Disclaimer: I do not, nor do I claim to, own RWBY or any other media that may be referenced. All rights go to their respecive owners. The only thing I lay claim to are my OCs (which are yet to appear).
The opening ceremony of the Vytal Tournament is a sight to behold. A parade of every team participating, music from every kingdom, and a speech from Ozpin to welcome everyone - both those there in person and those watching on the TV - to the Vytal Tournament in Amity Colosseum above Vale.
For Rosa and her squad though, worry was settling into their minds.
Rosa had decided to tell the others what happened to Pyrrha, about the Maidens.
"I think that Amber was the attraction that whoever is behind the attacks is after. She likely wants the powers, likely, she's Amber's assailant too. With that now being a bust for her, we have one less place to be overly protective of," Rosa outlines.
"Pyrrha hasn't been fully lucid since you two got back. That isn't good," Jaune points out, distress evident in his tone.
"I'm fine," Pyrrha insists. "It's just... disorientating. Everything that Amber went through, I have the memories of. Her muscle memory is starting to set in and it's confusing me every time I go to do something. It's a bit hard trying to separate what is my life and what is her's."
"Can we just talk about that for a moment?" Weiss asks. "I think it goes without saying that no matter what you worship or believe in, that sort of... manipulation of aura, our souls, is so, so, so very wrong. How could anyone agree to create a machine like that to begin with, let alone use it?"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Ren mumbles. "It probably started out innocent, and then a challenge to see what they could do. They were probably just as horrified as we are when they realised that it wasn't just theoretical, but would actually work. Then, the saying takes hold. Desperate times call for desperate measures."
Pyrrha shakes her head. "I agreed to this because it will help the people of the world. The thought of merging my soul with someone else's is still so abhorrent to me, but the thought that someone else who would use this power to harm others getting the powers is even more abhorrent."
"You're still the Pyrrha we know though, right? Not some weird mix of Pyrrha and Amber?" Jaune desperately asked.
"I think so," Pyrrha mumbles. "I think, I think my personality might change, and my body language might not be exactly the same, but I'm still me. Wouldn't I know by now if I'm not?"
Yang stands up and puts her good arm around the girl. "You're a part of our squad, that means we look out for each other through thick and thin. When we learnt about Rosa being Ruby, we stuck with her through that until she figured out how she wanted to move forward. When Jaune came forward about having lied his way in here, we stuck with him and helped train him to become better. We've stuck with Weiss as she tries to rewire herself to not blindly follow the ingrained racism. We've stuck with Blake despite her past with a terrorist organisation that has gotten all of us in trouble in some form or another. We've stuck by Ren and Nora as they figured out their feelings for each other. You've all stuck by me when I needed it most after seeing my dad. The point I'm trying to make here is that we help each other, all the time. So this isn't new, not really. We're just sticking with you, helping you, as you move forward."
"A speech worthy of a team leader," Rosa jokes.
"Shut up, Ru!"
"Thank you," Pyrrha tells them. "I really have been blessed by the best team and squad I could ever ask for."
They had made their plans, told Team SSSN and Team CFVY about the tip off and to keep their guards up. Spread the word only to those who could be trusted, no teachers, and make no mention of where it came from.
The opening ceremony is their most vulnerable time. Anything could happen down in the city below them and they wouldn't be able to get there fast enough with everyone at the ceremony.
Eventually, the ceremony finishes, and the teams disperse. Rosa watches it happen. She can tell who knows what is coming from those who don't. The ones who know are either grinning with a strained smile, or their faces are sombre and twisted with worry. The ones who know are shifting their feet, clenching their hands into fists and hastily unclenching them again, eyes flicking around trying to spot any signs of an attack. The ones who know are not truly celebrating with the world, they are waiting... waiting for the moment that they need to rise to the occasion. She feels a flicker of pity pass through her. These are children, preparing to fight to protect the world. Sure, she's younger than all of them, but she had always been more mature, more ready, than any of her peers. She doesn't feel like a child.
The first few fights come and go without drama, and the squad watches from their dorm.
Finally, it is Rosa and Blake's turn.
"Welcome back, to the Vytal Tournament!" Port's voice reverberates throughout the stadium. "This match is going to be a very interesting one. From Mistral's Haven Academy, we have Team ABRN! Arslan Altan, Bolin Hori, Reese Chloris, and Nadir Shiko. Now, Barty here is going to introduce the combatants from Beacon."
