Author's Notes

Happy July 4th! It's after 4pm EST and as far as I know there has been no sighting of alien motherships, so we have that going for us.

In other news, I need to write price quotations for two different projects and prepare a DnD campaign. Instead I'm updating this. I am so responsible.

Read, Review, Enjoy.

Chapter 21: Out of hand

GV chewed his granola, slowly, savoring every bit of its crunchy goodness. It wasn't meat, but it was a massage for his mouth. He woke up with the expectations of pancakes, but unfortunately Vale was suffering from a nationwide shortage of the fluffy breakfast. Apparently, a clerical error had all the pancake mix shipped to Vacuo. It was a tragedy, but GV was sure the people of Vale would be able to overcome it. They will unite. They will overcome. And they would ultimately thrive for it.

Nora didn't share his sentiments.

"You son of a bitch," she spat.

"Language," Ren offhandedly reproached Nora.

"Right, my apologies." Nora went back to glaring at GV. "You son of a courtesan."

The very unaffected and very blond GV continued munching at his granola. Then he swallowed. "Never met her, so I'll have to take your word for it. By the way, blue hair truly fits you. Brings out the… blue of your eyes."

The part of the table Nora was clutching creaked and splintered. Honestly, if Nora didn't want neon blue hair, she shouldn't have put a bucket with neon green dye on top of KVKC dorm's entrance. Simple cause and effect, really. GV made it a point to flip his still blond ponytail over his shoulder and brush a hand through his still blond, if messy, mop.

"Good, you are all here," Weiss addressed the table.

"Should we run?" Mytyl asked.

"Later. We are going to the piers!"

"I always thought it was pronounced like pie," Ruby commented, enjoying her strawberry and granola topped yogurt.

"Don't be dense, Ruby," Weiss dismissed her partner. "Some of Vacuo's students are arriving today and, as esteemed members of Beacon Academy, it is our sacred duty to welcome them."

"You want to spy on the competition, don't you?" Mytyl deadpanned.

"You can prove nothing," Weiss growled dangerously. Then she gave an award-winning politician smile. "Who's with me?"

Mytyl shrugged. "Sure, I have nothing better to do. Jaune, Blake, you should come. I'm sure we can find that seafood place I promised Blake some time ago."

Blake perked up, pulling away from the book she was immersed in. "Did someone say fish?"

Jaune chuckled. "Sounds fun. What about you, GV. In?"

GV pondered the invitation. "A smelly dock full of fishes just begging to slap someone in the face." GV smiled. "It does sounds fun. Don't you think so, Nora? You should come with us."

Nora blanched. "No way. I'm staying far, far away from you and smelly stuff."

"I don't mind getting slapped by a fish," Blake offered.

Everyone stopped just to stare at Blake, before wisely deciding to erase that last sentence from memory.

"I'll keep Nora company," Ren stated.

"Copen? Kohaku?" Mytyl turned towards her teammates.

"I do feel a bit homesick," Kohaku admitted, "maybe I'll meet someone I know. Oooh, maybe I'll meet one of the older kids from Burrow that went to Shade. Maybe even a kickball fan! Go Sand Worms!"

GV frowned. "You're a Wormie? That team sucks. The Shadows are much better."

Kohaku was unimpressed. "The team from City of Vacuo? Really, GV? That's so basic."

Mytyl ignored GV's and Kohaku's budding sport rivalry. "Copen?"

"Yeah, sure. I wouldn't hear the end of it otherwise."

"Well, Pyrrha and I are out."

"What!" Weiss exclaimed, pointing a finger at Yang. "This is a team outing! Attendance is compulsory."

"And this is Pyrrha," Yang explained, "she has a bad case of the paparazzi."

"Hello," Pyrrha smiled and waved from her seat.

"Right," Weiss admitted defeat. "Well, carry on. And take my hopes and dreams of a united front as Team RWPY with you while you're at it." Her eyes sharpened. "Just know, that when we lose to Team KVKC's teamwork at the Vytal Festival, it's all on your head."

A slam on the table drew everyone's attention.

"Sand Worms!"

