Chapter 6: Adversity Strikes Hard
Ace Crucible Match: No Pity by Fabvl
Sky vs Ace: Rise by Peyton Perish
Weiss vs Ace: Solo by JT Music
-Beacon's hidden beach-
A lot of people paid attention to a lot of things about Beacon. The people that graduated from it, the curriculum, the scenery it boasted, and so on. These were some of the things that made Beacon great.
The one thing nobody paid attention to, however, was the hidden beach located inside of a cave.
It had been two weeks since Sky and Yang had hooked up for real, and only two days ago did they discover this beach. It surprised them that it was even here to begin with, and they had wondered why they heard nothing about it.
They didn't complain, though, especially since it looked like literally nobody else came here. That meant they had a private beach all to themselves.
Right now, they didn't even hesitate to start screwing each other's brains out on the sand.
"Oh fuck yes!—Do it! Do it!—Do it Sky, breed me!" The blonde moaned, almost screaming as the knight snarled as he rutted her like a beast during mating season.
"You want it so badly?! Here you go!" Sky growled before he finished up in his lover.
Then the two fell onto the sand in a sweaty heap, the sound of waves washing against the shoreline being the only other sound besides their breathing.
"… Ya know, Raven also has a breeding kink." Sky mused as he held his girlfriend close to him.
"Did she now?" Yang hummed as she rested her head on her boyfriend's chest. "Think that's part of why she sleeps around?" She wondered.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was." He mused. "Actually… A lot of my girlfriends have had a breeding kink." He hummed.
"So Melanie and Militia were the same way? Weird." Yang blinked. "I thought it was a family thing." She mused.
"I think it's just me having a type." Sky admitted. "I like girls who like having a lot of kids." He shrugged.
"That makes me wonder why mom didn't stick around with dad." The blonde hummed, nuzzling her head into the crook of Sky's neck.
"She probably wanted more than Tai could give or thought he was too soft. I'm not too sure since I never asked." The Knight shrugged, squeezing his girlfriend's ass. "But you don't have to worry. I'm never letting you go, ever." He told her.
"I love it when you show how serious you are about staying with me." The buxom brawler cooed as she moved to lay on top of him, enjoying the feeling of his chitin armor pressing against her body.
Then she started making out with him again.
Sky snarled as he kissed her back, and he could feel ribbons of his chitin slowly coming off his body and actually started wrapping around Yang's neck—forming a chitin collar around the blonde's neck—which locked itself with a Hive rune charm in a flash of soul fire.
This was essentially a mate mark, this one was meant to tell anyone and everyone looking for a mate to fuck off.
Yang effectively belonged to Sky for all eternity now.
(Elsewhere)
In a Crucible map somewhere in Emerald Forest, Ace was in the middle of a Crucible match. This was one of the rare occasions where he was on the losing side, and it was pissing him off.
"Of all the days to choose Elimination over Rumble!" The boy snarled as he reloaded his pistol and peaked out from behind his cover and scanned the field for anyone—and saw a Warlock dressed in street garb styled armor and wielding a shotgun.
The guardian was attempting to do a gliding drive by with their shotgun—Only for Ace to take said Warlock out with a headshot and then reload, allowing Ace to vault over the cover he was behind—and then proceeded to shoot two Hunters with super charged shots, staggering them, before shooting the first in the head and then taking the other out with a melee strike, going into a dodge behind more cover—and then tossing a tripwire grenade in the path ahead of him.
One of the Hunters Ace shot at decided to follow him, and missed the Tripmine Ace left behind. The resulting blast didn't kill him, but it did leave him weak enough for Ace to finish him off with a headshot.
"One down!" Lord Shaxx exclaimed.
Reloading again, Ace waited until a duo of titans started charging at him.
Hip fire began as he fanned his gun's trigger, hitting them with all of his charged shots—stumbling the first Titan enough for him to kill him with a knife to the skull—and then the second one attempted to get him with a Fist of Havoc…
But the Gunslinger saw it coming.
Raising his canon up, he summoned his golden gun, and pointed it at the descending Titan that was flying towards him.
Then he pulled the trigger, erasing the Titan's body from the world for the moment.
"SEVENTH COLUMN!" Shaxx boomed as the teen reloaded his gun again.
The teen glanced at the score and saw that he was able to get the whole enemy team for the round, but the final score was still in their favor.
"Damn, I have work to do…" He groaned as everyone got ready for the next round.
(Timeskip)
It was a few days later and Team RWBY was now completing the last day of their community service—which they were elated about—but all of them unanimously lamented that two weeks of service for one screw up was too harsh.
Thankfully, Ruby was able to come up with a way to make the whole ordeal doable a few days into their punishment. She would use her semblance to sweep up garbage in the vacuum and then bring it toward the others, who held their trash cans in position to catch it all.
The only one not helping was Weiss, who found that picking up trash was below her station.
"Weiss, just shut up and help. No one in Beacon cares about your station—that's probably why Ozpin didn't accept your bribe—and this would be going quicker if you used a binding glyph to at least help Blake." Ruby barked, putting on her leader hat. "So why don't you suck up your pride and help!" She hissed.
"Don't order me around, you dolt!" Weiss snapped stubbornly.
"She's your leader, Schnee! She has full authority over you, so do what she says!" Coco barked from the side.
"Shut your mouth!" The heiress barked.
Velvet, seeing the clear conflict that was on the verge of erupting, decided to try and defuse things.
"Why don't you help some of those other workers take down those stands from the festival? It's at least cleaner." She suggested.
Weiss grumbled but decided to do so, and the workers seemed rather excited about having her around. There were a few less than endearing remarks about faunus that made Velvet flinch, though.
Blake snarled at the remarks but the rabbit Faunus shook her head, telling her that it wasn't worth it… At least until Coco started stomping over towards the workers and proceeded to chew them out.
"Well, at least we know Velvet has a good leader." Yang remarked.
"True enough, I guess." The ravenette sighed in agreement.
"What was that about, anyway?" Yang questioned.
"Hearing all those racial slurs tends to get under my skin." The amber eyed girl replied. "Like Ace I… Grew up around the Faunus. So I sympathize with them a lot." She added.
