Pyrrha stayed silent as Professor Ozpin revealed himself. During the Battle of Beacon, when he fought, he failed, and was killed, allowing Cinder to advance and continue with her plan if it wasn't for the timely intervention of a girl with extraordinary power and abilities. Not only this, but he had died time and again and returned each time to fulfill what seemed like an impossible task.
What a coincidence, Pyrrha solemnly noticed.
The line up of events, regardless, festered in her mind, and something else bothered her. Every so often Oscar, or Ozpin, would look at her, almost suspicious of her.
RNJR, for some reason, didn't stop to think about any of this, it didn't seem like they could wrap their head around such a fantastic oddity. They just accepted it. After all, who was in their midst but someone they thought was dead a few days ago?
Suddenly she felt a cold pressure on her shoulder, and she saw Jaune had put his hand on it, trying to reassure her. In truth...it did, she could tell. The rambling thoughts and anxious feelings had been relieved. She closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose, allowing a (more) relaxed expression to grow on her face.
Ren was speaking to Professor Ozpin now. "But I thought the headmasters all took orders from you."
Ozpin...car's….
'Damn!' she thought.
Ozpin's face frowned and looked to a painting of the Mistral mountains, the same ones RNJR passed over in fact. "That was the plan: a collection of four lieutenants I can trust, especially during periods of reincarnation. But Qrow told me about Leonardo and the discussion he had after you left."
'The discussion I ruined,' Pyrrha thought to herself.
"He's not simply being erratic," Ozpin continued, "he's disobeying specific instructions I left for him."
This piqued Pyrrha's attention, snapping her eyes open. All she could do was stare at the floor and let things swirl about in her head again.
"Something's wrong. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I don't want to rule out any possibilities."
"Like Lionheart-" Pyrrha stopped herself just as she started, looking away from Ozpin.
Ozpin looked up at the girl in disheveled armor firmly and inquisitively. "...Go on."
She breathed in. "Possibilities like Professor Lionheart acting...against our interest?"
The air in the living room was frozen in time and kept still.
"Pyrrha?" Nora gasped. Jaune lifted her hand to calm her down...but he still sent a concerned look at Pyrrha, who was shifting her eyes to the floor again.
"Explain, Ms. Nikos." Ozpin said, more curious than anything.
"He...he didn't seem to investigate into the people who killed...Penny Polendina and destroyed Beacon." Ruby visibly looked pained at Pyrrha mentioning her again. "There's more as well. When we were in Lionheart's office, I felt a presence. It was as though something in there was going to come out and kill me, or wished to."
The air grew more stale. "You are certain of this?" Ozpin pressed.
"I...I'm familiar with the feeling. That's usually what occurs."
Jaune's eyes opened slightly at hearing this.
The air became slightly less tense as Ozpin began to speak again. "You are not wrong Pyrrha Nikos. I suspect Leonardo has begun to worry about his own self-preservation in my absence, and in his blind fear allowed himself to defect. But I have made it a policy to have faith in those who have held faith in me. I don't wish to change that if I don't have to."
"But we-" she stopped herself again. "Nevermind, Professor. I just…"
"It's alright. I understand your desire to help, but for now, we must be cautious. No one outside this room knows I have switched bodies. We have to keep this advantage as long as possible."
The conversation came full circle, and Pyrrha wanted to ask something that was gnawing at her for some time after his reveal. "Professor...can I ask a question?"
"Please."
"What...did it feel like? Dying I mean."
Ozpin blinked, staring at her for solid second before answering. "It all depends how really. That is the crux of it. There are many ways to die in this world, and they all feel different. But dying for me is different from the likes you." He pointed specifically at RNJR. "Dying for me is simple. But though that is true, it doesn't mean I squander my lives. In the end, it's how you die that leaves your mark."
'It's how you die that leaves your mark.' The words echoed in Pyrrha's head like it were a large cathedral, and her face contorted in pain. She squeezed the bridge of her nose and fought back tears.
"Pyrr-" Jaune began before being gently pushed back.
"I...I'm going to bed." She shambled off to her room with no other words.
Going to bed was merely an excuse, just to get away from everything. In truth, Pyrrha still couldn't sleep. She didn't know whether it was because of mundane problems, whether it was from the bad memories she still had, or if it was from her...condition. Either way, she curled before the fire, the only thing that had brought her comfort so far it seemed. Well, one thing that brought he comfort. She was absorbed by the fire, staring at it intently, almost wanting to see something in the blaze.
"What's that?" she heard a gravelly voice behind him. She turned around, seeing Qrow, holding a coffee cup in his hand, adorned on his face were the heavy eyes people wore when it was early in the morning.
