The six adults ate lunch before they continued to watch and finish up the first volume of the future that they were watching.

The Stray

The streets of Vale were being decorated in time for the Vytal Festival. Red, yellow, and green streamers and balloons are proudly on display, and Team RWBY is strolling through it all with an awed Weiss Schnee in the front. A sign is being put up by the elderly Shopkeep that reads in bright red letters "WELCOME TO VALE!" for all the foreign newcomers from their respective kingdoms of Remnant.

"It's already the Vytal Festival? Isn't it really early? How much time has already passed for them?" Summer asked, concerned.

Weiss stopped and raising her arms in amazement. "The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!"

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss." Ruby frowns a little. "It's kinda weirding me out..."

Taiyang and Qrow laughed at Ruby's comment to Weiss.

"It's so true!" Qrow said.

Weiss turned to Ruby. "How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!" They continue walking.

"That is true. The Vytal Festival is beautiful." Summer said. Kali smiled and both Faunus with Team STRQ agreed with the white-cloaked leader.

Yang sighs, and her arms crossed over her chest. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."

"That's a Schnee for you. Sucking out all of the fun in everything." Qrow said, Raven wacked him over his head. "OW! What the hell was that for?"

"Stop it. You agreed to give the girl some slack." Raven said with a pointed glare.

"Yeah, some slack, not all." Qrow said back to his sister.

"Can you two not fight? Is that too much to ask for?" Ghira complained.

Both twins glanced at each other and pouted a little. "I swear, they like to act all tough, but in reality they are children." Tai muttered. Summer slapped his shoulder as a warning to shut up.

"Quiet, you!" Weiss said angrily.

As they stop near the docks and the sounds of foghorns are heard, Yang says: "Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?"

Ruby covers her nose at the bad smell of the docks. "Ugh, they smell like fish!"

"Not the worst thing we've had to smell." Qrow whispered.

"No kidding." Raven said, remembering all of the raids they went on before they went to Beacon.

"I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!" Weiss said, turning back around and kept walking.

As Weiss starts walking away again, Blake comments,"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament."

Weiss scoffs. "You can't prove that!"

"She's slowly changing." Kali whispered to Ghira.

"Yes, but how far will it go until it stops and she reverts back to what she has always known?" Ghira questioned.

"Weiss will surprise us all, I can feel it." Kali defended the Schnee girl.

"Why are you defending her so much, Kali?" Ghira asked his girlfriend.

"Everyone is capable of change, Ghira. I truly believe that Weiss can change and become a better person."

Ruby turns her head to the right. "Whoa." The team looks at a shattered window down the street and a door full of yellow caution tape of the Vale Police Force before walking over to the detective in front, who is writing on his pad. "What happened here?"

"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." The first detective walks over to his partner.

"Is it Torchwick? Why does someone need this much Dust?" Tai asked.

"It's for nothing good. That much we know." Raven said.

Yang sighs. "That's terrible."

The second detective spoke to his partner. "They left all the money again."

Ruby turns her head when she hears this. "Huh?"

"Yep, they're after the Dust. They don't care about the money." Qrow said. Something wasn't right with all of this, whatever it was…. It was giving Qrow a bad vibe. He knew that this wasn't his Semblance at work, he would feel it. This was something else, something more sinister. The male thought back to that creepy female voice that they had heard in the beginning of this. He shivered and closed his eyes.

"Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?" The first detective said.

"I don't know, an army?" the second detective questioned.

"You thinking the White Fang?" The first asked.

'No, not the White Fang. It's got to be Torchwick.' Raven thought.

'What happened to the White Fang? Did I step down? Did I die?' Ghira glanced at his girlfriend and sighed.

The second detective removes his sunglasses. "Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

"Hmph! The White Fang." Weiss crossed her arms and pointing her nose in the air with her eyes closed. "What an awful bunch of degenerates!"

Ghira clenched his fists in anger at hearing Weiss say that about the White Fang.

