Chapter 16: A Vale of a Time
"Was... Was it supposed to be that difficult?" Weiss huffed out on one knee in exhaustion.
"N-No." Blake answered as her breathing became labored.
"Wiess, Blake." Ruby exclaimed with concern as herself and Yang ran to check on their partners.
"You okay?" Yang asked as the sisters helped their teammates up.
"I think so." Blake responded.
Looking at the scene before them was the two Hylians. Their new Aura glow started to fade as they felt fully rejuvenated and could take on the world.
"If I still wasn't convinced that you two were different," Weiss remarked while being propped up by Ruby, "I definitely would think otherwise now."
"Good to know snow queens okay." Yang wryly commented to Weiss's glare.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Zelda asked, concerned for their fallen friends.
"Yeah, just, tired." Blake reassured.
"It took a lot of Aura to unlock yours." Weiss commented as she used Myrtenastor's blade for support.
"Is it supposed to feel like we can do anything?" Zelda inquired.
"Yep, just concentrate on that feeling and you'll be golden." Yang said as she continued to look after Blake.
Seeing that they would be okay, Zelda tried concentrating like Yang had said. The feeling she originally felt filled her with comfort and strength. It was a strange combination but very distinct and was probably the only time she felt that in her life. Looking into herself, Zelda could faintly regain the feeling of her Aura but there was something else blocking it, she felt conflict. The feeling of her Aura was being dominated by the feeling she felt when the goddess' power flowed. It was as if they were battling for her soul but then the feeling suddenly went away.
On the outside, Link and RWBY watched as Zelda was just barely able to activate her Aura. It flashed and sparked in a desperate attempt to form. A mix of the blue from her Aura and the gold of when she uses the Goddess' power surrounded her as she held her eyes closed in concentration. After a few moments of visible mental struggle, Zelda seemed to relax and open her eyes again. The blue glow she emitted seems to have stabilized before she released it causing it to disappear.
"Okay, that was different." Ruby said in response to the unusual reaction.
Link grew a look of concern mixed with confusion at the meaning of Ruby's words. Different, how so, is this something that he should be concerned about or is it just a normal aspect of Aura, he just didn't know.
"I-I think I need to lie down," Weiss said as she felt a migraine coming on.
"Yeah, me too." Blake added as her fatigue grew.
"I think I need some sleep as well." Yang tacked on.
"Looks like we'll be turning in for the day, see you guys tomorrow." Ruby realized.
"Have a good sleep, we haven't got much rest either." Zelda responded kindly.
And so everyone said their farewells as the two teams parted ways. Team RWBY retreated to their dorm and ZL wandered around Beacon. The two walked and talked, well, Zelda did most of the talking while Link was content to just listen. After meandering through the many hallways, the two found themselves in the grand library where the princess, upon realizing their location, took to multiple books on varying topics and subjects. She picked up books ranging from Remnant's history all the way to Aura and Semblances. Link also picked up a few books, mostly about the Grimm and Huntsmen. It was a silent blessing that along with the two worlds sharing a language, they also shared the same writing script making their search for knowledge much easier than they would've thought. Checking out a number of books the pair made their way back to their dorm and decided to turn in for the night.
Over the next few days, Link and Zelda learned more and more of the world of Remnant and its people. When they heard of the great war, the two were stunned at what they saw. Nearly a hundred years ago, which they found somewhat ironic, the kingdoms of Mantle now Atlas and Mistral outlawed self-expression in an attempt to horde off the Grimm through limiting all emotions. Zelda found it quite counterintuitive and repulsive to say the least. If the Grimm are attracted to negativity, banning positivity would destroy its only presumed countermeasure.
