(Chapter 18)
The Sunday morning after the battle at the shipping yard, the four members of team RWBY found themselves settled nervously in Ozpin's office, seated across from their headmaster and the deputy headmistress who stood by his side.
The night prior, the man spared them a lecture from the stern disciplinarian by delaying their punishment hearing until the morning to come. That night was not one of relief however as the girls lay awake for hours, wondering what would be waiting for them once they found themselves in the clockwork office of Beacon's headmaster.
For a few minutes, the only sounds heard were of the headmaster's pen signing away through numerous documents, the occasional sip he would take from his mug, the faint ticking sound of one of the many clock themed devices in the office, and the audible gulp that was heard when any of the girls met the eyes of the patient man or the deputy headmistress.
After what felt like an eternity, Ruby took a deep breath as she gathered her nerves to speak but was interrupted before she could even begin by Ozpin.
"Today is a lovely day, is it not Ms. Rose?" The young lady met the calm brown eyes of her headmaster nervously as she decided to not leave the older man awaiting an answer.
"Y-Yes sir. Great day for-uh, uhm-studying! And-er-being upstanding students!" The white-haired man's mirthful smirk as he took a sip from his cup slowly, staring solely at her, caused the young Rose to wilt as her sister brought a hand to her face exasperatedly.
"So it is~ but let's not delay with your team's reason for being here." The man gently pushed his cup further to the side as he folded his hands together in front of him as he stared down the girls before addressing them.
"Ms. Belladonna, as you are the largest offender, allow me to begin with you." the tone the man spoke with was no longer one of amusement, and despite how softly the headmaster's words were spoken, there was a definite sense of authority laced in his words.
"Over the course of a weekend, you managed to break over a half-dozen laws and endangered not only yourself, but the lives of everyone present at the docks that night. Might I ask why?"
The girl stood from where she was seated, and after swallowing a gulp, began to explain herself.
"T-There's too much wrong in this world to just stand by and do nothing. Inequality, corruption; someone has to stop it." The stare she received didn't help her confidence, but he motioned for her to sit down before asking a question.
"Hmm, interesting. Allow me to show you something." The spectacled man began typing on the computer before finding what he was searching for and turning the screen around to face team RWBY. The video began to play, dated to one of the first weeks of this semester, and showed Cardin pulling Velvet's ears with team RWBY in the background doing nothing to help. He paused the video before addressing the faunus in front of him.
"If that truly is the case, then why did you do nothing to help Ms. Scarlatina?"
Blake began to sweat, and her teammates had the decency to looked ashamed knowing that they too could have helped the girl, but as the bow-wearing girl went to answer, the man held his hand up and resumed the video. The girls watched as a familiar knightly teen made his way over and tried to help the girl, before the video ended and Ozpin turned the screen back around.
"Why is it that the only one to help that girl was the weakest amongst you and your friends. At the time, any one of you could have put a stop to Mr. Winchester's actions, and yet-" Yang stood up abruptly with her eyes red after having watched the clip and tried to help her partner.
"And what about you and the other teachers? Why didn't any of you do anything to help her!" The man faced the angry teen with an otherworldly calm before he decided to respond.
"I run a school that turns children into huntsmen. While I do detest bullying, I saw no reason to help her." This drew incredulous looks from the girls, before the man decided to end the pause he left them on and continued speaking.
"Had she asked me or any teacher for help with the matter, it would have been handled. But she didn't, and it never got fully out of hand, nor would it have. Despite her pacifistic nature, Ms. Scarlatina is perfectly capable of handling herself, and if she deemed it necessary, could have ended Mr. Winchester's actions at any time with near no effort."
Yang couldn't contain herself and began to shout again. "Then why are you grilling my partner over-" A raised hand halted her from speaking, and Ozpin answered her unfinished question.
"That's simple Ms. Xiao Long. Your partner claims to want to rid the world of inequality, corruption, discrimination; but when faced with an opportunity to start, chose to turn a blind eye to maintain her façade as a non-faunus student."
The girl struggled to find an argument, but before she could, the white-haired man pulled his mug to himself and took a large sip. After placing the cup back to its resting spot, the man resumed speaking.