"Ghira…" Kali put a calming hand on his arm.

"No, Kali! How can you say she can change after hearing that?!" Ghira yelled.

"She was raised in a way that anyone was beneath her. You cannot fault her for that! She was raised in a horrible environment, with a controlling father! Jacques Schnee is a horrible influence, especially on his own children!" Kali shouted.

The team of Huntsmen-in-training stopped and tried to stop the two Faunus from ripping each other apart, figuratively speaking, that is.

"Stop!" Summer commanded, the two Faunus and her team froze. Tai, Qrow, and Raven have only heard Summer use that tone when they were in a bad situation and if she was truly angry.

Kali and Ghira turned to the small woman with her blazing silver eyes burning into them. "Both of you stop! You both have problems with the Schnee family, and I understand that. You both have problems with the White Fang being insulted as well as your people, I get it! But you cannot fight like this, you love each other, you have a daughter together in the future! Now if you want to see how Blake grows up, then sit down and let's continue to watch."

"What's your problem?" Blake shouted.

Weiss turns to her. "My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."

Both Faunus needed to restrain themselves as to not attack the TV screen in anger.

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths." Blake crossed her arms, getting serious. "They're a collection of misguided Faunus."

"Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!" Weiss shouted back.

"Something really bad happens in the future to make the White Fang go from a civil movement to a terror organization." Taiyang said, worried about the two Faunus and how they were holding up with all of this.

"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!" Blake shouted at Weiss.

"Hmm... Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him." Ruby pointed out.

"Most likely, but how would they prove that it was Torchwick, and not the White Fang?" Raven asked.

Weiss scoffed. "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

Ghira snarled in rage, his yellow eyes glowing in pure malice.

Yang protested slightly. "That's not necessarily true..."

"Hey, stop that Faunus!" A sailor shouted.

As the team overhears the cry for help and rush over to investigate, a Faunus with a golden monkey tail named Sun Wukong is seen running down the length of the boat and leaping on to the edge as the two sailors are about to apprehend him.

Sun looked back at his pursuers. "Thanks for the ride, guys! Haha!" He jumps off and hits the dock running.

"You no-good stowaway!" Another sailor shouted at the Monkey Faunus.

Sun used his tail to hang on a lamppost while he peels back a banana. "Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" Before he eats, one of the detectives down below throws a stone at him to get his attention.

"That's a pretty neat way to use your Faunus trait." Qrow said looking at Sun with a smile.

"Hey! Get down from there this instant!" One of the detectives shouts up at him.

Sun drops the banana peel on the detective's face, who growls in return. The monkey-like Faunus twirls up to crouch on the lamppost, laughs in amusement, and proceeds to leap off and run away from the detectives. As he runs past Team RWBY, he winks at an astonished Blake in slow motion before time speeds up again and he continues to be chased by the officers.

They all laugh at Sun's antics with the detectives.

"Uh? What was that?" Tai asks the two Faunus, wondering if they would know.

"Sun knows that Blake's a Faunus. We can tell, even if some are hiding their Faunus trait." Kali informed the Human team.

Yang watches the Faunus get farther and farther away. "Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes..."

Weiss shouts, "Quick! We have to observe him!"

Weiss, Yang, and Ruby give chase. Blake stands still, lost in thought, then comes back to reality and follows her friends. The team rounds the next corner, but then Weiss bumps into someone and trips. She looks up only to see Sun jump on to a building and disappear from her view.

"No, he got away!" Weiss yelled, and then sighs in frustration.

"Uhh... Weiss?" Yang points strangely at the girl underneath her teammate.

"What?" Tai asked. No one had an answer for him about the odd girl who Weiss had crashed into.

Weiss finally sees that she fell on a smiling girl, who startles the heiress and she hastily gets up.

Penny, who was still down on the ground, smiled widely. "Sal-u-ta-tions!"

