Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.
Fair warning, shit's about to get descriptively dark. That said, if you were around in 2010, this might just be a good nostalgia trip. "Victory can not be achieved without sacrifice..."
CHAPTER 5
When Pale hadn't come back until breakfast, everyone was freaking out. "We thought you got kidnapped, Weiss thought you did something stupid to piss Penny off, and we had no clue where she was, so we've been trying to call you all night." Clayton said, scolding his teammate at the breakfast table.
"Guy's relax… I am officially no longer single." Pale said with a smirk.
"No." Weiss said, with a grin.
"Yes. I know she's a little weird, but Penny and I are actually dating now." Pale said, only for Clayton to facepalm.
"You ditched the mission for some tail?" Yang asked. Halcyone just coughed into her arm.
Pale shrugged. "What? She's called me her boyfriend since we met her, figured I might as well actually act like one." Pale said with a shrug.
"It better have been worth it." Clayton said. Pale just grinned.
"She didn't." Ruby said. Blake immediately became interested in the gossip.
"She did." Pale said, putting his hands behind his head.
"O-on the first date?" Blake asked. "S-so lewd…" She thought.
Pale sucked through his teeth, and remembered last night. "So… No… Ya know?" Pale asked, as Penny took her stockings off, the last article of clothing gone. "My father didn't design me to completely mimic a human. The assumption was I would never need to be naked in front of anybody." Penny said, running a hand against her completely smooth featureless body.
Pale snapped back to reality. "Weeeeelll." He said, only for Siniy to smack him in the head.
"It is indecent to be sharing a woman's sex life you asshole." Siniy said in Cyrillic, before he returned to eating his 40 egg ommlet, shovelling roughly a pound of the food into his mouth in one go.
Now it was Weiss's turn to be interested in something. "As much as anyone else wants to hear about our friend's… escapades... I've noticed that you eat a lot, Siniy... The absurd kind of a lot." Weiss comented.
Siniy shrugged. "And that's abnormal for me? I'm over 9 feet tall and 2000 pounds of muscle, fat, and hyper dense bone. That's at least half a million callories a regular and active day. I need all I can get." Siniy said, before taking a gulp from the gallon of milk he had beside him. "I nearly ate my mother out of house and home when I had my first groth spurt." Siniy said in cyrillic with a chuckle.
"And another thing... What language are you speaking?" Weiss asked.
Siniy glanced back and forth between his friends. "Cyrillic… Not many speak it anymore." He said.
"Well… Why not?" Yang asked.
"Well, I guess breakfast is as good a time as any to tell my tale." Siniy sighed. Everyone pulled their seats closer, and Team JNPR moved over tables just to listen. Siniy was a complete enigma to them, and everyone wanted to know more. "6 years ago in Solitas, I was taken from my home."
Soldiers came in the night. One of Atlas's few outlying villages was under siege. Siniy was only an 11 year old boy. Due to his family's faunus heritage, a lottery which he'd won out in, Siniy was born with polar bear ears, and their immense bulk. He was already 5 foot 5, the size of his father… His father, Zelenyy Garnet, who went away from home to fight a war he had no place in, and by association his family was taken as political prisoners against the Kingdom of Atlas. The soldiers thought Siniy was mentally ill, and in the Village of Sugrob, the only language spoken was Cyrillic, a language that died when Atlas rose after the Great War. With no way to communicate the soldiers took Siniy, his mother Urrsila, and his brother Nikita, and when they tried to resist, and the village fought back, the rest were taken as well, or killed in the fight, even one of the few Humans who lived there, an old white haired nun, was taken.
