The previous chapter gave me so much trouble that this one was actually finished first, as strange as that may sound. Go figure.
Hope everyone's staying safe from the coronavirus (COVID-19) right now. My college has already made the call to shift everything online for the next few weeks (which admittedly doesn't affect me too much, since I'm not a campus-based student this semester anyway), my workplace is closing to patrons until the beginning of April (there's work for the staff to do even without guests, so I'll at least still be drawing a paycheck), and my social life has come to a screeching halt. My parents are teachers, and both of THEIR schools are closed for several weeks as well.
On the plus side, more writing time! But in all seriousness, please remember to wash your hands, sanitize all surfaces, and practice social distancing if possible. This has been a PSA.
I do not own anything you recognize from RWBY.
Some School and Some Fun
This actually hadn't been a bad idea, Aurum decided.
This was sitting in on a first-year Grimm Studies lecture. Indie had suggested that they try attending one of Blake's classes, since none of them had ever had her as a teacher before. Aurum had been hesitant at first—she'd been worried it would be weird having her mom as a teacher, and so far it hadn't been too bad. Now it felt like Indie was trying her best to tempt fate and make it weird—but after only five minutes in the classroom, had been completely hooked. Blake had cued up a video of Team RWBY's initiation exam, where the four girls had combined their strengths in order to defeat a giant Nevermore before even being named an official team.
"… Nevermores have a tendency to attack people out in the open, since they are often too large to fly between trees in a forest or tall buildings in a city," Blake continued, pointing to various parts of the diagram she'd pulled up on the screen. "Of course, younger individuals can often perform more evasive maneuvers since they are much smaller."
The lecture went on in the same vein, focusing solely on Nevermores as today's topic. Blake covered various subspecies, different methods of attack, and preferred habitat, along with anatomy. Aurum was actually impressed that her mom was able to cram so much into a single block, while still accepting questions from students. It was a surprisingly interactive class, that kept the students engaged with exciting snippets but also covered the important information in a way that was memorable. Who knew Mom would make such a good teacher? She thought back to her first couple years at Beacon, and couldn't imagine Professor Trace doing something like this.
"While some individuals can perform precise movements, usually ones that are smaller than average for their age, most prefer to rely on their aerial advantage, along with the ability to shoot their feathers like quills. Miss Florentine, you can kiss your boyfriend on your own time but not in my class."
A muted wave of snickering swept through the room as a girl several seats over from SAIJ detached herself from the young man next to her, both of them red-faced. Aurum was impressed; she hadn't noticed the two until her mom had called them on it, and Blake was looking at the board and had her back to them.
At the front of the room, Blake clicked on another link at the bottom of her screen. A short video played, showing a Huntsman narrowly avoiding the quills that a Nevermore was shooting at him, before ducking behind a tree for cover. A closeup shot of the feathers lodging in the tree trunk, accompanied by several audible thunks, had a couple of students flinching in shock.
Blake had timed her presentation perfectly: the bell rang before anyone could verbally react to what they'd seen. The first-years chattered animatedly among themselves as they gathered their things to head out.
"Your homework today is to read the chapter on Nevermores in your textbook, and answer questions one, two, three, and five at the end of the reading!" Blake called out over the hubbub. "And if you haven't done so already, make sure you read the article I sent you the link to on Tuesday!"
Wonder what that article's about? Maybe she could ask her mom to send her a copy too. Aurum was still fascinated as she stood up to leave, but Jade pulled her back into her seat and shook her head at her. It took Aurum a second to realize why: the first-years had another class to get to, but SAIJ, being upper-years, did not. Better to let the younger students leave first so they could get to their next class on time.
Aurum ditched her teammates as soon as they left the classroom. She had something to look up in the library, for an assignment that she wasn't quite finished with yet. She didn't dare say anything about it, though; she knew that all of her teammates had finished it already, and Skye and Indie would undoubtedly scold her if they knew she wasn't done with it.
