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Scene 12:

Viole(n)t Skies

A/n:

I recommend listening to Kiss The Sky be Shawn Lee while reading this. That's one of the many songs I listened to while writing it, and it's pretty awesome.


Goodwitch pov

"Well, Ozpin, it looks like we have our first team." I commented, noting the first group of four to arrive at the ruins.

"I still can't believe you used the chess pieces from the chess set in your office as 'relics'." I muttered.

"It's my chess set, I can do whatever the hell I want with it." He muttered back, taking a sip of his tea.

Taking another glance at the screen and adjusting my glasses I changed topics.

"I feel awful for poor Miss Schnee. While Miss Valkyrie is certainly effective in combat, being partnered with her will certainly be a…trying… experience for her." I commented.

Just then another gust of wind blew my hair into my eyes, forcing me to brush it out of the way.

"I think Miss Schnee will be having larger concerns at the moment." Ozpin remarked

"True, she does need to make her way safely back to the cliffs in order to pass. She can't rest on her laurels quite yet." I agreed

"That's not what I meant." Ozpin said flatly

I looked up from the scroll's screen to give him a questioning glance.

"The storm's gotten worse." He said simply, giving brief gesture with his head up ahead of me.

I turned forward, expecting to see the storm clouds we saw earlier in the distance.

"What the-." I muttered, my eyes widening in in shocked horror.

Today was supposed to be a regular, sunny day. A perfect day for the Initiation to occur unimpeded. Clear skies, a little warm, and a mild breeze. Nothing was supposed to happen.

And then we spotted storm clouds in the distance earlier. We didn't really consider them much of a threat. They were tens of miles away, they probably wouldn't arrive at the forest until the afternoon. They didn't even seem to be too threatening.

It seems that they've…intensified…since then.

Now massive, dark grey, thunderclouds were upon us, looming over much of the forest like a giant in the sky. They were spread across the sky for as far as the eye could see. Only behind us did the sky become clear, though if the storm kept up its current pace, that wouldn't be the case for long.

The most unsettling part, however, was what the clouds were doing. They were beginning to spin. It was slow, but the rotation was obvious.

"This is very bad." I said grimly.

"Ozpin?" I asked, turning to Ozpin to see his thoughts on the matter, and saw a frown of thought and concentration upon his face.

After a couple seconds he finally looked back to me.

"Miss Goodwitch, any thoughts?" He asked seriously.

"I think we should prepare an evacuation zone. If that storm is as bad as it looks then it could frighten the students. Having 80 frightened students in a Grimm infested forest during an intense storm is just asking for casualties." I explained.

Given the empathic abilities of the Grimm, having so many frightened people in one area would be an irresistible meal for them, causing even slumbering giants to wake from their hibernation to feed. In the end it would be a vicious positive feedback cycle.

As the initiates feared, more Grimm would come. They would fight them off, but as the endless horde kept coming, some initiates would inevitably get injured, and possibly even die, causing more fear.

In the event something like that happened, the teachers would get involved. Despite what we said about not interfering, we still had a duty as teachers and hunters to keep these children safe. We simply didn't want to coddle them.

Still, even if the teachers did enter the forest, given the stormy conditions, if an event such as the one I previously described happened, then we would inevitably lose someone. There is only so much we can do, after all.

"I would prefer to prevent the worst case scenario from happening before it occurred, and not simply work damage control." I finished.

He nodded, taking another sip from his mug.

"I agree completely." He began, glaring at the storm.

"And in that case, I think we should contact the V.A.F." He added.

"The V.A.F.?" I questioned, thinking that might be going a bit far. Beacon had its own Bullheads, it didn't need to contact the kingdom's air force for assistance in that regard.

"I know what you're thinking, and I know we have our own, Glynda. That's not what I'm talking about." He explained, holding a hand up in concession.

"Then…what is it?" I asked

He sighed, seeming exhausted by the burden of the truth, of knowing how bad it really was.

"As I walked around the campus this morning, and even at the launch pads, I noticed something…disturbing." He began

"It seems that all the initiates had some sort of nightmare. One specifically about initiation. While I can't exactly confirm this, it seemed that said nightmare involved them dying during said Initiation." He continued before pausing to take another sip.

