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Act II
Scene 17:
Recovery
A/n: Surprise!
I'm not dead!
Also, this is another milestone, with this story reaching over 50 reviews, 85 favs, 130 follows, and 15K views.
That's awesome.
So here you go.
Also, nobody better have shit their pants when I updated all this stuff.
I have literally been telling you guys this was going to happen for over a month.
If you were surprised then disappointed by the 9 or so chap updates which turned out to only really be one update, then you have no one to blame but yourself.
So I'm not apologising, because I gave fair warning.
But that's enough of that. Onto the show.
It's time to begin Act II: Demons.
Enjoy.
Pyrrha pov
There was darkness all around me, enveloping me, covering me, smothering me. There was no sight, no sound, no feeling, nothing. That's all there was, that drowning absence of everything. Then, there was something.
"I-I give up." A trembling voice said.
"I surrender" it continued.
Then, the silence continued for a moment. A pregnant, trembling, silence. Then it was broken by the sound of something wooden falling onto stone.
"Finish it." A different voice said
Another long, heavy, pause hung in the air until there was the sound of wood being scraped and dragged across stone
"You don't have to do this." The first voice begged.
After another pause the second voice repeated, "Finish it." With more force.
Another pregnant silence. Then…
crack
"Stop!" The voice cried out in pain "I give up!"
crack
"Please!"
Crack
"Stop hurting me!"
Crack
"Just let me go!"
Crack!
"You win! Just let me-!"
Crack!
"Owe!"
CRACK!
"Stop!"
CRACK!
"Plea-"
CRUNCH!
Then, with that final sound, I was jolted from my slumber. My eyes flew open and my mind was kicked out from its rest and into overdrive, trying to put everything together and figure out where I was.
My heart was still pounding as my breaths were ragged, my body still coming to terms with reality. I was sitting against a cold, damp, and hard wall with my javelin safely held in my arms. Finally, after a taking a couple seconds to calm myself down, I really took in where I was.
I was in a cavern filled with glowing blue luminescent fungi, and a large underground lake taking up majority of the cavern. It was cold and damp, not surprising given the environment. The blue fungi gave off more than enough light for me to see the area pretty well. Most importantly, I could tell that there were no immediate threats in the area, no signs of movement that drew my attention. I was, as far as I could tell, safe enough.
How did I get here? I thought to myself.
I couldn't really remember how I had gotten here. I remember I was on my way to Beacon, and I think I got there, unless it was all a dream. My mind was a mess right now, and I couldn't tell what was real, what was just a dream, and what was just the past.
Before I could figure anything out, however, I glanced down at my wet body, and discovered the source of my discomfort.
I was almost completely naked, only a few scraps of twisted leather and cloth laying on my body. Even worse, I was completely covered, head to toe, in a muddy mix of wet, crimson, blood and black dirt.
Wha-what is this? Why am I covered in blood! I thought, my eyes widening in panic.
Suddenly, all semblance of safety was immediately purged from my system as fear flooded me. Now that I noticed the blood, I noticed how much my body hurt, how sore I felt. Every part of me hurt, even my teeth. My left arm, in particular, hurt quite a bit, a burst of sharp pain shooting through it at the slightest movement. Taking a glance at it, it was the only part of me not covered in blood, but the skin was red, raw, and tender.
As I panicked, I dropped my bronze head-piece that I held in my hands, as well Milo, which I had been cradling in my sleep. At the sound of them clattering to the ground, I turned around, looking at my surroundings frantically as I jolted up.
Then I saw them.
Two bodies, laying to the side of the cavern.
As I looked at them, felt a headache coming on as waves of pain pulsed in my brain. I clutched my head in anguish, squeezing my eyes shut as my mind was wracked with agony. Gritting my teeth and pushing past the pain, I opened my eyes again.
That's when I noticed things about them.
They were…familiar to me, but I couldn't remember why, or who they were, but I know I knew them, somehow. Then, there was the fact that neither one of them was moving, nor had they reacted to my movement or the sound of my clattering gear.
But above all of that, it was the deathly paleness of the girl in red, who lay there closest to me, and the distinct lack of the rise and fall of her chest, which sent my mind racing.
In the absence of knowledge, my mind surged, putting what little it had together to figure out what had happened. Before I could stop it, my imagination and paranoia filled in the gaps as my fear ran rampant through me. With each growing second, my headache only grew worse, as did my horror. Finally, after nearly a minute of staring at their still bodies, I could only come to one conclusion.
This blood I was covered in was theirs
I had killed them, somehow, someway, for some reason. It was the only explanation that made sense to me. Why else would I be covered in blood? Why else would they be lying there, dead? Why else would I recognize them? Besides…
It's not the first time it's happened.
