"We're supposed to be teammates..." Ruby muttered under her breath as she then took a deep breath in and followed after Weiss.
"Weiss, please I wasn't trying to walk into you!" Ruby apologized. "I'm sorry!" she yelled out as Weiss finally struck her last nerve with the girl.
"You're not cut out to be a leader." she stated flatly. "It should have been me."
"But I..." Ruby slumped down as the cafeteria was starting to empty out and it was time for sparring sessions next.
Blake followed the rabbit faunus girl from the cafeteria and stopped her, grabbing a hold of her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked.
The girl turned towards Blake, wiping a tear from her eye as she nodded. "Y-Yes... Thanks for your concern."
"You shouldn't let bullies like that trample over you." Blake stated.
"But, if I did that wouldn't I just be stooping to his level?" the girl asked. "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself, I'm Velvet, Velvet Scarlatina, I'm a second year student it's nice to meet you." she smiled to Blake.
"Blake Belladonna." Blake nodded. "And that's still no way to allow things to happen." she shook her head. "Especially as an upperclassmen."
"Belladonna... That name sounds familiar." Velvet pondered as Blake's eyes darted from side to side.
"B-Back to the topic." Blake stated, wanting to switch gears. "Why do you let Cardin bully you?" Velvet.
"Sorry. Back to that, I figured that if he does all his hateful stuff here, he might not do it out in the field when actual people need saving." Velvet reasoned. "I just don't believe in resolving something like hatefulness with violence."
"I... Can sympathize." Blake watched as the cafeteria was starting to clear out.
"I mean there has to be a reason you're hiding your-" before Velvet could continue a voice called out to her, it sounded distinctly female. "Oh, I'm sorry Blake I have to get going. We can talk some other time if you'd like, Look up team CFVY if you'd like to find me. That's C-F-V-Y." she smiled, posing with a peace sign and a hand on her hip before the voice called out to her again. "Coming Coco!" she ran back over to the stylishly dressed girl.
Blake smiled a little, but also took a deep breath. "That was a little too close." she made her way over to the amphitheater for the sparring sessions.
As Professor Goodwitch began her lecture on sparring etiquette, explaining how this would function on similar rules to a tournament. A participant may be allowed to forfeit, and the fighting must stop when one fighter's aura reaches below 20% and falls into a "red" zone. However there have been incidents where auras can drop drastically from a heavy hit and that all students should try to remain aware of their aura pools as they fight. Ruby moved herself away from Weiss and next to her sister.
Professor Goodwitch had just finished when Ruby stood up. "Oh? Miss Rose, would you like to start today's sparring matches?"
"I uh..." Ruby was nervous now, she couldn't say no after getting herself into this position. "Yes." she nodded and quickly went to the locker room to change to her combat gear.
"Now who would like to spar against her?" A few hands shot up, among those hands were Cardin Winchester, Erika Summers and Weiss.
"Miss Schnee, you would like to spar against your team's leader?" Professor Goodwitch asked as the girl nodded, a confident smirk on her face as she went down to get herself ready as well.
"Oh no..." Yang shuddered now, realizing what was likely going to happen here.
Ruby stepped out, now fully geared up as she looked to the stands, wondering who she was gonna be fighting. She was looking for her team, she saw just about everyone there except... "Weiss..." she looked down as Weiss stepped out from behind her, with her own combat garb on, along with her weapon.
"Now, you know the rules, 5 minute time limit and you must stop once one of your aura's hits below 20%, one of you rings out or one of you forfeits." Glynda explained as Ruby drew out Crescent Rose, transforming it into it's scythe form.
The two girls nodded in understanding as Weiss drew out Myrtenaster, pointing it forward. "If all is understood..." Glynda took a few steps back. "Let the match begin."
Weiss dashed forward in a blur lunging straight for Ruby, who ducked to the side to dodge as she then attempted to catch Weiss from behind with her scythe in a spin attack that Weiss back flipped away from, landing gracefully on her feet as Ruby then aimed a shot from her sniper at the heiress. Weiss created a wall of ice that blocked the bullet and then pointing her hand forward when Ruby dashed towards her with accelerated speeds, shattered the ice in Ruby's direction, catching her off guard, and making her fall back. Ruby's Aura taking the hit and now falling into 85%.
Ruby stood herself up as Weiss made 6 light blue glyphs appear behind her, draining her aura down to the same level as Ruby's before the glyphs all fired out icicles at her. Ruby barely had time to react, but was able to deflect the first five, getting hit in the arm by the last one as Weiss then charged forward, slashing downward with Myrtenaster. Ruby barely being able to raise Crescent Rose to block Weiss's assault of slashes and stabs that dwindled her aura down to 50% on the Amphitheater's screen.
