Here we go
Cover Art: Mystery White Flame
Chapter 58
The death of a hundred souls came not with a cacophony of wailing but ominous silence, fear paralysing the very notion of sound but for the clicking of instruments and the scratchings of fevered inscription. All sound beyond that was gargantuan in the absence of any other, the merest cough enough to have every muscle in the body clenched tight.
One man stood at the head of it all, back rigid and eyes staring ahead, seeing not those arrayed before him but distant stars beyond, mind trapped in an entirely different plane of existence, tortured by spirits and demons of the most horrendous kind…
Boredom.
He knew he was bored because of the way his mind wandered. And because of the fact he was referring to himself in the third person. Realising that fact, he forced his eyes closes and attempted to bring back some small sanity.
The scratching of pens continued. The examinations had begun.
Stood at the head of a long hall with seats arranged in geometric patterns, all equidistant apart and perfectly spaced like an eldritch spell to summon some Elder God, Headmaster Jaune Arc surveyed his students. Their heads were hung low, eyes haunted and shoulders hunched, bent over their tables like wizened old men trying to reclaim some vestige of their former lives. Sweat dripped from faces slick with it and a wonderfully horrific odour had long since begun to fill the hall, the smell of too many people packed in a too small space for too much time.
The clock on the wall ticked loudly on, those closest to it flinching with every mechanical click of its internal workings. Jaune twitched as well, partly from nervous habit and partly because his legs had gone to sleep on him. Further along, Glynda stood watch, a beacon of discipline and a rock in a storm that remained unyielding.
Both bored out their skulls.
Did the student body think a ninety-minute exam boring? If so, they ought to try not having an exam to keep you occupied and having to stand stock still for an hour and a half. Ostensibly, they were there to watch out for cheaters, but their very presence dissuaded that. If they left, people might cheat. If they looked away or fiddled on their scrolls, people might cheat. It was a game of chicken in which they had to stand there – even if their eyes saw nothing and their minds had been reduced to mashed potato through sheer boredom – and the students would play their part.
He couldn't even look at them. His attempts to distract himself by watching people ended up with the poor students in question sweating up a storm and growing tenser and tenser. Huntsmen and Huntresses were trained to be aware of their surroundings, or as aware as they could be, and some of them could sense when a person was staring at them. As such, he'd fixed his eyes above their heads on the back wall and through it, out into a wider cosmos his mind latched onto because it was just so-damn-bored.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
The clock's sonorous sound droned on, accompanied by a skrtch-skrtch-skrtch of pen on paper and a shff-shff-shff of pages being turned. Jaune rocked back and forth, beatboxing the sounds in his head until he'd debuted his first single – Exam. It was going to be a critical success. If he survived to the end of the day, that was.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Jaune whirled, hand falling to his side and Crocea Mors slicing behind him. Wide-eyed, he stared at the crackling remains of the alarm Glynda had set up. He glanced back to the students, suddenly aware of a hundred plus people staring at him in shock.
"Pens down!" Glynda announced. "Papers closed. The exam is over. Please remain seated until your paper is taken, and you are dismissed by rows. Do not attempt to write on your papers. Would the final student on each row please stand, collect the papers and bring them to the front? Thank you."
Chairs scraped and the students at the back got up and muddled their ways forward, collecting papers and clutching them to their chests like monks with holy texts. The way they all moved in unison only made it look more like a religious cult, and with the clear reluctance on their faces, it felt more like sacrificial offerings.
Ruby came up to him, ashen faced and shaking, holding out a stack of papers with such a nervous expression that it might as well have been a marriage proposal. She looked inordinately relieved when he took it.
"Thank you," Glynda said loudly. "Those students may leave first." They could not have fled faster – especially Ruby with her Semblance. "And now we'll start with row A. Please stand and leave. Do not tarry outside. Move on and allow space for others to leave." It took a few minutes but soon the students had filed out and the hall was empty. Glynda sighed and threw the stacked papers down on the front desk with a splat. "Well, that's our exam for the day done. About time. My brain has gone numb."