The population of Sugrob was relocated to one of the few SDC prison labor camps. SDC Prison Labor Camp N1, known as Death's Doghouse. After a short documentation and processing period, the families were split apart, and everyone was to be marked. No inmate at SDC Prison Labor Camp N1 was expected to leave… Like the rest of the N1 through N5 prison camps, the inmates, of which were almost entirely faunus, were branded like cattle, tattooed, or both. Siniy didn't completely understand what was going on at the time. He was restrained by several men, and the wire brand was pressed to his skin. He fought against the several men holding him face down, and once the wound was made, the identification number I-4859 was tattoed beside it. He was released into confinement for a week to allow the injury to heal. Be it a subconscious drive to survive, or the will of the heathen gods of the Cyrillic homeland, it was then that Siniy had developed his aura. The brand, and tattoo though never fading, had unlocked his will to survive.
By the end of the second week, it became increasingly clear to the security personnel that Siniy was going to be a problem, and so they'd increased his work load to break him, giving him harder tasks. Over the course of 2 months Siniy only seemed to grow stronger, and bigger at that. An impressive growth spurt to 6 feet 2 inches in such little time was noticeable by the SDC guards. To keep him from resisting the guards of which he was outgrowing, Siniy was made to wear chains at all times keeping him tethered to walls or the minecarts they'd begun to make him push. By the end of the year, Siniy had gotten to be 7 feet tall, and his work uniform no longer fit at all, being worn like a loin cloth more often than not. It wasn't as if he'd get cold, the hollow hair that began to cover most of his body was pleasantly warm.
At a year and 6 months, Siniy had learned to speak Vytal from other inmates, though his grammar and fluency were terrible. He was 12 now, and held the height of 7 foot 7. The work load only increased as Siniy seemed to maintain his mass despite what meager rations the prisoners were given, though it may have helped Siniy had easily pushed through his daily work quotas, earning double rations nearly every day. That, and what rats scurried around the mine, commonly left alone for fear of disease, were killed and cooked by the polar bear child and a man who would become his mentor. Flees became an issue as a result, and so Siniy had his entire body shaved by a fellow inmate to alleviate the problem. Krasnyy Freedman, the only friend Siniy knew in the mines, and one of it's few humans, imprisoned for betraying Atlas 4 years ago, his time in the mines was running out. "Some day Siniy, you will be big enough… Strong enough to break out of this prison…"
Siniy was present for an execution. In fact, it was a mass execution. Every group of prisoners that came through, upon 5 years of confinement, were to be disposed. Siniy was used to push the carts full of emaciated bodies to the cremation room. 2,000 people lined up and shot, simply for lasting longer in the mines than they were supposed to. Like cows put out to pasture, as new ones took their place. The last remaining first term inmates of N1 were gone.
One day, Siniy had broken free of his chains while trying to save an inmate from falling rocks. Having smacked a guard out of the way to pull the rocks off of the prisoner, Siniy had angered the security forces, and they could find no other way to make him submit then to make him bleed. It took 12 guards, but they dragged him at gunpoint up to the yard outside, and chained him to the iron support beam of a water tower. It was 100 lashes for his offence, and after he was tossed back in his block, Krasnyy was the one who tended to his wounds, only to find that over two day's they had completely scarred over… And that was when Krasnyy knew Siniy had an aura, and that's when he knew they were ready.
Months of planning and near discoveries from the guards had led to the last day Siniy would spend in that hole. With his hair grown back in, and his height now at 8 feet, having slowed down drastically compared to earlier growth spurts, Siniy stood chained to his minecart, pulling it up to the switch track. Then Siniy gave the signal. His first roar. His cry for freedom echoed throughout the entire mine, and as if possessed, the men and women of the labor camp cried out in unison. "URAAAAAAAA!" Siniy broke free of his chains, and beat a guard to death using one of the lengths of the links, allowing Krasnyy to rally the rest of the prisoners.
"Siniy my son... Every journey begins with a single step… And this is step one!" Krasnyy shouted, and throughout the mines, the sounds of rioting and resistance were shouted over by the voices of 10,000 tortured souls. "SECURE THE KEYS!"
