RWBY: MRRN
Volume 6, Chapter 16: Awoken
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth.
All Robin could do was sit and look down at the ground in frustration and worry, a bandage now wrappd around his eyes now that he had lost his visor again as the Argus Limited was nearing the city. Whoever that Archon was, he was very powerful and his weapon's ability to drain Aura made him even more dangerous.
He wished he could be out there with his teammates once again, but with his visor destroyed, he'd only be a burden to them. Perhaps when they got to Atlas, he could have a new one made.
"What am I even doing here?" he questioned.
When he first enrolled in Beacon Academy, his desire was to become a Huntsman like his cousins were doing as well. He wanted to be a strong fighter and master marksman like his family before him.
Over time, he garnered a reputation for being a flirt…that was, until he met Coco Adel. The woman was feisty, classy, and still kind and good-hearted and Robin couldn't resist the challenge of trying to win her affections. He eventually did after proving he could stay loyal to her by not flirting for a week.
Like Ruo, Math and Nas, he had a clear goal at the time. He wanted to become a professional Huntsman like many others in his family. Math wanted to find a purpose as a warrior, having been trained by two master fighters in four years, training so proficient that he was considered the strongest member of the team. Ruo wanted to move on from his past and help people the same way his father would've while condemning the kinds of methods that drove his mother to barbarism. Nasser wanted to get his family out of poverty after being betrayed by his brother twice, who was then killed in an explosion.
Now, they were in a war against a villain that sought to destroy humanity. Why? Robin could only guess, but odds are, Ozpin would never tell them considering how secretive he tended to be. Whatever Ozpin had done in his years was enough to make many enemies, including the giant brute, Hazel and the wire master, Valkoin.
Was it really worth it, getting involved in this war? Was it really their fight?
In some ways, it could be considered their fight. The Iron Knights, militia who sought to wipe out the Huntsmen and their allies, had destroyed Beacon Academy and endangered millions of lives. It had robbed them of their chance to achieve their goals since Leonardo Lionheart had betrayed the group to Salem and Ironwood had closed Atlas's borders, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. He could've gone with Coco to Shade, but he wouldn't leave his comrades behind.
Everyone's goal at first was to bring those responsible for Beacon's destruction to justice, to avenge the fallen. Velvet Scarlatina, Imamu Nyekundu, Medeia Iris, Rong Luse, Arslan Altan, Team CRDL…all of them are yet to have their rightfully deserved justice.
Was Ozpin also to blame for their deaths? He could've asked Forest for help, but simply chose not to and insisted on asking Pyrrha to take the Maiden powers. Cinder was right under his nose and he and his group did nothing except force a lot of pressure onto Pyrrha.
In honesty, Robin didn't condemn Math's hostility towards Ozpin after meeting him again: regardless of his reasons, he had betrayed his trust by first keeping his team in the dark about their mission and then forcing the Maiden powers on Pyrrha. His keeping the fact that the Relic was a Grimm magnet had cost him whatever trust he had left in his former Headmaster.
He went to reach for a bottle of water near him which had been given by Glaucus earlier, but he accidentally knocked it off the table. When it hit the floor, something happened that Robin didn't expect at all.
He could visualize the soundwave that came from the bottle hitting the floor. He raised his eyebrow for a moment, unsure of what was happening. He felt for the bottle, picked it up and dropped it again. As it hit the floor, he could sense the soundwave from it.
"What's this?" he wondered. He stood up from his bed and felt for the wooden cabinets. He knocked on it several times, each time giving off a soundwave that he could visualize, travelling through the entire room and allowing him to see everything.
"What's that noise?" Sterling asked, walking into the room. The voice from the Snow Fox Faunus allowed Robin to visualize him through the soundwaves.
"Sterling?" Robin asked, looking over to him.
"Why were you knocking on the wood?" Again, Robin could visualize Sterling from the sounds of his voice.
"Something's going on," the archer claimed.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, this sounds crazy, but…I can see you." Sterling was unsure of what to make of Robin's statement. How could he see him when his eyes had been cut out and his visor was destroyed? Then a thought struck in Sterling's head.
