A Changing World
Act 2
Chapter 14: Dealing with past sins (Part Two)
A/N: I'm now breaking my self imposed rule to not write until April.
You're welcome.
Also, I'm including a short interlude before the chapter itself to explain some things that I haven't covered yet but I feel are necessary.
Enjoy.
…
Interlude
Five people were assembled in Ozpin's office at Beacon.
Weiss Schnee, Violet Peach, Peter Port, Bartholomew Oobleck, Qrow Branwen and Ozpin himself.
However, the former individual was the reason for the meeting, as she had arrived with an intriguing request.
"Just so we're all on the same page, you wish to have myself, Peter and team CFVY lead an expedition into the Grimm-lands, with the goal to scout for Dust?" asked Oobleck.
Weiss nodded. "That is correct."
"Brilliant!" The man exclaimed before delving into a high-speed rant. "This will make history for Remnant! My, I never thought I would be in the pages of history like this! Simply marvellous!"
Weiss smiled despite herself, remembering his antics from when he was her history teacher before the Vytal Festival.
"Vale will, of course, get a larger share of the revenue generated as a result of the sale of any Dust that is found there, after being processed by my company. This venture is intended to support Vale's economy."
"What's the catch?" asked Qrow.
"I have one request, but it will be beneficial to Vale and the SDC equally. The formation of a research and development facility funded by the SDC, with Vale's best working there - whoever you choose. I've heard from Ruby that Hiccup is a good choice."
"The only problem is he's gone," Violet pointed out. "It's been a week and none of my people can find any sign of him, Astrid or Gobber. Not to mention Jaune, Ren and Nora have gone quiet lately."
"Then how about Ruby or Yang?" asked Weiss.
"Whether or not Miss Rose or Miss Xiao Long get to work there is up to themselves and Taiyang. Now I'm sure nobody present has any objection to this, so let's discuss the finer details."
"Alright," Weiss nodded. "What should we discuss first?"
…
At the same time as the meeting at Beacon was underway, a scroll video call was in progress between two council leaders.
"No, Henry. I will not order General Mondschein to send troops to Vale for the sake of your position there. Neither will I bring this matter out in front of the council of Atlas." La Brava muttered, exasperated.
"May I ask why you would deny a favour between friends?"
"Because doing what you want me to would mean war, Henry. An incredibly petty war at that. It took careful discussion between the four kingdoms and Megnarie to avoid another war against faunus kind when that arena was destroyed.
I will not let your 'favour' put that in jeopardy. I suggest you leave Vacuo or whatever beach you are on, judging by what I can see, as I am going to order the arrest of you and your associates by General Mondschein for abandoning Vale. I'm sure you remember it is standard protocol in Remnant for government officials who flee their post, outside of retirement and losing their assigned seat during an election."
Henry Winchester's face had turned puce by now. "The rest of Remnant will hear about this!" he snarled.
"They will indeed. Goodbye, Mr Winchester," Her parting words uttered, La Brava ended the scroll video call before starting another.
"General Mondchein," she began when the line connected and his face came into view. "I have an important job for you today."
…
A/N: Now onto the chapter itself.
…
"Does a week sound like enough time for you to mourn?"
"That should be fine," replied Weiss.
"Then we're done here. I shall await confirmation of your death before I give myself up." With that, Yuma, Trifa and Banesaw set off back to the Bullhead they had come in.
Then the silence was broken by the sound of Hiccup's scroll ringing, receiving a call from Ren.
That had taken place the day before, with Hiccup informing Ozpin and Arslan about Ren's request after the call before joining up with the others and starting the journey to Atlas, with Arslan and Simon setting off back to Mistral not long afterwards.
Now, however, Weiss and her entourage were standing on the steps that led to the large double doors of the Schnee Manor, having landed at the airport earlier.
There, Ironwood and Weiss' group separated before they were driven by a waiting limo the rest of the way home, as Weiss had informed Klein of their arrival as soon as Atlas had come into view.
The door opened a moment after the limo disappeared around the side of the manor, heading to the driveway at the back. From the door emerged Klein Sieben.
"Welcome home, Miss Schnee." The man greeted them.
"Hello, Klein." Weiss greeted him in turn with a smile.
