Disclaimer: All character belong to Rooster Teeth Productions.
Co-Authored with ToxicExotic
Truth
"And that, children, is how I saved Gossan with nothing more than my trusty Blowhard and a pillow. Asking for nothing more than a cabbage in return, I was hailed a hero and am still welcomed back with open arms to this day."
Despite yawning slightly as Professor Port finished his fourth story of the day, not his highest record but close to it, Ruby dutifully noted down every word he said despite the pain that pulse through her arm simply from holding her pen. Just as always, the story was mostly full of unimportant self-indulgence, but there had been a few things in there that made listening worthwhile. Some Grimm she'd never heard of, an interesting way to deal with existing Grimm. It wasn't much, but if she was going to honor her promise to Blake, then she needed to learn everything she could.
Sadly, her girlfriend wasn't around for the class as she had been called to Ozpin's office, no doubt about the rumors that had begun to spread.
It had been four days since returning from their mission, a vast majority of which had been spent in their dorm room recovering, and from what her friends had said during their visit, Blake's faunus heritage had become the talk of the school. And after having left their room to attend class for the first time, she could tell her friends had not been exaggerating as whispers and stares had followed them wherever they went. What they were saying, Ruby didn't know, but her girlfriend's ears had been pressed flat against her head the entire day; the only ear position Ruby was very much not fond of.
"You know…" Cardin said in a bored voice from the other side of the classroom. "If I wanted to spend hours listening to boring stories from old men, I'd have hung out with my dad and his friends instead of coming to Beacon. I thought this was supposed to be Grimm Studies?"
"While I do not agree with the way he said it," though Weiss scowled at the boy, Ruby detected a hint of a lie in her partner's voice. "I do agree with his point. I am not sure how the very specific situations of your stories will help us understand and fight Grimm, Professor?"
The man's head turned to them both as he rocked on the balls of his feet.
"Stories are the very lifeblood of experience." The man said with bombast. "One day, when you leave this academy, you will make your own and understand just how much can be learned from a simple story."
He paused and brushed a hand across his walrus moustache.
"Though I suppose you are too young to understand that." There was a little disappointment in his voice. "Very well, Grimm it is. Miss Schnee, which Grimm do you wish to learn about?"
"Her?"
Port merely ignored the boy and cast his gaze to the heiress. Though she had seemed confident before, Ruby saw a little nervousness enter her partner's body. It took nothing more than the girl's glance in her direction to understand why. Knowing what Grimm Weiss wanted to ask about, she gave a small nod of her head to show it was okay. While not a memory Ruby wanted to keep remembering, as it was still haunting her dreams, she knew it would be unwise to not take the opportunity to learn more about it.
"Well…" Weiss replied hesitantly. "I was wondering if you knew anything about The Chill?"
Even the name caused Ruby's body to tense up, and as a derisive chuckle ran through the classroom she felt the urge to shout at them to shut up. It wasn't their fault they thought it was nothing more than a story, they were lucky. And she hoped they would continue to be.
"Great." Cardin mocked. "We've gone from stories to fairy tales. The Chill is an urban legend to scare children."
"How about y-"
"Yang, don't." Ruby groaned, even though she was getting tired of Cardin too. Especially with how rude he'd been to Blake.
"I advise you to listen to your teammate, Miss Xiao Long." Port said with a stern look. "I wouldn't want to be giving out two detentions."
"Wha-"
"And I assure you, Mr Winchester, The Chill is no more a legend than yourself."
The entire class snickered as the unamused boy scowled and crossed his arms. However, as the seconds passed, the students seemed to realise what the professor had said and the light air of the room faded into one of apprehension.
"Wait…" Nikul asked from the back table. "The Chill are real?"
"And not something we usually teach until the third year." Professor Port hummed and stroked his moustache. "However, I suppose it's not against the rules for me to teach it now."
Walking over to the blackboard, he picked up the eraser and scrubbed away a detailed drawing of a Beowolf, replacing it with nothing more than two filled in circles.
"Not much is known about The Chill, why, even I in my vast array of travels have never encountered such a Grimm, but what we can gather from the documented encounters is that it is a cousin of the much more common Geist. And much like its cousin, it travels alone."
Ruby quickly noted everything the man was saying. The fact that it travelled alone would definitely be helpful in future as that meant there would be no other Grimm packs nearby. Such Grimm usually relied on creating chaos and fear so that other Grimm were drawn to their location to finish the job. Unfortunately, after that little piece of information, the man turned towards what the Grimm itself did to the victim and no new information was gained; only a gradually increasing nausea as she remembered Prince's dying groans.
