Original upload date: 7/9/2020
Revised upload: 8/23/2022
Honestly, not a lot of direct changes in this chapter. Mostly just clearing up the timeline and changing from present to past tense. I did push one paragraph to the next chapter, as it flows better now, but since I'm uploading two chapters together, there shouldn't be any confusion.
Please, feel free to follow and comment on predictions, thoughts, etc. I am always looking for new ways to improve my craft. Tell your friends!
Metal like Roses
By ReaderWarrior
I do not own Mistborn or RWBY.
Defense
Once again, Vin woke up to the sound of Ruby scurrying away in the early morning. The girl hadn't slept at all the past night, working on the blueprints for Vin's new armor and weapons. She had rarely said a word as she worked, only to ask Vin about her emblem.
Ruby had shown hers as an example and explained that emblems were like a crest or a signature. Something simple but unique.
At first, Vin thought of the Venture crest - a scroll wrapped around a spear. She was, technically, the heiress of the Great House. But that felt wrong. She'd never been a part of that family and had only just joined it before arriving here.
But there was something that called to her…
Vin explained to Ruby the design and, after a quick sketch and nod of approval from Vin, quickly began implementing the design into her armor.
As she left, though, Ruby's hair was frazzled and her pupils seemed to have shrunken - possibly a side effect from the ridiculous amount of coffee and sugar she seemingly inhaled. Even though the festival was a few days away, she was bent on finishing the project as quickly as she could.
So Ruby left and Vin returned to her bed. And though she didn't let herself fall to sleep, she did close her eyes.
She kept them closed for the next two hours. She kept them closed when the sun began to shine on her face. She kept them closed when Weiss woke up and got changed, followed shortly by Blake and Yang.
When she finally did open her eyes, Yang was polishing her blade, Blake was reading one of her books, and Yang was brushing her hair.
Vin sat up. "Where's Ruby?"
"Her text said she's now at the forge," Blake explained.
Vin nodded, her story matching what she had surmised. I have to stop that, she scolded. I don't need to check everyone's story. I've trusted them with mine. Sighing, she shook her head and reached for a vial of metals, only to have her mistcloak tossed into her face.
"Come on," Yang smirked, crossing her arms as Vin pulled the bundle of cloth off her head. "We're going to the practice arena."
"We?" Vin asked, tossing the cloak around her shoulders.
She nodded. "Me, you, and Weiss."
"Why?"
Weiss flicked her sword's pommel, causing the blade part to unhinge and hang. "Because," she said, sliding shells of dust into the chamber, "you lied to us. And you owe us an apology."
"Didn't I already say sorry?"
Yang snorted. "Not like that. With our fists!" She emphasized her comment with a slamming of her knuckles. "And you better not hold back!"
Pyrrha, having expected to train with Vin this morning, was surprised when her teammates, with the exception of their leader, all showed up. The only explanation she was given was that Vin 'needed to pay' and that she would be proving herself to her teammates.
Also to her surprise, Jaune, Nora, and Ren soon followed and sat down in the bleachers to watch.
"Nora told us something was happening," Jaune explained. "She was 'checking for worm Grimm that might have snuck into the school by tunneling up from the secret laboratory below'."
"I see." As per usual, Pyrrha found it difficult to sit next to her team leader without fidgeting. There was just something so uniquely Jaune that seemed to call to her. She was thankful that he had stopped asking her tips on how he could ask Weiss on a date. There were, after all, so many times she could sneak away to scream before one seemed conspicuous.
The center stage lights and scroll-board flickered to life a few seconds later. To the left, Vin was standing in her strange cloak. Besides fidgeting with one of the vials she often kept on her person, there seemed nothing off about her. But to their right was both Yang and Weiss.
Blake moved to the center of the stage, holding the master control for the display above them. A few taps of her fingers and it quickly showcased the stadium's combatants and their aura levels.
"What's going on?" Jaune asked.
Ren raised an eyebrow. "It would appear that team RWVBY would wish to test how their newest member can handle herself against their own members."
With little care for the reasoning, Nora jumped up and cupped her hands. "FIIIIGHT!"
After smiling at her teammate's antics, Pyrrha looked back toward the stage and studied her recent mentor. The vial she was playing with before slipped into her belt as she was handed what appeared to be a pair of stone daggers from Blake (who had likely grabbed them from the attached armory around back). Opposite her, Weiss brandished her rapier as Yang cracked her knuckles.
