"Time for the future!" Ruby exclaimed ecstatically as she bounced in her seat. Weiss had to get her to stop because the girl's bounding was also causing her to elevate.
"If I were to guess what it could be it might be our first mission, because a few episodes ago Professor Goodwitch brought up the dance and our first field trip. With the dance having already happened, my next guess is that we'll be seeing our first trip." Weiss analyzed as she tried to get her partner to calm down, which worked for the most part.
"I wonder what's going to happen!" Yang joined her sister's excitement albeit not as strongly. She was excited to see what crazy shenanigans they'd get up outside of Professor Goodwitch's watch.
"Well, come on, I wanna see!" Nora joined as she yelled for the bottom row to start it.
(Volume 2 Intro)
Beacon's highest tower, and Ozpin's office, was the first thing to be seen. "They were here, Ozpin they were here!" Booms General Ironwood's voice as he slams his fist on Professor Ozpin's desk.
Ren pulled out the notebook, hoping they might get something from it. From what he could tell they were discussing what happened at the CCT Tower with the break in and Ruby.
"Geez, barely even a minute into the episode," Jaune's voice was quiet so everyone could hear. They needed all the information they could obtain.
"We are very much aware of that, thank you James," Professor Goodwitch retorts at Ironwood's outburst.
"Fantastic, you're aware, now are we going to do something about it or should we just stay the course and continue to ignore what's right in front of us?" While Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch continue arguing, Ozpin is sitting quietly in his chair, listening, but also conflicted.
Ozpin's desk beeps, signaling for someone's request to come into the room. When he allows them to come in, it's Ruby who steps into the room. "Sorry it took so long, someone accidentally hit all the buttons in the elevator on the way up here…it wasn't me."
Ren set down his notebook, knowing full well they weren't going to continue their conversation with Ruby in the room now.
Yang gave a small laugh as she heard Ruby finish. Yeah, it was definitely her.
Knowing herself, that was most likely a way to delay some kind of inevitable.
"Thank you for coming, Ruby, how are you feeling?" Ozpin asked the young girl. She nervously tells him she's okay, but she'd feel better if her bad guy catching record wasn't over three. All three of the adults stare at her silently, and Ruby rubs the back of her head, seeing how the tone of this conversation was going to go.
"Can't say you didn't try me," Ruby mumbles to herself.
"I understand you were trying to lighten the mood, but you honestly should have read the room the moment you came out of the elevator," Weiss leaned over and whispered to her. Ruby sighs to herself, letting Weiss know she got the idea. "But, I can't fault you for at least attempting to lighten the mood."
"Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a huntress is all about. You recognized a threat, you took action, and you did the very best you could." Ruby thanks the general for his words.
If Ruby wasn't already excited before the episode, it just got a whole lot better for her. The general himself just complimented her and told her she did exactly what a good huntress would do.
"Aww, I'm so proud of you!" Yang brings Ruby into a choking side hug, and could hear Ruby gasping for air as she struggles out of her sister's grip. It had to take both Weiss and Blake to get her off, though she still wanted to give her sister a proud hug.
"Now, the general has already informed us of the events that…transpired last night, but not that you've rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add?" Ozpin asked once the two were done with their small discussion.
Professor Goodwitch bombards her questions; was anyone else with her? Did she look familiar to Ruby in any way? Ruby shook her head, not knowing what to say before telling the three she didn't know, Cinder was wearing a mask, she never spoke, but she fought with glass, though Ruby didn't believe that was her semblance. The other thing she added is that her clothing lit up when she attacked Ruby.
"Save for the glass, that sounds like the women I fought the night we met Ruby," Professor Goodwitch sounded like she was talking to herself, remembering the events.
"Embedding dust into clothing is an age old technique, it could have been anyone." General Ironwood doesn't see Professor Goodwitch's recallings useful as he faces away from Ruby.
"Wait, you think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?" Ruby voices her assumptions, and this leads to all three of them going quiet, except for Ozpin who said it is a possibility.
Having watched two and a half volumes, it's obvious that it isn't just a possibility Cinder is affiliated with Torchwick, it's a fact, but judging by the interactions they've seen Cinder, all of them know she must have some kind of bigger motives than to just help out Torchwick. It's only a matter of what it is she is wanting.
