Chapter 5

Those dusting idiots!

Weiss stomped through the open-court mall, searching for team JSMN. Unlike her team, they weren't goofing off in the stupid pet shop. Ruby, Ren, and Nora were still looking at a bunch of dumb sloths for crying out loud! Weiss had only taken a minute to look at the mini-sharks in the shark tank. She didn't find them cute or anything like that, but they would make useful pets. As soon as the heiress got her own mansion, she would install a shark tank, for whenever she needed to get rid of any inconveniences.

Oh, I just can't wait for the day when I can finally execute that fool! Yes… Nothing can stop the smartest girl in all of Vale!

Even though the leader of team SLVR was supposed to be Ruby, who was nothing but an insufferable duncehead and who was definitely not cute, that traitor Nora had the audacity to think herself as the mastermind of the whole group! Weiss had worked so hard to get where she was today, especially since she had to keep transferring to different schools over and over and over again. She was much better than her loser parents, especially that stupid father of hers, Siegfried Schnee. She would never lose to some pancake-and-sloth-obsessed dolt! There was no way that the smartest girl in school could be shown up by the likes of her! There can be only one queen of this castle. Yes, you'll see that one day.

Weiss continued her march, peering through the windows to see if she could find her companion team. Even though Professor Ozpin had confirmed their teams for the next four years, there was nothing that said Weiss couldn't co-mingle with the others. It would help them prepare for their future line of work as servants.

Pyrrha would make a worthy bodyguard for a true genius such as herself. And besides, who wasn't to say the girl didn't have other talents?

This plan is perfect!

"Hey, how's it going, Weiss?"

That voice didn't belong to anyone she recognized. When the heiress turned to face her adversary, all she found was a blonde-haired girl wearing a rather risque outfit. Judging by the golden gauntlets, the girl was probably one of the transfer students coming over to Beacon for the Vytal Festival. Most likely she was from Vacuo.

"What? Who are you? How do you know my name?" said the heiress, drawing out Myrtenaster.

The girl backed up toward the wall, "Whoa, easy there, ice princess! That's no…"

"Don't you dare call me princess!" She was going to be queen, after all. I am the queen of the castle! A peasant girl like you should treat your superiors with respect!

"Hey! You get that near my hair, and I will end you!" The heiress could see a glint of red shine in the strange girl's eyes, telling her to back off. Considering she didn't know how the girl's weapons or semblance functioned, Weiss reasoned that provoking the girl would probably be more trouble than it was worth. Weiss withdrew her blade. Still, she watched the blonde girl with caution.

"You still haven't answered my question," Weiss said.

"Oh, right, call me Yang."

"Yang?" The name surprised her, to say the least.

There was no way she was trusting this girl. Even now, she was probably lying to her face, just like the rest of those Faunus-loving scum from Vacuo. Typical.

The heiress took a moment to clear her throat, and then crossed her arms. "That wasn't what I meant. How do you know who I am?"

"Why, everyone knows who you are! After all, you are the heiress to the world famous Schnee Dust Company!" That much was true, but everyone was buying Rubinsky these days. Even that stupid dunce Ruby still bought her goods from that bald buffoon's stupid over-sized crates.

"So, where are you from?"

Yang flipped her arms up in the air. "Nowhere in particular." Insolent piece of trash! "Why do you ask?"

"I'm done with this. Buzz off!" After that, Weiss started marching away.

"Sure thing, princess! Oh, and tell my little sis I said hi, okay?"

How in Dust would I know who that is? Weiss continued wandering through the mall, trying to forget her encounter with that uncouth peasant girl. There seemed to be a strange familiarity about her, but the heiress couldn't see why that was.

Moments later, Weiss spotted the rest of her team sitting on the edge of one of the mall's many fountains.

Ruby stood up from where she was and waved. "Hey, Weiss!"

