Chapter 13: Aftermath
Noble Six and the girl were waiting in a dark room in a Vale police station, Six hadn't been surprised to be dragged somewhere like this, honestly she was used to sitting waiting for someone to judge her, the girl next to her…
"Oh crap what was I thinking!? Oh God, do I need bail!? Dad can't afford to payout like that, oh God what am I going to do!? Wait… what's Yang going to do!? Oh God, she's gonna be on a rampage, no she can't get in trouble again! This is bad!"
"It's really not." Six said, speaking for the first time since the fight had ended. Her response apparently startled the silver eyed girl.
"What!? We're in a police station after committing an act of vigilantism, this is really bad! They even took my baby…" The girl said sadly, looking down at her empty hands.
"If we were in real trouble they wouldn't make us stew like this." Six explained, leaning back in her chair and staring up at the single light in the dark room. "Trust me, I've been in trouble enough to know how people react when you really screw up."
The girl didn't seem comforted by this, so Six decided to try something she'd never done before; idle chatter. Honestly she would have preferred not to, but the girl didn't deserve this, everything she'd seen told her she was skilled and based on the shattered glass of the store, had probably acted either in self defence or to stop a crime, neither of which were a bad thing to her.
"Look, I… I didn't get your name." Six admitted sheepishly. The girl with the cape smiled weakly and answered.
"Ruby, I'm Ruby Rose. You are?"
"Noble Six." The Spartan answered, putting on what she hoped was a comforting smile; she couldn't say she had much practice with smiling in general, but Ruby wasn't recoiling so that was probably a good sign right? "Look, don't worry about it, trust me, we're fine. They just want us to think we're in more trouble then we are so we don't do it again."
"You… you might be right." Ruby admitted, a smile returning to her face as she looked at Six. "I still wish I had Crescent Rose back! I'm never comfortable without my baby."
Assuming 'Crescent Rose' was the name given to her ridiculous Scythe, Six nodded and with a non-forced grin nodded.
"I get that, not with a single weapon, but I just can't go without having some kind of weapon on me… crap, I never retrieved that knife." Six muttered, blushing at the realisation, she couldn't just requisition another weapon on this planet, she was going to have to do a better job of keeping ahold of her gear in the future and not disposing of it when it ran out.
"Oh yeah you had some kind of knife, what was it called?" Ruby asked, her eyes glowing as she looked at the Spartan, who shrugged.
"It didn't have a name, it was a standard issue army combat knife, there's millions like it back home."
"You have that many weapons!?" The girl cried, an ear-to-ear grin on her face as she looked at the Spartan awestruck.
"Huh? I mean, yeah, there's lots of knives just like it where I come from, I don't actually own it, all I've got is a pistol, sniper rifle and broken gravity hammer." Six explained hastily, Ruby looked a little disappointed at that, before her grin returned.
"What kind of rifle? What rounds does it use!? How heavy is it? Does it use Dust at all!?" Ruby said, actually gasping for air as she struggled to blurt out every question she wanted to ask.
"It's an SRS-99 Anti-Materiel rifle, 14.5x114 mm ammunition, about fifteen and a half kilos and no, we didn't use dust back home." She said, rattling off the technical specs like she had the manual memorised, mostly because she did.
"Wow, so no Dust at all… So what do you use for propellant? Wait, better question! What else does it do!?" Ruby asked as Six shuffled. She wasn't used to all of this attention being directed towards her, at least, not because somebody wanted to ask technical questions.
This is Kat's job!
Or maybe Jun, if only because he never stopped talking either
"Erm, nothing. It's a Sniper Rifle, you snipe things with it."
"So no blade at all? That's weird." Ruby exclaimed, causing Six to tilt her head as she looked at the girl.
"What am I meant to do? Attach a Bayonet to it or something?"
"Yes you should absolutely do that, but you'd be better with a full mechashift sword or maybe even a chainsaw conversion, they're not that hard to do. Heck, there's a shop that sells them around here somewhere. I could probably give you directions if you need them."
Six wasn't sure why this was the tipping point, out of everything on Remnant this was hardly the strangest thing she'd heard, but she couldn't help it.
Noble Six burst out laughing, genuine, full on cackling laughter.
"Of course! Of course this mad planet sells chainsaws for Sniper Rifles! Probably standard issue over here!" She forced out though massive bouts of laughter, it was such a new sensation all her training escaped her and she slid off the chair she'd been sitting on, still laughing like an idiot.
"Erm, are you okay?" Ruby asked, looking concerned at the purple haired girl who nodded.
