I don't own anything from RWBY, that honor belongs to the fine people at Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 8: Sparks and Spikes
Waking up, Blake felt strangely relieved to know that her nightmare was over. As much as she wanted to move on from the incident from before, some part of her couldn't deny the fact that she was still not strong enough. That she still had a lot more to do before she could even think of facing Adam again.
What surprised Blake, however, was Yang's response to her. While she couldn't deny the fact that she and Yang had at least grown to appreciate each other given their combined prowess, she didn't expect for Yang to have… come to her aid. She didn't expect Yang to try to make sense of what was happening to her.
And yet, here she was, getting support for something she had kept from Yang.
She could faintly remember her lying her down on the bed while she was unconscious. She remembered feeling her warm hands, helping lay her to rest, much like one would do for a close friend.
But why?
Rubbing her eyes open, she tried to get up but almost immediately fell out of the bed, only being caught by… Yang?
"Easy there. Your legs are still locked in place." She said, helping her back into the bed. "I think the aura lock still hasn't disabled."
"Well, what should I do about it?" Blake asked, still jittery from her nightmare.
"I dunno. Ruby's the expert on this sort of stuff. Although I think it's on a time basis, seeing as how you are able to move your arms and stuff." Yang said, sitting down on the bed next to her.
Hearing her stomach begin to grumble, Blake wondered if they had found anything to eat to which she got the answer. "Ruby found some canned food and MREs in the lobby for us. I'm going to go check up on her soon. You stay here, I'll bring some food for you as well."
Watching her leave however, Blake was suddenly reminded of the dream, and assuming Adam was watching her through the bug he planted on Gambol Shroud, it meant that he also knew about Yang.
"Yang?" She said, trying desperately to tell her just how much danger they were all in. But for some reason her throat locked up as she tried to say the words she so desperately wanted to say. "I-I just wanted to say…"
All she had to do was just confess the truth and tell her about her past. It only would have taken one step.
"Th-thank you… For looking out for me." She said instead, crushing that hope.
"No problem Blake! Now just sit tight, okay? I'll be back soon." Yang replied, with a smile. One that Blake knew, wasn't deserved. Something had to change, before someone got hurt.
Surprisingly for Weiss, sleep ended up coming to her much more easily then she had earlier imagined, given her nightmare. Being tired out of her mind probably helped with that, as did Weiss getting some level of forgiveness for her blunder with the Tachyon. In fact, she was already beginning to suspect that her earlier nightmares were a direct result of her failure with the Grimm.
Slowly, bits and pieces began to fall into place. She recalled having talked to Ruby about her family, opening up tiny bits and pieces of her life in Atlas. She recalled telling her the truth about her father. The same father, who haunted her dreams to constantly remind of Weiss of her failures.
The same father, who undoubtedly would've chastised her for her recklessness and reminded her of the failure that she was to the destiny he chose out for her. She saw the people around her like vultures, waiting for her to slip up. She expected Ruby to be the same, to pry open her mistakes and tell her she would never be the Huntress she wanted to be.
And at first, it seemed like she was going to do exactly that. But then she surprised her. Ruby actually forgave her, and she gave her a chance to actually be better. That sort of acceptance was something she never would've found in Atlas. Much less among her own family.
It was strange, to not feel like she had to be perfect all the time… and yet, she couldn't help but see it as another way she could distance herself from her father. Another thing, for which she had only Ruby to thank.
Getting up from the bed she was on, she found Ruby on the bunk above her, sleeping peacefully as she snored. Somehow, her impressions of the redhead had in just a matter of two days, gone from treating her like a nuisance, to being only mildly irritated and even genuinely surprised by her.
Ruby was far more than what she had originally written her off to be. And as it turned out, it seemed like everyone around her seemed to share that attribute. It would be wise of her to remember that.
Upon hearing her stomach growl, Weiss eventually decided to head out into the main lobby in search of some food. Moving out through the hallway of the building, she quickly ended up finding herself in the main lobby of the building. However, it turned out that she wasn't quite alone as standing in front of her was someone she could only presume to be Ruby's sister.
"Hey there." She said, as she used her metallic arm to open a cupboard where she brought out a couple of boxes.
"I take it you're Ruby's sister?" she asked, hoping to at least confirm her companion's identity.
"Yup. Yang Xiao Long. It's good to meet you…" Yang said, drawing a blank on her name.
"Weiss. Weiss Schnee." She said before moving over to sit down at a chair near the counter.
"Ah Weiss. I gotta say… you got me rather good back when we first met." Yang said, with a laid-back tone, reminding Weiss of their admittedly... violent first meeting.
"Sorry about that, I hope your ego didn't take too much of a hit?" Weiss replied, her tone matching Yang's which ended up making her laugh.
"Glad to see you aren't completely stiff." Yang said, bringing out a bunch of packages. "Thanks for looking out for Ruby back there."