"But, we still lack the required evidence to link the two together." Ozpin adds as he sees Ruby avert her gaze downwards negatively.
"Actually, I-I think I remember her saying something about a hideout or something in the southeast, just outside the kingdom," Ruby says, inconspicuously bringing up the same data that Weiss shared with them in the dorm.
"Interesting," Ozpin says to himself upon hearing this, but Glynda was about to call her out, remembering how Ruby said that Cinder didn't say anything, though Ozpin quickly cut her off and thanked Ruby for her cooperation.
Some wanted to comment on Ruby's clever idea to bring Weiss's findings into the conversation, while a couple of others, mainly Weiss, wanted to lightly scold Ruby for being a bit reckless due to Professor Goodwitch speaking out. If it weren't for Ozpin, Ruby would have been placed in a tight spot.
That being said, why did Ozpin speak up?
"Why don't you go and spend some time with your team, you have a big day ahead of you." Ruby's response was happily saying 'anytime' as she goes to skip back to the elevator, just happy to get out of there. "And Ms. Rose, please try and be…discreet about this matter." Ruby tells him that she will as she finally leaves.
The moment she opened her dorm room, Weiss, Yang, and Blake rushed to her. Yang being the one to yell the question 'what happened?'
Everyone in the room found the scene extremely comical, with Ruby having just been told to keep the matter on the down low, only for all of her team demanding how the chat went.
"And of course it was Yang to ask," Blake comments as she playfully rolls her eyes.
"Hey, don't act like you weren't interested, you look just as curious as the rest of us."
"Well, all of us have seen the conversation now soooo…" Weiss trails, but Yang sticks her tongue out at the girl. She didn't have to try and ruin the fun mood.
Ruby chuckles nervously as she doesn't exactly tell them anything.
"Well there we have it," coming back to Ironwood, the man looking outside of Ozpin's window, "We've sent as many troops as we can to the southeast, find out exactly what's going on, and eradicate any forces that stand in our way."
"Didn't expect to return to them so soon, but hey, good news for us, maybe we'll get some information out of them." Yang shrugs, and Ren in the back brings out the notebook, having a feeling of promise with this one.
"Why must your answer to everything involve a triumphant display of military bravado, you treat every situation like it's a contest of measure-" Ironwood had got on Glynda's last nerve as she was about to blow; that would have happened if Ozpin hadn't stepped in, only saying her name to get her to stop. "Well he does," She quickly added.
"She's right. As much as I to would love to end this situation once and for all, we must remember this may go beyond Vale, beyond Beacon, and if this truly is part of some master plan for which we know not the final move, we mustn't be so bold nor can we risk the spread of panic." As Ozpin speaks, Ironwood clenches his fist in agitation as he removes it from the glass.
"I have served you faithfully for years, but if you mean to tell me that your plan is to really hold the defenses and wait-" General Ironwood was abruptly cut off by Ozpin as he angrily got up from his chair, stating that isn't the case.
All eyes in the room widened, not having ever seen the headmaster this way before.
"You're a general, James, so tell me, when you prepare to go to war, which do you send in first, the flag bearer or the scouts?"
Weiss informs Ruby that what she did was a risky move.
"Nothing? C'mon, there's gotta be something to get out of them," the whole room sighed in disappointment at having gotten another chance to get new data only to get nothing. "What's the point of showing us their discussions if there's nothing to dissect?" Yang was getting a little more than peeved.
"It must hold some importance, but what? If it wasn't important they wouldn't have shown it. If there was nothing to it the episode wouldn't have had it in the first place." Weiss was more than likely trying to calm down her own frustration with this small reasoning.
Blake tells Ruby that she believed she handled the situation well; Ruby hopes that she did. "I'm sure everything will be alright Ruby," Yang comforts her sister, "Oh! I know what will cheer you up." Yang walks over to one of the desks, a long rectangular package resting atop of it. Ruby asks her sister about the box and what it was, "I don't know yet, dad sent it to us, I thought we could open it together."
Ruby squeals as the object is from home. She bursts into roses as she's now on Yang's back, relentlessly trying to get the box.
