Chapter 9
Disclaimer: I do not own Fallout or RWBY both belong to their respective creators.
Bold: Robot or other speaking
"Hi": Robot or other thinking
Hi: used for normal speech
'hi : used to convey thought
Enjoy
Loneliness was something Pyrrha Nikos was very familiar with, something that has unfortunately been with her for long time since she could remember.
Her earliest days of being lonely was when she was still a child, in the playground she used to be made fun of due to the color of her hair. Where she lived red hair, especially how bright hers was, was almost unheard of. Suffice to say she spent many days alone on the swing set.
One of the ways she would the soothe pain was watching TV, a tried and true method, especially when the Mistral Tournaments where aired. As long as she could remember she was always fascinated by the Tournament and always dreamed of one day joining. Such a dream motivated her to become to become the huntress she was now.
When she began training she threw herself straight towards it, while others may have as well she on the other hand spent every moment and time she had available increasing her strength/knowledge. It was through years of blood, sweat, and time that she got to where she was. To her peers they saw was not a hard worker but a person literally going beyond them in leaps and bounds.
Because of this many of them ended up distancing themselves away from her, unable to really relate with budding champion as her workaholic attitude pushed them away as well as their own jealousy of her skills. As a result Pyrrha had no only she could really call a friend in her early huntsmen-in-training days. Back then however, training was the way Pyrrha escaped the loneliness which ironically fed into the problem.
Fighting eventually became the new way of dealing with the loneliness when she was finally old enough to be eligible for joining the Mistral Tournament.
During her first Tournament she was just filled with nothing but excitement and joy as she was now experiencing the dream she worked for so long now. Whatever loneliness she had was washed away as the Tournament started, the cheering of the crowds, the thrill of the battle, and the adrenaline following through her veins washed it all away.
As the battle progressed and each battle became increasingly challenging from the last the victory from each battle became the sweetest nectar for the young girl. Walking the steps towards the grand prize, holding the first place prize reward and bathing in the cheers from the crowds/family was utter ecstasy for Pyrrha as she felt her dream finally coming true. From there on out Pyrrha signed up to the Tournament every time it started again.
When she won the second Tournament the same feeling from the first was there though it was dulled by a bit. The third time she won the feeling was greatly dulled at that point and to her own horror she was forced to plaster a fake simile to crowds, the fires of passion from the last two was reduced to embers. The fourth … the fires of passion were dead, every action was forced and whatever feeling was forced, not natural.
It was there fate had tapped on her shoulder and broke her daydreaming, forcing her to acknowledge the cold hard truth. In her effort to join the Tournament she had become too powerful and as a result she crushed those who dared to fight her. And there … loneliness and her became reacquainted.
TV, training, fighting, they had all lost value to Pyrrha. No matter how much she worked it just didn't have the same effect from before, she tried expanding into other different fields yet they gave fruitless results as none of them had anything that truly sparked interest in the young champion.
Social circles proved to be useless as well, in school all she had were followers who wanted to bask in her fame and people who held nothing but jealously for her. It would be lie to tell that wren't those that tried to even the odds using rather dubious means, unfortunately for them Pyrrha didn't tolerate cheating as she wished for someone to be her equal or greater through honorable means.
In the world of hunters all she received was nothing but praises for her skill and abilities as more than a few inquired how someone so young could be so powerful. They had placed her on a pedestal, regarding her as a symbol of what others should strive to be and never once regarding about the person behind the symbol.
In the world of celebrities? The young champion could barely stand being there for more than a few hours at most, it was simply just too plastic for her handle more than a short time period. How anyone could handle actually living in such a world was just beyond her. If it weren't for the money she would have honestly lived in the country side than be in that world ever again.
It seemed for Pyrrha that wherever she went people would never see her as Pyrrha Nikos a plain normal girl but instead Pyrrha Nikos the symbol of strength and what hunters all around should strive for. In what for Pyrrha was a desperate gamble she decided to enroll into Beacon Academy, hoping to find anyone even just one person who did not know nor care about who she was and her past accomplishment.
