Hey guys Drow79 here, for those wondering the song was The Parting Glass (Walking Dead Version) and the quote was the from the 11th doctor Van Gogh. Congrats to everyone who guessed right, anyway without further delays enjoy chapter 10.
I don't own RWBY if I did Penny would be a robot... oh wait...
If you were to ask most students how many times they've be to the headmaster's office most would say none, or one if they were unruly. Still even the most troublesome of students would be hard pressed to beat four times within a week. After being picked up by the search party early in the morning Red and Cardin were immediately taken to Ozpin's office for a debriefing.
"Ah Miss Rose, welcome back," greeted Ozpin.
"Thanks sir, good to be back," responded Red cheerfully.
Nodding he gestured for them to take a seat as he began pouring himself another cup of coffee. Red happily took her seat, followed by a very cautious Cardin. Ozpin walked over with two steaming cups, smiling as he handed one to Red.
"White and two sugars yes?" he asked, taking his seat.
Red nodded and they both began drinking in silence, with a very confused Cardin looking between them. Red looked over and just shrugged.
"This isn't my first time here," she explained.
Ozpin gave a soft chuckle, "indeed Miss Rose, I'm beginning to wonder if you're doing this intentionally. I must say I think these meetings have become a daily event for me."
Red smirked, "well what can I say, the free coffee just keeps calling me back," she joked.
Cardin just looked at them in bewilderment at the joking atmosphere between the two, while secretly pondering just how often Ruby came here. Placing his mug down Ozpin signalled that it was time to get serious.
"I want you both to tell me what happened in Forever Falls, I've already got the story from your teammates but I would like to hear it from your side," he said, looking at Cardin.
Cardin gulped and sat straighter under the attention. Attempting to speak only caused him to become a stuttering wreck. Seeing this Red decided to intervene, giving Ozpin a brief version of the events. However she kept out the conversation with Cardin knowing it was private as well as the prank realizing the trouble he could get in.
"I see, very strange that these Rapier Wasps singled you out. That is not normal behaviour is it Mr. Winchester?" he asked, once again turning to Cardin.
"Actually Headmaster that was my fault," lied Red.
Drawing shocked looks from both of them she continued, "While we were moving I accidently spilt some sap on me. Apparently the sap drives the wasps into a frenzy, I'll accept any punishment for putting my team in danger."
"Interesting, that conflicts with the confessions I got from the rest team CRDL," stated Ozpin with raised eyebrows. "Are you sure Miss Rose?" he asked, staring at her.
"Positive sir," she replied meeting his gaze.
Ozpin just sighed before taking another sip from his coffee.
"Do you have anything to add Mr. Winchester?" he asked.
Snapping out of his shock induced daze, Cardin shook his head. Seeing this Ozpin dismissed them both with a wave of his hand. Once the door closed behind them Cardin turned to Red.
"Seriously, thanks Red," he said, offering his fist.
"Anytime Cardin," she replied raising her own.
Smiling they gave each other a friendly fist bump and split up, heading back to their dorms. Red walked down the halls of Beacon hearing whispers follow her, 'apparently I just got some street cred' she thought giggling. Her good mood lasted until she reached her dorm, there were crashes and screaming sounding from inside as well as the smell of smoke. Red's face blanched, 'oh no they wouldn't, not after what happened last time.' Wrenching the door open she just sighed and face palmed 'apparently so.'
After stopping the dorm debacle team RWBY decided to head for the cafeteria for their food. Much to the delight of the unfortunate dorm cleaners.
"Come on Ruby, we said we were sorry besides we had Ren helping us this time," said Yang.
"Oh really, so where was he?" asked Red, the disbelief clear in her voice.
"Well he said he had to duck out for a few minutes," answered Yang with a sheepish grin.
Red looked at her with a deadpan expression, "you did all that damage in 'a few minutes?' Why am I not surprised."
As they made their way to the cafeteria Red stumbled, clutching her head in pain.
"Come on sis, just one more story," said Ruby.
"No Ruby it's bed time, don't make me get mom up here," scolded Yang mockingly.
"Please just one more then I'll go to bed I promise," begged Ruby with her puppy dog eyes.