"Is it my voice?" he asked.
"Yes," Robin confirmed. "Is this…my Semblance? I'm not sure."
"I think it is," Sterling suggested, walking up to Robin. "Semblances never truly go away."
"Never truly go away?" Robin asked, confused. "But my Semblance was connected to my eyes. How could it…?"
"A Semblance is not something that can be cut out," Sterling explained. "It is a tangible extension of your Aura, the manifestation of your soul…and it can never be cut out. Perhaps yours is acting in a new way, which allows you to possess a radar sense of sorts."
"Well, if that's the case, I'll need to learn how to use it properly."
"Then let us start," Sterling suggested. "I will teach you."
"You will?" Robin asked. "Thanks."
"Of course. I'll have something productive to do until we get back to Atlas." Robin raised an eyebrow as he noticed Sterling saying the word 'back'.
"Back? What do you mean 'back to Atlas'? Is that where you're from?" Sterling shook his head.
"I was from Mantle. My father worked in the Dust Mines for the SDC for years; everything went well until Jacques took over. He made everyone work longer hours for less Lien, possibly bordering on illegal."
"How does Jacques get away with this?" Robin asked in disbelief. "Surely, someone must've spoken up by now."
"Jacques covers up everything through having a top-tier PR team," Sterling explained. "Those who tried to speak up fell on deaf ears. Jacques did whatever he could to stay on top, regardless of who had to pay the price. My father was one of those who did."
"What happened?"
"He fell ill. Working in a Dust Mine for years can impact your health for the worst, just like it did to Nicholas Schnee. He died when I was eleven years old."
"I'm sorry," Robin apologized. Sterling breathed heavily as he thought back to his home in Mantle before he came to Beacon.
"That's why I hope Robyn Hill gets that seat. I know she can be the voice of Mantle."
"You sound as if you know her personally."
"She and I grew up together in Mantle. She's always had an ambition to help Mantle in its rights, even as a child. From what I heard, after she graduated Atlas Academy, she turned down the chance to join the Atlas Military like most students do."
"Sounds like she's a great gal," Rob complimented. "Well, let's get to work on my new Semblance."
"Agreed," Sterling complied.
-0-
"How long does he usually take?" Blake asked after Forest had gone off to scout the trail ahead.
"He doesn't take too long," Math answered as the group waited for him. "But it will be getting dark soon; I just hope shelter's not too far from here."
"You and me both," Nasser agreed.
Weiss looked over to Ruby, still carrying the Relic of Knowledge on her belt. She hadn't spoken a word ever since they departed from the crash. Her usually cheerful and optimistic scowl was replaced with one of betrayal, frustration and anger, something that deeply worried Weiss.
"Are you okay?" she asked her team leader. "You haven't said a word ever since we-"
"What is there to say?" Ruby interrupted, looking at Weiss. "Everything we did was to be nothing more than Ozpin's sacrificial dogs, just like my mother." Weiss was tempted to correct Ruby by saying it was sacrificial 'lambs', but it wouldn't be the best time to do so.
"He was such a hypocrite," Ruby went on. "Preaching about his faith in humanity, but only trusting himself with the truth. He was so afraid of people betraying him that he wouldn't trust us, even though he wanted us to trust him. All of his talk of teamwork and humanity…" She sighed heavily.
"It was all nothing but lies and hypocrisy."
"No, it wasn't," Blake spoke out. "Ruby, don't demonize Ozpin; he doesn't deserve that."
"Oh, he doesn't?" Nasser scoffed. "So what's he done is completely justified?"
"That's not what I said," Blake spoke out. "I don't agree with what he's done, but he's as much a victim as some of us."
"A victim?" Yang questioned, crossing her arms. "You cannot be serious, Blake. He lied to us so many times because he cared more about his secrets than he cared about our lives. He sacrificed my mom for his war; she died for reasons she didn't know about. How can you honestly trust him, Blake?"