That said, it's never been this…random. It's not like I've ever woken up in an alley covered in blood and surrounded by corpses or anything. Even worse, it's been years since I've had a blackout. It's been years since I've had that dream, since I've remembered those days so vividly.
I thought I was fixed. I thought, staring at the carnage I had wrought in horror.
I thought I had regained my sanity, that I was whole again, that I had put my past behind me, but this…this proved otherwise.
That dream, that memory, had brought it all back.
Before I could think more on the subject, I could hear the sound of footsteps approaching the cavern from a tunnel behind me.
Reacting quickly, I spun around, facing the potential threat. I used my semblance to summon my weapons into my hands, and got into a defensive position facing the door as I shoved those thoughts down. My body was still wracked with pain, especially my left arm, but I ignored those feelings as I always had, shoving them into a corner in my mind.
I may have been horrified by what I had done, but I wasn't going to let that get me killed. Instead, I was going to take care of any threats that faced me, and solve all of this once I was safe.
I didn't have to wait long for the potential threat to arrive.
She entered the cavern without any suspicion, obviously not expecting any threats to be in here. That said, she wasn't unarmed. She had a pistol with a blade in one hand, and a larger, broader, sword in the other.
She was wearing a set of tight fitting black and white clothes, and the pair of black cat ears on her head marked her as a Faunus, something that meant I wouldn't be able to use the darkness of the caves to my advantage.
She turned to me, and her eyes widened in surprise.
"Pyrrha…you're up" She said quietly
Before she could say anymore, I raised my shield up and pointed my Javelin at her.
"Who are you?!" I order, not wanting to show any signs of my weakness.
I was scared, cold, and confused, but if she saw even a hint of that, she could use it to strike me down without hesitation. I couldn't let my own weaknesses get me killed. So, I did what I had always done. I pushed my own thoughts, fears, and doubts deep away, and brought up that courage, that anger, that determination to win.
At my question she seemed stunned, taking a step back as her mouth opened and her brow rose.
"What?" She asked, bewildered.
"Who are you?! Why do you know my name?!" I shouted again, taking an aggressive step forward.
Just like with the other two, she seemed familiar, but I didn't know why. It was like she was on the edge of my memory, and the harder I tried to reach for it, the further it flew from my grasp. It was maddening to have my memories so close, and yet so far. To know that I was supposed to know them, but actually know nothing.
She recoiled again, her eyes taking in everything about me in.
"You don't know who I am?" She questioned, slowly raising her pistol.
Truthfully, she really wouldn't be able to do much with it if I didn't want her too, but I didn't want to show all my cards immediately. It would be better for her to make a mistake that I could take advantage of, rather than make the first move.
Still holding a stern, unyielding, gaze at her, I slowly shook my head, frowning at her question.
So she expected me to know her? Maybe she really can shed some light on what's going on here, on why I killed these two. I thought.
"The name Blake doesn't ring any bells?" She asked again
I was about to shake my head again, to deny it, when another, more violent, pulse of agony rocked my head again. I tried to resist it, but it was too much to ignore. I couldn't help but drop my javelin and clutch my head in pain as I struggled to get ahold of myself.
Then, as I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, trying to block out the pain, I remembered.
I had been in a bathroom, I had just gotten up, and this girl was in front of me. She was holding her hand out to me, and she said "My name's Blake, Blake Belladonna", introducing herself.
As I pulled myself out of my episode of agony, I opened my eyes again, looking at the girl in front of me.
"Blake…Belladonna?" I replied, unsure of myself.
At that she seemed to relax a bit, lowering her weapons and nodding in affirmation.
And with that, the small memory expanded, not a lot, but it was enough. When all was said and done, I didn't know much about her, but I knew what I needed. Whoever Blake Belladonna was, my instincts didn't consider her a threat.
No, that's not exactly right. No, it wasn't that she wasn't a threat, it's that she was…safe. She was a teammate, and I could trust her.
So I did.
I relaxed, lowing my shield as I stopped putting up a strong front. I allowed my posture to slack as my soreness came back in full force. I took several steps back before I allowed myself to collapse against the wall of the cavern again.
"Pyrrha, are you okay?" She said, worried about me. I couldn't see her face, but I could hear it in her voice.
"No" was all I could say.
I wasn't okay.
I knew I was safe enough with Blake here, and that meant I could relax. Because I could relax, I could think, and because I could think, I could realize what I had done. I could really process what was happening, what I had done, and what I had lost.
I had had another blackout. I couldn't remember hardly anything about today, and I woke up covered in blood next to two dead bodies. I didn't know what was going on, and I felt like I was losing my mind.
Even worse, after three years, I had had another dream, another flashback.
I had relapsed.
I felt like all the progress I had made over the years to pull myself back together was falling apart. I felt like I was falling apart. Everything I had done was falling to pieces, and I was losing myself.