He opened the door for the group and when everyone was inside - minus the two huntsmen who returned to their assigned post - he continued speaking. "There is a sizable delivery waiting for you. Also, I received a call from Dr Oobleck this morning. He has returned and expressed a wish to talk to you as soon as possible. He sounded quite excited during the call."
"Tell him I shall speak with him soon. Also, be sure to bring this delivery to me. I suspect I know what it is."
"Right away miss Schnee." Klein bowed and set off.
When Klein returned, he had the handle that came attached to two padded cases, one for each hand, in his grasp. He proceeded to set them down and open the one on top, which they found contained Astrid's modified axe.
"I have informed Dr Oobleck that you are willing to speak to him. He's on his way with Mr Port and team CFVY now," said Klein.
"Thank you, Klein," replied Weiss.
Between the two axe heads, there was the muzzle of a pistol. At the base of the handle, there was now a slot for magazines and the trigger lay up a tad from where Astrid tended to grip the axe; the leather grip halfway along with the handle.
"They made the gun part of your axe just like mine. That's useful," Hiccup noted. "This way, you could use mine just as easily as yours."
Moving the case aside, Klein then opened the one below it before retreating back down the hallway.
Inside the second case, they found Nora's hammer.
"We'll need to bring it to Nora," said Astrid.
"Yeah, we do," agreed Yang.
Footsteps alerted them to Klein, who was returning with two more padded cases in his grasp like before.
When they were opened, the group found that the cases contained the armour they had requested.
"So that's everything, right?"
"Not quite Hiccup. There's more stuff just for you," came Weiss's reply.
Hiccup shot her an inquisitive look, but she said nothing else, forcing him to wait for Klein to return.
This time around, Klein had a padded case in his arms, twice the depth of any of the other cases.
It came as no surprise that his face was ever so slightly red from exertion as a result. He put it down with a grunt and Hiccup crouched, proceeding to open it where he found his shield infused with a light blue powder around its edge.
"Uh, what kind of Dust is this?" Hiccup asked Weiss, holding up the shield.
"Light Dust. I requested that the shield be infused with it. The Dust is rare, however; only existing in Atlas, which makes it very expensive. You destroy it and I will find you."
"Easy there, Ice Queen. No need to be so ominous," commented Yang.
"Ignore her. I promise not to destroy my shield intentionally," said Hiccup.
"I'll hold you to it. Your armour should be in that case as well. I also requested that a helmet be included for you, Astrid and Gobber."
"Alright Weiss, what do you want?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do you want in return for all of this, Weiss? Typically in negotiations, one party is generous only if they want something done in return. Is there a favour you want perhaps?"
"What makes you think I want anything?"
"You're not denying it for one, and for another, I've spent time giving a certain someone lien in exchange for information before. Ask Yang if you want to know more. She knows who I mean. So what is it you want?"
"It's not important right now, but after we deal with the White Fang, you can help with something that will benefit Vale."
"Alright then. But I expect all the details when that time comes."
"Of course."
Returning to observing the shield again, Hiccup noticed a handle in the case's padded material that fit around the shield. Pulling on it, he lifted the padded material and shield out of the case, revealing his suit of armour in the section below.
Atop the armour, he found a note, which read as follows:
'This armour is made from ATLS[1] and black leather. The leather is interwoven with ATLS to make it fire resistant while retaining its bullet resistant properties.
Features
On the sides of the suit, at the hips, are brown leather straps, one on each side. They can be used to carry your current weapons and any of similar size. For smaller weapons, the straps can be adjusted to fit as required.
In addition, a pair of wings were included to allow for gliding as requested in your design, but we would suggest training first.
On the forearms of this suit are holsters suitable for storing knives or spare ammo, whichever the user desires. There are also pouches for ammo on the back of each suit, just above the waistline.
Lastly, a helmet was included for you and your associates as requested by your benefactor. They are made from the same compound material as the suits and each come equipped with a communication device that is connected with the other two helmets. The device can be activated by pushing the button on the right side of each helmet.
We wish everything is made to your liking and we hope that you will visit us again in the future.
Kind regards,
Leo Brava, Owner and Shopkeep of The Anvil.'