"Yeah, I, oh God, fucking!" She was lost in giggles, the cape wearing girl looking at her with mild concern before she eventually forced herself up and back into her chair, actually with good timing as the door opened. Six had been expecting law enforcement, not the Headmaster of a combat school.
"Well this is a surprise." The man commented, looking at the Spartan who forced the grin off her face and sat properly in her chair, before watching as he turned to the other girl, stopping to look her straight in the eyes.
"Silver." He said simply, causing Six and Ruby to shoot each other with slightly confused looks. Clearly Ruby also didn't understand what he was going on about.
"I cannot say I was expecting this." Professor Ozpin said offhandedly, holding up a tablet and showing the pair the fight they'd engaged in. Watching Ruby again was strange to Six, the way she worked so well with something that probably weighed more than she did was, well, baffling, just as it was her watching her Semblance from the outside.
I really was just a purple streak, wasn't I?
Yeah, I still cannot stand how that felt.
Six mostly zoned out of the conversation that followed, she got enough to realise Ruby had been taught by her Uncle who also liked impractical scythes, and that Ozpin was offering her a place at Beacon, apparently she was advancing before the usual age.
Progressing someone based on merit, finally something about Beacon that makes sense.
"Miss Six." Ozpin said, snapping the Spartan out of her thoughts, she looked up and gave the Headmaster her full attention. "Your combat tests are in two days, I look forward to seeing what you can do. If you can perform this well with no warning and only a small knife, then I look forward to seeing what you can accomplish when you're fully prepared."
Noble Six nodded, refusing to look him in the eye as she did. The emotional high that she had been on was wearing off, and she was annoyed now.
Believe me, you're not the only one.
"So you'll be at Beacon with me?" Ruby asked, eyes sparkling slight as she looked at the Spartan.
"I'm taking entrance tests. Did I do well on the academic tests?" Six asked, looking at the headmaster who smirked.
"Yes, you did do rather well." Ozpin's smile could only be described as enigmatic, perhaps with the smallest amount of amusement.
Six felt her head tilting again, she did not like that expression. What was he hiding, why wasn't he telling her more?
"So we'll be in classes together!" Ruby asked excitedly.
"I'm sure you'll see her at Beacon once you arrive." Ozpin said, looking over at the Spartan who just nodded simply. The Headmaster smiled and stood up. "And with that you two are free to go. Miss Rose, your Scythe can be collected from the front desk, quite an impressive bit of engineering you have there; it would be a shame to keep it out of its owner's hands any longer."
The girl nodded and was practically vibrating as they walked out of the interrogation room towards the front desk, Six watched as the giddy girl bounced around and retrieved her precious weapon.
"What kind of gun is it?" Six asked. It was powerful enough to get Ruby off the ground, that kind of force was impressive, and the mobility it offered was something Six couldn't afford to neglect. No matter how impractical the design might have seemed at first glance.
I'm going to need every advantage I can get.
"Oh, well it's an anti-materiel rifle, she fires fifty-calibre rounds sprinkled with Gravity Dust, the kick I can get out of this thing is amazing!" The girl beamed as hooked her weapon on the mount connected to the back of her belt as Six calculated the differences in their weapons calibre..
"But… that means my rifle is generating more power." Six muttered, running her hand through her hair. "What would happen if I put gravity Dust in my rounds?"
"Well, you'd probably be able to go flying, you might even be able to move faster than I can!" Ruby grinned, before looking at the Spartan. "What, have you never been trained to think like that?"
"I had a more militaristic style of training." Six explained. "Flinging myself around the battlefield, it wouldn't have worked back where I came from. I'm kind of amazed you didn't crash into anything."
"Trust me, my head's taken a lot of hits during training." Ruby admitted, rubbing the back of her head. "Like, a lot."
Six smiled at that.
"I know that feeling, see this?" She asked, pulling her sleeve up to show a scar near her elbow. "Got that during a knife training exercise, the instructor was getting mad I kept disarming him when I wasn't supposed to. I think I pushed him over the edge and he went for something he wasn't meant to."
"I bet he got in trouble for that." Ruby muttered, her eyes roaming up and down Six's arm and her many injuries.
"Not as much as me when I grabbed the knife back and stabbed him through the hand." Six said idly, looking down at her hands.
"You got in trouble for that!?" Ruby asked aghast as the Spartan nodded.