Blake quickly jumped back from the stage and pressed one last button.
"Three."
Vin dropped into a strange stance Pyrrha had never seen and brandished the knives.
"Two."
All of a sudden, Yang and Weiss' stature seemed to become more agitated. Their grips became tighter and their eyes changed from study to glare.
"One."
Pyrrha, out of the corner of her eye, noticed that Mercury, one of the students from Haven Academy and teammate to Emerald, slunk inside and leaned against one of the cement walls.
"Begin!"
All three girls rushed towards the center at the same time. However, thanks to their dust and glyph usage, Weiss and Yang had the advantage in speed. Yang used her gauntlets to fire into the ground behind her, propelling herself upward, as Weiss suddenly froze and raised her sword.
Vin jumped forward, rolling underneath Yang and her first strike. A flash of red burst alight as a red glyph behind Weiss formed and summoned a ball of fire. Quickly rising to her feet, Vin jumped upward to dodge. Yang turned around just in time to see it coming and took the blast directly to her chest.
The blonde inched backward slightly from the explosion. Then, with her footing positioned the opposite way, she stumbled forward as some unseen force grabbed her and pulled her forward. Weiss also gave a yelp as she, and her sword, were yanked forward and toward her partner.
Vin landed off to the side as Weiss and Yang crashed into each other, shaving a bit off of both of their auras. Growling, Yang grabbed Weiss and threw her at Vin. The girl easily dodged and Weiss, who was definitely not expecting that, hit the ground with a thud.
Using Weiss as a distraction, Yang charged forward once more and tried to punch at Vin. The girl sidestepped Yang's attack and kicked out her leg. With momentum against her, Yang fell forward. Vin, spinning one of her blades, used the pommel to hit the blonde on the back of the head.
Meanwhile, Weiss rose back to her feet with the side of her rapier. After taking a calming breath, she held up the blade and spun its chamber to select a new variety of dust. She slid the weapon across the round in an arch and a large white glyph formed at her feet.
Vin's eyes must have been drawn to the light show because as soon as the glyph formed, she was taking to the air. A wave of ice formed directly underneath her, icicles rising slightly to grab at her feet where they stood just seconds before.
Letting out a shout of surprise and anger, Yang, who was already dazed and off-balance, slipped on the ice and hit the ground. She glanced up to check her aura, which had slipped into the yellow, and looked just slightly past that to see Vin dancing in the scaffolding just as she did with Cardin Winchester.
"Get back here!" Yang pushed herself to her feet, careful not to slip on the ice, and used her gauntlets to launch herself after Vin. As the ceiling began to erupt in flashes of reds and oranges from Yang's attacks, Weiss peppered the floor with different colored glyphs.
Mines.
One last explosion shuddered above them before Vin, her cloak fluttering around her, began to fall down. Pyrrha's eyes widened as she focused on a large scorch mark on Vin's shoulder barely visible with the other shades of gray along the fabric.
Oh, Gods, Pyrrha realized. She still doesn't have her aura unlocked?
Yang jumped down after Vin, her fist raised for another strike the moment they hit the ground. But, to her shock, that moment wouldn't come. Vin's body lurched to a standstill, freezing her in the air and giving her the appearance of flight, as Yang continued to fall.
"Oh, you have got to be-!" The second Yang hit the ground, she landed on one of Weiss' glyphs. The dull-white symbol suddenly grew to a blinding degree and, when it died down, Yang was completely encased in a block of ice.
Nora smirked. "That's cold."
Not wasting a second to enjoy her momentary victory over Yang, Vin threw one of her daggers at Weiss as she safely flew toward her. Weiss easily blocked the attack and pulled her rapier back to thrust forward. Avoiding the mines, Vin landed directly in front of her and fell down to her knees.
Her strike now directly above Vin, Weiss' eyes went wide as Vin grabbed her arm and, as she stood up, threw Weiss over her shoulder with an unbelievable level of strength.
The heiress went airborne for a moment before landing near the center of the stage. She slowly rose to her feet, her eyes full of horror, as she realized she landed on one of her own traps. The glyph burned an earthy brown before a rock burst from the ground and launched Weiss out of the stage and onto a section of bleachers that were still under repair from yesterday's bouts.
Weiss' aura dropped into the red and a loud buzzer sounded. Jaune and Ren quickly jumped to their feet to run over and help the girl, but Pyrrha and Nora were too entranced in the fight to look up.