'Huh, so the shopkeep was the owner of that shop,' mused Hiccup.
Pushing the thought aside and turning the paper over in his hands, Hiccup was greeted by the black outline of an anvil with the words, 'The Anvil' printed in bold directly below it.
Putting the note down and moving onto the final padded section of the case, Hiccup found the aforementioned helmet there, black and sporting a visor. The button to switch on the built-in communication device was roughly where the ear of the wearer would be.
Hiccup then put everything back into the case and stood up. "We should put this stuff on and head out for Mistral now."
"That's a good idea," agreed Weiss before taking out her scroll. "Klein, have someone prepare a Bullhead and get the dragons ready so that our guests can set off for Mistral, including team CFVY, Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck when they arrive."
"Certainly Miss Schnee."
…
"So this is the place?" Arslan asked her companion as they stared at the two-storey house.
From the outside the house looked old, but wonderful. It had been built using both pine and oak wood and topped with dark grey tiles. Small, half rounded windows brightened it up and were arranged in a mostly asymmetric way.
When she and Simon had landed in Mistral, it was nearly dark outside, so Simon brought her to the safehouse on the outskirts of town.
The next morning, after breakfast, she told Ren that she had arrived. When he got there, he escorted Arslan to the Arc residence so she could start helping Jaune.
"It is," Ren said simply.
"It's a bit smaller than I expected for a family of heroes that goes back to when Vale still had a king," continued Arslan. "I'd have thought they'd be able to get a bigger house than this."
"You like to learn more about history. Particularly Vale's history?" queried Ren, eyeing the dark-skinned, platinum blonde-haired girl who stood beside him with naked curiosity.
She met his gaze. "Yes, I do. Is there a problem?"
"No, it's just that most girls I know - team RWBY in particular - don't care for learning history or any other subject in great detail much, excluding Weiss of course. It's nice to meet someone who likes to learn as much as I do."
"Likewise. My teammates don't like studying as much as I do. I'm guessing your team is kinda the same."
"No, Jaune and Pyrrha both liked learning. But Jaune was far from being the strongest fighter when he joined Beacon and was determined to catch up. Like Nora when she learns I'm going to make pancakes."
"That's interesting. Speaking about Pyrrha, what happened to her? Is she visiting family?"
"…She died. Months ago. Let's go inside now." Ren then stepped toward the door and opened it.
Arslan sighed regretfully before following him inside.
Inside, Ren led her down the hallway, passing a room on their left before going into the next one, on their right.
She found the living room, containing three couches, each suited to seat three people. Laminated wooden flooring and relatively colourful wallpaper defined the room, a large television mounted on the wall, above which a clock ticked time away. Light was provided by a ceiling-mounted chandelier, which glistened like diamonds, though it definitely wasn't a set of noble stones set within it.
The first couch was positioned so that it faced the wall across the room. On it sat three blonde women.
The second couch faced the door that Ren and Arslan had just entered.
On it sat two more women along with a muscular blond man. The second woman; who was sitting in the middle of the couch, looked the oldest out of any of them besides the man.
Arslan guessed she was the matriarch of the family, with the man the patriarch in turn.
Behind that couch was a large window, through which the blue sky of Mistral and the underside of the Atlas Battleship was distinctly visible.
On the last couch that faced the Matriarch and Patriarch, sat two others who Arslan recognized from the Vytal Festival. Nora and Jaune.
Only, something about the situation Jaune was in, struck her as odd.
"U-Um, H-Hello. I-I should probably introduce myself first but I have to ask, why is he tied up?" She spoke aloud, as Arslan's eyes fell upon the young man.
"Oh, Jaune-Jaune tried to escape a few times," said Nora, her voice oddly chipper. Arslan took a step back, closer to the hallway. This was getting weird, and an escape route was always the best option.
"W-Why?" She asked, looking at Nora with questioning, hesitant eyes. "I-Is that a bad thing?"
"It wouldn't be, dear, if he acted like himself," The Matriarch said sadly. "I should know. I'm his mother after all. My name is Sarah Arc. The others here are four of my daughters: Violet, Saffron, Azalea, Jasmine, my son Jaune and my husband Nicholas."
Each of them waved when their name was mentioned, excluding Jaune of course.
