Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.
CHAPTER 10
Weiss changed into her combat attire when she retrieved her weapon, then walked down to the front of the class, and raised her rapier. She was confident of her own abilities. Who cared if her entire team looked at her with contempt. She'd prove to all of them that Weiss Schnee didn't need a partner or a teammate to take on a single grimm. Looking at the rest of the class, she noticed that the only members of team SPGL, RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL even watching her, were the bear and the girl with the golden face scarf, the big one of which, grinned with his fingers interlocked. She sneered, and returned her focus to the cage in front of her. "Animals and gutter trash, all of them." Weiss thought, as Professor Port chopped the lock off the cage.
The fight was almost embarrassing. All the more reason for Siniy to be snickering, and Halcyone to be laughing her ass off. The heiress tried to grapple the boarbatusk, with a rapier. That was never going to work. She had neither the strength or the right weapon to kill the thing. If her sword was a saber, or a machete like Halcyone's then maybe a good few swings would cut through the bone plating off the boar's face armor, but a fencing sword was designed to thrust into the gaps that existed in a set of armor. Siniy shook his head, and then actually laughed. She wasn't using her speed as an advantage to get around the grimm, a foolish move, even Siniy could see that, and his usual method of operation was to bulldoze through opposition… To be fair, it worked much better for him due to his bulk, but Weiss was by no means an amazon, and she was fighting on only two plains, horozontally and vertically, had she taken what little space she had to adjust her angle to the side slightly, she'd have won in the first move.
As the fight dragged on, Weiss lost her weapon, and the boarbatusk went into a rolling charge. Weiss with no direction or sense of tactical analysis tried to dodge the boar, only to be slammed into, and sent flying against the far wall of the room. Seeing stars, Weiss slowly realized the boar was lining up another charge. Her aura was low, her weapon was gone. She could still do this, she had her semblance. Still, she expected somebody to do something either way, but wished they wouldn't, she needed to prove herself.
Someone did in fact help her, but it wasn't who Weiss thought it'd be. There was a loud gunshot, and a cloud of smoke from across the aisle of team RWBY, where Team SPGL sat, causing the students who did not have their auras active to slap their hands over their ears in pain from the sound of a gun discharging in an enclosed space. Looking up, everyone saw Pale had drawn a snub nose .31 caliber 5 shot pre-war "Wells" revolver, he'd named "Cattle Driver" that was hidden up his sleeve on a sliding rail.
Without a word, Pale jerked his arm back and the revolver slipped up his sleeve. He hadn't even taken his hat off his face. Everyone was shocked by his action but Pale had his reasons. It wouldn't do well to have a dead Schnee on his conscience. If she died there'd be an investigation and that would draw police involvement, and from there either he'd be found out, or Blake and any other infiltrators would run… And he couldn't have that.
Though he'd shot the boarbatusk, it simply squealed and writhed on the ground in pain. Pale hadn't used his semblance to multiply the damage of every previous shot he'd landed, there was no point. He wasn't trying to steal the heiress's kill, and if he'd missed while using his semblance there went his damage streak. Given how he'd taken the shot blind, that was something he wouldn't risk. He was good, but not so good as to overconfidently think he didn't have a margin of error when shooting guided by sound.
Weiss stood up from against the wall, and picked up her sword. With Pale's shot placement the boarbatusk had lost motor control of its back feet, and was dragging it's upper body. With a grunt, Weiss shoved Myrtenaster deep into the armpit of the grimm, killing it instantly. "Bravo. Bravo to both Weiss and Pale. We have the makings of both a fine huntress and huntsman. But I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and as Mr. Lee has reminded us, stay vigilant. Class dismissed." Professor Port said, allowing his student's to leave the room two minutes before the bell.
"What was that, man?" Clayton asked Pale, as Weiss stormed off down the hall in a huff, Ruby running off after her to wrangle in her partner. Pale raised an eyebrow.
"Pardon my ill developed intuition when it comes to faunus human relations, but I'm havin' a hard time believing you're a bad enough man to really want her dead, even if she is a prat and your people's worst enemy." Pale said.
"My people?" Clayton asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, your people, the faunus." Pale said with a hand wave.