"Stop it," Ruo spoke up, looking at Yang. "I agree with Blake; as much as I'm angry at Ozpin for what's he done, he's a victim just like the rest of us. Salem is the true enemy here; she's the one trying to divide and destroy humanity, so save your anger for any enemies we come across."
"He's right," Math agreed. "We're carrying a Grimm magnet, so whatever we have to feel about Ozpin, save it for later or we'll just attract more of them." The flapping of wings could be heard from above as a Vacuo Golden Eagle descended to the group and changed back to his human form.
"There's a manor nearby," Forest explained. "Looks abandoned."
"Any signs of Grimm?" Math asked.
"No, but we need to stay alert. Let's go." Suddenly, the sounds of growling stomachs was heard. Everyone looked around at each other, all sharing the same feeling of hunger.
"You too?" Ruo asked everyone. "I could hunt something out here. There's bound to be lots of animals."
"Let's get to the manor first," Math suggested. "That way, you'll know where to find us."
"Count me in," Luna offered. "I'm quite a hunter myself."
"More food, the better," Saf replied, earning a chuckle from the Wolf Faunus as the group started to move.
As Yang walked past Luna, the two of them immediately felt the tension rise. Yang was very aggressive about important information being shared, but she was doing just that since she still hadn't told the group of her mother being the Spring Maiden. It irked the Wolf Faunus so much to see Yang not following what she aggressively spoke of.
Yang claimed that she was going to tell the group when it became important, but Luna wasn't convinced in the slightest. She had several opportunities to tell the group, but hadn't done so.
Luna definitely understood Yang not trusting Ozpin, considering how much he had kept from everyone. He needed to prove that he could be trusted before all secrets were spilled; trust has to go two ways, after all.
But was it necessary to keep it from everyone, including her teammates? Luna didn't think so. The fact that Ozpin wasn't here anymore rendered her reasons for secrecy moot; at this point, it was nothing but hypocrisy.
"Telling them will not change anything."
Yang said those words firmly to Luna Crescentia after she got on her. To some extent, she was right; telling them that Raven was the Spring Maiden would indeed not change anything. They had no idea where Raven was and, even if they did track her down, she wouldn't help them.
But then again, if it didn't change anything, what would be the harm in letting them know? How would they react to the truth about Raven?
Many of them, including Math, Qrow and Nasser, would most likely condemn Raven as irredeemable for her acts of cowardice, hypocrisy and violence. Who could ever condone the murder of an innocent girl just to steal her power? What could wash away the buckets of blood on Raven's hands, blood that she pretended was never there?
While she wanted to remain confident in her choice, Yang had to admit to herself that she was being hypocritical. Was there a good reason to keep Raven a secret from everyone? Could she be redeemed or forgiven for her past?
Yang remembered vividly how Tai and Qrow spoke of how the tribe treated Raven; they treated her as weak, worthless and stupid, sounding nothing like a kind and supporting family anyone would stay loyal to. They had instilled a mindset in her that valued strength and disregarded weakness.
"Well…I don't need her! No one needs her!"
She spoke those words with immense pain and sorrow after feeling a great emptiness in her search for her mother. She had found some answers, but none of them helped her feel better. All that effort, all those years of looking, almost getting herself and Ruby killed as children…all for nothing.
A question raised itself: was Yang wanting to keep Raven a secret to avoid feeling the emptiness in her heart? Only Ruo truly understood the pain that she was experiencing, pain that had caused her to completely break down and show her most vulnerable side to the man she loved.
"Yang?" Ruo spoke, shaking her shoulder as she kept pushing Bumblebee. "Are you okay?" The sun dragon looked down, her expression devoid of any of her usual cheerfulness.
"I don't know," she spoke. She looked at Ruo and whispered so that only he could hear.
"Do you think I should tell them about Raven?" Ruo was silent for a few moments, thinking about his answer to his beloved.
"You should. If they find out from someone else and find out you knew, that may cost them their trust in you."
"They wouldn't understand," Yang whispered. "I…"
"You asked me my opinion and I think it's unfair of you to keep information from everyone when you're so demanding of sharing it. Why do you really want to keep Raven a secret from everyone? Ozpin's not here."
