A/N: Okay, well, back again, everyone. Obviously I would have liked to get this chapter out last month but going on a big holiday slowed down my plans! Sorry about that. Not to mention the fact this chapter is … well, it's on the overly large size. Sorry if it's too much to digest in one sitting. The big centrepiece battle went on for a bit longer than expected.
Thanks to everyone who left reviews, I got some phenomenally helpful feedback that I have definitely taken on board. And to everyone else who has read, fav'd and followed, I am glad to have you along for the ride!
From here on out the story will be transitioning slightly as the combatative girls come to terms with the fact they're stuck with each other and the realities of being a Hunter-in-training. There will still be drama, secrets and mean girl antics, don't get me wrong, but everyone is going to start being swept up into something larger and more dangerous as time goes on.
Now, for the more sombre note. With the passing of Monty Oum, the whole RWBY fandom has been affected. My thoughts and prayers are with his families and loved ones in this time. His creative spark and passion will be sorely missed.
A soundscape of battle filled the forest, woven of such fabric as the pounding thunderclap of gunfire, the ringing of steel and the piercing cry of the ancient enemy of Man. Calls and counter-calls of the students echoed back and forth through the mayhem as they pushed through the forest. Beowolves, Creeps, and Boarbatusks in force had been found lurking among the tall trees of the deeper depths of the Emerald Forest.
Melanie was in high spirits as she burst through the foliage, heel and elbow blades gleaming, surprising a pair of Beowolves. One of them threw a right hook with a paw reflexively, which the student ducked and countered, taking the arm off with a swing of her elbow. Her foot whipped out and tore through the Grimm's knee to cripple it further. A gymnastic side-leap with an arc of her leg saw her heel blade shear through the other beast's jowls. A pirouette saw her new blades strike in sequence to behead the injured Beowolf.
As she proceeded to finish off the other injured foe, she heard Aurea moving up alongside her. Her carbine was firing with a crack and a zip, rapidly putting strong rounds into the flanks of a Boarbatusk. With a wail the beast slumped to its side and soon began to dissolve.
"Good shooting, Aurea," complimented Melanie as she began to scan the forest before them for more foes.
"Ha, all in a day's work," dismissed Aurea as she stretched. "Hmm, I don't see any m-"
There was a crash before a shadow fell upon them from behind. Both students spun around and looked up to behold a powerful Beowolf; an alpha who had lived through a generation and was cannier than the others. But before either of them could raise a finger to defend themselves, the Grimm jack-knifed backwards as if struck by a great fist that propelled it past them. A fountain erupted from its chest and a thunderous boom echoed through the forest. They looked up from the slowly dissolving corpse to see Ruby Rose waving at them from a fair distance through the forest.
"God, that rifle is scary," muttered Aurea. "And she is a dead-eye to hit that target through that much foliage."
"Yeah," agreed Melanie carefully. She gave their backup a thumbs up, held over her head so she could see it at a distance. "You can see why she's the team leader, if she's focused enough to see even that little surprise." She looked over her shoulder and jumped. "Whoa, speaking of which, Creep, over there!" She raced off at top speed while Aurea levelled her carbine and opened fire.
The large Boarbatusk skidded across the ground sideways, throwing up shrubbery and a bow-wave of dirt. On the flank that Magnhild had struck the plating was shivered and ruined. They still vibrated with the force of the blow. Yet they had nonetheless saved the hideous creature's life, so Jaune stirred himself to action.
He raced across the forest floor, his shield held high to the left to deflect a Beowolf's strike. Sparks flew as claws skittered off his shield and he smote its flank in passing, cutting deep into its flesh and breaking bone. In so doing he opened his back to another Beowolf that raced in on his right flank with frightening pace. But then a sound like ripping canvas was heard, and a storm of bullets zipped past the young student. Red angry bursts stitched up and down the Beowolf, cracking through the cranial armour and bringing it to a tumbling halt before it could trouble Jaune.
"Thanks, Ren!" called out Jaune as his team-mate switched magazines behind him.
The Boarbatusk was beginning to stir, its powerful legs finding traction as it tried to right itself. But Jaune was there just in time, throwing himself upon the porcine beast's underbelly, driving Crocea Mors into that soft flesh almost to the hilt. Though its girth was well broader than Jaune was tall, three feet of steel in its entrails was as mortal for the Boarbatusk as it would be for many other creatures. The Grimm released a piercing howl, a burning roar that echoed off the canopy above and the trees around. Jaune twisted and leveraged his weight behind the sword, dragging it along and out of the foe to leave a massive, fatal wound.
"Haah..." Jaune shook his head as he wiped the sword off on the hide of the slowly settling Grimm. "No … problem," he pantingly called to the others.
"Thanks Jaune, that counts as mine!" called out Nora. She pulled off a manoeuvre as she passed a boulder that her team leader could scarce credit, even upon seeing it with his own eyes. Magnhild's face dropped down upon the boulder and she sprang up to balance for a moment on the haft of her warhammer. A great blast blossomed out behind her, backlighting the student brilliantly as a grenade charge propelled her through the air.
"Tally-ho!" she cried, twisting in mid-air so she landed upon the Boarbatusk's head, crushing it once and for all with a mighty second blow.
"It was already dead, Nora!" protested Jaune as the outsized beast slowly began to dissolve from the flanks.
Nora's rebuttal was interrupted by the primal cry of more Beowolves; youthful, smaller ones that swarmed into them. The first few came over the top of the slow-dissolving Boarbatusk straight at them. Jaune feinted towards his right and drew the Grimm that way. He rolled his wrist while pushing his weight left to bring his weapon down on the back of the creature's neck as it went by. He went a little too shallowly to lop the head off, but still neatly killed the beast. The nearest creature of the darkness dove at him and he had to react smartly with his shield to avoid major harm. His sword thrust blindly but struck true, sinking deep into his assailant's flesh. He twisted to throw off the heavy mass and finished it with a wild chop.
Nora set about herself with Magnhild, keeping her grenades in reserve for these younger beasts. A swing to the left hit a Beowolf with such strength that its cranial armour flew apart and it slumped motionless. A low back-sweep broke the legs of another to her right. Up went Magnhild and down, splattering its maw along the forest floor to put an end to the foe.
"Nora, boost!" called out Pyrrha as she approached from where she had been holding the left flank of their perimeter. She was at a jog, shield loose in her left hand, rifle in her right.
"Coming up," cried Nora, dropping to one knee and resting her hammer over her shoulder as Ren moved to cover her. The ginger girl left herself open to attack without hesitation or fear, and Ren proved her faith well placed. A pirouette put StormFlowers' blades through the nearest interloper, and as it crashed to the ground he executed it with a volley of small-calibre rounds to the back of its neck.
Pyrrha leapt, twisting in the air so that she 'sat' in the bowl of her shield, which landed acrobatically upon Magnhild's face. With well-practiced timing, Nora fired and launched her teammate. Jaune had to look up in amazement after he dispatched another juvenile Beowolf as his partner unleashed herself upon the mob.
She fired her carbine twice to slow herself, and she seemed to hang in the air for a moment. As a mass of the dark creatures leapt at her, she flung out her shield to one side and whipped her weapon out to the other even as it transformed into its javelin manner. With a terrific bang the javelin leapt out to strike an Beowolf in its throat. The shield careened off another beast and with a quick flick of her semblance Pyrrha sent it crashing into a further foe.
Jaune found himself wide-eyed and stunned as Pyrrha ripped through the horde in a mesmerising display. She stayed airborne for several seconds, springing off dying Beowolves to keep aloft. Sending her shield ricocheting from body to body, she disrupted every attempt to coordinate attacks on her, even as her weapon continued to morph and shift as needed to kill Grimm.
"Beautiful," whispered Jaune, just before it all went wrong.
A great Beowolf paw clipped Pyrrha's leg, spinning her in the air and opening her up to a crushing overhand slap that drove her a long way to the forest floor below.
"Pyrrha!" cried Jaune and Nora simultaneously.
The blonde team-leader vaulted over the dissolving Boarbatusk and rushed to Pyrrha's side as she groggily writhed in pain on the ground. Nora was waylaid, having to crush the skull of one Beowolf before pulling back when its comrade attempted to avenge it. But Jaune made it through, dropping to a slide with his shield raised high to stop a blow. His sword whipped around and thrust deep into the nearest foe's maw. At his side, Pyrrha was sitting up and had summoned her shield over. She pressed back against Jaune, their shields forming a protective wall.
"Crap, crap, crap!" complained Jaune as ever more Beowolves drew near around them, snarling ominously.
"Keep low, guys, help on the way!" came Yang's voice in his ear bud.
"Incoming!" cried out Nora stridently, pointing back into the forest from which they had come.
Brilliant sapphire lances burst out from the forest shadows and through many Grimm, while half a second later an absolute storm of powerful energy impulses screamed through the air. The wind whipped and whistled with its passing, rustling their hair as it went. Searing blasts ripped into their ranks as the bolts struck true.
The air was shimmering hot and the aftermath of the Dust was everywhere in sparks and curls of colour. Jaune and Pyrrha burst from their huddle as further waves of Grimm replaced those dissolving away. As they fought side-by-side against the relentless tide, more Dust lances arrived. Just behind the lances was Yang, who plowed into the midst of the enemy and released a tremendous flash of aura. Beowolves staggered and tumbled, just in time for Blake to open her account. Gambol Shroud sang through the mire of battle, splitting skull and cutting sinew. She worked to back up Yang, staying just behind the blonde student and slaying all the beasts that tried to turn her flank. Jaune and Pyrrha in turn protected Blake and together they rapidly drove a wedge into the throng.
Yang was smiling like a shark, high on the pumping adrenaline. She twisted into the embrace of a Beowolf, only to spring into a corkscrewing uppercut, pulverising its maw. She would jump off one foe to land atop another, emptying a shell into its brain and using the recoil to power a kick strong enough to break the neck of her original springboard. Yang was fast, creative, and brutal.
Through the swirling motions of the monsters Yang could discern Nora leading Ren through the pack from the other side in a pincer. The hammer-wielding girl in pink was still conserving her grenades, even though mighty Magnhild required great physical exertion to wield without the recoil power. Yet wield it she did, stoving in heads and crushing rib cages, drawing nearer as Ren fought alongside her.
Yang assaulted a Beowolf before her, kicking out its leading knee and catching its arm as it swiped at her. Ember Celica discharged into the arm from point blank, severing the limb. Rather than waste shells finishing it off she spun and kicked it backwards, where it staggered to the feet of Blake who swung Gambol Shroud and split it open down the middle. Facing forward again, Yang was about to attack a Beowolf that surprisingly had its back to her, only for that beast to collapse under the irrepressible force of Magnhild.
"Fancy meeting you here, Yang," greeted Nora as she recognised the brawler in turn.
"Oh this, I was just in the neighbourhood," replied Yang with a grin.
Around them the Grimm paused and took backward steps, heads cocked upward as if listening for something. A moment later they were turning and disappearing back deeper into the forest. The students all looked at each other in surprise, but didn't have an explanation.
Before they could move to pursue, Professor Goodwitch was on their scrolls. "Blake, Yang, good work. Sortie complete, come on back. Jaune, lead your team west-ward and link up with Melanie's team."
"Sure thing, Professor," replied Jaune.
"Miss Nikos, that was a spectacular display, however I would remind you that we are in the wilderness now, and theatrics should be tempered."
Pyrrha was ashen-faced as the Professor's admonishment came through. "S-sorry, Professor."
Wishbearer whistled as it smote a blow upon a Creep's head. A rainbow of colours poured free as it landed, rendering a deep and ugly wound. Velvet grinned and pulled her staff back, spinning around to tuck in under her arm on the far side. She thrust a palm out towards Miltia, who had been exchanging blows with a strong Ursa. Velvet was suddenly orbited by golden bands of light from her semblance. Miltia's claws burst into glowing incandescent flames as Velvet's Dust mage powers aided her.
Miltiades sprang up and struck the Ursa across the torso, then hopped again off its knee to strike it across the neck. A blast of light accompanied each blow and the ugly bear-like head came free. She kicked hard off the foe, summoning her agility semblance to cross the air in a fiery red blur, like a demoness in flight. Her feet landed on the lap of a Beowolf and her claws criss-crossed on the beast, fast enough to get inside of the Grimm's own blow. The twin strikes from above let her fold her arms protectively across her torso against any dying counter-blow. But the Beowolf simply collapsed and began to dissolve.
A new beast came at her and she rolled forward, going under its strike to land a blow against its leading knee. The leg collapsed out from under the beast, but its arms worked just fine and a back-handed swipe sent Miltia floundering backwards. Velvet finished the job however, a pulsating lance of energy erupting from the tip of Wishbearer that carved through the wounded enemy. Miltia rolled up to her feet and sprang past Velvet and into a corkscrewing assault as another Beowolf appeared behind Velvet. The Beowolf staggered under the blows, falling onto its rump. Velvet made a half-turn, raised her arm and then dropped it in a snap motion. Fiery glass shards appeared and after a moment, propelled themselves forcefully into the foe's skull, ending its fight.
The two girls panted, taking a moment to catch their breath after going through a number of Grimm in quick succession. "So far, so good," said Velvet.
"Mhmm," agreed Miltia wordlessly.
"You guys okay?" came Melanie's voice over her sister's scroll.
"No problems, Mel," replied Miltia as she looked about. "We took care of…," she began to say before her eyes went wide and she trailed off. "Get over here, get over here! Mel, Aurea, quick!" she cried aloud.
Velvet snapped around to see what had Miltia so alarmed. When she did her eyes widened. Ursi, big and tough ones, coming out from behind a hillock in the forest. Backing them up was an Ursa Major of abnormal bulk and armouring, an old and dangerous gleam in its dark red eyes. Just as she was about to open her mouth, though, she saw something else, in the distance behind them. A shifting shadow among trembling trees that only her sensitive faunus eyes could reveal.
"What is it!?" came Melanie's voice, slightly broken up with the exertion of running while she spoke.
"Report, please," came Glynda's clipped, clear and professional voice.
"There are a lot of Ursa coming our way, like, over a dozen, and they're pretty big, too," reported Miltia on the scroll, nerves stripping some of the polish from her voice. "There's this really big and ugly Ursa Major at the back and I could really do with some help to teach it a lesson."
"We see them, Miltia, almost there," reassured Melanie.
"Professor, there's something else back there," announced Velvet. "It's really distant, but coming this way. I think there's a great elder back there."
"Juniper, transition north to join Maven," came Goodwitch's instant response. "Destroy the Ursa group quickly. Rose, you are in reserve for this fight. Other team Ruby members, fall back on me. Professor Port will send a drone further out to identify what is out there."
The two girls stood among a small patch of broken forest, where their previous battle had felled trees and ripped up foliage, creating a small clearing of sorts. The Ursa were fifty meters away and forming up. Velvet and Miltiades exchanged a look and a nod. They had a plan for these situations and knew what to do.
Miltia stepped forth with alacrity, claws by her side in a patch of open ground. Velvet's semblance went to work on her partner. Rippling green and blue concentric circles spread out underneath Miltiades and a bright glow worked its way through the trainee Huntress' figure. A trio of the Ursa, those on the leading edge, charged, eating up the distance rapidly with powerful strides. Finally the light underfoot ended and a powerful radiance burst forth from Miltia's claws.
