Chapter 47

"We've got more incoming!" The pilot's panicking voice cried out over the intercom. Weiss nodded, not that he could see that, and prepared for the next wave of Lancers.

Glyphs spawned around her, launching icicles out of the open cargo door to impale several of the flying bug Grimm. Before she could fire another volley the vessel tipped to the side. A black gravity Glyph formed beneath her, keeping her from moving.

As the ship righted itself Weiss stumbled. Once again she fired shards of ice out at their pursuers. While she managed to kill them, they were far from out of danger as a Queen Lancer appeared, angered by the number of warriors she'd lost.

Weiss launched several attacks upon it, even unlatching the ships Dust cargo and using it as a weapon. The monster survived all of it, however, forcing Weiss to use her latest technique. The silvery-white knight formed, greatsword in hand. On her command the ship pitched upwards, allowing the knight to use Remnants natural gravity to its advantage.

Once the ship had corrected it's course Weiss felt it. Her summon faded, but just before it did she felt like something had been added to herself. Instinctively she knew that the Queen Lancer had been slain, and like many of her foes it was now another weapon in her arsenal.

If it wasn't for the vessel losing altitude as it headed for a crash, she might have had the chance to celebrate. As it was, she was too busy trying to survive.

The ship slammed into the rough ground and Weiss was knocked unconscious. The next thing she saw as she slowly regained consciousness, was a trio of people talking to each other.

And then they knocked her out.

"Hiya!" Sun shouted, stabbing out with the spear. Adam twisted his own around, smacking the incoming weapon to the side and then landing a strike against Sun's side with the blunt end. "Ah!" Sun cried out as he stumbled to the side.

Neptune came in next, taking over for his leader. The blue-haired boy was of course far better with the spear, using his training with his trident and glaive as a point of reference. Honestly speaking Neptune was far better at it than Adam was, but he lacked the experience of fighting people that Adam had which is why despite the difference in talent Neptune still failed to claim victory.

Adam took a stab to his side and used it as a chance to close in and trip his opponent up. Neptune hit the ground hard and didn't bother getting up.

"That was good." Adam said, eyeing the team as a whole. They've got the basics down. Neptune obviously is the best but Sun's starting to get it. A spear is basically a staff with a pointy end after all. Sage and Scarlett not so much, but it'll do. "You're all ready to teach the basics. But there's still plenty of time in the day, so let's work on you."

Adam planted his spear into the ground and then sat down. After a moment of hesitation, the others followed suit, sitting in a vague semi-circle. Now comes the real hard part. "You're teamwork so far has been… alright. I've seen some definite improvement since the start of the tournament. However, you all have a long way to go. As far as I can tell you still haven't really solved the underlining cause. So…" He eyed the team one by one. "Scarlett. Sage. Neptune. Now is the time to voice your complaints to Sun."

"Huh?" Sun sounded confused as he cocked his head to the side.

Neptune shuffled uncomfortably but Scarlett sighed. "Our complaint's huh? Alright." He cleared his throat and turned to face Sun. "You aren't a leader Sun. You always runoff, without a care for your team. You ran to Vale ahead of us just because you felt like it! More often than not we do team exercises without you because you've run away to do something else! You're too impulsive. Even coming here you didn't listen to us! You didn't really ask us, you practically told us to come! You can be really noble Sun, but you're really selfish too."

Scarlett let out an explosive sigh and turned away from his leader, a scowl on his face. Sun's eyes were wide in shock. The got even wider when Neptune spoke up. "I hate to say it but Scarlett is right. It always feels like you can't… I don't know, sit still I guess. You always have some reason for running off to do something and that's fine, but you don't spend enough time with your team."

Neptune looked away guiltily. Sage nodded sagely when Adam glanced at him. To keep things from getting out of hand Adam spoke up immediately. "Alright. Sun, do you understand what they are trying to say?"

Sun was silent for a minute. Adam cut off anyone else who tried to speak, waiting for the monkey-Faunus to talk. "I… I guess I do…"

"Would you like to discuss your reasoning then?" Adam had very rarely needed to do this kind of mediation, but it had come up a few times. When you're fighting against injustice people tend to be pretty emotionally driven which leads to a lot of conflicts, even within your own ranks. He couldn't call himself the most empathetic of people, but getting his allies to talk to each other had been needed as a leader. It seemed ironic now of course. He could get others to talk through their issues, but couldn't do the same himself.

