My co-writer, xx-whiterose, wrote the first half of the chapter.
Location: Vale, Amity Arena/Beacon Academy.
Friday, May 8th
[The Coming Storm]
The first day of the Vytal Festival snuck up faster than any of the girls could have expected.
They've been training frequently for the past month, both in teams, doubles and singles. They've already worked out their plans should they get past the team stage. Yang and Weiss will partake in the doubles round if they get through. Despite some of their opinions of each other, they work well as a team.
Weiss holds speed and accuracy, while Yang possesses brute strength and close combat abilities. They can attack from both distances, which was definitely a good trait to have in a combo battle. Then, if they were lucky enough to get into the final round, everything will fall to Yang.
Ruby plucks her whistle from her study desk, gently blowing the dust off the top before bringing it to her lips.
The rest of her team is still asleep, but time is ticking away! They need to be in Amity Theatre to sign in before noon, but if they wait past ten every student in Remnant would be there to sign up. If they leave within the hour, they can be there just as registration opened.
Ruby takes a breath, closing her eyes as she forces as much of the air back out into the whistle with a shrill scream.
The ring wakes all the members of Ruby immediately. Blake physically jumps from her bed, her hair standing on edge in fright, while her partner just snorts awake. The blonde groans, sitting up to reveal her bird nest bedhead. Drool slides down her chin, dripping down onto her thigh and pooling on the bed sheets beneath her.
Weiss groans loudly, slipping beneath her pillow and holding it over her ears. She hears footsteps to her left, her precious sound barrier is yanked from her face only to meet silver eyes peering back down at her.
"Wake up, sleeping beauty!"
"I am going to sell your body to the black market," Weiss grumbles groggily, earning a smirk from Ruby in response. The younger girl drops the pillow back onto Weiss' face, much to the heiress' surprise.
"Good morning team RWBY!" Ruby cheers, throwing her whistle onto her bunk with a quick toss, "Today's the day!"
"It'll be your last if you keep that up." Weiss emerges from under her pillow again with an annoyed glare on her face, using her palm to rub the sleep from her eyes.
Blake's hair slowly settles, her wild eyes shrinking back to their normal size as she slowly begins to wake up while Yang falls from her top bunk with a hard thump. The blonde reaches up, cracking her bones as she stretches.
"Hell yeah it is!" she exclaimed, all her exhaustion having disappeared in a flash. Weiss is next to rouse from her bed, her long hair heavy on the back of her head. Blue eyes flicker to the alarm clock that sat on the bookshelf between their bunks, another wave of irritation forming as she realized what time it was.
"Ruby, it's 8AM," Weiss grumbles, "The registration doesn't close until noon."
"You know what they say, Weiss," Ruby quickly responds, throwing a ridiculous amount of unhealthy junk into a backpack she'd picked out. She stops for a moment, standing up to look her tired and annoyed partner in the eyes. "Early bird gets the worm… or something like that!"
Another tired huff escapes the heiress as she groggily reaches for her clothes, already heading towards the shower. Perhaps a long, hot shower could convince her not to murder her girlfriend.
"So why are we leaving so early?" Blake askes, pulling her soft brush through her pitch black hair carefully, moving slowly as she passes over her ears. Yang is already halfway through a nutrient bar, but she turns to listen to her sister's response with mild interest.
Ruby closes the small bag in front her with a snap of a button, before wiggling into the leather straps that were linked around her arms.
"If we waited, we would have been caught in the rush." She says as she approaches the bathroom door, using her foot to catch the edge of it and nudge it open. "I know you enjoy long showers, but try to hurry up, Princess!" Ruby calls to her girlfriend, "We need to be there before the First-Years." She pauses, "Wow that felt weird to say…"
"Which part?" Yang asks her sister. Mischief dawns in her eyes and she leans over to take Blake's hairbrush from her hand, the faunus gapes at her in shock. "That's mine," Yang said with a smirk, "see?" The blonde tapped the B engraved into the back of it. "B for Babe."
Weiss swings the door open, her hands grasping the frame as Ruby steps back. "Just for that, I'm going to take extra long." She pushes Ruby back with two fingers to her forehead, her white brows narrowed and her eyes icy. "Eventually, you will learn not to rush me!"