"Yes indeed. Now, so far in this tournament, this round has been all four on four matches, however this will be different. The reasoning for this is that Team RWBY of Beacon is down two members due to training mission related injuries. As such, their team leader, Rosa Calavera, and her partner, Blake Belladonna, are the pair that will be representing their team both in this round and, should they get there, the doubles round. They have both agreed to go into this unequal match, but, having seen them in action myself, I have no doubts in their capabilities. Rather, if I was a betting man, I'd be betting on these two girls," Doctor Oobleck explains at his usual fast pace.
Rosa looks over at their opponents, and note with satisfaction that they aren't backing down, but they aren't getting cocky either.
"Time to randomise the field," Port says with glee. A few seconds pass as an ice field and a fire field are brought to the surface. As Port counts down, Rosa and Blake ready themselves; Blake in a braced position and Rosa standing almost cockily. Their opponents ready themselves to charge them, and when Port gives the word, they do.
They reach Blake first, and are taken off guard when they hit her shadow clone. Rosa lets out a short laugh as they fumble over each other.
"You're going to have to try a lot harder than that," she mocks, drawing one of her swords before using her semblance to levitate it in front of her. She smirks before jumping up onto it. "Good luck," she says before flying away from them.
Arslan goes after her while the others spread out to find and take on Blake.
Despite using her rope dart to grab onto Rosa's sword, Arslan finds that she simply can't hold her ground and keep the younger girl in a good position to fight. Her feet skid, which is only worsened by the ice underfoot. She's not expecting her rope dart to come loose without warning, leaving her hurtling across the ice. She tries to redirect herself, but she can't. She's saved from hitting headfirst into the ice, not by any of her teammates, but by a dagger that whizzes past her on an impossible angle and catches on her clothing, sending her toppling backwards. The blow hurts, but as Rosa calmly walks into her line of sight, she realises that she hasn't got many options to defend herself. She sends out a kick, but Rosa diverts it with her sword.
Calmly, the young faunus pulls out a few more daggers, and flicks them downwards, pinning Arslan to the ground by her clothes. From there, Rosa uses her dual swords to shred Arslan's aura. A buzzer goes off when her aura reaches the red, and Rosa shrugs, jumping back onto her sword, sheathing the other.
From there, the girl in dark blue returns to her hunt
Blake, on the other hand, is fighting the other three members of ABRN. She's managing on her own, but is wearing down. Rosa rockets through, grabbing one boy with each hand and hauling them out of the ice field and into the strange volcanic-rock-like field. Both have dropped their weapons in the short trip, and once released from her hold, they both sprint towards their weapons. Rosa lets them, and the two boys glance at each other once they have their weapons back. She figures that they've decided to take her on together, as Bolin rushes towards her and Nadir shoots at her.
She drops from the sword she was riding on, one hand clasping the hilt as she falls, and the other hand unsheathing her other sword. She blocks Bolin's staff with one sword, and uses the hilt of the other to knock him over the head, dazing him. She lets go of her swords - letting them float in the air - and grabs the still dazed boy and throws him into the path of the bullets, successfully avoiding damage. She grabs hold of her swords again and sprints towards the two boys who are untangling themselves from each other.
A buzzer rings out and all three look towards the ice field where Blake has taken out Reese.
"Want some help?" the cat faunus asks.
"Sure," Rosa laughs.
The two boys gulp.
Needless to say, they don't last very long. With Blake's ribbon wrapping around them and keeping them from retreating, they are helpless to Rosa's onslaught of blows.
A final buzzer is sounded as the two boys' auras drop down to the red.
"And Team RWBY win the match!" Port announces.
"That... wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I guess stopping grimm invasions is good practice at avoiding being overwhelmed," Blake jokes. Rosa snorts.
"Amen to that."
Arslan walks over to them. "Good fight, you two. Make sure you get to the finals for us, okay?"
Rosa nods and Blake speaks. "Of course."
JNPR has their match thirty minutes later - just long enough for the battleground to be repaired and reset (which takes a lot longer than just raising up the terrains before each battle).
It's a messy battle, in which Jaune has a lapse in situational awareness and Rosa (from her place watching in the audience) makes a note to have them work on their team attacks more and give Jaune more chances to exercise his leadership skills. The battle ends with Nora (still charged up with lightning) using her hammer to smash the other team out of the ring, subsequently smashing through their aura.
