Disclaimer: I like penguins.
After the morning classes were over, Weiss and Yang had arrived first in their dorm room. The heiress and the brawler had already taken to sitting on their beds, waiting for the remaining team to arrive.
Ruby and Blake had arrived at the same time, which was unusual, as Blake usually arrived first, with Ruby being the last to enter the room. This time though, they both entered at the same time.
That wasn't the only unusual thing about them though.
Ruby was carrying a note pad with her, her red hair that swayed off to one side, was now standing up more. From what Yang could tell, Ruby had used quite a bit of hair gel to get a more rugged look.
As for Blake, she had tied up her long hair into a ponytail, using the bow she usually had on her head, to do the job. Such an act revealed the faunus trait she had, her cat ears wiggling a couple of times, as she conversed with Ruby.
Wait, cat ears?
"Blake, you're a fau-" Yang spoke up, just as surprised as Weiss likely was.
Yet the two of them were ignored, as Ruby and Blake sat on the edge of the cat faunus' bed.
"Should we go to-"
"No, we did that last time." Blake interrupted, while interjecting. "What if we go to the drag-"
"Nope! Last time we did that, I ended up losing my shit." Ruby was glaring at Blake as well.
"Hey, it was your suggestion, not mine." Blake smirked, the conversation carrying on for a bit longer.
Weiss was left staring, eyes wide and mouth gaping. "W-What?" Turning to Yang, she immediately asked. "You're seeing this too, right? Blake is a faunus and Ruby looks more...handsome?" She struggled to find a good word to describe her partner.
Yang nodded, her lilac eyes staring at the RB of the team seemingly mock each other, but still talk as they had done before. "Either these two are imposters, or they had an incredible glow-up." Of course Yang knew her baby sister well, but even then, it threw her for a loop too.
"What if I add some explosives?" Ruby grinned, wiggling her eyebrows at Blake.
"No. Last time you did that, Adam chased us down for ages."
"Oh c'mon, we still beat him, didn't we?" Yeah, Ruby was radiating smug with that sentence.
"Only because we prepared and trained, not because you're, and I quote, 'Too awesome to die.'" Blake made some air quotes with her fingers.
"Ruby-" Weiss had spoken up again, but was interrupted like Yang was last time.
"Ohoho, either way, this is a vacation, so let's enjoy it to the ful-"
Now it was Weiss turn to interrupt, as she had casted a glyph that had launched Ruby onto the ground, the Rose had looked startled for the better part of a second, before catching herself at the last second and rolling back up. "Ruby Rose, will you listen already?!"
"Sheesh, fine." Ruby stood at attention, dusting herself off and looking at Weiss with a raised eyebrow. "What'cha want, Weissy?"
"Weissy-" Weiss repeated, but had chosen to ignore her, instead asking. "Yang and I want to know what's with the get-up and you." Turning to glare at Blake, she pointed her finger at the other's ears. "Why didn't you tell us you were a Faunus!"
"I didn't feel like it." Blake stated, blinking and giving a rather casual answer. "You would have known with due time anyways, so if you find out now or later, doesn't really matter."
"You should have trusted us." Yang pointed out, looking as if she was taking this a bit more personal than she should. "That and Ruby doesn't seem surprised in the slightest, did she already know?"
"Nah, I didn't." Ruby shook her head, while answering in true Silver-Eyed Warrior fashion. "Whether she has animal ears or is human doesn't matter, she's still Blake."
"What Ruby said." Blake pointed her thumb at Ruby, agreeing with what she said and taking the notepad from Ruby, while scribbling in it now. "What if we used this one?" Showing it to Ruby, she got the desired reaction.
"Holy shit, that's a good idea. We haven't used it since the last three iterations, so this one's gonna be fun!" With that said Ruby moved out of the dorm room.
Blake followed suit, not paying much attention to anything else, other than the note pad and still scribbling things into it.
"Did...they just ditch us?" Yang spoke up after a couple minutes of silence, still staring at the doorway.
Weiss had done the same, then huffed in response and remarked. "Yes they did, but something is up with them." Looking towards Yang, Weiss asked. "Can you help me find out what's wrong with them?"
"Of course I will Ice Queen." Yang had already decided to do that anyways, so this suited her right. "Still, we have to get to classes now, we don't want Goodwitch to make us take supplementary classes."
With that said, the ice and fire duo walked outside as well, going to classes and still wondering what was up with the other half of the team.
Combat Classes with Professor Goodwitch were always the most entertaining ones and the ones that all of team RWBY vividly paid attention to.
Mostly because it was the only part of the day where they were allowed to spar with their classmates and let loose from all the stress of exam after exam. A lot about fighting, strategy, viable tactics and more were covered in Glynda's curriculum.
Which is in return, she demanded full attention from the students. To listen to her lessons and to take them to heart. In her opinion, it was not too much to ask for.
"Before we begin class, would anyone tell me where Miss Rose and Miss Belladonna are?" Glynda asked, the two seats of the aforementioned students were empty. Which is why the question was mostly directed at JNPR, Yang and Weiss.