The heiress growled and then walked back to the rest of her group. There was no use in resisting. After being lectured by Professor Port, she figured she would start being nicer to the girl. She was Yang Wenli's cousin after all. Even with her innate intellectual prowess, Weiss could afford to learn a few things or two from the great general. Even a dunce like Ruby had inherited some of the man's talent. Stupid Ruby. How does she get to be related to someone famous?

The heiress sighed, "So, how was your trip to the pet shop?"

"We got kicked out. Nora tried to free all the sloths from their cages, but then the manager got really mad and…"

"And then," said Nora, jumping in front of Ruby, "he reached under his desk and pulled out his shotgun. But I, Nora, was far too quick for him. Before he knew what was coming, I had BOOPED that old man in the head with my almighty Magnhild! Even when he was down for the count, I had to save my sloth brethren from the clutches of their captivity. So I started freeing all the other animals, but then the animals started making a mess of things so I had to try and put them all back, but then they were running all over the place and so I couldn't do it. Seeing as the manager was starting to wake up with all the commotion going around, I, Nora, SMASHED the security camera before making my grand escape. It was the PERFECT CRIME!"

"I had nothing to do with this," said Ren, enunciating every word.

"Yup, it was all me, Nora!" She smiled, her eyes closed.

"Yeah, anyway, we might want to leave soon or else we're going to start seeing some trouble, okay?" said Ruby as she looked around the mall.

"Ugh," muttered Weiss, "I should have never left you three alone by yourselves. And you!" She turned and pointed her finger at Ren. "You should have taken more care in keeping that girlfriend of yours from doing… whatever that was!"

"Believe me, that is a lot easier said than done," the boy remarked.

"My cause was righteous! My sloth brethren were in danger!" said Nora.

"Exactly."

Weiss growled. "Well, what about you, Ruby? Why didn't you do anything?"

"I-I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Just, the whole thing got out of control. I mean, I tried to make her stop, but I didn't want to hurt my teammate cause she isn't a bad person or anything, and I'd hurt all the cute little animals if I interfered. I-I'm sorry Weiss. I didn't know what to do."

"Ugh, forget it. We'll try explaining this to Professor Ozpin once we get back."

"Guys! HEEELP!" Jaune and the rest of team JSMN were running past the group with a small squad of animals chasing after them. An aggressive chimpanzee had clung onto Jaune's shield, and he was desperately trying to shake it off.

"This place is a goddamn zoo!" said Emerald as she fired away with her twin saber-pistols.

"This way!" commanded Pyrrha as she pointed her spear forward.

"Let's go!" shouted Ruby. The rest of team SLVR followed along, trying to get to the nearest bus stop before the animals could catch up to them.

Ugh, this day is just one disaster after another!

"I still can't believe we missed the parade!" Ruby complained. "I wanted to see the cute Faunus people!"

"Well, maybe if one of us didn't go crazy, we would have been back by now!" said Emerald. Weiss couldn't help but agree with the Southerner.

"Dusting police," Ruby murmured to herself. "Now what are we going to do?"

"Who knows? I didn't even get enough time to visit the game shop."

It had been around five when they had returned to the cliffs of Beacon. Teams SLVR and JSMN had been stuck in the Vale police station for at least an hour or so, not counting the time it took to get back to Beacon. By the time they had gotten out, Weiss's head was numb beyond belief after having waited for so long.

The police had taken Nora into custody, and had questioned everyone else on the events that had unfolded at the pet shop. Weiss's investigation was relatively brief, considering she wasn't present at the time of the crime. They had video evidence for it too. Julian, Pyrrha, and Jaune had gotten out relatively quickly as well. On the other hand, Emerald, Ruby, and Ren had taken a bit longer. The heiress could understand why they had kept Ren and Ruby, but keeping Emerald for the same amount of time seemed a bit strange, considering she didn't have anything to do with the incident.

At the same time, the police had also taken the shop owner into custody. Weiss had overheard some of the cops mention that the man had been capturing and shipping exotic animals from the Southern regions of the continent, many of which were illegal for distribution without a special license. Furthermore, they were illegal for sale as pets due to how dangerous they were to humans and Faunus alike.

