Weiss Reacts to Substitute Teachers, Part 2!

A/N: Welcome, one and all, to Weiss Reacts! Man, the last week's been busy and this week's no different. However, it did not come without productiveness on the fanfic front, ladies and gents; we have acquired the works of momoxtoshiro and TheCodyKnight for featuring in Weiss Reacts! Thanks, guys, your approval really does mean a lot, especially for me, as this fic is always looking for authors who deserve the shilling.

But, enough about stuff which won't really pay off for the next few months. Let's bombard you with stuff that also won't pay off for the next few months!

DISCLAIMER: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth, otherwise we would see Jaune's family in Volume 3. (And they would all be badasses.)

All mentioned franchises and characters belong to their respective owners.

Weiss was the first to arrive outside Professor Faust's usual classroom. The heiress almost expected the usual evil cackle as the witch strode past, before remembering Faust was still on leave. She felt her chest twinge slightly at the lack of the laughing professor, for whatever reason.

She sighed, checking her time on her scroll. Class was in five minutes, and almost none of her comrades had arrived yet, despite them having agreed to meet here.

"So much for staking out Professor Albus." The heiress muttered darkly. "Excellent."

"Hm? You were saying something?"

Weiss blinked, before turning to see Professor Albus behind her, one hand on the iridescent stone hanging from his neck. She froze, surprised by his sudden appearance.

"S-sir! I wasn't expecting you this early!" The heiress remarked. The white-haired man shrugged.

"I decided to scout out my students." He explained, chuckling. "After all, I'd prefer to get to know you all as much as possible, given I'm only going to be teaching you for a week or so and I'd rather not be unprepared, no?"

Weiss nodded slowly, watching him closely. "Of course. That seems…..logical. Sir, where are you from, if I might ask? Sorry if I sound rude, but I was a little curious."
Professor Albus paused briefly, a pensive expression on his face, before responding with an enigmatic smile. "My home is in a far-off land, Miss Schnee, and I have long decided not to speak too much about it. I don't believe you'll have reason to have heard of it, either. Maybe another time.

Regardless, you should probably take your seat inside. Class is in five minutes."

With that, the professor walked into the room, leaving a confused Weiss behind.

"…tch. That seems suspicious, how he refuses to talk about where he comes from…." The heiress muttered, before turning around to see the rest of team RWBY and JNPR arrive. She folded her arms, looking at them irritably.

"Where were you people?" Weiss snapped. "I was just questioning Professor Albus, and you guys really might've been useful!"
"Nora didn't want to take her sombrero off." Jaune remarked, sighing. The berserker crossed her arms, pouting.

"You guys are meanies! The sloth gods demanded that I wear that hat! And the moustache!"

"Hell will freeze over the day the sloth gods actually exist….." Yang remarked, rolling her eyes. "Also, did you find anything out about Professor Albus?"
"Apart from him being a mysterious stranger for the sake of mystery, I haven't a clue." Weiss responded, sighing. "Did any of you do any investigation between our meeting earlier and now?"
"Unlike you, Weiss, we don't instantaneously get ready for lessons." Yang remarked, sighing. "Although in hindsight, using a button camera would've been nice."
"The one time your blasted pervert cameras would've been useful and you forget to use it." The heiress facepalmed. "I wonder why I even got involved with this investigation. Besides, he seems far too normal to be part of the Antic Order."

Ren scoffed. "We'll see about that. It's just far too coincidental that this guy shows up after a communique comes in from my higher ups that I need a lesson in antics.

I'll show those amateurs what a lesson in antics looks like…." The gunslinger looked somewhat irritated. "Dare to teach me how to prank people….the nerve of Reflet…I'll have her know I still know what she did with her husband that one night….."

"Awwww…..Renny…." Nora frowned, rubbing his back comfortingly. "You'll always be number one prankster in my heart~"
He sighed, loosening up slightly at her touch. "…..thanks…."

Weiss rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Are you seriously losing it because the Antic Order decided to teach you how to prank people?"
"Ren has his complex about being the best." Yang admitted, shrugging. "It makes him the best mentor ever. But also a terrible loser."