It seemed as the people of Vale shared her view as tensions worsened between the three while Vacuo remained neutral for the time being. It all came to a head when colonists on the edge of Sanus from both Vale and Mistral clashed sparking an all out war. Vacuo continued to hold onto their neutrality whilst being pressured by Mistral and Mantle to ally with them. That was until the lawless kingdom realized that if Vale fell, they would be next. So Vacuo and Vale faced off against Mistral and Mantle for ten years. The final battle was the bloodiest as the King of Vale personally led his troops to victory. The four kingdoms came together on the island of Vytal and made peace that has lasted ever since. The two even learned that the Vytal festival is a celebration of unity from the war that moves around the globe so one kingdom isn't more influential than another. It was a marvel of engineering and cooperation recognizable by all.
"That was enlightening." Zelda said as she finished reading.
Link didn't say anything but he was thinking the same thing. It's been just over a week now since the two were sent to Remnant and they were adapting well. They learned of its history, they've spoken with RWBY nearly every day and occasionally JNPR, they even gained moderate control over their scrolls. The Sheikah slate helped with the transition, even bringing up the question of how advanced were the ancient Sheikah truly were if they could emanate this technology to such a degree. Other than adjusting to the new world, Team RWBY said that they'd like to show them somewhere today, with it being the weekend, they said it would be the perfect time and if on cue, there was a knock on the door.
"Oh, seems like they're here." Zelda said as she got up and went to the door.
Opening the door was team RWBY in full, all ready and waiting.
"Hello." Ruby greeted.
"Hello." Zelda responded kindly, "I'm assuming it's time to go?"
"If you're ready." Weiss said as Link greeted the team with a nod.
"You haven't been to downtown Vale yet, have you?" Blake asked rhetorically.
"No, only Beacon." Zelda answered.
"Perfect." Yang announced.
"We were thinking of showing you around." Ruby said with her regular enthusiasm as she began to bounce up and down.
"That sounds wonderful." Zelda expressed with happiness. "Link, are you re-oh." She started to turn and ask to see that the knight was already at the door. Seeing him ready, she turned back to RWBY, "Shall we."
The six then made their way towards the bullhead landing pads where it was relatively busy. People were coming and going as they pleased, students returned from single week breaks, all about to prepare for a new semester. The group of RWBY and ZL found the Vale-Beacon bullhead and quickly boarded before take off. The flight was fifteen minutes at most before they touched down and disembarked.
"Welcome to Vale." Ruby announced as she stood between the group and the city with arms raised in celebration.
"Oh my," Zelda gawked at the sight before her.
Link's eyes widened with the princess'. In the foreground, there were buildings upon buildings, not too different from those in Hyrule. Some seemed to be similar in design to those in Hateno but in the background there were buildings so large that they rivaled and even surpassed the infamous Akkala Citadel. An entire skyline filled with these towers sprouted up in front of them, the heart of the kingdom.
"Hey," Yang called out, "You coming or what?"
The hylians returned to reality to realize that they had fallen behind and quickened their pace, hastily returning to RWBY.
Soon the six were walking along the streets of the city. A slight breeze flew between the buildings as the sun shone from above. The shops that stood beside them were all being decorated, preparing for the Vytal festival and all the business that would be coming through because of it. Thinking back to Hyrule, the two Hylians looked on with curiosity. Just the small portion of the city that they've seen was larger than all of castle town. There were so many things, so many people and so many possibilities, something for anyone and everyone.
"Hey, I know this place." Ruby nearly squealed as she hopped up and down.
"What, it's just a random Dust shop." Weiss commented on the small shop front.
"Wait, isn't that-Hey! Rubes! Wait up!" Yang started before being cut off by Ruby speeding towards the shop with the others watching for a moment before reluctantly pursuing.
The six, as soon as Ruby slowed down enough for the others to catch up, now stood in front of the small, two story building with a Dust shop on the main floor.
"You dolt, why do you always have to run off somewhere." Weiss reprimanded once she got close to her partner.
"'From Dust till Dawn' huh, subtle." Blake remarked with some sarcasm as she looked at the sign above.