"I get that." The blonde nodded. "My dad made sure to raise me and Ruby to treat faunus as equals, so I can understand that." She added.
As they were talking, another rush courtesy of Ruby—clearing up the rest of the remaining trash—only to realize that a human arm was sticking out of the can.
Horrified, the girls scrambled to get the person out, only to be greeted by the face of a cheery looking ginger girl.
"Sal-u-tations!" The girl smiled.
"Uh, are you okay?" Ruby asked in concern.
"I am." The new face replied.
"Then you should probably get up." Yang advised.
There was a beat before the new girl got back to her feet.
"Hello! I'm Penny Polindina, I'm visiting from Atlas." The ginger smiled. "I was curious about why this area was quartered off so I went to investigate—only to be swept up in an odd localized weather event that made me end up here." She explained, making Ruby shrink in embarrassment.
"Um… That was actually me using my semblance to sweep up trash." The red cloaked girl uttered.
"Oh, what a novel way to complete a task!" Penny beamed.
"I'm Ruby, this is Blake, and my sister Yang." Ruby explained.
"A pleasure to meet you all!" The ginger chirped.
It was around this time that Weiss had arrived, brushing off some sheet rock dust after some scaffolding collapsed, mumbling all the while about the incompetence of the workers.
Though her mood thankfully changed when she saw Penny, allowing further introductions to be made.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, Team SSSN was busy trying to figure out what to do since they didn't have much else planned for the day, when Ace—having come from his Crucible match—held up a bag of Lien.
"Hey guys, I just had a great idea." He told his team.
"We're listening." The monkey faunus said as Sky gestured for his second in command to speak.
"I just got a massive payday at the crucible today, so how about we go to this really good Pizza Place and Brewery I know about?" The gunslinger offered. "It's got great pizza, great beer, cocktails if that's your thing, and the prices are pretty reasonable." He continued. "Which means we can stuff our faces with delicious pizza and get absolutely wasted on great beer at the same damn time!" He added.
"Now you're talkin'!" Neptune grinned.
"Damn straight! Booze and pizza? That's the good shit!" Sky smirked.
"I'm in! Let's go!" Sun cheered.
"Hell yeah!" Ace whooped as they ran out of their dorm.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, back with Team RWBY, Penny was proving to be an excellent help—doubling their cleaning efforts and even holding two bins at the same time.
But in her enthusiasm—she accidentally dropped a bin and covered Weiss in trash.
"... Oops…" The ginger uttered as Weiss shook in anger.
"You… You absolute clutz!" Weiss barked, livid.
"Hey, don't go snapping at her! That was a complete accident!" Ruby snapped back in Penny's defense.
"It's okay, friend Ruby. I would be upset if I were in this situation." Penny told her, which made Weiss cool off somewhat—at least towards Penny.
But, still feeling livid, decided to leave to get cleaned.
"Alright, girls. I think we're done today." Velvet smiled as she looked at her scroll.
"Alright, girls, let's go." Ruby smiled as they left—until they reached a ransacked Dust Shop.
Everyone was shocked by how wrecked the place was, and decided to eavesdrop on the cops to get some answers.
"Hey, check it out. They left all the money again. All the Dust is gone." One of them noted.
"What do you think, the White Fang?" His partner questioned.
"Ehh, I dunno. With Torchwick still lurking around? I wouldn't put your eggs in the most obvious basket." The man stated.
"Roman… That's the same guy me, Neptune and Sky fought before we got into Beacon." Ruby said to the others as they walked away from the scene.
"Think he's working with the White Fang?" Yang questioned.
"I doubt it, they don't ally with humans. Ever." Blake stated.
"Then what's going on?" Coco wondered.
"That's what we're gonna have to find out." Ruby replied.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, back with Team SSSN, the guys were enjoying themselves while stuffing their faces with pizza after pizza and pint after pint of house made beer at the spot Ace directed them to, that being the Utility Brewing Company.
"Oh man, now this is the good shit!" Sky sighed in bliss as he downed some booze.
"What I tell ya? Best beer in town!" Ace nodded, downing the rest of another sour ale.
That was when their pizzas arrived, one being a classic pepperoni, a second being a spicy artichoke pizza, a honey pizza (honey, tomato sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella, and pineapple), and then a Mediterranean pizza.
Each of these were to share, but were ordered by Sky, Ace, Sun and Neptune respectively. They wanted to trade slices to see how different they were in taste.
"Ace, I take back literally everything I said about you. You're actually not bad." Sky said as he tried some Artichoke pizza. "Wow, that's spicy." He uttered.
"Hey, for what it's worth, captain. I'm sorry for pushing your buttons." Ace replied. "I'm just trying to help you not be so cagey about everything. I mean come on, that's what us second in commands are for." He added as he took a slice of pepperoni. "Ah, nothing wrong with a classic." He smiled, biting into it.
"Well like I said, trust is what nearly killed me, but I get it." The Knight shrugged, trying a slice of honey pizza. "Whoa. I didn't know a pizza could taste so sweet." He blinked.
"Well it does have honey and pineapple on it, even if it's also with Pepperoni." Sun shrugged.
"Mediterranean pizzas have a certain zest to them, though." Neptune commented. "Though I guess that's just cuz I grew up in that kind of family." He shrugged.
"That would do it." Sun mused as he bit into an artichoke pizza slice. "Artichoke pizzas are basically an everyday thing in Vacuo." He added with a shrug.
"Really now?" Ace chuckled as he ate a slice of the Mediterranean pizza, right as more came out. "Ah, the Big Bad Wolf Brisket and Pulled Pork pizzas." He smiled. "And the Pickle Pizza." He added.
"Hey, think we should bring some samples for the girls on Team RWBY?" Sky proposed.
"That we can, cap'n." Ace nodded with a grin. "Hey Rouge! I'll take one of each of our orders and beer samplers to go!" He called to a red haired fox Faunus with red furred tails—specifically nine—which were the result of a genetic mutation.
"On it!" The fox woman chirped as she set about getting their orders in some to-go boxes and beer samplers.
