Transcript 1: Dark places
"And that," said Jasper, staring at the bottle on the blanket below him. "Is the reason it took us two hours to get here."
"How did we manage to forget something that simple?" pondered a perplexed Lina. "That was the entire reason we brought it along!"
The bottle, or rather the pungent brown dye inside, lay unopened and unused since that morning when Gale had used it to change her hair colour. Apart from enabling her previously light hair colour to blend with the reds of the Forever Fall forest, the group had planned to use it to cover the sceptres, masking the smell of the sweet sap that attracted the Grimm. But especially after they had acquired the second, their progress had been increasingly interrupted by the creatures, and although the encounters had been mostly uneventful, it distracted greatly from their main focus.
"Shall I cover them up now?" asked Gale questioningly.
"Yes, I think so, although given how many they have attracted so far I'm not sure if it will be completely effective." Jasper scratched his head. "I guess that completely scratches the tree idea, we don't want a giant Nevermore landing on us in the middle of the night." Unbeknownst to him, his words were surprisingly accurate, as Team MAJE was encountering this very issue just as they too were setting up camp.
"At least these mountains should have a few crevices to hide in until morning," said Nero. "And we haven't come across any weird Grimm yet. Maybe there aren't any after all."
"But remember, students! Don't count on anything until it appears right in front of your eyes!"
Nero and Jasper nearly jumped out of their skin at Gale's imitation of Professor Port, startingly accurate and more than a little unexpected in their current location.
Lina, more used to this particular antic than the others and mostly by painful experience, opened her mouth to scold Gale. But at the last second, she remembered this was the first time Gale had seemed even slightly upbeat since the "stream incident", as she called it. She changed tack slightly.
"Great, Gale. Now if you could just use that mimic against our opponents, we might be able to scare them into submission instead of giving your team leader a heart attack."
The quartet trudged up the mountain, sliding a few inches with each step as the ankle-deep leaves threatened to slip under their feet and bring them tumbling down again. However, the only tumbling they did, or rather nearly did, was when Lina placed her foot into thin air and fell forwards, focusing too hard on each footfall to notice the entrance until it was right under her. She clattered into the cave, waving her arms about to steady herself, then turned and looked back at the entrance.
It was quite a large cave, easily taller than even Gale or Nero could reach, and around twenty feet wide. Lina blinked. She could barely see the wall at the back, blending into the dark as the roof reached down to meet it. You could hide a whole troop in here if you needed to.
"You alright, Lina?" called Jasper from above. "Is there anything down there?"
"No, it looks empty," responded the fox girl with some surprise. "I would have expected a horde of nasties in this dark hole."
"Alright then, I think we're all set," he said, untying the bundle around his back and sliding down the few feet to the cavern below. "No fire, the other teams might see us and we'd probably smoke ourselves out anyway. But let's settle down in here for the night."
"Do let us go and get some piles of leaves first," implored Gale. "I know they've trained us to sleep rough if we need to, but I'd prefer a softer bed if we could have it.
"A fine idea, Gale." he said. "Let's get to work."
Sunset came and went, and the blackness of the night sky loomed heavy in the trees, only pinpoints of light making it through the dense leaves from the bright specks so far above. The moon at least gave some light, rising a few hours later and casting a soft pink glow underneath the red filter of Forever Fall's canopy. It almost looked normal tonight – that is, its broken half was pointing away from them like it always did at this time of month, with only a few loosely-held fragments visible like a halo around the unbroken main face.
Lina shifted her position for the third time in the last hour, preferring the "keep your limbs active" to the "remain unseen" mantra if a Grimm or another team did come into view. Besides, she reasoned, somebody would have to be watching a long time to notice the movement, and why would they be watching if they hadn't already known she was there?
Gale was the opposite, remaining a statue whose only movement came from the blinking of her eyes. Usually, she would have agreed with Lina's outlook, maybe even pranced up and down a bit further in the dark to keep the blood flowing, but she wasn't her usual self as of late.
"You don't need to help, Gale. Get some rest, you've stayed up since handing watch over to me."
"I'm not tired," came the reply, as Gale continued to gaze stoutly out into the night. "If anything, I could give you guys some extra rest."
"You know that's not true, whether you feel it or not," countered Lina. "There's a reason watches are only supposed to last a few hours, your concentration doesn't last that long. You miss things."
"Maybe. But is that a problem? There's not many Grimm out there tonight, and the other teams won't hurt us if I do miss them. They're not really our enemies."
"Gale, listen to yourself!" Lina allowed herself to twist her neck silently and peer over towards Gale's silhouette. "Of course it matters, we can't just ignore our training in one of the most important times of our lives!"
