The Second Step Chapter 3

Hero's Pyre Part 2

A/N: I like Pyrrha. She's a strong and capable woman, and she deserves everyone's love. She should also fall madly in love with Ren and live happily ever after with five kids. Okay, not really. Again, thanks to my Editors H'te Rarpee and Ttran2323 for their excellent work, and double thanks to Ttran2323 for leasing me his Original Character team.

Disclaimer: Meh.


Gym room 23:

Blake lashed out with a Shikake Waza, releasing her right grip on her boken and struck with a tsuki. Yang swept her arm up and blocked the strike with her left knight stick. Blake repeated her tsuki. Yang blocked right. Blake repeated once more, and Yang retaliated. Blake stepped forward, and parried the attempted blow down and left.

Yang tilted forward and overbalenced, and a follow up kick to her shin sent her to the ground. Blake delivered a single, hard blow to Yang's neck (summarily blocked by her aura of course), ending the round. Blake helped her teammate to her feet.

"Okay, that was cheating! We agreed that you couldn't use semblances!" Yang crossed her arms, a vein visibly pounding on her forehead. The Faunus girl cocked an eyebrow.

"Trust me, I didn't use my semblance."

Yang shrugged. "Okay girl, say whatever you want. I know what I saw."

Blake rolled her eyes. "Okay, the score is 3:2, my favor." Blake returned to her stance, Yang doing the same four feet away. "Another round?"

Yang smirked. "Two more. One to kick your ass, the other to win."

"So be it. In five, four-"

"Waitupwaitupwaitup!" Team JNPR, Jaune in the lead, burst in to the Gym right then, breaking both girls out of their stances. "Okay. Have you two (huff) seen Pyrrha?"

Blake and Yang shared a look. "Shouldn't she have been out running with you guys? Or in class?"

Ren righted himself and began explaining the situation. Of course, he only made it as far as 'Pyrrha freaked out and ran off', before he was interrupted. "How could she just freak like that? She's like, the best fighter on your team." Blake nodded in agreement.

Ren and Nora shared a glance. Jaune looked positively devastated. "We need to help her, and to do that, we need to find her. Can you help us?"

Yang and Blake shared a glance. "Of course."


(Four Years Ago)

A continous beeping and the smell of antiseptics filtered through the senses of Pyrrha and into her slowly awakening mind. She was reclined, and could feel a pinch of a needle on the inside of her elbow. The light that flitted through her eyelids was stark white. All of these elements allowed Pyrrha to deduce her location: a hospital.

Pyrrha twitched her left thumb. She rolled over to her right side, and waited for a reaction. Not a sound reached her ears. Finally, Pyrrha called upon her aura and shifted it to her semblance, concentrating on ascertaining the location of all magnetic objects in the area. Instantly a field of nearly invisible shapes surrounded her. Pyrrha focused on spotting any in motion, seeking out a moving pen, or metal soled shoe.

She found none.

Pyrrha opened her eyes and did a scan check of her location. Standard hospital bed, albeit one she was handcuffed to. An IV drip, with a saline solution most likely. Hospital clothing; typical. Blinds were drawn all around her, keeping her private and hidden. All in all, exactly what she expected.

Pyrrha gave the handcuff an experimental tug. No give from the metal. Pyrrha focused her magnetic power into the handcuff. Some people may have aimed to shift the tumblers in the mechanism, unlocking the handcuff like a key. Pyrrha just broke the actual lock.

Pyrrha got up from the bed that had been her prison until a moment ago, ignoring the discomfort in her wrist. Slipping through the dividers, Pyrrha made her move, starting out of the room. Her ferric sense humming noiselessly around her, she plotted her way out of the room.

The room was shrouded by dividers, hiding its contents, but otherwise deserted. Pyrrha ran this fact through her head, and drew a single conclusion. She was in the middle of an assessment. Her S.O. had deliberately staged a kidnapping at the end of her mission, and was almost certainly observing her reactions.

