Disclaimer: I do not, nor do I claim to, own RWBY or any other media that may be referenced. All rights go to their respective owners. The only thing I lay claim to are my OCs (which are still yet to appear).
The third term of the year passes without much fanfare. Qualifiers for the tournament are conducted, and Blake and Rosa get through, as do JNPR and SSSN. Yang and Weiss continue to get rehab for their injuries, which are mostly healed but leave their arms weak from disuse.
Doctor Oobleck has been seen using crutches to get around, forced to go slower than he usually would, but refusing to suffer the 'indignity' of a wheelchair.
Another anonymous tip off comes through that leaves the entirety of Squad RRAYNNBW on edge.
'Vytal Tournament. Some matches fixed. Illusionary semblance. White Fang attack alongside Grimm. Real target: Beacon Vault. Stay Vigilant.
- Your Anonymous Informant.'
"What does this mean for us?" Jaune asks as the squad meets to discuss the tip off.
"It means that we have to stay on guard and not trust everything that we see," Rosa says with an eye roll.
Everyone nods in agreement.
"I think we should tell one of the teachers about these tip offs. This is the third one, and the last two were right. We could stop another attack if we just told someone," Pyrrha suggests.
Blake shakes her head. "No. Whoever is really behind this will just keep trying. Unless we can get them to come out into the open, then they won't stop. A lot of White Fang members got killed in the Mountain Glenn Cavern Incident, heck, Torchwick's body was found. Yet, the tipoff is that the White Fang is still gearing up for an attack. Add on that crime rates have dropped; people will think we're just looking for attention. Or worse, it could cause panic if this knowledge gets out, and that would bring the grimm. I think what we should do is let the attack come, but we be ready to squash it down immediately and apprehend the true culprit at their real target. We'd have to do some digging to find out where this Vault is, but once we find out, we'll be ready."
Pyrrha looks at her, aghast at the thought. "People would be hurt! Innocent people! How can you justify that?!"
"I can justify it because more will keep getting hurt if we let the real perpetrator keep running around and pulling the strings. I can justify it because we are already running out of steam. There are eight of us. Weiss and Yang have already been badly injured, and they, Rosa and I have nearly died. At this rate, our squad will be dead in two more attacks, heck, even one. We can't withstand that. We have to know the terms, have to put an end to this. If we alert the professors, we will have no control," Blake rants.
"They are professors for a reason. They are fully capable of making plans to stop this attack. We are just students, and we are way in over our heads. We don't have to be the one's calling the shots," Pyrrha reminds the cat faunus, acid lining her words.
"ENOUGH!" Rosa yells.
They all look at her in shock. She isn't one to yell for no reason.
"You are both right. We can't tell the teachers, and we can't withstand another attack on our own, but we can spread the word to those we can trust. Team SSSN, Penny, CFVY. We tell them to be ready for an attack. We organise for at least one team in the know to be on school grounds to be ready to fight ASAP. We can't let panic take over, or an attack will occur when we aren't ready. We can't let the perpetrator get away with this or there will be more attacks," Rosa tiredly explains. "We may be in over our heads, but do you really think any of us would step away from it?"
Pyrrha deflates at that, knowing for a fact that she wouldn't be able to step away.
"She's right," Jaune points out. "None of us can stop now, but I don't think any of us want to stop. And if we told the teachers, they would force us to stop. So we can't tell them."
"This will likely be the fight of our lives. It would be best if we could control the situation, at least partly," Ren muses.
A few moments pass in silence, the squad thinking about the situation and waiting for Pyrrha to voice any more concerns.
"Okay," the champion voices shakily. "We won't let the teachers know."
The solemn ambient mood doesn't leave them that day.
The Grimm Anatomy 'classroom' is full. Nearly the entire first year populace at Beacon - just over a hundred students with the exchange students added - and a good number of upper years are packed into the auditorium, bringing the total to just over a hundred and eighty students. All looking down at the front of the room where Rosa stands on a rolling ladder, chalk in hand.