"I'm beginning to think Peter and Bart had the right idea," Jaune said. "Weeks trekking in the burning heat with sand getting everywhere sounds wonderful compared to this."
"Yes. Those…" Glynda grumbled something under her breath. "It's a rare day they pull one over on me, but this is their victory. I hope they enjoy it because I shall make them pay for this threefold when they return."
"At least we don't have to mark these."
"Yes." Glynda pushed the papers to the edge of the table while Jaune held out a large brown sack. It was something they had to push them into and then seal shut, to ensure no tampering. They would then be collected by adjudicators and marked off-site. "Due to tampering in past years, we cannot be allowed to mark these. It's a conflict of interest."
"Who tampered?" Jaune asked, curious.
"Ozpin. And it was one of his better moves."
"You're supporting it!?"
"Of course. Oh, I see your confusion." Chuckling, she pushed her glasses further up her nose, sealing the bag shut and marking the exam on the front. It was then his job to heft it up over one shoulder. "Ozpin didn't tamper because he wanted to help or hinder a student. He tampered to make a point."
"That point being…?"
"That the tampering was possible in the first place, and that Beacon professors could not be trusted to remain impartial at all times. The revelation forced the Council's hand in hiring outside adjudicators and putting in place more stringent measures."
"Wait, so what you're saying is that Ozpin tampered to change the system so we wouldn't have to mark exams in the future?"
"Yes."
A tear ran down Jaune's face. He sniffed, thumping his free hand over his heart. "Ozpin…" he squeaked, voice high-pitched and raw with emotion. "Truly, the greatest heroes are those unsung by legend."
"While I would say you're being overdramatic this is a rare – and I mean rare! – situation in which I agree fully." Glynda pushed herself back into a standing position and moved to open the door for him. "Come on. Let's get these processed and find something to eat. It's Ghira and Sienna handling the next exam, then Kali and Roman after."
Ghira and Sienna – the man who made the White Fang and the woman who usurped it. Not exactly who he would have chosen to put together. "Interesting duos you set up. Any reason for it…?"
"Necessity. Put Kali and Ghira together and the students shall be exposed to things they should not be. It's bad enough Mrs Belladonna literally called out good luck to her daughter, I won't have them making out in front of the students. As for Torchwick, I don't trust him not to stand up and offer to take bribes in the form of tobacco."
Jaune imagined it.
"Calculator for a cigar – do I have a cigar? Two cigar, do I have -? Three! Sold, for three cigars with Weiss Schnee. Now, I have here a scroll with connection to the internet and all the lovely search engines therein. Going once…?"
"Okay. Probably a good choice there. Still, that leaves…"
"Cinder and Neo. Yes, I know." Glynda sighed. "It will certainly be an intense exam hall, but at the very least we can be assured there won't be anyone brave enough to cheat there."
/-/
The room outside the testing chamber was a hive of activity, a bazaar of students pressed close together loudly talking over one another as teams exchanged questions, the answers they'd given and then argued ferociously over who had it right.
"What did you get for the question about the Goliath?"
"How many survivors did you get for the pursuit question?"
"Who was the commander of the faunus forces in the faunus war again?"
"What was I meant to put in the `name` slot on the front of the exam?"
The questions went on and on, answers changing hands, textbooks consulted, and faces slammed into walls, muffled screams into hands and the constant "Yesss!" of people who got it right. Many fists were pumped. Many more were thrown into the floor.
It was the relief that was most noticeable, however. The exam was over, which both meant the rest of the day without panicking and proof that they could, in fact, survive the exam. It didn't change the fact there'd be no sleep and plenty of all-nighters preparing for tomorrow's exam, but that was normal. School was pretty much months of messing around pretending to pay attention in lessons and then one or two days of cram to learn a years' worth of lessons.
"All in all," Yang began. "How do we think we did?"
"I'm confident I scored over ninety per cent," Weiss said. Yang, Blake and Ruby all rolled their eyes.
"I think I did okay," Ruby said. "But some of those questions were about stuff I didn't even know! No one said skipping two years would be like that. It's not fair."