The door was unlocked, the hallway deserted. Pyrrha started down the halls, avoiding the token 'doctor' that prowled them. Pyrrha passed a couple asleep in a seat. She moved silently down a corridor with red tiles. These facts were duly noted and after it was determined that their relevance was nonexistent, ignored them.

A door opened up down the hall. Pyrrha shot to the wall, plastering herself flat in the shadows. A little girl walked out and made her way down the hall back to the couple.

And she looked straight at- "Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha lashed out, delivering two stiffened hands to the base of the girl's neck. The little redhead dropped like a fly. Pyrrha took the girl and slung her over her back, fireman style. The girl had recognized her, and some would assume she was actually a contact, though a few particular problem-solving sessions had soiled that particular notion in her mind. Pyrrha placed the girl between the man and woman and examined them. The girls red hair was a shade for shade match with the man. Other then that though, the little girl had no identifying marks with the couple.

Pyrrha stepped back, then reexamined the family. The woman had a shapely appearance, with high cheek bones and a soft chin. It was... uncanny. She bore a rather striking resemblance to Pyrrha. The red hair of the man and girl was spectacularly similar to her own- scratch that. Pyrrha pulled a lock of hair around her head and compared it to theirs. It was the exact same color, the exact same shade of red. Pyrrha eyed the trio of sleeping people. They were important.

Who were they to her?

"Hey, you shouldn't be... Oh my Lovers." Pyrrha nearly jumped out of her skin. A doctor had rounded the corner and spotted her. She began to plot a way out...

The man stirred, roused by the noise of the doctor. Pyrrha started to rethink her plans of escape, only for it to crash and burn at the first words from the man's mouth.

"Pyrrha? Oh my Lovers, is that you? Honey, Thetis, its' Pyrrha!"

"...Oh honey. Pyrrha's right here." Thetis turned in her drowsiness and saw Pyrrha. "P, P,Pyrrha! You're awake!"

Pyrrha suddenly found herself stuck in the embrace of two very teary adults. "Oh my baby, we finally have you back. Oh we're never letting out of our sight again." Thetis sobbed into her daughters shoulder. Pyrrha was still wondering what sort of test Pelias was conducting.

"Excuse me. Excuse me! Please stand aside." The doctor forced the person who claimed to be Pyrrha's father to the side. "Your daughter was held captive and underwent military indoctrination of approximately a decade. She needs to be brought back into normal societal norms slowly."

"Excuse me, excuse me sir." Pyrrha brought his and her father's attention to herself again. "You claimed I underwent military indoctrination. What specifically did you mean by that?"

The doctor and father shared a look. Thetis detached herself from her daughter and sniffled. "Oh Pyrrha. They took you away from us and hurt you. Oh Lovers, I missed you."

Thetis wrapped her arms around Pyrrha again. Pyrrha just tried to figure out what was happening.


Pyrrha leapt from tree to tree, putting as much distance between herself and the monstrous snake Grimm.

The King Taijitu smashed through the trees, the ones it did avoid crushed as its massive midsection grazed them. Below the leaves, Beowulves gathered after the king of the hunter class Grimm. They sense its purpose. They sense the prey.

Her.

Pyrrha leapt through the trees, trying to put distance between her and the monstrous snake Grimm. She knew that she couldn't run forever, but she only needed to run far enough, and to the right place.

Pyrrha's semblance was simple and rare. Less than ten percent of the population of semblance holding people had Polarity. Pyrrha's was one that was particularly well developed, and it could do what any good magnet could do.

It could generate an electric current.

Several Ursa Minor and an Ursa Major began following the pack of hunters after the Beowulves and the Taijitu. A Quoth, a smaller cousin of the Nevermore, took a swipe at her. Pyrrha didn't pay it any mind. Quoths had a strange inability to see properly while in motion.

Pyrrha focused on the task at hand. She could see her target. She just had to get to... 'aww crap'.

