A/N: Happy New Year! Sorry this chapter took nearly a month to complete considering how short it is. Next chapter will be out soon and it will be the mid-season finale of RWBY: REBN – Season 1. As for RWBY volume 8 episodes 6 and 7 I liked episode 6 more than episode 7. For episode 6, we get Cinder's backstory. It was not all that good and it was not worth 8 years of waiting and the theme of destiny was not even hinted at all throughout the backstory. Not only that, I prompted fans of the show to completely absolve Cinder of all of her actions while there are other characters (like Mercury and Adam) who have been through just as much if not worse and no one cares about it. There were two songs that were featured in that episode, there was the song that described Cinder's Cinderella-like life and then there was the song played during the Cinder vs Rhodes fight scene. I didn't really care for the first song, but I LOVE the second song. It is called "Awake" and it is a song by the band "Ok Goodnight", a band that Casey Lee Williams is the lead singer for. If you get the chance, please give them a listen. Anyway, I liked that Mercury got a promotion and is working directly for Salem now. Also Salem finally starts her takeover of Atlas after waiting for almost half the season when she should have done this during episode 1 of the volume. As for episode 7, I think it was the second worst episode of the volume so far (worst being episode 2). It is definitely not a good place to stop for a 6-week hiatus. So Jaune, Ren, and Yang are found by the Ace-Ops (and Winter) and Yang still continues to be a bitch, meanwhile Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and May are still in Schnee Manor taking care of an injured Nora. May gets her best and her worst line, while Oscar stupidly tells Hazel the secret to the lamp's true power and Emerald overhears this. Mercury and Tyrian go off to Vacuo and Ironwood decides to place a bomb in the Grimm. Of course Jaune, Yang, and Ren have a problem with it as 1 life is worth the deaths of many others. Ren gets a confusing semblance upgrade as he convinces the Ace-Ops and Winter to go try and rescue Oscar. Back the Schnee Manor Ruby FINALLY brings up Qrow (when she need him for something) and Whitley calls Klein to help Nora when he sees that she needs medical attention. Of course without learning anything Weiss "forgives" Whitley and then the episode ends with Penny crashing on the Schnee doorstep. And if you see the Christmas sneak peak of episode 8, Willow Schnee swoops in to help Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and May. So that what I think of those two episodes, overall the first 7 episodes of volume 8 are mostly set up for the second half of the volume. Now before getting into the episode, I have an announcement that will be completely revealed by the end. Anyway, please enjoy.
RWBY: REBN – Season 1
Episode 9: Machines and Mysteries
On the city streets of Vale, team RWBY were serving their last hours of community service with Velvet from team CFVY overseeing them. The team were supposed to clean up the town streets after a parade celebrating Guardian Day. A celebration of a special person who was tasked to protect the Kingdom of Vale.
"Wow, I have always been to these parades but I never thought there would be this much to clean up." Yang remarked.
"Yeah, on TV I thought there were people who were cleaning this stuff up." Weiss commented.
"If you think this is bad, then just wait for how much there is to clean up after the Vytal Festival that's coming up in about 7 months." Velvet mentioned.
"How can we clean all of this up?" Blake questioned, noting how much there was to clean.
"Maybe I could go down to the end of the street and use my semblance to create a wind tunnel that will carry all the trash and you guys could use the trash cans to collect it." Ruby suggested. "Or, if that's too crazy we could..."
"Actually that could actually work." Blake agreed.
"That sounds great! We will be done in no time!" Yang spoke up.
"Fine." Weiss said curtly.
As the red-hooded girl used her semblance, she started running as her body transformed into rose petals. With the speed as fast as a cheetah a tunnel of wind formed and trash was whisked along with it.
Blake and Yang were carrying the lidless trash cans as right after they saw a red blur pass by them by as trash flew right for them.
"Get ready!" Yang shouted to Blake.
"Has this happened before?!" Blake shouted.
"Of course!" Yang remarked.
The trash flew by and the two girls caught enough trash to halfway fill their trash cans.
"Look at that, our bins are already halfway full." Yang commented, happy with Ruby's plan.
While Ruby, Blake, and Yang were picking up the trash, Weiss was just watching the rest of her team work while she was filing her nails and looking at the "F" rating on her hunter's license.
"What? Picking up trash is beneath me." Weiss stated with a superior tone.
"Look Weiss, please work. If we finish this, then well be done with community service." Ruby pleaded.
"Yeah, Weiss come on and help." Yang stated wanting to give Ruby the space to figure this out herself. "If you can grab a trash can over there, more trash can be collected."
"This is the last time we will have to be here for community service, whether or not you want to make this grueling work last longer is your choice." Blake remarked in a snarky tone.
"How about you go and help some of the other workers in the stands." Velvet stepped in, easing the tension as Weiss reluctantly agrees.
