RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth, of which I am not a part of.
Volume 2, Chapter 10, 'Mountain Glenn'
'Well, it doesn't matter. We know why we're here. Right?'
Weiss wasn't so sure. In fact, if that were true, she probably wouldn't be laying on her back thinking about this, would she?
Ironically, it wasn't for the reason she'd been expecting. She was honestly perfectly fine with the girl constantly invading her thoughts sleeping less than a meter away from her.
At least there was a fire between them.
No, it may have something to do with her teammates currently discussing the aforementioned subject.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.
"Why do you think he asked us about being a huntress? Like… what was he trying to say?"
Huh. So I wasn't the only one…
The heiress kept to herself as Yang shifted up onto her arm to face Blake, waiting for a reply.
The brunette didn't answer immediately, instead returning the violet gaze with a golden one, before her eyes shifted over the fire. On the other side, the flowing locks of white hair turned orange with the glow of the rising embers.
"Maybe he was just curious."
"You think?"
Their eyes met again.
…
"…no."
Yang set herself back down, sighing in frustration. At this rate, she wasn't going to get any sleep. Though their original plan had called for three of them to search during the night, Oobleck already knowing about the White Fang hideout made sneaking off pointless. Even if he'd been busy picking flowers all day, he WAS technically a huntsman; it would be better to work WITH him than without.
Still, she couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said, even when they were supposed to be resting for tomorrow. Thus, she turned towards the other girl.
"Weiss, are you awake?"
"Of course I'm awake, you two are talking!"
The fiery blonde winced at the hiss before rolling her eyes. "Well," she started, trying to make her voice softer to soothe the ice queen's agitation, "what do you think? Why did he want to know why we came to Beacon?"
Weiss squeezed her eyes shut. She'd been on this question for hours and any possible answer she had come up with was thrown out when Ruby had said Oobleck never questioned her.
It didn't make any sense. What does Ruby that that the rest of us don't?
After a few seconds, the heiress replied, though it was less of an answer and more of a question itself. "Maybe it has something to do with the answers we gave him? I- do you think he already knew what we were going to tell him?"
Blake shivered silently. Yang noticed and threw her partner a worried glance.
Weiss continued. "I mean, I told him what I thought, but… I guess what I said wasn't exactly the truth."
"So you think he was trying to show us that we were lying to ourselves?" The blonde asked.
"I guess. Only after he dismissed me did I start to think that… maybe my thoughts weren't right." She bit her lip. "Maybe he thought we'd have a better answer that we were hiding from him."
Suddenly, the Faunus girl sat up, looking over the fire at her teammate. "That's impossible. Are you saying he KNEW what we were thinking even when we ourselves didn't realize? He's not a mind-reader!"
"And for all we know, he very well might be!"
Blake's black bow crumpled. She would normally never let her ears flatten while she wore it, but since she was with her friends, it didn't matter. She'd considered removing it entirely since she already suspected Ozpin had already told their teacher about her ears, but she wouldn't have been able to take it if Oobleck just continued on as if they didn't exist and did not want to deal with explaining herself on the off-chance that he didn't actually know.
Weiss drew in a breath. "Sorry. That was rude of me."
Lilac eyes rolled again. "No kidding."
The snow-haired girl didn't enjoy letting her emotions get the better of her, but being at Beacon had changed her, for better or worse. On one hand, she was better able to connect with others without the stress of her father hanging over them, but it also removed the lid on her temper that was kept in check by the very same threat. Add lovesickness into the mix…
It felt like some sort of terrible curse.
"When I said I wanted to honor my family name, I meant it. By becoming a huntress, I can show the world who I really am. Not a shadow of my father's corporation but a strong fighter with skills honed to expertise over years of practice."
Icy blue drifted over her teammates. "Before my father, my mother's father, Nicholas Schnee, was the owner of the Schnee Dust Company and its founder. He went on every mining expedition, no matter how dangerous or how daring it was, because he wouldn't let his men suffer without him. HE was a real hero. HE is the one I want to take after, not my father. And I never would have accomplished that back in Atlas, with him there watching over me the whole time."