Weiss smirked eagerly as she didn't let up, but Ruby then, gritting her teeth with tears starting to form in her eyes, spun around with accelerated speed, tripping Weiss up onto her back as Ruby then, dragging her scythe along the ground slashed upwards, knocking Weiss into the air and dealing a massive hit to her aura that dropped her to 50%. Weiss created a glyph that quickly caught her before she hit the ground and launched herself off of it at Ruby who, aiming her scythe at the ground dodged Weiss's attack by jumping from the recoil of a sniper round and then spun around, bringing her weapon down at Weiss, who thanks to a carefully timed glyph caught Ruby, then flung her off and onto her back.
Ruby quickly picked herself up and slashed at Weiss again, the girl gracefully dodging Ruby's attacks before landing right onto her scythe and stabbing forward with Myrtenaster. Ruby smirked now, transforming Crescent Rose into it's sniper form, which in turn caused Weiss to fall off of it as she then fired off a couple of shots, one of which, clipped Weiss on the shoulder, before she blocked the next one. Both of their Auras were now at 30% and it was clear Weiss wasn't about to let this match end out of her favor.
Focusing her aura, a new glyph appeared, this one was black and Ruby suddenly couldn't move. Weiss then created a white glyph behind her and launched herself at the trapped Ruby, making several other glyphs appear around her as she slashed at Ruby disarming her of her scythe and then bounded off the next glyph at Ruby, hitting her again before bounding off the next one and hitting her with a combo of stabs and rebounds from these glyphs till Ruby's Aura shattered and she landed gracefully at her feet.
"The match is done. The winner is, Miss Schnee." Professor Goodwitch stated as the lights came back on in the room and Weiss curtsied, turning to Ruby who was having a slightly hard time getting up. The scoreboard showing her Aura was only just slowly regenerating from 0%.
"Hmph." Weiss gave a glance to Ruby as she walked off to the locker hall to switch out of her combat gear.
"If you need to, you may head over to the infirmary Miss Rose." Glynda stated as Ruby went off to the locker hall without another word, trying her hardest to avoid Weiss there.
"Next up, Mr. Winchester how about you pick your opponent." Glynda stated as Cardin smirked. Ruby was back in the stands with her hood over her head as Yang put a hand on her shoulder. Ruby brushed it off.
Cardin chose a student in the front row that had dog ears as his faunus trait. To say he had an easy time with this student would be an under statement, he was relentless on them.
This again made Blake bite her tongue as he kept himself in top shape through the next fight with another faunus student that he picked because of them being scrawny. Alix, who was sitting next to Yang was about to raise his hand to challenge Cardin when Jaune did.
Cardin smirked as Jaune stepped out in his combat gear.
"There's no way he's going to win against Cardin." Yang shook her head.
"I don't know, Jaune is pretty clever." Pyrrha reasoned as she watched Jaune dodge Cardin's heavy swings, albeit barely dodge them given by how the attacks kept almost making contact.
"Cleverness can only get you so far if you don't have the strength or skill to back it up." Ren stated as Jaune blocked an attack of Cardin's with his shield, which knocked it out of his hand. Losing his best method of Defense Jaune clashed blades with Cardin who smirked at him, now having Jaune at the edge of the arena.
"This is the part where you lose." Cardin stated before Jaune suddenly let go of his weapon and tackled Cardin to the ground in a very unorthodox move.
"Over my dead body!" Jaune grit his teeth as he attempted to wrestle Cardin's weapon from his hand, however in this attempt he pressed the button that activated the dust in it, Cardin pointing it at Jaune and Jaune getting engulfed in an explosion that instantly shattered his aura and sent him flying out of the ring.
"Ow..." Jaune groaned as Cardin stood up, brushing himself off...
"Amateur." Cardin scoffed.
Alix grit his teeth as he shot his hand up, Cardin smirking in his direction before Glynda stepped up to the stage. "i'm afraid that's all we have time for today." she stated. "Do try to remember students, that this is only sparring and that everyone here is learning." she glared at Cardin, which actually did manage to scare him.
Out in the hallway it was a completely different scene from when everyone had entered the Amphitheater. Weiss was walking out smiling confidently, but briefly shooting a glare in Ruby's direction. Ruby's head was hung low, and Jaune was still holding his side with Pyrrha trying to help him.
"What a mess." Alix remarked as Yang turned around and faced him with a smile.
"So I hear the upperclassmen are throwing a party tonight at a place just off the airship stop. Wanna come?" she sounded eager.
"But don't you have your teammates to be concerned with?" Alix asked, pointing to the downtrodden Ruby, the confident Weiss and Blake still being distant.
"Eh, it'll sort itself out." Yang brushed it off before sighing a bit. "I already tried helping before anyways. If there's anything my Uncle Qrow taught me, it's that when you tried, you've tried. No sense in pushing yourself too hard if it's not you with the issue. I can't make Weiss think differently about my sister and Ruby usually bounces back from stuff like this. Trust me, she'll be her normal cheery self in no time!" she assured.