But I couldn't fall apart yet, I had to hold it together right now.
So, I just laid there, staring out into the deep blue underground lake, and pondered my broken existence in despair.
I guess I'm still just a broken tool after all.
Blake pov
Earlier, after talking with Jaune for a bit, he felt tired and decided to go back to sleep. At first, I was worried he might have a concussion or something, given how many hard blows he had received, as well as the fact he had already passed out. However, after giving him a cursory examination, he seemed to be fine, apart from being sore all over.
So, I let him sleep. Why not?
The storm wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, so for the time being we were stuck in this cave. Outside it was still raging and howling. While the tornado itself was gone, the rest of the thunderstorm remained, making going outside an undesirable action.
In addition, due to the cave we were staying in and interference from the storm, I couldn't connect my scroll to the outside world. This meant I couldn't contact the school and get them to send a rescue party. Hell, I couldn't even tell them we were alive.
So, until the storm let up, we would be stuck in here, which would likely be for at least the rest of the day.
Since going outside was out of the question, the only other option left to us was exploring the cave. The problem with that, however, was that the cave was dark.
Extremely dark.
Outside of this cavern, there was hardly any luminescent fungi in the cave, certainly not enough for the illumination seen here. This meant that to a human like Jaune, the rest of the cave was pitch-black, making him useless.
Actually, a five minute trial run proved that he was worse than useless.
I told him that he wouldn't be able to do anything, but no he had to try to prove himself, and thanks to that, my feet hurt.
Anyway, it quickly became apparent that he had literally nothing to do other than sleep, so sleep he did. In the meantime, I went out and searched the cave system, trying to accomplish a couple things.
First, I wanted to map it out, to figure out if there were any other exits or points of interest like this cavern. Second, I wanted to hunt down and eliminate any potential threats. The drawings outside the cave indicated the possibility that something lived here once, but the question remained as to whether it still lived here.
After an hour or two of searching, marking my path by carving into the walls with Gambol, I had found another exit, and nothing trying to kill me. I hadn't finished searching all the caves, as they were quite extensive, but I decided that I had done a decent sweep of the surrounding area. So I headed back to keep watch over everyone else and to make sure they were okay.
Then, I walked in and saw that Pyrrha was already awake. At first I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by this. It meant she was okay, and that I could finally get some answers. Then I looked her in the eyes, and I instantly knew that something was very wrong.
They were no longer those dark, roiling, crimson orbs filled with cold killing instinct. Now, they were back to being emerald. Despite that however, they were still narrowed at me with suspicion, distrust, and wariness. In addition, she had her shield and spear raised to meet me as a potential enemy, not as a friend.
At first, the situation was tense, but it soon diffused once she began to remember me.
Then she just sat down against the cave wall, staring out into the waters looking…lost.
She said she wasn't okay, but I wasn't really sure I knew what to do about that. Managing other's personal problems wasn't usually something I did. Hell, managing my own personal problems wasn't something I was great at.
So instead I just stood there off to the side, leaning against the wall, wondering what to do. I was too wired right now to go to sleep, and I would have to wait quite a while before I could call in a rescue.
"Blake." Pyrrha called out, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Hmm?" I responded, turning to her.
"Why…" She began hesitantly, a pensive look on her face.
"Why did I kill them?" She asked.
"What?!" I said jolting up in surprise.
Whatever I had expected her to say, it was not that.
"Why did I kill those two?" She asked, gesturing toward Jaune and Lilith.
"I-I…" I stuttered, not really sure what to make of this, nor how she got there.
"Uh…, no, no. They're not dead, they're just asleep." I responded, very concerned about the mindset of the redhead.
"Asleep?" She repeated, confused.
"Yes, asleep." I said as I walked over to Jaune.
I lightly kicked him in the side, just enough to get a response.
"Mmrm fuck you I'm not a pretty princess." Jaune murmured as he squirmed slightly.
After repositioning himself slightly, he fell back to sleep without another word.
I'm…I'm not even sure what to think about that I thought, amused at his surprising response.
"S-so they're not dead?" Pyrrha questioned again in wonder.
"No, just asleep. Lilith's not doing well, she was knocked out or something, but Jaune just got tired and decided to take a nap." I explained.
"Oh…that's good, that's…that's very good." Pyrrha said, sinking back against the wall in relief. She looked as if a massive weight had just been taken off her shoulders, which, considering what she thought she did, isn't terribly surprising.
Still…
"Pyrrha, why did you think you killed them?" I asked, wondering why she came to such a…bizarre and extreme conclusion.
"Well, I woke up, unable to really remember what happened today, covered in blood, and next to someone in a death like sleep…is it really so surprising I jumped to that conclusion?" She asked tiredly.
For most people, probably. But I guess I can see the logic. I'd probably come to the same conclusion.
