Ch 27 - Caster Ganks are OP.

A/N: Welcome on and all, to the Vytal Festival Tournament! AKA, the place where dung will hit the fire. Let's kick this off with a Yang. And no, I won't apologize for that gods-awful pun.

Anyways, I'm just gonna give a shoutout to another fic on this site: The Electric Lens, by Tigershark431. First couple chapters read a bit weird (not grammatically, but in that I felt I was reading from the POV of someone who was high to the heavens), but the writing and the premise are absolutely fantastic. Without going into spoilers, Penny (GODS I MISS YOU!) gets dismembered by Pyrrha in Volume 3 like in canon, but her CPU ends up on Earth, and a teen mistakes it for his phone when he drops it in a park. Shenanigans ensue. It's a fantastic story, so I'd recommend you give it a read.

Lastly, I'm a happy hollow, because my story now pops up on google when you search "From Ashes to Dust fanfic." Doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it made me feel all giddy inside.

Review Response:

SurotoFall: Let me guess, the soul of the God in question is Gwyndolins. I'd assume so since Vyliria had to kill him since Aldritch had his fun with him.

My response: No comment... ;-)

Kiue Jin: For what it's worth, I think you captured Salem's brief character rather well.

I also love the idea that Patches is set up and armed to wage a one man war against the world if the situation calls for it.

My response: Oh thank Gywn, IDK WHY I worry about stuff like that so much, but I do.

Also, Patches has had a couple hundred millennia or so to prep for literally anything. Of course he's set to wage a one-man-war. Even an AMRY won't be breaking him any time soon.

deeznutthebest: Is there anyone else from Dark Souls appearing in this story? With that out of the way, I wonder what weapon is Salem talking about? I have a strong feeling it's going to be a chaos dagger paired with the hornet ring. Unless of course, Salem knows of the fact that Vyliria is a quasi-immortal woman. Also, do we get to see plunging spell attacks like a lightning or sunlight stake? In case you don't get me, I'm saying: a spell being prepared in the user's hand then not throwing it but instead going above the target then aiming the spell at the unsuspecting victim (preferably why screaming their birth kingdom like in the case of Vyliria, IRITHYYYYYYYYL!), doing even more damage.

My response: No comment, but I WILL say that Lothric and its denizens will be playing a more prominent role in the sequels. (Just finished chapter 2, and a recounting of Vyliria's fight with Yhorm, btw. Ch 3 is an entirely origional plot thread, and while I know what I WANT to do, it's proving more difficult because I need to research characters and then write conversations between people who never actually interacted in canon).

Not a chaos dagger. As funny as it would be, a CONVENTIONAL weapon isn't putting an undead down for good, regardless of insane crit-damage. And Salem is aware of what an undead is.

There's not gonna be much in THIS particular story, but I do plan to work in plunging spells if I can in the sequel, and this story does have one appropriately epic moment coming where a spell gets to make out with some hot VERTICALITY. Unfortunately, unless it's Nora pulling off the plunging spell, I don't really see any of the character's shouting the name of where they hail from as they preform the attack.

Sm0keyPanda: I am really hoping that Patches comes in last-minute and saves Vyliria. I may not know too much about DS3 lore, but I do know that once you help "Lapp" get his memories back, he does kick you off a cliff... straight down to where you actually need to go. He then immediately leaves, not attempting to loot your 'corpse'. I've seen a number of players interpret that as him helping you in his own way, as thanks for restoring his memories.

My response: I have... PLANS for how they eventually meet. As for the rest, let's just say that The Ringed City REALLY made me like Patches as a character.

Skeletalrepublic: Glad to know that Patches cares for Consistently best girl and villain who was much more fun than pretty much every villain made for the show. It's great that you established a finer connection between the other cast members and I am excited to see where it goes unless you also plan on feeding Roman to the birds.

Also, another familiar concept, a weapon made specifically to kill undead. Likely to also not be a holy blade and is instead some sort of cursed weapon. While I'm fairly certain it's dangerous, I doubt nothing asides from of mindbreak is going to kill truly Vyliria.

It would be amusing to see Cinder gloat in her victory, leave, only to find a greatsword buried into her chest before being melted by lava or dying of poison. (No, I do not have a hate boner for Cinder, this is totally just me laughing at a funny idea).

Also early Ghira, it's cool seeing the effects of what Vyliria's done to the story with her active presence. Many butterflies building up until a whole cluster of them are birthed by spring. You really got this down my dude. cheers for putting in the big effort.

My response: Yeah, I guess the best way to describe the relationship between Patches and Neo would be that Patches is her cool uncle. Oh, and I am NOT planning on doing my boy Roman dirty like canon did.

Let's just say that it isn't a HOLY weapon. In fact, I'd say the gods wouldn't like it AT ALL.

