F3: Hello everyone and welcome to the start of chapter 23. We last left off where Pepper was taking a distressed Rina back to the dorms not even knowing what is in store for them. RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum. Also Team SPIR along with Melanie Tora and Ophiela Sorrel are owned by me. MountainKing312 owns Senka Linwood and Decode9 owns Akane Shidoud and Diana Mirai. With that said Let's Get Started!

Volume 3-23: The Past Comes To Light (Part 1)

After leaving the festival behind Rina was still holding onto Pepper like she was a safety net but now Pepper had to resort to carrying her on her back so that way she wasn't dragging her feet as Rina seemed to have fallen asleep. However a thought slithered into her mind about her partner wondering about what had happened during the festival and the tournament.

"I swear it was like her entire personality just changed in an instant and now this... something isn't right about this." Pepper thought as she made the walk back to the airship to take them back to Beacon Academy and maybe even get some answers from Rina when she wakes up.

In another part of Vale a certain scorpion faunus was starting to get bored as he was very eager to sink his stinger into someone as he noticed the two girls walking away. To him they would be perfect prey and the perfect kill. But before he could he felt a familiar presence behind him as he turned and noticed the same jellyfish like creature.

"You weren't going to do what I thought you were Tyrian." Salem's voice ringed from the creature.

"Of course not my queen. I guess I'm getting rather impatienct. You know how I am trying to control my urges." Tyrian replied calmly.

"Even so. Your time will come Tyrian but now is not the time. I'm sensing that Adam and his men are nearing the outskirts of the city along with my grimm. Then once chaos is brought to this city you'll have plenty of innocents to slaughter however you see fit." Salem replied.

"Yes my queen but what about the Rose girl?" He asked.

Salem chuckled through the creature "I want her dead. Make sure that happens." Salem ordered as the creature disappeared back into the darkness.

"It shall be done." Tyrian replied with a dark chuckle already thinking of many way he could kill Ruby Rose and to satisify his queen.

=RWBY=

Meanwhile on the west side of Vale city Audra was finishing her round making sure to find clear escape routes just incase things were going to get crazy and about what Roman told her.

[Flashback. Two Days Ago]

"You want me to what!?" Audra shouted almost baffaled about what Roman told her.

"If things get too sticky I want you to get out of the city as fast as you can. Even if it means leaving me and the rest behind." Roman said.

"You know I'm not going to do that. We're a family and family sticks no matter what comes our way. Why do you suddenly think I'm just going to up and abandon you guys like that?!" Audra shouted not exactly liking the idea.

Roman simply sighed as he sat down "Because I think somethings going to happen at the tournament. Something that not even I can stop. I fear that when the dust settles that this place right now won't be standing. A threat is coming to Vale and I don't want you in the middle of it." He said his voice filled with concern.

Audra took a seat next to him "What kind of threat? White Fang? Grimm?" Audra asked.

Roman shook his head "Maybe. Or something far worse than either of the two." He added.

The two sat their in silence for a moment before Audra let out a sigh as she spoke.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked.

Roman got up from his seat and turned to her "If a riot breaks out... save as many people as you can... then get yourself out of town as fast as you can." He said almost like it would be the last time they would get to talk together.

[Present Time]

Audra remembered that night and almost every night Audra did night patrols since hardly any people were awake during the night trying to find a good path that would get her the fastest way out of Vale. If she wanted to she could easily head west to Vacou capital but she'd dismissed the idea since their would be both grimm and possibly bandits as well and she didn't want to encounter any more of them after the last time.

So with nothing better to do she continued her patrols searching for her quickest route out of Vale.

"Dad whatever this is I certainly hope you know what your doing." Audra thought as she sped toward the north side of town trying to see if their was an easy escape route their.

=RWBY=

After about a ten minute flight from Vale to Beacon Pepper and Rina finally arrived as Rina was now wide awake from the short flight.

"Man. Sorry about taking a nap on you." She replied stretching out her limbs.

"Yeah... it's no big deal." Pepper said still having some thoughts running through her head as the two stepped off the bullhead.

However they were greeted by Cardin and his team.

"Hey you two." Cardin waved at them getting their attention.

"Cardin. I see you guys are looking well. Too bad you guys didn't make it though." Pepper said.

