RWBY: Kindred Spirits

Chapter 10: Legend

Hey there, hope you're doing fine. This chapter is one that I've been thinking about a lot lately. Some things that happen here might be a bit too early, but I feel that the story would grow stale otherwise. Up until now, the story has mostly just followed the scenes of RWBY the series, and it will properly continue to do so. The reason for this is that I don't want to change the characters all that much because Ruby is still the main character, but so is Vermont in a sense. Vermont right now might seem kind of boring, but I promise you that he will undergo quite the development. Currently, he only has two problems; what does Blake know about him, and what does Ozpin want with him. These simple questions will carve at his space in the world of remnant, and I'm excited to go on this journey. This is also chapter 10, our first milestone. Not a big one, but we have many more to come! Now, I hope you enjoy this chapter of the story.

The elevator was silent. Vermont stared at the door, waiting for it to open upon his arrival at the last floor. He had been called for. Personally asked to see Ozpin by Professor Port. The rest of his team were in combat class, properly watching some students fight each other. As awaited, the elevator came to a stop. The two metal slaps split apart and revealed a magnificent office. The floor was so polished that it vaguely mirrored the room itself, and on the ceiling were cogs, spinning, turning and moving in a fantastic display of clockwork. In the other end of the office was a desk. And on the chair behind it sat Ozpin himself. He had a cup of coffee in hand, and his cane at his side.

"Come closer, Mr Scale." Vermont obliged and walked up to the headmaster. "Tell me Vermont, do you believe in fairytales?"

"I don't know. I think they are half-truths. Legends morphed by men and retold to children."

"Very well. Then let me tell you a story or at least the beginning of one." Ozpin sipped his coffee before gesturing to the chair in front of Vermont. Vermont sat down and looked back at the man in both confusion and curiosity.

"Listen well Vermont. There once was a man that many looked up to. He had a wife, a home and many riches, for he was an important man. He fought to bring unity to the world.
But he was not a kind man. He would use violence and force to achieve peace. His wife observed this and feared. Not for her own life, but for the child which she carried. On the day of the birth, she fled. She hid the newborn child in the hands of her enemies, and yet also her friends.
When the man found out about this, he tracked down his wife. They met at the top of a waterfall in the middle of the night. When the man saw his wife he had but one question.
"Why would you forsake the one you love, take away his prince, his pride, and leave him hollow? Why when our cause calls for us, would you turn your back on all you are?" And she answered him. "Our cause was lost long ago, I've taken away all I have to lose. I have saved an innocent child from the horrors of the world. I am stronger than you. Fore you fight against the agony of eternal sleep, by bringing it onto others. You are no more man then the beast you slaughter. If you are to wield death, then you are to accept it. That is what I have done this day. Now I shall have peace, for I am no longer needed." Then the man's wife threw herself down the waterfall, where she drowned in the deepest and most silent depths. She did not scream, nor did she squirm, for she knew that her soul was not lost. Death was her end, but not the end of her impact." Ozpin stood up from his chair and turned around to face the wall of windows behind him. Vermont stared at the desk in front of him, lost in his own mind.

"Why did you tell me that story?" He asked.

"Soon you will know. For now, just remember it. Our time here on remnant is not endless, neither is our impact. But I'd say that that is the reason why we are beautiful. Have you ever looked at a flower and questioned its beauty, Vermont. Because if you haven't, you really should do it." The headmaster was apparently the philosophical type.

"I don't think, I understand sir," Vermont stated.

"You are not yet supposed to. By the way, keep this conversation between us." Ozpin said as he turned back to face the faunus in his office.

"Why?" Vermont questioned.

"Because you were taken away from class to hear a fairytale. Just tell the other students that there were some problems with your integration into Team RWBY that we had to take care of."

"Oh. I will sir."

"You are dismissed."

"So... there we were..." Nore was telling some overly dramatic story while everyone was gathered in the cantine of the academy. Team JNPR on one side of the table, and Team RWBY on the other. Vermont was sitting on the end of the table, next to Ruby, and in front of Ruby sat Jaune.
Jaune was the cause of a noticeable negative stream of aura in the room, another was the bunny faunus that felt lonely. She was silently waiting at a table alone.
Vermont wasn't very invested in the tale Nora was telling, for he was pondering the things Ozpin had said. Why did he tell him a fairytale about death, and why did he talk about the beauty of flowers. Deciding to let the pondering stop, Vermont looked to his left towards his friends and teammates.

"Jaune," Pyrrha moved to face him more, catching the attention of everyone else. "Are you okay?" Jaune was staring at his food, and poking at it with his fork.

"Huh?" He put down the fork and returned to reality. "Oh, yeah, of course." He answered weakly. It was obvious to all, even without his aural connection, Vermont could tell that Jaune was not fully okay.