"I guess not…" I finally said, still somewhat wary of the girl, but willing to play nice.
Pyrrha seems to have calmed down significantly, and my instincts were no longer screaming at me that there was some form of impending danger coming from her. Despite her no longer being an immediate threat, I still found there to be a lot of…oddities…surrounding the fabled "Invincible girl".
"So Pyrrha, what was up with you earlier? With the Death Stalker?" I asked, trying to unravel some of her mysteries.
"What?" She asked, confused.
"Earlier, when we encountered a Death Stalker, you froze up and-" I began to say, trying to set the scene for her.
"I'm sorry." She interrupted.
"But I already told you, I really can't remember much of anything about today." She said, looking very apologetic.
"And that doesn't ring any bells?" I questioned.
"I'm sorry, but no. It doesn't." She said with a sad shake of her head.
I let out a frustrated breath.
Great, I finally get her alone to ask her some serious questions, and she has a bout of minor amnesia so she can't tell me the answers even if she wanted to.
I considered whether or not she was faking it, simply to avoid my questions, but I doubted it.
The Death Stalker beat on her pretty hard. I'm not exactly a medical specialist, but I wouldn't be surprised if she had a concussion, which as I know from personal experience, can result in memory loss.
Still though…what was that back there with the red eyes?
I knew that Aura could do strange things, and despite attempts to study Aura it remained an inconsistent and strange phenomenon in a lot of ways. One of those ways was how sometimes it could affect eye color. It wasn't explicitly unheard of, just...not common knowledge. But Pyrrha…Pyrrha should be dead after what that Death Stalker did to her. And instead, she got up with cold, vengeful red eyes, and killed the ancient Grimm with surprising ease, before continuing on in silence.
Perhaps it's her semblance?
Pyrrha Nikos, despite being rather famous and well known, was surprisingly private. Not much was known about her other than her history in the tournaments, and even then, there were some secrets. Her semblance, for example.
And Semblances could be…weird.
Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I decided to focus on something she should remember.
"Hey, Pyrrha?" I asked, getting her attention again.
"Yes?" She responded, turning back to me after my moment of quiet contemplation.
"Wha-" I began, pausing, making sure I really wanted to say what was on my mind.
"What are you?' I asked.
"Hmm?' She hummed as she scrunched up her brow in confusion, blinking in surprise a few times.
"Are you human, or…" I began before reluctantly continuing, "Are you a Faunus, like me?" I finished, gesturing towards my black cat ears.
She looked human, for the most part. But, there were some special cases in which the more animalistic traits of a Faunus weren't so obvious, or weren't as prominently expressed. Then, there was her teeth.
Her oh so sharp teeth.
She didn't exactly have rows of razor sharp teeth, but they were noticeably more predatory than a normal human's had any right to be.
I might have been able to smell what kind of Faunus she was if she wasn't covered in dirt and blood. Even still, it wasn't a sure thing. Some Faunus just don't have a particularly strong scent.
"Oh!" She said, her eyes lighting up in understanding.
"I, er, well." She began, somewhat flustered and giving off a mild blush.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm probably just a regular old human, unlike yourself." She answered with a weak, self-deprecating chuckle.
Oh, well, I guess that's a little disappointing. I thought, a bit sad that it turned out that I would be the sole Faunus on the team after all. Unless, of course, Lilith had something she was hiding from all of us as well.
Still, I guess it's nice to know that my Faunus heritage won't raise any problems I thought, sighing as I realized I should just take what I could get.
Then, I noticed something. A…discrepancy in what she said.
"Wait, what do you mean probably?" I inquired suspiciously.
At that she chuckled nervously, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Er, well, that?"
"You don't know?" I continued, exasperated.
How could she not know?
"Well I-I'm, er…I'm adopted." She began to explain.
Oh I thoughtblankly.
That, I was not expecting.
I had never expected that the famous Pyrrha Nikos, the "Invincible Girl", would have been adopted.
I wonder how would people react if they new that their favorite little huntress in training was a species confused orphan?
"I'm adopted, and, well, it never really came up before." She continued.
"But…but…there are tests a-and-" I sputtered, dumbfounded that she didn't even know.
"Not to put down being a Faunus or anything, but that honestly wasn't very high on my priority list. I was usually too busy with training and being, well... famous, to worry about that." She elaborated with an apologetic smile. Thought the strained way she said famous was a little suspicious.
Once again, though, I was floored. She didn't even seem to care to know. For someone like me, someone whose racial identity was integral to who I was, to what I dreamed about, I had a very hard time fathoming it.
"But, you must have some idea about who your parents were, some memories of them or something?" I continued, reaching for anything now.
Instead, she shook her head with a sad smile. "No, I was orphaned as a baby. I have absolutely no clue who my biological family is."