"It's okay. As long we gave it our all that's fine by me." Cardin said. Though his teammate Russel spoke up next.

"Though we were about to head to the lounge but the door was locked for some reason. Think I heard that Yang chick in their." Russel replied.

"Okay just what she even doing in the lounge?" Pepper asked.

"We don't know till we get over their. Let's check it out." Rina said as they headed inside to find the lounge and figure out what was going on.

As they were walking Ruby came into view as she was carrying a medium long sized box with a big smile on her face holding it close.

"Oh when she see's you she's going to love you I just..." Ruby started but Rina called out to her.

"Hey Ruby! What's up?!" Rina called out as Ruby stopped in her tracks and turned to noticed Rina and Pepper were walking toward her. The silver eyed girl did the one thing that none of them expected and that was run away from them. Using her semblance Ruby dashed away in a flurry of roses leaving behind a trail of them.

The two girls blinked in confusion at what just happened as they turned to each other.

"Okay I know for a fact that Ruby doesn't act suspicous but what just occured isn't normal." Pepper said with a thoughtful look.

"Wonder what she's up too? Shall we go find out." Rina replied.

"Might as well." She added as the two gave chase after the young huntress in training.

Meanwhile with the young teen she quickly sped toward the lounge room where Yang and the others were as she came zooming in slamming the door behind her.

"You okay their Ruby?" Blake questioned.

"You seemed to be in a rush." Cinder added.

Ruby calmed her breathing before she spoke "Pepper and Rina saw me and I think they're on their way here." Ruby replied sounding worried.

"Well it's a good thing we've finished decorating. Okay everyone places and turn off the lights." Star said as they turned off the lights and proceeded to hide though not very stealthy.

"Ow! That's my tail you stepped on!" Star shouted.

"Sorry." Yang apologized.

"Someone get off of my foot." Emerald snarled.

"My bad." Blake said quickly as both she, Star, and Weiss heard footsteps coming toward the door.

"Here they come." Weiss whispered as everyone suddenly went silent now.

Meanwhile outside the door of the lounge room Pepper and Rina were in front of the door that Ruby went in however they noticed that underneath the door that it was dark in the room.

"The lights are off? That's a little weird." Pepper wondered.

Rina however only sighed "C'mon maybe she's trying to play a prank or something." Rina said totatly seeing Ruby trying to prank them.

"If it is a prank let's just play along with it okay." She added as she turned the door knob to open the door. She opened the door and noticed that it was pitch black.

"Okay where's the light switch?" Rina asked as she felt around near the door. She eventually found it and flicked the lights on.

Almost immediately everyone else sprung out from their hiding places.

"SURPRISE!" They all shouted but Neo making Rina and Pepper jump backwards. Rina took in what was in the room and she wasn't exactly pleased of what she saw. She noticed decorations had been set up with the flimsy 'Happy Birthday' logo strung above the ceiling and even balloons floating nearby along with streamers and other party objects were hanging around.

Even Pepper was quite surprised at the decorations.

"Wow. You girls really out done yourselfs here." Pepper replied rather impressed.

Ruby walked up to Rina with a bright smile "So what do you think? You like it." Ruby said innocently but Rina didn't respond right away as if she'd had zoned her out as she looked down at the floor.

"Um... Rina you okay?" Cinder questioned a showing a bit of concern however Neo was already preparing for what's to come.

Rina finally spoke up in a harsh tone "Which one of you idiots set this up?" She asked with a growl in her voice. That really shocked them at what she'd just said to them.

"Cause if this is some kind of prank then I'm not laughing." She added as she narrowed her gaze.

"No this isn't a joke. We thought it would be nice to give you something to cheer you up." Ruby said still with a smile on her face.

That only seemed to annoy her "Scratch that let me rephrase the question. Who came up with this idea?" Rina growled her voice slightly raised.

Neo not wanting to face her wrath pointing toward Iona as Rina looked in her direction.

"Well... you were moody that one day and I thought it would be nice to cheer you up. Hense this birthday party for you. Yeah I know it's a day early but..." Iona started but Rina stopped with a look of surprise.

"Hold on. How did you even know when my birthday was anyway?" She questioned.

Weiss gulped nervously before she spoke up rubbing the back of her head.

"I... sort of looked... into your student file." Weiss replied sheepishly.

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Rina shouted in anger.