"We'll come back to what her punishment will be shortly, for now, let's talk about you Ms. Xiao Long." The red drained from the teen's eyes as she found the headmaster's gaze sapping her energy. She quietly sat down in her seat with her amethyst eyes desperately trying to find anywhere else to gaze.
"When I reviewed your application to my school, I knew you would be a troublemaker of sorts. Average grades across the board except for combat, where you shine brighter than most of your peers, even now." The girl perked up a bit, but still felt nervous as the older man's words didn't match the blank look he fixed her with before he continued.
"Matched only by your reckless behavior, issues with authority, and childlike temper." This managed to elicit a snigger from Ruby, who was promptly elbowed by her partner, causing the girl to stiffen up and return to her rigid posture.
"You destroyed a club in downtown Vale. Over what, I haven't the slightest idea, however, I will be contacting the owner and seeing why you deemed it necessary to attack a large group of civilians with your full strength." The girl seemed to slump in her chair as the spectacled man stood from his seat and walked to the wall of windows behind him. He stared at over Beacon and thought to himself for a moment before he sighed and began speaking.
"I've made my decision."
The man turned back around and let the pause hang in the air before he began to give his verdict.
"Ms. Belladonna, as I hope you are beginning to understand, you are extremely fortunate with how last nights events unraveled. However, I don't believe that regular detention matches your actions, so after extensive deliberation, I've decided you will become a teacher's aide for the remainder of your first year in addition to being a student," The faunus girl let out a small sigh of relief thinking about how much worse her punishment could've been, before Ozpin finished his sentence.
"to Dr. Oobleck." The girl's eyes widened in horror of the though of trying to keep up with the mile-per-minute man, and her bow seemed to flatten against her head as she dreaded what awaited her. The man seeing no attempt an argument being made, nodded his head before looking at Weiss and Ruby.
"Ms. Schnee, Ms. Rose" The girls stiffened up at being addressed before they answered their headmaster.
"Yes Sir?"
"You two aren't in any trouble, but I trust that you two will assist your teammates so that they don't fall behind during this transition?" The second of the Schnee children gave him a practiced response while her partner gave him a formless salute from where she sat, earning a hum of thought from the headmaster before he turned to Yang.
"And as for you Ms. Xiao Long."
The blonde brawler couldn't hold back the urge to gulp.
Meanwhile, Jaune and Penny lazed about in their hotel room, idly watching reruns of a sitcom that was older than either of them. Jaune was lying on his bed, flat on his stomach with his eyes half lidded, beginning to nod off. Sitting in the chair pushed next to the bed was his ginger partner, who had her attention split between observing the show and questioning her partner about jokes that occasionally went over her head.
A sudden series of raps against the door snapped the leader of team JCKP into attention as he hopped from his spot on the bed before making his way to the door. After opening the door and stepping to the side, General Ironwood made his way into the room, shifting slightly so that Jaune could move from behind him. Penny muted the television as the disciplined man began to speak.
"I know that originally the plan was to depart in a few hours to make our way back to Atlas, however after what transpired last night, Ozpin requested for me to extend our trip for another day so to meet with me again. So, we will be leaving for Atlas tomorrow instead." The innocent android raised her hand before voicing a question to the headmaster.
"Are friend Jaune and I allowed to explore Vale in the meantime then?" Despite the girl's attempts to mask her hopefulness, the desire to see more of the world beyond what she'd known was quite clear to the general. He brought his hand to his chin as he pondered the answer for a moment.
A minute later and the man brought both hands behind his back with a nod of his head as he answered the girl.
"After the way that you two handled yourselves last night at the shipyard, I'm willing to let you two explore on your own. Just stay together and stay alert." The man sounded exhausted, but his face betrayed no such fatigue. After leaving the room the two students shared, made his way to the vehicle waiting outside for him with his guard detail in tow.
Jaune met eyes with his partner who was almost shaking with excitement over no longer having to remain idle in their room. He gave a quick nod of his head towards the door along with a smile to his partner, who quickly made her way to the door.
She stood in the hallway bouncing on her feet as she watched her partner grab his scroll, wallet, and both of his weapons. Doing a quick once over in the mirror, he was satisfied with his appearance and gave himself a smile in the mirror before he left the room to join his partner, letting the door lock behind him.