Yang just sighed, "fine which one?" she asked.
Ruby jumped up from the bed and ran to the book shelf, grabbing her favourite she handed it to her big sister.
"Tell me another story about the Shepard," she said, settling in for the night.
Yang chuckled, "it's getting late but okay, one more story."
Red opened her eyes to see the rest of her team staring at her. All of them, even Weiss looked concerned as they steadied her.
"Are you feeling okay?" asked Yang.
Red nodded, "yeah just a headache. Come on lets go I don't know about you guys but I'm hungry."
Yang grabbed her shoulder stopping Red in her tracks. "Ruby that was no mere head ache, promise me if it happens again you'll go to the infirmary. It could be something serious."
"Alright Yang I promise," she lied.
Arriving at the cafeteria the team saw JNPR was already present at the usual spot. Grabbing their food they moved to join them, upon seeing Red their expression brightened. Quickly making room for them on the table, Ren apologized for taking so long to get back to them but was waved off by Yang. Nora wasted no time grilling Red on what happened in Forever Falls and how it was to spend the night in the wild. Red smiled and began her tale, exaggerating it to the point where even Prof. Port would be put to shame, with everyone seemingly hooked. However she was interrupted by the sound of a fist slamming on the table coming from Blake. Red looked over to her and noticed that Blake was glaring at something over her shoulder. Turning around she saw team CRDL had entered the cafeteria seemingly searching for someone, upon seeing Velvet they made their way over.
"That's it I've had it with him," growled Blake standing up.
As Blake began to walk over to him Red frowned. Standing up she put her arm in front of Blake blocking her off, earning her shocked expressions from everyone.
"Wait, let's see where this goes first," ordered Red.
At first it looked like Blake was going to disobey but she just glared at Red before sitting back down. Everyone was silent as they stared at Red unable to believe what they just heard. Shaking their heads with various states of disappointment they turned to watch the scene unravelling before them. At first it seemed like usual with Velvet cowering before CRDL, however when none of them begin teasing her everyone got confused. Instead they just stared at her without speaking, the room grew quiet as people began to look at the scene with growing interest. Taking a deep breath Cardin stepped forward and, to the surprise of everyone but Red, he along with his team bowed before her.
"Velvet, I am truly sorry for how me and my team treated you before. I know we don't deserve it but I hope someday you can forgive us," he apologized before he and his team left the cafeteria.
Red chuckled as team JNPR's and the rest of RWBY's eyes bulged. All of them had expressions of disbelief but none more so then Blake, who turned to Red.
"That was an unexpected turn of events, you wouldn't have anything to do with it would you Ruby?" she asked.
Everyone at the table turned to Red at this comment. She just smirked knowingly and began to eat her food in silence. 'Good work Cardin and good luck.'
"The Vytal festival, oh this is absolutely wonderful," cheered Weiss.
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss, it's kind of weirding me out," teased Red.
"How could you not smile," exclaimed Weiss, turning to Red in shock.
"A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world, there will be dances, parades, a tournament," she said giving a little twirl. "Oh the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking," finished Weiss.
Red just shook her head in amusement and began tuning out the rest of the conversation. Looking around she smiled, this was her first time in Vale and it was a lot busier a city then shown in the show. Every store had some form of banner or decoration to celebrate the festival and most were going all out. It reminded Red of when her family would drive around home, admiring the different Christmas decorations on people's houses. 'I guess some things are universal,' she thought with a chuckle. Realizing that it was too quiet she turned her attention back to her teammates, only to see all three of them staring at her in various states of confusion.
"Umm… is there something on my face?" she asked, confused.
"No it's just that we've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes," informed a smiling Blake.
"Right sorry about that my mind was just taking everything in, first time in Vale you know?" she commented.
They all frowned and nodded, the carefree atmosphere having been destroyed by that reminder. Blake and Yang didn't look that convinced however Weiss was too engaged with 'observing' the competition from Vacuo to notice. Leading them to the docks they came across a store surrounded by police tape. Red frowned and continued walking attempting to get her team to follow hoping they wouldn't see it, unfortunately Yang also noticed the store.