"Beer and Pizza, if this doesn't help those girls bond, I don't know what will." Sun stated.
"If princess isn't open to this, then I'll figure something out." Ace hummed.
"I'm sure you will." Sky smiled.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile back with the girls, they were getting changed for the night and as soon as Yang took off the orange handkerchief she usually wore around her neck—everyone immediately noticed that she had a chitinous collar around her throat.
"Yang… Why do you have a very Hive looking collar on your neck?" Ruby asked with a blink.
"I feel like I should be concerned about that." Blake commented as she studied the collar.
"It honestly looks ugly to me." Weiss huffed.
"Sky put it on me." Yang replied. "I think it's his way of marking his territory." She mused with a hum as she stroked the collar lovingly.
"Wait, where did he get a Hive collar from?" The bookworm of the team questioned.
"He made it, with his own Chitin." The blonde replied, shocking everyone. "He's part Hive." She explained.
"Wha–?! Since when?!" Ruby squeaked.
"Eleven years ago when his family's old governess sold his family out to a serial killing scorpion faunus." The blonde replied darkly, causing the others to take a step back.
"You mean to tell me, that Ozpin let a half Hive into this school?!" Weiss hissed.
"He's not exactly the mindless killing machine that we know the Hive to be, Weiss." Blake pointed out. "Plus, it was likely either a transformation or dying. Doesn't really seem like he had a choice." She added.
"Yeah. Plus, he hasn't really done anything destructive on a large scale like the Hive do, either. We don't have anything to worry about." Ruby chimed in.
Weiss wanted to argue but decided to drop it since she seemed to be the odd one out, and simply decided on letting a knock on the door change the subject for her.
"Who is it?" Ruby called.
"The boys of Team SSSN here to make a food delivery!" Neptune's voice replied.
"Seriously? Come on in!" Yang called as the guys came in.
"Pizza time!" Sun exclaimed.
"And you girls expect the best, so we give the best!" Ace added, setting the beer samplers down. "Here's the beer!" He told them.
"Where'd you guys get this from?" Blake wondered, opening a box and looking at the Mediterranean and a Margarita pizza.
"A pizza place Ace took us to. It's also a brewery." Sky replied.
"… I don't drink." Weiss stated, causing everyone to look at her.
"Oh, right." Ace nodded. "It's cuz her mom's a serious alcoholic. Let's not push it." He whispered.
"… Who are you and what have you done with Ace?" Neptune questioned.
"Hey, believe it or not, I'm no stranger to tact." The Hunter barked.
"When you want to, maybe." Sundance snarked, floating next to him.
"What kind of pizza did you get us?" Ruby asked as she opened up the pepperoni and artichoke box. "Nevermind. I can see which ones." She amended with a giggle.
"Barbecue pizzas? Hello!" Yang smiled.
"I'll just take a margarita pizza slice." Blake shrugged.
"I can't recall the last time I had anything spicy…" Weiss hummed as she picked up an artichoke slice.
"Huh, I didn't think you liked "peasant food", Weiss." Sky chuckled with a chuckle.
"Shush! Don't start!" The heiress huffed as she took a bite. "Ah, that's good spice." She sighed in rare content.
"Ya know, you girls are pretty good together when you aren't at each other's throats." Ace pointed out. "Just putting that out there." He added.
"A little common ground can do people favors." Neptune commented. "It's showing right now." He added.
This caused everyone to turn to Weiss, who was mid bite through another slice of pizza—specifically a pepperoni slice.
The heiress seemed to look put on the spot, before huffing as she turned away, taking a bite out of her pizza in the process.
"I see your point." Sky smirked.
"But some people take way too long to accept it." His guardian friend muttered.
(Timeskip)
A few days later, the RBY of RWBY was on their way to combat class, although Weiss had gone ahead for reasons they didn't know.
"Hey, thanks for the pointers you gave me for tuning Gambol Shroud, Ruby. It really helped me with increasing its muzzle velocity." Blake smiled with a good bit of gratitude.
"Weapons are one of my specialties, so it was simple." Ruby boasted slightly with a smile.
"It really is." Yang chuckled. "But for real, thanks for saving my bacon on the Grimm Studies test." She added, wrapping an arm around her little sister's shoulder.
"Well after that happened in initiation I thought we'd need to study this more. Not to mention that studying was kind of the only thing that I could do to stay awake during Port's lectures." Her sister nodded.
It would seem that in the time between the Dust lab incident and their two weeks of community service, Ruby's bearing as a leader, friend and student had increased dramatically.
Though the mood went away when they reached the sparring arena, where they found Weiss heatedly arguing with Glynda.
"You can't be serious! There has to be some sort of process to change teams or reassign leadership!" The heiress exclaimed in protest.
"Miss Schnee, not only would I not be able to do that because the academy policy is that transfers are only permitted if one member cannot complete the year. I also would not do it because I respect Ozpin's decision and believe that you simply need to accept it." The blonde responded, rebuffing the insubordinate heiress.
This made Weiss pull off to the side as she heard the first part—and soon began to scheme, unaware that her team and Team SSSN had just entered the room as she acted like an absolute goblin.
"And you decided that she's your ideal woman… why?" Sky questioned in a weirded out tone as he could just barely hear Weiss scheming to take out Ruby by: A. Making her fall down a flight of stairs and break her neck, B. Have a severe allergic reaction, or C. Be thrown in prison for grand larceny.
"She'll be better once I've kicked that scheming habit of hers out of her head." The gunslinger told him assuringly.
"And her other problematic qualities?" Blake questioned.
"Again. Nothing a good ass kicking won't get rid of." The gunslinger shrugged.
It was at this point that Glynda pulled Weiss out of her thoughts.
"Miss Schnee, are you okay?" The woman questioned in a confused tone at her demeanor.
Weiss coughed before nodding.
"I'm fine. I just can't believe that a school as refined as Beacon doesn't have such a simple process." She replied.
"All the same, issues like this are better sorted out internally with the rest of your team." The blonde woman stated, pointing to where Ruby, Blake, Yang and Team SSSN were listening.
