A weekly Update?! On this fic?! Truly, it is the end times.
"So, there was a slight hiccup." The wine in Cinder's glass began to boil as her anger grew. She stared at the face on her Scroll, blonde hair and blue eyes meeting her gaze with a slight smile.
"Solaris…" Cinder hissed. "You were brought in by our Queen to aid me. Not draw the attention of the entire Atlas Military." Her teeth ground together. She did not even hear about this first hand, instead having to find out of the attack via a news report.
"Oh, don't worry Cindy." Solaris said, a distinct lack of self-preservation evident as Cinder's wine glass snapped in half. "All they know is some poor woman was caught in a blast set off by The Wolf, not a shred of her remains, sadly enough."
She wiped an invisible tear from her eye, even as Cinder's very body tensed at the mention of her foe. The Wolf had appeared once more. She had not seen him since the Breach. Where he had shown up drunk of all things, and showed knowledge of those working with her.
Why she didn't incinerate him on the spot, she couldn't remember. Possibly the simple shock at seeing him before her once again, after another of her plans had been enacted. He wasn't able to stop the Breach, however, and everything should be progressing smoothly.
"You are only here for my assistance, should I require it. That means not drawing attention to yourself, least of all whatever actions you took to get The Wolf's eyes on you." Cinder had no idea what she could have done.
"Well, that's easy for you to say Miss 'Pretending-to-be-a-teenager'." Solaris rolled her eyes. "I was simply minding my business when I caught him looking into my room. You were the one caught failing to upload the virus."
Her words, and the casual way she insulted her, caused Cinder's temperature to flare up once more. Solaris had always been like that. The only other woman in her Queen's employ, she had apparently decided Cinder could do with an annoying older sister.
"I discussed my plans with no one, aside from my companions." Mercury and Emerald knew better than to spill her plans, on pain of death. "How The Wolf knew was beyond my knowledge, I hold no fault there."
"Hmm, so when he foils your plans out of nowhere it's not your fault. But when he decides to investigate me before I even have a chance to show myself and take care of him, it's suddenly my fault."
Solaris knew her words would cause a reaction and revelled in it. Cinder was much too tightly wound. She watched as the raven-haired woman bristled on the other end of the Scroll. Solaris was in the middle of a crowded mall, the amount of people around her proving a suitable cover for conversations such as this.
"Honestly, I think you'd loosen up if you just had a roll in the hay with someone." There was a squawk of indignation on the other end of the line, and Solaris smiled. She always was able to get those noises out of Cinder where the others failed to.
Watts was too pompous, too high class to go for something as below the belt as that. Idly, the blonde wondered if he had ever gotten around to faking his own death. The Doctor had been meaning to for a while now, some prideful arrogance directed at another in Atlas that being even the lead Scroll designer in the world couldn't overcome.
Returning to her train of thought, and thinking more on how to bother Cinder, Hazel never cared for the petty arguments, and Tyrian was… Tyrian. Oh, how she missed the Faunus. He was always happy to amuse her, and equally as crazy in the sheets as he was in general.
"I can tell you're thinking of something that makes me want to lose my lunch." Cinder's voice came through, snapping Solaris out of her reverie. The blonde smiled, as Cinder shivered uncomfortably.
"I'm serious Cindy." She said, giggling at the other woman's anger. "You've been in Beacon for a month or two now. You're telling me there's no one that's caught your eye?" She asked.
"N-. No." Solaris' eyes widened as they locked on the screen, staring at the amber that refused to meet her.
"You hesitated." Solaris pointed out with a wide grin.
"I did not!" Cinder exclaimed, and through the Scroll a faint blush showed. Solaris let out a squeal of happiness, briefly catching the attention of other shoppers, but didn't follow up, making their own assumptions as to why the woman was so happy.
"You've got the hots for someone!" Solaris laughed, making a vague melody out of the words. Who knew the girl had it in her. "Tell me! Are they tall? Strong? I'd have to imagine so, they're in Beacon." Cinder's face continued to grow more and more aggravated, and more and more red."
"Are they a boy or a girl? You know I won't judge." Solaris said slyly. That seemed to be the final straw for the half-Maiden.
"I AM NOT SMITTEN WITH ANYONE IN THIS BLASTED SCHOOL!" She yelled at her Scroll, her voice coming out tinny and distorted thanks to the sheer volume. Solaris cleared out her ear with a pinkie finger as Cinder terminated the call.
