I don't own anything from RWBY, that honor belongs to the fine people at Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 3: Clear as Ice
After overhearing the young forger's impassioned speech about missing someone to the gravestone of her mother, Weiss couldn't help but scoff at the young girl. Speaking of your sorrows to a gravestone? What would that accomplish?
Not that it mattered to Weiss, after all she was interested in the girl's eyes, which would be of extreme importance to her mistress. The vampire she turned would be of importance to her later, but right now the silver eyed girl was far more important than any foolish vampire who was reluctant to even drink blood. For what purpose she didn't know but that was unimportant to her. All that mattered was pleasing her mistress.
And she would gladly do it.
As Pyrrha watched the beautiful sun begin to set out in the horizon she looked onwards towards her bed, finding Jaune still sleeping peacefully and snoring. It seemed the vampire was quite the heavy sleeper, but she didn't blame him, given the day they all had yesterday.
But Pyrrha knew her quest had only just begun as almost immediately she was tasked with hunting down Miss Schnee and figuring out her intentions, which to Pyrrha was clear as day, she wanted to kill Pyrrha and Ruby; to kidnap Jaune. But for some reason Ozpin believed that there was something going on beyond the surface level and she knew that for all his eccentric quirks, being able to see through people was one of Ozpin's best. Hence, she trusted his judgement enough to grant Weiss a fair chance at explaining herself, but if she put any more of her friends at harm, then all restraint would be thrown out the window.
When she checked the time, she found her scroll had a message on it from Ruby. Upon checking it, Pyrrha found out that Ruby had gone out into the forest on her own which normally wouldn't have made Pyrrha so worried but given the recent events, she sincerely hoped for Ruby's sake that she would be a little more careful today.
Heading out of her house, Pyrrha made her way over to Ruby's forge and sure enough, she found Milo and Akouo on one of the workbench with a shiny gold sheen and several clips of silver bullets, just as she had asked Ruby. Upon inspecting the weapon, she wondered about what other modifications Ruby had in mind for her weapon. Given Ruby's natural expertise, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that she had some more than creative ideas for what she could do with the weapon.
After leaving the forge with her weapons, Pyrrha quickly headed back to her house to check on Jaune. She was after all planning on training him with some practice weapons she used to spar with some friends but she was surprised to find that Jaune himself had come and given his panting state, he was probably out of breath.
"Jaune? What happened?" Pyrrha asked, concerned as to why Jaune left the safety of Pyrrha's home.
"Huff huff Today's going to be a blood moon." Jaune replied, out of breath.
Pyrrha's eyes went wide as she realized that Ruby decided to 'go out for a walk' was the same night that vampires and werewolves were at peak levels of aggression, meaning it was completely unsafe for anyone to be out in the forest. This was no time for a walk alone.
"I need to get to the forest right now. Ruby's not safe." Pyrrha replied, placing her shield behind her back and putting her sword in her holster, getting ready to move out into the forest.
"Wait, I'm coming too." Jaune replied, surprising Pyrrha.
"Jaune, the blood moon will affect you too, in fact you need to head to a bloodmancer right now, before the moon takes its hold on you." Pyrrha responded as she realized that Jaune could be a major threat to her if he came along without any treatment.
"Alright I'll do it, but I am coming with you. I'm not going to sit back and watch as you end up heading into a forest filled with Grimm, werewolves, vampires and god knows what eldritch beasts. Please, let me help." Jaune begged, hoping Pyrrha would give him a chance.
"Alright but after we head to Ren and Nora since they're probably the only two in Vale who would be willing to help you out." Pyrrha replied as she began to move towards Ren and Nora's home hoping she wouldn't be too much of a bother.
Luckily for Jaune, today was a much better day to meet with Ren and Nora as Nora had recovered enough to at least start walking with a cast on her leg and a crutch.
"Hey Jaune and Pyrrha! How are you all doing?" Nora asked, her injury not stopping her cheeriness one bit.
"Hello Nora! Are you doing better?" Pyrrha asked, her tone as polite as ever.
"Yeah! Ren's been incredibly supportive. He thinks I might be able to start walking in about a week due to my aura. I can't wait to get back into the swing of hunting things!" Nora replied with a bright smile on her face.
