Brief AN this time. I've just started a new semester, so things will be hectic for a hot minute. I'm back for good though- that's not changing. Enjoy!
Ruby woke before the rest of her team, because today was the day she'd been waiting for. She still didn't really understand what was going on with Weiss and Blake. Blake was still distant, and Weiss was… volatile. Most of the time she'd be cheery and polite, but once in a while she'd slip in an insult from out of nowhere and leave Ruby reeling. She wished Weiss and Blake would just tell her what was wrong.
But right now, none of that mattered. Today was their first day of class at Beacon. Ruby squealed to herself as the clock turned over to 7, and then blasted the airhorn in her left hand.
Weiss bolted upright in bed and shrieked, Blake leapt out of bed and fell into the bookshelf under the window, hissing, and Yang didn't get up at all. The blonde just waved Ruby off and mumbled "Five more minutes."
Ruby jumped right in to her speech. "Good morning team RWBY! Today is our first day of classes at Beacon, and we're starting it off with a bang! Get ready for… a team building exercise!"
Weiss narrowed her eyes, Blake stared Ruby down and growled, and Yang was already snoring again. Ruby walked over to Yang, pulled off the covers, and tugged her out of bed. "Alright, alright mom." Yang yawned. "I'm up. What's the big idea?"
"Room decoration!" all three of the other girls stared at her blankly.
Weiss was the first to respond. "Room decoration? Since when were you one for aesthetics?"
"Yeah, Ruby, cool idea, but we kinda moved in a week ago. Most of our stuff is kind of- already decorated?" Yang ventured.
"Ah hah, but there is something I wanted to put to a vote!", Ruby exclaimed.
"A vote?" Blake asked.
"I want to bunk the beds."
"Bunk the beds?" said Weiss. "I don't think that's allowed. Nor do I see why it necessitated waking us up this early."
"I take it that's a no from Weiss."
Ruby looked to Blake and Yang. Blake turned away and shrugged, and Yang shot her sister a thumbs up. "Then it's settled! By democratic majority, we are bunking the beds."
Weiss rolled her eyes and let out a petite sigh. "No."
Two hours later, the deed was done. Through a haphazard usage of Blake's spare books and some lengths of rope, they had managed to precariously balance their newly bunked beds. Yang and Blake's had been easier- once they got Blake's books to stack, they'd just lifted the second bed on top of them.
Ruby's bunk, however, had required them to hold her bed aloft for almost forty-five minutes to give time to embed the ropes into the ceiling and then tie them around the ends of the bed. Weiss had mostly just gone around the room repositioning furniture and her paintings the entire time. She was horrified, but not surprised, when she saw the final results of the endeavor, Ruby's bed hanging from the ceiling with no support beneath it other than a few haphazard lengths of rope, and Yang's sitting atop four stacks of novels that could topple at any moment.
Weiss forced herself to at least try and talk some sense into them. "I'm almost certain this violates some health and safety protocol."
Ruby brushed it off. "Eh, safety shmafety. We'll be fine."
"Yeah," Yang affirmed. "This has nothing on the forts we'd build at Uncle Qrow's. Those were way more dangerous."
"More dangerous than a seven foot fall onto your neck the moment your poorly designed supports fail?" Weiss was incredulous.
"Oh yeah. Ruby and I used to have another sister."
Weiss looked absolutely mortified before she realized that Yang was joking, then huffed. "I don't appreciate you toying with my emotions Yang. It's uncouth."
"Oh, lighten up. What's a fall gonna do, scratch two percent off your aura? Like Ruby said, it'll be fine." Yang disparaged, rolling her eyes.
"Wait, what time is it?" Ruby interjected.
Blake pulled out her scroll. "8:57. Why?"
"8:57!? Our classes start at 9!" The four girls looked to each other, then immediately split and scrambled for their schoolbags, stampeding out the door in quick succession to their first class at Beacon.
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Their first class at the prestigious Beacon Academy just so happened to be world history. They barreled into the classroom of one Doctor Oobleck with seconds to spare and found their seats. The man in question was standing behind his desk holding a meter stick and a mug of coffee, wearing a simple white dress shirt, black pants, and large circular glasses just beneath a head of wild green hair.
