Original upload date: 8/5/2020
Revised upload: 5/13/2023
This was the first chapter that I got a beta reviewer for so I'd like to give a quick shoutout to Icarus who's always been a great help to me since.
We're getting close! Almost halfway through this 'volume' (mine, as we just technically started Volume 3 of RWBY). I've been trying to edit all these chapters before June/July, then have time to outline Volume 4/5. But as I take longer and longer to work on these, I don't know if I'll be able. I don't plan on abandoning AO3, but it might get sidelined as I have to start making new chapters rather than editing old ones. So... if someone would like to help with that, I'd be very appreciative :)
I really hope you enjoy this chapter. I changed up the ending quite a bit to help with some characterization problems I saw. But considering this was pretty much all Vin's POV, I think it showed a lot of her own growth.
Metal like Roses
By ReaderWarrior
Beta'd by: Icarus720
I do not own Mistborn or RWBY.
New Challengers
"Three… Two… One..."
Jaune raised his sword in a leading motion followed by a battlecry as Port, and the crowd, called out the last command.
"Begin!"
From the stands, Vin got a full, wide view of the match's tart as both teams rushed at each other. Well, everyone except for one. May Zedong broke off immediately and ran back into the forest. The rest of their team clashed violently with JNPR. Brawnz Ni and Pyrrha led the assault with the former making the first move.
He kneed Pyrrha's shield and pushed her back a few inches. But the redhead didn't stay down for long. Pushing with her right leg, Pyrrha raised her blade to strike. Brawnz blocked with a set of claws on his knuckles and caught it in between the ridges of his weapon. As he looked up, Pyrrha's shield slammed into his face. Brawnz staggered back and clutched his nose before jumping to the side and just narrowly avoiding a slice across the chest.
Vin was enamored by the 'Invincible Girl's fighting style. It was completely different from what she was used to, there was an ease to it like she had fought this specific battle hundreds of times before. And, unlike those from her home, there didn't seem to be any real danger from it. Pyrrha fought with honor, not bloodlust.
Speaking of honor, or a lack thereof, Vin covered her ears and burned tin, trying to find May in the tree line. She regretted it instantly as the crowd's roaring cheer seemed to move from flooding her ears to being directly inside them. Even with her hands trying to muffle the excitement, she could feel her mind wince and shudder at the volume. But, thanks to her Allomantic-eyes, Vin saw one of the trees shake suddenly and a metal barrel stick out.
Vin doused her tin and followed the gun's pathing. Across from May, Ren and Nora were working together to take down Nolan Porfirio. Nora's strength and mighty warhammer was her downfall in this fight as each swing let Nolan make dozen small strikes on her side and back before he dodged completely. Ren moved to take some of the focus on his partner but just as he took a step forward, the ground behind him exploded and then expanded with rocks jutting upward.
Dust, they both realized. Vin watched as Ren began to zig-zag but after three shots, he didn't need to. May had changed targets. A round exploded at Jaune's feet and the blonde jumped backed in a quick panic. He scanned the trees before yelling at his team and calling for a retreat.
JNPR ran to the mountain biome and hid behind an outcropping of stone and boulders. Jaune and Praha covered their teammates with their shields, deflecting bullets from the enemy team before joining them.
After a few moments of no visibility (both for Vin and team BRNZ), Roy Stallion, Brawnz, and Nolan charged. Jaune popped up and pointed his sword, a battle cry spilling from his lips. The two teams clashed again but Vin's attention was drawn back to May. She noticed a branch shake slightly then another a few yards forward, and another.
She's trying to get a better shot, Vin realized. 'Sniping' as Ruby called it, was a delicate art compared to the brutality of a Coinshot. The best gift a sniper had was invisibility. The gun allowed for a ridiculous amount of range and as long as its user wasn't spotted, they could hit their target. Vin knew that May must have had an angle on one of the members of Jaune's team, but she was trying to get a better one. Either showcasing her novice skill, confidence, or overconfidence.