Ruby in particular actually looked hurt by Weiss' belligerency and adamant desire to change how their team was or change teams altogether, and Ace didn't look too happy with her attitude.
Weiss didn't say anything, only coughing and trying to save face… Which fails horribly.
This led to there being a very sour mood as they went into class, which happened to be partner sparring.
Glynda, realizing that setting up the matches between Team RWBY would be a bad idea at least this early, decided to allow them to cool off by calling a different pair first.
"Mr. Scarlet and Mr. Obsidian, you'll be our first match today." The woman said, getting the attention of the two.
"Alright, I'm game." Ace shrugged as he and his leader stood up. "No hard feelings when I kick your ass, cap'n." He told him with a smirk.
"Right back at you." The Knight smirked.
"If Sky's part Hive, that means that he's also paracausal like Ace." Blake muttered.
"Para-what?" Ruby questioned, voicing the confusion of the others.
"It means both of them will have powers that defy reality and bend the rules of the universe, basically." Blake summed up, getting a chorus of "oh"s from the others.
A few minutes later, Sky popped his neck as he stood across from his second in command, who was twirling his hand cannon. The Knight himself was brandishing his blade and boomer.
"Sure would be nice if we had more room to move around." Ace sighed as he rolled his shoulders. This got a chuckle from his leader. "What's so funny?" He questioned.
"Just thinking back to my good old days. I fought with space like this a lot." Sky replied, rolling his shoulders.
"Oh really?" The gunslinger smirked.
"Yep." The Knight smirked back. "Here. Let me show you what that feels like." He added before he opened fire with Bolt.
Acting quick, Ace used his dodge Hunter class ability to leap out of the way of the attack and tuck roll to the other side of the arena, hand cannon at the ready, before beginning to fan fire the hammer.
Sky immediately used his semblance, sending the shots right back at him.
"Full Counter!" He exclaimed as the bullets were sent back with double the impact, prompting Ace to do a rolling backflip to avoid them and the resulting explosions—before he tossed a scatter grenade at Sky in retaliation that the knight blocked with his sword, thinking it was a regular incendiary grenade.
Imagine his indignation when the grenade split apart and pelted him, taking a small chunk of his aura.
In addition to doing this, it also distracted Sky long enough for Ace to leap over him and then throw his knife at the knight, prompting him to deflect it, but doing so in a way that inadvertently allowed the Hunter to grab said knife in a reverse grip and rush him.
Dropping Bolt for now, Sky gripped Willbreaker with both hands and met Ace in a blade clash. The two grinned as they looked into each other's eyes.
"Not bad cap'n. You're actually keeping up." The gunslinger remarked.
"Funny, I was just about to say the same thing about you." The Knight countered before his second in command suddenly jumped and double kicked him several feet, forcing him to roll.
"Whoops, I feel sorry for you right about now, captain." The guardian grinned.
"Why's that?" Sky questioned, still gripping his sword.
"Because you just activated my trap card." Ace smirked with a snap of his fingers.
"Oh boy!" Sky yelped before he looked down… and saw a ring of crystalline glowing cards surrounding him before…
BOOM!
That happened. Explosions of every elemental Dust type in Ace's deck went off in a circle around the boy, prompting him to block the majority of the impact with his sword—but for him to also be separated from his weapon as he was sent flying.
"Oof!" The Mistralian boy grunted as he landed on the ground with less aura than before. "Dick move, Scarlet!" He barked.
"Oh come on! You know damn well that we Hunter's always say: if you're not cheating you're not trying!" The Guardian retorted as he went into a Super and hurled several knives at Sky, which he blocked with a Knight barrier—before he grabbed one of the knives right as Ace called on the Golden Gun.
Then Ace pulled the trigger, prompting Sky to swing his knife at the shot and…
"Full Counter!" Sky barked, returning the shot to sender.
"HOLY SHIT!" The boy exclaimed as he dodged out of the way of the attack with his class ability. "YEET!" He yelped as he tumbled to the ground, accidentally losing his gun in the process.
The Knight then threw his acquired knife on the ground, not even reacting as it exploded a moment later.
"Alright…." Ace sighed as he got back off the ground, wiping the blood from his mouth. "Looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way." He added, cracking his knuckles.
"Yeah we are." Sky smirked, flexing his fingers to stretch them.
The two then started running at each other, Sky sending a solid haymaker to Ace's right cheek, causing him to skid back.
"You son of a bitch. You knocked out one of my teeth." The Hunter growled as his hood obscured the tilted side of his head—before he turned around and showed that he activated his helmet just in time. "Kidding!" He grinned, retracting it.
Then he grabbed his leader and tried to slam him onto the ground head first, but Sky did a handstand and grabbed the gunslinger with his legs before slamming his second in command on the ground… Head first. His helmet didn't even have a chance to activate in time, leaving him dazed for a moment before Sundance healed him.
Ace then took this opportunity and grabbed Sky by the collar and punted him into the air.
"Let's do this!" The gunslinger yelled as he leapt into the air, using his hunter leap and light to allow him to punch the knight at blinding speeds.
"That's nothing!" Sky shouted as he broke his lancer's combo and punched him to the ground, causing a large crack to form and extend all the way into the stands.
The audience sitting in its path immediately vacated the area in surprise.
"What the—?!" Russel exclaimed.
"Is that Ace guy dead?!" Dove questioned, right before Sundance rezzed her partner.
Slowly rising into a sitting position, his expression completely unamused—he then got up, and then he and Sky blurred and the two of them engaged in a speedy fist fight that would make any brawler jealous at not being able to take part in it.
"… That should be me in that exchange." Yang pouted enviously.
Sky then delivered a sudden body blow to Ace's side, causing him to bend sideways and crack a few ribs—causing the hunter to cough up blood. Then he uppercutted him and sent him flying before crashing to the ground.
Suddenly, the human-Hive hybrid gasped as his sense of balance was thrown off, causing him to fall to his hands and knees while Ace sat up, smirking, his hand grasping.
"Oh, you jerk, you've done it now." Sky chuckled.
"What did Ace just do?" Ruby questioned.