His classroom was a large, semicircular affair, with desks set up in a radial pattern from the far wall, where the teacher's desk, a bookshelf, and the whiteboards sat- as well as a giant map of Remnant, crisscrossed with lines of red string and notes stuck to the paper. The room resembled an auditorium of sorts, with descending rows of desks split by a walkway that flowed from the door down to the wood floor of the chamber, all encircled by smooth stone walls.
Moments after Ruby crashed into her seat, the bell rang, and as soon as it had stopped chiming, the doctor began to speak. "Greetings everyone! I am Doctor Oobleck, your teacher for world history this year. Now, I know we can't wait to get started, but for today we'll mostly be doing an overview of what this class will look like…" The man spoke, and moved, at a manic pace, putting even Ruby to shame. She idly wondered how much espresso was in that coffee.
He raced through the content breakdown for the year and passed out a syllabus. Ruby half skimmed the document, catching the gist of it. They'd start with ancient cultures and relics, and move on to the formation of the four kingdoms, origins of tensions with the Faunus, the slow growth of humanity, rise of smaller nations in the age of prosperity, the catastrophic destruction of the Great War, the Faunus Revolutions, and finally lead up to the new era of peace that had lasted to this day.
It was about that time when Ruby started daydreaming, gazing off into the wall and recounting the fight with the Nevermore. Before long she'd moved on to imagining team RWBY heading out on their first real hunt together, cutting through swathes of Grimm to save an isolated village.
She was snapped out of the trance by the sound of Oobleck calling her name. Ruby spun towards him. "Miss Rose? Would you like to tell the class what I was talking about?"
He stared into her eyes pointedly, and Ruby blushed as she looked down at her desk and mumbled a reply. "I'm sorry. I don't know Mister Oobleck."
"That's all right Miss Rose, but in the future, please do try to keep your mind from running away with you so easily." Oobleck moved on, but Ruby lingered in the embarrassment, made worse when she turned to her right and saw another student side-eyeing her and holding back a laugh. He was a bigger kid, with short brown hair, deep blue eyes, and a cruel smirk on his face. He turned back to the teacher before anyone took notice, and Ruby muffled her embarrassment and faced forward as well, pointedly ignoring the disapproving glare from behind as Weiss stared daggers into her back.
/-/
Through sheer force of willpower following the embarrassment by Oobleck, Ruby managed to stay attentive for the rest of the lesson. Her next class, Hunter Law, was better. She found the topic boring, but at least it was useful. Ruby wanted to be a hero, but she'd also prefer to not get arrested or sued on the job because she broke a mailbox or something, please and thank you.
Lunch was actually fun. They found team JNPR, and shared gripes about Oobleck's breakneck pace and having to wake up before 9 am, amongst other things. Jaune had looked utterly exhausted, but he was beaming. Nora was a bundle of energy, making very clear that she couldn't wait until they had sparring practice tomorrow. Ren kept an eye on Nora to make sure she didn't start a spar at that very moment, and Pyrrha politely bounced between conversations with ease as Yang and Ruby chatted it up. Blake was scowling the whole time, but since it didn't appear to be related to the team, Ruby left it alone. She didn't need another argument, especially not with all these people watching.
Study hall came next, and it was long and uneventful, as none of them had any homework to work on. Blake read the news while Ruby, Yang, and Weiss awkwardly attempted small talk. After what felt like hours, they moved on to their last class for the day, Grimm Studies.
Grimm Studies was lead by a Professor Port, a shorter, heavier man in an ornate red suit with golden details, and gray hair to match a large moustache. His room was shaped like Oobleck's for the most part, but laid out very differently. The seats were arranged the same way, but Port's whiteboards were covered with anatomical posters of various Grimm, and the floor at the front of the classroom was empty of anything but the whiteboards and Port. It was also far larger than the floor space in Oobleck's room, leaving more than enough room for Port to move about. Interestingly, the floor was solid stone and the walls of the room appeared to be plated with thick metal. Ruby wondered why the Grimm Studies classroom needed armored walls.
Ruby had high hopes when she entered, seeing armored walls and real scientific posters about the Grimm. As Port waxed nostalgic about hunts against the deadliest Grimm on Remnant, she thought they'd be validated. Her excitement faded rapidly as Port rambled about every minute detail of a past hunt. Every time she thought he'd get on with the story, he explained a small piece of the scene in excruciating detail. It went on for over an hour, until everyone was struggling to stay awake. That was, until he reached the finale of his tale.