She scanned the horizon again, then with a sigh gave up her attempt at silence with a sigh. This needed to be dealt with, and not just from a professional point of view. The night could forgive a few minutes of risky behaviour.
"Please, Gale" she implored, sidling up alongside her on the opposite wall, just a few metres from the moonbeams dripping like tendrils of mist into the mouth of the cave. "You're not yourself tonight"
"I know," came the soft but stone-like reply, and her gaze remained unbroken.
It would have been a fantastic night under other circumstances, the unwavering canopy of mottled maroon and brown a sight of beauty and mystery. But for now, they were alone, bending to the will of the Grimm that passed by, and interrupted periodically by sounds of shots or faint shouts in the distance as students and Grimm clashed.
Gale's gentle voice broke the relative silence.
"Just a few hours ago, I was wishing for nice soft beds of leaves so we could spend the night in comfort. I pictured them in my mind, flying through the air, kicking them and scattering them like a swarm of red butterflies. It was a game, it was fun, just like everything else in the world, as I went to gather them up for Jasper. That's who I am."
Lina had never heard Gale speak this way. This other Gale rarely rose its head for more than a dozen seconds even when she was upset, because she never allowed herself to be kept down for longer than that.
"How I always have been," continued the melodic whisper. "But is it all a lie?"
Lina didn't dare to speak now. Gale was the one who persisted, the one who always looked to accomplish the task with as much fun as the new challenge could bring.
"Something happened today when I saw that stream. Like… like there was something in the water I was afraid of. I felt like I was being sucked in, suffocating. It doesn't make sense, I live in a seaside village and swim further out than anybody else in Beacon when we visit the beach. I'm not afraid of the water, not even the river usually. Why was I afraid today?"
A crack. The last words quivered out of Gale's mouth but still she stared stoically out over the trees, trying to hold onto the last threads of herself, or what she thought was herself.
"It's happening more and more since Longsaw. I keep remembering, then squashing it down in my mind. I'm not tired, Lina, because I'm terrified of closing my eyes. What if I wake up a different person tomorrow? The water was dark, Lina. I'm scared of going back to the darkness."
A single tear made its way from her eye and finally her stony face crumbled. Lina flung her arms around the taller girl's torso and squeezed until she felt nearly uncomfortable with the unusual closeness she had initiated.
"Stop," Lina said, still holding on as Gale shook the tears from her eyes, covering her face with her recently dyed brown hair. "Stop. We'll figure it out together, Gale. It's not something you have to face alone, we can help you, we love you."
She scooped the brown hair away from Gale's face and looked at her with pleading eyes.
"So let ME help you now."
At any other time, the sight that happened next might have looked almost comical, the little girl in green with the relative giant at her side, leading her towards the maple leaf bed by an elbow that was nearly at head height.
"Just rest now. I'll even tell you a bedtime story."
She screwed up her nose and frowned in typical Lina fashion.
"Well, not exactly a bedtime story," she amended, trying to retain her dignity. "But something you might like to hear nonetheless. Although I'd wager you're a lot more tired than you realise after today."
"But…"
"Uh, uh." Lina held up an accusatory finger. "I don't want excuses or apologies. Just listen."
She scanned the trees one more time, then Jasper and Nero, laying in varied states of unconsciousness. Based on their unusual positions, she assumed they would remain comatose. Nero let out a gentle snore as if to confirm the fact.
"It's a famous story in Vale, although you might not have heard as much of it in Hammerhead Point. But I had a lot of insider knowledge that many gossip mags would have killed to get their hands on." She smiled. "It was also the first time I was really able to get one over my sister."
She sat down against the wall close by Gale's feet. "I'm telling you this because a lot of crazy things happened that night, and there's hope for you because even that chaos turned out alright in the end."
Lina coughed. She probably was laying it on a bit too thick.
"Anyway. A couple of years back, this new guy showed up to town. The first we heard of it was when Lisa reported he'd robbed a bank in town – successfully, mind you, - the first time anything like that had happened in years. He even left a calling card with his name on it – Roman Torchwick. It's like he wanted to be noticed."
"He turned out to be a decent fighter, and managed to escape a couple Haven graduates before running off and hitting somewhere else a few days later. Over the course of a few months, he turned Vale from a peaceful place where the only real crimes are dodgy business deals to a place where people lock their doors at night. It was rumoured that one night after finally being cornered, he vanished into thin air right in front of them, such was his legend.
