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Chapter 3: Going to Atlas.
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
The four young huntresses stared back at the headmaster.
"Are you sure that is a wise decision Headmaster?" Weiss asked. "The mission you have planned is to send a newly formed team of huntresses to travel to Atlas, find, and then bring back a potentially very dangerous person because he was the beginning of a legend?"
"Miss Schnee, I will be frank with you, I do not have enough foresight or knowledge to tell you whether or not I believe this is to be a wise choice or a foolish one. I will reiterate again that we do not know enough about the Winter Knight to be able to make any solid conclusions about him, however, if it his nature is not one of hostility, then that makes Beacon the best place for him." Ozpin replied.
The headmaster picked up his cup of coffee to take a sip and remembering that the contents had been cold for some time, walked over to the sink in his office, and with a sorrowful look, dumped and rinsed out his favorite mug.
"And what if the Winter Knight turns out to be unreceptive and hostile when we approach to talk to him?" Pyrrha inquired as the headmaster cleaned his cup.
The question that the Mistral champion asked was the very reason that Ozpin was so hesitant to send them. He didn't know and he hated not knowing. There were times where Huntsmen have and would die because of decisions that he made in the war against Grimm, as well as in his personal war, but this was not one of those missions he considered to be worth any sacrifice except for time. It most definitely was not worth potentially sacrificing the lives of four young, talented huntresses-in-training in order to find an answer about a legend that had clearly not made himself a threat for nearly a decade. There were dangers on this mission beyond what most first years would be able to overcome, the land they were going to travel through was the harshest environment on the face of Remnant, there were Grimm that they had never even heard of, and the greatest danger could potentially be the Winter Knight himself. These worries were the ones that would cause him to break Beacon's coffee budget for the next two years in just the next three weeks. The only fortunate aspect was that the four huntresses sitting in his office did not fall into the category of most first years, they were ranked in the top ten of the first years.
Speaking of coffee, Ozpin walked over to his coffee machine and started refilling his cup with fresh hot brew before answering.
"If that is the case then you may be forced to fight him or run." Ozpin answered bluntly. "It is a situation that I truly hope that you will not be placed in." He took a sip of his hot cup of coffee before continuing,
"The trouble with this mission regarding Winter Knight has always come down to information or the lack of information about him. You are chasing a living legend who could be as a dangerous as he is mysterious, however, we have taken into consideration that there are no recorded accounts of violent behavior towards settlements or the people of the settlements or those who have met him on the rare incidents. As you know, there have only been a handful of incidents that have been proven to have involved the Winter Knight, two of which have been gained our attention. In the events concerning the most recent sighting, the Headmaster of the Atlas Huntsman Academy is still gathering the details from the witnesses to confirm it and will brief you when you arrive Atlas should you accept the mission."
The Headmaster returned to his desk. He paused for a moment to enjoy another sip of his hot, freshly brewed coffee before elaborating.
"The first one event, which began his legend throughout as a wanderer of Solitas occurred roughly 9 years ago. What happened, putting it bluntly, the annihilation of entire bandit, tribe. They were wiped out after they had engaged in repeated raids on settlement of Munte, which happens to be the eastmost settlement in the Kingdom of Atlas. However, even though there have been no witnesses able to can place him there, the events that transpired there appear to coincide with the testimonies speculating his abilities from those who have had the privilege of meeting him."
The blonde girl interrupted at this point, "but I thought that there were too many rumors and myths about his abilities for us to know what they are?"
The headmaster stopped for a moment to savor his coffee before continuing.
"That is true, however, when a legend chooses to walk among us, they usually have a backstory that can be traced if one has the time and resources, rarely do they just appear without an explanation of where they came from. Tracing through all of our sources, we have theorized that his appearance was concealed for about a year before he became a known legend. We believed that during that year, 10 years ago, he may have been involved with the bandit tribe, to what ends, we don't know, but during that year is when his abilities manifested."
Luna took a short, sharp breath upon hearing the last statement, the headmaster gave a quick glance to Arc with a raised an eyebrow. It was obviously more than a coincidence, but he decided against pressing, he continued.
