"What do you mean she's gone?"
"Blake calm down, Yang just texted Ruby. She says she's fine."
"I don't recall you acting like this when I took off Weiss…"
"You panicked and left without warning. Yang, surprisingly, is being responsible."
"But this is the tournament. What is with you Weiss? Doesn't this strike you as odd?"
Weiss failed to answer her Faunus teammate, and Blake's mouth fell open in shock as Weiss glanced down to fiddle around with her scroll for a moment. Still just an arm's reach away in front of the dark haired huntress, blatantly ignoring her.
"WEISS!"
The heiress had been doing this ever since she had won her first duel. Blake didn't understand it. She knew that despite acting like the semi-entitled rich girl that she was sometimes. Weiss never had her face snobbishly buried in her scroll all day.
Except for now.
And it was driving her crazy with Yang having disappeared into thin air. Weiss snapped her head up to try and stare down the taller girl, and her response didn't have an ounce of remorse or pity in it,
"Listen," She began, "I know you think this might be a problem but I don't see it. Yang is out, you're being too serious. And I have something very important to take care of at the moment. So…"
So Weiss spun on her heels and walked away from her teammate without another word.
A certain monkey Faunus who had been watching this exchange interjected. "Is that how your problem solving process normally…"
But Blake didn't hear him and Sun didn't finish. Blake moved away in the exact opposite direction Weiss had left in, quietly chewing over the recent developments in her head.
Sun had been standing off next to Ruby who was still staring at her scroll trying to pull meaning from Yang's terse messages. This wasn't the first time she had known her older sister to take off without warning. But to do so now made no sense what so ever.
After a quick glance to verify that neither of the other two were coming back. Sun looked down at the younger girl, and sank back against the outside stadium wall next to the edge of the little tribute garden someone had planted long ago which Ruby was now repurposing as a seat.
Ruby had summoned her monochromatic teammates outside the stadium to ask them if they really knew where Yang had disappeared to.
Evidently they did not.
The cobblestone sidewalks around the massive building were conspicuously clear of people at the moment. It was bright out, but the sun was slowly drifting behind a few patches of darker clouds. Sun didn't want to think about it but the weather appeared to be turning appropriately ominous, if Ruby's attitude was anything to go by.
"Do you think you're still going to compete?" Sun asked, sliding down to the ground next to the scarlet clad girl on the stacked red bricks of the flower bed that she was sitting crossed legged on flipping her scroll over and over in her hands.
"Yeah, of course." Ruby replied sadly in a quiet voice, "But I don't get it."
"Hey, my team does crap like this all the time." Sun told her, "Can't expect perfection all the time."
"I know… and besides that's Weiss's pet peeve, to be fair Sun. Most people just call you guys hooligans."
'That's a complement if I ever heard one."
Ruby managed to smile for a moment before leaning closer to the older boy "That's on a good day. And what I'm saying is this isn't normal."
Sun crossed his arms and tapped the fingers of his right hand against his chin for a moment thinking, "Weren't we just talking about how Blake ran off a while ago," He paused for a moment, "And it seems Weiss has just up and done the same deal, hell now Blake again too. You guys scatter at the drop of a hat."
"…Touche Mr. Wukong."
"I'm smarter then I look."
"On occasion."
Blake only made it around two corners back into the sparsely crowded stadium corridors before she came to a sudden conclusion.
The conclusion that she didn't have all of the facts, and that her sudden departure may have been slightly unwarranted. Blake realized her temper had gotten the better of her again, and she had left before even talking to Ruby about what Yang had said to the young leader. She ran her hands back over her hair, brushing the black bow and ears down for a moment trying to calm herself.
The last time she left on her own it almost ended in disaster. But her friends had stuck together and come to help her during her crisis last semester, the least she could do was to try and hold them together this time.
So Blake began retracing her steps, back outside to meet this problem head on.
Weiss had crossed a small pedestrian bridge which spanned over the river that ran through the center of the city. She moved quickly stepping around the tourists gawking like peasants at the sight of the stadium on one side of the river and the rest of the city to the south.
Light winds brought a chill to the air as she made it across the walkway. Only a slight part of her was worried about the weather taking a turn for the worse. Her mind was still on her scroll, clutching the cursed device and praying that it would stay silent for a while. She had no warning her day was going to come around to dealing with her family again.
She had enough of dodging her younger twin's ever polite invitations to come see her in the lavish VIP spectator boxes.
She kept trying to tell Winter that she was busy and couldn't come around. Telling her she had to train, was talking to others, and other fake schedule things that were only keeping Winter at bay for so long.
On any other day she would have at least made some sort of appearance. But the tournament was such an important event and she knew for a fact her father was probably with her younger sister waiting for his eldest little heiress. At least he had the decency to leave her be for now.