It wasn't that the ending of the story was particularly gripping, but rather that Port had pressed a button on a remote, and a cage had popped out of a hatch in the ceiling holding a live and mature Boarbatusk. "Now, let's see if you've learned from my early adventures in Mistral. Miss Schnee, if you would kindly demonstrate how to defeat a Boarbatusk?"
Weiss rose from her seat, and Ruby caught a glance at her notebook. Weiss had actually been taking notes the entire time, and they looked neat, orderly, and concise. Ruby marveled at Weiss' tolerance for boring crap as Weiss ambled down and took up a practiced defensive stance opposite the caged Grimm.
Finally, something interesting. Weiss thought. She balanced her weight, readying herself to move to the side at a moment's notice. She drew back Myrtenaster with her right hand, preparing a thrust for the inevitable attack.
At once, Port removed the lock from the cage and flipped open the door.
The Boarbatusk charged out of its prison straight towards Weiss. Weiss' rapier lanced forward, skittering off thick bone armor. Unfazed, Weiss spun on one heel out of the charging animal's path. The creature slammed headfirst into the wall, bellowing in rage, as Weiss followed up with another thrust of her blade. Myrtenaster stuck firmly into the bony plate, but could not pierce it, and Weiss quickly leaned backwards to tear the blade free as the monster turned to face her. The rapier slipped free, but in the process Weiss had put herself off balance. Weiss stumbled back from the sweeping arc of the wicked tusks to buy herself time. The Grimm did not relent, slashing its head towards her a second and third time, but it could not quite match her pace of retreat.
In but a moment, Weiss had recovered her footing. She flicked Myrtneaster forward and used the deceptive strength of the thin metal to deflect a thrust of the beast's horns. Weiss raised a leg to kick the Boarbatusk onto its side. "Turn it over! The belly's the weak point!" Ruby yelled.
Weiss was startled by the intrusion, and her foot sailed into the stone floor rather than the Grimm's chest. She lunged to the left as the beast's flailing counterattack tore across her midsection and silently cursed Ruby. Fighting through the burning pain, Weiss ditched her strategy entirely, rushing straight past the Grimm and spinning to face it from the opposite wall of the room. The metal was visibly scratched from where the monstrous tusks had torn into it already.
Weiss moved to plan B. The Grimm had turned to follow her as expected, and began charging after her. Weiss thumbed the trigger on Myrtenaster's hilt and traced a precise pattern with a speed only afforded by years of practice. A sheet of thin ice materialized on the ground beneath the monster, turning the Grimm's wild charge into an uncontrolled slide. Then Weiss raised her blade, and a wall of ice rose from the ground. Weiss darted around the side of the wall as the helpless Boarbatusk sailed into the sloping ice, following the crescent-moon curve of the wall until it was thrown free into the unforgiving stone floor. The creature crashed to the ground in a heap with a demonic squeal, and Weiss darted in, plunging her rapier into the heart of the beast. It ceased struggling, and then disintegrated into dust and a pile of bone plates.
There was a moment of silence. Then, Port applauded, along with the rest of the students. Ruby and Yang cheered, and even Blake hid a smile. Weiss allowed herself a confident grin as she made her way back to her seat. Port moved on to the physiology of Boarbatusks, but not two minutes later, the bell sounded to signal the end of class. "Oh my. I must have gotten carried away with my stories again. I apologize. Alright class, next time we will finish our brief overview of the Boarbatusk and talk about the curriculum moving forward. Dismissed."
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Team RWBY made their way back to their dorm. Blake looked unconcerned about anything, as usual. Yang was yawning and checking her scroll every few seconds, clearly bored out of her mind. Weiss kept shooting Ruby dirty looks, and Ruby couldn't figure out why as she anxiously lead the way to their room.
All in all, the first day had been a bit more boring than Ruby anticipated, but Beacon was still a school. It couldn't be monster hunting time around the clock- they had to learn other stuff too. Ruby was confident she could get used to that. Besides, they'd have sparring and survival tomorrow, and those were bound to be more interesting.
Ruby was certain then. She wasn't upset about her classes, not even after getting embarrassed by Oobleck. She was terrified of what was going to happen with Weiss. The girl seemed to be letting anger build up inside her. It scared Ruby. Typically Weiss didn't hesitate to lay into somebody when she had a problem with them. That she waited now was a bad sign. Ruby's already fragile confidence crumbled a little more.