"Uh…?" No one could say anything, they were all confused by the new girl and her odd mannerisims.

"Um... hello." Ruby said hesitantly.

Yang glances at Ruby and then asks, "Are you... okay?"

Penny smiles, "I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking."

"This girl is weird. Even more than the usual." Qrow said.

"Something… something's off about her." Kali suddenly said, they turned to her.

"What do you mean?" Summer asked. Raven also noticed something odd about the girl.

"I don't think she's fully human." Kali says.

"Wait… WHAT?!" They all shout with the expectation of Ghira and Raven, both of which just stare at the Cat Faunus with looks of pure shock.

"So she's a Faunus?" Tai asked.

"No… I don't think so. But she isn't human, I'm sure of that." The woman said.

"She's right. The girl, her mannerisms aren't normal. They seem artificial." Raven commented.

"So she's a robot?" Qrow asked his sister.

"I don't know." Raven muttered, narrowing her eyes to stare at Penny.

The team looks at each other in bewilderment before Yang speaks up again. "Do you... wanna get up?"

Penny thinks about this for a moment. "Yes!" She leaps back on her feet while the team steps back a little. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Summer smiles softly. "She's already making new friends."

"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"At least she's not acting like a spoiled little girl right now." Qrow said. Tai wacked his arm. "Ow!"

"Stop it. Also, I didn't hit you that hard. Stop being a baby." Tai shook his head while chuckling a bit.

"You may think that, but your hits hurt, Tai!"

"Blake."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Blake hits her side. "Oh, I'm Yang."

"Only your kid can be that directly insensitive, Rae." Qrow said, Raven's lips formed a flat line as she had to stop herself from opening a portal on the ceiling and dropping her brother out of it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Weiss frowned. "You already said that."

Penny pauses again. "So I did!"

"Well, sorry for running into you!" Weiss said as they turn around and start walking away.

"She's… being oddly cordial." Kali said.

"She has too. She has no idea who Penny is and she wants to make a good impression." Summer said.

Ruby waved her arm. "Take care, friend!"

Tai and Summer had huge smiles on their faces at seeing Ruby connect so quickly to new people. Kali was also happy for Ruby and her new friends.

When they get far enough away from a startled Penny, Yang said: "She was... weird..."

Weiss looked to her right. "Now, where did that Faunus riff-raff run off to?"

"And there she goes again." Kali whispered.

Penny was suddenly in front of a surprised Weiss. "What did you call me?"

Weiss looks back and forth in shock and Yang looks apologetic. "Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me!" The blonde said in the place of her teammate.

"Wow, she's really making it hard for us not to see her as a spoiled little brat." Qrow said, scrunching his nose at the Schnee girl.

"No, not you." Penny walks through the group and leans her head down to Ruby. "You!"

Ruby was completely startled. "Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..."

Penny's green eyes narrowed. "You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?"

Summer grinned and squealed.

"Uuuum..." Ruby looks over Penny's shoulder while her teammates motion to deny her. "Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?"

Ruby's teammates comically faint, but Penny looks overjoyed and laughs, "Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"

"Throwing Weiss' words back at her, but this time, it's Penny and she's actually genuine." Tai said.

Ruby groaned to Weiss as she brushes herself off. "Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?"

The males laughed loudly, while the girls grinned and smirked.

Weiss shook her head."No - she seems far more coordinated."

Yang asked what the team was thinking to themselves. "So... what are you doing in Vale?"

Penny grinned. "I'm here to fight in the tournament."

"Gotta be from Atlas then." Raven said.

"But why?" Qrow asked. "You said it yourself, Rae. Her mannerisms are odd for anyone. If she really is a robot, which would be cheating and might even break the Vytal Treaty of peace that the Kingdoms sighed after the Great War." Qrow continued.

"So… If what Raven said it true, if Penny is a robot…. Then a war is likely to start because of the controversy. Seeing as Atlas is the most technological advanced Kingdom…. They would be responsible if war were to break out and it might even turn into a second Great War." Summer said, now deeply concerned.