Krasnyy began unlocking every door he came across, and led Siniy up to the elevators. Activating them with the keys he cried out. "Step two?" Receiving a chorus of "ASCEND FROM DARKNESS!"
Siniy crammed into the elevator with everyone, as the rioting had pushed it's way up to the surface. "After you Siniy." One of the prisoners said, letting Siniy grab the guard they were faced with. Siniy used one hand, and picked up the guard, being shot in the chest multiple times, though never faltering. The bullets dug deep, but not deep enough to kill the giant. Siniy slammed the guard into the wall, and let the prisoners grab his gun and stun baton. Siniy had no need for such weapons yet. The giant shoved the armored steel door to the outside world open, and walked out with his fellow inmates, until the guard tower opened up on them with a machine gun. Taking cover behind a minecart with Krasnyy, Siniy looked at where the tracks led to, and turned to face the steel cart full of stone. Shoving it with all his might, Siniy pushed their cover forward attracting the attention of the gun, allowing his fellow prisoners enough time to prep the Molotovs they'd been making in secret. "Step three!" Krasnyy shouted before the prisoners threw their bombs. "RAIN FIRE!"
With loud booms the guard tower blew up, and flamed out, falling over. Moving through the wall of fire, burning his abdomen and legs, Siniy and the prisoners made their way to the security office and the arms room. "Go on, my friend, break open the door." Krasnyy said, as he moved to the camp's PA system. "I will continue with step four." Krasnyy said, as Siniy nodded.
"Unleash hoard." Siniy said in broken Vytal, before he started kicking in the door to the arms locker. Siniy paid no mind to his friend's words in Vytal. He was given a task. Break open the door. Giving up on kicking, Siniy grabbed hold of the vault-like handles and the exterior hinge, and heaved, letting out a roar, ripping the door from it's housing.
Every prisoner with Siniy now had a riot shotgun, and Siniy the door to the armory acting as a shield. Regrouping with Krasnyy, the mass of prisoners pushed up through the main yards. Siniy bulldozed guards, giving more guns to his comrades. "The manta!" Krasnyy said, causing Siniy to look up at the machine gun armed airship flying over them. "Step five!" Krasnyy shouted.
"SKEWER THE WINGED BEAST!" Many men shouted, before Siniy took his armored door, held it over his head, and tossed it at the manta. Striking the airship, the door lodged into one of the wings, and the pilot lost control, spinning out into the side of the guard barracks. The prisoners rushed through the building, and Siniy was at the front. Having been shot a few more times the giant only grew angry as the tiny bullets failed to kill him.
Smacking a guard out of the way as he tried to close the armory door, Siniy grabbed the roll down shutter and managed to break the motor he was fighting against, then rushed into the room to tackle and beat the first guard he saw as his fellow inmates secured the building. The guard had a shotgun, and managed to put a spread into Siniy's gut. It was not life threatening, so Siniy pressed on, ripping the weapon out of the man's hands, and smacking him with it, shattering the metal weapon. Going up to the second floor, Siniy ripped the armory vault's door off to grab the one weapon that was waiting for him… No… Meant for him. Siniy picked up the AN/M3 aircraft machine gun, grabbing the spade grip and barrel jacket. "Step six." Siniy said. With a warcry, his fellow prisoners knew victory was assured. "WIELD A FIST OF IRON!"
"Step seven?" Siniy asked, being answered by his brothers in arms. "RAISE HELL!" Hell, an old and forgotten belief of Mantle, the idea that the damned were sent to a place worse than their own, beneath the surface of the world. The SDC N1 mine was considered Hell on Remnant by its inhabitants, and Siniy was going to bring Hell up to the surface.
Jumping out of a window with 1000 rounds of ammunition strapped to his back, Siniy waded through the exterior of the compound mowing down everything he saw with his death machine, roaring all the while, tears in his eyes, bleeding from all the small wounds that pocked his body. "By the god's, he's doing it." Krasnyy said, overwhelmed by how such a young boy no older than his son would have been, could be taking on an army by himself with an aura he could not yet control, injured as he was, and be winning. That was the willpower he'd heard was only found in huntsman… No… In Heroes.