The group goes back to their dorm to plan out how they would approach what comes next.
"Obviously, Rosa and I are going to the doubles round for Team RWBY, but who's going for JNPR?" Blake asks.
Jaune, Ren and Nora exchange glances before looking over at Pyrrha, who is rubbing her temples.
"I'm fine, just a headache," the redhead assures them.
"Riiight," Jaune responds. "Anyways, it goes without much hurrah that I'm not moving through. I'm the weakest fighter of the team."
"And apart from Pyrrha, Nora is the strongest of your team," Weiss points out. "So it becomes a question of who goes with Nora because, no offence Pyrrha, but you've been rather out of it since you took on those powers."
"No offence taken." Pyrrha wearily smiles. "We don't have to decide straight away though. If I don't start feeling better in a few days, Ren can go through to the double round with Nora. If I do start feeling better, I'm more than happy to continue representing Team JNPR."
Rosa sighs. "Why don't you take a nap, Pyrrha? Might help your headache."
"Yeah, that sounds nice."
That night, Rosa was woken up by the sound of retching. The door to the bathroom was open a smidge and the light was on. Slowly, Rosa went to the door and peeked in. There, Pyrrha sat limp on the ground, head resting on the white porcelain of the toilet for a moment before leaning forward to vomit again.
Rosa moves forward and sits next to her squadmate.
She pulls the girl's hair back out of her face and places a hand against her forehead, testing her temperature.
"You've got a fever. No wonder you've been so out of it. How long has this been going on?" Rosa absently muses.
Pyrrha coughs out a little more vomit before she answers. "Since I got the powers. This is the first time I've actually vomited though. My semblance has been a bit wonky the past few days."
Rosa's eyes narrow. "It's probably related to Amber's aura merging with yours, then."
"Probably," Pyrrha grinds out before she sticks her head back into the toilet bowl to vomit again. Rosa rubs her back and uses her semblance to turn a tap on and wet a washcloth with cold water. The younger girl places the cloth on the back of Pyrrha's neck, out of the way of the vomit and still effective in cooling her down.
The two sit there on the bathroom floor for the rest of the night, Rosa rewetting the cloth in an attempt to cool down her feverish squadmate as she continues puking her guts out. She manages to coax Pyrrha to drink some water, and even eat a few saltine crackers, which stay down for about half an hour before Pyrrha is back to throwing up.
Morning comes and the rest of their squad lingers at the entrance to the bathroom, watching on. Jaune eventually moves forward and takes over holding back his partner's hair and wetting the cloth to keep her cool. Rosa stumbles out, bleary-eyed and exhausted.
"What happened?" Nora asks.
"She's been throwing up since roughly just before midnight. I don't think she can fight in the doubles round," Rosa explains. "She's been practically dry heaving for an hour. Under normal circumstances, I'd say we should take her to the medical wing, but from what she told me, she's been feeling sick since she got the new powers. I don't think the doctors in the med wing have much to fix that. Regardless, if she hasn't improved by this afternoon and she hasn't been able to keep anything down, we'll take her to the med wing anyway. If nothing else, they should have something to help with the lack of nutrients."
"Guys, she just passed out," Jaune calls out from the bathroom.
"Shit," Rosa curses, going back to the sick girl's side. She checks pulse and breathing and finds that both are slightly faster than they should be. She rolls the redhead onto her side and then sits on her own haunches. "I think it's just exhaustion and her body trying to adapt, but I'm not qualified for this. I only know basic first aid."
Ren checks Pyrrha's pulse and breathing as well, then her temperature. "Her temperature is quite high, we may want to look into putting her in an ice bath," he suggests.
"Jaune and I can go get some ice," Nora offers.
Jaune nods in agreement. "We'll get changed real quick and go do that."
The two leave and the rest sit in tense silence.
"Yang, why don't we go to the medical wing and see if a nurse can come check on Pyrrha? I think we'd all be more comfortable with a professional giving us our cues," Blake suggests.
"Yeah. Let's get dressed and go do that," the blonde agrees. The two leave and leave Ren, Weiss and Rosa to take care of Pyrrha in the meantime.
"I'm going to start drawing a bath while we wait for the ice," Weiss says after a minute of sitting in the tense silence.
The minutes continue to pass, and Nora and Jaune return with the ice. After emptying the three bags of ice into the bathtub, Rosa uses her semblance to lift Pyrrha up and then slowly lower her into the cold water. Almost immediately, she starts shivering. Jaune takes up stroking her hair to try and comfort her.