"She's too easy." Solaris sighed with a smile, leaning back into the public bench she was sat on. It gave her an easy view of the passers-by. She hummed to herself in thought, wondering how many of them would survive the coming attack.
She stopped wondering when she realised how little she cared. The only people she really cared for in life were her Queen, herself, and her sweet Tyrian. In that order. And whoever she managed to bag while on these excursions had a semi-high place, while she was having her fun at least.
But for now, she'd simply wait and stay out of the public eye. A frown came across her features. And buy some more toys. The rest were destroyed thanks to The Wolf. A smirk made its way onto her face, her tongue hanging out slightly as she thought of what she might do once she finally captured that Vigilante.
"I'm sure Tyrian would like to play with him." Maybe she'd invite him over. Though, he wouldn't go against his Goddess' wishes. Regardless, Solaris shrugged as she got up and made her way deeper into the mall, The Wolf was someone to keep an eye on, if he somehow figured out her connection to Cinder without her even doing anything.
At least she managed to exit the room before any of the Atlesian Military could spot her. Regardless of if they suspected her in the slightest, she would have been under careful watch to make sure there wasn't a repeat incident.
Which meant she couldn't aid with her Mistress' plans. So, it was just her against The Wolf. Solaris' walk turned into a skip as she continued on.
All to herself. Just the way she liked it.
…
"Crue. You smell terrible." Weiss' nose scrunched up as the Faunus blasted deodorant over him.
"STILL?!" He complained, glaring angrily at the spray can as he chucked it away. "I tried to pull another prank on Cinder. Stinkbombs are more difficult to make than I thought." He made his way to the shower, wrenching the door open with an annoyed grumble.
Weiss watched it with an amused smile. Pranks were something she was quickly becoming a fan of. She didn't think Blake was a fan of it though, based on the glare she had given her after finding one of the books she was reading replaced with a child's fairy tale.
"I don't like that look you're getting." The Faunus in question said, her amber eyes drifting upward from her book to look at her teammate distrustfully. Weiss simply smiled. Blake had no need to worry. She wouldn't be in the line of fire at least.
"Let's give Crue some time to clean up." The Heiress said, standing to leave the room and nodding to Blake to follow. The dark-haired girl did so, slapping her book closed after marking her place. To Weiss' surprise, it was actually the same switched book she had been reading.
"I thought you would have thrown that out." Weiss said curiously. Blake glanced down at the book, and back up to her platinum haired teammate.
"It has some interesting stories." She briefly let the pages flick against her thumb. "Like a boy who accidentally ate a fish that granted him all the knowledge in the world." The Faunus' tongue subconsciously poked out to lick her lips.
"Hmm." Weiss hummed with a smile. "I wonder why that one would be of particular interest to you." Blake frowned upon realising what Weiss was implying.
"Not a good look for you to be making comparisons like that." She said slyly, watching Weiss freeze up as she realised what she had said.
"I-I didn't mean- You know I only joke-" Weiss began to stammer, as Blake rolled her eyes and smirked. It was too easy with Weiss sometimes. She knew the Heiress had lost her old ways of discriminating against Faunus, but it was still funny to make her think she had accidentally offended her somehow.
The two made their way to the outside of Beacon, finding a spot to relax and observe their surroundings. Weiss may have also been using the opportunity to scope out the competition for the Vytal festival.
She noticed a team not unlike her own, four girls of various hair colours discussing something amongst themselves. If she could hazard a guess, she'd say they were from Vacuo as they had no uniform.
They didn't have their weapons at hand, and why should they, as they were possibly in the safest place in Vale. It gave Weiss no idea of their skills, unfortunately. She could just hope that they weren't going to be too much trouble if they had to fight in the tournament.
As she was scoping out the competition, she felt Blake nudge her, bringing her attention to her teammate. Blake's amber eyes were staring off to the distance, and Weiss followed her gaze, before finding what she was staring at.
"Polly?" Weiss whispered in confusion, seeing the girl in question a short distance away, hunched and hidden behind a tree, facing away from them. What caught her attention, and presumably what Blake had wanted her to see, was the fact she seemed to be shaking.
Weiss bit her lip. Polly wasn't someone she'd consider an extremely close friend. A friend, yes. Someone who she could talk to, easily, but further than that was a stretch. But, they had spent time together after her and Crue's breakup. And while she had no immediate plans to date anyone at Beacon, if she were to go through something similar, she hoped Polly might return the favour, along with the rest of her team.