"In we go." Ruby said, leading the way as she forcefully swung open the door.
Inside, there was a slightly startled eldery shopkeeper, no doubt slightly spooked from Ruby's egregious entrance. He seemed to calm down when he saw that it was just a bunch of teens, a hunter and huntresses by the look of things. Link and Zelda took in the quaint shop, seeing all manner of product around them, Dust crystals as they learned.
"Ah welcome." The shopkeeper said, fully recomposing himself.
"Hello, anything new?" Ruby asked, slightly confusing the rest of the group.
"Yep, same as where it always is." He replied, pointing to the back of the shop.
"Awesome." Ruby hastily responded before dashing to the back leaving the remaining five at the with the old shopkeeper.
"So, what can I do for you?" He asked the others.
"We'll just look around for the time being." Yang responded as she started to see where her sister had dashed off to.
"Just holler if you need anything." He said as the group dispersed. "HEY REDSON, WE'VE GOT CUSTOMERS!" He yelled back to the response of some falling boxes. The noise brought him to grumble some obscenities under his breath that the others couldn't quite make out.
Link couldn't help but mentally chuckle that there was another son named person. He'd fit right in in Tarrey Town the knight thought as he took to slowly browsing the merchandise the shop had available. After reading up a little on Dust, he could recognize a majority of the crystals that lined the display cabinets. The varying types of Dust reminded him of the elemental weapons in how they were used and their differences. It was somewhat calming to know that there were some things that surpassed their world and were similar in this new one. Zelda was also fascinated with what all this shop sold. A plethora of Dust products, all unique and different in their own way. Her natural curiosity took over as she examined the rows upon rows of all matter of Dust.
Yang was the first to reach Ruby as her sister was already nose deep into the newest weapons magazine. Looking on, she couldn't help but release a fond sigh at her geekiness for anything you could fight with.
"Is this what you were looking for?" Yang questioned in a light, joking tone.
"Yep, this has all the new upgrades and the best huntsmen weapons." Ruby replied with her normal enthusiasm.
"Can't argue with that." She admitted while taking a peek at the magazine's cover, A huntsman with a broadsword based long range sniper rifle, "Hey, isn't this the place where you stopped Torchwick?" Yang asked curiously.
"Heh, yah." Ruby responded bashfully while scratching the back of her head. "It wasn't anything big though." She tried to reason, still not fully at peace with her method of gaining acceptance into Beacon. Although if she had to pick, she would pick her team and Beacon any day.
"So that's why you were so eager to come here." Weiss noted as she joined the siblings with Blake following close behind.
"It wasn't anything important." The reaper tried to argue still.
While the two's banter continued, Blake approached Yang with a small smile at the young leader. The two stood and watched in silence for a few minutes before Blake spoke up, "You were right, she really doesn't want to be seen as special."
"Yeah," Yang sighed as her next words came to her, "Ever since the start of the year, she's been insisting she wasn't anything special."
"I know, I've heard your conversations." Blake said with a slight chuckle, "But I can understand wanting to fit into a crowd."
"Hey, we've already dealt with this." Yang chided, "Besides we've got to deal with them." She finished with a gesture to their teammates.
"Yeah," she sighed before continuing, "Do you think they've been at it long enough?" The Faunus questioned as Weiss was near berating Ruby about not running off in front of them.
"Ehh, how long's it been?" Yang casually asked.
"Five minutes." Blake responded with a look on her scroll.
"Yep, that's long enough." Yang declared, outwardly cracking her knuckles before approaching the two.
"But seriously, you can't keep bolting off, we have a hard time keeping up with you as is." Weiss reprimanded, seemingly starting to get through to her leader.
"Maybe you do, but I can keep up just fine." Yang intruded on the side of her sister with a smug grin to boot.
"Wha- No, I was just saying that running off to who knows where isn't the best idea." Weiss argued in her defence.