"Shadows!"

"SAND WORMS!"

"And I say Shadows! Fire!"

Yang turned back to Weiss. "I think we'll be fine."

-o-

Vale was brimming with life, the process of decorating for the Vytal Festival in full swing. Balloons, banners, streamers, and special deals as far as the eyes can see. Kohaku knew the Vytal Festival was pretty big but, being from a permanent settlement at the edge of Vacuo, she had never been to the Festival proper and only enjoyed it by proxy. Her sister had been in attendance as a competitor ten years ago, when she went as a Shade student to Atlas and participated. From her description, seeing the festivities from a screen didn't make them justice.

However, she did find one thing odd.

"Oh, this is wonderful," Weiss said with a skip on her steps. "The preparations! The logistics! All the planning and organizing for a worldwide event! Everything is outstanding!"

"It sure is something," Kohaku looked around at all the preparing Weiss was gushing about. "But why now? Isn't the Festival proper in, like, three months?"

"It's just how some holidays just continue to be pushed sooner and sooner," Mytyl explained, "students from the other academies arrive several months early, to promote cooperation between the kingdoms by hosting them as exchange students. People and businesses use it as an excuse to start celebrating as early as possible.

GV sniffed at the air. "It's starting to smell like fish. Guess we'll get that restaurant Mytyl promised soon."

"Fish?" Blake's head snapped in GV's direction, then sniffed. "I don't smell anything."

Weiss eyes became half-lidded at GV's and Blake's lack of interesting and single-minded thoughts. "You have no culture. Not like it matters. As long as Ruby and Mytyl are here for this," she spread her arm to the festivities around her, "my good intentions are not in vain."

"Look! That cloud looks like a semi-automatic tazer shiv!"

Jaune tilted his head while looking at the cloud Ruby was pointing at. "Yeah, I can see it."

"Fascinating…" Copen added as he inspected the cloud.

Weiss brought both hands to her face. "I'm the voice that screams in the desert and nobody hears," she cried.

"I'm here for your weird, stalking hobbies, Bashful Weiss," Mytyl tried to cheer the heiress.

"There, there," Kohaku patted Weiss on the head. "Look at the plus side. That's the Vacuan in you talking. The new students will love you."

"I don't want to be loved by the enemy!"

-o-

It wasn't much longer before the group arrived at the dock. The docks were… unsurprisingly unremarkable. Kohaku didn't know what she was expecting. She looked around and came to a conclusion.

"Are we in the right place? I don't see that many Vacuo-looking people."

"What do people in Vacuo look like?" Mytyl asked.

"Either sun-kissed by the desert, lightly dressed due to hot, humid weather, or my sister," Kohaku listed.

"I think that's their boat," Weiss pointed out. "Seems like they haven't disembarked yet."

Well, not much else to do but wait. Kohaku took on the scenery. Like every other place in Vale, the dock was brimming with the energy the Vytal Festival brought. That and the stinky smell of fish. As she scanned her surroundings, she took note of it: other Beacon students either pulling a Weiss or genuinely waiting for the new arrivals, vendors of every kind trying to get people to look at their wares, immigrations agents doing their job, and a crime scene.

Wait, there was something about that last one…

"What happened over there?" Kohaku asked as she walked towards a storefront riddled with police tape. The building window lay in pieces on the floor and a peek inside the store revealed that the interior did not fare any better.

"This is a Dust store," Weiss commented upon stopping by Kohaku's side.

"There has been strings of robberies like these lately," Copen said. "It's the reason Dust's prices have skyrocketed."

The group overheard a pair of detectives commenting on the topic.

'So, they have no lead on this at all?' Kohaku thought as she listened to conspiracy theories about the White Fang, some criminal called Roman Torchwick, and not being paid to do their job.

"Tsk, the White Fangs," Weiss said, venom evident in her voice, "nothing but a bunch of degenerates animals that can only get their kicks by terrorizing others."

