Ch. 39 First day of Second Semester!

Team RWBY and team ANVL are standing in the auditorium with the other students of Beacon, as well as the other students that have arrived at Beacon for the Vytal festival.

Ozpin walks onto the stage and the chatter dies down. He is holding his cane and stands in front of the sea of students.

Alabast barely listens as Ozpin begins talking. He basically introduces himself and welcomes the students that have traveled from every corner of Remnant. And about the history….

"The Vytal Festival was created with the purpose of celebrating the diversity of the cultures of Remnant and to serve as a celebration of peace between the Kingdoms. Every two years, a Kingdom would be chosen to open its doors to the world, allowing citizens from every corner of Remnant to meet and indulge in one another's cultures….." Ozpin pauses and looks at the students. "…..And show off what they can do in the Vytal Tournament"

The students murmur amongst themselves and a few people cheer.

Ozpin waits until they quiet down before he continues. "I hope that everyone gets along and makes new friends that they otherwise wouldn't be able to make. We will be having various activities on campus and the town of Vale will have festivities ongoing. I encourage you to go around and meet your fellow students for the next 2 semesters" Ozpin then remembers something. "Ah! Along with the activities on campus…. There will also be extracurricular activities as well" He says forebodingly.

And then he begins talking in a monotonous tone about other things he's forced to talk about before he can allow the students to go. Mainly about rules, dorm situations, classes, and other things.

"….and that should be all" He finishes and taps his cane on the ground. "Now you may go and have fun. Do not forget you are still students during this festival"

Ozpin then turns around and begins walking out of the auditorium.

The students begin talking amongst eachother about what's to come.

"I can't believe it's finally starting!" Ruby squeals.

Weiss nods. "I actually agree with you on this one Ruby"

"I can't wait for the fights to begin" Yang punches her right fist into her left palm.

Blake is silent and looking around the auditorium.

Alabast leans down to Blake's ears. "They'll have special dishes for the festivities. Lots of fish"

Blake nods which causes Alabast to get suspicious. Normally Blake would be more talkative than this.

"I can't wait! Come on Ren! Let's go get some pancakes!" Nora tries to pull Ren.

But before she can Ren pops her bubble.

"Nora, we have classes to go to. And we have to wait for the festivities on campus to begin" Ren points out.

"Awww! But whyyyyy!" Nora deflates.

Alabast leaves Blake alone for now and backs up.

"What are you looking forward to Bast?" Pyrrha asks.

Alabast looks at the redhead and thinks. "I'm not a very big festival person. But spending time with my girlfriends. They should have great fun and I would like to see it"

Pyrrha grabs his arm. "But what are you looking forward to for yourself?"

Alabast looks into her vivid green eyes. "For myself?" He thinks. "Probably the tournament. But I'm afraid it'll be too easy for us in the beginning"

Pyrrha smiles. "Someone's confident"

"How can I not be. Excluding myself…" He looks at Nora. "We have thunder thighs over there" He then looks at Ren. "We also have someone who is working on masking themselves to be the best assassin" and he looks at Pyrrha. "And we have my little champion here" He puts his hand on Pyrrha's.

"And we have the big bad wolfy" Pyrrha adds.

Alabast nods. Their team was probably one of the favorites to win the tournament. Mainly because of Pyrrha alone.

"Hello~ Alabast~" A sweet but bitter voice says approaching him.

Alabast turns and sees Ayaka walking towards him. But there is a blond boy next to her. "Ayaka…. Vomit Boy"

The blond guy steps forward. "Please don't call me that" He pleads, he holds his hand out to shake. "The names Jaune Arc"

Alabast glares at him for a few seconds. Then he shakes his hand. Tightly. "Alabast Noir"

Jaune feels his hand getting crushed and then it gets released. He holds his hand. "Strong grip man"

"What do you want Ayaka?" Alabast asks dangerously.