"So, what do you want to do today Penny?" The girl made a thinking face as she skipped beside her partner on the sidewalk before she answered his question with one of her own.
"I'm not sure, what would you like to do Partner?" The blonde's face shifted to one of surprise before he looked around the various shops littering the streets of Vale while he thought.
On Sunday, in Vale at least, most places in town would traditionally open late and close early. A glance to his scroll revealed the time to be 12:27, so most, if not all businesses should be open by this point apart from bars and clubs. He thought for a few more minutes before he smiled and voiced his thoughts to the android skipping besides him.
"Well, our day out got interrupted yesterday, so why don't we make up for it today?" The girl's eyes brightened as did her smile while she listened to Jaune started to plan out the rest of their day as they walked.
"How about we start by going to the arcade? While we're there I can show you how I spent my days off during the summer before Beacon. Then after that, you can pick out where we should eat lunch at." The girl nodded energetically to her partner before she asked him a question.
"Will the arcade have the dancing game?" The blonde's face shifted to one of confusion before changing to one of clarity as he responded.
"Oh, you mean Dance Dance Retaliation?"
"That must be the one! I remember hearing friends Neon and Flynt talking about a dancing game they love to play at an arcade in Mantle." The blonde smiled as he nodded to her, eliciting a cheer of excitement from the girl as he suddenly had an idea.
"Say, we can still go to the arcade and dance, but how about after we eat, we go dancing for real tonight?" The girl's high spirits were infectious at the prospect and met her partner's smile with one of her own, before grabbing his hand, lacing his fingers with her own, and beginning to lead him down the sidewalk towards the arcade at a brisk pace.
"Wait, Penny, the arcade's back the other way!" Despite the embarrassment he felt, it didn't help the blush that'd crept onto his face, or prevent the laughter he had from his partner's enthusiasm.
Team PRVN was making their way back to their dorm after their training session in the Emerald Forest. Lately, they'd been focusing on trying to increase their team synergy by training against Grimm, but had been making little progress towards their goal.
Pyrrha and her fellow ginger teammate didn't hesitate to send spiteful glares towards the replacement member for their team, who ignored them and continued to keep her pace from where she walked to the side of the sole male of team PRVN. The Mistralian teen observed the other three members of his team from the side of his eye as he thought back to something that had happened rather recently.
(Flashback- one week prior)
The members of teams PRVN and RWBY were seated in Goodwitch's combat class with the exception of Nora, who was currently in combat with the leader of team CRDL. When the matchup was announced and the two students made their way to the locker rooms, no one was confident in any predictions as to who would be the victor.
The hammer wielding girl's friends all had faith in her ability to win against her opponent, however, after the knight-like teen pulled an unsuspected upset against Pyrrha, the student who was agreed to the be strongest of their year, there was a small bit of doubt in the back of everyone's minds.
The battle began the way any match that included Nora did, a volley of dust grenades being launched from Magnhild. Cardin knew what to expect however, and instead of using his shield to defend against the onslaught of artillery, used his weapon's dust crystal to propel himself to the side.
Landing in a roll, he counted three shots impacting the spot he'd previously occupied and began to run along the circle of the ring as his opponent began to target him. After the fourth and fifth shot were launched, the ginger male tightened his grip on his weapon and the dust crystal began to glow dimly.
Nora's eyes seemed to narrow whilst keeping her battle hungry grin. Still leading her target with her weapon, she aimed slightly closer to the area between herself and her opponent and fired her sixth shot, the result being a small dust cloud obscuring the two combatants' vision of each other.
Counting her sixth shot, Cardin let the dust crystal in his mace shine and launch him through the smoke where his opponent should be. As he passed through, his eyes widened as he saw that Nora had already shifted her weapon to her hammer form instead of trying to reload any grenades into her weapon.
Seeing her opponent flying towards her, she reared back to prepare what would no doubt be a monstrous swing. A moment to time the attack, and the girl swung Magnhild to try and send him out of bounds.
Cardin was having none of it however, and midflight, swung his mace in front of himself at a slightly down angle before letting loose a smaller explosion in the face of the ginger girl. The blast altered his trajectory enough that he narrowly avoided the imminent danger of her hammer and blinded her for a few precious seconds.