Oh, I have PLANS involving Cinder. And annoying the FXCK outta her, because who DOESN'T like making her suffer?

Ghira isn't gonna be making an appearance in this story, but stuff like this is exactly what I was aiming for: showing a snapshot of how much is being changed in the world of Remnant due to the actions of a single woman. The butterfly effect is picking up indeed, and I haven't even gotten STARTED yet.

Thanks, and I'm glad you're enjoying things.

TheDoodlerofWriteing: I'm curious is the nameless king still alive cause Jaune, py and Cardin all got sunlight medals so is he alive cause he would dick on Salem,oz and proably the brother gods

My response: I mean, the way covenants seem to be set up by DS3 seems to be almost automated. Consider that the Old Wolf of Farron seems pretty dead, and that Gywndolin is dead, and that NK is the deific equivalent of hollowed by the time you find him. Yet you still get their covenant items for accomplishing the duties of their covenants, and can still get rewards when turning them in at the appropriate place. It seems to me that there's some magic at work, possibly just to make the bureaucracy of covenants easier. I mean, imagine having to review every single case of jolly cooperation and decide whether or not it merits a sunlight medal. NK probably made a spell a super long time ago that just automatically checks if certain criteria are met, and if they are rewards the people in question with a sunlight medal. Likewise, his icons (in this case the broken statue) would likewise be charmed to reward people for turning in X amount of covenant items as proof of their devotion.

That said, if NK was running around in RWBY, and Remnant wasn't aware of him, that would mean he'd be hiding in a pretty darn out-of-the-way place. And that the Brother's would have definitely not been keen about another god from the past squatting on their turf.

Skittles382: Hey, I can't remember if it was mentioned, but how old is Vyliria? I remember it being mentioned that she was 19 in the beginning, but I took that as her physical age. After she became an unkindled how long did she exist?

My response: That was intentional on my part. In the true dark souls fashion, I'm leaving the exact timeframe for the viewer to decide, though I'll say that from her 1st death to her failed attempt to Link the First Flame (which leads an undead to become unkindled), less than 100 years passed. As for how long she was running around Lothric? Well, time was so fxcked by that point that there's no real way to tell without counting out the seconds. Even so, I feel like DS3, including the DLCs, would be something that took less than a year, maybe even closer to 6 months, barring a boss that stops your progress stone cold for days on end (which in game could be weeks).

ScreamingStuka: It may have been a short chapter, but it sure felt like it had plenty of content. Vyliria teaching the last of the main cast magic made sense. And not sure if this was a "read between the lines thing" but Patches basically adopting Neo and Roman? So wholesome! And Vyliria with the soul of Gwyndolin, right in the feels. Admittedly at first I would have thought that soul was Anri's, considering the bullshit that Yuria pulls, but considering her relationship with Gwyns last son, and Aldrich being Aldrich. well it makes plenty of sense.

And a bit more on the aftermath of the ball and Breach, Vyliria really is the only one not getting blowback as she has no past the press can look at.
And Salem knows about Dark Souls! at least a little, the whole "use only this weapon" reminds me of another RWBY/Dark Souls crossover where it was the Chosen Undead who made it to Vale, and was then attacked by basically all of Salems followers and presumably killed with a fragment of Halfbreed Priscilla's sycthe, only to rise again as an actual Lord of Cinder. Great story, cant remember the name, highly recommend. Anyway that brief Salem scene reminded me of ALL that, apologies for the spiel.

Absolutely loved it, a great read and used if time considering im stuck home post surgery. Keep rocking, and Praise The Sun!

My response: Well yeah, I did say that both the teams were getting spells. As for Patches... let's just say that even HE can eventually get lonely. Also, that glorious bastard has been around since before day 1 of Remnant. Who's to say that he hasn't already messed with other parts of canon before, and that you just haven't seen the effects of that yet? But yes, the relationship Patches has with my favorite pair of delinquents is super wholesome... well, as wholesome as criminals can get. And yes, Vyliria is sad. She needs a protection squad of her own, just like Oscar (in RWBY, not in Dark Souls. Dear Gwyn, having Oscar (of Astora) and Oscar (Pine) in the same story would be confusing AF. We have enough BS with Dark Souls, Salem, and the Ozluminati already). And it wouldn't be Anri's soul, because I mentioned in the prolouge that Anri AND Horace made it to Aldrich (and Siris tagged along before her final and horribly ended confrontation with Parry God Hodrick).

And yes, its pretty ironic that for however outlandish Vyliria is, she's basically the only one not getting press coverage atm.

I took inspiration from several stories on this site. The one you described and another involving one Sybil of Lordran were the most prominent sources of inspiration. Though Weiss certainly isn't becoming a Maiden, and I have a decidedly DIFFERENT route in mind for Vyliria than becoming a Lord of Cinder. Let's just say that a weapon that could permanently put down an undead would need to be something with such a potently occultic nature that the gods of Dark Souls would see it as an anathema to their very existence.