The three tailed fox Faunus shrugs. "My old team got scattered. I didn't want to be leader of a new team. And now I'm on this guys team" She says sadly.

"Hey! I'm not the one that wanted to be leader! Ozpin appointed me for some reason! Even Onyx and Dazz didn't want to be leader so I can't even give it to one of you" Jaune states, or complains.

Pyrrha looks awkwardly at Jaune. "I'm sure you can do a good job as leader Jaune. Alabast didn't want to be leader either but he's doing an exemplary job"

"That's right!" Ruby pops up between Ayaka and Alabast. "He's doing a great job! I'm Ruby Rose" She introduces herself to Jaune but glares at the Faunus woman.

Jaune rubs the back of his head. "I remember you from before initiation. And I've seen you and your team around Vale"

"Is that where you stayed after failing?" Alabast asked in an uncaring tone.

Jaune deflates and his shoulders droop down. "Yeah, I got a job in Vale and trained with this guy until I was invited here for the festival"

"Who trained you?" Alabast asks. There is a familiar scent on Jaune, could it have been one of his old teachers? But that doesn't make much sense.

"I don't know. He never gave me his name. Just taught me how to use Crocea Mors and fight properly" Jaune says as he unsheathes his sword.

Alabast also notices he has aura now. And a lot of it. It kinda gives off a weird feeling to Alabast as he senses it. And he can't pinpoint what's off about it. He can smell roses from Ruby's aura. A fiery feeling from Yang's. Things that give him a hint on what their semblance could be.

"Have room for one more girlfriend Aly?" Ayaka asks cutely.

Alabast narrows his eyes. "No"

"Awww" Ayaka sadly slouches.

Alabast wonders what happened to her for her to be acting so differently. But in the end he doesn't really care.

Weiss walks over with Yang next to her and Blake behind them. "We should get going or we will be late to the first lesson of the semester. And I for one don't want a repeat of last semester" Weiss says referring to their mad dash across campus.

Nora brings Ren over. "First class then pancakes!" She exclaims and then pauses when she sees Jaune. "Who are you?"

"Jaune Arc" He looks at Weiss. "Ladies love the name" He winks at her.

Pyrrha holds Alabast's arm tighter so he doesn't get into a fight before the first class.

Weiss looks at Jaune. "I don't think we do" She turns to Alabast and takes his other arm. "Now let's get going"

Team RWBY and ANVL go towards their first class and leave Ayaka and Jaune behind with a few stragglers still in the auditorium.

"So how does he have two girlfriends?" Jaune asks.

"It's not two. It's 5. And it's not the orange haired girl, she's with the other guy" Ayaka informs Jaune.

"Do you think he can help me out? He has to have some tips. Right?" Jaune looks at his teammate but finds that she already left. He watches the two teams leave "Right!" He says to himself with high hopes.

——————

Alabast is sitting in the front of Professor Port's class being bored out of his mind. Under his desk he is trying to get his Darkness and Light to meld together. It's not working but there has been some progress. Not a lot but enough to tell him it's possible in the future.

He isn't sitting next to anyone because apparently they are a day behind due to a Grimm attack and will be in class tomorrow. Some people from Haven Academy. This causes Alabast to want to train Ren more.

Both for Ren's continued improvement in using his semblance and in the possibility that Alabast himself might gain some insight into keeping his own aura masked or hidden.

Mainly because even when he is in the shadows his aura is barely detectable. But if he can cover that small bit up….

"Mr. Noir!"

Alabast comes out his thoughts and notices he is in a different classroom. He looks around and sees everyone looking at him. He recognizes these seats as the sort of bleacher or stadium style seats of the indoor training grounds.

He looks to the front and sees Glynda Goodwitch glaring at him. And of course he is in the front row in this class too.

"Yes?" He sits up.

Glynda folds her arms under her chest. "I'm sure you would like to explain why the relations between huntsmen across Remnant is important"

Alabast wonders why he is being called on. "It's to make sure that we can work together to defeat Grimm?" He says in an uncaring tone. This is a stupid question. There are plenty of reasons to and not to work with the other kingdoms.