It also didn't help that she wasn't very good at being unnoticed. Scattered leaves, shaking branches… May didn't know how to keep herself hidden while still wanting to remain in the fight.
"Bad move," Ruby mumbled next to her.
Pyrrha was holding her own against Brawnz once again as Nolan and Ren stepped forward toward each other. A set of small explosions blossomed at the latter's feet. Ren dodged to the right, exactly where Nolan had his baton swung. He was knocked sideways but Ren used the moment to swing around and propel a kick to the side of Nolan's head. Sadly, however, he missed and Nolan landed another strike of his baton.
As they connected, a large blast of electricity burned across Reen's body. He let out a yell that was just loud enough for Vin to hear as a whisper before falling to his knees.
"Uh oh," Weiss muttered.
Vin frowned and took a glance at his aura levels. "He should be fine. It's still yellow."
A chuckle fell out of Yang's smirk. "Not 'uh oh' for Ren. Uh oh for the guy that hit him."
"Nora's going to kill him," all four girls said.
True to their word, Nora screamed out her friend's name in bloody murder as he fell backward onto the ground. She quickly rushed over and swung wildly with her hammer. Nolan barely avoided the strike but was just quick enough to raise his weapon. With her stomach unguarded, he easily stabbed his baton into her gut and another large voltage emptied into her.
This time, the attack didn't knock its victim to the ground. As yellow blades of electricity surged over her body, Nora looked up at Nolan and smiled.
The stadium speakers crackled. "Oho!" Port exclaimed. "Looks like one of my favorite students, Nora Valkyrie, is charging up to use her semblance."
Nolan turned to the screen and saw a pop-up of Professor Port and Oobleck behind a desk.
"Yes!" Oobleck agreed. "Miss Valkyrie's semblance lets her produce, as well as channel, electrical energy straight into her muscles!"
Like pewter? Vin frowned.
"This allows her to jump explosively into the air, wield her mighty hammer, or, in this case, absorb Nolan's attacks and send the young man flying!"
Like pewter.
Before Nolan could even turn around, Nora was already on her feet and flashing her arms. Gripping her hammer tight, she swung it in an upward arch and hit Nolan in the one place no woman should touch with the intent to cause pain. The male half of the crowd flinched and hunched forward (including Oobleck and Port) as Nolan was thrown back over a dozen yards. He crashed into a large boulder and his aura fell almost instantaneously into the orange, barely hanging onto yellow. It was likely one more hit would knock him out of the match.
Yang laughed and cupped her hands over her mouth. "Get 'em, girl!"
As she cheered, her voice was overshadowed by a clap of thunder. To Vin's amazement, a cloud with lightning striking down formed above the top of the mountain.
How in damnation did they do that?!
Jaune also heard the clap and turned to Nora, shouting something in her direction. He pointed at her, then the mountain. The girl smiled and saluted before running toward the magically formed cloud. As Jaune and Pyrrha run to cover her retreat, Nora jumped from cliff to cliff - her hammer releasing explosion after explosion, throwing her higher and higher. It wouldn't take much time for her to reach the peak.
As Jaune glanced back to check on Nora's progress, Roy threw a set of saw-bladed discs. The blonde raised his shield but before they could impact, the blades looped around Jaune and moved over to Pyrrha. They spun around her in a slow orbit. Vin felt a spike of pride at this. Her control over her semblance had already grown this well. But she knew that with time and practice, Pyrrha could be moving the blades around her body at speeds far greater than this.
Shocked, Roy paused. Pyrrha gave a quick spin, throwing her shield and his own blades forward in quick succession. He narrowly avoids the first attack and, when the blades spin toward him, he ducks low to grab his own weapons. Roy rises just in time to feel Pyrrha's sword slam into his side. His aura took the force of the blow but knocked him sideways.
Jaune, who was watching in awe, noticed Brawnz sneaking around Pyrrha's blindside. He rushes to defend her and the two team leaders clash, Jaune with his sword and Brawnz with his claws.
"Get him Jaune!" Ruby cheered. "Woohoo!"