"They weren't with us when we left." Weiss stated, glancing at Yang, who nodded in confirmation. "Pyrrha, did you see either of them?"
"I haven't." The champion shook her head, her three teammates answering in the same vein.
"Maybe if we-" Jaune spoke up, but was interrupted, as the door had opened, Ruby walking in, followed by Blake.
"Haha, can't believe it cost us that much to do again." Ruby chuckled, ignoring the stares, and a couple of glares thrown her direction, and took a seat. "Oh by the way, what time is it?"
"It only cost us that much because you couldn't stop flirting with the waitress." Blake grumbled, sitting next to Ruby looking at the scroll. "Oh, it's time for class, we're late."
"Can't blame me, she was cute." Ruby shrugged, while looking ahead and finally noticing the many eyes staring their way. "..Uhh, whassup?"
"Miss Rose, Miss Belladonna, would you care to explain why you're late to class?" Glynda questioned. If looks could kill, both Ruby and Blake would be keeling over by about now.
"We were getting something to eat." Blake answered, in her usual stoic voice. Of course she was getting a lot of eyes her way too, due to having revealed her cat ears, but hadn't cared much about that. "On our way back here, we were lost and had to ask for directions. One thing led to another, a flight missed and we arrived late."
"We did?" Ruby blinked, suddenly hissing in pain as Blake stomped on her foot. "Aa-Yes, yes we did. We also helped a couple of people here and there, like any aspiring Huntsman would!"
"..." Glynda massaged her temples, muttering something along the lines of 'children and excuses'. "As you're late, you two will be staying after classes for supplementary lessons. For now though, let us begin, we wasted enough time as is."
With that, the lesson had begun, Professor Goodwitch going over the things for the day and that they would be having 1v1 sparring matches later today, determined by random again.
Blake for her part listened to the lessons, although if one were to look in more detail, her gaze was rather unfocused, as if she was deep in thought.
Ruby on the other hand, had put her head on the table, as if she was napping, but her eyes were looking at Glynda, but it was just as evident as with Blake, she was extremely bored.
Looks of worry were shared between Weiss, Yang and the rest of JNPR. Something was amiss with their two friends and they wanted to find out what it was.
The theoretical part was over now, with the students being moved to the sparring grounds, where the matches were determined by the computer screen above, which showed the current Aura level of the students as well.
"First match will be between Ruby Rose and Cardin Winchester!" The professor called out, motioning for the two students to move into the ring.
Cardin looked as cocky as ever, his weapon The Executioner, resting on his shoulder. Staring down at the red-head, he mocked her. "Better give up now Rose, or I'll send you home crying to mommy."
"My mother is dead, jackass." Ruby deadpanned, not even bothering to take out Crescent Rose for this. She had done this countless times, each time with different ideas. Sharing a glance with Blake, she gave a nod, then focused back on the spar. "Well, can we begin?"
"Don't you want to draw out your scythe?" Glynda questioned, wondering if Ruby was being cocky or not. Seeing a shake of her head, she sighed and called out. "Match start!"
"If this is your idea of a joke, fine." Cardin growled, circling around Ruby a bit. "This just makes this a lot easier then!" With that said, he swung his mace down, intent on finishing it with one hit.
Ruby turned around, side-stepping the swing of the weapon and thrusting out her palm towards Cardin's chestplate. In that moment, Ruby looked rather focused, but still bored, then walked off to the side and crossed her arms. "Call the match."
"What do you mean, miss Rose?" Glynda questioned, wondering what had just happened. Looking over to Cardin, it was rather evident.
There was a hand-shaped dent in the armor he was wearing, and he looked as if he was out of breath, before finally collapsing on the ground. Looking up at the board, Ruby's Aura was still full, while Cardin's had been broken through.
"Incredible." Glynda had an ink of a clue of what Ruby had done, but finally had stated. "Match Winner is Ruby Rose. Team CRDL, please collect your leader and give him some Aura restoration pills."
"Sheesh, finally." With that out of the way, Ruby moved back to Blake's side. At least she would have, as she noticed that her hand did feel a bit numb. Looks like I have to get my hands on some gloves earlier than intended.
Her musing was interrupted, as Weiss had snapped Ruby out of it. "Ruby, what did you do just now?"
"Oh that move I pulled on Cardin ya mean?" Receiving a nod in return, Ruby answered. "Oh, it's something I call Aura Jab. You just force your Aura into the body of someone else to interrupt their Aura circulation and break thru'."
Jaune joined in now, looking rather perplexed. "You can do that kind of thing?" An afterthought was added as well. "Also Ruby, since when were you so...smart?" He didn't want to sound mean.
Pyrrha had taken that as cue to inquire. "Where did you learn to do such a thing? Even with all my years of advanced training, I was never able to achieve something similar." The champion asking that kind of thing meant this was extremely advanced.
"Oh just something that my Uncle taught me on the side." Ruby chuckled, while adding. "I'm sure it's pretty hard and all, but honestly, I just practiced for years on the side, and I wanted to test it out on someone. Who better than Cardin?"
