A new year, and with it, a new chapter for you all!
I only own my original characters featured in this story.
Pivotal Moments
Jade chomped down on her juicy burger, trying to savor it but too hungry to take her time. This burger joint was one she'd been to before and knew was fantastic. She'd very nearly cheered out loud when Clover mentioned the name of the place she wanted to take them. When Skye tried to protest, yet again, that they couldn't let Clover buy them food, Jade stepped on her foot, hard. Skye was too busy glaring at her to remember her objections, and the rest of her team and the crew had seated themselves before she could collect herself.
"Hey, Belladonna, pass the mustard, will ya?" asked the explosives expert, Sterling.
Aurum made as if to toss the bottle at him. Skye lunged for it. "No you don't! It's fine at Beacon, but we're in public!" She tugged the bottle out of her teammate's hand and passed it to Sterling herself.
"Ugh, you're such a killjoy," Aurum grumbled. She'd gotten grilled tuna instead of a beef patty and inhaled it, along with her dinner roll. Now she was sneakily attempting to reach over and steal some of Jade's fries.
Jade smacked her teammate's hand without even setting down her burger. Aurum yelped and pulled back, giving her cousin a dirty look. Skye was too far away, and Indie had already polished off her own meal; Jade smirked as she realized the Faunus was out of luck. Unless she decided to try stealing from the crew, but Jade didn't think Aurum would do that since she didn't know them well enough yet.
The rest of the meal went on in the same vein, all of them jubilant that they were back inside the city so soon. Skye insisted on leaving the tip once they were finished, and Clover seemed to recognize that the heiress was just as stubborn as she was, because she only put up a token protest before acquiescing.
Construction workers and Huntresses parted ways outside the restaurant. Clover wished them all well, as did the rest of the crew. Jade noticed Dusty making a point of shaking Indie's hand and thanking her, something that was not offered to the other team members. She narrowed her eyes with a tiny smirk on her face. Huh, didn't realize that was a thing. She'd definitely have to tease her cousin about it later.
Aurum was yawning hugely as they all parked themselves at the shuttle stop. Jade was used to roughing it (and this mission barely counted), but judging by her teammates' expressions, they disagreed. That would have to change if they wanted to be successful Huntresses. Camping out came with the territory. Thinking it over, she realized that they'd done a bunch of pretty cushy missions the last couple years. That can't be allowed to continue… She'd have to insist they take more missions into the wilderness this year than they had in the past.
The mood was somewhat subdued as they rode back to Beacon. Skye made them all wait as she marked their mission as completed on the mission boards. Jade tapped her foot impatiently; she was seriously looking forward to graduating. Licensed Huntsmen had the option of downloading a special Mission app to their scrolls, which allowed them to accept missions without needing to physically come to the school to look over the mission boards. Students, unfortunately, had no other choice but to use the mission boards, since a Huntsman or Huntress was required to enter their license number in order to download the app.
They'd already eaten, so with no need to go to the dining hall, Jade led the way back to the dorms, taking advantage of her longer legs. She settled into her bunk with little to no cares for what her teammates were doing, and was asleep almost instantly, not even caring that the others would probably tease her about snoring later.
Jade wasn't surprised to be the first one up in the morning. Her three teammates were still passed out on their bunks and looking like they hadn't moved since they'd first crawled into bed. Jade knew the feeling. She quickly showered and dressed, then made a beeline for the dining hall. Those burgers had been a long time ago, and she suspected that the rest of her team would be awake soon, if for no other reason than their growling stomachs.
As she entered the dining hall, Jade noticed an odd sort of buzz in the air, one that she'd seen before but not in a while. Usually it meant that something big had just happened, and given that a bunch of first- and second-years were busy fawning over CROM at the moment, it wasn't too difficult to figure out who was responsible.
