Ch 30 - Partners in Crime.
A/N: Huh? What's that sound? Oh, that's just the sound of the flooding that's still occurring from my tears after the end of volume 8. Neo is Best Girl, but Penny was my favorite character, hands down. Don't ask me how that works, I'm still in mourning.
What? That's not the sound you were asking about? Hold on a sec... Ooooooooh, that sound! Yeah, that's the sound of your inbox pinging because this story reached 201 reviews, and that means you get a BONUS CHAPTER! Next one will be at 300 reviews. Enjoy everyone!
This chapter has a scene that I've been anticipating writing for a while now. This'll kick off an entirely original subplot I've been planning. Also, it took me a good deal of thinking about it, but I decided to cut out the actual fight between Emerald and Mercury vs Coco and Yatsuhashi, since nothing changed from canon, and it's only roughly four minutes in the show. I'm also planning on focusing on a couple scenes that aren't canon at all in this chapter.
If you haven't reviewed the last chapter by the time this goes, up, I have no issue with you reviewing both. Just feel free to air your thoughts on the events of a given chapter.
Okay, I just wanna say I don't want anyone to start a flame war in the reviews. I PM'd the guy and he was nice, and apologized because he didn't mean to insult me at the end. I took everything else as what it was: Honest, constructive criticism. I don't need anyone to defend me, and the only time you should take issues with a reviewer is if they're being a troll or being completely antagonistic (as in, cursing me out, using slurs, and whatnot).
Review Response:
Rando guy that likes this FF: Jesus, the sheer size of the review response section. Other than that, it's just a pretty good chapter, bickering, winter, Vyliria stopping one of if not my favorite scene of V3, the works. Oh, and have fun pulling that bullshit with Yang, Vyliria, and maybe Blake around Emerald. It's 1 am and I have classes in 5 hours so I should probably get some sleep now. And good to know you got good scores on the first two, are expecting good ones on the second two, and my condolences for the fith's professor. God I spent 14 minutes making this review. Goodnight!
My response: Yeah, it was a long one. Enough so that I put a warning at the last moment before uploading. I very much enjoyed coming up with that scene and having a frosty (pun intended) meeting between our resident Irithyllian and Winter, immediately followed by her defusing the whole Snowbird spat about to go down. Good luck with your classes. Thanks. Also, not trying to sound rude here, but I'm honestly surprised that took you 14 minutes. Maybe I just type faster, but that would have taken me five or six minutes at most.
Tigershark431: Awesome chapter, and although I would have loved to see a fight between Winter, Qrow, and Miss Avalon, I think the outcome that followed was befitting given her presence. Also, and this may come as a huge surprise, but love whenever Penny gets a scene, especially since your expanding on relationships, not just between her and Vyleria, but other characters like Ruby as well.
Also really enjoyed the behind the doors meeting, its always nice to see how, despite each character in that room believing they have the best solution in mind, no problem is ever solved without a cost. It's also interesting to see how those cost appear in different forms and what part of their morality each individual is willingly to sacrifice in order to go forward with their plans to combat Salam. Weather that be Ironwood restricting freedom, and adopting a militaristic regime, or Qrow blinding himself to Ozpin's agenda, in part, just because he'd rather focus on how disgusted he is with Ironwoods plan. Then of course Ozpin simply wants to continue his form of protection, and, while in many perspective wisely call out the flaws in Ironwoods approach, fails to see that Ironwood is the only one seeing that a new strategy may be necessary since Salam will eventually adapt to the old.
Can't wait for the next chapter, and truly hope this review can pile up with the others and help get us their faster!
My response: Thanks, but don't call her Miss Avalon to her face, it makes her feel old. ;-) I'm also really enjoying including Penny more, in addition to expanding on relationships. Penny IS my favorite character.
Don't mean to cause you offense, but I find it a bit weird that you enjoyed the meeting that much. It was basically just a canon scene, albeit from Qrow's perspective. But you do bring up good points. Oh, and that next chapter's coming right up!
deeznutthebest: *Gasp* Are Vyliria and Patches gonna finally meet and dunk the infiltrators into the sun? I highly doubt it.