"Well he's certainly improved," Weiss nodded.
Yang smiled and her eyes flickered back and forth between Jaune and Pyrrha. "Yeah, but he's still nowhere near as strong as the Invincible Girl."
After a few slashes, Jaune was kicked back and Brawnz rushed back to help Roy. Pyrrha must've seen it out of the corner of her eye because she kicked dicked beneath one of Roy's slashes and lifted her knee into his jaw. Then, as he fell backward, she spun around and threw her sword - now a spear - at Brawnz.
He dodged left, straight into Ren. The boy had been still for the last few moments of the battle, watching the tree line. His eyes stopped on a section of forestry before running forward and kicking Brawnz away. As he left the center of the stage, and his feet hit dirt, Nolan cut him off to protect May.
Nolan, like before, easily dodged Ren's swings and quickly used his baton to strike into Ren's stomach. He then jumped backward with a spin and aimed for his head. Ren saw this coming and spun around and crossed his gun-blades in an X. He spun them around the baton and around Nolan's arm, forcing him to bring the weapon up to his own neck.
The two freeze and look over to a tree. May must have been close because they both turn to face the other direction.
Nora was defenseless, Vin realized. And her shields were occupied.
Ren yelled out to Jaune who then called out to Pyrrha. The redhead nodded and gave one last kick into Roy's chest before closing her eyes and jumping upward. The entire crowd gasped as she flew upward and hovered before using her shield to deflect a shot most definitely aimed at Nora.
Ruby, Yang, and Weiss all gasped. "Pyrrha can fly?!"
"She uses her semblance to control her armor," Blake clarified. "She said Vin taught her that." The Mistborn nodded.
Yang groaned and leaned back, covering her eyes. "Great. Like it wouldn't be hard enough to fight Pyrrha in the Finals." She turned to Vin. "Did you teach her anything else?"
"No. But she only learned to do this last night. She won't be able to utilize it perfectly yet."
As Vin predicted, Pyrrha wasn't unaffected by the bullet. As it hit her shield, the girl was thrown backward, head over heels, backward. She crashed onto the ground, losing a few bits of aura, but stood back up to earn a roar of approval.
Nora heard the roar and basked in it too as she reached the mountaintop and raised her hammer. Streams of lightning shot down and struck the metal hammer and coursed through it to Nora. A grin visible to Vin even without tin spread across the woman's face and when the lightning stopped she brought her hammer down. It folded in on itself and into a small, yet large-barreled, gun.
The front of the gun's barrel dropped down to reveal six large canisters in each slot. Then, as Nora squeezed the trigger, all of them shot out at once toward the tree line where May had taken a shot at her. Vin swore that the projectiles formed the shape of a heart before exploding violently in a pink mushroom cloud.
As the smoke clears, everyone could now see May rising from behind a fallen tree. The area around her was covered in splintered logs and burned branches.
Nora then lept off the mountain, her weapon now a hammer once more and held above her head, and aimed at the remaining members of team BRNZ. They all looked up to see the manic grin on her face before the shockwave of her smash upon the ground sent them flying up and backward before landing at May's feet.
Jaune and his team regrouped. Each one of them stood proudly together as their opponents struggled to their feet. Vin could feel their excitement. The rush of battle, knowing that they could win. Even in her experiences, it was exhilarating.
Raising his sword, Jaune gave out a command and then-
Nothing.
Nora and Ren looked at each other. Pyrrha frowned. Then Jaune turned around and they all started talking. Right in the middle of their fight.
What're they thinking? Vin frowned, aghast.
Weiss frowned and leaned forward. "Did something happen?"
"I don't know," Blake answered.
Next to Vin, Ruby groans and shook her head. "Jaune! Just beat them up!"
"Yeah!" Yang added. "Sic Nora on them!"
On the stage, BRNZ was now arguing with Jaune and his team. They went back and forth for a few moments before Jaune slumped and waved his hand. As he did, Nora charged forward and heaved her hammer sideways, collecting all four of her opponents in her swing and sending them clear off the stage.
