The first song went very well. As soon as the applause for the first song died down, Bianca got up and stood to the side as Weiss moved to the piano. She moved the piano's microphone closer to her and after taking a few moments to stretch her fingers, she began to play.
[cue RWBY music- Mirror Mirror]
As her fingers hit the notes on the keys, she almost hesitated, creating a brief pause. But she soon remembered what to do, and hardly anyone in the audience knew better. She continued playing the piano beautifully, and at the right time, added her voice to sing the lyrics.
Weiss forgot about the pain of Beacon as the second song continued and let her thoughts wonder upon getting to the rapid piano scales. But as she mused with the music, she didn't miss a single note.
Do I really want to be among the upper class elite in Atlas?
As the concert continued, Qrow was shown in his bird form looking over the city of Aquarian, with the sun out of the sky, and the sky gradually turning darker. He looked ahead at the city, with its long wooden fence, the rural village part and the modern city part, including the park that overlapped both areas. Throughout the city, he saw the wanted posters.
Wanted posters of Pyrrha... That's not a good sign. I would think that Ruby and team JNPR wouldn't dare set foot in this forbidden city. Another thought. But what if they did? Maybe Ruby and the other three entered and Pyrrha didn't. Or maybe Pyrrha disguised herself to gain entry. But why would they even be here in the first place? He sighed. I need answers. He looked at the guards patrolling the southern gate then the northern gate. There's security at both entrances. I could just go through the front entrance... Or I could simply bypass it.
He flew down to the city and landed on a lamppost in the newer part of the city. He looked around, not seeing anyone in the streets.
Hmm... Where do I go from here? Do I fly down and turn back to human? Or do I scope out the city in bird form? There's nobody here. As long as I keep a low profile, I could scope the city out in my human form. Still...
His train of thought was derailed when he saw Edom walking on the streets alone. He was wearing a pair of black dress pants and a white blouse. He also wore black dress shoes and socks.
Perhaps he can lead me to answers.
The drunken bird chose to follow him through the city. Edom payed no attention to the bird or to his surroundings. As he walked forward, his trail lead him and the bird to the Old Aquarian Public Library. The red-haired man entered the library and Qrow hid himself behind a nearby tree. He changed back to human form, looking around to make sure it was deserted and entered the establishment.
Inside the library, Qrow stayed a good distance from Edom as the latter went forward. He eventually reached the circulation desk where the librarian was sorting out children's books by the author's last name.
"Hey, Eric!" Edom greeted.
"Hey Edom! My man!" Eric smiled and greeted. "How did your shift go?"
"We were very busy, which was good, but also kinda stressful." he answered as Eric got up from his desk. "Two of servers were absent and we had a full house tonight. I managed to step up big time and raked in a lot of tip money, but boy it was hard."
Eric raised an eyebrow. "You're not used to working this kind of job, are you?"
"Can't say that I am. But it's better than nothing. Thanks again for agreeing to babysit Gliss while I work."
"No problem. I mean, it's a win-win. You got someone to look after Gliss so you can work, and I have a regular patron so that I can keep my business open."
"I'm very happy for you, albeit I fear that since Scarlatti has shut down nearly all radio stations and newspaper businesses, save for the ones she owns that serve her, I fear she may come for your library too."
Eric looked anxious and depressed. "Don't say such things. Gliss loves this place. I don't want to imagine how heartbroken she would be."
"Speaking of which, where is she?"
The librarian pointed far out to his right. "She's over in the children's section in the back where all the picture-less books are. She's already read through everything with pictures in a matter of weeks!"
"Man, she's going to be the smartest girl in the whole city one day!"
Edom started to walk forward to find his daughter.
"Hmm... Which one should I take?" a tiny female voice mused to herself.
As Edom turned to see his daughter looking at a bookshelf, Gliss cradled a small thick book in her left arm. Edom smiled with pride. "There's my little snowflake."
"Daddy!"
Taking the book into her left hand, she threw her arms around her father. Since the two were distracted in each other's embrace, Qrow believed now would be the best time to speak to the librarian without anyone else noticing. He slowly made his way forward, only for his luck to fail him. As he walked quickly and quietly, he tripped and fell down. He tried to stifle a scream, but he was still heard.
Gliss was startled. "Huh?"
Eric turned in his direction. "Who's there?!"
"Look, I mean no harm." Qrow stated, getting up.
Edom looked at him as he made his way forward. "He looks like a huntsman."
