12

Chapter 12: Welcome to Beacon

Summary:

Ruby spends a weekend with Blake, trying to get her to open up.

Meanwhile, important players start to arrive at Beacon.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Ironwood certainly likes bringing his work wherever he travels." Glynda crossed her arms.

"Well… Running an academy and a military makes him a busy man." Ozpin watched as a squad of Atlesian dropships soared past Beacon tower. This all was a bit more than he had anticipated that the general would bring. A few beeps from his desk alerted Ozpin that Ironwood had arrived. "Come in."

The elevator opened to reveal the general. "Ozpin!" Ironwood spread his arms in welcome.

Ozpin's posture was more reserved, his arms behind his back. "Hello, general."

"Please, drop the formalities." The two walked towards each other and shook hands. "It's been too long." A broad smile graced his face. "And Glynda. It has certainly been too long since we last met."

The general's enthusiasm was not matched by Ozpin's second in command at Beacon. "Oh James… I'll be outside."

Ironwood hardly spared a glance over his shoulder as she departed. "Well she hasn't changed a bit."

"So… what in the world has brought you all the way down from Atlas? Headmaster's don't typically travel with their students for the Vytal festival, and when I said that we might require extra manpower, this was not what had I intended." Ozpin gestured to the ships stationed outside while pouring Ironwood a mug of hot chocolate.

"I had planned to make the trip either way. You know how much I love Vale this time of year." Ironwood pulled out a small flask and poured some of its contents into his brew. "Besides, with you hosting, I thought this could be a good opportunity for us to… catch up."

"I can certainly appreciate quality time between friends, however the small fleet outside my window was not what I envisioned when I asked you to send an elite escort." Ozpin sat down at his desk.

"The fleet isn't for that. I brought the AceOps, but I am eager to hear what you think they'll be needed for."

Ozpin gestured aimlessly with his mug. "Well, travel between kingdoms has become increasingly dangerous."

Ironwood's smile dropped. "Oz. I need to know why you asked me to bring those men. If what Qrow said is true and you know something, we need to act." Ironwood's tone lacked its earlier light-heartedness.

Ozpin took a sip from his mug and sighed. "Displays of power like this give off the wrong idea. If what Qrow said is true, we will handle it tactfully. It's the Vytal Festival; a time to celebrate peace and unity. So I suggest you not scare people by transporting soldiers halfway across the world."

"I'm just being cautious." Ironwood defend himself.

"As am I." Ozpin agreed. The general's instincts were correct, but his execution sometimes left something to be desired. Still, his question deserved an answer. "Which is why I requested some of your best. I do not yet know for what purpose they will be required, or even if we will have cause to use them during the Vytal Festival. There is a new possible threat, and we are still gathering information regarding it. If it turns out to be hostile, the AceOps will form the core of our response."

Ironwood digested the response, mulling it over in his head. "What is this new threat?"

That Ozpin was less willing to divulge. "Another third party, who's intentions are not yet well understood. We are monitoring them closely. Until we are ready to act, we will continue to train the best huntsmen and huntresses we can."

"Believe me, I am." Ironwood said sincerely and turned to leave. Before he stepped into the elevator, he glanced back. "But ask yourself this… do you honestly believe your children can win a war?"

It was a question that Ozpin had asked himself far too many times. Boiled down to its essence, the question simply asked: was all of this the right choice? Maybe not, but what else was to be done.

"I hope they never have to."

---

"Thank you for inviting me to your game night, friend Ruby!" Penny swayed back and forth as Ruby fiddled with the entrance to the dorm. Darn thing was stuck again. Ruby finally managed to pry the thing open with a huff.

"Take that door…" She said quietly before walking through the threshold, Penny following not far behind. "Thanks for joining me! I feel like we don't get to hang out enough."

"Out of all my friends, you are the one I hang out with the most! On average, we spend two hours together participating in non-scholastic activities per week!" Penny cheerfully reported, unable to see Ruby's sour face.

"Yeah, we definitely don't hang out enough." Ruby turned to her friend and stopped in the middle of the hallway. "Penny, we need to double, no triple, that!" She punctuated the aspiration with a fist pump.

