Hola, did I takek too long? Gods I hope I didn't.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
Today was a boring day, just like the day before, and every other day before that. Like every morning for the past 2 weeks, Francis groaned as he slumped down on his chair. "Remind me, why are we here again?"
"Because you pissed off commander Sol, AGAIN," said the woman besides him, who tried to look as calm as she could given the situation they were in.
Francis sat up with a frown. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, why you pinning this on me?!"
"YOU BLEW UP THE PROTOTYPE PALADIN!"
"Hey, it wasn't my fault the fucking thing blew up, shit happens Sera!"
Sera threw her arms up in the air with a confused expression. "You're seriously telling me that you thought using chewed up bubblegum to fix a fuel leak was a good idea?! Of course it was gonna blow!"
Francis coughed into his fist. "To be fair, I was high when that happened."
"Yes, and now because of you we're stuck here guarding the LEAST used entrance to the city, I swear I am losing my damned mi-" she stopped mid sentence as she looked towards the forest with a confused expression. "Huh… there's people coming."
"You're shitting me," he said as he took a peek, his jaw dropped at the sight of no less than 50 people, all well armed and armoured, walking towards the gate. "Did I eat from the wrong bag of brownies again?"
"Not this time at least," she said as she got back to her post, standing next to the gate with her rifle in her hands. "Try looking professional man, and be ready for anything, group that big must be up to something."
Francis flipped her off and remained on his chair, though he did grab his rifle. "Fuck off, I'm a free man."
She groaned and shook her head but didn't retort like she'd usually do, time to work.
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Qrow raised an eyebrow when he saw the two Atlesian soldiers standing guard. This entrance usually didn't have any guards, in fact, it was one of the reasons why he was taking the warriors through here rather than the other gates, his other reason being simply being that this one just happened to be closer.
Of course, this wasn't his first choice, Ideally, he would have taken them to Beacon directly through the emerald forest, but considering the armour some of the warriors wore he wasn't entirely sure if they'd be able to climb beacon cliff, let alone doing so with the wounded, and finding a landing spot for a bullhead would take some time, time that some of the warriors didn't have, so here he was.
Besides him, the peacekeeper he'd learned was called Tranquility, hummed and tilted her head. "Guards, I thought you said there wouldn't be any."
"Yeah, I thought so too." He turned to look at her, when she did the same, the image of her without the armour, flashed for a brief moment, he shook the strange feeling with a drink from his flask, not now, he could think about it later. "Alright, I'll be the one doing the talking, just stay quiet and try to not look threatening."
She only nodded as a response.
"Hold, what's your business in Vale?" The female soldier asked as she put her hand forward to tell them to stop.
"Got some wounded back there," Qrow said as he thumbed back to the warriors. "Pack of Beowolves got em pretty bad, taking them to Beacon for treatment."
The soldier who was sitting down looked at Qrow skeptically. "Oh really? Why Beacon then? Persephone Hospital is closer."
"Specialised treatment," Qrow said with a shrug. "Beacon is better equipped to deal with these kind of things."
The two soldiers shared a look, the woman shrugged, then the man returned the gesture. "Alright we'll let you in, just stay outta trouble, Commander Sol will hang us if he learns we let the people robbing the bank through."
Qrow nodded. "We'll stay outta your hair, promise."
The woman shrugged again as her partner opened the gate lazily by pressing a large red button on the side. "Welcome to Vale."
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Tranquility couldn't hold her small gasp as the city beyond the wall was revealed. In all her years of work as a peacekeeper, she had thought she'd seen everything the world had to offer, but this? Not even in her wildest dreams could she have even begun to imagine any of the things in front of her.
Every colour that she could think of and more was here, some so bright it hurt her eyes by just seeing it, colour in the streets, in the strange clothing people wore, in the buildings which had a strange architecture she'd never seen in all her days. Metal carriages of sorts moved to and fro through the black, stone like roads. Merchants peddling goods she'd never seen. Fruit so large that would've needed to hold it with both hands, strange crystals which glowed and irradiated with pure power. The smell of freshly baked bread assaulted her nostrils, the sound of the strange carriages, the glass towers which extended to heights she thought impossible for a building to reach.
The questions in her mind wouldn't stop forming, her mind begged for her to seek answers, to approach the nearest merchant and ask him what he was selling, to separate and look for more wondrous sights, smells and noises.
Tranquility shook her head and focused on keeping up with Qrow and the rest of the warriors. As a peacekeeper, her trainers had taught her how to ignore herself, how to focus, for Tranquility, this was harder. Being inquisitive was in her nature, seeking answers to satisfy her own curiosity was simply a flaw that her trainers could never beat out of her, no matter how much they tried.
To keep herself from thinking too hard on the burning questions, she looked to her companions to see their reactions, she wasn't surprised to find that they shared her amazement, all but one.
Tranquility tilted her head at Virgil, who looked around the strange and wondrous city not with amazement, but with nostalgia in her eyes. Before she could get caught up in her thoughts again, Qrow called for them to stop and wait for him there while he "got them a ride," moments later, he returned.
"Alright, bullhead's coming in 5 or 6 minutes tops, just sit tight, we're almost there."
She was about to ask herself what exactly he meant by that, she needn't wonder for long as a large shape hanged lazily on the skies, flying gently in the wind and coming towards them, the warriors gasped, and she heard Alistair speak only one word.