'Wow.' Kohaku eyes widened at Weiss's acidic condemnation and choice of words. Coming from a relatively small settlement, for her the White Fang was something that happened elsewhere. Vacuo was relatively easygoing as far as racial discrimination went and she couldn't identify any blatant case of anti-faunus sentiments from the people she grew up with. Sure, racism existed, and she had heard of pockets in Vacuo were the bigotry was particularly nasty, but it was something that happened elsewhere. At least to any appreciable degree.

'Probably the exact opposite of Atlas, now that I think about it. Wait, Weiss is the heiress to the SDC, right?' Kohaku looked back at the Dust shop, probably supplied by said SDC. 'Maybe she's taking this personally?'

"The White Fang are not monsters, Weiss. They are misguided Faunus driven to desperation by-"

Don't give me that drivel," Weiss interrupted Blake. "There's nothing 'misguided' about premeditated cold‑blooded murder."

"Now, now, girls, let's calm down," Mytyl tried to play peacekeeper, interposing herself between Blake and Weiss. Jaune, for his part, tried to help by placing a hand on Blake's shoulder.

Ruby grabbed Weiss by the arm and lightly pull her back. "Yeah, let's just enjoy the rest of the day and- look! People are coming out of the boat!"

'Disaster averted' Kohaku thought. Ruby's attempt at defusing the situation succeeded, everyone reminded why they were here and making their way back to the docks proper to get a closer look.

"Huh. You were right, Kohaku. Sun-kissed or strippers… though I don't see your sister."

Kohaku huffed amusement and hit Mytyl playfully with her elbow. The lavender-haired girl responded by lightly shoving her back.

"They look strong…" Ruby said as she measured the competition.

"You think so?" Copen asked.

"You don't?" Jaune asked back.

Before a reply could be given, a shout was heard.

"Stop that stowaway!"

Kohaku turned just in time to see a monkey faunus, definitely from Vacuo if his lack of a proper shirt was any indication, climbing his way out of the docks, into the walkway they were standing on, and run right by them. Not before sending Blake a wink. And a knowing smirk to her.

"Oh no…" Mytyl muttered, just loud enough for her, and presumably Weiss at her other side, to hear. Kohaku wasn't a hundred percent sure of why Mytyl's trepidation, but she has learned to trust her leader's intuition when it came to deciphering social cues. Just like Copen could take apart a scientific problem and analyze it to exhaustion, Mytyl did the same with social situations, possessing a good grasp of what makes people tick.

Kohaku was a bit jealous of that. She considered herself a people's person, but Mytyl has it down to a science and was able to execute on it. That didn't mean she herself was hopeless. And seeing how Mytyl sent discreet looks towards Weiss, she could take a guess as to why Mytyl feared the effects of a monkey faunus performing a criminal act at this exact moment in front of Weiss and Blake.

Kohaku worriedly look towards the street the boy disappeared to. Causing trouble was just like him.

-o-

"Stop. Saying. That!"

"Stop saying what?"

"Stop referring to all faunus like they are criminals to be."

"I'm not referring to all faunus as criminals to be. Only those that sympathize with the White Fang!"

"The only reason the White Fang gains sympathy is because those faunus are pushed towards it by people like you."

"I do NO such thing. And a murderer is a murderer no matter how they justify murdering."

That has been their entire trip back to Beacon. Weiss attempted to follow the monkey faunus but was stopped by Mytyl before everyone got dragged into a wild goose chase across Vale. Mytyl tried. Mytyl tried so hard to bring the outing back on track, but it was clear that Blake and Weiss had some baggage that went beyond simple difference of opinions. Not even the promise of fish could sway Blake from her crusade against Weiss and the heiress anti-faunus establishment.

Or spying the enemy from swaying Weiss from her campaign against Blake and her terrorist sympathizing.

And now they found themselves back in Beacon and the fight hadn't lessened one bit. Kohaku was exhausted from hearing their circular argument. Mytyl had given up and tuned them out. One of those rare occasions where they were reminded, she was indeed Copen's twin sister and was mimicking her brother incredibly well. GV listened in, and Kohaku could tell he had an opinion on the matter – as everyone in the team suspected he would – but opted to keep it to himself.