Eric looked at Edom questionably. "Aside from Scarlatti's bodyguards, I thought all the huntsman left with the alliance and that the five remaining huntresses stayed here to defend the city in case of an emergency. So who are you?"
"I'm a huntsman, but I'm actually far from home. I need your help actually." He got out his scroll and showed two pictures; one of Ruby in front of Beacon's statue and the other of team JNPR from the Vytal Festival. "I'm looking for my niece Ruby Rose and her friends. Have any of you seen them?"
"We have. Ruby and team JNPR were just here a couple weeks ago. We actually provided a place for them to stay." Edom answered.
"And I saw Ruby here at the library." Eric gestured to Edom and Gliss. "She even introduced me to these nice folks here."
Qrow nodded. "Alright, I can see that. Although there's a few things that don't make sense."
"Such as?"
"I've been seeing posters for something called the Trojan Alliance everywhere. What exactly is this Trojan Alliance?"
The three took turns explaining to Qrow about the Trojan Alliance, how Scarlatti had allied herself with them and corrupted the city as a result of her allegiance, how Pyrrha had come to the city disguised as Rouge Gorlois, how Scarlatti discovered Pyrrha's ruse, and sent a force of thirty fighters after her and her friends in retaliation. By the end of it, Qrow looked anxious.
"Oh Gods..."
"I know. It's a lot to hear." Eric solemly stated.
He sighed. "It's already bad enough knowing that an unknown maniac is after Ruby, and now Scarlatti sent her goons after Pyrrha and all her friends?" The birdman sighed heavily and took a sip from his flask. "How many skilled fighters are in Scarlatti's alliance?"
"Four huntsmen, one fighter who's supposedly just as skilled, two police officers, three veterans. That's ten decent or excellent fighters in the Scarlatti Alliance." Eric answered. "Everyone else is a civilian."
"Any idea what these guys look like?"
Eric gave the scarecrow an issue of Red Spring news. "Sure. Front page."
Qrow looked at the headline of the newspaper- Scarlatti Sends Her Own Trojan Alliance Group to Defeat the Metalbending Murderess and Her Friends
"Well, that's rude..." he remarked about the title. He looked at the picture on the front page. All the volunteers were shown on stage, with team SOLR and a fifth man shown by their side. "Wait a second." He pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. It was a list of characteristics as to what Ruby's hunter/Yang's attacker looked like. He looked at the list, then at the man in the photo. He did this three times before he gasped. "Oh no..."
"What is it?"
"That guy right there, next to team SOLR, matches the description Yang gave me of the man she said was after Ruby. And now he's joined forces with Scarlatti's Alliance!" Everyone else raised their eyebrows in fear.
Qrow put the newspaper away as Eric asked him, "Do you really think that Scarlatti's Alliance will catch up to them?"
"I can't take that chance." Qrow answered, starting to walk away.
"Wait!" Gliss stated. Qrow turned back to her. "I don't know if this helps you, but I read the newspaper and they mentioned the name of every volunteer in the order they joined the group. The man with team SOLR was the last one to join, he looked so confident and evil. His name is stated to be Tyrian."
"Tyrian. Good to know. Thank you, Pipsqueak." He sighed. "Hopefully I can find Tyrian, and the rest of the alliance, before they find Ruby and team JNPR."
Team SOLR, Tyrian and the other members of Scarlatti's Trojan Alliance were seen traveling through the outskirts of Vale well after the sun had set over eastern Sanus. There were numerous horse-drawn carts, all of which were carrying supplies and passengers on the snow covered road. In the very front was team SOLR and Tyrian, and Surya was holding onto the reins. Behind them to their left were the two police officers and the three veterans, with the lady cop holding the reins. To their right were civilians, and the remaining three carts behind them was the rest of their party. The carts behind the leading cart formed small parallel lines save for the last cart being in the very back behind them all. The last cart showed five worried civilians, one of which was a preteen girl with choppy hair and bandages over her right arm. Everyone was shown wearing a horse emblem pin of the Trojan Alliance on their chest.
The camera turned back to team SOLR and Tyrian. Orville looked at the underside of his right hand, which showed a glowing gold R shaped rune.
"How much aura do you have left?" Surya asked his teammate.
Orville looked ahead, and the camera showed a slowly fading golden trail. "Not much. The path's becoming dimmer. Probably about fifteen percent if I had to guess."
The gold trail disappeared as the camera turned back to the leader. "How many miles is Pyrrha from our current location?"