The book she needed was a reference book, not technically allowed to leave the building, but people could take it wherever they wanted inside the library. Aurum had hidden it behind some other books this morning. She'd been looking for it all week, but hadn't had any luck; Introduction to Dust: Mechanics and the Math Behind It was a fairly basic tome on Dust that many students referenced for their projects. Earlier today, she'd found it on the shelf for the first time, but she hadn't had the time to search for the diagram she needed then and there. Finding the right shelf, she reached her hand behind the row of books and triumphantly retrieved the volume she'd stashed there this morning.
Already flipping pages, she plopped herself down in one of the cushy chairs that were scattered here and there throughout the building. The illustration she needed turned out to be near the beginning.
Flipping open her scroll and taking a picture of the diagram, she carefully saved it to a folder she'd designated for school projects. There, that's all I needed to do. Now I can finish up that research paper. With time to spare, too! Despite Skye and Indie's concerns, the project wasn't due until next Monday. Aurum only had to insert this diagram into her paper, add a reference to it at the end, and she'd be done.
She began idly flicking through the pages, looking at the other tables and diagrams. Dust use wasn't an exact science, but there had been enough study of it from a scientific standpoint that reasonable assumptions could be drawn. It was all gibberish to her, but Skye, Indie, and Aqua would no doubt understand exactly what was being said here.
Aurum only vaguely registered when Rhoda and Esme entered the library. She might not have noticed them at all but for the riot of hot pink that Rhoda wore; it clashed spectacularly with the muted browns, grays, and dark greens that made up most of the library's color scheme. Esme, dressed in camo as she was, would have been nearly invisible had she been holding still.
The two girls of CROM were still there ten minutes later, when Aurum stood up to leave. She suspected they were working on the same assignment she was, and could use the book she'd been perusing, so she stopped at their table instead of putting the book back on the shelf. Both of them looked up at her approach. Aurum grinned and held the tome up, displaying the title. "Either of you need this?"
Esme stood and made a grab for it. "Yes, I've been looking for that for the last week!"
"Same. It's been pretty hard to find." Aurum handed it over. "I think a lot of first-years are using it for one of their assignments. If you're looking for the quality standards, the table's on page forty-one."
"Nah, I'm looking for the page that describes combining three or more Dust types," Esme answered, flipping over a page. "Combining two types of Dust is pretty basic, but any more than that and things get sketchy."
Aurum nodded in agreement. She'd certainly always thought so, but her brother could probably recite from memory the table Esme was poring over, a quality that girls found irresistible for some reason. Not fair. Rhoda only shrugged. "Meh, I've never had too much trouble with it." She seemed about to say something else, but suddenly jerked her head to the side and frowned. "Who's that?"
Aurum and Esme both craned their necks, looking in the direction indicated. Aurum couldn't see anybody, other than the second-year team poring over Grimm anatomy at the next table and Tanso parked at one chair tucked away in a corner, his face buried in a fat textbook that he'd probably describe as average if Aurum's experience with Indie was anything to go by. She turned back to Rhoda with a What? expression, shrugging in confusion. "Who's who?"
"That." Rhoda pointed at a bookshelf. As far as Aurum could tell, nobody was standing anywhere near it. "I didn't really notice at first, but now that I think about it, a dormant aura isn't something you see around Beacon very often. Or any combat school, for that matter."
"Dormant… aura?" Aurum repeated.
Rhoda had evidently decided to investigate, because in the half second it had taken Aurum to ask her question, the pink-clad swordswoman had made a beeline for the shelf she'd just indicated. Aurum turned to Esme with a questioning expression. "Is there actually someone there?"
"Probably." The iguana Faunus lifted one shoulder in a casual way. "It's her semblance. Ro can sense aura, even through solid objects, and she can tell whether the person's aura is activated or not. It's how we found Mallow Ferris when he was being held hostage a few months ago, and how we avoided the perps while we busted him out."
"Huh… that's handy." Aurum hadn't known that. Not everyone had a semblance that was useful in combat, but something like aura sensing would undoubtedly prove useful to a Huntress in the field. Definitely on Search and Rescue missions like the one Esme was describing, with relish in her voice; Aurum wasn't likely to forget the way CROM had garnered all the attention for weeks afterward, not anytime soon at least. "Hey… what's your semblance, Esme?"