Oof, hope you feel better soon. And I don't mind the long reviews, I like getting to write long responses, because I can answer a bunch of questions and tease answers to a bunch more. Have a good one, and may the darkmoon guide thee.

blackswordgames: This story is amazing, I'm not much of a dark souls kinda guy, I've played a bit of ds3 and I havent really gotten far into it yet but even without extensive knowledge of dark souls you've made everything connect so well in a way that not only does it fit the rwby-verse is makes it easier for people like me to understand without much ds experience compared to some other stories on here. Keep up the awesome work and I wish you luck in the future!

My response: One of my major goals when setting out to do this was to ensure that someone who was only familiar with one of the crossover elements would be able to have a general idea of what the other is like. Obviously, it doesn't substitute for actual knowledge of a universe, but I'm glad I've met that goal.

Thank you, and I'll be happy to continue to upload the rest of the chapters in due time.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Souls or RWBY. Dark Souls belongs to From Software and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. I only own my own OC.

Further Disclaimer: I'm just tossing out here: I'm shamelessly using the RWBY wiki to help me with character appearances, while I'm not 100% copy/pasting, and changing words around, if they bear a specific, ad verbatim resemblance to what's there, it's because I pulled some of it directly from the wiki. So no need for Follower's torches or dark-infused four-pronged plows, because I gave credit.

(Ruby)

All things considered, Ruby honestly felt bad for team ABRN (Auburn). It wasn't that they were bad, it's just that in addition to RWBY being the best team ever, they were also really showing off the spellwork Vyliria had been teaching them for the past two semesters. She felt like she could honestly say that they broke the Vytal Festival Tournament. Currently on the team matches, who's winners would proceed to elect two of their team members to proceed to the doubles round, who's winners in turn would elect one member to proceed in the singles until there was but one victor remaining, team RWBY, obviously representing Beacon Academy and Vale, had the honor of being the opening match of the day against team ABRN of Haven Academy in Mistral. And while even Ruby had noted the rapidly growing part of the Remnant that was speculating on the clips of the magic they demonstrated during the breach, she could confidently say that after this match, the entire world would know about the arcane doors that Vyliria Avalon had opened.

Case in point; Blake was currently engaging Reese Chloris, a young girl with light green hair swept to her right, with teal eyes, a fair complexion, and two black facial markings on her cheeks. Her dark purple hooded sweater sat over another mauve sweater, and in addition to black shorts her legs bore black knee pads and black high top sneakers, matching the black elbow pads on her arms. The girl went to kick her bladed hoverboard at the cat faunus, who even now made Ruby grin as she bared her animal ears to the world in defiance to the hate she had been receiving since the dance. As it closed, Blake just blasted it with a black flame and sent it flying back at an equal momentum. Not anticipating literal magic whacking her projectile right back at her, Reese barely caught it, feet sliding back across the half of the arena currently covered in ice, her aura flaring. She barely managed a panicked roll out of the way of a black fire orb, which put her right in the path of the black serpent undulating across the ice. Stunned by that, she was kept on the off-foot as Blake closed to melee range, Gambol Shroud's kusarigama landing two strikes on her, a hasty counter swing bat aside by the sheath/cleaver in her left hand, before Blake tossed her main blade into the air, demonstrating her recent mastering of being able to cast pyromancies in both hands (something that Yang already had down pat) as she let loose another torrent of black fire, this time directly into her opponent. As Reese stumbled back, Blake closed the gap, catching her main blade and putting the sheath on her hip, before swinging her left hand back as her flame flared to life once again. Coalescing into a massive hand-mirror, the flame fan, a recent addition to her spell list learned by copying what Vyliria had taught to Yang (and boy was her sister miffed that that also technically got around the single student rule, because Vyliria wasn't teaching Blake, the faunus just learned it by watching her teach someone else), swept across the poor Mistralese woman twice, before Blake used a shadow clone to propel herself forwards, a final black flame sealing the deal as Reese's aura shattered and the girl flopped to the floor.

"And Reese Chloris is eliminated by Blake Belladonna through aura depletion!" Professor Port bombastically cried from the announcer's booth up in the stands.

"Yes, indeed," the other announcer, Prof- Doctor Oobleck (she really had to work on remembering that), added. "It would seem that the pyromancies Blake has learned from Vyliria Avalon have proved too much for the unprepared Haven student. We did tell the rest of the world that some of our students would have quite unique abilities this year, but it seems ABRN chose not to believe us. And now it may very well prove to be their undoing!"