Just like that, her initial reason for keeping a secret was rendered moot. Why was she really keeping this information from everyone?
"Yang, now's not the time, but you need to tell them sooner or later. Keeping important information at this point is nothing more than hypocrisy." Ruo then walked ahead, leaving Yang alone to consider his words of advice.
Oscar kept his distance from everyone out of fear of how they'd react. Ozpin had admitted to having broken his promise to everyone to stop telling lies and half-truths, something that had landed them in the position they were in now. If he had told them about the Relic's ability to attract Grimm, then they'd most likely still be on the Argus Limited.
He didn't know how everyone else felt, but he couldn't help but feel some form of sympathy for Ozpin. He had been walking Remnant for thousands of years and felt that his mission to unite humanity was almost hopeless as he believed he himself could not destroy Salem. He was trying his best to stop Salem from destroying the human race, even though his efforts seemed fruitless; as long as Salem lived, she would continue to divide humanity.
Sadly, this had led everyone else to believe Ozpin considered them as nothing more than pawns for his war. Qrow blamed Ozpin for Summer's death after so many years of blaming his Semblance of bringing misfortune. He respected Ozpin greatly, even after he admitted that he had forced Pyrrha to take the Maiden powers in his desperation. To see him so angry towards the former Beacon Headmaster showed how much Qrow was hurt by Ozpin's admittance of initially only wanting to recruit Summer.
Ever since he came to Mistral, Oscar bore the brunt of the abuse from everyone who showed hostility towards Ozpin, especially Math and Jaune. Pyrrha was Mathdon's beloved and Jaune's teammate and partner; what Ozpin did to hear couldn't be forgiven easily. In his desperation, he violated her trust and forced her to take the Maiden powers, an act that neither Math nor Jaune would ever forget.
"Am I…just another one of his lives?" Oscar asked. He breathed heavily, unsure of what to think of himself anymore. He didn't want to be just one of Ozpin's lives in his painful cycle of reincarnation, to possibly lose his identity. The farmhand shook his head, trying to rid himself of these negative thoughts.
"No…I'm not Ozpin. I won't be just another-"
"Don't lie to yourself," Qrow interrupted, sipping from his flask. "You saw what happened."
"No, you're wrong!" Oscar claimed. "I…I didn't ask for this."
"Well, I didn't ask to cause misfortune wherever I went," Qrow barked. "But guess what? No one cares."
"Qrow!" Ruo snapped at him. The scythe user was about to drink from his flask again, but Ruo snatched it from him, activated the Earth Dust in Huzhao, and crushed it, then dropped it onto the snow.
"Not cool," Qrow commented.
"But necessary," Ruo responded.
It took longer than the group hoped, but they made it to the abandoned manor. The manor itself looked okay, but the area surrounding it said another story.
The soil where vegetables used to grow was cracked, dry and dead, only weeds managing to grow out of it. The shed and tree house were rotting away and falling apart, almost as if all it'd take is a breath to make them break down completely.
"No one's been here for a long while," Math assumed.
"I don't like this place," Weiss spoke softly, creeped out by what she was seeing.
"We don't have a choice," Forest insisted. "It's too dangerous to travel after dark with that Relic."
"Then you should get settled in," Luna suggested. "Ruo, you ready to go hunting?" The White Tiger nodded his head.
"Be back before dark," Math told them.
"Sure, dad," Luna responded sarcastically. While Luna and Ruo walked off to go hunting, the group entered the manor house and looked around. Again, it didn't look abandoned at all; it was if it had never been abandoned in the first place.
"I don't think this is how all abandoned places look," Oren stated.
"No argument," Saf responded. "We should look around, make sure it's safe."
"Agreed," Forest replied. "Everyone, get into teams of two and look around. If you see anything, call."
"Will do," Oren answered. Everyone joined in pairs and walked off to investigate the manor.