"No clue at all?" I continued. I couldn't imagine someone having such a…casual disinterest in their past, their legacy, their family.
Especially after what happened to mine.
"You've never wondered about them? Never had any suspicions? Thoughts? Ideas? Anything?" I pressed further.
"Well…" She began with a thoughtful look, staring up to the blue-lit ceiling as she delved deep into her thoughts, her past.
"I suppose I have given it some thought." She began.
"Yes?" I asked, eager to hear what it was, if for no other reason than to learn more about the thought process of my new teammate. To hopefully gain some insight into her hopes and dreams.
"I guess I'd have to say my mother…my mother's probably…" She said with a sigh and sad smile.
"A whore."
And with that, my mind went completely blank.
What.
"My mother's probably just some whore living in a brothel, and one day she accidently got pregnant. She was probably too poor or something to abort me, and having a child in a brothel was probably bad for business, so…she probably got rid of me the first chance she got." She explained with a sad smile.
There was no…venom…no despair, or longing, or anger, or anything of the sort when she said it.
Instead, the sadness on her face, in her eyes, didn't seem to be one of loss, not one that said, "Oh, why oh why did this happen to me? Oh mother, why did you forsake me?" Instead it seemed to be a look that said, "Oh well, what can you do?"
It was one of sad acceptance.
"H-how…" I tried to say, too stunned to form a coherent sentence.
"How? Er, um, well…I'm not too sure of the specifics of it really, it's really ju-" She began to explain, misinterpreting me.
"No!" I shouted at her, causing her to recoil in surprise.
"How can you say things?! How can you say these terrible terrible things about your own mother so…so…casually?!" I roared at her.
Pyrrha looked at me, taken aback, recoiling from me. "I-I…I don't…" She said, trying to find the words.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you or anything." She apologized frantically, a panicked look on her wide eyed face.
I let out a frustrated sigh at her apology.
"No no, it's…it's fine. I just…" I responded, trying to reign in my anger.
Honestly, I don't really know which part, specifically, made me so mad. I couldn't tell whether I was mad at her, or for her. Most of all I was just…shocked…by what she had said.
"How can you say that so easily? How can you even think that?" I asked.
"That's…that's just how it probably is." She responded sheepishly, as if she honestly didn't know how wrong it sounded.
"But why that? I mean, I know you don't actually know anything about your family, but why, of all things, would you think that that is who your mother is?" I asked, bewildered by her thought process.
"Er, well, that's the story of a lot of orphans from where I was adopted from in Mistral. It just kind of makes sense that it wouldn't be too different for me." She explained.
Part of me was still angry at…something. Part of me wanted to tell her off, yell at her. Instead, I let out a frustrated and bewildered breath, hanging my head in my hands as I thought, What am I even trying to do?
I want to do something to her, but what? What in the world am I trying accomplish by telling her off?
It's not like Pyrrha was being hostile or anything. Quite the opposite, she was being very apologetic about her views. Besides, it's her family, not mine. If she thinks that her birth mother is a whore who threw her away, who am I to disagree?
"I guess…I guess that makes a certain kind of sense." I forced out through my hands.
Letting go of my mouth and moving my hands up to my hair, I let out another hot breath.
"I just don't understand how you can think like that." I said tiredly, relenting in my not-so-righteous fury.
"Sorry?" Pyrrha said with a helpless shrug and a shaky smile, not knowing what else to say.
"I suppose it's not really your fault." I conceded, looking at the ground at my feet.
After a moment of silence as I just tried to...process…what she had said, Pyrrha spoke up once more.
"Um, Blake?" She asked, getting my attention.
"Yes?" I responded, lazily turning back to her.
"Can you tell me what happened today? It's all still kind of a…messy blur of…stuff." She tried to explain, her face scrunched up in mild frustration.
It only took me a moment to come to my decision.
"Okay, fair enough." I agreed with a nod of my head.
"Where do you want me to start?" I asked.
"The earliest memory I can solidly pin down is meeting you in the bathroom after I got up." She said after a moment of thought.
So…the beginning. Great I frowned
Nevertheless, I told her the tale, as best I knew, of what happened today.
Goodwitch pov
31.
31 people…gone I thought, staring at the page.
No matter how much I looked at it, no matter how much I wanted it to change, it just stayed the same.
It had been a few hours since I had gotten back to the school, and even still, I was struggling to come to terms with what had happened this morning, how things had taken a sudden and dark for the worst. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to rest. I still had a duty to keep things in order, write up a report, and tally the casualties.
No matter how I felt about it.
So, I did my job, barely keeping myself together as I pushed forward. As much as I just wanted to take a drink and lose myself, to just let go for a minute or an hour, to just…rest…I couldn't. Not yet.