Ignoring the very aggravated heiress, Blake reaches over to snatch the hairbrush back from Yang, letting out an annoyed huff when Yang simply rolled back out of her reach. "Give it back!" She laughs and hands the brush back to Blake. "Thank you!"
The bathroom slams shut, leaving a very bewildered Ruby standing outside of it. She lets out a huff, turning away as Blake finishes up with her hair and grabs her own uniform. "Says the girl who always wants to be precisely on time, or arrive nearly forty minutes early…"
"I heard that!" Weiss hollers.
About thirty minutes later, the four girls were boarding one of the airships heading towards Amity with a few third-year teams and JNPR.
While the other team are discussing their battle techniques, RWBY sits at the window of the ship, Yang and Blake staring down at the passing world beneath them with Yang making little quiet jokes that seem to amuse Blake.
Much to Ruby's displeasure, most of the other students have already arrived and there was a long line for registration, which means it was more likely some other teams would approach them and want to strike up a conversation.
Thankfully, they managed to avoid the younger students and register their team for the tournaments.
Weiss, Blake, and Yang only had a minimum of thirty seconds to prepare themselves for Ruby's inevitable geek-out when they entered the stadium. Weiss hums peacefully, enjoying the last few moments of peace before the obsession began, she notices Blake's ears flicker next to her, preparing herself for the shrill.
Nothing happened.
A consistent ringing forms in Weiss' head to replace the usual shrieking, she casts a glance to her partner and exchanges an equally puzzled look with the rest of her teammates. Ruby was quiet…
She isn't even looking at the practice fight taking place in front of them. They were first-years from Haven going against a younger team from Beacon…
Which meant new, never before seen weapons. Without saying a word, Ruby leads them to their row, she sits in the last seat and Weiss takes her place next to her, fixing her attention on the spar below. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Yang sitting next to her.
'Really, Blake?' The heiress shoots her friend an annoyed glare, and the faunus simply smiled at her in turn.
"Ruby," Yang murmurs, leaning over Weiss so Ruby could hear her, "you okay?" Weiss groans, leaning into the back of her seat. Great, she was going to be in the middle of the conversation.
Ruby looks at her sister with a smile, "Yeah, I'm fine," her brows knit together, "why?" Weiss' eyes glance at Yang, her brow twitching.
"Because there are weapons down there, and you're not geeking." Yang says flatly,"Who are you and what have you done to my lit-" She's cut off by Weiss pushing the palms of her hands into the sister's faces to shove them back and out of her way as she gets up. "Was that necessary, Ice Queen?" Yang asks sharply as she moves into Weiss' seat, the heiress sits down and let out a relieved sigh.
Blake stifles a laugh and Weiss glares over at her, "I assumed that, after four years, you two would learn not to talk over my lap."
Ruby cracks a smirk and Weiss meets her gaze challengingly, trying to read her girlfriend's eyes. Yang ignores the two of them and takes a bite of her pretzel. "You like it when I do it." The reaper says suddenly, causing Yang to choke.
"What does that even mean?!"
Weiss scowls at the brunette and faces away from her, breathing in deep to relax her anxious nerves. She could hear Blake giggling from next to her with a hand over her mouth, while Ruby frantically tries to help her possibly choking sister. "If that… means what I think it does… That is something," Yang coughs, "I would rather not have heard…"
Ruby smiles sheepishly at her, Weiss notices her whispering an apology to the blonde out of the corner of her eye. Weiss rolls her eyes once, opening her mouth to scold the brunette-
A loud, shrill noise echoed through the stadium and the team flinched back, sighing with relief when the announcer came on to announce the winners of the match.
"Who is up next?" Yang asks, taking another bite at her soft pretzel.
Blake answers her, "Team TSTL(Thistle) from Mistral versus Team OLVE from Vacuo."
They were first-years if Weiss remembers correctly.
As the previous teams exit the arena, the next enter with their weapons. She hears a concealed gasp from Ruby, the younger girl sitting forward in her seat with her silver eyes wide and trained on the students below. Yang elbows Weiss with the shadow of a smirk tugging at her lips, "Hey, she's back!" She says with a slight gesture towards Ruby.
Weiss glances up at the board to briefly read the names of the teams.
The screen is quickly replaced with a zoomed in camera angled at the Vacuo students.
