Chapter 6 -
It had been a week since initiation had been completed and teams formed. Ruby, Yang, Blake, and Weiss had formed the team known as RWBY, with Ruby herself as the leader. At first, Weiss seemed a little put off by the fact that she wasn't made the team leader but, despite Ruby's preparations for a confrontation, soon calmed down and seemed to accept the situation.
Nothing else of note happened as the week passed. There were plenty of attempts on Yang's part to have the team get to know each other better, but between the hectic schedule of all the classes going through all of the starting paperwork and schedule handouts, learning their way around campus, and the other three team members just not being that social, she hadn't had any luck. Which honestly was a good thing in Ruby's eyes, as there was bound to be tension for the first few times the team actually got to sit down and talk. Might as well postpone that until they had more time to diffuse the tension.
That was in the back of Ruby's mind, right now though, she had far more pressing issues. Like the fact that she was currently heading toward Ozpin's office to discuss some important findings she had uncovered. She found herself in an odd position at the moment. On one hand, this was all information that she had access to before she quit as an assassin, however, she hadn't looked into any of it until her time at Beacon started, and she wasn't sure how Ozpin was going to respond to that. She knew he'd understand that her old lifestyle wouldn't just disappear overnight, but she didn't know if he'd try to force her to give up information gathering after this.
The atmosphere was tense in Ozpin's office as Ruby entered the room. She had expected as much though, as she had called an 'urgent' meeting in order to discuss several students, and her expected actions toward them. Scanning the room, she found herself alone with Glynda, and Ozpin. Which was to be expected, Glynda Goodwitch had always been there for any meeting between her and Ozpin. At first, she had assumed it was an odd show of power on their part, but in reality, Ozpin was simply keeping Glynda in the loop, as a form of backup should he need to leave for a period of time.
"Well," Ozpin said slowly as Ruby approached his desk. "You're the one who called this meeting. It seems fitting that you're the one who starts it."
"Alright then," Ruby said, her eyes all but glaring at Ozpin to project how serious she was. "There are two students at Beacon Academy who, in my past career, would have been labeled as targets of high interest. Do you know who these students are?"
"I do," Ozpin replied with a nod and a smile. "Would you like to give me details on them? Just in case we're thinking of different students?"
"Of course," the silver-eyed reaper responded. "One student, Blake Belladonna, former White Fang operative, and is reported to formerly be a highly trusted friend to the rebel factions leader, Adam Taurus." She paused to see how the two people in the room received that information, and seeing no change in their demeanor she decided to continue. "And Coco Adel. She would be classified as high priority due to the fact that she has cemented herself in the underground information network of Vale. So much so that her information about local underground activities and people, is as reliable, if not more so, than my own."
"Is that true?" Glynda asked, her face showing a level of concern. "Is Miss Adel's information network that strong?"
"It is," Ruby answered with a nod. "It took me a while to figure that out, as she does almost nothing with it other than keep tabs on everything. Though I have reason to believe, that if push came to shove, she'd use her intel to help Vale, rather than hurt Vale. That being said, what do you want me to do in regards to these two students?"
"From what I just heard," Ozpin began with a small smile forming on his lips. "You just told us that we have a student who know a little more than is necessary, and another student who needs to re-evaluate her past choices in significant others. How will you proceed?"
"I currently have no reason to eliminate them." Ruby said matter-of-factly. "I am no longer an assassin, and they have yet to do anything to bring harm to my team. So I have no reason to interfere with them."
"Good," Ozpin said with a smile. "I'm glad you've decided that you're not going to bully your fellow classmates. You are dismissed, Miss Rose, have a nice day."
"Have a good day, Professor Ozpin, and you as well, Professor Goodwitch," Ruby responded as she turned to walk back towards the elevator. Judging from their lack of reactions, either the two of them had the most impressive poker faces she'd ever come across, or they were perfectly aware of everything she'd brought up. Either way, they had just earned a lot of respect from the silver-eyed ex-assassin.
Later that night, in team RWBY's dorm, Yang was getting more and more frustrated by the absolute silence that seemed to plague the dorm. She had tried over the short couple of days that the team had been together to get everyone to talk and get to know each other, but none of them seemed to interested. Her sister, Ruby, would be polite, but wouldn't go out of her way to speak, and obviously didn't care too much for making friends. Weiss was more emotionally invested in her studies than in any single person on Remnant, and Blake was simply a very quiet person.