"Without even my consent you looked into my student file and even decided to put on this... stupid party. Did any of you even think for a minute that I even wanted something like this." Rina added.

This time Star intervened "Kinda hard to do if you don't talk to us. We hardly know anything about you because you don't talk to us. Half the time we're playing a guessing game at what you like to do." Star added crossing her arms.

"Maybe I don't want to talk myself. Ever thought about that?" Rina countered.

"Really. Then I have question for you. If both your parents are gone how'd you take care of yourself for twelve whole years? Did you have an uncle to live with?" Star asked which didn't sit well with Rina.

"None of your damn business!" She shouted which made the rest of the group flinch.

"Here's a quick suggestion. Don't ask questions you don't want answers for." She added sternly.

Ruby however didn't take to kindly to that "Hey she was just being concerned for you." Ruby added.

Rina eyes turned to Ruby with a nasty glare plastered on her face "Zip it Red." She growled which made Ruby back away a few steps.

"Leave Ruby alone." Yang said sternly stepping forward between them.

"You shouldn't be talking to Ruby like that either. They were only concerned for you." Weiss added standing with her partner.

"Well than maybe both Star and Ruby should mind their own business and just leave me alone." Rina said her sudden anger somehow leaving her.

"Is that too hard to ask." She said softly as she turned around and went to leave. However Yang lurched forward grabbing her arm stopping her from going anywhere.

"Hey we're not done talking." Yang said her eyes turning crimson.

"Yang. Please let go of my arm." Rina said almost demanding.

"Not until you tell us what's going on with you." Yang added not letting go.

Suddenly Yang felt a strong pulse go through her brain like as she placed her other hand on her head. Yang took notice that Rina glaced back seeing her eyes glowing meaning her semblance was active.

"Let go. Now." She ordered as Yang suddenly let go of her arm giving Rina time to walk out of the room leaving the group behind.

The strong pulse that was coursing through Yangs brain was suddenly gone like she'd regain control over herself.

"You okay Yang?" Blake asked.

"I don't know. It's like... she was controlling me for a moment." Yang said rubbing her forehead.

"Gave me a heck of a headache too." She grunted not exactly liking that.

"Well... what do we do now?" Cinder questioned trying to take in the recent events.

Neo however typed a messaged to Star.

"Honestly I'm surprised she didn't do worse." The message read.

"I still think we need to talk to her." Star replied.

"Well that clearly didn't work the first time. What are you planning on doing then?" Mercury replied.

"I think it should be me, Iona, and Pepper. That way we don't crowd her." Star said.

"Though I think we should let her cool down a little bit. I don't think she's very happy at the moment." Pepper said.

However Ruby was very downcasted as she held the gift in her hands "I didn't even had the chance to give her the gift I made." Ruby said somberly.

Not wanting to see the young huntress sad Pepper walked over placing a hand out toward Ruby.

"Here... we'll give her it when we see her okay." Pepper said simply. Ruby nodded as she handed the medium sized box to Pepper.

"Make sure she gets it okay." Ruby said.

"Don't worry we will." Iona said as the three left the lounge room now having to search for their teammate.

=RWBY=

Meanwhile back at the arena the crowd was cheering their heads off as they are anticipating the next match.

"Alright everyone time for the next match of the doubles round." Oobleck announced.

On the right side of the arena Ren and Pyrrha came out as the gently waved to crowd while on the left side came out Sun and Neptune.

"This match will be the representatives of Team JNPR (Juniper) Lie Ren and Pyrrha Nikos of Beacon vs Team SSSN (Sun) representatives Sun Wu Kong and Neptune Vasilias of Shade." Port announced.

"Now I know this is just me saying this but the boys from Shade will be having a hard time in this match especially with Pyrrha out their on the battlefield. Wonder how they'll handle the situation." Oobleck said.

"Yes indeed but first what will the battlefield be for these two teams." Port announced as the dials began to spin as the competitors readied their weapons with Pyrrha raising her shield in defense.

The dials began to spin to decide the location as the competitors waited in anticipation. The dials stopped as they were the symbol of a forest and a teardrop.

"Looks like it'l be a battle of land and sea. This'll be quite interesting." Oobleck said as the arena changed. Behind Neptune and Sun was a dense forest area while Ren and Pyrrha had the sea with the pirate ship floating about in the center of the it.