It was a feeling that the entire class, even Cardin, seemed to share as he finished detailing its effects.
"So… Can you actually get a Chill out of someone?" Weiss asked, a little queasiness to her own voice. "Before brain damage occurs?"
"Of course, child. Nothing in this world is without weakness." Port chuckled. "The Chill is a creature of cold and kills by rapidly inducing hypothermia. As such, an injection of fire Dust into the bloodstream makes the body inhospitable and weakens it on release. I believe it was the Atlesians who used to eat Dust tablets to keep The Chill at bay."
Thinking back, Port's answer made sense. Nobody had even been able to scratch it, except for Yang. The fire from her semblance had not only caused the seemingly invincible creature pain, but had also forced it to retreat.
"What about when it leaves?" She asked, wanting to know how to make sure it didn't escape in the future. "If it's got no body, how do we kill it?"
"Hmm…"
The man walked over to a large cupboard on the other end of the room and pulled it open to reveal a wide array of tools. Ruby could easily forgive anyone who felt uneasy looking at them. Weirdly shaped saws, spiked clamps, scissors the size of her forearm; among many other things. While Ruby knew each of them had a use against Grimm, they certainly didn't look too dissimilar to instruments of torture.
Reaching inside, the portly man pulled out a hollow sphere with a gap on one side and a handle of the other. Twisting the handle, the open end of the sphere snapped shut with a loud clang.
"A Phantom Cage is the best tool so far." The teacher hummed. "The eyes are the only tangible part of the Grimm, so trapping them inside this is your best bet. Once it's trapped, fill the cage with fire Dust from the port on the handle and burn it alive."
Ruby couldn't help but scowl at the device. While it certainly seemed well made and no doubt did it's job, it was definitely not the most journey-friendly tool in the world. It was too big and too clunky to include in a pack for every journey, especially considering how rare The Chill apparently were. However, due to how dangerous such a Grimm was, Ruby knew the tool should always be at hand.
She also knew that she could create a better one.
Unfortunately, before she could even start to take notes on the device, the bell rang and Professor Port threw it back onto a shelf in the cupboard.
"Well then, that will be all I suppose." The man huffed, a rather frequent reaction to the bell. No doubt he wished to tell more stories. "Mr Winchester, you will see me after your final class, but for now you can all go and enjoy your lunch."
The sound of scraping and rustling of papers filled the room as the students began to gather their things. However, even as Weiss and Yang stood up from their chairs, Ruby remained in place and waited for the room to empty.
"You coming, Rubes?" Yang asked, as students moved past her.
"Not yet." She said with a shake of her head. "I'll catch up later."
An uncertain look started to form on the woman's face, but thankfully Weiss took the woman by the arm and steered her towards the door before the brawler could ask anything further. While Ruby loved her sister, there was no denying that she had been a little too overprotective since the mission; and though she understood why, it was becoming a little restrictive.
Fortunately though, Weiss' firm hand was still enough to command the woman, and as they and the final students left the room, Ruby remained in her seat and waited patiently for the teacher to notice her. It didn't take long.
"I'm happy to see your looks are not the only similarity."
"Huh?" Whatever she had been expecting the man to say, it had not been that.
"Your mother was always the last to leave the classroom too."
"Oh…" She had definitely not been expecting that. "Right… You were a teaching assistant when she was here, right?"
"Mhm." He nodded, sitting down at his desk. "Such a voracious appetite for learning. Barely a class would pass when she didn't give Doctor Caerulea, rest her soul, a thorough back and forth on the best ways to fight the vicious hordes that roam the woods. I'm almost certain my former mentor hated her as much as she loved her."
Of all the things she imagined her mother doing, arguing with teachers was not one of them. Just the image of the happy woman doing such a thing was enough to make Ruby chuckle a little.
"But with the story I have been hearing in the staff room, I'm assuming that is not what you wish to talk to me about."
To Ruby's surprise, the man had dropped his usual bombast and his voice had taken on a much more understanding tone. The man was right though, and she gave a small nod of her head.
"Then confess to me your woes, Miss Rose, that I may put them at ease."
"Uhh…"
She hesitated slightly. She knew what she was about to ask for might sound a little rude, and very inconsiderate. If someone asked the same of her, she doubts she would be happy to indulge the request.
"Well…" She took a deep breath and shook her head. "Professor Ozpin…"
"Headmaster Ozpin." The man corrected her.
"Right… Well he said there are some stories that you don't tell." She ran a hand nervously through her hair and scratched her head. "And that I should ask you about them?"
