Happy St. Patty's Day folks! Too bad it's ruined thanks to COVID-19, just like my DnD Adventurer's League nights.

TL;DR: The California Health Department has put a ban on all public gatherings of 50 people or more, and my local AL of choice usually attracts upwards of 80 people on average, split amongst 10 tables. As you can probably guess, I am still rather salty about all that.

Nothing we can do now, though, except to get on with the chapter.

MCU Tracker: 1,352/2,000

RWBY Watches Classic Movies

Chapter 66

"So, Pyrrha, is this actually your father?" Nora asked.

"He is." Pyrrha smiled. "His name is Alexander, and he taught me everything I know about fighting. Although, he's not that grey, last I checked."

"A champion spawning a champion. Makes sense for Mistral." Cinder scoffed. She had heard stories about Alexander Nikos and his great career as a competition fighter. Whereas his daughter was called 'The Invincible Girl', he was called 'The Conqueror' or simply 'The Great'.

Alexander groaned as he laid himself out on his throne, the years weighing heavily upon him.

"Your heart has grown soft, Pyrrha." He commented, not scolding, but observing, "A thousand years ago, you would have slain them on sight."

"A thousand years ago, the streets were lit, and our people didn't have to scavenge for food at the edge of a crumbling city!" She retorted.

"She makes a pretty good point." Velvet said.

"The people are content." Her father said.

"They do not know any better! We were once a great people, now we live in ruins." She sat next to her father and began wiping his brow with a damp cloth. "The kings of our past would weep if they could see how far we have fallen."

"Pyrrha." Her father warned her.

"If these outsiders can unlock the secrets of our past, perhaps we can save our future."

"What they have to teach us, we have already learned."

"Our way of life is dying."

"Our way of life is preserved!" he cupped her cheek like he used to all those centuries ago, and she leaned into it. "Pyrrha, when you take the throne, you will understand."

"I can tell how much he loves you," Blake said, "But this secret I know he is keeping is gonna backfire hard."

"Doesn't it always?" Yang said with a cocked eyebrow.

Outside the palace, the embassy of Jaune, Adam, and Sienna rejoined the rest of the expedition.

"So, how did it go?" Sun asked.

"Well, the king and his daughter don't exactly see eye-to-eye." Jaune told them. "I mean, she seems to like us alright, but the king, I think he's hiding something."

"I agree." Adam said, "And I want to know what it is."

"Someone needs to talk to that girl." Sienna said, giving Adam a look.

"I will go!" Neptune said eagerly.

"This you just doesn't learn, does he?" Sun grinned.

"You'd think a shot to the face would be a pretty clear indication." Neptune agreed. Even he was not that dumb.

"Someone with good people skills." Nora suggested, seeing where Sienna was going.

"I will do it!"

"Someone who won't scare her away." Sun agreed.

"I volunteer!"

"Someone who speaks the language." Glynda added.

"For the good of the mission, I will go!"

"Good man, Arc." Adam said, tapping Jaune- who was reading through his notes during the conversation- on the shoulder. "Thanks for volunteering." The pencil dropped from Jaune's mouth.

"Aw, come on!" Neptune shouted.

"Go get 'em, tiger." Ruby teased Jaune as she dragged Neptune away.

"Personally, I think you would make for an excellent wingman, Ruby." Jaune said.

"No way." Ruby snorted, "You must have me mistaken for Yang. I'm the dictionary definition of socially awkward."

A while later, Jaune watched from behind a pillar as Pyrrha came out of the palace, having taken off her armor in favor of more a comfortable tube top and dress. He had spent this time coming up with what to say to her and how to say it.

"Okay, one more time." He sighed. "Look, you, I have some questions and I'm not leaving this city until they're answered. Yeah. That's good. Nice and confidant."

"Oh, Weiss, please tell me this isn't how I acted when I first tried flirting with you before initiation." Jaune groaned. Her silence was all the answer he needed, and he hung his head in embarrassment.

He looked around the pillar only to find she was gone. He walked out in confusion, which quickly turned to surprise as his arm was locked behind his back, and a hand was placed over his mouth.

"I have some questions for you, and you are not leaving this city until they are answered." Pyrrha whispered into his ear with a grin. She lifted her hand off his mouth so he could respond.

"Yeah, well I- okay." She clamped back down.

"Good. Follow me."

"You know, that hold isn't all it's cracked up to be." Yang commented.

"How's that?" Ilia asked. She had used that same hold numerous times in the past to great effect.