"I think he just stole his sense of balance and awareness." Weiss replied, analyzing what was happening as best she could.
"How'd he do that?" Yang questioned.
"It's his semblance, Snatch. It lets him take whatever he wants, be it a physical item or someone's senses or attributes, such as speed or strength." The heiress explained.
"I won't lie, that sounds overpowered." Blake admitted.
"So is Sky's Full Counter." Yang pointed out.
"And up we go!" Ace grinned as he and Sky rushed each other, only for him to snatch Sky's speed and appear behind him, grasping his hand while avoiding a punch, before he nailed the knight in the top of the head with a punch. "I'm floating like a butterfly now!" He boasted with a smile, jogging in place… Right before Sky nailed him, in the face with an elbow strike.
Ace was able to retaliate before his leader punched at the same time as him—breaking his hand and then grabbing his arm.
"That all you got?!" Sky yelled as he started slamming his second in command on the ground like a ragdoll.
"Whoa!" Team RWBY gasped in surprise.
"Sky just turned the tables! He's beating Ace like a rug!" Jaune exclaimed.
Then, mid-swing, Sky's strength was sapped for a moment, but he quickly recovered and let Ace go—before they ran at each other and clashed fists with each other… and the Knight's own powered through the gunslingers, breaking a finger, and burying itself in his gut. This made Ace's eyes bulge out of their sockets since that actually hurt.
The gunslinger skid to a halt at the end of the arena, both their aura's in the orange now—before they rushed at each other again.
"Whoa, they're evenly matched!" Nora gasped.
"I actually thought Sky would lose by now!" Weiss admitted, surprised at this turn of events. "I guess I underestimated him." She mused.
Then Sky started slapping Ace across the face several times—but seemed to get weaker and weaker with every blow—but when he went to punch the Hunter in the face one more time… But it only felt like a tap, since his strength got sapped fully, causing him to fall to the ground.
Ace grinned as his body bulged and bulked up in response.
"That was delicious, Captain." He chuckled darkly.
"Big words for someone on the losing end of things." Sky chuckled weakly before Ace slammed a fist down on him, causing a dust cloud to form.
But in the dust cloud, Sky grabbed Ace by the wrist, broke his wrist, and then gave him a light tap as his chitin overtook his body, and then sent Ace flying limply like a rag doll in a tornado.
"SKY!" Yang yelled in worry for her boyfriend.
"Chill out, Yang. I'm fine." Sky chuckled, back to normal before the dust settled.
"Um, where's Ace?" Weiss wondered as she looked around.
"Oh, he's right over there." The Knight replied, pointing in a direction.
Everyone looked and saw a hole in the wall. Just beyond it, Ace was slammed against the wall of an adjacent building with multiple holes in his body, twitching.
"… and the winner is Mr. Obsidian." Glynda nodded, unable to really say anything else as Sundance rezzed her guardian.
"Ugh… What's the number of the mountain that slapped me…?" He uttered in a daze.
"Our team leader." Sun told him, causing the Hunter to facepalm.
"Damn it, I forgot about that ace the captain has up his sleeve." He groaned as he sat up.
"Yeah, you kinda screwed yourself there, buddy." Sundance chuckled.
(Later)
As Ace was plopped down to let himself recover on account of his semblance making his body feel heavy after overusing it—Glynda decided to call up Ruby and Weiss, which got a very poor reaction from the heiress.
"You can't be serious! You expect me to fight a dolt that's unworthy of her own talent?!" The whitette protested, much to Ruby's indignation.
"Excuse you?!" Ruby barked. "Have you forgotten what I did back in Emerald Forest?! I knew that you thought little of me as a leader, but as a huntress?!" She shouted angrily.
"Miss Rose, I understand your indignation, but please calm down." Glynda interjected before Weiss could say anything in response.
"You're unworthy of my talents!" Weiss snapped back.
"Enough!" Glynda interjected once more. "I'll allow the fight, but I must remind you both of the rules in place." She told them sternly.
"I am well aware of them, Professor." The heiress responded.
"They change when a match becomes personal, Miss Schnee." The blonde rebuked.
"Ain't that the truth." Ace muttered to Sky, who nodded in response.
The two girls glared at each other as they bowed to each other on the field, before the match started.
Weiss first got into a stance to try and get in control of the fight from the start, but Ruby rushed in quickly, catching her off guard.
Using Crescent Rose's blade, Ruby tossed Weiss into the air and started barraging her with sniper fire that forced Weiss to use a series of glyphs as platforms to dodge said sniper fire. While the heiress did this, she returned fire with ethereal Dust projectiles that made Ruby have to dodge them, allowing Weiss to return to the ground, though she did have to use a glyph shield to block some more sniper fire from the cloaked girl.
Ruby tried to dash around and attack Weiss from behind, but the stubborn heiress saw this coming and countered, resulting in the two locking blades.
This caused the two to essentially dance around each other and their respective attacks for a good few minutes in rapid flourishes—until Weiss used a gravity glyph to spring the speedster into the air, which the silver eyed girl quickly reacted to by grabbing Weiss with her scythe and pulling her into the air as well.
Then the two had a series of mid-air clashes, the end of which knocked them to opposite sides of the arena. By now, their auras were low, and they were breathing heavily. Up in the stands, Blake and Yang along with Teams JNPR and SSSN, had concerned looks on their faces as the fight continued.
Ruby recovered first, rushing at Weiss, only to be sent crashing into a wall by the girl bringing up an ice wall and being winded long enough for the heiress to pepper her with harrying fire.
The reaper's speed served her reaction time well, so she was able to use her semblance to get out of the way and start darting toward Weiss, her speed growing with every bust she pulled.
Weiss herself started to panic at seeing the one she viewed as a child blitzing her, but was able to school herself and ready a counterattack. Spinning Myrtenaster's Dust cylinder, she stops it on Lightning Dust and conjures up a glyph that catches Ruby in the middle of her rush, slowing her down greatly.
Then she sent out a series of binding glyphs that immobilized Ruby entirely, leaving her open for one last attack.