"Partly" Glynda then steps back and looks at the rest of the class. "Yes you will need to work together to fight Grimm. But there are also criminals. People that wish harm to come to others that you will also need to defeat and bring to justice. It's all in order to keep people safe. It doesn't matter if the people are Humans or Faunus, they all deserve the safety Huntsmen can bring"

Glynda then continues to explain how working with other teams are important….. again. But this time why it's important to work with other students from different schools.

Goodwitch even talks about the variations between the kingdoms. That did somewhat catch Alabast's interest.

Atlas is very strict with it's rules. That is mostly due to the military's heavy influence.

Vacuo is more survival of the fittest. Their government isn't very influential. But their Huntsman Academy, Shade, is the only true source of law and order in the Kingdom.

Vale is somewhere in between Atlas and Vacuo. They have order that will slightly bend to the strong. But it doesn't delve too deep to one side. But their government, The Council, makes the laws and the citizens listen unlike in Vacuo.

Mistral has a ruling Council. And it also tried to control its peoples emotions to be safer from the Grimm. It did this to follow in its ally, Mantle, and not destroy the alliance between them. It used to be the most discriminatory towards Faunus than the other Kingdoms but work has been set in place for some time to reel that back.

Alabast loses interest quickly after due to Glynda then diving deep into their history and talking about the Great War that sparked the start of the Vytal Festival.

So he just played with his Semblance discreetly. He didn't really want to have to sit through a detention with Glynda again. Especially if she decides to lecture him through the entire thing again. She has to like hearing her own voice. There's no other explanation for her long winded discipline scoldings.

——————

In the Library team RWBY is playing a strategy board game at a square table. And team ANVL is sitting at a long table.

Pyrrha is at the head of the table with Alabast on her left as they read from a book. Ren is next to Alabast and Nora is next to him.

Alabast points at the book. "So you're telling me that they thought it would be a good idea to limit peoples emotions?"

Pyrrha nods. "They believed that with less emotions, it would attract less Grimm. It's still a controversial topic to this day"

Alabast asked Pyrrha to help him learn about the other Kingdoms. Not because he wants to learn about them. But because Glynda is requiring a paper in order for teams to fight in her class.

"Why do we need to know the dramatics and politics of all this?" Alabast complains. The book he and Pyrrha were reading took a very big turn. It begins describing what happened after the Great War and how Remnant began to change.

Ren looks over from his own book. "Politics get really messy"

Alabast looks at his teammate. "You don't say"

Alabast remembers listening to Sienna and Roman talk about exactly that. Roman spoke directly to him about it even when Alabast tried to ignore the crime boss. And Sienna he ended up overhearing a few talks between the higher members of the organization. He was just there for muscle and showing off the "Black Wolf". He made for a great intimidation tactic and a deterrent for violence.

"I do say" Ren turns to the next page in his book.

Alabast chooses to go back to reading with Pyrrha.

Pyrrha puts her hand up on his head. "It's not that bad. We can just skim the rest"

"Ok" Alabast goes back to reading as Pyrrha keeps her hand on his head.

Pyrrha knows that Alabast is hardly interested in history. She doesn't know if it's because of his lack of previous education or if it's just something he naturally struggles with. Either way, she is happy to be able to help him with anything he struggles with.

——————

Team RWBY sits at a square table near team ANVL. On their table is a board game map of Remnant with different pieces on it. Each member of the team has cards in their hands and a deck of cards facedown to the side to draw from. They're currently playing a strategy game that involves controlling the Kingdoms or Grimm of Remnant and battling using various strategies. Each kingdom has their advantages and disadvantages.

Ruby is staring intently at the cards in her hand. "Hmmmmm.... All right... All right!" She suddenly points her finger to Yang. "Yang Xiao Long, prepare your kingdom for battle!"