Once Weiss went over to the stands, she found the workers and they were visibly pleased to see who they will be working with.
"Finally, a Schnee is going to work with us." one work stated.
"It's nice to have someone with class around here." another worker remarked.
"I'm sure you will find my assistance to be very useful in your efforts of cleaning." Weiss stated.
"I rather have you here than that critter over there with the big ears." The first worker commented.
As the worker made that comment, Blake and Velvet happened to overhear them. Velvet frowns at this, but Blake then flinches ready to go give them as peace of her mind. But before she could do anything, Velvet gives Blake a look and shares her head, noting that it isn't worth it.
"What was that about?" Yang asked innocently as Blake was thinking. "Blake?"
"I used to live with a community of Faunus. We had mutual respect for one another and… comments like that are very… hurtful to say the least." Blake explained.
"Well, it doesn't help that Weiss is on our team." Yang said sardonically. "But I can see why this would upset you."
"Thanks." Blake said with an appreciative smile.
Meanwhile, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren were walking back into their dorm after working in the library when they found it a complete mess with Nora watching random videos online.
"Oh no, not again." Ren thought to himself.
"What happened?!" Pyrrha remarked.
"Uh, I was working on my homework for Hunter Regulation and Grimm Studies and then I needed to find one of my textbooks, I never found that textbook. Then I tried to think of the answers myself and yeah. I went online to find the answers and now I am watching all sorts of videos. Crazy, right?" Nora explained as her teammates looked at each other with concern.
"Oh, I did it again, didn't I." Nora admitted.
"I'm afraid so." Pyrrha brought up.
"I wish that I could focus so I won't flunk out of school. The only time I seem to get my act together is when we are fighting. I'm sure you noticed that I am very hyperactive and frantic, and go on about all sort of crazy ideas." Nora said.
"No…." Jaune and Pyrrha tried to say.
"Stop sugarcoating it. You are only going to make it worse." Ren thought.
"How about this, maybe one of us can help you study and how to keep yourself focused when working on a task. That way you will be better prepared for when you need to do something important. I believe that you can do this Nora, hopefully you feel the same." Ren remarked.
"Thanks." Nora remarked gratefully.
"So how much do you have to do for your classes?" Jaune asked.
"This much." Nora commented showing her team the amount of work she had to do and the test she had to do.
"Well we certainly have our work cut out for us." Ren said.
"Okay, judging by what you told us and all the other times we seen you work throughout the 1st quarter, I can see how your personality influences how you learn." Pyrrha stated. "Using this knowledge, maybe I can help you learn how to do the work."
"Really?" Nora questioned with hope.
"Of course, everything will be fine." Pyrrha reassured.
For the next 2 hours we see Pyrrha and Ren trying to tutor Nora on her work ethic to no avail. During Pyrrha's time with Nora we see her try to tell Nora how to study flash cards and used the same memorization techniques that she learned. She also tried to calmly tell Nora to focus when she was distracted, but over time Pyrrha did grow more and more frustrated. When that frustration became noticeable, Pyrrha quickly apologized for it and kept it under control. Throughout the ordeal she tried to give encouragement to no avail. With Ren, he fared slightly better but ultimately failed. While working on her assignment, Ren advised that she should try make her work environment more structured only to have Nora be even more distracted. Eventually, Ren thought of a compromise that Nora could just have free reign over what she does as long as she gets more work done. Of course that did not work and no work was done.
"I just don't know how you do it, Ren. I mean she has so much energy." Pyrrha commented. "She does remind me of the little sister I always wanted but still."
"To be honest this was the one area where we had the most problems. Aside from her fighting and handling money she seems to act like this when she handles any practical tasks." Ren mentioned.
"Maybe I can try helping her, I had experience with more… high strung people." Jaune stated.
"If you can handle it." Ren said.
"Are you sure?" Pyrrha questioned.
"I'll be fine." Jaune remarked. "Besides how hard can it be."
Meanwhile Ruby, Blake, and Yang were still cleaning when after one of Ruby's wind gusts, a strange figure was swooped up alongside the trash.
"Sal-u-ta-tions!" the red-haired girl exclaimed.
"Oh my Gods?! Are you okay?" Ruby asked as she pulled the girl out of the trash.
"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking." The girl remarked as she leaps back on her feet. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"I'm Yang." Yang introduced.
"Blake." Blake said.
"Hi Penny." Ruby stated with moderate hesitation. "I'm Ruby."
"So what brings you here?" Blake questioned.
"I'm here to fight in the tournament." Penny stated.
"I thought students were going to start coming in next semester?" Yang questioned.
"Anyway, I was visiting the City of Vale and then I saw that the area was a mess so I went to investigate how this mess happened. Then next thing I know, I'm in a trash can. How crazy is that?" Penny recounted the events that occurred.
