Balloons and streamers of various colors dominated the streets of Vale while more were being prepared for the upcoming Vytal Festival. This was par for the course for Ruby, Yang, and Blake, as it only served as a reminder of the peace brokered eighty years ago and what they got to look forward to near the end of the school year. But Weiss found more meaning in the event than everyone else.
"The Vytal Festival!" she exclaimed. "This is absolutely wonderful!"
Yang found herself smiling as she witnessed Weiss's enthusiasm. "I never thought I'd see you this excited about something."
"Why wouldn't I be?" Weiss asked as she turned to look up at Yang. "It's a festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! Ohh, and the dances and parades we get to look forward to...! And the tournament we'll compete in goes without saying!" She turned away and gushed over the part she was most excited about: "The amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!"
"Ah, yes. The planning is the part to be excited about," Yang teased.
"Quiet, you!" Weiss exclaimed.
According to Weiss, the destination the team arrived at was of utmost importance for their betterment. Not only would it have a profound effect on how they would perform as students of Beacon, but also as contenders for the Vytal Festival Tournament. This whole trip was for a task so critical that the start of their weekend was a necessary sacrifice.
Team RWBY arrived at... the docks.
Yang was about to ask for an explanation. Instead of words, however, she groaned as the smell of raw fish reached her nostrils. "Okay," she began as she pinched her nose closed. "Now I really want to know why we're out here. This smell is going to take days to forget about!"
Blake gave a small, amused smile. "It's not so bad."
"I know this place isn't the most..." Weiss's expression became sheepish. "... Flattering of places to be in, but I was serious when I stressed the importance of being here."
"Is someone showing up...?" Ruby wondered.
"Not just someone," Weiss elaborated. "A whole team: Team SNNN. And as one team among many representing Beacon Academy, it behooves us to give them a proper welcome."
"It's an admirable idea," Blake mentioned, "but I think you just want to gather dirt to use on them during the competition."
"I won't deny the potential of getting information to give us an edge, but I'm not as—"
"Uh, girls?"
Everyone turned to look at Ruby and followed where she was pointing to see a storefront with a shattered window. In place of glass was only a thin strip of police tape, which both detectives pondered. Ruby moved closer while the rest of her team followed. They all heard the detectives talking, but only when they got within earshot could they make out words.
"... Another robbery," one detective commented.
"This is the second Dust shop this week," the other detective sighed. "Did we get an inventory of what went missing yet?"
"Same as last time: every ounce of Dust is missing, cash registers were untouched."
Ruby realized who had done it. She felt like kicking herself for not trying harder to stop him.
"At this rate, the culprit's gonna have enough Dust for an entire army."
"I'm willing to bet it's the White Fang. They're a big enough player to want this much Dust. They've also been after the SDC for the past decade or so."
"Well, the motive checks, but we can't know for sure until we find more evidence."
"Yeah, yeah..."
Weiss had already heard enough. She crossed her arms and commented, "It wouldn't surprise me in the least if those bunch of degenerates did this."
"Excuse me?" Blake firmly asked.
Being the only human on the team who knew Blake was a Faunus, Ruby's expression betrayed discomfort as the confrontation began.
"What's your problem with the White Fang?" Blake continued.
"It's simple!" Weiss exclaimed. "They're a group of criminally insane Faunus who want to bring genocide to humanity!"
"They're not...!" Blake trailed off as she noticed Yang and Ruby looking at her with concern. The sigh she let out as she collected herself was indistinguishable from an annoyed huff. "The White Fang aren't a bunch of psychopaths or "degenerates." They're misguided Faunus who've been led to believe the end justifies the means."
"Come to think of it," Ruby began as she wanted to add more to Blake's counterargument, "I remember learning somewhere why they were originally called the "White Fang." It was supposed to represent their peaceful intent to resolve the conflict between humans and Faunus without bloodshed." She tactfully omitted that Beacon's librarian was responsible for arming her with this information in case it would expose Blake's identity.
The White Fang's backstory wasn't lost on Weiss. She knew they were meant to be a faction of peace. Her gaze went to Blake (who was smiling at Ruby for some reason), and after a moment, she crossed her arms.
"Fine, I'll give you that," Weiss conceded. "But that doesn't change what they've been doing now." She then motioned to the broken window the detectives had already walked away from. "Like robbing Dust shops!"
"The White Fang didn't do this," Ruby asserted.
Weiss was about to say a rebuttal, but her mind processed the self-assured tone in Ruby's voice. "And why is that?"
