"So what did Amber need with you yesterday?" Weiss asked, making Alessandro freeze. He and team RWBY were having breakfast by themselves this morning, JNPR was off doing their own thing this time which was weird.
"Oh, well…she…she wanted…" He found it very hard to invent a good lie this time. What could have Amber wanted with him if she really was there?
"Cat got your tongue?" Yang said, smirking at Blake as the Faunus girl glared in return.
"She just wanted to check up on me." He finally answered, taking another bite of this bagel. "And, changing subject, why is the food here so godly? Like seriously it's so good." In all honesty he was fed enough food at the fang base but of bad quality, so ever since coming to Beacon he couldn't help but admire the food it had.
"It's called real food. Not prison food." Blake answered.
"Was he even in a prison?" Yang asked.
"Close enough." Weiss said.
"Now that I think about it, where were you held?" Ruby asked. "You never mentioned it to anyone." He shifted uncomfortably as the four girls gave him curious looks.
"Well, I didn't exactly stay at a White Fang base. I was with a smaller group of humans, good humans, who saved my life." Part of this was a lie, part was truth. He had lived at a White Fang warehouse in the middle of nowhere with both the humans and the Faunus.
"So then those allegedly good humans were working with the Fang?" Weiss asked. "You mentioned interacting with them on a daily basis and we all know you were forced to work with them."
"Well, ok so some Fang were with us and yes they needed me to work for them or they would've killed me for being useless, but the humans were fine." He replied, pushing his plate away. Suddenly his appetite had left him.
"Who were these humans?" Ruby asked, even her face was serious now. He looked around for something which could get him out of this conversation. Anything. Unfortunately nobody or nothing was around to help him escape this.
"I can't say." Alessandro replied.
"What do you mean you can't say?" Weiss asked, sounding more annoyed. No one was eating anymore, the four girls looking deadly serious. "These are the people that kept you captive for more than six months!"
"Wait wait wait, six months?" He raised his hands in a time out gesture. "I was with them for six months?"
"Yes, why?" Blake asked, leaning forward with interest.
"Well I just realized I am now sixteen years old." He muttered in response, a frown on his face at thinking how he missed his own birthday, and his brothers. Had his mother made two cakes instead of three this time? Or did she make one for him anyway? How were they doing with him gone? The rest must have noticed his sudden sadness and understood what he was thinking about. After a few moments of silence Ruby jumped up.
"Anyway!" She started, a wide smile on her. "Since we haven't had much time to get back together as a team since you, um, disappeared, I have planned a wonderful set of activities for us to do today!"
"What?" Alessandro sounded confused. He also just noticed he hadn't spent any alone time with team RWBY up until now. CFVY had always been with him, or Amber or JNPR.
"I'm talking about having a lot of fun!" Ruby cheered, to which Yang agreed with a smile and a fist pump. Weiss and Blake shared a look, but were smiling to.
"Everyone in favor say AYE!." Ruby called.
"Could be fun."
"Sure, why not."
"Let's do it!"
"Nobody said aye…" Ruby muttered.
"Well how about nay?" A new voice asked. The five jumped in their seats, turning to see the newcomer. General Ironwood had come to rain on their parade.
"General Ironwood, what brings you here, sir?" Weiss asked, sitting a little straighter. Being in the presence of her militaries general and a coworker of her father's she couldn't help but act like her old, more proper self. It was like being with Winter again.
"He does." Ironwood nodded to Alessandro. "I'm sorry but I need to borrow him for a bit. And, he'll be busy later."
"Busy with what?" Yang asked. Ruby scooted a bit over to Alessandro, kind of protectively. He flashed her a quick thankful smile, the general did indeed get him nervous.
"Initiation."
"What do you mean initiation? I think I went through enough of that already." Alessandro half snarled, glaring at both Ironwood and Ozpin. "I mean I suppose dying wasn't enough for you gu-"
"SILENCE!" Ironwood yelled. This effectively shut Alessandro up and reminded him of who these people were.
"What we were trying to explain, Mr. Rivero, was that we are not the ones asking you to do this." Ozpin said.
"Can I ask who needs this from me? And why?" Alessandro asked in a calmer manner.
"Yes, you may. They've actually wanted to talk to you about this themselves. They, are Vale's government council. The leaders of this kingdom." Ironwood said, pressing a button on his scroll which was on the desk. A holo projection appeared in front of Alessandro with three men.
"Hello, Alessandro. It's a pleasure to meet you." The first one said.
"Why do you want me to take the initiation? And by myself to. What reason do you have?" Alessandro said. He saw Ironwood give him a disapproving glare, but ignored it. Who cared if offended these people? They were forcing this on him, he wouldn't just be nice.