Yang was proving just as dangerous as her partner, engaging the leader of ABRN, Arslan Atlan. She has a dark complexion, with platinum blonde hair and olive green eyes. Her yellow robe only had one wide, loose-fitting sleeve over a black tube top, and her black pants and shoes covered her lower half. A red sash embroidered with a white "endless knot" on it was on her waist, and bandages were wrapped on both her legs and arms, as well as a red necklace and what looked like two matching red sticks on the back left side of her head. Arslan jumped back as a Carthus flame arc-enhanced punch from Ember Celicia slammed into the ground where she was not a second prior, Yang herself glowing from the power of Carthus beacon, befofe Yang lunged forwards, landing two punches on Arslan, further boosting the great combustion she followed them up with. Arslan met the next punch Yang threw, and the blast from the impact pushed both women back, Yang casting iron flesh and gaining a metallic sheen across her whole body as Arslan launched herself back in rope-dart-dagger swinging… and harmlessly bouncing off the iron skin coating Yang, barely even registering to her aura. Yang just grabbed the weapon before it could be yanked back, and pulled on it herself, sending a stunned Arslan flying towards her before she unfortunate Haven student was given a face-first introduction to a great chaos fireball, the lava clinging to her from the impact chunking her aura even further as it rapidly dissipated.

Yang went to finish her with a chaos bed vestige as she was getting up, but her iron flesh ran out and she was interrupted by the gunfire of Nadir Shiko, and stumbled back as the rounds ate into her aura, even as they also charged her semblance. Nadir himself was dark skinned and blue eyed, with long pink hair tied back into a short ponytail, with an undercut portion of his hair being colored black. At a glance, Ruby couldn't tell if it was natural, or if one part was dyed. He wore a cream-colored short-sleeved jacket with yellow details and a black, long-sleeved V-neck shirt, with cream colored fingerless gloves. His outfit was completed by his black, medium-length pants and cream colored sneakers. Ruby narrowed her eyes, and holstered Crescent Rose as she raised the sunless talisman, and borrowing a term from Vyliria, lined it up with the ganker (and she still wondered where Vyliria had come up with the term) as she spoke.

With the bite of a lance yet the speed of a sparrow,

The maidens of the Lord smote them with their Lighting Arrows!

With miniaturized electric greatbow in hand, she let loose, two projectiles striking Nadir back to back and forcing him to back off from Yang's own fight. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned and raised a lighting arrow towards a rapidly charging Bolin Hori, his combat staff at the ready. He had lightly-tanned skin, amber eyes, and black hair, wearing two yellow sashes, one around his waist the other over his shoulder, alongside a dark blue vest and gray pants with yellow lacing up the sides. Lastly, his feet bore black boots and his hands bore black fingerless gloves, and a dark gray beaded necklace sat around his neck. Ruby was about to release her projectile, when a shriek heralded the simultaneous strike of five orbs from a crystal homing soulmass and a crystal soul spear, which sent him flying like a ragdoll, only to be stopped less than five feet from launch by a stasis glyph, before Weiss used some speed glyphs to launch herself at him and finish what was left of his aura with a single swipe from a crystal magic weapon buffed Myrtenaster.

"And Bolin Hori is eliminated by Weiss Schnee via aura depletion! What a devastating combination of attacks," Doctor Oobleck said from the booth.

"Wow," Weiss commented under her breath, "Vyliria was right. Landing both of those at the same time is bullshit."

"Weiss! Bad word! It's bad enough Vyliria doesn't have a filter on her mouth, don't you start too!" she shouted at her partner, as she dismissed her lightning arrow.

"Now is not the time," the blanchette shot back. Then her eyes widened. "Behind you!"

Turning around, Ruby realized that Weiss couldn't get an angle past her as Nadir abused the potential for friendly fire in order to close with a now-shifted sword. Thinking fast, Ruby belted out the incantation for lifehunt scythe, since her talisman was still in hand, and swung the blade as soon as it materialized in order to intercept Nadir's own. Taking a tip from Vyliria's scythe training sessions, she kicked Nadir in order to open up some space and take advantage of her weapon's superior range, following up with a single swipe as he screamed in pain, a huge chunk of his aura draining, while Ruby felt a rush of energy pour into and replenish her own aura, despite it being near-full. Half a second later, a black fire orb from Blake slammed into him, not quite breaking his aura, but putting it below the threshold needed to avoid an aura-out.

"In yet another upset for the Haven team, Nadir Shiko is eliminated by aura depletion!" Professor Port called out to the audience.

Seconds later, a chaos bed Vestige from Yang caused Oobleck to follow up with, "And, that's the match! Team RWBY is victorious!" Go figure that Yang didn't even need help to finish off her opponent.

"Does anyone else feel like this should have been harder than it was?" Weiss asked, as a happy Yang casually strolled up to the rest of her team.

"Yeah, but to be fair, we do have magic," Blake answered, giving Yang a high five.

"Who cares? We did it!" Yang said.