"I would like that very much! Are there any activities that you want to pursue during our extra time together?"

Ruby grinned. "Have you ever painted your nails?" Weiss had tons of supplies and Ruby was pretty sure she could convince her to share a bit with Penny. Ooh! The three of them could paint their nails together!! That would be awesome. They could all match!! Penny would surely agree that matching nails was the pinnacle of displays of friendship, after friendship bracelets, of course.

The pair entered the corner common room that was almost continually reserved by either team RWBY or JNPR for some reason or another. Most of the time it was actually just Nora and she never actually used the room, or her 'Castle' as she demanded everyone refer to it as. 'If there's an emergency and we need a common room, you'll all be sorry, because I won't let you use mine!' She always told them.

Ruby was pretty sure that there weren't any emergencies that required common rooms to solve, and doubly sure that if there was, Nora wouldn't bar them from hers.

"Hey guys!" Ruby entered and waved to everyone who had already gathered. Blake was quietly pretending to read a book, as was her custom. (That trick stopped working years ago, Blake, and you're not as subtle as you think you are!) Ren peered over her shoulder and appeared to actually be reading, though he had already finished the pages that Blake wasn't reading. Jaune was, of course, glued to Pyrrha, who appeared to be fretting over… Oh. So that's who Blake brought.

Sun and Nora were both sitting on the couch. Well, 'sitting' might not be the right word. Both were upside down, their heads near the floor, and their legs high in the air. They must've been like that for a while, all the blood had rushed to their faces, which were both quite red.

"Why are you guys sitting like that?" Ruby asked.

"Ruby!" Sun exclaimed, before toppling off the couch face first. Surprisingly, he managed to turn the fall into a forward roll and land on his feet gracefully, if still facing the couch. He spun in place and bounded over to Ruby, smiling broadly.

"Hah! I win!!" Nora exclaimed, victorious.

"Nora, no one was challenging you." Jaune said with a hint of exasperation.

"Hiya Sun." Ruby gave Sun a fist bump. Honestly, when Blake had introduced her friend Sun to Ruby, she had been ecstatic over his lack of personal boundaries. He wasn't shy about being around her and acted like they had always been friends. "Everyone, this is my friend Penny!" She gestured to Penny, who gave a happy smile and a salute.

"Sal-u-tations everyone! My name is Penny, it's a pleasure to meet all of you!" Penny was met with a chorus of 'Hi Penny' in return.

Once the introductions were through, all eight of them broke out the game for tonight and grouped up into four teams, as usual. Unlike usual, however, Ruby partnered with Penny instead of with Blake, who partnered with Sun instead. Tonight was some kind of word game; the type that Ruby was awful at. Fortunately, she had a feeling that her guest tonight would more than make up for her shortcomings.

Ren and Nora had the first turn, and played 'Park' for 10 points. Ruby was pretty sure that it was just the first thing that Nora had seen from the letters they drew, and Ren had always been fine with letting Nora guide their team to success (or failure, as often as not). Jaune and Pyrrha discussed possible moves for several minutes before settling on playing off the 'a' and went with 'rainbows' for 12 points.

"Okay Blake! You and Sun are up!" Ruby said. Blake made no move to respond, even as Sun looked over at her too. "Uh… Blake?"

"Huh?" Blake blinked a few times, distracted. "Oh. Sorry." She knew her partner wasn't sleeping enough, and really none of them had. They had all had a really long week, with two massive exams just happening to fall within a day of each other. Fortunately, it was Friday night, and Blake could sleep all weekend if she really wanted to! "Um… 'Jar', off the rainbows."

"Woah, hold up. We could use the 'm' instead for 'jam' and get three more points." Sun pointed out right before Blake was about to put down the tiles.

"Right. Thanks. Jam for 10." Blake said.

"Ruby." Penny did her best to whisper. "I think we should play 'truthfulness' for 16 points."

Ruby did a quick scan of the tiles they had drawn. That used all but two of their tiles. "Woah. I don't think I can do better than that. Will you do the honors?" Ruby nudged the tiles to Penny, who gleefully placed them on the board.

