Chapter 18) Responsibility
A/N: I finally watched the Hawkeye D+ show recently, and I really enjoyed it. I hope we see more of both Bishop and Yelena in upcoming Marvel stuff, they're both such fun characters.
Anyway, new chapter for you all. Hope you like it!
Let's just hope that the four of them will have learnt a little more responsibility following their brief absence.
…
Glynda Goodwitch had perhaps been unduly optimistic in her previous assumptions, if the situation she was currently having to deal with was any indication.
"She started it! I was just minding my own business until my face was hit by a pie of all things! Who eats an entire pie for breakfast anyway!?"
"I wasn't aiming for you! I was aiming for Yang, who actually started it when she threw that apple at me!"
"You threw it at me first! All I did was return it to sender!"
"In Nora's defence, you sorta had it coming. That pun was painful to hear."
"Jaune, not helping!"
Glynda just stared at the eight of them from over the top of her glasses as they continued to apportion blame amongst each other, apparently heedless of the fact that their very exasperated Professor was watching the entire thing unfold in the middle of her office.
Teams RWBY and JNPR (or rather, the newly re-named PRAN: Perano) were all of them caked from head-to-foot in various items of food and drink, a not insubstantial amount of which was now dripping onto the previously immaculate floor of Glynda's office, no doubt leaving stains in her carpet that would never fully come out.
"Children," Glynda said sternly, silencing the bickering students in an instant. "I am not interested in who started the food fight. The fact is that all of you were involved, so all of you are equally to blame."
Glynda had been teaching aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses for many years, and had by now perfected the art of getting rowdy children to fall in line and listen to her admonishments. A hard stare and a stern word were all she needed to subdue all but the most intransient of individuals.
"Team PRAN, I expected better from you four. You had until today demonstrated to me a level of maturity and rationality that I found to be most admirable. And I am especially disappointed in you, Miss Nikos. You are the leader of your team now, it is expected that you set the example for your teammates to follow."
The girl in question at least had the decency to look contrite, head bowed low as she murmured out an apology.
"As for Team RWBY," Glynda continued, turning her attention towards the other half of the room. "Considering your recent suspension, I would have thought that you would all be especially conscious of how close to the line you all are right now. Engaging in yet more reckless behaviour is troubling indeed."
Even Miss Xiao Long looked apologetic as Glynda spoke. "We're sorry, Professor Goodwitch."
"W-w-we didn't m-mean t-to get th-that intense," Miss Rose stuttered out as she continued to fidget with the end of her cloak. She had not stopped fiddling with the hem of it since arriving in the office.
Glynda drew herself up to her full height and folded her arms behind her. Drawing her heels together with an audible click, she drew the attention of the entire room.
"Evidently, merely reprimanding you for your behaviours has not been sufficient to impress upon you all the attitudes that are expected of individuals in your position. Therefore, I feel it necessary to ensure that you all learn to act more maturely. So, I shall be assigning the eight of you to undertake a very specific job."
"Team CFVY had originally been assigned the role of organising the Vytal Festival Dance, but their existing commitments elsewhere mean that they are no longer able to carry out the task. I am therefore assigning this to you in their stead."
Glynda's words were met with eight confused expressions.
"You have a little over one month until the day," she continued. "And a fixed budget that you may not exceed under any circumstances. I understand that Miss Adel has already drafted up some initial plans, so I would encourage you to meet with her first before making any plans of your own."
"You want us to… plan a party?" asked Miss Belladonna.
"I want you all to take some responsibility, Miss Belladonna. When serious missteps are made, it is important that we make up for them via our subsequent actions. Show me that you can all be trusted with a task such as this, and I will consider yourselves redeemed in my eyes for your utter destruction of the cafeteria today."
Glynda retrieved an envelope from her desk and handed it to Miss Schnee. "You will find everything else you need in here, including instructions on what is and isn't appropriate for the occasion."
"That will be all for now. You are dismissed, and I recommend you all clean yourselves up before doing anything else."
Glynda's eight troublemakers filed out of her office, closing the door behind them. As soon as they left, Glynda sank into her chair and let out an exasperated sigh.
It hasn't even been a full semester yet. If this keeps up, these students may yet be the death of me.