Miltia knelt and struck her claws upon the ground in the direction of the closest Ursa, ripping them across the dirt. A bright tide, like a shark's fin cutting through the waves, wake and all, sped with blistering pace across the ground. When it reached the target it exploded into a burst of glass that ripped into the beast, causing it to roar with pained fury.
One after another, Miltia sent these rips at the oncoming Ursa. But where they would have killed in one blow a juvenile Beowolf, against these tougher Ursa they just wounded and dismayed. Miltia grit her teeth and then they were upon her. Seeing three bloodied, enraged beasts, all wanting nothing but to tear her to pieces, was absolutely petrifying. An ice cold sweat formed at the back of her neck. For all her training, for all her aura and talent, this was the single most frightening thing Miltiades Malachite had ever been confronted with in her short life. They were huge, they were spined and spiked and covered in armour plate. Blood and scorchmarks were everywhere and although it meant they were weaker, it also made them visually more horrifying. Simple bowel control was an act of superhuman self-discipline. It combined to make it all the more exhilarating for Miltiades as she committed to the battle.
With her weapons still glowing in the aftermath of Velvet's power, Miltia attacked, driving her claws powerfully into the trunk of the nearest foe. Her partner watched Miltia try to keep the attention of all three Grimm, a tremendously difficult prospect and one which stood a very good chance of getting her killed without some solid assistance. But Velvet was not about to stand idly by. A kaleidoscope of colour erupted from the rabbit faunus, spheres and ribbons and bands flying out into the air around her. The simulacrum of a storm filled the forest canopy with lightning and high winds. Into the storm and swirling currents she poured razor-like pulses of power.
None of the Ursa could bring their full might to bear upon Miltiades, suffering repeated wounds at the hands of the unblockable airborne razors. Miltia got behind one of the beasts, which was nearly twice her height, and hamstrung it deftly, kicking off of it to make sure it fell forward. The other two foes turned to face her. One of them quickly started to twitch and rock as carbine fire began to stitch up and down its body. The cavalry had arrived, bringing a wicked grin to Miltia's lips, made all the brighter when a grenade shot landed deftly under the Ursa's foot, blowing the limb off entirely.
As the half-dozen students arrived, the remaining Ursa broke from their hulking master and joined the fray. Miltia's eyes went wide as she suddenly found herself at ground zero of one almighty scrap. In the background of the fight, the great Ursa Major slowly lumbered forward.
With the new arrivals, Velvet dropped her cast and fell to one knee, breathing heavily with the continual exertion. A fright took her as she saw a thunderously charging Ursa end-run the insane melee that was developing and come straight at her. "Shit!" she swore as she pointed her staff at it. Before she could unleash her semblance the Ursa's upper-body stopped dead as if it had run into a steel wall. The legs flew out from under it and it skidded along the ground. The great booming retort of Crescent Rose echoed through the forest, quickly followed by a repeat that stove in the Ursa's head.
Velvet blinked, and then shivered anxiously.
"Right on target, Miss Ruby, well done," complimented Glynda as she watched the head of the Ursa fly apart into rapidly dissolving fragments on her large scroll.
Ruby made no acknowledgement, silently scanning the distant battle through her scope. Several rifle shells were on the ground around them, proof of the sniper-support role the Professors had assigned for her that day. Right behind her, standing anxious watch over her partner, was Weiss. Rather than scan the distant battlefield herself, Weiss waited for fire orders from her teachers. While she waited, she focused on protecting her closest friend like a very prickly guardian angel.
"God, that rifle is loud," muttered Weiss.
"Yeah, fun, isn't it?" asked Yang as she arrived with Blake in tow, both smelling of sweat, burnt Dust, and Grimm.
"Not my cup of tea," complained Weiss.
"Hey, nice job with the Dust lances, Weissy," complimented Yang.
A self-satisfied smile bloomed across Weiss' face. "Of course," she said, causing Blake to roll her eyes.
Light burst in a thousand hues and colours in the distant battle. Something lit up like a roman candle, sparks and flashes through the trees. The sharp crack and snap of carbines, the ripping canvas of StormFlower and the big meaty thumps of Magnhild's grenades continued to wash across the forest, echoing and re-echoing in deceptive ways. In addition to being forested, the ground was not flat, with dells, swells and ridgelines that could hide or divert sound. Atop one of the heights they were largely unaffected by it, but it was a danger for the students below. Modern technology and surveillance helped against such old-world concerns, however.
"There is definitely something else out there," announced Ruby, eye still glued to her scope.
"What do you-," began Yang before Crescent Rose fired into the distant melee again upon spying a target of opportunity. "... see," she finished.
"Just a dark shape, can't tell how far back it is," said Ruby distantly as she concentrated. "But it's pretty big."
Professor Goodwitch turned to her portly colleague and frowned. "Do the drones have a visual on this unknown yet?" she asked.
"Nearly, my dear Glynda, nearly there," announced Port as he operated his own screen, if a touch clumsily. "It is further out than … Ah."
"Ah?" echoed Goodwitch.
Peter Port looked up at her with a grave, forbidding look. "Ah," he repeated in a funereal tone, mustache twitching. "Drone four."
"Miss Schnee, independent firing," said Glynda as she tapped at her scroll, switching to the view provided by that particular remote surveillance drone. When she did her brows shot up instantly. "Ah," she echoed. "Oh my."
Yang and Blake exchanged a surprised glance and moved near to try and look over Glynda's shoulder. They only got a flash of something that looked like a Beowolf, but all hunched and sinister with great big long spines down its back and arms. But it wasn't until they spotted the other Beowolves that only came up to its knees that they realised the tremendous size of the monster. Even thrill-seeking Yang went suddenly pale.
"Miss Rose, new mission," said Glynda without looking. "Has the Ursa Major engaged yet?"
"Nope," replied Ruby airily.
"That is your assassination target, go in at top speed, remove it, then return," ordered Glynda before pressing transmit on her scroll. "Juniper, Maven, avoid the Ursa Major, Winterdiction inbound."
"Professor!" protested Weiss, face aghast. "By herself? That thing is huge!"
"Needs must," snapped Goodwitch in a voice that brooked no dissent.
"Ha, don't stress, Weiss," admonished Ruby as she deployed her scythe in a wave of terrible mechanical noise. "Watch and be amazed." Weiss put her hands on her hips and fixed the irrepressible Ruby with a look.
Melanie exchanged a confused look with Jaune as the two teams worked to whittle away at the exceedingly tough Ursi. In the roiling chaos of the battle, they had quite forgotten about the Ursa Major that was seemingly waiting for his minions to open the vulnerability in the Beacon students that it would storm through. It was cowardly behaviour that would be condemned as reprehensible in a human commander. However, a Grimm did not survive three hundred years to become an Ursa Major, on the verge of becoming a full blown elder Grimm, by taking personal risks. Other Ursa were replaceable as far as the Ursa Major was concerned.
No one liked to think about it, but there was an intelligence most sinister that glinted out from behind the red eyes of the older Grimm. It always lurked in the shadowed corners of the world to await the laxity of Man. Or, in this case, the laxity of students. And as Jaune and Melanie's teammates battled hard among the tough Ursa, the Major bided its time. But it little realised that its time was running out as well.
Pyrrha was fighting tooth and nail, an enraged and wounded Ursa slamming overhand blows down upon Akouo. To give her the necessary reach she was rotating Milo between spear and carbine as she countered. She carved deep into the Ursa she fought, opening wounds like trenches across the beast's flesh, but to no avail. The great bear-like Grimm roared and shrugged off pain to launch hammering haymakers. She had already killed one, but this particular Ursa was bound and determined to survive, even more so than the rest of its foetid kin.
Across the board it was hard fighting. Though three of the Ursa lay dead and dissolving, many more were still pushing at the students' perimeter. They pushed and twisted the formation, trying to isolate the teams from each other. The Malachite sisters were tag-teaming like only twins could, and together held the link to Pyrrha, who had Jaune next to her. For a moment, she worried about how Jaune was being pushed back, but before it got out of hand, Jaune ducked a blow and struck his immediate foe across the knee, crippling it. But that only served to make Pyrrha an even greater focal point for the Ursi. When a second beast joined as a fresh and ready opponent a trickle of cold dread went through the young Miss Nikos.
"Jaune, I may need some-," she began to say, before a powerful boom went off just behind her ears. Before Pyrrha realised what was happening rose petals were everywhere and a second thunderous blast saw a massive arc of steel cross the forest air. The Mistral girl swore out of shock, stumbling backwards.
Crescent Rose clove through the fresh Ursa from shoulder to opposite hip. Layers of muscle upon muscle gave way before the weight and might of the scythe. Ruby planted both feet as she made her violent arrival, knees bending to absorb the shock. Her back foot came around and slid out. Her grip spread wide and she went into a low sweep. Black smoke gushed forth as she ignited a cross round. The other Ursa tried to back up, but too slowly. Cold steel severed both legs above the knee.
Pyrrha looked on in stunned awe as the beast collapsed unceremoniously. Before she could recover her wits, Ruby had slipped the blade of her scythe beneath the neck of the Grimm. The cross round in the sniper scythe's chamber went off with a shockwave that Pyrrha felt all the way through. Red metal rose up along with the Grimm's head, and with a touch of semblance and a carefully worked sidestep, struck the Ursa squaring off with Melanie in the back. The murderous point-first blow punched through the base of the great Ursa's neck and hammered it into the ground.
The whole process from first blast to last had been a matter of heartbeats. Cartwheeling pieces of Grimm were still landing as Pyrrha's jaw fell open. Melanie lost her footing as she backpedaled from the impaled Ursa and fell on her backside, looking up at Ruby in shock.
"Fucking ... how did you manage that, Ruby!?" blurted Melanie. Ruby's mind was elsewhere, however, preoccupied with the mission Goodwitch had assigned to her. The death of the three Ursi had opened a channel from the centre of the student's line clear through to the Ursa Major. That was about the extent of her interest in the Grimm footsoldiers.
With some space bought at the expense of the slain and slowly dissolving Ursi, Ruby moved out from the other students and held up her left arm, straight up. She held the pose for two seconds, and then hoisted her weapon, blasting off with cross rounds and semblance. Just as she began to accelerate, azure flashes rippled in the corner of her eye. Low-power but numerous bolts flooded the near flank of the Ursa Major. It wasn't much, but it caught the attention of the beast, dragging its arms low, away from its head.
It was the wrong moment for a distraction.
Ruby seemed to almost materialise from her semblance-fuelled burst in a sudden blast of flowers. She came out of the move with scythe in a wide, two-handed grip over her back, one knee up as her body curved. The massive beast filled her sight, the great maw, the razor teeth, the back covered in wicked spines. She was nose-to-nose with the creature, suspended in the air for a breathtaking instant. In her peripheral vision she could see the Ursa Major was raising its arms, but they had been lured too far down and away. Weiss had placed her distraction well.
Every muscle in her body contracted in a wicked snap, rifle firing in perfect synch. It arced with a precise point in mind. The Ursa Major, thirty feet of pure muscle and hatred for human life, was caught utterly flat-footed. The beak of Crescent Rose caught it on the back lip of the skull-plate. The bone armour shattered and did nothing to prevent the heavy scythe blade plunging straight through its neck and out the other side.
For a brief moment the beast froze, in a horrified stasis. It knew any move it made would be the end of it, and the instincts of its last century told it that living on was more important than striking a final blow. If it waited, perhaps another Grimm could save it. Suspended somewhere between the mindless rage of the junior beasts and the cunning awareness of the elder Grimm, the Ursa realised that it was afraid to die. Worse, it could tell in the hideously victorious smile on the face of its pint-sized red and black tormentor, that its killer knew it too.
Nimble and composed, Ruby alighted the haft of Crescent Rose and held on tight as she twisted and fired again. The blade ripped free and came around again, decapitating the creature neatly. With an achingly slow fight against inertia, the Grimm tumbled over backwards, to eventually hit the ground with a tremendous crash. Leaves and dust flew up into a great obscuring cloud. Ruby landed gently upon the creature's chest, and hopped down as it began to dissolve. With a quick glance around to make sure nothing was about to jump out at her, she switched Crescent Rose into rifle form and grabbed the scope.
Behind her the other students were rushing forward. Between their line being crashed and seeing their boss creature slain, the smaller, though still tough, Ursa had been thrown into disarray. In such a state they made for easy pickings for the trainees and they ran over them. The last fell to a coherent beam from Velvet that cut clear through its torso, and through a tree beyond it.
"Holy crap, Ruby," blurted Jaune. Though he himself had a rather large Ursa to his credit, scarce realising the role Pyrrha had played in the victory, this beast was nearly half-again the mass. Even as it very slowly began to dissolve, the sheer intimidating presence made Jaune ever so glad he didn't have to get close to the thing while it was alive. "That was amazing!"
"Well done, Ruby," praised Pyrrha with a broad smile. "I wouldn't have wanted to try to face that all on my own." A thoughtful, concerned look crossed her face. "I'm surprised Glynda sent you like that."
"It was fine," dismissed Ruby, waving her off-hand as she tried to focus down the scope. "Give me a sec guys." She worked the controls that encircled the scope carefully, peering out through the forest.
"Uh, guys, does anyone else feel that?" asked Jaune suddenly. He pointed down towards a clump of long-leaved shrubbery that had escaped the mayhem. After a couple of seconds it trembled.
"Impact tremors," identified Ren, turning to look out over the forest, drawing a muttered curse from Jaune. "What's going on, Ruby?" asked the quiet student.
A voice called out from behind them. "She's getting a better look at something out there in the deeper forest," said Velvet, directing her comment to the slightly confused JNPR students. "So you saw it too?" she followed up, talking to Ruby.
The dark-haired student turned around and fixed her classmate with a look. Velvet frowned with concern as Ruby nodded at her. "Yeah," she confirmed. "Glynda wants us to go back to where she is."
"Gotcha, Ruby," said Jaune. "Alright, team, that's the opposite direction whatever big and ugly thing is out there, so let's go!" he declared before sheathing his ichor-streaked sword and gathering up his team.
Ruby turned around and took one last look at her surrounds to make sure it was safe. But the immediate danger had passed and all the Ursa were dissolving into the forest breeze. Her eyes fell upon the MAVM girls instead, and found them checking on Miltiades. The girl in the red dress was staring back at her with more than a touch of fear, one hand firmly over the barely discernible scar upon her chest. A scar that Ruby had put there, she realised belatedly, with a strike identical to the one that had just killed a very old Ursa Major.
The young team leader sighed and strode into the middle of the Maven girls, right up to Miltia. Careless of watching eyes she reached out and took hold of the Miltia's hand, pulling it away from the old wound. "Enough of that silliness, Miltia," she admonished. "Don't tell me seeing that freaked you out? I already told you, Crescent Rose and I don't do half-hearted."
"What is it that you do, then?" asked Miltia tartly, a flash of anger burning away the anxiety as Ruby had hoped.
