Chapter 5

Well... here it is. After two months, which included an ungodly amount of homework in school and a month of frantic studying for the APUSH exam, I finished Chapter Five. I'm really sorry about the lateness of this one. But now it's here. Hope you enjoy it.

Thank you to mylordshesacactus (a quality human being) for proofreading this.

After a quiet loss to the Shade Knights, Ruby was sitting in front of her locker and icing a nasty bruise on her shin (which was the result of a wayward foul ball in the eighth inning). The locker room was quiet, as things usually were after a loss.

Next to her locker, a large flatscreen TV was perched on a chair, and at some point, a dilapidated couch had been pushed in front of it to create a makeshift lounge. It was this couch that Jaune was flopping down onto with a groan.

"Dang it!" He muttered, tossing his glove onto the floor.

"Tough game," Ruby said conversationally.

"Tell me about it… At least you did something right and had a hit. Every time I threw the ball, I didn't know if it was going to be a strike, a ball, or go sailing into the next continent."

"You weren't bad, Jaune," Pyrrha said, leaning over the couch to put a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "You shouldn't beat yourself up over it."

Jaune snorted. "I only walked seven batters in three innings. Did I do anything well today?"

"But you didn't give up any hits, either."

"Well.. that's probably because they didn't really need to swing," he groused.

"Don't forget, you had five strikeouts, too," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah..." Jaune shrugged, reaching for the remote. "I hope Coach can see what you see in me." He flipped the TV on.

A sports reporter was talking onscreen. "–live to southern Mistral–" she was saying, "–where the Haven Firebirds' manager is speaking to the press about her team's performance this spring."

As soon as she heard the words Haven Firebirds and manager in the same sentence, Ruby's eyes widened. "Jaune, change the channel," she said urgently.

"What?" Jaune looked up in confusion.

"Could you give me the–"

Onscreen, the reporter continued. "For someone so taciturn, Raven Branwen has been unusually talkative about her team's chances this year."

Too late.

The image on the screen changed, and the reporter was replaced by a woman with red eyes and wild black hair barely enclosed by a baseball cap. Leaning against a wall with her arms crossed, she spoke in a cool drawl to an array of reporters.

"–been exceeding my expectations. This is a tremendous team, and I fully expect to win it all this year. Cinder Fall has been–"

CLANG.

Everyone in the locker room jumped at the abrupt noise. Ruby turned around to see Yang standing at the other side of the room with her hand on the door of her locker, having just slammed it shut. Her eyes, their color now a burning red, were focused on Jaune, and her expression bore a deep scowl.

Jaune quailed under the intense stare and shrank into the couch. Somehow, he found the bravery to squeak out an audible "What?" as Yang glared at him.

Yang didn't reply. After a few long seconds had passed, she shook her head and stalked out of the locker room, still silent. In doing so, she left behind Blake, who had been in a middle of a conversation with her. The right fielder only watched as Yang walked out.

Jaune shut the TV off and stared as the door swung shut behind her. "What… what was that?"

"Jaune," Ruby said slowly. "That was Yang's mom on the TV."

Jaune's eyebrows rose. "Raven Branwen– the Raven Branwen, the manager of the Firebirds– is her mom?" He still looked confused. "What's wrong with that?"

"They're estranged. Yang hates her." Ruby glanced at the door Yang had exited through. "She really doesn't like being reminded about her at all."

"Estranged?"

That was Blake, coming up behind them. "I was going to ask what triggered Yang's reaction, but… I see. If I may ask, what happened between them?"

Ruby winced. "Well… it's a really sore subject for Yang, so I don't want to say a lot, but… Raven left us without saying anything– I don't really remember her, I was pretty young, but Yang does– and we didn't hear from her until she became the manager of the Firebirds three years ago."

"That's unbelievable," Blake said, horrified. "What kind of–" She stopped, her eyes drifting to something behind Ruby.

Ruby turned around to see Yang walking back into the locker room, her eyes now back to their normal lavender. She started towards her locker, then changed her mind, and started towards their group in the corner.

"Hey," she said, her voice quiet as she sat down on the couch. "If you were talking about me and… her?" she said, waving her hand. "Don't stop talking just because I'm here."

Surprisingly, Blake spoke first, finishing her question. "What kind of person would do that?"

"A scumbag." Yang's reply was immediate and toneless. "She didn't even say goodbye. Just waited for a day when we were out of the house, left a note, and disappeared to Mistral. She's never acknowledged me since she left. Not even once. Not even when she took the job with the Haven freaking Firebirds."

No one replied to this.

After a few moments, Yang's eyes shifted to Jaune. "Hey, Arc… Sorry for scaring you."

"It's fine," Jaune said quickly. "I won't do it again."

"Don't worry about it, all right? I'll try not overreact like that again, so don't feel like you have to tiptoe on eggshells around me. I'm not mad at you."

Jaune nodded. "Thanks."

Ruby turned back to her locker.