"Straight to the point, I see. We need you to take the initiation for two reasons. We need to see if you truly qualify to go to Beacon, if you should be offered something…more. And we want to see firsthand what you are capable of."
"The differences to the actual initiation process are that you are all alone, but if we must a teacher will enter to assist you. Should someone be sent to get you that is considered failure." Ozpin said, taking a sip of his coffee.
"So, you want me to prove myself again and with worse chances than the rest. Yeah, makes sense. Sure." The sarcasm in his voice was tangible.
"We need to see what you can do, and in what condition you currently are both mentally and physically. We believe the initiation is good enough to test that."
"Do I even have a choice?"
"Depends on whether you plan on staying at Beacon or not." The second man said.
"I plan on staying, duh." Alessandro answered rudely.
"Then you must do this." The third said.
"Fuck that." He spat.
"That is enough!" Ironwood said with a raised voice, making Alessandro flinch again. "Alessandro, you need to take this test for several reasons. I'm sorry but you must. You don't have a choice on this, afterwards we will see what we do with you."
"What do you mean what you do with me?"
"Alessandro, Beacon is not the only choice you have. If we think you should keep studying Ironwood is ready to offer a place at his own school, if somehow you already surpass the skill of a student then, if you want, we can give you the job of a true hunter. Or find something else, such as the Atlas specialist force. Or…other things." Ozpin said, setting his mug down with a slight look of distaste. What was this other choice? What bothered him?
"So, that is my choice, right? If I do the test afterwards I get to choose what happens to me?"
"Exactly." Ironwood said.
"Fine, I'll do it. But after that no more tests, I'll just be some regular student or huntsmen."
"Do you now understand what a landing strategy is?" Ozpin asked. He was at the cliff with Alessandro and had just finished explaining what some key things were. Such as landing strategy, semblance and the Grimm that could be found in this forest.
"Yes sir. Now let's hurry this up. How long do I have?"
"As long as you need." Ozpin replied. "Good luck."
"You got this!"
"Kill a couple for me!"
"Fight well!"
Alessandro smiled, hearing the ongoing comments from both team RWBY and JNPR who had been informed of this and had gone to the cliffs to cheer him on. He may have spent some time with them but he was just starting to appreciate how much they cared for him. He got into the position Ruby had taught him and got ready for Ozpin to launch him.
"Three."
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes.
"Two."
He opened his eyes, gave a thumbs up to his friends behind him and waited.
"One."
He jumped at the same time the panel launched him upwards, going higher than a person normally would. He fired only a couple of rounds to give him extra height and go farther north. He felt his heart hammering against his ribs as he began to fall, his sleight fear of heights getting to him but only for a second. The next second he had a wide smile on his face and he screamed as high as he could, not with fear, with excitement, exhilaration.
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He yelled, a chuckle leaving his mouth shortly after. As he descended he began firing wind dust rounds to slow his fall, just like Ruby would do with the regular rounds of her scythe. He kept doing so until he had one more round in each chamber the he let himself fall in a spread eagle position, as he approached the trees he spun so his feet would face the ground and fired his last two rounds, focusing his aura on his feet and legs he crashed into the ground, creating a cloud of dust, the regular kind. Once the dust cleared up could be seen hugging his knees, obviously in some pain. It took only a few moments for him to let out a breath and get up, already better. The impact hurt his legs but just momentarily, he'd have to practice his landings someday.
"Ok, so assuming the temple is the same from the episode I saw this, it'd be opposite of the cliffs from what was saw. Meaning north because the cliffs are south, so if I go north I'll eventually find it." Alessandro said to himself. He was feeling very confident he could quickly complete this thing, just kill and move, kill and move. Easy, right? With this in his head he began running to the north. He didn't really pay attention to anything else, the forest was nice, he supposed, but it didn't matter. He kept running until he quite literally crashed into something, which was so big and strong he actually fell back on his butt.
"What the?" Alessandro said, getting up and looking at whatever he had hit, he froze, staring up at the giant Ursa which was now facing him. It had obviously fought before because it had a lot of natural armor, the look of experienced Grimm. Alessandro just stared at and he felt fear again, for the first time in weeks he felt fear again. It was nothing like he had seen in the show, it looked so… real. It roared and simply swatted Alessandro aside, making him crash into a tree. Alessandro groaned and shook his head, looking up, he yelped and rolled to the side, avoiding another blow from the beast. He was hyperventilating, these were the things the hunter faced? This was the real deal.
How can they even…look at that, it's horrible. It's a living nightmare.