She glanced to Blake, who nodded and stood from her comfortable position and began to make her way over to the shaking girl. Weiss quickly followed, dusting her skirt and walking in time beside Blake.
As they approached, Weiss realised she had no plan. Or no real experience in dealing with matters like this. The day the group of them were together was less about making sure Polly wasn't sad, just reminding her she had friends.
"Polly?" And like that they were at the point of no return, with Blake speaking up softly. The smaller girl whirled around in shock, and for a split-second Weiss could have sworn her eyes were different colours. She blinked, and saw jade green eyes that were tinged red.
"Are you ok?" Weiss asked, unsure as to what else to say. There was a moment where Polly quickly slammed her hand down onto the grass, briefly startling the two. The Heiress realised it was her Scroll, and briefly saw a flash of text messages.
The Scroll quickly powered off, leaving Polly staring up at the two of them warily. Weiss had an idea of who those messages might have been to but decided not to mention it. "You seem upset." She said diplomatically.
Polly bit her lip, briefly glancing down to her Scroll before regaining eye contact. "Is it Crue?" Blake asked bluntly, causing Weiss to wince. The Faunus apparently noticed, smiling awkwardly upon realising she had made a mistake.
Polly frowned, her mint green eyes staring at Blake. "We're… not the best ones at comforting people." She sighed. "Our other teammates are away, but that doesn't mean we don't want to help." Blake told the smaller girl.
There was a moment of hesitation, as Polly glanced down at the ground, her eyes darting side to side as she was considering their help. Her eyes closed with a sigh, and she nodded. The two members of team RWBY sat down across from her, Polly with her back against the tree.
She was silent for a second, before pointing to Blake and nodding. It was at that exact moment they remembered Polly couldn't speak. "Uh, I was right?" The dark haired Faunus asked. Polly nodded once more.
"It was Crue." Weiss realised. "Did he do something to upset you- No, wait Crue wouldn't do that." She cut herself off, before realising she might be wrong. The girl across from her began to nod, before stopping.
Polly waved her hand in a 'kind of' motion. She went to make another gesture, before realising Weiss and Blake probably wouldn't understand her. With a sigh, she picked up her Scroll and opened up an app that neither recognised.
The petite girl typed rapidly, before a robotic voice sounded out. "This will make it easier." It said, the monochrome duo realising it was a text-to-speech function.
"I've never seen you use that with Crue before." Blake spoke before she could stop herself. Polly grew a small, but sad, smile.
"Crue could always understand me." Her Scroll said, and the three girls shared a blank look as the AI butchered the pronunciation of the Faunus' name. She sighed and continued to type. "I was rereading our messages last night."
Weiss and Blake let out a short hiss through their teeth. That was never a good idea, even someone who had never had a relationship like Weiss knew that. She knew Blake had an ex that she left with on bad terms, but that was about it.
"I know." The robotic voice said, as Polly's expression fell. "It wasn't my best idea. But, when I was looking, he started typing." She looked back up to the girls to see their reaction.
"He started typing? How do you know?" Blake asked. To her surprise, it was Weiss who answered.
"Scrolls will tell you when the other person you are in a conversation with is replying." She said with a practised voice. "It comes up as a little bubble on the other person's side, so you know they have seen your message and is replying."
She turned her attention back to Polly. "What did he say?"
"Nothing."
The robotic voice left a strange stillness in the air. "Wait, he said nothing?" Weiss asked. When Polly nodded, she continued in confusion. "So, he said nothing, and that was worse?"
"Because you don't know what it was he might have said." Blake answered for her, and was confirmed when Polly nodded once more. "Sometimes not knowing is worse, because you start overthinking about what it might have been."
Polly let out a heavy sigh, and an invisible weight seemed to force her shoulders down. Weiss frowned at the sight, before something connected in her head. "Oh. I know what he was going to say." At her words, two sets of raven heads turned to stare at her.
"Uh, I realise how that sounds now." The Heiress said, her eyes closing as her head fell slightly. She turned to Blake. "Crue was planning a prank." Her words caused Blake's eyes to widen and make an 'o' shape with her mouth.
"It backfired," Weiss said, almost nonchalantly. "It was a stinkbomb, meant for Cinder." A small snort came from Polly. "Whatever he was sending you was probably a warning, so you wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. And because it backfired, he didn't need to tell you."
There was an odd expression on Polly's face, half grateful and half upset at herself for worrying. "He still cares about you." Weiss said before she could stop herself, wincing Polly's head shot up to stare at her.