"Yang, do you always drive like this?" Blake asked, clinging to the door as they whipped around a curve.

"Yeah, pretty much… It's how I used to drive my motorcycle, but once I got to the major leagues, I had to switch to a car for safety reasons... I didn't really like the change, so I never tried driving any differently. Two wheels just feels better to me." Yang patted the steering wheel as she swerved into another lane. "But this comes pretty close to the rush I get driving a bike."

"Yes, a bright yellow muscle car does suit you quite well," Blake remarked.

Ruby knew Yang wasn't a bad driver. She was just… bold. Very bold. Riding with her, as she and Blake were doing right now, was an experience. It always involved loose interpretations of the speed limit and blaring horns from angry motorists.

"Yang?" Blake asked.

"Yeah?" Yang said, accelerating to catch a yellow light.

"Could you do me a favor?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you… drive more slowly?"

"What? Oh, sure!" Yang put on the brakes, and, for the first time Ruby could remember, started driving at the speed limit.

"Thank you," Blake said, while Ruby stared at her in astonishment.

"No problem!" Yang braked for a red light, and while braking wasn't unusual, what was new was that the deceleration didn't toss Ruby around like a Ping-Pong ball.

"Nice game today, huh?" Yang remarked.

"I'll say," Blake said.

"You know your triple in the sixth, Blake? You absolutely crushed that. The ball went off your bat like a scalded cat."

Blake coughed before replying. "It was a hanging curve. I should've hit it out."

Yang waved her hand. "Eh, triple, home run… who cares? You were all over that."

The light turned green, and they rolled forward again.

"But seriously, you might be the solution we've needed in right field for the last few years. It's been a revolving door of mediocrity. Some of the players we've had there… Ugh." Yang shuddered as she turned onto a side street. "The less said about them, the better…" She trailed off, her voice changing pitch. "Wait, what the–?"

Their hotel was visible just a little way down the street from them. But dead ahead, a multitude of police cars and people were in the road, blocking their way.

"Okay… Something's up." Yang stopped the car.

Blake opened her door. "It looks serious."

The three of them got out.

"I hope no one's hurt," Ruby said worriedly, craning her neck in a fruitless effort to see over the crowd ahead. The only thing she could see were the flashing lights of an ambulance.

"Excuse me, officer?" Yang asked to a passing cop. "What's going on?"

"White Fang incident," was the short reply from the officer as she hurried past them.

Ruby's eyes widened. A terror group… right here?

"What?" Yang scratched her head. "The White Fang, around here? I didn't think this was a bad part of town– Blake, what's wrong?"

Blake didn't reply. She was staring at the crowd with an expression of intense dread, her eyes wider than Ruby had ever seen them.

"Blake?" Yang repeated, concern creeping into her voice.

Finally, Blake responded. "I…" she swallowed. "I'm sorry. I just… I was caught off-guard. We should leave."

"You're right. I don't want to be near this." Yang glanced around. "Man, I hope everyone else got into the hotel okay."

Ruby didn't hear the rest, because a ball of blind fear had appeared in her chest, making her feel so tight she thought she would burst: Weiss.

Weiss had left before they did, and she would've taken this route to the hotel… Suddenly, Ruby thought of the rash of White Fang raids and attacks against the Schnee Dust Company in recent years. Weiss could be a perfect target– a Schnee out in the open, alone–

She jumped onto the hood of Yang's car, ignoring her sister's exclamation of surprise. And, finally able to see over the crowd, an ugly scene greeted her. A plate-glass storefront had been shattered, and on the pavement in front of the store, three red marks had been spray-painted in a diagonal pattern to resemble a claw's gouges– the symbol of the White Fang. Someone was being put into the ambulance.

"Can you see anything?" Yang asked. "How bad is it?"

"A window got broken and it looks like someone's hurt… I think that's it." Ruby squinted, trying to see if it was Weiss in the ambulance, but she couldn't tell.

She looked down at Yang. "Do you think Weiss is okay? I'm worried she got caught in this while getting back to the hotel."

"I'm sure she's fine. That officer called it an 'incident,' not an 'attack.' If it was really bad, they wouldn't have said that."

"I guess." Ruby went back to scanning the crowd. And then she caught sight of a familiar shade of snow-white at the edge of the crowd.

Thank Dust for Weiss's extremely noticeable hair, she thought.

She jumped off the hood and ran for the crowd, ignoring Yang's shout of concern, and in a few seconds, she'd covered the distance to Weiss.

As Ruby ran up, Weiss started to turn at the sound of her footsteps, and surprise crossed her face as she caught sight of her.

"Ruby?" she asked.

"Weiss!" Ruby squealed, the storm of fear inside her evaporating. Impulsively, she jumped forward and gave Weiss a crushing hug. "You're not hurt!"

"Ruby! Wh-what are you doing?" Weiss asked.