Ruby's eyes widened, and she sucked in a breath. "We actually did it. We did it!" she cried as she jumped for joy.

(Not Who You Think)

In the fairgrounds at Beacon, Ruby was currently having a panic attack, realizing that she had lost her wallet and Emerald had found it, promptly thanking the mint-haired girl for doing so.

"What's up, Em?" Yang asked her.

"Just left the stadium after watching your amazing fight. You guys were awesome!" Emerald shot back.

Ruby devolved into embarrassed babbling, so Blake took over. "I heard your team progressed to the next round too…"

"You know, I feel like we never see your fourth teammate," Weiss said.

"How'd they do in the fight?" Yang asked before Weiss could elaborate.

Emerald appeared to take a few seconds to think, before summarizing their fourth's performance with a simple, "Really well."

"That's great!" Ruby finally seemed to recover from the praise. "Why don't we all go out and get some victory food together?"

"Oh, gosh, that's so nice of you, but… my teammates are all kinda… introverted," Emerald said, looking back at a Mercury that was currently sniffing the inside of a boot. "Really socially awkward," the mintette whispered.

Yang sucked in a breath. "Ooooo… yeah… I can see that."

"So yeah, looks like Merc and I are gonna be moving on to the doubles round," Emerald changed the subject. "What about you guys?"

"Well as the leader of this team I thought long and hard about that decision," Ruby started.

"We put it to a vote," Weiss interrupted.

"But I decided that we should put it to a vote," Ruby tried and failed to recover.

"We picked Weiss and Yang," Blake answered.

"I will happily represent team RWBY," Weiss said diplomatically.

Yang slammed her fists together. "Yeah, we're gonna kick some arse!" She paused for a beat. "You know, I thought using Vyliria's favored swear would make that sentence sound better, but I think I should have just went for butt instead."

Emerald gave a hearty chuckle. "Well, if Mercury and I see you later down the line, don't think we'll go easy on ya!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Yang said as she crossed her arms.

"All right, well we're gonna catch some more fights," Emerald said.

"Have fun!" Ruby shouted back as they walked off.

"See ya later!" Emerald started walking off with Mercury, and the smirk immediately melted off her face.

"So how are the new friends?" Mercury asked while giving air quotes.

"I hate them," she spat out.

"Orders are orders," he drawled.

"I just - how can they be so happy, all the time?

"Did you at least get what we want?"

"It's the heiress and the bimbo."

"Eh, all right. At least now we know what we're working with," he said, as they strolled off.

And once they were out of earshot, much to the alarm of a few passerby's, a lamppost which had been in the perfect position to observe everything was engulfed in golden flecks of dust and a cloud of gold mist, resolving into the form of Vyliria of Avalon, who crossed her arms, glaring at the backs of the duo, before making her way in the same direction RWBY did. She started muttering to herself.

"Knew they were Gwyndamn arseholes the second I saw them. And I was absolutely right that they wanted to scope out Pyrrha. And that Emerald bitch is a pickpocket to boot. Shamelessly lied to Ruby's face about doing the deed. I mean, even Patches didn't pickpocket, and while he was nice to people he liked… or was physically threatened by… he didn't have a moral bone in his entire body!"

She growled to herself, as she kept on walking… and then stopped.

"I forgot to teleport the rest of my team here with me… they are not going to be happy about that. Gods fucking damnit…"

(Weiss)

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"What, how could my card be declined?" Weiss asked incredulously. "I was barely into my monthly allowance…" she muttered, deflated and disheartened.

"Well I would assume your father is the one who authorizes spending through it, and he might be cross at you for one reason or another, considering recent… circumstances," Vyliria replied. "Basically, if I had to guess, you lost your credit card privileges because your father is a dick."

Weiss' eyes widened as she realized that must exactly be the case, since she hadn't answered any of his calls for months now. It's just… she hated speaking to him. There was a reason she had been so adamant and determined to attend a huntsman academy in another kingdom.

Yang started laughing, and Ruby just sighed at Vyliria's latest swear, while Blake tried to discreetly grab the tuna bowl sitting next to three other noodle bowls (Vyliria said she wasn't hungry at the moment, though she was tempted to order some anyways), and gave her own two cents. "No offense Weiss, but Vyliria isn't wrong."

"Yeah… she isn't…" Weiss sighed, despondent as the shopkeep grabbed Blake's bowl and the poor faunus girl looked devastated. Then Vyliria put a stack of lien on the counter.

"Vyliria, you didn't have to-" she cut Ruby off.

"Consider it a congratulations for the win, and so wonderfully showing off my efforts teaching you to the world," the Irithyllian said. The shopkeep put the tuna bowl back on the kiosk counter, and Blake's eyes lit up as she started to tear into the bowl. "Besides, watching Blake do that it is pretty amusing, and I'm not really spending my student stipend on anything else."

