34

Chapter 34

Ruby took her sister's betrayal as a challenge. If she and Weiss wanted to have some fun on their own then she would prove them wrong by having even more fun! And there were three of them, so they would definitely succeed! The more the merrier!

First was a movie. It was something that they all could enjoy and there was plenty to choose from. Even then they spend almost twenty minutes in front of the cinema bickering about what each wanted to see. Ruby wanted a heroic action movie. Blake wanted a romcom. Pyrrha wanted a historical epic.

In the end they somehow ended up with an action movie with the most retarted romance elements they had ever seen. It also had vampires in it for some reason. Aside from some nice effects the movie was a bore which led to them nitpicking every single wrong detail they could find. Both during the showing and after.

"I'm just saying that making a black actor play vampire is dumb!" Ruby passionately spoke. "It isn't even possible! Darker skin comes from exposure to the sun and vampires die from it!

The small cafe they sat down after the movie was giving them a wide breadth. Having huntsmen in the establishment was a good thing because nobody would dare to cause a mess. Alternatively, if it was the huntsmen that were causing it, nobody would be able to stop it. Although some people were occasionally stealing glances from the redhead champion.

"Ruby, he was sired, not born a vampire." Blake, knowledgeable about the subject from… other sources, corrected her. "He was born human but turned into a vampire after he was bitten. Pyrrha, help me out."

"Oh sorry, what was it about? I spaced out a bit." Pyrrha was also mindful about the people trying to take sneak photos of her. The local scroll repair station would have an influx of scroll with messed up internal wiring in a few days.

"You are bored, aren't you…" Ruby's mood dropped, seeing that her great plan was falling apart.

"Of course not!" Pyrrha quickly reassured her leader. "I was just thinking about where the whole vampire myth came from. Maybe there was a bat faunus a long time ago with some strange life-sucking semblance who got the ball rolling."

"Well, I do know a bat faunus and his semblance is echolocation." Blake gave her thoughts.

"Don't all bats have echolocation? Maybe it's just his racial trait?" Ruby shot back.

Blake good-naturedly rolled her eyes. "I think that would be his giant bat wings."

"Maybe he has two?" Pyrrha opined.

"I…don't know. I have only met him twice and never really asked." Blake conceded. "Wait, does that make the entire vampire genre racist?"

The other girls could only shrug.

-BBW-

Weiss was a bit worried about bringing Yang into the upper society, or at least what counted as one when it came to Vale. Then she saw her walk out in a beautiful golden gown and she looked like she was born to be there. Except the muscles of course.

She had the haughty air of self-confidence. Glare that could make people run and a body that made the little boys born with a silver spoon salivate. She initially wanted to pay for her dress but she couldn't even bring it up fast enough.

Some people had also assumed her to be her bodyguard and the information spread quickly. It all started when some sleazy upstart tried talking to Weiss and was made into a quivering mess after one red-eyed glare. They just decided to run with it. It would be definitely easier to explain if anyone asked and while homosexuality wasn't ilegal, Atlas was the most conservative of kingdoms. At the same time it was promoted to have a confidante of the same gender, apparently when the confidante was of the same gender, the amount of adultery was enormous. And nobody ever bothered to ask what was going on behind closed doors.

Hopefully her little outing wouldn't find its way to her father. She did it for pleasure, not because she wanted to rub shoulders with local businessmen…

-BBW-

"Action park!" Ruby cheered and rushed toward the entrance. The older girls only chuckled and followed after.

"Hey! Stop right there!" A security guard called out to them.

Pyrrha flashed him her professional smile. "How can we help you?"

"You three are huntresses, right?" He looked at them one more time to get a better impression.

"In training." Pyrrha clarified. "Are there any problems?"

"Are you armed?" He plainly asked, pointedly looking at the box strapped to Ruby's lower back. "I can't let you in with weapons so if you would drop them off with us for safekeeping."