This all added up to repeated failures on Yang's part to get the team to actually talk and become friends, and it was frustrating her to no end. Her parents had always told her that your teammates at Beacon should become your best friends for the entirety of your life, people that you could rely on, and trust in. Yet if things continued to go this way, the four of them would graduate, and the only person she'd ever talk to again would be Ruby, and that's mostly because Ruby was trying to give her family a chance. Something that Yang realized was more awkward for Ruby than it was for her, as Ruby felt no attachment to them, and therefore had to build her feelings for her family from scratch.
She knew all of this, and yet the frustration was still building up inside of her. The suffocating silence only serving to fuel said frustration until she had to do something about it. "Alright," she finally said. "As a team, we need to talk to each other, and get to know each other." She hadn't realized how close to shouting she had been, but the extra volume of her voice served to grab the attention of everyone else in the dorm.
For a few agonizing seconds, no one said a thing. Until a soft sigh was heard from Yang's sister's bed, which was suspended from the ceiling above Weiss' own bed. "Then talk," Ruby said, irritation lacing her voice. Earning odd looks from her three teammates. "Talk! You want us to talk and get to know each other. Yet all you do is sit there and complain about how we're not doing that, when you're not either. If you want to start sharing time, do so, we're here, we'll listen, and we'll follow suit when you're done."
Yang felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment at realizing her own part to play in the situation, and how she could have helped fix it much earlier. "Well," the blonde said awkwardly. "My name is Yang Xiao-Long. My weapons are Ember Celica, two gauntlets that launch burn dust when I punch. I'm Ruby's older sister. My semblance is the ability to store energy when I get hit, and use that energy to hit harder. Umm, there's not much to note after that I guess. I'm only average in studies due to having a hard time learning in a classroom environment, though I excel in combat classes due to being a part in a lot of brawls at Signal. My favorite color is yellow, I love my hair, umm… that's it I guess, this is harder than I thought it would be."
Rolling her eyes at her older sister's final comment Ruby jumped down from her bed. "My name is Ruby Rose and, as Yang said earlier, I'm her younger sister. My weapon, made specifically for slaying grimm, is Crescent Rose. A high calibre sniper-rifle merged with a scythe. I can use the recoil the assist with short jumps, and the rounds are strong enough to take out most types of grim in a single, well-placed, shot. My semblance at its most basic, is the ability to make myself move faster. My favorite colors are red and Black. You'll find that I do just fine in both academics as well as combat assessments. I don't care much for my hair, but that doesn't mean you can cut it as you please. Also, as you're my teammates, I guess you should know that I was kidnapped when I was five, and have only recently been recovered. So you'll have to forgive me for being… blunt."
Ruby suddenly found herself the center of attention, as two of her teammates were staring at her with a mixture of concern and sorrow. A mixture of emotions that irritated Ruby. She had no problems with her past. Sure it wasn't the ideal past, and if she were to go through it again, she would probably try her best to not get kidnapped. However, she had friends that were with her throughout her life, and her life could have been much worse. Still, the red-tipped brunette endured the stares from her teammates for a few moments, waiting for one of them to start talking, and when it became evident that neither of them were going to, she looked toward the raven-haired girl on her team. "Blake, your turn."
"Ah, right," Blake said, as she blinked several time to stop herself from staring at Ruby. "My name is Blake Belladonna. My weapon is Gambol Shroud, it's a mixture of a pistol, a ribbon, a katana, and a cleaver. My semblance, is the ability to make clones to take my place, while also propelling myself in a direction. I like the color black, and I love reading books, specifically fantasy stories. I don't know how I'll do in academics or combat classes, but I am confident I can hold my own at least."
"I suppose that means it's my turn," Weiss said after a few moments had passed. She stood from her position at her desk, and pushed her white hair over her shoulder, as she was letting it fall in front of her while she was sitting. "My name is Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. My weapon is Myrtenaster, a rapier with dust chambers, allowing me to channel different kinds of dust at will with minimal effort. My semblance is glyphs. Using varying amounts and types of dust, and aura, I can use my glyphs to create a multitude of different effects. Suffice to say, that if you can think of something you want done, I can do it with a glyph. My favorite color is an icy blue. I don't have many hobbies, though you will find me spending most of my free time studying, and I'd appreciate being given an appropriate amount of time to do so on a daily basis. I expect to be at the top of the academics classes, and at least the upper half of the combat classes."
