I just want to apologize in advance for this chapter. By its very nature it's going to be darker than the canon events. There is, however, a somewhat sweet scene at the end of the chapter.
There's also going to be a bit (read: a lot) of lore changes to how the Maidens' powers move around in the first scene of the chapter.
Chapter 31: Snow's Fear, a Rose's Rage
Ozpin's Office, with Ozpin, Qrow, Aurelius, Adrienne, and Pyrrha
"It comes as no surprise that your team has chosen you to move on to the final rounds in the tournament. Your performance has been exemplary," Ozpin said, looking at Pyrrha from across his desk while Qrow leaned against a pillar behind her. Aurelius stared out the window, watching a wing of Atlesian dropships fly past while Adrienne was admiring her new sword.
"Thank you, Professor Ozpin, but I would never have made it this far without my teammates," Pyrrha said, causing Qrow to scoff.
"Personally, I think it's the other way around," Qrow said. Pyrrha turned to look at the man.
"I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've been introduced," she said.
Ozpin spoke up. "Qrow is a trusted colleague of mine." Pyrrha gestured to Adrienne. "Ah, yes, I suppose you haven't met Adrienne either. She's… an old friend that recently returned to us." Adrienne smiled before Pyrrha spoke up.
"Professor, if you don't mind me asking… Why have you called me here?"
"Please, take a seat," Ozpin said, waiting for her to sit down before speaking up. "Tell me, do you remember any fairy tales from your childhood?"
Pyrrha nodded, a confused frown on her face. "Yes, but I don't understand what that has to do with anything…"
"You will understand in due time. Tell me, do you remember the story of the seasons?" Ozpin said, causing Aurelius to glance over his shoulder.
"Of course! The story of the old wizard and the four maidens that he granted incredible powers in exchange for their kindness and a promise to help others whenever they could. My mother loves that story."
"Would you believe me if I said I could remember when the story was first told?"
Pyrrha smiled, a small chuckle leaving her. "You're not that old, professor."
Aurelius spoke up, not turning to look at her. "Would you believe us if we said the story was true?" Pyrrha blinked in surprise as he turned around, pacing the room. "What if we told you the four Maidens were real, and that their powers were not just the thing of bedtime stories?"
"You mean like a semblance?" Pyrrha asked, glancing between Aurelius and Ozpin.
"Like magic," Ozpin corrected, causing Pyrrha to stammer for a moment before Qrow spoke up.
"Yeah, first time hearing it's pretty crazy…"
"Y-you're serious?" Pyrrha asked nervously.
Ozpin tapped his can against the floor. "Do I look like I'm joking Ms. Nikos? We can even prove it to you. Not only is one of the Maidens here, at Beacon, right now, but the wizard himself stands in this very room." Aurelius stopped, cloak forming around him before he glanced at Pyrrha, silver eyes shining briefly as Adrienne joined him, her own cloak materializing on her.
"Why are you telling me this?"
Aurelius let out a sigh. "We are telling you this because we believe you are next in line to receive the Fall Maiden's powers." Pyrrha looked at him questioningly before the two elevators dinged, the doors opening to reveal Ironwood and a slightly anxious Winter in one with Glynda, Ruby, and Weiss in the other.
"Sorry we're late," Ironwood said, fixing his tie. "But we were just ensuring that everyone knew their responsibilities during the sweep of the Tower." As everyone stepped out, Pyrrha looked around in confusion.
"What is all this? Who are you?" the redhead said.
Glynda stepped forward. "You know who we are. We're still the same teachers, headmasters, and students you met when you arrived at Beacon."
"Mostly, but I doubt Blue over there expected it any more than the rest of us," Qrow said calmly.
"We are the protectors of this world," Ironwood started, before Ozpin spoke up.
"And we need your help…"
After a moment Pyrrha found herself in an elevator with Ozpin, Ironwood, Qrow, and Glynda. "Where are we going?" she asked meekly, causing Ozpin to speak up.
"To the vault, under the school."