"And with that, it appears team JNPR wins by knockout!" Port exclaimed over the crowd's cheer. "Literally… Can someone go make sure they are okay?"
"That was amazing!" Yang exclaimed.
After the match, teams JNPR and RWVBY decided to celebrate their successes by heading back to the festival grounds and making sure Ren kept his promise. Ruby called it a 'picnic'. A blanket on the ground, large enough for all nine of them to sit, with a large spread of food in the center. Another food that Vin didn't recognize, though. Apparently, it was Nora's favorite.
"Pancakes!" the girl sang, throwing one after another of the fluffy discs into her mouth. Still, Ren made more than enough for her and them. Even though they ate ramen only a few hours ago, Vin couldn't help but taste-test the food. And she could easily see why Nora loved them so much.
And syrup? I would've traded atium for this.
Vin reached for a second before drowning it in the delicious syrup.
"What happened at the end there, Jaune?" Weiss asked, biting into her own pancake. But unlike the others, she was using a fork and knife to cut them into tiny pieces. "It looked like you guys just decided to have a talk."
The blonde sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well… I tried to be like Ruby and use attack names."
The sounds of groaning and face-palming echoed through the tree line. "You didn't," Yang muttered.
Vin lifted her head up. "Attack names?"
"To save time in a fight, and to keep our attacks a surprise, Ruby made codewords for specific attack patterns," Blake explained.
"Yeah!" Yang said, her words spitting out crumbs and small pieces of pancake before she gulped. "There's 'Bumblebee', me and Blake. 'Checkmate', Blake and Weiss. One for each of us!"
"What would my attack name be?" Vin asked, raising an eyebrow.
Everyone turned to Ruby, who tried very hard to disappear into her cloak. "It's not like I've had time to think of brand new ones," she blushed. "Maybe those terms Vin uses for specific powers? Coinshot. Lurcher. Pewterarm."
"I thought it was Thug," her sister mumbled.
Vin let a small smile sneak past her lips. How ironic that the terms that described specific mistings would associate so well with this world.
"I think you will find that Vin will fit into most plans," Pyrrha nodded. "Her cunning is equal only to the strength of her powers."
Jaune smirked and nudged his partner. "Sounds like someone has a crush.
"What?! No! I- I- I was only trying to say that Vin will make a good Huntress one day. And that she has taught me more about my powers than I ever thought possible." As Pyrrha began to ramble, her face started to match the color of her hair.
Ren patted her on the back and gave a small sigh. "Some guys are just too blind."
Behind him, Nora spat out her orange juice.
As everyone calmed down, Yang shook her head and said "Everyone knows attack names are Ruby's thing, Jaune. Stick with what you do best, Vomit Boy."
Vomit boy?
"I just wanted to try it," he whined.
"In front of all of Remnant?" Blake asked.
Jaune blushed. "I completely forgot. Oh, no, my family probably saw it!" He clutched his head and shivered. Like Ren did for her, Pyrrha put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a comforting shake.
Ah, Vin realized. That's why she turned red. She almost felt tempted to Riot Jaune (or more likely, Soothe his obliviousness) and give her student a hand. But Vin knew all too well that some things had to happen on their own. Especially for things like this.
"Attention everyone! Attention!" Oobleck's voice echoed, shattering the peace of their picnic and bringing everyone's attention to one of the metal spires with a horn on the end. "The next match featuring the members of team SSSN (Sun) and NDGO (Indigo) will be beginning in the next five minutes!" Before the microphone cut off, they heard the sound of the teacher taking a long sip from something before slamming it down.
As everyone turned back to the picnic, Yang tilted her head toward Blake and gave a cruel smile. "Isn't that monkey-boy's team?
Blake's cheeks flushed a slight shade of pink. "I have no idea what you are talking about."
Weiss shook her head, then stood up and dusted off her skirt. "Well, am going to cheer for Neptune. As thanks for taking me to the dance. Perhaps you would like to join me?"