The leader of team CRDL landed slightly behind the girl who was already swinging her hammer with her left hand to try and clear the area around her. Cardin quickly pivoted and unleashed a swing of his own towards the girl's unprotected right side, while beginning to deploy his shield. Cardin's attack reached first and caused the girl's aura to drop significantly, drawing first blood.
The hit caused her to move slightly to the side, but gave her enough of a lurch that she was able to twist and grab Magnhild with both hands and slam the hammer head into the Jury, which hadn't finished fully deploying. The hit to his aura was slightly lessened on the initial hit, but the girl pulled the two triggers on the handle of the hammer in quick succession.
The result was the hammer slamming back into Cardin's shield gauntlet by the propelled swing from the back of her hammer causing the taller teen to buckle from the force slightly, and then the boy was sent sailing towards the edge of the ring by the explosion created from a grenade fired from the front of the hammer. As he was in the air, the black knight realized that his opponent must have reloaded two dust grenades into her weapon when he couldn't see her through the dust cloud she made.
Seeing the danger of a loss by falling out of the ring, the ginger male managed to right himself in the air before his feet remade contact with the ground, but his momentum kept him sliding towards the edge. He stopped himself at the edge of the ring, but his balance was slightly off, and he was beginning to fall forward.
He quickly released the Judge from its connected state to the rest of his weapon and aimed ahead of him and pulled the trigger multiple times. The recoil righted him just enough to save him from losing the match, and the teen let a sigh of relief leave him. He didn't have much time to recover however, as Nora was quick to press the advantage she'd gained in the match.
For a full minute, attacks were either parried, blocked, or dodged by both parties with a glancing hit being scored by the other here and there, a dangerous dance happening no more than ten meters from the edge of the combat arena. A dropkick from the shorter ginger of team PRVN sent the knight-like teen a bit away from her, and both students took the opportunity to check their aura gauges.
They were both beginning to edge into the solid yellow territory, and as Nora advanced on Cardin, the teen decided it was time to try and steal the win from the ginger berserker. He continued to step back as she ran forward, and as the foot he was backstepping on met nothing but air, he hoped he was in the best possible position since he couldn't check behind him, lest he ruin his plan.
The girl seeing that he had almost walked out of bounds, took a wide swing that would push finish the job and secure her win. The audience of students was cheering for both the participants, despite the glare their deputy headmistress was levelling them with.
As the hammer approached him, Cardin did something that surprised everyone. He collapsed his shield and let himself begin to fall backwards, letting the weapon begin to pass by him harmlessly, before he reached out with his right hand and got a firm grasp of the weapon near the head and pulled forward, bringing him and his opponent toward each other.
The shock and confusion clear on her face told him she'd be slow to react, and since he was safely out of danger from her weapon, he locked his arms around her back, twisted as he resumed his fall back to the ground only instead forcing Nora to ground outside the ring first as he fell on top of her.
"The match is over; Cardin Winchester wins by ring out!" The other members of team CRDL cheered for their leader who managed to best another of the top students in their year, while team RWBY and the short ginger's teammates were in shock over the desperate win the former bully achieved. As Ms. Goodwitch began to breakdown the match, giving criticism and praise to the two for the efforts, Vernal decided to voice her thoughts with a scoff.
"That was pathetic. That Cardin guy's been getting better, but this is just another fight that he had no reason to win. She's weak trash for letting him beat her like that." This drew the irritation of the pancake loving girl's friends, but a glower from the magenta-eyed member of her own team.
Vernal made no effort to hide her distaste towards the other members of her team, but the constant barbs towards his lifelong friend had long since made his patience with the girl grow thin. But what she'd said finally pushed Ren to act.
Ms. Goodwitch pushed up her glasses as she examined the list of students on her scroll tablet, before she spoke out to the class.
"Alright children, we have time for one last match. Would-"
"Excuse me." The comment drew the attention of all present to Ren who stood up with the bangs of his hair shadowing his eyes a bit as he spoke.
"I'd like to volunteer to fight." This threw the class for a loop. The sole male amongst the top two teams never volunteered himself, in any class. Ms. Goodwitch sifted through data on her device before seeing that the teen in fact hadn't fought in her class for almost a week.