That said, looking at the report in front of me, my stomach couldn't help but churn.
We had only managed to bring back 50 of the 80 students that were put in the forest this morning. Despite how much Ozpin played up Initiation, we don't usually have any students die. Sometimes a few get injured, perhaps critically so, but rarely is it the case that a student will perish before the staff can get involved.
To have 30 students, 37.5%, of the incoming body perish was…unprecedented.
Of the 50 recovered, 16 have been hospitalized for various major injuries. Some would be painful and leave scars, but not crippling. Others…others would potentially end their huntsman career before it ever truly took off.
Then…there was the staff.
It was just another reminder that despite having years of experience and training under your belt, you were never truly safe, never invincible. Of the 13 teachers that aided in the evacuation, including myself, one died at the evacuation site to Grimm, and 5 have been hospitalized.
Including Professor Port.
The Huntress who perished was Mrs. Nadie, mother of twins, the cause of her leaving the huntress lifestyle and becoming a teacher. She was the head Psychiatrist, and she was very good at her job. Part of that included giving advice to the occasionally stressed teacher, something I confess to doing on occasion myself.
She was kind, patient, caring, and insightful, and it's a shame we lost her.
But, as much as I wanted mourn her loss, and the loses of all the students, right now I couldn't afford to waste too much time on it. I had to be pragmatic and practical as always.
So, aside from the ethical and moral problems resulting from the…slaughter…that was this year's Initiation ceremony, there several other major concerns.
First, as it was right now we only have 50 freshmen from the first wave of Initiation. Given what they encountered, I'm going to recommend to Ozpin that we allow them to enter whether or not they actually reached the temple and grabbed the chess pieces. I can't see why he would refuse.
Given the large amount of incoming initiates the school receives, we conduct Initiation in waves, often three. In each wave, we send up to 80 initiates into the Emerald Forest to retrieve relics or some other task. We normally have an Initiation failure rate of about 20%, but with how the first wave of Initiation went... the classrooms would likely be a bit emptier this year.
Second, morale will likely plummet as a result of the casualties suffered. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if several of the freshmen decided to drop out, finding the horrors of being a Huntsman too much for them to bear. While school spirit was rarely something I cared too much about, the general mental health and state of the student body was, especially considering they were fighting empathic monsters that fed on and were drawn to darker emotions.
Third, we would need to figure out how to adjust for casualties suffered to the staff. While only one of them died in the forest, two teachers currently in the hospital have severe and life-threatening injuries. Honestly, there could be several other deaths over the next couple days as student and teacher alike perish in the hospital.
So, I would need to somehow accommodate for the loss of at least one teacher. That meant figuring how to perhaps shuffle around schedules, having other teachers fill in, or even cancelling some classes until replacements could be found. Something that might prove difficult considering the undoubtable publicity that will result from this.
Which brought me to the fourth issue. The publicity.
As much as I didn't particularly care for this side of academics, I couldn't ignore it. The fact was that this event would be big news throughout the kingdoms. In some cases it would bring about sympathy for what they might see as a terrible, if unavoidable, tragedy. In others, people might see this as the school's fault for not protecting our students well enough. This might cause them to want to investigate the school more closely, or introduce changes to make sure it never happened again.
Considering this wasn't technically a government school, that meant there was a limit to what they could do. That didn't mean they couldn't do anything, however. It just meant they had to be more crafty about it.
I let out a loud and tired sigh as I reclined in my chair and rubbed my temples.
This is a mess I thought.
Fortunately, it wasn't a mess I had to deal with alone. We had various staff on hand that would deal with some of the more tedious and intimate details of all of these things. It meant the weight was solely on mine and Ozpin's shoulders, which was a relief. Then I remembered something else we would have to do.
We're going to have to notify the families. I realized.
We would have to notify the families of both the students and teachers who perished and are injured. In fact, we would likely have to notify all the families regarding the status of their children, whether to give them comforting news or…otherwise.
But what about Ruby's? I wondered.
Honestly, I didn't want to think about it right now. I had attempted to rescue the young girl from her insane and abusive father, I wanted to try and give her a better life than the one she had lived in isolation and scorn.
And now she was dead.
She was one of the 11 who were unaccounted for. It would have been 12, but it one of them was brutally killed by the tornado in front of all of us.
In any case, we had no idea where she was, and I doubted she survived that massive Tornado, along with the horde of angry and hungry Grimm in the forest. Even if she did, we wouldn't be able to go after her until the storm passed. After the Tornado died down, the storm remained. It's intensity right now was such that we couldn't safely have Bullheads fly around out there.
And its my fault. I brought her here, thinking she could handle it, and then I sent her into the forest, thinking she would be alright.
Then I left her behind.
And now, here I was, wondering whether or not to tell her family.
No, that's not right.