Yang brings her elbow down to her hip while she holds up her fist. "Bring it on!"

"I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" Ruby stands up and holds her card high into the air before putting it down on the table. She smugly looks at Yang as the blond feigns being shocked. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!"

Ruby locks her thumbs together and uses her other fingers to act as wings as she makes noises of airplanes and bombing noises.

Yang gasps and points at Ruby. "You fiend!"

Ruby ducks below the table and only lets her eyes be above the table as she looks out across the board. "And since Atlas is part of Mantle, my repair time is only one turn"

"Hahaha!" Yang laughs smugly which surprises Ruby. Yang holds a card up with her index and middle finger. "Pretty sneaky, sis, but you just activated my trap card!" She quickly turns the card to face Ruby.

"Whaaat?!" Ruby screeches in surprise and shock.

Yang stands up as she holds her card in the air. "Giant Nevermore!" She slams the card down onto the table. "If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

Ruby leans forward. "But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take" Yang says as she and Ruby glare at eachother.

Weiss is studying her cards as she takes glances up at the sisters arguing. She's trying to understand the game and what her cards do as well as what the heck the two are so riled up about. She can follow what they do, but don't understand the significance of their actions. It's just a lot of shouting and going back and forward.

Blake is looking at her cards but is distracted by something else in her mind. She takes glances over to Alabast, who she can see just over Weiss's shoulder.

"Nooooo!!! My fearless soldiers!" Ruby collapses into her seat.

Yang sits down and shrugs. "Eh, most of them were probably androids"

Ruby looks at the ceiling of the library. "Goodbye my friends, you will be avenged"

"Not until I draw my rewards! Which are double this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!" Yang interrupts Ruby's train of thought.

"Bah!" Ruby defiantly responds.

"Oh. Have pancakes" Nora says as she sleeps next to Ren and holds his arm hostage.

Yang grabs another card. "Oh, and what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path?"

Ruby folds her arms across her chest. "Bah! Bah, I say!"

Yang reaches towards her facedown deck of cards. "And I say, it looks like I'm taking two cards in my hand!"

"Have you no heart?" Ruby says before collapsing to the table in defeat and groans. "Nooo!"

Yang has a satisfied smile on her face. "Well, Weiss, it's your turn"

Weiss looks at her blond teammate from behind her cards she holds with both hands. "I have..." The heiress looks at her cards. "….absolutely no idea what's going on" She admits.

Yang slides around the table and puts her arm around Weiss' shoulders as she looks at her cards. "Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus"

Weiss looks at her cards for a second before looking back to Yang. "That sounds dumb"

Yang begins sorting and rearranging Weiss' cards. See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh, oh!" She pulls a card up. "Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet—"

"Noooo!" Ruby cries out as tears fall down her face.

Yang smirks. "-and put it in your hand!"

"Okay~" Weiss is slightly amused by the fact she made Ruby suffer a little.

"And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" Yang points her finger at Weiss while her other arm is still around Weiss' shoulders. "Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war" She threatens before moving back to her own seat.

Weiss raises a brow. "And that means..."

"You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!" Ruby says while still crying on the table.

Weis places her cards on the table and stands up as she maniacally laughs. "Hahaha! Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!"

"Trap card...~" Yang whispers as she holds out a card.

Weiss snaps out of her persona. "Huh?"

Yang rearranges the board and Weiss' army disappears in a puff of smoke. "Your armies have been destroyed"

Weiss slumps down into her chair as tears stream down her face. "I hate this game of emotions we play!"

Ruby leaps into Weiss' lap. "Stay strong, Weiss! We'll make it through this together!" She painfully comforts her teammate as she holds her while sitting in her lap.

Weiss is initially surprised by the child in her lap. "Shut up!" She says. "Don't touch me!" She demands but wraps her arms around Ruby.

Yang leans back in her chair and puts her arms behind her head. "Alright Blake, you're up!"