"….can we just get into class already?" Jaune called over to his team. "The rest of the class is walking in now, y'know. And we can do more investigating of Professor Albus while we're in here, you know."

Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "Indeed. He will likely spend most of the first half of the lesson introducing himself, so we are likely to determine whether or not he, or some other teacher, is here on behalf of the Antic Order."

Ruby frowned at them. "He seems cool. I don't really want him to be in the Antic Order, but if he is, he is.

Let's go before he gets annoyed, okay?"

"Alright." Blake nodded, turning to everyone else. "And you guys had better take the opportunity to ask questions while we can. If he's introducing himself, he'll have his guard down, which means he'll be more receptive to questions.

With that, both teams walked into the room, taking their seats near the front of the room, thinking carefully about how to tackle this inquiry, save for Weiss, who was merely exasperated at the sheer insanity she'd gotten herself into once more.

'Why, why in the name of Dust do I even agree to this kind of stupid thing?!' The heiress thought, irritated at herself for being drawn into the madness.

Professor Albus looked up, scanning his students with his blood-red eyes, nodding at them. His cloak and hood was slung on the back of his chair, and his sword was in its scabbard, mounted at the side of his chair.

"Good morning, all." He called out, taking care to sweep his messy hair over his ears. "My name, as you all know, is Quirinus Albus. You may call me Albus. As, if I recall correctly, your usual teacher, Professor Faust is not present. The academy contacted me to take over her lessons temporarily until she returns from her leave.

If I am correct, we will be doing Dust Theory today. But, before we begin, I'd like to get to know you all better."

Professor Albus smiled at everyone for a few seconds, before his hand whipped out imperceptibly fast, and a crack could be heard echoing through the room.

Weiss turned around to see Dove Bronzewing cowering in his seat, with a stick of chalk embedded deeply in the wall over his head. The professor sighed, shaking his head.

"Mister Bronzewing, correct? I would prefer you do not talk over me in my lessons until I am finished speaking." He intoned firmly. "Now, as I said, do any of you have any questions?"

Weiss nudged Yang, who was sitting to her left. "Psst. Your cue."
"Oh, right." The brawler nodded, whispering back, before raising her hand. "Sir, where are you from? I don't think I've ever heard a name like Quirinus Albus before."

"Ah. Good question." The professor responded, thinking briefly and tapping a finger on his chin. "I….hail from a far-off land. You will likely have never heard of it, and so I won't bore you with the details. Next question?"

Ren raised his hand next. "Have you worked for anyone before this?"
"I have…..not worked for anyone before this job, no. I work as a freelancer." Professor Albus responded in an almost practiced tone. "Next?"

It was Blake's turn to assail him with a question. The catgirl whipped her hand up and asked her question quickly. "What do you normally teach?"

"Atlesian History." The professor answered just as hastily. "Although I do have some experience in Dust Theory.

Now, is that all?"

Nobody else raised their hands. Weiss factored in what the professor had claimed, sliding her hand up slightly before putting it back down, seemingly satisfied. Professor Albus smiled, clapping his hands together.

"Well, now that we're done with question time, why don't we crack on with some work?" He declared. "If you can take out A Treatise On The Holyest Duste by Agrippeus and turn to page fifty-seven, I believe we will be continuing on from Professor Faust's work last semester….."

"We found absolutely nothing!" Yang harshly whispered back to Weiss, who shrugged.

"Tch. He's good." The heiress admitted. "…..just let it go for now. We'll discuss this later."

Ruby tapped her on the shoulder, frowning. "…..u-uh….Weiss?"
"Yes?"
"I….kinda forgot my book today…." The reaper admitted, blushing slightly. "I…kinda left it in my bag…."
"Ruby, for Dust's sake, if your head wasn't attached to you, you'd forget that too, wouldn't you?" The heiress sighed. "If you weren't my girlfriend and a cute dunce, I'd slap you for this.

Give me a second. I think we can share books."

…..

After the lesson…..