When the elevator finally stopped, Pyrrha stepped out into a large corridor, looking around anxiously as the two groups moved on ahead of her, Glynda slowing down to speak with her. "I'm sure you must have questions."
"Maybe one… or two…" Pyrrha said.
"Only two? And here I expected an endless torrent of them. Pity…" Aurelius remarked.
Ruby looked at him, rubbing the back of her head. "I mean, she only just found out about this now. Give her a day or two and she'll probably have more."
Winter glanced around. "How big is this place?"
"Large enough to ensure nobody can reach our destination without a fight if they aren't supposed to be here," Ozpin said.
Pyrrha spoke up. "I still don't understand. You said I was next in line to receive the Maiden's power. What do you mean by that?"
"The Maidens have existed for thousands of years, but they aren't immortal. It's far more difficult to bestow that on someone, so I ensured that, when they die, their power and experiences would be transferred to a new host, allowing them to continue to exist and help others in some limited form."
Pyrrha looked down for a moment. "So… How does the power choose?"
"Through a series of stupid and convoluted rules," Qrow growled.
"Qrow!" Glynda snarled.
"Hey, don't get mad 'cause I'm right."
"At first, the only thing that was certain was that the powers were specifically passed on to young women, but as time went on, it was discovered that the selection process was much more… intimate."
"Intimate?" Pyrrha asked.
"As we understand it now, when a Maiden dies, the one who was in her final thoughts is the first candidate to inherit her power."
Qrow shrugged. "Unless it's a dude or some old hag. Then the power goes to someone random and our jobs get a lot harder… Like I said, stupid and convoluted."
Winter raised her eyebrow, glancing at Aurelius. "I find it hard to believe that someone like you would create a series of rules so inefficient, Aurelius."
The Blue Rose let out a frustrated growl. "The rules are actually more straightforward than that usually and have a reason, it's just that people seem to have forgotten them. First off, the reason the powers will go to the last person their previous host thought of is to speed up the process. When I first granted them fragments of my powers, there were no real limitations. The shards would pick a random person on their host's death, and since they don't have a conscious will of their own like the rest of my power does, this could take a few years. Eventually it became clear that the powers prefer to follow the path of least resistance by picking people with close ties to their previous host, so I tweaked the rules so that the Maiden's powers would always go to whoever their host was thinking about in their last moments, then pick someone who their host was close to if they weren't thinking of anyone else within a ten-second timeframe."
"Second, the selection process isn't random if the first candidate doesn't qualify. Each of the original Maidens left a spiritual imprint on their powers, which tends to try and adjust their host's personality to better match that of the original Maiden unless their host has a strong positive tie to the previous host or a strong enough will to either resist the effect or, worse, corrupt the imprint. We found out the first part early on and realized this could lead to… difficulties when the host was randomly selected and had no connection to the previous one. The closer someone is personality-wise to the original Maiden, the less of an impact it has on them, but if someone truly twisted and evil inherits the power and can't resist the effect or imprint their own will onto it, they tend to suffer a psychotic break. When we discovered this, and the fact the power of one of the Maidens had been corrupted, I had to actually go reclaim the power and purify the imprint before bestowing the power to someone else. After that, I had to add a new rule."
"How it worked after that was, when the holder of a Maiden's power died and the next host was selected randomly, the powers would always prefer to go to someone who had a personality mostly similar to the personality of the imprint before picking someone else. This means the Winter Maiden's powers tend to go to people who are more contemplative and wise, the Spring Maiden's powers tend to go to someone with a fondness for life and nature, the Summer Maiden's power tends to pick warm and compassionate people, while the Fall Maiden's power prefers people who are content with their lot in life and charitable. The first rule overrides this, causing the powers to go to whoever their previous host was thinking of so long as they qualified under the remaining rules."