"Then, out of the blue, at like 2AM in the morning, he called the Vale News Network, demanding o speak to my sister, and my sister only. The story of the century, told by Roman himself. Lisa tried to keep him on the line so the police could track him, but he told her he didn't care, and proceeded to tell her he had information that would bring the other crime networks to their knees."
Lina glanced down at Gale to see if she was following along, but couldn't tell if she was listening or not underneath those closed eyes. She continued.
"He proceeded to spill the beans on what was apparently the highest level crime syndicate in Vale – so big that apparently he had the MAYOR under his nasty little thumb – but incredibly that there was something even deeper and more pervasive. The very school my sister attended so she could learn how to be prim and proper had bugged all high-profile former graduates for a more powerful syndicate in Mistral's underworld. Lady Browning's Academy had video footage and inside secrets of all the most important and influential people in Vale, including Lisa, which had the power to destroy reputations, steal info and locate people for… gentle persuasion… or assassination.
"Well, in the end, Vale's crime boss, the mayor and his wife were killed in a massive explosion which levelled their house, and Torchwick disappeared back into the shadows. His work didn't though, and stuff came out that you wouldn't believe despite the police's best efforts to stop the leaks. It nearly got my sister fired, some of the footage outside work didn't reflect well on her public image.
Lina snorted. It still didn't really seem real, something that happened only a year or two ago.
"It's just as well that dad's a lawyer and all. He beat the protesters into submission and convinced everyone she shouldn't be held responsible by her job for a couple of private decisions made outside work hours."
She grinned. "Didn't mean I couldn't remind her the topless bar footage with her drunk mates will be on the internet forever, and that she finally had to get rid of that stupid little pin of hers which had actually turned out to be the camera. The details about her time and others' at Lady Beat's academy came out pretty quick as well, and it turned out they can all fight just about as well as any Huntsman or Huntress. So much conniving and so many secrets in that place. She still wouldn't train with me after it though, even though I was halfway through combat school at the time. Barely got half a dozen sparring matches with her in that whole time since that came out, it "wasn't ladylike", according to her."
Lina rolled her eyes. "Pssh. Who cares if it isn't? Lisa the people-pleas-a, to the end." She looked over at Gale. "I know it's corny, but that's what she feels like sometimes."
No response from Gale. Lina peered closer, but could see nothing but the rise and fall of Gale's chest. She was quite sure she was asleep now.
Lina picked herself back up and resumed her position near the mouth of the cave and began the monotonous task of scanning the horizon once again. She didn't know what part of the story had helped Gale finally fall asleep, or whether it was just sheer exhaustion. Either way, it didn't make much of a difference.
"Sleep well, Gale" she muttered to herself. "Nero's not the only one who needs to heal."
Transcript 2: A hard truth
"The night didn't look too fondly on you now, did it?"
Qrow groaned and rolled away from the terrible noise that had disturbed him. His head throbbed, and he felt particularly regretful over yesterday's binge, and whatever events leading up to that. Tai was at the centre of it, he remembered that much… but oh the throbbing wouldn't stop, it jarred on him and he pulled the pillow back over his head.
"The girls asked where you were last night, Qrow. But with Harbinger leaning against the wall outside the door, I'm pretty they both knew. At least they didn't ask why. They'll get their Uncle Qrow eventually, but I couldn't explain the reason you were here. Not about Amber, or the forest… you know, any of it really."
He stared at the contorted form laying in the spare bed, thankfully cleaner than might be expected after a night-long bender.
"Leave me be, Tai," came the muffled response, then the bleary-eyed figure let out a groan and shifted away from the sound of the voice. "I've done my job anyway, no scary glowing Grimm to be seen. The students can fend for themselves now."
Tai pulled out a wooden stool in the corner of the room, which grated on the floor as Tai sat down.
"Time and time again things turn sour when we least expect it, even at this very school. That Rainart girl, Gretchen, and now look what has come of that. Argenta Fluoros. This very forest the students are in EXISTS because one of the most powerful maidens Oz has ever known had a heart attack while out in the woods. So don't you go telling me it's not worth the effort."
"The heart attack itself didn't grow the forest you know," came the weak response.
Tai lowered his brow. Qrow was going too far.
"Stop nit-picking!" he snapped, really angered now. "It's a reminder of what we ought to inspire in ourselves, an homage to someone who was a protector, and an incredible person."
"Some memorial. Look Tai, he's doing the best he can, but it's a story that nobody can talk about. Not even Yang or Ruby know, and they're the kids of the legendary Team STRQ" he finished sarcastically.
"A memorial which he promised to protect, and one YOU agreed to be a part of."