"Because it has one glaring weakness."

"And that is?" Yang made a licking motion in the air. "Ah, right. Gross, but valid."

As Jaune followed her to a secluded, abandoned portion of the palace, he briefly considered how weak her hold had been. Thinking on it, there were at least three ways he could have broken it, based on what he had learned from so many sisters.

"Oh, there is so much to ask about your world." She sighed as they entered the moss-covered chamber. "You are a scholar, yes? Judging from your diminished physique and large forehead, you are suited for nothing else. What is your country of origin? When did the flood waters recede? How did you-"

"Hey, I've really filled out since I came to Beacon." Jaune protested.

'He certainly has.' Pyrrha thought, remember the time she and Nora had "accidentally" walked in on the boys changing.

"I love the amount of sass this you has, Pyrrha." Nora commented.

"Woah, woah, hold on there. I have questions for you as well. So how about we just trade off questions until one of us runs out? Sound good?"

"Very well. What is your first question?"

"Man, where to start." Jaune pondered. "Well, I guess I should start with how you came to be here. Not you personally, but your culture. I mean, how did all this," he gestured around at the room, "End up down here?"

"It is said that the gods grew jealous of Atlantis. They sent a great cataclysm and banished us here." Pyrrha explained, her eyes closing in recollection as she walked. "All I can remember is the sky growing dark, and people shouting and running. Then, a bright light, like a star, floating above the city. My father says it called my mother to it." She leaned against a pillar, the memory causing her pain. "I never saw her again."

"I'm sorry." Jaune said. "If it's any consolation, I know how you feel. I lost my- wait a minute. Wait a minute! Back it up! What, are you trying to tell me you remember because you were there? No way, cuz that would make you 85, 88… hundred! Years old."

"I, don't even know where to start with that." Velvet said.

"I mean, theoretically," Glynda said, "A Semblance which passively heals you at all times without draining your Aura could make an individual essentially immortal."

"Or you could just be Ozpin." Oscar commented to her.

"I heard that." Ozpin said in Oscar's head, making him laugh.

"Yes." Pyrrha answered, non-plussed.

"Huh. Well, you, uh, you make it look good." He said trying to recover, "Um, what's your next question?"

"The same. How is it you came to be here?"

"Well, I'll ya, it wasn't easy." He pulled the Journal out of his satchel and showed it to her. "In fact, if it weren't for this book, we never would have made it." She took the Journal and opened it to a random page, and stared at it, taking in the letters and illustrations. "Ok, second question; legend has it that your people possessed a power source of some kind that allowed them to- "

"You mean, you can understand this?" Pyrrha interrupted.

"Yes, I'm a linguist. That's what I do, it's my job. Now, back to my question- "

"This, right here. You can read this?" she shoved the book in his face.

"Yes, yes, I can read Atlantean, just like you." He gently pushed the Journal down and saw the look of amazement and confusion in her eyes. And then it clicked. "You can't, can you?"

"Man, there really are no words that do that justice." Coco said.

"No one can. Such knowledge has been lost to us since the time of the Mehbelmok."

"Oh, the Great Flood."

She eagerly handed him the Journal. "Show me."

"Okay." He turned to a random page earlier in the book and began to read aloud. As he did, Pyrrha translated it perfectly.

"Follow the narrow passage for another league. There you will find the fifth marker."

"Yeah. Yeah, that's it." Jaune smiled,

"Okay, so they're more of an oral tradition society since the Great Flood." Velvet explained. "Their history and culture is passed down through spoken stories rather than written ones. It actually explains a lot."

"Is there a difference between the two?" Weiss asked.

"The written word tends to cause societies to develop faster than the oral tradition. Admittedly, there are additional factors to consider, but that's the pattern I've noticed at least."

"Hey, how was my accent?"

"Boorish, provincial, and you speak it through your nose."

"Yeah, gotta work on that."

"Here, let me show you something." She said as she pulled him by the front of his shirt to a large object covered by cloth. She pulled off the cloth to reveal a large, stone, fish-like object.

"What? It looks like some kind of vehicle." Jaune said, his interest piqued.

"Yes. But no matter what I try, it will not respond. Perhaps if- "

"Way ahead of you." Jaune said, cracking his fingers and leaning over some runes carved into the stone. "Now, let's see here. 'Place crystal into slot.'"

"Yes, yes, I have done that." Pyrrha said impatiently.