He took a sip from the mug and sat down on a chair behind her. "What do you mean?" she asked him.
"That circle on your back. The glowing one."
Pyrrha widened her eyes, looking away from him. "It's...It's just a scar…" she said, knowing in her head just how weak the lie was.
"Some scar" Qrow snarked, taking another sip from his cup.
"Why do you want to know?" She snapped at him.
"I've seen that look everywhere on Remnant. I saw it on people who've lost everything, usually to Grimm. I've even seen it on students of mine." He leaned forward to Pyrrha. "You show up from the grave with strange armor, acting jumpy, and with a glowing orange scar on your back, and you don't seem to be wanting to share."
"Do I have to?" she said, not turning away from the fire.
"No. But you do have a choice. Either tell your team, and let them help you. Or, keep pretending it didn't happen."
Qrow got up and began to leave. However Pyrrha stood up and turned to Qrow. "Qrow...why are you telling me this?"
Qrow stopped and sighed. He turned around and looked her in the eyes. "Because whatever happened to you while you were gone, happened."
As simple of a statement it was, she could not find an answer for it.
Qrow turned his back again. "I'll be out for awhile. Catch you later."
"Where are you going?" She asked.
Qrow hesitated. "...I'm supposed to find and recruit some huntsmen, anyone not out on a mission"
Pyrrha paused. "Can...I go with you?"
Qrow frowned and lowered his head in thought.
Jaune sat and stared at the glowing horizon as the sun began to rise from behind the mountains. In the garden with him was the rest of RNJR and Ozpin...car…
'Damn!' Jaune thought.
They were either training together with Ozpin's assistance, or cheering on from the side. Either way, Jaune wasn't paying attention, he stopped a little while after finding a place to sit on the ground. The sounds around him drowned out as he thought of all that had happened, all he learned. Two people returned from the dead, both different in someway. It was the one he knew, the one he loved that he was worried about. EverythingJauneseemed wrong, and he could feel it. It was nothing concrete, nothing he could see, but there was something on Pyrrha that was weighing herJaunedown so much it threatened to crush her, and he didn't seem-
"Jaune!"
Jaune snapped back into reality as he looked to Nora, the source of the call. "Hmm?"
"We were talking about your semblance. Were you listening?"
"Sorry. I was just thinking. I can't do anything."
The topic didn't continue. Ruby smiled at first to say something, but her face sank a second later. "What...were you thinking about?"
"He was thinking about Pyrrha" Ren noted, his face still and looking to the ground.
Jaune paused and looked at Ruby, Nora, and Oscar. "Haven't we all?"
"I don't know," Nora said, sitting down. "It's so weird. I'm so glad she's back, I thought we'd never see her again, but…"
"She's not the same?" Ren said, not taking his eyes off the ground. "For that matter, she appears different as well. Not to mention the way she returned. How did she survive? How did she find us in Mistral?"
The group looked at the boy who was training with them. His eyes were more stern than they were before.
"Ozpin? Is there anything you can tell us."
Ozpin was silent for a small while, not a reassuring sign. Finally he turned to RNJR. "She is different in more ways than one, but I was not present when she allegedly died, so I have no knowledge of what happened or how she could have returned."
Ruby was squirming in discomfort. "I hope she's ok. She doesn't seem to want to talk about it, maybe if we just give her some time she can tell us, w-when she wants to."
"I wouldn't say we should do that, but it is clear she is not interested in telling us anytime soon, not of her own accord." Ozpin pointed out.
Jaune got up and looked to the rising Mistral sun before looking back to the house.
A short walk up the stairs later, he reached Pyrrha's room, having not seen her anywhere else in the house. He knocked on the door to no reply. He nudged it open.
"Pyrrha?" She was nowhere to be found. "...Well. I'll be here if you need me."
A few days after the talk with Ozpin, Qrow and Pyrrha walked out into the bustling streets of Mistral. While storm clouds made the roads more sparse than they would have otherwise been, the city was still full of life.
Pyrrha got a good impression of that while waiting outside the bar Qrow went into.
It seemed so silly to her, though she didn't know why. 'Maybe he thinks I'd drink everything in there. He would' she cynically thought. She banished the thought, no matter how sympathetically accurate it was. Deep down, she knew the reason, or thought she knew. It was silly because she would have been uncomfortable going in such a place back then or the idea of consuming alcohol.
A lot about her has changed.
The thought made her remember her time in Lothric, but this was a positive memory, which had an amount she could at least count on two hands. She remembered her friend, Siegward, the bumbling, sweet warrior who supported her throughout her time there. She had fond memories of the strange brew he called Siegbrau.