Blake was looking at Alabast when she is brought out of her thoughts. "Oh, um, sorry, what am I doing?" She looks at Weiss and Ruby as the latter get off of the prior and goes back to her own seat.

Yang puts her arms on the table and leans towards Blake. "You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the Kingdoms of Remnant!"

"Right" Blake picks up her cards with her left hand.

"Hey!" Somebody greets as they approach team RWBY. "Can I play?"

Ruby looks at the approaching blond haired guy. "Sorry Vomi-" She visibly winces and then corrects herself. "Jaune, we already have four people"

Weiss glances over her shoulder. "Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt that you possess"

Yang looks at Weiss. "Uhh, you attacked your own naval fleet 2 turns ago"

Weiss snaps her head towards Yang in annoyance. "Hnnngh~" She groans in annoyance.

Jaune puffs his chest out and places his left hand on his hip. "Bring it on, Ice Queen! I'll have you know that I have been told that I am a natural born leader!" He brags.

Weiss sneers. "By who? Your mother?"

"A-and Uhm… Onyx and Dazz said so too!" He stutters and states.

"Those you're two teammates that didn't want to be leader?" Yang asks.

"Yeah!" Jaune states and then slouches. "Do you think they said that just so I don't dump being leader on them?"

"Nooooo!" Yang drags out her response. She doesn't want to crush the poor guy's already low self-esteem.

Jaune clasps his hands together and pleads to Weiss. "Come on, let me play your hand for a turn!"

Weiss holds her cards closer to her chest. "I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo!"

"Why not?!" Jaune complains.

Weiss glares at him. "How about we start with the fact we don't even know you?" She says in her Ice Queen tone.

Ruby puts her hand on the side of her mouth to block Jaune from hearing her. "Just because that's true doesn't mean you have to say it. We can at least be a little friendly"

Jaune raises his hand. "Still here and I can still hear"

"And I agree with Weiss"

"Ahhhh!" Jaune jumps back in response and nearly falls on Ruby. But Jaune's tie is grabbed by Alabast who was standing behind him and scared him nearly to death.

Alabast pulls Jaune back up to his feet by his tie and leans forward to get in his face. "We don't know you. So don't act all friendly before we are friends. If you even deserve to be o-"

"Alabast!" Pyrrha grabs his arm.

Alabast looks to his side and sees Pyrrha standing there with a stern look. But it quickly changes to a smile as she taps his arm.

He lets Jaune's tie go and tucks it back into his uniform and dusts Jaune's jackets shoulder.

Jaune is nervously sweating as Alabast does this with a frown.

Pyrrha grabs Alabast's hand and smiles at Jaune. "Sorry. He's a little protective when it comes to us"

Jaune holds his hands up. "No!" He shakes his hands. "I-I mean, it's fine. I understand that" He scratches the back of his neck. "It's alright, I understand why he would feel threatened by me" He jokes and brushes his hair to the side in a dramatic manner.

"Hahaha!"

Everyone looks at Alabast who is actually genuinely laughing, even Nora wakes up with a book over her head. And everyone but Jaune is stunned that he is actually laughing.

Alabast puts his hand, that Pyrrha isn't holding, on Jaune's shoulder. And he looks scarily into Jaune's eyes. "If I'm worried about anything, it's certainly not you. And if I had to be worried…" He leans forward. "…I'd be worried about them thinking you're adorable like a lost puppy and wanting to keep you like a pet"

"Awww!" Yang coos. She stands up and leans over Weiss and pokes Alabast's face. "He's claiming us as his~"

"Get your 'fun bags' away from my face you bimbo!" Weiss tries to Push Yang away as the blinds bust presses against her head.

"Do you think they would?" Jaune asks as he looks to the ground, pushing his fear away like he was trained to.

Alabast's face goes neutral. "No" He flatly says.

"Not your girls, I mean any girl man" Jaune tries to correct the misunderstanding.