"If it's to thank him for the dance…" Blake jumped up and grabbed Weiss' hand before running back toward the stadium. Weiss hung behind her like a flag as they disappeared into the crowd.
The remaining members of team RWBY and JNPR laughed as they vanish. Vin smiled a bit and shook her head, growing more and more used to this world that allowed for such relaxing situations.
Ruby turned to her fellow team leader. "So who are you guys sending to the Doubles?"
Yang pointed at Pyrrha. "Well, obviously miss Invincible Girl, right?" Again, the girl blushed at the nickname.
"If that's okay with her," Jaune nodded. "But I know how you feel about being used for your history."
"Of course it is. I trust my leader and partner, and I trust his judgment."
"Thanks, Pyr," he smiled. "And I was thinking Nora would join you."
Instantly, Nora perked up from finishing off the last of the pancakes. "MWE?!" Ren patted her on the back as she swallowed. "ME?!"
"You are our strongest hitter," Jaune nodded. "If it wasn't for you, we might have lost."
Yang coughed and nodded at Pyrrha.
"Well, Pyrrha would have made it but the rest of us probably wouldn't have."
Pyrrha smiled. "I don't think you are giving yourself enough credit. Nor Ren. You both were handling your own and would have taken down your opponents."
"But it was thanks to you and Nora that we were able to win with such an obvious victory," Ren countered.
"No. You both fought with Nora and I and all four of us won. You helped us win as much as we helped you."
The ravenette nodded. "Thank you," he whispered.
Peaceful. That was a perfect description of the moment. As Vin set down her dinnerware, she closed her eyes and felt the breeze. She could still her hear teammates, as well as those from their sister team, joking and teasing each other. But she also heard leaves rustle. Birds whistling. Dewdrops falling and splashing into puddles of their own collection.
'Green,' Kelsier said. 'It's all supposed to be green.' That was the first time she was ever told that Scadrial, her world, was broken. Everything else just was.
Vin sighed and let her mind float. The metals in her stomach, burning like a warm fire, allowed her a level of connection she had never thought of before. With pewter, she could feel her muscles get stronger but also relax. Tin helped her feel the grass in her hands. Even as she burned steel and iron, there was so little metal that there were almost no lines; it was a green paradise.
And Bronze-
Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.
The smile on Vin's face vanished and she jumped up. She spun around and reached for her knives, flaring pewter. Cinder. Where is she?
Ruby looked up. "What's wrong?"
"Bronze," she answered. "And it's not a semblance. This feels too much like magic." Instantly, the group jumped to their feet, pulled out their weapons, and formed a circle. They couldn't see anyone, just the red leaves falling around them. Vin closed her eyes and focused. There.
Vin pulled out a few discs and pointed to a section of the forest. Ruby nodded, followed quickly by Jaune then the rest of them. They slowly began to make their way through the bushes, splitting into smaller teams. Ruby stuck with Vin, her rifle held up as she looked through its scope.
With her bronze, the two women pushed deeper into the forest. The small pulsations didn't grow louder, they just had a center point - somewhere that the magic was originating from.
It's not the same, Vin thought. Cinder's magic, her corruption of the Maiden, was like a piece of the Well. Almost as if it was a sliver of that power. This feels… weak. Like an old man trying to rip free ore while watching his son break apart five with one swing of his pickaxe.
There was a flutter. Vin heard a branch tussle and spun around, shooting a spray of coins at the source. It hit and there was a loud CAW! before something small and black flew backward. A bird stared at Vin with a shocked expression before falling down into a large pile of leaves.
Ruby leaned over Vin's shoulder. "Did you get them?"
"I got something." They inched to the pile just as it exploded. To her shock, the bird was gone and now rose a large man with jet-black hair. Along with a red, tattered cloak, he wore a gray dress shirt with a long tail, black dress pants and black dress shoes.
With steel, she could see something large and metal on his back, hidden behind his cape. He also wore rings, one on his right index and two on his right ring finger, and a crooked, cross-shaped pendant hung around his neck.