"What brings you to our house?" Nora asked, curious as to why Pyrrha and Jaune had chosen to come to their house.
"Uhm, there's a blood moon? Pyrrha said a bloodmancer might be able to help me out with making sure I don't start biting anyone's necks." Jaune replied, with a faint smile.
"I see, I'll call Ren over and see what we can do for you. Don't worry Jaune, Ren knows a lot about blood magic. I'm pretty sure if he wanted to, he could probably… ah he's the expert, I'm the Stormcaller after all!" Nora replied, before attempting to hastily move but nearly tripping.
"Careful Nora, I'm pretty sure Ren doesn't want you to put yourself in further harm." Pyrrha said, helping Nora recover her balance and after making sure she was safe.
"Thanks, Pyrrha!" Nora said in gratitude and signaling to Jaune to follow her.
Following Nora led them to inner chambers of the house where Ren was intently working with blood on some altar.
"Rennn! We have guests!" Nora exclaimed, slamming the door open, making Ren nearly drop a vial of blood.
"Nora! I thought I told you to knock." Ren said, his tone not scolding but more playfully amused.
"Aww but where's the fun in that?" Nora replied cheerily, before quickly heading down to give him a quick peck on his cheek.
"Who are the guests?" Ren asked, giving a smile to Nora.
"Jaune and Pyrrha! They said they needed some help with tonight's blood moon." Nora replied.
Ren's eyes filled with worry as he looked up to the stairs and thankfully saw both Jaune and Pyrrha waiting politely at the doorway.
"Thank the Brothers you arrived. I was going to look for you too after I was done with this ritual." Ren said as he gestured for the 2 to enter the chamber.
"You know Ren, I didn't expect you to have such an… inviting place for a ritual chamber." Jaune replied, as he came down the stairs.
"You need to put this necklace on right now, Jaune. It'll help you out with controlling your bloodlust during the blood moon." Ren said, as he opened one of the cases containing a necklace with a red gem in it. "Also, worth keeping in mind, is if you end up sucking the blood out of a living creature, we won't be able to turn you back any longer. So, try to maintain as much control as you possibly can. I'll get you some blood bags to make sure you won't need to drink any blood."
"Thanks Ren. Anything else I should keep in mind?" Jaune asked, as he accepted the necklace on his neck.
"Not much really, just make sure that necklace doesn't break and make sure you don't need to drink any blood this moon." Ren replied as he went over to his wife, to make sure she was comfortable sitting down near the altar.
"What are you working on Ren?" Pyrrha asked, curious as to what had been keeping Ren so busy.
"He's been working on a cure for Vampiric Bloodlust!" Nora replied, answering for her husband.
"Well it's not really a cure, it's just something that can help out for when Vampires end up losing their minds, the necklace I'm giving you Jaune, is a little more experimental, hence the blood bags." Ren replied, further clarifying on the matter.
"Wait, wait experimental? Are you sure this one works?!" Jaune asked, a little concerned as to the thing that was now hanging around his neck.
"The necklace I've given you can break, the orbs I'm working on don't have that problem. Figuring out how to stabilize these blood orbs has been the real challenge. Hence, the necklace is experimental." Ren explained, reassuring Jaune a little about today.
"Thank you, Ren what can we do to repay you?" Pyrrha asked with a smile.
"Just come back home safe and sound. And good luck on your mission." Ren replied, surprising both Pyrrha and Jaune with his foresight.
"Are we going to talk about the fact that- "Jaune began as both her and Pyrrha headed over to Ruby's forge to find a weapon for Jaune.
"Yeah, Ren tends to have surprisingly good hindsight, but I just wanted to make sure if you were ready for this."
"Of course, I'm ready!"
"Jaune, this isn't just some normal hunt in the forest. When we go out today, we will be expecting vampires, werewolves and hundreds other beasts along with the Grimm." Pyrrha said, her tone no longer calm and quiet, but stern and serious.
This time there is no escape. When we find those things, we will have to fight them. I just don't want to see you get hurt anymore. Not after what all you've been going through on your own."she continued, concern seeping into her voice for Jaune.