Charging her dust cylinder, Weiss readied a final thrust and lunged at Ruby, causing the girl to collapse into a heap with an Aura of 16% and herself at 26%—barely a victory at all by most metrics and damn near a full on draw.
Weiss nearly collapses, but is barely able to keep herself on her feet and hold her head high before turning to Ruby.
"Do you get it yet? This is how big the gap is in our skill levels, you inferior child!" She boasted.
"That's a load of shit and you know it, Schnee!" Sky barked from the stands as Blake and Yang helped Ruby out and dusted her off. "If Ruby was faster, she would have dodged that glyph and forced you into a clash with her that would've guaranteed a draw!" He exclaimed.
"I'd face the music, Princess, you're not as superior as you say you are. And this proves it." Ace stated, causing Weiss to glare right at him.
"How can you not take my side on this?!" She seethed.
"Because I'm being real, and what's real is that Ruby can match you in various ways, and surpass you in others." The Guardian stated in reply.
"Like what?" The girl growled.
"Basic social skills and respect for others comes to mind." The boy responded.
"A willingness to help is another." Sun chimed in.
"Character is also another." Neptune pitched in, and unknown to him, that made Ruby blush a bit.
"Stay out of this, no one asked you!" Weiss barked.
"Hey, tell you what, Princess." Ace said, walking up to her. "You think you're so much better than the rest of us? Prove it. Next class, you and me. One on one, no pulling our punches." He offered.
"Alright, fine! You're on!" The whitette exclaimed, clearly thinking she had a shot.
'I can't tell if she's acting on delusion or hubris… Or both.' Sky thought with a shake of his head.
(Timeskip)
The next few days following that class had been tense with Team RWBY, who was in a sorry state right now. Weiss was sitting as far away from her team as possible at lunch, Ruby herself was depressed, Blake wasn't happy with things and Yang looked like she needed to punch something to pieces.
Apparently the relationship between the heiress and silver eyed girl, as well as her whole team has bottomed out—causing the former to bury herself in her studies and the latter to drown herself in video games respectively.
This was pointed out by Yang and Blake as the topic was being discussed in the dorm common room that day with Teams JNPR and SSSN.
Well, most of team SSSN, as Ace was currently in yet another Crucible match.
"It's that bad, huh?" Neptune commented with a frown. "We knew Weiss was bad, but this is pushing it." He added with a sigh.
"Honestly, if things don't improve, it's really gonna get outta hand real fucking quick." Sky nodded.
"If you ask me guys, I don't think it was even a good idea to let that match happen. I mean, Weiss was trained her whole life, Ruby was self taught. What did you think was gonna happen?" Jaune stated.
"A humbling draw was what we expected." Sun shrugged.
"I don't think you're one to talk, Jaune. You lost to Pyrrha in less than thirty seconds." Yang pointed out.
"That's a bit of an exaggeration, Yang…" Pyrrha tried to tell them.
"I was having an off day." The leader of JNPR tried to defend.
"Uh huh." Sky uttered with a flat tone, not buying that for a millisecond.
"Okay, then why don't you challenge Cardin next class and prove it?" Nora suggested.
"Huh?!" Jaune yelped in surprise.
"Hey, it's either Cardin or Sky, and we all saw how tough Sky is." The bombastic ginger shrugged.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Jaune really wouldn't last long against Sky." Blake admitted.
"Or Ace." Sun nodded.
"You challenge Cardin, and I'll wager a month's worth of desserts." Nora told the blonde.
"A-Alright, fine! I'll take him down!" The boy exclaimed. "I'll even wager some of my comics." He added.
"This won't end well, will it?" Ruby whispered to Sky, who shook his head in reply.
(Timeskip)
Smash cut to said class, and sure enough, Jaune was regretting his course of action because he was getting his ass beat.
"This is too easy!" The jock laughed as he hefted his mace onto his shoulder.
Jaune growled as he decided to change tactics and go to a more defensive position, hoping to wear Cardin down enough so that he could beat him with what little effort he had left.
Of course, Cardin was making Jaune work for it since he was putting a lot of pressure on the blonde's defense.
This made it clear that despite his tactical ability—Jaune was no match for a physically superior opponent at his current level.
With a strike of his mace, Cardin sent Jaune flying, ending the match with Jaune in the red while he was in the orange, meaning that Jaune's tactics did at least work.
"The match is over!" Glynda exclaimed, causing the two boys to relax. "As everyone can see, mister Arc's aura has been reduced to the red zone, but his tactics were able to reduce mister Winchester's aura to the orange zone in return." She stated.
"So he was able to extract a decent price for all the work Cardin put in. He's got that going for him at least." Sky hummed as he looked on.
"He just needs to get stronger, looks like." Sun nodded.
"Good job, Jaune! That was way better than last week!" Neptune called.
"You're gettin' better at this! Nice work!" Ace exclaimed.
Jaune waved at them, flattered, but still wanting to go tend to his wounded pride.
(Later)
It was time for the match between Weiss and Ace, and Weiss, for her part, was feeling nervous about fighting her childhood friend like this. She felt monumentally outclassed since Ace was a Guardian while she wasn't.
But then she recalled how Sky, a non guardian, beat Ace after a lengthy battle—and soon her bravado returned.
Never mind that the boy was technically not a full human like herself.
"I just need to play this smart, and I should be able to take him down." She whispered to herself.
"Alright, time to knock you down a peg…" Ace sighed as he checked his gun and got ready to fight.
"Begin!" Glynda exclaimed, allowing the fight to commence.
Weiss immediately got into a stance to try and seize the upper hand, only for Ace to beat her to the punch and start fanning the hammer of his cannon to get her to start backing up.
Weiss then tried to dodge via a series of glyphs, but right as she was about to go in for a ride side rush, Ace tossed a tripwire grenade in her path, causing it to explode right as the heels of her—well—high heels, tripped the laser.
"Ah!" The whitette yelped as her balance was thrown off by the blast, and before she could right herself, for a glyph shield, she found herself being punched in the gut by Ace.
This made her stagger back before she caught herself.
"Urg… You're cheating!" The girl growled as she hoisted herself up with her sword as Ace put his gun away for the time being—his holster automatically filling the now empty cylinder with an extra round.
