A Cosmic Journey

A/N: And here we are. 366 days since the first chapter. Hundreds of reviews, favorites and follows. Hundreds of thousands of words and views. When I started this story a year ago, only in my most unlikely considerations did I imagine this level of readership, commentary and support for this writing. I'm thankful for the readership of this fanfic, and proud of what has been produced so far. Rest assured though, things are far from over. With fall classes starting up for me soon, I'll have to think over what day of the week works best to update this story, so stay tuned.

Chapter 46: Lead a Horse To Water

Chapter Date: 08/26/20

"So…this is a little awkward…"

'To the socially awkward.' I parroted in my head, before glancing next to me at Ruby. My fellow team leader was shuffling her feet, bunching her hands together, and eyeing everything in the room that didn't matter at the moment.

Then again, that was likely exactly the appropriate reaction to our current circumstances.

"Dozens of completely obliterated CCT terminals. Hundreds of electrical issues. Approximately one million lien in repair costs. Scheduling a repair session. An upcoming press conference addressing the safety of our academy." Ozpin was looking out his window, and I swore I could see smoke rising up from sections of Vale. "Not to mention all the other events that have occurred this evening. Ms. Rose, Mr. Higure, I trust that you have a good explanation for the earlier commotion."

"We were fighting Neopolitan!" Ruby managed to squeak out, though her bout of courage died as Ozpin finally turned to face us.

I sighed. "Ruby and I were on a CCT call with an old friend of mine, and I stepped out for a moment to take a separate call. After coming back, I saw that Ruby was attempting to fight off Neopolitan, who'd somehow managed to sneak into Beacon Tower. I had Ruby evacuate everything trapped inside the room while holding Neo off, but Neo managed to get the drop on me and escape while Ruby was distracted with looking after me. Given our mutual fight record with the girl, I'm not exactly pleased with that last bit."

"Quite understandable, though your priorities were commendable in this particular endeavor." Ozpin placed both hands on his cane, and the warmth in his eyes bled out. "Had you both single-mindedly sought the defeat and capture of Neopolitan at the jeopardy of innocent civilians and students, extensive punishments would be the least of your concerns. Equipment and technology can be restored, but lives cannot."

Ruby eeped, while I was unable to resist tensing up under the absolutely ancient threat across from us.

Then Ozpin relaxed, and a kind smile appeared. "However, you both exhibited the character and conduct of huntsmen and huntresses on this night, and so there will be no such consequences for your actions tonight." Ruby and I let out an explosive sigh of relief at that one, while Ozpin continued. "Now, is there anything else either of you could tell me about the attack? Any information will be useful in briefing the public, finding a motive for the attack or even expediting the repair process later on."

I let Ruby take the lead on this one first, and the reaper didn't disappoint. "She definitely didn't need to place a call, that's for sure…come to think of it, I don't think I've even ever heard her talk…so if she wasn't here for the CCT, then was she here for a person." Silver eyes flashed over to me, and then at herself. "Was she here for one of us?"

My face was one of horror at the wrong logical conclusion, but apparently Ozpin took it as me believing Ruby. "Given that both of you have thrice encountered and fought her now, it's quite possible that either she or one of her cohorts wished to exact vengeance upon you, and sought you out." Ozpin's brows furrowed. "That being said, I am unsure of why she waited until you both were in a crowded location, in the middle of Beacon campus. Such behavior directly contradicts the method used to ambush Mr. Higure during his capture previously."

"Thanks for that, professor," I muttered, before acting like I had an epiphany. "What if Neo wasn't here for one of us, but for the CCT? As in, the whole system?" I gestured downward towards where the mentioned section was located, and Ozpin's eyes widened. "I don't know much about how the whole system works, but if Roman or Cinder or Adam managed to get access to it, there's probably a whole lot they could do with that, right?"

"Unparalleled damage would be well within the range of the spectrum, yes," Ozpin replied, his eyes lost in thought before they snapped back to Ruby and I. "It seems I must offer even greater gratitude for your actions tonight. I shudder to imagine the ramifications of their group having control of Remnant's communications. Rest assured, security will be increased significantly, both physical and virtual. I will have to converse with General Ironwood on some of the finer points."

The absence of a few key figures in the room stuck out to me. "Speaking of which, where is General Ironwood? Or Professor Goodwitch? I assumed both of them would've been very interested in hearing what happened? And don't even get me started on Qrow…then again, Ruby will probably call him with the story the first chance she gets."

"Hey!"