Having showered and finally managed to remove the last of the foodstuffs from her hair, Weiss sat on the end of Ruby's bed and slowly brushed through it to remove the remaining tangles as she listened absently to the discussion Yang and Pyrrha were currently having.
"Yang, I really think we should consider seeing if anyone in Beacon could provide the music. It would save a great deal of money if we could avoid having to hire someone for that." Pyrrha was calm and measured as she laid out her case.
Yang, on the other hand, was loud and excitable. "C'mon Pyrrha, we have the budget for it, we should make the most of it! I know for a fact that OK Goodnight are gonna be in town that week, we could hire them in between shows if we play our cards right!"
"But that would leave us with less money for other things. Remember, we still need to organise all of the catering, decoration, and transportation for anyone bringing plus-ones. Plus, unless some of us are willing to man the entrances and welcome people in, we may need to hire people for that as well."
"Pyrrha, I hear you, but think about it: OK Goodnight, live at Beacon. Everyone'll love it!"
Weiss paid the pair of them the minimum of attention, and wondered if she might be able to convince Professor Goodwitch to assign her some other remedial task. Like laundry duty, or weeding the grounds, or really anything that didn't involve… parties.
Weiss had had more than her fill of parties and formal dinners and elaborate gatherings in her life. Her father had made a point of throwing some sort of expensive function every few months for as long as she could recall, inviting all his biggest investors and business partners. They would drink, and talk, and make big decisions that earned them all lots of money.
The whole family had been forced to attend each and every one at Father's behest… at least at the start. Mother was the first to stop attending them, then Winter after she had been declared persona no grata by Father for daring to refuse his summons once too often. Whitley had held out a bit longer, until Father decided that her brother needed to be removed from the public eye after his breakdown…
But Weiss was always present. Whether she wanted to be there or not, and she often did not. After all, Father needed someone to play nice with his associates' children.
She had hated every single one of those events, even more so when Whitley stopped attending them.
And while she knew that this party was nothing to do with her father or his associates, she still didn't relish the thought of dredging up past experiences. As such, she had been fully intending to skip out altogether and spend her evening doing something else.
Maybe I can play a role from the side-lines? Something that'll require me to be as far away from the entire event as humanly possible…
Glancing around as she finished brushing through her hair, Weiss noticed that the rest of their respective teams were apparently not present, having vanished sometime after Weiss had entered the bathroom.
"Where is everyone?" she asked, mostly to herself.
"Nora and Ren went to meet Coco to ask for her plans," Pyrrha explained. "They should be back soon. I don't know where Jaune is, though."
"And Blake and Rubes went off somewhere else," added Yang. "I'm guessing the library? Probably to research some stuff."
Weiss frowned. "You didn't think to ask them before they left?"
"Nope!" Yang replied cheerfully, popping the 'p' in that way both she and Ruby always did. "But if I'm being honest, this sort of thing isn't Ruby's style. Like, at all."
Weiss wasn't particularly surprised to hear that. Ruby didn't really strike her as a party-going type of person. She struggled to imagine the younger girl finding any sort of enjoyment at a loud school dance.
Something she and I have in common, I suppose, albeit for very different reasons.
"Weiss, did you have any input you would like to share?" Pyrrha asked. "Any advice at all would be appreciated."
Weiss let out a resigned sigh. She may not have been particularly enthused to be involved in any of this, but it was her punishment as much as it was everyone else's, so she supposed she had to at least try to engage with it.
"Pass me the guidelines. Let me see what we have to work with."
The envelope was not as thick as Weiss had been expecting, containing only around half-a-dozen pages detailing mostly basic minutiae regarding the schedule and order of events. There was a formal dress code, a curfew, a few business numbers if they needed them, and not much else besides. All told, there was quite a bit of leeway regarding what could and could not be planned.
One detail did stand out as oddly specific to Weiss: No Fireworks.
I wonder what happened to result in that rule being necessary?
Weiss set the papers aside. "Perhaps we should wait for the others to get back first? Then we can all discuss this together rather than jumping to any decisions without thinking them through first."
"I think that's fair," agreed Pyrrha with a nod.