No time to celebrate was given as the ice block entrapping Yang suddenly exploded. Shards of frozen water turned to steam instantaneously as her eyes shone red and her hair, normally golden, burned with yellow flames.
Blake, a few rows in front of them, raised an eyebrow. "That's new."
Yang let out a monstrous roar. She slammed her fists together and ran forward, charging at Vin. Even with all the glyph-mines, there was no stopping her. She was just too fast for them to activate.
With a touch of panic no one had yet seen on Vin's face, she frantically grabbed a second vial from her belt. Before she swallowed its contents, she made a step toward Yang and the impossible happened.
To everyone's shock, Yang's anger and rage suddenly morphed into fear and terror. Her eyes went wide and her flames died out. She frantically tried to backpedal away from Vin but her momentum was too great. After slipping on a bit of ice, Yang fell down on her rear and tried to crawl backward away from Vin.
"No!" she cried. "Please don't!"
Vin took a step toward Yang. Then another. And a third. By the time she was overshadowing the blonde, Yang was trembling in a state no one would have thought was possible for her.
A flash of gray reflects the ceiling lights as Vin throws her remaining dagger between Yang's legs.
She whimpered.
Vin leaned down toward Yang and reached out her arm. Instantly, Blake and team JNPR reached for their weapons. But instead of attacking, Vin flicked Yang's forehead and brought her aura from yellow to red.
The buzzer rang. And the match was over.
As Nora cheered and Blake got up to help her teammates, Pyrrha remained transfixed as she stared at the small girl on the stage.
She's better than me… physically and semblancticsly. Even with all of her experience in combat arenas, there was something different and somehow more dangerous to the way Vin was fighting. In a one-on-one battle, Pyrrha had an edge that most people didn't. But Vin… her semblance wasn't just enhancing her fighting capabilities. It was almost as if they were an act of breathing. She wasn't using her semblance like a weapon.
Vin and her semblance were perfectly unified.
A movement from the corner of her eye broke Pyrrha from her trance. Mercury, who had at some point pulled out his scroll, was walking heading back out through the doors.
How did he even know to come here? Pyrrha thought.
After a quick shower in the locker room, Vin was surrounded by Pyrrha's teammates and her own.
The first, the one she had technically met first, was Jaune. He wore a black short-sleeved hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves. Covering his hoodie was a white diamond-shaped chest plate cut off above his lower abdomen, and placed over his shoulders were a pair of white spaulders with rerebraces set under them. Below, he wore blue jeans with a white patch placed on the left knee and black sneakers on his feet.
He had two belts crisscrossing his waist, both different shades of brown, with a pair of small pouches on them. On his hands, Jaune wore brown, wrist-length gloves with exposed fingertips and small metal plates over the back. His sword was strapped to his left hip in a sheath.
From just the way he and Pyrrha were standing, Vin could tell something was going on between them. She kept looking at him out of the corner of her eye while he, though talking with someone else, frequently glanced back towards Weiss.
Children, Vin thought.
The other two… They were close but not in a relationship. Nora, who had tried to attack Vin when she wasn't looking the night before, had bright orange hair with blue eyes and wore a collared black sleeveless vest, with a blue central front section with red accents.
Under the vest, she wore a white sleeveless t-shirt with a heart-shaped cutout above her breast line in the center, accompanied with a pair of white detached sleeves on each arm and a pair of light pink fingerless gloves. She sported a short pink skirt with a single white layer under it. Her white ankle boots had pink soles with part of her emblem, a lightning bolt, on them and low heels with pink laces (the tops are folded over revealing a pink lining). She also had a silver armor piece that wrapped around her waist, under her breasts, and around the back of her neck with metal connecting each piece together at the front.
The last member, Ren, wore a dark green, diagonally-buttoned, long-sleeved tailcoat with black and gold trimming and pink cuffs. The trimming went down the right side of his torso and formed a black collar. Along with this, he wore light-tan pants with black shoes. His hair was also tied back in a long ponytail. There was a magenta streak on the left side of his hair, which his eyes seemed to match.
For some reason, Vin felt a connection to the two. A shared pain. But she couldn't put her finger on it.
"What was that?!"
"That was incredible!"
"Truly an impressive display of power."
"That was fabulous!"