"My Uncle has his Four Feathers, I fight in Four Petals style," explained Ruby as she began to walk away, only for the other girls to fall in behind her. "We had slightly different semblances, and very different builds, so I had to change a lot of things."
"You have a name for that strike, don't you," intruded Aurea. "Your asshole sis-," she began before coming up short at the sharp look Ruby gave her. "Erm, I mean your sister told me scythe wielders name everything, because they have to practice everything to get the hand and footwork right under pressure."
"That's right," said Ruby. "They call it the most dangerous of weapons, but until you figure out how to use it, it's as dangerous to you as it is to your enemy." She coughed and laughed self-consciously. "I used to hurt myself a lot with my old training scythe."
"What do you call it, Ruby?" asked Velvet. "What you hit the Ursa Major with. What you hit Miltia with."
"She calls it being an asshole," said Miltia with a bright, dangerous smile.
"Hey, you're back!" cried Ruby happily, arms raised. "You're much more interesting when you're not moping," she declared, earning a fierce glare from the other girl. Ruby turned back to Velvet and shook her head. "Hehe, and why would I tell you all the fun secrets?"
"What do you call it?" asked Miltia instead, doing her best not to flinch when Ruby's gaze snapped around at her. "Well?"
"Withering Rose stance," said Ruby quietly. "The strike itself is Last Petal Falls."
Glynda looked out over the forest as Ruby returned with teams MAVM and JNPR, her face drawn and grim. Her riding crop weapon twisted nimbly between her fingers as she thought. This encounter was an absolute shock to the Professor. To have something of this size come down out of the inland wilderness was staggering. Centuries could sometimes pass between visitations by these titanic beasts.
"I don't suppose there can be any doubting it," rumbled Professor Port as he watched the drone camera feed.
"It's the size of high-rise, of course there's no doubting it," snapped Glynda, an outburst that didn't faze the other professor. "As if I need someone to tell me."
"We have options, you know," he mused, worrying away at his moustache.
"Options? In what, boarding order for the evac?" asked Glynda aghast. "We're not staying out here."
"We could leave the students in the safety of the clearing and have at the beast ourselves!" suggested Port.
"That is risible, Peter, we'll need more than the two of us Hunters to slay that monster," retorted Glynda before holding up a hand to still the debate, as the rest of the class was approaching.
Around them, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were exchanging alarmed looks. None of them had been near something on such a colossal scale as this Grimm. Yang in particular was flummoxed as she hadn't hit the books as hard as Weiss, or had the wilderness experience of Blake. Not to say that the other two weren't feeling a prickly sense of dread.
Ruby approached the two Professors in a rush of breathless excitement, all but bouncing on her heels. "There's a great elder Beowolf out there," she announced.
"We know," said Glynda sharply.
"What's the plan?" asked the student, scythe coming to rest over her shoulder.
Glynda looked over Ruby's shoulder and made a head count of her students. When she turned and made her way up to twelve students accounted for, she nodded her head in satisfaction. "The plan, Miss Rose," said Glynda, "Is to evacuate in a prompt, orderly fashion. The Bullheads have already been alerted. We're to withdraw to the clearing and await evac."
Ruby leaned forward, her jaw hanging open aghast. "Ehh!? But this is like a once in a lifetime chance, Professor. Come on," she said, dropping her voice to an inviting, conspiratorial whisper. "Let's kill it."
A stunned silence fell among the assembled.
Glynda's worked her jaw a couple times as she stared at Ruby in disbelief. "I'm afrai…," she tried to say before she shook the cobwebs from her head. "That's patently insane, this is a job for an entire team of veteran Hunters of the highest calibre, it would be bordering on criminal neglect to take a class of first years against it."
Pyrrha, Weiss, Yang and Ren rushed to take hold of Ruby and pull her away before she could volunteer the class for any more suicidal antics. Weiss in particular was looking at the girl with disbelief, and when they had the girl safely away, she turned to her and said, "I cannot believe you want to try to take on that monster."
"I can," snorted Yang, her lips tugging high and to the right. "Don't approve, but I saw it coming."
"Ruby, we all appreciate your confidence in the class," said Pyrrha with a nervous smile. "But I think I speak for all of us when I say we'd like a … little more time."
Yang snickered. "Yeah, to live. Eighty years would do me," she said, tapping at her collar. She felt an acorn bounce off her head and turned around to find Blake looking the other way innocently.
"Oh, come on, we're a strong class, there's twelve of us, we can do it," exhorted Ruby. "We just need to convince Glynda."
"Ruby, what are you thinking!?" snapped Weiss with a strained, upset expression. The recklessness that Ruby advocating was painful to someone who wanted to see her stay safe. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Even if we defeated it, half of us wouldn't come back. This is some of the stupidest stuff I have ever heard out of you! Do you have a death wish?" She threw up her hands in frustration. "Leaders must look after the safety of others as well."
Ruby didn't turn from Pyrrha, but her eyes slid across in their orbits towards Weiss, who had to work to keep her composure under the dangerous gaze. She'd angered the young leader, and could see the dark-haired girl require a moment to calm herself. It was enough to stop even Yang's rebuke of Weiss. All of the students around her saw for just a fleeting moment a deathly shadow. Finally, though, Ruby exhaled and half-turned to give her partner a smile.
"Sure, Weiss," said Ruby, returning the unfurled Crescent Rose to its carry form. "Well, if the Bullheads are already coming in, then I guess this whole leadership thing got easy. But I think you're selling this class short."
"Alright, students," announced Glynda, getting everyone's attention. "As you all saw, we have a great elder Grimm coming our way. Clearly," she said, looking directly at Ruby, "This is well beyond this class at present. Now let's quickly return to the landing zone."
Ruby's cheeks burned and she huffed in frustration.
"Port," said Glynda quietly as she watched the scroll, "I think we have a problem."
"Hmm?" vocalised the other Professor. When Glynda gestured to her scroll, he frowned and checked his own. Port soon recognised the problem. Well, he had thought the impact tremors were getting stronger. "So it's found our scent again. Shall I go and distract it and lead it away?"
"Very noble of you," drawled Glynda, "But I think this requires a little less blunderbuss and a little more mobility."
"Of course," said the Professor with spread hands, wondering who was panicking to draw the attention of the Grimm.
"But you had to at least offer, I know," said Professor Goodwitch. She turned to walk back to the waiting students. "Quick update, our Grimm has apparently noticed us again and is heading this way. I'll draw it off while Professor Port continues to supervise you."
With that simple declaration the veteran Huntress Goodwitch turned to return to the forest. Behind her Ruby took hold of Weiss' wrist, startling the heiress. "Weiss, make sure everyone gets on the Bullhead," she said quickly, before bounding after the iconic warrior.
Weiss blinked wide and slow, before shaking her head. "Ruby, you dolt, get back here! Don't waste her time."
But Ruby hadn't the slightest intention of listening to rejection. She rushed up to Glynda's side, putting her hands behind her back and smiling brightly. "You need me out there, Professor," she declared.
"How do you possibly conclude that?" asked Glynda, startled by the boldness of her student.
"Speed semblance strong enough to allow limited flight, Crescent Rose works at range and also has the blade to hurt a creature like this, I don't freeze up in a crisis," she ticked off confidently, before leaning close and softly adding, "And just between us, I've seen some things. I can lead this thing on a nice chase."
Glynda turned fully to look at the young girl. She knew her file well. In fact, after the Miltiades incident, every teacher in the school was familiar with Ruby Rose's file. From an extended family of Hunters, the girl was a prodigy, but also an uncomfortable enigma for the faculty. But something in the girl's eyes, as well as conversations with Ozpin, made her do something unusual.
"Listen to everything I say, without question," ordered Glynda in a gruesomely stern voice.
"Gotcha," said Ruby with a face as earnest as could be. When Glynda turned around however, she immediately dissolved into a silent but intense celebration, arms pumping with a silent, 'Yes!' A little victory dance continued for a few seconds before the Professor made crisp half-turn to look back at her student. Ruby instantly straightened, fast enough that a few ethereal rose petals took to the wind. "Professor?" she asked innocently.
Glynda said nothing, but continued on towards the forest edge.
"Ruby, what are you doing?" asked Yang bluntly over the class radio as the younger student began to fall in behind her teacher.
"Going with Glynda," answered Ruby, being quite deliberately obtuse.
Miltiades voice came over the radio, a note of alarm in her tone. "You can't be serious, Ruby." The girl turned and gave Miltia a bemused look, eyebrow cocked. "Don't give me that look-" she began to say, before the whole class was rudely interrupted by a great thunderclap of noise.
"Incoming!" yelled Blake, pointing up into the air. Everyone assembled looked up into the air and were horrified to see a mass of tree trunks suspended in the air, cutting a deceptively lazy course towards them.
"Goodwitch, boost!" yelled Ruby as she sprang up towards her teacher. Glynda reacted with alacrity and flicked her riding crop skyward, propelling Ruby at high speed into the oncoming storm. With her semblance and a judicious blast from Crescent Rose, Ruby picked out an incoming tree and grinned. A plan formed in her mind.
Scintillating beams and bolts from Velvet and Weiss entered Ruby's aerial domain with punch and presence, followed shortly by the distinctive ack-ack blasts of Magnhild in grenade launcher form. It made for a troublesome commute and Velvet was soon apologising over the radio when she nearly caught the young girl in a coherent purple inferno that incinerated one of the incoming missiles. But it was no matter to Ruby as she lined up one of the trunks and collided with it, scythe tail-spike first, and then quickly jumped off to another one with a Cross Round blast. The impact on the tree trunk put it on a trajectory to fall short with much reduced speed.
As she moved between the trunks, Ruby twisted to face the forest and see if she could catch sight of their foe. It was easier than she had expected. The Beowolf had risen to its full height in the midst of the forest and even Ruby had to gulp as she realised it was head and shoulders above the tree canopy at full extension. It did her nerves no good whatsoever, though, when the ancient and powerful Grimm spotted her and emitted a roar that rattled her hard enough to burn off a sliver of her aura. Flights of birds took off across the forest for as far as she could see. Trees rippled outward as if hit by a shockwave. But she had a meagre second to compose herself and hit the next trunk properly. As she had promised her Professor, Ruby did not freeze up in a crisis.
Which was just as well as the Beowolf uprooted a tree and split it into pieces, hurling the whole mass in her direction.
When Glynda noticed the trunks beginning to fall nearly into her lap, she smiled and realised what her student was doing. "Ruby, give me a vector," she called primly into the radio as a series of indigo discs formed around her. She got a rushed answer from the girl, and had to strain to see the direction her arm was pointing, but it was good enough. It was going to be a hard target to miss anyway.
Glynda flashed brightly with power as she whipped her riding crop across towards the forest. One after the other the trunks that were falling her way accelerated hard and shot out at high speed towards their origin. The enraged bellows of the Beowolf told her that whether she did damage or not, she had certainly annoyed the creature.
Knowing she needed to close with the foe, Glynda let the next log fall almost to the ground. With an aura fuelled leap she vaulted onto one end of the log and propelled herself straight up. "Ruby, take us in," she ordered over the radio as she began to rocket up over the forest canopy, in front of her student. The young girl in red and black kicked off a tree trunk moments before it exploded into an expanding cloud of splinters as several of Weiss' sapphire lances caught it.
Ruby laughed gleefully as she outpaced the debris, lining up Glynda in her sights. In her earpiece she heard Weiss begin to give her a verbal volley for being on her target, rather than apologising for sending that many lances that close to her. She ignored the berating, but did notice the barely-concealed panic in Weiss' tone. But everything had to be pushed aside to focus. Ruby collected Glynda as she went by like an express train hooking a mailbag. The Professor wrapped her arms around her student and held on for dear life.
"Take us past it, we need to turn it around!" ordered Glynda as the air whistled past and the Grimm loomed near. The scale of the beast quickly burned itself into the mind of the veteran Huntress and her aspiring Huntress student. A paw the size of a mansion rose from the forest. Even over the wind they could hear the stress and groan of the macro-musculature of the creature work to raise a dozen tons of arm. But it was shockingly nimble and it swung at them with a rocketing speed.
"Split!" cried Glynda as she pushed off Ruby and they both sailed toward either side of the Grimm's head. Ruby went close to the mark, extending Crescent Rose to leave a trench-like wound just under the edge of the skullplate for several meters before she kicked off and flew out over the forest beyond, looking for a nice tall tree to land on. Glynda waited until she was past and then twisted in mid-air and unleashed a dazzling fireworks display; bolts and lances crashed into the thick hide of the creature, cratering and roasting small fields of its skin. The reaction of expending the energy helped her stay aloft, sailing backwards into the forest.
If the Grimm was at all phased by the damage, it didn't show it in the least, turning back into the path of destruction it had carved through the forest and swiping at its two airborne tormentors. Glynda unleashed a powerful series of explosions as the Grimm's right hand came near, blasting a number of the long spines off its arm. These were sent in a flurry of telekinesis back towards the monster's face and body. When the left arm drew near to Ruby she turned Crescent Rose around and fired off a dozen rounds to slow down and then reverse course, kicking her semblance back in and skidding to a landing upon the arm. Taking advantage of Glynda's distraction, she reloaded with a fresh clip of cross rounds and smiled.
Further away in the clearing, eleven openly freaked out students, and one Professor who was carefully hiding his alarm, watched events unfold on a projection from Port's scroll. Aura levels for both combatants were showing off to the side and everyone followed them anxiously.
"She needs to ease off on her semblance," said Weiss nervously, clutching at the hem of her combat skirt. "She's burning so much aura through it."
"If she does that she's going to get splattered like a bug," countered Blake sharply.
"They can't be trying to defeat that thing?" asked Melanie slowly, still much more unfamiliar with Grimm than the combat alumni.
Weiss opened her mouth to make a sharp reply, but was beaten to the punch by Aurea's loud snort. "Defeat it?" echoed the golden haired tomboy. "They're just trying to lead it away since we can't outrun it. They're only looking to survive being near the fucking thing!" She realised what she said after a moment and glanced over at Port. But instead of the expected admonishment for swearing directly in front of a teacher, he was transfixed by the battle, speaking quietly to Glynda by radio on a closed channel periodically. Aurea exchanged a glance with Melanie, who had noticed the same thing.
"It's necessary," opined Ren softly. "There is no way the Bullheads would survive a hit from that."
"No, they may as well be made of balsa wood against that thing," admitted Pyrrha. "If that Grimm is nearby when they land…"
"We'll all be dead meat," concluded Velvet. "Come on, Ruby…," she whispered.
"Holy crap, she's running up the thing's arm," blurted Jaune in shock.
A clamour rose up from the girls as the Beowolf tried to swat the tiny creature racing along its body, and Ruby only narrowly escaped the strike. The overpressure wave from the hit was enough to send her flying off the arm, towards the creature's chest. The student quickly recovered from her tumbling flight, but not before the Grimm's jaws snapped shut around her, making her classmates cry out in horror. But almost immediately a tooth blew out in a great shattering mess and Ruby flew out the other side.
Yang turned and ran a few steps before abruptly throwing up. Blake was right by her side, holding her hair back. "I can't, I can't," gasped Yang in between convulsions.
Another person knelt down beside her, and Yang looked up, expecting either Weiss or Pyrrha. Instead she was shocked to see Aurea there, looking sympathetic with a hand on Yang's back. "Wh-what?"