My response: Not quite yet. I have something else in mind for the eventual meeting between those two.
chevejojones: Great story, is there a plan for our zombie knight to fight the dragon in a daring rescue
My response: Let's just say Kevin the Grimm wyvern has a different fate than what happened in canon.
Starfighter: I really hope that you will kill of Cinder here if for no other reason then just becose no one else has the guts to do it.
My response: What happens in the future is spoilers. Though I can say that the climax of this story is three chapters and over twenty-eight THOUSAND words long.
Skeletalrepublic: boy oh boy oh boy I can not fucking wait for the next chapter.
Side note before I start the review, that other guy was kinda being way too rude in his review. I'd say if this was a generic DS x RWBY fic, it would have had the protag being dark and broody or just sunshine and an isekai'd protagonist who played Dark Souls and knows RWBY. I know too many fics from various sites that fit what I just described. Also that guy's wording for practically everything was rude.
Onto the proper review (sorry for ranting),
Props to Vyliria for taking none of Winter or Qrow's shit. Those two really shouldn't be next to each other for public safety concerns. Nice to see that even though Vyliria was mistaken about Winter, she was trying to stick up for Weiss
This minor scene shows the relationship of the characters very nicely.
Also Ruby sounding confused at telling Qrow to stop. that was adorable. I hope we get more Penny Interactions, but that will likely be on hold now that a certain bald bastard makes his move. I'd like to know more about why he cares for Neo and Roman, that's the one thing I'm most curious of at the moment.
Anyway, solid chapter my dude.
My response: Ask, and ye shall receive.
Like I said earlier, I don't mind. I already talked to the guy. It's fine. Only the end was particularly rude.
Yeah, Vyliria doesn't stand for BS. There was an entire chapter titled by and dedicated to that earlier on, after all. Vyliria stands by her friends. Yeah, that popped into my head, and I basically went, "Alright, this needs to go into the chapter. Now how do I do it?" I do have more Penny planned. But Patches isn't crossing paths with Vyliria just yet. As for how exactly he met my favorite delinquents, and hit it off with them... that's a secret for later on in the series.
Thanks again.
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.
(Vyliria)
Vyliria glanced at the unconscious bodies of the half of CFVY that had been selected to go onto the doubles, clenching her fists. She hadn't been able to tell what tactic Emerald had used in the forest to confuse Coco, but she clenched her fists regardless, glaring at Cinder's back as she smugly walked away. Her own team and RWBY were less than pleased, and even Penny had a hand over her mouth as the crowds around the stadium booed at the brutality displayed, while medical crews rushed onto the arena to get the two second years to the infirmary.
One way or another, she thought, I'll make sure to return that treatment twice as hard. The second I get an excuse, the Gwyndamn bastards will get what's coming to them…
(Weiss)
"You're leaving?" Weiss asked her older sister, even as they shared tea in the late afternoon light.
"Yes," Winter replied. "I was merely needed to oversee the transfer of additional units to Vale. Our last shipment was lost to an ambush. I believe you had a runin with its cargo, actually. It's fortunate those Paladins were still in the prototype stage. Otherwise your team may not have fared so well." Weiss looked down at the table, disheartened by Winter's words.
Her sister changed her tone, placing one hand atop Weiss' own. "Weiss, you've done… well… out here, on your own. You should be proud, especially considering you've learned actual magic. I'll admit, it was quite amusing seeing father's face the day you left for Beacon, and observing it in the call he was having with Ironwood when you demonstrated your spellcraft in the tournament. Nevermind hearing about his temperament when he learned you were on a team with and friends to the daughter of the founder of the White Fang. It's also good to see you get past your prejudices."
"I can't wait to show father what I've learned." Weiss beamed at the praise.
"Oh? And what do you think you've learned?"
"What do you mean? I'm getting better and better with my glyphs. I've even started time dilation! And Vyliria says that I'm a literal prodigy with my sorcery."
"And what of your summoning?" Oh. That was what Winter was talking about. Weiss visibly deflated.