He was shaking despite himself, not even thinking about grabbing his weapons. The Ursa roared and its breath made Alessandro retch, it swatted him away again, this time the pain remained in Alessandro's side, he wheezed and looked back up, the Ursa roared again, walking slowly to him, taking its time. It knew it had won.
What do you do if you're caught?
Alessandro gripped the tree to his side, anger surging through his veins.
If you are caught and have no method of escape, what do you do?
"If I'm caught and cannot escape i…i…" He muttered, turning to the Ursa, hands on his sword hilts.
You fight.
"I fight." He said with grim determination, the Ursa swatted again and he ducked under it, spinning and unsheathing his swords which he imbedded in the Ursa's side, it roared (geez it made so much noise) in pain this time and turned, but Alessandro had already shot himself upward, landing on its back he stabbed downwards with both swords, the Ursa proceeded to run around, trying to shake him like a mechanical bull, but he kept a firm grip. When the monster bucked again he let go, spinning midair and landing on the Ursa's head with a hammer kick, knocking it down and killing it with the force of the blow. "Thanks, Cin-"He paused, remembering people were supposed to be around. "Mother." He corrected himself. He looked down at his handiwork, retrieving his weapons. The Ursa's body was already disappearing and Alessandro found himself fascinated by the process. It just laid there, slowly going up in black smoke and even that didn't last long. Now that it was still and he was calm he could really appreciate the full details of the monster, nothing like in the show. Black fur, the armor being either bone or ivory and the red passing through it…he had no clue. It was dull now but before it had been pulsing. Alessandro carefully extended a hand, poking one of the red vein-like lines on the armor. He stayed there watching it fully disappear with a huge smile on his face. This was quite exhilarating. Once it fully disappeared he looked around, then remember the task he had been given. "I need to find the temple. Get that artifact. Leave." He muttered to himself, running north once more as if nothing had happened, though now he felt better, his first encounter with a Grimm and, well, he survived. It was something to be proud of in his mind. It wasn't long before he made it to the temple, as Blake had once said "it isn't hard to find", he smiled and ran down and once he reached the middle of it he paused, a moment of excitement passing through him much like when Ruby met Glynda for the first time.
"They were here…the eight were here!" He laughed out loud, spinning once to take it all in. "The Deathstalker had chased Pyrrha down here, whacking her to the group. Nora had ridden an Ursa, Ruby fell from the freaking sky! Weiss fell." He said with another laugh. "The Nevermore had been flying around, and they all teamed up and left. They ran to the cliffs but in between was were the ruins and the cliffs were much higher and inaccessible than they probably had thought. Juniper had killed the Death Stalker together, Nora nailed it after Pyrrha cut off the tail after Ren had weakened it enough, only able doing so because Jaune's keen eye noticed this and he began giving orders. Yang and Bake had setup the sling shot, Weiss using her glyphs to help Ruby after they shot her and just-mmm!" He made some weird movement of excitement, his fists balled as he looked everywhere.
"You really do remember us as a show." A voice rang out. His smile immediately disappeared as he spun, one sword held against the throat of…
"Cinder? You can't be here, they'll see who you are." He said, putting his sword away.
"Emerald has that taken care of." Cinder replied, giving Alessandro a knowing smirk.
"So someone is close by? Good to know. But this is still pretty foo- I mean not safe." He said, catching himself and hoping Cinder didn't notice the fluke.
"Foolish? My you have already grown braver." She said, cupping his chin in one hand. "Relax, a mother does not put her hand against the child."
"Do…do you really see me as that?" He whispered, staring at her with curiosity, maybe some doubt.
"Yes, I see you as my own. You've made me so proud." She whispered, pulling him into a gentle hug. He let out a sigh of relief, hugging her back. After a bit she pulled back, holding him at arm's length. "Now, as I assume you know I am here for more reasons than seeing you."
"What do you need?" He asked with hesitation. "Has something happened?"
"I need to check on you, of course. What have you told them? What do they know?" She asked, her voice still calm but more business like now. Her gaze hardened.
"They don't know where you are. They don't know who anyone except Roman and Neo are and besides that you're collecting dust no nothing of your plan, speaking of, what is your plan?"
"All in due time, my child, now what of Emerald and Neo the other day?"
"They injected something in me, to erase my memory if I try to speak. Like some weird spy movie, they said…" He looked lost for a second. "They said it was from Earth."
"And it is, they didn't lie. Now I must tell you something of utmost importance, we will be infiltrate the school soon. You must act like you don't know us. And we will act the same, nor will we risk talking privately to you. I'm sure you're under close watch, even if you don't know it."