After a moment of consideration, he spoke once more.

"Almost every single initiate was filled with some level of fear entering that forest. For some, it was nervousness, and for others, it was outright terror." He explained, pausing to turn from the storm and direct his gaze towards me.

"You were worried about what would happen if the Emerald forest was filled with scared children." He began.

He took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes for a minute, before he let out a breath.

"What you failed to realize, is that we had already done so several hours ago." He said darkly, putting his glasses back on.

"Then that means…" I trailed off, widening my eyes as horror took hold within me.

"There is already a massive horde of angry, hungry, and no doubt ancient Grimm hunting in those woods." He finished with a dark frown.

I took another look at the storm, the storm that just seemed to be getting more and more ominous and deadly by the second. It had yet to truly hit the forest yet, but there was no doubt that was only minutes away. The students were not prepared for something of this magnitude, hell, not many trained hunters were.

It was at this moment that my worst fears were realized. I had been worried about playing damage control, but unfortunately it seemed I already was. If we were right, then this was a worst case scenario that even some teams of fully trained hunters wouldn't be able to handle.

"I'm going to be sending out an alert to every initiate and teacher, as well as coordinates to both the ruins with the relics, and the evacuation site. Now is not the time for them to be wondering around aimlessly in the woods." I said, beginning to get to work on my scroll.

"And I'll get in contact the V.A.F.. Hopefully they will be able to do something in time." He began.

"Because if that storm hits, and we aren't ready, it's going to be a bloodbath down there."


Yang pov

"So, I guess these are the…relics." Weiss said, noting the black and gold chess pieces.

We had followed the dried up river bed into a large clearing, which in turn lead here. The river bed continued on further into the forest at the other end of the clearing.

"I guess we're the first people here." I noted, referencing the fact that none of the other pieces had been taken.

It was a partial chess set. There was one pair of each of the different pieces, one gold, one black, and each was standing atop a pedestal in a dilapidated ruin.

"So, how do you think this works?" I asked, looking at them.

After a second or two of thought, both Ren and Weiss responded at the same time.

"It's somewhat obvious, when you think about it." Weiss said.

"It's not that hard to figure out." Ren mirrored at the same time

In response to their word jumble the two of them looked at each other oddly for a couple seconds. Weiss glared slightly with a slight blush, while Ren just looked at her with a raised brow. I just looked at them with a knowing grin, figuring I could use this material to get a rise out of at least one of them.

I looked around to see how Nora was reacting to this. Hopefully she was pouting jealously or something. If there was some kind of jealous love triangle developing in the team I needed to know.

Er, to stop it from disrupting team cohesion, of course.

I most certainly would not use it against them for my own enjoyment, teasing them mercilessly while I played the beautiful and intelligent matchmaker. So, when I looked around for Nora, to see a blush, a glare, a pout, I found that Nora was…

Nora was playing with the fucking chess pieces.

"'No!' said ser Gaspard to his dark king Bartholomew, 'I will not harm the golden queen, Isabella, for she is carrying my child!' he proclaimed. Bartholomew glared at his once ruthless knight, now blinded by love, 'then if you won't do it, then I'll have to slay you both!' he roared." Nora said, acting out some kind of love, drama, adventure thing with the chess pieces.

I stared at her, dumbfounded.

What the actual fuck? I silently said not entirely sure how to react to this.

I turned back to Ren and Weiss in time to see them finish up with some discussion they had. Ren looked away from Weiss to look at Nora, appearing to take note of the fact his friend was playing Telenovela with chess pieces, but not so much as even raising a brow in surprise.

"Nora." He said calmly, but without any clear intent.

Nora abruptly stopped what she was doing and gave him her full attention with a wide smile.

"What's up Ren?" She chirped.

"Can I see Isabella, please?" He asked with a straight face.

"Kay Ren!" Was her immediate response.

"Wait, you were paying attention to that?" I asked incredulously.

"It's Monday." He answered simply, if dismissively, in response, as if that explained everything.