Yang chuckled. "Yeah. We did kinda lose it, though." She and Weiss were following Vin out of the changing area with bashful looks.
"No kidding!" Nora commented. "You looked like you were going to kill Vin."
Weiss rolled her eyes. "It's not like we were actually going to do it.
Ren raised an eyebrow, "I'm not so sure."
"Yeah," sighed the blonde. "I don't know either. But when the timer started counting down I just felt so much hate and anger. It was like I just wanted to take it out on her."
"That was me."
All seven students turned to look at the newest addition to team RWVBY.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked.
Vin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I can trust them. I need to trust them. "My semblance allows for me to dampen or enflame specific emotions. I used it to make you more violent so Yang and Weiss would be less likely to form a strategy together."
Team JNPR muttered a soft 'wow'. Even her teammates seemed surprised at the revelation but remained quiet.
Pyrrha, however, frowned. "I thought your semblance was to push and pull on metals."
More lies hidden with truths. Vin looked up at Blake, who nodded in approval.
"I have… multiple semblances."
Nora's eyes grew to an unbelievable degree. "WHAT?!"
"I don't even have one!" Jaune whimpered, earning a small pat on the back from Pyrrha.
"That's impossible," Ren stated. "There is absolutely no documentation of anyone in the history of Remnant who had multiple semblances."
"Until now," Pyrrha finished.
Yang quickly stepped in. "Yeah! That's why she was just admitted so late. When Ozpin found out he begged her to join because she's going to be our secret weapon against the Grimm!"
Ignoring the sliver of guilt she felt, Vin once again used brass to slightly soothe JNPR's suspicions so they would more likely believe the half-truths. Thankfully, three of the four nodded and mumbled 'that makes sense.'
However, Ren simply frowned. "But that doesn't explain how she has two semblances. Unless Ozpin knew about her past, I doubt he'd let a potential threat into Beacon. Especially after Torchwick and the White Fang."
Vin raised an eyebrow and tried to soothe Ren further but found herself unable to do so. It was as if there was a wall specifically around him to protect against emotional Allomancy.
Does he have a copper cloud? Here? Vin studied the boy and asked, "what's your semblance?"
Ren crossed his arms. "That seems incredibly personal and invasive of you to ask while you keep secrets of your own."
Sighing, Vin tried to build off of the lie Ozpin gave her to use. "From what I can remember, I was owned like a slave by one cruel man after another. They used me for my abilities and treated me like a good-luck token. Whenever he grew tired of me, he'd sell me to the next.
"At least," Vin lied, "that's what I can remember. It's all a bit fuzzy.
"She was made to be a living weapon as a freak science experiment," Blake added, nodding to Vin and moving slightly in front of her. "We found her escaping from one of her 'owners'."
For now, Vin's true identity would remain secret.
Nora and Pyrrha both gasped, the latter covering her mouth. "Oh, Gods."
"I'm sorry," Ren mumbled. "I didn't know."
"That's why you were admitted so quickly. And why they put you on a team with Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. If there was ever a team to protect and help you, it'd be them."
Vin nodded. "I… I think I found that out recently. And I'm thankful."
Slapping the upside of Ren's head, Nora scolded her teammate. "Look at what you did! Apologize!"
Ren rubbed the back of his head, though there was no sign of damage. "I apologize for my rudeness. As for my semblance, I can mask emotions - specifically ones of a negative nature."
Like copper, she thought. "Are you doing it currently?"
"No. But I do have my aura activated."
Vin frowned. But aura doesn't protect against emotional Allomancy. Perhaps his semblance is tied to his aura? Does that mean the two are linked?
Weiss placed a hand on Vin's shoulder. "Why are you asking?"
"Nothing. Just an idea."
The next few hours were fairly uneventful. JNPR kept pushing and asking questions about Vin's past. Yang and Blake helped grow the story while Weiss kept an eye on her. But the teams split up when the Vytal Festival acceptances were being announced.
Vin didn't understand the excitement but did feel how that news did affect her teammates. She told her friends to not wait up and that she wanted to talk to Ozpin first, to let him know that she had revealed her truths to her team.
Somehow, he already seemed to know.
"I suspected that their personalities would help you grow," he said. "Hence why I pushed for you to join them. But I am surprised at how quickly they were able to do so. Perhaps you are not as damaged as you believe yourself to be."
I ever said I was damaged, Vin thought with a grumble. Just… lost.