"We saw Mercury on a date yesterday." Blake said, to draw the attention from the smaller girl. Polly's eyes slid to the Faunus, a look of incredulity on her face. "Yeah. That was Crue's reaction too, because he remembered how he was around girls."
She nodded towards the mute. "Specifically, around you, when you were dating. And he did not look like he was having happy memories." The Faunus hoped her words wouldn't be misunderstood as him having bad memories of their entire time dating.
Polly let out a heavy sigh, before palming her eyes and falling backward in a huff. She did seem a little better though, now knowing what it was Crue had been planning on telling her. "If you don't mind…" Weiss trailed off, catching the prone girl's attention.
"We heard from Crue that you two had broken up. But we've only ever really gotten his side of it. We didn't want to bring it up when we were at your dorm because we were there to cheer you up." The Heiress spoke.
"I was wondering if you could tell us your side of the story. If you'd be ok with that." Jade eyes blinked in consideration. Blake looked at Weiss with a somewhat accusatory stare, but her own curiosity won out.
Another sigh, and Polly nodded, grabbing her Scroll. There was a short moment where all that could be heard was the tapping of the glass device. Then, when Polly seemed happy with what she had written, she allowed the Scroll to speak.
"He broke a promise. It wasn't on purpose. And he didn't really have a choice in the matter. But he still broke it. He still betrayed my trust. And even if now the promise is mute. It hurt. We shouted. We fought. Even though I still care for him, our bridges are burned." Tiny tears showed on Polly's eyes, the memories of that day fresh in her mind. She shook them away immediately, and the two across from her pretended not to notice.
"I see." Weiss said quietly. She shuffled for a moment on the grass, before reaching over and giving the monochrome girl a quick hug. The action caused Polly to freeze, as well as Blake's jaw to drop. Weiss returned to her seated position, a sprinkling of pink on her cheeks from the embarrassment of the action she had just performed.
Polly's eyes slid to Blake. "Don't look at me." The Faunus said, holding her hands up. "If you want help from me, the best I can offer is some books to distract you." The mute girl seemed to consider it for a second, as Weiss went paler than usual at the insinuation.
"I'm afraid we aren't normally the ones to help in situations like this." Weiss said. "Our resident heartwarming goofballs are away for the weekend, and Crue is… obviously not an option here." She winced at the last part.
Polly sighed and nodded, before quickly typing something into the Scroll. "Thank you anyway." It said, "I appreciate it." She smiled genuinely, before gaining a look of surprise at her own emotions. She stood, causing the two members of RWBY to do the same.
"This was, nice." Blake said slowly. "I wish it was under better circumstances, but still." She wiped off a grass stain. "Perhaps we could do something like this again, as the only members of our respective teams with any sort of patience or sanity."
Both Weiss and Polly laughed at that, the smaller girl giving silent giggles. "I know our team is mad, but how is team CMET?" The Heiress asked, glancing to Polly.
"If I may?" Blake asked, with a gesture to the emerald eyed girl. She nodded enthusiastically, causing Blake to clear her throat and hold up a single finger. "Mercury has the worst love life and attempt at flirting I've ever seen, and doesn't seem to know when no means no. And that's coming from me."
She held up a second finger. "Emerald is head over heels for Cinder and will literally never do anything without thinking of asking her first." She recalled when they had first helped Polly, the green haired girl immediately gave off the impression.
"And Cinder has a-" Blake stopped, her eyes widening as she groaned into her hand, causing Weiss and Polly to look at each other in confusion. "I really have been spending too much time around him." She sighed.
"Cinder has a hate boner for Crue." A wheeze came from Weiss, as she desperately tried to stop herself from making such an unladylike sound. Polly's arms came to wrap around her midsection as she shook silently.
Polly nodded rapidly, wiping a tear from her eye. She stood up straight, looking at both Weiss and Blake before mouthing a 'Thank you'. The monochromatic pair nodded in appreciation, before Weiss spoke up.
"We should probably get back before Crue realises we're missing. I'm sure he'd be fine with us talking to you, but it would be best if he found out from us." She said, looking at Blake to gauge her reaction.
The Faunus nodded, before looking to Polly. "Don't worry. We won't tell Crue anything about what we talked about." She promised. The smaller girl smiled gratefully, before nodding and walking towards the exchange students' dorms.
