CHAPTER V
Growing Up Too Fast
Athena continued to spy on the Grimm moving around the countryside as the rest of her team remained on standby. Training today was cut short thanks to Grimm incursions in the northwest region, not quite within eyesight of Mistral, but much too close to the capital for comfort nonetheless. The snow made it difficult to travel on foot, though an aerial drop was out of the question thanks to the weather, which was exceptionally harsh today.
Echo landed beside her partner with a barely audible crunch of snow.
"There's a lot more than usual," she began her report. "As far as I can tell, there aren't any flying Grimm around, but there are quite a few Ursa along with the Beowolves. There's also a Grimm I've never seen before."
"What does it look like?" Penny asked.
"Like a gorilla, I think."
"Beringel Grimm," Ren mumbled. "They've been increasing in number."
"Isn't Salem sealed away?" Nora said. "How are new types of Grimm spawning?"
"I think the more pertinent question," Yuan began, "is how any Grimm are spawning at all."
"Okay, this is a good time to put together teams," Penny said. "Team APEX is together, obviously. I'll be working with Ren, Nora, and Astor. Ivory, I believe Team LILY could use a sub for the time being."
"I will do my best," Ivory said.
"We're gonna have to change our name with you on the team, though," Leon said. "Hmm. Doesn't really work with your first name. What about...hey, we can use last names, right? We can be team SILY!"
Yuan chuckled.
"Leon, that's stupid," Ingrid said flatly.
"I agree with Ingrid," Ivory said. "And besides, there's no need to change the name. This is Lilly's team, after all. I am not here to usurp her position. I am merely keeping her seat warm."
"Well, then," Athena said, standing up with her team. "You ready for a kill count contest? See who's the best team around?"
"There's no need for a contest," Ivory said, standing up with her own team as well. "That was already settled at last year's Vytal Festival Tournament."
"Oooh, daaamn, son," Astor said.
"We'll remain on standby as reserves in case any of you need backup," Penny said.
"APEX!" Athena declared.
"Hooah!" her team cried out before leading the charge.
"Leon, Yuan, you're on vanguard," Ivory said. "Ingrid, I'm leaving you in scouting roles. I'll be support."
"Yes, ma'am!" the two boys said, heading out first.
"Yuan," Penny said into her headset, "don't forget what we talked about earlier."
"Yes, Penny-senpai," he replied. "I won't use any of my magic at all until we can figure things out."
"Good. I don't want you losing consciousness out there."
"So," Astor said, milling about, "what's our team name? We've got R, N, P, and A. NARP? PRAN? None of those make any sense. Eh, I give up."
"I can't think of anything either," Nora sighed.
"We should probably focus on the battle instead of brainstorming team names," Ren said.
—
Leon and Yuan found themselves deep within enemy lines, but Ivory was quick to give them support, bombarding the surrounding Grimm from afar with Dust attacks before providing the two an avenue of escape via platform glyphs.
"Thanks for the hand," Leon said.
"It's our turn!" Athena yelled, leading the charge with Perseus. Their brute strength alone was enough to make short work of two Ursa Grimm and a group of Beowolves while Xanthus covered Echo, who rained arrows on their enemies.
"Perseus, you're overextending," Athena said. "Slow down and wait for the rest of us."
He gave her a nod before holding his position against enemy lines.
Once Team LILY had recovered their own stamina, they joined in the fray, fighting side by side with Team APEX. A lone Beowolf had managed to sneak past Xanthus, making its way toward the team's archer, but Ingrid was at her side in a flash, breaking her staff weapon in two and slicing the Beowolf's head clean from its shoulders.
"Thanks for the save," Echo said before transforming her bow into a staff and fighting alongside the only Faunus of the group.
Meanwhile, Athena had wandered too deep into the battlefield and ended up surrounded by Grimm of all types, including a number of Deathstalkers and Creeps that emerged from the snow. She looked all around, assessing the Grimm formation, mapping out in her head where she would attack first. Before she could fully formulate a plan, the Beowolves directly in front of her took a massive bombardment from the sky, a rain of Fire Dust incinerating the first line.
Ivory landed right next to Athena, the two of them standing back to back against the circle of Grimm.
"Nice of you to join me," Athena said.
"I couldn't allow my only rival in all of Remnant to get killed by a bunch of weak Grimm," Ivory said.
"You sure you can keep up?"
"I wouldn't deserve the Schnee name if I couldn't."
Ivory projected her strengthening glyphs on her body as she and Athena burst forth into the horde of Grimm, slashing and stabbing their way through their numbers. Athena took care of most short-range combat while Ivory supplemented their offensive power with ranged Dust attacks.
