This is the point where things are going to start going off the rails more. It might not seem like much changes, but the first few major differences are going to be because of things that happen in this chapter.

Chapter 28: Lunch and JNPR's Fight

Beacon Academy, Fairgrounds

Ruby let out a sigh as she glanced over her shoulder at the two soldiers following her team. "This is starting to get annoying… Is anyone else hungry?" Blake opened her mouth to speak when a loud rumble from her own stomach caused her to turn a bright red as Yang laughed.

"C'mon, I know a good place where we can get something to eat!" Yang said before she turned and started walking off. Blake following her as Weiss' Scroll rang.

Ruby paused and watched her partner let out a sigh before she closed her Scroll, putting it back in her pocket. "Not someone you're in the mood to talk to?" the faunus asked her partner, tail twitching to the side.

Weiss rubbed her temple before she responded. "I-it's just my father, probably calling to say I had a foot out of place or that I missed an opportunity to finish the fight sooner in his mind."

Ruby winced. "Deliberately ignoring someone that controlling is bound to have repercussions…" Weiss nodded and went to speak up when Ruby felt a hand moving along her side, causing her to spin around and check her pockets and pouch. Emerald took a step back in surprise before Ruby finished her check and glared at the girl. "First warning, never try to steal anything from me," Ruby growled.

Emerald held up her hands meekly, glancing up as the soldiers stepped forward. "O-okay, sorry Ruby. I just wanted to congratulate you guys on your fight and I noticed your pouch was open…" Ruby glared at her for a moment before letting out a sigh, smiling meekly as she scratched the back of her head.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Sometimes I put things in there and forget to zip it up…" Ruby said, trying her best to sound embarrassed while Weiss looked at her oddly before rolling her eyes. The soldiers stared at each other in confusion before one shrugged.

"Probably just losing her mind or something," the blue-trimmed soldier whispered to the one next to him, which Ruby chose to ignore.

"Dolt, you really should pay more attention to what you're doing. What if you lost something?" "I'm sure she has a good reason to lie about this…"

"I'm sorry, Weiss! I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again, I promise!" Ruby said, putting her hands together in front of her. Weiss rolled her eyes while Yang grinned.

"So Em, how'd your team's match go?" Yang asked, causing the green-haired girl to hum quietly.

"It went… well. We're moving on to the next round, so I can't complain," Emerald said.

Yang grinned. "Nice, maybe you guys could join us for lunch to celebrate?" Ruby maintained her smile even as her ear twitched in annoyance.

"Oh, that's nice of you to offer, but my teammates are all kind of… introverted…" Emerald glanced over her shoulder at Mercury as he was examining a boot, smelling the leather. She turned back to wince. "Especially Mercury, he's just a lost cause…"

Yang winced. "Ah, I can see that…"

Emerald tried her best to look excited before she spoke up. "Yeah, but it looks like I'm moving on to the doubles round with him. What about you guys?"

Ruby quickly spoke up. "We're still deciding on it right now."

Yang blinked in confusion. "What do you mean? We already decided it's Weiss and either you or me." Ruby turned her head to cast a subtle glare at Yang, causing the girl to put a hand over her mouth.

"Well… There goes the surprise…" Ruby said dryly before Emerald spoke up.

"Well, if Mercury and I see you down the line, don't think we'll go easy on ya."

Yang grinned. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

Emerald nodded. "Alright, well Mercury and I are gonna go watch some more fights. I'll talk to you guys later." She turned around and started heading back towards Mercury while Team RWBY turned around, heading toward a nearby stand.

Weiss glanced at Ruby before pulling out her Scroll, sending the girl a quick text. So, we're working on the assumption that Cinder Fall is the girl from the CCT?

Ruby pulled her Scroll out and sent a quick response. Most likely. Can't prove it though…

And I guess the reason you lied to Emerald was to make sure she didn't immediately suspect that you didn't trust her? Ruby nodded subtly after reading the text. Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. "I guess you really didn't want Yang to say anything about who was moving on?"

Ruby's tail twitched in frustration. "Not at all…" Ruby glanced at her partner with a grin. "Well, I guess Yang's too impulsive for this if they try anything, so that leaves one option. But first, I need to send a message to someone…" Ruby quickly pulled out her Scroll and sent a quick text to Aurelius before closing it back up.