He didn't even look at me when he said that. Instead he caught the golden queen piece, or "Isabella" that Nora tossed at him.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Weiss asked, not following…any…of this.

She's not the only one I thought, giving the two of them a questioning look.

"And could you give Weiss Mary?" He asked, gesturing to the girl in white, while simultaneously ignoring the girl in question.

"Mary?" I questioned, wondering who he was talking about.

Nora apparently knew what he was talking about, because without hesitation she grabbed the black queen piece and tossed it to Weiss. Weiss, while surprised by the throw and still confused about the interactions between Ren and Nora, still managed to catch it.

Once she did she gave it a simple look over, before giving an odd look to both Nora and Ren. One I shared.

"Mary, the black queen." Ren said simply, as if that would explain everything.

"Wait, what's going on?" I asked, still very much confused.

Weiss gave another glance at Rena and Nora before answering me.

"Well, Ren and I figured that they make the four man teams by pairing up the two groups of partners that found the matching pieces. So, I'm taking the black Queen while Ren takes the golden one, that way we'll be on the same team." She explained.

"Oh, okay, that makes sense." I said in agreement.

Now that they said it, it was the only real logical conclusion. Why else would they have two sets of matching pieces?

"We should get moving." Weiss suggested.

"Do we have a plan as for what to do next?" I asked, not really sure where to go from here.

"I would assume we have to make our way back to the cliffs. From there we can climb back up to the plateau the school sits on." She explained.

Just then, my scroll buzzed. It wasn't very loud so if I was busy I probably wouldn't have noticed it, but as it was we were really just sitting around trying out figure out what to do. So, I pulled it out and woke it up.

I glanced up to see the rest of the group was attending to their own scrolls, which likely did the same.

I looked back down at the screen. Apparently I had received some kind of message. On it was a map of the forest, as well as an icon at a clearing at the base of the cliffs around Beacon.

"So, I'm guessing this is where we're supposed to go?" I put forward.

"I'm betting they gave the map to us since they knew we got the relics, which means that technically we've already passed the initiation." Weiss said.

"But how did they know we picked them up?" I asked.

"They said they'd be watching and grading us. I have a feeling there's some kind of surveillance system in the forest to keep tabs on us." Ren answered.

The rest of us nodded our heads in agreement, seeing the logic in the statement. Then I noticed something else on the screen.

"Hey what's this?" I thought out loud.

"'Incoming Storm Warning'" I read.

I raised a brow at that before looking up to the sky. I saw the large storm clouds that were upon us. At first glance, I would have said they looked like regular storm clouds and dismissed it. But there was something…ominous…about them. I couldn't really put my finger on what it was though.

So, unable to determine the cause of my…"feeling"…I tried to dismiss it with humor.

"They thought they had to tell us that?" I asked, finding the warning a bit…redundant.

Any idiot could figure that much out by looking up.

"Look at what else it says about the storm." Ren said with a grim frown.

"Tornado Watch. All students are advised to complete the Initiation with haste." Weiss read out loud with wide eyes.

With that sentence I took another look at the dark walls in the sky, and that's when I realized the problem.

"Shit." I cursed

How did I not see it before? I questioned myself.

I could already see the slight rotation in the cloud. The wind was picking up, flapping our hair around. I could even see rain falling in the distance, as in, it was so thick I could see the rain from a mile or two away.

At least, I hope it was just rain.

"So, it's true?" Weiss asked, worried.

"Yep. I don't know why I didn't see it before. I knew they were thunder clouds, but that's nothing new here. I didn't think an actual tornado would happen." I explained with a grimace.

"But it's only a chance, right? It's not like it's actually going to happen." Weiss asked again, fear flavoring her voice.

"You've never encountered a tornado before have you?" I asked her.

"And I don't mean those little ones you can make with Dust, or somebody's fancy semblance, I mean a real, full force, natural, tornado." I clarified, looking her straight in the eyes.

"Atlas isn't exactly known for its tornados. Blizzards, sure, but not tornados." She snapped back

"Yeah, well, even if there's just a chance of a tornado, we need to move. It's the full force of nature's wrath in your face. It's not like the Grimm, you can't fight it. All you can do is run and get to cover." I answered.

