RWBY and Earth III: The New Frontier

Hard Path

Beacon Academy, Vale

Dorm Building

August 20, 2020

Over a week had passed at Beacon, Emerald was walking down the hall at night with a couple textbooks in her arms. A couple students approached and just as they were about to pass each other, one of the students slapped the books out of Emerald's arms, then the other student swept his foot at her feet, making Emerald fall to the floor.

"Watch where you're going, terrorist," the first student sneered.

"Killed any more people today?" the second student mockingly asked.

As the two students walked away laughing, Emerald grabbed her text books and stood back up. Her eyes welled up as tears threatened to run down her cheeks. She quickly wiped her eyes as she was about to walk again, a voice call from behind her.

"Emerald?"

She turns around to see Watson.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Emerald answered.

"Are you sure? Watson asked. "I kind of watched the whole thing."

"Yeah," Emerald answered.

"Emerald, this has been going on for a while now. For you, Mercury, and Hazel. I'm not sure what made you three turn away from Salem, and I can see you guys are trying to redeem all of the bad shit you guys have done in the past, but you can't let the shit that some of these students here give you get to you," Watson explained.

"Well, I can't fight back, since that will only make it worse. And it's already hard to fix all that I've done to a lot of people," Emerald said

"Show them you're trying to redeem yourself. And if they can't see it or if they refuse to see it, then fuck 'em," Watson said.

"I'll try," Emerald said. "Alexander, right?"

"Yeah, but my friends call me by my last name mostly. It's Watson," he replied.

"I'll keep that in mind," Emerald said.

She turns around and walks away down the hall as Watson watches her leave. On the other side of the hall completely unaware, Hazel was poking his head around the corner, watching the conversation between Watson and Emerald. Hazel then turns around and walks away.

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A moment later, Emerald walks into her dorm room where Oscar, Ilia, and Mercury are all sitting on their beds. Oscar was reading a history book, Ilia was looking down at her Scroll, and Mercury was reading a comic book titled The Boys. Emerald closed the door behind her as she entered and walked over to her bed as she tossed her text books aside on the floor. She collapsed down onto the bed laying on her stomach with her face turned away from everyone. Emerald had tears running down her face.

"Emerald, what took you so long?" Mercury asked.

Emerald quickly wiped her tears away and turned her head to face her partner.

"Nothing. Just some idiots harassing me," Emerald answered.

"Again?" Oscar asked.

"That's not surprising. I've been jumped by three guys on my way back here," Mercury said.

"It's been over a week now, you two. This has got to stop," Ilia said.

"Well we can't fight back, because we'll only get in trouble for it," Mercury said.

"Right now, the best thing you two can do is just ignore them," Oscar said.

"Hard to do that when they act like that idiot, Winchester and his team of sheep," Emerald said.

"Just remember our friends are there for you, and the four of us are a team and we all look out for each other," Oscar said.

"Yeah. I'm sure that will help," Mercury sarcastically said.

"To be fair, Emerald did help Team RWBY, Oscar, Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Winter take down General Ironwood in Volume 8 and she did help Oscar escape from Salem. If that doesn't show that she wants to redeem herself, then I don't know what will," Ilia said.

"But those idiots don't know that because they haven't read the scripts for Volume 8. The guys at Rooster Teeth didn't want us to reveal spoilers or whatever," Mercury said.

"Showing everyone Volume 8 will not make a difference because of the attacks that you both participated in, and the events of that volume have not, and will not happen with where we are now. All you two can do is make up for what you guys have done and hope for the best," Oscar said.

"Easier said than done," Emerald muttered as she hugged her legs and rested her chin on her knees.

"But we'll do this together," Oscar said.

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Meanwhile in a different part of the building, Watson entered his team's dorm room where he saw Azumi, Jesse, and Jacket sitting on their beds. Azumi was tuning the strings on One For All, Jacket was watching a show called The Boondocks on his iPhone, and Jesse was reading from a textbook. Jesse looks up to Watson as he closes the door and walks over to his bed and sat down.

"You look a little exhausted, Watson," Jesse said

"I just had a run in with Emerald," Watson said.

"You mean that sexy black chick with the mint green hair? I tell you she looks like she would have nips that can be sucked like chocolate chips," Jacket said with a smirk.

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that," Jesse said.

"Anyway, some guys were giving her a hard time, and I had to help her up," Watson said.

"Are we gonna have to kill some n****s here? 'Cause I'll fucking do it," Jacket said.

"I would appreciate it if you'd quit saying that, Jacket," Azumi said.

"Say what?" Jacket asked.

"The N-word," Azumi answered with annoyance.

"You'll have a hard time breaking that habit out of him, Azumi. Trust me," Jesse said.

"So what's up with Em and tin legs?" Jacket asked.

"They've been constantly bullied for over a week because of their involvement in the Salem global attacks," Azumi answered. "Where have you been?"

"Watching my show," Jacket replied.

"Then no more Boondocks for you," Azumi said.

"You forget, you're not the team leader," Jacket retorted.

"But I am, Jacket. And I have to agree with her. Despite that show being funny, it's a bad influence," Jesse said.

"N****, fuck you!" Jacket exclaimed.

"And we rest our case," Azumi said.

Watson just sat on his bed, watching his teammates argue. He turns his head to face the readers.

"Well... that escalated quickly," he said.

He turned his head back to face his teammates who continued to argue and watched.

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Author's Note: Rooster Teeth had let go of their key animators. Before you all jump to conclusions, it wasn't over the allegations, they were let go because their contracts have expired. This is something that happens all the time with companies. It was nothing personal, it was just business. The animators have confirmed that the animation for RWBY Volume 9 and the RWBY/Justice League crossover films (Why make that?) has been completed or has reached a point where they require few animators. Volume 9 will still continue.