"On the bright side, I'm not sure how much grades matter." It was Blake who said that, looking particularly haggard, though that might have had more to do with her parents popping up at inopportune times to wish her luck or hint that they'd be expecting good grades from her. Mr and Mrs Belladonna seemed determined to make up several years' worth of lost parenting in the space of a week, and they'd seemingly decided to start with parental embarrassment and move on from there. "Becoming a huntress is more of a pass or fail thing. As long as we get passing grades, we're okay."
"And you can't technically fail mid-terms," Yang said, watching Ruby relax. "If you do, you just get dragged in for extra lessons and catch-up so you don't fail the actual end of year exams. You'll do fiiine." She tussled Ruby's hair. "Just wait and see."
"I'll feel better when the exams are physical."
Ugh. Ruby was the only one looking forward to that. Then again, her sister was one of the few people who genuinely enjoyed running – and not even in that "ha ha, I love running" kind of way people did crying on the inside but saying it because they loved being fit and healthy and were willing to put up with running to achieve that goal. Ruby genuinely loved the idea of running and running until she was exhausted.
Freak of nature. Seriously.
"I'm not," Weiss groused, echoing the thoughts of all rational people. "It'd be one thing if there was a bar to meet, but they just test until you collapse. No matter how good you do, it still ends the same way. Sore muscles and sweat soaked clothes."
"The beep test," Blake hissed.
They all – bar Ruby – shivered. The fairly simple test involved running from one end of a track to the other, starting when a machine beeped. It would get faster and faster, demanding you up your pace further and further until your body couldn't handle it anymore. It was torture for anyone, ensuring that even the fittest would eventually be reduced to quivering piles of goo.
Except Ruby.
"I like that test! You get loads of time to rest between beeps."
If looks could kill, they'd have been coffin-dancing their way out of Beacon. "You get time!" Weiss growled. "Because your stupid Semblance means you cover the track in half a second! The rest of us have to run across normally."
"Well maybe you should get faster."
"You – gah – hrk – hngh!"
"In the interests of saving Weiss from an aneurysm, what's say we grab some food? I don't know about you, but I need sugar – and fast. And while I'm at it, where's Oscar? I haven't seen him outside."
"Didn't you see?" Blake crossed her arms, uncharacteristically angry. "He finished in thirty minutes and brought his paper up to the front and left. He's either bombed the test so hard he doesn't care or passed with flying colours in a third the time it took us. Either way, I hate his very existence right now."
Weiss and Ruby grumbled their agreement.
"Huh." Yang scratched her cheek, idly wondering what that meant. Oscar wasn't the strongest, but he'd been a spy of some kind and important to the headmaster's plans. "Maybe that's part of what his role is. Super intelligent or something. Or he's got the mind of a huntsman but not the body."
"Yang, that sounds ridiculous."
Laughing, she agreed. "Yeah, you're right. Mind of a huntsman. What am I thinking?"
/-/
"News from Bart and Peter?"
"Why are you in my office?" Jaune asked.
"Your office?" Oscar smiled unnaturally. "I do believe it's mine."
"Wrong. Yours was on the tower." Jaune stepped in and closed the door behind him, moving over to his seat. Ozpin stood and made room for him, letting him sit and going over to stand by the wall of the fallen battleship instead. Or the floor – since it was on its side. "Your office got blown up," he said, leaning back. "And I should fail you for helping Oscar cheat on those exams."
"In my defence, Oscar couldn't have hoped to pass. No, that's not a slight at you, Oscar, only that the information is what you would have learned over years of study. It's simply not fair to expect you to know it." And too important he become a huntsman. It would open doors for him, not to mention place Ozpin in a better spot for when he eventually took full control.
In time, Oscar Pine would likely become the next headmaster of Beacon – or a powerful politician and leader of men. Whatever Ozpin decided would better suit the war against Salem. Given the state of Vacuo, it was very possible he'd go try and rebuild Shade, maybe even be its headmaster and entrust Beacon to Glynda and him.
"I was about to call Bart now. You can listen in as long as you don't cause a scene." Jaune's fingers tapped over the desk, calling up a holographic screen and patching into the CCT.
"A scene?" Ozpin asked. "Me? Why, when have I ever done that?"