"OOOH!!" Ruby too is squealing along with her tv counterpart.
A long gray cylinder comes out of the box, landing on the floor. It bounces lightly a few times before taking its proper shape as Zwei, Yang and Ruby's pet dog.
"what?" Jaune stared at the screen, not quite catching up that a dog came out of a cardboard box.
"Your dad sent a dog in the mail?" Pyrrha was really confused, how did the dog retain the cylinder shape? How did it even fit in the box? How did their dad even transport it like that in the first place?!
Ruby gasped loudly, "ZWEI!!!" She wanted to bounce in the air and hug and kiss him, but that was the future, and Zwei wasn't here.
"A dog?!"
"Your dad sent a dog in the mail?"
Blake was skeptical and very against the idea of a dog in their dorm and Weiss questioned their dad's choices in doing this in the first place.
"Oh, he does this stuff all the time," Yang waves off everyone's reactions as if it's the most normal thing in the entire world.
"We're gonna see Zwei again!!" Ruby was still ecstatic about the whole ordeal with getting to see the best boy in the all of Remnant.
All four girls silently stared at the dog, that was until he gave a bark. All of their reactions varied. Both Yang and Ruby were utterly excited, Weiss was outright dumbfounded, and Blake disliked this the most as she jumped in the air, her posture taking on that of a startled cat.
Blake honestly hoped no one had noticed her reaction. Luckily for her, everyone else was too busy with the other three's reaction to notice. At least some sense of luck was on her side.
Ruby yelled the dog's name with pure joy, in her own little world, with two Zwei's running around and two faces of said dog were present in opposite corners.
"He sent a dog!?"
"In the mail?!" Weiss finished Blake's sentence with her half.
Zwei happily licks Ruby's face, and Yang tells the two that their dad does stuff like this all the time. From up on Ruby's bunk, Blake asks if their dad does this or their dog.
"Wait, Blake…" Blake wanted to inwardly groan as Yang turned to her with a barely contained smile. "Are you afraid of dogs?"
"I'm not afraid of dogs, I just don't like them."
Yang could only hold in her laughter for so long as she burst out into loud chuckling. Blake didn't hide her frown as she narrowed her eyes at the girl. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just…the whole situation with you being a cat faunus, and the whole thing with dogs."
Blake's frown only deepened further. She refused to have this conversation continue.
"Blake… Blake…? Blake? Blake I'm sorry. Blaaaake," Yang pouted when she got no response. I guess that was too far, damnit. "Blake, I'm sorry." She leaned in closer with a quiet whisper, not actually meaning to make Blake mad, it was just all in good teasing.
Yang frowned when she still got no response, Blake continued to look at the screen with her blank face. This left Yang to sigh and refocus her attention back on the screen.
"Are you telling me, that this mangey… drooling…mutt is going to live with us forever? Oh yes he is, yes he is." Weiss's sentence paused as it went back and forth to Zwei and Weiss's complaining before ending with Weiss talking in a baby voice to the dog.
Weiss's whole face went red as she watched how she acted, it was completely embarrassing for others to see. "Aww, Weiss, don't worry, we do the same for Zwei too." Ruby tried in an attempt to help Weiss, but it had the opposite effect as her face only deepened in color.
"Please keep it away from my belongings," Blake says, still perched on her spot on Ruby's top bunk.
"Will all first year students please report to the amphitheater," Professor Goodwitch says through the intercom.
"Well we can't exactly leave him here while we're gone for a week," Weiss states as Zwei jumps from Ruby's arms to Weiss's bed as the dog stands on his hind legs, wanting to get to Blake.
Yang takes out a gray lid from the box before pulling out a letter from Taiyang. "Look, there's a letter, 'Dear girls, I've got to leave the island for a few days, so I'm sending Zwei to you to take care of, enclosed is all the food you should need, love you both-Taiyang.'" Once Yang was done reading the letter, Zwei had ran around, and was covered in a pile of dog food cans. Weiss asks what Zwei is even supposed to do with those, and her question is answered as a can opener drops from the box, landing on the dog's head.
"How did any of that even…?" Weiss trailed off as she didn't even want to know the answer to that question.