"There is no, my people, Pale. She's a Schnee, and a racist, and an entitled brat, but she's no different on the inside than any of the worst faunus out there." Clayton said, only for Pale to scoff.
"Believe me, I've seen that… Still though, I'm surprised you wanted that boar to get to her." Pale said.
Clayton shook his head. "I don't give a damn what happens to her. I'm not going to try hurting her just because she's a bitch, but I'm not going to help her either." Clayton said.
Siniy grunted. "The Schnee's have gotten enough help from the faunus, let her fend for herself if she's not asking for assistance." He said. Halcyone chuckled.
"Look at this team, coming together over a mutual hatred of somebody else." She said with a smile.
Siniy tilted his head back and forth. "I wouldn't call my feelings on Weiss hatred. More like, contempt."
Far ahead down the hall. "Weiss, what was that?" Ruby asked her partner.
"That? That was me being humiliated in front of the entire class. That's what that was." Weiss said, not bothering to look at Ruby as she walked.
"You're upset because somebody helped you?" Ruby asked in confusion.
"I'm upset, because I didn't ask for any help." Weiss said, turning her nose at the thought.
"We're a team Weiss. It's perfectly fine to ask for help on a team." Ruby said with a sigh, only to be cut off.
"Pale isn't on our team…" Weiss said, stopping all movement, clenching her fists.
"And none of you lifted so much as a finger to help me, even if I didn't ask, I expected one of you, at the least, to do something. But you, your sister, and the shy girl, would rather watch me get impaled wouldn't you… I might accept the fact you're my leader, but you're doing a pretty bad job of it so far if leaving me for dead is how you operate." Weiss said, walking off, leaving Ruby to think about what her partner had said.
Ruby and Clayton sat apart from their teams at dinner. Neither really prepared to deal with Weiss and Pale. It was like white was a marker for being an asshole or something. "Weiss was upset that your partner helped her in class." Ruby said, sitting down with a glass of milk.
"I was a little upset with him too." Clayton admitted as he bit into his steak.
"Why? He did the right thing helping her. That was heroic of him." Ruby said in confusion.
"If she's going to be a huntress, she needs to be able to take care of a single trash level grimm on her own." Clayton said with a shrug.
"Are you sure you didn't just want to see her get hurt for being mean to you before initiation?" Ruby asked, and Clayton sighed.
"Maybe a little, but it's not like it's undeserved." Ruby shook her head at her boyfriends words. Clayton was a good guy, and although his view on humans and faunus was complex compared to most, he wasn't above hating Weiss as it seemed.
"I talked with her during initiation. She's not going to say or do anything to any faunus so long as she's on my team… I expect that you will give her the same courtesy." Ruby said, before she started sipping on her milk.
Clayton huffed. "So long as she doesn't do anything, neither will I." As a reward for his promise, Ruby gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Weiss wasn't going to just skip dinner. She'd sat far away from her team, and everyone else for that matter, wanting not to be disturbed. Unfortunately, Pale chose that moment to sit down across the table from her. There was a silent few seconds where the two just ate, until Weiss got tired of his game.
"If you shot that grimm in class because you like me or something, forget it. I'm not interested." Weiss said, only for Pale to chuckle.
"I shot that grimm because if it killed you I'd be down the only other intelligent human here." Pale said, earning a scoff from Weiss.
"Dissatisfied with your team as well?" Weiss asked, holding up her fork.
"Could do with a few less faunus, but Clayton seems like one of the few that knows how to be amicable with humans." Pale said, causing Weiss to look up from her meal.
"Why are you talking to me?" Weiss asked.
Pale shrugged before responding. "Way I see it, the two of us clearly ain't fond of our teams and I'd rather have a friend who I don't have to worry about turning on me." Pale said, holding out a hand. "So whaddya say?" He asked, only for Weiss to slap his hand away.
"I don't want your pity." She hissed, before standing up with her tray, and leaving the cafeteria, she was too emotional to be making a decision on who she could trust at the moment.
Clayton and Ruby saw the exchange, and though they didn't know what words were spoken, sighed as they saw Weiss hit Pale. "I'm starting to think Weiss just hates everybody." Ruby said.