As the game went on and more and more of the board got filled, the quality of the words went down drastically. Soon enough Nora was reduced to playing 'mafia' for 5 points, while Jaune went for 'unwish' for 7. Sun just went with whatever he could find, and put down 'ten' for a measly 2 points.

"I would like to place 'superwoman' for 15 points." Penny declared.

"There is no way that you can fit that anywhere." Jaune said. Undeterred, Penny squeezed it in between her previous two words, 'pebbles' and 'swampland'.

"Holy crap." Nora remarked. "Ruby did you bring a computer or something?!" Ruby gave a nervous chuckle and congratulated Penny on securing their victory. Really, they had won by like, the fourth turn, but now she was pretty sure it was impossible for Pyrrha and Jaune literally double their score with only two words left, which they would have to do to catch Penny. And really, it was just Penny who had won. Ruby had just approved whatever Penny suggested.

Fortunately, it was a winning strategy. Unfortunately, it left Ruby plenty of time to dwell on other things. Namely, her actual partner, Blake. Sure, they had all had a rough week, but Ruby was starting to worry it was more than that. She had never figured out what on remnant Blake had been talking about when she came back from Mistral, despite Ruby subtly trying to coax it out of her she had been tight lipped.

Ruby had been trying to keep her eye on her partner, but what with all the preparation for crashing the White Fang rally with Pyrrha and Jaune, Blake had escaped her watchful eye more than she wanted to admit. Well not this weekend! Ruby would make sure to watch Blake and make sure that she got the rest she needed, and find out what happened in Mistral in the process!

… Right after she convinced everyone that maybe they should pick another game for their next round. She wasn't too sure that everyone wouldn't start questioning if Penny wasn't actually a computer if she beat them so soundly yet again.

After that though, Ruby would dedicate her weekend to making sure that Blake got plenty of rest!!

---

Blake did not, in fact, get plenty of rest that weekend. Ruby couldn't be too bothered though, cause she got to be part of the reason for that lack of sleep! …Wait, no, not like that! Just that they were spending most of the weekend together! Still, Ruby still was no closer to her answer about what had happened in Mistral.

Saturday was spent touring several of the tourist traps of Vale. Weiss in particular relished in flexing her pocketbook by buying them more souvenirs than they could ever want. That evening they cooked a meal back in the dorms together, and all chatted late into the night. Even after Weiss and Yang had retired, Ruby and Blake stayed up. They chatted about classes and what the cafeteria was going to be serving next week and how gross they thought each other's pizza preferences were. Ruby laughed and Blake smirked as they teased each other.

At some point the chairs between them had been cast aside and they sat leaning against each other. As they exhausted topic after topic of conversation, Ruby was starting to worry that she might just drift off, not that she really minded. Ruby watched as Blake's bow twitched idly ever few minutes and slowly, her eyelids started to close-

"When this is all done, what do you want to do?" Blake asked. The question forced Ruby to turn her brain back on and open her eyes.

"I don't know if this will ever be done." She admitted.

Blake chuckled softly. "Graduation day will be here before we know it. What happens then?"

Ruby let out a puff of breath. "Happily ever after?"

"I guess. What does happily ever after mean though? The three of you are an important part of my life, but what happens if we don't all want each other's happily ever after?" Blake asked.

The thought was way too big for Ruby's sleep addled mind to really think through. "We'd figure it out. We always have." She responded.

Eventually, Ruby convinced Blake that if they stayed any longer, Blake would have to end up carrying Ruby to bed. To which Blake responded that she didn't mind, and it wouldn't be the first time. It was a really tempting offer to let Blake carry her. Like, really tempting. Cradled in her partner's strong arms, without a care in the world.

Not wanting to give in or get up, Ruby whined and eventually Blake settled the matter by scooping her up anyway with a roll of her eyes. Cuddled against her, Ruby was asleep before they even made it down the hallway. She didn't remember much after that, even once they got back to the dorm and she stirred. Blake deposited her Blake's bed since it was the lower bunk, and Ruby felt the faintest impression of lips on her forehead. Then, Blake was gone, swapping beds with Ruby for the night.

---

When Ruby awoke the next morning it took her a moment to remember why exactly it was that she had woken up in her partners bed. She sorted through what she remembered, talking about the future, being carried, and then the lingering kiss that she wondered if she had completely imagined. Then her face went red.