"That just looks like a regular ol' sword." Yang says thoughtfully. "The Amethyst Lynch girl from Team OLVE." She clarifies.
Weiss' eyes quickly find the mentioned longsword and she gives it a quick examination, searching for a dust barrel or a revolver. Nothing. "That's… Strange."
"Jaune has a simple sword." Blake reminds them gently, she pauses for a moment and frowns. "Then again, he did upgrade it when we were second-years…"
"Well," Ruby says without looking at them, "some people just prefer the classics. Nothing wrong with tha-" The announcer shouted for the battle to begin and Amethyst's sword clicks into a double-bladed whip. "Woah!" Ruby grins, "A sword that turns into a whip, Weiss, you need that!"
The heiress was quick with her response, "No I absolutely do not."
Yang lets out a snort. "Blakey could turn her ribbon into a whip~" Weiss' stomach churned.
Ruby's expression became stoic, lacking her previous enthusiasm. "No, you would abuse it."
Down in the area, Team OLVE has backed Team TSTL into the rocky terrain, giving the Mistrallian team the home advantage. Each person is engaged in a fight, weapons occasionally clattering at close range and rockets of dust and bullets being shot from afar.
Amethyst Lynch was using her bladed whip against her rifle-using opponent, Slade Ingerman, snapping the bullets as they collided with the metal of her weapons and sending them flying back at the boy. He seems to notice an opening in her tactic and he throws himself backwards again as Amethyst cracks her whip, he reels back and as the girl calls the whip back to her side to strike again, the boy seizes the opportunity to fire a bullet at her.
The team leader of OLVE, Ocean Aguilera, was in a match with Tenné Browning. The latter seemed to heavily rely on her semblance, teleportation. She could teleport out of the way of a hit, but she couldn't completely leave the battle as it would only move her to another angle. As Ocean shifts her gun into a double-bladed sword and swings at Tenné, the other girl would activate her semblance and fire a shot from behind.
Weiss winces when Ocean swings her blade in a complete circle just as her opponent teleports away, the side of the weapon collides with Tenné's side and the first-year was thrown off her game. Her aura becomes too low and her name cancels out on the board. "Shouldn't have relied on your semblance…" Weiss whispers.
A loud explosion echoes from the arena and Ruby almost throws herself over the railing, wearing a large grin on her face. Weiss chuckles at her girlfriend's excitement. The teams run from the black smoke, one of the members cancelling out due to low aura. "Awww, the guy with the cool dust sword is out!" Viridian Nobbley, he'd gone up against Turq Moore. "The dust backfired on him… Hope he didn't…" Ruby trailed off. "...Sneeze."
Weiss' brow twitches and she sends her partner a glare, Ruby shrinking away from her with a nervous smile. "Love you?" Ruby murmurs. She sighs and refocuses her attention on the teams below them.
The big screen zooms in on Ebony Stone from Team OLVE, showing a replay of the green-haired woman being flung from the arena after being hit by Laura Green from TSTL..
"Well, I guess Team TSTL makes it to the next round." Yang mentions with a puzzled look. "I wonder how Ocean feels about her whole team being beat."
"Well, to be fair," Weiss starts as the teams exit the arena, Ocean checking on her teammates, "TSTL did corner them in an unfamiliar terrain."
Yang shrugged in agreement, "So I'm gonna go get something to drink. Y'all want anything?" The other three responded with a soft 'no thank you'.
The next match would be between Team Leaders of FSBT(Frostbite) from Atlas Academy, and Team DDLN(Dandelion)from Beacon.
Alex Frank, team leader of FSBT, entered the arena wielding a flute as a weapon. He was pale-skinned and wore a plaid shirt, a sweater vest, and a pair of white jeans. He was apparently one of Atlas Academy's most prized students…. The sleazy grin he flashed at the camera was sickening,
Danny Richards is the team leader of DDLN, he was a short, bleach-blonde fellow with a small build and tacky clothing. His weapon of choice was a bow and arrow that transformed into a rifle. He seemed rather shy and withdrawn, but stood proud and confident in the presence of his team, he'd been a late addition to Beacon to replace his team's former leader, who unfortunately dropped out a month into the school year.
The announcer's voice boomed over the stadium. "Begin!"