Jade piled a plate high with eggs and potatoes while she watched Kage basking in the attention he was receiving from the underclassmen. The wolf Faunus was doing more than a little preening. Jade plunked herself down next to Scarletta. The redheaded girl had her mouth full, but managed to wave a quick greeting with her fork.
"So what's the deal? Why's everyone all amped up?"
Scarletta made a noticeable effort to chew her food faster, then swallowed and answered, "You haven't heard?"
Jade shrugged. "We were outside the kingdom on a mission for most of the last week?"
"Meh, fair enough." Scarletta took another giant bite from the stack of waffles on the plate in front of her, then went on to explain. "Councilwoman Ferris's son was kidnapped last week. The perps were trying to make her cooperate with them by holding him hostage, but I guess they're not the smartest criminals in Vale since they sent their ransom demand through the CCT network instead of some way that couldn't be traced. So the investigators were able to uncover their hideout pretty easy, and listed it as a Search and Rescue mission." She paused to take another big bite.
Jade let out a low whistle, impressed as she was pretty sure she could see where this was going. Politics had never interested her overmuch. She was technically a citizen of Vale—she'd been born in the kingdom and her mother was a citizen—but she'd never had more than a passing familiarity with how the kingdom's governing body worked. She mentally ran through what little she did know.
There was no set limit on how long Council members could remain in office. Councilwoman Ferris had been on the Council for almost twenty years, since she was supposedly charismatic and authoritative enough that the citizens of Vale had continued to vote her back into office every two years. She'd been serving longer than any other current Council member, and had even been named the official Speaker of the Council a few years back, making her second in rank to the Head Councilman, who was officially the most powerful person in Vale. Unofficially, of course, the headmasters of the academies wielded nearly as much power as the Council did, more in some situations.
Scarletta continued, "So yeah. CROM took the mission, and they came through in a big way. Managed to break into the hideout without any of the perps catching them, and rescued the kid before rounding them all up. There was a huge piece on VNN yesterday morning with Ferris meeting CROM and shaking their hands and stuff."
"Nice." Jade looked over at CROM with new respect. "They deserve it, you know."
"You won't miss the spotlight?" Scarletta asked, pushing her empty plate away.
"No. Way," Jade answered. "SAIJ has had the spotlight long enough." Long enough that people were becoming noticeably resentful of them. It had been one thing when SAIJ was simply the highest-ranking team in their year, but it had gotten worse after the Vytal Festival. Jade did not like the feeling. "Believe me, they're welcome to it."
xxxxx
Indie wandered down the streets of Vale. She'd had a few errands to run in town, but she'd already taken care of them and she could admit she was stalling. The two bags hanging off her arm were her day's acquisitions: a new book on the potential of solar-powered technology, and a collection of Dust to replenish her supply.
But her primary purpose behind her little day trip was to visit the Meridian Children's Home and find her adoption records. Her parents had made good on their promise and sent her a digital copy of her adoption papers, and she was determined to find what she could.
The orphanage was only a few blocks from her current location. Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, she began walking that way with purpose in her step and a determined expression.
Of course, she was shaken out of her concentration by something in the window of a toy shop only a block later. She stared in amused disbelief as a grin slowly spread over her face. There's no way… this is just perfect!
Another small detour couldn't hurt, she decided. Not for an opportunity like this. She turned into the shop.
An employee greeted her as she entered. "Are you looking for anything special today?"
"Actually…" Indie began, "I'm interested in that figurine in the window. How much?" Not that it mattered; she'd decided to buy it as soon as she'd seen it.
The employee grinned, naming the price and then adding, "That's one of our most popular sellers lately." He picked up the small figurine, letting Indie get a closer look. The black cat ears and gold fans made it obvious who it was supposed to be, but just in case there was any doubt, the base was inscribed with the words Aurum Belladonna: Fifty-second Vytal Tournament Champion. Indie wasn't about to pass up the chance to embarrass her partner, and fate had just handed her an absolutely golden opportunity. She cringed internally at her own bad pun.