"So Ruby, you never really talked about that night." Blake said in a somewhat questioning tone, redirecting the conversation even though seeing Weiss fumble about was somewhat amusing.
"It wasn't much." Ruby replied bashfully.
"Oh come on, you took on Torchwick and got him on the run." Yang playfully argued.
"With what I've seen of him, that is impressive." Weiss complemented.
"At the docks, it wasn't until Sun and I wore him down before Penny started unleashing hell on him that he ran." Blake said with a fond smile, "You don't give yourself the credit you deserve."
With a weary chuckle from the little reaper, "I guess you guys have a point." Ruby admitted.
"Good, now school starts back up in a week and we have the tournament at the end of the semester." Weiss started, the others have a vague idea of where she was going to go with this, "We're gonna have to train. We don't know who we'll be up against and what their strengths and weaknesses are, we need to prepare for anything."
"Ughhh." Ruby groaned out, "Can't we just enjoy our break?" She pleaded with puppy dog eyes.
"Aww, can you really say no to a face like this Weiss?" Yang said, attempting to guilt the heiress.
"I agree with Weiss, we barely beat Torchwick last time and I doubt if we face him again, he'll be ready." Blake said, her thoughts still lingering on that night and the Fang.
Yang could see her partner's thoughts and needed to stop them, "Hey, we talked about it, besides we've still got Link and Zelda with us." The brawler said in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"Wait, where are they even?" Weiss asked now realizing they hadn't seen the two since they came in.
"Huh, I don't kn-BOOM." Blake started before being interrupted by a small but noticeable explosion at the front of the store.
"Link, Zelda!" Ruby cried out as she dashed to where the burst came from.
A few minutes earlier, the two Hylians were perusing the selection of Dust while team RWBY went their own way towards the back of the store. The number of variations was nearly overwhelming for the princess and knight as different Dust products lined the numerous shelfs.
"Anything catching your eye?" The shopkeeper's employee, Redson, the elder mentioned, asked as Zelda gazed upon the main display case.
"I'm quite new to different Dust types so I don't really know what's the best." She replied honestly.
"Ahh, that's quite understandable. With all the different Dust combinations the SDC has come up with recently, it can get overwhelming to say the least. If you have any questions, ask away." Redson offered.
"Thank you." Zelda responded before returning to the Dust.
After a few minutes of looking, Zelda started eyeing a single cyan Dust crystal. It looked cleanly cut and well made that also created a light blue tinted mirror of herself in the gem.
"This right here is some well cut, very rare, Hard-Light Dust." Redson said as he saw Zelda's interest in it. "Created from deep within the depths of Atlas, this Dust can be used to form solid objects out of light energy. While it's mostly used for Atlas' defence, it also has some offensive capabilities but those aren't very widely known."
"Fascinating," Zelda said as she gazed upon the display. "And what might this be?" She asked, gesturing over to some other crystals in the case.
"Ah, some well refined Burn dust, highly volatile stuff in the wrong hands." He said while retrieving a sample.
Link apparently took notice of Zelda and Redson's conversation and subtly brought himself just off to the side.
"A few months back there was an attempted robbery here where the assailant used mostly Burn dust." Redson divulged in casual conversation.
Link lifted an eyebrow at that but thought not much of it, not like it would concern him. While he pondered lightly on that, the princess took the provided crystal. For the size that it was, she could feel that it was lighter than what she would expect from a mined mineral.
"That can release up to a megajoule of energy in an instant creating quite the explosion. Very powerful stuff and commonly used in mining operations when it's not used by Huntsmen" Redson listed off.
As Zelda held the Dust crystal, a searing pain started to grow inside her. With the pain growing, Zelda inadvertently clutched onto the crystal and started visibly struggling to stand. Link realized this instantly but didn't know what to do. As her grip tightened the pain inside her grew faster until it was truly unbearable. With a sharp cry, Zelda's Aura flared up in an attempt to defend herself which only ended up agitating the Dust in her hand. Link quickly looked between the princess and the now glowing dust in her hand and knew something had to give.