"I… You know I can't."
"That's ridiculous. Every Schnee has the ability to summon. We have for generations."
"I've tried!" And she really had, and even Vyliria occasionally offered to help however she could, mostly as moral support. "It's just the one thing I'm having trouble with."
Winter remained calm. "We Schnees are unique. Unlike many, our semblance is hereditary. But that doesn't mean that it will come easily. Your semblance is like a muscle." Winter held up a hand, palm to the sky, and a glyph formed, spinning in place. "The more you practice with it, the stronger it will become. But if you only focus on one aspect of it, if you fail to test the limits of what you think is possible…" the glyph grew, and flashed bright enough that Weiss needed to shield her eyes. When the light died down, she looked to see a summoned beowolf standing obediently, white and blue where the typical Grimm would be black and red. "Then you'll never truly grow," Winter finished.
A few minutes later, Winter stood observing Weiss while she had a glyph spinning on the ground.
"Excellent form," Weiss heard her sister say, "Now think to your fallen foes, the ones who forced you to push past who you were, and become who you are now." Weiss concentrated further, Myrtenaster pointing at the center of the glyph. "Think of them, and watch as they come to your side!"
Weiss pushed her concentration as far as it could go, the glyph growing, pulsing even, before it shrunk and fizzled out. "I can't!"
WHAP! Winter slapped the back of her head. "Stop doubting yourself!"
"I'm trying!"
"If this is what you call trying, then you have no hope of winning the tournament, let alone succeeding as a huntress. Why don't you just move back home? I'm sure father will give you a nice job as a receptionist."
"I don't need his charity."
"But you do need his money, don't you?"
"What?" Weiss asked, shocked. "How'd you know about that?"
"Lucky guess… I may have also been in a similar situation when I joined the military. So what have you done this time?"
Weiss took a few seconds to respond, originally intending to say she didn't know, but reflected on her past months at Beacon, before responding. "I don't know if it was one of them, or all of them, but it could be me learning magic and not telling him about it, befriending a faunus girl who happens to be a Belladonna, not returning any of his calls for months, charging in to save White Fang terrorists from Grimm, and maybe going to the dance with Neptune."
Something clicked in Weiss' mind, and she directed her bottled up emotions into her will, pointing Myrtenaster at the ground, another glyph popping into place. She could almost swear she heard Vyliria's voice in her head, telling her, Come on Weiss. You've mastered nearly every sorcery there is. What's this challenge to you? The glyph started spinning faster, flickering, but holding coherency. She focused on her anger and resentment at her father, her concern for her mother, the mess of feelings she had about her two siblings, her relationship with her team, as a whole and with each member, her relations to team JNAPR, and her lessons with Vyliria. She recalled the talk she'd had with the Irithyllian on the roof that one night, the strange feeling she'd gotten when she opened a letter from Menagerie from Ghira Belladonna thanking her for accepting his daughter and proving that anyone could change for the better, that faunus girl who'd approached Blake during that lunch between matches. She thought over how she felt about Neptune (and his treachery), Sun, and everything else that had happened in the months since she'd escaped her father's iron grasp. The glow from the glyph started getting brighter, and Weiss felt a barrier breaking in her soul, before a familiar sword and the armored arm holding it shot out of the glyph. She looked on in shock, but seeing it disrupted her concentration and the glyph and partial summon winked out of existence. "No!" she shouted, frustrated that she was so close yet so far.
"Weiss." She looked to Winter. "You just did it. That means you can do it again. I said your semblance is like a muscle. Work it more, and you'll do it again, I promise." She stepped forwards, and embraced Weiss in a hug. "It's time for me to go."
Weiss returned the hug. "It was really good to see you Winter."
"Until next time, sister."
They walked their separate ways, and as she was closing to her dorm, her scroll started vibrating. She saw it was another call from her father, pausing to look at it a few moments, before making up her mind and clicking the electronic device shut, a weight lifting off her shoulders as she continued on her way.