"Very well then, please make your way down. Now, let me find you an opponent…" She began to scroll through names before Ren voiced his thoughts.
"I want to fight Vernal." Whispers began to circulate around the room. It was rare for Ms. Goodwitch to pair off teammates or their partners to fight in her class, but even rarer was it for someone to challenge either Pyrrha or her brutal partner Vernal. The girl in question gave the quiet boy a condescending gaze as she looked down upon him from her spot in the stands.
Ms. Goodwitch easily was able to tell that there had been animosity between the members of team PRVN, and after debating the request in her mind for a moment, nodded her head and motioned for the tan girl to make her way down to the arena as well. The bandit scoffed before she made her way to the locker rooms at the same time as her teammate, sneering at Nora as she passed her on the stairs.
As they disappeared into the gender respective rooms on either end of the floor, Pyrrha and her teammate who'd recently returned from the locker room began to talk with their friends on team RWBY.
"Do you think Ren is gonna be ok?" Ruby's worried tone was a tad loud, drawing looks from the students around them, but a glare from Yang quickly had everyone looking away from the group. Pyrrha looked down as she began to think about her two teammates that were about to fight as she spoke.
"Well…I have faith in Ren's abilities, but Vernal doesn't fight like any of us. She's ruthless and prefers to always be on the attack, pressing her opponent. Meanwhile, Ren prefers to either be on the defensive or to slip away and be unnoticed until he sees an opportunity to strike when an enemy's guard is down."
Nora put her chin on her crossed arms as she laid on the desk, seemingly in thought, and hummed uncommittedly in response to Pyrrha's evaluation. The group looked at the girl strange, unused to seeing her not hyper, and continued to talk about the two who were about to fight.
A hand began to shake Nora out of her thoughts causing her to look up in surprise as her teammate was shaking her asking a question.
"Are you alright Nora?" The spartan girl's worry was evident, but her teammate quickly waved her off, and the taller red head paused for a moment, before she decided to repeat her question.
"I had been asking you about how you think the fight will go, since you've known Ren the longest." The girl in question was silent for a moment but as she went to speak, the door to the males' locker room opened and Ren exited in his combat attire, taking slow measured steps towards the arena to wait on his opponent. No more than thirty seconds later, Vernal returned to the room in her combat attire, weapons in hand as she took confident strides towards the center of the arena.
"You sure you wanna do this Ren? You know I won't go easy on you." The opening jeers were just the beginning, and everyone knew it, but Ren wasn't one to fall to mind games so easily, and instead stood silently. Undeterred, Vernal continued to speak in hopes of scrambling her opponent's calm mind.
"Don't have anything to say, hmm? Even though you wanted to fight me," the girl spread her arms wide as if showing something on display as she continued speaking.
"Well here I am." Ms. Goodwitch called the match and neither contestant moved. Ren persisted in his silence as he watched the girl with eyes that betrayed no emotion. Vernal seeing that he still refused to rise to any of her taunts decided to walk lazily around the magenta-eyed teen as she continued to speak.
"Why have me come down here if you aren't gonna fight? Are you that much of a coward? You and that worthless partner of yours-"
"Vernal." Getting cut off made the girl smirk, feeling as if she finally had gotten into her opponent's mental state.
"What is it Ren, having second thoughts? Wanna surrender now?" The teen across from her finally lifted his head, and his eyes were the same emotionless mirrors that betrayed nothing, but a very visible frown present on his face.
"I'm going to give you a chance to apologize to Nora." The girl blinked, before she began laughing, having a hard time keeping her composure. This continued for a few seconds, before she finally was able to stop, and responded to her teammate.
"Well that's not going to happen, so what're you gonna do about it?" The girl finally fell into a combat ready stance, before she began to run at her opponent. With a masterful flick of his wrists, Ren's Stormflowers fell into either of his hands as he prepared for his enemy. While the two began their fight, Weiss made an offhand comment that caught Nora's attention.
"I'm amazed he isn't angry despite her incessant taunting." The crowd of students watched as Ren began to change his fighting pattern, and after a rather unforeseen parry, forced Vernal back and off balance, causing her to fall on her behind. The girl got to her feet angrily as her opponent turned himself gray, a clear sign of him using his semblance as he went on the offensive.