"This mission is a coordinated effort by myself and the Headmaster of the Atlas Huntsman Academy, James Ironwood. The total length of your mission will be two weeks. You will have a total of four days of travel between Beacon and Atlas, as it is about a 9-hour bullhead flight to Atlas, you will be given an entire day to acclimate and prepare once you arrive in Atlas. In this mission, your team will have seven days to find and bring the Winter Knight back to Atlas, from there you will escort him to should he be willing."
The Headmaster looked directly at Weiss, the leader of WRPA, "I want you to remember, as the leader of your team, should you run into a situation that you are unable to overcome, or encounter circumstances that you have not prepared to deal with, the safety of your team takes priority over the retrieval of the Winter Knight."
Weiss nodded solemnly, "I understand Headmaster."
"Headmaster, I have a question?" Ruby asks speaking up. "Why are you choosing us for this mission? I am excited that you have so much faith in us, but I mean, we are just first year students, why not send like a third or fourth year team for this mission or let Atlas handle it?"
"That is an excellent question Ms Rose, Atlas's Headmaster believes that if we were to send a more experienced team or veteran Huntsmen after the Winter Knight, their literal approach to him may be seen as too abrasive and interpreted as hostile; but with your team, being young and far more open minded can approach him with an honest and peaceful intentions and be able to bring him back."
The Headmaster sips and finished the hot coffee from his favorite mug, before walking back over to the most wonderous machine to ever be invented, to refill his mug again. He quickly drank the new cup there before refilling his cup another time and returning to his desk. The caffeine was finally helping to calm his fraying nerves; to say he was nervous was a massive understatement considering he was practically assigning them a mission that was far above their capabilities and all the only thing stopping them was that they hadn't said yes yet.
The huntresses just stare at their Headmaster with just a little bit of concern and debating thoughts wondering who in the school has the worse addiction to the caffeinated beverage, their Headmaster or Professor/Doctor Oobleck.
"As it stands you already have a member of your team who is familiar to the area that you are going to, Ms Luna is from Cadia, one of the more northern regions but the true reason is that it is Headmaster Ironwood believes that one of you may be able to connect to the Winter Knight. I will not lie about this, this decision is a gamble, from search area to making contact with him. This will probably be the most difficult mission you will ever have at this school considering the level of experience you all have, as well as the fact that you will unfortunately, be lacking of direct support for this mission. In consideration of this, you do have the option to decline this mission should you desire or not believe you are prepared for this mission." Ozpin explains to the huntresses, looking at each one to gauges their reactions.
Weiss looks at each member of her team and received look of silent confirmation from each of them. She could see their confidence and their desire to prove themselves and then meets the Headmaster's glaze. She sat straight with pride and a smile as she voiced their desire. "Headmaster, we accept your request for this mission. We understand that there will be dangers that we won't be able to overcome as individuals, but that is why we are a team. And as Huntresses, we will use this opportunity to get stronger and face these dangers together. We will be ready to leave by tonight."
Ozpin smiled back at them, if only to disguise his worry. He knew they would accept the mission, of course he knew, they were Huntresses, it was the pride of being a Hunter that drove students to take missions like this that were well beyond their capabilities. Sometimes those students were fortunate and would complete those missions and become an inspiration to those around them to work harder. However, in many cases, missions like this were too much for them combined with the lack of experience and in these cases, students as well as the Huntsmen died. Those who survived were regularly plagued with severe cases PTSD as well as permanent physical injuries sustained from the mission. Incidents like this would often cripple individuals or even entire teams for the rest of their time studying at an academy or for the more unfortunate, much longer.
He was worried for them now more than ever; he wasn't sure if that feeling would worsen or lessen when they reported in from Atlas. He would have been more comfortable with the idea of sending them if they had at least a few months of training at Beacon or even if they had time to prepare themselves for this mission, but James had insisted that it needed to be done as soon as possible or they would lose their chance at finding Glace for at least another year.