"The decorations were for the Guardian's Day parade that happened earlier today." Yang answered.
"What is a "guardian?" Penny questioned.
"They are a group of 4 warriors who protect each of the 4 kingdoms from Grimm and various criminals. Each guardian is assigned to a kingdom and they are entrusted to be somewhat of a diplomat within the kingdom. They protected by the governments of each kingdom and are given special privileges within the kingdom. The 4 guardians are named after each kingdom and are given a unique ability that no one else has." Ruby explained. "Vale's guardian hasn't been seen for a long time though."
Soon enough Weiss eventually came back to the group covered in debris from the workers she tried to help.
"Those workers are such klutzes. They're even worse than Ruby, and that's saying something." Weiss said to herself.
"Who is she?" Weiss questioned noticing Penny.
"She's…" Yang began to say.
"I'm Penny!" Penny remarked interrupting Yang. "I haven't left home before and now that I am here in this new city. There are so many different things that could happen here and I want to see all of it!" Penny commented enthusiastically.
"Well you certainly an excitable one." Weiss said. "I wonder if you have an off switch."
"Of course not, silly! People don't have off switches!" Penny commented obliviously.
"Anyway you should all get back to cleaning up." Velvet mentioned showing how much work they still have to do.
We then see Jaune and Nora working on her Grimm Studies test and working on her Hunter Regulation and Law homework. Unfortunately for them, Nora was still struggling to grasp the concepts. They worked with each other trying to find a better way for Nora to learn, only to keep failing over and over again.
"You know Nora; we could take a break if you want to." Jaune offered as Nora nodded. "So what's really going on?"
"I don't know, what's wrong with me. I thought if I try harder than I could focus but I can't! Let's face it, if didn't decide to be a huntress I wouldn't make it in the real world." Nora lamented. "And honestly I can't do that right."
"That's not true." Jaune stated. "You are more than capable of focusing and doing well in school. You clearly want to learn you just need to do what works for you."
"But I'm just too silly, I can't just see things for what they are. I always have several different ideas about what could happen, but they're all just stupid." Nora commented.
"Silly doesn't necessary have to be a bad thing. I haven't seen anyone with an imagination as active as yours. Only you could make these normally boring classes more interesting and exciting." Jaune reminded. "You are also a fast learner compared to me, Pyrrha, and Ren
"But how will that help with me in class?" Nora questioned. "I'm sure you noticed that most people are doing great with endless memorization and tedious busywork. I can't seem to get my thoughts together long enough to learn."
"Everyone learns in different ways. Maybe instead of using flash cards we could be more interactive when we study. Or how about engaging in various learning techniques at once and finding a way to make it fun like seeing how one topic relates to another. You could make a song, game, or whatever to help you remember." Jaune remarked.
"I see… but it's not just that. When I eventually go out into the world as a huntress, I know if I act the way I do now no one will take me seriously. It was acceptable when I was younger but now..." Nora continued.
"That's why, you should learn how to channel your silliness and creative energy into something productive rather than just suppress it. I know you can become serious when needed, like when we were in the Emerald Forest or when you helped me with Ren." Jaune reminded.
"Yeah, that's true." Nora commented sniffling.
"So, are you ready to try this again?" Jaune said. "There might be a productive way that you express yourself."
"Yeah," Nora replied, wiping her eyes.
As Ren and Pyrrha went back to their dorms after relaxing in the student lounge to see Jaune and Nora studying together.
"Now name four different types of Grimm that are present on the continents of Solitas, Fera, Anima, and Sanus?" Jaune questioned.
"Now let's see." Nora began as she held up abstract artwork that vaguely resemble Grimm. "First there are the Lancer Grimm who are from to Anima. They can fly and can use their stinger to attack. The best way to fight them is to use ranged attacks, due their ability to fly."
"Over here there is Centinel Grimm are from Solitas. They are usually found underground, waiting for the right moment to strike. The best way to fight them is to quickly slice/crush their bodies so they are unable to go underground again." Nora continued.
"This is the Death Stalker Grimm who is normally found in the continent of Fera. They have scorpion-like that can be used to crush their victims and a stinger to use as a ranged option. The best way to fight them is hit the underside of their bodies." Nora stated. "Or you could use the stinger against the Death Stalker."
"And finally, we have the Beowolf that is found on the continent of Sanus. They have wolf-like claws and teeth, and can be commonly found in the forests. The best way to fight them is to strike its limbs or strong blow to the head." Nora finished.
"That is all correct." Jaune said.
"I can't believe I did it! I was able to remember this stuff." Nora exclaimed.
"But how, when we tried to help you didn't seem to understand it." Pyrrha mentioned.
"Let's just say… I have my ways." Jaune remarked.