Paying no mind as the barrel jacket heated up immensely, burning his palm, Siniy continued through the camp until reaching the edge of the gate, where he was met by several dozen guards in full riot armor. Out of ammo, and with no other options, Siniy held his machine gun as if it were a hammer. Snarling, Siniy looked to Krasnyy, who shouted out. "STEP EIGHT!" Receiving a nearly thunderous chorus of yells from the prisoners, though none so loud as Siniy in his native language. "FREEDOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
And with that shout, Siniy Rushed forward being pelted by rifle rounds. Coming into contact with the first guard, Siniy drove his improvised hammer downwards, and all at once, the heat he'd unknowingly syphoned from the barrel of his gun, and the bullets stuck in his body, and the flames that burned his skin, had been transferred and unleashed in one raw directed wave, and the ground of SDC Mine N1 erupted. The frozen stone was super heated, and flung upwards, coming crashing down on the formation of guards. Rapidly cooling, the molten rock paved a path for the prisoners to escape the fortified exit of the compound.
Siniy smiled as he laid his eyes on the tundra. It was a sight he would relish forever... His freedom, but only his... Siniy had not seen his mother or brother even in passing since the first week of his captivity, and had to accept that they had been worked to death like many before them. Siniy then looked to the south, and frowned when he saw the mantas approaching. He did not know that they were there to help… Help only the faunus. When the aircraft landed, the uniformed faunus exchanged words with Krasnyy, and after a second, shot him dead in front of Siniy.
When the giant retaliated, enraged by his friend's death, the Faunus subdued him with a net, taking him and the rest of the escaped prisoners to Mantle. On the way there, the faunus that had picked up Siniy and his fellow inmates, had the same misconceptions the Atlesians did. With Siniy's Vytal being so broken the faunus assumed he was mentally challenged, and that he was Krasnyy's pet. One of the more sadistic members of the group, took it upon himself to humiliate what he saw as nothing more than a human's dumb attack dog, and set to forever marking Siniy with the one scar he would never be able to ignore. Next to the two year old wire brand SDC logo and the ID tattoo, the word pet, was cut into him. And from that day forward Siniy Garnet saw that faunus could be just as evil as humans.
Reactions among the group of friends varied. Jaune and Pyrrha sat in stunned silence, Ren remained stoic, but was clearly disturbed by the story. Nora was holding onto Ren's arm, tears in her eyes. The two had been orphaned at a young age much the same as Siniy and could sympathize with the giant.
Ruby was being comforted with a hug from Clayton. Clayton and Ruby both knew that the conditions in the mines were bad, but they'd never heard of such cruelty. Pale pulled his hat down to cover his eyes. Not even at his worst would Pale ever wish that kind of suffering into another, faunus or not. That was the same kind of evil he'd seen at Sakkura… Done to both humans and faunus. Halcyone just looked down at her breakfast, no longer feeling hungry.
Yang was holding her own hair like a blanket. Much like her sister and Clayton, she'd known of the poor treatment of faunus laborers, and of the existence of prison work camps, but such descriptions of torture were an unknown to her. Whipping a child for trying to help someone? What monster would do that?
By far the two worst reactions came from Blake and Weiss. The former was openly sobbing. She had known what conditions in the SDC prison camp N5 was like, Adam had informed her well enough, and it was clear why there were practically never any faunus who made it out of N1 through N5, but how Siniy described it, the sheer brutality, it was worse than her former partner ever made it sound. Adam talked of the brandings and being overworked, and they'd both seen the cages at Labor Camp N4 when they'd destroyed it two years ago, but never had she heard of whippings, and intentional starvation, much less mass executions. And that worried her. Adam harbored a hatred for humanity because of what he had experienced. If Siniy's life in the mines was worse than Adam's, and he was treated the same by his own kind for showing compassion to a human, how could he not simply hate everyone?
