Chapter 4: The execution
After the first time Vic saw her, he managed to convince himself that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. It was the middle of the night, the lighting wasn't that great and he was already pretty tired even before he had a conversation with Ms Better-than-everyone-else.
But there she was, the next day, standing only a few meters away from him. And it was like looking at a ghost. Her nose, her face, her lips, her posture, the fluff in her ears, even her eyes were just like those glistening lilac eyes Vic knew all too well. Her hair was different though, and her make up was less heavy. But the resemblance was enough to make Vic feel like he was kicked in the stomach and he couldn't take his eyes off of her.
He didn't even realize the girl was looking at him until she turned away with a confused, slightly anxious expression on her face. Poor girl must have thought he was a total creep.
Then they got thrown into the woods, and was supposed to head north, but all he could think about was her. Dee was right. He should move on. Thinking about her onlydistracts him.
Vic hit one of the tree branches in front of him frustration only for it to come back and hit him in the eye.
"Agh! Fuckin'! Fuck!" Vic cursed. Great! Like his day wasn't shit already! Luckily his aura protected him, but it still hurt like a bitch. He quickly cut off the branch in revenge and continued his way deeper into the forest.
Fortunately, he didn't really have time to slip back into his thoughts, because his eyes caught some movement in the corner of his vision. Vic managed to jump out of the way, just in time to avoid being shredded into pieces by a Beowulf's claws. He turned around to face the beast as his lips curved into a smirk.
Fuckin' finally!
Well... Vic haven't thought he'd ever be this happy to see a Grimm, but don't look a horse in the mouth. At least this would hopefully help him take his mind off of all that shit that's been happening.
He gripped both of his swords tightly, took on a fighting stance and sprang into action. As soon as he did, however, he heard a loud roar from behind.
For a moment, Vic felt like the world slowed down. He won't be able dodge. It was too late. His momentum was too big. He would get hit, before he reaches the first Beowulf. In that split second all Vic could do was brace himself for the the impact.
The suddenly, a bullet zipped past his ear, loudly exploding upon hitting its target and figure passed him by, but they were so fast, he could barely pick out any details.
Vic was immediately pulled back into the real world and quickly killed the Beowulf then turned around.
Standing over the other Grimm's corpse, facing him, was a girl. Vic recognized her form morning and last night, she was with Her Highness, thought they haven't spoken before. She was slightly below average hight. Her eyes were blue and she had short brown hair with red tips, which she kept in an off-center half-pony-tail. She was wearing a strapless dress with a pink top and a black skirt, black stockings and a white cape. (Not the most practical things for a fight, of you ask Vic, but after seeing what Lizzie started wearing, he decided not to comment on it.)
"Hi. I'm Briar. " the girl said cheerfully with a huge smile on her face.
"Vic." he andwered after a moment of hesitation, not really knowing what to say.
"Yeah, I know. We've met before. Well, you talked to my sister, not me, but I was there." Great. So she speaks a lot. Vic didn't say anything, just turned around and made his way towards the forest, secretly hoping his new-found partner wouldn't follow. But he wasn't this lucky. "Sorry for my sister by the way. She's been like this ever since our Mama..." the girl continued as they headed deeper into the woods.
He wasn't exactly sure how he'd been listening to the girl's rambling (Probably 15 minutes but Gods, did it felt like 15 hours!) when he finally had enough. He stopped and turned towards her:
"Look Bree..."
"Briar."
"Whatever. As intriguing as your little family drama is, I don't give a shit. So please do me a favour and stop talking." and for a moment, there was silence. Vic thought their conversation ended so he resumed walking.
"So... What do you think of Beacon? Do you like it here?"
"What part of 'stop talking' did you not understand?"
"I'm just trying to make a conversation!" she snapped. "To get to know you! You know... Since we are partners!"
"Well, I don't give a shit! About that, about you, your sister or anything your have to say! So why don't you just shut up and let me do my task!"
"This is OUR task! We're partners! We have the same goal! Besides, do you even know what you're doing?! All we've done is walk in a straight line?!"
"Do you have any other suggestions, Your Majesty? You do wish to fly or take the bus instead?" he asked mockingly. The girl's glacial blue eyes were now practically burning, but with her round face and hight, she just looked like a child having a tantrum.
"Summer was right!" she yelled "You ARE a jerk!"
"Oh no! Two spoiled, rich girls think I'm a mean poopy head! What am I gonna do?"
The girl opened her mouth to retort, but suddenly, she was cut off as the forest was shaken by an ear-slpitting shriek.