Give or take, it was an almost normal lesson, apart from Dove and Russell cowering in their seats to avoid the chalk being flicked at them by Professor Albus. This was both useful to Weiss and absolutely confounding to everyone else, given that they had been almost entirely sure he was a prankster on the level of Cinder.

Weiss grumbled as she walked back to her dorm. "That was an absolute waste of time. We didn't even learn anything about his apparent Antic Order membership, if he's even in the Order!"

Ruby giggled. "You're getting into this, aren't you?"
"I-I'm not!" The heiress snapped. "I'm just trying to point out that you're all insane if you think that he's in the Order and here to train Ren! That's far too much of a coincidence, isn't it?!"

Yang had her arms folded, a pensive expression on her face. "We'll prove that, won't we?"

"What do you mean by-"

The heiress was interrupted, however, as Ren strolled up to them, seething. His sleeves were caked in custard, and his hair was matted with maple syrup.

Yang snorted. "Ohohohohoh, Ren! What happened to you?"
"…all of my antic supplies that I kept in my dorm were rigged." The gunslinger muttered. "There was a custard bomb in them. I can't believe I didn't see that coming, but now I have no way of proving that Professor Albus is in the Antic Order-"
"Ohohohohoho." The brawler held up her finger. "I beg to differ, my dear sensei~"

"…what?" Weiss stared at her confusedly. "…..what do you mean?"

Yang plucked a small button camera from her pocket, winking. "I managed to place one on his cloak on the way out."

Weiss stared at her. "What is this, some sort of spy movie? Why did you bug his cloak?!"
"I hooked it up to my scroll." Blake added, ignoring Weiss entirely and tapping it to reveal a feed, showing movement down one of the academy corridors from who was presumably Professor Albus. "We can track his movement and see if he's who he claims he is."

Ren smirked, clapping at the brawler's ingenuity. "…..genius, Yang, absolutely genius. I'll get the others. Then we can see whether or not this Albus person is actually in the Antic Order or not."

Weiss groaned. "Of course. Of course Yang has a way of proving it.

Well, I hope you're happy about spying on some innocent man. When we prove he's not guilty, then you'll see what a complete waste of time this was…." The heiress muttered, irritated. "Fine. Blake, get everyone. Then we'll have eyewitnesses, yes?"

Ren cracked his knuckles. "Let's gather in your dorm. Mine's caked in custard…..and Jaune's probably going to kill me when he finds out."

Minutes later….

Blake mounted her scroll on a pod on a table in team RWBY's dorm, with everyone sitting around it, watching the feed from Professor Albus's feed. Jaune glared at Ren, sighing.

"You know those were new shirts, Ren." The knight reminded him irritably. "You know how much those shirts caused?"
"You can blame whoever actually rigged that closet to go off, because I certainly didn't." The gunslinger shot back.

"Ssssshhh!" Yang warned them, holding her finger up to her lips. "Something's happening!"

Weiss and everyone else perked up, peering into the screen to see what the brawler was talking about.

The feed bobbed up and down-being as it was mounted on the chest of the professor- with the cloak occasionally swaying in the way of the lens. Professor Albus seemed to have stopped in front of the staffroom, his hand rapping on the door. However, there was no sound at all.

The heiress looked over to Yang. "Is this a glitch?"
"I had to do this in a hurry, so I picked up one of the early models that had no microphones." Yang admitted. "It's not ideal, but it's what we got."
The heiress sighed. "Perfect. You don't even use the thing we need to prove he's in the Antic Order. If we had video evidence with his voice saying it, then maybe it'd be actionable!"

"I don't think we need him saying it." Ruby spoke up, pointing towards the screen and catching Weiss' attention.

Onscreen, the door to the staffroom swung open to reveal Cinder, an uncharacteristically troubled frown on her face. Professor Albus seemed to be saying something to her, judging by the gestures his hands were making and the small nods Cinder was seemingly making in response. With one final nod, the pyromancer reached behind her and pulled out a piece of paper, handing it over to the professor, who raised it just above the lens so the bottom of the letters could be seen.

Weiss craned her head towards the screen, attempting to figure out what was written. "…..can we magnify that or something?"