Ruby was about to start an argument over giving away her babies but was immediately waved off by the guard. "Yeah, yeah. Always ready, expensive stuff etc. Heard it all from you Beacon brats. If your teachers can follow the rules, so can you."

Blake gave away Gambol Shroud without a fuss. Pyrrha didn't even bring hers. Ruby actually kissed her scythe goodbye and promised to polish it later.

Pyrrha released a sigh. "Ruby, ALL the weapons…"

She huffed and pulled out two sword handles and put them near Crescent Rose.

Pyrrha raised one eyebrow.

Two large handguns came next.

She continued to stare.

A hunting pistol.

…

A flashbang and a few smoke grenades.

"Okay, this should be all." Pyrrha turned to a very freaked out guard. Blake was trying her hardest not to laugh.

They had a great time. Ruby's enthusiasm was definitely infectious and by the evening they had visited almost all of the attractions available, except the ones for the little kids. Although the ride through the lover's tunnel was really awkward with Ruby going there to simply have bragging rights about being everywhere and neither Blake or Pyrrha being able to make a move.

The cheerful atmosphere ended when they left the park and Blake caught a glimpse of a familiar ponytail.

Ilia was sitting in a small park, completely alone and looked rather upset, turning her scroll on and off with a frown on her face.

-BBW-

Pyrrha didn't want to be a bad friend but she did feel a bit happy when Blake told them that she had something important to take care of and left the two of them on their own. It was already getting late but neither wanted to go back so they decided to simply wander around the city, ending up at the pier.

"Hey guys! Over here!" They both turned on the spot and saw Yang and Weiss walking around the place, hand in hand and looking really adorable. Ruby missed all of that and immediately pointed at her sister. "You! How dare you ditch me?! I thought you were with me when we talked about a team outing…"

Yang ruffled Ruby's hair in an attempt to stop her pouting. "Hey, your plan was to make sure that everyone had a great time. I think we did well on that one, although… Where did you lose Blake?" She looked around and didn't see her near any of the tourist stands.

"She said she had something urgent to deal with."

They decided to finish the day as a group and take a nice walk along the shore. Weiss spent the entire time gushing about the decorations while also trying to spot any foreign students coming in. The lighthearted atmosphere ended when they walked by a dust store with its entire front blown off.

The two police officers in front of the crime scene were proving exactly where the tax money was going by complaining and doing absolutely nothing.

"I bet it was these animals from White Fang." Weiss gave her opinion.

"I dunno, I ran into some guy robbing a dust store before I went to Beacon. He didn't look like a member."

"It was definitely them!" Weiss would make her see reason. "It was the same way in Atlas. First some petty vandalism, then organized crime and finaly bombings and murders."

"Weiss, calm down." Pyrrha tried to diffuse the situation. "I'm sure the authorities have everything und-"

"Hey! Stop that faunus!" They heard a gruff voice call out from one of the ships and saw a blond monkey faunus leap away from it and landed on a nearby streetlight.

"Come down here you no good stowaway!" The sailor kept yelling at him.

"Hah! A no good stowaway would get caught! I'm a great stowaway!" He shot back and leaped away, dropping a banana peel at one of the policemen who tried to intervene.

The girls needed some time to process what exactly had just happened. Weiss was the first one to come out of the stupor. "See! This is exactly what I mean! It starts with ignoring the minor laws, tomorrow he starts stealing and by the end of the week he kills somebody!"

"So… Are we going after him?" Yang asked and watched as the monkey boy disappeared in the crowd.

"Yes!" Weiss was already running after him. "What if he is a terrorist who just slipped by!"

A red cloud blurred past her, it went above the buildings and after spending a few seconds in the air, Ruby dived straight down. Immediately after they could hear the complaints.

When they turned the last corner they saw the faunus laying on his stomach with Ruby kneeling on his back and pressing a gun into his shoulder.

"Sheesh, chill out! I surrender!"

"Why are you in Vale?" Ruby calmly asked. She tried to not be too rough but he already broke laws and it was her duty to make sure he wouldn't do anything worse.