"Besides, even if there isn't an actual tornado, the fact they think their might be means that there's a pretty serious storm on the way. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather not get caught in the rain." I explained

Weiss looked at me, slightly nervous, but absorbing the information well enough.

"Well, in that case we should move to the point specified on the map. They're probably evacuating those who have finished, or anyone who wants out." Ren suggested, looking at all of us more seriously than normal.

His eyes were narrowed in focus as he frowned ever so slightly, giving him a more intimidating than stoic look. He then glanced at Nora, who wasn't even looking at us.

Nora was instead looking at the tall, dark, ominous, storm clouds. She gazed at them with a grin tinged with slightly more mania than normal, and a spark of unbridled anticipation in her eyes. She wasn't even the slightest bit scared, no, she was eager for this storm to happen.

She was entranced by it.

Suddenly a flash of light went off to our left.

Weiss turned at looked at it, saying, "Hey, what was-"

BA-THOOOOOM!

Suddenly the roaring sound of thunder slammed us, giving us a deafening blast of air. We all flinched violently, covering our ears from the onslaught. When the ringing in my ears finally stopped I looked back out at the storm.

I could see the lightning flashing out in the darkness in front of us. The dark storm clouds covered up the sun, shrouding the forest in a kind of gray darkness, only lit up by the occasional flash of lightning.

From that moment on I could occasionally hear the faint roar of distant thunder. Suddenly the storm felt all too real and dangerous.

And helped remind me of certain night.

Shaking my head to get myself back into the present, I looked back at out group. Nora was practically bouncing on her toes in sheer enthusiasm, not even having the slightest bit of worry or fear in her. It's like she was waiting to go to the fair with her boyfriend, not in the middle of a storm.

Ren continued to look at her with serious concern. Not the kind where you look at them with a soft, concerned face. This was a harder, more serious form of it.

Weiss looked nervous. Not surprising if you've never encountered a tornado, or even a thunderstorm bad enough to warrant a tornado warning. She said they had blizzards up in Atlas, but nothing about thunderstorms. It made me wonder if she had even encountered real lightning before.

That being said, just because she's nervous of the thunderstorm didn't mean she had to be a stranger to them. I've known plenty of people offset by the appearance of fierce ones.

After all,

I'm one of them.

"So, are we just going to sit here and enjoy the lightshow?" I teased, trying to get everyone refocused.

That appeared to shake everyone, minus Nora, out of their stupors.

"Right, of course. We should head out to the evac point as quickly as possible. I recommend that we have Yang and Nora in the lead. They can smash through any Grimm that get in our way, allowing us to rush to the point without being bogged down." Weiss suggested, getting back into that tactical mindset of hers.

Ren nodded in appreciation of the plan before turning to his old friend. "Nora." He called out simply.

She turned to him, and he gave her a look. Somehow with that look he communicated all she needed to know.

"You got it Ren! I'll lead the charge!" She excitedly agreed, giving him a sloppy salute in the process.

She then proceeded to skip up ahead of us, twirling her hammer all the way, singing, "Thunderstorm, thunderstorm, thun-thun, thun-thunderstorm, thunderstorm, thunderstorm, thun-thun, thun-thunderstorm~"

I grinned, knowing my little plan had worked. Lots of people underestimated the effect comedy could have on people. Not wanting to be left behind, however, I quickly followed her.

Behind me I could hear Weiss moan. "What is wrong with that girl?"

I snickered at her pain. As weird as Nora was, she didn't really seem to be that bad. But, being the high strung girl that Weiss was, she would probably wouldn't agree with that statement. It's for that reason that I knew I would be having a lot of fun in this group.

Still, though, as much fun as I was having with these new guys, I couldn't help but be worried. That thunder storm unsettled me, made me uneasy. Though, it's not really the storm itself that unsettles me, no. It's really what they've always meant for me, what they've heralded.

I hope it's different this time.


Pyrrha pov

That storm looks bad I thought, looking up at the dark, swirling walls of dark grey floating in the sky.

After the thunder struck Lilith told us that we apparently all got a message in our scrolls. One we had missed. It told us the coordinates of the ruins and an evacuation zone they were setting up.