"'Gently place your hand onto inscription pad.'"

"Yes!"

"Okay, did you turn the crystal one quarter-turn back?"

"Yes. Yes!"

"While your hand was on the inscription pad?"

"Ye- no."

"Welp, there's your problem right there." Jaune said, standing back up. "So, ready to give it a try?"

"Well, at least he didn't rub it her face, unlike some people." Summer said, looking up at Tai.

Tai looked right back at her. "Really, you're gonna pull that card from beyond the veil of death?"

She giggled and stuck her tongue out at him. He retaliated by kissing her one the nose.

"Knock it off." Qrow said, "You're making me diabetic with all that sweetness."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes and did as he said. When she turned the crystal, the inscription pad lit up with a light the same color as her crystal. When she turned it back and extracted the crystal, the runes all around the pad lit up with the same color and the vehicle began to hover.

"Yad la koneh." She said in amazement.

"Yeah, you got that right." Jaune agreed. "This, this is great! With this thing, I could see the whole city in no time at all! I wonder how fast it is." he placed a single finger on the inscription pad, and the fish took off and began bouncing off every corner and curve it found, finally coming right at the duo, making them duck before crashing into a wall and powering down slowly.

Jaune looked at Pyrrha, who was giving him a small smile he knew well. One that was silently screaming 'you FUCKING idiot!'

"So, who's hungry?"

"See what I mean?" Nora said, "She didn't say anything and is positively overflowing with snark."

"I thought it was the sass that you loved about her." Pyrrha teased.

"Same thing!"

A while later, Pyrrha was leading as the pair climbed a massive statue.

"By the way, we were never properly introduced." Jaune said as he climbed, trying to match her hand and foot placements while simultaneously trying to not look up her dress, "My name's Jaune."

"My name is Pyrrha." She said.

That threw him a bit. He had been expecting something long and complex, most likely multisyllabic. But that was almost disappointingly easy to remember.

'Ah well, gift horse I guess.' He thought. "Okay. Pyrrha. I can remember that. Wow." He said as Pyrrha helped him onto the top of the statue, the height rivalled only by the spires of the palace itself. He tried to contain the overflowing of emotions that welled up within him. Apparently he failed since his new companion noticed.

"What is wrong?" she asked.

He wiped his eyes, gaze fixed firmly on the view before him. "My grandfather used to tell me and my sisters stories about this place as far back as I can remember. I just wish he could be standing here with me."

"Well, that's new." Blake commented. "A male figure who isn't afraid to show his emotions."

It turned out that the people of Atlantis, despite what had happened to their civilization, lived a life not uncommon to many ancient and classical world societies. Their diets were primarily based around fish and unique crustaceans that required a certain trick to get them in a position where they could be prepared. Pyrrha demonstrated this technique when one of the little bastards tried to attack him and she simply bit it on the back of its' head.

"Tell me more about your companions." She said, "Your physician, his name is Oz, yes?"

"No, that's Sun."

"The man with the animal soul?"

"Is that a problem?" Jaune asked testily. He assumed she that was their term for a Faunus, and that meant she was in dangerous waters as far as he was concerned.

"No, rather it explains much. Those with animal souls are believed to be blessed by the gods, and destined for great things."

"I suddenly like this place a whole lot more." Sienna commented with perked up ears.

"Seconded." Ilia agreed.

"Good answer." Jaune smiled. Their conversations continued as they walked, eventually leading them to what Jaune assumed was an inn of some kind, or what may have been before the Flood.

"Your world worries me." Pyrrha told him as they ate. "You know of the blessed, but they are not revered. Your technology is beyond ours, but relies on dust. And that little digging creature that I punched called 'Mole', he is your pet?"

"Close enough." Jaune told her, lying through his teeth about Neptune.

Back near the bridge, a group of soldiers pulled a crate from the back of one of the trucks. Using a crowbar, they pried it open to reveal several newly made bolt-action rifles. Dressed in long coats and wearing gas masks over their faces, they were an intimidating sight to behold.

Elsewhere, Jaune and Pyrrha were catching fireflies as the day wound down, the same beetles that had set their camp alight mere hours previously.

"Y'know, Pyrrha, when we came down here," Jaune said, gently catching a firefly in his hands, "The most we hoped to find was some crumbling buildings, maybe some broken pottery, but instead we found a living, thriving society. As a side, these guys are kinda cute when they aren't collected into a column of fiery death."