As she walked around the school's courtyard her desperate hope began to chip away as immediately she the looks of recognition light up in various student's eyes as whispers and rumor began circulating around the school that THEE Pyrrha Nikos as going to attend beacon. As her first day had came to end the hope in her heart was already in the mist of fading. Before she went to sleep she gave prayer the gods in hope that somebody, ANYBODY would just look at her as a normal person and not a symbol.
As the second day approached dread wormed its way into her heart as the headmaster explained the rules about the initiation
Already the light in the end of the tunnel was dimmed and ever second that passed the light got darker for the champion ... until she saw him. Than, as if a miracle from the gods the light exploded into a fiery inferno as she found the she had prayed for in least likely of people ... the TA.
While she may have told a partial lie she wasn't all lying. You would have to be a truly isolated community to not hear about the war or the TA. Unlike her fellow country men she herself never held any dislike for the TA as neither she/family had ever loss someone close during the war. Not only that but while all of this was happening she was focused on the training and improving herself thus not really focusing on the conflict her nation had with the TA.
But that was not the point for the champion as for her she had finally discovered someone who not only did not now her fame but also treated her as a person and not a idol to held in high regard. Once again in her life joy emerged from her soul as she and new partner continued on with the initiation, as they went on she found even more people that treated her as person as well, their names were Ren Lie & Nora Valkyrie.
And when she heard that they all were going to be on the same team she felt like her entire body lighted up like a Christmas tree as her hope and prayers were finally answered.
Pyrrha felt she was flying through the sky with her new team ... only for reality to remind just how cruel it was and quite harshly. As if somebody a bashed a frozen fist against her chest she was reminded about the real world. Even though they treated her as a real person and with respect for her as a real person they still kept an arms length away from, never truly being close to her. The reason ... her heritage, because she was a Mistral born they never fully trusted her always preferring an arms length away from the girl.
This was evident when her team and their sister team, team RWBY, ate. All the members of the TA sat on one side of the table and the rest sat on the other side. The rest of team RWBY were good people to champion and were not absolute loyal followers nor did they have any animosity either.
Most of the time however, things were usually very calm ... until today. Pyrrha easily remembered just moments ago she was forced to learn that not everyone held the TA in the best of heart.
It was an average morning for her team as the entered the mess hall. It was weekend and her team had finished the last of the homework they had yesterday leaving them in a rather good mode initially. As they grabbed their breakfast and sat down on their respective side they began their usual discussions with team RWBY, like weapons, world events, or the occasional boy band concert from Yang.
As the teams were in the midst of talking a few students happened to pass by the table, normally nobody would have paid attention to this had they not said a few choice words.
Said words pity Pyrrha Nikos and how she had not just deal with a teammate but an entire team of mutant freaks. Suffice to say, it didn't take long for the table to get quiet. Pyrrha could see Jaune tightening his hand around his cup, looking over to Ren & Nora they in no better position than Jaune. The one who responded was the one no one on the two teams expected, Blake of all people.
She slammed her fist onto the table, daring them say those exact words again while calling them a bunch of sniveling cowards trying to hide the wounds of defeat.
Pyrrha herself had never seen anyone turn that red before as one of the students called her nothing more than lapdog for the TA. Before the student could finish a fist slammed itself right at the students face, pushing the student back as the attention in the mess hall turned towards her table and more importantly to Nora.
The temperature in the room felt like it dropped by a few degrees as the TA members tensed up readying up for fight as the student was pulled up by his friends. However, before any fight could happen the booming voice of Miss Goodwitch stopped them right in tracks.
What happened afterwards was a blur for her as the student, Blake, & Nora were taken to headmasters office for disciplinary action. As for her ... she left soon after Goodwitch took the three of them out of the mess hall, which is where the story starts.
HALLWAY
"What a great teammate you where back there Pyrrha, standing on the side as your friends were insulted"mentally berated Pyrrha to herself as she walked through the halls of beacon alone.