An entire flock of Quoths were on her tail.

Pyrrha put her legs to the wood and pumped Aura into them. She kicked off, the branch exploding below her. She landed on the next branch and jumped again, another branch left in ruins. The Grimm were gaining. Pyrrha jumped again. She reached her target.

A large open clearing in the forest, free from trees and obstruction to the sky. Pyrrha slowly rotated in air, raising Miló to the sky, almost dead center in the clearing as she began to drop. The sky opened up to her.

Magnetic fields can produce many wonderful effects. They can fool metal detectors, compasses, move metal, and generate electric currents. Additionally, if a ferrous material is subjected to a rapidly rotating magnetic field, and is isolated from a ground, it becomes a capacitor, a battery for high voltage electricity.

And all lightning is, is high voltage electricity that is going to ground.

Lightning surged from Miló, rising like the light of the gods.


(Four Years Ago)

Pyrrha stared at the papers that her father Pelum had handed her. After four days of observation, exhaustive mental checks, comprehensive physicals and a series of military debriefings she had been cleared for leave. Of course, she was under mandatory observation, and had to attend regular psychological evaluations and therapy.

The day passed quickly. One minute, Pyrrha was standing in front of her doctor, explaining her terms of release and the reasons for it. Next she was introduced to her therapist, a miss Carter Sosa. Then she was in her fathers car, as he drove her home, blathering on and on about a pack of Beowulves outside Mistral that had recently immigrated to the region as winter set in up to the north.

And finally, Pyrrha was in her room. Pyrrha assessed herself and her a bag of newly allotted possessions she had received at sometime that had been unimportant. A set of shirts for daily wearing, five in all. Four skirts and three pairs of slacks. Underwear and bed clothing, an over coat and jacket. Three sweaters, wool socks for the approaching winter alongside mittens and a cap. The room itself was was rather cramped for her liking. A bed took up a quarter of the available space and the desk ate up another eighth.

Pyrrha made a note to remove both of those and turn the room into her personal training ground. If the situation she was in really wasn't a training exercise organized by Pelias, as mounting evidence suggested, Pyrrha would need to be in peak condition for extraction. Aside from the clothing, bed and desk, the only notable additions to the room were a lamp, a calendar marking the date as the ninth, and a notebook with accompanying pencils. Pyrrha racked her brain for its purpose, and drew a blank. The therapist must have mentioned it in a conversation regarding her treatment, this explaining why she repressed the information. She did not expect to attend for an extended period.

Pyrrha started to unpack, hanging the clothes in the rooms wardrobe or placing them neatly in the dressers drawers. Pyrrha placed the bag in the lowest most drawer and sat down on the bed. She inhaled slowly...

...and exhaled. She stood up from the floor and went outside the room, observing the time to be nine o'clock on Thursday the eleventh. Her sister would be attending school at the moment. Pyrrha herself would be attending her first therapy session with the doctor.

Pyrrha's father, Pelum, was waiting in the car for Pyrrha, smiling and hopeful. On the way, she and Pelum made small talk. She filtered what he said, forming quick bullet points on the major facts of the conversation and supporting info for later reference. When she and Pelum finally reached the office of Dr. Sosa, Pyrrha dropped the supporting information and relegated the main points to a smaller part of her mind. She said goodbye to her father and went in.

The lobby was empty. Pyrrha checked the time to see how early or late she was and was slightly satisfied to see that she was a half-hour early. It seemed her father was at least a capable chaperone. Pyrrha took a seat and waited.

Thirty minutes later, Dr. Sosa let her ten o'clock leave and gestured Pyrrha inside her office. "Good morning Pyrrha."

"Good morning, Dr. Sosa."

The doctor smiled. "Please Pyrrha, call me Carter. I believe that we should start with a complete explanation of what we will be doing here. As you know, these sessions are to assess your mental and psychological states, and determine what treatment, if any, are required. However, I will also be instructing you in the finer aspects of integration and interaction in society. Furthermore, I will try to assist you in coping with the neurosis you have."

