Chapter 13: Ghosts of the Present

The elevator was cast in a sterile light. It slowly hummed as it ascended, rising through the clouds and into the peak of Beacon tower. Ozpin had recently called her, calling her to his office. The elevator smoothed to a stop and a bell-like sound rang through the walls before the doors glided open.

The room was filled with sunlight, pouring in from the transparent walls. A field of clouds blanketed the view, dividing it between a snowy, fluffy white and the endless blue of the sky. A flock of birds glided above the clouds, skimming over the tufts of cloud. A complex web of light shafted through the complex web of copper machinery above, projecting dancing lights and shifting shadows upon the floor.

Ozpin sat in front of his deep red mahogany table, leaning forwards with an ink pen in hand. He scanned a piece of paper lying flat on the desk. Ruby stepped out of the elevator and paced forwards, ready to get things over with.

He raised a hand to halt her. "Come, have a seat," he gestured. Ruby stepped forwards, placing a hand on top of the chair and taking a quick glance over at the stack of papers on Ozpin's desk.

Medical bills. Of course, he'd be ready to guilt her at a moment's notice. She would have liked to have admitted that it had no effect on her, but it did, still picking at the guilt she felt. She pulled the chair back completely and took a seat, staring at Ozpin with a facade of unwavering confidence. Ozpin analyzed Ruby's stare and placed his pen flat onto the table, taking care as to avoid staining it.

He raised his finger to his brow and deftly took his glasses off. His other hand, at the same time, reached into his pocket and took out a clean piece of silk cloth. He lightly rubbed his glasses while altogether ignoring Ruby.

Ruby's foot tapped against the ground. "Is this about my punishment, isn't it?" she started. She knew that it was probably going to be house arrest or something along those lines. Ozpin wanted her under his watch, after all.

He looked up and placed the cleaned glasses onto his eyes. He pushed the bridge upwards, adjusting the glasses. "Yes, quite a detailed observation indeed. This is about the recent incident." He waited to see if Ruby would have anything to interject.

Seeing that Ruby was still waiting for a point to argue against, he continued. "It is quite unfortunate for me, or any of the faculty at Beacon, to have to make this decision. In the name of safety for both our students here at Beacon and you yourself, I regret to tell you that you hereby have been placed under house arrest until we see fit otherwise."

The statement wasn't all too shocking, really. Ruby looked at Ozpin's eyes, expecting a challenge. Instead, all she saw was a cool, calmness in his gaze. It sparked anger in her. How could he act so calmly in the face of this? She came here expecting a fight, one where he tried to insert his dominance. She felt a swelling sense of spite deep inside her.

"But Blake would have died otherwise," she rebuked. How could Ozpin not see? Nobody could have expected what would have happened. Not even herself.

Ozpin seemed to have a prepared and calculated answer for Ruby's question. His voice took on a more serious tone, and a vein of iron ran through it. "And what if you failed? What if you weren't so lucky? Then we'd have four dead. You very well know that the police is available. Any of our staff would have helped too," he said, knowing that Ruby had nothing against his point.

She looked away. He was right. But what was the alternative? Explain how she just so happened to know exactly where Blake would show up and what she'd do? It was already hard enough with her Yang and Jaune. It seemed like Ozpin's moral compass did not include honesty, so having to answer to Ironwood would be even worse.

Ruby admitted the half-truth. "I... I thought that it would be alright. We'd just go there, convince her to return and that would be the end of things. Next thing we knew, she was being held at gunpoint and Torchwick was loudly announcing how he was going to blast her brains out," she lied. She fidgeted slightly in her seat, hoping that Ozpin did not see through her twisted truth.

If he did, he did not show it. "I see," he muttered. "Even then, it would have been wise to have at least contacted the authorities. Until then, you are placed under house arrest. For your safety and for others'." He said it with a sense of finality, putting an end to the exchange.

Ruby blurted out without thinking. "Wait, you want to track down the White Fang, right? I know a base they have in Forever Falls. It's a few miles away from the city." She instantly regretted the decision.

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to use this to get out of your punishment?" he asked. Ruby could see his interest peak, however. If she played this right, she could at least get some form of leverage.