"There's a certain part of me that says I should be enjoying watching you freak out … but not over a sibling. I love my brother too much to do that."
Yang gulped in air and nodded at Aurea, before she turned and screamed at Port, "Why the hell did Glynda take my sister up there!?"
Port turned away from the screen to look at her, and then snorted, sending his hanging walrus moustache flying. "Because it was all but suicidal without her, Yang. Your sister's semblance will be what gets her back onto the flight out."
"If it was suicidal then why was she going by herself?" asked Melanie with no small horror in her voice.
The gaze that Peter Port turned on her was a heavy and implacable thing. "Because a Hunter knows when they must die to protect others." After several heartbeats passed in silence he sighed and shook his head. He looked back to Yang and in a more conciliatory voice said, "Your sister is very brave. But I know all of you would likewise put your life on the line when it is your turn to go. Do not make a hero out of Ruby, or of Glynda; today was simply their turn to go, something that you will all experience."
Any reply was forestalled by an crackling buzz across the radio earpieces. "Goodwitch party, this is Indigo One, we have visual on your position and are commencing landing, thirty seconds out."
"Indigo One, this is Professor Port, this will be a hot pick up, be ready," called the Professor. "Ignore the equipment, everyone. They won't be coming to a halt, so just jump aboard as they go by."
Blake and Aurea helped Yang to her feet, and the class spread out in a line and waited for the incoming Bullheads. Like the stampeding cavalry of lore, they came in at high speed, well early on the half-minute prediction, opening their throttles to pour retro-thrust into the ground, sparking ground fires. Slowing into a forward coast, they moved away from the fires, towards the students who began to scramble aboard, using aura to fuel their jumps into the cargo holds.
Once aboard, Miltiades took hold of her sister's shoulders and leaned in close. "And you wonder why I don't want a vendetta with Ruby. If we're going to be Hunters then she may be what stands between us and death! And whatever else she's done, she's still a good person at heart."
Melanie turned in surprise, her usual arrogance shot through with a horrible vulnerability. "I never knew they reached that size," she said hoarsely.
"We knew they got pretty big," insisted Miltia.
"Not like that," protested Melanie before she shook her head to continue the argument. "But don't pretend there's not a difference between head knowledge and actually seeing it. 'Can grow to "X" metres in length', can this, can that … Miltia, that thing was like a mountain with a mean attitude."
"I made my peace with Ruby quickly," whispered Miltia with a dark, unamused look, "If that Grimm really scares you, then make your peace with Weiss; you're the last piece of the puzzle. Aurea may hate Yang, but she doesn't pick fights like you do, and anyway, she's not a leader."
"Shut up, sis," muttered Melanie, "I need time to think." Miltiades shook her head and leaned back as the Bullhead lifted up from its hover to jet up into the air. And they all swiftly learned that following on the small screen was nothing compared to looking out from the open cargo hatch of their ride and actually seeing it with their own eyes.
Ruby blacked out for a second after being clipped by the Beowolf's arm as it went by. She'd cut it ever so slightly too fine. When she came to she realised she was flying straight for a tree trunk. A quick nudge from her semblance let her corkscrew Crescent Rose around the trunk to come to a halt. She gulped down air greedily, using her weapon to hang from the side of the trunk.
"Ruby, are you okay?" came Glynda's shockingly calm voice.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," reported Ruby, trying to inject some cheer in her voice.
"The Bullheads are here, it's time to make our escape," said Glynda. "Get up here, I'll need you to help us fly."
Ruby took one last great big breath and nodded to herself. "Coming, Professor!"
With a mighty blast of petals and the black smoke of yet more cross rounds, Ruby took off from the trunk and rose skywards rapidly. To avoid the Beowolf's notice she kept close to its body as she flew. Her eyes scanned the skies for signs of Glynda, eventually finding her propelling herself away from another swat on a cloud of broken Grimm spines.
Multi-coloured blasts of Dust magery crossed the skies above her, and when she turned to look, she saw the two Bullheads flying just above the treetops. Intense fire was pouring out of the two aircraft. All of the students who had a ranged weapon or ability were unleashing whatever they could to distract the Beowolf.
Glynda saw Ruby flying up towards her and jumped away from the debris into Ruby's path, who caught her as she flew up. Below them, the Beowolf reached down to scoop up a trio of trees, which it began to snap into small chunks. Ruby let herself fall to land upon one of the paws, much to her teacher's consternation.
"Trust me!" said Ruby when she heard the protest start. "And hold on!"
Not paying attention to the tiny problems on its hands, the Beowolf focused on the annoying aircraft and hurled the broken trees at them. As it let go of the trees however, it also propelled Ruby and Glynda at breakneck speeds, and with Ruby's semblance and weapon pushing them further, they soon overtook the trees in the race to the Bullheads. The sight of all the Dust missiles and tracers flying past her head to destroy the trees behind them terrified Ruby to her core. Never had she seen such concentrated firepower and all of it was far too close for comfort. Thankfully, Glynda was also active, nudging aside the chunks of tree and knocking them into each other.
When the last arboreal missile was waylaid, Ruby reversed Crescent Rose and threw everything into her semblance. Weiss's gravity glyph appeared behind her, and she decelerated so fast it dropped both her own and Glynda's aura into the red. But they finally landed safely in the cargo hold of the Bullhead alongside the RWBY and MAVM girls.
"Ruby!" cried Yang as she pounced onto her sister. "Never do that again!" she demanded.
"Oh, gross, get off me, sis!" protested Ruby, pushing Yang away, immediately realising her sister had been throwing up. "Gross-gross-gross-gross!"
They landed in a clearing ten minutes later, so Glynda could rejoin Port. All of the students were sternly warned that the arrival of the ancient Grimm was considered an "incident", and the mission was now under investigation and thus deemed secret. None of them were allowed to talk about it outside the class, except with faculty and full-fledged Hunters.
Afterwards they had taken off, with Ruby leaning back against the far wall of the cabin. Yang was finally allowed near her again after the older sister had taken the opportunity to wash out her mouth when they had landed. After taking a minute to hug Ruby like an accountant with a stress ball, she had fallen into silence. Jaune had come over and said, "Thank you, Ruby," a gesture repeated by everyone else in the class, which sent Ruby even more crimson than her scythe.
"No, seriously," protested Ruby as the Bullheads resumed their flight. "I hardly did anything. I just buzzed around like a fly. A really sneaky fly." She had quickly realised the whole class had missed her getting smacked into a tree, which relieved her greatly. She didn't want any of them to fuss over her like that. "Look, my semblance happens to be speed and it happened to line up with that thing. I could help out, so I helped out. Stop making a big deal about it."
"Still wish we had tried to fight it?" asked Blake dryly, a smile on her face. Weiss nearly hissed with irritation at the idea.
"Oh, come on, we could do it," retorted Ruby. "Weiss freezes its foot, I cut the achilles, then you use that fancy Checkmate move we've been working on and Blake can cut into its neck after it falls over. Nora and her grenades do the rest!"
"Easy as that, huh?" asked Yang, not smiling yet, but slowly relaxing as she realised her sister had really come to no harm bar a badly taxed aura.
Ruby eyed her sister for while. "It could happen," she said quickly under her breath, prompting Yang to snicker.
"Of course, sis," allowed Yang.
"Alice is waiting for you," noted Velvet as the Bullheads eased their way down toward the landing pads.
"Is she?" drawled Miltia as she saw the red and black backpack in her girlfriend's hands.
"Well, why else would she be here?"
Miltia smiled with displeasure, a tight and angry thing. "Just wait."
Velvet pawed at the base of her Faunus ears, not sure how to take that comment. But as the Bullhead's railing kissed the landing pads, her keen Faunus senses picked out the red rose symbol on the backpack. "Oh...," she whispered.
"What?" asked Miltia.
"That's Ruby's backpack," whispered Velvet.
"I figured," said Miltia, as if discussing the weather. But there was a note under her voice like twisted piano wire that told Velvet she was not a happy little Huntress. It was enormously conflicting for her, made so much worse because she also felt grateful to Ruby for helping them get away from the big Grimm.
The powerful roar of the engines fell to a tame murmur as the aircraft settled into the deck. The eight trainees aboard disembarked, hopping off in a rush and starting to stretch and disperse. As Velvet stuck close by her side, Miltiades Malachite stepped away from the pack and looked across the bay to where Alice stood at the top of the steps leading up to the platform. At first she tried to fold her arms and cast a defiant look, but after a moment her hands slipped from the brace and she clutched at the hem of her skirt.
'Oh god, what do I even say?' she asked herself, wrestling with her timidity. The anger was still there, though slowly losing ground. Between her talk with Ruby, burying herself in Grimm, that terrifying encounter with the Beowolf, then another hour flight home, Miltiades had lost the furious edge of her anger. Something fatigued and anxious had wormed into the space it had occupied.
From the corner of her eye she saw Ruby. The girl walked up to Alice with all the shamelessness of innocence. She watched as Alice handed over the backpack, saw that poisonously knowing look in her girlfriend's eyes as she talked to the goofily grinning younger girl.
"Don't start a fight," said Velvet, before her voice went rather dry. "But I'd suggest going over and reminding them you're still here."
"Hmph," said Miltia, forcing her hands away from the hem of her skirt, straightening up. She glanced back at Velvet as she began to step forward. "And why would I possibly want to start a fight?" Velvet's eyes went wide with alarm, but Miltia was walking towards her two great frustrations already.
Alice looked up as Miltia approached and offered her a lopsided smile, a little self-consciously. "Safely back, my Miltia," she said with a bashful undertone. "I shouldn't have been so worried, I know. You have all the talent in the world, but your first time back in the field; forgive me, but I was fretting the whole way."
"I was fine, Alice," reassured Miltia. "My aura hardly even got scratched." She held her hands out wide and added, "See, all in one piece."
Alice's eyes went soft as she beheld Miltiades in her strength. The ailing sun's light gleamed on the long claws and danced in the corona of her dark hair. She was so strong. She was so beautiful. Chagrin swept Alice's features. "No thanks to my actions," she conceded ashen faced. "My Millie, I didn't mean to distract you so. You weren't meant to learn of this little tryst before your mission," she said quietly. "I'd have told you, of course I would, those are our terms. But you were meant to find out only once safely returned to humble Beacon."
"For future reference," said Miltia, glancing between Alice and Ruby, who was still there and looking nervous. "Although I don't know what I'll do if this repeats, but for future reference, when you've been wearing a unique fragrance that no one else in the Academy has, do something to mask the smell."
"Yeah, Weiss noticed it straight away as well," added Ruby abashedly. "I told you those hickeys were going to get me in trouble," she added quietly, glaring at Alice and missing the wince on Miltia's face.
"Miss Schnee knows?" repeated Alice, her calm breaking slightly. She looked up and over at the young Miss Ruby's friends and found the society queen giving her a look as frosty as her namesake. Alice blanched. 'That … may cost me,' she thought to herself anxiously. 'I haven't thought this through properly.'
"You're carrying Ruby's bag, she would have figured it out anyway," pointed out Miltia.
"Ruby had been running errands, I could easily enough...," began Alice before she stopped and crossed her arms. Her lashes fluttered shut. "Well, if you must know, I was so busy thinking about you that I forgot about Miss Schnee."
"This is what happens when you try and stage-manage everything rather than just being honest with me," accused Miltia sharply. Alice recoiled with her eyes wide, surprised by the sudden volley. "Don't think I missed what you were doing, Alice," continued Miltia, hands on her hips and body inclined forward. "I know it's what you've grown up being taught, plan everything, stage-manage everything. But if you're in any way serious about me, try honesty instead!"
Alice clasped her hands together and dipped her shoulders in towards Miltiades, her chagrin darkening her cheeks. "I…," she tried to say before she faded off. Both girls knew the accusation was right on the money. Alice didn't say anything else for a long while.
Ruby glanced between the two older girls and made her escape, rushing back towards her team. Blake and Yang were looking at her aghast. Weiss, of course, had already known of her younger partner's new scandal and was sharing some very sharp words with the other two girls. The young team leader just shouldered her reacquired bag calmly.
"Alright, let's go back to the dorm," she suggested cheerfully. "It'd be nice to clean-up before we go eat."
Blake looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Ruby, did you and Alice…?"
"What, sleep together? No, that'd be absurd!" dismissed Ruby with a bright smile. They all looked at each other silently. The younger girl's gaze flicked across towards Alice and Miltia. Softly, she added under her breath, "We just made out a bit." Blake and Yang exchanged a disbelieving look, so Ruby added, "Or a lot."
"An 'errand'," drawled Yang. "Nice euphemism. I'll remember that."
"Yang…," complained Ruby with a huff.
"We need to talk later, Rubes," said Yang with a little amusement in her tone. When Ruby began to launch into a protest, Yang put up her hands, presenting an open look. "Nah, no Dad talk, promise. I've got things I want to tell you about, okay? Not just stuff I want to ask you about.
Ruby stopped and looked at her sister for a while. "You want to tell me stuff, Yang?" she repeated with a bemused and mirthful expression. "Well, that's a big surpri… wait, stuff about yourself, right?"
"Hey!" protested Yang. "Where's the trust!?"
The eponymous team leader tried to maintain a frown for half a second, but it soon dissolved into laughter. "Alright, sure thing, sis," she decided. "We can talk whenever. Except not tonight, I'm so tired I could die," she groaned slumping and tilting her head back. "I could curl up and nap on anything softer than sandpaper."
"Tomorrow night?" suggested Yang quickly.
"But I was going to spend it talking to Weiss...," objected Ruby, looking at her partner hesitantly.
"Oh, don't worry about me," groaned Weiss. "I'm getting early nights, using my semblance that hard for that long against that great elder wore me out terribly."
When dusk fell and the sky was painted in the purple gloom of twilight, two girls made their way to the storage rooms of Beacon. They carried bags containing tools and parts. With a quick tap of their scroll upon the plate beside one of the myriad roller doors, machinery sprang into life to open the way.
Once within, one of the girls tapped a button by the door, which closed again with a soft rattle and clamour. Darkness fell upon the room as the exterior lamps were occulted behind the roller doors. After a second an overhead light flickered into dim and gloomy life.
"Show them to me again," whispered one of the young students.
The other girl silently reached up and slipped the ribbons of her bow loose. The protective covering came free in her hand and she stood there erect with all the confidence she could manage.
Yang walked up and ran a thumb along the outline of the cat ears affixed proud to Blake's crown. "All this time, they were right here under my nose," she whispered distantly. "I must be the biggest dummy."
"What does that make Ruby and Weiss?" asked Blake wryly.
"I never would have figured it out on my own," laughed Yang. A fey expression crossed her face. "Although a few things make a lot more sense now." She turned away, shaking her head with a goofy grin on her face. "My very own partner. What's next, is Ruby a wolf-faunus? Is Weiss a snow fox-faunus?"
"No, it's just me and Velvet in our class," reassured Blake as she rolled her eyes. "And you, a White Fang auxiliary. Any more surprises for me?"