The camo-clad girl suddenly looked uncomfortable. "I… don't actually know my semblance yet." The face she was making made it clear how much she disliked having to answer that question.
Aurum pricked her ears up and cocked her head to the side. "You don't know your semblance yet… that's maybe not the norm for a third year, but I wouldn't say it's so weird."
Esme glanced back up, skepticism and the faintest trace of hope evident in her violet eyes. "It's… not? I'm almost twenty, and I've had my aura activated since I was twelve. If my semblance hasn't unlocked in almost eight years…" She didn't finish her sentence.
"Nope." Aurum shook her head emphatically. "All that means is you haven't encountered just the right circumstances to unlock your semblance yet. It'll manifest when you do, and no sooner." She paused a moment to build up the suspense. "Or…" She let the word dangle tantalizingly.
"Or what?" Esme asked, rolling her eyes; she was clearly unimpressed with Aurum's theatrics.
"Oooor… maybe you have unlocked your semblance already, but it's really subtle and you just haven't figured out what it is yet."
Esme's eyes lit up as she considered the possibility, but she didn't get the chance to answer before Rhoda came back into view, dragging a teenage girl behind her. Aurum didn't register much beyond the girl's dark hair and her pink t-shirt reading I run on caffeine and cuss words before Esme jumped out of her chair incredulously. "Onyx?! What the hell are you doing here at Beacon?"
"Aw, sissy…" the girl whined. "I just wanted to see you. Mom and Dad are so busy with work that they never have time to visit Beacon!"
Onyx… From somewhere in the depths of her mind, Aurum made the connection and realized who the girl had to be. This was Esme's little sister, Onyx Montanya, who attended River Gorge Preparatory Institute in Vale. Her team had briefly been introduced to the family during the Vytal Festival, but Aurum had met so many people in those few weeks that they all kind of blended together in her head. Based on the teen's casual dress, she was willing to bet the institute wasn't in session today. Well… I guess she could have decided to ditch. Wouldn't want to get caught in her uniform, anyway.
"Onyx…" Esme started. "You shouldn't have come here by yourself."
Onyx visibly drooped at her sister's reprimand. Aurum noticed that her cat tail, which had a purple ribbon tied around it that matched her eyes, was also drooping. "But… I had the day off today. It's not like I ditched school!" Well, that answers one question. "I'm fifteen, Es, you can't keep babying me forever!"
xxxxx
Jade was just finishing up with her Theory of Aura assignment when the alarm on her scroll went off. Stretching, she silenced it, then hopped up off her bed. That was a marathon study session, all right…
The alarm meant that it was a few minutes before five o'clock. She'd set it as a reminder to go across the hall to AZSR's dorm room to retrieve Skye, who had been planning on studying with her boyfriend today. Studying… is that what they call it? Jade's mouth twisted up into a wry smirk. She'd made a promise to go and get Skye at five so SAIJ could have dinner as a team, something they tried to do at least once every week. Sighing, she left the room and crossed the hall to AZSR's door. She was about to knock, before realizing it wasn't completely latched. That's weird… She pushed the door open, and regretted it immediately.
The leader of Team AZSR had her arms twined around a dark-haired Faunus, both of them very intently focused on their little makeout session. Both parties were fully dressed, thank all the gods that may or may not have existed for that—Jade wasn't sure she would have been able to keep her cool otherwise—but they'd obviously been at this for several minutes. Jade immediately averted her gaze, but nothing was going to erase the image of her cousin making out with her classmate from her brain anytime soon.
After a moment of staring pointedly at the ceiling, Jade managed to regather her wits and cleared her throat loudly.
Aubergine detached herself from Aqua and looked over in Jade's direction. The green-haired girl raised her eyebrows suggestively, trying to cover up how incredibly uncomfortable the scene had made her. "I'd tell you two to get a room, but it looks like you've got that covered."
Aqua went scarlet. Aubergine only shrugged, not the slightest bit bothered by the suggestion. "What do you want, Xiao Long? And if the answer is interrupting my very limited boyfriend time… well, it better not be."