"Your sister deserves the real credit. She's the one who saved my life." She said, ignoring the jab made at her and taking one of the packages on the table. It served her no purpose to be irritated with someone who had such an important role to play with ensuring her survival.
"Eh, Ruby's always amazing." She said, taking a huge bite out of what she could only assume was an MRE. "So, tell me Weiss… what brings you here into this quadrant? Wouldn't staying cozy up in Atlas be a more… safer life?"
Admittedly, getting through this conversation was going to take a lot of patience.
"It would've been if I wanted to stay stuck in a desk job wasting away my life as my father continued to drag down the SDC further and further into a hole bringing the Schnee name down with him. At least out here, I can regain some honor for the Schnee family name." she replied, still trying to keep her growing irritation in check.
"Righttt. So why come here? Why not Atlas? Wouldn't that be more convenient?"
"Let me ask you something in return, why wouldn't I want to come to Beacon? It's the most prestigious Hunter institution in the Remnant system for a reason. The best of the best come there looking for work." She replied, now beginning to lose her patience. "And I don't know about you, but if I want to reclaim any shred of dignity for my name, then I would prefer to start in the best way possible."
"But that doesn't matter much if we don't even have a plan to get to Beacon. So, I must ask. Do you even have a plan? We could be hundreds of miles away from the nearest warp station. In fact, even I can't help but realize that all we seem to be doing is running around from place to place just looking for resources to survive." Weiss said, her tone slightly more accusatory in nature, just what she wanted to get a response.
"Oooh, Ice Queen's got spikes. But to answer your question, yeah. I do have a plan. When Ruby wakes up, we're gonna head over to the CCT Tower and find out where exactly we are and find an actual path over to either a warp station or a town with Blake's help, where we can call for help from Vale. So, tell me Ice Queen, is that enough of a plan for you?" she replied, her tone not even affected by Weiss.
"I suppose it is. But can you really trust a Faunus? Especially one who nearly killed you when we first met."
"If I recall correctly, you tried the exact same thing. And even then, why do you hate them so much?"
"Tell me, have you ever had to live with the fact that the people around you, the people you cherish could die at any time? Did you ever have to live with the knowledge that just because your name… someone around you could be killed, kidnapped or tortured?"
"Family friends, board members, uncles and cousins, they spared no one. Even now I still don't know what they would be willing to do just to get to my family." Weiss said, her tone slipping into her usual anger but then again, Yang was really pushing it.
"You seriously think that every Faunus has the same goal? Like they're some kind of a hivemind?" Yang questioned, which only served to infuriate her further.
"I wouldn't know, all I was able to see in Atlas were the reports of them either destroying outposts, endangering lives or when they sabotaged SDC plants, nearly killing the researchers working there."
"Have you even bothered to actually meet one in person? You know, to actually try to get to know one person before you dismiss an entire race." Yang replied, her tone sounding far more vicious now than it was before.
"The last person that tried doing that in my family ended up poisoned by the White Fang." Weiss replied coldly.
"And you seriously think that a group of terrorists is the only description for an entire race?" Yang asked.
"Why don't you ask your friend about that?" She countered, ignoring Yang's question. After all, she owed her no answers and for supposedly being a friend all she seemed to be after was information.
"Oh, are you actually telling me that she's one of them?" Yang replied, her tone now noticeably more hostile than before.
"She might be." Weiss said, as she shrugged. "After all, someone doesn't just pick up skills like that as a runaway."
"Even if she was a member, are you really that single-minded to think that just because you have had bad experiences, means an entire species is the same?" Yang asked, slamming her robotic arm on the table. "You know, at first I thought you might have been sensible, but this is just plain ridiculous."
"Why you- "She began, before hearing a voice from behind.
"Uhm, good morning? Did I come at a bad time?" said Ruby looking at the two of them with a concerned expression.
'Great. Let's see how this gets even more worse.'
Entering into the main lobby, Ruby was expecting to meet her sister so that she could discuss plans for getting to Vale with Blake and Weiss (and also for some food, because hoo boy was she hungry!). What she was not expecting was for her and Weiss to be arguing which was really bad.
Ruby had only seen her sister get mad a couple of times. And almost all of them were to protect her but even then, she was somewhat terrified of her. And to think that Yang coming on Weiss, wasn't something she wanted to happen.
"What's wrong?"
"You might want to tell your friend here to I dunno, maybe consider the fact that she's being nothing more than a racist bitch!" Yang shouted out. Already not off to a good start.
"Ruby, you may want to tell your sister just how much of an ignorant buffoon she is!"
"What's happened?" She asked, still unsure as to what even caused this argument.
"Why don't you tell her your life story as well Weiss? Come on, tell her why you hate the Faunus so much?" Yang goaded, which seeing as how infuriated Weiss was getting, was probably going to be the last straw if Ruby didn't stop this, right here, right now.