Well, mostly fond memories.
Yelling came from the bar and with blinding speed a figure left the building, sliding the door open and shut. Pyrrha drew her sword, but it was just Qrow, who looked like he saw a...ghost.
She sheathed her sword. "No luck?"
"Nope." A knife then erupted from the cloth slide door, an inch from Qrow's head.
The search continued to stall. It seemed no one knew any Huntsmen or their locations on the rare occasions they did. Most distressingly, their families haven't even seen them. The two had returned to the bar. Apparently one of the missing Huntsmen had a sizable debt and he felt he had to set it right, since he couldn't.
Pyrrha, meanwhile, was left to her thoughts once more. The fact that so many Huntsmen, defenders of the kingdom and of this city in particular were gone. She wasn't worried about them anymore, she was worried for this city. Beacon had fallen to chaos and destruction, and it had the student bodies of every Huntsmen academy on the planet. She stared at the colossal upper complex that contained Haven Academy, far up high and away from where they were now. And her vision flashed between it and the cold lifelessness of Lothric Castle, ashen and sad, where even the monsters that destroyed it had long since passed away. It was this juxtaposition of images that haunted her nightmares.
"You know babe, you kinda look familiar."
She looked around to find the source of the voice. She turned to her right and saw a youth with a bandana over his mouth and aviator sunglasses.
"Don't she look familiar?" he asked
She heard steps from all around her, from the alleyway, from her left facing the street, and behind her.
"Yeah, ain't she the girl from the cereal box a few months back?"
"What's up with her hair?"
The aviator youth shut them up. "It's her, I'm telling ya. Which means you've gotta have some dough on ya."
Pyrrha drew her sword and circled around at the crowd of thugs surrounding her. "Get back, don't come any closer!"
"Or what? Champion or not, you can't get us all at once!"
She tensed up. "Please, don't do this!"
"Hehe she's scared man, this's too easy!"
"I don't want to hurt you…"
Aviator thug pulled out a sword and charged at Pyrrha. Pyrrha parried the attack with her hand and thrust with her sword without thinking. The thug wasn't run through like she expected, but was knocked back gripping his stomach in pain.
A larger Faunus thug from behind her raised a club and swept downward at her. Seeing this at the last second she rolled aside and slashed at his leg before swiping at his chest and kicking him in the gut, knocking him down.
Three more thugs ran her way wielding a chain, a sword and a mace. She turned to the chain thug, grabbing the chain as he brought it down and using his momentum to throw him into the mace guy before using her sword to block the sword thug's slash from behind. Turning to face the swordsman, she blocked another slash and immediately followed through with several, some blocked but most connecting. Finally, she brought him down to the ground with a strong downward slash, his body sparking with energy.
The man squirmed but Pyrrha rushed forward to finish him when a gunshot rang out, causing her to lose focus missing stabbing the man's head by an inch.
Pyrrha came to her senses and saw the man's weary, sinister eyes nevertheless filled with vulnerable fear. Before she could collect her thoughts, the man kicked her in the abdomen, knocking her back before running off into the alleys never to be seen again.
It had begun to rain now, and Pyrrha flipped herself over and raised her upper-body to see Qrow outside the bar with his weapon raised in the air, barrel smoking. Pyrrha lowered her head and turned it away in shame, but Qrow came over and lifted her up.
His expression seemed disappointed, but not upset beyond some sadness. Pyrrha still looked down at the now wet stone path that lined the city streets.
"Come on, kid. Let's get home. I think we should talk."
Author's Note(s): The Hollow is back for a spell! Just wanted to get at least something out before the month ends, since next month is the 1 year anniversary of The Invincible Girl and I need to write something for that.
Not all is shiny roses though. My schedule is a tad busy and I am still the same lazy writer as ever. Plus, Volume 5 was a major step down in my opinion and a severe disappointment (which will mean more outside of the series moments such as the above scene). I think I have one more (short) story set in RWBY left in me before I swear off making any new ones based on it. I have been giving some thought to writing other stories or collaborating with a friend to make a webcomic in a different universe, but that is another story that might be coming soon.
This is not to say I will abandon any fic that I have published, I am keeping the promise that I won't. But I'm not sure if I can continue doing new stuff for RWBY, not for awhile at least.
But with all that said, I am working on the aforementioned short story, which I am planning to release in full (or over the course of a week or two) once it is finished. Work on that will resume once I am done with this next chapter of Invincible Girl.
Be sure to comment or leave a review if you have a question or concern. Stay tuned.