"You a Huntress?" the employee asked conversationally as he wrapped up the figurine.
"Huh?" How had he managed to figure that out?
The associate nodded toward her shoulder, where one end of Crescent Ranger was visible, poking out from beneath her cape. "Not a lot of people walk around Vale armed. Mostly just military and Huntsmen… and if you'll excuse me for saying, you don't exactly look like a military type."
"Oh." Indie felt a little foolish for not realizing that as she handed over her credit card. "Yeah. Team SAIJ, Beacon." She tapped her purchase. "She's actually my partner; I can't wait to show her this."
Detour over, she resumed her trek to her original destination. A couple blocks later, the squealing of children informed her that she'd arrived. Pausing on the sidewalk for a minute, she looked over the building. It was fairly modern; she'd guess it wasn't any more than thirty years old, with a large fenced-in yard full of young children who were playing without a care in the world.
Taking a deep breath, Indie stepped forward, toward the entrance. A woman who looked to be in her late forties stopped her just inside. "I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to be armed in here."
Indie reached for Crescent Ranger, then hesitated. "I'm a Huntress." She hoped that the title—while not technically accurate just yet—would allow her to keep hold of her baby. She hated being unarmed—one of the reasons Aurum and Jade had been so insistent on her at least trying to learn some hand-to-hand tricks—even though she knew how unlikely it was that she'd be attacked and have to defend herself in a place like this. But the woman shook her head.
"Huntress or not, nobody is allowed to carry weapons on the premises. I promise we will take good care of them, and you may have them back as soon as you are ready to leave."
"I—Okay." Indie very reluctantly handed over Crescent Ranger and her quiver to the woman, who nodded.
"Thank you. Now, what is it I can do for you?"
This was it. Indie bit her lip, then looked the woman square in the eye and said, "I want to know who my birth parents are. I was adopted through here when I was two, and I want to see my records."
"Of course!" The woman held out a hand, motioning toward one of the side hallways. "Come right this way, please."
Indie began following, and tried not to twitch when the woman stopped to lock her weapons in a small room off the hall. "My name is Cerise, by the way. Back this way; we keep all the records we have for every child that passes through our doors. Our archive is completely digital, and backed up on three different servers so the odds of losing anything permanently are essentially zero."
"How many children do you have here?" Indie asked, trying to make casual conversation and hoping she didn't look too nervous.
"It depends," Cerise replied. "I've been here nearly ten years, and there are usually at least a dozen, what with the Grimm and all." Her expression grew a bit distant. "At times, we've had no more than four."
They had reached what looked like an office. Cerise tapped on the open door, then poked her head inside. "Mist, we have a young lady here who would like to see her adoption records."
Mist was a man who looked to be around sixty. He took a look at Indie for a long moment, then simply asked, "Name?"
"Uh—Indigo Amitola-Rose." Indie quickly cued up her Beacon student ID on her scroll, showing it to the two and hoping Cerise wouldn't call her out on claiming the title of Huntress when she was still a student. Mist carefully glanced over the top of his glasses to read the information; Indie could practically see the gears in his head turning as he checked off name, date of birth, and all the other information that Beacon required their IDs to have but that probably weren't super relevant to an orphanage archivist. Like weapon name and type.
"May I see your adoption papers?" Mist requested politely.
Indie turned her scroll back around so she could see the screen. Dismissing the ID, she called up the digital copy that she'd downloaded, then showed the device to them again.
"Thank you, miss." Cerise broke into a wide smile as Mist adjusted his glasses and turned back to his desktop monitor. He typed for a few moments before leaning back in his chair. "Ah, here it is. May I have your scroll for a moment?"
Indie handed it over. Mist placed it on the terminal and tapped a few more keys on the keyboard. She didn't realize she was holding her breath until an electronic ding sounded, indicating the successful transfer of information. Mist retrieved her scroll and handed it back to her. "Here you are, miss. Good luck; I hope your search is successful."
