They were sitting in the cafeteria a few days later when the unthinkable happened.
Lunch was starting to wind down, the time for the first year's next class with Ms. Goodwitch fast approaching. Team Vibrant and Siren were all still at their seats, in mild conversation between bites, content to try and stretch out the few minutes they had before class. It wasn't that they weren't excited for combat class… they were just the only teams that could put up a fight with each other, and they had each sparred several times with each member of both teams by now. The rest in their class simply weren't on their level. It had even gotten to the point where Pyrrha was sparring against entire teams by herself. Yang and Violet had been the only other two to replicate that feat, if not as easily as Pyrrha had.
Pyrrha was chatting with Weiss about some of her favorite memories during her years as a tournament champion, the people she had met, the more difficult fights she had won. Ruby was oiling Crescent Rose, in preparation for class. Nora had seen a few other girls looking at Ren, and was unsuccessfully trying to convince him to wear a pin that she had written 'Property of Nora' on in black sharpie. Violet was reading Blake's book. She was close to finishing it, only two chapters away, and had promised Blake that they would discuss it once Violet was done. Her attention kept getting stolen away from it, though, as Yang was excitedly talking about a new Spruce Willis movie she wanted to go see later that night.
"Guys, it's gonna be awesome. Trust me. I watched the trailer for it! 'Dye Hard' is going to be this summer's big box office hit!" Yang loudly proclaimed. The only one actively listening was Blake, but she didn't look very impressed.
"Hmm," the sound Blake made was the very definition of noncommittal, "Yang, you do realize that we're training to fight monsters for a living, right?"
"So!? Our lives aren't half as exciting as Spruce Willis's, even with the monster fighting!"
Violet felt Yang turn her eyes on her, hoping for backup on this one. Violet sighed, "I'll go, if you promise to rein in your voice so I can finish this book before we leave later."
Yang's mouth opened and she pumped a fist into the air, but the shout she was about to make came out instead as a muted, "yeaaah", at a look from Violet. 'That would've been the fastest promise broken in the history of ever.'
Violet's eyes caught on to the cafeteria doors opening before she could turn back to her book. Cardin had stepped inside, looking troubled. His gaze was up long enough to see where his team was sitting before his eyes dropped back down, legs carrying him forward towards them while he was still lost in thought.
Velvet stood up from the table she was at, excusing herself to go drop off her tray and leave for the second year's classes. Her eyes fell on Cardin walking towards her as she left the table. Violet saw a look of apprehension fall across the girl's face, her eyes darting between Cardin and Weiss. She resolved to keep walking, but as Cardin drew closer, her gaze became more and more uncertain. With her eyes locked on the bully, she didn't manage to notice the liquid that had spilled on to the ground where she was about to step. With a startled cry, her feet slipped out from under her, right as Cardin was passing.
On pure instinct, Cardin reached out and grabbed a hold of Velvet, stopping her fall. The two stood their awkwardly for a few seconds, neither sure what to do, before Cardin dipped down and picked up her tray along with the leftover wrappers that had been on it. Wordlessly, he handed them to Velvet and walked away to his team, sitting on the bench with them and ignoring their stares.
Velvet's face was stuck in absolute bewilderment as she left the cafeteria.
Violet turned back to her book, a self satisfied look on her face that only she and Blake understood. The rest of the table erupted in whispers, as those that had seen what happened pointed it out to the others.
"Cardin Winchester just helped a faunus!?"
"It looked like an accident to me. He didn't even mean to."
"You're sure it was Cardin, and not some body double?"
"This isn't one of your Spruce Willis movies, Yang!"
"Good thing too. It would have ended with an explosion if it was."
Violet let their voices drown out as she turned back to the book. Her eyes didn't travel across the pages in front of her, though. Violet wasn't reading. She was scheming.
Cardin leaned against his hand, propped up by his elbow on the rail in front of him. Goodwitch's class had gone as usual so far. The members of team Vibrant and Siren had trounced all the other students they were pitted against, then used some of their remaining weekly challenges to fight each other instead. Honestly, even though he would never admit it to any of them, their skills were incredible. Even the kid that had gotten in two years early showed how adept she was with her weapon and her semblance, using them in tandem to unleash attacks that were horrifyingly swift and accurate.
Right now, she was fighting the yellow haired one. Her sister, if he recalled correctly. How two kids could come out looking so different was beyond him. They were both complete powerhouses, though. The older sister more so than the younger, if only because of the age difference. Cardin had taken to observing both team's fighting styles more closely over the last few days, trying to learn something from them that he just couldn't from the other teams. They might have been the titans that ruled the class, but he was still a cut above the rest of the other first years.