"It was training, I wasn't meant to be stopping him, but I was just so sick of being the one called up to demonstrate moves, so tired of getting the crap kicked out of me for everyone else and everyone telling me I shouldn't be there, I just snapped." Six admitted, opening and closing her hands methodically before she shook her head.
"Why shouldn't you have been there?" Ruby asked, looking at the Spartan who shook her head.
"That's… private sorry. Anyway, it's not a problem anymore; they're all dead." Six said, before realising this probably wasn't something you said to make someone feel better, the look on Ruby's face confirming this.
"Was it Grimm?" The Silver eyed girl asked, Six nodded.
"Yeah, burnt Reach to the ground." She shook her head. "Sorry, I don't want to trouble you with this, it doesn't matter, well, shouldn't. I, urgh." She shook her head violently.
"It's okay, I get what it's like to lose people, I still visit my Mom when I can." Ruby explained, then seeing Six's confused face she added. "Her grave, it helps to talk to have something to remember her by."
Six nodded, that sort of made sense. She was about to respond when they exited the police station, looking out Six saw two blondes waiting outside, one was a man and clearly older, while the other looked to be around team CFVY's age, with really small shorts and…
Fuck, what is that outfit!?
I don't know, but wow, she'd get along great with Coco!
Maybe we should introduce them?
I'd actually love to see that.
"Ruby!" The woman in the distracting clothing cried, sprinting up the stairs and pulling the girl into a tight hug. Six stood there awkwardly watching, looking around and spotting Coco and Velvet in the cafe across the street, nursing coffees and looking grumpy. Coco happened to look up and saw the Spartan standing there, scowling as she gestured for her to come over. Six was half way down the stairs when Ruby appeared in front of her suddenly.
"Hey! Wait, before you go, uh… can I add you on my Scroll?" She asked, holding up said device and looking awkwardly at the Spartan.
"Erm, sure?" Six said, hesitantly pulling out her own device and handing it to the cape-wearing girl, who beamed upon entering the data. She then smiled and shot back towards the two blondes, grinning as she held the Scroll up. As the Spartan crossed the street, she heard Ruby proudly cry out.
"See Yang! I told you I made a friend!"
Six honestly smiled as she stepped into the cafe. Looking over at the slightly irate Coco and Velvet, Six navigated her way around the surprisingly well upholstered chairs and ducking around the large group of rowdy students to stand near Coco and Velvet's table.
"So how much trouble are you in?" Coco asked, her voice was harsh, and she sounded just like an angry instructor at Camp Currahee.
"Erm, I'm not. I think they just wanted to make sure we didn't do something like that again… I think. Come to think of it, no one from law enforcement actually talked to us." Six explained, suddenly realising that was strange, and that the combat academy Headmaster must have more sway then she realised.
"We?" Velvet asked, her voice a lot less angry then Coco's as she finished her tea before standing up, Coco following shortly after.
"The girl in the cape, Ruby Rose. Headmaster Ozpin just gave her a place at Beacon, apparently." Six explained, then noticing the sour look on Coco's face she asked: "What's wrong? Did you not want her to come to Beacon?"
Coco Adel was a girl who valued her ability to remain calm and look good no matter the circumstances. That being said, the girl in front of her was doing a really good job at making her crack. In retrospect, she'd been consistently pretty excellent at doing exactly that.
"I… no! Six, it's you I'm mad at!" She stuttered, gripping her hair tightly as the Spartan's head tilted to the side. The girl had no control over her face at all, and it betrayed a lot more of what she was thinking then she meant to.
"Why?" She asked. Everything about her expression made it abundantly clear that she genuinely didn't understand what she'd done wrong.
"Well Six, you are aware that you're not wearing you muelneer right now right?"
"It's Mjolnir" Six responded before scowling down at her hands and adding: "And yes, abundantly aware."
"Then why do you keep acting like you're invincible!?" Coco yelled, ignoring the looks she was getting from the other patrons. "Why do you keep running into danger with no thought to yourself!? Wait, let me guess, self-preservation wasn't something taught to freakin' Spartans!?"
"We had to survive long enough to get the mission done." Six responded, looking slightly affronted at Coco who ignored her and barreled on.
"And then what, was coming home not an objective for Spartans!?"
Six's face contorted, her eyes scrunched up and her teeth grinding before she stopped, calmed down and unclenched her fists, deep red marks where she'd dug her nails into her palms standing out on the otherwise pale skin. Once she was calm she spoke, quietly, but with barely-contained fury.