The storm was severe enough to warrant a Tornado Watch. This apparently meant things were bad enough that Professor Ozpin saw no need to drag out Initiation any longer than it needed to be. I'd say he wanted to get as many initiates out of the woods as fast as possible before the Tornado got here.

As I looked over the rest of the people that would likely compose my team, I took in their various states.

Blake was very uneasy and fidgety. While it was obvious the storm was somewhat unsettling to her, that wasn't what was really setting her off. Sure, she flinched whenever lightning struck nearby and the sound of thunder roared in our ears, but that wasn't anything special, Jaune did the same thing.

No, instead the majority of her unease seemed to come from my partner, Lilith. In fact, earlier she almost shot Lilith when she jumped out of the bushes, startling her. That's actually how we met. With Blake pointing a gun in my partner's face.

When she did I reacted on instinct again, my body felt like it moved on its own. It was like when I saw her earlier from the treetops. Again, however, I was able to reign it in before I did something I would regret.

Since that little incident, however, Blake has seemed very uneasy around Lilith, always trying to stay as far as possible from her, while still keeping an eye on her. Part of me is insulted that she's treating my partner like this, like a danger, a threat.

The other part wants to join her.

Still, though, I push past it. Apparently almost everyone Lilith's met treats her like that, and as a result she doesn't have any friends besides Jaune. It seems that boy can endear himself to everyone, though how he just pushes past her…creepiness…like it's not even there, I'll never understand.

In any case, after learning about this, I decided I wanted to try and be friends with her. Even if my instincts are constantly warning me about her, I'm better than that. I refuse to be a slave to these…irrational… desires and fears. Though…I suppose it helps that another side of me is very interested in the young girl.

Speaking of Lilith, out of all of us, she seems the least affected by the storm. If anything she's…mildly annoyed by it, if the slight frown that flashes on her face has anything is anything to go by. Like it's not a dangerous storm, but instead an annoying crowd of people standing in her way of doing something. An inconvenience, instead of a danger.

Finally, Jaune.

Jaune, is definitely unsettled by the storm. Not nearly to the extent that Blake is, but he's still very much worried about it. He keeps glancing around the forest nervously, as if expecting something to jump out and attack him.

At the same time however…

He seems kind of…protective…regarding Lilith. While he is afraid for himself, he seems much more worried about Lilith. Like he's her guardian or something. He's never more than three steps away from her, and constantly stands somewhere in front of her, in some kind of effort to take anything that comes at her first.

Considering Lilith looks like she's 12, has a broken arm, and concussion, it's not hard to see why. I'd probably feel more along those lines if she didn't make my instincts go wild.

As for myself…

I'm worried about the storm, but I can't exactly do anything about it. So, I prioritize. I focus on what I can do, and what I can do well.

While I can't affect the storm, at least, probably not in any positive way, or without almost killing myself in the process, I can help us get there in one piece. So, that's what I focus on. Making sure we get there as quickly and safely as possible, and killing any Grimm in our way.

Something I've noticed Jaune is surprisingly grateful for.

But that was what happened on our journey here. Now, we were at the ruins, and I wasn't entirely sure what to do.

"So…what do you think is the meaning behind these?" I asked the rest of the group.

I was staring at the set of chess pieces on pedestals in the ruins. Most were gone, there was only two pawns, a golden rook, and two bishops, and everything else was gone. Jaune, Blake, and I were all starring at them, trying to figure it out.

"It's obvious there's something else going on with these pieces, but what?" I pondered

"Do you think it's based around the colors, or the pieces themselves?" Blake questioned out loud.

"…yes." Jaune answered, nodding his head as if he had just given us sagely advice.

In response the two of us just stared at him quizzically. He started glancing at us both nervously once he realized that he hadn't actually said anything useful. He began sweating bullets before shrinking down and backing out.

"Never mind, I'll just…shut up now." He said, holding his hands up in submission.

Giving a small chuckle at his antics I shook my head.

"Lilith, what do you thi-" I began, looking to the smallest member of our group, one who had been surprisingly absent.