"Check that out," Leon said, standing next to Perseus.
"I suppose that's what happens when the Golden Girl of Vale and Ivory Schnee fight alongside each other," Yuan said, resting his weapon on his shoulder.
"All done on this side," Ingrid said, rejoining the group with Echo and Xanthus.
"Incredible," Xanthus said, pushing up his glasses. "I think they've wiped out more Grimm between the two of them than the rest of us combined."
"No surprise, really," Perseus said.
Once the battle was over, the other six applauded them.
"Were all of you really just standing there watching us?" Ivory said.
"I wasn't about to get in the middle of all that death," Leon said. "Although, if you wanted a handsome prince to rescue you so bad, you coulda said so."
She sighed heavily, walking right past him.
"What a cold shoulder," Yuan said, to which Perseus responded with a high-five.
"I'm hungry as shit now," Athena said, joining the group. "Echo, Ingrid, perimeter check."
Without another word, the two disappeared into the woods.
"You giving my team orders now?" Leon said.
"Your team leader just walked off," Athena chuckled. "Which was your fault entirely."
"She's right, though," Xanthus said.
"Everything's clear," Echo's voice sounded in the team's earpieces.
"Okay, regroup with us," Penny said. "We have one more site to investigate before we head back to the city."
—
Leon threw himself onto the couch as soon as they walked into the common area of their dorm.
"Dude, make some room," Perseus said.
"Get your own couch, man," Leon said.
"How did your hunts go?" Winter asked as she entered from an adjacent hallway.
"Very good, mother," Ivory said, standing before her. "We managed to completely wipe out three entire groups of Grimm that had crossed Mistral's surveillance line. None escaped."
"That's very good to hear. In anticipation of your exhaustion, I decided to go ahead and order some food for all of you so Ren doesn't have to cook."
"Ohh, fooood!" Nora said. "I'm soooo hungry!"
"You're always hungry, though," Ren said.
"I am!"
Penny chuckled before heading over to Winter. "I have a few things to discuss with you concerning possible defensive strategies in anticipation of an attack by Atlas."
"Very well," Winter said. "Let's talk upstairs."
"Moooove!" Ingrid said, throwing Leon's feet off the couch.
"Ow!" he whined. "You suck!"
The rest of the two groups sprawled themselves wherever they could. Only Ivory and Athena still had the energy to stand.
"I hadn't anticipated how difficult it would be to fight three consecutive battles in thick snow," Xanthus said. "We may need to do some conditioning in case we do more hiking in this weather."
"Hey," Athena said, holding out a fist toward Ivory. "That was some good shit out there."
"Likewise," Ivory said, holding out a hand instead. Athena wouldn't shake hands, insisting on bumping fists. Neither did Ivory yield to the gesture, instead reaching over and meeting the fist with an open hand in an odd variation of the handshake.
"So," Athena said, walking side by side with her rival down the hall to the training center. "Is that how you ran your old team, too?"
"In early years, yes," Ivory said. "When it was necessary to micromanage them. These days, I don't need to give as many commands. Each team member knows everyone's strengths and weaknesses and can adjust accordingly. It's no different from the way you run your team, Athena, although it seems your strategist is actually Xanthus while you're the tactician."
"You take both roles in your team?"
She shook her head. "I dictate overall strategy. It's up to each individual team member to call out tactical maneuvers based on the situation."
"Good luck with Team LILY, then," she chuckled. "Lilly herself wasn't really the kind of leader you and I are. She was more of an inspiration to her team. I mean, she didn't even go to combat school, so yeah."
Ivory was quiet for a while. It wasn't until they arrived at the training halls that she broke her silence. "Lilly's not the only inspiration to her team, you know."
Athena looked over at her as they squared off in the middle of the room.
"Your team also looks up to you."
"You sound like you're about to say some crap like you wish you were as inspiring to your team as Lilly."
Ivory didn't answer.
"Hey, we all gotta find our niche in life."
Athena started the bout, dashing at Ivory, who projected glyphs to defend and commence her own counteroffensive.
—
"Status," Raven's voice sounded over the comms.
"Everything's clear," Lucia said.
"Clear on my end," Aurora said.
"Hillphire's busy with all his shit," Yang said into her microphone. "Nobody's tried to kill him yet."
"Keep an eye out anyway," Raven said.
"Yup." She turned to the door to the armory as it opened. "Oh, Uncle Qrow, what're you doing here?"
