Trailing
Ruby was already standing by the door to the room. "So, we're set on repeating the events that led us into meeting both Sun and Penny, right?"
"Yep. I know Sun's a little dumb at times, but he's someone who helped me out a lot, and I feel like it'd be a shame to not have him as a friend." Blake explained.
"Then it's settled. We're going to the docks and we'll meet both Sun and Penny." Yang grinned cheerily.
"And we don't even really gotta worry about scouting for tournament competition this time." Weiss pointed out.
"So you admit it now." Yang snickered before walking out the door first.
"H-Hey!" Weiss followed her out and Blake simply just rolled her eyes before her and Ruby left after them.
The team arrived in the city to see the Vytal Festival preparations being made.
"Isn't this the part where you talk about how great the planning is or something?" Ruby commented.
Weiss furrowed her eyebrows. "Look, we're not repeating everything we did today again."
"I could do without the lengthy argument that ends with me running off." Blake admitted as the group continued towards the harbor.
"So, wanna get snacks or anything?" Ruby asked her teammates.
"There's no time for that, Ruby, we gotta get to the harbor right when the next ship arrives. When is that again?" Weiss asked.
"I think about 2 more hours from now?" a voice that sounded shockingly familiar to them all stated.
As they all turned around, sure enough they were greeted by the haunting sight of an innocent looking Cinder Fall, clad in a Haven Academy uniform.
"You…" Yang was immediately on the defensive, standing between Cinder and her sister, Weiss and Yang were also taking up offensive stances against the woman who tilted her head in confusion.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." Cinder remarked.
"Ahem, excuse us for a moment." Ruby pulled her teammates into a shop while Cinder's attention returned to Emerald and Mercury who were staring into another shop's window.
She rolled her eyes with a sigh. "We don't have time for shopping."
"What gives Rubes? That's Cinder isn't it? I say we kick her ass and be done with it." Yang's eyes lit up a bright red. "I'm not letting her get away with hurting anyone... Not this time."
"I want to do that as much as you do, Yang. But you have to remember, when we make our first move against Salem and Cinder, our advantage of knowing what they're planning ends." Ruby pointed out.
"So what then? You want to just let her fake being a student?" Weiss even seemed upset at the prospect of letting their enemy share the same roof as them.
"They won't be at Beacon until after the break, remember?" Ruby reminded. "Look, I think it's best that we prepare for what they're planning instead of giving them a chance to come up with a counter plan for our interference. Besides, we still need to train ourselves up more to even stand a chance against her."
"You're right." Blake nodded. "It's your call Ruby. We'll follow your lead on this one."
Taking a breath, Ruby just let out a sigh. "I just hope it's the right one for once. That reminds me. I want to try to turn Emerald to our side sooner."
"How are you gonna do that? She's practically eating out of Cinder's hand right now." Blake remarked as she watched Emerald bicker with Mercury while Cinder actually stood by her side on this argument.
There was a pause for a moment, before Ruby's eyes lit up with an idea. "We have to be better than Cinder at her own game then."
"How are we going to do that?" Yang was lost.
"Just trust me on this." Ruby stepped out now as the three members of Cinder's team all faced the approaching quartet of girls.
"Sort out whatever your problem was?" Cinder asked.
"Y-Yeah, just some superstitions about the tournament, you know how it gets." Ruby chuckled. "You're partaking in it, aren't you?"
"Of course, we're planning on taking the top prize." Mercury bragged before getting elbowed by Emerald.
"Oh um. We never did properly introduce ourselves. I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose. These are my teammates, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Yang's my sister." Ruby explained. "Our team is called RWBY. Before you ask, yes, it gets really confusing with my name and the team name being the same."
"I see, well it was nice meeting you, Team RWBY." Cinder stated with that sultry voice that just made Yang wanna rip her vocal chords out. She began to walk past her.
"Wait, aren't you gonna introduce yourselves?!" Ruby asked, which caused a moment of pause.
"Oh, my bad. How could I forget my manners?" Cinder turned around. "I'm Cinder, this is Emerald, and Mercury. They're my teammates."
"Yo." Mercury waved.
"Hi." Emerald offered a simple smile.
"You… Have a real nice smile, Emerald." Ruby remarked in an earnest tone.
"Thanks, I mean it's really nothing special." Emerald shook her head.
"Not at all!" Yang spoke up, her tone sounding fake at first before she cleared her throat. "Ruby and I's father always taught us to appreciate it when a stranger offers a friendly smile."
Ruby glanced at her and Yang just sort of shot her that 'Just go with it' look.
"Look, um… We hope to see you around town more, okay?" Blake now spoke up. "You can reach out to us if you want and we'll give you a nice guided tour of Vale!"
"Oh um.. That's really not necessary. It's nice and all but-"
"I think you should go, Emerald." Cinder spoke up, which surprised even Team RWBY.
"B-But Cinder-"
Cinder made eye contact with her now. "Trust me, it's good to make some friends and to really learn the culture of a place you're staying. I apologize for her tone, she's not used to being outside of Mistral."
