章 1857: 88
Chapter 88Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"So… there's some… interesting teams on campus now," Cinder stated quietly, pursing her lips and looking out over the Beacon grounds at the sea of new uniforms taking over campus. It was weird, seeing just how many visitors were spending the entire semester at their school- it made the grounds feel more alive, more cramped, more… difficult to find alone time. "It's weird, isn't it? There's this… tension in the air… it's electrifying…"
"Why do you always talk like a villain when you're monologuing to yourself?" Emerald asked, crossing her arms and leaning against the balcony alongside her girlfriend, raising an eyebrow and rolling her neck as she adjusted her uniform jacket and tried really hard to not stare exclusively at Cinder's ass even if the skirt did make it look really good. "I mean, I know you took theater lessons for a couple months but did you seriously keep it up this entire time?"
"I made a very good villainess and I am not about to let three years of off and on theater classes go to waste!" Cinder shot back, huffing dramatically and flouncing in place as she tossed her hair to the side and stamped her foot. "You're just jealous that I know how to talk like a suave femme fatale~"
"You sound like Veridis from Team SVVA when you talk like that," Emerald deadpanned, rolling her eyes and moving over to bump her hip against Cinder's as she referred to the faunus student who had a habit of whipping people in the crotch with her tail if they were dicks to her or her friends. "But like. In a dumb way and not the super thotty way that Veridis walks around."
"Veridis is a whore," Cinder hissed out, huffing petulantly as she outright rejected being compared to their classmate and acquaintance on Team SVVA (Saffron). "I am refined, elegant, and a beauty beyond compare."
"You have a great ass at the very least," Emerald snickered, giving Cinder's booty a pat and bumping shoulders with her girlfriend. "And amazing boobs. You don't have Veridis' tail though. Have you seen that thing?"
"I've seen more of that woman and her equally attractive team polycule than I've ever wanted to see in the gym showers," Cinder sighed, hanging her head a little and shuddering slightly as she looked away. "Why Beacon doesn't have privacy curtains between their shower booths in the locker room is beyond me. Anyway. Beyond that, why're you here? I thought you were busy today."
"Well, I was. Then Neo decided to take my place with helping out for the dance? I think CFVY's still doing most of it but Neo's better at figuring out aesthetic stuff and I just wanted to come back before Mercury suggested spiking the punch bowl or something equally stupid," Emerald shrugged, looking out at the new friendships being made below, uniforms of all Academies mingling together in the courtyards and walkways. "Huh. It really is kinda weird watching all of this. You met any of the transfer teams yet?"
"A few. Some of them seemed strangely interested in me, and not in a sexual way," Cinder hummed, thinking back to the other day when she'd been greeted by an odd team of four that had introduced themselves as Team VERM (Vermillion) from Haven- a lesser known team, it seemed, transferred in from a smaller school according to them. "I don't know why they seemed as though they were really checking me out, but they seemed like they were checking me out- not like they wanted a date, but because I'm a threat ."
"You are one of the better fighters in the year, maybe they just wanna scope out the competition?" Emerald pointed out, then hummed quietly as she thought back to her meeting with one of the Haven teams- Team CALC (Calcite). "I met with a team that really wanted to ask questions about you for some reason. Team… Calcite? Something like that. I don't remember entirely what their names were, but they were kinda creepy and intense and… I don't know why but they really reminded me about… hmm…"
She shook her head, pulling one of her hidden knives from her skirt pocket and twirling it about her fingers to fidget as she got her thoughts straight. "Charlotte, Anastasia, Laurel, and Celeste… Charlotte and Anastasia just felt like rich bitches that wanted to show off a little, kinda like how Ruby described Weiss when they first got onto a team… or like how Neo described most of the girls in her school. Laurel and Celeste, though… they reminded me of Neo for some reason- something about how they moved… it was… really weird. Like, the way all four of them strutted around and stuff, it was almost uncanny. I swear, I couldn't hear the slightest deviation when they were walking up, they were so in sync."
