STRQ (A RWBY fanfiction) [Book 1]

Chapter 39

I was trembling by the time I was at Ozpin's office. I felt Qrow take my hand and squeeze it gently. I looked up at him and he smiled at me reassuringly. I pressed the buzzer and waited.

"Come in," I heard Ozpin's voice say. He didn't sound as inviting as he usually did. Considering what had happened earlier, I wasn't that surprised.

We walked in slowly and took our seats in front of Ozpin's desk. Ozpin was staring directly towards me. His glare made me extremely uneasy.

"Professor... I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what happened at the tournament earlier."

"...Do you realize what you did was very dangerous? Not to mention I'm going to have to make up a cover story."

"Sir, with all due respect, what Summer did was accidental. She didn't mean—"

"Quiet, Xiao Long! I was not speaking to you!" Ozpin shouted, his voice echoing throughout the office.

Tai flinched at Ozpin's raised voice and looked down at his feet.

"Hey! You can't just talk to him like that!"
Raven snapped, starting to rise from her chair.

Ozpin shot a glare at Raven and she sat down quickly, her eyes avoiding Ozpin's.

"Now... I have done some contemplating on this matter. I have come up with a decision. In order to avoid this incident from ever happening again, I'm afraid I'll have to ban you all from the Vytal Festival tournament permanently," Ozpin explained.

"What?! Come on, that's not fair!" Raven
cried. "We've trained all year to do this!"

"Yeah! You can't just ban us like this! Summer didn't mean to do what she did," Qrow replied.

"Whether she meant to or not doesn't matter. I can not risk a silver eyed warrior's exposure. Especially not to the general public. You have no idea the panic it was cause!"

I tried to protest. "But—"

"My mind is made up. Go back to your dorm at once!"

We didn't argue as we rose from our seats slowly and headed for the door.

I basically broke down after we made it back. I felt so guilty about getting my entire team banned from the tournament. Qrow sat next to me and wrapped his arm around me.

"I... I'm sorry," I choked between sobs.

"Don't worry about it, Summer. It's not entirely your fault. The tournament doesn't really matter to me," Tai said.

"I, for one, think it is her fault. Maybe if she had kept her emotions in control, this wouldn't have happened!" Raven snapped.

"Raven! That's enough," Qrow replied.
"Summer has been through a lot today. The last thing she needs is someone else yelling at her!"

Raven opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"I wonder who that could be?" Tai asked,
walking towards the door the answer it.

Standing in the doorway was team WHTE.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, shocked.

"We wanted to check on you guys," William said. "And... we have questions."

"Come in... since you're already here,"
Tai said stepping aside to let them through.

"So... did you make it through the doubles round?" Raven asked, her eyes narrowing.

William shook his head. "No... The last team we fought put up a big fight. Plus everyone was pretty distracted by what Summer did. Apparently there's a cover story saying that it was just the lighting, but we're not buying it. We know what we saw. And we're hoping you could give us some answers."

"Why should we trust you?" Raven asked.

"We just want to know what's going on," Erin said quietly.

"That's doesn't justify anything," Raven snapped back.

I sighed. "I trust them. And... they have a right to know. They did witness the entire thing."

Qrow looked at me. "Are you sure, Summer? We've only known them for a short time. We still don't know what their intentions are towards us..."

"Our only intentions are to help, thank you very much," Heather replied.

I nodded. "I trust them, Qrow. They seem like genuinely good people."

"Well... okay."

I looked up at team WHTE. "Have you heard about silver eyes?"

William looked puzzled. Heather and Tyler did too. Erin didn't look surprised at all.

"...I have," she whispered.

"When was this?" Tyler asked.

"I read about them in a book a long time ago. I thought it was just a myth, so I brushed it aside."

"Well... silver eyes are real. I have them myself," I replied.

Erin and the rest of them team looked at me closely.

"Wow... they're really quite pretty," Heather said.

"So... is that what caused that burst of light? Your silver eyes?" Tyler asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. My powers don't hurt humans though, so you don't need to worry about that. However, it turns Grimm into stone and vaporizes them."

"That's... So cool!" William exclaimed.

"Is there anything else your eyes can do?" Tyler asked.

"I... sometimes have visions of the future. None of them have shown anything good..."

"Okay team, I'm putting all of us on a new mission," William announced.

"What mission is that?" Erin asked.

"We're going to help Summer and her team in whichever way we can."

"I'm okay with that. I never turn down an opportunity to help," Heather replied.

"I'll help too," Tyler said.

Erin didn't say anything, but she nodded in response.

"Good to know you're all on board. We can start by giving Summer some privacy. They've been through a lot today."

"Agreed. We'll see you soon. Thanks for trusting us," Heather said, smiling.

Tai opened the door for them and we said our goodbyes.

"They took that surprisingly well,"
Tai said, after closing the door.

"Yeah. I hope we really can trust them. You never know with people," Qrow said.

"They seem trustworthy to me," I replied. "I wouldn't have told them if I didn't trust them."

"That was risky, Summer. You shouldn't trust everyone. Somebody might seem like your friend when in reality they're the ones you should cautious about. Team WHTE might end up stabbing us all in the back," Raven warned.

I glared at her. I was tired and didn't really feel like arguing at the moment.
"Can we just call it a day? I'm exhausted and my head hurts."

Tai nodded. "I've had enough of today too."

"Fine. We'll continue this later," Raven said, climbing into her bed.

I did the same and closed my eyes. I felt Qrow lay down beside me and he started to stoke my hair gently, helping me relax.

"Goodnight, Summer," he whispered in my ear.

I smiled as I drifted off to sleep.