Weiss nodded with a grin. "This should be interesting…"

With Emerald and Mercury

"So how are the new "friends" Emerald?" Mercury said casually.

"I hate them. I don't understand how anyone could be that happy all the time?!"

Mercury glanced at her in annoyance. "Orders are orders… Did you at least get what we want?"

Emerald sighed. "Barely. It's the heiress and either the bimbo or the mutt. Red was trying to pretend they didn't know who they were going to pick to probably keep it a surprise and avoid anyone having an advantage, but blondie blurted it out. Beyond that, I have no clue."

Mercury let out a sigh, hand on his chin. "Oh, that's a tough one. If blondie moves on to the singles we can still take advantage of it without any problems. Ice Queen might be an issue if she tries to use her Glyphs first thing. It's the wolf that's the major issue since it wouldn't really work out so well…"

Emerald nodded. "Cinder's not going to like this. I don't care what she says, Red's still a Rose and we can't dismiss her as a threat simply because she's a kid."

"Eh, she doesn't pay us to think though, does she? Let her deal with the issue if it needs to be taken care of."

Emerald let Mercury walk ahead of her, glaring at the back of his head. "Of course you'd be happy that you're just being paid to fight. You probably have less brains than a mouse…"

Amity Colosseum, with Aurelius, Oobleck and Port

"Oh! A solid hit, wouldn't you agree Doctor?" Port said cheerfully while Aurelius sighed next to them. A subtle chime from his Scroll caused the Blue Rose to casually open it and glance at the message from Ruby.

Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black. Building J, I don't know where exactly. Almost every encounter with them is too suspicious at this point.

Aurelius let out a frustrated sigh before he quickly sent a message to Ironwood's assistant on the Aurora. Ever since the general was put in charge of security, nobody could look up information about where a participant was on campus without either going through Ironwood or his assistant, or by providing proof they have a valid reason to need this information, usually family, doctor, or something similar. "More bureaucratic nonsense… Knowing Ironwood, it's going to be a few days before he gets around to it and denies the request… Regardless, it would be wise to have a contingency plan in place." The Blue Rose quickly closed his Scroll and went back to the match.

Festival Fairgrounds, with Team RWBY

"Oh, hey Mr. Campbell! What are you doing here running a noodle stand?" Ruby asked as her team walked up to the counter of the stand, taking a seat.

"Oh, hello Ruby. If you must know, my shop's been attacked quite a bit recently and with the Schnee Dust Company raising Dust prices as a result, well… I've had to look at another business until I'd be able to afford to repair the shop and get enough merchandise to have any hope of reopening," the old man said, causing the four girls to look away guiltily, trying not to think about recent events.

Eventually Weiss spoke up. "We'll have four bowls of your noodles if you'd be so kind."

Blake raised her hand. "Could I have some fish in mine please?"

Campbell nodded before sprinting into the small kitchen, quickly cooking noodles. After a moment he appeared again, placing a massive bowl in front of each of the girls. "There you go, so who's paying for this?"

Weiss went to hold out her family credit card before hesitating. Before Campbell could question it, she quickly drew another card and handed them both to him. "Try the SDC card first. If it doesn't work, use the other one." The man nodded and went to swipe the card as Yang chimed up.

"Wow Weiss, any reason you have two credit cards? I mean, I honestly didn't think you'd need more than one." Weiss rolled her eyes.

"If you must know, only one of them is a credit card. The other one is tied to my personal bank account, where my share of the earnings from the record sales goes. I gave him both just in case my father froze the credit card." Ruby winced.

"I really hope he didn't. Mr. Campbell doesn't like when he's handed a credit card that gets declined," the Red Rose said meekly.

"Oh please, how bad could it be- AH!" Weiss jumped as her card stabbed into the table, one of the corners embedded just short of her hand. She glanced up at the man fearfully as he grumbled before swiping her bank card. After a moment, he nodded and walked back over, handing the card to the heiress.

"There you go. I hope you all enjoy," the man said with a smile, acting as if he hadn't just turned a simple hunk of plastic into a potentially deadly weapon. The four girls went to start eating when they heard Pyrrha's cheerful voice from nearby.

"Hello!" the redhead said, waving to Team RWBY as her team approached.