"She's about 550 miles away from us and less than a half mile from Mensonge."
"Maybe we should stop for the night. For in the sky there is no light." Apollo spoke.
"No one's been complaining about hunger or fatigue, but I'm sure our recruits probably want food." Atum added. "And a break."
This isn't going as fast as I would have hoped. We've been on the road for a little over two weeks, covered nearly two hundred miles and we're still really far away from JNPR-Ruby. How are we going to find Pyrrha, and in turn, Ruby so that I may capture her? Tyrian silently thought.
"You're awfully silent, Tyrian." Surya said. "Any thoughts you'd like to add?"
"Not really. I'm not much of a people person." the scorpion man responded.
"Understandable." Surya remarked. He looked at his scroll for the time; 9:55pm. "Oh boy, it's later than I thought. It's time we rest and prepare. Orville, stop using Blazing Trail."
The leader stopped their horse from moving and everyone else followed suit. As they came to a stop, the glowing rune disappeared from Orville's wrist.
"What's going on?" the preteen asked.
"We're stopping here for tonight." Surya answered. "You all know the drill by now, so no need to explain. Orville, rest up. You'll need it."
As the members of Scarlatti's Trojan Alliance had been on the road for over two weeks at this point, life had become pretty routine. Evening encampment was a time of rest and of preparation. After stopping for the evening, everyone unpacked their tents and sleeping bags and prepared for the next day. Some worked in food preservation, some did hunting and forging, some worked in making arrows for the archers, and others were just resting.
Surya got to work on creating and reviewing a list of who was on night time watchdog duty. Orville set up his team's tents and immediately crashed in his thereafter. Apollo made a makeshift pen for the horses, and Atum quickly got to work on dinner, preparing a big pot of stew for everyone.
During the period before dinner was served, Tyrian did a wide variety of things after setting up his tent. Sometimes he was helping out team SOLR, sometimes he sat around and tried to devise a strategy for defeating Ruby. Tonight he was practicing with his wooden sword. He swung the blade horizontally, then vertically. He repeated this motion a few times before sighing heavily.
What damage will this do to Ruby or any of the heroes? Tyrian thought to himself.
"Ah, practicing your swordsmanship?" Surya inquired off-screen.
Tyrian looked behind him and saw the leader of team SOLR standing there. "I don't want to complain, but it does feel weird not using my arm blades during combat practice."
He looked at the weapon that was folded on his arm bracers. "You know why we have to do this." the leader began. "If Pyrrha knows you're using ax arm blades, she could disarm you with the wave of her hand."
I'm not even going to be facing her... he silently thought.
"Therefore you have to be prepared for the worst." Surya finished. "Besides, you have the easiest wooden weapon."
He sighed. "I suppose that is true."
All those who were weaponless or did not have a non-metallic weapon were given the choice of one wooden weapon to master; sword, staff or bow and arrow. Tyrian, like most of the recruits, chose the sword. Only five chose the wooden staff while everyone else chose the bow and arrows.
"You've never worked with swords, have you?" Surya inquired after a moment of silence.
"I have... a little. It's just been a long time." Tyrian smiled. "But worry not, Surya. It's all coming back to me and soon I'll be ready."
Apollo came up to them. "The horses are secured, safe and sound. Making it so that they can be found."
"Excellent." Surya turned to Tyrian with a concerned look. "Tyrian, can I ask you something?"
He sighed, but gave an emotionless expression as he replied, "Sure..."
"Why did you chose to join this group?" the red-gem man asked. "You don't seem to have many team-building or social skills, you opted to train alone instead of working with your fellow recruits, and you don't seem to be very enthused about fighting Pyrrha."
"Well I was just passing through Aquarian, and I was moved by Mayor Scarlatti's speech. I believed you could use my help in your mission, considering that you don't have very many people who are trained in combat. And don't take my anti-social behavior as reluctance. I truly believe that Pyrrha is evil, and wish to help you defeat her."
Although neither of them noticed, Apollo looked worried after Tyrian finished speaking.
"I see your point now. Apollo," Surya began. His expression turned back to normal. "you will be training the archers right after dinner. Tell Atum that he will train our staff-wielders. I will take the wooden sword recruits." Apollo nodded in comprehension before he walked away. "Well Tyrian, I will leave you be. Good luck with your training."
The leader left the scorpion man behind. He sheathed his wooden sword and smirked to himself. Ha! How easy it is to deceive them! Tyrian thought. They think that I'll be fighting Pyrrha. They think they're the ones in charge, especially that pain-in-the-rear Surya. Oh, how wrong they are! But soon that won't matter. In a matter of time, I'll be pulling the strings on my new puppets.