"Well whatever you did it worked, thank you." Ren thanked.
"Hey, Jaune I really appreciate what you said earlier, I see why Ozpin chose you to be the team leader. You know how to motivate other people and you see things in them even if they don't see it themselves." Nora said. "I didn't know that I would enjoy abstract art all that much but now I love it!"
"I'm sure the Beacon staff saw your people skills as a reason you should be in a huntsman academy, alongside your other combat skills." Nora commented as Jaune stood silent. "Jaune?"
"Oh... yeah, so anyway why I don't I go finish up my project for Professor Oobleck." Jaune stated as Pyrrha briefly looked at him.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Vale, Penny offered to help team RWBY with their cleaning as she was able to hold two cans at once with no struggle. The trash was eventually all collected, but then Penny in her enthusiasm dropped some of it on Weiss.
"The trash is all over you, let me help..." Penny tried to say.
"That's it! I'm done! I am going back to the heliport." Weiss snapped.
"Weiss, it was an accident! You know she didn't mean it." Ruby said defending her friend to no avail.
"I'm sorry about Weiss, she's just…difficult sometimes." Ruby apologized.
"It's okay, Ruby. I'm just about to leave anyway." Penny replied.
"Wait! So Penny, I was thinking that since you are in town we could hang out some more over the weekends. What do you think?" Ruby asked.
"That would be sen-sational! We could paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys! I will be looking forward to it!" Penny commented before leaving, as Yang discreetly smiles.
"Wow is that how I really sounded when I first talked to Weiss?" Ruby questioned briefly while picking up the leftover trash
"Well then, since you managed to collect all the trash on the street, I'd say you are done today. Congratulations, team RWBY you are officially done with community service." Velvet announced.
As Ruby, Blake, and Yang caught up to Weiss and told her the good news, the team sees another dust shop that has been robbed. Team RWBY gets a closer the crime scene and they saw what the police were doing as that have their own thoughts about what happened.
"I wonder if what happened had something to do with that Roman guy. What is he doing now?" Ruby thought.
"Oh great, more Dust is stolen. Now I have to consider how this lack of profits will affect the Schnee Dust Company." Weiss considered mentally.
"I bet some random criminal just robbed the store and as usual the White Fang is going to be blamed for it." Blake remembered.
"Hmm, another robbery. I doubt it's anything serious and it will all blow over soon." Yang assumed.
"So what happened here?" the police officer asked.
"According to this report, the owner of this shop was knocked unconscious by the time the robbery occurred. However, witnesses have stated that one of the robbers had brown hair." the other police officer stated.
"Do you know who could be behind this?" the police officer questioned.
"I have no idea." The other police officer replied, unaware of who is behind this.
A/N: So my big announcement that I mentioned earlier is that on my profile, I have made a poll of what upcoming 2021 project you will be most excited for. When you see my profile (it's under 2021 projects) choices will be divided into 3 sections and you have to choose one story for each section. The poll will be taken down on January 23rd, 2021 so that leaves 2 weeks to vote. Anyway as for the episode, how do you like how Penny was introduced. I think introducing her in this episode would have been better than waiting for the second to last episode of the volume where the plot suddenly had to get in gear. As for the team JNPR subplot, I thought focusing on Nora's issues regarding her tendency to be unfocused and her academic habits would be a good choice. I thought abstract art would be a good outlet for her and a way express herself. And of course we see Jaune being a good leader to his teammates (and being naturally better at it than Ruby) which will make the reveal that Jaune cheated his way into Beacon all the more devastating for Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora. Now about the world of RWBY REBN, there are regular animals in the show (in their respective geographical locations) that all have Aura (which is passive). In fact, every animal, human, and Faunus has Aura (except for Salem and the Grimm), only Humans and Faunus can use Aura in various ways aside from basic protection (and said Aura gets stronger with age and training). Also in my map of this world the kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo do not share the same continent. For Vale it will stay of the continent of Sanus, while for Vacuo it will break off from Sanus and the new continent is called Fera. In this story, my version of the Maidens is called the Guardians (and both men and women can gain their powers). The public know about their existence and are protected by each kingdom's government. They act as the protectors/diplomats of each kingdom from Grimm and societal threats. They also have a special ceremony where they official get their official status (the powers come first) and a parade is held on the day they are inaugurated. Instead of elemental powers (which is what Dust is for), they would have enhanced defense, enhanced stealth, enhanced strength, and enhanced instincts (for Vale, Mistral, Atlas, and Vacuo respectively). All of other specifics about the Guardians will be answered throughout the course of this rewrite. So do you think the way I have characters talk match their personality or not really and also critique about my grammar would be helpful. Anyways, tune in next time where we get see the introduction of a certain character that despite their disability managed to be everyone's fan favorite. Until next time.