"Weiss, you should know by now that we Hunters always fight dirty." Ace stated, pulling out a Hunter knife. "We believe that if you're in a fair fight: your tactics suck." He added as he pulled out a five card hand of Ice and fire dust cards and tossed them at the heiress.
Weiss brought up a glyph shield to block them, only for the fire ones to explode, shrouding the arena in steam.
Weiss was tense now, since she knew Ace could get the drop at her at any given moment. She heard footsteps to her left, causing her to whirl in that direction before she heard more footsteps behind her, causing her to turn quickly.
This caused her sword to clash with Ace's knife, which he then supported with another, suddenly being surrounded in Arc Light as he activated his Blade Dancer super.
The two danced around each other inside the mist, the crackling of Ace's arc light acting like lightning inside a thundercloud within the vapor surrounding them—before it was suddenly dispersed as Ace hooked Myrtinaster in the O ring of his knives' blades and wrenched it out of the girl's hands, sending it flying across the stadium.
Weiss responded to this by sending Ace into the air with a gravity Glyph—but the Hunter used this to his advantage as he suddenly went into a barrel roll… and started glowing sun gold.
"What the–" Weiss started to say before Ace launched a Blade Barrage at her, forcing her to bring up a shield glyph in a panic.
This sent her tumbling to the ground as she rolled near Myrtenaster and grabbed it, getting into another stance as Ace landed in a superhero pose, before drawing his cannon as the girl's aura flickered.
"That's it!" Ace sighed as he breathed heavily after being thrown unceremoniously into the air. "Now, I'm pissed." He added.
"I'm not done yet!" Weiss exclaimed defiantly, conjuring up a glyph and firing off several ethereal dust shots.
Aiming down the sights of his cannon, the Hunter waited for the projectiles to be halfway to him, before he performed a dodge and fired, the super charged Memento Mori shot nailing Weiss right in the gut and sent her sliding on her back.
"Hold on, how did he have another shot?" Ruby questioned. "He didn't reload!" She added.
"I don't know what happened either!" Blake stated, eyes wide.
"That must be a perk of the Ace of Spades." Yang interjected.
"No." Sky stated.
"Nah, Ace just plays fucking dirty." Sun chuckled.
"How?" Jaune wondered.
"He's got an illegally modded holster." Neptune explained.
"... What?" Ruby uttered with a blink.
"You heard me." The blue haired teen chuckled.
"It loads a ghost round into the cylinder when Ace holsters his gun after running empty." Sun stated.
"I see why it's an illegally modded holster. That thing can piss a lot of people off." Yang remarked.
"We would know." Sky nodded.
Back with Ace and Weiss, the heiress struggled to her feet as the gunslinger reloaded his cannon, causing it to glow—showing that Memento Mori was active.
"You gonna give up?" The boy questioned. "Cuz I'd like to point out that I've barely used my Light powers and haven't even used my semblance yet—and I'm still kicking your tight little ass." He added, twirling his gun idly.
Weiss glanced at the board, and to her dismay, she was in the orange while Ace was still sitting at a nice and comfy one hundred percent. She had miscalculated greatly, and it was showing.
But her pride wouldn't let her back down.
"Not. A. Chance!" She hissed.
"Alright, have it your way." Ace shrugged as he started fan firing the charged shots, which Weiss met with her own ice projectiles—each shattering on impact.
However, in the moment that she was about to get into a stance after he needed to reload…
"It's High Noon." Ace intoned as he conjured the golden gun and started shooting, forcing Weiss to dodge the projectiles.
But as he was about to reload after his super ended, Weiss grit her teeth and focused—before she hit him with binding glyph projectiles, which kept him in place.
"Crap!" He hissed.
Weiss, knowing that there was only one way to end this, spun Myrtenaster's cylinder and stopped it on lightning dust before she conjured a speed glyph and charged. When she was in striking distance, however…
Ace reared his head back, deployed his helmet, and slammed his skull into hers like the Saint did to the first Hive incursion commander Horvak.
The resounding crunch indicated that Weiss' nose was broken, the girl staggering back holding her now broken nose.
"Gah! My nose!" The girl gasped.
This caused everyone present to cringe as they saw what just happened.
"Ooh! I think I felt that one!" Ruby hissed through her teeth, holding her own nose on instinct as blood started pouring out a bit.
Ace didn't seem to care, as now he was completely and utterly pissed.
Stepping forward, the Hunter grabbed the whitette and drove his knee into her gut, knocking the wind out of her lungs, before he grabbed her by the ponytail and slammed her to the ground, her aura steadily starting to flicker at this point.
"I told you, Princess." The gunslinger stated, cracking his knuckles. "We Hunters play fucking dirty. Playing fair is dumb. We're here to win, as fast as possible. And if you're not cheating, you're not trying!" He barked as he nailed her across the cheek with a haymaker, then Sparta kicked her in the stomach, before running and grabbing her by the face, and facepalming her into the stadium floor.
Weiss tried to get up, but the one-sided beating she was getting wasn't doing her any favors.
But she couldn't get up because she soon found her being pushed down by a boot, and a familiar hand cannon being pointed at her.
"Stay down." The Hunter told her.
The heiress, futilely, tried to reach for her rapier, but a Hunter knife was embedded in the path of her hand. She was effectively defenseless.
"I… Yield." She groaned in defeat.
"And Mr. Scarlet wins." Glynda nodded. "Though we will be having a talk after class about your lack of restraint." The woman told the Hunter.
"In the field, you gotta do whatever you can to live." Ace shot back.
"This is training. You must learn how to know the difference." Glynda rebuffed, unflinchingly.
Weiss groaned as she sat up, and soon saw Ace holding a hand out to her.
"Come on. Let's get you patched up." The boy told her.
Not really feeling all spunky like before, Weiss accepted the offered hand and was pulled to her feet, though she ended up leaning on Ace after a headrush hit her.
"I'm not sure if I should thank you for offering this to me after beating me to a pulp, or slap you for being sexist." She muttered.