Weiss on the other hand… She was in a state of denial. It had to be made up, at least half of it. There was no way that something that horrible could be happening at such a scale and nobody know, or rather there be no evidence to support such claims, not even a mention of it from her father. Detaining people just for being related to White Fang members? Wiping out an entire culture, even if by accident? Enslaving children? Branding prisoners that were supposed to die in the mines? Lashings?... Siniy did have a back covered in scars… And a chest covered in bullet wounds and burns as he described… If that was the case, could everything else be true?
"Show me." Weiss said.
"Show what?" Siniy asked.
"The… I want to see it... All of it." Weiss had her fists clenched, hoping, praying that she wouldn't see those three dreaded letters. Siniy started unbuttoning his school uniform, only for Blake to put a hand on his arm.
"You don't have to." She said… Truthfully, she didn't want to see such a mark on another person again, let alone a friend. Siniy shrugged her off.
"It's alright, I've made my peace with them… All of them." Siniy said, as he stood up from his steel stool, and began taking off his jacket and button up. All eyes in the cafeteria turned as the giant stood up and disrobed. Shrugging off his shirt, he slowly turned around, allowing his friends to see every mark on his body. Completing his rotation, Siniy put his shirt and jacket back on, only to see Weiss shed a single tear before she got up, and left the room, trying to hide her eyes. Siniy sighed. "I'll handle this." He said, walking off to find Weiss.
Siniy found Weiss outside, sitting under a tree away from the building. She could hear the giant approaching, and sniffed, wiping away tears before she looked up. "Why?..." Weiss asked, as Siniy sat down. "Why not show this to someone… Anyone… Why not make it known that… That my family is doing this to people?" Weiss asked.
Siniy huffed. "Every man and child who's ever escaped the mines has a bounty on their heads. The SDC pays good money to ensure that nobody has a chance to speak the truth. That, and the N1 through N5 mines are all in the Solitas tundra, for anyone to know they would have to brave a thousand miles of the arctic circle. It is not a place that becomes known… The only reason I have been able to stay out of trouble, is because the N1 records room was burned to the ground… Effectively I never existed." Siniy said. Weiss sniffed again before speaking.
"Someone has to know… I-… My father-… The company-... They… They can't keep getting away with this, not if what you said was true… Even if... Even if faunus were just animals, that's beyond crule." Weiss said, hugging her knees to her chest.
"And in time they will get what is coming to them, but not now. I escaped my prison, and killed many of those who hurt me, I do not need more blood shed if it is needless." Siniy said, allowing for a long silence to permeate through the air.
"You hate me don't you?" Weiss asked. Siniy shrugged.
"No Weiss, I do not hate you, I hate your family name. You were not the one who put me in those mines, the SDC and Atlas's military did." Siniy said.
"But… I'm supposed to inherit the company, it's going to be my company that did that to you… How can you not hate me?" Weiss said, still puffy eyed from her crying.
"I have no doubt that you would run your family's company better than your father ever could…" Siniy chuckled as he stood up, offering a hand to Weiss, a rare moment of humor springing to his mind.
"Besides…" He said, pulling the girl to her feet. "A pretty woman like you is bound to get married eventually, so in the end you won't have your family name, and I don't think any man is slimy enough to take you're family's name for his own benefit... Except your father of course." He said with a grin, before giggilling. Weiss, still teary eyed, flustered for a second, before she understood it was a joke made at her dad's expense, and chuckled along with the giant. "I apologize for making you cry, that was rude. I could have been less graphic." Siniy said, as Weiss pulled her hand away.
"No... I... I think I needed to hear it all." Weiss said, before walking back to the cafeteria, Siniy not far behind.