"Impossible…" the normally stoic lawbringer dropped his poleaxe and removed his helmet to reassure himself that what he was seeing was indeed real.
"We're not in Heathmoor anymore…" Tranquility muttered to herself in disbelief.
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Tranquility had chosen to stand by one of the two large windows on the sides of the flying vessel, quietly staring at the city below. She knew that this wasn't anywhere in Heathmoor, nowhere in their world, but knowing didn't make it any easier to accept.
Questions, every moment since awakening had been filled with questions and it bothered her to no end. Was this an afterlife, If so then why were the vikings here instead of Valhalla? Was this what the voice meant by telling them what it did? Why was it only heard by some of them? Is anything of what's happened over the past weeks even real, or is it some sort of limbo?
Amidst the fog of confusion only one thing was certain: they had died, it was the only thing no one dared question, not even for a moment.
Without her knowing, Tranquility's hand went to her neck, gently rubbing along where her death mark was.
"Peacekeeper, a word?" Her hand dropped down as she turned to face Alistair, who looked deeply troubled.
"Of course." She answered simply.
He nodded to her "Ever since we fought those black wolves there's been talk amongst our soldiers, they say that this isn't Heathmoor, that we may be beyond the sea of ghosts." He paused, taking a deep breath. "Do you give credibility to their words?"
Tranquility glanced to the side, observing the city of lights and glass towers, of black roads and bright colours, to her there was no doubt.
"Yes."
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Bai felt uncomfortable under all the attention he and the survivors from The Shard were getting, truth be told, he wasn t one that liked drawing attention, but he could handle the looks of awe in men, women and children alike as they walked through the city, but in this "Beacon"? Things were very different.
These children weren't like the people that would visit the temple for gidance, or like the men and women that lived in the towns and cities across Heathmoor; they were warriors, fighters down to their very core. He could see it in their eyes, their movement, the confidence with which they carried themselves. Bai had to ask himself exactly where had their new friend taken them.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when Qrow opened the door into a pristine looking white room, as soon as they set a foot inside, an older man with… wolf ears? Stood up from his desk, looking at them with a flat look.
"Stevenson." Qrow greeted the white coat wearing man.
"Branwen." He greeted back as leaned to the side to see what or who was behind the caped huntsman, when he saw the wounded being carried on improvised stretches (he'd have to thank Aquila for giving him permission to use his shield as one), he raised an eyebrow. "What kind of shit did you get into this time kid?"
Qrow sighed. "Will you ever stop calling me that?"
The man snorted. "You're younger than me, that makes you a kid. Now answer the damn question"
"Grumpy as ever," Qrow jerked his head to the warriors who carried the wounded, they stepped inside and placed the hurt on some beds on the back. The doctor immediately raised his eyebrows.
"Beowolves, huh? I'd recognize those claw wounds anywhere." He said as he got closer to the barely alive wounded, he hummed as he took notice of the fact that the wounds looked like they'd been properly cleaned and bandaged with torn strips of clothing. "For field work this is nicely done," he muttered to himself.
Bai smiled at that, a small shiver running across his exposed torso. He'd been the one to tend to the wounded, and he had done everything within his power by bandaging and cleaning their wounds. At first some were worried about how to properly treat the hurt, they'd never seen claws like that, and all of their healers had died in the Shard during the first assault, so Bai, at the time, simply began tearing into his clothing and using what knowledge he had in the healing arts to treat the wounded. That had helped to ease the other's worries, if only a little.
"Will they live?" asked Alistair as he walked into the room.
Stevenson nodded. "Yeah, they'll have to stay here a couple of weeks, just in case Grimrot (1) develops, but I can treat it if that happens."
Alistair thanked the man and turned to look at Qrow, giving him a nod of thanks.
"Thanks Aurum, owe you big time," Qrow said to the doctor.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, now get out of my infirmary."
They walked out with a lighter step, as if a burden had ben lifted from their shoulders. Bai had heard the rumors saying that this place was some kind of new world or limbo. As he looked back at the old half animal man treating the soldiers who would have otherwise been dead, he couldn't help but think that if that was the case, if everything really wasn't some sort of fever dream, than maybe this new life wasn't so bad.
Hello! did ya see the number? Well, that means that from here on out, besides author notes, this space will be used for my own bits of non-cannon (to the official worlds of RWBY and For Honor that is) lore.
(1) Excerpt from: "Unseen killers: a list of things huntsmen should be aware of, by aurologist Aurum Stevenson."
Grimrot is a rarely encountered disease which, as the name implies, is carried exclusively by the creatures of Grimm, though it must also be noted that Grimrot is only carried by the following: Beowolves, Ursai, Nevermore and Griffins.
This particular pathogen is highly lethal, often resulting in the infected's death if not treated properly. Transmission occurs via bites or scratches caused by the aforementioned Grimm. Symptoms are as follows: Blackened skin around the infected area, Itching, paralysis, acute pain, cysts and eventually necrosis.
Treatment can be successful as long as it's caught in it's early stages but is something that should only ever be attempted by a certified professional.
If you begin to notice any of the symptoms and think yourself unable to reach the nearest huntsmen academy in time (2 weeks) than amputation should be considered (if possible).
Curious data: Corpses of the victims of this disease disappear after some time, turning into smoke like the Grimm themselves.