(Roman)
Roman Torchwick was bored out of his mind. He'd run out of things to do to pass the time in his luxurious cell weeks ago, and was currently staring at the ceiling of his confines. The cell was soundproofed at the press of a button, so he couldn't even annoy the two guards outside. The only thing that existed to break the monotony was the small digital clock bolted to the wall above the door, which was currently around 1:00 am. Go figure, being stuck in what was essentially solitary confinement messed with your sleep schedule.
"Hey, did you hear something?" one of the guards asked. Huh, so the soundproofing was currently off. Maybe he could listen to the conversation until he died from boredom?
"No."
"Dude, I swear I heard something. I'm gonna check it out."
"Okay, be my guest."
A set of footsteps moved into the distance, before a CLUNK was heard, and nothing else.
"Jake?" the other guard asked."What's going on? Jake? Jaaaaake?" A second set of footsteps moved a much shorter distance, before the voice continued, "You know, I should probably call this in before I go investi-" CLUNK!
Roman sat up straight. Well, this is new. A few seconds later, the sound of the code being input on his door occurred, before it slid open, and Roman found himself looking straight into the face of- "Patches?!"
"Roman Candella Torchwick, do you have any idea how bloody hard it is to sneak onto an Atlesian warship and get into its brig undetected? Never-mind the fact that I need to spoof every single camera and sensor that can detect me as I'm passing."
"What are you doing here?" Roman hissed. "The plan-"
"Fuck the plan. Fire Bitch neglected to inform us someone from my past is currently at Beacon. Someone who can and will kill us all regardless of how the plan goes if we go through with it. So I'm taking matters into my own hands, and I ain't letting someone be the master of my fate ever again," the bald man shot back.
"But what about-"
"Neo's safe at the moment. I can't get to her right now, but I will be able to later."
"All right then. So, how exactly do you suppose we get off this damn ship?"
"Well firstly…" Patches reached behind his back and pulled out Roman's beloved hat, and Melodic Cudgel. "I give ya these back. I'll accept your praise later." Roman gave a smirk at his longtime friend, donning his favored headwear and grabbing his weapon. "Then, you put your arm on my shoulder. Took me two bloody weeks to find it, but of course she would have managed to find a godsdamned bonfire in this day and age," he muttered to himself, pulling out what appeared to be a human bone from… somewhere.
"Patches, what the heck is that, how does holding your shoulder get us out of here, and what does a bonfire have to do with it?"
"Roman, you trust me right?"
"Of course!"
"Just do it then."
Roman shrugged, and did as he was asked. Patches crushed the bone in his grip, where it crumbled to ash, which then started swirling around them, becoming thicker and thicker, until he couldn't see the floor, or past the ash, and then-
He heard a crackling, and the first thing he noticed was the coiled sword, embedded in a small mound of ash in a forest clearing, a fire gently blazing from it without any visible fuel source.
"How-"
"You know how Fire Bitch has magic? I got some tricks of my own. There's… a lot about myself, and my past that I haven't actually told you or Neo. I'll start talking, I promise, but not here. We need to get to one of my safehouses, and besides that, this bonfire isn't always unoccupied, and I do not want to meet the person who lit it right now."
Roman looked at the man he'd known for years, suddenly very confused. But if there were two people in this world he trusted, Patches was one of them, so he followed his lead as they set off on foot into the night.
(Ozpin)
Ironwood was in another meeting with Ozpin when he received the news. Beacon's headmaster watched Jame's eye twitch as he listened to what the person on the other end of his earpiece was telling him. He slammed his fist into Ozpin's desk, the only reason it didn't dent being that it wasn't the metal one that landed the blow. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'HE ESCAPED'?!"
Ozpin was suddenly glad he had decided to turn off all the monitoring and electronic devices that weren't completely localized to the room. "James?" Ozpin hesitantly asked the enraged general, who raised a finger to indicate he was still listening to the other end.