Combatives later that day was eventful. Clayton made a wager. He bet 50 lien that he could last 5 minutes in the ring facing Pyrrha. There was no contest of who was going to be the winner, even Clayton knew he was only just a close match to the spartan with his semblance forcing her to hit him harder with every blow. His other teammates… Well, Pale and Siniy might accidentally kill her if they both put their semblances to use in class, but in a "fair" fight Pale got bodied, and Siniy was slower than Pyrrha and had trouble hitting her because he was so much taller than her, and Halcyone was a good scrapper and shooter, but was not quite up to bar. In either case, Clayton only lasted 4 minutes and 34 seconds before Pyrrha took his aura down to 15 percent, which was counted as a loss.
To be fair there were only so few people in the school that could even take Pyrrha on in a ring match, as for who lasted the longest, that was Clayton with his semblance, Yang, Siniy, (by metric of just having a massive pool of aura to be beaten on could last over 12 minutes in a fight with her,) and even then only one of them could take her down to half aura, and that was Yang because she, while not as strong as Siniy, was just fast enough to nail Pyrrha a few good times. Sufice to say, it was surprising that some new guy from Haven volunteered to fight her for the last match of the day.
Mercury Black was his name. He strolled down to the ring, and sized up Pyrrha. Then after a pause, initiated. Clayton took note of his fighting style. "Kickboxing, minus the boxing, little bit of Mistral jujitsu, some type of breakdance implemented into recoveries and spin kicks." Clayton thought. Then something odd happened. Mercury managed to kick Pyrrha's sword away. Clayton knew from experience, wrestling a weapon away from Pyrrha was asking her to use her semblance on you. It was trivial really, Pyrrha kept up appearances, acting as if she hadn't unlocked her semblance yet, but Clayton knew better. All of her friends knew better for the most part. With Mercury again initiating, Pyrrha used her polarity to slightly adjust the course of Mercury's metal covered boot guns, and after a second or so of more fighting, he quit the match.
Ruby caught that last bit too. Mercury had the upper hand, in fact Ruby figured his raw skill at fighting might have been close to Pyrrha's own, to the point he didn't need gorilla strength, or to be the size of a polar bear to equal her. And that was telling. "Why do you think he gave up?" Ruby asked Clayton in a whisper.
"Think he's trying to take her on in the tournament?" Clayton asked back.
"Oh most definitely. Guy like that would give anybody a hard time in the ring, he could probably beat her if he didn't have any metal on him. I think he threw the match to keep her from speculating though." Ruby said. Clayton nodded. The Vytal tournament was going to be harder than he thought.
As everyone left the classroom, Mercury hung back for a second to speak with Emerald. "Learning is so much fun." He said sarcastically.
"Would you have rather fought the polar bear?" Emerald asked with a fake smile.
"I could take him." Mercury said with a smirk.
"Yeah, until he decides to rip you in half." Emerald said with an eye roll.
"Well let's hope that it dosn't come to that." Mercury said flatly.
Later in the dorm common room. Teams RWBY and SPGL were sitting around. About half of the gang was discussing continuing their fight against the White Fang, the others were playing Field of Duty: Great War. "Ok, so missions start up after the dance, which means we should have the ability to pick a mission in any number of the outer regions of Vale, both teams at that." Clayton said.
Pale shrugged. "Could scout the north end of the Forever Fall. Last I was there I ran into their camp, killed three of their NCO's." Pale said, only for Blake to shake her head.
"The White Fang is almost always mobile outside of Anima. That camp's been taken down and moved. Likely to the south east if Torchwick's spill was anything to go by." Blake said.
Pale shrugged again. "Any idea if Adam's gonna' be there?" He asked, looking at Blake intently from under the brimm of his hat.
"Most likelly not." Blake said hurridly.
"Fuck." Pale muttered.
"Either way, we know from SDC records that Vale is clearly the primary target of the White Fang's attacks." Weiss said.