Ten minutes later, Yang and Blake return with a nurse.
The nurse checks Pyrrha over and after a tense few minutes tells them his verdict.
"I've just paged the med wing to bring over a stretcher to transport her to the medical wing. She needs to be monitored and get some nutrients in her. I think it's rather redundant to say, but even if she does bounce back from this quickly, she is in no state to fight in the rest of the tournament. Now, how long was she vomiting for and did she manage to keep anything down?"
Rosa tells him the answers to anything he asks, and less than ten minutes later, two more orderlies arrive with a stretcher and they take her away to the medical wing.
"Do you think she'll be okay?" Nora asks when the door closes.
"She's not going to let something like this hold her back," Weiss retorts weakly, "and we'll be there to help her every step of the way."
It's an hour later when they hear a knock on the door. Yang goes to answer it and sees a Weiss look-a-like.
"Ummm?"
"Winter!" Weiss exclaims, jumping up from where she was sitting on her bed amidst study materials. "I didn't know you were coming!"
"I somewhat expected you to see my ship landing yesterday and come to greet me. I was just getting used to the idea that I wouldn't be able to see you during my short stay in Vale when Mr Branwen told me he knew where to find you," the woman explains before casting a slight glare at Qrow, who is standing just off to the side of her. "I'll admit I was worried that he knew anything about where to find you, and the idea that he was some sort of... pervert... crossed my mind."
"Really, Ice Queen? Me? A pervert? On girls young enough to be my own kid? That's disgusting. I'm not in the 'flirting' business anymore, and even if I were, I'd keep to my own age bracket," Qrow groans.
"Our association has been rather brief, how am I to know your, romantic leanings," the woman - Winter - sighs. "Regardless, he explained that his nieces are on the same team as you, thus he led me here to see you. For which, I am... grateful."
"Yeah, yeah," Qrow mocks.
"Is Uncle Qrow annoying you?" Yang asks with a raised eyebrow.
Winter sighs again. "He could be worse. At least he isn't a drunkard."
Yang takes that to be a 'yes' and drags her uncle - by his ear - away from the dorm. "Uncle Qrow and I are just going to catch up! We'll see you later! Bye!" she calls out as she walks away, a squirming Qrow in her grasp.
Inside the dorm room, the remaining squad members have to give the sight a fond smile.
"How are you, Weiss?" Winter asks.
"I'm... I could be doing better, Win," Weiss sighs.
"How so?"
"My first ever mission and I get my arm impaled by a Taijitu. Now one of my squad mates is really sick and has been taken to med wing. It is all just... draining," Weiss explains.
"Please tell me you have been eating properly. What hobbies have you taken up? Have you made any friends?" Winter gently questions.
Rosa smiles. That's an overprotective sibling if she's ever seen one... likely what she sounds like to Oscar too.
"Well, I have my whole squad as friends. Team SSSN is... interesting, they tag along with us sometimes, but it's usually just Sun and Neptune. Team CFVY are the year above us, but they seem pretty cool. I've taken to looking into criminology a bit, I guess you could say that's a hobby. And yes, I have been eating properly. Pyrrha and Rosa make sure of that," Weiss rambles off.
"Well, I wish Pyrrha would practice what she preaches, because I would not be surprised if part of the reason she's so sick is because she hasn't been eating enough of the right stuff," Rosa mutters.
"You must be Rosa Calavera. I thank you for your support of my sister. She's written to me about you and the rest of your squad, and I must say I'm impressed at your leadership capabilities at such a young age," Winter tells the young faunus.
"I'll admit I wasn't thrilled to have a Schnee on my team and squad to begin with. But I've gotten to know Weiss since then, and she's made a lot of realisations regarding how she looks at faunus. We've been through a mission gone wrong where we thought we were going to die, and we're still here. You don't go through all of that and not end up getting along. Now, I can't imagine having anyone else take her place on Team RWBY or Squad RRAYNNBW," Rosa tells the woman.
"Then that just shows your maturity. I wish that more people showed it at your age," Winter praises. "Now, I must be off. I have to report to General Ironwood. Oh, and Weiss, do remember to practice your summoning." With that, she exits the room.
"Does anyone else feel really... simple-minded after that?" Nora asks.