Pyrrha speaks before Alabast can. "I'm sure there is someone out there for you Jaune. You've just got to find them"

Jaune looks up with a helpless smile. "Do you really think so?"

Ruby appears on Alabast's back. "Yeah!" She rests. "You've just gotta….." She pauses and thinks. "….hmmm…."

"Gotta what?" Jaune pleads to his fellow leader.

Ruby glances at Alabast. "You just gotta be yourself. You'll find them or they'll find you when you least expect it" She says as she puts her chin on Alabast's shoulder and tilts her head to rest against Alabast's.

"When I least expect it?" Jaune repeats to himself. It doesn't really make any sense. But that's sort of what his mom said, along with his older sisters. Although only one is married while the others are either single, dating, or recently single.

"It's not like we all expected to be dating Alabast together you know" Ruby states.

Alabast takes his hand off of Jaune and puts his hand on Ruby's head. "And it's not like I ever imagined I'd date you all either, I didn't think I would ever date anyone…."

Jaune looks at Alabast's one visible eye. "You ok man?"

Alabast messes with Ruby's hair which causes the girl to try and hide into his own hair. "I'm doing much better now"

Jaune stays silent but smiles along with the others. Even Blake can't help but have her mood lighten up from Alabast's statement.

"Sup losers"

"Hi Sun!" Ruby says as she still tries to escape Alabast reach as she burrows deeper into his hair.

"Ruby, Yang, Blake... Ice Queen, Wolf Cub, Vomit Boy" Sun greets them.

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" She preferred it when Alabast called her that. Although, she does like him calling her Princess more.

"Monkey boy" Alabast returns the greeting.

Jaune points at Sun. "How do you know that name?! You weren't even here last semester!"

Sun puts his hands on his hips. He points his monkey tail at Jaune. "Neither were you. And I saw you get off the Bullhead when you arrived and it was not a pretty sight. And I heard your nickname from others, nothing spreads faster than gossip"

"That's true" Yang nods sagely. She remembers her time in Signal and how fast rumors spread and change. Even here at Beacon. Team RWBY and team ANVL have some rumors that have gone around. Especially since Alabast is dating Pyrrha and the entirety of team RWBY.

Sun takes a step back and motions with his tail towards his blue haired friend and teammate. "I never got a chance to formally introduce you to my old friend"

"Uhh, aren't libraries for reading?" The blue haired Neptune comments.

"Thank you!" Ren throws his arms up.

"Pancakes!" Nora shouts as she is sent falling backwards.

Ren caused Nora to fall backwards with her chair since he lifted his arm up that she was using as a sort of pillow. "Sorry Nora"

Nora grabs the table to get up. "It seems you working out has actually helped Renny!" She ignores the fact she is being loud and was just knocked over.

"Ugh" Ren sighs out as he helps Nora pick her chair up.

Nora sits down and rubs her head. "Are you actually alright?" Ren asks as he marks his page in his book.

She looks over at Ren. "Maybe, I think if you kiss it it'll feel better"

Ren rolls his eyes and leans over to kiss Nora's head.

But the conniving orange haired girl quickly turns her head at the last moment and steals a kiss.

Ren's right eye twitches and he flicks Nora on her nose.

"Gah! That wasn't a boop!" She holds her nose. It didn't actually hurt, she's just playing around.

"And that wasn't meant to be a kiss" Ren says as he opens his book and begins reading again.

Nora wraps her arms around his arm. "Don't act like you didn't enjoy it~" She teases.

Ren ignores her and continues reading.

People would see this as rude or Ren ending the conversation. But Nora knows Ren extremely well and since he didn't deny it he is basically telling her she is right and that he did enjoy it he just doesn't want to admit it.

"Shut up. Don't be a nerd" Sun puts his tail down.

Neptune shakes his finger at Sun. "Geh, geh, geh, geh! 'Intellectual', okay? Thank you" He turns towards the others. "I'm Neptune"

"So Neptune, where are you from?" Weiss asks.