Neptune seemed to breath a sigh of relief since they didn't have the sea area.

"As long as we don't go the water we should be okay." Neptune said readying his weapon. His weapon looks like a simple long ranged blaster that is boxed shaped.

Sun twirled his staff around before holding it behind him and readied himself in a fighting stance.

"I think you meant you don't go toward the water. Right." Sun added.

"Um... yeah totally what I meant." Neptune said nervously.

Meanwhile on the other end Ren was clear headed and focused as he waited for the signal to begin. Pyrrha however was still rather nervous and not because of the battle but of something else on her mind. Ren gently glance over to her and already noticed that she was tense by the way she stood.

"Relax your shoulders. You'll hurt yourself that way." Ren replied.

"Huh? Oh right sorry." Pyrrha replied as she corrected herself.

"Are you alright? You weren't yourself in the last round." Ren questioned.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Let's focus on getting through this match." Pyrrha said more than eager to get the match started.

A moment later the buzzer rang signaling the start of the battle.

Immediately Neptune fired his weapon and the two as Sun charged in with his staff. Ren dodged the bullet coming at him and began firing back with Stormflower as bullets rained from his weapon. Pyrrha using her shield she block the bullets from Neptune charged in at Sun her sword ready.

The two finally clashed as Sun staff met her sword as they struggled to gain an upper hand on the other. Sun using his knowledge of his weapon swung the bottom of it to try and trip her up but Pyrrha backed away before he could hit her. That gave him an opening to press his attacks forward as he attacked her again. He began comboing his attacks giving Pyrrha little room to attack as she had to remain on the defensive which wasn't looking good for her.

Every time she thinks she'd blocked the attack he manages to break her defenses chipping away at her aura as she has to constantly change where she has to block the attack. Deciding to try something different she sidestepped the next attack causing Sun to slip on his attack which seemed to give Pyrrha an opening for a counter attack. However Sun smirked at this as he suddenly polvolted upward and balanced on his staff. Still holding his weapon he spun on it delievering a dropkick to Pyrrhas side knocking her back a few feet and almost into the water behind her.

She managed to stop herself by stabbing her sword into the ground which stopped her momentum a bit but she was at least still on the battlefield. She took her sword out of the ground before readying herself again.

"I won't go easy on you. We're planning on winning this thing." Sun said boisting his confidence.

"The same can be said for me and my team." Pyrrha said as she charged forward but this time switching to her weapons lance mode to hopefully give her a better reach to hopefully keep Sun away from her.

Meanwhile Ren was keeping his distance away from the Neptune as the blue haired boy as trying his best to hit him but to no avail as Rens quickness proofed to be a problem for him as Ren dodged more of his attacks.

"Hold still dang it." Neptune muttered as he fired at Ren but the boy only continued to dodge his attacks as he flipped over a bullet and then fired as his weapon at him. Neptune saw them coming but while he has managed dodge some of them but she also got hit by a few stray bullets as well chipping away at his aura.

Neptune had to change up his game plan as he pressed a button on his weapon as it changed form. Suddenly a long pole came out of the butt in of the weapon. Then a curved blade came out from under the weapon as it surged with electricity dust as his blaster was now a guandao. He then charged at Ren with new refound vigor as he polvolted giving him some air time trying to get where Ren was.

Ren saw this and took advantage of the opportunity as he pointed his guns upward toward Neptune however instead of shooting at him the sickles on his weapons suddenly lifted upward and fired at the blue haired boy. The sickles wrapped around him entrapping the blue haired boy and with a tug Ren pulled him back to earth with a hard thud knocking a good amount of aura in the processes.

Neptune got up but was still entangled by Ren's weapon but that didn't mean he had a plan. Shifting his weapon a bit to get the blade up to the right height of where the cords were he activated the electricity dust that was in it. Then a surge of electricity ran along the cords directly toward Ren who was still trying to hold him in place as the lightning dust began to zap him taking out almost half of his aura.

This gave Neptune the chance to untangle himself from the cords as they retracted to their owner. Now being free Neptune charged forward but this time changing his weapon mode again as the side of the guandao opened up into an additional blade on each side looking more like a trident. Using his weapon and its extended reach he slashed at Ren multiple times cutting up chunks of Rens aura until one final slash had enough force to send Ren toward the ship hitting the mast which knocked out the remaining bits of his aura eliminating him.