"That's not it Weiss." The rest of Nora's group turned to face her as she said that, and seeing their looks of confusion, decided to elaborate.
"It's not that Ren isn't angry; he's using his semblance to stay in control of his emotions." The girl looked to the side for a moment before finding a nice way of explaining it.
"You all know what Ren's semblance is and how it lets him hide from the Grimm, so the best way to think about it is this. You know how you can feel an emotion, know it's there, but you don't know what it is." The girl was met with nods of understanding and continued speaking.
"Well when Ren uses his semblance to mask his emotions, he can't feel those emotions. He knows that they are still there, and what they are, but that's it. It's what lets him always think rationally." The group seemed enlightened at the knowledge, but Nora ignored them to watch her partner begin to snatch the lead from his opponent while she thought to herself.
'It's scary though. How someone so calm, rational, and in control of themselves, can hide so much anger.' The audience watched as Ren ducked under a swing before rolling to evade one of Vernal's lasers, before he let the weapon in his right hand fold itself back into his sleeve, before he blurred away in a burst of speed, appearing to the tan girl's side as he unleashed a savage aura enhanced palm strike just below her ribs and above her waist.
The ginger had her eyes on the fight happening in front of her but was instead replaying the last few months of dysfunction that her team went through due to their replacement member, before she thought about her former leader.
'I wonder if Jaune's the same as Ren, always hiding how angry he is. He was always so patient and kind, and before we found out about his transcripts, he was a good friend to us.' The berserker's eyes watched as Vernal landed a well-timed kick that sent Ren tumbling away before he recovered and sighed to herself as she glowered at the shorter-haired girl of her team.
'I want our old team back.'
(Flashback end)
The battle had ended with Ren's victory, something very few of those present expected. And ever since then, Vernal had refrained from insulting either him or his partner, and instead had been focusing them onto her own spartan partner. Any order that Pyrrha would give to her team now had to be echoed by Ren to Vernal if the bandit girl was to listen, but it was progress, however negligible.
The team continued walking before they ended up turning a corner and stumbling upon team RWBY, who looked rather upset. Immediately, Pyrrha moved towards her fellow leader and began to question her.
"Ruby? What wrong?" The red reaper was surprised to see her friend and gave the red headed spartan an unconfident smile while she rubbed the back of her head nervously as she began to speak.
"Well, it's a bit of a long story…" The girl saw that their sister team was waiting for an explanation and sighed, but before she could continue talking, her older sister added her input.
"How about this; I have to go to a club in vale tonight, and my team is coming with me. Why don't you guys go get cleaned up, and we'll all meet up at the bullhead docks at seven in a few hours? We can fill you in on everything that happened last night on the way to the club later. Sound good?"
Pyrrha turned to look at her team and see their reactions to the suggestion. Nora nodded her head up and down at the prospect of going to a club with friends while Ren gave a sigh and a nod, knowing that the outing would make his friend happy. Vernal refused to meet her eyes, as well as Yang's, but the hoplite teen had a suspicion that if the rest of the team went, the tan girl would come as well.
The scarlet-headed huntress pivoted back around and gave her sister team a smile as they began to walk towards the dorm to freshen themselves for a night at a club. As they fell into step with each other, Ruby decided to pipe up as they moved at a relaxed pace.
"Oh and uh, you'll never guess who we ran into..."
(A/N)
Been a while!
Sorry for the delay, my state got hit by a second Hurricane. Knocked out power for a few days, and internet for a few more.
Another problem with getting this one out was the motivation to choose to write over gaming and other time sync's. Along with that, it's hard to write for any character's that aren't directly interacting with Jaune, with some exceptions.
Anyway, I'm sure you know what's coming, so lemme go work on that!
Another thing! Is it 'Atlassian' or 'Atlesian'? I only ask, because the robots that are a part of Ironwood's military force are called 'Atlesian Knights', needed to hear what the consensus is.
If you wanna join me in talking about RWBY, fanfic ideas, or anything really, join me in our discord.
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Besides that, hope you enjoy the chapter!
B.J.H.