"Just hangin' out," he said. "Hollie's busy with the Council again. Come to think of it, I don't think she's ever been this busy with official business."
"It's hard to think the girl we knew all those years ago would become a politician, huh?"
"I guess. Although, she's always been passionate about stuff. All it took was a little push to get her to actually do the things she wanted to do for the people and the next thing we know, she's Headmaster of Haven and a sitting member of the Mistral Council."
"Everybody's gotta grow up sometime, huh?"
He looked over at her. "You and Ruby grew up way too fast for my taste. And your dad agrees."
"Mom doesn't seem to mind."
"Of course Raven doesn't care. But, I guess not in a bad way. She's always seen the world for what it is and her wanting you to grow up was more because she wanted you to be able to take care of yourself."
"Yeah, I guess. I wish I could've protected Ruby from all of it, though. Out of all of us, she was the one who needed to stay pure."
"Nothing we can do about that when we're thrown into the middle of a goddamn war."
"Yeah."
"How's the mad scientist doing?"
"He hasn't come out of his friggin' lab in four days now."
"I heard his record was, like, eleven days or something."
"Oh, god. I can't even imagine the smell."
The door to Hillphire's private machine shop flew open and he stood triumphantly in the doorway.
"I've finally done it!" he yelled. His hair was a mess, parts of it burnt off, apron barely hanging on over his tattered lab coat.
"Oh, jeez!" Qrow said as he and Yang pinched their noses. "William, what the hell is that smell?"
"It's like," Yang began with a cough, "like fucking stale grease mixed with piss and sweat! Have you even showered?"
"When science is on the line, there is no time for showers!" Hillphire declared.
"The hell exactly have you been working on anyway?" Qrow asked.
"Just a small project, but it's finally finished!"
"Yeah, yeah, you should probably go bathe or something," Yang said, eyeing a team of personnel heading toward Hillphire with hazmat suits and cleaning equipment.
"Leave this to us, ma'am," one of the men said.
"We're professionals," another said.
"Oh, man, I hope you're getting paid good for that," Yang said.
Hillphire drowsily watched as the cleaning crew closed the door behind them. He sniffed himself and retched. "Oh, wow, I did not notice how much I smelled," he said.
"Yo, please, take a shower," Qrow said.
"I think I will," he said before he disappeared into the locker rooms.
"Any word on Atlas?" Yang asked Qrow.
"Nothing," he said. "I've been doing some prying, but all I get is static. Mostly just the usual traffic between northern Anima and the capital, but nothing that screams out Atlas military."
"Speaking of Atlas military, is it true?"
"Hmm?"
"Ivory."
"Oh. Yeah, she's my kid. Wow, word travels pretty quickly."
"I'm not judging. Hell, it's not like my hands are completely clean."
"But you didn't get pregnant with the guy."
"Fair enough."
—
"That's what the defense ministry has decided so far," Winter said. "But I do get where you're coming from. In all likelihood, this will end up just like twenty years ago, with the children being involved in a war that has nothing to do with them in the first place. Frankly, Penny, it surprises me that you of all people would be so quick to accept the possibility of them getting dragged into all this."
Penny looked at the ground. "There was a time when I would've actively denied the possibility and tried to shield them in every way I could," she began, "but I've grown up, too. I know that there's no way I can completely cover them from the horrors of the world without also leaving them woefully unprepared for it. I'm sure you've had the same thoughts about your own daughter."
"It's different with Ivory. I've always known she would follow my footsteps and become a soldier. We all knew it as soon as she started playing with her glyphs at only four years of age. Before she even turned ten, she had already mastered her Semblance. No one has managed to do anything even remotely similar. She's also the first to use her glyphs in such an innovative fashion, using them to augment her physical attributes such as speed and strength. I believe she has also been working on a glyph that directly reinforces her aura by creating a buffer that decreases the amount of damage her aura takes with each impact."
"She really is a prodigy. You must be proud of her."
"I am. But, in spite of all that, there's still so much for her to learn about the world."
"Isn't that true for all of us?"
"Indeed. Anyway, about this training program you wanted to implement, I will certainly lend you my help."
"Speaking of which, what of your status with Atlas? Will you be okay staying here?"
"Yes. I've left someone trustworthy in charge of my unit."
"That's not what I mean. The situation between all of the kingdoms is starting to take a turn for the worse. If Atlas perceives that you are somehow disloyal to them, won't your family be taken hostage?"
"My father has strong ties with the Atlas military. It won't be that simple."
"No, I mean your real family."
"I've already taken steps to keep my brother and his children safe. Even our butler is included in these contingency plans."
"You're sure about that?"