"Maybe when you left the exam hall an hour early. That's not suspicious at all…" Holding up a hand for silence, he watched Ozpin lean against the wall and waited for the call to connect. Vacuo's CCT was in the city and not the school, sparing it from the attack. Shade was by its name a shaded and secluded place cut into a ravine between two mountains with an oasis at the base, making it a poor location for a CCT.
It took a few seconds to connect. The distance and time also materialised in a slight disconnect between what could be seen and heard, for while Oobleck's face appeared quickly enough and his lips moved, the words came a full second after like a poorly made movie.
"- Oobleck reporting. Can you hear me?"
"We hear you, Bart. How is it on your end?"
"Audio only, I'm afraid. I can't see you. I suppose it doesn't matter."
"It's Ozpin and I here. What have you been able to find? What's the state of Shade?"
"Fallen, I'm afraid." Oobleck held a hand over his chest. "We've done our best to put together what happened between Peter and I, and we've also met up with Qrow and a number of survivors from the attack. Qrow was also able to locate a few stranded remnants of teams wandering in the desert and guide them back to Vacuo."
Jaune breathed out a long sigh. "That's good. How bad is it?"
"Shade has fallen. The Grimm attacked from without while unknown assailants attacked from within, killing the headmistress and fatally wounding her deputy. Though we cannot prove it, we believe this to be Callows. His Semblance would allow him the method. Whether he had help is another matter entirely. After that, it fell to the remaining faculty to organise the defence, which was delayed due to the confusion. The first year students were called to evacuate along with non-combat staff and personnel. Apparently, the attack was almost entirely ground based, and no one who sought to flee by air was challenged."
"There was a disproportionate number of Nevermore and Gryphons in Atlas," Ozpin said. "I believe they were trying to keep Atlas' air force busy, as it would have been our only way to react to the attack on Shade in time."
Keep them distracted and make sure the battleships couldn't leave, then strike Vacuo while they were busy. It was a classic play and one they hadn't expected of Salem – and that was their fault. They'd been thinking of her as a Grimm, mindless in aggression and straightforward on the attack, when she was a sapient being more than capable of strategy.
"Did the first years survive?" Jaune asked.
"Yes. For the most part. Not all could make it to the docks in time and some fell, but those that did were evacuated. A portion of the second year as well, but far less – only about twenty per cent all counted. I'm afraid the third and fourth years were gutted, forced to stay and fight. Some were able to break free and escape; those are the ones Qrow found trying to survive the desert. He is out there again looking for more."
"Of the faculty, none survived. All gave their lives to defend the students, bar for the Doctor, who was a non-combatant and sent with the evacuees to better treat the injured. I've spoken with him myself. He was able to give me a general idea of what happened, but his psyche is fragile. All the survivors are in a similar state. Vacuo is in grieving with many children lost. I fear for what the negativity will bring, Jaune. The city is doing its best to lighten that, but no amount of stimulus packages or state funerals will change the fact parents are without their children."
Gods, it was worse than he'd thought. It sounded so cynical to talk about the negativity as well. People were dead. To suggest those left behind should just `cheer up` was so callous, and yet with Shade down, Vacuo was tremendously vulnerable. It was a school for huntsmen-in-training, but the academies also acted as localised hubs for all huntsmen. The headmaster of each academy had the easiest access to information on Grimm movements and locations in need of help. Without that, the huntsmen in Vacuo would be impacted. Not useless, but directionless. Left to their own devices.
"What of the Relic?" Ozpin asked.
"Gone. Qrow checked the Vault and the door was opened. No sign of the Summer Maiden, nor a body. No sign of struggle within the cavern either."
"Has she been recruited or forced?" Ozpin wondered. "It bodes poorly either way. The Relic of Destruction…"
"What does it do?" Jaune asked quickly.
"It destroys. I would rather not say how – some things are not for human comprehension and knowing this would scar you deeply. The only thing you need know is that it is an extremely dangerous Relic to leave in Salem's hands."
With a name like that, it sounded it. "Why wasn't that one kept here if it's so dangerous?"