"Well, search the entire ship, but don't give any indication to the public that he's free at the moment. We don't need to have the people panic right now, nor do we need the embarrassment that no one can figure out how he did it." He sighed, and turned to Ozpin. "I was just informed that Roman Torchwick has escaped his imprisonment, and not a single person can tell me how, or figure out where he went. The only clue we found was a single, seemingly ancient, rusted coin with what appeared to be some kind of angel on one side in his cell, which we are currently analyzing now. It doesn't have any fingerprints or other identifiers that we can pick up at the moment, but considering that that isn't Roman's calling card, it leads me to believe that someone else helped him escape, and made a mockery of my military in the process."
"Perhaps this is a sign that you should double check your electronic security, James. I'll be sure to do the same for mine, if someone can slip by Atlas' best so easily." Ozpin thought to himself, reflecting on memories generations in the past, wracking his mind to see if he'd seen something similar to what James described. His eyes widened.
"Ozpin?" James seemed to have noticed.
"No, that can't be possible," Ozpin said to himself, "Only she lives that long. It can't be that he's still around; that was centuries ago."
"Ozpin, if you know anything, we need to follow that lead."
"There was a man," Ozpin began, "several centuries ago, who called himself Pate. I could never figure out just who he was, and he seemed to be able to do things that should have been impossible. She attacked Mistral via a legion of Grimm, in seemingly endless numbers, and he managed to unite the entirety of the criminal undercity in what seemed to be hours, bringing them to the aid of Mistral's army, driving off the assault. I was in the city at the time, and saw him in person briefly, observing him dueling one of her pawns by himself. I was going to step in to assist, but he held his own, sustaining wounds that should have been fatal, and healing them with a… a flask that looked just like the one Vyliria uses… After he killed the pawn, he left an identical coin on the corpse for a Grimm to find and report back to her. He seemingly disappeared after the Grimm were repelled, and I never saw him again."
"You don't think-" James started.
"He had to have been to Irithyll when it still stood at some point. But how would he be here now? It would have to be one of his descendants, him having passed his knowledge down for generations. And now our mystery man, with whatever talents Pate had, some of which are undoubtedly possessed by Miss Avalon, is working with Roman Torchwick."
"Should we call her in to ask questions to see if we can glean anything else on this person?"
"We don't know just who is observing us right now. They could see us bring her in just after Roman got out, and we could lose them for good. For all we know, they might not even be working for her. There's too many unknowns to act on at the moment."
"So then what do we do?" James was getting annoyed.
"For now, we strengthen our security measures, and say nothing about Torchwick. Increase the readiness of your soldiers; I'll fabricate an intercepted communication from the White Fang claiming that they're planning another attack in Vale in the near future, perhaps even this week, and you can have your soldiers step up, and the people will be calmed when increased Atlesian presence seemingly makes them call off the attack. We'll need to shut off all electronics in future meetings, and disconnect our scrolls from the CCT. If they can hack your airships, there's no telling what other systems they may be in."
Ironwood's eyes widened. "The break-in to the CCT! That must be where they got into the system! There's a backdoor we can't even detect!"
"That is alarming. Just how much have we said that could have been heard between then and now?"
"Too much. If we haven't found even a hint of tampering, I doubt we'll find it now, but I'll have my people start looking into this, and work to keep sensitive information to a strictly non-electronic format."
"Very well James. I wish you the best of luck." Ozpin got to work himself as Ironwood said his goodbyes and left the office.
(Cinder)
Cinder disliked spending time in the warehouse that Adam and his direct underlings were currently lying low at, but meeting Tyrian Callows at Beacon Academy wasn't an option, so here she was, Emerald and Mercury in tow. Neo didn't need to know about this particular excursion, and she wasn't particularly interested in following them anyways. Evidently, even the White Fang, Adam included, disliked the insane serial killer, despite him being a scorpion faunus, which was understandable, considering that Cinder herself wasn't overly fond of him. However, he worked for the same master she did, so they both had to bide the other's existence. The Fang had wisely cleared off the ground floor for the meeting, leaving just the four of them there.
Tyrian himself was pale, with golden eyes, and hair braided into a ponytail in such a manner as to resemble the actual scorpion tail that rested behind him. He had a silver ring earring on both earlobes, and an additional one at the top of his left ear. His white sleeveless jacket and white pants had leather belts strapped to them, the jacket being left open to display the multitude of large scars on the front of his torso. His arms were covered in bandages and below his elbows were leather vambraces. Lastly, the leather boots that covered his entire shin doubled as knee guards.