By all accounts, the initiation was going well. Every student found a partner and most of them were on their way towards the temple. Nothing that happened so far required intervention. Even so, Glynda couldn't help but feel worried.
Most students managed to hold their own against the Grimm better than expected, she still wasn't sure their combat capabalities were up to standard. The council decided to nearly double the students' number (Something, which Glynda was strongly against. The teachers were overworked enough already.), which created numerous logistical problems (like the dormitory not being big enough to house all the students), but more importantly: they had to lower their requirements, significantly.
Unfortunately, the decision had been made and, no matter how asinine she thought it was, she couldn't do anything about it.
"The first pair reached the temple." Velvet Scarletina noted, pulling Glynda out of her musing.
"Who?" asked after a short pause.
"Summer Schnee and Liana Belladonna-Xiao-Long."
"Huh." Glynda huffed as she switched cameras to the two girls, who were sitting near the temple at the moment, not really doing anything. The last time she looked at them, the two girls had been running away from an Ursai. Which was odd, because they were perfectly capable of defeating it. If they weren't, they wouldn't have gotten accepted to the academy. It just didn't make any sense. Glynda they were planning something, just didn't know what.
From the outside it might have seemed like she was overreacting, but after Miss Schnee's shenanigans yesterday, Glynda was reasonably sure her worries were justified.
Of course, it wasn't uncommon for students to change they mind about which school they want to attend (though usually it was later down the line, around the end of the first semester). In that case, the student called their parents and if they agreed, together, they made the necessary arrangements to switch schools, Glynda signed the papers and they were free to go. What they did NOT do was try to convince Glynda that they never applied to Beacon, and when that doesn't work, attempt to sneak out 37 TIMES!
But it didn't matter what Glynda thought, she couldn't do anything. She didn't have tangible evidence that the girls were planning something and simply acting suspiciously wasn't punishable.
So, in the end, all she could do was wait and see what happens.
"What the fuck?!" Lia exclaimed. "How are WE the first ones to reach the temple?!"
"Not fighting one or two Grimm wouldn't have made much of a difference, only a feje minutes, but since we didn't right any of them, those minutes added up." Summer mused. She really should have thought about that. In her defence, they really didn't run that fast.
"Great..." Lia mumbled. "So much for your master plan..."
"We can still make it work" Summer replied as they made their way towards the temple, trying to not get offended by the passive-aggressive comment. No matter how much she loathed her cousin, she was an important ally and they had to work together.
In the temple there were pedestals with cards on them. Four cards on each, four people in every team.
"You think if I pick from a different pile, we will be put into different teams?"
"I don't think so... " Summer inspected the cards. There were 4 symbols a heart, a leaf, a pumpkin and an acorn. Some of them had numbers, some had pictures of people painted on them. In the end, she chose the one that had four pumpins on it and a woman in the middle, holding wheat crops.
"So... Any ideas?" Lia broke the silence.
Summer didn't know what to say. Staying for too long would be suspicious, but they couldn't risk being the first ones to arrive, that would have the exact opposite effect of what they want. They also couldn't continue running past the Grimm. That was what got them into this situation and it would also be kinda suspicious. As much as she resented the idea, losing fights on purpose seemed to be the best solution.
"We should take a rest then head back!" she announced loudly, then whispered so only Lia's faunus ears could pick up: "As slowly as possible. And we have to lose a few fights not be suspicious." A grimace crossed Lia's face before she let out a long sigh and answered:
"Okay, whatever..."
So they sat down near the temple and waited. Lia was playing with the dagger part of her weapon, while Summer was inspecting how the duck tape on the handle of her sword was holding up. It got damaged when she was fighting a mob boss, who decided to blow himself up. Luckily Summer managed to get away with only a few broken ribs and a concussion, but the handle broke in half, so with no better alternative she tired to fix it with duck tape and glue. It was working better than excepted, but it was only a temporary solution. Well... At least she'll be able to get it fixed, if their plan to escape fails.
Summer was pulled out of her thoughts by Lia suddenly gripping her shoulder.
"I hear something. " she said, her eyes fixed on one part of the forest. Her body was tense, while her right hand clutching her weapon, ready to attack anything that comes out of the woods without hesitation. After a few second Summer also started hearing some strange rustling noise. She started reaching for her sword, when two familiar figures burst out of the forest. Briar and Dickhead.
"I think we managed to shake it off. "Briar panted.
"Please don't jix it." Coat Boy mumbled as they both collapsed to the ground.