"Because," Ruby began, "This is the kind of thing Roman Torchwick was doing when I met Professor Ozpin. I can't exactly speak for how the White Fang do things, but Torchwick prefers speed over subtlety, especially if it gets him what he wants. Besides, I was there when it happened. He didn't take any money, just Dust."
Blake's eyebrows rose as she listened to Ruby's explanation. While the White Fang weren't strangers to using the smash-and-grab method, she knew they would've taken everything that wasn't bolted to the ground, including Lien notes that could go toward their war chest.
Yang reflected on Ruby's reasoning. "Yeah, I remember you telling me about that night we were on the airship together!" she commented. "You really think it's the same guy?"
"Wa-a-a-it, wait!" Weiss exclaimed in disbelief. "Are you seriously trying to say that you took on one of Vale's most notorious criminals to date!?"
"Yeah, several times," Ruby confirmed.
"... Several times!?"
"He's slippery," Ruby remarked. "I thought I had him this time since Neopolitan was nowhere to be found. But he still had help escaping."
"Hey! Stop that Faunus!"
All four members of Team RWBY looked over toward the shouting. Ruby retrieved her binoculars and used them to examine the scene that was about to unfold more closely. "... Hey, Weiss? You said you wanted to see the competition, right?"
Weiss was unsure how to react to the question. But when she saw Ruby offer her binoculars, Weiss took the opportunity to use them and gaze into the lenses inside. A cargo ship had docked into port, and on it were a few sailors chasing after a blond, athletic man with a gold-furred monkey tail. He made a mockery of his pursuers, running with a stride that barely kept them from gaining on him.
"Thanks for the ride, fellas!" He gave the sailors a two-fingered salute before leaping from the boat and onto two gold, translucent clones of himself who caught him and fluidly threw him forward. He landed on his feet and continued sprinting down the docks without missing a beat, not minding the civilians he ran past.
His path had him cross paths with Team RWBY. Blake assumed this was on purpose since she was the only one the monkey Faunus made eye contact with and winked at. Blake was surprised by such boldness, but she also felt ambivalent. Was she supposed to be flattered somehow? He was attractive, sure, but this observation was at odds with the instinctual desire to feel creeped out.
"Quick! We have to go after him!"
Blake's focus returned to the real world when she heard her teammates' footfalls behind her. She hesitated but gave chase as well.
All four of them maintained their pace with the stowaway, but he proved evasive and slippery. Being the only one with a Semblance that made her faster, Ruby took matters into her own hands as she morphed into a spiral of red. She banked right to make a wide turn around the corner to their left, and as she saw a silhouette, the red curtain that flowed around her disappeared just in time to grab onto their quarry.
"Gotcha!" Ruby exclaimed.
Confusion shoved her brief sense of triumph out of the way as she realized she wasn't straddling the stowaway. She was riding the back of a ginger-haired girl with a pink bow who barely registered her presence. In fact, she registered that Ruby weighed 89.55 kilograms! Judging from the surface area of Ruby's arms around her body, the girl could rule out a majority of the weight being fat—but the only way to verify this was through visual confirmation. She tried her best to turn her head to look at Ruby, but because of the construction of her artificial body, her neck had a limited range of motion. The best she could manage was a side glance.
"I... guess you did!" the woman replied cheerfully yet with equal befuddlement.
"Sorry!" Ruby exclaimed as she unceremoniously leaped off. "I was trying to go after a stowaway. Have you seen anyone running past here?"
"No, sorry." The girl turned around and saw three other people run up to meet Ruby. She took internal scans of all four of them and gathered new data.
"Oh, thanks anyway," Ruby continued. "I'm Ruby. These are my teammates, Weiss, Blake, and Yang."
In the blink of an eye, Penny discovered more than the cursory introduction provided.
As it turned out, Ruby was much lighter than 89.55 kg, yet also heavier. An X-ray scan revealed Crescent Rose folded in its box form and placed on her lower back. This weapon weighed a deceptive 32.65 kg. There was also the matter of her impressive bosom. While breasts of her size would add an additional 4800 grams, the low-yield Gravity Dust woven into her bra made it so they weighed no heavier than 500. All in all, her new estimate of Ruby's weight was 57 kg. A healthy weight for a girl standing at 157cm.
Next was Weiss, who she already knew about thanks to her family's notoriety. She was 46 kilograms and stood at 152cm (but wore heels that increased her height to 160cm). Based on dossier information on the Schnee family, including Specialist Winter, Weiss's current height indicated stunted growth. Undernutrition during childhood was the most common culprit, but this was inconsistent with her wealthy upbringing and could only lead to alarming implications.