Yang rolled her eyes. "Fine, we'll wait. But in the meantime…"
Yang's expression quickly turned playful, grinning at both Weiss and Pyrrha. "Any ideas on who you're gonna go with?"
Pyrrha suddenly looked much less sure of herself, averting her gaze and flushing slightly. "W-well, not at present, no."
Yang's smile only widened. "Sounds to me like you at least have some idea. Care to share, Pyrrha?"
Weiss resisted the urge to just get up and leave. Even more than not wanting to get involved in anything party-related, she really didn't want to be involved in this sort of discussion. If Yang started asking her questions of that nature…
Better to derail this before it even starts.
"Yang, leave her alone," Weiss interjected before anything else could be said. "If she doesn't want to tell you, don't force her."
Yang raised her hands defensively. "Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood. Of course I'd never do that." She turned to face Pyrrha. "Sorry for putting you on the spot, though."
"It's fine," Pyrrha replied. "I know you didn't mean any harm."
The door to the dorm room opened then at that moment, and Ren and Nora entered with armfuls of paper and folders.
"Coco gave us everything," Ren said from behind the tottering pile of notes they were holding. "I wasn't aware that planning a party could be this… elaborate."
The pair set their respective stacks down in the centre of the room. All Weiss and the others could do was stare in disbelief at the mountain before them.
"Well then," said Pyrrha cautiously. "Let's get started, I guess?"
Yang looked almost despondent at the amount of reading they were all apparently now going to have to do. "I was wrong. We need Ruby and Blake here for this. Where are they?"
"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?"
Ruby closed the book she had been attempting to read and tossed it back onto the table. 'The Perfect Party Planner's Perfect Guide to Perfect Parties' had turned out to not be anywhere near as helpful as its boastful title implied it would be.
"No," she sighed. "I r-really don't."
Neptune chuckled. "If it makes you feel any better, I wouldn't have a clue what to do, either."
Ruby turned to face her unusual companion. "N-not to s-s-sound rude, but… why are y-you here?"
Neptune rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "To be honest, I'm just kinda bored. Scarlet and Sage are still resting up after the whole docks disaster, and I have no idea where Sun's run off to… again." Ruby didn't miss the note of bitterness in Neptune's voice as he spoke about his leader.
"H-how are they?" Ruby asked. "S-Sage and S-Scarlet, I mean."
"Oh, they're fine," Neptune replied. "I think Scarlet's pride was more wounded than his body was. He hates losing."
Neptune's expression then turned a little more serious. "What about you? Are you and your team holding up OK?"
"Y-yeah, we're f-fine," Ruby murmured, pointedly avoiding looking directly at Neptune. She stood and gathered up her things, turning to leave with a muttered "Bye."
'Are you and your team holding up OK?'
…
No, I don't think we are.
At first, Ruby had felt like they all had managed to really come together after the fight at the docks. Blake had opened up to everyone, they had made new promises as a team to talk properly to each other from now on, and when they had come back to Beacon after their suspension ended things had seemed to be going fine.
But a week passed, and it became clear that no, things were absolutely not fine.
There were the dreams, for starters. Dreams of what had happened. Of what might have happened of things had gone differently. Of all the ways things could have gone terribly, terribly wrong. Ruby hadn't gotten a full night's sleep in days now.
Then there was the lingering stress from the whole ordeal, as well as the lingering uncertainty between everyone. Sure, they had talked, and made all those new promises, but Ruby still found herself worrying if it could all still fall apart.
The other three surely had the same worry, if the many terse conversations and awkward silences were any indication.
And on top of it all, capping off the pile, was the very clear fact that, in spite of their efforts and all they had done, in spite of how hard they had fought… it had all ultimately amounted to nothing of substance. Every day more news reports told the same stories: another robbery, another attack, another sighting of the White Fang or even of Roman Torchwick himself.
They had all escaped with their lives, but that was it. Whatever plans Torchwick and the White Fang had, they apparently hadn't been inconvenienced very much at all by Ruby and company's involvement.
Blake was taking this the hardest, Ruby could tell that much quite easily. Every morning and every evening, Blake made a point of checking the news, and always came away looking miserable from what she saw.