The older man stared at her for a few seconds, his moustache twitching slightly; but the moment quickly passed and he gave a nod of his head.
"Losing someone on a mission is never easy." He said knowingly. "And the memories that it can leave behind can often be worse."
"I… I can't sleep properly." She admitted. "And when it happened I…"
"No need to explain, dear girl." The man smiled. "You would be hard pressed to find a Huntsman who didn't act in such a way the first time they faced death. Why, even I felt completely overwhelmed the first time it happened."
"So how did you deal with it?"
The smile fell, and for the first time since attending Beacon, she watched as the man looked down at the table. From the way his fingers entwined with themselves and began to slowly tap against the desk, it was still a painful memory for him. So leaning back in her chair, she waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts.
"Very well, Miss Rose." The man nodded almost a minute later, standing up and resuming the same stance he took while teaching. "Allow me to tell you the story of how Byakuren fell."
Blake was tired. She thought that her fellow students would understand just how tiring it was to have people steal glances in their direction, especially with how such a thing caused a Hunter's aura to tingle; but apparently the chance to gossip had caused such a memory to flee their minds. Everywhere she went, Blake could feel her body tingle as eyes roamed her body, no doubt in search of her trait. Meanwhile her actual trait was picking up the barely whispered murmuring and speculations about her past so frequently that she wished her ribbon was made of soundproof material.
Worst of all though was the fact that all of the gossip seemed to have attracted the attention of the headmaster. She had only just sat down and begun to pull out her book when Port had told her Ozpin wished to see her. She'd been nervous at first, knowing that being called to the headmaster's office at the same time rumors of her being a terrorist were circulating the school was hardly a good sign, but Ruby had quickly soothed her worries and told her that everything would be okay. And even if it wasn't…
Well, it's no less than I deserve.
As she leaned back against the vibrating walls of the elevator, she couldn't stop that thought from infiltrating her mind. She knew it shouldn't, but there was some truth to it. The students weren't wrong, she was in fact an ex terrorist; and that would undoubtedly make anyone nervous. If the students were scared to have her around and Ozpin was forced to expel so that they felt safe, surely that was her own fault for having been the one to make the mistake of wanting people to feel that way in the first place.
Thankfully though, she didn't have too much time to dwell on her self-destructive thoughts as the elevator opened and revealed Ozpin's office. Just as usual, the vast space was mostly empty, save for a large curved desk in front of the giant window. Behind it sat her summoner, his grey hair tinted green in the light as he hunch over some paperwork. Stepping out of the small metal box, she walked slowly towards the headmaster's desk and stood beside a simple chair that had been placed in front of it.
"You wanted to see me, Headmaster?" She asked respectfully.
"Yes. Please, take a seat." The man looked up, his brown eyes twinkling as he gave her a kind smile. As she sat down, the man pushed the paperwork aside and relaxed back into his chair. "I assume you know why I've asked you here?" He asked.
"I'm guessing something to do with the rumors going around?" She mumbled.
"Hmm." He looked at her with interest and tented his fingers. "That is certainly a topic that I would like to discuss, but not the reason I called you here today."
"Oh…" Blake sat up a little straighter. "Then no, I don't."
"Hmm, I thought your parents might have discussed it with you."
"I haven't really seen them since we got back to Vale."
It was true. Having arrived in Vale later than expected, her parents had been too busy attending hastily arranged meetings to do anything else. And while they had called a few times, the conversations had been very short due to how tired they were.
"Understandable." The headmaster nodded. "They are extremely busy at the minute. However…" He reached over to the stack of paperwork and pulled out a small rectangular slip of paper. "I was able to finally meet with them last night after their address to the council, and they insisted on giving me this."
He placed the slip of paper on the table.
"The full amount of your tuition for the rest of the year."
"Oh…"
She reached out and picked up the slip of paper to see that it was indeed what Ozpin had said it was. She hadn't even talked to her parents about the school loan she'd taken, and definitely hadn't asked them for money, but maybe that was why the check felt so warm.
"However," Ozpin continued. "Since you are the beneficiary, I do need your permission to accept this as payment."
"Right." She placed it back down with a smile and pushed it back towards him. "Sure."
Though it definitely wasn't needed, she wasn't going to turn down her parent's attempt to show her that they cared for her and approved of her new path.
"Perfect." The grey-haired man smiled, picking the slip back up and putting it aside. "Now, about these rumors?"
Suppressing a groan and wishing the previous conversation had lasted longer, Blake slumped back in her chair. While Ozpin had been aware that she was a faunus for months after an incident at the docks, she had never told him everything about her past. In fact, she had blatantly lied when asked.