"Thank you Ms Schnee, if that's the case, when you arrived at Atlas, you will meet their Headmaster and will be provided with all the necessary equipment for your mission curtesy of Atlas. Pack only what you need for travel and whatever you do not believe Atlas will provide. You are dismissed and good hunting."
The Headmaster smiled as the huntresses stood and entered the elevator to leave his office, his smile dropped as soon as they were gone. Ozpin began to type a message to Headmaster Ironwood informing him that the students had accepted the mission and would be departing for Atlas soon.
"I am putting my faith and the lives of my students in your hands James." Ozpin whispered as he finished typing the letter his fingers right over the SEND key, "I truly hope you are right about this my friend." And with that he pushes the key.
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
The huntresses left the Headmaster's office and immediately headed back to their dorm.
"Make sure that the gear you pack is winter gear. It will be well in the negatives in the area where we will be searching, and I will not have my team freeze before the mission even starts." Weiss instructed.
"Yeah, yeah, sure thing Ice Queen." The little reaper snarked back.
The mission hasn't even started and already backtalking me, will she ever stop being so infuriating. Weiss contemplated.
"You don't have to worry about me team leader, I grew on the north western end of Solitas, in Cadia, we regularly experience summers that are colder than the winters around the city of Atlas." Luna's smirk then became a sigh, "and I came to Beacon to enjoy a change in weather and to meet new people, well at least I accomplished half of that."
Her comment earned a giggle from Ruby. Luna then smiled at Pyrrha, who returned a polite smile before returning to packing.
Pyrrha stopped packing for a moment and shivered as she looked at her teammates, "Dealing with how cold it's going to be my toughest challenge, I come from Mistral and it is much warmer than here in Vale." She sighs, "I do not have the proper gear for this mission."
"Since we don't have enough time to make a trip to Vale, I have an extra coat that you can have until we get supplied by the gear from Atlas. It's just a winter coat, it's not designed to be in combat, so it is bulky." Luna offered.
Pyrrha nodded, "Thank you Luna. It would be much appreciated, I will return when we get supplied in Atlas."
Luan beamed, her internal fangirl was screaming in joy, "Oh, don't worry about returning it, you may need it again in the future."
"Well, I don't want to ruin it and I do plan on keeping the winter gear Atlas provides us." Pyrrha replied evenly, she knew that Luna would do practically anything for her if she asked, and even if Luna insisted that she wasn't taking advantage of her, the worry about being partnered to a fangirl and the constant catering wasn't the type of relationship she wanted with her partner. Pyrrha hesitantly took the coat from Luna and resumed packing.
Ruby had been a red blur around the room when they got back and finally reappeared sitting on her bed with Crescent Rose and a medium box of spare parts. She was in the middle of disassembling her scythe, while also switching out various parts of her the weapon.
"Hey Rubes, what'cha doing?" Luna asked.
"I am refitting Crescent Rose; the climate will make some of the current parts will become more brittle since we are going to Atlas. I need to make sure that my baby will stay in perfectly working order while we are there." Ruby says with a happy smile, but she hardly looks up from her work. When she finishes, she looked up at the rest of her team and asked, "what about you, aren't any of you going to make adjustments to your weapons for the mission?"
There was a silent pause in the room, two team members were from Atlas and their weapons were already outfitted for the cold, however…
"I think that I will be making some modifications. Ruby could you assist me with the adjustments?" Pyrrha breaking the silence, Ruby was one of the few people who she could talk to without stress. Ruby had known of her fame through the Pumpkin Pete cereal boxes, which was not actually that popular as most would think. That was because of how unhealthy it was. Also the young girl was more fascinated by Miló and Akoúo, than the title: Mistral's Four Times Combat Champion.
Ruby appeared in front of Pyrrha with a storm of rose petals floating behind her. "Really!? You're going to trust me work on your babies?"
Pyrrha smiled at Ruby's antics nodded. "Well, just Miló, Akoúo is just a simple shield after all."
"OH, THANK YOU THANK YOU!" the reaper burst giving the champion a hug.
Pyrrha pulled out Miló, disassembled it and laid the pieces on the desk with the red reaper carefully watching and memorizing every piece. "Ruby, since you are a weapons expert, I want to see if you can figure out which parts need to be replaced for this mission."