Outside of KVKC, Jaune put his abilities to be inconspicuous to good use, clearly not wanting to risk being dragged into the fight by his partner.

And Ruby… Ruby looked crushed. She legitimately looked ill. Distressed by Blake and Weiss back and forth.

Little did they know that by the time they reached the hallway to their dorms, things would take a turn for the worst.

"Gah! You are such a Schnee!"

"W-what are you blabbering about? Of course, I am a Schnee-"

"Exactly!" Blake loomed over Weiss, using the height difference to look down at heiress. "You were born in your little ivory mansion, surrounded by your rich family that exploits faunus in the morning, sent them to the Dust mines in inhumane conditions by noon, and toss them on a ditch at sunset, because you cannot even bother to give them proper burial."

"That's-"

"And then, the next day, you pick the next family member in line and repeat it all over again. Because it's cheaper than actually giving a fuck. It's all about the bottom line with you. Faunus lives be damn-"

"SHUT UP!"

Weiss outburst reverberated throughout the hall. Quite a few teams left their rooms to see what the commotion was about, the remains of RWPY and JNBR that weren't on the trip to Vale included.

"Y-you… w-want to know, why…. WHY I hate the White Fang? Why I w-wouldn't care if every… s-single… one of them, dropped dead tomorrow. And why I have zero… ZERO sympathy for ANYONE… t-that entertains the idea of j-joining them?"

Weiss's voice quivered. There was anger in there, but there was also so much more. She was on the verge of breaking down in tears. Of running away in distress. Of clawing Blake's face off in frustration.

Ruby tried to gently stop Weiss, but the heiress swatted her partner's hand away and forced herself to stare Blake right into her amber eyes.

"I grew up… seeing board members d-disappear. But of course, they are board members of the big bad SDC. Surely, they ate baby faunus for breakfast," Weiss spat mockingly a Blake. "So, let's try again. I grew up, seeing f-family friends, some who I considered as close as aunts and uncles, being e-executed. In cold blood. Live. On hijacked national television. One of them was even an a-actual u-uncle."

Despite her voice cracking on multiple occasions, Weiss speech seemed to give her some composure, as her gaze slowly shifted from a medley of emotions to an artic glare laser-focused on Blake.

"I grew up, with a d-dad. A Schnee, as you called me. An actual fake Schnee. The kind that does eat faunus babies for breakfast. Also, the kind that became furious every time the White Fang waged war with my family. The kind whose only outlet was to rage at his family and abuse them. Not physically, no. That would leave marks and look ugly for the cameras. Of course, Aura does help a bit in that department. But no. Sometimes, words hurt more than a slap on the face."

By now, Blake was on the defensive, slowly giving ground with each step Weiss took forward.

"I did not grow up with a mom. Because calling the drunk that haunts my ivory mansion a mother is a disservice to all the mothers in the world. On a good day, that drunk says hello to me. And nothing else. I grew up with a sister. And then I didn't, because she took the first chance to saddle me with her responsibilities and scrub herself of the Schnee name as much as she could without losing the ancillary benefits." Weiss scoffed. "Not that I could blame her. I'd do the same in a heartbeat."

Forcing herself calm lest she let her temper flare more, she continued. "I grew up with a brother, who I watched grow up from a sweet kid to every single bit the conniving, venomous snake my father is. And I could do shit about it. And that, Blake, is why I hate the White Fang. Because they lie. Because they are thieves. Because they are murderers. Terrorists. Because they targeted my family and made my life more miserable. Because they targeted people I cared about, innocent people, and made my life more miserable. And the life of many other people. At least the dead cannot have a miserable life. They, at least, have that going for them."

The silence in the hallway was deafening. Nobody moved a muscle lest either Blake or Weiss reacted violently. As the seconds passed, Ruby dared to carefully reach for Weiss. At first Weiss flinched at Ruby's touch but relented as the adrenaline receded.

"Let's… let's get some sleep, Weiss."

Blake just stood there, still in shock from Weiss's outburst. As Ruby slowly guided to Weiss to their dorm, something in Blake, something she wished she could have stopped, pushed her; had her seek the last word.