The four girls arrived back at their dorm, and Blake went to her bed to grab a book. She was then struck with a curious sense of deja vu as she reached for a novel from the bookshelf. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Weiss staring down Ruby. Blake sighed quietly. She hated being right sometimes. She'd barely spoken a word to Weiss since they'd been put on a team, but even with an outside perspective it was obvious that listening to Ruby hadn't stopped pissing Weiss off, even after their agreement, and it had to boil over at some point.
It had started with a simple barbed comment from Weiss. "You know I don't need your help."
When Ruby raised an eyebrow and didn't reply, Weiss powered on. "The Boarbatusk?" Ruby stared at Weiss.
"Oh don't tell me you've forgotten already. You yelled out in the middle of my fight and made me miss my kick."
Ruby's confused frown morphed to open-mouthed understanding. "Ohhhhhh. Yeah, I'm sorry about that."
"Sorry? That's not enough. You made me look like an idiot in front of the class."
Ruby tilted her head to the side. "You still won the fight though."
Weiss huffed. "Only after missing a simple kick because of your intrusion."
"I was just trying to tell you about its weak point." Ruby pointed out.
"I know a Boarbatusk's weak points!" Weiss exclaimed. "Need I remind you I've been training for this longer than you?"
"I was excited?"
"Oh, excuse me! I'm sure that will be an acceptable excuse when someone gets hurt on the battlefield because you didn't trust them to understand basic Grimm anatomy." Weiss spat out.
Ruby stepped back from Weiss, but Weiss' onslaught was unrelenting. "That's not even the half of it. You spaced out ten minutes after entering your first class, making a fool of yourself in the process, you turned our beds into a death trap, and you still haven't been listening to anything I say!"
Ruby's eyes were watering now, but Weiss wasn't even looking at her anymore. "You know, when I went to Ozpin, he convinced me to rethink fighting you for the position of leader. Ultimately, I decided I didn't want the responsibility. I'm beginning to think I made a mistake. You have no faith in me, you don't value my opinions, and you still seem to have no regard for your safety or anyone else's."
Ruby slumped her shoulders, and the tears started to flow.
Blake watched as Yang rose from her bed and marched up behind Weiss. "Weiss. That's enough."
"What, shielding your sister from the truth won't help-"
"I said, that's enough." Blake saw a faint shimmer in Yang's hair, and watched Yang place her hand on Weiss' shoulder and squeeze. Sighing again, Blake stepped in.
"Weiss, just drop it." Blake swept out an arm towards Ruby, and Weiss finally noticed the girl crying in a red heap on the floor. Any retort Weiss had died on her lips when she saw what she'd caused.
Blake stared Weiss dead in the eyes, shadows flitting around the edge of her mind. "This isn't helping anybody, and frankly, you're being unfair to her. Do you think when we're fighting as a team that we'll never talk to each other? That there'll never be an extraneous noise in combat? You can't blame her for you letting yourself get distracted."
Weiss looked angry, but she stayed silent as Blake continued. "Yeah, Ruby's excitable. Sometimes she's rash. But she's also trying to be accommodating for all of us. She accepted your apology after you stormed out on us on day one, and she put her idea about the bunks to a vote. She could've just told us what to do. She's trying to make this team work, but you want it to work your way, or not at all."
Blake saw the guilt slipping back into Weiss' face, and pressed the advantage as the faint shadows egged her on. "My advice is to loosen up or leave. Not everything that you don't like has to cause a fight, people make mistakes, and you can't blame Ruby for not listening to you if you don't tell her when or why you're upset until you're screaming at her."
"I've noticed your passive aggressive comments. The times you slipped back into commanding us instead of asking. I'd bet Ruby has too, but she trusted you to tell her why you were upset instead of going off on her. Clearly that trust was misplaced. Now are we done here?" Weiss was silent and expressionless.
Team RWBY went to bed, but none of them fell asleep until late into the night. Ruby and Weiss both cried in silence. Yang tried to bite down her anger and think of something, anything she could do to help Ruby, but found nothing. Blake simply told herself that she'd stood up to Weiss only to prevent things from getting more complicated. Oddly, that didn't seem to ring quite true.