"We are not thriving." Pyrrha said in dismay as Jaune put the firefly into a lamp attached to a pole, "True, our people live, but our culture is dying. We are like a stone the ocean beats against; every year, a little more of us is worn away."

"I wish there was something I could do." Jaune said sincerely.

"There may be. I have brought you to this place to ask for your help. There is a mural here, with writing all around the pictures."

"And it is at this point that I must step in, in the interest of sanity. One moment please, and I do apologize for this."

Suddenly, all the men in the theater except for Jaune and Ren fell unconscious.

"Explain, Wolf." Coco growled as she checked Sun's vitals.

"You will all thank me in a few moments."

"Welp, you came to the right guy." Jaune said, taking the lamp from her and planting it next to a fallen pillar. "Let's start right here, shall weeeeee…." He turned and saw that Pyrrha was taking off her dress. "Uh, Pyrrha, um, what are you doing?"

"You do swim, do you not?" she asked, turning around to face him. It was about that time he realized that her underwear must double as a bathing suit. And no, he was absolutely not distracted by her body, which somehow curved in exactly the right places.

"Oh, I swim pretty girl- pretty good! P-pretty good, I swim pretty good. That's what I meant."

"Smooth." Yang said.

"Can't blame him, though." Coco said, wiping the small nose bleed she had. "Missy P is HOT!"

"And we now know why nearly every guy was knocked out.

"You are welcome."

"Good. It is a fair distance to where we are going."

"No problem." He told her as he stripped down to his boxers. "You just so happen to be talking to the belly flop champ of Camp Runamuck." As he entered the water, he forgot that there was still air in his britches, and they puffed up the second he got in the water. Pyrrha stifled her laughter as he meekly pushed the air out and tried to recover what was left of his dignity. "Come on, we're wasting time." He quickly dove into the water to get used to things before resurfacing. "You wanna lead the way? Cuz, uh, I got no idea where I'm going." Rolling her eyes, Pyrrha and Jaune took deep breaths and dived under.

Suddenly, the boys woke up.

"What the hell was that?" Sun asked groggily.

"The Wolf knocked you guys out." Coco informed him. "For good reason."

"What reason is that?" Neptune asked, annoyed.

"Ones you don't need to know. Capiche?" She replied with a threatening grin.

They swam for a few minutes, with Pyrrha leading them to an underwater ruin. Straining for air, Jaune was thankful when she led them up to a small air pocket, even when he banged his head against the stone as he breached.

"You alright?" she asked, inspecting his head.

"Well, I didn't drown." He said, rubbing the lump on his head.

"Good. Follow me." she took another deep breath and dived, with Jaune hot on her trail.

Using her necklace as a light, she led Jaune to a mural, where Jaune quickly began translating. He signaled her to go up.

"This is amazing." He said, "A complete history of Atlantis. It's just like Ozma described it, admittedly he was off on a few details, but-"

"The light I saw. The star in the middle of the city. What does the writing say about that?" Pyrrha pressed.

"Nothing yet. But I'm gonna find out." Now it was his turn to dive first.

"I just got this image of Jaune spending his time translating all of that with a giant hose sticking out of his mouth attached to a bouy." Velvet chuckled.

"Head canon accepted." Nora said.

He led them to another mural, but this one had no writings, so they were left to interpretation. It showed several large figures surrounding a large star the same color as the crystals all Atlanteans wore. Their arms were outstretched and a circle formed around them. It seemed to Jaune that the circle was some kind of shield. He went back to the original mural and read some more script at the top. He grabbed Pyrrha's necklace and pointed at it before pointing back up at the air pocket.

"The Heart of Atlantis." He said when he came up.

"What?" Pyrrha asked.

"It's the Heart of Atlantis!" he exclaimed, "That's what the Shepard was talking about. It wasn't a star, it was some kind of crystal. Like these!" he held up the crystal on her necklace. "Don't you see? The power source I've been looking for, the bright light you remember, they're the same thing!"

"That cannot be." She said.

"It's what's keeping all these things, you, all of Atlantis alive."

"Then where is it now?"

"I don't know. You'd think something this big would've been in the Journal. Unless… the missing page."

"And now we know what Adam and Sienna are really after." Blake said.

"But more importantly, is the Doctor in on it as well?" Velvet added.


Nothing to really say here except to remember what I said about keeping COVID at bay; wash your hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, and DO NOT PANIC!

Be sure to Follow, Favorite and leave a Review, and I will catch you later.

Next Update: 3/24/20