Jade shrugged. "Looking for my partner, actually." She grinned and very deliberately ignored the dirty look Aqua was giving her. If she'd had the questionable luck of walking in on these two while they were otherwise occupied, at the very least she was going to mess with them a little. He knew her well enough to know that that was exactly what she was thinking. She was feeling less and less awkward by the second.
Aubergine ignored her boyfriend's embarrassment and made a vague gesture toward the center of campus. "Try the library. They were planning to actually study today." The dismissal in her tone made it clear that she wanted Jade gone, as soon as humanly possible.
Jade wasn't offended at Aubergine's attitude; spending time with someone you didn't get to see very often was something she could appreciate. "Thanks, I'll go look for them there." She made as if to close the door, then paused for a second, something else occurring to her. "Hey, Aubergine, in case you didn't know…"
The pirate girl glanced back at the door, her expression clearly asking why the awkward third wheel was still there. Jade kept a straight face while she continued, "He likes having his ears petted."
Aqua, still red-faced, groped for an object on the table next to him. It turned out to be a flimsy plastic comb, which he flung in Jade's general direction without bothering to aim. It clattered against the wall a few feet to her right. Aubergine only regarded Jade with her own rather impressive poker face, ignoring the choking sound her boyfriend was making, as she replied in a deadpan tone, "I'll keep that in mind." A moment later she turned her head and looked at him. "How on Remnant did you miss her?! She's less than ten feet away from you."
"I never claimed to be good at throwing things at people," Aqua replied stiffly. "There's a reason I decided to enroll at Vale Tech instead of Beacon."
"And with that, I'll leave you to it," Jade actually took hold of the door handle this time, but decided to get in one last barb before leaving. "Just remember to hang a tie."
She caught sight of Aqua's face going red again as she shut the door behind her, just in time to hear a muffled yell of "Goddammit, Jade!" through the closed door. Giving a loud chuckle—messing with Aqua had always been way too easy—she turned around to reenter her own dorm—then stopped short as she was met by another couple. Skye only rolled her blue eyes as she regarded her partner. "What did you do now." It was very clearly not a question, so Jade didn't answer.
Zelty eyed the closed door warily. "Whatever you did—and I really don't want to know—is my team leader in a bad mood right now? Meaning she'll try and kill me as soon as I walk in there?" He waved broadly toward the door Jade had just exited.
"Nah." Jade gave them an evil grin. "She's in a very good mood."
"Honestly, Jade…" Skye didn't continue.
"I told them to hang a tie." Jade eyed the couple in front of her. "Which, now that I think about it, I should probably also—"
She didn't the chance to finish. Skye lunged forward and slapped her hand over her partner's mouth, and in a low, dangerous voice hissed, "If you want to live to see tomorrow, I highly suggest you not finish that sentence."
Jade grumbled something that was meant to be insulting, but with Skye's hand still firmly over her mouth, came out too garbled to understand. Skye, evidently taking that as assent, removed her hand.
Zelty went into AZSR's room while Jade and Skye entered SAIJ's. They were met by Aurum, who eyed Jade knowingly. "I think you broke my brother."
"You were listening?" Jade grinned.
Aurum proudly flicked her cat ears atop her head. "Of course."
Skye looked from her partner to the Faunus on her bunk, and then back to Jade. "You two are terrible influences on each other."
xxxxx
"Wheeee! This is fun!"
Indie smiled as the ten-year-old Lizi swung herself up into the branches. The little girl was absolutely beaming at finally getting to meet her big sister, and had immediately rushed into trying to copy Indie's favorite pastime.
Thirteen-year-old Mo watched from the ground, not joining in. He was, Indie had already noticed, much more reserved than his younger sister. "Be careful up there! I don't want you to fall and get hurt!" he yelled suddenly.
Lizi poked her head through a leafy branch and stuck her tongue out at her brother. "I'm fine! Don't be such a nag!"
Indie giggled, loudly enough that Lizi heard her from a couple branches down and looked up at her, beginning to giggle herself.