Of course, Ruby was guilty of that as well. They all were. They just weren't talking about it with each other. Despite their promises, they had managed in the span of a week to slide back into the broken dynamic they had started with.
'Are you and your team holding up OK?'
…
We can't go on like this.
As she wandered slowly along the hallway, she found herself recalling the words of advice Penny had given her in the alleyway:
'I do not think that this is something that you need to 'fix,' Ruby. I think that this is something that you need to face, and talk about with the people who are a part of it.'
Those two days when everything had gone to hell had been awful. Ruby did not want to have to go through all of that again.
Lifting her head and steeling her resolve, Ruby turned and made her way towards the sparring rooms.
Time for a team meeting.
Blake ducked to avoid the blast aimed at her face, responding with a wide swing of her sword, aiming to force her opponent to back off and give her more space.
But he would not be so easily driven back. Gambol was parried aside, disrupting Blake's guard yet again and opening her up once more to an assault. Rather than forcing her opponent back, Blake was the one who found herself retreating, frantically back peddling to dodge a body blow that would have knocked the wind from her.
Blake's back hit the wall, and she realised that she had nowhere left to escape to.
Nowhere except up.
Pushing upwards off of her Shadows was a little trickier than using them to launch herself straight along the ground. She had to contend with gravity pulling against her, throwing off her trajectory ever so slightly. Blake's range upwards with her Semblance was thus slightly reduced from her normal range. And as much as she had trained to compensate for this, she still hadn't quite managed to alleviate all of the issues just yet.
As a result, she was unable to avoid having her ankle grabbed mid-leap, and unable to avoid being yanked back down to the ground, rendering her escape attempt utterly futile.
Blake fell to the ground hard, her sword knocked from her grasp and sent skittering across the floor out of reach.
The end of a red staff was thrust into her face, stopping just short of hitting her in the eye.
"I win," said Sun. He withdrew his staff and offered her his free hand.
Blake took it with a huff of annoyance that was mostly aimed at herself, allowing Sun to pull her up before letting go and retrieving her weapon.
"Again," she said, retaking her stance.
Sun shook his head and smiled. "We've been sparring for the better part of an hour, Blake. You may not need a break, but I sure do, so I'm hitting the showers. Some other time, maybe?"
Before Blake could protest, he had made his way out of the room, just as another pair of students made their way in.
"Is this room free now?" asked one of them. "Or do you still need it?"
Blake sighed, replacing her weapon on her back and making her own way out. "All yours," she grumbled.
"Wait."
Blake paused halfway out the door and turned to face the pair. "Did you need something?"
One of the girls, the one with dark hair that covered one eye, gave her a look. "You wanted to keep training, didn't you?"
Blake just shrugged. "Doesn't matter, I'll just have to come back later."
"Why not now?"
Blake raised an eyebrow at that. "With you two?"
The girl gave a shrug of her own. "Emerald, you wouldn't mind if I sparred with this one first for a bit, would you?"
"Fine by me, Cinder," the other girl, Emerald, replied.
I though they looked familiar. They're from Team CMNE, from Haven Academy.
Blake made her way back towards the ring, drawing her weapon once more and settling back into her stance. Her new opponent, Cinder, stood opposite her and drew from behind her a pair of curved swords, holding one in a reverse grip.
"Whenever you are ready, Miss Belladonna," Cinder said calmly, smiling a small smile.
Blake shifted her weight forwards, tensed, and prepared to launch herself towards her foe-
"Blake!"
Blake stopped and turned her head. Ruby was standing at the doorway, an armful of books clutched against her chest.
"Ruby, can it wait? I'm a little busy right now."
The younger girl shook her head and shot Blake a hard stare that she would not have expected Ruby to be capable of. "N-no, it can't. Come back to the dorm w-with m-me."
Blake turned back to Cinder and sent her an apologetic look. "Some other time?"
"Of course," Cinder replied, still smiling that small smile of hers. "I look forward to it."
There is way too much here. Coco, you seriously went overboard. How were you even gonna pull all this off!?
Team CFVY's plans had indeed turned out to be ridiculously elaborate. Coco had apparently taken this very seriously, and her notes had accounted for just about every single tiny detail that could possibly arise from planning a dance.