Pyrrha held up two fingers and ticked them, indicating her wish to speak. "Carter, you stated that I have neurosis. Wouldn't it be more productive to assume that I am neurologically typical and work from that assumption?"

Carter smiled again (which Pyrrha cross-referenced with her experience from training and deduced was false) and said, "Under normal circumstances, yes, but as to the extensive mess that your kidnappers have made your childhood, it is easy to postulate that you do, in fact have are neurologically atypical. We can in fact, confirm a hypothesis of mine in that regard. If we may begin?" Carter gestured to a reclined seat in the office, and Pyrrha took the offer. Carter sat down in a secondary, straight-backed chair next to her. "Did your kidnappers impose or require you to adopt a hobby while you were held?"

Pyrrha replied. "No."

"Did you have any hobbies?"

"No."

"Were there any specific activities that you enjoyed when you were being held?"

"No."

Carter spared her clipboard a glance. "When you got home two days ago, what did you do?"

"I unpacked."

"And after that?"

"What I did then wasn't important."

Carter made a note on her clipboard. "What did you eat for dinner the night you returned?"

"It wasn't important."

Carter looked up from her note. "I think it was important. What did you eat?"

"Nothing of importance."

"What did you eat last night for dinner?"

"Nothing of importance."

Carter scribbled down a note. Pyrrha's eyes tried to decipher the movements, but was unable to before Carter moved on to the next question. "Did anything important happen today?"

Pyrrha nodded. "I had a conversation with my father while we were driving here. We were discussing the recent federal allegations of labor abuse filed against the Schnee Corporation. He said that the Faunus laborers are simply getting restless, though I think that the Schnee's counter arguments on the requirements of production are baseless. They have robots capable of active combat in their employ and only use them to guard their shipments. Meanwhile, Foley's Rifles are using their machines to aid in the production of their firearms. If we have machines capable of assembling weapons, certainly we have the capacity to remove all need for Faunus labor."

Carter set her clipboard aside. "Tell me Pyrrha, what are your personal opinions on Faunus?"

"My opinions are-".

"Not important?"

Pyrrha nodded. Carter picked up her clipboard again and set back to writing. The hour passed with scary speed, as Carter asked a number of unimportant questions.

Finally, Carter set the clipboard aside for the final time. "Well Pyrrha, it seems that we have run out of time. Let's continue this conversation next week, shall we?"

"Let's." Pyrrha got out of the seat and left the room. Pelum was sitting in one of the chairs, and was quickly called in by Carter. Pyrrha sat down, and the moment the door was closed, stood back up, and put her ear to the door.

"Well Mister Nikos, I cannot stress the... uniqueness of this situation. While there is much analysis of how a soldier is 'broken' from the mindset of common civilians, there remains tragically scarce information relating to placing someone into the mindset of a common citizen."

"But Doctor, certainly there is someway to treat her. She's been through so much."

"Mister Nikos, though we live in a society that does train the young, some say too young, to engage the Grimm in open combat, we focus on providing these children with capable psychological services and stress the role that they will play will not be required of them for an extended period of time, we do try to have them be of age when they are enlisted. And quite simply, we do not have the references to deal with someone who has been in this situation for so long."

"... Pyrrha doesn't seem to be too bad."

"Pyrrha, unfortunately, is a very good actor. In my observation, i have determined two major neurosis. Pyrrha is a textbook example of Compartmentalization taken to the most destructive extreme. She is literally capable of repressing information that she deems unimportant or destructive, and through this, able to advance through a time frame. I would almost say she was suffering from multiple personality disorder, if she wasn't able to trigger the events and be Semi-conscious of their passing. Mister Nikos, it is barely sufficient to say that we have a long way to go."