However, as she headed back to her dorm, Vin felt truth in the old man's words. She did think she was broken. She still did. And even though Vin had opened up to Ruby and her team, and slightly to their friends in JNPR, she still couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. That a knife was going to end up embedded in her back.
That she'd be followed.
Vin flared tin and listened to the footsteps trailing her a few yards back. To make sure she wasn't being paranoid, Vin stopped and listened.
The footsteps stopped too.
She began walking again and so did her tail.
Who could it be? One of Ironwood's soldiers? Is Ozpin spying on me? Is that how he knew about me telling the team? Or perhaps…
A flash of silver grazed her peripherals as Vin turned a corner. Careful to hide her movements, Vin grabbed a metallic nut from her pocket - that she stole from the time she had spent hiding in the rafters of the training area - and dropped it to her feet.
Careful not to make a noise, Vin Pushed on the metallic object and carefully jumped backward onto an outstretched tree branch. Normally this would have been a ridiculous hiding spot, but the trees here were lush with green leaves and not at all resembling the dead and dry flora she was used to.
Vin instinctively reached for a knife as her tail rounded the corner. However, she had returned the ones from the fight earlier.
Thank goodness Ruby was correcting that problem.
A boy, almost as old as she, with silver hair stopped beneath her. From what she could tell, he wore a slate gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket that covered his upper body. He also had a single-notched belt with what appeared to be a sash or bandana draped over it. Protecting his arms are a set of rerebraces and vambraces. But those weren't protecting him now.
He looked left and right, as of trying to locate where Vin had disappeared before noticing the shine of Vin's anchor. He reached down to pick up the bolt but froze as it wiggled.
Pulling on its iron-line, Vin made the object slam into his forehead. Then, as he stumbled back in a daze, Vin jumped down onto his back and knocked him to the ground. Zinc helped riot his fear as she grabbed his arms and bent them behind his back.
"Ow! What the hell?"
Vin used one hand to hold his arms in place while using the other, and its sharp nails, to press into the side of his neck. "Who are you what do you want?"
"My name is Mercury!" he gulped, panic in his voice. There was almost a hint of confusion as if he couldn't understand why he was so scared. "I was watching your match with Xiao-Long and Schnee! I was just wanting to get your autograph!"
Her grip tightened and she pushed her nail further into his skin. Luckily, with Vin Pushing on his emotions, he wasn't thinking clearly enough to activate it. Otherwise, she couldn't do much to threaten him.
"The truth," she growled. "Or you can get your autograph in your own blood." Another flare of zinc.
Mercury, who she now remembered was Emerald's teammate and did watch their fight the other day, whimpered. "I'm a spy!" he yelled. "I was spying on you! For the tournament!"
Vin studied him. His words… seemed truthful. At least some of them. She eased her hand back from his throat and noticed the scroll in his hands. It was opened to a picture of Ruby wearing a large lead apron and holding a cup of molten metal. She grabbed it from his hand and felt something protective inside of her awakening.
"Stay away from team RWVBY," she snarled. Mentally, she grabbed at the untouched metal in her stomach. Duralumin. "Me, Ruby, anyone. Come near us again and you won't even make it to the stage."
Then Vin attempted something she had only done once before. She burned brass, swapping out zinc, and duralumin together. The enhanced Push on Mercury's emotions allowed for her to soothe everything. No emotion at all. Hallowed out.
Dead.
Then she let go and ran back to her room.
Weiss glared at Vin as she sat down on her bed and breathed heavily. It wasn't exactly a long way back to the dormitory but wasn't the easiest to get to unless she wanted to Push herself through the exterior window.
"Why were you so concerned about Ren's semblance?" she asked. Blake was listening as well, but had a book in her hand, as Yang beat on a sandbag in the corner. "Semblances are reflections of a person's soul. For someone to open up about their semblance is to reveal a piece of themselves that they might not want everyone to know."
Different from how Pyrrha thought of them. She thought them to be symbols of prestige. Maybe that is why they are so revered.
"You of all people must understand how personal that information may be."
Vin felt her cheeks warm slightly at that jab. "I didn't know."
The heiress hmphed and stepped back.
"Don't be too hard on her," Blake said. "We need to remember she doesn't know much about our society or semblance etiquette. But… I am interested in why you asked."
"Something about his semblance prevented me from soothing his emotions," she explained. "I was trying to make them less suspicious."