Ruby and Ilia had both happened to have nothing going on today, and the primary school on Patch was closed for a teachers' conference, so the couple had surprised their oldest daughter by bringing their family to Beacon in order for the two new additions to meet their older sister.
The two siblings looked very similar, with the same bright silver eyes, freckles, and dark purple curls, although Mo's hair was cropped short and Lizi kept hers pulled out of her face with barrettes. It was obvious from a glance that they were related. Mo had kept a watchful eye on his little sister from the moment Indie had first laid eyes on the two, something she suspected had been going on far longer than they'd been part of this family. Indie knew that these two had lived their entire lives with their father, who had died last year. With no other family to take them in, they'd wound up at the Meridian Children's Home, where Ruby and Ilia had found them.
"Another five minutes, all right?" Ruby yelled up into the tree. "Then we'll go inside for lunch, and you can meet the others!"
"Yaaay!" Lizi squealed, dangling from a branch before righting herself.
Indie giggle-snorted, half at Lizi's antics and half at the reminder of how exasperated she was with her team. Aurum, Skye, and Jade had been ridiculously curious about their new cousins, and had badgered her incessantly this morning to the point where she'd ordered them to leave her alone until lunchtime, and then silenced her scroll.
Now, she quickly and gracefully dropped down onto the ground, using only a few of the maple's branches to manage her descent. Lizi, sensing that the fun was over, followed suit at a somewhat more hesitant pace. Indie suspected her sister's slowness was only to soothe Mo's nerves at seeing the little girl so high in the air, and that she would have been much more enthusiastic if he hadn't been watching.
"All right, let's head for the cafeteria," Ilia suggested, standing up from her spot on the ground and walking toward them. Getting Mo and the still-chattering Lizi inside the cafeteria was easy enough, with the promise of food being offered; both were growing children with big appetites.
Not being raised among Huntsmen, the two clearly hadn't realized how many calories were required to keep a pro at his or her best. Lizi's jaw dropped when she saw how much food Indie was piling on her plate. Indie giggled to herself at her sister's reaction. Wait until she sees the others…
Indie wasn't disappointed; as she found a table with enough seats for both her visiting family and her teammates, Aurum and Jade both plopped themselves down. Between them, their own trays were loaded with at least three times as much as Indie had taken.
Aurum, between bites of her pizza, was asking Mo rapid fire questions. "You just turned thirteen, right?"
Mo nodded in reply, not saying anything.
"Are you gonna enroll at Signal for next year?"
Another nod. Aurum grinned. "That's great! Do you know what kind of weapon you want to specialize in yet?"
Mo only shrugged in response. Aurum made a face. "Do you talk at all?"
"When I feel like it," Mo mumbled, his cheeks turning just the slightest bit pink. He might be outspoken when it came to protecting his little sister, Indie realized, but he was clearly intimidated by Aurum. Or maybe he was just naturally shy.
"Aurum, leave him alone," Ruby ordered. "If he doesn't feel like talking then he doesn't have to."
Lizi, seated across the table from Aurum, leaned forward, her eyes shining. "I never thought about being a Huntress before, but it sounds so cool!"
Skye, from her place next to Lizi, eyed the little girl sternly. "Being a Huntress is not cool. It is an important job, that comes with more risk than almost any other." Almost as an afterthought, she added, "Has Ruby been teaching you what you can do with your eyes?"
Mo answered the question, speaking for the first time since sitting down. "She's trying. Neither of us has… lit up like that before; we never even knew we could do that."
Indie looked at him. "You want to be a Huntsman?" He nodded. "Did you have any combat training from your father?"
Mo shook his head, his cheeks turning pink again. Indie shrugged. "That's okay, you know. There's plenty of Huntsmen out there who don't start training until they're your age; you won't be alone in learning." Something else suddenly occurred to her. "Do you have your aura unlocked? Do you?" she added, glancing at Lizi.
"Not yet," Ilia answered for both of them. "We wanted them to have a bit more training if they want it, and it's not like we're going to force it on them." She paused to take a sip from her water glass, then looked Mo directly in the eye. "But we absolutely will by the time you're ready to start at Signal."
xxxxx
Skye closed up the chamber of her saber with a relieved sigh. She'd finally finished Gladiola's upgrade. Locking it into place, she carefully rotated the chamber a single click. Pulling the trigger, she was pleased to see that it handled exactly the same as it always had.