Yang could certainly appreciate the effort that must have gone into all of this, but it all seemed far to excessive to her. To Yang, a party was supposed to have some spontaneity to it. Sure, you could plan some of the big stuff, but there had to be some stuff that you just let fall where it may. Otherwise, you'd take all the fun out of it.
So Yang opted to make an executive decision.
"All in favour of just throwing all of this out and doing our own thing, raise your hand now."
Unanimously, everyone present raised their hands at Yang's suggestion.
"Great!" She threw aside the folder she had been holding and grabbed the blank sheet of paper she and Pyrrha had set aside earlier. "Alright, let's lay out everything we need to-"
The door to the dorm beeped and swung open, and Blake and Ruby entered.
"Perfect timing!" Yang chirped happily. "We were just about to start brainstorming some stuff."
Ruby set her armful of books down of the desk. "Pyrrha, N-Nora, R-Ren? Could you give us th-the room f-for a bit?"
Yang sat up straighter as Ruby spoke. She sounded very serious. Something must have happened.
The others clearly picked up on this as well, as Pyrrha simply nodded and left without a word, Nora and Ren following suit, leaving just the four of them in the dorm.
"Ruby, is everything alright? What happened?" Yang got up and made her way over to her sister.
Ruby closed her eyes and took a breath. "L-let's all just s-sit down."
Now feeling very worried, Yang retook her seat on the floor, Ruby and Blake joining her soon after. Weiss likewise got off the bed and came to join the rest of the team, with the four of them now sat in a rough circle.
"OK then," said Weiss slowly. "What's all this about?"
Ruby turned to look at each of them in turn, then turned her gaze up at the ceiling.
"W-we all promised to talk to each other f-from now on," she said slowly, taking care with each word to avoid stammering as much as possible. "But we s-still aren't doing that. So w-we need to talk… right now."
"About what?" asked Yang, but she already had a pretty good idea what this was about.
You beat me to it, sis. I was gonna bring this up soon, but you went and beat me to it.
Ruby took another deep breath. "What happened… at the docks. W-with the W-White Fang… and Torchwick."
The room was silent for a moment. It seemed they were all now waiting for someone else to say something first.
"I'm not… I'm not s-sleeping well. I keep th-thinking about it… and I know th-that you all th-think about it too."
Yang inhaled sharply. She had known, of course, that Ruby had been waking up in the middle of the night, but hearing her outright admit it…
"He's still out there," whispered Blake. "Torchwick, Gainsboro… they're all still out there. We couldn't stop them. All we did was save ourselves."
"What else could we have done?" Weiss asked. "We were in way over our heads that night. We were not ready for something like that!"
"No-one else was doing anything!" Blake yelled suddenly. "The police didn't stop them! They still aren't! Something big is about to happen and no-one is doing anything about it!"
"You don't know that for sure, Blake," Yang interjected. "Maybe there's an investigation going on, but they can't say anything publicly in case they blow their cover or something?"
"I agree with Yang," Weiss added. "Professor Ozpin told us not to worry. Between the police and the Huntsmen, I'm certain they have this all under control."
"Well, I'm not!" Blake snapped. "They don't know the Fang like I do."
"So you want to go charging in all over again?" Weiss asked, her tone cold. "Since it went so well last time… Need I remind you that we are still students in training, Blake? We are not ready for this yet!"
Blake rose to her feet. "We may never be ready! The White Fang aren't just going to wait for us to graduate! They're out there somewhere, planning their next move, and none of us know what it is, but it's coming! Whether we're ready or not, they're coming!"
Weiss stood up and placed a hand upon Blake's shoulder. "I get it, Blake. It's driving me crazy as well. Ruby's right, we're all thinking about it, all the time. But be reasonable: what can we even do right now?"
"We can do our own investigation."
All eyes were on Yang after she spoke.
"There's no rule against doing a little… 'extra-curricular activity'." Yang made an air-quotes motion as she said that. "And who knows, we might find something that could help stop them. I doubt anyone would complain about us giving them any info we find, if it helps them arrest the Fang and Torchwick in the end."
