The streets of Vale had been swallowed entirely by the festival. Streamers in red, yellow, and green ran between every lamppost, balloons clustered at every corner, and the elderly shopkeeper from From Dust Till Dawn was up a ladder fixing a sign that read WELCOME TO VALE! in letters large enough to be read from a Bullhead.
Weiss stopped walking and raised both arms.
Weiss: The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!
Ruby: I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss. (a small frown) It's kind of weirding me out.
Kaito: (stepping behind Ruby) Yeah. Creepy. Ne ne.
Ruby hid a snort behind her hand.
Weiss: (eyebrow twitching) How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the entire world dances, parades, a tournament the planning alone that goes into an event like this is simply breathtaking.
Yang: (arms crossed, sighing) You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring.
Kaito: Tell me about it. I could fall asleep listening to her drone. Besides let's be honest I'm the only one here who makes white hair look good. (he struck a pose)
Yang fake-swooned dramatically. Weiss's eyebrow twitched again.
Yang: Remind me why we're spending our Friday afternoon at the docks?
Ruby: (covering her nose) They smell like fish.
Kaito: You wanna know what else probably smells like fi
He caught the collective warning stare from Team RWBY and closed his mouth.
Yang patted him on the back. "Smart move," she murmured.
Weiss: I've heard that students from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. As a representative of Beacon, I feel it's my solemn duty to welcome them.
Blake: She wants to spy on the competition.
Weiss: You can't prove that.
Ruby: (turning her head) Whoa —
Down the street, a Dust shop sat behind yellow caution tape, its window shattered. A detective was writing on his notepad outside.
Detective 1: Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week.
Yang: That's terrible.
Detective 2: They left all the money again.
Ruby: Huh?
Detective 1: Just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?
Detective 2: I don't know an army?
Detective 1: You thinking the White Fang?
Detective 2: I'm thinking we don't get paid enough.
Weiss: (nose in the air) The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates.
Kaito: I don't pay much attention to them. They're kind of weak.
Blake: What's your problem?
Weiss: My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane.
Blake: (serious) The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus.
Weiss: Misguided? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!
Kaito: Like they could. That'd take years.
Blake: So they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they'd rob a Dust shop in downtown Vale.
Ruby: Blake's got a point. The police never caught Torchwick either — maybe it was him.
Kaito: I could probably catch him. But honestly, too much effort.
Ruby: (elbowing him) You don't put much effort into anything, do you. (a beat) That was what, your third run-in with him at that Dust store?
Kaito: (ruffling her hair) What can I say. He impressed me the first time. So did his partner.
A commotion erupted at the docks behind them. Two sailors were chasing a boy with a golden monkey tail along the ship's railing.
Sun: (hanging from a lamppost, peeling a banana) Hey a no-good stowaway would've been caught. I'm a great stowaway!
A detective threw a stone at him. Sun dropped the banana peel on the detective's face, laughed, and ran winking at Blake in slow motion as he passed.
Weiss: Quick! We have to observe him!
The chase rounded a corner and ended when Weiss, running hard, collided with someone and went down. She looked up to find Sun gone and a smiling girl on the ground beneath her.
Penny: Sal-u-tations!
Ruby: Um… hello.
Yang: Are you okay?
Penny: I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking.
Yang: Do you… want to get up?
Penny: (considers this) Yes! (she leapt to her feet) My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!
Ruby: Hi Penny. I'm Ruby.
Weiss: I'm Weiss.
Blake) Blake
Kaito) Yo I am Kaito
Yang: Are you sure you didn't hit your head? I'm Yang.
Penny: It's a pleasure to meet you!
Weiss) you Already said that
Penny so I did
They turned to leave.
Ruby take care freind
Yang: (once far enough away) She was… weird.
Penny: (suddenly directly in front of Weiss) What did you call me?
Yang: Oh I'm really sorry, I didn't think you heard
Penny: Not you. (she walked through the group and leaned toward Ruby) You! You called me friend. Am I really your friend?
Ruby: (glancing at her teammates, who all urgently gestured no) Y-yeah, sure! Why not?
Yang and Weiss comically fainted. Penny looked overjoyed.
Penny: Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!
Ruby: (to Weiss) Is this what it was like when you met me?
Weiss: No. She seems far more coordinated.
Yang: So what are you doing in Vale?
Penny: I'm here to fight in the tournament.
Weiss: You're fighting in the tournament?
Penny: (saluting) I'm combat ready!
Weiss: Forgive me, but you hardly look the part.
Blake: Says the girl in a dress.
Weiss) it's a combat skirt
Ruby: (appearing at Weiss's side instantly) Yeah! (Weiss extended a hand, Ruby low-fived it)
Weiss: (refocusing) Wait. (she grabbed Penny by the shoulders) If you're here for the tournament, do you know that monkey-tailed rapscallion from the boat?
Kaito: Whoa — little bit racist there? (he nudged Blake
Blake shot him a startled look — missed entirely by Ruby, Weiss, and Yang.
Blake: Why do you keep saying that?!
Weiss: Huh?
Blake: (walking toward her) Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!
Weiss: Oh, I'm sorry. (gesturing around her) Would you like me to stop calling the trash can a trash can? Or this lamppost a lamppost?
Blake: Stop it!
Blake: (clenching her fist) You ignorant little brat!
Weiss: How dare you talk to me like that — I'm your teammate!
Blake: You are a judgmental little girl.
Weiss: What makes you say that?
Blake: The fact that you'd sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group based solely on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you think he is!
Yang: (sliding up to Ruby) I think we should probably go.
Penny: (appearing behind Ruby) Where are we going?
Weiss: I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!
Blake: That is the problem.
Weiss: (getting up) You realise you're defending an organisation that hates humanity?
Blake: (on her feet) There's no such thing as pure evil. Do you know why they hate humanity? It's because of people like Cardin — people like you — who force the White Fang to take such drastic measures.
Weiss: People like me?
Weiss: I'm a victim. (quietly, leaning in) You want to know why I despise the White Fang? They've been at war with my family for years. Real war — bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target on its back for as long as I can remember. I watched family friends disappear. Board members executed. An entire train car of Dust stolen. And every day my father came home furious — and that made for a very difficult childhood. (her fist hit the bookshelf)
Ruby: Weiss, I
Weiss: No. (turning back to Blake) You want to know why I despise the White Fang? They are liars, thieves, and murderers.
Blake: Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around.
Weiss stepped back slowly. Blake looked around at the room and understood what she'd just said.
Blake: I… I… (she ran)
Ruby: Blake, wait — !
The door swung shut. Yang sat down. Weiss looked at the floor.
Blake arrived at the stone outcropping outside Beacon and stood before it without moving for a long moment. The armoured figures above her sword and axe, eternal and still looked out over the Beowolf at their feet.
She reached up and pulled the bow from her hair. Wiped her eye. Her Faunus ears settled where they'd always been.
Sun: (from above) I knew you'd look better without the bow.
Kaito: (also somehow already there) Ah — yeah, he's right. She really does.
Blake turned around.
Ruby woke up, yawned, and looked at Blake's empty bunk.
She groaned
Ruby: She's been gone all weekend.
Weiss: Blake's a big girl. She can handle herself
Yang: She's one of our teammates, Weiss.
Weiss: Is she? We all heard what she said.
Ruby Weiss ?
Weiss: A member of the White Fang. Right underneath our noses.
Ruby: I just hope she's okay.
Elsewhere in Vale, Blake sat across a café table from Sun and Kaito, a cup of tea cooling in her hands. The morning light came through the window behind them.
Kaito: You know, waiting for you to start talking is getting boring.
Blake: So. You want to know more about me.