"I have a body count," said Yang offhandedly as she set her tools down next to Bumblebee, the powerful motorcycle that occupied the centre of the storage garage. After racing around the city for the first time in a long while, the golden lady needed some wrenching. "Snitches, possible snitches, rivals causing trouble. One of Junior's men."
"So does everyone else in this team," retorted Blake. That got Yang's attention as she looked up from where she sat alongside her motorcycle. "You, me... God's Horns, Yang, they raised me to be a trigger agent, trained me since I was ten. Weiss also has her skeletons from her battles with us faunus. Several of the notches on Myrtenaster's hilt are probably people like us."
"And Ruby has those two agents," completed Yang, turning to focus intently upon the engine.
"You don't honestly think Ruby just pulled that out of nowhere, do you?" asked Blake with a pitiless snort.
"No...," sighed Yang with feeling. Her eyes were lidded with regret. "But I don't have any clue what's going on. I went long stretches without seeing her, you know? Uncle Qrow took care of her training and they often went on trips, disappearing for a week here, a week there, sometimes longer. And she'd disappear to go do her own thing." Yang hunched her shoulders before adding. "I was so caught up in my stuff, I didn't always make sure she was okay. Now I wonder what she was doing."
"I took Miltia's accident at face value," continued Blake darkly, "But combined with the agents, breaking Alice's aura..." She trailed off, letting her thoughts hover in the air, unsaid yet heard with brutal clarity.
"Did you know them?" asked Yang as she began to lay out her tools.
"Not personally," said Blake. "The bunny-girl agent was a very distant acquaintance. I still know some people on the fringes who will talk to me, now that the Fang knows I'm still alive. I know the agents' names." Blake bit her lip before adding, "They told me other things. There were other fatalities from that battle." Her eyes found Yang's, the golden gaze sharp. "They both bite deep." She shrugged a depressed little gesture. "Not that I can tell the girls what I know."
A solemn silence fell over them like a blanket. Neither girl was uncomfortable with the quiet, just tending their melancholy together like a drunk at the barstool nursing a shotglass.
"You faked your death?" asked Yang.
The faunus girl just looked up at the ceiling while her body language closed itself off.
It was clear she didn't want to talk about it. "Heh, a question best saved for the second half of a gin bottle?" suggested Yang rhetorically as she checked her spark plugs. Blake's gaze fell upon her and smiled when Yang pushed it no further. A comfortable silence fell.
A long time passed between them; Yang maintaining her bike, Blake by turns helping her and watching, contemplating. Pieces of Bumblebee began to bloom across the garage as Yang made her way through her checklist. There was a methodical intensity in how Yang approached her bike that caught Blake by surprise. Exhaustive in her attention to detail, the blonde rider treated the bike in a manner more akin to a master jeweller with a magnifier than a typical mechanic. An idle little voice interrupted Blake's treasured melancholy with an irreverent, 'I wonder if she pays the same attention when she kisses?' Blake looked away with a sudden starburst of colour in her cheeks.
They still hadn't kissed yet.
"Couldya pass me that socket wrench?" asked Yang as she lay upon her side, working at something Blake couldn't identify at the base of the engine.
When Blake reached in with the required instrument, Yang reached up and missed, instead slipping her fingers around the faunus girl's wrist. "Oh!" was the reaction from the couple. Yang twisted onto her back, looking up from the mat as her golden hair spread in a corona about her face.
"Sorry, Blakie, I must be boring you silly," apologised Yang.
"I like watching you work," dismissed Blake as she knelt beside her new girlfriend.
Yang cocked her eyebrows as she propped herself up on her elbows, rising towards the other girl. "Let's see, which novel are you thinking of right now?"
Blake blinked repeatedly, rearing back a little. Her cats ears twitched awkwardly as she tried to forestall her own answer. "If you thought to ask," she said, "Then you probably already know."
"I might have an idea. Sorry, this is only a motorcycle, not a convertible with leather seats like the book," lamented Yang teasingly.
In truth, the talk of death served less to suppress and more to kindle a desperate sort of life within the two Huntress trainees. The panicked frisson from the beyond in their last battle as they stared down deathly creatures born of ancient days instead sparked a helpless need within them. Recognising the grim disorder of their team heightened the issue.
And so the socket wrench slipped from Blake's fingers to fall upon the mat as Yang pulled her tautly near and kissed her feverishly.
Junior rubbed at his brow behind the bar in the early morning. The club was closed, the crowds dispersed and he was left with only the company of his henchmen. His henchmen, that is, and one girl in a tan and cream dress, decked with frill and chocolatey fur. It was a gorgeous dress, a battle dress that had been by turns forged and tailored, each stage to an exquisite standard. Junior paid good coin to make sure his right hands had the right defence.
Not to mention the right look, which this one had in spades.
Her hair was brown with reddish highlights, standing out over her pale skin. The girl was tall, very tall, even without her wicked boot heels. Probably even taller than that vixen Yang who had wrecked his club, Junior figured, though he was careful not to look at those deceptive boot heels as he tried to measure them up in his head. Seeing people looking at her heels reminded her she was in that battle dress and god did she ever hate that dress. She loved the work, but the uniform was a killer.
'Gotta keep up appearances, though,' reiterated Junior in his head. The arguments over the dress had been prolonged and fierce. His new hire was stubborn as a rock, but she was smart and powerful. Getting her to toe the line without driving her off had been one of his greatest balancing acts. 'We're just a nightclub and we have to look the part, especially if anyone from the tax office comes by.'
The girl strode up to the bar and popped a leather bag upon the countertop. She looked at him from over the top of her sunglasses. "Hey," she said, leaning against the counter and leafing through some papers.
"Are you seriously still wearing those sunglasses indoors?" asked Junior derisively as he ran a towel over more glasses. "Past midnight, too," he added with a chuckle.
"I have to make some concession to fashion given how you insist on dressing me up," retorted his new enforcer. The replacement for the Malachite girls had been easy to find. Of course, she had also been extremely difficult to recruit. "This kind of girl isn't my style," she said with a snort, dropping the file noisily on the bar and putting her hands on her hips.
Junior chuckled silently behind the bar at her reaction. "Sure thing, kiddo," he replied, noting with amusement as she tried to stare him down. Oh, her look could melt steel, he gave her that. She hated being called kiddo, not that she could do anything about it. Hei Xiong was made of stern stuff and it took more than a teenager's The Look to rattle him. "What do you have for me?" he said bluntly.
"Starting from the top," said the girl, tone still stormy and dangerous about the use of the pet name. "Your girl Ruby Rose is a team leader at Beacon. She leads her sister: your friend Blondie. Fun story, our friends at the Fang tell us Yang used to be part of one of their human smuggling cells. Quite the naughty one," she said with a smoky look over the top of her sunglasses.
"Let's see…," she continued while she checked her notes. "Different baby mamas, same baby daddy, all Hunters. Looks like only the father Taiyang Xiaolong is still alive." She flipped open the folder and laid it on the bar. "Also, one Blake Belladonna. White Fang runaway, they just recently found her again. It seems she was a pretty high level agent, too."
"How high?" asked Junior with a grunt.
"High enough that they don't talk about it. High enough that they want her back," answered the enforcer with a shrug. "Try to make sure you see her before she sees you was the advice I got. Just for fun, Ruby's partner is Weiss Schnee, the SDC ladyship her very own self, out of Atlas. Must not know about her naughty friends, or I bet the heiress would have shown some claws. Not that her own fights with the militants have been all sugar and spice. Both the Vale and Atlas branches of the Fang hate her guts." She looked up and flicked brunette locks back over her ear. "By the way, society girl queen and fashion trendsetter, I would love to meet this girl. The invites she could get me..."
"Do you have anything specific on this Rose girl?" asked Junior.
"Not really," admitted the girl with a bashful shrug. "Attended Signal, did a lot of one on one work with her uncle, Professor Qrow. Lots of time in the wilderness training. Paid dividends too, she is a fucking prodigy. I mean her sparring classes alone netted a dozen serious injuries. Kid's got style. But outside of that, there's not much to say. Like, weirdly hard to find things. People who may know don't want to talk. I even got warned off her by some guy. The nerve," she snorted, rolling her eyes.
"How'd that end up?" asked the man behind the bar in surprise.
"Yeah, his nose will heal," shrugged his enforcer with artful nonchalance, trying to hide her pride. "I mean, he'll need professional medical care, but it should get back to a vague, nose-esque sort of look. If he ever had modelling days, they'd be pretty done now, though."
Junior chuckled a little nastily. "Good to see you're getting the hang of talking with the locals. But she had to leave something for you to follow," he argued after a moment.
"I've got some 'friends' who I think are holding out on me," she agreed. "You know, people on the fun end of town. Not many though, when I show the photo I tend to get blank looks. But a couple of these jackasses know something, and they clam up on me. I'll loosen their tongues, but it'll take some time."
"This is a high priority, kiddo," warned Junior sternly. "Getting back this contract as first port of call for the White Fang after that fiasco with Blondie was hard. Make sure you get quick results."
"Yeah, yeah," waved off the girl, letting the pressure wash away. "There's something in here more interesting for you though. Their classmates. First you have these poster children," she began, setting out the photos of team JNPR. "The boy is a nobody. The redhead with the legs, and surprisingly good fashion sense for someone in armour, was four-time Mistral Regional Tournament champion."
Junior grunted, recognising her from the ridiculously and inappropriately delicious box of cereal that was a staple in his cupboard. "Okay…"
The lingering music which had persisted past closing time finally shut off, interrupting the young enforcer's train of thought. "Hey, Deadbear!" she yelled with a rather unfeminine gesture. The girl leaned forward, looking across the club to the DJ in the bear hat, glaring at him from across the dance floor. "Where'd my tunes go? I didn't say you could pack up yet."
Music hastily returned to the club's sound system. "Not much to say about the other two," continued the explanation under the cover of the sound system. "Strong, but haven't made much of a ripple yet. She's a half-mad hammer fanatic and he's a silent type."
"And the third team in the class?" prompted Junior.
"Old schoolmate of Yang's; her name's Aurea Perrault," proceeded the agent. "She hates Blondie, you'd love her. And Velvet Scarletina, nothing really interesting herself but her family were big in the Rights Movement. Outwardly they're all with the peace faction, but I'm told they have some shady old links to the more militant side of the fence. Who to believe, I wonder? Haven't looked in depth there, yet."
"Which one's the leader?" asked Junior with a low harrumph.
"Neither," said the enforcer as she held up two photos with a flourish, like a great showman. "It's the one in the white dress," she announced, laying the photos on the table.
"No," denied Junior. "No, absolutely not, there's no way. That's where they ended up when they fell off the grid?"
"Seems so, she's one of Ruby's fellow team leaders," said the enforcer. "Miltiades, by the way, is reported to be getting hot and heavy with the heiress to Sgathan House."
Junior tossed his cleaning rag onto the counter and ran a big bear paw of a hand over his face. "That makes for a lot of money tied into this group. Strange, very strange. All these girls back in the same class, with White Fang links, links to Neo, links to money."
"Hey, what're you thinking?" queried the brunette curiously.
"Kiddo, I'm thinking someone has tried to chisel me," grunted Junior. "You've given me a book of coincidences. Never trust a coincidence."
"You're reaching pretty hard, boss," objected the girl.
"Just keep digging, kiddo," ordered Junior bluntly. "I'll get to the bottom of this."
"A great elder Beowolf," recited the headmaster carefully as he looked out over the shimmering nightlights of the campus below. He turned around slowly to rejoin the others, a slightly ghoulish smile on his lips. "Quite the big daddy," he added with macabre humour.
His most trusted professors shared his office that evening; Glynda Goodwitch, Peter Port, and Bartholomew Oobleck. Only Oobleck stood, although he refrained from exercising his semblance and remained in one place. So inured to caffeine was he that even in such a late hour he still sipped from his mug. Glynda was seated with her riding crop suspended over her lap. Port was leaning back on his chair, bombastically bothering his moustache.
"How close is it?" asked the headmaster as he moved to join his colleagues, taking a seat before his desk.
"Initial sighting was one hour away by Bullhead, a meagre five hundred kilometers as the Nevermore flies," reported Oobleck. "After being given a bloody nose by Glynda and Peter's class party, it has moved in an orbit around Vale, neither advancing closer nor withdrawing."
"Clearly, the beast is attracted to the city," declared Peter Port as he folded his arms across his barrel chest.
"Clearly," agreed Ozpin slowly.
"We are constituting a team of Hunters who can handle this creature," continued Oobleck. "I hope to have them ready to fly by tomorrow."
"I want to lead the expedition," stated Glynda, brooking no opposition in her tone.
"Very well, I'll find replacement lecturers for your classes," accepted Ozpin reflexively. "Tell me, Glynda, gentlemen, when was the last time we had a great elder get within five hundred kilometers? A mere three day march to the capital for a beast that needs neither food nor rest. A solitary day from the outlying towns and settlements."
The other Professors looked to Oobleck, who took a sip as he searched his memories. "Not since the Mountain Glen fiasco," he said at last. "Before that? The last time we saw a Grimm that had achieved their final growth spurt this close to the city was during the great crises that racked Vytal."
"Some two hundred years ago, in other words," concluded Ozpin.
"Correct," said Oobleck as the professors exchanged another look.
"General Ironwood will be arriving at some point during the weekend," mused the headmaster. "See to it that this monster is slain before he arrives. And I mean slain, Glynda," fixing the professor with a look. When he spoke his colleagues all heard the Huntsman that lay beneath. "Choose your team wisely, but swiftly. You will return having killed this threat to Man, Professor, or you will not return."
Ozpin had high standards and little use for a safety net for his students. With his fellow Hunters he expected the same standards he expected of himself. Remnant was a cold and pitiless place outside the Kingdoms. Therefore the Hunter must be the same.
"I understand," replied Professor Goodwitch coolly. A veteran herself, and a long term confidante of the headmaster, she had expected nothing less. And as a Huntress she would accept no other standard of herself. Grimm the size of high-rises or not, Vale would be defended. "Before the end of tomorrow," she declared, fully prepared to stake her life on the mission.
The three subordinates stood to take their leave, when Ozpin spoke again from his seat, "I would like you all to keep your ear out in the city. There is a panic being brought on by this Dust-theft crime spree. If this is now starting to attract truly powerful Grimm, then we must consider that there may be a method to the madness."
"Are you suggesting whoever is responsible wants to attract Grimm?" asked Glynda.
Ozpin nodded her way. "Yes."
Night fell upon Beacon Academy. The ornamental lights shuttered, the hallways dimmed. Security lights remained, little flashes of vigilance. Yet beneath the cover of darkness was a hive of activity from the faculty and the Hunters who lodged at Beacon. Students who lived in the wing of the dormitory system closest to the landing pads woke angrily at repeated flights of Bullheads.
The activity continued on through the night. In the final minutes preceding the dawn, Glynda Goodwitch stepped out of the administration block, breathing in the fresh air. She admired the earliest dark blue pastels that spoke promisingly of the sun to follow. Her brisk gait led her team down a similar path to that which her students had taken the day before. Down to the main avenue; down to the landing pads.
Among those mighty veterans who boarded the Bullhead with her to go hunt the millennia old beast was a dark man in a dusty cloak bearing a scythe in sable with cardinal trim.