"Third, after we realized that it was possible to both corrupt the imprints and cleanse them through the same process, it was decided that we needed to limit the risks of the hosts corrupting the imprints. Most children, teens, and young adults have souls pure enough to prevent the power from corrupting them and, inversely, won't corrupt the power, so an age limit was added. A few years after that our friend Ozpin here learned the most annoying trick ever where he can merge his soul with another's on death to continue living, which we couldn't risk happening to the Maidens' powers and being permanently bound to him, so we had to work on a compromise to prevent that from happening. The only other rule is that no one person can naturally hold the power of two Maidens since they tend to make someone completely unhinged."
Weiss hummed. "So, the Maidens' power is inherited by young women who don't have the power of another Maiden and was the last person its previous host was thinking of within ten seconds of dying, unless they don't fit that requirement in which case it'd go to a random person who had a personality similar to that of the original Maiden or whatever corrupted imprint was left on the power?"
Aurelius nodded. "That's correct."
Qrow scoffed. "Okay, so it's not stupid and convoluted, it's just complex and annoying."
"Why are you telling me this now?" Pyrrha asked. "Why not wait until I've graduated?"
"Honestly, we've run out of time. I don't know if you've noticed, but things are getting a lot scarier out there in the world," Qrow said before Aurelius spoke up.
"Grimm are becoming more prevalent and aggressive, groups like the White Fang and the Schnee Dust Company are increasing racial tensions between humans and faunus, and even the kingdoms are starting to get anxious, more so with the increasing failures to track down the last few perpetrators of the Rose Hunts. It's only a matter of time before this tenuous peace we've enjoyed for the last few decades comes to an end."
"You're not talking about war, are you?" Pyrrha asked. Ironwood glanced over his shoulder.
"Not a war between nations." Aurelius grunted.
"Hopefully not one between nations, we still have no idea what our enemy has planned."
Winter glanced at him. "By "we" do you mean you as well?"
Aurelius sighed. "I have a few ideas, none that I can share without risk of what I say eventually getting to someone that decides they think what could potentially be happening is a great idea and they should try to replicate it."
Winter glared at him briefly before sighing as Qrow spoke up. "All you need to know right now is that one of the Maidens was attacked, and for the first time in recent history part of her power was stolen." They walked out into a large room with a machine in the center. A young woman lay in one of the pods hooked up to the machine.
Ozpin glanced at the group and gestured to the girl. "The current Fall Maiden, Amber."
Qrow glanced at Aurelius before he spoke up. "I still don't get why you can't do what you did before."
"The process isn't as easy as you would think. If she were to die in the process, there's a good chance the remainder of her power will do what's natural and try to merge back with the part that was stolen." Aurelius said before Pyrrha turned to look at the group.
"If what you say is true, why would you keep it secret?" she asked in frustration.
Aurelius sighed. "Because the last time people knew the identity of the Maidens, it went… poorly. As it is, the only reason why I'm going along with this is because you happen to be close enough to the Fall Maiden's personality that the mad process Atlas has come up with isn't as likely to affect you as someone else."
Pyrrha swallowed nervously. "A-and that process would be…?"
Qrow took a drink from his flask before speaking up. "Basically, they took a look at Oz's body surfing bullshit and figured out how to mimic it. They'd be cramming her soul into your body and merging the two. Even Blue here isn't too sure what the hell it'd do, which I've gotta admit is more than a little scary."
Ozpin stepped forward. "Ms. Nikos, there's no guarantee this transfer will work… And there's no telling if you will be the same person if it does. I advise you to take time to think on this matter… But please understand that we need your answer before the Vytal Festival is over." Pyrrha nodded quietly before the group turned around, walking back to the elevators.
Before they stepped in, Ironwood glanced at the Blue Rose. "Aurelius… I know it's not much of an apology for my actions, but I thought you'd like to know that Ruby has been given a clean bill of health. I've already ensured that her weapons and Dust were delivered to her room and that the security detail is reassigned." Aurelius nodded subtly before stepping into the elevator, Ironwood letting out a sigh before walking into the other.