Meanwhile, as the Scarlatti Trojan Alliance started unwinding for the day, team JNPR-Ruby was still trekking through the outskirts of Vale.
"Alright guys, we're almost at Mensonge." Jaune told his teammates. "About another half mile or so... Maybe even a quarter of a mile. After that we got a few more villages to go; Aletheia, Aldwy, and Omega. Once we get to Omega, we'll be able to board a ship to a village in Mistral or Anima, and we'll be home free. Well, mostly."
"I still can't believe Vale made a ban on all non-evacuation air traffic." Nora remarked. Her eyebrows perked up. "Wait, did you say Mensonge?"
"Isn't that a city of liars and thieves?" Ruby asked.
"That's what I've heard, but it can't be any worse than Aquarian, which is under Scarlatti's dictatorship." Jaune told her.
"Jaune, I hate to burst your bubble, but you might want to look again." 'Rouge' spoke. The faux fashion model pointed to the wanted posters of Pyrrha Nikos and Trojan Alliance emblem on the wooden fence around the village, which strangely enough, was unguarded.
"Another village associated with the Trojan Alliance." Jaune said with a lack of enthusiasm. "Yay."
"Hey, Ren, Nora, you got any tips to survive this place?" Ruby asked hopefully.
"I can't say that we do." Nora sadly answered. "We've never been here."
"We were always told to avoid this place." Ren elaborated. "Out of all the villages and cities in the outskirts of Vale, this is said by many to be the worst of them. To some, it's like a smaller, non-desert version of Vacuo. Crimes are high, there's very little in the way of laws and social order, and, according to rumor, the city may possibly be victim to frequent Grimm attacks. Also I don't know how kindly they'd treat a 'huntress' and former Beacon students."
"Doesn't sound like a good place." Ruby stated.
"I don't like the idea of staying here." 'Rouge' told her teammates.
"Neither do I." Ren added. "But if there's a bunch of Grimm in these parts, maybe it would be safer to stay here."
Nora asked in a whining tone, "Do we have to stay here?"
"We could. I mean, 'Rouge' can pull the wool over people's eyes."
"Let's put this to a vote." Jaune suggested. "Who wants to go into the village?" Ren, Ruby and 'Rouge' each raised their hand. Jaune looked depressed. "Who doesn't want to go Mensonge?" He and Nora raised a hand.
"Wow. For once Nora and Jaune agree on something." Ren remarked.
"Well, we've been outvoted either way." The knight sighed. "Into the village we go."
Nora pouted. "I can't believe we're doing this."
"Neither can I." Jaune lamented.
They continued walking on the dirt road, with light snow shown on the grass beside them. The quintet quietly entered the village and took in their surroundings. Mensonge consisted mainly of log cabins and small houses constructed out of stone. There were a number of merchant stands, which were currently closed. There was an inn up ahead, with a shield-shaped hanging sign visible in the distance. They heard sounds of a fight in the distance.
"We better get going." 'Rouge' stated.
Ren, Ruby, 'Rouge' and Nora went forth, with a worried Jaune lagging behind them.
[cue RWBY Music- This Life is Mine, starting at "I'm shattering the mirror..."]
The scene switched to the Opera Hall of the Grand Chateau Concert Hall, where Weiss's concert was about to end. Just like in the beginning part, Weiss stood at the microphone while Bianca sat at the piano. As the last entirely instrumental part was heard, the audience was enthralled in the talent of the orchestra and their special guitarist.
It's time for things to change. Because this life is mine, and I can't let father or anyone else control me. Weiss thought.
At the right time, the heiress added her voice back into the mixture of sound and eventually sang the last verse with powerful emotion behind it.
"I'm not your pet, not another thing you own. I was not born guilty of your crimes. Your riches and your influence can't hold me anymore. I won't be possessed, burdened by your royal test. I will not surrender. This life is mine."
Weiss concluded her song and bowed as the audience applauded for her. She looked to the ground floor of the opera hall, with many cheering for her, a joyous Iris among them. She felt so moved that she stood up, and most others soon followed. Above the stage left in the balcony, her father and brother were watching. Jacques Schnee remained seated, not applauding, while Whitley Schnee stood giving a slow, sarcastic clap.
Perfect. You've played your part well Weiss. Whitley thought. I'm almost there.