An Aura of Hope: A RWBY Fan Fiction

Chapter Seventeen

Test week came. The school dropped to an eerie quiet throughout the upcoming days. If you didn't know what was really going on, you'd think someone really important had died. My team didn't even really speak to each other except to ask for help.

The testing lasted all day for a week. By the time the test for that day was done, we were all too tired to do anything but eat and sleep. Vi took to spending time meditating on the roof to calm down after being crammed in a desk for 9 hours per day. I'm glad she did that, because otherwise she probably would've taken it out on me. Avery and I would usually try to make small talk, but then Riker would jump in and start lecturing us on the fine details of something one of us said, and then I would struggle not to grab his shoulders and scream at him that we don't need more learning. Avery seemed to be struggling with the same thing.

The Saturday after testing was a day of celebration. Professors were in over their heads trying to get the students to calm down. Vi bragged to us that she made a golem out of food and gave it an aura, and it wrecked the cafeteria. Avery and I had a good laugh about it, but Riker wasn't happy about it. That night came around, and Vi was out partying. My mind was on Yang.

"Hey James," whispered Avery.

"Yeah?" I whispered back.

"Wanna go somewhere away from buzzkill over here?" She nodded towards Riker, who was poring over a history textbook. "How can he still want to look at words?"

I laughed a bit. "I don't know but that sounds like a good idea. I need to get some fresh air. Get my mind off things."

She smirked and took my hand and pulled me out the door.

"What do you have in mind..?" I asked warily.

She ran me to a closet and pulled out a carton of eggs. "How about we pull a prank on VARA?"

I hesitated. "Why?"

"Because they're a bunch of jerks and they'll never know it was us."

"I dunno, Ave. Seems a little risky."

"Oh come on, lighten up! It'll be fun. Just you, me, and some throwing eggs."

I looked at the carton of eggs. There really wasn't much of a point to the prank except to make them angry. Then again, I don't think Avery had any problem with making them mad for no reason. Eh, I didn't see any major problems with it.

"Fine, Avery. Just this once, though."

She squealed in victory and anticipation and pulled me along again until we were outside VARA's room. Then she pulled out her scroll and unlocked the door.

"How did you...?" I began to ask.

"Shhhh... this is Ren's. I nabbed it when he left it in class yesterday. We'll leave it in there when we're done, of course." She opened the door and slinked inside. I followed behind, being mostly quiet. "Alright," she said, "now comes the fun part." She took an egg out of the carton then handed the carton to me so I could do the same. Then she lobbed it at a wall, the egg splattering the wall. Suddenly I wasn't too sure about this. It made me sick to my stomach. "C'mon, James!" she whispered. "You too!"

"I... don't think I can, Ave. This seems like more than a prank." I stared at the egg in my hand.

"What do you mean?"

"This is straight up vandalism, Avery!"

She took another look at the egg on the wall then the carton. Then I could tell her conscience was coming to its senses and she looked about as sick as me. "Oh no, James, what do we do; I didn't mean for it to be harmful in any way!" Tears started to well up in her eyes and she looked at me desperately.

"Look, let's just try and wipe up the egg and then go. VARA isn't going to notice a few egg whites right off the bat."

She nodded and wiped the tears away. I went and grabbed a towel out of a pile in a corner and wiped up as much of the egg as could.

"See?" I said. "Easy."

"Easy," she repeated in a quiet voice.

"C'mon," I said. "Let's go do something else." I opened the door and walked out, glancing back to make sure she was following. "Oof!" I said as I collided with someone with my head looking back. "Sorry, I-"

"Watch where you're going, dunce!" said the lady I bumped into. I looked at her and was somewhat surprised to see my former boss there.

Weiss Schnee was clad in an attire I was not used to seeing her in on the TVs at the factory. She wore a short white dress designed for combat and a white jacket. I could see flashes of red in the jacket, a strange burst of color on her otherwise perfectly white person.

"W-Weiss Schnee!" I exclaimed. "I'm so sorry!" I bent down and helped her to her feet, and she glared at me all the while, causing me to look away from her in shame.

"Next time," said Weiss Schnee, "look before you bolt." She turned her nose to the air and started walking again. Avery had sheepishly walked out of the room while we were talking and had hidden behind me.

"Ms. Schnee," I call out, "are you looking for something? I feel like I need to make this up to you."

"I know where I'm going," she said. "I went to school here once, you know."

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

She sighed. "Look, it's cute and all, but cut the goody goody stuff out. I'm just on my way to collect a student and bring him to Professor Rose. Now, if you'll excuse me..." She turned to walk away again.

"Well, the student might not be in his dorm, there's a huge party going on, if you tell me who it is I can help look."

She groaned. "A kid named James. Ru- Professor Rose wants to see him."

I jumped a little at my name, and I knew why the Professor would want to see me, so I was fairly certain she was talking about me. "Um, I'm James," I said.

She looked me over. "I was told your dorm was a story higher and towards the West side."

"It is, ma'am."

"Then why did you just run out of there? Is it her dorm?" She nodded to Avery, who I could pretty much feel shrinking back behind me.

"No," Avery squeaked out.

She looked like she was going to say something more, but her scroll buzzed in her jacket, and she checked it instead. "Come on," she said. "Ruby is getting... impatient."

"What about me?" asked Avery.

Weiss Schnee groaned. "Just come on."

We both followed behind her as she walked back towards the headmistress' office. She knocked on the door and then went in, motioning for us to follow.

There were a lot of people in the office, not that it mattered since it was a huge room. But it went quiet as we entered. The three people behind the desk seemed to be directing the meeting, but I only recognized Professor Arc. Standing with him were a police officer and a woman clad in black. Professor Rose was sitting off to the side, looking absolutely distraught.

"Mr. Louis," said Arc solemnly. "Thank you for joining us." He turned to the officer. "This is the other witness to the kidnapping. James, this is officer Darryl Jackson with Vale PD. He's the one in charge of this case."

We nodded to each other and I took a seat. Officer Jackson waited for us to sit and for Weiss to join them up front, then he spoke. "Yes. Now, the compound we searched-"

"You found Yang?!" I blurted. I couldn't help it. The room was eerily silent.

Jackson broke the silence. "She's back at the station."

"Why isn't she here? If we haven't found the kidnapper, shouldn't she be here helping?" Another awkward silence.

Professor Arc broke it this time. "James-"

The woman in black, who had been slightly shaking the entire time, finally lost it and blurted,

"SHE'S DEAD!"