Weiss stared at Yang like she had grown a second head. "We just got back from a suspension, and we've been taken to task for a food fight! Can we really afford to risk getting in any more trouble?"
"We h-have to do this."
Ruby stood up herself, pushing down her hood and staring at them all. "W-we aren't gonna s-stop thinking about it if w-we just do n-nothing. It'll keep on bothering us until w-we all go m-mad from th-thinking about it. About w-what could've h-happened.. if we'd only done m-more."
Yang was torn between feeling proud and afraid as Ruby spoke. A feeling she was growing increasingly familiar with, it seemed.
"L-like Professor Goodwitch said: we h-have to m-make up for our m-mistakes. We couldn't s-stop them before… but m-maybe we can s-stop them next time."
"We have to take responsibility," said Blake, nodding her head. "We screwed up at the docks, now we need to make up for it."
Yang looked her sister in the eye, and she knew that there was no talking Ruby out of this. Her little sister could at times be the most stubborn person on the planet, and this was one of those times.
And if she were being honest with herself? Yang couldn't blame her one bit. After all, she was the one who suggested an investigation of their own in the first place.
Yang thought back to the fight. She thought back to her encounter with that short girl with the umbrella, how she had been beaten so badly Ruby had needed to step in and save her.
Make up for our past mistakes, huh?
"So, are we really doing this?"
Blake and Ruby both nodded. "We are," they said together.
All eyes now turned towards Weiss.
"I want the record to show that I think this is a terrible idea… but I'm in." Weiss held out her hand in the centre of the circle. "Someone has to make sure the three of you don't get into even more trouble, after all."
Yang placed her own hand on top of Weiss'. "Glad to have you on board, Ice Queen."
"Call me that again and I will freeze you to the ceiling," Weiss quipped.
Blake added her own hand to the pile. "Alright then, we're in this together."
Ruby added her own hand on top. "Then let's s-start to plan our n-next move."
"Not quite yet," Weiss said. "First, we need to tidy up the room." She gestured to the mess of papers and folders that were strewn all across the floor of the dorm.
"Oh, right. We still have a party to plan." Yang facepalmed. "Forgot about that for a moment."
"We can multitask," Blake responded. "Besides, planning parties isn't really in my wheelhouse."
Am I the only member of the team who likes parties? Yang mused.
Roman stared up at the approaching ship with no small amount of trepidation.
Just stay calm. Don't let this kid get under your skin.
A tug on his sleeve drew Roman's attention back down to his sister, standing at his side with a rather concerned expression of her own.
[Are you sure about this?] she signed.
"Not in the slightest," Roman replied. "But that ship has long since sailed."
Neo's brow creased with worry. [If he turns on us, will we be able to deal with him?]
No, was the answer to that question, but he wasn't about to say that to Neo.
"If worst comes to worst, we'll just bail back to Mistral."
The ship drew closer, making its final approach to land.
Roman's grip on his cane tightened. "That being said, keep your guard up around this guy. And let me know right away if anything feels off."
Neo nodded.
The ship landed a short distance away, and the side door slid open.
Its single passenger hopped out, and the ship immediately took off again and flew off, not wasting a single moment.
"Roman Torchwick. We finally meet face-to-face."
Hello again to all of you, and hello as well to any new arrivals! I'm Not Scot.
I'm still really struggling to write Yang's parts, but I think I know why that is now: at the moment, she doesn't have as much of a personal stake in the plot as the other three, so I find that her motivations aren't necessarily as strong, and this is leading me to stumble a little on how to present her as she doesn't have as much to latch onto. Once I finally get to her main plot threads, I think I'll have an easier time writing for her.
Overall, I wanted this chapter to detail a bit more of how the fight at the docks impacted the girls. They may have gotten out relatively unharmed, but they didn't come away unscathed, and I wanted to show that here. Did I do a good job? I guess that's down to you to decide.
Next chapter, 'Roadblocks', will see the team starting their investigation. Will they be able to uncover anything? You'll have to keep reading to see for yourselves.
That's all for now though, so I shall now take my leave.
Until next time,
Not Scot.
P.S: You may have noticed that I changed my avatar. The stock image of the cartoon giraffe has been retired; may they rest in peace.
