Immortality in A Sense

I don't own RWBY. I could not begin to explain this one.

There was an airship of the Mantlean Fleet that had crashed long ago, during the War. Commanded by an Admiral that was considered half-mad, The Nicholas II was nonetheless an efficient ship prior to being shot down. Once, it had a crew of dozens, but there had been no living beings among the survivors, and both of the two who were in the command deck had been silent for so long, not a sign of life, even after being buried inside of a mountain following the crash. And then, there was the collapse near their location, rattling the Nicholas II and causing a heart powered by clockwork to begin ticking once more.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Admiral Weiss Schnee praised, jamming a key into her armor's chestplate and twisting to get her heart running properly, "We saw her but briefly, but she is what we dreamed of. Our eternal enemy: The Queen of the Grimm."

"She was damned for eternity, Admiral," Captain Penny Polendina noted, dusting herself off now that they were ready to begin.

"Exactly," Weiss replied, a shark-like grin on her face, "An enemy that cannot die on us. An enemy that we can cut our teeth upon forever and ever, ad infinitum... She's everything we dreamed of, Captain Polendina."

"Shall I chart a course to her castle, Admiral?" she asked, removing her own arm to shake out the dust that came in through the damaged section of her synthetic skin.

"Not yet," Weiss replied, removing the key, "First, we need to make is so that the war is begun. And for that, we need to get all possible aggressors into their formations. What sort of war doesn't have its armies? And if we want our eternal war, we need more bodies to throw into the grinder... No, we need intel, and we need to repair our vessel..."

"I will need some maintenance to ensure we can have the repairs made," Penny noted, "As things stand, my internal radio is experiencing some technical difficulties and I cannot activate my crew."

"I see..." Weiss noted, "We'll have to see what we can do with our minimal tools. Come along, Captain Polendina. We'll see what broke..."


Ruby Rose lined up her shot and fired. Adam Taurus had many enemies and enough of them pooled together lien for her to kill him. From what she saw of him, he deserved it, too, though she did feel guilty about the poor girl who had been with him. Bloodstains were always so difficult to get out of white fabric, and she had been in the splash zone just before the train separated properly.

Still, it was an impressive shot. A moving train from three miles away was no mean feat. Those widows, widowers, and orphans were going to be pleased to hear the news. It made the fact that she was accepting 60 lien come off as charity.

"It's a funny world, isn't it?" she mused aloud, before decapitating the Nuckelavee that had been moving in on her, "One bullet and now he'll either be lionized or remembered as the villain those people knew him to be. Life, death, in a single moment, it can all change. Will he be a martyr or will he be a monster? Whatever else he'll be called, the important thing is that the story's come to a close."

And that was the most important part, wasn't? She ended the story. Whatever came next would be the result, but it would be new stories. One book closed, many more written. Some that would have ended because of him were even now fated to continue, telling different tales. A flurry of rose petals, and she was gone.

She needed to go north next. Atlesian politics was quite the sport, these days. With two bullets, she could change everything... if someone were willing to pay for it. No point in wasting a bullet on pro bono work.

No one ever questioned why she hadn't ever aged a day. Maybe if the other two weren't so boring, she'd talk to them, but one was too pretentious and the other... Well, she was just too temperamental and bore too many grudges. Getting everything killed trying to fight gods? And she wanted to go for a Round 2?

No, she'd keep closing the books and let the stories play out a they would.


Pyrrha Nikos had taken a bullet to the face and lived to tell the tale. Pyrrha Nikos had taken several bullets to the chest and continued as if it were nothing. Pyrrha Nikos had survived her own beheading. Pyrrha Nikos, in the simplest of terms, was impossible to kill and was not aging anytime soon, which made her quite fortunate in terms of companionship.

Jaune Arc should have died from age alone by all accounts, having been a relic from the War. He did not seem to realize that, and Pyrrha gave up on getting an explanation a decade prior, which was two after they'd first met. Before that day, she'd just thought his references to the War had been jokes. She had, after one such story, determined that he presumably drank something that preserved him well enough that he wasn't aging.

He wasn't as unkillable as Pyrrha, with his injuries taking their time to heal. This gave her something to do inasmuch as she had to ensure he didn't lose anything that couldn't be reattached with needle and thread. Eventually, the wounds would heal, but that took time. Of the two of them, she was both the better fighter and the one who could heal the fastest, but he had goals, which was something she personally lacked, and he was good company, so she stuck with him.

Which was good, considering the fact that they were dealing with a bandit queen.

"You two have some nerve venturing through our lands," the blonde in the Nevermore mask noted, "But I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, considering I'm an old friend of your grandpa."

"Beg pardon?" Pyrrha asked, confused by that statement.

"He's Jaune Arc's descendant, isn't he?" she asked, "I'm Raven Branwen. We helped bring down the Nicholas II. I'd know Crocea Mors anywhere."

"I could've sworn you were a redhead," Jaune noted.

"You, too?" Raven asked, seeming surprised, "No fooling?"

"Not sure what you mean by that," he noted, "It hasn't been that long, has it?"

