Chapter 6: Relics
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Nick trudged along through the forest, keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings. As he went along he started having doubts about coming to Beacon. Do I really belong here? I mean this is a nice change of pace, but the others just seem like children playing. I figured students training to defeat evil would be a little more serious... They have no idea the kind of world they're heading out into.
He heard voices in the distance and decided to approach them. He ducked behind a bush as the voices grew louder. "So are you two a thing or...," a girl's voice came.
"Me and Mondy? No, she's like a sister to me," a second voice came, this one from a boy. "We met at our combat school, we both were struggling until we started helping each other study and working together. We helped each other get through a lot."
"That's cool. I can't wait to see you guys as partners, your teamwork must be insane! I hope we end up on the same team." Their voices grew quieter as they moved away.
"So why are you hiding?" another voice came from right behind causing him to spin around to see the boy dressed in green smiling down at him.
"Force of habit I guess," Nick answered without thinking.
"That's a strange habit to have... Any other weird habits I should know about my partner, assuming of course you don't already have a partner who is also hiding in a bush somewhere," boy joked.
"Nope, and it's just me. Name's Nick, Nick Noire by the way." The older boy stuck out his hand out which the shorter boy shook replying, "Tsuta Yoshimoto."
Suddenly off in the distance sounds of fighting erupted, catching the two boys' attention. "What is that?" Tsuta asked.
"Sounds pretty serious, we should go see if we can help," Nick suggested and they ran off to the sounds of combat.
Before they arrived, however, the sounds stopped. They still continued towards where the last sounds came from. When they finally came into a clearing they believed to be the source of the sounds of battle, they saw the forest temple. Littering the area around the temple were Nevermore feathers, some chunks of ice and rose petals and other signs of the battle. There were no bodies or dissipating Grimm present so Tsuta and Nick concluded that the battle most likely moved elsewhere.
Just as they began to approach the temple Tsuta pointed out two figures standing within the temple they somehow failed to notice. It was the same pair Tsuta caught Nick eavesdropping on. Nick and Tsuta met up with the first pair in the temple, Tsuta mentioned their names were Reyn and Carmina. Nick recognized Carmina as the redhead from the ship that took them to Beacon yesterday.
"Hey Tsuta!" called Carmina, while Reyn opted for a small wave in greeting. "I see you got yourself a partner. That's too bad I think we would have worked well together."
"Well what about your partner, Reyn here?"
"Oh. We're not partners, I'm helping him find his friend Mondy."
A soft spoken voice came from Reyn as he said, "It appears she already has a partner," he nodded in another direction. In the distance the aforementioned bright blue figure and her partner approached.
"Aw I'm sorry Reyn. I guess that makes us partners though," Carmina comforted Reyn. Nick, meanwhile, idly examined the "relics" Ozpin referenced. Chess pieces? He noticed three pairs were missing; the white rooks and knights and the black bishop. He grabbed a black rook and examined it. Tsuta spoke behind him saying, "Let's take that piece, it's seems like a good one." Nick nodded and pocketed the piece as Mondy and her partner approached them. He noticed Carmina, whose attention diverted as Reyn waited to greet his friend, grabbed the white queen piece.
Mondy greeted her friend Reyn saying she already got a partner, gesturing at the anti-social boy Nick saw on the airship. Reyn approached the boy and greeted him. "Hello my name is Reyn, I'm a friend of Mondy's. It's a pleasure to meet you..."
"Gavin, the pleasure is mine." They shook hands, and Gavin moved to examine the chess pieces. "Two sets are incomplete," he observed, pointing out the remaining white queen and black rook.
"Ooh," Mondy excitedly cheered, "We should take the que-"
"I'm taking the rook," Gavin interrupted, snatching the black piece.
"What? Why that one? The queen is better."
"That's true, but the way I play chess, if you play a queen offensively to attack the enemy king, it leaves the your king open to attack. Unless you bring in the rooks as defense for the king. Keep them near the king at all times and they become the most important pieces you have, because they stop any enemy pieces that get through your offense. It doesn't matter how good your offense is if the enemy checkmates your king first."
Mondy looked as if she wanted to continue to argue but resigned to defeat. Nick was amused by watching the two interact, they made an interesting partnership. I wonder if it'll last four years though, I've seen better bonded groups fail. Nick also noticed that the pair took the same piece that he did and he silently wondered if there was a significance to the matching pairs.
Just as Nick was about to point out the coincidence, Gavin asked, "Do all of you just want to head back to Beacon Cliff together?" Nick noticed he wasn't the only one surprised that Gavin suggested a group activity. "What? I don't think there's a rule against pairs working together, after all there was about eight students here earlier who were working together to fight a Nevermore and Deathstalker. What's wrong with six walking to the cliff?" Gavin asked, misinterpreting the expressions some of them wore.
"Sounds like a plan," Nick recovered, "I just hope you have a good sense of direction, I think a few teams have gotten lost getting here."
"Well I was here before anyone else, so I'd like to think that I'm pretty decent at finding my way," Gavin said with a laugh. I guess you can't judge a book by it's cover, thought Nick with a smile.
The group of six began heading away from the temple to find their way back to the cliff.
S
Saffron watched the Beowolves moving away from the fire through the scope of his rifle. As they began moving out of sight, Saffron pulled one of his knives out of his belt and scratched an arrow into the tree trunk and jumped from one tree branch to a branch of another tree and marked his path again, continuing the process until he found another spot where he stopped and started watching the Grimm again, tracking their progress. After about a half hour, a flash of purple landed next to him. "Hey, Mauve," Saffron greeted his partner, his eyes never leaving the scope. "Did you find the relic?"
"Yeah," she answered and flashed a white piece that Saffron couldn't see. "I just missed a group of students at the temple. They're heading this way, are the Grimm gone yet?"
"No, looks like it's only grown larger. And there's a pack of Ursai with some Majors nearby too. That group is gonna end up right between them." Saffron sighed, "... I guess we're gonna have to help them."
Here it is the last edited chapter from here on out it is brand new content! Well actually I had already written Chapter 7 by the time I decided to go back and edit the story, so I'll be editing that. Also, just a few comments of my own on this chapter, the fire in the forest is the one caused by Ruby and Weiss, in case that wasn't clear. I like the idea that the characters here are having to deal with the aftermath of team RWBY's actions. That won't be the only theme in this story but it'll certainly be there!
Please leave a review so I know what you like (or don't like) and I can make this story all the better for you!