sticky wall to the ground before them, did the war finally come to an end. It was just as bloody as Ruby expected it to be, and not one thing seen within this war would ever be forgotten.
(End theme)
"I love these guys." Sun's comment was completely lost to his friend who couldn't hear with all the food juice in his ears. The only thing he could sense in any regard was the vibration caused by a teacher's sudden entrance to the cafeteria.
And out of all destruction caused by both teams, there was only one major detail that truly mattered to the leader of Team RBPN.
"We WIN!" Ruby shouted, arms raised in triumphant cheer, practically dancing along with each chant. "We win~! We win~! Uh huh! We won! Oh yeah! We-"
"Eh hem!" A familiar voice from behind caused Ruby to freeze dead in her tracks. Perhaps the dancing and the chanting wasn't the best thing to do after all that had been done to the lunchroom, one totaled in the complete destruction caused by a mere eight students of Beacon. One by one, the remaining students slowly came to as the war had finally ended, Blake helping Nora out of the debris, whereas Weiss softly grunted as she squeezed whatever food juices she could out of her hair. All the while Ruby slowly turned back in the direction of the familiar sounding cough, meeting the gaze of a teacher who had always found Ruby at the front of every major issue at this school, who also didn't seem to have a good track record with her.
Glynda Goodwitch.
At this, the only thing Ruby could do was finish up her previous sentence. "Eh heh... We didn't... do it?" She peeped as she slowly backed away.
*CRASH!*
There was no time to check for the source of the sound as Ruby had found herself tackled to the ground by a previously-airborne Yang, the fighter having just now re-entered Remnant's atmosphere after long last, right atop of Ruby.
"Children, please." We're Glynda's first words uttered before suddenly using her magic to catch several pieces of food flung to her. With the skillful fling of her wrist and the power of her own semblance, the lunchroom miraculously began reorganizing itself to how it once was, minus the mountains of food that littered the cafeteria's floors. The recovering students watches as Glynda returned each and every piece of furniture to how it once was, taking apart the remains of Ruby's castle and organizing it perfectly to how it once was before all of this started. If you had come to this grand room several seconds ago, you wouldn't think that a massive fight had broken out by the time Glynda finished cleaning it. "Do not play with your food."
Despite the crushing pain Ruby felt from Yang landing on her, Ruby actually found herself slowly laughing alongside Yang, several of the students gathering around as they broke into massive laughter themselves. It would appear that this war had no winners in the end, only children who just liked to have fun, at just about everyone else's expense. If it wasn't for the fact Glynda knew too much about Ruby's origin and the details of her being here, she would've almost been at ease at the sight of her laughing like a child should. Yet she knew, in no small part thanks to Ozpin's past announcement, that Ruby had found the summer maiden just a few simple weeks ago. Whatever this girl did from this point, regardless of killing the maiden or not, would always put Glynda on edge.
Only one person's voice could relieve any tension on her shoulders.
"Let it go." Ozpin spoke out as he approached from behind. He didn't seem the least bit phased by the chaos that ensued within the last three minutes of this lunchroom.
Glynda did what she could as she sighed, trying to relieve as much stress as she could before addressing him. "They're supposed to be the defenders of the world."
"And they will be," Ozpin replied, glancing over to the white-hooded girl who goes by Ruby Fall, "given enough time. But right now they're all still children." As if to prove his point, the two watched as Ruby, Blake, Ren, and Yang shared drinks of soda with one another. The leader of Team RBPN could be seen coughing almost immediately upon the first sip, the liquid going down the wrong pipe apparently. This did nothing to hinder the enjoyment the students recently experienced, refilled with the same energy they had lost during the fight.
"So why not let them play the part?" He insisted as he slowly walked away. "After all," he paused for just a moment to glance back at the silver-eyed girl, "it isn't a role they'll have forever."
The truth to this statement was deeper than Glynda had realized.
Right now, multiple events were about to unfold. Much has happened throughout the several weeks since the apprehensions of a dozen White Fang members. There wasn't going to be many happy moments like this forever. Eventually a point would come where the kids would have to grow up, where the teammates would learn the truth about one another.
Because at the end of all light, only darkness remained...
...
~There's a point where it tips~
~There's a point where it breaks~
~There's a point where it bends~
~And a point we just can't take~
~Anymore~
~There's a line that we'll cross~
~And there's no return~
~There's a time and a place~
~No bridges left to burn~
~Anymore~
~We can't just wait with lives at stake~
~Until they think we're ready~
~Our enemies are gathering~
~The storm is growing deadly~
~Now it's time to say goodbye~
~To the things we loved~
~And the innocence of youth~
~How the time seemed to fly~
~From our carefree lives~
~And the solitude and peace we always knew~
...
...
...
A/N: Ok so just to quickly point out, I know I'm missing the last 2 minutes of the first episode, but let's be honest people- do we want a finished episode or a never episode X/? Cause the sooner I get past this episode the sooner I can continue.
With that said, major props again for all the positive feedback and folks who've kept with me till this point. Your applause and comments helped me get through this stupor, and I'm excited to finally get back into the fanfic!...Just don't expect dailies, that miiiiiight be awhile before getting back to XP. Hopefully this nice long and chunky chapter gave you guys enough relief and fun for what I had- I also have to point out the irony of my timing. I seriously did not plan to have this posted near/on/by thanksgiving, yet here we are... I find the timing of a giant food fight scene before thanksgiving to be rather fitting... lol XP
Also, as you always know, it's time for another contest! Specifically, a birthday Fic contest. For those familiar and unfamiliar with these contests, the rules are pretty simple. Do a birthday fic starring Ruby or any of her friends from my fanfic's universe- if you do use her friends, then it must take place at Beacon during the time Ruby's there, except for Blake, and as such, the birthday can take place at any part of Ruby's life from 1-year-old to present ^^. Rules for the contest are pretty straight forward- no smut (obs), but we do allow shipping themes, though it's not mandatory. Also fic needs to be a minimum of 2k Words at LEAST.
As far as points go, the winner goes to whichever fanfic I deem the best, and has the most work put into it ^^. Everyone is eligible, just be sure to tell me if you are joining or not, and the deadline is Dec. 1st. Post it by then, before then, or before Midnight of Dec. 1/2 to be eligible.
The winner of the contest will receive a chapter request of anything they want to see in this Rwby- refer to my Wolfie chapter for a better understanding of what I mean by anything. Mostly it has to be canon of course, but i will make it long and enjoyable as possible for the grand prize winner ^^.
Again, thank you all to those who've stuck by me till now. i apologize for the long wait once again, and here's hoping my next one comes MUCH MUCH sooner.
Thanks a million to my many fans, and hope to get some feedback from you soon ^^!
Ps: Also looking for someone to write scenes for the intro to this one. "winner" gets their scene posted throughout the entire volume!