It was disheartening, to say the least. He had reached a plateau, one that he didn't know how to rise above. He wasn't learning anything from the other students, not really, and his fights with Vibrant and Siren were over faster than he could think. The gap in their skill levels was just too dominant.
The fight between the two sisters came to an abrupt end, as the older one that had been getting pressed towards the edge of the stage turned that momentum around on the younger, catching her scythe with her aura protected arm and pulling the girl into an overhead throw that carried the younger one out of bounds. Watching from above, it had been clear that she was giving ground on purpose, drawing the younger girl closer to the stage to end the fight with a ring out.
The kid got up with a laugh, though. Not demoralized, as Cardin would have been. Instead the two girls embraced, talking over what they had been thinking as they fought, sharing their experiences to learn from them in a way that Cardin had never been able to.
As they returned to their seats, Goodwitch returned to the stage, turning her gaze up to the students in attendance, "We have time for one more spar today. If anyone would like to use your challenge, please make it known." Cardin watched Violet stand and shook his head. 'Going to try and beat Pyrrha again?' The girl was relentless. Her eyes drifted past the championship fighter though and rested on Cardin, who couldn't resist swallowing in dread.
"Cardin Winchester, I choose you," Violet said gravely, a quirk to her lips that went unnoticed. He stood up straight from where he had been slumped and nodded uncertainly. She just walked out of the stands and off to the women's changing room, though, and Cardin had no choice but to follow suit into the men's. His mind was a haze of panic and a forlorn understanding that he didn't stand a chance. Cardin wasn't sure what had started this, 'Had she seen what happened in the cafeteria? Maybe she thought it was rude that I didn't say anything. Maybe she thinks I was the reason Velvet nearly fell again in the first place.' All he could do was try his best.
The class was silent as Cardin exited the locker room. Violet was already on the stage, rubbing a hand furiously on her ridiculous greatsword as if she had seen a spot of dirt. Cardin sighed, her odd personality didn't dull her skills, unfortunately. He composed himself as best he could, and waited for the beat down he was about to receive. Cardin lifted his mace in his right hand and took up his fighting stance, preparing to at least defend himself.
But, as Goodwitch signalled for the fight to start, Violet simply stuck her greatsword into the arena floor in front of herself, resting her arms forward on it while she gave him a critical look. Cardin felt exposed, under that gaze.
"You need to bend your knees more. You're a big guy, and you're leaving your center of gravity too high up. It would be pretty easy to knock you over."
Cardin just stared in confusion, 'What is she doing?' Violet rolled her eyes at him, and said with a wink of one dazzling eye, "Just trust me, okay?"
Cardin nodded hesitantly and bent his knees a little. Violet glared, and Cardin nearly staggered as a massive weight suddenly dropped him lower. Cardin's eyes darted around, his aura instinctively flaring up to defend himself from the attack.
"Stop that," the girl grumbled, drawing his eyes back to her. A bead of sweat had formed on her forehead as she stared at him in concentration. 'Is this her doing?'
Cardin let his aura die down, and her expression relaxed. He felt the weight fluctuate slightly, the shift making his body raise and lower a little bit. His muscles didn't expect the sudden changes. He was applying a certain amount of strength to hold himself up, and when the weight lightened, his body rose slightly. When it grew heavier, his knees bent back down.
Violet nodded her approval after about fifteen seconds, "That's much better. You should spread your legs out further apart too, though."
Cardin just shrugged and spread his legs further apart until she seemed satisfied with their positioning. Cardin felt his arm slowly raise as the weight was lifted off them, pulling his weapon up and closer to the middle of his body.
"From there you can react more quickly to an attack on either side, and above. It's easier to start high, since lowering your weapon down to block a strike aimed at your legs has the added benefit of gravity working with you to get it down faster. Just don't block your own line of sight with your mace," the girl gave his stance one more look before nodding, "Now, attack me."
Cardin felt his body weight vanish, suddenly feeling light on his feet. Even as he moved forward to attack, Violet kept talking.
"You don't have Pyrrha's speed, which is what you need if you want to get into my guard before I can counter. You have a much heavier build. If you want to overcome the difference in the length of our weapons, you need to try and bait out an attack first. Calculate the reach of your opponent, and keep yourself light of foot when you approach. Once you reach that range," she punctuated that by swinging her greatsword at his head, which he quickly stepped back out of reach from, "let the person attack, and capitalize on their mistake." She comically continued holding her greatsword out to the side, where it had stopped after missing him.