"I know you don't want to see anyone get hurt. That's why you're going after Ruby. But you also need to think a little bit about yourself. What happens if you are the one who ends up getting swarmed? What if you are the one who needs help?" Jaune asked.
"I asked to become a Huntress. I knew the risks with this job. You still haven't. So please, think about this before you make a decision." Pyrrha replied.
"I already have. My entire family is made of Huntsman and Huntresses. They all have known the risks to their job. And I do too. So please, let me help." Jaune answered back, finally giving Pyrrha some piece of mind as she now had a vampire on her side. An incredibly physically inept vampire yes, but a vampire, nonetheless.
"Okay, first thing we need to do then is to get you a weapon. Along the way I'll train you in some basic swordsmanship because even though I know you want to help; I wouldn't want you to miss a vital swing or two."
"Vital swing?"
"Exactly what I mean. Don't worry when we head into the forest, I'll train you but right now we need to find you a weapon."
"So, we're in Ruby's forge to find a weapon?"
"Well, I can't have you going into the forest without a proper weapon and I'm pretty sure Ruby won't mind if we borrow one of her weapons." Pyrrha replied, with a coy smile as they entered the forge. "So, tell me Jaune, what's your type?"
"Uhhhhhmm girls?" Jaune replied, a blush somehow coming onto his pale face.
"What?! No! I meant what type of weapon do you prefer if you have a preference?" Pyrrha replied, a tiny blush coming on her face.
"Ohhhhh… well I think a sword and shield would be good." Jaune replied, covering his face in embarrassment.
"Alright then, let's take a look at Ruby's stash." Pyrrha replied, as she looked onward to the pile of weapons laying haphazardly in a corner. "There's about five different sets of swords and shields."
"How did she even get these weapons?! There's a polearm, a battleaxe, shortswords and god knows what other weapons." Jaune replied, shocked at the copious amounts of weapons.
"Oh, this is only the first stash, I think Ruby's got two more with some of them containing magical weapons and others having ridiculous attachments." Pyrrha replied casually.
"What has that girl been doing with her time?!"
"Either tinkering with her weapons or working on broken weapons to fix them or just taking apart and putting together weapons found on adventures her family undertakes. Otherwise, she's training to become a huntress. In fact, I would say she's in her last year."
"That's impressive." Jaune mused, in awe of Ruby's diligence.
"Indeed, but let's get you a weapon first. You said you wanted a sword and shield, right?" Pyrrha asked, using her semblance to take out some weapons and hold them in front of Jaune.
"Yeah."
"Well then, here's three from this stash." Pyrrha said, as she brought up a curved shortsword with a circular shield, a longsword with a rectangular shield and the weapon Jaune used the night of the attack.
"Wait, the third one looks familiar." Jaune said, as he pondered over why it felt like he knew the weapon.
"Take a look at it then." Pyrrha said, as she set the sword down in Jaune's hands.
Jaune's hands ran over the blade as he tried to get a feel of the weapon and as he gripped the sword by it's guard, he finally recognized it.
"This is an old heirloom of my family. It went missing generations ago when my grandfather tried to hunt down a lich."
"Ruby told me she found it from one of her father's adventures. It must have been a recovery mission against a dead lich."
"How strange is it that after all those years of searching, I manage to find something priceless to my family in the most ordinary of places." Jaune said with a smile, as his hands more comfortably rested on the guard of his heirloom.
"Fate brings us together in strange ways Jaune. But it is what we do with the fate that we are given, which tells us who we really are." Pyrrha replied, with a reassuring glance at the huntsman to be who now beamed at her with confidence.
"Well then, let's make the best of our fate." Jaune said, as he triumphantly displayed his weapons, ready to make mincemeat of the monsters that dared to attack him and Pyrrha.
A/N: I'm back! My exams are over for now but I do have to announce that I won't be sticking to a consistent schedule. I find that the stress of having to upload on a weekly basis may become far too much for me to handle, as such I'll mostly be sticking to releasing chapters whenever I feel they are ready. But as always I hope you enjoy this chapter and leave a review if you have anything you want me to improve in this story.
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