"For Oum's sake what kind of friend was I back there ... not a good one to be sure" muttered Pyrrha.
The huntress's train of thought was halted when she heard the sound of Ruby calling her, turning around she saw Ruby running up to her.
"Geez Pyrrha, slow down there next time I almost lost you back there" requested Ruby giving a light pant from the jog.
"Um, Why were you trying to find me?" questioned Pyrrha.
"Well your friend for one Pyrrha ... also, you looked liked you needed a talk as well" answered Ruby as she muttered at the end.
"~sigh~ Well ... I guess a talk wouldn't be so bad" admitted Pyrrha.
"Perfect ... so what do want to talk about" asked Ruby.
"Well ... I'm not really sure Ruby ... I guess I'm still surprised by what happened back there. Never thought it would be Blake of all people" spoke Pyrrha.
"Yeah, didn't really expect that from Blake either. She always been a real quite one ... guess shows how little we know" replied Ruby.
"So Blake doesn't talk much either" said Pyrrha.
"More like barely anything at all. Don't get me wrong, Blake has been a great team player but outside of combat she really really doesn't talk much. Heck, even Yang has difficultly getting anything out of her" said Ruby.
"Yeah, I guess you can say I have a similar problem with my team as well. There nice and they treat fair, but aren't really open with me either" admitted Pyrrha.
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"So ... you umm angry at what happened back?" asked Ruby wishing to break the awkward silence between them.
"Well ... I wouldn't say angry, just surprised. I just don't know why anyone would such things to them" answered Pyrrha as her tone held an anger during the last part.
"Well ... they aren't wrong to a certain extent" muttered Ruby.
"Ruby!" gasped Pyrrha in shock as she faced the young reaper. "How could you say such stuff, don't tell me you agree with them."
"What! No! Gah, ok maybe that I worded that out wrong, look that's not what I'm trying to say Pyrrha" explained Ruby.
"Oh? And what are you are trying to say than" pressed Pyrrha.
"I mean don't you know Pyrrha ... it's not something spoken but we most of us here kinda of know it" said Ruby.
"Ruby, your not making sense. What is this 'thing' Ruby" demanded Pyrrha.
"Well ..." began Ruby as her voice became a hush whisper "... people from the TA they ... they don't have aura."
"What do you are talking about Ruby? Everyone has aura" argued Pyrrha with confusion laced into her voice.
"Nope, it's fact that those born in the TA can't produce there own aura, only Faunus and humans born in remnant can produce aura" explained Ruby. "I'm honestly surprised that you didn't know that before hand."
"Sorry, before I came to beacon I was only focused on training as well continuing my studies, so I guess I never really got to know the TA besides the basic. It also doesn't help that I lived born in Mistral as well" answered Pyrrha.
"Well ... Mmm ... I guess that's a possibility" mumbled Ruby. "Still, don't go saying stuff like this, I heard the TA is really sensitive when you bring this stuff up, well from what I've heard from Yang at least."
"I see ... well I guess I should thank you Ruby, you've greatly help shed light to the problem I was facing" thanked Pyrrha.
"It was nothing Pyrrha, I was just doing my job as a friend" replied Ruby.
"But what are you going to do now anyway?" asked Ruby.
"Hm? Oh just some stuff" vaguely replied Pyrrha as she turned around and headed back to her team.
JNPR DORM
"So what did you want to talk about Pyrrha?" asked Jaune as he and Ren were sitting in there respective beds.
"Well, I guess I want to say that I'm sorry about what happened back there and sorry for not backing you up" apologized Pyrrha.
"Huh, Oh, you don't need to apologize yourself for that Pyr. It wasn't your fault back there, what happened there was a different a completely separate matter" replied Jaune.
Pyrrha shook her head before opening her mouth, "They were still my people, there clothing and looks were of Mistral origin. Not only that but I'm your teammate as well Jaune."