"You don't get what it was like, no one here gets what the Covenant can do, you think Grimm are bad? Most of the time the world is glassed before anyone can do anything. You think being torn apart by claws is bad, wait till you see your friends head explode out of nowhere, wait till the world is left nothing but a glistening husk of everything it once was. Wait, and then see if you feel like it was wrong to train us, to tell us we were not coming back and have us be okay with that fact. Because you know what, our entire race was burning. We were offered the chance to tip the scales, and even if we only got one mission it was everything to us! So yeah, we didn't care if we never went back. Our homes were gone, what the hell did it matter? Our Brothers and Sisters were dying all around us and we kept going, we made everything worth it! We had to, otherwise, otherwise..."
Six's face was screwed up again, but she wasn't angry anymore, she took a deep breath before exhaling. Her expression was so far away from calm it was almost comical, but she was able to speak again soon and continued.
"Are we heading back to Beacon now? Every store I can see is closed right now." Six forced out. Velvet spoke up before Coco could say anything.
"No, we didn't know how long you would be detained, so we got rooms booked in a Hotel. Let's go and check in so we can get some sleep."
With a nod from the Spartan and a quick paying of the bills they got up and left. Six was lagging behind Coco and Velvet.
"I guess she doesn't want to talk anymore." Coco scowled, glancing back at the Spartan.
"You did insult her career, her life goals, her motivations, all of her friends… you know, what you said was pretty awful, all things considered." Velvet pointed out, rubbing her eyes as Coco protested.
"She's insane Vel! If she doesn't get a clue soon, she's going to get herself killed! She doesn't have an Aura Vel, what the hell was her plan?!" Coco pointed out. "I mean… I get wanting to help, but all she had on her was a knife! She still doesn't even have freakin' shoes yet!"
Velvet shrugged at that.
"She clearly isn't bothered by that, and apparently she did pretty good, even with just the knife. Maybe she really didn't need anything else."
"Or maybe she's suffering and won't tell anyone." Coco said, looking over at Velvet and the flash of hurt that appeared on her face.
"I didn't want you to worry about me." The Rabbit Faunus said quietly, bringing her arms up and trying to shrink into herself.
"Yeah, and it got worse and worse for you." Coco said, calming down considerably as she put a gentle arm around her girlfriend. "I just, it was awful hearing what they said about you in Atlas, and even worse to see it when you came to Beacon. It worries me because I see something similar in her. She isn't dealing with anything, she's just… living with it and trying to adjust around it. She's going to crack, and I'm scared what will happen when she does."
Velvet pulled herself in closer to her partner, enjoying the warmth the taller girl always seemed to radiate as they walked down the empty streets.
"She's tough, we've all seen that." Velvet pointed out. Coco nodded.
"No doubt about that. She's a great fighter, and she probably won't have a problem getting through Beacon, even without an Aura. It's what comes next for her that scares me." Coco admitted as they walked up the stairs to their hotel. "The idea that she's going to throw herself into danger and not make it out some day."
It had been a bit on the pricey side and that was clear when you walked in, with the fancy glass statues in the lobby and the dark wooden desk with its marble top. The place was classy and Coco had so much money to burn that she was willing to pay for the luxuries, it wasn't like it was going to go to anything better at any rate.
They checked in and Coco almost felt proud of herself for not eyeing up the receptionist, before another voice in her head pointed out that it wasn't a challenge for most partners not to be awful. She shook her head violently at that, she couldn't lecture Six on having issues and then fall into that kind of thought cycle again.
Coco smiled as they entered their room and finally got to feel like she could relax, her feet sinking into the immensely thick carpet, enjoying the feeling of the bed when she sat on it. It was a cut above the beds in use at Beacon, and next to the TV on the desk was a little minifridge, which she chuckled with glee as she opened it.
"Hey we got Vodka in here! This is great… hey Six, you want one?" She asked, looking over at the Spartan who shook her head and simply made her way to the farthest away bed, gingerly settling on it, her face wincing as she sank into the mattress.
"Coco, she's sixteen!" Velvet gasped, looking afronted at Coco who shrugged.
"So, I had my first at fourteen and I'm fine, come on Six have a shot with us before we go to bed."
Six once again shook her head, electing instead to lay down on her bed and somehow fall asleep within a minute. Not even bothering to remove her clothes before doing so.
"Man, I'm jealous." Coco said, scowling at the sleeping girl before returning her attention to her bottle… which was gone. "Hey, where did the booze go?"