"Well, I was going to offer to help, but it seems someone beat me to it." Weiss and the others turned in their seats, Pyrrha having spoken as the rest of JNPR walked up.

"You forgot us!" Nora pointed a finger at Vyliria. "I'm hurt! Emotionally scarred! And a little hungry, but that last one isn't your fault… Ren!" The man in question just gave a "Hmph!" as he turned away and crossed his arms.

"I forgot once! Once, Gwyndamnit! I'm sorry, okay! And besides, it turned out for the better, because I found out that… uh… does anyone actually know the name of Cinder's team? I know it can't be CMEN, because… well, it's fairly obvious why… Ahem! Anyways, I was disguised as a chameleon prop because I wanted to startle RWBY for my own amusement and instill a constant fear of disguised chameleon props in Weiss-"

"Hey!" Weiss shouted, giving a glare.

"Always expect the unexpected! Anyways, I was right in my initial assumption of them being arseholes."

"What?" Ruby asked. "No way that-"

"Emerald picked your pocket, and then pretended to find your wallet," Vyliria deadpanned.

Dead silence. "She also called Yang a bimbo."

"That motherfucking whore called me what?" Yang asked, her eyes turning red. Ruby was so shocked that she didn't even pipe up at Yang's foul language.

"Yeah, that whole sequence was just a ploy to find out who you were sending to the doubles."

Weiss felt her own anger surge. "Those lying, manipulative, thieving… scoundrels!"

"Weiss," Vyliria said, "You can use foul language to describe foul individuals."

"And it didn't stop you from cursing earlier," Ruby grumbled.

Goaded on by her own anger and the seeming acceptance of those around her, she shouted, "Those… those bitches!" Then she turned to her partner. "And there's a difference between when its just the two of us in earshot versus when we're in public!"

"Holy cow, you made Weiss curse," Jaune piped in.

"I'm going to find them and give them a piece of my mind!" the blanchette stated.

"You'll have to get in line," Yang said, her eyes back to lilac, but still furious.

"Or… we could not let them know we know," Ren argued.

Vyliria deflated. "I was about to say that…"

"What do you mean?" Blake questioned.

"Well, they don't know that we know who they really are," Vyliria started. "So we can continue to pretend to be their friends, and then feed them false information when they look for more. And keep an eye out to see if we can catch Emerald in the act, because if we do, then we not only have an excuse to beat her arse, but we can also get her arrested!"

"That's… a surprisingly in depth revenge plan," Ren commented.

"Let it be known that I can hold a grudge for a really long time," Vyliria said to those present. "A really, really, really long time." There was an uncomfortable pause as everyone was slightly disturbed by the tone of the Irithyllian's voice, which was broken when she resumed as if nothing had happened. "Anyways, enough bad news. Enjoy thine- your lunches. And I'll pay for yours too as an apology," she told her team.

Five minutes later, they were all stuffed. And Vyliria surprised all those present by deciding to order her own noodles, partly lifting her mask up to shovel mouthfuls down the hatch in order to minimize her exposure to the sun.

"So I know that I'm not participating in your upcoming match, since its four people only, but are you sure it was wise to dine that heavily right before you're up?" Vyliria asked the rest of her team.

"Of course," Pyrrha responded. "It will give us energy." Nora chose that moment to utter forth a belch that could have woken the dead, and actually caused Vyliria to flinch and flare her pyromancy flame, before becoming an object of amusement at her own expense.

Just then, a mob of roughly a dozen younger kids, ranging from Ruby's age to what Weiss would peg to be eleven, crowded up to the group, and Weiss noted that several of them had Pyrrha themed-shirts, hats, or other memorabilia. She glanced over to the Mistralian, and though she had a smile on her face, the Schnee heiress recognized the dead look in her eyes as clear as day.

"Oh my gosh, it's Pyrrha Nikos!" shouted a girl with a blonde bob-cut. "I'm a huge fan! We all are!" There was a chorus of agreements from all the other younger kids. Vyliria appeared distinctly uncomfortable, though Weiss knew her well enough by now to tell that it was from the press of bodies rather than anything else (though why Vyliria had such great discomfort at that still eluded the heiress). Nora and Jaune looked more confused than anything, and Ren was mostly taken aback.

"Can I have your autograph?" one boy with a black buzz-cut asked.

"Sure," Pyrrha replied with mock cheer. Weiss felt sick just watching this, and she could tell her team echoed the sentiment. She began signing books, shirts, hats, and even one forehead, keeping on a veneer of happiness at having to deal with fans the whole time, even as her team was ignored. Well, mostly, because...

Weiss watched Vyliria lean back as a brunette girl with pigtails walked up to her. "Is it true that you have magic? Like that other team that just went? Can you teach me?" Weiss wisely chose not to direct attention to RWBY by pointing out that they were the ones just using spells.