Instead of replying Jaune turned over to Ren who gave shrug to the blond knight in response. Giving a tired sigh Jaune took a few moments to mull over the right words before speaking.
"~sigh~ Pyrrha, I understand you feel at fault here, you think that because of your heritage and you not standing up you feel like you were siding with them, yes?" stated Jaune.
"It is part of it but yes" answered Pyrrha, nodding her head in agreement.
"You have to understand Pyrrha, your not at fault here. Those Mistral students back there, and pardon my language, were grade A assholes. But they weren't you Pyrrha" explained Jaune.
"Still-" began Pyrrha before Ren interrupted.
"If your thinking that we hate you for not doing anything then your wrong. You've been a good teammate to us Pyrrha and even though your a Mistralian you certainly don't act like one when they come into contact wit the TA. I understand that we may have not been the most ... open of teammates but we do appreciate you Pyrrha" stated Ren.
"You took the words right out of my mouth Ren" spoke Jaune.
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"I see ... thank you, it means a lot to me that you guys care about me" softly replied Pyrrha as an invisibe burden have been finally lifter off her shoulders "I won't lie, Ren is right that you guys aren't the most open of people I have meet" admitted Pyrrha.
"Well you have to understand Pyrrha, the TA and Mistral don't exactly have the best relations ... even if you can them that to begin with, heck we barely have an embassy there to begin with" replied Jaune.
"Do our nations have that bad of a relationship?" questioned Pyrrha.
"Well when dozens of your love ones die in a flash of nuclear fire ... yeah that tends to happen" answered Jaune.
"look, how about we go on team only night out later, it will be a good bonding experience and hey you might learn a thing or two about us" offered Jaune.
"Well ..." began Pyrrha " ... I guess I would be ok with that."
"Great" said Jaune, clapping both his hands together
TEAM RWBY'S DORM LATER IN THE DAY
"I'm honestly surprised, out of the people to responded I never thought it would be you of all people Blake" said Weiss as she looked at the cat faunas cleaning her weapon.
"What there to even know Weiss, they barked and Blakey here showed them her bite" answered Yang.
"Still, now she has detention with Goodwitch for the next three days because of that stunt she pulled" argued Weiss.
"And?" asked Yang.
Weiss merely groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "What I'm trying to say is that I what Blake did not help the slightest, and now we most likely have the ire of those students to deal with as well because of it."
"Then bring it one I say, team RWBY ain't going to take nothing lying down" replied Yang, pumping her fist together.
"That isn't going to help the situation Yang, all your doing is feeding the flame" said Weiss.
"Than what ..." spoke Blake turning her amber eyes at the heiress "... allow them to keep calling us names and degrade us."
"Absolutely not, there is a reason why the faculty is there you know" replied Weiss.
Blake gave snort, "Like they would help us, if they could I bet they would have sided with them if they could" sneered Blake.
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"Umm ... not to interrupt but what do you mean us and them?" asked Ruby, raising her hand like a student would.
"The TA = us, The kingdoms = them" answered Blake.
"That's a rather narrow view their Blake" said Ruby.
"Unfortunately its just how the worlds is Ruby" explained Blake.
Ruby frowned at the cat faunas's statement. Like she said before such a viewpoint is very narrow and would only lead to future problems. Looking around Ruby couldn't help but deepen her frown as she saw how the rest of team RWBY was reacting. Yang looked disappointed at Blake while Weiss was wearing her stoic mask, but being her BFF she could see that she was upset as well.
"Man, team RWBY isn't looking good ... maybe I should do a team bonding exercise OH! maybe I should bring Jaune's team as well, Blake may feel more at eased with JNPR" thought Ruby as internal gears of her mind began chugging and plan formed.
"AH HA!" exclaimed Ruby as light bulb appeared over her head and she snapped her finger.
"Guys, what about we and Jaune's team have a whole day together, a team bonding experience" explained Ruby.
"Yeah, I be down for that" agreed Yang.
"A day of team bonding wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but don't think I'll be paying for you all" replied Weiss.