The man reached behind him for his weapon. Vin quickly Pulled on his rings and stopped him.
"Hey," he chuckled. Even a tinless brute could have smelled the alcoholic stench waving off of him. "Listen. I think we got off on the wrong foot. See-"
"Uncle Qrow?!" Ruby gasped, throwing her rifle onto her back and leaping forward. The man, Qrow, took a blast of red petals to the chest as Ruby crashed into him. "What're you doing here?"
"Heya, squirt," Qrow groaned, patting Ruby on the head. "I was just looking around for you and my favorite firecracker. Darn tree branches broke under me and startled this girl."
Vin frowned. There was no break and she definitely didn't see a fully grown man fall. But then she looked into his eyes and saw something familiar. A secret born of necessity and a quiet plea to keep it that way.
With a mental sigh, Vin stayed quiet.
"Were you drinking again?" Ruby scolded. "Vin must have sensed you and mistook it for magic. I'm sorry, Uncle Qrow."
"Magic?" the man asked.
Ruby's face turned as red as her cloak, similarly the same color as her Uncle's. "Uh, I meant…"
"Magic, semblances, they are similar to me," Vin interrupted, quickly Soothing Qrow's suspicions. She also checked his bronze pulsations and noticed his semblance was 'on' (and it was drastically different from the ones earlier). "I have a bit of difficulty telling apart normal skills compared to those of fantasy. I was not raised used to this… environment."
"You're the girl Ozpin said they found. The one with amnesia."
Vin nodded.
"Well nice to finally meet you," Qrow smiled. He ruffled Ruby's hair. "Seems to me like we've got a lot to talk about, squirt."
She giggled. "Let me introduce you to my team!"
Once everyone had been rounded up, with Ruby explaining how Vin had reacted to Qrow's presence, she began to show off her friends to her uncle and highlight their greatest accomplishments. Though she was only able to afterward when Yang gave Qrow her own tackle-hug.
"Hey there, firecracker," he smirked. "Blow anything up yet?"
"No one that wasn't asking for it!" Yang smiled.
As Ruby pushed Qrow toward team JNPR, Ruby grabbed Yang by the arm and pulled her aside. "What is he?" the young Mistborn asked.
Yang looked over her shoulder and shook her head as her uncle somehow managed to trip over a leaf. "He's a teacher at Signal, where Ruby and I both went before here. Uncle Qrow was the one who taught Ruby how to use a scythe. He's always been there for us. He's family."
"Do you trust him?"
"Well, yeah," she shrugged. "He's our Uncle Qrow."
Vin sighed. Maybe she was just being paranoid. But she knew what she heard, what she saw.
"Why?"
"I thought-" Suddenly, an airship flew over them. Vin covered her ears and her mistcloak blew over her shoulder. Everyone looked up as the first bullhead was joined by two others. Dirt and leaves flew everywhere as it rushed past.
Nora, who had jumped to her feet and tried to jump and grab the airship as it flew passed, turned to everyone and asked "Who's that?"
It was Qrow who had the answer. "Atlas," he growled before chasing after the bullheads, which appeared to be landing close to the school.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cried before quickly chasing after him. Without thinking, Vin flared pewter and ran off after them too. She hadn't yet decided if the bird-man was a threat or not. And she wasn't about to let Ruby go alone in case he was.
Okay. Sooooo, I know it's smaller than last week's. But last week was 15 pages instead of the normal 10. I didn't really know what to do in this chapter. JNPR's match and that was a good majority. Honestly, I didn't feel that showing SSSN's was necessary.
So let's see. JNPR moves on. Oh, Vin met fan favorite Qrow. Guess we shall see how that goes.
Jerry12344321: Thanks, man! I realize that, but I don't want to leave y'all hanging either.
Darkvampirekisses: Thank you very much. To be honest, my next story will be something similar, yet different. Also: RAFO.
SirBobthe1st: Will do! And sadly, there is not. A lot of Cosmere fanfiction writers get scared when they try to implement the full scope of the Cosmere into this.
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!