"I-I'm Arslan Altan. I-It's nice to meet you all." Then her brain caught up with what she'd heard and she stepped closer to the hallway again. "Wait. Did you say you have four daughters?"
"I have seven daughters and one son," Sarah corrected her before continuing, ignoring how Arslan's eyes widened at the revelation and she took another step back towards safety. "But enough about that. Ren thinks you might be able to help Jaune."
Ren, who was now sitting on the sofa with Nora, nodded. "Since he doesn't respond much to people he knows, Nora and I thought he may respond to someone he doesn't know well."
"What happened to him?" She asked.
"He was kidnapped by a certain someone and conditioned to think he would never escape, to the point he thinks his kidnapper is going to kidnap us as well," Ren quickly explained, his monotone voice completely calm.
"…Right. I think a therapist would be better for him. I don't know how to fix him," said Arslan. Her confidence faltering, she turned and was about to flee when Nicholas's voice rang out suddenly.
"How does 100 lien sound to you?"
"What?" asked Arslan, turning around again.
"I will pay you 100 lien if you manage to make him act more like himself."
"That's a lot of money for something like this sir."
"It'll be worth it, if it works out. So will you do it?" Nicholas asked, stretching out a hand.
Arslan strode over and shook his hand. "You have a deal sir."
"Good. Now get to it, Arslan."
"What have you tried already?" asked Arslan.
"Talking to him, mostly. That's what Ren and Nora have tried," answered Violet.
"Okay. Well, I'm going to try something. No idea if it will work though."
After speaking, Arslan looked at Jaune, who was sitting forward somewhat, straining against his restraints and staring at her but not quite registering her presence.
Semi crouching with her legs facing the couch that Violet, Saffron and Azalea were sitting on, and her torso facing Jaune, she drew her right arm back.
"Uh, what are you doing Arslan?" Nora asked, recognising the move from the Vytal Festival.
"Arslan, if you could stop-" Ren began, but she ignored him and Nora, letting her right fist travel forward and strike Jaune on the forehead.
She ensured that it wasn't anywhere near a full strength blow, but Jaune slumped backward onto the sofa from the blow regardless, relaxing against his restraints.
[2]Then, after a few moments he blinked and looked at her, as if noticing Arslan for the first time. "Arslan? Is that you?" Then he looked beyond her. "Mum, Dad, Jasmine-" he looked around. "Everyone? When did I get here?"
"We brought you here, Jaune-Jaune!" exclaimed Nora, embracing him in a tight side hug.
"Good job," said Ren, giving a rare smile.
"I can't believe that worked." Arslan muttered to herself after straightening up. Then she felt a large hand on her shoulder.
"Can you teach me that move? In case, you know? Also, here is the money I promised you." Nicholas said, before taking one of her hands and placing a 100 lien note in it.
"You got it sir. I'm just glad that actually worked."
"Me too, dear," said Sarah. "Now, you wouldn't mind teaching me that move as well, would you?"
"No, that's fine," Arslan smiled.
…
Much later that same day, Hiccup, Astrid, Gobber, Yang, Port, Oobleck and team CFVY reached Mistral and had settled into the safehouse on the town's outskirts.
The sky was stained orange and pink when Hiccup addressed them. "By now you all know what happened to Violet. So far we've managed to find out that the White Fang are in south Mistral somewhere. Astrid and I will search for any sign of them tomorrow. But we'll need a plan first. Does anyone have an idea?"
"Haven't got much further than putting Yatsuhashi and our other heavy hitters up front at the moment," admitted Coco.
"We should get Ren and Nora. We'll need as many people as we can get," said Astrid.
"I remember Pyrrha mentioning that Jaune had seven sisters a while ago. You were still in a coma then, Hiccup," said Yang. "Maybe we can get them to help."
"Well that works for now. We bring Nora her hammer tomorrow, try and get Jaune's sisters to join us and we go find where the White Fang is hiding." Concluded Hiccup.
"Alright then. We've got a plan for tomorrow, I'm off to get some food for everyone," Stated Coco.
"I'll come with you," said Fox.
She nodded in turn and the pair set off together.
Following this, the group slowly dispersed.
"So, what do we do now?" queried Astrid.