Cerise walked Indie back to the entrance. "Is there anything else? I do hope you can find out who your birth parents are, but is there anything else I can do for you right now?"
"Um…" Indie blurted it out before she could lose her nerve. "Could I see the Harmon kids before I go?"
"Oh…" Cerise's face fell. "I'm sorry, dear, but they're not here anymore. They were adopted just last week."
Indie was taken aback. "That was… fast. I thought my parents wanted me to meet them first."
Cerise eyed her sideways. "You think it was your parents who adopted them?"
Indie shrugged. "I know they were planning to." She hesitated a minute. "I don't suppose you could tell me? Or would that go against whatever confidentiality thing you have here?" Obviously there was some kind of confidentiality clause, otherwise she would have been able to get her records without having to come here in person. She wasn't surprised when Cerise shook her head.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not permitted to give out that information."
"Yeah, I figured." Indie wasn't too bothered. "I'll find out soon enough, I guess."
She retrieved her weapons from the locked room where they'd been kept for her, said goodbye to Cerise, and walked quickly back to the bus stop to wait for the Beacon student shuttle. She'd been gone from the school longer than she'd intended; the setting sun made that obvious, and a glance at her scroll informed her that it was after seven. So much for getting any homework done today. There were still a few minutes before the shuttle arrived. Indie was too nervous about what she'd find to look at the documents she'd gotten from Mist, so instead she opened up the bag she'd gotten from the toy shop and fished out the little figurine, grinning deviously the whole time.
I wonder how long it'll take Aurum to notice this…
xxxxx
Aurum didn't know how long she'd been walking past Indie's figurine collection before she spotted the new addition to it. She had an audience when she pulled the small statuette from the shelf and waved it in Indie's face.
"Where did you get this?!"
Indie looked up from her Aura Theory reading and grinned cheekily. "In town. Last weekend. It was in a toy store and I knew I had to have it."
"And you didn't tell me about it?" Aurum demanded. She was half offended that her partner hadn't shown her the figurine right away, and half annoyed with herself for not noticing it sooner. She studied the inscription at the base of the figurine. "Are they even allowed to do something like this? Don't they need my permission? I never signed any release forms or anything."
Indie rolled her turquoise eyes expressively. "Yes, you did, Aurum. We all did—it was one of the forms we had to fill out in order to enter the tournament. Remember those?"
"It was— That— Those forms—" Aurum spluttered for a moment. Indie fixed her with a long-suffering look.
"Are you saying you didn't bother to actually read the forms before you signed them?" Indie answered her own question. "Of course you didn't. That would require you to actually think about something before you jump right in."
"Hey!" Aurum was more offended than annoyed now. Sure, she was a little impulsive at times, but she wasn't that bad!
Skye, who had watched the whole scene with interest, broke in before Aurum could continue her retort. "I just checked out the website. They've made… more than just the one."
"Huh?" Jade leaned over to see. Aurum turned, craning her neck to see what Skye was showing her partner on her scroll. Jade let out a chuckle before opening up her own scroll, tapping it against Skye's so she could follow the link without having to search for it. Aurum, frowning, held out the scroll in her hand so she could do the same, then took her first good look at the page and nearly choked.
New figurines! Limited edition Team SAIJ, featuring the new Tournament Champion!
"There's figurines… of all of us." Skye flicked down to the bottom of the page. "Should we buy them? So we have a set?"
"Already on it," Jade answered, tapping out something on her own scroll. "They're limited edition, after all; who knows if we'll ever get another chance. Hmm… Looks like there's a bunch of Aurum and a handful of me, but only a few for you two."
"Yeah, makes sense," Indie mused. "Me and Skye weren't in the doubles round; I'm kinda surprised they even bothered making figurines of us. There weren't any in the store."
"It's probably because of our families," Skye answered, with a half shrug. "We have famous last names." She made a face. "Now you'll get to see what it's like to be recognized wherever you go."