"What about you Blake" said Ruby, looking over to her faunas teammate.
Blake stood silent for a roughly a minute before she eventually agreed to Ruby's plan with some hesitancy.
"Great" cheered Ruby as she clapped her hands together "I'll go over to JNPR dorm and see if me/Jaune can come up with a plan, you guys ... um, do you stuff."
Waving to her teammates Ruby quickly left her dorm before heading over to JNPR's dorm. She knock three time on door and waited for a response, it didn't take long before the door opened.
"Hey Ruby, you need something?" asked Nora.
"Is Jaune here, I want to talk to him, team leader to team leader stuff if you know what I mean" replied Ruby.
"Sure, come on in Ruby" nodded Nora as she motioned the young hunteress inside.
"Jaune! Ruby wants to talk to you" hollered Nora as muffled reply came from the bathroom.
One sound of flushing later Jaune quickly scuttled over to Nora and Ruby.
"You wanted to talk about something Ruby" said Jaune.
"Yep, but could we talk about it outside" requested Ruby.
"Sure" accepted Jaune as he and Ruby stepped out of the door before shutting the door to this dorm close.
"Well, we now outside. So what did you want to talk about" repeated Jaune.
"Well ..." began Ruby as started to twiddled her thumbs a bit, a sign that she was nervous "... I was wondering if we could have a team bonding time this Sunday between the two of our teams."
"Just the two of our team?" questioned Jaune as one of the ridges of his eyebrow rose "This isn't about what happened back at the mess is it?"
"Eheheh ... would it make you less upset if I said it wasn't" replied Ruby, giving an awkward chuckle in response.
"~sigh~ I'm not mad if that is what your asking, I guess Blake isn't mixing with the rest right now?" asked Jaune.
"Yeah ... I'm kinda of worry how it's going. I'm not going to lie to you Jaune, Blake isn't and still isn't the most open member of team RWBY. After what happened today I'm worried things aren't going to get better, so I was hoping some team bonding may help. You know like we could learn more about the TA and Blake could learn more about the kingdoms so we may have something to talk about" explained Ruby.
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"Hmm ... well, I don't think my team will mind that. I originally was hoping to spend some team bonding time tomorrow but I think the two of our teams wouldn't hurt" slowly agreed Jaune.
"~yew~ Your a life saver Jaune" thanked Ruby. "But you know anywhere that we should go, because I really didn't think this far out."
"You know that new museum that was recently built here" asked Jaune.
"Oh, you mean the House & Saiph museum of history" said Ruby.
"Yeah that one" replied Jaune. "I was thinking of getting tickets since the museum is open tomorrow. I can get you and your team some tickets as well if you need any"
"Thanks Jaune, I should probably get back to my team, you can text the detail to my scroll later" said Ruby as she waved the knight a goodbye before leaving back to her dorm.
As the door to team RWBY's dorm closed shut Jaune gave a tired sigh as his shoulders slumped a bit. Activating his pip-boy he went to museum's website before ordering four more tickets as went back to his dorm.
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"Ughh Nora, can you open the door ... I accidentally locked the door" begged Jaune shaking the door and knocking on it repeatedly.
Jesus Christ this took longer than I was hoping for ... won't lie it was more on my fault for managing time horribly. Still, the chapter is here now which is all that matters.
So yeah, not a lot of action in this chapter nor the next chapter, this will be a focusing on relationships and a bit of lore for a tiny bit as team RWBY & JNPR attempt to ease the tension between their members. After this it will either be back to the good courier and back to RWBY.
As for what comes next after this chapter is posted is the next chapter of Cloth & Scythe, than A Daughter's story , and than after that a one shot I've been thinking in my head for quite a bit.
And finally ... a question for you folks.
I'm thinking of creating a new story(This will be my last one till one of the others are finally done) and currently I have two story ideas. And I want to know which one of you guys want which?
I'll be placing them in a poll after this chapter is posted.