All six adults hoped, prayed, that war wouldn't come. That Atlas wouldn't be this egotistical to think that they could get away with this.

"Well… that brought down the mood." Qrow muttered.

"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Weiss asked, pointing at Penny.

Penny saluted. "I'm combat ready!"

Weiss scoffed. "Forgive me, but you hardly look the part."

Blake deadpanned. "Says the girl wearing a dress."

Weiss had her arms crossed over her chest. "It's a combat skirt!

Ruby speeds over to Weiss' side. "Yeah!" Weiss holds out her hand and Ruby low-fives it.

Summer and Tai quietly glance and chuckle at Ruby's antics with Weiss.

Realization hit Weiss. "Wait a minute." She walks over to Penny and grabs her by the shoulders. "If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed... rapscallion?"

Kali, Ghira, Raven, and Qrow all raised an eyebrow at Weiss' odd wording to describe the Monkey Faunus.

"The who...?" Penny asked, confused.

Weiss held up a poor drawing of the criminal-in-question. "The filthy Faunus from the boat!"

The four humans were really getting sick and tired of Weiss saying that about Faunus. Kali and Ghira were ready to kill the Schnee girl for all that she was saying about their people.

Blake shouted at Weiss. "Why do you keep saying that?!"

Weiss turned her attention from Penny to Blake. "Huh?"

Blake was walking over to Weiss, angry. "Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!"

"Blake." Tai said softly. 'She probably feels responsible in some way. She's a Faunus, but she's hiding who she is so she isn't thought of any differently than her teammate, just because they are Human.' Tai thought.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Weiss releases Penny and motions to objects around her. "Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?"

"Bitch, that is so not the same thing and you know it!" Qrow hissed, his rust-red eyes glaring daggers at the Schnee heiress. If looks could kill, Weiss would be dead before she was even born.

"Stop it!"

"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang!" Weiss said, gesturing with her hands.

'What in the world happened to the White Fang? What changed?' Kali thought desperately, trying to not cry tears of anger.

Blake growls, clenching her fists. "You ignorant little brat!"

Weiss looks offended, but when Blake walks away, she follows. "How dare you talk to me like that! I am your teammate!"

"You are a judgmental little girl." Blake pointed and pushed Weiss.

Weiss frowns, "What in the world makes you say that?"

"The mere fact that you would sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group solely based on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be!" Blake yelled out.

Yang slid up to Ruby, looking uncomfortable. "Um, I think we should probably go..."

Penny popped up behind Ruby, smiling. "Where are we going?"

Weiss smiles, triumphant. "So you admit it! The White Fang is just a radical group of terrorists!"

Blake narrowed her amber eyes. "That's not what I meant, and you know it!"

"The fact that she's putting every Faunus into that category is astounding. Truly, she doesn't see the problem with saying any of that, because to her, it normal. Natural even, to say that about Faunus and be commended for it, not condemned." Ghira said sadly, thinking about all of the Faunus in Atlas and how they were suffering.

As Yang and Ruby continue to observe, the scene shifts from afternoon near the docks to nighttime in their dorm room.

"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!" Weiss said, truly not knowing why Blake was acting like this.

"That is the problem!"

Weiss got up from her bed. "You realize you are defending an organization that hates Humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"

"The only thing that is pure evil in the world is Grimm. If she's comparing us to the Grimm…. I don't know if she truly can and wants to change." Kali said, looking between Ghira and the others.

Blake gets on her feet as well. "There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate Humanity so much? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you, which force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"

"People like me?"

Blake shouted, "You're discriminatory!"

"I'm a victim!" As they stare each other down in silence, Weiss leans in close, leering as she speaks quietly. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus?" The white haired girl was now leaning against the bookshelf by the window. "It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed; an entire train car full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood." She bangs her fist on the bookshelf.