Nora and Ren walked through the east wing of Beacon. A handful of students sent side glances at the perky redhead and stoic boy from Atlas. They were probably wondering why the pair were dividing their time between talking into a headset and scanning the halls for someone. A few even stopped to ask what they were doing, though most were keen to ignore the offsetting foreign boy or annoyingly exuberant girl.

"Ren. Come in Ren. This is Ruby. Have you found Pyrrha?"

Ren pushed a button on the side of his comm piece. "No Ruby. We'll tell you when we do."

Another voice crackled through. "Maybe we should just let her go everyone. Pyrrha can take care of herself. I was gone with Sun for two days, and I was fine."

"Yeah, but that was the weekend. And we know you can take care of yourself. Pyrrha ran off crying." Jaune countered. "Besides, at the end, you were fighting a dangerous criminal with a monkey boy for back up against a dangerous criminal and trained soldiers."

"Terrorists." Weiss pointed out.

"Freedom Fighters." Ruby counter pointed.

"Misguided freedom fighters." Blake admitted.

"Can we please get the teachers in on this?"

"NO!" Was the general consensus on Ren's reasonable suggestion. "We can do this on our own." Jaune added. Ren pulled the earpiece out and just pressed a cold palm to his forehead. Sure, he could understand that it was teenage pride and fear if accountability that kept Jaune from asking for help, but it still grated on his nerves.

A girl popped alongside Nora. "Hey, you need anything?"

Nora shook her head, stopped, thought about it, then nodded. "Can you help us find our friend? She ran off somewhere and our friends are pretty worried."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Sounds serious. I'll help you. Vesta Lionheart."

"Nora Valkyrie." Nora stuck out a hand and Vesta shook it.

"Lie Ren." Ren went in for the handshake. Vesta awkwardly pulled back her hand.

"Denied."

"Thank you Nora, for the commentary. Vesta, we could use your team to help us."

Vesta gave a little smile, not quite meeting Ren's eyes. "Team VALR is here to help."

Nora gave a little cry of triumph and dragged Vesta off, leaving Ren behind. He put his comm. piece back to his ear and listened to the others argue about whether or not Pyrrha had run away because of Jaune, or Sky and Russell.

'Alright, screw this. I'm getting the headmaster.' And with that thought, Ren marched off to Ozpin's office.


(Four Years Ago)

Pyrrha sat in the living room watching, or rather looking at, daylight television. The world spun passed her, her family of unimportant people going about their daily lives. Pyrrha watched the sun raise for a couple of hours, then went back to the TV. She was on her off day, between training regiments and letting her body recuperate.

Pyrrha watched her sister leave for school. It was strange, but her parents had named her Pyrrha as well. Apparently, they were still getting over the shock of having their only daughter kidnapped when she was born. Of course, her parents soon got to calling the younger Pyrrha Parry when they got over their grief and began to move on. The name helped to differentiate the two.

Pelum left for a work meeting soon after, about four or five hours later. Pyrrha waved goodbye. Parry came home and watched TV with Pyrrha. The sun set at 7:27. Pyrrha sat back as the television ran through the last of its programming.

In the main room, the phone rang. Thetis answered it, then hung up. She said she was leaving, that the police station called and she was needed there, even though it was her day off. Pyrrha nodded to her mother and went back to passing the time.

She flipped through the channels. A news report came up. Pyrrha decided to watch it. There had been an incident at the city congressional hall. Pyrrha flipped to the next channel. More news, same situation, different angle. Pyrrha watched the events unfold.

The city was apparently under siege or something. Wait what?

Pyrrha's brain engaged, the newscast snapping into clarity. There was apparently a hostage situation. The city counsel was being held under force and someone was demanding that power be handed over to them.

Pyrrha unconsciously clenched her fists. How had this happened. Project Argonaut had been formed expressly to prevent such events, by eliminating radical factions within Mistral. She had personally removed several problems that had cropped up.