"Is that why you got that makeover?" Aurum wanted to know. She wasn't considering changing up her combat outfit… not seriously, anyway, she liked her look; but if it would keep people from recognizing her right away and gushing over her, maybe it would be worth it. The attention had been kinda cool at first, but the novelty had worn off quickly.
Skye glared. "No, I got a makeover because I wanted a change and Coco's shop specializes in combat gear. It's literally in the name. And Atlas doesn't have anything like that as far as I know, so I wanted to do it while I had the chance." She punctuated her statement by snapping open her History textbook, indicating that the subject was closed.
"And… order placed," Jade reported.
Aurum spun around and stared at her friend. "You didn't. Tell me you didn't."
Jade gave her a tiny grin. "I could tell you that, but it would be a lie."
"Fantastic," Aurum grumbled. "As if the one wasn't bad enough."
Jade's grin widened in a not at all apologetic way. Indie shrugged. "I ordered the rest the day after I found that one. They should be here in the next couple days." Aurum's expression must have been priceless, because Indie burst into laughter.
Silently promising herself that this would not go unpunished, Aurum reached for her Field Medicine textbook. She was done with the latest assignment, but that was due tomorrow and Planis was probably going to give them another as soon as they turned it in, so she wanted to get ahead while she had the chance.
Only a couple minutes into the reading, Aurum was interrupted by her scroll tweeting at her. She reached for the device in annoyance, intending to silence it, but she couldn't help the sudden leap in her pulse when she saw the text bubble accompanied by the image of a dark-haired raven Faunus. She slid the message open without hesitation and devoured its contents, not quite able to suppress a loud squeal of excitement.
Skye and Jade yelped. "What the hell, Belladonna?" Jade demanded.
"Pitch is leaving Vacuo!" Aurum's annoyance was quickly turning to glee. She was being maybe a bit louder than necessary, but she was much too excited to care. Her girlfriend would be back in Vale soon! Well, okay, Pitch wasn't her girlfriend yet, but… "She'll be here this evening!" She tore out of her desk chair and zipped around the room with her semblance.
Skye eyed her over the top of her textbook. "You seem awfully excited considering you two aren't even official."
"Yet!" Aurum corrected her, too excited to be mad at her leader for being such a buzzkill. She was so excited she could almost forgive Jade and Indie for ordering those figurines. Almost.
xxxxx
With a solid strike, Skye knocked her opponent back a few feet. Smiling in satisfaction, she flicked Gladiola's chamber so that the notch was pointed toward the cartridge filled with pale yellow Dust, and called a glyph into being.
The swirling clock face popped up behind her as she swooped in for the kill. She delivered a series of rapid-fire slashes before leaping into a backflip, landing on another glyph, and setting down gracefully on the other side of the arena, where she stood ready to finish the job if necessary.
Zelty got to his feet, groaning as his royal blue aura flickered in and out, but held. "Remind me why I agreed to be your little crash test dummy?"
"Hey, don't forget this whole thing was your idea. My teammates would have made perfectly good test subjects." Skye did her best to imitate him. "But oh no, you were all 'I wouldn't want to be you if your mom finds out you haven't been practicing time dilation after she ordered you to work on it!'"
"Can you blame me?" Zelty muttered, wincing as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Your mom is scary, I'm not about to get on her bad side. But should I be worried that my girlfriend's idea of a fun time is beating me into the dirt?"
Skye was pretty sure he was kidding, but… she couldn't keep her mind from flashing to Blake and Sun, who since moving to Beacon could be regularly seen beating each other senseless in the practice courts, to Ren and Nora, who kept themselves battle-ready not only by fighting each other but also their own kids, and finally to Ruby and Ilia, who frequently took down large trees by accident during their training sessions. "I… I think this is pretty normal for Huntsman couples."
"Well, you're the expert…" Zelty shrugged. "One more?"