"It was to keep everybody safe, right? If you bring hunters and those robots Atlas has been advertising lately, there'd be no chance of failure. It's not far from the city so the White Fang can't have that much strength and, if things really go sour, reinforcements won't take long to arrive."

He thought about it for a moment. "And what would this do other than alert them to our presence?"

"It's near a railroad running under Vale. They could get to the center of the city if they just hijacked a train there." Ruby knew she had him once she saw him weighing the risks. It was either accepting her demands or admitting that he didn't care about the well-being of Vale.

Ozpin knew it too. "You're right. It's a low risk for such an important target," he admitted.

"And, uh, can Blake come along? She has a personal stake in this too," Ruby quickly added. She fidgeted a little under Ozpin's analyzing gaze.

"I presume this is because of her past?" Ozpin asked. He started speaking again without waiting for Ruby to answer him. "It's not unreasonable. She can come."

That was. . . Too easy. It unsettled her. It worked though. I shouldn't read too much into it.

"Vale will organize a squad of hunters by next week. You will be the navigator and your friend can be enrolled as an intern under the basis of exceptional school performance." He looked away from Ruby and down towards the sheet of paper still sitting in front of him. He picked up the pen laid to the side, and quickly checked a box on the form.

Ruby smiled a little. "Thanks."

The next day came quickly. Ruby woke up to a pillow to the face. Her hand instinctively grabbed for Crescent Rose and met thin air. She slid over the edge of the bed and came crashing into the ground. Yang was roaring with laughter by the time she came back to her senses. Stars flew around her vision and her forehead throbbed.

"Yang," she muttered, mind racing as to why Yang would do this. Blake was leaning on the wall behind the bunk. Her hand covered her mouth but it was obvious she was trying her hardest to burst out laughing. Ruby realized what just happened and retaliated with a glare to both of them.

Yang controlled her laughter and leaned forwards, out of breath. "It's just a prank, sis," she said after recovering.

"Just a prank? I fell out of my bed!" Ruby yelled.

"You did that yourself, all I ever did was throw a pillow at you," Yang replied after regaining her breath.

"Wha-" Ruby shouted indignantly before Yang cut it off by ruffling her hair. "Yang!" she yelled, cheeks flushing red. She grabbed her sister's hand and tore it off her hair, unable to suppress the embarrassment.

Blake's demeanor snap as she clutched her stomach and let out a series of stifled laughs. She turned her back towards Ruby and grabbed the edge of a cabinet to steady herself.

Yang grabbed Ruby's wrist and turned around walking up to the door. "Today we're going on a team bonding exercise," she loudly announced.

Weiss objected before Ruby did. "Wait, I didn't agree to this. All you said was that we were going to wake Ruby up with a pillow!"

Yang sighed. Why did Weiss always have to make things so difficult? It was almost as if she was passively trying to keep things as bad as they were. "Well, let's take this to a vote," she proposed. "I vote Aye."

"I vote nay," Weiss instantly responded. She looked towards Blake. "Don't you dare. . ."

Blake crossed her arms and smirked. "Aye."

Weiss' head jerked back towards Ruby. "Don't tell me you'll vote in favor of this too," she threatened.

"What, of course not!" Ruby picked at Yang's fingers, trying to free them from her wrist. Yang's grip tightened and the skin around Ruby's forearm slowly bleached and whitened. She glared at her sister as she tried to pry her hand loose to no avail.

Weiss spoke again with a smug grin, extruding victory. "Team leader counts as two points. Three versus two, we win," she said with a sense of finality.

Yang seemed prepared for the moment. "Ruby's only half awake. She counts as half a point. Two versus one and a half, two-"

Ruby yelled again. "I am fully awake!" She stopped picking at Yang's fingers and started hammering her hand.

"She doesn't know what she's saying," Yang interjected before Ruby could speak any more. "So that settles it, we're going to Vale!" She tugged at Ruby's arm, pulling her outside. Weiss sighed and followed, waiting for Blake to first past in front of her.

They stepped into Vale half an hour later. Yang had set herself as the defacto leader and stood before the group. "So, where should we go first?" she asked them.