The two RWBY members made their way back to their own dorm, conversing about different tactics they could use in the upcoming Festival. "I've actually picked up a tactic from Crue, funnily enough." Weiss told her teammate.
Blake raised an eyebrow in surprise. "And here I thought we were meant to be teaching him." She chuckled, causing Weiss to do the same.
"Yes, well, I don't know if the opportunity will arise but, it involves throwing my weapon." The Heiress reached for the hilt of her rapier, only to remember it was in her locker. "I throw it, hopefully hit someone or something, then use my Glyphs to bring it back to me."
"Oh, I see how you got that from Crue." Blake realised, thinking back to the practice Crue had been doing with his Semblance. "I think the only thing I picked up from him was a cruder sense of humour."
Weiss laughed as she agreed. "I am the same. I nearly said something very rude to Jaune the other day." When she saw the unsurprised look on Blake's face, she sighed. "I mean ruder than usual. And he's calmed down since the start of Beacon. I've been trying to be nicer in kind."
Blake accepted her amendment with a nod. "What were you going to say?" She asked, as she opened the door to their dorm.
"He asked me if I had seen Pyrrha and I nearly told him to look up his own- CRUE?!" Weiss' story cut off with a cry of surprise. Blake turned her attention inward, immediately wishing to bleach her mind as she saw Crue struggling to get his trousers on, falling over in surprise at the yell.
"What are you doing?" Blake asked, noting the look of panic on the Faunus' face. His blue eyes briefly darted to the side, where his Scroll lay.
Blake glanced at it, seeing the glowing blue screen and the tell-tale signs of a text message. "I think Polly is in trouble." He finally said, pulling up his trousers completely and rushing to get a shirt on.
"She's not." Weiss and Blake said as one, before both stiffened upon realising they shouldn't know that. Instead of angry questions about how, Crue's face looked hopeful.
"She's not?" He asked, staring at the two girls.
"She's not." Weiss nodded, before her eyes landed on the active Scroll. "We did see her drop her Scroll, though." She lied, causing Blake's eyes to widen as they slid to the Heiress.
Crue let out an explosive sigh of relief, falling back onto the carpeted ground. "Oh, thank God. Damn keysmash." He brought a hand up to his eyes, his heartrate falling back to normal.
Both Blake and Weiss shared a side-eye and a smirk. "I didn't realise you still cared for her that much." The Heiress said, almost casually. The two watched as Crue froze upon the ground.
"Mhm." Blake agreed. "Maybe you two could try talking again. It might rekindle something."
Crue sat up, looking at the two suspiciously. The girls were the picture of innocence, which made him all the more distrustful. "Maybe…" He said slowly, before thinking of something. "After the Vytal Festival. I wouldn't want to distract her."
To the girls, it was an agreement that would hopefully bear some fruit. To Crue, it was a promise to himself that if he managed to stop the tragedy that befell the festival he would gladly talk to Neo.
"That is, as long as she helps." If his actions would help save Roman, she'd do anything, Crue thought. There had been a moment while they were dating when the Faunus asked Neo what exactly Roman was to her.
She responded with a pointed glare, at first. But after a short moment she explained to Crue that Roman was her first genuine friend. The first person who actually cared for her. He didn't get much more out of her than that, but the Faunus figured that was enough.
He didn't want to use Roman as a bargaining chip, because that was sure to backfire, and because he meant too much to Neo. Also, the fact he had no idea how to get him out of an Atlas Battleship put a dampener on that plan.
Crue stood up from the floor, getting dressed at a more relaxed place. His mind was running over several different plans that could hopefully save those he cared about. While he was going through them, his mind strayed to the other two members of the team that weren't currently present.
"They're going to be ok. I'll make sure of it."
So, no fighting insane, anime-inspired masochists this chapter. But a lot of interaction between characters you wouldn't normally see. Also, a tiny bit of misinformation, as Weiss and Blake sure as Hell don't know Crue's the Wolf, and just accepted his reasoning for stinking without questioning it. The actual reason he stinks, of course, being that he had to escape through a sewer to get away from Ironwood.
I want to say thank you for all the reviews last chapter, it means a lot to me that people still remember this story, even though it's been so long. I'll do my best to keep these updates weekly!
One thing I'd like to say is that I heard something about a stronger than normal rumour about this site potentially shutting down. I'm not sure how true that is as of now, but in the event it does, I will reupload this story on AO3.
Let's hope it doesn't have to come to that though.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know if you did, and as always...
Until Next Time
-Friday