Ruby's answer came out in a rush; she was too relieved to care about speaking slowly. "I heard that there was a White Fang attack and I thought maybe you'd been hurt so I was looking for you and I was really worried and then–"

"I– I am grateful for your concern, but that's not what I was asking!" Weiss's voice rose in pitch suddenly. "Why are you hugging me?"

"Huh?" Ruby pulled back. "Because you're not hurt!"

Weiss stared at her with such a dumbfounded expression that Ruby wondered for a second if the girl had ever had a hug in her life. Then she brushed it off. There was no way that could ever happen to anyone… Right?

"What happened?" she asked. "How'd you get here?"

"I was getting coffee and I heard a commotion from down the street. They're saying that it was a–"

"Ruby!"

That was Yang, pushing through the crowd with Blake trailing behind her. "Don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack, running off like that!"

"Sorry!"

"Seriously." Yang reached out and patted Ruby's arm like she needed to make sure she was really there. "Don't do that."

"I'm sorry… But I found Weiss!"

Yang's gaze fell on Weiss. "Oh, you did? Great! Now let's get out of here," she said, turning away. "We don't need to see any more of this. Coming, Weiss?"

"Definitely."

"Agreed," Blake said, looking only too happy to be getting away from the crime scene.

"This is just weird," Yang remarked. "This is my fourth year at spring training here and that's the first time I've ever seen White Fang trouble."

"It's very odd," Weiss agreed. "And right here, too. Our hotel was right down the street. We could've been right there when it happened…" She shook her head.

Ruby turned to Blake, meaning to ask if she had ever seen anything like this, but the question died on her tongue as she realized something was wrong. Blake still had the expression of deep-seated terror from before, and her eyes were now focused on some point in the distance. She seemed to be in an entirely different world.

Yang had noticed by now. "Blake?" she asked. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Blake blinked and looked at Yang. "Sorry, what?"

"You okay?" Yang asked. "You looked a little, um, distressed for a few seconds."

Blake's reply was halting. "Sorry… It… it was just a shock." She sighed and looked down. "I'm sorry. I'm overreacting."

"Hey. It's all right." Yang laid a hand on Blake's shoulder. "Sometimes I freak out when I think about the terrible people in this world. But you gotta remember, there are more good people than bad out there. That's how I stay afloat sometimes."

Blake gave Yang something resembling a smile. "You're right."

"Good try, Rose."

"Can't hit 'em all."

"You'll get it next time."

The various comments from other teammates washed over Ruby as she made her way to the bench. She slumped down and let out a long exhalation. For a few seconds, she was happy to sit there quietly. Today wasn't going well. Two strikeouts and a weak groundout– about as impressive as a bowl of cold oatmeal. It wasn't the end of the world, of course, but it sure felt that way right now. To be fair, spring training wasn't going badly. It just could be better. Sure, she wasn't getting many hits, but she wasn't looking completely overmatched, either. Her problem was the competition.

Hei "Junior" Xiong, once an offensive linchpin for the Vale City Crusaders in their days of six consecutive division titles, was now a washed-up veteran fighting for a job. And, unfortunately, he was playing out of his mind. With five homers (and counting) plus a batting average ninety points higher than hers, he was soundly beating her for the shortstop job.

She could see him at the other side of the dugout, chewing on a wad of gum and watching the game with an expression of indifference.

He hadn't interacted with her at all (there was a good chance that Yang had scared him into staying away from her), but Ruby hoped there weren't any malevolent feelings between them. Even if her sister had kicked his butt in a Vale nightclub last year. They were two people competing for one spot. Simple math said that one person would be disappointed, and she had accepted that.

But, more importantly, everyone around her was doing great. Weiss was holding her own and quieting doubters. Blake was getting rave reviews from everywhere. And Yang, despite having navigated a few rocky outings in the spring, didn't seem worried at all.

"It doesn't matter how you do until the games start counting," she'd said to Ruby with a wink.

Ruby wished she could believe that.

"Ugh."

Weiss sat down next to Ruby, pulling her out of her morose thoughts.

Ruby sat up. "What's up, Weiss?"

"Did you hear that?" Weiss asked, pulling off her helmet.

"Hear what?"

"Obviously not." Weiss let out a huff. "Some nimrod in the front row was chanting 'cheater' while I was at bat. I didn't acknowledge him, of course, but… gah! I wish people could move on from that"

"Did you hit a home run and shut him up?" Ruby asked. "Because that would be so awesome."

"No. I flew out to left field."

"At least you hit the ball harder than I did."

"Hmph." Weiss started pulling her batting gloves off. "I cannot wait for the regular season to start."

"Yeah…" Ruby slumped down again. There wasn't much time left. Less than a week. Seventy-five players at the start of spring training had been cut down to fifty. And half of the players still here would be gone by the start of the season. She was starting to seriously wonder where she would be going.

Who saw Penny in RWBY Chibi? I'm yelling she's so adorable

No idea when I'll have the next chapter out, BUT I WILL KEEP WRITING. Because I love writing this.