Meanwhile Pyrrha was starting to get a handle of blocking the attacks Sun was hitting her with as she blocked another attack from Sun and this time pressed forward bashing him with her shield finally able to get the upper hand in the fight. However that quickly changed when she got blasted from behind chipping a bit of her aura. She glanced and noticed Neptune now with his weapon back in its blaster mode. She also noticed Ren was nowhere to be seen meaning he had been eliminated from the battle.

"Looks like your outnumbered." Sun replied as he morphed his staff into his nunchakus.

"I might be outnumbered but doesn't mean I'm out matched." Pyrrha said confidently as she swapped to her weapons lance mode.

"I'll take you both on!" She shouted before charging at Sun using her lance to try and stab at him thrusting it forward to attack. Using his nunchakus he batted away the thrust but Pyrrha kept on pushing. Neptune began shooting at her trying to assist in taking down their opponent. Pyrrha heard the shots being fired as she quickly blocked the shots with her shield.

Sun thought he could get an attack in but Pyrrha rolled away from him before thrusting her lance toward him managing to hit him on his side taking a chunk of his aura causing Sun to back off. Sun looked toward Neptune and gave him a nod. Neptune seemed to understand what he meant as he swapped to his weapons trident mode as they both charged in at her from both sides.

Sun collasped his weapon back to his staff as he attack her left side while Neptune charged in and attack her right side. Seeing this Pyrrha managed to block both attacks using her lance to block Sun's staff while also blocking Neptunes trident with her shield. However it was starting to overwhelm her as sweet started come down her head. She gave one big shove sending both of them away.

Deciding to try something else she threw her shield at Neptune in which he dodged but she was actually counting on that. With a wave of her hand she activated her semblance as her shield was surround in a black energy as it began to return to her like a boomerang. This time Neptune took the full blunt of the attack as it hit him on the back of his head. Then with another wave of her hand began to continuously attack him from all sides trying to take out what was left of his aura.

However that left her open for Sun to charge in and attack her but instead of attacking her straight on he decided to use his long staff to trip her up as he aimed for her legs. Pyrrha didn't see it coming as Sun was able to trip her up causing Pyrrha to fall backwards which also made her hand move out of position sending her shield up and away from her as it landed on the ship.

She used the momentum from Sun tripping her to backflip away from the two. However the moment she got to a vertical position she was immediately met with a barrage of bullets from Neptune that continued to chip away at her aura which was enough time for Sun to hit her with his staff sending her directly into the water which wasn't going to be a good thing. Neptune switch to the guandao mode of his gun as lightning dust pulsed through the blade of his weapon.

He then touched his blade toward the water as the effect was immediate as the electricity coursed throughout the water which ended up shocking Pyrrha more than enough as her aura couldn't take it as her aura finally broke. Neptune stopped what he was doing seeing her aura was completely depleted.

"And that is the match. Sun and Neptune are the winners and are moving on to the singles round." Port announced as the crowd cheered.

"Though this has been quite the upset. Even then it all comes down to skill and technique. Very impressive for the Shade team." Oobleck added as the arena reseted to its standby mode.

Ren got up from where he was and went over to Pyrrha who was a disappointed that their team didn't move on to the singles round. She retrieved her shield as they both left the arena.

Jaune and Nora met them at the team room with a proud look on their faces.

"Sorry Jaune. We did our best." Pyrrha apologized but was met with a comforting hug.

"Hey you both did great out their. Win or lose." Jaune said letting her go.

Nora wrapped her arms around Ren who didn't seem to mind it one bit.

"Just watch you both go at out their made me hungry. I'm starving." Nora said with a bright smile.

"I thought you ate two hours ago." Jaune replied.

"Yeah but that was then and this is now. To the festival!" Nora declared with a cheer. Ren only chuckled a bit at his girlfriends antics as the four headed to the festival. Though Pyrrha still had a thought running through her mind as she still had something she needed to do.

F3: And that is Part 1. Part 2 will be coming next. Wonder whats going to happen next especially since Rina isn't too happy with the group involved right now and what will she have to say. For you readers out their make sure to add this to your follow for future updates. Also drop a comment please and tell me how I'm doing. With that said this has been Fireuser3 and I'm out.