"As if fitting a dog in that small of a box wasn't impossible enough," Blake mumbled to herself, practically done with the whole thing.
"Welp, that settles it, come on girls, Zwei will be here when we get back!" Yang tosses both the box and letter and she gestures for her teammates to follow. As Weiss went to leave she told Zwei in her baby voice how much she was going to him and they'll be the best of friends when she gets back. In the back, Blake bounds off the bed, onto the table, and to the door, effectively avoiding the dog as Weiss had him distracted.
"Please, ju-just stop!" Weiss couldn't take it anymore as she herself baby the dog that she has never even met yet.
Ruby stares down at the dog, thinking, as Zwei looks back at her. The girl's face lights up as she came up with an idea.
"Ruby, don't do what I think you're about to do…" Yang's voice was stern as she turned to look at her sister. The same sister that was persistently avoiding her gaze, knowing what her screen counterpart was thinking.
As Ruby walks through the door is clearly carrying a very obvious backpack with her.
All eyes go to Ruby, staring at the girl in disbelief. I mean, they really didn't want to believe she'd actually do that, but…
"Ruby, you didn't…" Yang is shaking her head, not wanting to actually be right.
If Ruby could talk to her future self, she'd tell her it was a nice effort but even she doesn't get how she was caught.
She sets her bags with the others and she goes back to join her team. On the microphone, Glynda says that Professor Ozpin would like to say a few words. "Today we stand together, united. Mistral, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale," Ozpin goes over each academy as it shows their students, "Four kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly 80 years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression; a war that was about much more than where borders fell or who traded with whom, but about the very idea of individualism itself. We fought for countless reasons, being the destruction of all forms of art and self expression, and as you are all well aware that was something many could not stand for. As a result, those who oppose this tyranny, began naming their children after one of the core aspects of art itself: Color."
It was their way to demonstrate that not only would they refuse to tolerate this oppression, but neither will the generations to come, and it was a trend that is held to this very day. We encourage individuality, expressionism, and unity through diversity. As I have said, today we stand together, united, but this bond can not exist without effort. Which is why today the rest of the world celebrates peace, huntsmen and huntresses will work to uphold it. As first year students, you'll be tasked with shadowing a professional huntsman or huntress on a mission; some of you might be taken out of the kingdom for several days, others may work within the walls for the rest of the week. But, no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best." With that, Ozpin walks off the stage from his speech, the rest of the auditorium clapping for him.
"Geez, was it just me or did we all literally have nothing to say during that entire thing," Yang gave a breathless laugh. Something to fill the dead silence that was the last minute.
"What was there to really say? It was only another one of Ozpin's speeches." Weiss states as if the answer were obvious. "A simple send off."
"This is perfect! All we have to do is shadow a huntsmen in the southeast," Ruby brings up to her team's attention in excitement. Yang happily agrees, they'll follow them during the daytime and give them the slip at night. Weiss voices that they should check, search ,and destroy.
Team Rwby walk up to one of the mission screens, and Ruby goes over the contents on screen. Quadrant 5 needs Grimm cleared out around the area. Blake notes that the mission is in the southeast, using a voice that says 'I'll settle for this', and Yang beside her enthusiastically says it's perfect.
Ruby clicks on the mission and types in her team's name, but is denied as it's unavailable for first year students.
"What?! Nooo!" Ruby yells as she feels like sinking to the floor.
Sun frowns and shakes his head, "So close yet so far." But, even with this deterrence, all knew they were going to find some way around their problem. One way or another.
Weiss comments sarcastically that this is wonderful, and Blake asks Ruby if she has any other ideas. Ruby tells them that they're going to mail themselves there.
The sound of facepalms echoed all throughout the room, even from Ruby herself.
"Unfortunately we determined that the concentration of grimm was too extreme for first year students, " All of Team Rwby looked towards Professor Ozpin as they noticed him walking towards them. "It seems that particular region is rather popular, in fact, I have the sneaking suspicion that the four of you will make your way there no matter what you choose." Blake, Yang, and Weiss direct their attention to Ruby, all of their narrowed eyes aimed at her as she nervously rubbed the back of her head with a smile.
I knew it was careless to name drop the area earlier. Weiss thought that but she didn't plan on saying it out loud, their counterparts were enough to tell Ruby it was a bad idea.