Colosseum Arena
Ruby hummed as the screen displayed her and Mercury before she moved to the opposite side of the platform, waiting for everyone to file off. Once the stage rose into position, she quickly unfolded Crescent Rose and held it behind her. She closed her eyes for a moment as Mercury called out. "Don't expect me to go easy on you, fur ball."
Ruby let out a sigh. "My Vigil begins. I will not falter, lest I disgrace those who came before. I will not yield, nor will I abandon those who rely upon me. I will not hesitate, lest I be found wanting…" Ruby said before she opened her eyes, glaring at Mercury as they shone brightly, causing the boy to take a step back. "Don't expect me to go easy on you, either."
Mercury take a step back and let out a frustrated sigh. "Great… Well, it wouldn't be interesting if it was easy I guess." He quickly slipped into his fighting stance while Ruby held her scythe in front of her.
In the stands
Weiss grinned, hands on the Arena wall as she waited for the match to start. "So, how do you think this is going to turn out?" Jaune asked. Yang glanced over at him, a huge grin on her face.
"What do you mean? I'm more interested in if he can even land a hit on her," Yang said cheerfully.
Ren looked at her suspiciously. "What do you mean? Ruby may be a skilled warrior, but she isn't that skilled."
Weiss glanced at him. "Perhaps, but she's recently… learned quite a few things. It's possible Pyrrha might be able to get one or two strikes on her if Ruby chose to take the fight seriously, and Mercury couldn't even touch Pyrrha. If he manages to hit Ruby, I'll be greatly impressed."
The members of team JNPR glanced at each other as the match started.
In the Arena
Mercury charged towards Ruby, jumping into the air in an attempt to deliver a kick to her chest. Ruby hummed and sidestepped, a small trail of petals behind her before she brought the back her scythe down in an overhead swing, forcing Mercury to fire off a round to avoid being slammed into the ground. Ruby smiled before she surged forward, making a wide swing at his legs before he jumped over the blade before he tried to kick Ruby's shoulder. Ruby frowned as she let the momentum of the swing pull her to the side, taking a step back before regaining her balance, only for Mercury to make a sweeping kick at her legs. Ruby grinned as she jumped up, embedding Crescent Rose into the ground, spinning around the handle to deliver a powerful kick to the side of Mercury's head before landing back on her feet.
Ruby hummed as she quickly tapped the Dust crystal embedded in her scythe, causing it to turn white as a wind picked up. She quickly made a wide swing, sending a gust of wind at Mercury in an attempt to knock him off the stage. Ruby hummed in content as he went over the side, only to smile as he flew back up, landing on his feet. "Not bad…" she said quietly while Mercury growled.
"Alright, now you're really starting to get on my nerves." He ran forward throwing a punch at Ruby's face before trying to take her legs out from under her again, ending it with a punch to her stomach that finally connected. Ruby let out a growl as she landed a few feet away from the boy before he started firing shots randomly into the air. Ruby watched as they circled around, grinning as they started to close in. Just before they struck, Ruby exploded into a cloud of rose petals swarming out of the barrage before reforming in the air above Mercury. "Just how quick is she?" he thought to himself as he jumped away before her scythe rammed into the ground. He tried to fire a shot at her, only to realize the guns in his boots were out of ammo. The delay gave Ruby enough time to charge at him, making a series of strikes along his arms and legs. Ruby continued for a few steps before she jumped back, giving Mercury a chance to catch his breath as she tapped the crystal again.
Mercury glanced up in time to see the Dust crystal in the side turn yellow before he ducked out of the way of the arc of lightning Ruby sent his way, bursts of electricity arcing across the ground behind him. As he got within range of Ruby, he moved forward and roughly slammed his head against hers, causing her to stagger back in surprise. He quickly made a few quick strikes to her torso before being sent flying by a gust of wind, standing up to see Ruby glaring at him while rubbing her head. "That's kind of a cheap move, don't you think?"
Mercury shrugged. "Hey, whatever it takes to win, right?" Ruby scoffed before charging at the boy to deliver another slash. Mercury grinned as he ducked under the blade, getting ready to sweep Ruby's legs out from under her before she slammed the bottom of her weapon's handle into his head, knocking him down as the buzzer sounded.