I'd love to go to a bar right now. . .

"Ruby? Any ideas?"

You're just taunting me now. "Weapons store," she muttered. Anything else would come off as weird to her sister.

Say, when was the last time I've drunk alcohol? Before the time jump? She realized how much she missed just being able to forget a problem.

"Weiss?" Yang continued asking.

"Maybe we can go finish that Vytal festival tour?" Weiss proposed. "It was cut short last time." She glared towards Blake. "Thanks to some-"

Yang sensed the incoming argument and rushed on. "And Blake," she hastily cut through Weiss's sentence before anything could happen.

"I heard there's this seafood place next to the docks," Blake said. She turned towards Weiss and opened her mouth to say something.

Yang clapped her hands together to silence the group. "Alright then, we can have a look around the Vytal preparations and then pick up something to eat at the seafood place Blake is talking about. How does that sound?"

She didn't wait for anybody to agree and stepped forwards, pushing apart her two teammates that were staring each other down. They reluctantly looked away, still keeping an uncomfortable distance between each other.

Ahead of them was the shopkeeper, on the ground. A green haired girl held out her hand, pulling him up. He dusted his apron off and gave a small smile before turning back to his shop and climbing back onto the scaffolding.

Emerald? What is she doing here? Ruby looked at her suspiciously but glanced away before she stared for too long.

Blake slowed down and stared at Emerald. "What do you think you're doing with that wallet?" she asked as she brushed past Emerald. The rest of the group had stopped, looking back towards the exchange between the two.

Emerald turned around and walked backward. She held up a black wallet between her fingers. "What do you mean? This is mine," she replied. She stepped around the corner, leaving Blake's sight.

Blake stared at the alleyway before turning around. She walked ahead, ignoring the rest of team RWBY. Yang quickly caught up and put a hand on her shoulder. "What's the deal?" she asked.

"I just thought she looked familiar," Blake answered with a calm, restrained face. She tilted her head up to look at the clouds. The ones nearby were light tufts floating through the air. A row of dark gray storm clouds, however, laid back near the horizon. Her ear twitched once at the growing humidity.

Storm rain battered the windows of the cafeteria, covering everything outside in a gray haze. A stifling, suppressing mist of humidity stuffed the cafeteria. Ruby made her way through the crowds of students filling the hall. The downpour outside had forced many who prefered eating outside into the cramped cafeteria, resulting in a mess of students bumping against students as the stifling heat grew.

She brushed a steel shoulder guard. Looking back, she saw a brown-haired boy. Cardin. He caught her glance and stumbled backward, tripping on one of his friends. He grabbed at his friend, almost falling over onto his back. Ruby gave a suspicious look and warily looked away and continued on.

She spotted a waving hand extrude over the crowd. She moved towards the hand and pushed through the amalgamation of students, breaking out into a clearing. Nora, Ren, and Yang were already there. The table they were seated at was completely drenched. Looking up, a web of cracks showed on the roof and a steady stream of rainwater dripped in, splashing on the table. Ruby grimaced but sat at the table, uncomfortably close to the miniature waterfall.

"Ruby! I was waving at you for like half an hour!" Nora said.

"Oh, uh, really?" Ruby awkwardly replied. She raised an arm to shield against the mist from the waterfall. The droplets that hit her arm were freezing cold, shooting little needles up her arm.

"Yes, Really." Nora did not sound amused.

"So where are the others?" Ruby asked, trying to divert the conversation.

It worked surprisingly easily. "Pyrrha, Blake, and Weiss are probably still in that crowd. Yang saw us and came over a few minutes ago," Ren replied.

"Putting those points into perception was worth it," Yang joked.

"Huh, that's unusual. The Yang I know can miss a shining gold bar in an empty room," Ruby dryly replied.

"Hey, that never happened!" Yang rebuked.

She heard Nora go "ooh" and jerked her head towards the redhead, giving a questioning look. She crossed her arms as she waited for Nora to spit the answer out. Nora, meanwhile, giggled before exploding into a roaring laughter.