But for now, let me give the stage to our dear friend Doctor Oobleck
"Thank you very much" thanked Oobleck as he turned to a camera a few feet away from him. "Greetings everyone, My name is Doctor, not Professor, Oobleck and with my assistant, Ruby Rose, will be continuing out lecture of both the TA and the kingdoms."
Going to the chalkboard Oobleck wrote down today's topic ... Synths
"For today's topic we will be discussing about the synths, a rather sensitive topic depending on where you live in the TA" explained Oobleck.
"Synths? You mean robots" asked Ruby,raising her hand up like a student.
"No, the correct term would be androids Ruby, But yes in way you are also right. Synths, are advanced AI created in the commonwealth after the great war. There were used by an organization called the institute for reasons unknown" spoke Oobleck.
"Hold on a moment" interrupted Ruby "Your saying that the TA has made AI as in the real deal?"
"Indeed Miss Rose, and I must admit that it is a truly spectacular thing to both know and see it for your own very eyes. But what truly should amaze you Miss Rose is not that the TA have AI but WHEN they got AI, for the birth of sentient AI did not happen back before the great war but in fact after the great war" said Oobleck as he exclaimed at the near end.
"Like I'd said before hand, synths were created by the institute after the great war, the institute themselves are descendants of the faculty and students of Commonwealth Institute of Technology, or CIT, a renowned university based in what was Cambridge, Massachusetts. Unfortunately the exact reason for the use of synths is unknown" explained Oobleck.
"From what we know synths, more importantly 3rd Gen synths, were used as both soldiers and infiltrators by the institute. After the institute's destruction by the hand of the eastern chapter of the brotherhood of steel the fate of synths became a sad one" said Oobleck.
"What do you mean Doctor?" asked Ruby.
"After the destruction of the institute the remaining synths were forever scattered across the nation and depending on where they ended up was either death or a somewhat decent life."
"In the eastern brotherhood due to a combination of philosophy and previous experience with sentient AI have resulted in a automatic kill order for all synths and harsh punishments to those who would support them" said Oobleck.
"What! Your saying they just kill them out right, like in the middle of say outright" questioned Ruby as the shock in her voice was clearly evident. In the young huntresses mind she found it hard to think that Ren or Nora would kill somebody for being a synth.
"Indeed Miss Rose ..." began Oobleck as his voice carried a sad undertone "... that is exactly what happens to synth in the eastern brotherhood territory. However, the other two factions in the TA are lucky far less hostile to synths."
"In the NCR synths are not killed on site like they eastern counterpart, unfortunately more than a few people from the commonwealth had traveled towards the the NCR before the the brotherhood had solidify there prescience along the east side. Coming with them were there own beliefs about synths. Please understand Miss Rose that people from the commonwealth have a bad experience with synths as they had been used to infiltrate as well as kidnapping. As a result have caused the NCR to form a bias for synths while nowhere extreme it has unfortunately caused synths to be excluded from certain jobs as a result."
"That still not better Doctor ... do the TA really hate synths in general" questioned Ruby.
"Not at all Miss Rose, in fact out of all the places Menagerie and, even to my own surprise, the enclave are considered the two places where synths in general are treated better and most of the time as equals" assured Oobleck.
"Huh" muttered Ruby.
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"Hey Doctor, I have question" spoke Ruby after a moment of silence.
"Hm? What is it Miss Rose" asked Oobleck.
"Well ... all you've said that synths are living in the TA but ... do they live in the here, in the kingdoms" questioned Ruby.
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"They ... they do not Miss Rose ... they do not" answered Oobleck as his features took a more far away look to them.
"What do you mean? Why don't they just come over here, surely it can't be that hard" pressed Ruby.
"There is reason for that Miss Rose, but suffice to say I won't say why as it involves ... personal things Miss Rose, I talk to you about it later."
"Anyway, look at the time everyone, it seems that our segment on this topic has come to end folks, up next will be Atlas" quickly said Oobleck as he went over to shut the camera off, ignoring the words of his assistant as the red light faded away.