"Oh, it seems Mercury is going to have a serious headache after that fight, don't you agree, Doctor?" Port said as Ruby held her scythe behind her, smiling at her team before bowing.
"Indeed it does, Peter. Ruby Rose is the winner of the first match!" Oobleck shouted.
Ruby let out a sigh as she folded up her scythe before walking away, eyes back to normal. "Thank you for the fight, perhaps we'll have a chance to battle again next time we meet."
Ruby heard Mercury's voice behind her. "There won't be a next time, mutt." Ruby quickly reactivated her semblances, turning to face Mercury as he jumped into the air, seemingly prepared to attack. Her hand moved to grab her weapon off her back when she paused.
"Wait, something's not right. This isn't real, something's messing with me…" Ruby blinked momentarily as she used her semblance to quickly adjust, Mercury vanishing from sight. She vaguely heard a gunshot before she staggered backwards, Aura suddenly depleting. She blinked in surprise before her eyes widened. "That was real!" She jumped to the side as she felt the next one tear into her shoulder, causing her to scream in pain.
Moments earlier, in the stands
Yang let out a cheer while Weiss stood up. "Excellent work Ruby, that was incredible!" the heiress called out as she unintentionally ramming her fist into the barrier, only to blink as it flickered and her arm went through. The members of teams RWBY and JNPR that were in the stands looked on in shock. "W-what's going o-" A quiet gunshot rang out over the arena as Weiss saw Ruby stagger back, causing the crowd to go deathly silent. Weiss stared wide-eyed as she quickly realized what was going on. "Oh god no, please don't tell me…" Weiss watched in horror as Ruby tried desperately to jump to the side before a second shot rang out. There was a scream as the wolf faunus spun, landing on her back. "RUBY!" Weiss screamed as she jumped over the wall, running over in a panic as the arena descended into chaos.
"Cut the feed! Cut the feed!" Port shouted desperately as people started running for the nearest exit. Weiss reached Ruby, creating a wall of ice between the girl and the direction the shots came from. Weiss covered her mouth in shock as she saw the gaping hole where Ruby's right shoulder was, the girl laying in a small pool of blood. Just as quickly as the panic ended, an aura settled over the arena and everything went quiet as fear and horror was replaced by worry. To Weiss, it didn't matter as she choked back a sob, dropping to her knees next to her partner.
"Ruby! Can you hear me? Say something!" Ruby looked at her, eyes unfocused.
"W-Weiss? What happened?" Weiss tried her best to hold back the tears as she pulled out a handkerchief, pressing it into the wound as she tried to stop the blood flow.
"Ruby, you've been shot!" The faunus blinked.
"I-I don't… I think…" Ruby muttered in a daze, the pain and blood loss getting to her.
"Ruby! Stay with me, please! Don't wander off right now!" Weiss was starting to panic when she heard someone run up, dropping next to her before she heard Aurelius' voice.
"Weiss, let me see it," he said, subtle rage hidden in his voice. Weiss let go hesitantly, hands trembling as Aurelius pulled the now red fabric off Ruby's shoulder before he growled. "Umbra, I hope Ironwood's men find the person responsible before I do…"
"Can you do anything?" Weiss asked with a tremble in her voice. She looked up and was surprised to see a group of Atlesian soldiers surrounding them, Winter looking at the pair worriedly as she helped stand guard. Aurelius quickly pulled out his ever-present Dust crystal before holding it over Ruby's shoulder.
"Ruby, this is going to hurt. I need you to stay strong, okay?" Ruby nodded absently before Aurelius pressed the crystal to the side of the hole. Ruby let out a scream as a pulse of energy left the crystal, the shards of bone slowly being pulled back into place before reforming. Muscles and tendons regrew before the skin stitched itself up. After what felt like an eternity of pain, Ruby blacked out.
"Ruby?" Weiss said fearfully as Aurelius put a finger to the wolf fanus' neck.