"If you say so..." Alix sighed. "I'll see about meeting you on the way there. You might need a sober friend to take you home."
Roughly 3 weeks had passed since this conversation... In this time, after classes Ruby would shut herself away from everyone else either in the dorm room, on her bed or generally just away from Weiss if anything. She still did remain in steady contact with Jaune and Yang, but those two didn't seem to understand how she felt. Weiss on the other hand has been performing her hardest and has de-facto taken up the role of leader of the team despite not being officially made it... The main issue Weiss has been dealing with is that no one will take orders from her, Yang's typically too hungover to listen, Ruby's too frightened to say anything and Blake just seems annoyed when Weiss orders her to do something as the team's leader and doesn't listen. As for Team JNPR, Jaune has been missing from their dorm room on a regular basis and has been hanging out with Cardin far more than his own team. He assures his teammates that he's only doing Cardin favors, but it's painfully obvious that Cardin has something over Jaune that's been keeping him away from his team.
When the time had come for evaluations in Professor Greene's class she clearly expressed disgust with team RWBY's grades specifically.
After class the four were held back for a discussion.
Professor Greene adjusted her glasses "Atrocious... Your grades are, that is." she stated as she placed the assignment which was graded with an F onto the table.
"Well maybe if someone here would listen to what we needed to do!" Weiss glared at Ruby
Ruby hid behind her sister who yawned tiredly.
"And you're no better, Yang Xiao Long! You're always so tired! Why don't you care about your own grades here?!" Weiss stomped her foot on the ground.
Yang just groaned, wiping sleep from her eyes. "Maybe I'd care if you weren't acting bossy, Ice Queen."
"Well I'd never!" Weiss was fuming now.
"Miss Belladonna, you're contributing fine to the assignment, however this lack of communication with your teammates has affected your score." Professor Greene stated which made Blake look down, her bow slightly twitching as she did.
"That is why..." Professor Greene raised her voice which stopped Weiss from going any further on her own tirade. "I'm sending you up to Professor Ozpin's office for assistance. I can't help a team that doesn't want to help itself. That will be all." she pointed them to the door.
Professor Ozpin sat at his desk, sipping from his mug, looking at the four girls who sat before him. "You four have had quite the first few weeks." the headmaster chuckled.
"These three, won't listen to me when I tell them we have to get our work done!" Weiss argued.
"Why should they? You're not the team's leader." Ozpin leaned forward at his desk.
"I'm not... But I should be! These past few weeks I've shown that I'm more capable than Ruby is!" Weiss stomped her foot on the ground like the spoiled kid she was.
"Why are you in my office then?" Professor Ozpin smirked and it shut Weiss up as she looked down. "Miss Rose... Tell me, how do you feel?"
"I feel like I let everyone down." she stated. "I'm not a good leader and-"
"Don't tell me what Weiss thinks about you. Tell me what you, think about you."
Ruby took a deep breath, the tension in the air was feeling a bit easier on her now. "I... I want to try." Ruby stated. "I want to try and be a good leader. I haven't had a real chance to be one and the pressure of being one is scary." she explained.
Ozpin simply smiled. "Alright then." he then turned towards Yang. "I've been made aware... Of your current night time 'rituals' by a couple of concerned friends of yours. Miss Xiao Long, Beacon Academy is a prestigious school to go to, that most young people on Remnant would very much love to go to. You have an opportunity-" he was cut off by Yang speaking up.
"I get that I have an opportunity Professor, but I've been keeping my own grades up." Yang stated. "So has Blake for that matter."
"I understand that, but for Professor Greene's class and throughout your career here at Beacon, you four must work as one unit." Ozpin stated. "You have to learn to work as one unit and adapt. Miss Rose, I understand you have many apprehensions about your role as a team leader, Miss Schnee, I'm aware you have your digressions with my decision to make Miss Rose the team leader of Team RWBY. Miss Belladonna, I'm aware of your nature as a person, but you need to learn to be more open with your teammates as this is the only way you will graduate. And Miss Xiao Long, your habits have allowed your own team to fall into the current state it has. This is why I'm afraid I must assign some help for you girls." Ozpin began.
The elevator at the end of the office opened, the four turned towards it and out walked a team of students. Among them was the familiar face of Velvet, along with the rest of her teammates.
"Team CFVY, for the next two months you will be assigned to assist Team RWBY."
Ruby looked at them with stars in her eyes. "Whoa..."
"Alright, let's whip you girls into shape." Coco Adel smirked confidently as she put a hand on her hip.
Commentary: Here we have another mostly original chapter in terms of content. In which Weiss beats Ruby in a fight and assumes role as leader of team RWBY despite that not being officially granted to her. Pretty much the team's out of touch with one another and they're not getting along at all. Again this chapter is just more escalation of the message that Team RWBY aren't exactly a perfect team just yet with a slight time skip.