"I was thinking of going to read some of those Jotunn runes in that book Ozpin found. What are you going to do, Astrid?"
"I'm going to spar with Yang. I want a rematch." she concluded after a moment of thought.
"Two girls, one with a competitive spirit and the other with a semblance that makes her stronger with each hit she receives. What could possibly go wrong? Yatsuhashi, stop the fight if Astrid's aura breaks."
"As you wish." The green armour clad, mountain of a man rumbled.
Satisfied, Hiccup stepped outside, approaching Toothless's saddle bag to retrieve the book stored within it, which featured Jotunn runes.
Returning, he found Yatsuhashi, Astrid and Yang had gone downstairs for their spar before he sat on one of the couches and looked at the title on the cover of the book he had brought.
Ancient Norse Mythologies
Book 2
Opening the book, the title on the first page that greeted him was as follows.
GIANT RUNIC ALPHABET
The language of Ostoria
There were twenty Jotunn runes below it, separated into three rows.
The first row had seven runes, the second had six and the third had seven.
'How did Ozpin say this would help me again?' wondered Hiccup.
He then noticed that the sixth rune in the first row was that of fire. His interest piqued, Hiccup started reading the rest of the page.
Introduction
Giant society and culture in the Forgotten Realms is partially based on the Scandinavian peoples of the Viking Age and time periods prior to that, be it as a direct reference to the sea-and-plunder lifestyle of raiding norsemen represented by the frost giants or the more spiritual and contemplative seers in the figure of the storm giants who look for signs of events yet to come, which is far from something unheard of in the folklore of the real world.
One aspect of said inspiration is the fact that giants use runes for such forms of magic. It is a well-known fact that Scandinavians employed runes for supernatural purposes such as imbuing objects with power.
There Hiccup stopped reading as a thought came to him.
'If I wrote out that fire rune, then pushed aura into the paper, what would happen?'
Closing the book, Hiccup looked at the couch opposite him, where Velvet, Oobleck and Port sat, each on their scrolls. "Hey uh, Velvet?"
"Yes?" The rabbit faunus girl looked his way, followed by Port and Oobleck before both men returned their attention to their scrolls.
"Do you have paper and a pencil? Or where I could find those things?"
…
Book in hand, Velvet tossed the scorched and blackened remains of a sheet of paper outside. "I'm keeping this book until we find somewhere safer to try these rune things. Preferably not anywhere near a house. Got it?"
"That's probably for the best," Hiccup agreed.
'Note to self, be cautious of pushing aura into paper with a Jotunn fire rune written on it. It will spontaneously combust,' thought Hiccup.
"How did you set the paper on fire anyways?" asked Velvet.
"I pushed some of my aura into the paper; Glynda told me how to make objects more durable with aura a long time ago. The rest happened because of the fire rune. I should have seen the fire coming, now that I think about it. Anyway, can we agree to pretend this never happened, please?"
"Agreed," Port, Oobleck and Velvet replied, in unison.
…
Over in her room at the Schnee Manor, Weiss let out a sigh as she sat on her bed, which drew a concerned look from Blake, who was sitting beside her.
"You okay, Weiss? If not, we can have Klein send them all away and do this thing later," her friend suggested.
"No, it's okay Blake," said Weiss, forcing a smile. "Besides, we've been here before."
"That's true," agreed Blake.
There was a knock on the door not long after the words were spoken. "Miss Schnee, they're ready for you in your father's old office," said Klein as the man stood in the hallway outside.
"We'll be on our way, Klein," Weiss called out.
"Very good Miss Schnee."
"That's our cue. Let's go."
…
A/N: So that's a wrap. Hope you all enjoyed it.
But before you all go, there's just one last thing to cover:
[1] This is just Kevlar under a different name. I don't think Kevlar exists in RWBY as it hasn't been definitively stated to my knowledge, hence I changed the name to fit with what I think it would be called if Atlas had invented the material.
[2]Not a big fan of how this scene played out, but I wanted to wrap this up and this was the quickest way to do so.
So if anyone has an issue with how I handled that, you can rest assured that I do as well.
Moving on. Next chapter will be continuing the scene with Weiss and Blake while getting closer to the final battle of the story.
Until next time,
Silvolde.