The brunette shuffled up, turning towards her friend. "Your grandfather sounds like a great man. I can see why you'd want to follow in his footsteps."
Pale skin turned light pink at the praise. "Yeah. And I'd bet you he didn't care whether his workers were Faunus or not, because to him, they were all his fellow men."
At this, Blake's lips curled into a half-smirk, half-grimace.
"If only he was still in charge."
Yang's brows furrowed. "So, what does any of that have to do with Oobleck's question? Did he want to teach you to be honest about respecting your elders or something?"
Weiss shot her a glare as the flush on her face began to fade. "Why, did your reason have something to do with your grandparents?"
The brawler sighed again, laying back with her hands behind her head. "Not really, it's just… I talked about how it was just sort of the natural progress for what I wanted to do. I like to fight; what better way to fight as much as you want than to become a huntress? I can even learn tons of new techniques to improve my form along the way."
At this, the heiress scoffed. "Well then, maybe it would help if you actually did the work you were supposed to instead of leaving it until the last minute!"
Suddenly, Yang sat up and returned her glare with a glower. "I do actually study, you know! Just because I'd rather enjoy myself when free time presents itself doesn't make me a bad student." She lowered her head to her knees and sheepishly grumbled. "Just because I get bored with Port's long ramblings doesn't mean I don't keep up with the rest of his material."
At this, Blake stifled a chuckle and Weiss muffled a giggle.
In truth, the white-haired girl sometimes thought of the blonde as though she was the 'big sister' of the rest of the team. Yes, that was already the case for Ruby but Yang's attitude tended to expand her care beyond her sibling, even if she still held the red-haired girl high.
She'd never admit it, but the brawler sometimes reminded her of her own older sister, Winter, but significantly less strict.
And much more willing to show her kindness.
The blonde hung her head low at the laughter while managing to conceal a small grin. But as quickly as it split across her face, it disappeared. She snuck a look at the red cloak at the edge of her vision.
"I guess… I didn't really know why I wanted to come to the academy in the first place. It always seemed like I'd just break through whatever life threw at me but… sometimes, I feel like I don't know what I'm doing." She bit her lip. "It feels like the first years of my life all over again."
Neither of the other girls answered this. The mood became quickly became dark. Blake grasped her neck as her pulse thundered.
"I… didn't really know what I was going to do when I left the White Fang. I knew that I'd have to face them again one day but I never thought it would come so soon. I thought I'd be more prepared for this."
At this point, the bow on top of her head had fully depressed, her ears pinned directly to her head as the form around it deflated without something keeping it in place.
She started feeling lightheaded.
"A traitor, one that ran away and didn't know what to do from there. Even my semblance mocks me; I've never been able to take a problem head-on."
Yang couldn't do anything but look at her partner, purple orbs glossed as she rattled her brain for some way to express her sympathy. To make her friend's thoughts stop hurting herself.
Weiss's mind, however, was still on her words describing the shadow clones. She felt her stomach twist as long forgotten images of her Faunus teammate being skewed through the stomach flashed through her mind.
"You're wrong, Blake."
Feline ears shot up, even under its constraints. Gold sunk into pale strands once more. Even the blonde turned her gaze towards their companion.
"If it wasn't for your semblance, you wouldn't be here right now. Just because you choose to relate your abilities to running away doesn't make your fighting style cowardly. It makes you cautious, agile, practical..." She bit her lip as she thought for a better word to end on.
"Unpredictable?" Yang offered.
Icy blue shone at the brawler with gratitude. "Yeah. And..." Weiss propped herself up on her arm, brushing it with her other hand. "If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one who's ever run from their problems."
Blake's only reply was a hum. Though she seemed satisfied with these objections, she made no move to express it fully, leaving the other two to shuffle around.
Yang clicked her lips. "…so, Oobleck just asked us why we became huntresses so that we could feel bad about ourselves? Or make us comfort each other?"