She moves around the massive board - larger than the boards in any of the other rooms - writing down the names of different Grimm, drawing a quick image, and listing out how to combat them.
Apart from the scratch of chalk on blackboard, the clacking of laptop keys, and the scratching of pens and pencils against paper, the room is silent. A pin could be dropped and it would be heard throughout the entire room.
The fourth years watch in fascination as this fifteen-year-old writes up things they didn't know about the grimm, and wrote about grimm they had never even heard of. The mounting horror that their knowledge of the grimm isn't complete washing over them.
It is at the very bottom of the board on the right-hand side that Rosa pauses for the first time before writing up 'The Apathy'.
She doesn't draw an image, instead writing a note to be aware of their energy levels and uncharacteristic lethargy. She doesn't write up a combat strategy, she writes a note that they cannot be fought, run while you can.
She steps down from the ladder at last and moves it to the side so that her fellow students can write down their notes. Then, she goes to the teacher's desk and begins piling books onto it. She's broken from this by a hand being raised into the air.
"Excuse me?"
"Yes?" Rosa asks, not looking up.
"What does an Apathy look like? How would you fight one? Why are you telling us to run from it?" the person asks. At this, Rosa looks up.
"The Apathy are... humanoid. Much taller than any human or faunus, and impossibly thin. They are little more than an elongated skeleton given grimm form. They are not fast, cannot fly nor swim. They are not strong, they can't rip limb from limb or lift cars or boulders. That is not what makes them impossible to fight. They are incredibly durable, blades can't pierce their hide and bullets do little more than bounce back despite the lack of armour. They travel in packs, and if the pack gets split, they work to reunite. You will never find one of these grimm travelling on its lonesome. What makes it most deadly though, is its power. Ambient apathy. They drain people of the will to do anything. Eat, talk, work, fight... even live. Their screeches accelerate the progress. Fire is the only possible way to fend them off, but even then, they will not stop their advance. If you see The Apathy, you do not fight, you run. You scream and you raise the alarm for others to flee. There is no shame in running from The Apathy," she drawls lethargically.
"But... surely we-," the student begins.
"No," Rosa cuts them off. "You never engage with The Apathy. You. Run."
A fourth year clears their throat. "It sounds like you have experience with this. Would I be right to guess that?"
Rosa nods. "Last term, just after the Dance. My team went on a mission to Mountain Glenn. I won't go into specifics, but we ended up in the underground, trying to stop a train from breaching an entrance into Vale for the grimm to invade through. One of the caverns that was opened up was filled with The Apathy. My team and our professional huntsman managed to stop the invasion, nearly costing us our lives. If it weren't for the arrival of the Grimm Reaper, we would be dead," Rosa drawls tiredly.
"So, this Grimm Reaper has a way of fighting The Apathy? Right?" the fourth-year pushes. Rosa barks out a laugh. She bends down and picks up a book, thicker than her arm, and drops it on the desk.
"You can read about it here. Page two hundred to page two hundred and three. Don't blame me if it's not very conclusive, but it's all I could find on it," she drawls.
The fourth-year walks down to the desk and startles at the title of the book. "It's... a book of fairy tales?"
"Yep," Rosa says, lethargically popping her 'p'.
"But-"
"Feel free to look into it further. It's called 'Silver Eyes'. At least, that's the closest to what I saw. The Grimm Reaper moved through a hoard of other grimm decimating them with a scythe in each hand, and as she reached The Apathy, white light engulfed the entire tunnel. When the light died down, the grimm had been vaporised. Supposedly, that white light is what happens when a 'Silver Eyed Warrior' goes into battle against the grimm. According to this legend, it's the oldest weapon mankind has. Don't get frustrated when you find nothing more than other fairy tale books like this. I searched for a term, and I have family outside of Beacon searching bookstores for me too. This is the best we could find," Rosa tells them with a shrug.
The youngest student in the room raises her head to the room. "Continue taking your notes, feel free to ask any questions that don't pertain to The Apathy or the Grimm Reaper."