"And that Atlas had a bunch of prototype tech stolen." Siniy said, referencing the Paladin, and the Minigun.
"So what are we thinking, split up, search the south east?" Ruby said, looking over her shoulder from the game, only for Yang to team kill her.
"It wouldn't be impossible. There's not that much to search." Weiss said.
"Real question becomes what do we do if we find anything?" Clayton asked.
Pale raised a hand. "Simple, call in the cavalry. Let General Ironwood come in and scalp the fuckers from the air." Blake pursed her lips at that. Scalping was an old practice humans used to do to Faunus with extra ears, the fact he referred to that at all was disgusting.
"Well that's a Monday thing." Halcyone said, pausing the game. "Who all's going to the dance? Heard you guys were in charge of organizing it since CFVY hasn't got back from their mission yet." She asked, interested to see if any prospecting dates were available.
Blake stood up. "I'll be in the library." She said while leaving the room.
"What's wrong with her?" Pale asked.
Weiss sighed. "She's been like that since the first fight you guys had with Torchwick. Nowhere near as bad as she could be, but she's burning herself out looking for every possible lead on the White Fang." She said.
Siniy grunted. "You scare the shit out of her, Pale. She's taking every chance she has to combat the White Fang becasue she thinks you want to kill her still." Siniy said. There was a second of silence.
"Do you really have nothing to say to that?" Ruby asked.
"I mean... It ain't like she's trying to blow up trains or nothin'. Way I see it, so long as she don't end up double crossin' us, I ain't gonna shoot her." Pale said.
"Right, she'll just work herself to death instead." Ruby said with an eye role.
Clayton rubbed his eyes. "She's not the only one overworked. But if she doesn't take it easy this weekend she'll be too tired to actually pull off the mission." He said. Halcyone just blew a raspberry at the thought.
"Why worry about what can't be changed. It's not like we're not going to be kicking the shit out of the Fang in two days." Halcyone said, returning to the game. Ruby Sighed. To her, the mission wasn't finding the Fang, it was taking care of her friends. What was the point of fighting the White Fang if it meant her team dissolved under the pressure?
Out on the roof, Jaune was in the middle of a spar with Pyrrha, he'd gotten better, not by much, but still better. If his tactical skills and battle knowledge were being tested instead of his swordsmanship he'd have possibly outplayed his partner in a real time strategy game, but there was no point in being a commander if he couldn't lead from the front. He wasn't precisely on his game tonight either, but that was an excuse he didn't want to use. Almost 7 months at Beacon and he still had not worked up the gumption to ask Halcyone on a date.
"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune looked up at his partner as she helped him get up.
"Nothing… It's just… I really want to ask Halcyone to the dance, but I'm not sure if she'll like me… Or if she even likes guys… Not to stereotype, one of My sisters is married to a woman, but usually girls with short hair like that are lesbians." Jaune said, rubbing his neck
"Oh…" Pyrrha said, trying not to sound disappointed. "Well… No, is the worst thing she could say. You should give it a shot, Jaune… I know any girl would be lucky to have you." Pyrrha said with a pained smile, hoping Jaune would pick up the hint she was dropping.
"Actually I'm pretty sure the worst she could say would be, eww." Jaune corrected, chuckling at the thought, before walking off for the night. "Have a good night Pyrrha." Jaune said.
"You too…" She said, as the door to the roof closed. "Jaune…" Pyrrha said, before she sat against the piping on the roof, and shed a single tear. "Why does he have to be so dense?" Pyrrha sighed, as she felt heat pooling in her core. It looked like she would be taking another long hot shower with music on tonight.
Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald sat in the dorm room they were provided during their stay at Beacon, going over plans, and categorizing potential threats or Assets.
"We've identified a few people of interest." Emerald said.
"And they would be?" Cinder asked, as she started sewing a hole closed in her dress.