Yet again the students in the nearby dormitory awoke, many resolving to lodge complaints, but after this the pads fell silent, leaving a lull in activity at the school. A lull, and an anxious wait in the mission control centre in the heart of the great tower of the Academy's administration block.
"Where's Glynda?" asked Jaune quietly of Pyrrha.
The weary students filtered into the lecture theatre together on the Friday morning, feeling rather the worse for wear after the previous day's heroics. An unfamiliar lecturer was present for their Dust Interactions class, a woman who was busily writing her name upon the blackboard.
"I know as much as you do," admitted Pyrrha as they took their seats.
'Professor Carmeline' was the completed name. She was young for a Professor; in Beacon that was usually the sign of someone who either had a passion for teaching, or was mentally recuperating from burnout as a Hunter. The Professor was a pink-haired cat faunus, short of stature who wore very high heels to compensate. Her weapon was a warhammer fitted with a complicated system of Dust mechanisms feeding into the head. Blake had been instantly relieved that she had applied deodorant very liberally that morning, a practice she had commenced after Velvet had identified her scent in their first mission.
Up the front of the class the new professor coughed meaningfully to get everyone's attention. "As Professor Goodwitch will not be taking your classes today, I will be your relief lecturer for this morning's classes." The newcomer shuffled some papers on the lectern as she added, "This information is not to be spread beyond this class; however, because of your involvement in yesterday's events, it is appropriate to keep you informed to suppress panic. Professor Goodwitch will be leading a team to eliminate the large Grimm you encountered."
The relief teacher left the lectern and strode towards the benches. "So please let go of any anxieties you may be holding and focus on your studies. My name is Professor Carmeline and we will be going through today's lecture as per normal. I trust you have all completed the homework Glynda had assigned you last week?"
"Oh," mooted the Jaune, exchanging another glance with Pyrrha.
To their right, Nora Valkyrie's hand popped up straight as an arrow. When the relief teacher blinked and invited her to speak, Nora grinned broadly. "Hey, teach, the homework is interesting and all, but just the other day we kind of saw this thirty-story tall Grimm, which was all rawr," she described enthusiastically before stopping her comment to raise her hands with fingers clawed, as if she were a terrible Grimm herself. A ripple of nervous giggles and laughter swept the lecture theatre.
"Miss Valkyrie, wasn't it?" asked the lecturer.
"That's me!" confirmed Nora. "Or Queen Nora, or Castellan Nora, or Ren's Caretaker, or-"
"Thank you, Nora, that will do," protested the Professor, holding up her hands with a smile. "I'm afraid I really shouldn't be talking about this. Normally, information about such creatures is restricted to third-years and above."
"Why would you possibly have a policy like that?" asked Blake bluntly. "If we could encounter Grimm like that, isn't that need to know?"
"That is a question to take to either Headmaster Ozpin or Professor Goodwitch," replied Professor Carmeline coolly, giving Blake a dark look. "Not my pay grade, so do not ask again."
Blake said nothing, instead just folding her arms upon the desk and giving the lecturer a disgruntled look.
"How about the 'what'?" asked Aurea, a similarly irritable note in her voice. "I've never even heard of a critter that size. I mean it was bigger than the older Goliaths people still see sometimes. And so much faster."
Professor Carmeline exhaled sourly and looked about the room with a disgruntled expression. "I guess now that you've seen it, it is better to give you details rather than let you try and invent them," she admitted, causing the class to relax ever so slightly.
"Okay, this is all Professor Port's area of expertise, so you'd do better asking him for the nitty-gritty details," sighed the relief teacher. "But basically this: Grimm never die of old age. In the absence of violent action, they live forever."
"Uh, what, like actually forever?" asked Velvet. "Or forever as in like, centuries?"
Carmeline laughed dryly, a sound carrying a bitter and worn sound. Ruby and Yang exchanged a look; they recognised that sound from their father before he had taken a sabbatical from Hunting one year. The Professor shook her head. "Aha, I know, guys, I shouldn't laugh. But know that Grimm live much longer than centuries."
The lecturer turned to the black board and drew a graph with a single diagonal line, which she intersected in three places. "Okay, basic human biology question: everyone here understands puberty and the growth spurt that comes with it?" She got a murmured acknowledgement from her temporary class. "Now, humans only get one of these. Almost all of you are at an age where you have ceased growing and are now just filling out as you finish maturing. Yes, I see you there Ruby, you'll get another couple inches most likely and finish near your sister's height."
Professor Carmeline turned to face the class with a pinched look on her face. "Unlike Man, Grimm never stop growing. They continue to get slightly larger every year until they are slain. And the older they get, the cannier and smarter they get." She returned to the board and wrote names next to the three points her graph was intersected.
"However, Grimm do have growth spurts. Three of them. For Beowolves, they come after fifty to one hundred years, at which point they become a Beowolf Alpha, or an Ursa Major when it comes to those beasts. At three to four hundred years old, at which point they become an elder Grimm, exponentially tougher. The Nevermore and Deathstalker you saw at your initiation were elders."
"We killed something over three hundred years old at initiation?" asked Pyrrha in shock.
"If you think that's impressive," drawled the professor, turning her head to fix Ruby with a look. "I saw the battle analysis from your fight yesterday. The Ursa Major had started its next growth spurt, and was probably about three hundred itself. And you killed it practically by yourself, Miss Rose." She smiled as if it were merely painted on, without a jot of warmth. 'You've made yourself the talk of the faculty,' thought Carmeline to herself. 'Again."
"Oh, I couldn't have done it without Weiss distracting it," demurred Ruby, making her ivory-haired partner sit up straighter and smile.
"After about a millennia," continued Carmeline, tearing her eyes away from the girl who had managed to become the gossip of not just the teachers, but also the Hunters this time. "They undergo a tremendous growth spurt, easily doubling in size over the space of fifty years, becoming the behemoth you saw. If you're lucky, you catch them during this time, because they're uncoordinated as drunks."
"So why haven't we heard of them?" asked Pyrrha.
"Because the only way a Grimm can live long enough is to make their home in the deep wilderness, away from the Kingdoms," answered the teacher.
"So what happened here?" asked Yang as she leaned back and folded her arms over her chest.
"Still being investigated," admitted the teacher. "But that's all I have to say. If you want to know anything else, pester Professor Port or Professor Goodwitch. Understood?" The class quickly acknowledged. "Okay, now that we have that sorted, could you all submit that homework now?" said the relief teacher, eager to move on.
Everyone in the room sighed and muttered and opened their scrolls, submitting homework assignments electronically. The lecture began, much the same as any other. Semi-valuable information was spewed forth for the students to catch as they may. Some, like Pyrrha, learned a great deal, while others, like Nora, would have perhaps benefited from spending less time attempting to see if they could braid Ren's hair without him noticing. And some, like Weiss and Velvet, were moribund with boredom at having to rehash material very basic to their craft.
Half an hour into the lecture, Pyrrha leaned into Jaune to whisper discreetly, arm sliding up against him. "Having any trouble?" she asked, just before she looked over and saw prodigious page of notes he had accumulated. "Are you doodling?" she asked, a little uncertainly as she saw a series of symbols.
"Hmm?" replied Jaune until he noticed where she was looking. "Oh ha, ha, very funny," he said while rolling his eyes. When Pyrrha blushed he thought it through a little further. "Structural diagrams describing the Dust interactions," he explained with a shrug. "This is all pretty straight-forward chemistry. Sorry, forgot they teach the simplified symbols in combat schools."
Pyrrha rubbed the back of her head, a reflexive sorry on the tip of her tongue. It was easy for her to forget given what a novice he was in other areas, that just because he hadn't attended a combat school, didn't mean he hadn't attended school. "Know all of this, then?" she asked.
"Nah, learning heaps of stuff," denied Jaune. "My chem units were long on theory, short on practical. Actually kinda interesting to have such a practical focus."
"Right," said the tournament champion as she saw the notations and wondered to herself if anyone in the class was actually gleaning as much of the relief teacher's lecture as Jaune was. "Speaking of practical focuses," she began.
"Yeah?"
"Were you still interested in going out for some combat-school style practice now that you've had a chance to clear your head?" she asked, a hopeful note in her voice.
Jaune sat back on the bench, chewing at the inside of his cheek in though. "The grind," he whispered to himself. "This is all crazy."
"Fighting giant monsters is pretty crazy," pointed out Pyrrha.
"Don't have to tell me twice," snorted Jaune. "Yeah, I'm still in. Don't really like it but … well, I have a lot to catch up on. I thought just sparring would be enough, but you really need that extra edge, don't you? Knowing you'll get your ass kicked if you screw up."
"It's all part of it," agreed the red-head. "As strong as your aura is, you need some real fighting to temper it. To burn in some reflexes and habits." She tapped her pen on the edge of Jaune's notebook. "Alright then, this weekend we go out and find some trouble," she said, and her emerald eyes sparkled with mischief.
"Uh, Pyrrha?" replied Jaune, eyebrows raised. "You know, you do scare me when you look like that."
Pyrrha laughed, using her hand to muffle the sound. "Oh, Jaune, I wouldn't be in this career if I didn't like to fight. It'll be fun."
Junior poured himself out another double-shot of spirits from the bottle on his desk in the back office. It wasn't a cheap bottle, but it wasn't a luxury item either; it was what he drank when he wanted to get roaring drunk without feeling like roadkill the next morning. He knocked back half the glass in a single hit and groaned, rubbing his forehead as he laid it back down.
"Fucking hell," he muttered to himself.
Photographs and pages of secrets were strewn across his desk. There was something fishy going on, and he damn well knew it. Junior had been in this business too long to believe in coincidences. Sure, they might happen once in a very long time, but it was very rare. By and large, if you suspected you've been shafted, you probably have been. And Junior was sure he was getting shafted.
He picked up a photo of Melanie Malachite in her Beacon Academy uniform that the new kid had procured during the day. With a wholehearted frown he tried to figure out what had happened that had let the girls escape the blackballing he had set on them. In truth he knew it had been a tremendous mistake; he never should have let himself act in the heat of the moment like he did. He figured that was the hideous danger of being at odds with your own right hand. Hard to listen to good advice when your advisor is the one in your crosshairs.
"Okay, we have you two ladies over here," he said, standing up and pinning them upon the corkboard in his office. They had spent a couple years as his enforcers, gifted combatants with auras well beyond your average citizen. They did their own freelance work outside of his club to supplement their incomes; Melanie providing discreet bodyguard work to the Vale social set, Miltiades doing similar work among the Vale underworld.
"And we have you over here," he continued. Next he picked up a photo of Yang from the desk and pinned it to the board across from the twins. He had never met the girl before or since, though when he had investigated her after the club brawl he had learned she was a real piece of work. The fact he had already looked into her had been withheld from his new enforcer; he didn't want to contaminate her work with shortcuts.
Moving around the board he continued on adding in Ruby, Blake, Alice, Weiss, a White Fang administrator, and lastly, a picture of Roman and Neopolitan. In the centre of the board he placed himself and a picture of his club.
"Huh," he grunted as he looked at the board. "Well, if nothing else, I've already learned there's way too many teenage girls apparently affecting my life," he noted with bemusement.
He tapped a button on a device hanging on to the bottom of the pinboard and a little holographic overlay flashed up over the board. It had been a very expensive purchase, but it really did help him visualise matters. Keeping the photos was a bit of a conceit; Junior was getting a bit older and he liked using something more tactile, even as he dabbled in the new technology.
"Alright, so where'd this all begin," he muttered. He drew a line from the White Fang administrator to himself. "Okay, I was lining up for a big contract. White Fang are always chasing information but have a hard time getting enough human agents in high up places. Serious dough." He drew another line from Yang to the club, then from Roman to the administrator.
"Hey, boss, what're you doing?" intruded a voice in his office.
Junior looked over his shoulder. "Oh, hey kiddo." He waved an arm at the pinboard. "I'm trying to figure this out. There's something about this whole situation that stinks. Really stinks."
"What do you mean?" asked the young brunette agent.
He frowned and drew lines between Neo and Roman, then Neo and the administrator. "Well, look. Yang comes in, fucks us all up, I don't get the White Fang contract. I heard from contacts in the Fang that one of the people who really argued for the contract to go elsewhere was that pink and brown haired girl who told us to look into Ruby, Neopolitan. So instead of me getting the contract, that jackass who hired some of my henchmen, who I never saw again just quietly, Roman Torchwick gets the deal."
"I think I know how Neo got her influence with the administrators," said the chocolatey-hued girl slowly, moving to stand next to him. She pointed to the girl's photo. "I found out when I was looking into Yang that Neo was part of a sympathiser cell as well. They have a habit of asking humans they 'trust' when dealing with other humans."
"Really?" asked Junior with deceptive mildness. "Makes sense. Now, funnily enough, a week later, Roman hired Neo out of that cell to be his assistant."
"What? Hey, did you already know what I was telling you? Seriously," complained the girl with a sharp look.
"A month later, some mover and shaker inside the White Fang picks up Roman and kicks him upstairs, taking Neo with him," carried on Junior. "Don't ask me who, I haven't unknotted that yet. But that meant the contract was up for offer again, except this time it was a lot cheaper. I'm guessing because of the money they already paid Roman."
"So you're saying, Neo and Roman chiseled you out of some money?" asked the girl next to him.
"Some money?" grunted Junior in surprise. "Try twenty million Lien. That was the difference between contracts, and from what I can tell, they pocketed it all. Not counting the five hundred grand cleanup bill."
"Oh, fuck," said the brunette as she put her hands on her hips.
"Yeah," agreed Junior before slamming back the second half of his shotglass. "For me the question has always been who was in on it, and who was a bystander. One of either Neo or Roman orchestrated this."
"Neo knew Yang," suggested the girl hesitantly. "She could have sent Yang your way."
"Could have? I'm almost certain she did," agreed Junior again. "But, and this is what pisses me off, this big coincidence here," he continued before reaching out to the holograph, glowing lines appearing where his finger moved. He drew lines from all of the students down to an empty space below his club, where he wrote, 'Beacon'. "Somehow, someway, they all end up in the same class group. No, that's crap, someone has been playing games."
"You wanted their grades, right?" checked the girl. "Right, well the twins have similar practical grades, both about a step behind Yang or Ruby, but they're holding their own."
"And there it is," sighed Junior. "So they're strong enough to be Beacon students. Yet somehow weak enough to lose two-on-one to a girl who had to fight through a dozen henchmen to reach them. And yet their practical grades are only a little behind the girl that beat them both?"
"What are you thinking?" asked the brunette.
"I'm thinking, kiddo, that Neo got them to take a dive," said Junior.
"They're not flaunting wealth, no diamond and gold accessories all over," pointed out his new agent. "They definitely got hurt, too."
"I think they wanted out, and a place in Beacon was their payoff," explained Junior. "And for aura users, getting hurt isn't that serious. I mean, they were out of hospital in just a day. Not too big a price to pay for a spot in Beacon Academy and a ticket out of the Underworld, you'd say."
"Seems like a big leap, boss," argued the girl skeptically.