When Jaune tried to do the same Ruby was doing for Weiss, those words came out.

"You wouldn't listen. We had no choice!"

Before, the silence was deafening. But now, it was suffocating. Weiss slowly turned to look at Blake. The heiress's icy blue eyes dug into Blake's amber ones.

"W-what?"

Blake's eyes widened, realizing what she had just done. She looked around. All eyes were on her. And not only her team's, or RWPY's, or KVKC's. Every team with a dorm in the hallway had heard, drawn by the fight beforehand.

She was snapped out of her shock when she heard GV curse, barely loud enough to reach her ears. Both pairs.

"Blake! Wait-"

She didn't wait to listen, for Jaune to finish. She turned away, only to collide with GV.

"Bla-"

She didn't want to listen. In a mix of instinct and panic, she swiped at GV's head. Swiped through GV's head, as the boy allowed her arm to phase through him, and with that her entire body through his.

She ran. She ignored Jaune's calling her or GV's piercing stare. She ignored the looks of disbelief and possibly scorn of the rest of her former classmates. Or Weiss's nascent sobs. She ran and didn't look back.

Author's Notes

With this we enter the dockyard arc. Hooray! Plot!

Well shit. This legitimately got out of hand. As in I started writing the fight, and by the time I finished Weiss's speech, I just realized I might have overshot the nastiness. And I'm kind of proud of it? I rewatched this episode to get a feel for the fight and I felt it was a bit… stupid. Now, I don't watch RWBY for the plot or dialogue. I watch it for the endearing characters, their interactions, and the fights' choreography.

That said, the canon verbal spat between Blake and Weiss… I don't like it. It felt like Weiss was just whining and being bratty. I think it was a combination of the actress's delivery and the actual dialogue ("And that made for a very difficult childhood")

*Shudders* I hate that line.

But there are slivers of something great there. The war between the Fang and the SDC has actual bloodshed. It has disappearances and executions and Jacques apparently taking his frustration out on his family. So, I focused on that. Make it so it felt like Weiss REALLY suffered from the consequences of it all. Especially how Jacques's reaction to it destroyed the family. And I wrote Weiss's delivery so that it felt like she was having genuine breakdown about it, especially at the beginning when she was just getting started. And by the end of it, Weiss had trouble differentiating between what was the Fang's fault and wasn't (Protip: Whitley wasn't)

But hey, this is a fanfiction. What do I know about writing?

Rundown!

Kohaku: When I started writing this chapter, I realized Kohaku is severely under-utilized. It has even been pointed out in reviews after the fact. Now, I expected this, but not to this degree. Copen suffers a bit of the same, but Kohaku is special. For this reason, I will endeavor to write chapters that are not specifically about GV, Mytyl, or another character from the PoV of either Copen or Kohaku.

It was also in this chapter that I remembered Koh promised Blade to keep in touch. So those messages from Kohaku to Blade? I wrote all of them after this chapter retroactively.

Sand Worms!: I wonder how many of you can say they remember Bugs Bunny's and Daffy Duck's 'Rabbit Season/Duck Season, Fire!' skit.

The ****ing Monkey King: I enjoy labeling any interpretation of Sun Wukong as "The ****ing Monkey King". And Sun Wukong is no exception. Just from the top of my head, here are the Monkey Kings I can think of:

- Goku from DBZ

- Wukong from League of Legends

- Pretty sure Smite has a monkey king

- Same for DotA

- Pretty sure Overwatch has a Monkey King skin too

- Sun from RWBY

- The actual Monkey King from Journey to the West

What happened to Pinocchio?: Since I made Mytyl stop Weiss from chasing after Sun, they never stumble upon Penny. But don't worry, she's coming, and I have (some) plans for her. It's just that this is not an animation, so adding Penny's scene felt like it broke the pacing. And I already struggle a lot with pacing as it is.

Finally: I had an explanation here of something I did during Weiss's speech, but I felt it was a bit of a downer. I'll just say some of my decisions for the speech were made unconsciously and I only noticed after the fact, tracing them back to my cultural heritage. It was a fascinating revelation given my inexperience as a writer.