Weiss frowned. "Using it in battle is one thing. But it is almost rude of you to play with someone's emotions like that. Aren't you just controlling them at that point?"
Vin chuckled. "That's what I thought at first. But then I got to know the most skilled Soother in the entire Final Empire. He said soothing and rioting was more like putting you in a better mindset instead of choosing your actions."
"Makes sense!" Yang said over the sound of her fists hitting leather. "Like how if I wanted to threaten someone, I wouldn't wear my Beacon uniform. I'd wear something cool and tough. Or if Weiss was going to some dance, she'd wear the same thing she always does!"
"It's not my fault my clothes work in any situation. I'm just prepared for any situation."
Blake shook her head. "But something about Ren's semblance prevented that?"
Vin nodded. "It was almost as if he was burning copper."
"Copper?" All three girls paused and walked over to Vin.
"Copper is one of the basic metals and, among other things, allows me to shield myself from emotional Allomancy." Vin nodded to one of the metal bars at the foot of her bed, where the metallurgy set was placed.
"Eight?" Yang asked. "I didn't know there were that many." She picked up one of the bars and inspected it.
Vin Pulled it into her hand. "There are more. But not all are useful. Copper, tin, and bronze are typically the main three I try to burn always."
"What do they do?" Weiss asked.
"Tin heightens my senses and bronze, the alloyed pair for copper, allows me to sense Allomantic pulsations."
Blake frowned. "But you're the only person here who uses Allomancy. Why would you keep wasting the time to use it?"
Well… "Habit?" Vin offered, somewhat weakly.
Now she and Weiss were glaring at her. "If there is anything you're not, it's a waster. You wouldn't spend the time to file down a metal just for it to do nothing. Spill."
Vin squirmed in her seat. This was one of the few secrets she had exploited recently and she wasn't sure if she wanted to reveal it yet.
Blake's eyes went wide. "Oh," she whispered. "You can sense them can't you?"
Or she could now. Slowly, Vin nodded.
"Sense what?" Yang asked.
"Aura and semblances," the Faunus answered. "Vin's Allomancy allows her to sense them."
"What?! " Yang and Weiss gasped. Disbelief was evident on their faces. "How?!"
"Is that how you beat us? You knew what we were doing?" Yang looked down at her hands and glared at them as if to scold her aura for betraying her.
Vin, however, shook her head. "I can only sense specific pulses. Like when you activate your aura or semblance. It allows me to tell each person apart and which of the two magics you are currently using."
"What about my glyphs?" Weiss asked. "Can you tell the difference between them?"
"Barely. It's like it's the same metal, but just has a slight change in pulse."
Silence fell upon the room for a moment as everyone took in that information.
"Well…" Yang said. "That's over-powered."
"No kidding," Weiss added. "But it will be useful for the Vytal tournament."
Vin raised an eyebrow. "I forgot to ask, did you get in?"
"Did we get in," Blake corrected. "You're a part of this team now. And yes, we did."
"Damn right!" Yang cheered.
The door opened, making Vin jump slightly. But it was just Ruby.
"I mean… Darn right!" Yang corrected, using the same level of enthusiasm as before.
Ruby, however, didn't respond. Her eyes were hollow and bags were clearly visible underneath them. The normally energetic girl seemed to slump as well, hunching as she crawled her way onto her bed and under its covers. She didn't even bother removing her shoes or changing into more comfortable sleepwear.
"Ruby?" Weiss asked.
The girl didn't respond past that of a snore.
Yang whistled. "Wow. I haven't seen her this drained since she made her scythe. Don't worry, she'll be fine. Give her a few hours and she'll be back to normal."
"Hours?"
"Maybe a few days."
Is it possible for someone to sleep that long?
Vin reached down into her pocket and pulled out the scroll she stole, er, took from Mercury.
"Speaking of the tournament," she said. "Someone was spying on us. I took this from them. It had paintings of us."
"Paintings?" Blake frowned. "Oh. Photos. Well, technically it's not illegal to spy on your opponents."
"But it is to steal their scrolls!" Weiss hissed.
Yang smirked. "Hey, it's not our fault they left their scroll where we could long-term-borrow it."
"That's called stealing! Seriously, Blake, you don't think this could get us in trouble?"
"I…" Blake paused to look down at the scroll in Vin's hands and sighed. "I don't know."