"I'm here for the Vytal tournament." He immediately answered.

"You plan to attack the tournament?!" Weiss cried out and a glyph appeared near her with her knight making his way out.

"What?! No! I'm competing! Sun Wukong, Haven Academy." If he got arrested over this, his team would never let him live it down.

"He speaks the truth, he is on the roster." A girl with bright ginger hair popped out of nowhere and joined the interrogation.

"And who the hell ar-" Weiss already switched the targets of her ire but before she could explain in detail why this person was a criminal and belonged as far away from the tournament as possible Ruby intercepted her.

"Oh right, here he is." Ruby checked her own scroll and found her copy of the roster. She leapt away from his back and hid under her cloak. "Sorry…" she shyly apologized.

Sun stood up from the ground and dusted himself off. "Don't sweat it." He waved her off with an easygoing smile on his face. "Although I want to know what this was about."

"Snow angel though you were a fangie." Yang was first to answer.

"Those guys?" Sun's eyes widened. "They did try to recruit me a few years back when I left Vacuo but I liked Haven more."

"Whatever, you are still a criminal!" Weiss pointed a finger at him.

"Hiding on a cargo ship is a crime?"

"YES!"

"I think it's just a misdemeanor…" Ruby tried to make Weiss calm down.

"Hey, if you want to go after criminals, I've heard some guys mention something big happening at the docks on Sunday." Sun brushed Weiss off, turned around and started walking away. "Have fun with that! Oh, and see you in the arena, ginger girl!"

Weiss had turned to Ruby. "How do you already know who is competing from other schools?"

Ruby looked perturbed. "It's public information. Everyone except Beacon had already selected the teams and I had downloaded it. Blake has a copy too."

Weiss huffed, this was exactly like Ruby. To not mention such important information. She turned to the new girl. "I take it you are here for the tournament as well."

The girl gave her a blinding smile and overemphasized nod. "From Atlas, huntress in training Penny Polendina! Pleasure to meet you all!" She cheerfully introduced herself.

"Any relation to Pietro Polendina?" Ruby inquired. "Sorry, right, Ruby Rose, huntress in training, Beacon."

"Oh, you know father?" Penny turned to and curiously looked at her.

"Some of his work. Artificial intelligence and all the computer science is not my thing but I do keep up with current robotics." Ruby excitedly explained. "I'm more into weapons but I do look around."

"Father did work on a few military projects but he always said that his passion wasn't in the violence."

The girls watched in fascination how the two of them quickly descended into a debate over…something. It honestly felt like they were speaking a different language altogether, both due to the speed they were talking at and the plenty of scientific terminology being thrown around. Yang was just happy that Ruby finally found someone who shared her passions and didn't think much of it. Weiss was counting down days until it took one of them to blow up the school by accident.

Pyrrha decided that it was time to end the evening on a high note before Weiss saw another faunus and started another awkward chase. It was her only reason. Totally. "Hey Ruby, I think we are about to miss the last ride back."

Ruby and Penny snapped out of their dialogue that had spiraled into the question of 'why had nobody installed hard-light dust shields on spider-droids' and both took a look at their scrolls to check the time.

"Oh no! I'll be late to the hotel!" Penny cried out in panic.

"You are right!" Ruby said to Pyrrha and bid a quick goodbye to Penny. "Today was awesome! We had fun and I even made a new friend!"

"Yes, congratulations on finding one more nutjob, please tell me when I'll have to duck and cover." Weiss jokingly said, earning herself a playful pout from Ruby.

"What did you call me?" Penny had literally jumped in front of them.

"I-I didn't me-" Weiss stammered, embarrassed that the girl apparently heard her.

"Not you, Ruby." She stared at the demure girl. "You really want to be my friend?"

"Sure?" Ruby didn't know why she was making it into a big deal but if her saying it outloud would help then she had no problems with it. "Why not?"

"Sensational!" Penny literally lit up and started another rapidfire of the supposed friendship activities. In the end they literally had to drag Ruby away.