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Team RWBY was eerily silent come morning. Blake avoiding conversation wasn't anything new, but there was nothing. No quips from Yang, no excitement from Ruby, no instructions or insults from Weiss. The absence of speech was oppressive. Yang kept finding herself with comments on the tip of her tongue, but unable to say anything. Blake was still a wildcard, and though Ruby and Weiss had both hated their fight, Yang couldn't say she was confident that they'd worked out their issues. She didn't want to kick off round three of their spat right before class. So they showered, got dressed, and left for their first class of the today, walking together alone, to Combat Basics.
Combat Basics was headed by Ms. Goodwitch, and the room was drastically different to any of their previous classrooms. Namely, it was the same giant, domed auditorium where Ozpin had spoken to them the night before the Emerald Forest trial. Now, however, the room was much less packed. Goodwitch had introduced herself and then briefly explained the class structure.
This class did not have nearly as strict a curriculum as something like Hunter Law or Grimm Studies. Here, Goodwitch would pick pairs of students to spar until their aura fell below fifteen percent or the match was called off. These students would fight, and afterwards the class would examine these spars to learn where mistakes had been made. Hopefully, Goodwitch added, they would even learn how to avoid such mistakes on the battlefield, when it would truly matter. As Goodwitch put it, "It's better to make mistakes in front of your peers than lose a friend."
Not ten minutes later, the first spar had begun. Seeing as today they were holding class in the auditorium, explosive weapons were strictly prohibited. Nora, none too happy about that, was going up against some giant kid named Cardin. Ruby seemed to recognize him, but Yang couldn't figure why. The two took positions on opposite ends of the auditorium's grand stage. The fight looked certain to be a beatdown, a whirl of devastating blunt force- just the way Yang liked it. Since Nora couldn't use her grenade launcher, she hefted her weapon, Magnhild, in hammer form, and made ready to clash with Cardin's mace. Nora looked almost calm, in a relaxed, open stance. She even started twirling her hammer in one hand as she waited for the match to start. Cardin took a simple, aggressive position, one shoulder slightly forward, the other arm holding his mace outstretched, prepared to bring it forward for an attack of opportunity. A holoboard behind the pair showed both of their aura levels as colored bars, both at a healthy green 100%- for now. Looking at the glint in Nora's eyes, Yang doubted it'd stay that way for long.
Goodwitch gave the word, and Nora lunged towards Cardin, slinging her hammer up from her right, directly towards Cardin's face. His eyes went wide just before Magnhild slammed into his jaw and sent him staggering backwards. Nora reversed her grip and followed with a crushing blow to Cardin's stomach from the left. She brought her hammer back again for an overhead swing, but Cardin's mace deflected the blow.
Cardin had been caught off guard at first, but he was still large, his aura was still (barely) in the green, and he was still wearing full armor plate over his entire torso. The boy recovered quickly, and then he rammed his fist into Nora's gut as her hammer slid down the haft of his mace. He followed with a sweeping kick, knocking Nora's legs out from under her. Nora fell to the floor with an arm outstretched, pulling a killer handstand before flipping back to her feet and darting right back into the fray with another swing of Magnhild.
The blow struck Cardin's vambrace with a clang. Cardin winced, but that didn't stop his mace from cracking into the side of Nora's head. She went sprawling, and this time, there was no elegant acrobatic save. She fell in a heap, and scrambled to her feet almost immediately, beaming from ear to ear. She shouted as she bounced on her feet. "Oh, I've been waiting for a good fight!"
Nora screamed and charged, leaping into the air to land a hammerblow on Cardin's skull, but was batted out of the air by his mace. She stuck a three point landing, leaving her in prime position for a lunge, and Nora obliged, throwing herself forward. This time, she used Magnhild as a battering ram, slamming the top of the weapon into Cardin's gut. The blow forced him backwards on the metal stage with a screech, but he retained his footing. Cardin smirked. He grabbed the long handle of Magnhild and whipped it down, slamming Nora into the metal floor. Immediately, he stomped down on her back and brought a two handed overhead strike down onto her skull. Nora's head snapped down into the plating with a sickening crack, and Goodwitch called the match with the blaring of a giant horn.
Cardin removed his boot from Nora's midsection, and she immediately sprang to her feet, almost falling over from the speed. "Eh heh. Not bad Cardin. I'll getcha next time." Nora hopped off the stage and ran back to her seat. Cardin turned to the class with a vicious grin, and then slowly followed suit.