"Absolutely not," Skye declared, eying him sternly. "I saw your aura flickering in that last bout; why'd you think I stopped attacking? No, we're done for today."
She attempted to soften her words by standing on her toes and kissing him quickly. The fact that he even wanted to go another round spoke volumes about his improvement since they'd started training together; the first couple weeks she'd been working with him, he'd only lasted two or three bouts before needing to call it quits. Now they could go against each other for over an hour at a time, but she appreciated that he trusted her judgement enough to listen to her when she told him he'd had enough for one day.
Soft applause from outside the ring drew her attention to the sole spectator, whom she hadn't noticed standing there. Can't be getting tunnel vision in a real fight… guess that's what I'll need to work on next. All she could see was that he had dark hair and was dressed in traveling clothes, before Zelty disbelievingly stammered out, "M-Master Holly?"
"Hello, son." Skye didn't have much chance to react as her boyfriend hopped the barricade and, without hesitation, enfolded the man in a tight hug.
Her knowledge of the man's identity fell into place with a nearly audible click. This had to be Zelty's mentor, Holly Fords, who had taken him in amid his parents' neglect and given him a good job, weapons, and training.
She hung back, not wanting to intrude on this heartfelt reunion, as she sized him up. She'd mistaken his hair for black at first, but on closer inspection, she saw it was actually a dark emerald green, and he sported a neatly trimmed goatee in the same color. Between that and his blood-red eyes, she decided that yes, Holly was a very good name for this man. He was younger than she'd thought, with only the barest trace of gray at his temples. When she'd heard that he was retired she'd automatically assumed he was older, maybe around Oobleck's age, but looking at him she realized that he was only a couple of years older than her mom. Forty-five, maybe fifty at the most, but no older than that.
His traveling outfit was fairly nondescript: black boots, dark jeans, long-sleeved black shirt, and cargo vest in a dark burgundy that made his face look very pink. Or maybe that was from the wind. Dressed as he was, she never would have guessed him to be a Huntsman, retired or otherwise; his attire wouldn't have looked the slightest bit out of place on a civilian.
After a moment, his gaze flicked to her. She got the sense that she was being evaluated, and held his gaze steadily until he broke into a smile. "And this must be the young lady you've spoken so highly of. I'm pleased to meet you at last."
Skye held out her hand. "Yes, sir. Skye Schnee. It's very nice to meet you as well; I've heard a lot about you."
His gaze gained a slight touch of humor as he shook her hand. "All good things, I hope."
"Of course!" Skye was a little bit taken aback at the man's comment, before realizing he was teasing.
Master Holly continued, "I've seen you on the broadcasts in Atlas, of course." Skye flinched. He must have noticed, because he cleared his throat a bit awkwardly and went on, "And more recently in the Vytal Tournament. I must say, you are very skilled."
How was she supposed to respond to that? Luckily, she was saved from having to when Zelty squeezed her hand and asked his mentor, "Sir, how long are you going to stay in Vale?"
"I am planning to be here until your break," the man answered. "I dearly wanted to see you again, but you know I can't leave the shop for very long."
Skye picked up her sword. "I should go. It's almost dinnertime, and Jade wanted me to look over her Aura Theory report before it's due tomorrow." She carefully slid Gladiola into place at her hip, and smiled at the two before making her exit.
It seems I keep unintentionally foreshadowing stuff that's happening this volume. First a lie detection semblance. Then a character named Clover. And now the mission boards being an app. I'm honestly kind of flattered; even though I know RT has probably had these details planned for a while, it makes me happy to think that my ideas are cool enough to be in the show.
Hope everyone had a good holiday. Christmas is way less stressful for me than Thanksgiving: it's a less formal occasion, with no homework, and I'm much closer to the relatives we spend Christmas with, so less room for my social anxiety to rear its ugly head. And I got the new RWBY guidebook! About halfway through it now. Anyway, that's enough about me. Leave a review if you enjoyed the chapter!