Ruby leapt out of bed, feet firmly hitting the floor. Across from her, she could see a still sleeping Weiss scowl at the noise and turn over, clutching the blankets. Above her, Ruby's bunk was empty.

Yang popped her head over the side of her bunk. "Mornin' Blake you sure slept in- Ruby??"

"Hi Yang…" Ruby felt the urge to run and hide as Yang's eye progressively got wider as she first realized that it wasn't Blake emerging from Blake's bed, but her little sister, and that said little sister was blushing like a tomato.

"Oh my Gods, did you two-" Yang tried her best to be quiet since Weiss was still very much asleep.

"No! Gross, no! We just swapped beds for the night." Ruby calmed her sister down.

Yang made a show of looking around the room. "Are you still pretending not to have a crush on her?"

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "I don't have a crush on her." She grabbed a light jacket before walking towards the door.

"Right, and I don't have the best partner at Beacon." Yang said.

Ruby opened the door. "You don't. I do!" She stuck her tongue out at Yang as she shut the door behind her.

Now where to get breakfast… Oh, and find Blake too, while she was at it. She was supposed to be about finding out what happened in Mistral, after all!!

---

Jaune raised his shield to block yet another round of projectiles. He dodged left and right to avoid the small balls which the training machine was lobbing. It moved along a track in a circle around Jaune, and varied the speed and angle from which he was forced to either block or dodge. His footwork was much clumsier than his shield-work, and more than once he tried to dodge only to nearly fall on his face.

To his left, Pyrrha was going through the same exercise. She was much more graceful, and Jaune caught glimpses of her twirling and spinning, the little pellets harmlessly passing beside her. The two of them were engaged in a friendly competition of sorts, and they had progressively been cranking up the difficulty on the training machines. This was as high as it would go, and the machine whipped along the track, reversing directions on a dime and firing several pellets a second.

Still, both of them kept up with the assault, both machines came to a stop, their ammo supplies exhausted. Jaune, panting, looked over to Pyrrha and grinned. Same as him, she hadn't let any of them find their marks. "Guess that makes it a tie then?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha nodded, smiling herself. "I suppose it does. Do you want to call it here?"

"Yeah, we should probably start heading back." They had a team project they had all agreed to work on this afternoon, and Jaune was hoping to grab something to eat before then.

The two of them quickly retreated to the locker rooms to shower and change before meeting on the other side. They took their time heading towards the cafeteria, neither of them in a rush. Sure, Jaune trained hard, just like he used to, but it wasn't as frantic as it used to be. Having Pyrrha there always helped.

The pair chatted idly, Jaune's gaze fixed on Pyrrha when they turned the corner, and Jaune nearly collided head-first into another student.

"Oh geez! Sorry about-" Jaune voice nearly died in his throat as he met the amber eyes of Cinder Fall.

"It's no problem." She said. Her hair cascaded down one side of her head, obscuring one eye. Next to her, Emerald stood passively. Jaune couldn't think of anything to say and he could feel his heart rate rising every moment he continued to stare.

Fortunately, Pyrrha was able to save him. "Are you… new?" She asked the two girls.

"Visiting from Haven, actually." Cinder responded, turning her attention to Pyrrha.

"You must be here for the festival." Pyrrha commented. "But exchange students have their own dormitory, which way was it again Jaune?"

Jaune still was frozen, and probably would've stayed that way forever without Pyrrha's prodding. "I, um-" He turned in place and pointed. "You have to cross campus; do you know where the cafeteria is?" Emerald nodded for the two of them. "Continue down that way, and take the second left. That'll lead you to it."

"Thanks. I'm Emerald." Emerald said. Jaune nodded numbly.

"I'm Pyrrha, and this is Jaune. And you are…?" Pyrrha looked over at Cinder.

"Cinder Fall." She responded. Jaune could tell in the way Pyrrha subtly tensed that she recognized the name. Though outwardly, she did a wonderful job of not showing it.

"That's a lovely name." Pyrrha said.

"Is it now?" Cinder raised an eyebrow.

"Well, we must be going now, but it was nice to meet you both." Pyrrha grabbed Jaune's arm.