"They are all of them dangerous. Choice is perhaps the most so – for while the power of choice is integral to all human beings, the Relic of Choice does not necessarily grant it. Why would it when we already have free choice?"
Jaune put the pieces together and paled. "It takes choice away!?"
Ozpin nodded gravely.
How would that manifest? Some kind of hypnosis or mind control? It was a crown, so that fit the implication of a king's power. That was insanely dangerous; the kind of thing they could not let anyone have a hold of.
"They are all the same," he went on. "Creation could bring into reality things that would bring the world to ruin. Knowledge contains information that could break a man, cause him to ascend to near Godhood or reveal the hopelessness of life itself – to say nothing of simply revealing where the other Relics are and how to access them. It's not a case of one being more or less dangerous than the other. At least Jinn was easy to contain, harmless so long as her questions were used promptly once every hundred years."
Which would he rather Salem have? None, really. With perfect knowledge, she could outmanoeuvre them. With Creation, she could control the world around them. With Choice, she could make them the enemies of mankind.
At least Destruction is straightforward. I think…
"How dangerous is it in her hands?"
"More than you know and less than she expects…"
Jaune scowled. "Ozpin…"
"The Relic of Destruction is a tool, but it is a tool she may not yet know how to use. My evidence for this is that Vacuo yet stands. If she could use it fully, there would be little sense not destroying the entire continent. Believe me, the Relic has that power."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, Ozpin. Vacuo is in no state to survive such an attack. Peter is busy liaising with local huntsmen. As I understand it, they're intending to stay in the city to bolster its defences in case the Grimm come. There is a foray planned for Shade, but we don't expect it to find anything we haven't."
"What of the Grimm?"
"Gone. Qrow says there were precious few at Shade."
The news seemed to alarm Ozpin. "Don't let that foray leave!" he ordered. "The only reason Grimm wouldn't be crawling all over Shade is if someone wanted to preserve their numbers."
"And you don't do that unless you have a plan for them," Jaune finished. "Oh hell. Oobleck, you heard him. Make sure no one leaves the city. Have Qrow swing around to scout the area once he's done looking for survivors."
"His eyes are sharp, and the desert offers little in the way of terrain to hide behind. If the Grimm were massing, we'd have seen them. I'm more concerned about Vale. There's a stretch of forest and mountainous terrain between the Kingdoms that the Grimm could conceal themselves within, and if she really does have the power of destruction in hand, why not use it on her greatest enemies?"
Why not, indeed? If it could destroy in a way that surpassed normal death, it might even be able to kill Ozpin permanently. Maybe Salem too, but Ozpin must have thought of that before so the fact it hadn't been used for that spoke against the idea.
"Atlas is weakened. It would be a better target."
"Yes, but they threw their aerial Grimm at the city already, and their aquatic. If only land-based Grimm remain…"
"Attacking Vale would still be a bad idea. Ironwood wouldn't have a choice but to defend us after we helped him. Hell, he'd love to save us just for the chance to rub my nose in it." And he'd allow it! He'd get down on hands and knees for it. "And if their numbers are already low from attacking Shade, I don't see how they could take the city."
Oobleck coughed. "Relic of Destruction…"
"It's not that ridiculous, is it?" He asked the question to Ozpin, who remained worryingly silent. "Is it? Oz…?"
"If she comes for Vale, we would be better served meeting her halfway…"
"What!?"
"The city would be a stationary target. Our fortifications mean little in the face of the Relic."
Jaune slapped a hand into his forehead, sweating profusely. "And you think us engaging her on foot would be any better? We'll be running straight into the Grimm."
"It's the last thing she would expect."
"With good reason!"
"I'm not suggesting a pitched battle," Ozpin said. "Or that we bring the students. The second she gained the Relic of Destruction, facing her in battle stopped being an option. We need to wrest it from her control."
Steal it? That was a better option. Jaune sank back, fingers drumming on his armrest. "How big a team are you thinking?"
"Small enough to go unnoticed. Large enough to get the job done."
"A group dedicated to finding the trinket and taking it from the dark lady?" Oobleck asked jovially. "Is this the fellowship of the bling? By any chance, do we have a volcano we can throw it into? That would be a convenient solution to the thing."