The stare-off continued, but Qrow knew he was at a disadvantage. He coughed and turned back over.
"Fine. Give me another hour and I'll go see who's survived the night, if any are even still in there."
"I can give you a cold shower instead," said Tai. "It's sunrise. If the students are up and about, you have to be too."
Tai's firmness prevailed, and twenty minutes later Qrow re-emerged from the attached bathroom place, looking only slightly worse for wear than he had the previous day. He re-equipped Harbinger and gave a half-hearted wave as he headed towards the door. Tai held up his hand.
"Wait."
Qrow paused, his hand on the doorframe. Tai gestured for him to sit down.
"I'm sorry I went at you this morning. It's just that… we had no idea, all that time ago. And next year, if she makes it in, it will be Yang's turn, and maybe Ruby's after that."
"If she makes it…" Qrow guffawed. "Of course she'll get in. She's good, and you know it. You don't fall into that sort of skill without training of course, but what were you expecting? She's the daughter and protégé of the legendary Team STRQ, after all."
"And that's just what I don't like, Qrow. Many of her peers will know, and hold it against her. And what if she's too good? Ruby is enough, I couldn't…"
Qrow cut him off brusquely. "Don't worry yourself with that, she won't be caught up in this, at least not sooner than she has to be, and she certainly won't be next in line after Amber. There are a couple of girls Oz has his eye on already, and if they don't work out, there's a girl from Mistral who Oz wants to bring to Beacon next year, a girl Yang's age named Pyrrha Nikos."
"Nikos? Have I heard that name before?"
"Probably. She's on the front of that cereal you won't let the girls eat, Pumpkin Pie Cereal or something like that."
"Pumpkin Pete"
"Whatever. She's just won her fourth regional tournament in a row, absolutely untouchable, hardly anybody could lay a finger on her until the final rounds."
"That's her?"
"Hey, when you break a record like that, companies were practically falling over each other to sponsor her, even if that stuff isn't very good for you, that picture alone probably pays for her entire combat education wherever she chooses to go."
Tai leaned forward. "And Oz is encouraging her to come here to take over from Amber?"
"He's arranging something which would make it impossible for her to refuse, in his mind."
"And what is that?"
"I don't know yet, but I don't think you have to worry about Yang. She's one of the only people I know who might challenge Pyrrha in her age group, or anyone close to her age, but she's too raw. Loses her temper too often and needs to become a bit more well-rounded before something like that would be thrust on her." Qrow smiled down at Tai. "Remind you of anyone?"
Tai rubbed his face in his hands, going a trifle red. "The apple certainly didn't fall far from this tree, Taiyang Xiao-Long."
"You're right about that." Qrow replied.
"I knew it would be the case with Yang," said Tai. "I suppose I didn't really think Yang would end up with the Maiden powers, but a father has to worry about his daughter, you know. And besides, this time feels different."
"It is different."
"I know that too. But so much of it is unique. Half the power, all the uncertainty. And Qrow, am I right in hearing that this terrible machine of Ironwood's can strip the soul and magic out of a person?"
Qrow grimaced. "You… have heard correctly…" he said through gritted teeth. Glynda must have told Tai, he realised too late. Qrow wondered whether he had learned of Qrow's part in Amber's steps towards an unconsenting death, or likely death. Would her soul live on? Not even Ozpin knew.
"Then it seems a pretty horrible thing, doesn't it? To be grooming someone for this job, to take her aside and make her choose like all the rest, let alone shoehorning in the conundrum that it may destroy her very being, but end the world if she doesn't?"
Qrow flinched, but cold resolve came into his eyes and he stood up to leave.
"I want nothing to do with this one, and you can be sure I won't train her like I have the rest. My hands are clean from burdening her with any part in this stupid war."
Tai stared out through the door frame, watching and listening in silence as the flap of a crow's wings could be heard, and a black shape rose over the tree line towards the forest of Forever Fall. Finally, he spoke, but he thought neither of Pyrrha nor Amber.
"Mine too, Qrow. Mine too."
He wasn't about to change his mind. Not after sixteen years.
Transcript 3: Creations
The dark, moonless hours were always the hardest. It didn't help that it was only a few hours before dawn, thought Lina, as she flopped down in the bedding prepared earlier that evening. Twigs poked into her back, and the leaves didn't completely cushion her from the stony floor below, but it was infinitely better than sitting or standing, looking out over the horizon. Multiple times in her watch, she had heard gunfire suddenly burst out from random sections of the forest, and by halfway into her shift she had a rough idea there were four, maybe five teams left if she could trust her ears. Multiple locations had had more than one encounter by the sound of it, which proved most had been happy to settle down for the night like JNGL.