However, the words died in my mouth when I saw what she was doing.

Lilith was standing about 30 feet from us, all by herself. Well…

Except for the Beowolf.

There was a Beowolf standing right in front of her, just staring her in the face. It was practically close enough to lick her. Lilith had her back to us and her hood up, so we couldn't see her face, but I could only guess she was paralyzed by fear.

The Grimm, in turn, looked…entranced…by her. I couldn't be sure why, not with the blank red eyes it possessed, but perhaps it was one of hunger, like one would look at an incredibly tasty piece of meat.

My sudden bout of silence got the attention of my companions, causing them to turn to me.

"Pyrrha, what is-" Blake began before cutting off when she saw it.

Just like me, she appeared to be stunned into silence. What could we say? The youngest and most vulnerable member of our party was inches away from a deadly beast. She was frightened, injured, and as Lilith already told me, her Aura wouldn't protect her from its claws.

"Lilith!" Jaune cried out in terrified fear.

As he did, instinct once again took hold. Time seemed to slow as I moved to draw my rifle and take the Grimm down. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Blake doing the same with her pistol.

Jaune began to run to her, to try and do whatever he could to save her.

But it didn't matter. Despite my instincts, I was terrified. That Beowolf could take her head off before we could do anything to stop it. With just a twitch, it could end her life, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I was helpless.

As that fear moved its way through my body, filling me, I felt a pressure in my head, like what I felt when I got up this morning. And then…

Then Lilith responded to Jaune's call.

She slowly, and calmly turned her head to us, once again showing us those hollow silver eyes. The second she locked eyes with me, I felt that pressure in my head skyrocket as my fear ramped, and it's all because of what I saw in those eyes.

Not Fear.

Not surprise.

Not hope.

But Annoyance.

"What?" She asked, an annoyed frown on her face and in her voice, as if we were interrupting her with something tedious, worthless, and beneath her. It was the most expressive I've ever seen her, and she was making it abundantly clear she was quite unhappy with us.

That single word stopped all three of us in our tracks. Jaune tripped and stopped running, barely managing to keep his balance. Blake widened her eyes in fear, and froze where she stood. I similarly halted my movements as my head was filled with one overwhelming message.

THREAT

It filled my mind, pushing out any other thoughts, and paralyzing me. But as it froze my body, so too did it increase that punishing pain in my head as the pressure ramped up.

Finally, after a second of pregnant silence, Jaune, the kind hearted fool that he was, spoke up.

"…uh…there's a, uh, Beowolf…" Jaune tried to say, stumbling over his own words in both shock and terror.

Lilith's frown only seemed to deepen at his words. Then, she made her move. It only an instant, a flash, but seeing her move caused Blake and I to react. Relying on our instincts, we both drew our weapons and-

BOOM!

The Beowolf was thrown back several feet before falling to the ground, dead, it's entire skull gone, disappearing in the explosion of blood, bone, and brain matter. All that remained of its head was a gory stump of bone sticking out of the remains of its neck.

Lilith was holding her smoking hand cannon up with her right arm as if nothing had ever happened to it, aiming at where the Beowolf once stood, not even bothering to look at the thing, not that she really had to. She was so close to the Grimm she could have slapped it with her gun.

Still frowning at us, she slowly lowered her massive black gun like it didn't weigh a thing.

"It's dead, happy now?" She responded icily.

We were stunned unable to respond to her. We could only gaze in shock at her mysterious actions.

Suddenly, a flash of Lightning lit up the sky, blinding us for an instant. When we opened our eyes again, Lilith was gone.

BATHOOM!

The thunder sounded, deafening us with its mighty blast.

When my ears finally stopped ringing, I noticed that there was a static sound in the background once again. I don't know how long it was there, it might have been there since I first noticed it at the launch. I simply recognized that it was still there. Then something broke the silence.

"Blake." Said a bland voice from behind us.

We turned, at to our surprise Lilith was standing behind us in the ruins.

How did she? I asked in my head, wondering about her apparent teleportation.

Her semblance? I considered.

Once Blake turned and looked at her, Lilith threw something at her. Blake instantly snatched the object out of the air before taking a look at what exactly she was holding in her hands.