"Ruby…" Yang's voice was filled with, not annoyance, just utter exasperation at her sister. Blake felt the same but didn't say anything.
Ruby attempts to play dumb, "Whatever makes you say that?"
"I'm still curious as to how you all found yourselves at the dock last semester. I'm interested to know how you really learned about a 'hideout' in the southeast. And I certainly wonder why witnesses reported seeing robots and rose petals in a dance club some time ago." Ruby tries to dance around the accusation, but she just made herself really obvious.
This deserved another facepalm, but everyone figured there might be a lot of moments in this episode so they decided that it was ultimately pointless.
"Why me…" Ruby groaned as she watched her future self.
"I doubt I'll ever find the exact answers I'm looking for, so about this, instead of waiting for you all to break the rules, why don't we just bend them." Going on his tablet, Professor Ozpin changes the settings, allowing Team Rwby to go on the mission. All the girls look at the screen with bright smiles; Ruby turns and tells him they won't let him down, as well as thanking him.
The mood in the room just took a turn as all began to celebrate, thanking Professor Ozpin. Too bad he wasn't there with them, and it was in the future.
"Do not thank me for this, teamwork and persistence have carried you far."
And it's going to carry them even further.
"But you must understand, the things that await you beyond the protection of the kingdom will not care. Stay close to your huntsmen at all times, and do exactly as he says. He will be leading you on this mission and he can have you sent back to Beacon if he finds your skills to be unsatisfactory." With that, Professor Ozpin is off as he finishes.
"Who's going to be our huntsmen?" Ruby asks, her voice apprehensive and worried. It sounds like this professor is going to be even colder than Weiss was when they first met.
Team Rwby all look at each other, nervous, as Ozpin comes back for a second with a final 'good luck' to them. All four of them are now outside of the auditorium, reflecting on the interaction. Weiss is clearly upset, Yang comments on how it wasn't really uplifting, and Blake follows up with saying it's the truth.
"It's gonna be tough but I know we can do it," Ruby says cheerfully. Another Beacon student rushes past her and shouts that Team CFVY is back.
Blake rushes over to Velvet and asks her if she's okay. "I'm fine, I had Yatsuhashi to look out for me," Velvet says as she gestures to the man that just walked past her. Weiss exclaims that her mission was supposed to end a week ago, and she's wondering what happened.
"Nothing happened, it was just…there were just so many," all of Team Rwby gave the girl concerned looks, "Oh but don't worry, you first years are just shadowing huntsmen so you should be fine."
"That doesn't exactly help my nerves for you guys," Sun broke the silence as Team JNPR were beginning to become a little more worried of their friends. Going to an area that's more extreme for first years and a place crawling with grimm to the point Team CFVY had to stay there only to come back because it was too dangerous. Not to mention that Torchwick and Cinder are setting up shop down there as well.
They knew they could handle it, but that didn't stop them from worrying about their friends getting seriously hurt.
Yang voices that she's 'reassured' before Velvet tells them she has to go and wishes for them to be safe. Ruby tells her team they can do this as Weiss and Blake look at each other. "We've never backed down before and we're not going to start now," Ruby continues, Blake giving a quick, but determined 'Right' of agreement. "Besides, it won't only be us out there, we'll be fighting alongside a genuine huntsman," Ruby states with excitement, Yang sharing her excitement.
But that elation was stomped and curbed as the girls discovered who their huntsman was going to be.
"Oh Gods, who is it…?" Yang was now dreading who was going to be with them, judging by the looks on their faces.
Team JNPR felt bad, but they also found humor in each and every one of their reactions. Yang looked absolutely appalled, Ruby was disgusted, Weiss's eyes weren't even human, and Blake looked utterly disappointed.
"Who's giving us the absolute honor of being our huntsman?" Weiss groaned as she saw the expression of her face on screen.
"I look grossed out about who we're shadowing," Ruby comments as she looks at her counterpart.
"Why hello girls, who's ready to fight for their lives?" The voice and face of Professor Oobleck appears. With that, the screen goes black and the end credits roll in.
"Noooooo!" All of Team Rwby either groan or shout in pure dismay.