Pyrrha sat down on the bed and watched as the reaper scan over the pieces. Finally the reaper finished and she wrote down every piece on a list that they would replace on Miló, and then correctly stated the pieces from the list would be needed to be replaced. Despite being the youngest huntress to attend Beacon, she truly was a prodigy when it came to weapons. The champion smiled and pulled out her own toolbox from underneath her bed.
The champions had one more surprise for the younger redhead, "Ruby, I would like you to replace the necessary parts, this will give me time to make the adjustments I need to my armor."
The reapers expression of joy was just adorable, she carefully went to work on Miló ignoring the coos and giggles from her teammates.
"Excuse me Pyrrha. Could you come with me for a moment?"
The champion nodded to her team leader and followed her into the hallway. "What can I do for you Weiss." Weiss heard the tone change in the champion's voice, it was different from when she had been talking with Ruby, with Weiss, it sounded like how a professional would address another.
Weiss took a breath and began to speak, "Pyrrha, I am not blind to the fact that I am and have not been the kindest or most understanding leader, but with us having this mission this early in the year has made me realize that something needs to change right now if I am to keep this team safe."
Pyrrha listened but her face did not betray her thoughts. While she did agree with everything that Weiss was saying, she was concerned where the Heiress was going with this and Weiss had just started her speech,
"I don't know if it's right for the rest of you to change to just obey my word without question, especially not since you all believe that I have not earned that level of trust, but for this mission or until I can understand the three of you, I will try to change how I think if that's what it takes for you to listen to me."
Weiss knew that if her father ever heard a word of what she was asking, he would shame her for not acting like a 'proper' leader and for not having a solution that would result in complete obedience. But in the end, she was not her father, that was why she chose Beacon over of Atlas, to be able to become someone other than who he wanted her to be and then she could save the Schnee Dust Company from what he had turned it into.
Pyrrha had not respond after Weiss had finished, it easy to see that the Heiress was just trying to win her over so that she could use that as leverage against the two girls obey her, to that she had nothing to say. Weiss was hoping that the Mistral champion would say something or really anything to know if she was headed on the direction, but she was given nothing as the champion remained silent and stared at the Heiress. Weiss looked down embarrassed and almost defeated before she continued,
"I know that neither Ruby nor I am your partner, but I was wondering if you had any advice that could help me form a relationship with Ruby. You've seen how she argues with my every word, but then with anything you say, she listens, even when it's not about weapons. Despite the fact that you are not her my or her partner, could you tell me what it is that make her listen to you?"
The last part of what Weiss said did surprised Pyrrha. The proud Schnee Heiress had just willingly thrown away her pride to ask for help, even if she claimed that it was temporary; this was a huge step for Heiress to take. Even though Pyrrha was not comfortable with Weiss, it would be wrong to reject her plea for help.
The champion sighed as she gave in, "One thing you will have to do is talk to Ruby like an equal. I was able to connect with her by accepting who she is and her quirks, even the ones that make her seem a bit much. As a leader, you are going to have to find out what she expects of you and come to a compromise on what you both can expect from each other. She may not accept you right away because of the way you two started off, but you will have to be just as persistent as she is stubborn if you want to make this right. But you also must not forget about our last teammate."
The Heiress was thankful that the spartan was talking to her, but the spartan was pointing out all of her faults as a leader. Weiss looked away, "Yes, you're right, I am failing and because of my shortcomings, I can only deal with one issue at a time. Getting Ruby to listen to me is the most important issue because of the mission and she is my partner, but I promise you that I won't forget about Luna."
Pyrrha still keeping her face neutral, nodded, "that is good enough for now, but I will hold you to that."
"Thank you Pyrrha."
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
The two girls walked back into the dorm room, Pyrrha went back to modifying her armor so it wouldn't freeze and lock up in the cold while Weiss approached Ruby.
"Hey Ruby, I just wanted to say thank you for being a good team member and helping Pyrrha with her the weapons."