It was the black bishop.

And without another word she walked away from the ruins, towards the forest.

"Wait, Lilith." I called out to her.

She stopped, turning to me with a blank face once more.

"What?" She asked coolly

"Your arm." I said, gesturing to her now fixed right arm. Not a few hours ago it was broken in two places, but now it was fine.

She let out an annoyed breath.

"I already told you, my Aura heals me fast." She explained.

"So, you're fine now?" I asked hesitantly.

At that she scowled at me.

"No, I am not fine. I have a massive headache that's only gotten worse. I don't feel like wasting time answering stupid questions or dawdling around. I want to get this Initiation over with so I can finally get some rest." She retorted, her annoyance once again flaring up to the surface.

As it did, my subconscious once again reacted on instinct, but I reigned it in before I did anything more than twitch.

"So, why did you give Blake the black bishop?" Jaune asked, oblivious to her anger.

She huffed again before responding.

"Because, teams are made based on who takes the two matching pieces of the opposite color." she explained tiredly, showing off the golden bishop she had in her own hand.

"But why a bishop?" He asked earnestly.

"Oh, that?" She began, tilting her head to the side, her mood taking an abrupt shift.

Then a smile slowly crept onto her face. It was small, but it was still there.

"Irony." She answered cryptically before turning around and resuming her journey into the forest.

In response to her odd answer Jaune turned toward Blake and I, hoping for an answer. Having none, we simply shrugged, before following her into the forest.

What is with this girl? I thought, trying to unravel her mysteries.


Torchwick pov

These cots fucking suck I thought as I laid down on the hard as rock mattress in my cell.

It was a relatively simple white box, really. There was a toilet. An incredibly uncomfortable cot. A sink. Three white walls. And the "window"

The "window" wasn't really a window. It was basically the "bars" of my cell. Except, instead of steel bars, it was made of a resilient, hard, transparent material. It had various large holes in a pattern in it to allow air and sound to pass through. They weren't big enough for me to do much more than stick an arm through, but they didn't really compromise the structural integrity of the window either.

In the "window" was a door, which had slots for giving me my food trays. The whole thing was setup so they could watch what I was doing at all times. In addition, it also had something that could drain my aura to a degree.

While it wasn't exactly debilitating, it was enough to keep me from enhancing my strength with aura, or using it to shield me. If they wanted to shoot me to death in here, there would be nothing I could really do to stop them.

Apparently, this is where they put their more dangerous criminals.

I'm actually kind of flattered they think about me like that I thought pleasantly.

Soon after the little red girl knocked me out, they took me to the police station.

That was fun I thought sardonically as I absentmindedly felt for the old knot in the back of my head.

It had healed since then, thanks in part to my aura, but at the time it hurt like hell. I'd have to remember to pay the little bitch back for that once I get out of here.

Then again, I suppose I shouldn't really complain. After all, if I had to compare her to most people that I do business with, they would have probably dragged it out with some kind of perverse pleasure. Taking as long as possible to make sure I knew they beat me, and that they were better than me.

She just hit me in the back of the head real hard.

Didn't mean I didn't want payback, though.

Still, once I arrived at the police station, they tried to "interrogate" me. If they had been ruthless criminals, I might have been worried. Instead, they were Vale's police force.

Basically they were pansies.

I had nothing to be scared of from them.

So, I taunted my way through interrogation with only a bloody nose to show for it, and then they threw me in here. I have to say, I was surprised they had the balls to throw a punch at me, but that's as far as they went.

Pussies.

I had been in here for a couple days now since then.

I sighed in boredom. The assholes didn't even let me smoke in here.

Why, I don't know. They probably thought I could use it to escape.

They were right, but that's not the point.

It's the principle of it. I was being deprived of a civic right, dammit. I mean, leaving me in a cell with absolutely nothing to do was a cruel and unusual punishment.

Well, I didn't have nothing to do.

Just then I noticed that there was a changing of the guard, and this one I recognized.