"This isn't some crime show, Weiss. This camera is as magnified as it can be." Blake reminded her. "That said…...I wish he'd hold it just a little lower…."

Professor Albus' hands suddenly made a tearing motion and then another, and the pieces of the paper, rendered unreadable, fluttered down in front of the lens before disappearing from sight. Cinder nodded, looking slightly less worried, before shutting the door. With that, the feed turned to the left and began progressing down the corridor.

Ren shook his head. "Dammit. They know what they're doing. I suppose whatever's on that piece of paper, the Order really wants to keep secret…"

"We have no proof he's part of the Order yet!" The heiress snapped. "What proof do you have apart from him talking to Cinder?"
"Hang on a second!" Nora called out, pointing a wobbling finger towards the screen. "Isn't that the corridor leading to Professor Faust's office?"

Indeed, Professor Albus was visibly heading around the corner and walking briskly towards the absent professor's office, producing a set of keys and inserting them into the lock to open the door, admitting himself in. Suddenly, the button camera's feed flashed white and fell black, showing nothing more.

Ren sighed. "Wonderful. The camera broke."
"How?!" Weiss stared at them. "I thought those cameras were resistant to just about everything! You've placed them in showers enough to know, anyway, you perverts!"
Must be something about Faust's office…." Blake concluded. "That's annoying."

"Dammit, now I regret rushing…." The brawler sighed. "What do we do now?"
"We send someone out." Ren suggested. "Ruby, probably, as she her Semblance can send her there faster. We figure out and investigate what's going on over there."

Ruby looked around, shrugging. "Sure, I'll do it."

"And fit her with a button camera that actually makes sound so we can actually hear what's going on!" Weiss snapped at Yang.

"And a headset." Pyrrha added helpfully. The heiress stared at her in disbelief.

"You're getting into this too, seriously?!"

…..

The reaper clipped her camera on her cloak and her headset just underneath her hood, which she put up, nodding to her team.

"Wish me luck, guys!" Ruby requested, before waving at them and walking out of the dorm. Blake tapped rapidly on her scroll, and the feed from Albus's camera was closed and replaced, with the new window now showing Ruby's feed, as she quickly rushed down the corridors towards Faust's office.

"Alright, you should be just around the corner from the office. Is Albus still there?" Yang inquired.

"You'll see on the camera-"
"No, I mean, can you see him around the corner? Your feed is showing us a very pretty section of wall."

The reaper quickly looked around the corner, to see Professor Faust's door shut. "No, he's in the office. I don't see anyone with him, and the door's shut behind him."
Ren nodded. "Then go behind him, open the door and see what's going on in there. We have to know, dammit!"

"Wait!" Yang held up her finger, pointing towards something just around the edge of the feed from Ruby. "…..someone's coming. Ruby, do you see them?"
"What?! There is?" The reaper suddenly panicked, her arms visibly flailing on the feed. "What do I do?"

The thing around the edges of the feed drew into view, and Ruby stopped, gasping briefly in surprise.

"Whoa, whoa." The reaper stopped. "What the…..Grandma? What are you doing here?"
"Demeter?" Weiss paused to blink, confused. "What's she doing here?"

Ren looked down. "…this makes no sense. What does Ruby's grandmother have to do with Professor Faust and Albus? I mean, unless she's the actual substitute teacher and Albus isn't...which makes sense, she is a living legend, after all."

Indeed, the veteran Huntress turned towards her granddaughter, the bottom of her face just visible on the feed. Her mouth curled into a smile as she looked over at Ruby.

"Oh. Ruby." Demeter remarked, sounding a little confused. "….I did not expect you here."
"I kinda, um, live and learn here, grandma." Ruby reminded her, chuckling. "So, uh…what are you doing here?"

To be continued…..

A/N: I duly apologise about the lateness, I've been swamped with college work all week and have had absolutely no chances to work on this until late Thursday evening, so I'm really sorry, I'm trying to push this stuff out.

However, the mystery escalates!

So, I hope you enjoyed that, leave your ideas, comments, criticisms, thoughts, reviews and suggestions, and I hope you have a GREAT day! Until next time!