They had a right to know, that wasn't in doubt. Instead, I was reluctant about telling them more because of whether I thought they were worthy of it. Her father certainly wasn't, he'd probably rejoice at her death.
Her sister on the other hand…
I sighed again.
I just don't know enough about this I thought.
There were just too many unknowns, and too many things out of my hands.
But…I don't need to tackle this today. I decided.
I have many things to do, and this…this can wait, at least until I know more.
Nothing good ever came from rushing to make unfounded decisions
And with that, I stood up and made my way to Ozpin's office.
Blake pov
It was finally the next morning. The storm had finally passed. We could finally get out of here, and back to civilization.
Thank god I thought as I stretched my back out in the sun.
Last night before I had gone to bed had been…interesting.
At some point, Jaune got back up, and joined me and Pyrrha as I explained the day's events to her. Eventually she remembered everything again.
Everything except the Death Stalker.
Apparently, last she could remember we had just gotten out chess pieces. She remembers there was supposed to be a tornado on the way, and we were in the middle of a giant storm, but she doesn't remember the Death Stalker encounter, nor what happened afterward.
Though, when we mentioned her "death" and her red eyes, she seemed exceptionally surprised and alarmed.
"Wait, my eyes were red?" She questioned
"Yes." Jaune and I both answered simultaneously.
In response she gave a confused and concerned look as she scrunched up her brow.
Then, her eyes lit up with possibility, and raised a hand up to her eye and-
"eeegghh!" Jaune said in disgust, recoiling as Pyrrha touched her eyeball.
Contacts? I wondered, familiar with them.
I had used them on occasion for various things, usually disguises though.
"Hmm." Pyrrha said finally as she retracted her hand, staring at it with a pensive look
"What's wrong?" Jaune asked, recovering from his disgust.
"I usually wear contacts." She responded absentmindedly, still staring at her empty fingers.
"You need contacts?" I questioned.
The idea that the "Invincible Girl" needed contacts was…surprising.
"No, not need." She answered, still staring at her empty fingers worriedly.
"Now I'm lost." I said.
"Same here." Jaune seconded.
Finally, Pyrrha looked back up at us, and replied. "They aren't prescription contacts to correct my vision, they're combat contacts."
"What?" Jaune said, voicing my thoughts.
"Combat contacts are contacts that are designed to keep your eye moisturized, keep dust and irritants out, as well as general protect your eye. There's also a version that gives you a HUD and AR functions, but I didn't bring those with me." She explained
"Basically, they make it so I don't need to blink nearly as often." She simplified.
"Oh." Jaune simply said in understanding
I can see how that would be useful. I thought. If it worked like it sounded like it did, it would make things like throwing sand in your opponent's eyes worthless. Not to mention, in an intense fight, even blinking can cost you a precious instant of awareness.
"I'm guessing that during the fight they got knocked out or something, causing my eyes to get all red and irritated." She mused.
That made a certain level of sense. It was a plausible excuse. Given by how Jaune was nodding his head in understanding, I'm sure he believed it.
I wasn't so convinced. Pyrrha seemed to think it made sense, she didn't appear to be lying, but something was troubling her deeply about this.
More importantly, when I looked at her eyes, they didn't seem to be an inflamed type of red.
Then again, maybe I'm overthinking this. Maybe her red eyes were really just due to irritation.
Regardless, Pyrrha was one to keep an eye on.
In any case, the night went on for a while longer, and at some point Pyrrha finally decided to bath in the underground pool to get all the blood and dirt off her. Afterwards, in an act of either chivalry or Jaune simply not wanting things to get even more awkward, he gave her his hoodie to put on.
In the end, none of us were terribly comfortable, but we weren't freezing to death or anything, so it was tolerable.
Eventually, however, I succumbed to sleep, with Pyrrha and Jaune keeping watch over me.
But now, it was morning, and I could finally call the school, tell them we weren't dead, and get ourselves out of here.
And so, pulling out my scroll, I called the contact number we given if we were in an emergency.'
Within a few seconds of ringing, the person on the other end picked up with a groggy, "Hello?"
A/n:
As I said before, I'm not dead.
The reason I took so long is due to a bunch of things, partly just me writing slowly, partly distractions.
Distractions that might rhyme with Tire Emporium.
Regardless, that's not really important.
What is important, is the RWBY Volume 3 Finale. It was...intense. Seriously intense. Honestly, I almost cried.
Tears of joy.
The whole time I was watching it I was grinning like a schoolgirl. If said school girl was a also a demented serial killer.
No joke.
I LOVE what they've done and where they've gone with the story. It's awesome, and it's very different from how like, 75% of everybody thought V3 was going to go.
This is a SPOILER ALERT, so if you haven't seen it, you really need to. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read past this line.