The news anchor began to iterate the situation again. "We have recently been contacted by the leader of the rebels, who have offered to release a hostage, in exchange for providing a time slot to address the public. We now go to a recording provide by the leader himself."

The screen blinked to black. Pyrrha unconsciously rose at this. Damn these people. Who would dare try and take their city, her city, from the people that had been-

"Hello people of Mistral. My name is captain Pelias Creth. I was once like you. I trusted my country to steer me right. I followed them with well and rightly won loyalty, and believed we were in the right. However, I was naive. When this proud city-state was pulled into Vytal's Faunus war, I fought alongside you, and I saw the true cost of the war. I saw what this corrupt congress had brought our nation into, I decided that this nation was in need of a new stage. New blood, a rebirthing from the wretched rot that we have been forced to endure."

"We of project Argonaut have been prepared for this night. Our strongest, our brightest, have been carefully brought here this night, and through them, I shall bring us to a more perfect city and condemn those whose corrupt power has forced my hand. I only wish that you people do understand that I shall not harm you. Good night Mistral."

The tv faded to black. The dim reflection from the screen only showed the stunned Pyrrha, tears rolling down her cheeks from wide eyes, not even an inch away from the former transmission of a madman.

The night dragged on. Pyrrha watched the events unfold. The insane demands of captain Pelias were met for a time. At one point, Jason stepped out of the Hall, stunning the anchor into silence. Pelias was declared General President, taking up the mantel of his brother, Aeson.

Pyrrha watched as people tried to make through the mad night, and watched as dawn broke and the Military put their plan into action. As the sun rose, the bodies of Pelias, Bear, Jason and many others were stretched across the ground. The cost was almost a dozen lives though. Senators, police men, and a single civilian, a young woman, a mother, that had been accidently in the line of fire.

Pyrrha finally turned off the television. There was a whimpered behind her, and as Pyrrha turned, she saw the running form of Parry, disappearing into her room.

Pyrrha watched her go. "... I'm sorry."


As Ren finished explaining the previous two chapter to Headmaster Ozpin, he mentally chuckled at how easy that had been. Ozpin had been at the library instead of his office, but was also ready to help them. The duo were now walking back to the meeting place where team RWBY JNPR and VALR would be. Of course, the site of the headmaster was not exactly a sight for sore eyes.

That is to say, Jaune was trying to figure out why Ren had done this, and not accepting that he had done it because it made sense.

"We had a deal."

"No we didn't."

"I thought we were a team."

"If we were, why are team RWBY and VALR here again?"

"I can't believe you told the Headmaster!"

"I can help you, you know." Ozpin put in. He was promptly ignored by Ruby and Blake beginning an arguement, with Yang following. Vesta and her teammate, Argentina Kesshô, shared a confused look. Weiss started to point out that Ren was right, only to be called a traitor. And lo and behold, an argument.

Ren argued with Jaune, Weiss argued with Ruby and Blake, Yang tried to make herself heard, and Nora was, uncharacteristically, being nice and quiet. Finally, the argument was cut short be Ozpin. "Um, isn't that Pyrrha over there?"

The argument staggered to a halt as the teams turned and saw that, yes, Pyrrha was walking up the front drive. Jaune's gaze went from her, to the assembled, then back to Pyrrha, before he bolted off towards her, his teammates in hot pursuit.

Pyrrha barely knew what hit her. One moment she was walking down the front drive of Beacon, the next, she was in a bear hug supplied, and then reinforced, by Jaune. "Pyrrha, we were so worried about you." Jaune backed off her and took her in. "What happened to you. And where's your shield?"

Pyrrha self-consciously pulled a strand of hair out of her face. "Oh, you know. Stuff. Hey Ren."

Ren looked over Pyrrha. Slightly singed, missing her shield, with branches and leaves in her hair. "Welcome back Pyrrha."

Pyrrha gave a smile, one slightly lopsided. "It's good to be back."


A/N: Well, that chapter took too long. Weird.

Be kind, rewind and review.