Looking at the aura meters, Cardin was just above half, where Nora was left with just under a fifth. Not an effortless victory, but a pretty decisive one nonetheless.
"Congratulations Mr. Winchester. As for commentary, I will begin. Miss Valkyrie, you opened with a highly effective and quick series of strikes that put you in an advantageous position. However, you never stopped trying to uphold that same blistering speed and power. If you knock out an opponent early, your tactics are highly effective. However, the moment you run into someone, or something, that can match or exceed your brutality, your fighting style will not succeed. See me after school."
Goodwitch moved on to Cardin saying something about the kid letting himself get surprised and taking hits he didn't need to. Yang was more focused on Nora. They hadn't gotten a ton of chances to talk, but Yang found she liked the girl. She was friendly but highly competitive, always eager and bubbly. Even now Nora grinned. That worried Yang. Nora looked like Goodwitch's advice hadn't bothered her in the slightest.
The fights weren't all so one sided. Watching Jaune get steamrolled by Pyrrha was by far the worst offender, but there were some good battles mixed in. Blake and Ren faced off, and that fight came down to the wire, Blake eventually proving to be -barely- the better duelist. Blake almost looked upset with herself after the fight, despite having won.
Yang had fought once too, pushing in the face of some kid named Dove from Cardin's team. That beatdown was second only to Jaune's. Dove had barely managed to hit Yang, possibly because she'd pinned him seconds into the round and kept punching until it was over. Some other kids had fought too, but none Yang recognized. That's why she wasn't particularly worried when Goodwitch said that they'd have time for one more spar before the end of class.
She became far more concerned when she saw that it was to be a match between Ruby and Weiss.
The girls were solemn as they took up positions on the stage. Ruby held her scythe at a diagonal, for once deathly still. Weiss held her rapier down at her right side, and slowly raised it so that the tip pointed directly at Ruby's chest. Goodwitch gave the word.
Ruby zipped forward in a ball of petals and reappeared inches from Weiss, a scythe swing biting into Weiss' midsection. Ruby had gotten completely past her guard in the opening salvo. Ruby followed by whipping the blade up, catching Weiss in the elbow with the metal and causing her to drop Myrtenaster. Weiss gritted her teeth and jabbed her left palm into Ruby's face. Ruby darted backwards, but Weiss pursued, scooping up her rapier and lunging forward to strike.
Yang saw Weiss' rapier point jab over and over, at Ruby's eye, her stomach, hip. Ruby finally twirled her scythe, smacking the rapier off course, and then she followed by thrusting the bottom of Crescent Rose towards Weiss. Weiss saw and stepped back, but Ruby readjusted and landed a strike on the thigh. Weiss saw that Ruby's guard was now open, and kicked into Ruby's kneecap at the same time as she stabbed Ruby's shoulder with Myrtenaster.
Their auras were still almost even, and neither of them could gain a decisive advantage. Yang grimaced as she watched. This wasn't a simple Signal spar or friendly practice like she and Ruby had had back on Patch. Ruby and Weiss were both silent, moving with great speed, precision, and violence. Weiss held an angry grimace, and Ruby was smiling. It unnerved Yang. That smile held no warmth, joy, or kindness. It looked like the smile of a predator. A smile that cut. Seeing it on Ruby was just… wrong. Yang turned to Blake, and for once saw her worries mirrored. Blake's head twitched, and her fists were clenched.
Ruby shunted the head of Crescent Rose forward, rocking Weiss backwards with the makeshift ram. Weiss snarled and slashed with her rapier, tracing a sparkling red line across Ruby's aura. Weiss then lanced her blade under Crescent Rose's haft and flicked upward with all of her might. Crescent Rose went flying, and Weiss smiled smugly, only for Ruby to punch her in the nose. Ruby abandoned her weapon, kicking Weiss in the sternum and then following with a flurry of punches- nose, chest, jaw, forehead. Weiss thrust Myrtenaster blindly, and Ruby ripped it from her hands, tossing it to the floor. Then, Weiss let loose. Throwing her body back, she swung a leg up and slammed a high heel into Ruby's nostrils, sending the young girl staggering backwards.
Weiss advanced slowly, and Ruby collected herself and stared down the girl in white. Weiss stopped short of Ruby. The girls stood opposite one another once again, sweaty, tired, and disarmed, radiating anger and spite.