It was strange that the police hadn't found about this earlier, but it was possible they had been occupied with other matters, such as dust robberies. Apparently, some wealthy proprietor had been paying the man to acquire these exotic animals, someone by the name of Sir Archibald Bigley. Weiss didn't recognize the name, even though her parents had brought her to a number of big social gatherings when she was still a child. It was likely a pseudonym of some sort, considering how unorthodox it sounded.

Weiss did have a few ideas about who would go to such lengths to enact such a scheme, but she felt way too exhausted mentally to concern herself with such matters. All she wanted to do was go back to the dorm, and maybe get something to eat.

The seven of them walked along a sidewalk bordering the main river, with their shadows stretching far ahead. A dull, gray mesh fence ran alongside them, keeping them from accidentally falling into the river. The main docking platform into the academy loomed up overhead, with a small harbor underneath. Compared to the main city, the traffic here was much lighter, aside from the occasional student walking over to one of the nearby shops.

The great walls, separating the city from the forests beyond, stood within plain sight, with heavy gun platforms and drone hangars stationed every half a mile or so. While most military personnel couldn't go head to head with the stronger varieties of Grimm, shelling them with heavy ordinance usually helped to mitigate that initial disadvantage. It was said that these things could even take down a mature Goliath with one shot, though Weiss didn't know whether or not that was true. Even so, such weaponry had not been enough to fully protect Vale during the siege, as evidenced by the scorch marks and scaffolding underneath.

Once the seven of them had reached the end of the path, Julian stepped on ahead to press a button embedded onto the side of the cliff. A cable-suspended, glass elevator slid down to their level, riding alongside a rail inclined on the rock face. Once the elevator had cushioned itself onto a team of rusted springs, the doors opened, and the seven of them stepped on in. The floor itself was an unadorned, plaster-colored tile, though the back end of the elevator was inclined to run parallel to the rail below.

Soon after the doors had shut, the small chamber began rising up, bringing the rest of Vale into view. Even from here, the heiress could see the island of Patch as it rested in the distant horizon. Even though most of the others were usually quite talkative, a strange silence hung over the room. Weiss's eyes couldn't help but be drawn toward the sun. In the back of her mind, she knew that looking at it for too long could've had some damaging effect on her eyesight, but it had an almost hypnotic effect on her. Let all your problems wash away.

Julian's voice cut into the silence, "Say, why don't we all go check out the transfer student dorms?"

"That sounds like a great idea! Some of my old classmates might be there," said Pyrrha.

"I'm up for it," said Jaune, his eyes half-asleep.

"Eh, it's better than nothing," Emerald unfolded her arms from their crossed position.

"Oh, duh!" Ruby exclaimed as she pounded her fist into her left hand. "Why didn't I think of that? Now we'll get to see the Faunus folk! Oh, I can't wait to meet them!"

Dusting hell. The last thing the Schnee heiress wanted to do was go anywhere near one of those Faunus lowlifes. They were nothing but a bunch of scummy, thieving, gang-banging, criminal scum! Weiss couldn't care less about whatever supposed injustices they faced; they didn't matter. To think they could rule a whole kingdom without it falling apart. Those fools were better off when they were servants anyway.

Everyone else seemed to turn to her. What's their problem? "What?"

"Everything alright, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

Air hissed through the heiress's teeth. "Yeah."

Stupid Ruby with her soft face and her cute stomach and her sexy legs and her big chest and her cute silver eyes. Why do I have to be attracted to stupid dunces like her? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

The heiress tried to distract herself by turning her attention to Pyrrha. At least it was okay to be attracted to girls like her. The girl was smart, not as smart as herself of course, and she was the champion of Mistral. Think nice thoughts, Weiss. One day, you're going to rule the world and everything will be all better. All it's going to take is a little bit of hard work and determination.