"Haven" Neptune walks over to Weiss and smoothly moves past Jaune and puts his hand on the table as he leans infront of Weiss. "And I don't believe I've caught your name, snow angel"

Ruby pokes her head out from beneath Alabast's hair and peeks over his shoulder. "Oh no. He's already dead and he doesn't even know it" She whispers and slowly retreats back into Alabast's hair.

Weiss was just trying to play nice, she just wanted to collect information on future opponents in the upcoming tournament and class duels. She doesn't appreciate him trying to flirt with her. "Um, I'm… Weiss" She glances slightly behind her and sees Alabast's only visible eye glaring daggers at Neptune.

"Are you kidding me?!" Jaune exclaims as he gets pushed out to the side of their group talk.

"Pleasure to meet you" Neptune says and winks at Weiss.

"I don't think I can even save him now" Pyrrha admits as she holds Alabast's hand.

"This'll be good" Yang comments as she leans back and waits for the show to start. But she glances over at Blake.

Sun turns towards Blake. "I never took you as the board game playing type"

Blake stands up and pushes Sun to the side. "Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later" She then walks out of the Library.

Everyone looks over at Sun who shrugs, implying he doesn't know what he did and is asking for what he did wrong.

Nora returns his shrug. "Women"

Alabast watches Blake leave. He wonders what's going on with her. He hopes it's nothing serious and that she will come to him before she runs away again.

Sun drops his arms. "Can I play for her then?" He asks as he tries to change the topic.

"I'll join Weiss then" Neptune says. "Can you show me how to play?" He attempts to smoothly ask.

"He really just keeps digging doesn't he?" Yang asks Sun as he sits down.

"I wonder when he will reach the bottom" Sun says as he picks up Blake's cards.

"Permission?" Alabast asks Weiss.

Weiss nods. "Granted"

"What?" Neptune looks to his right and sees the 6'6" wolf Faunus. "Oh, I didn't see you there. What's up?"

Alabast smiles slightly and closes his eyes. "You"

"Huh?" Neptune wonders what he means.

A tendril of Darkness slides down from the ceiling and grabs his ankles and pulls Neptune up.

"Ahhhhhh-!" He screams before a tendril wraps around his mouth.

Everyone watches as Neptune got abducted.

"That's more tame than what I was expecting" Pyrrha admits.

"But I'd say that that is much more horrifying" Ruby says as she looks at Neptune beings held to the ceiling by Darkness. His eyes darting around trying to figure out what happened.

Jaune watches in horror. "That was absolutely terrifying" He murmurs to himself. He hadn't been expecting something like that. He's just glad he wasn't treated like that.

"Hahaha! That was great!" Yang loved that joke. It just made her day, even more than her beating Ruby. "What's up? You" She repeats and continues laughing

"You don't care about your teammate?" Alabast asks Sun.

The blond monkey Faunus shrugs. "He asked for it"

Ruby crawls out from Alabast's hair and lands on the ground. "Let's get back to the game"

"The game that you and Weiss are losing" Yang reminds her sister.

"Yeah! Wait, oh…" She deflates as she goes back to her seat and lays her head back into the table. "My soldiers..." She cries out as she remembers her pitiful attack attempt.

"Don't remind me of this rollercoaster of emotions game" Weiss pleads and lowers her head.

"Let's finish that paper already" Alabast says to Pyrrha who nods.

And so they go back to doing their own things. Everyone forgetting Neptune and everyone trying to pretend they aren't worried about Blake.

Neptune gets released 30 minutes later. And Sun reminds him that the girls are off limits here. Mainly the girls of team RWBY and ANVL.

Alabast finishes his paper with the help of Pyrrha and rests his head on the table. It's overloaded with useless facts. Pyrrha pets his hair and ears. Alabast looks at her green eyes as she plays with his bangs and some of the scars on his face.