Mercury snickered a bit now before Cinder spoke up. "Mercury is also welcome to come if he wants." she glared at him now, immediately shutting up his smug attitude.
With that, Team RWBY exchanged contact details with Cinder and her team and the two groups parted, RWBY heading down to the docks now.
"Why did you do that, Cinder?" Emerald asked with her arms crossed.
"It'll be an effective way to get a lay of the land and to learn what makes that team tick. You saw how apprehensive they were, right? They might play an integral role in our plan." Cinder assured her.
"They did seem particularly chummy with you, Em." Mercury laughed. "Looks like Emmie's made some friends!"
"If you don't shut up I will-"
"Silence." Cinder commanded, getting that from both of them. Now that she had arrived in Vale, she was all too eager to burn this place to the ground.
As they stood by the docks, they saw the larger cargo ship pull in. "Let's see if we can spot Sun before he gets off the-"
"Hey you no good Stowaway!" the voice of a police detective called out.
"And there he is." Blake rolled her eyes while she continued watching the scene play out. Looking back on it, now, it did remind her that he did the same thing to follow after her to help her. His presence on her trip home to Menagerie made all the difference. She definitely felt the need to make a trip home at some point, but that didn't matter at the current moment as she watched Sun run right past her and wink.
"After him!" Weiss called out as the rest of Team RWBY followed in suit, trailing him right into an alleyway where they would have what would have otherwise been viewed as a chance encounter with another friendly face.
"Oh!" Ruby was the one to slam into her this time, both falling to the ground as Ruby pulled herself up with a groan before a brief blush happened across her face while she stumbled back..
"Ruby! Are you okay?" Yang asked, offering her sister a hand as Ruby stared wide-eyed at the girl before her.
"Salutations!" Penny greeted with a wave from the ground.
"Are you okay, friend?" Ruby asked after pulling herself up and offering her a hand.
"Friend?" Penny took hold of Ruby's hand and tried to pull her weight up with Ruby, but instead pulled Ruby down to the ground next to her before standing herself up.
Ruby groaned while resting face first on the pavement. Penny pulled her to her feet now, and Weiss helped her keep steady.
"Am I really your friend?!" she asked with wide-eyes looking at Ruby.
"Of course you are! I'm Ruby, and you're Um…" Ruby feigned not knowing her name.
"Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" she saluted Ruby.
"It's real nice to meet you too, Penny." Weiss spoke up.
"You're… Weiss Schnee?" Penny asked her.
"You know me?"
"Of course! I listen to your music all the time! I really love your cover of 'Wish upon a star!' That song's already a favorite of mine, the way you sang it was just perfectly harmonized."
"Oh um…" Weiss was not expecting her music career to be brought up in this conversation.
"Were you following that faunus boy?" Penny asked.
"Yeah, we wanted to talk with him." Blake spoke up. "My name's Blake by the way."
"Yeah, could you help us find him? Yang." Yang added her name, quickly realizing she didn't properly introduce herself to Penny yet.
"Well, from what I understand, friends help each other. So I'll help you locate him!" she declared while looking ahead, her eyes scanning now. "Follow me." her tone turned serious.
Sun laughed as he landed himself in a dark alleyway and started munching on another banana he had stashed in his shirt. "Another day, another free trip!~"
Before he could take another bite, several sets of footsteps converged on his location. Letting out a sigh, he was surprised when he saw Blake and a few other girls approach him.
"Whoa-whoa! Easy girls!" Sun stood himself up. "That wink was purely platonic, I assure you!" He raised his arms up in defense.
"We just wanted to talk with you actually." Ruby started.
"Yeah. It's nice to meet another friendly faunus around these parts." Blake spoke up before removing her bow, revealing her cat ears.
"You look better without it, you know." Sun remarked. "The name's Sun!" he patted his chest confidently.
"Blake." Blake held her hand out to him and the two firmly shook.
"So, what'd you wanna talk to me about anyways?" he asked. "I mean, I'd be more interested in learning more about you…" he tried to be a little smooth with that line, but there were a couple of eyerolls in the group, although Blake didn't seem bothered at all.
"Well, if you wanna know more about me… How about we all talk over some tea?" she offered, remembering exactly how this was gonna go.
Commentary: Funny how certain things can still play out almost exactly the same, huh?
I'm glad I was able to at least get one last chapter out before leaving on my short trip.
Similarly to RWBY RE, I had Team RWBY run into Cinder early here. Well, they ran into her whole team instead of just her this time, not to mention they do have a plan regarding her team, since they already know Emerald will eventually become a turncoat. Nothing wrong with trying to speed that along. The only issue really is just how right now, especially with Emerald's loyalty to Cinder being stable at this point in time.
I admittedly do also like the dynamic of Team RWBY and Cinder's team both having to pretend to be nice with each other.
The other encounters with Penny and Sun are mostly left alone, although RWBY did gain a little more insight on both of them. Which, Penny's favorite Weiss song being a cover of "Wish Upon a Star" is a reference to "Friend" where she claims to have heard the song. I just thought I'd play with that detail a little.
Not too much changed with Sun here, apart from the context of his and Blake's conversation starting.