"GET DOWN!" Link yelled as Redson did so without a second thought.
Now that he was out of the way, Link could get to work. Zelda loosened her grip at his cry just enough for Link to pry the Dust out of her hands. Once he had a hold of it, Link himself felt the fierce heat emanating into his hand and knew he had to do something. Quickly tossing it away, Link instantaneously brought the Hylian shield to bear. As he pulled the princess and himself down behind it just before a fiery explosion engulfed the general area.
A moment after and once the heat dissipated, Link looked out from his shield and saw the burned front of the store. Luckily no other Dust was nearby to start a devastating chain reaction. Looking around, he saw team RWBY round a shelf and stop to witness the full impact of what had just occurred.
"Woah," Ruby said, stunned at the visible blackness. "What happened here?"
"I didn't do it." Yang blurted out with her arms raised in defense. The scene did look like something she would leave at Junior's.
"Of course you didn't." Weiss said sternly, "What on Remnant happened." She nearly demanded. Dust should be handled with care and this looked anything but.
"Is everyone okay?" Redson asked as he looked around at the damage, head poking up from behind the counter.
"Y-yes." Zelda said with a slight cough.
"WHAT IN THE GODS NAME HAPPENED HERE!?" The shopkeeper yelled as he came barreling onto the scene, "REDSON EXPLAIN!"
"I-I-I don't know sir. A Burn Dust crystal acted up. I couldn't do anything." Redson said in his defense.
"Dust doesn't just 'Act up', there has to be a cause." he said, still in shock and anger.
"Actually, some more volatile Dust can spontaneously combust in the right conditions." Weiss interjected.
"And who might you be?" The shopkeeper shouted, redirecting his anger to Weiss.
"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." She said, causing him to take a second look at her before realizing she was the heiress.
"M-m-miss Schnee I, why, what-" He sputtered before being cut off.
"Upt upt upt, I'm not finished yet." She said, gaining his full attention, "The SDC is willing to pay for any and all damages sustained in this… incident."
"I-uh-That is quite the generous offer, I wouldn't want to impose or anything." He hastily rebutted.
"Nonsense, from the looks of things, this was an error none could have predicted." She convincingly lied about the company's willingness to repair a measly Dust shop. "Think of this as a generous donation."
"T-Thank you. I-It's much appreciated." He stuttered.
"Think nothing of it, you can send me a bill." She responded with a dismissive wave of her hand
"Y-yes." He responded before turning back to his employee, "Redson, I'll need you to complete a full damage report. Then you're free to go, I'll need to close up early today." He said, returning to his damaged store.
"Well that was something." Blake said as Weiss returned to the group with Link and Zelda standing to join them as well. The two employees started taking inventory and completely ignored the others for the time being.
With a small chuckle and a smug look, Yang looked to the Hylians who stood slightly dazed, "You really can do a number without me, although I could do better." She said while receiving a slap on the back of the head from her sister, "Hey."
"Yang, he already had to deal with cleaning up after Torchwick." Ruby said, causing Yang to feel slightly guilty for her comment.
"So? Would one of you care to explain why all matters of Dust safety have been completely and utterly ignored?" Weiss harshly asked, dropping her corporate heiress persona.
"To be honest," Zelda started before being interrupted by a stomach rumble, "I think it's about lunch time."
Laughter broke out at the absurdity but everyone else's stomach rumbled one by one increasing the laughter until no one else was left to rumble.
"Mmm Cookies." Ruby said in a hungry haze causing a few more giggles.
"Anyone know a place?" Yang asked no one.
"I think I do." Blake responded with a small smile
"Alright, lunch first, but I still expect an explanation." Weiss said as the group started towards the door.
A/N: Not much to say today as this was more of a down chapter to next week's action and this is where the plan for this story starts to come together.
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