"No, I think I got it."
Both Yang and Blake looked up in shock. Their snow-haired friend was hugging her knees to her chest, azure eyes staring into the burning pit.
"To us, going to the academy was a means to an end in our lives, something that would help us accomplish a personal goal that we're striving for. But that's NOT what being a huntress is about. It's about standing at the front lines of humanity's struggle for survive. It's about being able to sacrifice everything you love to help others."
The blonde's eyes widened, her head twisting to sneak a peek at her little sister, still looking through Cresent Rose's scope and lightly stroking Zwei's head as the small dog sat in her lap.
"That's why Oobleck never asked her, then?" She croaked out.
Weiss nodded dejectedly. "That's what she has that the rest of us don't."
The Faunus closed her eyes, her hands clutching her knees. "It's what she said the first night at Beacon. And it's probably why she's our leader."
The heiress smiled at her partner searching the streets. "Yeah. Ozpin never made a mistake."
The next few seconds had them sit in silence, which ended when Yang let out a sniffle.
"Yang?"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing guys," she lied, trying to wipe her eyes with balled-up fists, "I'm just thinking back to some older memories. From when the two of us were still just kids."
"We're all still kids, Yang. We haven't even finished our first full-fledged mission." Blake fell back onto her sleeping bag, amber eyes flickering with the rolling flames of their campfire. "We wouldn't be here if there wasn't something driving us, but now that we're here, that something isn't what we should be aiming for anymore."
Weiss turned her head towards the other two. "You're right, Blake. It's not. Now we have a duty to do; no matter what brought us here, we have a job that goes beyond everything else."
Above, Oobleck's lips curled up into a proud smile.
Azure met lilac.
Lilac met amber.
Amber met azure.
And quickly broke apart, a deep scarlet blush shared between the two.
Violet watched a hand cover silky white and a hand cover velvety black.
A smug smirk broke across Yang's face again.
"Say, Weiss? Blake, Ruby and I had a cool idea we came up with. It has to do with your guys' ribbons…"
It had to have been past one in the morning. Yang had just started her watch, leaving her sleeping bag for her little sister to pass out on, exhausted after a long, hard day's work.
Blake's breathing had slowed to a soft rumble, the occasion hints of a purr in her quiet snoring.
But Weiss wasn't awake to listen to her crush make cute noises in her sleep.
No, she had another mission that just so happened to also be related to the Faunus girl.
Trembling fingers dug the loaded vials out of Myrtenaster's chamber with more than slight annoyance. The heiress was used to taking the casings out when they were empty, so lifting out full ones by her fingernails was significantly more difficult.
And frustrating.
She really should have brought extra ammunition.
But it was a small price to pay.
Weiss felt her focus drift as fatigue from the long day set in, as the thought of dawn approaching in only a few hours began sapping energy from her body in the hopes of forcing her eyes closed.
Yet, she pressed on.
Her mind thought back to her dust theory textbook, her class notes on dust and her own weapon. Her own semblance.
If I can do it…
She shuffled through her pack before finally finding what she was looking for. Each of them had practiced with the others' weapons, in the rare event that they had to rely on another teammate's armory if need be. She slowly emptied the gunpowder bullets out of the black clip and began loading each dust vial in one by one.
Though the fire continued to burn slowly, she could easily make out the figure on the other side, licked by the light of their heat source. Blake's chest rose and fell rhythmically, sympathetic nerves pulling on Weiss's last stores of consciousness. Yet, even as she felt her face warm from rushing blood, her heart remained calm and steady.
It was the will to give her teammate something she could be proud to have that drove her on.
"Hey, where's Ruby?"
Though Weiss would have normally just ignored any attempts Yang usually made to walk her up, her mind quickly factored in Ruby's disappearance and forced her body to rise, looking around as Oobleck appeared in the doorway.
Suddenly, Zwei came running into the ruined building, barking wildly. Though Blake's hair stood on end, she shared a look of concern with the heiress as Yang quickly identified his barking as relating to their missing team leader.