A knock on their door startles Beacon's youngest squad. Jaune is the one that answers it, and is surprised by Qrow standing in the doorway.
"Can I come in?" the huntsman asks.
"Sure," the blond replies, stepping aside to let the older man in.
"Uncle Qrow? What are you doing here? I thought you were on mission?" Yang asks.
"Officially? I have two messages to pass on. Unofficially? I wanted to see how my nieces and their friends are," he says with a slight upward curve of his mouth.
Yang slumps sarcastically. "Seriously? Ugh, you're so em-bar-assssing!" she whines. Qrow snorts out a laugh.
"Love you too, Firecracker," he tells her, ruffling her hair despite her protests as he sits down next to her. "How's your arm?"
Yang rolls her eyes. "The physical therapy is helping. I've got most of my range of motion back, but some movements are more painful than others. Hopefully I can get back into training after the tournament is done," she tells him.
"That's good. You take it easy though. The worst thing you can do is push yourself too hard too soon. You do that and you could wreck your shoulder completely. That'd pull you out of the huntress lifestyle permanently," he warns her.
"Did anyone get this badly injured while you were at Beacon?" Weiss asks.
Qrow nods, leaning back on the bed. "Yeah, there was a team in the year above me when I was in second year. Still don't know exactly what happened other than they self-assigned a mission, but one got his kneecap shattered and the tendons torn in the other leg. Another broke nearly every single rib. The leader got a fractured spine, luckily it didn't break his spinal cord. The last of them shattered a shoulder. They got held back two years while they recovered and went through rehab. Two of them had to relearn how to walk, and then had to relearn how to fight. They all managed to graduate, but I don't think any of them ended up actually working as a hunter."
"Yang and Weiss are strong, they'll get through this," Nora insists solemnly.
Qrow snorts. "Believe me when I say that I know that. I know Yang better than any of you, I watched her grow up, heck, I raised her. Weiss though," he pauses to blow out air as a failed whistle. He levels a stare at her. "I've met your sister Winter, and if you are anything like her, you're one heck of a tough cookie. An injury like this isn't going to stop you going after what you want in life. Plus, I like to think I got a pretty good idea of what you're all like after that break you spent at mine."
"So... what were the messages you were sent to deliver?" Yang asks after a few moments of silence.
Qrow sighs. "Ozpin wants to see Rosa and Nikos in his office, ASAP. Technically, I'm also meant to escort you two ladies there. I don't exactly want to go to this meeting, hence why I wanted to delay it by spending time with my family, but duty calls." He stands up. "Shall we get moving?"
Rosa stands up and grabs her titanium case, securing it to her back before nodding in response. Pyrrha just gets up without a word.
"What does Ozpin want with them?" Jaune asks the older hunter.
Qrow looks at his searching eyes and sighs himself. "I wish I could tell you kids, but Oz swore me to secrecy." A faint smile crosses his face before he leans in conspiratorially. "He even made me pinky promise!" he whispers.
Weiss and Nora giggle at that thought and the rest roll their eyes.
"Why don't we get going? The sooner we go, the sooner it will be done," Pyrrha diplomatically suggests.
"True."
Rosa couldn't believe her ears.
Magic.
Magic.
Magic exists, and is the reason the school is in danger.
"Why are you telling us this? What point does this serve?" Pyrrha asks, turning around to look at all of the teachers in the room. Qrow, Goodwitch, Ironwood, Ozpin. Goodwitch is the one to step forward and explain.
"The magic of the Maidens is continuously passed on. Currently, the Fall Maiden has lost part of her powers, something that has never happened before in history. We are unsure if the powers would pass to the woman who attacked her and stole part of her powers, or if they would pass to someone random. We would like to have the powers pass to someone we can trust."
"If these Maidens are so important, why not tell the whole world about them?" Pyrrha asks.
"Because it would cause confusion, panic, and greed," Rosa answers. "Wouldn't it?"