"Look," snapped Junior. "That one," said while pointing at Neo, "Sicced that one," pointing at Yang, "Onto me. Now somehow the twins have ended up on the same class as an influential White Fang assassin who left the service just after all this happened, as well as Yang herself. Not to mention there's some serious money that they are associating with. Look, if both girls are honestly good enough to attend Beacon and be in a class with this girl, how did they both lose to her in a two on one? It only makes sense if they took a dive."
"Wait, Yang is really good," pointed out his assistant. "Her style game could do with some work, but I'm told she punches like a hammer. I mean she punched you out, didn't she?"
"So all this," began Junior, "Is all an unhappy coincidence? If you want to live for much longer in this game, kiddo, you need to learn that coincidence is bullshit. Trusting coincidence gets you screwed over at best and killed at worst. No such thing."
The girl looked at him for a long time before rolling her eyes and walking out the door.
Junior sighed and dropped back down to his desk and poured himself another round of whisky. It helped dull the throbbing headache of his frustration so well that he poured himself another. It was around two hours and halfway through the bottle later that he realised he had neglected to stow his scroll before he started drinking. A few buttons later and he was drunk-dialling away like a jilted ex-boyfriend who just had to give that treacherous jerk a proper piece of his mind.
In the end, it was to unquestionably become Junior's greatest ever mistake.
"Pyrrha!" greeted Melanie with a cheerfulness she forced through the stress.
The Mistral champion looked away from where she was talking with Jaune in the hallway. "Hi there!" she answered brightly. She noticed the blonde girl appear behind Melanie and nodded at her as well, saying, "Hello, Aurea."
"Hi, Pyrrha," echoed Aurea.
It was after dinner and the team were on their way to the dorms. They had eschewed the cafeteria in celebration of their successful, frighteningly so, field assignment. Instead they had gone to the curry house near the main courtyard to eat, at Pyrrha's insistence. It had been Jaune's first time there, but he had handled the heat with aplomb. Nora, however, had not dealt with it nearly so well at the time. Of course, she was capitalising on the red-eyed, runny nosed after effects by chasing Ren around, mortifying the well-kept young man.
"So, like, is everyone okay after the big mission?" asked Melanie pleasantly.
The red-haired girl pursed her lips and and considered her friend carefully. She could spot the anxiety in the girl easily enough. "What's going on, Melanie?" asked Pyrrha with a gentle smile.
"W-Whatever, why would anything be going on?" replied Melanie cagily. She flushed at being immediately seen through.
Pyrrha turned to her teammates. "Why don't you guys go on ahead?"
"Sure thing, Pyrrha," agreed Jaune.
Melanie looked away, eyes narrowed and feeling a confusing mixture of relief and embarrassment at how Pyrrha had taken charge of the situation.
"Let's go for a walk outside, Melanie," suggested Pyrrha.
"Fine, why not?" forced out Melanie through the embarrassment.
For five minutes they made nattering small talk, gossip just to fill the air between them while people were still around. Once they made their way outside where they had some privacy, Pyrrha turned towards her new friend.
"So what's on your mind?" asked the lovely Amazon.
Melanie looked up at the other girl with a strained smile. "I need your help," she explained softly. She looked away and tossed up her hands, words coming out in a jumble. "I mean, I can't live my whole life in the past, and sometimes someone has to be the bigger person, and you know you have to be practical about justice, which kinda sucks but-"
"Melanie," interrupted Pyrrha, steady and strong with a comforting smile.
Melanie dropped her hands and shook her head. "They scare the shit out of me. It's embarrassing, but there it is." She shrugged uncomfortably. "Pyrrha, can you help me try and patch things up with Weiss? My teammates are kind of demanding it."
"Can I?" echoed Pyrrha. "I've been hoping to hear you say that since the first day you joined our class. Yes, I can help you. I think Weiss trusts me." She cocked a head at the former underworld enforcer. "Can you tell me what started all this?"
"I often did bodyguard work for society boys when they felt they needed a little extra protection but didn't want to be conspicuous about it," explained Melanie. "But that meant I had to interact. I couldn't simply hold up a big red flag saying I'm the muscle. Of course, showing up on different arms, eventually I became a topic of gossip, and a target, since I didn't have any friends, patrons, or backing."
"With you so far," said Pyrrha as they walked.
"Weiss divided her time between the society scenes of Atlas, Vale, and I'm told she popped up in Mistral from time to time," continued Melanie. "Seriously, her frequent flier status must be ludicrous. I don't know if you met her there?"
"No, I'm afraid not," denied Pyrrha. "First time I met her was at Beacon."
"Okay, well, because she was a Schnee, she had a lot of status," explained Melanie. "Combine that with being honestly clever and powerful. End result is that Weiss was a tyrant of the society scene in both cities. Possibly the tyrant. And, well, to keep power, you have to demonstrate it. I was a very easy target for her to make a frequent example of." She held up a hand to forestall a protest. "She did, I promise that I'm telling the truth. You've seen Weiss when she gets angry with someone, right?"
"Yes, that's rather less than what you're suggesting, though," refuted Pyrrha.
"That's because she's better now but, before," began Melanie before she drew in a great breath. For a moment she weighed up spilling the beans on the Weiss and her old dependency. But it just didn't seem like the right thing to do yet. She knew it would come out, but Pyrrha needed to hear it from Weiss to truly understand. "Look, society events have such a dark side to them."
"I know, Melanie, I've been there, I know what goes on," reassured Pyrrha. Disappointment radiated through her voice. She had seen the damage that the vices of society boys and girls could cause while being tiresomely feted at Mistral. That this could have been the issue with Weiss never occurred to the young redheaded trainee. It just wasn't in her to assume the worst like that.
"Makes it a pretty volatile place," explained Melanie further. "So take what you know of Weiss when she's angry, add in that toxic environment, and imagine life for people she didn't like. Sometimes it made her happy and easygoing, sometimes it just... " She looked down at her feet and held her arm self-consciously. "Look, I'm not trying to twist your view of Weiss, I just want you to understand why I act like this, and why you don't see what I used to see. I'm not crazy, I'm not petty. That place used to mess her up and truth be told, I'm just one of the people who paid the price. I know I shouldn't hold the grudge, and you know, it all rebounded on her in the end."
"I know, I've seen it in use," sighed Pyrrha. She frowned and shook her head. "I'm glad you've come to me for help, Melanie. Sorry, but do you mind telling me what brought on the change of heart?"
"Because I…," the girl in white began to reply, before she fell away to silence. 'Because I'm tired of losing all the fucking time,' she thought to herself morosely. "Velvet's been after me for a while to try and make friends with her. Now Miltia and Aurea have joined in."
Pyrrha waited for more, but when nothing was forthcoming, she smiled and shook her head. "Melanie, I think there might be something extra you're not saying," she said cheerfully.
"Because I can't make headway, I can't make a fucking thing count against her!" exploded Melanie, finally losing a final restraint on the frustration within. "Because that fucking princess has it all and I can't impact on a thing, and I try and I fail and I fail and I fail!" Her arms flung out to the side and her voice cracked. "This place isn't just my second chance, it's my last chance. I can't beat her, I can't ignore her. She's Ruby's partner, too. I can't keep fighting Weiss without eventually getting Ruby involved and I am officially scared shitless of Ruby Rose after that last mission."
"Well then!" replied Pyrrha brightly. "Now that I know what I'm dealing with, we can start to build some bridges. Let me go talk to Weiss for you, we'll go out somewhere and talk."
"That's it?" asked Melanie as she wiped at her cheeks. "I tell you I'm a frightened mass fuck-up and you say okay, let's go build some bridges." A bittersweet smile crossed her face. "Pyrrha Nikos, is there no end to your cheerfulness?"
"Not really, sorry," was Pyrrha's earnest reply.
"I'm not saying ignore him, Melanie," complained Miltia in a sullen frustration. "I'm just saying, sleep on it for the weekend, he isn't going to move yet. I mean he's been waiting for months." She was sitting on her bed, propped up against the headboard, looking down at her scroll. She didn't quite trust herself to look her angry team leader in the eye.
"Would you at least look at me!?" exploded Melanie in frustration as she stood in front of the display in their dorm room, arms wide as she faced her sister with an exasperated look.
Miltia felt like a complete jerk. She knew she had to do this, of course. Her sister, as aggressive and determined as she was, was rather more bark than bite in Miltia's eyes. She wanted to trust her, to bring her into this, but there was simply no way. Timid and shy Miltiades might keep her head bowed, but when she was backed against a wall, she bit deep. In the end, she felt Melanie Malachite would thank her and appreciate what she was going to do. Eventually. For now her eyes glanced up, even as her head stayed bowed.
"Grimm and Dust, Miltiades, I don't even know what to do with you sometimes," lamented Melanie with a pained expression.
"I've already told you what I think," objected Miltiades with a frown. "Don't do anything rash, okay?"
"Why are you so passive about this?" asked Melanie as she sighed and put her hands on her hips. "You know we can't ignore this."
Aurea was out of the dorm room, trying to build some bridges with Jaune's team. Poor Velvet, however, was sitting on her bed with headphones on, studiously ignoring the row between the twins. The rabbit girl didn't know the history that the girls had with their former employer, and they weren't asking for her advice yet, so she didn't really know what to do. It seemed too blatant to just walk out now, she had missed her chance to leave.
"He was freaking out, Melanie, like an idiot," sighed Miltia. "Just see if he's going to calm down." On her scroll, the student was browsing the information network that bound together the city of Vale. The page on her screen, which she was still navigating out of the corner of her eye as she watched her sister, was a hotel booking site, currently listing sites near a particular point in the city.
"Do you think I can't handle this?" asked Melanie as she crossed her arms.
'Nope, nope, not against Junior, I love you, sis, but you need me here,' thought Miltia unkindly, yet not untruthfully. But what she said was rather different. "Of course you can handle this, Melanie, but listen to me. Not this weekend. Stick with Pyrrha and patching things up with Weiss. The last thing you want is for this to carry on and eat you up from the inside out, right?" On the screen in front of her she found a cheap, rather spartan motel and selected it. It wasn't much but it served her purpose admirably. At eight hundred Lien a night, booking it for the weekend was comfortably covered by the bounty for the Ursi she had killed. Vaguely she wondered what Ruby's bounty must have been after that mission.
Melanie bit the inside of her cheek as she thought that over. "It's not taking me over," she said quietly. "Grudges aren't healthy to keep, I know but..." The dark-haired girl looked a little lost for a moment.
"Plus, Weiss would be a pretty handy ally if Junior doesn't calm down," added Miltia helpfully.
Melanie looked at her feet and shook her head. After a moment she went and dropped down on her own bed. "Yeah, okay, I see your point. He'll be very slow to move, so we should build up." She looked over at her sister. "Thanks, Miltia."
"Whatever, sis," she answered with a disarming smile as she paid for the twin share motel room.
But then, feeling like a total fraud, she opened up her messenger client.
"[Miltiades Malachite] : Ruby, I need you to come meet me in the city tomorrow. Not kidding, this is super important, no tricks. Take an overnight bag and your weapon. I'll let you know where to meet. By the way, you're starting to become a bad influence on me."
Shortly thereafter, she received a reply. "[Ruby Rose] : Uh … what?"
"Oh, hey, Pyrrha," greeted Weiss as she stifled a yawn. She had already changed into her nightgown and was preparing for bed.
Pyrrha gave her the same smile she used for the covers of breakfast cereals. "Hi Weiss, hi Ruby," she replied, getting a cheerful wave from Ruby. "Got a moment?"
"Sure," answered Weiss, cocking her head.
"Would you like to come out with me and Melanie this weekend?" she asked.
Weiss did a double take at the mention of the Malachite girl. "Does Melanie know you're inviting me?"
"Yeah," confirmed Pyrrha slowly. "That's actually kinda the point, really. I want to try and get you two to patch things up."
"I don't think-" began Weiss anxiously.
"Pyrrha, that's a brilliant idea," exclaimed Ruby. She joined them at speed, all but jumping over the top of Weiss, whose composure vanished under the sudden impact. Pyrrha looked on in a state that was some fifty percent horror, the rest hilarity.
"Ruby!? You dolt, get off!" protested Weiss as her team leader leaned over her shoulder. She tried to shake the girl off, but the delighted Huntress stuck to her like glue. When she finally got her partner to ease off, the ivory haired girl dusted off and huffed. "I'm busy with company stuff this weekend, so that doesn't-"
"Take her to that after-party you mentioned," suggested Ruby in a rush.
Weiss shot around to fix Ruby with a confused look, wondering whose side the girl was on. But the look in her team leader's eyes told her she was altogether serious. The ivory-haired heiress blinked, taken aback.
"Pyrrha," said Ruby, "Could you please give us a moment?"
"Of course," replied the other girl as she stepped outside.
Weiss' jaw dropped as she was left in the room with her betimes frightening team leader. Together the two partners exchanged a long look, a contest of will passing between them. The same strength that Ruby accessed to stand up to Yang she now brought to bear upon the recovering society girl before her.
"Ruby, what are you-?" attempted Weiss, before Ruby cut her off.
"You said you wanted to help me be the best leader I can be?" asked Ruby.
"Yes, but what does that-?"
"Then bury the hatchet with my fellow team leader," stated Ruby firmly. "Look," she said, holding up hands to forestall her friend. "I know, you don't have a problem, it's all her, blah-blah, you still need to do this."
"Why?" asked Weiss simply.
"Because," replied Ruby, "I need to be able to work with her, it's so much harder for our teams to work together while this stuff goes on. And because when she isn't your enemy, she won't be digging up dirty secrets on us." The dark-haired girl lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper as she added, "Because we both know there are skeletons hidden that would be really, really ugly if they came up."
Weiss was silent for a long time, just looking at her partner levelly. "Oh, god, this is how Yang feels when you stomp all over her, isn't it?"
"I don't stomp all over my sister! Weiss!" protested Ruby.
But Weiss just smiled and went to the door, letting Pyrrha back in. "Okay, there's an after-party to the company event for the society scene that I mean to go to. Me and Alice can get you in, we'll talk there."
"Is that wise?" asked Pyrrha in concern. "Most of what went wrong between you two seemed to happen within the gala set?"
"Where better to settle grievances than at the beginning?" asked Weiss. "I want to show her I'm better, that I've changed."
"Changed since what?" asked Pyrrha coyly.
"And you know what?" replied Weiss, ignoring the leading question. "It might do her well to be seen there with a society girl for company. You think she didn't bring half of it on herself by only associating with the boys and completely ignoring the rest of us? That's spitting in our eye, thank you very much, and you do that at your own peril." She shrugged. "I was queen of the society girls, of course I was going to be involved."
"You really enforce gender roles like that?" asked Pyrrha with a surprised recoil. "Is that still a thing in your circles?"
"It's not a gender role, it's common courtesy," protested Weiss. "There are two power blocs in any society scene, be it in Vale, Mistral or Atlas. Those who self-identify as girls, and as boys. You have to at least pay your respects or it will be taken as an insult. Look, we weren't to have known she really was a stranger to our ways. There are conventions you abide by, and she didn't. Eventually we were going to force her into line, or force her out."
Pyrrha gave Weiss a carefully measured look. "That's a very cold way, Weiss."