The rest of the team on team round passes within a few days, and Pyrrha is still recovering from her fever. She's getting better, but she isn't all the way better either. Recovered enough that she's no longer confined to the med bay, but still confined to bed rest in the dorm.
The next week is spent with the doubles round taking place.
The tension amongst the students is almost palpable. More and more are training any chance they can get, and the student seats in the arena are almost always more than half empty. They're all gearing up to stop a grimm invasion.
For the Beacon students, this is their Kingdom, their school. Nothing is going to get the better of them. For the exchange students, this is the Kingdom that has sheltered them for nearly six months, this is the school that has taught them, fed them, given them direction for nearly six months. Nothing is going to stop them from helping in the only way they know how. For the first years, this is where they set out on their first mission. None of them are going to let anything come between them and the rest of their career. All of them, ready to fight against an invasion, none of them even considering backing down.
Then, the final round, the singles, come around.
"And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! The one on one finals!" Port announces.
Rosa and Nora stand next to each other down on the arena floor, ready for their fights.
Randomisation is put into play.
Nora Valkyrie
Mercury Black
"Good luck," Rosa whispers as she leaves Nora on the stage for her fight.
Watching from the sidelines, Rosa can't help but note that the two are matched.
Mercury needs to get in close to make his best hits, but Nora can keep him in her preferred range.
In the end, it's no surprise to Rosa that Nora wins. What happens next though, is.
A sickening crack as Nora swings her hammer straight into Mercury's legs.
He collapses, cradling his injured legs and Nora... sweet, bubbly Nora looks around in shock at the outcry of the audience.
She looks up at the camera where what she had done replays. Realisation hits her, and she drops her weapon, tears bubbling at the edges of her eyes.
"I'm so sorry," she brokenly says. That's when Rosa knows that this is how the invasion will start.
It doesn't surprise any of them when Ironwood says that Team JNPR has been disqualified. After the man has left, Rosa warns them that this is only the start. The world is at breaking point. Just one more incident is all it will take for the grimm to attack.
The next night, Rosa goes to the colosseum alone. She knows that Oscar is in the audience, and that her squad is watching from the dorm, but she walks onto that stage, alone.
Her name is chosen.
Then Penny's.
"Sal-u-tations, Rosa! I'm combat ready for our match," the ginger girl cheerfully tells her.
Somehow, Rosa manages to smile. "Don't hold back just because I'm Oscar's sister, okay? Wouldn't want to deny him a show, now would we?"
Penny beams back. "Of course not!"
The countdown to begin takes place, and Rosa knows that what she's seeing is being faked. There is no way Penny has that many swords. So, she grabs them with her semblance. She holds them still even as Penny yanks on the strings that she uses to control them. She has to keep hold of them, it is the only way for her to know that there are only ten swords, not the hundreds that her eyes tell her there are.
The ends of the swords shift, and Rosa is staring down the barrel of ten lasers, and in her haste to dodge, she lets go of them.
Rosa goes sprawling and watches in horror as the swords fly backwards, wire strings wrapping tightly, too tightly around their owner. Then... she watches helplessly, the swords and their strings just a metre outside of her semblance's reach, as they cut Penny to pieces, revealing a metal skeleton and wiring underneath.
She can hear the words of a woman talking, but in her shock, she has eyes only for the girl she's just ripped to pieces. When the woman is done, Rosa gets up and softly closes Penny's artificial eyelids before standing up straight.
"Students of the academies! Most of you have heard the rumours! Most of you have been training, preparing, gearing up to defend this world should the rumours prove true! The time to defend Vale is now! Let us show the grimm that WE! ARE! HUNTERS! And they will never win!" she yells. She can hear the Nevermore above her trying to break in, and she just picks up her swords, and watches it with cold dispassion.
Around her, her fellow students are either jumping over the barrier to join her, or they are running to guide the civilians out of the colosseum. The rest of the world… is chaos.
This... this is the breaking point.
A/N: Welcome back to another chapter, applogies for the sort-of cliff hanger, not really they only get worse from here. And yes, I did kill off Penny at Rosa's hands, and I had it be Nora instead of Yang who fights Mercury, things add up differently. I don't really have much else to say this week (other than that it has been a hectic one for me between uni starting back up, my brother getting tested for covid, and going for a job interview) so... leave a review telling me your thoughts, or if you want/need someone to talk to, send a PM my way and I'll get back to you ASAP. Otherwise, I'll see you next week with another chapter.
- RebeccaMagic9