"What happened to you?" Summer asked, looking at the boy, not even trying to hide her glee. "You look like shit."
"Great... Just what we needed." he grumbled, then his eyes wondered over to the temple. "Wait! You reached the temple first?! How?!"
"That's what I was asking..." Lia muttered. For a painfully long moment the boy's eyes were completely fixed on Lia, like he couldn't believe that she was real. "Anyway, what happened to you?" the ravenette shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.
"Well... "Briar answered. " I was going through the forest, when I saw Mr Lone Wolf over here " she gestured towards Coat Boy." fighting a Beowulf, while an other one was about to attack him from behind..."
"I could've handled it."
"So I decided to help..."
"I didn't need your help."
"And saved his butt."
"You did nothing of that sort." Briar gave him an annoyed look, but continued:
"Anyway... we headed deeper into the forest where we ran into a Deathstalker, which he" she gestured towards him" tried to fight alone..."
"I had it under control. " Coat Boy injected.
"No you didn't! It threw you away like you were a sack of potatoes! " Briar snapped.
"It wouldn't have happened, if you hadn't just come barging in and mess everything up!"
"I?! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO CHRAGED AT..."
"...YOU JUST HAVE TO BUTT INTO EVERYTHING..."
"...THE DEATHSTALKER THE SIZE OF A..."
"... AND STICK YOUR NOSE INTO STAFF THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS...
"... BUILDING WITHOUT SAYING A WORD!"
"... BECAUSE YOUR SO GOD DAMN SELF-IMPORTANT..."
"WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO THINK?!"
"IT'S POSSBILE TO DO ANYTHING AROUND YOU..."
"YOU NEVER SAY ANYTHING!"
"...WITHOUT YOU TRYING TO INSERT YOURSELF INTO IT!"
"ENOUGH!" Lia screamed, gripping her ears. "SHUT UP! Both of you! Just shut the fuck up!" Briar and Vic silent, starting at Lia completely taken aback. "We get it! You hate each other! Move on! The last thing we need is you two walking idiots bringing in a hoard of Grimm with your stupid bickering, so either suck it up and learn behave like adults or fuck off!"
Briar and Vic flashed a look full of disdain at each other then turned away without saying a word. Briar got her flask out and started drinking, while Coat Boy cleaned off his sword.
Summer gave off a surprised humm. She really didn't expect any pairs to get along less, than she and Lia did. She turned towards her partner who was eyeing the blonde very suspiciously.
"You know each other?" Summer asked carefully. She didn't really like snooping around (when it wasn't about beating someone up), but Lia looked clearly uncomfortible so it was better to look into it.
"Nol." Lia muttered, rubbing her temples. "Just look familiar from somewhere..." Summer gave a look of 'Are seriously expecting me to believe this?'. "I don't know... Leave me alone. " Lia turned away.
Summer devided to leave it at that. She wasn't very interested in other people's personal life. Her life was already enough of a shit show, she didn't need to deal with other people's bullshit too.
"Summer!" A voice snapped her out of her thoughts. At the end of the field was Matt waving at her cheerfully with a bunch of other students by his side.
"Matt. " a smirk started to form on Summer's face, as they got closer. "Good to see you alive. I was starting to be afraid that you got eaten by a pig."
"Just so you know, I killed two beowolves." he stated proundly.
"Wow. Now you're a real alpha." Summer chuckled and hit him in the arm teasingly. "So who's the unlucky bastard who'll have to put up with you for the 3 years?"
But before he could answer, they were cut off by the sound of growling. Beowolves and ursais came out of the woods. More than the few that were chasing her and Lia. More than Summer has ever seen. Less like a pack and more like an army.
Summer shallowed nervously.
They were so fucked.
A/N: So this is the first chapter where we have Vic's POV. It's not a lot, but I hope it helped to flesh him out a bit and show that he's not just a dick for the sake of being a dick.
I'm trying to make this not a copy of RWBY's fist day, but I won't always be able to do that. What I can promise is that there will be a lot of conflict between our main 4. Mainly because I designed them to bring out the worst in each other.
The cards they use as relics are called Tell cards or Hungarian cards. (German-suited-cards according to wikipedia.) I decided to use because I wanted the relics to be something new and this came to my mind. The card Summer chose is an ace. In Tell cards each ace represents a season and Summer chose the Pumpkin ace, which has Summer on it.
About the intervention thing: I know Ozpin said they weren't going to intervene, but I don't think he would just let all those children die. (At least I hope so.)
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