"I… I grew up in Vacuo. It's not the kind of place where you want to stay still. Death happens a lot, so people learn to move on quickly. You can't pause to mourn. It's a constant fight to survive and…" He paused, thinking on how to word his next sentence. "I lost a lot at a young age. I had to abandon my home and move to Vacuo, the city, to survive. During the journey, I guess I decided that I'd never stop moving. I lost my parents and home, so I… I didn't want to get attached to people or places again. The only exception would be a tree I found in the desert. It was alone in the sand..."

Sun stopped for a moment. Adam had heard about the tree before. Back when he'd talked with Sun around the tournament. He focuses on that image to help control his Semblance. "So then, you keep wanting to move around and do as much as you can, wherever you can?" Adam asked. It seems like he tries to ignore the past and keep looking forward. Admirable in many cases, but perhaps he's taken it too far.

Sun shrugged. "I guess. I try to go wherever I feel I'm needed. Like coming with you. Or becoming a Huntsman."

"You can't forget the past, Sun," Adam said, standing. "It's a part of you. You have a team now and they need you. Besides, if you become a great team, you can all work together to save lives. So. You know why your team hasn't had faith in you. You've neglected them. Time to change that, right?" Adam offered a hand.

"Yeah. Yea it is." Sun smiled and took it. Adam pulled him to his feet.

"Good. Now then. All four of you work as a team and beat me. You have the rest of the day. You'll only win this challenge and get the reward if you best me as a team." He stressed the final words as he tore his spear from the ground. Sure, they could probably beat him as this wasn't his best weapon but it wasn't about just beating him.

They had to work as a team.

"A reward! Heck yea guys, let's win that!" Sun bombastically announced as he jumped to his feet. His team rallied around him. The main issues had been aired. They could finally work to fix them.

Come at me. I have high hopes for all of you.

"Iiiiiiii found him!" Qrow announced, bargain past him to stumble through the open door and throw himself onto the first couch he found.

Ruby Rose stared on in surprise and annoyance as the older Huntsman continued on about 'finding him'. The 'him' in question was of course Oscar Pine, who had followed the drunk home. Or was it guided the drunk home?

This is one of the Huntsmen I've been idolising for years? Oscar wondered.

Yes. Though I assure you that he is one of the best. He is just… a character.

A character. Yeah. Oscar swallowed as Ruby Rose turned back to him. He felt like waving but stopped himself. That'd be far too awkward.

"And you are?"

"Oh uh… Oscar Pine."

"Well. Thanks for bringing back my uncle, but what's he on about?"

"Well uhh… how best to say this?" While he paused to try and get it out, Qrow loudly blurted it out from the couch.

"Ozpin!" The drunk them promptly rolled off the couch.

Ruby looked between Qrow and Oscar for several moments before she sighed. "Come on in."

Well… that was a nice introduction!

Please be quiet.

Adam took a deep breath and opened the door. The guard at the side gave him a nod as Adam closed it behind him. He walked a little stiltedly up to the balcony railing and leaned on it. Ghira sighed.

"Leave us." The large man said. The guard nodded and went inside, leaving the pair alone. "So, what did you wish to speak about?"

Adam rubbed his hands together as he tried to find the right words. "Well… I had a question for you. About Blake. Or well… about Blake and I." Adam swallowed.

Ghira nodded slowly as he turned to face him. "Ask it."

"When she has… when she's started down the path to redemption, do you believe we should try again? Me and her. As a-"

"I know what you mean." Ghira grumbled as he interrupted Adam. The pair were silent for a while as Ghira considered what his answer would be. "I want to say no. That you should never get back together ever again. That once she comes home to us you should never speak again. But that's not helpful. To anyone." He sighed again, a big annoyed one this time. "To be honest 'should' doesn't come into it. You could try again. But I will say that you shouldn't start right away. If you two still love each other than you can wait until you have both moved past all the things you've done. Don't drag each other into your own journey to redemption."

Adam nodded. "Thank you. For being honest."

"You should have asked Kali."

"Maybe. But I wanted to hear what you would say."

Ghira looked at him confused. "Why?"