"Hey Pyrrha, how've you been?" Ruby said, smiling at something she noticed.

"We've been well. Congratulations on your win by the way."

The members of Team RWBY smiled as Ruby answered. "Thanks, Pyrrha, want to join us?"

JNPR nodded before they sat down, ordering as Pyrrha handed Campbell her card. "J-just make sure that card's good, he's a bit… hostile towards people who hand him a card that gets declined…" Weiss said, causing JNPR to look at her. Campbell quickly placed their bowls in front of them before they could respond and the two teams quickly started eating. Once Nora finished her bowl, Ren quickly took it from in front of her.

"Reeen, c'mon!" Nora said with a frown.

"No Nora, remember last time…" Ren said placing it inside his own beside him while the energetic girl pouted.

Ruby looked up with a grin. "So, Pyrrha… When did you and Jaune start dating?" Pyrrha let out a squeak while the rest of the people looked at Ruby in surprise. "…What? Nobody else noticed them holding hands when they walked up? They've been pretty close lately too."

Pyrrha looked at her meekly before Jaune spoke up. "W-well, I decided to take her to dinner a bit after the dance and we decided to, you know… see where things go."

Yang grinned and threw her arms up. "Finally! Do you know how painful it was to watch you two pretend there wasn't anything between the two of you? Congratulations, seriously."

The rest of Teams RWBY and JNPR quickly congratulated their friends and finished eating before Jaune let out a sigh. "So… I guess we should get going before we miss our own match?"

Ruby smiled as the two teams stood up. "Yeah, we're going to be watching, so good luck!" The two teams started walking back to the docks to board a transport up to the Colosseum.

Amity Colosseum

Ruby winced as the two halves of the battlefield rose into position. "Forest on one side and mountains and a thunderstorm on the other… Nora has a serious advantage here if she can get up to the peak," the wolf faunus said, causing Weiss to nod.

"This will either be a quick battle or a disappointing one… Hopefully Jaune really has improved enough to pull this off," the heiress said with a sigh.

"Come on Weiss, have some faith in them. I'm sure they'll be able to take care of it," Yang said cheerfully. The heiress sighed and nodded quietly before the match started.

Arena, with Team JNPR

Jaune and his team ran forward while three members of Team BRNZ moved to meet them, the last member running into the trees to get a better vantage point. As soon as the sniper was in the trees she took a shot at Ren, shattering a rock behind him. She let out a frustrated sigh and took a shot at Jaune. Just as the round hit the boy's aura, it was sent flying back in a bright flash, shattering the girl's scope and causing her to let out a panicked cry before falling out of the tree. "Retreat!" Jaune shouted, unaware that the sniper was left in a daze.

"Oh ho! It seems May Zedong has just learned the dangers of young Jaune's Redoubt semblance, wouldn't you agree, Doctor?" Port said, glancing across Aurelius at Oobleck.

"It appears so, Peter. Jaune Arc's semblance allows him to mitigate damage to his friends and use his Aura to reflect attacks back at his attacker, making fighting him with weapons meant to pierce Auras exceedingly dangerous if your own can't handle it."

Aurelius hummed quietly, glancing up as he noted the sharp drop in Jaune's Aura. "Naturally, it's a poor choice for him to use it when he doesn't absolutely need to since it requires focusing his Aura on a single point and is particularly draining. The question is, what kind of damage did it do to Ms. Zedong?"

Said sniper let out a groan, blinking a few times to ensure she hadn't lost her eye. As soon as that was done, she looked at her rifle and let out a frustrated sigh, quickly working to remove the ruined scope. "Guess I'll have to try and make do without it…" she grumbled before moving up behind a rock.

The rest of Team BRNZ moved in to attack, with Nolan smirking as he hit Ren with his cattle prod, causing the green-clad boy to fall over before Nora charged forward, swinging her hammer to try and crush the boy. He quickly dodged out of the way and jabbed Nora with the cattle prod, frowning when she didn't go down as the electric charge drained almost instantly. The orange-haired girl grinned, twitching slightly as small bolts of electricity travelled down her body. "Oh, thanks for that. Now I can really have some fun!" Nora said gleefully as the boy turned to run.

