Chapter 15: The Stray

"So that's what all that was about!" Nora said while jumping on her cot. Team JNPR were in their dorm room, the curtains around their beds pulled away so they could chat.

It had been over a week since the trip to Forever Fall, and Pyrrha had finally convinced Jaune to inform his team about his tenuous enrollment status.

"I think we should keep this to ourselves," Pyrrha said, looking concerned as Jaune hung his head. "Jaune is a great student, and we can all help him become a better hunter."

Nora plopped onto her bed, resting her head on her hands as she asked, "What do you think, Ren?"

They all glanced towards Ren, who had a hand to his chin. Eventually, he said, "I agree with Pyrrha. We'll keep Jaune as our leader."

"Really?" Jaune asked, "You even want me to stay as your leader?"

"You've faced down a creature of grimm twice now, alone and outmatched," Ren affirmed. "I've only known one other person who would do such a thing. I respected him wholly."

"Welp, there you have it!" Nora said, throwing an arm around Ren. "We'll keep this whole debacle to ourselves!"

"And no quips about it, Nora," Pyrrha chided. "I don't want to arouse suspicion from anyone who doesn't already know."

"Relax!" Nora said, rolling across Ren's bed. "I'll be careful."

Jaune and Pyrrha exchanged glances.

"Really!" Nora insisted. "I mean, only we and Cardin know about it, right?"

"I had to let Blake in on it too," Jaune admitted.

"And she's super stealthy!" Nora said, standing and throwing a thumb at herself. "Trust me, leader guy, your secret is safe with me!"

"So that's what that was about," Yang said as team RWBY, minus Weiss, ate lunch with team JNPR in the cafeteria.

Pyrrha shot a hard glare at Nora.

"What?" the ginger said sheepishly. "You said team RWBY knew!"

"I said Blake knew!" Jaune corrected. He sighed and rested his head against the table.

"Easy there, hot shot," Yang said. "We ain't snitches."

"Yeah, Jaune," Ruby spoke up. "You and your team have improved a lot since we got back from Forever Fall. It doesn't matter how you got into Beacon; at this point, we all belong here."

"Thanks Ruby," Jaune said, looking up with a wan smile. "That means a lot."

She smiled back, but it faded as her eyes flicked to the far side of the room. Blake noticed as she stared, looking in that direction and finding Weiss eating alone.

"You should just give up on her, Ruby," Blake said, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "She's not worth the challenge."

"But I was close to something during the trip," Ruby said, her voice tinged with remorse. "Maybe just one more try?"

Blake shook her head.

"Ruby might be onto something," Yang chimed in. "Everyone deserves a second chance. There could be something redeeming about Weiss, like…" She held up a hand to start counting off the heiress' positive attributes, but never raised a finger. "I mean, she's rich?"

Blake gave her a blank stare while Ruby rolled her eyes.

A commotion across the room interrupted their conversation.

Cardin had walked up to where Velvet was eating lunch, beginning to berate her.

"Move it, Four Ears!" he growled. "That's my seat."

"But, I've sat here all week," she said meekly.

"What are you, deaf?" Cardin asked mockingly. "Or are these things just for show?" He lifted a hand and tugged on her bunny ears, trying to lift her out of the spot.

Blake stood up, hands spread across the table as she glared murderously at Cardin. Her table turned to witness the bully tug again, harder.

"Stop! That hurts!" Velvet cried, raising her hands to counter Cardin's grip. He smiled menacingly as the whole cafeteria hushed.

"Jaune," Blake hissed, "do something!"

"I-" the boy faltered, looking away. "I can't. She's not really my friend. If I try to protect the whole school, Cardin'll probably snap and get us both expelled."

Blake glared at him as he sank in remorse. She left her seat, walking by Ren, who tapped her coat sleeve.

"Blake," Ren started, "Don't-"

"I know," Blake said, shifting away from her friends to storm onto the scene.

She slapped Cardin's hand, forcing it to release Velvet, then she towed the whimpering girl away from him.