"I am being complimented by our leader… Hey Luna, you were right, there's reasonableness somewhere in Weiss it just takes an icepick to find it." Replied the reaper with heavy sarcasm.
Weiss practically exploded, "Stop that Ruby! I believe in using criticism as a constructive tool to correct mistakes of my team as well as praising them for utilizing their strengths." It took her a few moments to regain her composure. "Why couldn't you just take the compliment and forgo the back talk?"
Pyrrha interjected by changing the subject, trying to prevent the arguments from escalating any further. "What I can't believe that we are already being assigned a mission, and after only being here for week. I wonder if this mission will be declared as classified as it is done in such urgency as well as an unorthodox style. I would love to call home and tell my family about this."
Luna joined in on that thought, "I think that's a valid point. I am curious as to what has made this mission so important that it has taken the priorities of two Headmasters to oversee this mission, but the mission is easy enough that it can still be assigned to a first year team who have just started their studies."
Well under normal circumstances I would say that it is because the headmaster has absolute faith in our abilities to accomplish this mission or he would have never brought us in to discuss it, however this isn't conventional. We have only been enrolled here for one week and we have hardly had the chance to showcase our full abilities to the professors, the most that we have ever showcased our abilities here was at Initiation.
"Well I guess there is something that we can agree on Weiss." Ruby smirked. The Heiress wisely did not respond. "Anyway, I'm packed and ready to go." The scythe wielder jumped up punching the air.
"Same."
"I'm ready."
Alright, Team WRPA, time to head out for our first mission!" Weiss exclaimed. She received confident smiles from ever member of her team. The huntresses took their bags and headed out.
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
They didn't get far though. As the team of all female huntresses left their dorm, they came face to face with all the members of team BNRY, who fortunately lived across the hall from them. "So, we heard that you girls are already getting to go on missions. And it is straight from the headmaster himself." Nora proclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement.
Yang grabbed Ruby into a crushing hug. "Ahh, my whittle sister is already going on her first mission as Huntress." The brawler smothered the reaper into her chest with a mock pout. "Two years younger and she gets a mission before me!"
"Luna, Pyrrha. Help!" gasped Ruby while struggling to break free from Yang's embrace. Neither girl moved, they just smiled. Out of desperation, Ruby called for help from the last member of her team. "Traitors! Weiss, save me!"
Unfortunately for the reaper, Weiss was already engaged with the other members of team BNRY. "Yes, we are. The headmaster has complete faith in us to complete the…" Weiss trailed off as she realized what Nora had said. "Wait, we were told about our mission hardly 30 minutes ago. How do all of you know about it?"
Blake simply responded with a sly smirk, "Nora told us."
The four huntresses of WRPA were very confused by this.
Ren steps forwards to clarify, "Believe it or not, Nora's intuition has an outstanding history of being exceptionally accurate. Even when the outcomes do not occur exactly as she predicts, which is surprisingly rare, she is still correct in the circumstances relating to what she claims." He explains, "We came to say farewell and wish you good luck on your mission."
Weiss nods, "I appreciate the gesture, however that doesn't explain—"
"Bring us back something awesome from Atlas." Nora interrupted.
Weiss sputtered, "B-b-but, how?"
"Listen Weis-cream, when you live with someone who can basically predict the future, you learn real quick that the question you ask are questions for more details. It makes life and homework easier." Yang chimes in. She turns back to her sister and gives her one final smother before letting the reaper go. "Make sure to take care of yourself out there Rubes, you have never been to anywhere close to as cold as Atlas before. And no, the times that it snowed on the Patch do not count."
"I'll be fine Yang, after all I got the two best teammates right here with me." The reaper jumped up and hung from the shoulders of both Luna and Pyrrha with a big smile on her face."
"Hey, what about me?" Weiss asked.
"What about you Ice Queen? Ouch." Ruby taunted before Yang flicked Ruby in the forehead.
The blonde brawler scolded the reaper. "Ruby, you need to be nice to Weiss, she is your team leader."