"Her heart is still beating and she's breathing."
"So she's fine?" Weiss asked hopefully before Aurelius sighed.
"Not quite. Using Dust to mend wounds is always difficult. There's a chance that she'll have to deal with a sort of phantom pain, random surges of discomfort or even agony in her shoulder for any length of time from a few weeks to several years…" Weiss took a deep breath to calm herself. "Regardless, we need to get her to the Clinic in Beacon to make sure sue hasn't lost too much blood and I think you should get cleaned up."
Weiss was going to ask what he meant when she realized something, a look of fear crossing her face. "Ruby stepped to the left… I-if she hadn't moved…"
"Don't worry about that right now, Weiss!" Winter called out. "Just stay with Ruby and let us focus on hunting down the individual responsible for this." Weiss nodded quietly as the medics arrived, placing Ruby on the stretcher before the group left, quickly getting onto a transport as the rest of team RWBY and team JNPR arrived.
Cinder's Room
Mercury laughed to himself. "Did you see how much everyone panicked? I mean, I know she almost managed to get out of it unscathed, but it was still amazing!"
Emerald growled. "You think that is something to be proud of? Nobody ever told me we'd be doing anything like that!" Emerald glared at Cinder, a look of betrayal on her face. "You said we'd be opening the world's eyes to the greed and corruption of the kingdoms. You promised nobody would have to go hungry on the streets, stealing scraps of food from each other to survive like I did! You never said we'd be killing innocent people, even if they are annoying!"
Cinder smiled calmly. "Oh Emerald, don't worry. We're still going to do all of that. Unfortunately, the Rose family would resist no matter how noble our cause is. It's a sad truth, but they're part of the problem and it's only by removing their influence that we can have any hope of succeeding." Emerald hesitated before she sat down.
"Fine… But after this, I'm not helping you with that kind of thing again, okay?" Cinder smiled.
"I understand Emerald, we'll make sure to put your skills to use in other ways… Now then, while that did generate a panic and sow some doubt due to Doctor Watts' acquaintance choosing to disguise himself as an Atlesian soldier, something happened that prevented the level of negativity we needed for this to work, which means we need one more battle." Cinder pulled out her tablet, quickly rigging the next day's fight. "This should be a good one." Artemis let out a quiet growl as she looked at the screen, seeing Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina.
"Janus, I need an exit. Now. Inform Aurelius that I have information for him." The air around her shimmered before she slipped into a rift.
Ozpin's Office, with Ozpin, Qrow, Glynda, Ironwood, Winter, Weiss, Adrienne, and Aurelius
Aurelius let out a growl as he glared at Ironwood. "I told you that something like this might happen, general! I told you and now a member of my family is suffering for it!"
"We only discovered this virus an hour ago! We've never seen one like this before! The technicians say the thing was designed specifically breach our firewall and antivirus software!" Ironwood said with a look of frustration on his face.
Weiss sat in her chair quietly, staring down at her hands. Even though she'd scrubbed her hands clean, she swore she could still see the blood. "Ruby's blood…"
Aurelius growled before he took a deep breath. "What happened to the sniper?"
"We found him fleeing the Colosseum dressed in an Atlesian military uniform… Apparently, they managed to hack into the military database on the Aurora to add false credentials so they could slip in. He tried to resist and was killed in a firefight."
Aurelius went to say something when a rift opened next to him, causing the Ironwood, Qrow, Glynda, and Winter to draw their weapons before a figure stepped out. Winter blinked. "What is this? What is it doing here?" Winter said, getting mildly annoyed as Aurelius ignored her.
"Artemis, I assume you have a reason for revealing yourself? Report."
Artemis put her hands behind her back. "Cinder and her team were discussing todays… incident when Cinder remarked that the failed assassination attempt wasn't enough to complete their goals. It seems they have access to Amity Colosseum's core functions and are now subverting the randomization procedure."
Aurelius growled. "What do they have planned?"