Cardin got the hint, and stepped back into her reach. She actually swung it this time, forcing him back. The instant it whistled by, though, he stepped into her guard and swung his mace horizontally at her head. Cardin was shocked as she dipped beneath the blow, letting her greatsword's weight carry her into a spin that ended with her left fist slamming into his stomach. He staggered back from surprise, more than anything. There hadn't been nearly as much power in it as there was during their first duel.
"Swing lower. A blow to the head can be ducked too easily. Aim for center mass, and be ready to step into the swing so that they have nowhere to dodge."
The odd lesson kept going from there. Violet showed him how to parry, a better way to set his body to block her massive blows, how to follow up on an attack without winding up as much. After another ten minutes, she started fighting at what seemed like half speed. The entire time, she was manipulating his body and giving him more suggestions. She made his arms heavier as she swung an attack towards him, lowering his guard to block more effectively. She removed the weight from his body when he was going to get caught in a horizontal slash, allowing him to backpedal out of range instead of taking the blow to the chest. On and on she fluctuated the weight of his limbs and weapon, until he started to move in those ways ahead of the weight transfer, getting used to the movements Violet was drilling into him.
The strain was becoming clear on her face. Violet's had broken out in sweat, despite the relatively slow pace of the fight. She finally stopped after the fifteen minute mark, getting a breather. Violet looked up at him and gave a half smile, "Alright, time to end this."
Cardin felt the various manipulations on his body fade away, back in complete control. He quickly moved his body back to a close approximation of what she had shown him, and waited for her to attack. Violet paused, nodded her head once after looking at him, and from a relaxed position, crossed the intervening space in a flash that he still wasn't expecting.
As Cardin lay on the ground thirty seconds later, his aura in the red, weapon far out of reach, and a greatsword hovering in front of his face, he would at least be grateful that he'd lasted longer than in their first fight.
Violet grinned, returning the greatsword to her back, and offered him a hand, "Can't expect to see too much improvement after one day. Challenge me tomorrow and we'll pick up where we left off."
Cardin accepted the hand and felt his body get lighter again as she pulled him off the floor. She turned away, heading back to the women's locker room.
Cardin could only manage one word as she walked away, "Why?"
Violet turned around and gave him a considering look, then shrugged, "Good karma? An olive branch? Stay on the hero's path and you'll see how much stronger you'll get because of it."
'So she saw me helping Velvet?' Cardin was too tired to smile, 'Yeah... I could get used to this.'
"We already tried the stick, I just wanted to test out the carrot," Violet said, once again trying to explain why she had been so nice to Cardin in Glynda's class earlier. She had managed to evade their questions long enough to get a shower in, and was sitting in bed with Blake's book propped up against her knees. Even the faunus was sending questions her way, though. Violet sighed and shut it, there was only half an hour before the movie anyway, and Nora had popped her head in to let them know her team was ready to leave.
Violet set the book down next to her and stood up, stretching. That 'training session' with Cardin had been fatiguing, in more ways than one. They all headed to the door, Yang in front as she swung it open for them, "Ahh, yeah! Girl's night out!" Team Siren was already waiting for them.
"Ehem."
"And Ren," Yang corrected with a smirk before setting off down the hallway.
They arrived at the theater with only a few minutes to spare. Violet bought copious amounts of snacks to divvy out while the others got into the theater, hoping to snag seats for all of them. Violet followed soon after, arms loaded with sweets and popcorn that she quickly dispensed to her friends. Luckily, they had managed to get a row for themselves, a long line of brightly colored teens that stretched out across its entirety. One or two people were giving Yang a scathing stare from a couple rows behind them, though, so maybe luck had nothing to do with it. The last seat had been left for Violet, with Blake on her left and the isle on her right. The other members of team Vibrant were past Blake, then Siren even further down, with Ren on the far end next to Nora.
The movie was just starting as Violet sat, "Perfect timing." The movie played through the opening credits, music loud enough that even Violet's ears were starting to feel it. She'd never actually gone to a movie theater in this life, it was practically deafening.
Violet flinched when she felt something push up against her, then looked over. Blake had buried the side of her head against Violet's arm and shoulder, using her to cover half her ears on that side. Violet could see the pained expression on her face and changed her position slightly, better covering her ears for her. Blake looked at her thankfully, if a little red in the cheeks, and they went back to watching the movie. Violet felt Blake bundle up next to her in the dark, but ignored it. 'Whatever she needs to do to enjoy herself.'