"Ms Calavera is correct," the General concedes. "If the world knew, there would be a constant power-grab, it would cause chaos and panic. That is not something we can afford."
"Then why tell us?" Pyrrha presses.
"Because, Ms Nikos, we believe that you are the best suited to inherit the Fall Maiden's powers," Ozpin reveals.
Rosa leans back in her chair. "So why am I here then? Why not just ask for Pyrrha to come alone?"
"Because you were very closely considered," Qrow admits. Rosa raises an eyebrow.
"We ended up deciding that your personality isn't the best match to inherit the Fall Maiden's powers, especially through the method that General Ironwood has devised. However, I have decided to bring you into the fold, your youth gives you a unique vantage point, and your prodigious skill could be best directed if you were in the know," Ozpin tells her.
"So you're making an investment and hoping it pays off. Thanks for the vote of confidence," Rosa snarks.
"Ms Calavera," Goodwitch scolds.
"Don't patronise me," Rosa snaps at her.
Ironwood sighs. "We would need to have a more accurate idea of what you are capable of, fighting wise, Ms Calavera. You are already a prodigy, well ahead of your peers in your year, and likely even in the years above you, despite your young age. Yet, we still don't know what you are really capable of."
Rosa snorts. "How's this for an idea? My swords, Azul and Blanco? They are my thirds. Not my seconds, not my firsts, my thirds. I started training with them just under two years ago. The weapons I am most proficient with? I've been training in that style since I was... hmmm... five, probably closer to six by that point. So nearly a decade. My semblance is a lot more extensive and adaptable than any of you have even considered. Pyrrha is known as the Invincible Girl in combat competitions, but really, if I was going full pelt, no holding back and no one else to watch out for, I reckon it would take a grimm invasion to stop me."
"What. Weapons. Do. You. Use?" Goodwitch grinds out.
Rosa smirks. "That, is for me to know, and you to try and figure out."
"Ms Calavera, please be reasonable," Ironwood begs.
"I am, General. Did you even check the software after the CCT breach? How do you know there aren't bugs in this room? I wouldn't like to open my mouth and have our enemy find out what I can do. That seems very silly to me," Rosa laughs.
"What is it you know that we don't?" the military leader asks.
"I know a lot of things, General. You're going to have to be more specific than that. Just prove to me that this room isn't bugged, and if you ask the right questions, I'll tell you no lies," Rosa says, crossing her arms over her chest.
"General, perhaps we should move this down to the Vault. We can continue this conversation there," Ozpin suggests, getting up from his desk.
The ride down to the Vault is tense, and stepping out, Rosa looks around, studying the structure.
"The Vault is the best kept secret of Beacon. Technological signals are disrupted down here. Nothing gets in, and nothing gets out, making it impossible to bug, Ms Calavera," the headmaster explains.
Pyrrha though, is too busy looking at the unconscious woman to pay attention to the words of her headmaster.
"Who... is this?" she voices.
"That, Ms Nikos, is Amber, the current Fall Maiden," Goodwitch supplies.
"And the tech surrounding her?" Rosa asks.
"State of the art Atlas technology. It is what is keeping her alive. And... it is what will allow us to transfer her powers to Ms Nikos, should she be willing," Ironwood explains.
Rosa snorts. "I don't see how that is possible. How would one transfer the powers on their lonesome without damaging the souls of those involved?" she muses out loud.
None of the adults say anything.
Rosa turns around, jaw dropped as she splutters. Qrow refuses to meet her gaze (even though hers are hidden by goggles).
"You're not... no..." Rosa shakes her head, stumbling backwards. "How could you?"
"With great difficulty," Ironwood reveals sadly.
"I don't... I don't understand," Pyrrha speaks up.
"We can't give you Amber's Fall Maiden powers, but we can give you what those powers are tied to," Qrow says lowly.
It clicks for Pyrrha. "Her aura. That's-"
"Horrific? Believe me, you aren't the only one to feel that way," Goodwitch interrupts.
"We don't have time to find a better method, if we did, I would be using as much of that time as possible," Ironwood tells her.