She nodded. "There are people I trust in Atlas ranks that I have little connection to, ostensibly. They won't be suspected and could move as they please should a situation arise."
"I just want to make sure. Your daughter might be perceived as a fugitive and you might also be labeled as such."
"Whitley's too much of a public figure. The military wouldn't dare taint its own image by doing something as villainous as taking hostage the family of a prominent businessman. And besides that, Whitley can't make any moves of his own without risking his family. Atlas knows this. They have him exactly where they want him for now."
"Wow. Leave it to the military commander to know what moves to make."
"As a mother and a sister, I don't like having my family in such close proximity to danger, but as a tactician, I understand how the game is played. They are safer where they are right now as opposed to them being on the run and being overtly dissident. Now, let's talk about some of the details of how you want to train the youngsters."
"I wanna focus a bit on Yuan," Penny said. "Besides Lilly and Weiss, I'm about the only person in all of Remnant who knows anything about that whole rune magic thing. I'd like to train with him one-on-one to try and fully hone his control over his power. When he tried to use it a while ago, he could barely sustain the magical energy for mere seconds before it wiped out his stamina."
"Didn't he fight for an extended period when the Wraith thing first emerged?"
"Yeah, that's what bugs me. During the Wraith-Knight's first emergence, he had full control, maximum output, and he barely broke a sweat. Now he can't even sustain it for longer than a few seconds."
"Do you think it has something to do with being in the real world as opposed to the Labyrinth?"
Penny thought it for a moment. It was true that Yuan's first encounter with the Wraith-Knight was within the Labyrinth. Perhaps an ancient being of pure magic was most stable in a world born of pure magic such as the Labyrinth.
"Liam has been working on a rift generator down at the Forge," Penny said. "We might be able to make use of that."
"I still think this Labyrinth business is extremely risky," Winter said, "but it seems that may become a battleground anyway, given your report on what you went through in Kuroyuri."
"Let's hope that isn't the case."
—
Yuan stood against the guard rail in Haven Academy's garden, looking out over the city, which was blanketed in white from all the snowfall. He looked at the back of his hand. There was no rune on his flesh today, but this was where it was supposed to appear, according to Penny and the others who knew of Sir Bedivere of Kameloth, the first to bear such things in all of Remnant.
"Yo," Perseus said, joining him against the banister.
"Hi," Yuan said.
"Thinkin' about your superpowers?"
"Yeah, I guess." He noticed Perseus rubbing his hand. "Does this have something to do with that rune on your left hand as well?"
Perseus stopped rubbing, slowly turning to his companion. "You can see it?"
"I'm guessing I'm the only one who can, given your expression."
"I figured you would be the first to notice after all that Wraith-Knight business. Probably has something to do with magical sight or something."
"I suppose. Do you want to talk about it?"
"What's there to talk about? Lilly called it the Rune of Atonement. Not exactly sure what that means."
"It looks different from any other rune. It doesn't have any of the lettering or the geometric designs."
"Yeah. She called it a Primal Rune. It's supposed to be, like, the pinnacle of concepts or something. This one is supposed to be the symbol of Judgment. Or something."
"I see. Can you do anything with it?"
He shook his head. "I have no idea why this thing chose me."
"Probably because you feel guilty about something."
His hand twitched.
"I don't think I'm the only one who noticed, but when Athena was about to drive her spear into you, it didn't look like you intended to dodge. Also, you were quite reckless today in battle."
"You noticed that, too, huh?"
"I didn't get the impression you were trying to hide it."
Perseus sighed.
"Are you blaming yourself for Lilly's separation from us?"
That wasn't it. Perseus hadn't told them the entire story, that it was, by extension, his fault that she had changed so much as a person. Gone was the pure white flower that they had met at Beacon Academy. And it was all his fault.
"I'm sure you already know this," Yuan began, "but that was her choice to make, not yours."
"If I didn't give her the idea, she'd still be with us right now."
"Maybe, maybe not. None of us could stop her incursions into the Labyrinth. You know she's been doing that long before, don't you? Back when I was in a coma after that accident in the woods, it was her who went through my Labyrinth to get me out of it."
"Yeah, I know."
"Yes, and like I said, nothing any of us could have done would have stopped her."
"I guess."
Yuan put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It is important to forgive oneself. Only then can you find peace."
The snow crunched under Yuan's boots as he headed back inside. Perseus looked at the image on the back of his left hand. The scales were in balance, but as he stared at the image, the eye atop the central pillar opened up to gaze back at him.
He sighed heavily before heading back into the dorm as well.