Then there was Blake. 61 kg and 167cm. A quick X-ray scan revealed the presence of tapetum in her eyes, a dead ringer for Faunus night vision. There were also the cat ears hidden within her black bow. Clever. And cute!
Lastly, there was Yang. Standing at 173cm and weighing 75kg, she was notably the tallest in the group and had the most muscle density out of all four of Team RWBY. There was also something about her likeness that was familiar...
"What's your name?"
Further analysis would have to wait. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you all!" she answered in a chipper tone.
"Likewise," Blake replied with a soft smile. "What brings you to Vale?"
"I'm here to attend the Vytal Festival Tournament!" Penny explained. "I'm combat-ready!"
Ruby found herself smiling at Penny's infectious enthusiasm. But she noticed the serious look on Weiss's face.
"Have you seen a Faunus run by? Blonde hair, monkey tail?" she asked.
"I already asked her that," Ruby explained. "She didn't see anyone run by."
After Weiss's inquiry, Penny looked behind the group. "I take it they came around that corner before you caught me?" she asked Ruby.
"That's right..." Ruby replied.
Penny looked around at various locations, calculating the odds of escape based on the data she just received. There was only one logical conclusion. "It's entirely possible this person climbed up one of these buildings."
Penny pointed to the structure next to her, a rustic-looking apartment complex with plenty of footholds for an experienced parkour expert to exploit. It also happened to be two blocks down from Tukson's Book Trade, which Ruby had been a regular customer of for years. She recently heard the store would soon permanently close so the owner could retire in Vacuo.
Weiss was dissatisfied with Penny's observation and let out an annoyed groan. "Ugh. That's just great. I can't believe that filthy Faunus rapscallion got away!"
"Okay, that's enough!" Everyone's attention was on a fed-up Blake, who directed her ire toward Weiss. "He isn't a degenerate, and he isn't a rapscallion!"
"He stowed away on a ship!" Weiss countered. "Clearly, he's already on his way to being a criminal mastermind. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on his way to join the others at the White Fang."
"Listen to yourself!" Blake thrust her hand forward and shoved Weiss.
"How dare you?!" Weiss yelled.
Before Weiss could literally push back against Blake, Ruby grabbed them both by the shoulder and kept them away from each other.
"Girls, girls!" she exclaimed. "Either calm down or wait until after we're back at the dorms."
Blake and Weiss said nothing to each other as they stared daggers at one another. As annoyed as they were, they at least knew making a scene out in public wouldn't do either of them any favors. They both moved out of Ruby's grasp and walked in the opposite direction from which they came. Yang reluctantly followed them.
What am I going to do with you two...? After Ruby wondered that to herself, she forced a smile as she looked at Penny. "Sorry again for tackling you, friend."
Friend...? I have a friend! Penny played it cool as she responded, "I don't mind. To be honest, I barely felt you!" This was a white lie she told to hide her true nature. In reality, she felt the impressive velocity Ruby achieved in such a short distance, followed by every ounce of additional weight on her back when she was grabbed.
"Thanks for understanding."
As Ruby walked away, Penny waited patiently for her to walk around the corner. As soon as she knew nobody was in earshot of her, she squealed with delight and cupped her cheeks with glee. I have a friend now!
"I don't understand why this is such a problem!"
"That is the problem! You lack the self-awareness to realize you're being a bigot!"
"Then you should at least realize the White Fang hate humanity!"
"Weiss, we've been over this." Ruby didn't think she would have to mediate a heated political debate, but given what she knew, there was more at stake than anyone else realized. She didn't fault Yang for trying to lighten the mood on the way back from the docks, even if her puns were met with lukewarm reception at best.
"I noted your counterpoint at the docks, Ruby," Weiss told her. "But it doesn't change how they are now: pure evil!"
"There's no such thing as pure evil!" Blake retorted. "Haven't you thought about why Faunus hate humans so much?"
"Oh, because we gave them their own nation, and they decided that's not good enough?"
"Menagerie isn't even a nation!" Blake exclaimed. "It's an island where two-thirds of it is a Grimm-infested desert! And honestly? It's people like you that's made the White Fang into extremists."
"People like me?" Weiss scoffed.
Ruby frowned as she remembered their conversation at the semester's start. "You haven't exactly had nice things to say about Faunus..."
Weiss knew what Ruby was getting at. When talking about her father's business practices with Ruby, she wasn't completely open about her opinion regarding the Faunus. Since it looked like Ruby was taking Blake's side, Weiss would have to rectify this.