"Maybe we'll see you around…" Cinder said before continuing to walk past them. It wasn't until they were well behind that Jaune let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding.

Pyrrha didn't look back. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, just… yeah." Jaune answered.

"So that's Cinder Fall?"

"Uh huh."

Pyrrha hummed thoughtfully.

---

The afternoon sun cast lazy sunbeams across the bedspread of Ruby's bed. It would've been the perfect spot for a lazy Sunday afternoon nap, and Ruby would've considered napping, had it not been for the fact that she was doing something far more fun.

Instead of falling into their natural pattern of sitting next to each other, Blake sat behind Ruby and enveloped her. Ruby held the book they were reading, while Blake wrapped her arms around her stomach, laying her head on Ruby's shoulder. It was way more practical than having the book between them, and it felt so comfortable, so natural. Ruby still hadn't been able to broach the subject of Mistral yet, and the weekend was almost over, but intertwined like this, she wasn't sure if she even really wanted to.

Ruby waited for Blake to finish the page. Each time she was ready she would tap Ruby's side, yet Ruby had been waiting for a few minutes.

"Blake," she said softly. "You okay?"

She felt Blake nod on her shoulder. "Sorry, just… got a lot on my mind."

"Something wrong?"

"I don't know." Blake's ears folded inward. She had taken to not wearing her bow when they were in the dorm.

Now was as good a time as any. "Does this have something to do with what happened in Mistral?" She could tell that Blake would be happy to pretend that didn't happen, but Ruby couldn't forget just how shaken her partner had been. Blake tensed at the mention. "You know, I'm a pretty good listener, if you want to talk about it."

Several minutes passed in silence as Blake weighed her options. Ruby was about ready to drop the topic and continue reading when Blake spoke up. "Remember how I said that I was part of the White Fang?" Ruby turned her head to look up at her partner and nodded. "Well, I wasn't just part of it. I… knew most of the people who ran it, was friends with them, even. Not all of them wanted what was best for the faunus.

"Most of the group is based in Mistral and… being there again… it just made me realize something, I guess. If I don't do something, there might be no one who will." Ruby could empathize with that. She was in a similar situation after all.

"What do you think you'll do?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know yet. But I can't stand on the sidelines any longer." Blake declared. Ruby smiled at her partner. That was the Blake she knew. "Let's finish this book, I've kept you waiting on this page long enough."

"I don't mind. As long as I get to spend time with you."

Blake gave a light laugh. "And here I thought your sister was the sweet talker."

Notes:

Chapter 12!! ^_^!!

Apologies on the shortness of the chapter. This one took a while to come together, and even though I had my outline done before I posted the previous chapter, I really didn't like it. After a few reworks, here we go! Still not 100%, but hey, this isn't my job. (I wish it was)

I think things will really start to pick up at this point. This chapter is kind of a bridge between the start of our volume 2 and the meat of what really goes on in volume 2. Everyone's here, everyone's ready, most especially me, since now I have a rough idea about what needs to happen in every chapter from here to the end of volume 2. I'm also getting to that point in the story where I've written enough that I'm starting to wish I had written some things differently. It's maddening. How do authors write so much and not feel the compulsive need to go back and change things??

During the writing of this chapter, MS word wanted to change "most Ruby" to "rubiest," which I find to be HILARIOUS. Why yes, Ruby is the 'Rubiest.' The Rubiest Ruby to ever Ruby. Thank you word, but that wasn't what I wanted there :)

In other news, RWBY Ice Queendom is coming out in less than a month! I was pretty lukewarm about the project when it was first announced, but now that it's getting closer, I'm starting to be excited. Mostly because we just haven't gotten any new RWBY content in like.... forever. I really liked the animated shorts about the fairy tales of remnant that we got, and I know that IQ won't have any lore hints in it (probably), so it's a different kind of excitement. Honestly, I really want to see how the VA's handle being their V1 selves again. It'll be super interesting to compare how they voiced V1 and how they voice IQ. You just know that they, too, probably really wanted to fix things they weren't happy with in their original work, and now that they have so much more experience... yeah.

Anywho, thanks for reading, as always, and I hope to see you all next week!

~ ThePalestRose