"Okay, both of you please! Just stay calm." She said, stepping between them and holding them back with her hands. "We don't have time to fight amongst ourselves over this issue. None of us would've survived if we didn't work together to fight off the Grimm. And if we want to get to Vale, we need to keep on doing that. As a team."
"You wanted to talk to me about a plan to reach Beacon, right Yang?" Ruby asked, now attempting to steer the conversation away from the topic.
"Yeah, I had been thinking over it and I was kinda planning on letting you know once Blake was up- "Yang began, before they were all surprised by a voice coming from the hallway opposite to them.
"Don't wait any longer then." Came Blake's voice surprising all of them, as she managed to come over to them with a limping slightly on her foot.
"Blake, are you alright?" Yang asked, before immediately helping her sit down.
"I'm better now, my rig isn't locking up anymore but it's still a little hard to walk. I heard what happened before and Weiss isn't wrong about the White Fang. The methods they imply aren't something that should be condoned."
"See!" Weiss declared, which upon seeing that Blake still wasn't finished, worried Ruby.
"But, to generalize the rest of the Faunus of only their actions… is just untrue. There are plenty of Faunus who hate the White Fang or oppose them. It's just that people like you tend to force the people to have no other option."
"People like me?!" exclaimed Weiss, frustrating Ruby even more. Wasn't there something she could do to stop this? Didn't they realize that all this was going to do was end up hampering them in the long run?
"Why do you think so many Faunus see the White Fang as their only chance to get a better life? It's because people like you remain in power to make sure that the Faunus never get to the same level as the rest of humanity!" Blake spoke out, making Weiss get even more pissed off.
"You say that as if the Faunus haven't committed any crimes, as if they aren't guilty of the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of innocents. As if they aren't responsible for the heinous crimes they commit in the name of restoring equality." Weiss defended.
"And there you go again; do you seriously think that the White Fang is all that makes up Faunus kind in general? Do you seriously think that the White Fang's new policies have been accepted by every single Faunus?" Yang now butted in, coming in to defend Blake.
"Do you really think you humans are any better? You separate children from their families, turn us into slaves, look down upon us and try to sabotage us every time we fight for what we deserve. For so long, we've been denied the basic rights your governments say extend to everyone." Blake said, placing both her hands down onto the table and leaning to face Weiss straight in the eyes. "And yet, when the White Fang decided to challenge the societal norms, you listened. You proved it to us that the only language you listen to is violence."
"Is that so? The reforms made to provide rights to the Faunus were passed long before your lot turned into a group of terrorists!"
"And yet they were never enforced, but of course, I'm sure you wouldn't have bothered to look past the headlines." Blake continued. "It was only when the White Fang took their more, violent approach, that people actually started to care for those reforms. Until then however, you people just couldn't bother."
"So, tell me Schnee. Do you really think we had a choice in this matter? Do you honestly think that given the situation, the Faunus groups had any choice? And do you honestly believe that the Faunus are to be blamed for taking out their anger on the people who for so long have subjugated them like they were subhuman?" Blake concluded, leaving Ruby incredibly concerned for what Weiss might do next.
"You're wrong about one thing. You have no idea just how many consequences your actions had. You don't know how your actions, your constant efforts to gain back your 'equality' affected me or how I grew up. And quite frankly, I don't expect you to understand either." Weiss replied, before walking off and out of the room.
"Weiss, wait!" Ruby called on after her.
"No. Leave her Ruby." Yang said. "If she wants to keep on acting this way around people then I don't want her around."
"You don't mean that…"she said, rubbing her shoulder
"Do I look like I'm joking? Weiss has proven herself to be nothing more than a pain in the butt for us."
"I'm sorry Yang, but that just isn't true. She's responsible for saving my life not once but twice out there. We would never have even escaped from the Tachyon"
"Why are you even defending her? She's been nothing more than a prick to all of us."
"Because that's not who she is on the inside! Please, just let me talk to her, if she doesn't come back fine, that's on me. But before you give up on her, at least give her a chance to explain herself." Ruby pleaded. Losing a teammate, right now wasn't going to serve them any good.
"Fine, but don't be disappointed in case she doesn't come back." Yang said in a dismissive tone.
"Me and Blake are going to head up to the CCT tower and find out as much information as possible on this place. Once we bring it over to you, we'll figure out a plan to get out here into Beacon."
"With or without Weiss."
A/N: I am making this note to inform all of you lovely readers that I shall not be posting anymore chapters until I finish this arc. This announcement comes out of me wanting to have enough time to properly manage my life along with writing fanfics and also to help my mental health as writing fanfics has been rather draining recently. But have no fear! When I finish the arcs they shall be posted far quicker. As always keep moving forward my friends and stay safe.