"We got along once. Before my first kill, you were like a father to me. You and Kali saw through me after that. You tried to keep Blake from getting too involved. Your insight is valuable. You two are really the only successful couple I know. None of team SSSN have been in a successful relationship and anyone else I've met that has been successful has… lost it over the years. Besides, you two know Blake extremely well. And I want to make up for all I've done. It's part of my path you could say."

Ghira studied Adam for a moment before he nodded and looked back out over the town he led. "You're... definitely a much better-adjusted person than you were before. Just make sure you take your time with her, don't force something if either one of you isn't ready."

"Thank you for the advice."

"I still don't like the idea of you two together. You have a long way to go to prove yourself."

Adam smiled. "I hope to reach that point someday." He held out a hand.

Ghira smiled and shook it.

Weiss groaned as she awoke, her head throbbing with pain, her hands bound, her dress dirty, her hair messy. Ugh…

Wait… hands bound?

She looked down to confirm. Her hands were bound at the wrist by tight rope. Her blade was nowhere to be seen and as she glanced around it became clearer where she was. A cage within a bandit camp.

Great. Just great. I wonder what happened to the pilot? Her memory was foggy, but she had a sinking feeling that he hadn't survived the crash. After all that he'd died at the finish line.

Laughter caught her attention and she looked over to see a pair of bandits. A familiar pair though it took a moment for her to recognise them. They were two of the three who found her. The third wasn't here. As soon as the two guards noticed that she was awake they started to throw insults at her.

She'd heard worse so she didn't pay much attention to it. When all they could truly muster was insults towards her family or her current less-than-clean appearance, why should she listen to them?

They stopped laughing when a nearby tent flap was pulled open, revealing a woman with dark hair and an interesting tattoo.

A woman who was also holding onto Myrtenaster like it was some spoil of war. Which in a way Weiss supposed it was.

"This is the girl the boss picked up huh? Should get a niiice big ransom for a Schnee." She said with a smirk.

"If you want to keep this place, you had better let me go and return my weapon to me." Weiss replied, putting on an air of confidence.

"Ha! And why's that?"

"The moment that people realise I'm missing they'll come looking for me. My sister is in Mistral and will find me quite quickly." Weiss smirked.

The woman paused for a moment then belted out a laugh. "Oh! Oh, that's cute. Sorry girly, but your sister ran back to Atlas with her tail between her legs. Couldn't put up with everyone hating her for what Atlas did to Vale."

Weiss' smile was dashed in an instant. The woman laughed again and left. Weiss was left alone in the cage, watched from afar. She hid in the corner and started to prepare.

She was no damsel. She wasn't just some aristocrat that couldn't defend herself. She was a Schnee, and not the kind her father wanted. No. Weiss Schnee had the blood on Nicholas Schnee within her.

He would have fought his way free, and she'll do the same. She didn't need anyone to come and rescue her.

She could create her own knight in shining armour after all.

A/N: Ah. A week off from work is nice I must say. Got to catch up on some anime and manga. Hard to believe AoT is nearly over. It's been going for what, a decade? Damn. Meanwhile, Re:Zero Season 2 Part 2 is going fantastically. Started getting into Light Novels too. Was inspired by a recent anime to start reading So I'm a Spider, So What? and it's pretty good! Both anime and LN. So yeah, a nice week of relaxing.

Meanwhile, within this story, we have Weiss crashing and the death of Pilot. Fun Fact: The Pilot was originally going to say something along the lines of "I can't die here, I have a husband to get back to!" which would have made him RWBY's first openly gay character! This was cut because M&K thought it might be bad press for the first LGBT character to die immediately after revealing. With how Twitter works I can't really blame them tbh. Oh, and we deal with Sun's issues! A lot of it comes from the second CFVY book, where SSSN gets quite a bit of content. Both Scarlett and Neptune had Semblance reveals there for instance, as well as some of Sun and Neptune's backstories.

I think Sun's flaws are an interesting parallel to Blake's. Both run but for different reasons. Sun doesn't want to be tied down because he's afraid of that attachment, while Blake runs from her mistakes and to keep those she cares about from being hurt. Sheds an interesting light on the song "Like Morning Follows Night". And of course, Adam and Ghira have a nice chat. Their first nice chat of the story. Not quite bonding, but talking. Will Adam and Blake get back together? Perhaps. It might be hilarious if Yang falls for him and Yang and Blake fight over him... It'd be an interesting reversal from canon, that's for sure!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! I'll see you guys next time!