"In the safe." Velvet responded, stepping up and holding out a full shot glass to her girlfriend, explaining. "Coco, I am not going clothes shopping with you when you're hung over. I'm just not." Velvet said. Her tone wasn't mean, but it was very firm. "And while I know you said one shot… You never stop at one, I'm sorry you just don't. Also you get frisky when you're drunk and while it's fun normally, Six is right over there."
Coco scowled but she wouldn't claim her girlfriend was wrong, she did on occasion go a bit… overboard.
"Couldn't we have just put it back in the fridge?" She asked, slightly hurt sounding, which Velvet wasn't buying.
"Coco, you're amazing at many things but resisting temptation is not one of them. Look, just take your shot and then let's get to bed, please. With Six getting arrested it's been a long day and I just want to cuddle"
"What makes you think you're getting cuddles after this?" Coco asked, mock outrage in her voice as she took the empty bottle back off Velvet and necked it. She wasn't mad really, she knew full well she went overboard with her drinks and that she would have gone back for more if Velvet hadn't locked it away. It was another thing on her long list of problems.
Coco's eyes bolted open, untangling herself from Velvet she scrambled to look at the source of the noise she'd heard. Someone had screamed and she needed to find out what was going on and stop Six from doing something stupid… only to see she was already gone.
"She cannot have run off already!" Coco groaned, swinging herself out of bed and sprinting to the door, only to catch something out of the corner of her eye. Walking over she saw Six's duvet, and more importantly the girl herself curled up on the floor, tears flowing down her face.
"Shit!" Coco cried, dropping down and looking at the crying girl, she reached out to console her only for Six's arm to snap out, forcing her arm away as she continued to cry. It was then that Coco realised that Six wasn't sobbing; she was talking.
"Get a grip! Get a fucking grip Spartan!" She was chanting, again and again to herself, gripping herself tighter, rocking back and forth as the tears flowed down her face. "Stop fucking crying! Stop it! Stop it! It fucking happens! Stop fucking crying!"
"Oh my god!" Velvet cried, ducking around and seeing Six's curled up form as she continued to cry and swear. It was so weird to see Six look so small, it didn't match her at all.
"Six, what happened?" Coco eventually asked once the girl was done crying. She looked up at Coco, puffy red eyes visible from behind her messy fringe.
"Nothing. Go back to bed, I'm fi-"
"Six, don't. Just fucking don't." Coco snapped, regretting her tone immediately as the girl curled up. "I, fuck. Six just… you're not fine. Please, what's wrong, you can tell us."
Six seemed to be thinking hard, before she sighed and gave an answer.
"It was a nightmare. With my… with Noble Team. Honestly, it's okay, I've had way worse." She said with a tiny and very forced grin on her face.
"That's not reassuring, Six." Coco said flatly before Velvet pushed past her, sitting down next to the Spartan and gently reached out and touched her. The girl flinched but didn't try to push Velvet away.
"What else can I say?" The Spartan asked, forcing out a laugh as she spoke. "I let them down, I got so angry at Coco for not getting it when I can't even get it myself..."
"Six… it doesn't matter who you are, losing friends hurts. It doesn't matter if you're a soldier, or a Spartan, or a Huntress, it's never easy losing somebody that you care about." Velvet said, gently helping Six sit up.
"I should have done more." Six said, her eyes shut tight as she tried to curl up again.
"Six you can't run in circles forever." Velvet said, then upon seeing the baffled look on the Spartans face she explained. "With your thoughts. You can't change the past, nobody can, and worrying about it won't help anybody. Look, I don't really know what your world was like, and to be honest, from what you've told us, it sounds like a terrible place. But you don't strike me as the kind of person who would let something bad happen without putting up a fight."
"Then you read me wrong." Six said sadly, her posture loosening as she flopped backwards against the wall. "I did so many things wrong with them."
"Six, be honest, when you say 'Did wrong' do you mean 'I very obviously and maliciously did something stupid that got them hurt?' Or do you mean 'I failed to see into the depths of time and prevent something no one could see coming?" Coco asked, guessing the girl's response as Six tried to force out an answer that put herself in the wrong, however Coco interrupted the Spartan before she could twist the facts enough to somehow find herself at fault.
"Six… I know it must have hurt to lose them, but blaming yourself for shit that you couldn't stop isn't going to do anything but make you feel worse and hurt your chances of doing more good, do you really think they'd want that?" Coco asked, looking at the Spartan who was clearly thinking, before she eventually responded.
"I... Are we allowed in that forest next to Beacon?"
Coco and Velvet nodded, to which Six hesitantly asked:
"Could you watch my back tomorrow? I have something I need to do out there."