"Hey what happened here," she questioned walking up to a cop.
Red shook her head, "nothing can ever go according to plan," she mumbled, receiving a curious look from Blake.
The cop looked over at them, "robbery, second dust shop to be hit this week, this place is turning to a jungle."
Weiss scoffed, "looks like the White Fang is at it again, what an awful bunch of degenerates."
'Uh oh this isn't good.' Red turned to Blake and sure enough the Faunus was giving the heiress a glare cold enough to freeze hell over.
"What's your problem?" she demanded.
"My problem? I just don't care for the criminally insane," responded Weiss.
Realizing she had to end this now Red spoke up, "I wouldn't call them insane Weiss, after all the only reason they're like that now is because the peaceful protests were doing nothing. If anyone is to blame it would be us."
Receiving an angry look from Weiss and a grateful nod from Blake she continued, "anyway it's not like every Faunus is a criminal."
Just as she finished they heard shouting from across the docks, Red groaned knowing just who it was. As they ran to the source sure enough there was Sun hanging from a lamp post throwing bananas at the cops from before. Weiss turned to Red with a smug grin on her face.
"You were saying," she gloated.
'Damn you Murphy's Law,' however before she could respond to the heiress, Sun dropped off the lamp and sprinted past them, disappearing into the alleyway.
"Well Weiss you wanted to see the competition and there it goes," joked Yang.
"Quick we have to observe him," yelled Weiss before they all ran after Sun.
After a good solid 20 minutes of not finding that damn monkey Faunus, team RWBY sat on one of the park benches exhausted. Despite it all Red was having fun, right up until Yang began looking at her funny.
"You know Ruby it's strange, not many people know that the White Fang was originally a protest group plus how did you know Faunus had night vision when we only learnt it before your 'accident'?" asked Yang frowning.
At this point both Blake and Weiss turned to look at Red equally curious about this. 'Oh crap not good, do they suspect something? I need a distraction! God damn it Murphy!' Red gave a nervous laugh before spinning around and hitting something as hard as metal. Groaning Red accepted Yang's help up and turned to see what she hit, smiling when she recognized the ginger in front of her.
"Salutations," greeted Penny.
'There is a God,' thought Red gleefully. This was just what she needed, a perfect person to distract them.
"Salutations," she replied with a happy grin.
Her team looked between the two of them completely confused, especially since Penny had yet to get off the ground.
"Are you… okay?" asked Yang hesitantly.
"I'm wonderful thank you for asking," replied Penny.
"Do you… want to get up?" asked Yang again.
Penny seemed to consider it before responding, "Yes."
Leaping up from the ground she turned to face team RWBY, everyone but Red taking a couple of steps back.
"My name is Penny it's a pleasure to meet you," she said, jerkily.
"A pleasure to meet you Penny, the white one is Weiss, black one Blake and yellow one is Yang. And my name is … Ruby," introduced Red, flinching slightly on the last one.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," repeated Penny.
"Umm… you already said that," stated Weiss.
Seeing everyone's attention focused on Penny, Red began to sneak away before they started questioning her again. Walking down the streets of Vale was interesting, so much like home yet so different at the same time. Red came to a stop in front of a store she recognized, the Dust til Dawn. Entering the shop she immediately walked over to the magazine rack, intending to pull out one on books, games, movies, anything that might be interesting. Instead she herself drawn to 'Weapon Makers the finest of them all,' even more surprising was that she could actually understand everything and was even actively rating the weapons themselves. After a good solid hour of none stop reading and rating Red felt her scroll vibrate. Looking down she saw it was a message from Yang, 'Get back to dorm ASAP EMERGENCY.' Red cursed she had forgotten all about Blake, racing back to Beacon she began to panic wondering what to do next.
There you go hope you liked it. I decided that I wanted to tie up the Cardin arc this chapter, I don't really like leaving loose ends. Also Ren is damn near impossible to write for I tried multiple times but eventually just gave up. Looking back through the chapters I realized this was a recurring theme, I have yet to give him any dialogue whatsoever. Anyway sorry if this chapter isn't that good but this episode was my least favourite and I struggled to get through it.