"That doesn't make this right," Rosa spits out. "A person's soul is who they are, to take that and... and... put it in another's body... that's... I can't even begin to put into words how wrong it is."
"I don't feel any better about this, Rosa. Absolute revulsion is exactly what all of us are feeling. The only thing that makes this even somewhat okay with this is that more people will die if this... false Maiden gets her hands on the rest of these powers. Otherwise I would be the first in line to destroy this disgusting piece of technology," Qrow tells her.
"Ms Nikos, the decision is yours and yours alone. Please, think on everything you have learnt, and try to have made your choice on whether or not you will go through with the... procedure by the end of the Vytal Tournament," Ozpin tells her. Rosa thinks she's imagining it at first, but then realises that she isn't. He's pleading.
Pyrrha looks each of the adults in the eyes and then to Rosa.
"Pyrrha, as your friend and squad captain, I don't like this. I disagree with this plan, and it goes against all of my beliefs," the younger girl states, grabbing her gloved hands, "but... this isn't my choice to make. It is yours. If you choose to go through with this, then I will support you, and our squad will too. You won't lose us over this. I promise."
Pyrrha nods shakily before turning her head to look her headmaster in the eye.
"I'll do it."
"Are you sure?" Ozpin asks.
"Yes," Pyrrha states, walking over to the other pod. "I would like to do it now, before I have the chance to talk myself out of it."
Rosa steps backwards as the headmasters of Beacon and Atlas step forward.
Goodwitch helps Pyrrha into the pod as the two headmasters stand at the controls and ready the process. Qrow stands at his niece's side. "You're doing a brave thing, Rubes. If it had been my teammates being offered this, I would've talked them out of it."
"It wasn't my choice to make. She'll have to live with the outcome for the rest of her life, and I and our friends will help her through what is to come," Rosa explains.
"Beginning process," Ironwood announces and Pyrrha shuts her eyes, "in three. Two. One."
Light flows up the tubes from Amber's pod and then down into Pyrrha's. The screams make Rosa want to bury her head into her hands and hide, but she doesn't. She needs to make sure her friend is okay.
Three torturous minutes pass until the light fades and a flatlining can be heard.
"Amber has passed. Time of death, 5:42 pm. Rest in peace," Ironwood announces.
Rosa walks forward to the pod holding the now dead girl. "Descansa en paz amigo mío." (A/N:Rest in peace, my friend) She places a kiss on the glass. "Disfruta los esplendores de liberación de la carne." (A/N: enjoy the splendours of release from the flesh)
She takes a step back and walks over to Pyrrha's side. The pod opens and Pyrrha stumbles out. Her breath is shaky and she collapses to the ground. Rosa crouches down next to her.
"Are you okay?"
Pyrrha lifts her head to meet her eyes.
"I will be, once I get used to... this," the redhead tells her.
"Okay."
A/N: Welcome back to the Grimm Reaper. Yes, I am realising that Rosa is quite over powered, if I ever decide to go back and re-write this in full I will be fixing that, but for now I'm just leaning into it. Also, she is being paranoid, which is understandable when she knows that bad things are going on and that she was born with a target on her back. In addition to this, we have Pyrrha taking on board half of the maiden powers which is... interesting going forward.
On the note of re-writing, I spent the last week re-writing chapters 18-21 AND adding another chapter in because I had a realisation of "I've screwed up the timeline and can do better than this... well if I'm fixing the timeline, might as well incorporate that plot point I thought up post-writing because that's way better than what I originally had planned" so... yeah. Re-writing it is annoying, and I feel bad for multiple characters because I'm being mean to them and/or killing them, but... too bad.
Anyways, leave a review telling me your thoughts, or drop me a PM if you want/need someone to talk to and I'll get back as soon as I can (which is unfortunately going to slow down again because uni is starting back up and i have a baseline of 17 hours each week before readings and assignments). Otherwise, I'll see you next week with another chapter.
- RebeccaMagic9