Weiss turned to face Ren, who was leaning on a silver rail to the side. Although he had never said a word, it was clear that he was struggling to cope with his girlfriend's arrest. He never seemed to express his emotions very often, even in times like this. Weiss couldn't help but envy that quality, since she knew all too well how destructive her own outbursts could be.

Nora didn't deserve any of this. Nora was her rival, that was true, but Weiss couldn't help but think that this was all wrong. She hated how the orange-haired girl always said she was better than her, but right now that didn't seem to matter. It was… fun to have her around. But now, she was no longer with them.

Right at that moment, the elevator had reached the top of the cliff, and everyone began to step onto the steel platform outside.

Once out, Ruby turned to face the heiress. "Weiss, aren't you going to come out?"

"Yeah, coming." Weiss stepped out, looking over the guard rail ahead. I guess this won't be too bad. I suppose I can wait a little longer.

The seven of them were now on the third floor of the transfer student building. They had already met some of the teams from Mistral, Vacuo, and Menagerie. For some reason, that Yang girl wasn't with them. Now they were walking over to the end of the hall, where a few empty boxes had been stacked outside. The lights hanging above gave the walls a mild yellow hue.

A black-haired cat-girl wearing long black boots stepped out of the room to the left, and turned to face the group. A black sword-based weapon was strapped onto her back. Although she looked around the same age as Weiss, her hands were dry and peeling, and her eyes were bagging from lack of sleep. Though she tried to conceal it, the heiress could feel herself twitching, much like how a dog growls when faced with an unfriendly presence.

The cat Faunus did not seem to notice this, and she instead turned to the boy who had served under Yang. "You're Julian Mintz."

"How did…"

"Your guardian is practically a celebrity. I just did a little bit of research before coming here. I'm Blake Belladonna, by the way. So, who might the rest of you be?" The girl's eyes drifted to the heiress, giving her a suspicious look.

"You may call me Pyrrha."

"Jaune Arc, my lady." The dunce bowed before the cat Faunus.

"Ren."

"Emerald Sustrai."

Weiss didn't feel like being shown up by these fools. Before Ruby could introduce herself, the heiress hissed out and made her move. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."

The cat Faunus made a brief scowl before turning away from the heiress. "And you?"

The stupid dark-haired duncehead rushed up to meet her. "I'm Ruby Rose! I can't believe I'm meeting a Faunus in real life, even though I just met one a few minutes ago! Can I pet your ears?"

After about half a minute, Blake jumped back and said, "Wait, did you just say your name was Ruby?"

"Yup, can I…"

"That is… freaky."

"Why is that freaky?" interrupted Jaune.

"Because that's the same name as our team, RWBY."

"Hey," complained Ruby, "how did you get to be team RWBY? That's my name!"

"Don't ask me, I did not come up with it."

Julian stepped up and asked, "So, where's the rest of your team?"

"In there." Blake gestured to the room with her thumb. Ruby's head shifted over the cat-girl's shoulder.

"Aw yeah baby, that's what ya get for messin' with the champ!" The voice came from inside the room.

"You… might not want to disturb them right now."

The heiress stepped past Blake to get a better look. "What in the name of Dust is going on in there?"

Inside, she saw three boys huddled around a fat Faunus with donkey ears doing something on his laptop. He's wearing… sunglasses? Even though he's indoors?

"The enemy inhibitor has been destroyed!" The voice came from the fat Faunus's computer, accompanied by a low rumbling sound.

As she held onto the door frame, Weiss couldn't help but growl at just how idiotic the boys were. Stupid boys with their stupid video games.

The only boy who wasn't a dusting Faunus had light blue hair that was shaped forward. He was probably the boy that was missing from one of Haven's transfer student teams, Neptune. His jacket was a dark red and his collar was turned upright. He had a terrible sense of fashion. Who wears goggles in that shade of orange? He was definitely not attractive. At all.