But Weiss didn't want to talk to him at the moment either. She had lied to Blake, she was very concerned about their blond teammate. But that was just one drop of rain in the storm she thought had been left in Atlas. And she was certain going to see her family would only make things worse for her.
It gave her a migraine trying to predict her father.
Some days in private he would be the caring, loving parent she remembered when her grandfather was still alive to take some of the burden of leading the company. Back in the days of ignorance before she learned a few things about the world.
But then she remembered all of the many, many, days of the complete opposite and her headache and heartache just got worse.
Weiss had nowhere particular she wanted to be at this moment in the universe so she took a seat on one of the many benches lining the fencing on the raised artificial river bank and watched the water flow slowly on its' way. Trying to think of any way to proceed.
"So how's Scarlet's arm?"
"Believe it or not, still broken."
Alicia nodded in sympathy and very slight embarrassment as she sensed in Sage's tone of voice while they both leaned against the railing on the walkway that ran a complete circuit around the inner stands.
"He'll be fine it was just a small fracture in his fore arm, plus Neptune is with him." Sage finished off. Tapping his fingertips together, keeping up the nervous habit that he had.
"Are you thinking of revenge or something?" Alicia asked,
Sage shook his head, "Not unless I get lucky in the tournament and fight that punk."
"Well, we're here for you guys."
"We're?"
Alicia sighed, flicking her braided brown and red pony tail back of the shoulder of her black leather jacket. "Just because Kad kicked you guys up one side of the training room and down the other doesn't mean,"
"Yeah, yeah," Sage stopped Alicia with a wave of his hand. "I know, you've sang his praises often enough. But I see only you and me here not this 'we' you speak of."
"They're around…" Alicia growled with a hint of uncertainty of that fact and anger at her teammates once again.
Sage couldn't help but start smiling "Around where?"
She quietly groaned, looking around the stands and down in the empty arena one more time.
Just sitting and watching all of the little tiny trainees in the distance down on the dueling floor taking turns beating each other up and then suffering through an overly long waiting period for the next victims to walk in was not sitting well with Kad to say the least.
And the girl Penny was just starting to get under his skin. He kept catching her looking at him out of the corners of her eyes and then going ramrod straight focusing back on the tournament when he noticed. His thoughts were halfway between thinking she was embarrassed or more likely afraid. Restless and slightly unnerved he picked up his sword and came to his feet.
With seeing Kad get up to leave, Pyrrha made her excuses as well and left to go be with Jaune for a while. And to round up Ren and Nora from were ever the redhead had dragged her stoic partner off to.
It didn't take Kad very long to find his two Faunus friends. Standing around thinking they were being cool by lurking in the shadows of another tunnel by some rest rooms and trash bins watching people walk by.
Kad approached and silently leaned up against the wall next to Jaxon and Co'Balt.
"So," he posed to them, "Are you two just anti-social, or deliberately trying to make people uncomfortable?"
"Take your pick." Jaxon replied, settling his yellow coat on his shoulders by pulling it down a bit with a hand on each side of the opening. Co'Balt didn't answer, his head made a dull thud as the back of his horns hit the bricks behind him.
"I hate waiting…" he complained miserably.
Jaxon swept his arm down and backhanded Co'Balt lightly in his stomach, the bull Faunus flinched and pushed his partner back. He stood and brought his fists up in a fighting stance. Jaxon stumbled aside trying to contain the guffaws spilling out of his mouth.
Kad grabbed Co'Balt's shoulder and stopped him from tearing into Jaxon.
"You should be happy," Kad told him, "This waiting means that someone thinks you're a badass."
"I suppose…" He muttered.
"Why they do however, is light years beyond me."
Co'Balt turned on him, wounded pride blatant across his face, "Fuckin what mate? I'll…"
Kad moved and before Co'Balt could blink he was in a headlock a foot off the ground as his leader stood to his full height. His horns pushing against Kad's burly forearm preventing him from suffocating.
"You're a funny guy, take a joke." Kad told him as he dropped the shorter Faunus and brushed a hand playfully across the top if his hard head. Co'Balt just groaned and waved his arms, his silent insult and brush off gesture. For once somewhat censoring his usual vocabulary in public.
"Anyway," Jaxon spoke up, walking away from the wall and looking up and down the now vacant hallway, "We get free food here right?"
"All this stuff," Sun said waving his arm back to the buffet selection, "And you take cookies?"
"What's your point?" Ruby mumbled through a mouthful of sugar and chocolate pastries.