"Hey, don't start with that. You knew exactly what you were getting into when you accepted my challenge. I'm trying to be the bigger person here." Ace told her. "I could have just as easily lorded this over you like you did with Ruby, but I'm not. I'm trying to rectify the damage I did." He continued as he helped her walk. "Now what does that say about me and you?" He questioned.
"Quite a bit, I think." The Schnee girl admitted.
(Later)
After classes were done for the day, Jaune was brought up to the roof by Pyrrha. The blonde's pride was still wounded, so the redhead wanted to help out.
"Pyrrha, why did you drag me out here?" Jaune sighed as he turned to face his teammate.
"Because I came up with an idea that will help you become a better fighter, Jaune. We can train up here, since we obviously can't use the arenas at this hour." Pyrrha explained.
"Pyrrha, why do you think I'd want your help? This is my problem. I have to fix it myself." The boy snapped back at her, offended.
"Jaune, I–" The redhead tried to say, but Jaune cut her off.
"No, I don't want help! I want to take care of my issues on my own since nobody else would understand them!" He exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Pyrrha questioned.
"I forged transcripts to get into beacon and pursue my family name and legacy. But since then I've been seriously trying to catch up." He told her. "That's why I have to do this myself. I got myself into this mess, I'll get myself out." He added.
"Is your pride honestly worth all of that trouble? Trouble that you might not be able to fix?!" Pyrrha questioned.
"Pyrrha, don't. Just… Just leave me alone." Jaune sighed, nearly pulling his hair.
Feeling distraught at her leader's stubborn bride, Pyrrha left the rooftop. Not even a few seconds later did Cardin climb up from his dorm window.
This was not good…
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Ace was currently busy with helping getting Weiss patched up after he effectively went hoodlum on her during their sparring match.
"You don't have to, you know…" She tried to tell him.
"I know, but I want to." The gunslinger shrugged. "Seriously, Weiss. This attitude of yours? Your racist biases? They gotta stop." The boy told her as he bandaged her nose first, since he was the one who broke it.
"But–." The heiress tried to say.
"But nothing. Weiss, I am being dead serious; everything you've been doing to your team has had a serious negative impact that could cause your team to fall apart." Ace told her seriously.
"You don't get it, I should be the leader of team RWBY. I have the better training, the better talent." Weiss hissed as he started wrapping her bruised midsection, raising her shirt. "And why should I care about the Faunus? I'm a victim of them! You know more than anyone that this is true. And you of all people should know what a bunch of degenerates they are. That they're inferior to us humans—you know this—everyone in Atlas knows this. Why should that change?!" She barked.
"Because human superiority is a fucking HOAX!" Ace yelled in her face, causing her to recoil. "All of this drivel about faunus being inferior to humans while humans are superior is nothing but a lie, a delusion built by racist cowards who were so scared of faunus that they built a lie designed to keep them from growing! I hate every bit of it, and I will never cater to it for even a second of my life!" He ranted.
"A Faunus killed your father, Ace. A White Fang member! How can you defend those liars, thieves and murderers?!" The heiress demanded.
"BECAUSE I'M NOT A FUCKING FOOL!" The Guardian bellowed. "Not all faunus are evil, Weiss! Just the ones like Adam Taurus, Tyrian Callows and the Barons; those are the ones that are evil! Fueled by unwavering hatred and insanity! You, on the other hand, treat the entire faunus race like it's a tumorous disease when they aren't! You're so focused on the garbage spewing from your father's mouth that you've been blinded to the bigger picture!" He yelled angrily.
"How can you be so sure that the Faunus that aren't part of the White Fang are so innocent?" Weiss questioned, though she seemed to falter a bit.
"Because we humans aren't any better." The Hunter responded. "I mean, it was my own brother who massacred dozens of innocent Faunus, men, women and children indiscriminately and mercilessly on Crimson Days." He added. "You think the Faunus are monsters? No. If anything, we're the real monsters." He stated.
Weiss was rendered silent at this. Like everyone else, she along with her family had heard of the Crimson Days massacre, done by a single Guardian who had gone completely insane. Her father, like the disgusting bastard he was, said that Jack had done a service to Remnant.
It was a repulsive set of words in her point of view at the time due to just how horrible it had seemed by hearing about it, and after all this time, she had forgotten that.
But some part of her still refused to acknowledge this and let go of her hatred.
"You sound like a hypocrite." Weiss stated as she stood up, having been patched up. "How can you stand around hating one group of Faunus yet preach to me about not hating them myself? You're a hypocrite, Ace." She added as she turned away. "And I refuse to listen to the hypocritical advice of someone who has no idea what they're talking about." She stated, walking away while the Guardian clenched his shaking fist.
"Then feel free to let your entire life fall apart! When you do, it'll be then that you realize how wrong you were, and it'll be your own fault, YOU FUCKING SELF CENTERED BRAT!" Ace yelled in anger, frustrated by how stubborn Weiss was being.
But unseen to him, Weiss's eyes were filled with tears, his words cutting and beating her heart far worse than any beating from her father, or any blade could ever do.
It wounded her, deeply.
ThermalsniperN7: *Deep inhale and exhale* … I want to smash something so badly right now. Weiss' stubborn and self centered attitude along with her current character is actually starting to grate on my nerves. It's even causing her current relationship with Ace to become strained, all because she can't say she was wrong.
Dragon Emperor0: This will likely make it all the more important for Ozpin to put her in her place, and hopefully by the time she admits her fault, her relationships won't be beyond repair. I mean, seriously, Ace just shouted at her several times and caused her to cry, that's gonna seriously hurt her in the short term and make her think that he hates her in the long term.
ThermalsniperN7: This is usually the kind of thing that forcibly makes people take stock of themselves over a period of time, and makes for some visible character development. It feels just as visible as Saint-14's character growth during the Season of the Splicer, which is good, since it'll be easy to follow.
Dragon Emperor0: Yeah. Plus this chapter also had some good fights, hope you guys like them, because we worked hard on them for this chapter ahead of time.
ThermalsniperN7: When a chapter is upcoming, having select scenes on hand ready to be copy and pasted pays off. Anyway, see you guys next time.