"Well, that's two for, one against, and one abstained." Yang brought a hand to her ear. "And one snore for. Boom."
"That is not at all a correct vote! I demand a recount!"
"Sorry, still working on when you had us vote whether or not to get up early and exercise. We'll be sure to get you those numbers soon!"
Weiss scoffed and threw her hands up at Yang's mockery. As she did, the blonde took the scroll from Vin and started sifting through it.
"Huh," she frowned. "Whoever this Mercury guy is, he has information on everyone at Beacon - even students from visiting schools and the staff." The scroll beeped as she pressed on another icon. "Hey, I found us!"
Quickly snatching the scroll, Weiss pressed the folder with her name on it. Over her shoulder, Vin could see dozens of pictures featuring Weiss utilizing different sword forms. Another file documented the limits and types of her glyphs.
Even Vin was surprised at how detailed and numerous they were.
"This…" she frowned. "This is disturbing. How did they get all of this?" She passed the scroll back to Yang who eagerly opened her own folder.
"Oh! These are nice!" Yang smirked, pointing to one of the many photos of her with her fists mid-punch. "They got my good side."
"And they read you like a book as well," Blake added, pressing one of the documents discussing how she would frequently fall back on her temper and semblance, losing focus on the rest of the battle.
Yang blushed. "Yeah… maybe I have a slight tendency to fall back on my anger."
"Slight?" everyone repeated. Even Ruby seemed to mumble the word.
"Yeah, all right," she sighed, tossing the scroll to Blake. "I'll get the Yang of it soon."
Vin visibly winced as Blake and Yang groaned. "That was just bad," the heiress scolded.
Blake's file made the Faunus blush. A few of the photos apparently caught her without her bow on and allowed everyone to see her cat ears.
Cute, Vin thought, making her blush immediately.
The rest of her file seemed to be a psychological report stating that even though she wishes to be a huntress and help those in need, there is a high probability she will turn away from her friends if she doesn't believe they will aid her.
"This… is outdated," she mumbled.
Yang patted the girl on the back and earned a small smile. "We know. You'd scold us first then take it."
This earned her a harsh glare.
"What do they have on Ruby?" Weiss asked.
Blake shuffled through the scroll and pulled up their leader's file. Like everyone else's, it consisted of pictures of her, her weapon, and a documentation of her psychological weaknesses. What was surprising was the strange amount of pictures of-
"Her eyes?" Blake asked, zooming in on a picture of the two silver orbs.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Yang frowned.
Weiss grabbed the scroll and handed it to Vin. "You don't need to show us your file if you don't want to."
"… Thank you," Vin smiled. She passed the scroll back. "But I think my team and my… friends should know at least what they know so we can win the tournament."
"Heck yeah!" Yang cheered, jumping up and wrapping Vin in a hug. "We love you too!"
Smiling, Vin softly pushed Yang off of her as Weiss opened up the last folder.
"Wow."
Compared to everyone else's, Vin's report was somehow smaller yet even more detailed. There were very few photos, just ones from when Vin fought Yang and Weiss earlier, but also an extensive report on Vin's mistcloak - especially its makeup and design.
I thought only Ironwood had that information, Vin thought.
The section with the most commentary was that about her 'semblance'. Whoever the author was, they kept getting confused about the different times Vin had used it.
There are too many inconsistencies between the powers. There are no records to indicate this style of usage. Maybe it has something to do with her state of mind? Or perhaps those vials she keeps drinking from?
Weiss coughed. "Well, someone has a great interest in you."
Nodding, Vin thought, the question is who.
Tadaaaa! My longest chapter yet! I had a lot of fun with this one. I really enjoyed writing a few more scenes with Vin being a total bad*ss. Also, I tried to start sprinkling in more connections between Allomancy and semblances. Maybe that will be more important.
I wanted to spend more time with other things. Pyrrha's teachings should have been focused on more. Maybe I can try to squeeze those in during the festival. However, what I did to Mercury really makes you wonder if things will stay the same as they were in the show. I guess we'll find out!
Please, feel free to follow and comment on predictions, thoughts, etc. I am always looking for new ways to improve my craft. Be direct if you must, but try not to be rude.
Thank you for reading my story!
Darkvampirekisses: Yes, yes she does. I definitely recommend reading it, but don't be surprised if some of the things I write do not completely follow what the great Sanderson has written. I want to crossover both stories, not just the characters.