The reaper dropped from her two tall teammates shoulders. "Maybe I would be if the Ice Queen was actually a N-Wice teammate." Pyrrha's elbow jabbed her in her ribs, causing her to stutter mid-sentence.
"I'm so proud of you Rubes," wiping a fake pretend tear from her eye, "you have started using puns and coming up with original material."
"I am not Yang! Someone poked me!" Ruby frantically denied, waving her arms frantically trying to emphasize her point.
"Oh yeah, you just reminded me…" Nora started, the sudden feeling of dread returning from earlier, "Cover your ears right now Renny!" The warning came a little too late. Yang spoke.
"Well girls, I am glad we caught you before you left and I guess, Ice-see you after the mission."
Both members of hunter teams groaned at the horrible pun, but that only inspired Yang to continue. "Wow guys, chilly shoulders from all of you, and a Weiss cold one from you Ice Queen."
"It's Heiress—no, just no. We are not continuing this. Thank you all for seeing us off, but we must be going." And with that, Weiss turned to walk away.
"We'll catch up and tell you all about the mission once we get back!" called Ruby as she waved and ran after her team leader, mostly to escape from her sister.
"Thanks guys. See you in a couple of weeks." Luna waved.
Pyrrha smiled and politely nodded to the others before following her team.
"We'll celebrate with pancakes when you get back!" Nora hollered back. "And make sure to be nice to the guy you're going to find."
Ren sighed, "I guess that means I need to go to Vale before they get back next week to buy some more mix."
"Man, P-money really needs to find to get her to open up." Yang remarked.
"Will you ever stop with the innuendos Yang?" Blake said, finally rejoining the conversation and trying to repress one of the scenes from her Ninjas of Love series from resurfacing.
"You can't ever expect that of me," was the reply . "Now, let's go have some fun, because not all of us can just stay put in out dorms reading smut all day."
"It's not smut!" Blake hissed. "It's mature romantic literature."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night Blakee or in your case, keeps you up." The brawler teased with a flirtatious smile and wink.
Blake noticed that the direction that Yang was heading was towards the combat arena.
"Yang, training is not exactly what I would call fun." Blake stated with an annoyed expression.
"Naaaah, but tossing those who haven't taken our huntsman training seriously around and out of the ring is fun." Nora chimed in.
"That's my girl." Yang and Nora fit bumped and the two practically skipped towards combat arena.
"So… This is what is going to be considered normal for my life now?" Blake asked her team leader and fellow ninja.
"Yes, the standards have been set and it is highly unlikely they will change. Nora has been uncharacteristically mellow for this past week so here I feel that now is an appropriate time to warn you. Nora does not change, everyone else is required to adapt in order to handle with her." Ren answered. "For your own health and sanity, it is best for you to learn how you need to adapt sooner, rather than later."
He started down the hallway following the towards of ground shattering impacts and screams of terror.
Bake nodded as she followed him, "So, team leader. I am guessing your plan for today is to spectate Nora and Yang from the sidelines, allow them to take all the time they want in the combat arena and then take us to the library after they have got their worked out all their energy?"
Ren eyed her as she walked next to him and gave her a small smirk, "Glad to hear that you're already adapting."
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
The flight to Atlas was a long flight. Long and boring. Weiss was the only one to be stay excited and at the same time, composed, for most of the flight. Ruby was able to hold down her enthusiasm for a record time of 30 minutes, from when the transport craft took off from the Beacon landing zone, and then she got bored.
"Bored, bored, so terribly bored. Hey Weiss, what can we expect when we arrive in Atlas? Anything interesting? Since you lived in Atlas, what's it like? What is the favorited style of weapons by huntsman there?" The Reaper bombarded the Heiress with a variety of questions desperate to kill time and hear at least something interesting.