Lina had relayed this information to Jasper as she passed over the watch, and also noted one of the groups had definitely moved closer during the night, but didn't look like intersecting them, particularly as she hadn't had to make any noise herself and reveal their location. She had also seen plenty of Grimm with her faunus eyesight, but most had been distant enough that she hadn't had to worry about engaging them. Despite the lack of action, it had been an unnerving night, and very different to the soft beds at Beacon they had grown used to since coming back from Longsaw. Lina shrugged, noted the weakness and told herself as she settled down it was just a regular night's work for a Huntsman or Huntress.
Night became day as her eyelids blinked open again, seriously, had she even slept at all? But there was Jasper, shaking her awake and urging the others up as soon as the sunrise glowed faintly red on the roof of the cave.
Red?
"Lina! Get up, it's a DEN Lina, we've been sleeping in a Grimm's hideout!"
"What? Where?" she exclaimed, instantly rising, and swaying a little as her sleeping body was jarred into sudden motion.
"Exactly! It's not here," said Jasper as the others gathered their weapons and clambered towards the front of the cave. "But it's about to be!"
A titanic king taijitu flowed towards them like a river of black, mowing down the few trees which lay between them as it surged across the forest floor.
Hours earlier, the monster had sensed the presence of many emotional and other alluring targets as the forty students began moving through the forest, and had left the hidden gouge in the hill to investigate. It had been many months since it had moved into Forever Fall, and many more since anything had dared disturb its presence this close to its domain. Long were the days since the Grimm annihilation of the ill-fated Mountain Glenn, but despite all the rumours following its destruction, few people realised that the tunnels underneath had been home to even more hideous monstrosities in the early days of construction, when a handful of scientists began capturing and eventually experimenting on grimm in their ill-fated motive to study the enemy.
That is, until the experiments began to succeed.
Although the uncontrolled suitably altered as time went on, many accidents and escapes eventually resulted in complete destruction of the underground facilities. Very few of the first and most terrible specimens now remained, having disappeared into the darkness forever, lost in the endless cave systems above which the settlement had been built. Those which had initially emerged after the destruction of Mountain Glenn had been hunted down in secret by Ozpin and his fellows, but despite his best efforts, tales of unusually deadly Grimm in that area still abounded. An unnecessarily negative and worrying narrative, he had thought, in a world where humanity's fight against the grimm was already stacked against them.
So this monster, which had eventually emerged from the furthest crevices by chance not many years ago, had recently taken up residence in Forever Fall, attracted by the sap and the weak magic which still remained. It remained unnoticed and undisturbed by human – or crow – until the noise and scent of apprehensive students drew the serpent back out of the darkness, not to mention the sceptres of concentrated sap they carried alongside them. Old and cunning though it was, forty new and constantly moving targets plus sap had been an impossible conundrum for the beast as it struggled to lock onto a distinct scent.
After many hours of irritation, the snake had headed back towards its lair, when a cloud of uncertainty and concern pricked its senses as it drew nearer to where JNGL were now located. The king taijitu was enraged, yet enthralled – how dare something challenge its domain after so long? But it had been many seasons since it had tasted flesh and raw emotion, something for which it longed deep inside during the black days underground.
So it was against this formidable opponent that a frazzled and under-rested JNGL found themselves staring down at, struck dumb at the brilliant glowing red plates along its sides and trunk-like fangs as it slithered up the base of the hill and towards the mouth of the cave. Its eyes, although no longer glowing green from the poisons which had enhanced its size and its deadliness, burned into them with a fire that dared them to put it out, that scorned their weakness.
Nero couldn't stand it. Before the others could tear their eyes away, he whipped out Draw and Quarter and twisted them into a deadly helix of purple and red. Then he unleashed the spiral, grappling hooks on Draw scraping past the fire dust in Quarter which in turn scorched the purple gravity crystals and sent a sparking ball of purple and red fire towards the enemy below them.
The serpent reared back from the force of the explosion, towering up dozens of metres above the trees like some enormous cobra. Its black form balanced precariously against the dim red of the horizon, and the four caught their breath as they saw its full outline for the first time. This was not a King Taijitu. King Taijitus didn't have blood red scales glowing against their side, nor terrible horns along its brow or green acid dripping its fangs. It roared – not hissed, it ROARED at them as it collapsed down at the base of the hill and continued its assault, seemingly no worse for wear despite Nero's devastating attack.
"Well... crap," said Lina, unholstering Autobeat and loading a fire dust magazine. "Anyone remember anything from Professor Port's conquests?"