Ruby and Weiss, who had paired up, investigated the room to the left. The scowl on Ruby's face hadn't changed at all; she still appeared frustrated and angry at what she had learned about her mother. The man she had looked up to, the man she was willing to give a chance when almost no one else would, had sacrificed her mother in the war.
"Ruby?" Weiss asked.
"Yes?" she responded. "I'm fine, Weiss."
"No, you're not," the Schnee rebuked. "You're not yourself right now. You're team leader-"
"So that suddenly means I'm not allowed a moment of anger and grief?" Ruby interrupted sharply. "In case you weren't listening, my mom is dead and it's all Ozpin's fault; to make it worse, he let my uncle live with that guilt for years and did nothing to help him ease it."
Weiss was taken back by Ruby's outburst. She didn't know what was going through her friend's mind, but it was obviously hurting her to a great extent. As she was about to reply, she noticed a picture of two adults and a young child on the wall. Weiss walked towards it, prompting Ruby to do the same.
"Wait…" Ruby spoke, looking at the young girl in the picture. She had black hair, amber eyes, wore a red dress…and looked completely innocent and happy, almost as if the darkness of the world was nowhere to be seen near her.
"She looks…like…" Weiss spoke.
"Cinder," Ruby stated, frowning.
-0-
"What are you saying?" Olivia asked, an eyebrow raised in confusion as she and Rufus were alone from the group.
"I mean, that chick bit at that soldier's neck," Rufus explained. "I've seen a lot of things, but that…she was acting more like a beast than a person. Something's up with this 'Amber'."
"Even so, this is a golden opportunity," Olivia claimed. "Five veteran Huntsmen, all with huge bounties on their heads. Once we get the bounties, we never have to bother with her again." Rufus looked scared in the direction of where Cinder was, speaking with the two new members of her crew.
"That chick's bloodthirsty, literally," the red squirrel Faunus stated. "I'm no one's moral compass, but…that's just messed up, what she did."
"You're right," Olivia agreed. "You are no one's moral compass. You admitted that you may've knocked up half of Anima by now." Rufus chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, I need to take the stress off. But seriously, we need to keep an eye on this 'Amber'. She's unpredictable and that could be bad for us."
"You worry about finding a ship that will get us to Solitas," Olivia ordered. "I'll worry about her. We still need to find Redd Edge."
"Oh, please, we already have two psychopaths with us," Rufus complained. "Actually, three including 'Amber'. Do we really need another one?"
"Redd Edge is a strong fighter," Olivia replied. "Between you and me, I have the feeling that Cinder may stab us in the back once we reach those kids."
"Olivia, kids don't have breasts that large," the squirrel responded, not bothering to hide his lecherous thoughts for some of the young women he saw. Before he could envision them, he felt a sharp pain on his cheek, having been slapped by the sharpshooter.
"Stop thinking with your genitals and focus," she demanded. "Find a ship that can get us to Atlas."
"Sure, mom," Rufus responded rudely before continuing his search for Atlesian craft that'd get them to the northernmost Kingdom.
While she didn't show it, Olivia was concerned by what Rufus had said. Cinder acted like an animal in that fight, fighting savagely and with bloodlust. What could've possessed her to act that way?
"Olivia," Eneas called out flamboyantly. "Dear, you must come and join us by the fire, away from that lecherous squirrel."
"I'm fine," she assured. "We'll find Redd Edge next before we make our move to steal an Atlas aircraft."
"We need to go now," Cinder insisted. "We cannot wait any longer. I must…I must kill her."
"Slow down," Olivia spoke. "We need to be careful. If we rush-"
"I'm in charge!" Cinder barked angrily, glaring from her mask. "Find this Redd Edge if he'll help, but after that, we get an aircraft."
"You do not command us," Ketseuki replied. "We follow you solely-" He was lifted into the air by Cinder, showing surprising strength as she did this with one arm.
"Do not speak back to me!" she threatened. "I'm the one who showed you where they were. If you wish to live long enough to get that bounty, you WILL obey me!" She tossed him to the ground and walked away from the fire, leaving everyone alone.
"What'd you get us into, Olivia?" Ketseuki questioned, recovering onto his feet.