Her wish was mostly ungranted, instead of giving simple answers and then giving the girl time to ask for more detail about what she wanted, Weiss focused on the politics and economics of the Atlaesian government as well as the systems that support the Kingdom. Pyrrha tuned in to the one-sided conversation for a bit, she wasn't as curious as the short redhead, more using this as an opportunity to pass the time. She listened for what felt like half an hour, Weiss is going over so much that there she couldn't remember anything meaningful. She eventually reached the end of her tolerance listening to politics and tuned out the Heiress. She looked over to see how her other two teammates were fairing. What she realized was that while Ruby looked to be paying attention to Weiss, she had stopped hearing anything that was being said; her eyes were open, but it was easy to see that her silver eyes they were fogged over. This gave the young reaper the look of, 'Hey, I am actually asleep, and I am only pretending to be attentively listening to what you are saying' look, luckily for the reaper, Weiss was not noticing.
The champion suppressed a giggle and glanced over to see how Luna was doing. The Arc had practically passed out after she had secured herself in her seat. However, even though she was asleep, it did not appear to be restful, the Arc girl looked pale and constantly twitched and when they hit any turbulence, she would gripped the armrests tightly. Being from the same Kingdom as Weiss, Luna probably already new enough about the politics of Atlas that it would be an irritation to listen to someone tell her what she already knew, especially when the manner the information being given made it feel like an exposition dump.
The champion eventually decides to follow the example of her sleeping teammates, it definitely seemed like the best idea, when she woke up, she would be well rested, she wouldn't have to listen to anymore politics, and most importantly, it would kill a lot of time.
It was a few hours into the flight before Weiss realized that she was the only one of team still awake. "You dolts… I guess I can't blame them, I might as well get some sleep as well so that I don't exhaust myself before we get to Atlas. I wonder who the representative will be sent escort us when we land?" She was positive that it would be the Headmaster himself because he was the one who had sent for them, but she was hoping that she might have a chance to talk to a special someone while they were in Atlas.
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
The four huntresses woke us several hours later stiff, but well rested. They unstrapped themselves from their seats, got up and stretched, to get the blood flowing through their limbs and the cramps out of the muscles. Ruby was the first one of the group to speak.
"Hey Weiss, are we there yet?"
"Ruby, our scrolls are packed and we all just woke up, do you really think any of us know the answer to that question?" Weiss yawned.
"Fine." Then Ruby smirked, "Hey Weiss, are we there yet?"
"You are not going to be continuing that." Weiss ordered, she got up and stormed off, headed to the cockpit. She did not want to disturb the pilots, but she needed to talk to someone else to keep the child from annoying her. "Excuse me, Mr pilot-"
"I'ma stop you right there missy," a feminine interrupted, "While I do have few names on this ship; my call sign and radio name are, Four-Seven-Niner, but you can call me Ash or Lieutenant if you really want to talk to me."
Ash took off her helmet to reveal shoulder length purple hair and gray eyes.
"Ok, um," Weiss was a little surprised with how brazen the pilot was, but she recomposed herself before speaking again, "Excuse me Lieutenant, I was wondering how much longer it will be until we reach Atlas, all four of us slept for a few hours but we have no idea how long we slept."
"Aww, lucky you, you got to sleep while I have been flying the entire time." Ash lamented sarcastically.
The Heiress balked, "I apologize, I didn't mean to-"
Ash burst out laughing, "Oh brothers you are too easy to mess with kid, you really thought that I didn't take a break of my own? That's the reason I got a copilot." She motioned to the man in a light blue uniform drinking coffee from a large thermos in the copilot seat, he was thinner than most would expect, definitely not someone anyone ever expected to fight, she tagged him on the shoulder and he passed the second thermos of coffee he had to her. Ash unscrewed the lid and offered some to the Heiress, who politely declined.
The copilot addressed her, "good morning Ms Schnee, and to answer your question, we should be able to see Atlas within the hour." He was almost too cheerful, but talking to the pilots was a welcome relief, they had completely different attitudes than her teammates.
"His name is Captain Butch Flowers, but we just call him Flowers."
Captains Flowers err Butch groaned, "It's Butch Florida, my last name is Florida, every one of you know that York revised my files and changed my last name! It's what he was trained to be able to do."
"Whatever you say Flowers, and everyone knows that you love it." Ash smirked back.
Weiss thought it was about time to return to her team, "Well thank you Captain Butch."