"I understand that the students have become aware of your past?"
There was a knowing tone in his voice, and as she looked up and met her teacher's eyes, she saw that there was not a hint of surprise in them.
"You knew?"
Ozpin merely chuckled. "I've known who you are since you applied to this school, Miss Belladonna. The Faunus News Network has many wonderful articles on fishing so I tend to stay subscribed, and I remembered seeing an article on your departure from the island some years ago."
"And you still let me in?"
"I will admit, I was hesitant." He hummed. "But during our interview you seemed… lost. And I thought that maybe this school could serve as, forgive the pun, a beacon in the dark."
Staring into his brown eyes, Blake was reminded of what Yang had said months ago. It wouldn't surprise me if he knew what would happen before we even entered the forest. She'd not been convinced before, but now she was unsure. He'd known who she was, and she had somehow managed to end up on a team with not only the person who should have been her sworn enemy, but also two people who Ozpin personally knew the parents of. Was Ozpin actually controlling more than just the school? Or was she merely being paranoid?
"However, since the safety of my students is my main concern, I do have to ask. Is there anything I should be concerned about?"
She knew she could easily lie. Past interactions with the man had shown that he would accept her word, but doing so felt pointless. Clearly, Ozpin accepting what she said and believing what she said were two different things, and she didn't doubt that whatever she said, the man would know the truth. But more than that, she didn't want to lie anymore.
"I'm… I'm still angry." She admitted.
"And no doubt with good reason." Ozpin nodded.
"But I know that how I went about things was the wrong way now."
"And what do you think would be a better way?"
"I…" She paused.
Ever since deciding to check on news from her home and reading her dad's speeches, that very question had sat permanently in the back of her mind. How did someone create the change she sought? Violence had not been the answer, but neither had pacifistic peace. Both had their pros, but the problems each presented often heavily outweighed those pros.
"I don't know." She mumbled.
"Hmm." He gave her an appreciative nod. "An answer I feel has more merit than you believe, Miss Belladonna."
"Change is a thing that people spend their entire lives trying to achieve. Whether it's personal, societal, or to the world itself. But, no matter what it is that you try to change, it's a path littered with crossroads; and no matter your age or your understanding of the world, taking the wrong path a few times is inevitable. Thankfully, taking a wrong path rarely means we cannot go back and try another."
"And if you hurt people while taking that wrong path?"
"Then going back to try another also means you will see them again."
She didn't reply. While that made sense, she had no idea how many wrong paths she had chosen. Definitely more than one. However, just as Ozpin had said, at least she knew what she could do differently. Her team, her family, Beacon, they had all given her a chance to find another path to achieve what she'd wanted to achieve. And a chance to make things right.
"I suppose." She grumbled and slumped back in her chair. "So I'm guessing I'm not expelled?"
"Not today, no." Ozpin chuckled lightly, causing a rush of relief to flood through her. "Though I should say that, as much as I trust you, I will be keeping a close eye on the situation for a little while. While we try to reduce it as much as we possibly can, I understand how cruel students can be, so please make sure to reach out instead of taking matters into your own hands… as Miss Schnee and Miss Xiao Long have been tending to do."
Knowing exactly what he was talking about, as both Weiss and Yang tended to be a little more physical towards people that annoyed them, Blake gave the headmaster a small nod.
"I will."
"Perfect." He smiled. "Then I believe that will be all. I'm sure Professor Port will just be wrapping up his class, so feel free to go straight down to lunch."
"Thank you, Professor."
Standing up, Blake offered the man a grateful smile and turned to leave the room. Considering she'd been expecting to be expelled, or at least be in some kind of trouble, it was hard not to feel a little hopeful. Once again, Ruby had been right, and while usually Blake would be a little hesitant to admit that to her girlfriend due to the gloating that would be received in return, she knew the reaper could use the little boost in morale. So, taking a breath and smiling at the fact she was finally able to deliver some good news, she pressed the elevator button and stepped inside to make her way to the cafeteria.
A/N
Hello all, just a smaller chapter today as we prepare to round things out for the ending.
So, you all have no idea how hard it is to write Port in a written format ;-; It's tough to balance the bombast with the seriousness, the idiot with the wise man. Hopefully I managed to convey him well here. Ozpin is also a pain to write, but I've been told I do it well so hopefully this one holds up to that.
Anyways, that's it form me. Hopefully you enjoyed seeing these characters confront their issues, and I will see you again next week.
Chapter 66 - Amends will be up on the 29th.