-BBW-

"Hey, is everything alright?" Blake walked up to Ilia and tried to talk to her.

"Yes, I'm fine, now move along." She spitefully replied without looking away from her scroll.

"Ilia, you are not fine. What happened?"

Now she did look up and Blake was reassured that something was wrong. Ilia had large circles under her eyes and overall looked like crap. "What the hell do y-oh…It's you…" Does she have depression? How didn't I notice?!

She sat down next to her, put Ilia's scroll away and held both of her hands. "Ilia, please tell me what's wrong. I promise I will help." She gave her a reassuring smile.

"Nothing is wrong…" She refused to meet Blake's eyes and continued to look downward.

"Ilia…please talk to me, I'm your friend, we can deal with whatever is worrying you."

"Are you now?" Ilia looked up to her and spat out. "I don't even remember when was the last time you've been my leader, much less a friend."

"Oh…" Maybe I've been chasing after Ruby for too much… "Is that what it is all about? That I'm not doing enough for the team?"

"No-yes. I mean-. I don't know!"

"Ilia, I can do better. I can even ask Ruby-"

"Dammit Blake! First it was always about Adam, now you are obsessed with someone else!" ilia exploded, her skin color changing to an angry red.

"It's not like that…"

"Bullshit! It was always like that. Since we met, you've been always chasing after somebody who doesn't care about you! When will it be me?!"

"When will it be you?.." Blake parroted her in confusion, her mind slowly working through the revelation.

"Shit." Ilia cursed and dashed away.

"Ilia, wait!" Blake called out and gave chase.

Fortunately, at least for Blake, Ilia was emotionally too distraught to use her semblance so it took Blake only a few minutes to catch up and tackle her on top of one of the Vale's buildings.

"Let me go! Dammit, Blake, what do you want now?!"

"To talk." She weakened her hold on the girl but didn't let go completely. "That's what I wanted from the beginning." She demurely answered.

"Well, I don't want to." Ilia huffed and turned away.

"So you confess to me and then run away?" She said in a joking tone. She was running out of options. When Ilia didn't reply she decided to press further. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?"

Ilia turned back and met her golden eyes with tearful gray. "Because you were all over Adam… I didn't even know you went for girls. Then you ran away and everything got so chaotic that I didn't want to bring it up. And then you went after Ruby… and-" She was interrupted by Blake who gave her a warm hug.

"Shhh, let it out, Ilia."

She lost control completely and started sobbing into Blake's chest. "Why? Is there something wrong with me?"

Blake just kept holding the crying girl in her arms. "I'm sorry but… this is something I can't do for you…" She hugged her tighter.

It took Ilia about ten minutes to calm down. "I'm sorry." She murmured into Blake's soaked shirt.

"It's not your fault." Blake patted her on the back. "What now?"

"I-I'm trying…to move on I mean. But…it still hurts."

-BBW-

A bullhead landed in a dark forest, some distance away from Patch' main settlement moments before midnight.

"It's time to face the music, huh?" Marrow quipped at his partner.

Winter gave him a flat unimpressed stare. "Stay professional."

"Yes ma'am!"

They walked out of the bullhead and took a look around. Their mission was a secret operation that was only agreed on by the general and headmaster. Neither of the respective countries' councils knew about it and that was exactly why their landing zone was literally in the middle of nowhere.

The only person in the clearing aside from the two specialists and the lone pilot that took them there was a single man, probably the huntsman sent by Ozpin to assist with their mission. Winter couldn't guess his age properly. From the appearance alone he could be anywhere from late twenties to early fifties. He was definitely trained, his posture and the way he moved when he walked up to them showed it.

"You are the guys James sent?" He asked them, his voice carefree. It immediately rubbed Winter the wrong way. Unfortunately for her, general Ironwood said that the man in front of them was a veteran huntsman who had been working under headmaster Ozpin for a long time before ending his active career due to family matters and was now called back. He also technically outranked both of them.

"Specialist Schnee and Specialist Amin, sir." She saluted him and even in the dark she could see the blue eyes roll at the gesture.