Artemis walked over to the window, glancing out before speaking. "They seem to believe that a fight between Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina will have the desired effect."
Aurelius glanced at Ironwood. "Is there anything unique about Penny that would warrant this belief, general? Obviously they've hacked into your mainframe and know anything you do."
Ironwood let out a sigh. "Penny… Is a prototype for an artificial human being created by Dr. Polendina, the man responsible for the creation of all Atlesian military machinery in the past 30 years. He wanted his legacy to be something other than the simple Atlesian Knights, so I helped in her creation. She's the first artificial being to have an Aura."
Aurelius glanced at him suspiciously. "And how exactly did you accomplish that?"
Ironwood hesitated. "When we designed the Aura transfer device we needed to make sure it worked. During the last phases of Penny's creation, Dr. Polendina realized that the circuitry and memory core were advanced enough that we could, potentially, place the soul of a person into it. Shortly after this, there was a woman under my command who was suffering from a terminal illness and was willing to take the risk. While Penny might not have her memories, she does have the skill of the woman whose soul now occupies her frame."
Aurelius hummed quietly. "So they feel that putting your prototype into a ring with a girl that can control metal will benefit them… We can actually exploit this. Loki!" A rift opened up before Loki stepped out, hands moving to his daggers.
"Yes, sir?"
Aurelius glanced over his shoulder. "We need you to replace a participant in the fights tomorrow, a Penny Polendina." Loki hummed before he quickly morphed into the form of Penny. "Ah, you already know who it is, excellent." Aurelius turned back to Ironwood. "General, I need you to do a few things for me. The first is I need you to move as many soldiers as possible to the perimeter. Make a public announcement that you've put the internal security of Vale, Beacon, and the Vytal Festival in the hands of a skilled, unaffiliated organization that will be patrolling in civilian clothes if you have to hide it. The second is I need you to actually allow Loki to take Penny's place. Lastly, I want you to ensure Amity Colosseum's propulsion systems can no longer be controlled remotely and allow me to send someone to install an override into the kingdom's communications systems."
Ironwood nodded slowly. "We need someone to defend the city, who do you plan to handle this if not my soldiers?"
"Ah, general, if you've wandered around the academy or toured the city of Vale, you've already seen the defensive force I have in mind." He quickly tapped Artemis' shoulder. "You just don't know it's a defensive force… Which is why Cinder and the White Fang will never see it coming."
Beacon Academy Hospital Wing, with Ruby and Weiss
Weiss let out a frustrated sigh as she sat next to the bed, looking at her teammate, leader, and crush. It had been a few hours since the meeting had ended and Ironwood had assigned a squad to protect Ruby, but Weiss was unwilling to return to the dorm room. "It should be my job to make sure she's safe…" She heard a knock on the door, causing her to look up as her sister stepped in. "Oh, Winter…"
"Weiss, what are you still doing here?" Winter asked as she walked up.
Weiss let out a sigh as she looked down at her hands. "I… I can't sleep knowing she's here like this. She hasn't even awakened since it happened…"
Winter sighed before putting a hand on Weiss' shoulder. "Weiss, she will awaken when she recovers, but we all need to be ready for whatever tomorrow brings… She would want you to be prepared in case she isn't capable of fighting. Please, get some rest." Weiss nodded, letting out a sigh.
"Okay… I'll leave in a few minutes, I promise." Winter nodded before walking out of the room, leaving Weiss alone as she glanced at Ruby. "Ruby… I'll make sure to do everything I can to help protect Beacon and Vale for you, I promise…" Weiss hesitated before she took a deep breath, leaning down before placing a kiss on the wolf faunus' forehead. "Get well soon… I want to be able to tell you how I feel soon." Weiss stood up and walked out of the room, not noticing the content smile on the sleeping girl's face.
And this chapter sets the scene for where everything flies completely off the rails. Everyone knows what's coming, Aurelius is on the war path, Ironwood's trying to prevent relations from collapsing, and the two have to work together to stop it.
Please leave a review and tell me what you think.