"Good," Ruby said with a half-smile on her face that somehow didn't portray any happiness at all. "So we talked, and we know more about each other. Now we have a different issue, we need to trust each other. As such, I'd like each of you to come up with three activities, one hangout activity, one training activity, and one study activity. When all four of us have done so, we'll make a vote on whose activity we want to go through with for each of the categories. However, we can't vote for ourselves. I already have my three thought up."
"If we only pick three activities, then we can't pick an activity from every person," Weiss said, confused. "How can we learn to trust each other, if we don't pick an activity from everyone?"
"The purpose of this exercise is to see who we trust, and if they really deserve it. We'll work on building more trust later. Let me know when you're done thinking up your activities," Ruby said while climbing back onto her bed. "Then we'll vote, and we'll go through with one of them tomorrow, then one the following day, and one the day after that."
It only took the three teammates around thirty minutes to plan out their three activities. It was an odd thing them, to know they were planning multiple activities, when there was a chance that none of the ones they were planning were actually going to happen. They did it anyway, and then told Ruby that they were done planning. After hearing that, the youngest girl on the team jumped off of her bed and walked to the center of the room.
"Alright, here's how this is gonna work, we're all gonna stand in a diamond shape, all of us facing toward the middle, and you three are going to memorize who's on what side of you, and then close your eyes. Then I'm going to mention an activity type, and you're going to point at the person, or in their direction at least, that whose idea you want to go through with." The silver-eyed girl eyed her three teammates, who were already getting into position. "Understand?"
She received three affirmations that her teammates understood as they finished getting into position, looked around to see who was where, and then all three of them closed their eyes.
"Alright, Study activity," Ruby called out, and saw that Weiss was pointing straight forward, at Ruby, while the other two were pointing at Weiss. "Three to one, Weiss get's to lead that activity." She watched as a small smile found its way onto Weiss' face as the heiress realized that her team trusted her study habits.
"Next, hangout activity," Ruby said, doubting that the other three would come to a decision. To her great annoyance, she was right. Yang had decided to vote for Blake. Weiss was pointing at Yang, which was a surprise to the team leader, and Blake was pointing at Ruby. The red-tipped brunette almost let out a sigh of annoyance at having to be a tie-breaker in this competition, but ultimately decided to go with Yang's decision. "Blake, you're in charge of the hangout."
"Finally, training activity," Ruby said, and found herself surprised at how quickly her team decided on who to vote for, and unanimously. "Three to one, Yang. You get to do our training excercise. You all can open your eyes now." She waited a moment to let her team open their eyes and relax a little bit. "So, who wants to go tomorrow?"
"I can," Yang said. "It's a equipmentless exercise, so I don't need to grab anything, and we don't need to go to the gym. Just need a little area to ourselves, and I have a good idea of where we can go."
"Alright," Ruby responded with a nod. "Blake can you do the day after that? Just to give us a day of rest." Upon receiving a nod from the raven haired member of her team Ruby turned to Weiss. "Are you okay with going last?"
"Of course, it just gives me more time to flush out my plan after all," the white-haired heiress responded proudly.
"Good," the red-tipped brunette said with a nod. "Then, as we have classes tomorrow morning, I'm going to go to sleep. Have a good night everyone."
A/N
Hey everyone! This chapter is so far the longest of LTH I believe. Coming in at around 2.7k words. Though the plan for the next chapter is to cover all three events, so it will most likely be longer than this chapter even. Which is fine with me. I'm trying to work on writing more consistently, and if any of you have read Wilting, you might remember me saying that my goal is to get to 10k word chapters. As it is, I can't possibly write a 10k word chapter and feel good about myself making you guys wait that long. However, I plan on slowly working my way there, and if they start getting to the point where you guys feel like they're just dragging on, then I'll stop trying to make my chapters longer. Nyway, some people are saying that Ruby accepted her family really quickly. Yes and no. She doesn't care about her family, or really anyone that we've seen in the story thus far. However, she understands that acting as if they mean nothing to her is likely to cause issues, so she will try to bridge the gap between them. Just like with her team. She'd personally be perfectly content to not say a single word to any of them throughout their entire stay at Beacon, however she realizes that, especially as a leader, she needs to communicate with them and form a relatively healthy relationship with them. So she decided to make the second scene of this chapter happen, though it took a little bit of prodding from Yang to finally annoy her enough to make her intervene directly. So just so all of you know, Ruby generally doesn't care, she may show surprise, but as of right now, she doesn't care. You may or may not see that change as this story progresses. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review or a PM with anything you liked, or disliked, about the chapter. I'm always open to constructive criticism. :)