Instead of following any military protocol he offered his hand for a handshake and introduced himself. "Taiyang Xiao Long, please, call me Tai. Sir makes me feel too old. Welcome to Patch."

-BBW-

In the end Blake had to book a hotel for both of them. They had already missed the last ride back to Beacon and with how terribly Ilia looked, proper rest was paramount. They decided to reach the place their usual way. Meaning they were going by the roofs. None of them wanted to deal with any more people today and Ilia was still looking like a complete mess.

"Hey Blake, look over there." Ilia pointed towards an edge of a lower building. There they both saw a monkey faunus in an open shirt and shorts steal some fruits and run into a narrow alleyway in between the buildings.

"What about it?" Blake didn't feel like intervening. The shop had probably kicked him out anyway and it wasn't like he was hurting anybody in the process. Then she heard a metallic crash and a distant grunt of pain coming from the same direction. "Ilia, can you check with your semblance?"

She gave a short nod and activated her insight. In the alley they saw the faunus escape was a small man sitting on the ground and propped up by the wall. His aura was locked so that was about everything she could gleam from him. The faunus on the other hand… He was definitely trained, his reserves were larger than Nora's and slightly below Pyrrha's. She could also see the pale yellow blob leisurely walk down the alley without a care in the world, his aura being in a calm state.

"I think he ran into someone down there and had a small fight." Ilia gave her findings to Blake. Although calling it a fight might be an overkill, he probably just punched a guy once.

"So he stole something and immediately attacked somebody else…" This sounded very wrong for Blake and with this type of behavior there was a possibility that he might be a member of the White Fang. She needed to investigate.

/

"Can you level with me for a moment?" Sun exasperatedly asked, once again laying on the ground. "I've been in this city for only a few hours and this is the second time that somebody jumps on top of me with a gun. Is there something on my back or is this like a local welcoming tradition?" Don't get him wrong, he was all for being jumped by a woman, although when it happened the first time, the girl looked a bit too young. This one on the other… damn, he wouldn't mind staying under her a bit longer.

The girl gave him a curious glance before her eyes narrowed. "Are you a member of the Whi-"

"Sun Wukong, Haven academy. What the hell is wrong with this place?! You know, not every faunus is in kahoots with them." He immediately interrupted. What was it with all the profiling? Did his team send a message to Vale to be on a lookout for him as a revenge for ditching them?

"...I know." The girl gave him an understanding look before removing the bow on top of her head and showing a pair of cute kitty ears. "That doesn't change the fact that you attacked somebody." She gave him a stern look but thankfully put away her gun.

"Oh that guy? He was trying to sell me drugs. I told him to think about his life and knocked him out, nothing big." He waved her off. "Why are you so into this anyway? Do you have some big problems with the Fang around here?"

"You could say that." Sun didn't jump up in fright when another girl appeared out of nowhere. "But if you are a tourist, I doubt you would be of much help." She spoke in a really tired tone.

"That's where you are wrong!" He jumped up from the ground like nothing happened. "When I just got here, I heard some people at the docks talking about some large shipment of dust. Sounds like something terrorist would be interested in." He smirked when he saw the two girls share a glance before turning back to him.

"Blake."

"Ilia."

/

They met up on Sunday evening and were slowly making their way into the now empty docks with Ilia scanning the area with her semblance every few seconds.

Suddenly she stopped, quietly cursed and turned it off. "Sun. Did you tell anybody else about this thing?"

He gave it a bit of a thought. "Well, I mentioned it to the guys that jumped me the first time. Why?"

"Was among them a buff blonde with waist long hair?" Ilia asked, already feeling an approaching headache.

"I think? There was an entire team plus one other girl. The one that tried to arrest me was named Ruby, dark hair red cloak."

"Ilia, what's happening?" Blake joined the conversation.

"I just saw Yang. She is on the wateredge."

Blake blinked before releasing a tired sigh. "Well… this is going to be awkward."