Kali and Ghira's eyes widen in horror. "Wha… What happened… What…?"

Team STRQ was also shocked, though the twins hid it better than their leader and Tai. "Weiss does have a legitimate reason to hate the White Fang, but not all Faunus."

Ruby walked towards her, going over to comfort her. "Weiss, I-"

"No!" Weiss turns away and walks back over to Blake. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"

"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Blake screamed out, her eyes narrowing into slits.

Kali gasped, tears streaming from her own amber eyes. Summer and Ghira looked at the Cat Faunus in shock. "I… Kali…" Summer tried but the woman ran out of the room, sobbing.

The others silently agreed to give Kali and Ghira their space until they were comfortable coming back. Ghira had also left, either to check on his girlfriend or to seek out his own space for the time being.

Team STRQ didn't speak, they all just went into the heads and thought about all they had just seen. How scared Blake was about revealing her Faunus nature, her anger toward Weiss about the White Fang, and everything else.

After half an hour Ghira came back stone-faced, but they all could see dried tear tracks on his cheeks. Waiting in silence for Kali, she came back after 45 minutes. She was still crying, but it wasn't full-blown sobbing that she had done when she had left. Both Faunus curled into each other and held each other for comfort.

Team STRQ didn't interfere or say anything about it, they just turned back to the TV screen and began watching again.

Silence drops down on the scene again. A surprised Weiss backs away slowly, and Blake realizes her mistake as she looks around at her teammates.

"I... I..." The, now revealed, Faunus dashes out the door.

"Blake, wait! Come back!" Ruby runs over to the door and calls to her down the hallway as Yang sits herself down and Weiss looks down.

'Is this the fear that Faunus have to carry every day? Do all of them fear rejection from those they care about if they aren't Faunus themselves?' Tai thought to himself, looking at the two Faunus in the room.

Summer looked down sadly, while Raven and Qrow closed their eyes and sighed.

Blake runs outside and arrives at a statue of an armored man with a sword and a hooded woman wielding an axe on an outcropping, staring at the Beowolf under the stone heroes in particular.

She closes her eyes and slowly lifts her arms up to her bow and pulls the string to release the bow from her hair. She wipes away a tear away as the camera pulls up to reveal her Faunus ears. On the verge of crying, she becomes startled when she hears a voice above her.

Ghira and Kali gasp, both crying at how much Blake looks like Kali and her suffering.

"I knew you would look better without the bow." Sun said.

She turns around and looks up.

The scene shifts to morning at Beacon. Ruby wakes up from her beauty sleep, yawning in the process. She looks over at Blake's empty bunk, and groans sadly.

The scene then shifts again to Ruby, Weiss, and Yang walking through the empty streets of Vale.

"She's been gone all weekend..." Ruby said sadly.

"Blake's a big girl, I'm sure she can handle herself!" Weiss said, anger in her posture.

Yang turned to look at Weiss, "Weiss, come on. She's one of our teammates."

Weiss raised an eyebrow, "Is she? We all heard what she said!"

Ruby sighed. "Weiss."

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Either way, she's missing, and we need to find her!" Yang said, worried for her partner.

"At least your daughters are worried about Blake. Thank you, Summer, Raven, Tai." Ghira said to the three parents of Ruby and Yang.

Summer and Tai blushed and nodded, happy to see Ghira's little smile. Raven flinched at being so casually addressed, but nodded as well.

Weiss' eyes were wide, "A member of the White Fang! Right underneath our noses!"

Ruby looked down. "I just hope she's okay..."

Elsewhere, Blake is sipping a cup of tea and sighing. She looks up at Sun sitting across from her, who holds his drink with his tail as his hand props his head up. He takes a sip when Blake puts her cup down.

"So, you want to know more about me..."

"That's it. Do you two want to continue?" Summer asked the two Faunus still embracing.

"Yes, we would like to know what happens with Blake." Ghira said. The four others didn't argue, just started up the next episode.