"Hey!" Cardin yelled at them as Blake took Velvet back to her friends. "What's your deal!"

"What's yours?" Blake retorted, turning on Cardin. "Picking on a weaker student because you couldn't handle an ursa?"

Cardin grew red as he shouted back, "An ursa major! And if that makes me weak, what right does a furball who's too scared to fight anything have to even be at Beacon!"

"More of a right than you!"

"Why you-!" Cardin stepped toward Blake, who squared her shoulders, ready to fight. Before it came to blows, a pale yellow glyph appeared under their feet, slowing their movements.

"A moment, please," Weiss said, stepping up to face them while dismissing her semblance. "While muscle-head's behavior has become increasingly abhorrent, this instance reflects poorly on both students. It may be that your friend's reluctance to stand up for herself is a textbook example of faunus traits: skittish and docile, typically choosing to run or cower when presented with the option.

"This is well understood in Atlas, and thus, faunus are given separate facilities to account for the differences between them and humans." Her explanation seemed to placate Cardin, but the faces of Blake and several members of teams RWBY and JNPR grew frustrated.

"It is naivety on the part of Beacon's staff that faunus and humans can coexist without such incidents," Weiss continued. "Take the White Fang for example; a faunus civil rights group that's become more violent with every demonstration."

Blake's readied retort died on her lips at Weiss' last sentence. She stood there stunned as Yang rounded into the argument.

"You are way out of line Weiss!" Yang yelled. "You're talking about splitting our schoolmates apart like it would solve a centuries old issue!" She gestured over the students present in the building, a healthy number of which had animal traits.

"But it would give the faunus here a place to not be bullied," Weiss countered, waving a dismissive hand at Yang. "I wouldn't expect a simpleton like you to understand the nuance of my position."

Seeing the argument grow more heated, Ruby and Pyrrha both stood. The former sped out the front doors of the cafeteria while the latter walked to stand in front Weiss.

"Your 'position' isn't nuanced, Weiss," Pyrrha said flatly. "If anything, it's rather simplistic. Wouldn't it be better if people like Cardin stopped picking on others because of their appearance rather than splitting society apart to account for such behavior?"

The heiress paused, growing conflicted at the champion's words. She glanced around the room, watching the crowd avert their eyes.

"Hey, Weiss is on to something!" Cardin interrupted. "She's the smartest girl among all the first year students. If you want to keep crossing me, or her, you're gonna get it!" He punched his palm with a fist, overtly aggressive.

Jaune jumped up, stepping between Cardin and his friends.

"I think we're done here," he said, meeting the bully's fierce eyes with a cold fire in his own. Cardin's mouth snapped shut as he glared at Jaune for an extended time. The other man didn't flinch.

"You can't protect your friends forever!" Cardin snarled at him.

"And he won't have to!" Coco Adel shouted, appearing dramatically from the front of the cafeteria. "So long as we're here!" Fox and Yatsuhashi stepped up to her sides bearing grim expressions. Ruby stumbled in a moment later, winded after fetching them.

"Now, which one of you bastards dared to lay a finger on our teammate?" Coco's question silenced the room. Velvet wilted as several students, including Nora, pointed at Cardin.

The boy turned to the newcomers. "So what if I did?" he said. "What are you gonna do about it?"

"Is that a challenge?" Coco said dryly, tilting her sunglasses down. "The real question is what we won't do about it." She flicked her accessory back into place. "Much shorter list."

Cardin's only response was to yell and charge, raising a fist to deck her. Coco ducked under the attack, sticking out her foot and sweeping Cardin's legs from beneath him. The boy hadn't bothered activating his aura, allowing her to force him into a tumble and plant an elbow into his gut as he fell.

Nora let out a whoop, and the room erupted with applause.

Cardin lay winded at the entrance of the cafeteria as the rest of team CRDL appeared. "We'll take it from here," Russel assured team CFVY as Dove and Sky hefted the dazed boy out of the scene.