The movie was fun, if a little played up. 'If I ever say that many one liners during a fight…' The ending was satisfying, though. A few people cheered and clapped in the audience as people started to stand, 'Why? They can't hear you clapping…' Violet stood up from her seat and Blake nearly fell over in surprise. 'When did she start leaning against me so hard?' Violet shrugged and gave Blake a hand before leading the two teams out of the theater. It wasn't until she stepped out into the cold night air that Violet realized how late it was.
The second thing she noticed were the red and blue lights flashing just down the street. Violet smirked back at Nora who was just then seeing the lights for the first time.
"I'm sorry, Nora. I had to turn you in."
Nora gasped, looking between Violet and the police cars down the street, "Traitor!"
"I wonder what happened?" Pyrrha interrupted, talking more to herself than them. She went on tip toe, trying to see down the street.
"Let's check it out!" Yang smacked her fists together, apparently still pumped up from the movie, and took off towards the lights.
"You really shouldn't run at the police, Yang," Ren cautioned, but she was already gone.
The rest followed more slowly. As they approached, it became apparent that it was a dust shop that had been robbed. Glass from the windows was shattered outwards, and a briefcase half-packed with dust crystals was spilled out across the pavement inside the perimeter the police had set up. There were splashes of blood across the pavement and a person's white chalk outline in front of the door. All things considered, it looked like someone had been murdered. Their group was able to catch a bit of the officer's conversation as they stood near the yellow tape, faced away to look over the scene of the crime.
"Nah, it just doesn't make a lick'a sense. Who needs that much dust?"
"You thinkin' the uh, White Fang?"
"Yeah I'm thinkin' we don't get paid enough."
Blake stepped back, motioning the rest of them away from the police, "Why would the White Fang rob a dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale?"
"You don't think it was them? Why not?" Weiss asked.
Blake shook her head, "No. I don't think it was them. This isn't the White Fang's usual M.O."
"And how do you know so much about how the White Fang operates?" Weiss replied quietly, looking closely at Blake as she said it.
"I… I…" Violet grabbed Blake's hand as she started to step backwards, holding her in place. Violet smiled lightly, waiting for Blake to look calm down. Blake's face was a mixture of fear and anxiety, but slowly relaxed. She looked back at Violet with appreciation.
Blake turned to Weiss and clutched Violet's hand harder, standing firm before looking back into Weiss's eyes, "I used to be a member of the White Fang. I quit before coming to Beacon, and I don't intend on ever going back to them."
Weiss seemed hesitant, doubtful. She stared at Blake, a quiver in her shoulders.
"Weiss," Violet said just her name, to get her attention. Weiss's eyes latched on to hers as she spoke, "You can trust her."
Weiss looked back to Blake, her face a twist of so many competing emotions that it became unreadable, "Just tell me one thing, Blake..." at Blake's nod she continued, "...Did you ever kill anyone?"
Blake's eyes widened and she shook her head vigorously, "No! No, I left because they were getting too violent. The White Fang that I knew was gone. They… they've gone too far."
Weiss let out a trembling sigh of relief, "Then we have nothing to worry about."
They all stood around in awkward silence until Ren suggested the sleep on it. Both Weiss and Blake were quiet, deep in thought for the trip back to their dorms in Beacon. Yang tried to pick up a conversation about the movie, but stopped after a while. No one else was in the mood.
The teams still wished each other farewell before parting, heading into their rooms. Yang leaned against the bookshelf in front of the window, Blake sat down on Yang's bed, and Ruby collapsed on to Violet's.
"As much as I love a cuddle-buddy, Little Red," Ruby giggled as Violet used her semblance and picked her up, tossing her into her bunk up top, "You're a million years too young for me."
"You're only two years older!"
"And in a million years I'll still be two years older," Violet laughed.
The group fell back into silence for a minute as Ruby and Violet both got themselves situated.
"So, we're investigating, right?" Violet asked finally, looking towards the two silent girls across from them.
"Isn't that the police's job?" Yang asked, shooting a protective look at Ruby.
"Would Spruce Willis leave it to the cops?" Ruby shot back, "I can handle myself, Yang."
"I know you can, Ruby. That doesn't mean I need to be happy about this."
"Didn't you hear what they said? They're not interested in following up on the robbery. If someone is collecting that much dust, we have to know who it is, White Fang or not," Blake added in, giving Violet a nod.
"Blake is right. Whatever they're planning, it can't be good," Violet tacked on.
Yang sighed and turned to look out the window, "Alright, alright. We'll do some investigating… What's the plan?"