"It's my pleasure, and gotta say, you ain't that bad for being a Schnee." Flowers responded with a smile
Weiss bristled at the comment, "Please it's just Weiss, I am a huntress, I am not my father."
Ash turned and looked back at the Heiress with a curious look, "Huh, I see your point Flowers, I think she's starting to grow on me. Anyway, better head back, we are approaching the coast and it might get a little turbulence."
Weiss thanked the Ash and Flowers and head back to her team. She found them all in the cargo bay, Ruby and Pyrrha looking out the windows and Luna still in her seat.
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
"I can see mountains; we must be getting close to Atlas!" The reaper exclaimed excitedly to the champion, the smaller redhead was back to her hyperactive self, at least, for now. The Heiress joined them but before she could say anything, they heard a groan.
The blonde girl was pressing her hands against her temples, she did not look any better, if anything she looked worse, she was still sickly pale and now she had started to sweat. The Ruby beat her partner to comforting the air sick girl. "Hey Luna, you doing alright?"
"Not really, but I will be better when we land. Please tell me it will be soon." Her mind told her she was going to start gagging, but her body knew it wasn't there yet.
"You're not going to throw up on us, are you?" The reaper asked concerned, they couldn't go on this mission down a teammate, especially when it was Luna the native to Solitas of the group. Weiss didn't count, she grew up in the city of Atlas.
"No, my air sickness is not too bad… I do get lightheaded and definitely feel queasy, but I… haven't ever needed a barf bag… Holding that record strong." Luna cheered with fake enthusiasm.
"Then I have good news, for you—"
A male voice over the PA system interrupted the Heiress, "Ladies and Huntresses, on behalf of Pelican airlines we would like to welcome you the Kingdom of Atlas." The transport banked slightly to the right, and Captain Flowers… I mean Captain Florida continued, "Now if you look out the windows on the left side of the ship, you may see we are approaching our destination."
Three huntresses went to the window and looked out, they could now see it in the distance, the City of Atlas.
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
The transport had made it to the most northern Kingdom in the land of Remnant. The young huntresses looked out the window as the ship approached the city. They could see the stark differences of Atlas in comparison to Vale, where in Vale, there were forests, mountains, and the ocean, the landscape surrounding Atlas seemed a little more dull, it was a city that dug into a mountain in a snow covered continent. The size of the mountain rivaled that of Vale's Mt. Glenn. The original architect of Atlas constructed the city at the base of the mountain using the mountain as a natural barrier against invaders of both human and Grimm as well as a buffer against severe weather. As time went on and technology progressed, the city expanded, and it expanded in many directs. Engineers had built great mining machines that carved out the side of the mountain as a means to expand the city. This process continued because not only did it provide another method of expansion, it also led to the discovery of rich dust mines and an abundance of ore for building materials.
As the ship landed and ramp lowered, they could see that there was already a representative on the land pad waiting for them. the representative was a tall woman who had her snow white hair was secured in a bun, she wore a an Atlas military uniform with the clearly defined rank of Specialist on her shoulder and a dueling saber secured on her hip. As they stepped off the transport, it was Weiss who was the first off was approached by the Specialist.
Winter greeted her younger sister. "Hello Weiss, it's good to see you Weiss. Welcome Atlas."
/ /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-/ /
Author's Note:
Nora is so much fun to write because she is the most unpredictable and energetic character, other than Tyrian, but I hate him on a personal level because he's a crazy evil, even though I recognize that he would be fun to write. Yeah, Ruby and Weiss never really fixed their relationship in this, sometimes small changes change the course of the future. And munte is the Romanian word for mountain. Hope you guys enjoyed the easter egg. Ruby is Pyrrha's only lifeline to having some sense of normality which is why Pyrrha is clinging to her. And yes, Ozpin is truly a coffee addict. Still working on setting the pace of the story. This was a longer chapter for me and I was not able to spend as much time as I thought I might have writing it. I ran into some writers block when it came to doing most of the transitions and realized that there was more character interaction than when I first outlined this chapter. Hopefully this chapter will tide you all over for a bit until I can get into the writing groove.