Everything smells of smoke, everything tastes of smoke. Her brand new combat outfit is covered in soot that she would likely never get out. Her lungs are tight and constricted, she feels like she was coughing out fireballs and her entire chest is engulfed in flame.
How had her aura been depleted so easily?! She's spent years building it up! Clearly she had to train harder, if her aura couldn't withstand something like that, she'd never survive out on the battlefield!
Weiss shrugs her bolero off and reaches behind her to untie her corset, her chest flinches and she lets out a choked cough, her throat tight. Weiss breathes in a few calming breaths as an attempt to loosen the congestion before slipping her dress off. The dorm room door opens and she looks over her shoulder to see Ruby entering the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
She scowls in disdain. "Have you come to tell me that it's alright?" She asks her girlfriend, refusing to meet her eyes as humiliation burns inside her like a raging fire. "That 'everybody loses every once in a while'? That 'I'll get it next time, just be positive'? How about 'you tried your best'? Any of those? Take your pick."
"No." Ruby answers, unfazed by the heiress' words. "I came to see if you were okay…" A pair of arms softly slides around Weiss' waist and a feather-like kiss is placed to the back of her neck, Weiss reluctantly places her hands over Ruby's. "Shouldn't you go see the nurse?" Weiss grunts her response and Ruby's arms tighten around her, rubbing at her abdomen. "But what about the baby?"
Weiss' brow twitches. She moves from her embrace and fixes her eyes on her girlfriend, her brows narrow and her voice firm. "Ruby. There is no baby."
"But there will-"
She cuts her off. "There probably never will be, Ruby!" Weiss shouts at her, rage shooting through her body like a bullet. "If I can't handle a hit like that out on the arena-" Her throat tightens as another cough escapes her, grunting in frustration with the discomfort in her throat.
She bites her lip as the anger dies down to a simmer of worry, her hand wraps around her belly and her other reaches out to steady herself against the wall. "I won't be able to protect my baby if I can't handle a hit like that…"
She wouldn't be able to protect her friends, her family, in the face of danger.
"You say that like you'll have to do it alone." Ruby mutters to her, "I'll be here to help…"
"I don't need help." Weiss says coldly, running her hand through her bangs and sighing heavily. Her body trembles and she chokes out a strangled cough; she wasn't feeling it anymore so that means her aura was regenerating. "I need to learn to do this stuff on my own, Ruby… I'm stronger than this." Her hand turns into a fist, her nails digging into her palm. "I just need to practice more."
"Weiss, please. Not in your condition, you're physically exhausted..." Ruby murmurs worriedly. She comes to her side and wraps an arm around her shoulders. "And, can you wait and see if it worked this time or not? We can always wait until after graduation to try again."
Weiss shrugs out of her embrace and slips a clean outfit on, ignoring Ruby's concerned gaze. As she withdraws Myrtenaster, a hand lay on top of hers to stop her.
"No." Ruby says with a stern voice, "You're in no condition to go out and train, Weiss," the older woman's eyes widen at the audacity, but Ruby isn't fazed, "you just had your aura depleted and you're still recovering. Training won't do you any good, you need to rest."
"Ruby." Weiss' voice matches her girlfriend's, but with a more icy edge. "Do you know what happens before we graduate?"
The brunette frowns. "Yes, there is a huntsman assessment that you need to pass before earning your license."
There was a team assessment, and a singles round. If the team passes, they are legally registered as a whole. If one wins during the singles round, they earn their solo license, meaning they can split from the team whenever. If one were to lose, the others' chances of working together are lost as well. Weiss didn't want to hold them back…
"What happened out there in the arena could happen during the assessment." Weiss explains, jerking her weapon away from Ruby and attaching it to her side. She starts for the door, placing her hand on the handle and looking back at her girlfriend. "I will not have so many years of training go to waste."
"Weiss-" Ruby reaches after her.
"Yang is up next for the singles' round tomorrow," she tells her gently without looking back at her, "I'll be there to watch."
Weiss opens the door and leaves the room, not wanting to remain there for any longer than she should. Ruby doesn't understand, she was accepted into Beacon two years earlier because of her skills. Ruby surpassed her, and now she is treating her as though she was made of glass.
Unacceptable.
She has to become stronger, for herself and her friends, for her family.
Comments/thoughts are greatly appreciated! Even if it's just "3"
~Dixie