"Hey, Mila! What are you doing back here buddy? I thought they were supposed to have a nice long rotation. I just saw you yesterday." I called out to her

The young, average looking girl in uniform and a hat groaned in response. During my time here, the guards were supposed to rotate to keep me from familiarizing myself with any one of them too much. So I couldn't take advantage of them or anything.

They quickly learned, however, that while that was the policy, when I was bored I could be really annoying.

"I don't know. I told them the same thing, but they didn't care. They just told me to shut up and do it." She complained.

Mila was, basically, kind of the bitch of the police force.

"Maybe it's because I'm a Faunus?" She asked, considering it.

Literally.

"...Nah, couldn't be." I said after a moment with a smile.

I was lying. Very obviously I might add.

"You're right, they probably just trust me with this impressive responsibility because they know I'm such a capable officer." She said, getting pumped up by my "pep talk".

I just looked at her flatly.

Really? I know I joke about Faunus all the time, calling them stupid flee-bitten mongrels and such but…really?

The fact was, I had nothing special against Faunus. No, it's true. There was no one I disliked specifically because they were a Faunus, despite what I may say.

No, see, I just hate everyone equally.

Doesn't matter if your Faunus or Human. If you're a stupid piece of shit, then you're a stupid piece of shit, and I feel that it is my civic duty to remind you of that fact. If that means calling Faunus filthy animals, so be it. If it means calling Humans retarded abortions, I'll do what I have to.

It's not easy, but someone's got to do it.

Plus it's fun to get a rise out of Adam every now and then.

Now, I would make fun of Mila like that…

…If I didn't think it would make her cry.

I was a dick to people to get a rise out of them, not to make them cry. I was an asshole, not a fucking sadist. Besides if I did make Mila cry, her coworkers would probably just come in here and beat me up

Or spit in my food.

Besides, I had many ways of making others realize their incompetence. And, more importantly, I had other priorities.

Like…

"So Mila, did you bring a cigar with you?" I asked, propping my head up against the wall as I leaned back.

She sighed.

"You know I can't do that." She responded tiredly.

"You make it sound like it's such a big deal." I responded flippantly.

"They told me specifically to never do it." She responded earnestly.

"Then in that case, I have no choice." I sighed.

"Huh?" She asked, not understanding where I was going with this.

I looked up at her and grinned a sinister grin. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use this, but desperate times called for desperate measures. If Cinder wasn't going to bust me out of here anytime soon, then I would just have to handle this myself.

I took a breath, gathering myself for what I was about to do to this poor girl. She probably didn't deserve it, but this wasn't about her, this was about me.

And I needed this.

"Knock knock." I said finally.


A/n:

Right, so, both a lot and a little happened.

Surprise, a storm's on the way. A big one.

Also, Team ANBL and WYVR have their pieces, and as a result have technically passed Initiation

Technically

Also, I'm not sure if that's actually how the whole chess piece team picking thing worked in the show, but its how its working here.

Oh, and Nora did kooky shit

Ruby/Lilith did creepy shit

And we got a peek at Torchwick doing dickish shit.

Why?

Because, he's not dead. He's just in jail

and you hear some interesting things in jail.

In any case, the next Scene should be out real soon.

Hopefully.

In any case, tell me how you think I'm doing, and try to be specific. Saying great story, while nice and makes me feel good inside, isn't terribly helpful at telling me what I'm doing well, and where I need to improve.

Still, I love the response I got form last chapter, even if most of it wasn't about last chapter.

Apparently I'm still getting reviews about the dream sequence I did back in Scenes 6-8

That's actually helpful, it lets me know I fucking nailed that shit.

So, again, sorry if it seems like it's going at a snails pace, but I refuse to just rush through this shit. A bunch of things I'm doing in here are going to be setting a precedent for later chapters, as well as being setup.

Plus, this is kind of par for the course, really. I mean, the first Arc, which was episode one plus a little, took 4 scenes.

The second Arc, which was kinda episode 2,3, and 4, took another 4 scenes.

The Emerald Forest Arc, which I believe is 4-8, is going to be 8 scenes.

But don't worry, next chapter shit goes down.

Actually...shit kind of just goes down continuously for the next 4 scenes.

hmm...

Oh well.

I doubt you'll complain about it.