She went through the entire thing, scrutinizing each turn it made one by one, testing out the individual Dust chambers to make sure nothing was too loose or catching improperly. Of course, she'd have to go through them again in a few minutes, after she actually loaded each one with a different type of Dust.
Previously, she'd had six different types of Dust that she typically used—water, gravity, wind, fire, earth, and ice. Those had comprised her standard arsenal for years now, and they'd done a perfectly fine job. But now that she was trying to use time dilation more often, she'd decided six wasn't going to cut it anymore. It had been supremely annoying to have to switch out one of her other cartridges for a lightning one, every time she wanted to practice. Adjusting her cartridge size in order to add two new ones to her supply—one for lightning Dust, and the second for another fire since she used it so often—seemed like the perfect solution. They were ever so slightly smaller now, but based on the schematics Indie had painstakingly gone over with her, the trade-off would be well worth it.
Her team was leaving for a new mission in just a little while—they'd been assigned a certain number of missions to complete this year, and they still had one left. She needed to test out her new upgrade before they went back into the field.
As that thought entered her mind, her eyes found her sparring partner. She smiled. Zelty was doing much better than he had been, losing a classmate so soon after hearing about his father's death, even though he was still a little moody. He'd always had a very serious personality. Now, though… it was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
"Oh, there you are!" he greeted her. "I was just wondering if I needed to come find you."
Skye shook her head, her smile growing. "No, it just took me a little longer to finish than I thought, but I'm done now. Ready to help me try it out?"
"Always." He seated himself on the barricade of the arena, waiting patiently for her to load her cartridges from the multiple Dust vials she carried on her. They matched the rest of her team's own personalized vials: her family's snowflake emblem and the letters SS on the side, a gift from her mom.
"Okay, ready!"
An hour later, Skye could say with confidence that her upgraded Dust chamber was a resounding success. She entered her room with a pleased grin on her face. Based on Jade's expression, she knew full well that Skye had been legitimately training, but wanted to make a suggestive comment about her partner's grin being about something else. Luckily, she was cut off by Aurum before she could actually say anything.
"Hey, we're all ready to go when you are!"
Indie, seated at a desk, tossed Skye's backpack at her; Skye caught it, startled. Indie pulled herself out of her seat and nodded toward the bag. "I packed your bag while we were waiting, so you're all ready to go with your essentials."
"Oh… well, all right then." Skye hadn't meant to keep her team waiting, and the four soon found themselves in front of the mission boards. All of them were looking a little apprehensive to some degree, a sentiment Skye was sure was evident on her own face as well. It still hadn't been all that long since Team ORKD had lost one of their own, and none of SAIJ had forgotten that.
"Hey, this one looks promising," Aurum said, pointing to a listing that was flashing red. "It says this village has been attacked by a lot of Grimm recently, and they need supplies delivered? I wonder if it had something to do with that earthquake a few weeks ago. Maybe their defenses got damaged, or something."
"I bet it is 'cause of that earthquake," Jade mused. "Why else would it only have suffered attacks in the last couple weeks? And if they took damage in the quake, no wonder they need supplies."
Indie, for some reason Skye couldn't fathom, had gotten an odd look on her face. Skye wasn't sure what to make of it—if anything, she'd expected Jade to object to another cushy-ish mission like this one, but Jade clearly prioritized the urgency of the mission over getting her teammates used to roughing it. Indie's expression returned to normal only a moment later, leaving Skye to question whether it had ever been there in the first place.
"Sounds good to me."
Last chapter was pretty depressing for me to write. I'm not used to that kind of tone, and I'm guessing that's probably why it was so difficult for me. This one, though… I breezed right through it.
The new characters, Lizi and Mo Harmon, both have Chinese first names, meaning "plum," and "ink" respectively. I'll admit, part of the reason it took me so long to introduce them was because I couldn't find names I liked! They'll be making more appearances in the future.
Please leave a review to let me know what you think!