Okay, I'm not giving big spoilers, exactly, but a thing you need to know is that, assuming that when I actually get there I'm fairly close to cannon, things aren't going to go down the exact same way.
That doesn't mean they'll be better, though. Just take a look at what I did to Initiation. You think I'm going to turn the bloodbath that was the Vytal Festival into picnic?
It means things are going to be different overall.
Roman might die earlier, or he might live forever.
Instead of Yang getting her arm chopped off, Nora might get her voicebox torn out or her tongue burned off.
Instead of Penny and Pyrrha dying, it might be Ms. Goodwitch and Jaune.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how different all the things are going to be, simply that they will be different. Part of the reason I'm not sure how different things will be is pretty simple.
It's really fucking far away.
But that's enough of the end for this Scene. I'll give you some more hints and info about it in the later scenes.
END SPOILERS
Okay, now, one of the main reasons it took so long to post is because I've done what I said I'd do.
I have finished all 4 Scenes in this arc. They are all, mostly, done and ready to post.
Which means for the next 3 scenes the post time will be super fast.
Now, if it wasn't obvious before, I'm telling you now.
I'm not doing the arc where Ruby and Weiss have a little conflict about being the leader. Not because I didn't like it, it honestly made sense, but because it can't happen. I would have to pull the most bullshit thing ever in order for it to happen. Weiss doesn't even know Ruby exists, let alone the two being on the same team.
So, this arc is kind of the analogy for that arc. We don't actually start school, persee, but all the pieces get put into place for the real meat of the story to start. This is just the introduction, of sorts.
The next arc is sort of the analogy for the Jaundice arc, but things, again, aren't going to play out exactly the same. Also, the arc where Blake's origin's are revealed isn't going to be happening very canonically either. I can't really do it without forcing it since Weiss isn't there to push Blake into slipping up.
Honestly, from here out, we're going to be kind of veering away from cannon. Some things that are time based, such as the Vytal Festival, will still happen, just differently.
Other things probably won't, or at least they'll be extremely different. I'm trying not to use cannon as a crutch, but instead a guideline.
But that's enough about the far-off future.
As for the now, the thing where Blake's not entirely sure what Pyrrha is and neither is Pyrrha kind of makes sense to me in light of Tukson or however you spell his name.
Tukson was, we can safely assume, a Faunus. And yet, until they brought up the White Fang and he decided to advertise that fact, he looked really human.
Now, maybe I'm missing something, because as far as I can tell Adam looks super fucking human too, but from what I can tell there are Faunus that look extremely human.
And considering the breadth of capabilities "normal" humans have, I think it's not too much of a stretch to say that there can be some who are in a gray area. I mean, as cool as night vision is, some people, myself included, have pretty great night vision without also having cat ears or whatever.
Plus, not all animals have great night vision. Lots of them like to sleep at night.
So, yeah, I may be taking liberties with it, but are the liberties that extreme? I mean really? All things considered, I don't think it's a big deal, but if I don't explain it here, someone might complain about me being stupid idiot later.
On that same note, I'm not telling you whether Pyrrha's human or Faunus. Just keep in mind that humanity's kind of weird enough without adding different species to the mix. That and genetics can be weird, but awesome.
Also, you may have noticed that the number of students that were in Initiation has changed. If you didn't...
Well you have now.
Anyways, I felt that 40 was a bit low of a number of an incoming class. So, I changed it. I added waves to Initiation and doubled the number of people who were there.
It won't really matter in the long run compared to how I had it originally, it's just a detail I felt could make a bit more sense.
Oh, and what you can expect in this arc is 1: The formation of teams.
2: Character bonding.
3: Some backstory
4: Finishing the setup.
5: Lucifer
Also, finally, I want to address a few reviews I got last Scene.
First off, it seems everyone lost their shit over Lucifer.
That...was surprising.
It's kind of funny considering he has all one line in that Scene.
500 words is all I needed to add to make everyone go batshit apperently.
Still, though, he is important, so I guess it can be forgiven.
Speaking of which
Durmanstainer commented on some stuff about Lucifer. I kinda feel like you're putting words in my mouth, man. I'm not saying Lucifer's not kind of a dick, but I'm pretty sure I didn't say that he saved Ruby. If I did, then I KNOW I didn't say he did it out of the kindness in his cold dead heart.
And VariousStories commented on how I'm taking a long time. Sorry, but that's kind of how it's going to go. Things kind of pick up after this chapter, but we're never going to be going blazing fast. I can kind of understand why you might think Yang and Ruby should have met already, but first of all, Scenes 5-16 have all taken place in the same 24 hour period. Not that much time has passed.
Now, more detailed answers to your questions will appear in the next couple chapters, but if that doesn't satisfy you then...sorry?
In any case, that's it for now. The next three Scenes should be coming out either every day, or every other day