"Never mind," he quietly said to himself scratching the back of his head with one hand while balancing a bowl of fruit in the other looking a table at the open air café. Here on the north side of the stadium everything was completely in shadows lowering the temperature of the air even further. But it was still bright enough out for Sun to take a quick look around evaluating the seating arrangements.
A second glance later Sun realized who the two people sitting at the only occupied table were. He still wasn't familiar with most people at Beacon, and he only put a name to Alicia after getting over the shocking sensation of actually seeing his friend Sage actually smile for once.
They were sitting close to each other facing the stadium, two half eaten sandwich platters in front of them with the rest of the city as a picturesque backdrop for this momentous occasion.
Sun quickly slid next to his teammate on the left side of the table to Alicia's and Sage's collective right. Then reached out and jabbed his friend right below his green hairline above an eye.
Sage swatted his arm away, "Bro, why?" he asked simply in a monotone.
Sun grinned, "Just looking for the edge of a mask. Something else seemed to be on your face aside from blankness like usual."
Ruby placed herself at the opposite end of the table. Actually slowing down and not inhaling her food in a few short seconds, giving her something to focus on while she spun her scroll around on the table waiting for any reply from her sister.
Sage turned in his seat slightly to look at his leader, "I'm a very expressive person,"
"You don't even laugh at my jokes." Sun replied,
"That's because they're never any good."
"I'm hilarious. Two guys walk into a bar."
"I've heard this."
"The third one ducks."
Alicia snorted with laughter and nearly slapped herself in the face leaning back trying to restrain herself. Sun held up and twitched his hands, hoping for more applause and grinning like a madman.
"Eh, Eh?"
"Remind me to start counting the days till you repeat another one." Sage said dryly, shaking his head.
"Well how about…"
Before Sun could delve into his repertoire of jokes again Alicia's two Faunus teammates came out of nowhere jumped over the small iron fence slid onto the two seats across from Sun. The two larger boys casting even more shadows across the table.
"What are the odds?" Jaxon asked leaning closer to Alicia, who was blinking away tears of laughter and meet his brown eyed stare.
Sage straightened his posture, reeling back in surprise at their sudden entrance, "Pardon?"
"Not you." Co'Balt told him,
Alicia composed herself and glared at her teammate. "What do you want?"
"Nothin,' Jaxon said with a smile, "We were just betting on where you really were."
"Right here," Alicia replied.
"Yeah of course," Co'Balt chimed in, "Always in the last place we look."
"Duh, why would you keep looking after you've found me?"
"Anyway," Co'Balt said with a yawn, his left arm resting on the table and his right absently rubbing the tip of that same horn. "You seen Kad? Somehow he got side… Never mind."
The giant in question emerged from the same stadium doors Ruby and Sun had just walked out of. He gently slid another bench over with his leg and sat down at the corner between Ruby and Sun, silently shaking his head at Co'Balt and Jaxon.
"There's side tracked and then there is taking another route." He told the bull Faunus waving the fingers of his right hand for emphasis having heard the whole conversation.
Kad slouched forward out of habit, continued after taking a quick glance at all the others present. "And besides I ran into a certain lost someone." He said pointing to his right at Blake previously unseen behind Kad's bulk, now taking a seat next to her leader on the bench.
The giant rubbed his hands together looking between his team and their companions of the moment, "So… how's things?" He asked them all.
As the others began talking about their various experiences so far in the tournament, Blake moved closer to Ruby so she could speak to her in relative privacy.
"Ruby?" Blake began quietly, "Can you tell me exactly what Yang has told you so far."
Ruby simply pushed her scroll over to her cat-eared friend, at the same time taking another bite out of the half eaten cookie in her other hand.
Blake flipped through the message thread on the screen. Yang had messaged Ruby first, the back and forth didn't tell her anything new. Blake knew her blond partner had lost her first match and that her partner was made of some stern stuff. A little disappointment and embarrassment wouldn't send her to the hills. Maybe she wanted some time alone but that theory just didn't sit right in Blake's head. Yang would have stuck around to encourage her sister and teammates.
So the Faunus girl pushed the scroll back over to Ruby, and leaned forward her elbows on the table and both hands under her chin. Her eyes darting back and forth between the others talking.
Sage spoke up, "Anyone know what they're up to next?"
"It's another minor elimination round," Blake answered him before her slight shyness made her regret drawing their attention. She should have expected everyone to turn to her when she spoke up. Neatly avoiding their gazes looking down at the picnic table.
Kad reached into a pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out his own scroll and quickly navigated through information screens. To Blake the scroll looked almost comically small in his right hand. He found the next tournament listings and dropped them into the center of the table for everyone to see.
All the others leaned forward but Sun struck out and took the scroll to read it. Muttering while he looked at the names.