"We're the high society," said Weiss, a regal mask spreading across her expressions. "People want in much more than we really want them there. To be in our ranks is a privilege, not a right. One that people lose and have to re-earn all the time." Weiss abruptly reared back and blinked. After a moment she couldn't meet Pyrrha's eyes. "Maybe I'm not entirely changed," she half-confessed, "But I can still mend fences. And while she may not want anything to do with the society anymore, I can at least normalise her status there."
Ruby sighed and sat down on a stone bench, scythe propped up against her shoulder. She popped the top on her water bottle and drank greedily. It was a hard grind that she put herself through and fluids always needed to be replenished. In many ways, she went harder and further than the loads sparring for Grimm combat placed on her. Drills as bloodless combat, combat as bloody drills, was a concept known to warriors since time immemorial. Well, Ruby couldn't pretend that her sparring was always bloodless, but her drills certainly had some of that relentless physical demand.
As she drank, she heard footsteps drawing near. When she looked up, she smiled. Her sister had come, right on time, and they called out an exchange of pleasantries. "Alright, sis, what did you want to talk about?" she asked as she folded up her weapon and propped it up between her knees.
"So, Alice," mused Yang as she moved out of the shadows to sit next to Ruby. As she sat down, Ruby turned to look out out over the fields that lay beyond the campus. "Blonde. Pretty. Seems to know how to fight and she's smart. Interested?"
"There's nothing there, Yang," objected Ruby, not turning away from the distant fields. "No, seriously," she emphasised when Yang made a loud 'hmm'.
"So a one morning stand?" asked the concerned older sister.
"Ha," said Ruby. She sighed and turned to give her sister a stern look. The younger girl folded her arms, trying her hardest to present an serious front. "Yang," she said tetchily, "There were people who came over, while dad wasn't there, that I never saw before or saw after. Don't try to tell me you didn't have casual flings. You totally did." She pointed at her sister and firmly said, "And it started when you were my age, so if you start telling me I'm too this, or I'm too that, then I'm just going to walk away. And I'll put you on breakfast run duty for like a month, sis!"
Yang looked at her sister in first surprise and then chagrin. "When did you get so…"
"Feisty?" suggested Ruby brightly.
"Mouthy," completed Yang, before sighing. "Look, sis, I'm not judging you. I'm not sitting here trying to say, 'You've been a bad girl, Ruby'. I just want to know that you're ready, that you're aware of what you're doing." She rubbed at the back of her head and coloured brightly. "And maybe help you avoid some of mistakes I already stepped in."
"Well…," said Ruby, relaxing her stance a little. "Just try not to sound like Dad while you do it, okay?"
Yang snorted and relaxed a little. "Fine, alright. But one 'Dad' question first, and don't make that face at me Rubes!" she protested.
"Yang, please don't ask what I think you're about to," sighed Ruby.
"V-card, still have it?" asked the older sibling sternly, crossing her arms and fixing Ruby with a sharp look.
"I didn't go all the way with Alice!" protested the dark-haired girl, putting her hands up in exasperation, before beginning to gesture wildly. "Petting session, I told you already! We kissed. A lot. A real lot. It was a lot of kissing, seriously, and we may have gotten handsy and stuff got unbuttoned but-" Yang held up her hands with a freaked out expression on her face, wanting to put an end to the details as her eyes flickered between lilac and red. Ruby stopped and scratched the back of her head. "Heh, sorry, getting away from myself there. But yeah, we didn't go all the way."
For a brief moment, Yang accepted that. But then she thought it through once more and her face lit up. "Hey, wait! You're answering a question I didn't ask, again!"
Ruby blanched and leaned back. "Aheh, you know, I liked it a lot better when you didn't notice that sort of thing," she pointed out a little wryly.
"Still not answering," complained Yang, folding her arms under her chest.
The younger girl drew in a deep breath and released it slowly, forcing herself to settle down. "Grrr, no, and if you tell dad I'll put salt in your coffee until graduation," she confessed irritably. Her silver eyes flashed in the gloom as she stared Yang down. "You better have something major to share with me," she warned.
"Blake is my girlfriend," said Yang casually, stretching artfully.
"Ehhh!?" blurted out Ruby, turning towards her sister as her jaw dropped. "Seriously!?"
Yang grinned at her, reclining back on her hands and crossing her legs jauntily. "Yep," she confirmed as cockily as could be.
"I'm so happy for you two," cheered Ruby. "That sounds awesome." Yang winked at her smugly, radiating cheer. "When did this happen?" asked Ruby with her eyes wide and wonderous.
Yang smiled and took Ruby through the story of asking Blake out, leaving out as many embarrassing or incriminating details as she dared. Her little sister was smiling giddily as the tale unfurled for her.
Ruby's smile froze for just a moment, and she shrugged with one shoulder. "Just think, if I find someone, maybe we could have double dates?"
"Oh, you don't want that," laughed Yang. "Having to put up with Blake totally hanging off of me?" She shook her head. "You'd be too embarrassed to function." She looked at her sister thoughtfully. "So do you have anyone you really like?" asked Yang in a carefully airy voice.
Ruby's instincts instantly went to deflect. "Pfft, nah, I don't…," she trailed off and narrowed her eyes, actually feeling a little irritated with herself that she immediately went for the lie. "I … oh wow, I do not want to say this. But I will," she said, forestalling Yang's amused reaction.
"Is it Weiss?" asked Yang. Ruby turned and looked at her with a dumbstruck expression. "Hehe, sisterly intuition is right on the mark, I see."
The younger girl rolled her eyes with feeling. "Yang," she whined, drawing out the name. "Yeah, I like Weiss. I wish so bad she wasn't straight, but that's life, I guess."
"Yeah, I suppose so," said Yang, her smile fading off her face. "I dunno though, there's something strange about Weiss."
"How so?" asked Ruby, a little confused scrunch on her brow.
Yang turned and looked at Ruby with a lopsided smile. "Well, I know why I get protective when I see someone flirt with you. But Weiss freaks out too. Like super-jealous freak outs, kind of like well, let's see, oh yeah! That waitress in the cafe with the spiced hot chocolates and-oh god, I just realised we totally stamped on your attempts to flirt back. Oops." As the cogs turned in her head, her hands gestured wildly and her expression changed repeatedly, something her younger sister had always found entertaining.
"I think I know what you mean," said Ruby slowly and uncertainly. "I don't really know what to think when she does it. Like when she realised I had been making out with Alice," she said, turning and throwing her hands up like claws and trying to imitate Weiss' voice. "Rawr! Don't sleep with that horrible meanie! She'll eat your brain and turn you into a delinquent!"
The older girl laughed and put an arm around her sister. "Hey, you do her voice pretty well. I … don't think you've quite got the words down, but you have the voice."
"I don't know why she freaks out like that," admitted Ruby with a small, resigned shrug. "I mean, I know what it could mean, and I really hope it does. But I don't know. She'll tell anyone who asks that she's straight. But that's for Weiss to figure out."
"So you're still looking then?" asked Yang.
"Yeah," said Ruby. "I tried to do the celibate thing and it just made me stressed until I finally just exploded in a big stress ball and hauled Miltia off a rooftop. As if I needed to make her team think I was any crazier."
"Why is it always Miltia you have these fights with?" asked Yang. "You never go nose to nose with Melanie, or the others, or with me or anyone else. But you and Miltia will just get right up in each other's personal space and yell at each oh god," said Yang with an abrupt change of tack at the end. "Oh god," she repeated, "Are you…?"
Ruby just sat there and looked at Yang. A smile spread across her face. "Am I what?"
"Are you chasing Miltia?" asked Yang, girding herself for the answer. "Which would be such a bad mistake I don't even know what to tell you."
"I've known a mistake or two, Yang," dismissed Ruby with a small laugh. "As badly as they end, they are a lot of fun to make."
"That's not the...," began Yang before she trailed off. A big, goofy, guilty grin plastered itself over her face. "Oh, who am I kidding. I know what you mean. Just try not to be a wrecking ball about it."
"Yang Xiao-Long, did you just give me your approval to chase after Miltiades?" asked Ruby with her hands on her hips and a bewildered look in her eyes.
"Wait, you're not trying to break up her and Alice, right?" checked Yang.
"Not intentionally, I think they're cute together," denied Ruby. She coughed into her hand and added under her breath, "Just want to borrow her."
"Then go for it," said Yang with a grin that bottled up just a little sadness. "They're open, you're single, have fun while you can."
"Weiss would be so mad if she heard you say that," giggled Ruby.
"Ruby … I know I'm just a hopeless thrill seeker," began Yang slowly. "I know what makes me do this sort of thing. But you're your own girl. Kinda too much so!" she added with a little laugh. "You're not like me. So why are you constantly chasing and changing? The word is your little black book may be longer than mine, and I've got a two years headstart on you." She placed her hand on Ruby's carefully, upon the stone bench. "And it's not just dating. You are so outrageously fearless in battle. You're reckless. Reckless enough to scare me."
A sombreness came over the younger girl. For a moment she seemed to slip inside a shell, but the leader shook it off after a moment. "I think you know why I turned out like this, Yang," answered Ruby quietly after several seconds. Her gaze was hundreds of miles away and a decade distant. She felt an arm reach around her shoulders and pull her in tight. "Yang," whined Ruby, though she did nothing to pull away. "I'm just trying to enjoy life while I have it."
Yang shuddered and squeezed the girl. "Don't talk like that!" she admonished. "Although I approve of the enjoying life part. We're all going to live a long time and have a lot of fun and it's going to be great."
"Not even you believe that," rebutted Ruby, the ghost of a smile fighting to break free. "And you're the biggest optimist on the team. Although, I sometimes worried you wouldn't live long enough to reach Beacon with the people you used to hang out with."
"Right, about that, Ruby," said Yang anxiously. She brought her hands back to her lap and breathed deeply. 'Okay, tell her, you have to tell her. She's your team leader, sister, and friend,' she exhorted herself. 'If Blake knows, Ruby needs to know, and you need to get this secret off your chest.' Her confidence trembled.
"Eh?" vocalised Ruby, looking up at her big sister.
"N-nothing, Ruby, I'm glad we could talk," sighed Yang as she looked down. She could feel Ruby's gaze on her, cutting through the polite retraction.
Ruby sighed as she realised Yang wasn't going ahead with her confession. She thought about pressing her sister on the topic but knew it was futile. It was also getting very late, and Ruby wanted to go get some sleep, so she stood up and stretched. "Yeah. I'm glad to hear about you and Blake. Just remember we all share the dorm, okay?"
"Yes, Dad," drawled Yang teasingly, getting a sharp look.
"Go on ahead, I just need to finish my last set of drills," said Ruby. "Fifteen minutes."
"Sure," said Yang. She gave Ruby a gentle look, and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. "Actually, are you sure? You're still recovering from all that exertion, I don't want you to overdo it."
"Nah, I'm taking it lightly today," reassured Ruby with a wave. "Honest, I'm just doing stance and transition drills."
Yang left for the dorm after that, and Ruby finished rehydrating and hefted her weapon again. She walked away from the bench to give herself space to work, and settled into her stance. Feet apart, left foot forward, right back; right hand high-middle, left low-middle, split for leverage. Scythe tilted across and back, blade hanging, ready to whip with the tail or attack with the head. Swiftly she transitioned her stance, rocking her weight onto her back foot and extending her front foot; first her left hand shifting up, and then her right hand sliding all the way until it was just under the head assembly. The blade rotated so it was hidden behind her body.
"That's your defensive stance?" asked a voice out of the darkness.
Ruby's eyes went wide and she nearly stumbled before she composed herself. She turned and looked back towards the school. Soon a figure in a slate-grey hoodie and green skirt emerged from the gloom. Her hair was dark and a black feather-pin was worked into her hair.
"Don't scare me like that, Miltia," admonished Ruby returning her focus to her drill. "And it's one of them; Gentle Thorn, in this case, since the blade is tucked in to help balance the tail-spike properly, but it makes counter-attacking harder." She shifted her weight forward slightly, slipping her left hand down the shaft slightly, lowering the spike and raising the head, turning the back at a forty-five degree away from her head. "This is a bit more balanced for going one-on-one."
"So complicated," noted Miltia dryly. "I just like to scratch at people, much simpler."
"Liar," said Ruby conversationally, flashing her a smile. "So, are you on the level?"
"With what?" asked Miltia.
"You know, that meeting in the city thing," clarified Ruby. "I know, details when we're there and not being watched. Fine by me. I just want to know if it's a trap."
"If it was, would I tell you?" asked Miltia.
"You're a bad liar," pointed out Ruby.
"Unlike you?" retorted the former enforcer. "The masterful, two-faced liar?" Ruby shrugged back at her, drawing a sigh from Miltia's lips. "It's not a trap."
"What about a crazy ploy to get me into bed with you?" asked Ruby with a laugh.
"Fuck you," replied Miltia calmly.
"Well, yeah, either that or a petting session, I guess," said the younger girl, making the other girl's eyes go wide.
"No, it's not about getting you into bed," sighed Miltia.
"Good, because I'd hate to hear you play tricks with me after hearing you chew out Alice for not being upfront," laughed the team leader.
"I need help, Ruby," professed Miltia honestly. "You're the only person I know who can do this sort of thing. The know-how and, like, mentality." A look as cold as ice swept the younger girl's features. Miltiades steadied her nerves and continued. "Something from my past has come back to be a problem. I need help to get out this. I hope you can sympathise."
Ruby looked at her for a long time, then pulled up her weapon and returned it to carry-form. "Yeah, I know what that's like. I'll help you."
"See you tomorrow, Ruby," said Miltia as she walked back into the nighttime gloom.
Cinder strode into the room with all of her spicy airs and promises, as beautiful as a bonfire. In her arms was a package of dark clothing. "Here, try this on," she ordered with a smooth and luxuriant voice.
Neo looked up and blinked in shock. Sitting in the little combination office, workshop and relaxation room she had claimed at the warehouse, after a good day working cover for her boss as he merrily separated ever more of Vale from their Dust supplies, the pint-sized villain had expected some peace and quiet. The arrival of her boss' extremely sultry boss had not been on the cards.
Cinder placed the garments upon Neo's desk. The talented henchgirl picked up the item on top and unfurled it, finding a black blazer with gold trim. Her eyes flicked over suspiciously to Cinder, whose smile deepened sinfully. The multi-hued girl bit her lip; that smile felt like it was backlit by hellfire.
"What ... Cinder, is this fetish wear?" she asked, eyebrows screwed up. "Is this a hidden side of you that I'm seeing?"
Cinder laughed with heat and suggestion, a sound pregnant with wicked intent. "I promise you, this is no uniform fetish, the clothes are quite authentic," she explained, placing one hand on her hip, cocking it towards the girl.
"We're going to Mistral?" asked Neo hesitantly as she recognised the rest of the garments, leafing through them slowly.
Cinder's smile seemed to stretch from ear to ear as she placed a further box of blonde hair dye and blue contact lenses on the desk. "On the contrary, my dear, Mistral is coming here."
Heartbeats passed silently as Neo glanced between the items, and then up at Cinder. "Are you sure this isn't a roleplay fetish?"
A/N: Thanks for reading through, please remember to review, fave, and follow if you enjoyed!