Vyliria was hesitant in her response. "Uh, yes, I do have a variety of spells, and that other team was using magic I taught them. But most magic is focused on combat, and I can't teach spells that could hurt people to anyone who doesn't have training. I'm sorry, but maybe one day in the future, if you want to become a huntress, you might find yourself learning spellcraft then."

"Oh..." the girl deflated, and Vyliria winced, looking to Nora to non-verbally beg for help. Weiss didn't pick up what the ginger bomber mouthed to the Irithyllian, but Vyliria evidently did.

"Hey," the pale woman said, "I may not be willing to teach you magic, but that doesn't mean you should loose hope." Vyliria fished out something from her storage, and several of the teens watched with wide eyes as the embers washed across her form, and she opened her palm to reveal a shining rock, slowly shifting through colors of the rainbow. "But I can give you a magic trinket. This is a prism stone." She passed it to the girl. "It feels warm, right?" The girl silently nodded. "That's because it's magic. It always changes hue, and if you toss it off a ledge, it can tell you if you can survive the fall. If it just lands, you can jump down and be fine. But if you hear it scream when it impacts the ground, you know you could get badly hurt from dropping off the ledge." She suddenly found herself mobbed by kids begging for "magic rocks," and her only consolation was a grateful look thrown from Pyrrha for taking the attention off her.

Except for one guy with short brown hair and a Pyrrha hat, who walked up to Jaune. "Are you really dating Pyrrha Nikos?" The woman in question flushed, mortified, and Jaune starred blankly for a second. Weiss swallowed dryly, and heard Ruby suck in a breath next to her.

"Yeah," Jaune hesitantly replied. Weiss heard Yang whisper to Blake, "Holy crap I'm glad that the rest of them are so focused on Vyliria right now."

"But how?" the boy asked, completely oblivious to what he was saying, "You're all like, scraggly and stuff." Pyrrha put her face in her hands, but ended up looking in shock at Jaune's reply.

"Well, she likes me because I see her for her. I don't care about the fancy titles, or the trophies, or what she's done. I just see Pyrrha as a person; my partner, and my friend." Her rubbed a hand on the back of his head. "And I guess that eventually we both saw each other as something more. Though to be completely honest, I ended up needing someone else to point out that she liked me in the first place. I'm kinda dense." Understatement of the year, Weiss thought. "But just... famous people are people too. And sometimes, the thing they want the most is to be treated like a person instead of a celebrity."

"Oh." The boy looked pensive, before taking off his hat and looking at the signature that it had recently been given, then looked back up at Pyrrha. "Hey, uh, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

Pyrrha blinked. "It's fine," she hastily said, then added, "But... thank you."

Weiss then had her attention pulled back to her own team, as another one of the teens, this one a girl who looked no older than 12, with long, straight pink hair, and a snake tail behind her that nearly went down to the ground, hesitantly approached them. Or, more accurately, Blake. She looked up at the cat faunus. "You're... you're Blake Belladonna, right?"

Blake swallowed. "Yeah..."

"I just... I wanna thank you for having been out there in the Tournament. Seeing you there, in front of the world without caring for people not liking you because of your ears, made me feel better about my tail. It makes what the bullies say hurt less..."

Ruby had a hand to her mouth, Yang was slack jawed, and Weiss' mind went blank when Blake suddenly leaned out and enveloped the younger girl in a hug. "You shouldn't be ashamed of who you are," Blake told her. "It took me too long to realize that myself." Some pops briefly brought everyone's attention away, as a clearly unamused Vyliria was using some golden sorceries to captivate her audience. "Those other kids, are they your friends?"

"Yeah," the girl emphatically nodded.

"Good," Blake said. "They're the ones that matter, not the bullies. They're the ones who you can work with to overcome the prejudice." She paused for a second, and took in a breath. "And who knows, maybe one of them might be a Councillor one day, and they'll remember you when they push for a law against racism. After all," she looked at Weiss, "I managed to make friends with a Schnee, and she wants to make the SDC a better company when she inherits it from her father."

The snake faunus looked at Weiss with bewilderment and wonder in equal measure. "Thank you for wanting to help us, Miss Schnee," the girl said in a small voice.

"Hey," the blanchette hesitantly said, "just call me Weiss. My father's... not a good person, but I want to fix what he's done when I have the power to do so."

"Thank you Weiss," the girl said, eyes shining with youthful innocence. And in that moment, Weiss was reminded that she didn't just want to become a huntress to get away from Jacques Schnee.

"It's no problem," she responded.

The younger kids finally started to clear out after that, much to everyone's relief (especially a certain Irithyllian). After the fans finally got out of earshot, Jaune flopped his head onto the counter, done having to pretend that all was fine in the land of his digestive track. "Euuurgh… If I barf I'm blaming you…"

"Oooh! Aim it at the enemy!" Nora managed to figuratively bounce back from what just happened in seconds, and was literally bouncing in place at the idea she just gave.