Ozpin chuckled. "Worry not, Ms. Rose. I will be sure to corroborate the extent of your heroics with Qrow should he inquire about them with me." I laughed as well as Ruby whined, before the smile fell away from Ozpin's face. "As for my colleagues, they are currently occupied with some other events happening within Vale proper at the moment. I am sure that news of such would have reached you had it not been for your own situation."

'Ah damnit, something tells me that Cinder and the White Fang did not go quietly into the night…' I was going to need the rundown from the rest of them when they got back, but for now I'd settle for being away from the Wizard's eye and basking in the rays of victory. Clearing my throat, I said, "I'm glad to be a help, but everything is fine at this point, I wouldn't mind bedding down for the night. Neo has to be one of the toughest fighters I've ever had the displeasure of having to fight."

Ozpin's smile returned. "Oh? And whom might hold the title of your toughest opponent to date?"

There was no contest. "Raven."

"Ah, yes. I was informed of that particular interaction. I have since interpreted her sparing you and your friends to be some symbol of the good that she still holds within. That, and her admirable efforts to repair her relationship with her family."

"Right…" Ruby shuffled her feet, and it was no surprise that the topic must've been extremely awkward for the extremely awkward girl. What did surprise me though was that I'd never broached that particular topic with Ruby yet. With so many issues on the table though, not to mention that I'd probably be considered an outsider… "If you wouldn't mind professor, I'm also feeling a bit tired at this point…"

Ozpin straightened. "Of course. I apologize for my overzealousness. Both of you may leave, and I thank you both again for your efforts."

We both said our goodbyes, and entered one of the elevators before beginning to make the trip down. Inside the elevator, I had to try very hard not to think about what lay at the very bottom of the building, though it was comforting to know who wasn't there. Instead, I turned to Ruby. "How are you holding up? I know it probably wasn't exactly how you wanted to spend your evening."

"Nope. But I did get to talk with one of my idols, and I got to protect a bunch of people tonight, so I think it's okay in my book." Then Ruby groaned and pulled out her scroll. "Something tells me that my team won't see it that way. I put my scroll on silent before everything happened, but…yep, I've got a whole lot of messages and missed calls."

"That's why I just turned my scroll off. Can't feel guilty about what you can't see." I joked, before dodging the tiny fist thrown my way. "Rest assured though, I'll be catching a different kind of fresh hell from my team once I get back. At least I got to get a few words in with Weylin."

Ruby perked up. "Oh, that reminds me, he wanted me to update you on how things are going in Anima!"

"I'm always interested in that. Whatcha got?"

"He said that when you have the chance, he wants to send you some ideas for Mortem. He also has some pictures of the flower viewing festival that you missed." Ruby scrunched up her face in a passable imitation of my favorite smith. "He also said 'Always make sure your sword arm's sharp, 'cause trouble's brewing.'"

"Trouble is always brewing," I replied, thinking on other matters as the elevator came to a stop. "I'm just glad that with the dance coming up, we'll have a break to-"

"Are you discussing the upcoming Beacon Dance? Sensational!"

"PENNY!" I caught Ruby as she leapt upwards in terror, the girl robot standing right where the doors opened. Even with Chronometry, my heart skipped a beat or two in surprise. "Is there something we can do for you?"

"Oh no, I was merely instructed by General Ironwood to wait here until he returns from Vale. He says that he has much to discuss with me on some of my orders!" Penny paused, before neon green eyes lit up. "Oh! I am standing in the pathway of the elevator! Excuse me!"

Ruby and I stepped out into the hallway, before turning back to Penny who was still standing right outside the elevator. Then I remembered a specific talk that I needed to have with Penny, before turning to Ruby. "Hey Ruby, I've got something that I need to chat with Penny about. You can go on ahead and get back to your team, maybe let my team know that I'm on the way back as well."

"No way, I'm not getting within ten feet of an angry Melanie Malachite!"

"…Fair. I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow then." I grinned and raised my hand. "Nice job tonight, Normal Knees."

"I'm never gonna live that down…" Ruby grumbled, though she high-fived me nonetheless before heading down the corridor and out of sight.

"Hello again, friend Kouzai! Is there a particular subject that you wished to converse about?" Gods, if I could bottle up some of Penny's pep…then again, her lifeblood was electricity…

"Yeah, I wanted to talk about the dance, and more specifically, someone that's going to be at it." Penny's face remained eager. "Someone we both know." Still eager. "Someone that you're interested in."

"I am confused as to the individual in question."

"I have to teach you about pointed conversations at some point." I muttered, clearing my throat before the android made a note of that. "I'm talking about Mercury. From what I've been told, he'll be attending the dance, and that you requested that he attend. Any particular reason for that?"