"I've never seen you practice though." Yang pointed out and blinked several times. "On second thought, you likely practiced it after classes." The part not said was about her visiting several clubs and more for info-broking and trying to find out where her mother is.
"I have my privacy too though." Ruby returned and gave a shrug, glancing at Blake once more and motioning for her to get ready. "Either way, the next match is going to be even shorter."
Her friends were about to question what she meant, until Goodwitch called out the next match.
"Blake Belladonna versus Jaune Arc, please come into the ring and get ready."
Jaune gulped, readying his shield and sword, as he got into the ring and looked visibly nervous. "Please go easy on me?"
Blake was internally deciding whether or not she should screw up Ruby's prediction, and decided to simply take out Gambol Shroud and shift it into its Katana mode. "I won't make it hurt too much, is that good enough?"
"Best I'm going to get, thanks." Jaune nodded, waiting until Glynda called the start and held his position. Something he learned with Pyrrha was to never rush ahead, and observe the foe first.
Blake finally started moving, or rather she focused a bit harder for a moment, using her Semblance. Two identical doppelgangers popped out, with a trio of cat faunus standing there now.
"Could Blake always do that?" Nora questioned, as she noticed that the clones weren't fading away. "They look solid."
"This is just one weird thing after another with you two, isn't it?" Weiss turned to question Ruby, who in response shrugged.
"Hey, it's just her Semblance, but more solid, nothing strange here." Ruby left it at that.
Meanwhile in the battle, Blake and the two clones had been attacking Jaune from behind, above and the front, chipping away at his Aura incredibly quick, until the match was called.
It was so quick that Jaune didn't even have time to react, only slumping his shoulders in defeat and sulked off. "At the least it didn't hurt much."
The two clones poofed away, with Blake now being at the side of her team once more. "Sorry, I didn't feel like proving you right."
"Jerk." Ruby huffed, handing over a card of lien. "Why did I bet on something that you had control over again?"
"Because hindsight is a bitch." Blake smirked, putting the lien into her pocket and decided to look over to Glynda. "If one were to leave class now, what would happen?"
"If they left without a permit slip, they'd be suspended for a few weeks and would not be allowed to return to school grounds, until they were properly punished." Glynda answered, as if it was read from a textbook.
"Oh neat, two weeks of leave." Ruby grinned, deciding to put on a show. Mostly because in her earnest opinion, it would be funny as hell. "Well then, I'm off."
"Miss Rose what are you-" Before Glynda could finish, Ruby had used her Semblance, turning herself into 'Petal Burst' as she deemed it and was quickly approaching Blake.
"Wait, no, don't-" Like that, Blake was swallowed up, the duo now flying through the air and out of the window. They left an entire stunned class, with Ruby's laughter being the last thing they heard.
"Did they just?" Weiss could only stare in complete and utter shock.
"Yes, yes the did." Yang wondered if getting drunk was legal in their free-time now. "Yeah, something is definitely wrong."
"You don't say?"
After ten minutes of flight, Ruby finally stopped, her Aura drained a good chunk from continuous Semblance usage. "Oof, I need to train this body some more. That wouldn't have winded me in the last couple of iterations."
Blake looked worse for wear, punching Ruby and groaning in annoyance. "Don't ever do that again. Next time we'll just ditch with my Semblance."
"But I-"
"No buts, or I will stab you." Blake threatened, poking Ruby with Gambol Shroud.
"Chill, I promise I won't do it again." Ruby pouted, while dusting herself off and looking at her outfit. "I need to get my old Atlas outfit commissioned immediately. This old garb just makes me feel childish."
"I feel fine, but I can draw those designs up again if you want?" Blake offered, knowing from memory how to do it.
"Sure, let's just make some quick money at the casino later, so I can pay for it." Ruby stated, while looking to where she landed. "Oh, the edge of the Forever Falls, think the old mansion is still nearby?"
Blake nodded. "It should be there as it is in every Iteration. We can just claim it as our own like always and furnish it as a new base of operations." Then she held up a finger. "Although no rush, remember. We decided this is a vacation Iteration."
Ruby chuckled, while rubbing the back of her head in a sheepish manner. "Ya yer right, but still, think we can get moving to the mansion now? I kinda don't wanna get chased down by our team and have all those questions thrown at us."
Blake rolled her eyes. "They won't be able to. Unlike us who are on suspended leave, they still have to attend classes and by the time it's finished, we'll be long gone." Still, she did hit Ruby again.
"Ouch!"
"Next time we'll leave in a more subdued manner, but if it works, it works, I guess." Still, didn't stop Blake from smirking.
"Yeah yeah, just be happy I don't hit you back." Ruby grumbled, while moving into the direction of the mansion. "If they do find us, we'll burn that bridge when we get to it."
"Don't you mean cross that bridge? I can't believe after hundreds of loops, you still keep mixing it up." The cat faunus followed after her leader.
The duo could be heard snickering for a bit longer, before it faded into silence, the day still awaiting them for a bit longer.
One thing was clear, Ruby and Blake were back for another round and they would be having quite a lot of fun with this loop, or Iteration, as they called it.