"Bottom of the list is Pale Lee. His physical combat skills are subpar, even worse than that pathetic Arc, but he was the one that did most if not all of the killing during Roman's failed dock heist. He's an extremely good sniper, and whatever sort of semblance he has can put holes through aura at a distance, but he's flaming hot garbage in hand to hand." Emerald said.
"Psychological profile?" Cinder asked dryly.
"Not entirely sure what to make of it. As far as I can gather he has a hatred for the White Fang, and some sort of obsessive compulsion. Opens the lever on his rifle a lot for no reason, half cocks the hammer on his other gun and resets it, things like that." Emerald said.
"Keep a close eye on him. Next." Cinder said.
"Siniy Garnet. Outside of his massive size and strength, his semblance looks like some sort of damage absorption, like the Xiao Long girl. He takes damage, then unleashes a destructive blast into the ground… He… Honestly I can't read him. He had an SDC brand on his back, but the word pet carved into his skin next to it, he should hate humans in general and the faunus too, but he's always so passive when not in fights so it's hard to tell where he stands." Emerald said.
"Research him more. Next." Cinder said.
"Finally, Pyrrha Nikos." Cinder arched an eyebrow at the name.
"Ah the invincible girl." Cinder said. Mercury set his comic book down.
"She's smart, but not invincible. Her semblance is some sort of magnetic control. She touched my boots, and could move them around, but she only makes small adjustments." Mercury said.
"She doesn't broadcast her power which puts her opponents at a disadvantage… Most of them." Emerald said.
"People assume she is fated for victory, yet she has taken fate into her own hands." Cinder said.
"You should be able to take her down no problem." Mercury said. Cinder smiled.
"It's not about overpowering the enemy, it's about taking away what power they have… And we will... In time."
Authors Note: "Victory can not be achieved without sacrifice Mason, we Russians know this better than anyone." Viktor Reznov.
This was about where I made the decision to really go grimdark. RWBY constantly tries to tell us that humanity systemically treats faunus like shit, but then won't show us any of the nitty gritty. We just get "No faunus" posters, and some very light racist comments from side characters like drunk dude in Mantle, or Cordovan saying Blake wasn't trustworthy. When I first wrote up Siniy I was already planning for him to have been this beat on little ogre baby, but after re-watching the show and re reading the comics (shit as they are) I saw that the depiction of conditions in Atlas mines were both brief and honestly not as bad as I was expecting. So I went full blown facist with the creation of the N series labor/death camps to explain how Adam got his scar, to actually show the same level of brutality we are told exists, and to also give a reason as to how Siniy got his aura and Semblance along with explaining why we don't see any analogs to Russian stuff in RWBY. Atlas wiped the entire culture out. As to how the world doesn't know? Hey if the Nazi's could keep the death camps under wraps, I'm sure Atlas could hide some mines away in the barren tundra.
Weiss's reaction to the story was about priceless to write too. Like, you're basically the daughter of Hitler, but you have no idea how bad Hitler is, and then you meet a holocaust survivor, and you're entire reality just crumbles like a fucking crouton... I feel like I captured that well. By this point Weiss is no longer racist, she's just too guilt ridden.
I got a bit on the nose at the end with Cinder Merc and Em all talking about potential threats. In the show we're told that Pyrrha was added to a list of VIPs, but we're not told exactly what for, going with "Potential threats" is a safe bet, and also a way to make our canonically blundering villains not appear so foolish. They know Pyrrha is going to be a problem, she's the best fighter in the school, but they aren't so ignorant as to ignore the two people who have been the cause of the most death and destruction towards their plans. Pale, because like Tyrian and Adam, he can go through aura, making him deadly to even the most skilled combatant, except Siniy because he is just built different. On that note, as a near 10 foot, bulletproof, walking volcanic event, Siniy presents a clear danger to anyone who's trying to get through him, and as I think I've made know he's holding himself back because he doesn't really want to hurt people anymore than he needs to.
Hope you guys are enjoying the lunacy so far.