"Memory must be getting fuzzy, old-timer," she replied, "I'm the one and only Raven Branwen, and my hair's always been gold. Everyone, stand down! These two are my personal guests."

When the bandits all lowered their weapons, Raven nodded her head to the largest tent I the area.

"I see you're doing well for yourself," Pyrrha noted dryly, looking at the well-furnished tent.

"Not all of us can make our money in the big cities or arenas, champ," she shrugged, before moving to a bookshelf, "We do as little harm as possible these days. Luckily, with my flag flying, things get resolved peacefully. And where the other kingdoms doesn't send people out this far for Grimm, we're always open for business. Like it or not, we're the closest thing to law and order around here, these days. Now where is that... Aha! There it is!"

She took out an old book and flipped through the pages, before stopping on one and holding out the book to them. On that page was a blurry black ad white photo of Jaune standing next to Raven, a massive plume of smoke coming out of the mountain behind them., Raven's hair looked somewhat darker, but it could have been the result of soot or an issue with the photo, itself.

"Oh, yeah!" Jaune noted cheerfully, "That was the first time either of us had seen a camera!"

"General Scarlet wanted to commemorate the moment or something," Raven noted to Pyrrha, "Never was one to stand on ceremony, myself."

"How are you still alive?" Pyrrha asked.

"Heck if I know," she shrugged, "Tea?"

"Aha!" Jaune exclaimed triumphantly, causing everyone else in the tent to pause what they were doing, "I told you you'd develop a taste for it!"

"I guess you did..." she murmured, "What brings you to the forests of Anima?"

"I don't trust Mantlean trains," Jaune replied with a shrug.

"Atlesian," Pyrrha corrected.

"Oh, come on, there's no chance that would happen again," Raven noted dryly, shutting the journal as a young girl with a pair of black bird wings walked in with a tea pot and served four cups of tea, taking a seat in the chair next to Raven.

"My ward, Ebony," Raven introduced, "Ebony, this is Jaune Arc. You remember your history lessons, right?"

"Captain Jaune Arc," Ebony recited, "Helped bring down the Nicholas II. His efforts were invaluable to bringing down Mantle's strongest airship. Shouldn't he look older."

"What did we say about asking about someone's age?" she chided with amusement plain in her voice.

"That it's rude..." Ebony sighed, "Sorry, Captain Arc. Who are you?"

"I'm Pyrrha Nikos," Pyrrha replied, "He and I travel together."

"You were the champion of the Mantle Colliseum three decades prior to the fall of the Nicholas II," Ebony noted, "You're also the one who tore it down the the ground."

"She knows a good deal of information," Pyrrha noted.

"I've been reading her the stories of my life," Raven shrugged, "Which way are you headed?"

"Vale," Jaune replied, "We've been making our way there slowly."

"We'll escort you to the edge of the forests, but that's as far as we'll be able to take you. I'd recommend avoiding Beacon. The latest Oz is running the place. Ozcar, I think. You remember what that guy was like..."

"Osterman's still running around?" Pyrrha asked, "Will he ever actually stop?"

"Not likely," Jaune noted, "Ozymandias said something about it couple decades back, but I forgot what it was he said."

"You've got to invest in a journal one of these days," Raven noted, before lifting her mask just enough to drink tea, "So, what've you been up to since the good old days?"

As they spoke like old friends, Ebony watched, and Ebony learned. She would be taking the mask and the name when Yang determined she was ready, a status that would not be given for at least another decade. They'd rotate out the current camp mainstays around that time for a group that hadn't ever seen the actual base and Yang would refer to her as Raven from then on, until she either got bored and left, or until Ebony had her new Raven trained and ready to replace her.


"Now, what would a place like this need need a machine like that for..." Ruby mused as she examined the vast apparatus before her. "Nothing they'd want others to look into..."

This outpost, far from any civilization in Solitas, had the supplies to run and a reasonable stock of dried goods that had yet to perish, yet it seemed entirely abandoned thanks to the Grimm she'd dispatched. Idly, she wondered if it would be worth the time to activate the machine. She could let the story of the base end here, unloved, unremembered, unmoving. Ever the same, never changing. It was a quiet end for a thing that never should have been.

She pulled the switch.

The machine began creaking, gears turning, pistons moving, the systems activating for the first time in a decade. And the machine began to sing a song of creation, every piece of machinery playing their part in a symphony of mechanical parts, the very components moving in harmony as they did what they were created for. When the song ended, the door opened to reveal a girl in an outdated Atlesian military parade uniform, who staggered out before giving Ruby a salute.

"Operative Ciel Soleil, Serial Number 943024601.42, late of the Atlesian Scout Division at your service, ma'am," she greeted, before moving to collect a series of dust-coated weaponsa watch, and what appeared to be some manner of sun-shaped piece of jewelry she carefully dusted off and applied to her forehead, "As my chamber was decommissioned by the Atlesian Military following the development of the Atlesian Knights, I am without a commission, as well as a handler and will thus will defer to your orders by default."

"We'll talk about this at length shortly. Right now, there's someone nearby trying to hail us via radio, for some reason. Let's track them down and go say hi."