"You'd better," Fox chided as Coco glared at them. Yatsuhashi put a hand on her shoulder as the other team left.

They turned back to the crowd and walked up to Velvet.

"And you're coming with us," Coco said, taking Velvet's hand.

"But-"

"Come on, Vel," Fox said, motioning to the door. "We've already made a scene. Let's just go."

The girl followed them demurely, sparing her other friends a glance as team CFVY left.

Most of the students returned to their meals after that, but among team RWBY, Weiss was first to leave. Blake glared at her as she did, turmoil smoldering behind her eyes.

"And here you'd almost convinced me you weren't your family!" Blake seethed at Weiss at the next opportunity. "I can't believe that's what you think of the faunus!"

They were on the stairwell of their dorm tower: Weiss in the lead, Blake just reaching the floor behind her, and Ruby and Yang trailing her. The day had grown late before any of them had returned.

Weiss stopped, looking down at Blake. "And I can't believe you'd defending them."

"Defending who?" Blake spit back, narrowing her eyes. "The faunus? Defending a girl being bullied in front of hundreds of kids?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Bleeding hearts like you are the reason the White Fang haven't been wiped off the face of Remnant." She turned to climb more stairs.

"And why should they be?" Blake said, aghast, following the heiress towards their dorm.

Weiss stopped at their floor, facing Blake. "Um, hello! They're terrorists!"

Blake's eyes became no more than slits as she bit out, "Freedom fighters."

"That's what they want you to think!" Weiss said, turning to leave. "If it were true, they'd stop stealing so much dust!"

"Maybe if your company didn't discriminate so much, they would!" Blake retorted, following after her.

Weiss entered their dorm with a groan, catching sight of her painting of Forever Fall. She walked over to her bed, sitting down and resting her eyes.

Blake followed her, folding her arms as she sat across the room on Yang's bed. Yang and Ruby entered last as Weiss restarted the argument.

"I don't understand why this is such a problem," she lamented.

"That is the problem!" Blake said, pointing at Weiss.

Weiss stood, her mouth drawn to a line. "You realize you're defending an organization that hates humanity, don't you?" she retorted. "The faunus of the White Fang are pure evil."

Blake stood to meet her gaze.

"People can't be pure evil! Why do you think they hate humanity so much?" Blake asked before answering, "It's because of people like Cardin- people like you- that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures."

Weiss balked, holding a hand to her collar. "People like me?!"

"You're discriminatory!" Blake said with a dismissive wave.

"I'm a victim!"

Blake paused at Weiss' declaration. They held intense stares until Weiss started to elaborate in a rough whisper, "Do you want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the faunus? They've been at war with my family for years.

"War," Weiss emphasized, moving to gaze out the window at the dimming sky. "As in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was a child, I've watched friends disappear. Board members kidnapped. Family, executed.

"And everyday, my father would come home furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood." Weiss smacked the bookshelf she had leaned on with a fist.

"Weiss…" Ruby said as she stepped up to comfort her, but she was brushed off with a glare.

The heiress stepped over to stare Blake down, speaking curtly, "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"

"Well maybe we were tired of being pushed around!"

Blake's words floated in the air for a moment, then crashed down on the girls like a thunderstorm.

Ruby and Yang gave her worried looks; Blake and Weiss both flinched, holding shocked stares.

It took Blake the longest to return to reality, which came as one word tumbled from Weiss' lips.

"'We?'"

The next moments were a blur to Blake as she ran out the dorm room, down the stairs, past the tower's doors, using her semblance to make turns in an instant.

She scrambled across Beacon's enormous campus, the sun finally fading behind the horizon.

Blake was breathing heavily as she came to a stop by the school's gated entrance, leaning on her legs as her aura flickered around her.

She reached up and tore off her bow, exposing a set of sleek black cat ears to the night.

Blake gave one last look back at Beacon, clenching her bow with pain in her eyes, then left the school to find her way down to the city of Vale.