Nora smiled, twirling her hammer for a moment as the electricity in her body formed a ball in front of her. She let out a maniacal laugh as she slammed into it with her hammer, sending it hurtling at Nolan before blanketing a quarter of the arena in a burst of lightning, a loud buzzer coming from the board above as the light dimmed, revealing that half the forest was reduced to ash with Nolan unconscious in the middle. "Oh, it appears Nora Valkyrie just used her Discharge semblance to frightening effect, doesn't it, Peter?"

"It seems so, Doctor! Nora must have been storing up an electric charge for quite some time to cause this much destruction. I know I wouldn't want to be in Nolan's place right now!"

Aurelius glanced at the two in annoyance. "Why am I here if the two of you are going to ignore my presence?" The other two teachers blinked and looked at him awkwardly before he let out a sigh, returning his focus to the fight.

"Nora! Get to the mountain! Ren, distract the sniper!" Jaune called out. Nora gave a quick salute while Ren let out a frustrated sigh before they both ran to take care of their parts of the plan. Jaune quickly moved to keep Brawnz Ni distracted while Pyrrha focused on Roy. May let out a frustrated sigh as she tried to fire a few shots at Ren, Pyrrha, and Jaune before turning her attention to Nora. Pyrrha's sword quickly turned into a rifle and she started shooting at the rock, causing the sniper to take cover.

"Roy! Brawnz! I could use some help!" May called out in a panic as she tried to defend herself from Pyrrha's attacks. Before her teammates could respond, Ren moved up behind her and delivered a strike to her head, knocking her to the ground as her Aura depleted.

Nora let out a laugh as lightning surged into her hammer, quickly pointing her hand at Roy before the electricity surged out of her in his direction, knocking him to the ground while Jaune slammed his shield into the shocked Brawnz, knocking him out. Roy got up weakly, dazed from the blast before Pyrrha delivered a slash across his chest, causing him to stagger as the buzzer sounded for the last time. "It would appear that all members of Team BRNZ have been eliminated by Aura depletion," Aurelius said, an amused smile on his face. "Team JNPR of Beacon has won the match!"

In a nearby bar

Qrow let out a sigh as he downed another glass of whiskey while the bartender spoke up. "Those kids weren't half bad."

Qrow scoffed and sat quietly, watching the next fight, chuckling slightly at Neptune's panic at the water.

Once it ended the bartender looked at him. "Wow, now that was a match!"

Qrow scoffed again, setting his glass down. "No, that was a mess. Their team only won because the blue-haired coward got it together long enough to take advantage of the girls' one mistake."

"C'mon man, you didn't like them, the Vale kids, or anyone before them? What fight are you here for?"

Qrow smirked. "I did like Team RWBY's match, but that's kind of a given for me… But I guess I'm here for that fight," he said, glancing over his shoulder at the airship flying by outside before he put some Lien on the counter and walking out. "Oh, and be careful about the glasses, okay?"

Amity Colosseum

"That concludes the matches for today. Please leave the Colosseum in a calm and orderly fashion!" Oobleck said, screaming near the end, causing Ruby to cover her wolf ears and whimper slightly.

"You know, Doctor, I think you should really try drinking decaf from now on. Might save everyone else's ears if you plan to continue as an announcer," Aurelius said calmly as every started to file out before the speakers shut off. Team RWBY started to walk out before Weiss saw the elegant airship flying overhead, causing her to stop as Ruby bumped into her.

"Weiss? What's wrong? What are you looking… at…" Ruby said, glancing at the sky in confusion before looking back at the smile on Weiss' face.

"She's here! I didn't think she'd be able to come!" Weiss said before running off toward the nearest ship, Ruby following behind in confusion.

I'm going to cut it off here for today. Team SSSN's match isn't shown in this simply because it doesn't really change, nor does it affect what's going to happen in the story.

Also, yes, Jaune and Pyrrha are currently a couple. This may or may not make things interesting later.

Jaune's semblance, Redoubt, is a very appropriately named one in my opinion, getting its name from the Swiss National Redoubt that was meant to make any attempt to invade Switzerland too costly to have any real value.

At this point, the Order of the Blue Rose (currently made up of Aurelius himself, Ruby, Adrienne, and the Draconian War Council) is still operating in the shadows to hunt down Cinder and her group. As the Vytal Festival Tournament continues, this will eventually start to gradually change.

If you have any input, please leave a review. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.