"Nora, that's disgusting," Ren admonished.

"Buuuut, if you feel the urge…" Ren and Vyliria looked at each other as they spoke simultaneously, before the pale woman said, "Well, great minds do think alike." Ren gave a sage nod as a response, and Weiss rolled her eyes even as she failed to hide a smile.

"We should probably be off," Pyrrha spoke as she stood up.

Ruby beat Weiss to the question she wanted to ask. "You think you guys are ready?"

"Of course!" Nora beat everyone else to a response. "We've got a world renowned fighter who can shoot lighting from her hands-" "That's not how my miracles work, Nora" "-what's basically a ninja with dark magic-" Ren put a hand to his face "-I can bench press five of me and now I can make explosions with my mind-" "That's not how wrath of the gods works, Gwyndamnit!" "-and Jaune, who can cast healing miracles, which refills our auras, and basically breaks the tournament in our favor."

Jaune blinked a few times. "I mean, you aren't wrong, Nora. It is pretty blatantly unfair…"

A round of nods came from those at the counter, as the ginger bomber resumed, "We've trained all year, we got magic, our weapons are awesome, and can be made more awesome with magic, Glynda barely yells at us anymore, and uhh… Vyliria in the stands, offering moral support!"

"I feel so included. Especially since I gave you all those spells in the first place," the pale woman sarcastically responded.

"You guys got this," Yang said.

"We've faced way worse," Weiss added.

"Let's see," Blake started tallying. "We faced Grimm invasions, violent extremists, a descriptive sociopath, the media trying to ruin our lives, Yang setting the school on fire all the time during the first semester-"

"Oh my Oum will you guys let that go, already?!"

"How about no, especially considering the multiple times you set me alight!" Vyliria said with a glare that could be felt, even if it couldn't be seen.

"And that was all while we were still in training," Ruby hastily changed the subject. "Oh, imagine what it'll be like when we graduate!"

"Maybe then I'll have my own credit card," Weiss groused.

"Will team JNAPR please report to the battlegrounds, immediately," the voice of Professor Port called out over the fairgrounds PA speakers.

"Yes, like they were scheduled to, several minutes ago," Prof- Doctor Oobleck, Weiss corrected in her head, added.

JNPR started stumbling away, clutching their stomachs.

"You know," Vyliria called out to them as they stopped, "I can just teleport us. And it would probably still be quicker, considering we have to take a bullhead ride back up to Amity. I'm not the one forgetting this time; you guys are."

Weiss joined her team's laughter as the Irithyllian's teammates stumbled back and the woman in question started to cast.

()

A/N: In cannon, RWBY beats ABRN relatively easily. While they might not have their rings on (currently sitting with JNPR for safekeeping, and the reverse happens when JNPR is front and center), the addition of Dark Souls spells along with whatever other combat tips Vyliria has passed on turn a reasonably easy win into a curb-stomp. Especially considering the absurdity that is a simultaneous strike from a high INT crystal soul spear and crystal homing soulmass.

I did say that Vyliria was teaching Ruby how to handle the lifehunt scythe miracle, due to the differences between it and Crescent Rose. While the entirety of that basically happened off-screen, it still happened, and the fruits of that labor are now being demonstrated.

And paranoid Vyliria strikes again. Teleportation miracles provide a convenient way to get to a fairgrounds ahead of a crowd that has to exit a floating stadium and then ride airships down to the earth, even if it does take 5 minutes to cast.

I bet you didn't expect that second part to be from Vyliria's POV as a chameleon prop. She also might have left without JNPR… because she forgot to include them when she cast (and because I only remembered the rest of her team halfway into that perspective). Happens to the best of us, sometimes…

As to why she's a chameleon prop in that spot of all places… well, she saw RWBY approaching, and went around a corner and wanted to scare them for her own amusement, along with her running gag of ensuring Weiss always expects chameleon props. Then Emerald showed up, her paranoia told her to wait, and she got a perfect view of the proceedings. Right now, her paranoia is acting as a double edged blade: She has had her suspicion of Cinder and her cronies secretly being assholes confirmed, but only expects them to be using underhanded tactics, not that they're plotting a terrorist attack aimed at potentially killing millions.

The fans showing up wasn't in the origional draft, and in fact was only really added after I finished the rest of the story, but it did a nice job at conveying what I wanted to, while giving a snapshot of stuff outside of what the main characters are doing.

As a quick aside, college and looking for internships over the summer is NOT fun. Sigh... At least the positive reviews brighten my day.

Anyways, next up is JNPR vs BRNZ (Bronze) of Shade Academy, in Vacuo. See ya then!