Weiss leapt forward first, throwing herself onto Ruby and toppling them both to the ground as she let out a ragged screech. Weiss put her hands together into one giant fist and slammed it onto Ruby's forehead once, twice, three times. Any sense of icy composure was annihilated, as Weiss boiled over and gave in to a savage brawl. Ruby was completely tensed and rigid as she grabbed at Weiss' throat and began to throttle her. Ruby brought up her other arm and attempted to rise from the floor. She couldn't stand, but she succeeded in destabilizing Weiss enough to flip her over, and Ruby rolled with Weiss on the stage. Now Ruby had her pinned, and the girl in red slammed her forehead into Weiss' as Weiss landed one last punch into Ruby's side.
A horn sounded.
Ruby reluctantly fell back off of Weiss, and then dragged herself to her feet. Weiss did the same. The aura meters put them both in the red. It was a draw. They stared each other in the eyes as Goodwitch spoke up. "Ladies… may I ask what that was about?"
There was a long silence. Ruby looked to Miss Goodwitch and held up her hand. "Could you give us a moment?" Goodwitch nodded, and Ruby turned back to Weiss. She took a few more deep, exhausted breaths, collecting herself to ensure she wasn't about to shake herself to pieces, before speaking up. "What the hell are we doing Weiss?"
Weiss made a sound like a cough. Then a… giggle? She started laughing. As the heat of battle subsided, a different warmth sprung up in her heart, and widened the pinprick in her icy defenses. Soon enough, Ruby joined in. Ruby waited for the laughs to recede back to giggles before continuing. "We're fighting like wild animals, rolling around on the floor and just beating each other to a pulp, and for what? Because you think I'm a bad leader and I don't like your attitude? I barely even know you! This is absurd. This is petty. This is childish. This is… stupid!"
Weiss actually howled at that, and covered her mouth, vainly attempting to muffle herself. They waited for their laughter to die down, and then Ruby held out a hand to Weiss. "Look, I'm really sorry for all of this. I think we should start all the way over. I'm Ruby."
Weiss shook her hand, then curtsied. "Weiss Schnee. For the record, I'd like to apologize too. Again."
"Well Weiss, teammates? For real this time?"
Weiss smiled. "Teammates. And yes. For real this time."
"Well then Weiss, prepare yourself. I'm gonna be the best teammate you've ever seen, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" Ruby punctuated the point by poking Weiss in the ribs.
"Not if I do it first." Weiss smirked, faking her offended tone.
"My goodness. Weiss, was that a joke? Not only that, it was a 'no, you' joke! Ooh, we'll make a teenager outta you yet."
The bell rang.
Yang was in shock, but she found herself smiling along as team RWBY exited the room, Goodwitch just shaking her head behind them. For the first time, Weiss and Ruby were getting along. The spell seemed to hold as they made their way to their next class, and even throughout the rest of the day.
In Survival the team sat together as they completed and then complained about the day 1 pretest. In PR, they got Weiss to promise them a crash course on the subject after reading the massive syllabus, and in Advanced Weapons Engineering, Weiss actually let Ruby examine Myrtenaster disassembled. Yang took Weiss aside afterwards and warned, half-jokingly, that if she let Ruby have too much alone time with the weapon, she'd be liable to wake up with her rapier sporting a missile launcher attachment.
Throughout it all, Weiss didn't slip into insults or orders. For the rest of the day, they were happy. Yang was happy. Even Blake failed to hide a smile. The girls of team RWBY slept well that night, Yang included. She finally felt confident that, come morning, the team would still be there. It might not be perfect, but they'd be a team. For now, that was more than enough.
/-/
Nora sighed as she flung open the door to Goodwitch's office. The woman waved a hand towards the chairs opposite her desk, and Nora leaned Magnhild against the wall, closed the door, and flopped into her seat, crossing her arms. The room was small and out of the way, in the main Beacon tower. It had a large window in the wall behind the desk, and little in the room other than the desk, chairs, and a bookshelf on either wall packed to the brim with texts.
The girl wasn't pleased that she'd had to make the trip instead of returning to her dorm. "What'd you need me for?" Goodwitch stared her down for a few seconds before responding. "Your fighting style in class today. It was highly aggressive, to the point of reckless."