The other two were a monkey Faunus, and some sort of weird hedgehog Faunus, except the spikes on his head were a dark shade of blue. The monkey had been munching on an apple. The hedgehog Faunus had a white T-shirt tucked into a pair of faded jeans, which reached over his shoe-less feet. Said boy also was wearing a long black lanyard with his scroll attached on the end. A goatee had formed on the end of his chin.

"Sun," the heiress heard Blake say from behind her, "where did you get that apple?"

"Just took it from the market," said the monkey Faunus.

"You what?"

"Hey, no reason to make a fuss out of it!"

The hedgehog turned to face his companion. "You're a thieving little bastard, aren't you?"

"Aw, no need to say it like that, my boy."

"Yeti?" called Pyrrha from behind the heiress.

The hedgehog turned around to face the champion. "Oh god, it's you!" He jumped back, almost hitting Neptune.

"I didn't think I would see you here."

"Me neither."

"Will ya two quiet down and have your happy reunion later?" said the fat kid. "I've almost got this game in the bag!"

Ren and Emerald stepped into the room, with Ruby, Pyrrha, and Julian following after them.

Just as Jaune stepped into the door frame, he pointed to Sun and screamed, "M-M-M-Monkey!"

Sun tried pushing his way through the growing crowd, "You got a problem with me, boy? Why don't you say it to my face?" Pyrrha wrapped her arm around the monkey-boy. "Whoa, hands off girl!"

The warrior held her position. "Don't mind him. He's had some… rather unpleasant experiences today."

"Like what?"

Emerald turned, with her right hand on her hip. "He got attacked by a wild chimpanzee."

"What?" said Blake.

"You don't want to know," said Ren. He turned back to the game. "That's Storm Heroes, right?"

"Sure is," said Neptune.

"Nah," said the currently unnamed donkey Faunus. "This is actually the new edition of Killer Doom Butts 64." Neptune just stared at the boy with a look of confusion on his face. "See, in this game you gotta play as a child soldier where you've gotta collect all the candy canes and… Hey, where do ya think you're going? Get back here…" Blake cringed as the boy finished his sentence. Her arms shook as she barely held in her anger.

The cat Faunus stepped in the room, and gestured to the boy, "Don't mind him, everyone. This here is Meatball Rice. Everyone, say hi to Meatball."

Nobody did.

Weiss circled around the door frame. The room was starting to get unusually packed. She couldn't even see Ruby or Julian from where she was. It was a good thing too.

Still, at the edge of the pack, Emerald had been watching the two of them with a smirk on her face. Does she think this is funny? What kind of peasant dunce would find humor in any of this? Stupid green-haired, Southern duncehead! Idiots, all of them!

The Southern girl's eyes turned back to the computer screen. "Hmm… I could get into something like this."

They all just stood there while they watched that stupid, fat Meatball finish his game. Occasionally, Jaune would peek in from outside, still struggling with his new fear of simians.

Only a minute later, everyone jumped back when Meatball leaped onto his seat.

"Whoo!" As he shouted, Meatball took off his shirt and started spinning it around in the air. Several people had ducked to avoid it slamming into them. "Yeah, who is the champ? That's right, me!"

"So," said Blake, "Do any of you want to get something to eat?"

Julian raised his hand from within the crowd, "Uh, that sounds like a good idea."

"Great, I'm starving," said Ruby.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Everyone turned to face Weiss. "What?"

A/N: Hello, anyone who's reading this! This was a more lighthearted chapter compared to some of the other stuff I've written for this story. This was originally supposed to be Chapter 6, but then I decided to gut the original Chapter 5, which was shown from Blake's POV. Basically, Blake discusses stuff with Reinhard von Lohengramm, which goes into a bit more detail on what's going on in Atlas. I mostly wrote it for worldbuilding purposes, as it shows things from Jotunheim's perspective and shows a bit of Blake's backstory in this AU. Ultimately, I didn't think I had portrayed Blake's personality accurately when I wrote it, and it doesn't do much to advance the plot of the story, so I chose not to publish it. I don't think you'll be missing too much due to the missing chapter, and I'll probably find a way to weave in the details later. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this!