"Nobody, nobody, that guy, shmuck… Hey Blake, you've got a match."
She blinked in surprise. "Really?"
"Yeah it's with Ren, weird I thought…"
Sun never got to finish his idea, Sage reached over and pulled the scroll away from his team leader.
"Whatever, moving on… Hey what do yah know? Battle of the giants, Kad and that Yatsuhashi guy."
"Sweet." Co'Balt grinned and punched his right fist into the opposite palm. "Exciting end to the day."
"And whichever one of us wins will be kicking your ass probably at some point." Kad told him.
"Probably you predictably, what challenge is a third year compared to a Goliath, eh?"
Kad slapped his left hand down on the table making everyone jump, and balling his fingers into a fist. "I knew it was you."
Co'Balt waved his hands, knowing what had raised up his leader's hackles, "Pffhh, I'm helping."
Alicia snapped her fingers a few times drawing all eyes to her and stopping Kad and Co'Balt from going any further with this exchange. "You two can be bitches later,"
She bent her right arm back and took the scroll away from Sage and looked at the times,
"We've got a schedule to keep…"
Yang took a few shaky steps forward, hands clutching her stomach hoping she would not puke her guts out after whatever the hell Raven had just done to her.
"Sorry Yang," Raven said gently, placing a hand on Yang's shoulder trying to steady the other girl.
"It's hard for other people to travel with me like this using my semblance," But that was all of the pity she was going to give Yang at the moment. "But since you insisted coming back here it saves time."
The blond stood up looking around the courtyard outside of the student dorms. It was shocking seeing Beacon so deserted, with everyone being down in town for the tournament.
"Its fine," Yang lied starting to walk toward the dorm building, stepping between a row of bushes and onto the path that led to the entrance. Before she entered the dorms she turned around and called back to Raven,
"Just don't get seen alright."
Up in her room Yang quickly changed into one of her alternative outfits, the same one she had worn when she and her team had been out on the town a few weeks before the breach of a low cut black shirt, cream vest, raised collar grey shrug, a clean miniskirt, thigh high stockings and another pair of high heeled black shoes.
As she was fixing one of the belt buckles across her waist Yang had a thought and started looked around for anything she could write on to tell her sister where she was really going. She quickly found a scrap of loose leaf and scribbled down a sincere apology and a quick explanation then left the note on Ruby's bed, then grabbed her emergency satchel bag of ammunition and other key things and climbed onto the window ledge.
Raven had disappeared from the lawn the two of them had appeared on. Yang almost snarled in frustration looking for likely hiding spots before climbing down ledge to ledge until she was at the base of the tree that ran up this side of the building.
The young Huntress slowly walked out of the shadows, looking for Raven and making her way over to the shallow pool fountain and carved archways that decorated the main courtyard near the front of the school. The same location in her dreams with Raven.
She immediately regretted her route,
Professor Goodwitch and Doctor Oobleck both entered the fountain area at the same time Yang did. The two colleagues slowly walked up to Yang who was trying not to look panicky moving her head looking for Raven.
"Afternoon Ms. Xiao Long," Dr. Oobleck said, nodding cheerfully as he walked by, "I'm sorry for your dreadful stroke of luck my dear, never fear. Any standing in the tournament is not considered in any professional manner."
"Yeah thanks Doc," Yang said brushing her hair and attempting to walk by them.
Goodwitch sensed something amiss and stepped in front of Yang,
"Is something troubling you?" Goodwitch asked, Yang looked down quickly, thinking of a response that wouldn't raise any eyebrows.
"I guess my bad luck, I was hoping I could have lasted a bit longer." Yang replied with a shrug.
Goodwitch nodded seemingly in understanding, "Very well, not to be callous but I'm sure you can sort yourself out. Are you going to be returning to town? I'm sure your teammates will be missing you."
"Yeah I'm on my way," Yang told her with a forced smile.
"I'm sure," Her teacher replied with a sly grin. "If you can get back here without a scheduled airship getting back to town should be no problem at all."
Yang nodded swallowing briefly to quell the sudden surge of anxiety that had just swept through her stomach. Then finally slipped away from her two teachers. She mentally tuned out Doctor Oobleck trying to tell his co-worker about some other little theory that had come to his mind because of their little meeting with Yang.
She stepped through the archway the two of them had come through, angry and anxious to find Raven. The moment she stepped under the carved pillars and stone blocks Yang felt a hand fall on her right shoulder. Knowing it could only be one person she rounded on Raven.
"What the hell?" Yang hissed quietly. "I told you to keep out of sight not dash away too..."
Raven wasn't having any of this attitude, after nearly being seen, without a word she squeezed Yang's shoulder focused and pulled both of them away into a portal.