"During one of our talks, where I spoke about the Beacon Dance, he mentioned that 'having a dance with four metal legs involved would be at the top of his to-do list'!"

"…Guess I'm teaching sarcasm too." I dragged a hand down my face. "Is that the only reason?"

Penny then fidgeted, looking every bit the part of a downcast teenager. "I have noticed that Friend Mercury has been rather lacking in energy over the recent weeks. I have read that social interaction with others and having exposure to various physical environments allows for a shift in mental and emotional outlook, and wished to help him in that regard."

'Yeah, not gonna lie, being holed up in Beacon's cells probably isn't great, but…' I ran a hand through my hair. "I agree with what you're saying Penny, but there's a legitimate security risk in case he tries to escape, or if he ends up hurting someone at the dance-"

"He won't!" Penny's expression was almost indignant. "I believe in Friend Mercury's genuineness. He agreed to all the stipulations presented to him for his attendance, and I will believe in him."

I held her gaze. "Remember Penny, you and I are the ones most responsible for watching him during the dance. You really think he'll be on his best behavior, surrounded by people he fought against, including the guy who beat the crap out of him, ala me?"

Unblinking eyes stared back. "I do."

"…Ah geez, fine. Staring contests have become unbearable for me anyways." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Just…stick by him, alright? Something tells me you'll be the one he chats up the most anyways."

Perfectly white teeth gleamed. "Of that, I have no doubt. Oh, perhaps I could even have my father take pictures as well!"

"Your father? Pietro Polendina? He's coming to the dance?" I racked my brain for any hint of Pietro being around Vale, but there wasn't a hint of him being in the kingdom in canon.

"Indeed! He wishes to do a checkup on me before the Vytal Festival!" Penny's face became frighteningly neutral. "If I am to be honest, I am thankful that he will be coming to Vale. There was recently a break-in at my father's laboratories."

"What? What happened?" I was baffled.

"There were no damages, and the extent of the investigation thus far has revealed no theft," Penny reported, though there was a tremble to her tone. "However, I am still worried for my father's wellbeing."

"And that's perfectly normal," I reassured Penny, as an idea popped into my head. "Hey Penny, when General Ironwood comes later, could you maybe bring up the idea of your dad overhauling the CCT system? After all, the more things he has to do, the longer he'll be staying in Vale, right?"

"Oh, what a wonderful idea!" Before I could back away, metal arms had already entrapped me. "Thank you for your assistance, Kouzai!"

'Oh, this is gonna hurt…'

… … …

"…So let me get this straight. There is a destroyed and burning warehouse…"

Jaune ruffled his hair nervously.

"An actually smoking crater of a construction lot…"

Coco fiddled with her beret.

"Don't forget all the White Fang soldiers that we left for the VPD to bag!" Sun exclaimed.

"…That's actually good."

"I know, right?!"

"Regardless, the extent of the property damage from tonight isn't exactly light…how did Goodwitch and Ironwood take it?" I eyed my scroll, as Jaune, Coco, Sun and I were having a debriefing on our evening's events.

"The general was pretty happy that we were 'proactive', and even happier that we managed to track down the Paladin. Shame that the tech didn't make it out in one piece, otherwise he might've given us a medal." Coco smirked, her boundless confidence returning in droves.

I glanced at the section of the scroll screen where Jaune was. "And Goodwitch?"

"…There was some shouting…"

"…"

"Okay, a lot of shouting!"

"…"

"…And some eye twitches and hand-wringing…"

"…"

Jaune sighed. "And I swore I overheard her mentioning something about 'early retirement at this rate'…"

"That sounds about right. Did the hammer come down on anyone?"

"Nope. We were never there." Sun's grin was on full display.

"We got off scot-free, especially considering we've got a mission coming up." Coco was back in smug mode.

"Goodwitch said she'd let us off this time." Jaune looked rather sheepish.

"Alright, so shockingly, none of you are in detention until the end of time. That's good. Luckily, Ruby and I came out fine as well." The rest started to question what happened, but I held a hand up. "Before we get to that, now that we've got the bad news out of the way, let's talk on the good that came out of the mission tonight."

"Now we're talking. Thanks to my team, the White Fang has lost dozens of-"

"We know." Three simultaneous shutdowns had Sun quiet down, but Coco was on a roll. "We wiped the Paladin out, and sent Emerald packing with her tail between her legs."