"It's just that you seem a little... not okay," Ruby said to him with a small frown on her face. She was worried.

"Eh, guys I'm fine... Seriously look!" Jaune then put on a fake smile and a half-assed thumps up. He wasn't fine.

"You know I can sense everyone's emotions using aura right?" Vermont said to him, forgetting that he never even told Team JNPR that he had said ability, how do you even forget something as important as that? He had informed his Teammates one day when they were talking about semblances. Vermont told them of his lack of a semblance, but also of his aural connection. But since Team JNPR didn't know that they were quite a bit shocked.

"No..." Jaune answered. "Was I supposed to know?" Vermont didn't respond. A change had happened in the stream of aura that belonged to the bunny faunus nearby. She was even sadder now, also embarrassed. When he turned to look, he spotted Cardin and his team of douchebags mocking her for her faunus traits. Vermont was filled with rage. Racism against the faunus truly did occur everywhere. He himself had also experienced some insults himself, but it was never as bad as his old combat school.

"Jaune, Cardin has been picking on you since the first week of school." Pyrrha was still focused on the whole situation with Jaune, but Vermont kept staring in anger at Cardin's discrimination.

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah... He just likes to mess around, you know? Practical jokes." Jaune was not a very good liar.

"He's a bully," Ruby stated coldly.

"Oh please. Name one time he's "bullied" me." Jaune was still trying to keep the facade up, but Vermont just grew more hateful towards Cardin, watching as he mocked an innocent faunus girl. The whole gang started listing times that Cardin had bullied Jaune. Stuff like "How about that time when you just straight up stole your lunch?" or "How about when he activated your shield in order to get you stuck in the doorframe?" and many other examples. There was also the time when Cardin launched Jaune away in one of the rocket-powered lockers, to which his only response was:

"I didn't land far from the school." Delivered with a shrug and a fake smile.

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help you can just ask," Pyrrha reassured him. Nora then shot up from her seat, sensing an opportunity to inflict horrible, horrible pain on someone who deserved it.

"Ohh!" She yelped. "We'll break his legs!" Her voice was sinister and dark. But then Jaune stood up. His aura did something interesting at that moment. Something only Vermont noticed. There was a hint of doubt. He then spoke.

"Guys really it's fine." His voice was uncertain. "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone." Vermont's fennec ears shot up. He sensed a spike of pain, sorrow and embarrassment in the aura streams, and he heard the voice of the source.

"Oww! That hurts!" It was the bunny faunus. Cardin had crossed the line. When she was getting ready to leave the table, he had started pulling on her rabbit ears. An idiotic act of selfish racism. Vermont clenched his fist, ready to step in and stand up for the faunus.

"Please stop." She pleaded in an accent.

"I told you it was real." Cardin mocked. Anger boiled in Vermont's heart, and he let out a slow growl. But then he felt a hand. A soft warm of comfort, yet also one that pleaded. It was Ruby. She had put her hand on his shoulder. Then she spoke, but hushed so only he would hear it: "Not now. You don't want to start a scene or even a fight right now. But if you go after her when we are done, I totally get you." He calmed down. He had never been one to act on his anger. Maybe because the hatred and mocking were usually directed towards himself and not others. But when it was someone else getting picked on, someone who can't defend themselves, Vermont got mad.
Ruby took her hand off his shoulder and returned to the conversation at hand. But they weren't talking about Jaune anymore. Cardin had caught everyone's attention.

"Atrocious, I can't stand people like him," Pyrrha said with a look of disgust.

"He's not the only one," Blake said, and Vermont could swear that she peeked over at him, but wasn't it obvious why?

"It must be hard to be a faunus." Yang sighed. "But what about you Vermont. How are you doing? It must feel a bit lonely right?"

"Maybe. But loneliness is not the problem. The problem is that we need a voice. The white fang was supposed to be that voice. But they failed. I just wish there was something I could do, you know." Vermont was overcome with some feeling he didn't quite understand. A mixture of pain, loneliness, sadness, and maybe... a bit of determination.

"Maybe there is something you can do," Ruby said in a comforting tone. "Maybe you just need to find out what. I mean, I'm not a faunus history expert, but there must be something you can do. Even if it's just a little something."

"Thank you, Ruby. Maybe you are right. Even just a little something." He gently smiled, content with the support he had gotten. Blake had responded strangely to the conversation. Her aura felt weird. Sad, but serene, and maybe a bit secretive. Vermont was getting a weird feeling of familiarity from her. Maybe he had actually met her before. That would make sense of the way she had reacted to him. She knew her name, yet she didn't seem to know him by face.
Anyways, Vermont wanted to go check on that faunus girl. Jaune got up to leave, so Vermont decided that it would be smart to do the same. As he stood up he looked over at Cardin, his smug face alone made Vermont want to punch him. But he just turned and left towards the exit. The exit that the bunny faunus had gone through.