"Sadly not. Salem can survive a volcano."
That was curiously specific. And certain on Ozpin's part. Had he really tossed Salem into a volcano? They had been alive and fighting for possibly thousands of years. Weird as it sounded, he wouldn't put it past them.
"The problem is that the Grimm don't wait or sleep. There's no rest for them, so no time for us to sneak in when they've let their guard down. Even if we sent Neo in, she'd have to deal with however many Grimm, Tyrian, Hazel and Salem on her own. We'd need a big party just to take her lieutenants out. How many would be enough to keep Salem busy?"
"None," Ozpin said. "As in, no amount of people will be enough. The plan will rely entirely on not drawing her ire."
"And how," he said, "Do you suggest we steal the Relic of Destruction – which she'll almost certainly have on her person – away from her without her noticing?"
"We distract her." Ozpin stood, smiling wearily. "We distract her with something she can't ignore."
Bit of a smaller chapter as I have a plumber coming tomorrow to fix some pipe blockage that has come up and I need to take out a tile bath panel, which is going to mean drilling through all the mortar (or whatever the white stuff is – grout, maybe?) and plying the tiles off the bath. Going to be a long job that I can't put off because water is coming back up the sink and bath. Have a small omake for your troubles, though.
Omake:
Salem held up a hand, stopping the Grimm behind her. The large column slowed, coming to a halt some twenty metres away from the conspicuous platform erected up in the middle of nowhere and the single man stood in the centre of it waiting for them between two tall, rectangular boxes. Seeing that no one was willing to speak, she stepped forward.
"Brave of you to come and face us alone. Has Ozma thrown away another puppet? It wouldn't be his first."
The man remained standing, silent. It was unnerving and she eyed their surroundings, expecting the ambush. It didn't come. Even if it had, the Grimm would have been quick to react and swarm around her, and Tyrian and Hazel were close by, ready to intervene.
"Well?" she called. "Is there nothing you have to say?"
Finally, he moved, reaching out with both hands to touch the boxes on either side of him. A switch was flicked, and Salem tensed, ready for an attack. What she wasn't prepared for was the loud music that blared out, full of bass and shaking the stage.
Nor the shirt which was tossed aside, slapping into her chest.
"W-What…?"
Oh.
Oh wow. That was a lot of skin. Quite the chest. Salem coughed and looked away, then looked back again a second later. Not that she would ever admit to Ozma doing anything right, but perhaps creating the huntsmen academies wasn't an entirely bad idea if it created abdominal muscles like that! And the way they danced.
"Ma'am," Hazel grunted. "Should I attack?"
"Oh yesss. I-I mean no, don't attack. That's what they want you to do."
"He's trying to distract us."
"Worry not, Hazel. It is having no effect on me. The trousers! Take the trousers off!" Turning back to Hazel's raised eyebrow, she added, "No effect whatsoever. On unrelated terms, someone set up my tent and tell the Grimm to rest. They must be tired."
"Grimm don't get tired…"
"Then maybe I'm tired!" she snapped. "It's been a couple of hundred years. Give a woman a break. Also, give me all the money you have."
Hazel blinked. "What?"
"Money! Notes, lien, whatever. Hurry! Momma needs to make it rain."
/-/
"Do we sneak in now?" Qrow asked.
"Not yet," Glynda hissed, looking through her binoculars. Qrow would have, but his had been stolen by Neo. The four members of Team RWBY were also laid down with their own, biting their lips as they watched, hissing occasionally. "Not yet…"
"Salem is completely distracted. Now is our best chance."
"She said not yet, Uncle Qrow!" Ruby snapped uncharacteristically. "Now shut up. He's reaching for his boxers."
Qrow drew out his scroll and dialled a number. "Yeah, Ozpin? It's me. Your plan to distract Salem. It might have worked a little too well…" Glancing back down, Qrow winced. "Also, I think your ex just replaced you. And we might need a new headmaster, too. Bright side, Salem looks like she's going to delay destroying the world for a few weeks. Or years, depending on how good he is."
Next Chapter: 21st May
P a treon . com (slash) Coeur