"But why? Cinder why all this? Why are we even doing this? These people are good, they're very good. They helped me, they taught me and healed me and I feel so much better now." He frowned seeing a look of hurt on her face and immediately felt bad for what he said.
"I see you trust them." She murmured, looking away. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep you safe."
"Cin- mother, I understand why not. The Fang are a bunch of criminals, of murderers and criminals. You had to keep yourself with them and that meant letting me get a bit hurt. It's fine I get it." He said, speaking rapidly. "But why work with those animals, why not get help from the government? The Kingdoms could surely be of more help."
"They're just as bad. All of them. You will see it one day." Cinder answered. "The students are misguided children, and some of the teachers are just as lost. But the headmasters, the council, they're evil. Just like the White Fang." She said, gripping both his arms. "Never trust them, ever. Promise me this."
"But they're good…"
"They are the ones who sent you out her on your own to die. They're the ones who let the White Fang torture you, they're the ones who are keeping secrets from all of us. Why do you think your friends were putting up the posters to find you? The council was doing nothing at all, neither was Ozpin." Alessandro was surprised to hear the amount of hatred in her voice, she practically his her words out. "Promise me, you will only trust me. No one else, the rest are bad."
"I…I will trust you, I swear it." He answered, giving her a curt nod. She smiled warmly at him and he felt all his worry disappear. As his memories of Earth dimmed, he began to believe more in Cinder's lies.
"Now tell me, who were your parents?" Cinder asked, her mouth next to his ear, barely audible.
"They…they…" He felt sick to his stomach, though he couldn't tell why. It was like his brain was fighting itself, his parents were from United States and Uruguay? Wait, no that's not right. His father had never seen him, his mother was here…right? "You're…you're my mother…and my father is…he is…"
"You do not have a father. Only me and Salem. You're mother and your guardian." Cinder whispered, her words seeming to have an almost magical effect. His features relaxed once more, he felt his doubt leave him.
"You are my mother, Salem my guardian. When will I meet her?" He murmured.
"Soon, my child, very soon. For now, continue living day by day. I will see you again, in Beacon. And remember, do not trust those in power."
"I won't, I promise. And I…I'll be eager to see you again." He gave her a small, shy smile. Her own warm smile returned and she kissed his cheek, gently making him close his eyes. When he opened them again she was gone. He sighed, but his smile was still present. How had the others seen that on camera? Would Emerald's semblance even cover the camera?
"First thing first, time to finish this. No more distractions, let's do this." He said to himself, he turned to the artifacts and saw there was more than one present. But, he was the only one here? On three different pedestals sat three different chess pieces, a horse, a tower and queen. Which one should he take? He frowned in deep thought wondering what this meant before grabbing the queen, he had seen the other two before but the queen was new. He nodded to himself then ran off, in direction of the cliffs. But something was wrong, no way he had done all this and just ran into one Ursa. This was a forest infested with Grimm, so where were they? His question was answered when he broke out of the tree line, a moment of excitement passed through as he noticed he had arrived to very same ruins his friends had, but it didn't last long as he saw what remained there.
"Oh no…" He muttered, his throat suddenly dry as he exited the tree line. "You've got to be kidding me." Hordes of Grimm were roaming around the half destroyed ruins. Tons of wolves, Ursi and the boar-like ones. He gulped, but knew he'd have to go through them. The cliffs were right there. He knew no other way to get to them either, circling around may not be the safest option either. He laid down and took a careful look of the area. The side where he was on was full of Grimm, but the side opposite the broken bridge where JNPR had fought the Nevermore was empty. If he could figure out a way to cross quickly he'd be fine. Alessandro's thoughts were interrupted as he heard an ear piercing screech behind him. He turned to see nothing more than a King Taijitu there. He rolled to the left as one head smashed where he had been laying a moment before. He jumped up and unsheathed his swords, walking around it carefully.
"Come on…come on…" Alessandro muttered. The black head launched at him again but he blasted himself upwards, firing a flurry of fire rounds midair and stabbing downwards as he landing on its head. The second head slammed into his side, sending him flying into a tree. He wasted no time and jumped up again, charging both heads. He threw one sword at each of them and they impaled themselves in the snake's thick trunk. He slid under the first snakes head jumping over the other one. As he landed he managed to grab one sword from the snake's side, and quickly cut the tree in front of him which promptly fell and smashed into the white head, killing it. The second head circled around him but Alessandro jumped forward, stabbing its eyes and blinding it. The snake roared in pain and tried to hit him but he flipped over the flailing head and landed on top of it, a few quick stabs later and the head fell down, dead. Alessandro would've loved that to be the end of it, but he heard several roars and howls. The rest of them had heard Alessandro and now he had only one option.
He had to fight them all.