Cinder blinked. "... That was what I got outta VERM too. Violet, Erin, Roux, and Mauve, I think they said their names were. Something about them really reminded me of Neo. The way they moved, the way they came in and out of perception… I swear, they use the same tricks Neo does to keep out of sight even when she's not using her Semblance. You don't think- no… it couldn't be…"
She frowned, crossing her arms as her golden eyes washed over Beacon before she turned around, heading back into their dorm room with a contemplative look on her face. "Emerald, do you remember that time when I brought Neo back to Patch?"
"How could I not? It was the start of two years of gay super hell for me," Emerald answered, following along and huffing as she stretched slightly and threw her uniform jacket onto her bed before starting to dress down so she could get into her comfy clothes. "What about it?"
"That was when I helped Neo blow up Lady Browning's," Cinder continued, doing much the same as Emerald as she stripped down and threw on her pajamas before flopping down into Neo's bunk with a quiet huff. "I guess you wouldn't have heard of it if you didn't know anything about Valean schools- it was an upper class rich bitch school for all of the hoity toity bitches that Neo hates and that apparently I talk like sometimes. As it is… it was also a cover for a secret training camp-"
"A training camp? Wait does that mean-" Emerald interrupted, almost jolting out of bed with a quiet gasp. "Wait holy shit were they training ninjas or something? Is that why Neo's the way she is!?"
"Yeah. They were training assassins. Neo ended up getting her training there, as did a bunch of other girls," Cinder pursed her lips, furrowing her brow and looking down at her hands as she wrung them nervously. "If they are from Lady Browning's… and if she sees any of them, or if they see her… there's really no telling what they'll do. Especially since there's definitely still bad blood between them- Neo blew up the school and burned down the Vanille manor with Spider members still inside, so if the gang is still mad..."
"You mean she blew up the school and you burned down the manor," Emerald stated flatly, as if it wasn't even a question.
"... Okay in my defense I was in a hurry- anyway shut the fuck up this is important- look, the thing is we have to keep Neo away from them. If they're here for something shitty then we're gonna have to keep an eye on them and try to prevent them from doing whatever it is. If they're just here for the tournament, then… whatever. Hopefully whatever this is… it isn't anything. Just a bit of paranoia," Cinder shook her head, continuing to wring her hands and biting her lip as she looked across at Emerald. "Keep an eye on them for me? I don't wanna get too close- I know they're interested in me, and if I show too much interest back they might realize something or I might overplay my hand. Maybe get Mercury to help, or… No, best to keep Ruby out of it."
"She has better stealth scores than Neo does, why can't we bring Rubles in?" Emerald asked, then paused and frowned. "Actually, that's the thing, why shouldn't we bring Ruby in? She has emotion senses, she can just sense if they're gonna do something bad, right?"
"Not really. She can guess why a person might be feeling one way or another, but she can't really tell intent unless it's really strongly in there and immediate," Cinder answered, clenching her fist as she stood up. "If she senses a lot of negative emotion for a long period of time that might indicate something, but… I don't know. That's the thing with emotion senses. Ruby's annoyingly perceptive at times but that's because she knows certain emotions really well and she's mostly focused towards being a therapy dog than a detective. She can help, but… it'll take a while."
"Just like keeping an eye on the Haven teams. We could probably get Sun to help too, since he and his team seem to be friends with RWBY and JNPR," Emerald pointed out.
"... Who the fuck is Sun?"
"... The… monkey faunus on Team SSSN? From Haven? We met him the other day when they said hi at dinner while we were eating with Rubes and Yangles?"
Cinder blinked. ".... Ohhhhh right. That guy. Sure, I guess? Honestly, I just hope that whatever happens, there's no other big revelations that make this entire thing into an absolute shitshow of conflict. Wait- what did you say those rich bitches on Team CALC were called?"
"Charlotte and Anastasia… Unicorn, I think? Why, what's up?"
Cinder froze.
"... Shit."
[Unrelated to literally the entire plot of this fic- Veridis Ouroboros! She's my personal RWBY OC and she is, in fact, a total thot. Team SVVA is the team me and some friends came up with in an old RP server]
Notes:
Veridis has been mentioned in a multitude of chapters, incidentally. See if you remember where she's been brought up!
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