"And JNPR fought Cinder and drove her off after dealing some pain to her." At this, Jaune was proud, likely for his teammates' efforts.

"I'm still not exactly happy about that last bit." I groaned. "Wouldn't CFVY have been a better match for Cinder? Considering the last time they met."

Coco shook her head. "No can do, Kouzai. In the moment, we needed to allocate our resources, and Fox was the best sensor, we had to take Emerald. Loving the favoritism though."

I ignored the comment. "Meaning that JNPR was the obvious choice to step in to fight Cinder."

Sun grumbled. "I resent the implication that they're stronger than us…but yeah, Pyrrha alone could probably wipe half my team."

The sounds of Pyrrha's embarrassment floated in from Jaune's scroll, and we all chuckled.

"So in summary, the rally was completely stomped, and the Paladin was destroyed, but Cinder and Emerald got away?" The rest nodded. "Alright, I suppose that's as good as we're gonna get in this situation. The only way things could've gone better is if we managed to catch Emerald, but I don't blame anyone. The Paladin alone is an impressive accomplishment."

"Damn right it is, I'll be icing my muscles for days." Coco made a show of stretching, but her smile remained. "Gotta say, taking down a giant death robot is a pretty good ego booster before we head out on our mission."

I pursed my lips at the reminder of their upcoming departure, but Jaune interjected. "So Kouzai, would you like to fill us in on what happened while we were out in Vale?"

"Yeaaaahhh, so the short of it is that Ruby and I were making a call to one of my old friends. I stepped out to take a call from Miltia, and came back to find Ruby and Neo going at in in the CCT. I held Neo off while Ruby got everyone else out, then Neo got a good shot in before using her Semblance to nope out of there." I could tell the rest were mulling over the possibilities.

"So the rally might've been a decoy then, to draw our attention away from Beacon." Coco mused.

"They're doing multi-pronged attacks now. Pretty sneaky if you ask me." Sun smirked, despite the situation.

"Still, I'm thankful that you and Ruby were around to head Neo off." I scowled at Jaune's statement, and the knight tilted his head. "What?"

"You wouldn't be too thankful if it took two of the craziest smiths on Remnant interacting with one another to happen…" I replied darkly.

"WHAAAT?! Ruby called Weylin and you didn't tell ME?!" Nora's voice exploded out of the scroll's speakers.

"And on that note I'll be calling it a night before things get even more out of hand. Be seeing everyone tomorrow." I exchanged my goodbyes before we all signed off, and I tossed my scroll onto my bed and laid down on my back. After a minute though, the tingling on my head made me glance over at my partner who was staring at me. "What?"

Pale blue eyes appeared to be scrutinizing me. "It was just lucky how you and Ruby were at the CCT when Neo arrived."

I shrugged on the bed. "Ozpin and Ruby mentioned that it might've been an attack on either Ruby or I, considering our run-ins with Neo at this point. Whether the goal was to hit a person or the CCT though, I'm just glad we happened to be in the right place at the right time."

"…You're a terrible liar."

I could already imagine Prim laughing at me and I smiled sadly. "I know."

A/N: That's the wind-down from the literal explosiveness of the night out, and the herald to the upcoming stretch of school life content. Just to need to mention again the craziness that this past year has been, in the best and worst of ways. Still blown away by the positive response that my story has managed to generate, and I'm looking forward to keeping things up. Thanks again. Now for reviews.

AlexFalTon: Perhaps my explicit description of the characters hasn't differentiated them well enough from their status in canon, but it'll likely become clearer. Thus far, the characters that are stronger than their canon counterparts at this point in time include the twins, Ilia, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren. Most notably, the characters whom Kouzai has encountered for an extended period of time and managed to work on fixing their weaknesses.

Raidentensho: Yeah, the virus being planted into the CCT system is really the lynchpin behind Cinder's canon plan. Without that, a lot more effort has to go into generating enough fear for a kingdom-destabilizing event, so Kouzai will definitely be trying to stamp that one out.

Gizmo Gear: Ah, the results of any plan or action are something that I enjoy considering and writing when it comes to this story. With so many canon events coming up and so many things changed from canon, there is much to think about for both writer and character.

Blueassassin996: Oh, with Cinder lacking some Maiden powers and integral human appendages as a result of the Specter, a death sentence is the least of what she wants to bring Kouzai's way. As for Salem, an immortal's outlook on setbacks is bound to be different, but some annoyance and irritation has definitely cropped up at this point.

Tom Ato: I can one hundred percent see Salem saying that about Ozpin, among other choice things.

-SE

Next Chapter Date: 09/02/20?