"Cinder, Cinder, Cinder, oh it's been too long!" Tyrian greeted with a crazed grin.
"Tyrian, I was told you had something to give to me," Cinder cut straight to the point.
"Well, being in Vale hasn't made you liven up a bit, it seems," he said. "Buuut, you'd be correct. Our goddess has seen fit to have me deliver unto you a very special weapon, and gave her explicit command that it only be used against a single target. Which is a bit of a shame, because I can literally feel how dangerous the thing is." He pulled out the weapon in question which appeared to be a knife at first glance, albeit of strange design. It had a wickedly sharp tip, but rapidly widened in length and girth in a curve, without a visible pommel, and the hilt seemed uneven, almost as if it was broken off from something else.
"That's it? Some malformed dagger?" Mercury commented.
"Watch your tongue! This was a weapon the goddess personally had stored away, and had to use her divine grace to even open the door to where it was sequestered." Cinder read between the lines, and realized this thing must be extremely dangerous if Salem kept it behind a door that she could only open with her own magic.
"Did she tell you what it is?" Cinder asked.
"No, the goddess didn't deem the knowledge necessary to be shared to us mortals. She merely said that it was a fragment of something far larger and far more deadly, that was shattered before even the moon. It's quite the piece of history, apparently, even if we aren't meant to know what that history is."
Cinder took the weapon, gingerly holding it by the supposed hilt, and she had to admit that it felt wrong. Like it wanted blood. Even her own would suffice. And even as powerful as it seemed, she resolved to wield the thing as little as possible. For once, she was willing to trust Salem's command without any question whatsoever, even in the privacy of her own thoughts. "Is that all, Tyrian?"
Tyrian stared at her silently, seeming to think for a few seconds, before deciding on his reply. "Well, I wasn't commanded to return after I was done, but for you," he said, pointing at her, "yes, I'm done. Though I think I may stay around for a bit. See the sights in Vale while there's still a Vale to see," he started cackling at his own joke, and Cinder took that as her cue to leave, silently directing Mercury and Emerald to follow, and the manic laughter started to fade as the distance increased.
(Vyliria)
Watching the stars from her dorm window, occasionally drawing her glance towards the shattered moon that stood in contrast to her memories of home, Vyliria suddenly felt a shiver run down her spine. She resolved to be on a heightened state of guard in the near future.
()
A/N: Bet you weren't expecting any of this. I figured Weiss went through a lot more character development by this point than in canon, and therefore actually just barely managed a summon during her conversation with Winter. How this changes things is up in the air at the moment. (Spoiler alert, me from the past: I already know what it changes, and it changes things alright.)
You didn't think I forgot about Patches, did you? Rest assured, this was a monkey wrench I was planning on throwing into the gears for a while, and I'm going to enjoy what it'll let me do later. Also, Metal Gear reference. And homeward bones make escape strategies irrelevant. As you can see, just this little change is already sending things spiraling out of control. But keep in mind that Cinder already has access to Ironwood's scroll. While the damage is being limited, they can't undo what's already occurred.
And Tyrian Callows being in Vale in volume 3 definitely won't cause any issues that will end up being a subplot which will occur at a later point in the story. "Not at all, and I'm definitely not being sarcastic," I said sarcastically. Part of me is terrified I f'd up his character, but how hard can it be to pull off an insane serial killer who may or may not be a sadomasochist, that has a bit of a goddess-complex about all things Salem, and has a flair for the dramatic and manic laughter?
Oh boy, I wonder what that weapon, or fragment of a weapon, is. But in all seriousness, feel free to guess it. If you guess it right, and you have an account, I'll actually let you know via PM.
Oh yeah, since now you have to wait a week for an update, I'll just be a tease and name-drop the next chapter's title: "Several Beats Were Missed." I'm sure you can figure out what's gonna be going down.
See you in the next one!