With little time to pack up camp, the trio and their professor searched through the rubble in the streets, following after the corgi. Soon, Yang was shaking, clearly concerned that her sister was alone in a city full of Grimm.
"Yang, it's alright." Weiss gave her arm a shake. "Ruby's our leader. She took Crescent Rose with her so she can definitely handle herself."
The blonde flashed a wary smile. "Thanks, Weiss. I know I'm probably overreacting, but…" Her voice drifted off as she looked off into the distance.
Silently, the heiress wondered to herself if Winter felt that way when she'd left Atlas.
Blake frowned. She knew the story that Yang had hinted at throughout the night. About how the two sisters had been attacked by Grimm when they were children. Even if it was an irrational fear now that Ruby had grown into a strong fighter, she could tell that old memories died hard for the brawler.
Suddenly, the hitching of Yang's breath pulled her back to reality. Following the lilac gaze, she froze as she saw Zwei scratching at a large red piece of metal.
They instantly recognized the scythe.
The blonde wasted no time. She cupped her hands around her mouth, tears ready to burst, as she screamed out into the night. "RUBY?! RUBY, WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Though their teacher seemed slightly concerned by the elder sibling's terrified tone, he walked past the weapon and knelt at the edge of the enormous hole behind it. Weiss followed her teacher. "Do you think she fell down there?" She asked, only to receive no reply. She looked back at Blake, who was trying to calm her partner down, before she heard the professor whisper.
"Of course… Of course, OF COURSE, OF COURSE!"
The trio immediately looked towards Oobleck, even Yang stopping her desperate shouts as he started pacing back and forth.
"HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID?!"
Yang winced at his stranded voice as she managed to regain her composure. "Doctor Oobleck, what is it?"
As though he'd been woken from a trance, their instructor walked right up to them, the three girls (and Zwei) standing at attention.
"Mountain Glenn! Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of Grimm! Previously home to thousands of people! Working people commuting to the city, the main city! Developed a subway system to the inner city! Grimm attacks increased! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into the metro tunnels and what do they find?! The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!"
Though stunned by his sudden dispensing of history, the blonde quickly caught on, remembering their conversations on the airship. "Wait, are you trying to say-"
But Oobleck beat her to the punch, grabbing her shoulders and startling her. "We're not just looking for underground crime network, we're looking for an UNDERGROUND crime network!"
If she wasn't paralyzed by the fear of whatever danger her sister was probably in, Yang would've cursed the fact that she hadn't thought of that pun first.
Blake pinched her nose, trying to catch up on her professor's quick-paced explanation. "Wait, so… the reason we haven't been able to find them is because they've been working below ground? In caves?"
Oobleck shook his head.
"No, no. Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense, and unique transportation. The city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main Kingdom! Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start! As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival. They took up shelter beneath the city, in massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway and cut themselves off from the surface in a safe haven. Until..."
Suddenly, his expression turned dark, his eyes filled with grief.
"…an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern, filled with subterranean Grimm. After that, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb."
Weiss looked around, first meeting Blake's eyes and then Yang's. The purple orbs were wide and glossed over, as though the larger girl was about to break down.
Her teammates seemed to reflect the pain that the doctor held, but she had never heard of such a massacre when studying back at home. The heiress took a step forward, looking down into the abyss below and imagining the horrified shrieks of helpless civilians being overrun by an endless horde of Grimm.
Even as it made her stomach turn, it only reinforced her desire to find her partner. Yet she couldn't imagine what Yang must have been feeling at that moment, knowing her sister might be lost in the dark void below.
"If Ruby is down there…"
The trio looked up, each taking a step back in shock as Oobleck's thermos extended into a much larger weapon form.
"…we must find her."
*DUN NUN NUN NUN NUN NUN NUN NUN DUN*
Oobleck's awesome. Enough said.
Was debating how much I wanted to change the last scene. Ended up changing less than I was expecting, honestly.