"What's so funny?!" Yang threatened. Her eyes thinned as she realized what Nora was emptying her lungs over. "Whatever happens next is your fault," she muttered, leaning back into her chair and crossing her arms behind her head. Nora died down and wiped the tears out of her eyes, and the group sat in silence for a moment.

Ren reached towards his fork when Nora peaked up again. "Wait, I think I see Blake over there," she said, still wheezing a little from earlier. She pointed over across the hall. Ruby squinted her eyes, barely making out a ribbon amongst the students.

"I don't see anything," Yang muttered. She looked back towards Ruby. "Oh come on, you don't see it too, okay?"

"She's the black ribbon over there," Ruby pointed, sitting up straight to better see the ribbon.

"I don't believe you." Yang knew that Ruby was somehow lying to her.

"Just ask Nora," Ruby replied.

Nora spoke up. "Wait, Blake's over there!" She stood up and pointed in the opposite direction. "You see the ribbon over there? Also, who's food is that?" She pointed towards an unattended plate of seafood sitting to the right of Ruby.

Ruby felt somebody creep up behind her. She wrestled down the urge to turn around and decapitate whoever was behind her. Blake probably, considering their current debate.

"Boo."

Ruby didn't flinch at all. "Hey Blake," she leisurely said. Nora, meanwhile, visibly jumped out of her seat a little, instinctively grabbing the sides of the chair.

"How did you get so close?!" she yelled, still a little shocked by the moment. She settled back into the chair, visibly on edge.

"You're not exactly a perceptive lot." Blake smirked and stepped to the side.

"Have you been here for a while?" Ren guessed. His physical presence disappeared as quickly as it showed up.

"Didn't want to step into the conversation Ruby was having with Yang," Blake laughed as she pulled out a chair and sat down in front of the plate of food she set down earlier. She looked around if anybody had anything to say. Meeting silence, she dug into her food.

The rest exchanged some uncertain glances but followed. Nora downed her entire plate in half a minute and let out a loud belch. "Say, do you know where Pyrrha and Weiss are?" she asked.

Blake took a big bite out of a grilled slice of fish. "I think I saw Weiss somewhere over in that quadrant." She pointed towards an area close to the table. "I don't know where Pyrrha is. Her hair shouldn't be hard to spot, though."

"Wait, I think I see Weiss over there," Yang said.

Nora started yelling and waving frantically again. Weiss spotted her, as did twenty other people in the surrounding area. Ruby could see her grimace at the attention Nora was garnering, but reluctantly move over anyways.

She pushed through the crowd and moved around the table, taking a seat opposite to Blake. She eyed Blake warily, as if she was still expecting her to suddenly flip out and point a gun at her. Weiss hesitantly looked down to take a bite out of her food, still keeping her eyes on Blake.

"So, that makes everybody but Pyrrha," Nora said. "Weiss, did you see her anywhere?"

"No. It's impossible to spot anybody in that mess."

Nora showed a look of frustration for a moment. "Where the heck is she?" She moaned. She looked towards the massive clock bolted to the wall. "There's only ten minutes left until class!" She slumped back into her seat, as if she had given up completely on the matter.

The remaining minutes passed and everybody stood up to dumped their plates, saying goodbye and going their separate ways.

Pyrrha didn't show up to class either, and when they returned to their dorms, she was nowhere to be seen.

DorkKnight: Woah, 100 followers! That's really freaking cool, even if it sounds perfectly normal. I never actually thought I'd get here on my first try. Nice :)

On a side note, school is really tiring and Exiled has pretty much vanished into thin air (thanks to college and whatnot), so expect MUCH less consistent upload dates. Maybe once every 2-3 weeks? And I should probably apologize for disappearing for a month. Sorry :(

Exiled: I'm sorry for vanishing, but my ever-so-intelligent professors decided to give me a crap ton of projects and stuff weeks 1-4. I'll be more active with the next chapter and onwards. Also, anyone else get a ticket to see Volume 5's premiere in theaters? I'm lucky I live near Fairfax, VA so I can see it there.

DorkKnight: There's a screening at an AMC that's about a 20 minute walk from where I live but I can't go there because reasons ;(