Nora waved off the comment. "Yeah yeah yeah. That's what everybody says, and then I bulldoze an Ursa and everything's fine."
"That won't be enough in the field."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nora asked, glaring at Goodwitch with a pout.
Level and calm, Goodwitch continued. "I could go on about grades, but I have a feeling that they don't concern you very much. So I'll put it to you this way. If you don't change your fighting style, you're going to get someone killed on a real mission. Don't try to tell me that this was a one-time mistake. I saw the footage of your fight with the Nevermore in the Emerald Forest trial. You nearly threw yourself off a cliff."
"But I didn't. I broke its wing, and I ended up fine." Nora felt a prickling static building up inside her.
"You did. You also left your team down two fighters as you dangled over a sheer drop and Ren raced to save you. What if Jaune hadn't escaped the Nevermore's beak? What if Pyrrha got injured while you were out of action?"
Nora was starting to get upset now, annoyance trickling into her words as static started to spark. "But again, none of that happened. What-ifs are stupid. I'm not the only one who takes risks. Did you see what Yang and Ruby did to their Nevermore? It was freaking awesome, but it was pretty risky too."
Goodwitch sighed and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "I have my own issues with their methods, but they both had something resembling an exit strategy. Yang jumped back to safer ground before she could be caught and Ruby's semblance could have carried her back to her team. You didn't appear to have any backup plan, then or now. Today, you didn't even look like you had a plan at all."
"You fight with blind, blunt, overwhelming force. It can cripple a foe, but there is no nuance to your tactics. Against anyone who is not wiped out immediately, you put yourself at a deadly disadvantage. You cannot beat every foe into submission with raw aggression alone. There will come a day when you face a foe stronger than you, and if you're not careful, someone is paying the price."
Nora gripped the edge of the desk hard, forcing herself not to crush the wood between her fingers as her instincts begged her to unleash her aura, current surging throuhg her mind. "It's worked so far, hasn't it? I'm here. I'm alive. My 'style' got me through ten years of hell, and I'm still standing. Yeah, I admit, I enjoy the rush of battle, and sometimes I get in over my head. But I've always made it out, either through my own strength or help from R- my friends. I'm part of a team now, and we care about each other. They're not gonna let me fall."
Goodwitch paused before slowly responding. "They don't have to let you fall. They only need to be too slow, for you to fall too far, for it to end in tragedy. It's a lot easier to stay alive if you don't always rely on someone catching you. Exercising a little more caution-"
Nora shot up, her chair teetering back and falling to the floor. She started shouting, lightning burning hot in her mind. "Is caution gonna save me when a Goliath is breathing down my neck? When the- the Nuckelavee stampedes through the wall to come finish the job? When it comes down to the wire, you move and you charge and you fight or you die. There's no time for fancy plans. You trust the person beside you and keep swinging till something stops moving."
Nora grabbed Magnhild from the wall and stomped to the door, turning back to Goodwitch one last time. "This conversation is over." She vaguely heard something about scheduling an appointment, but it trailed off as Nora stormed out the door and back to her dorm.
She made it about halfway back before the crying started.
She found an empty hallway, slumped against the wall, and allowed herself to sob. Her overloading brain began to drain as salty tears. She remembered a dozen times where Ren had saved her from the brink, a dozen times she'd done the same for him. Tourniquets made out of vines, medicine from crushed berries and herbs, trying to sneak up on wildlife with nothing but a dagger given to Ren as the last gift from his father. The random corrupt huntsman they'd paid to unlock their auras. Their first Beowulf. The first time Nora learned what having a claw pierce your skin felt like.
Getting their outfits and weapons for the Beacon trials had cost every Lien they had saved up from ten years on the road. Ten years alone. Never staying in one place for long, just her and Ren trekking around the whole damn continent, eventually stowing away on a cargo ship to Vale on a whim.
Through all that time, Ren had barely opened up to her about anything. Once, coming back early from a hunt, she'd found him meditating, talking to himself in a clearing. "She's strong. She doesn't need me to help her." later, "Hearing my problems would only weigh her down."
Maybe he was right. Maybe she couldn't help with his issues. Maybe he couldn't help with hers. But Nora knew one thing for certain, no maybes, as the sparks in her mid finally sputtered out.
She would have very much fucking liked a chance to find out.
What do we think of our characterizations here, hmm? I'm curious to hear.