"That's because I'm a victim!"
Weiss's admission left behind a silence that Crescent Rose could cut through. Weiss gravitated toward the window as her eyes counted out as many stars in the night sky as possible.
"The White Fang have been at war with my family for years," Weiss continued. "People have died because they had ties with my grandfather's company. I've seen family friends disappear, board members assassinated, and just recently, they stole an entire cargo train full of Dust!"
Blake kept a straight face, but she knew what train Weiss was talking about. Blake was there, alongside Adam, who wanted to go as far as destroying it and killing the civilian workers that were aboard in the process. While she didn't regret being part of the White Fang, she couldn't abide by Adam's plan and ran away.
"Every day, my father would come home furious because of the White Fang." Weiss's hands defiantly clenched into fists as she turned to look at Ruby and Blake. "And that made for a very difficult childhood." Her icy blue glare zeroed in on Blake. "So, you really want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're liars, thieves, and murderers!"
"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"
At first, Blake didn't realize what she had just done. But eventually, her teammates' bewildered silence and surprised expressions clued her in. She was immediately met with the consequences of her outburst: they knew Blake was a Faunus and that she had ties with the White Fang. But what she found strange was how Ruby felt about the news. She didn't express surprise but instead winced sympathetically.
"... You knew?" Blake asked.
Weiss and Yang's attention went from Blake to their team leader, multiple times in Weiss's case.
Ruby nervously rubbed the back of her neck to cope with the attention she was receiving. "Um... Only the fact you're a Faunus," she admitted. "But not the whole... White Fang implication..."
On top of Blake's blunder, her team leader admitted that her biggest secret at Beacon wasn't as well-kept as she hoped. If she was intrigued by Ruby's investigation skills in any capacity, panic drowned those feelings without any remorse. She felt herself coping with the same choice she had on the train with Adam: fight or flight?
I've got to get out of here!
Blake's form dissipated into an ebony, vaguely humanoid shape until that, too, vanished. Ruby looked over at the door when she heard the knob turn just in time to see the real Blake dash out.
"Blake, wait! Come back!" Ruby could only run to the door and call after her down the hallway. But when she saw Blake keep going, Ruby turned to the rest of her team. "I'm going after her," she told them, her silver eyes focused on Weiss as though to silently add, "You're too good at pushing people's buttons, you know that?"
As Ruby's form turned into a blur of red, and rose petals were left in her wake, Weiss sat down on her bed and covered her face in frustration. She had no words to speak, but her mind came to the same four words like a broken record: I did it again!
Yang frowned as she saw Weiss express remorse over her actions. Her motherly instincts kicked in, and she sat on the bed next to her. "Hey, it's alright," she assured, speaking in a soft tone that she had used seemingly thousands of times whenever her younger sister got upset. "I didn't know she was a Faunus either."
Weiss parted her hands to speak, but she kept her eyes and cheeks concealed from view. "It's not about that! I just..." Weiss put her hands down and looked at Yang with sadness. "I'm trying to be a different person, I really am. Had I known who she was, I..."
Weiss recoiled slightly when she felt Yang's touch. But she didn't try to uncoil the arm around her shoulders or back away. Not after realizing she had been touch-starved until now.
"Would you still think any differently about Faunus if you did?" Yang wondered.
Weiss took a moment to give the question genuine consideration. "... Probably not," she admitted. "I probably would've found a way to badger her like I did with your sister."
"The way I see it?" Yang began. "I think it's good you got to air things out. Now we know more about you and about Blake."
"I'm glad my egregious racism let you get to know the team better," Weiss sarcastically replied. She did find enough humor in the situation to give a weak smile.
Yang laughed slightly as she held Weiss closer in a half-hug. "We just need to give Blake time to cool off. Plus, Ruby's gonna be there for her. She'll help straighten things out."
"Yeah..." Weiss sighed. "I just wish I could do something to make it better."
Looks like there's hope for her yet, Yang thought. She moved away from Weiss and let her go. "Maybe we can talk more about what happened with the White Fang. You can't really think of a good apology when you're worked up about stuff, right?"
"Are you sure?" Weiss wondered. "We might be up all night while you help me unpack everything."
"What's an all-nighter on a Saturday going to do?" Yang retorted.
She really wants to hear me out that badly... Weiss realized. She leaned forward and placed her arms on her thighs as she went through the mental filing cabinet of childhood traumas and family wrongdoings. Where do I even begin...?