My apologies for a double email notification, my dumbass uploaded chapter 18 again somehow. My bad. This is why you double check everyone!
Speaking of which, FFN is making Guideline changes, be sure to Opt-into email Notifcations for Story updates if you weren't aware!
Chapter 19: Snow Crows and Maiden Foes.
"Remember, not a word about this heartbound nonsense to Winter." Weiss scolded as she and Erick watched the much more advanced looking airship land in the courtyard to Beacon.
"Trust me, unless you've said something. No one is ever going to know except my own Team." Erick grumbled. "I prefer not to talk about all the magical nonsense that goes on, even in my own homeworld. Moon does the talking for a reason."
The ice queen simply gave him a sigh as the landing hatch opened up. A few of the Atlas soldiers in their traditional robotic looking armor stepped out and formed a courted guard line.
Erick had to admit as the woman stepped out, the Schnee family gene certainly did wonders, once again making him question how Jacques was not a Schnee himself. If Winter had proportions similar to Weiss, such as height. They'd practically look like identical twins! Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
Unlike Weiss' traditional battle dress. Winter was dressed up more prominently like how Ironwood was. She was wearing a white suit coat that showed him underneath was a more navy blue coloration for her blouse, as well as a reddish bow-tie. High gray boots covered up the majority of her white pants that, like Weiss, were held up by a blue sash, which carried a more traditional looking sword. Erick assumed her get-up was intentional given her status to Ironwood, the outfit possibly gave the vague notion as Ironwood's second-in-command to anyone within the military who had never seen her.
Winter stepped off the ship, followed by two more Atlesian soldiers, before she turned and watched as the ship's exit hatch closed up and it took off. Which ironically did not take nearly as long as it took to land given how more of the already stationed soldiers had to clear the campus courtyard lot of students who had come out to see all the commotion.
"It should be safe to approach her now." Weiss said after a moment, (though Erick noted some uncertainty in her tone).
As the genius followed Weiss up to her older sister, he watched Winter seemingly look around the courtyard without turning to face them, before she looked down a bit, likely messaging Ironwood that she had arrived.
"Winter!" Weiss called, rather cheerfully in Erick's mind.
The older sister to the Ice queen turned to face both of them as Weiss drew him to a stop. Which he was quick to see why, as, much like Ironwood, Winter's expression very quickly changed from a more peaceful and happy one you'd expect seeing a sibling, to a much more disappointment or possibly confused look, which by her eyesight, was definitely targeted at him more so than Weiss. He also noted how most of the soldiers quickly positioned their weapons.
Winter simply waved her hand down, which the soldiers lowered their weapons to as she approached them herself.
"It's nice to see you again, Weiss." Erick had to do a double take, as the voice Winter had sounded eerily similar to one of Link's friends. But he quickly waved that aside. "The general was very quick to inform me of your acceptance to Beacon. Though, I must admit, I am stunned that…father…let you leave the manor to come anywhere outside of Atlas."
"Yes…he uh…found out that Pyrrha was going to Beacon. He wanted me to try and get that prodigy celebrity connection for the company." Weiss rubbed her shoulder a bit. "He uh…was not particularly thrilled to find out I was not placed on the same team as her."
"So I've heard of you in your letters. Father should've known the risk of trying that type of stunt. But he can't go back with those high tuition and travel fees." Winter replied, still giving Erick the bit of a sore eye. "Come, It's been a long trip, and I'd like to get out of this public area with everyone watching." Weiss nodded and she and Erick began following Winter.
"The general has also kept me up-to-date on your academic performances. You should already know that given how close he and Ozpin are." Winter continued. "You clearly know what it means to be a Schnee given your stellar performances, the general said himself that he would've loved to have you in Atlas. Now that I'm no longer the heiress to the company, the duty falls to you to not make father angry." Erick noted the rather sour tone she used everytime she had to even mention Jacques.
"Yes, I know that of course," Weiss replied, in a very confident and upfront tone.
"Speaking of which," Winter continued, abruptly halting. "If my memory serves, Beacon does its academic performances more in line with how Atlas now does them. In my time, I was a solo student. I know you did not become a Team Leader yourself, so I must ask where the rest of your team is? And, more importantly, why is only ONE of them here?"
Erick had to fight down a giggle, he may not have had Moon's mind reading capabilities to call bullshit, but even he could tell Winter knew very well that he was most certainly not a part of Weiss' team. He doubted Ironwood would've forgotten to give her the details on that.
Much like he suspected, Weiss was fighting a losing battle to hide a blush of embarrassment from her sister. "Well um…actually, he's…not part of my own Team. This is Erick Andonuts, and he's uh…my boyfriend."
Erick had to give Moon props for telling him to pay attention to Winter's reaction when Weiss said that to her. Because his guess that Ironwood's approval of Winter would be enough to tack her onto an investigation was proven correct. Weiss probably couldn't tell, but behind those ice eyes of her sister, he could sense a blazing flame that wanted so badly to stab him.
"Well…if you absolutely had to choose, I suppose he was the best option." Winter sighed. "I myself was no stranger to having boys try to jump on a ship with me back at Atlas. Father made sure to put a stop to that real quick though." a bit of a pause. "You do know what will happen if things do not work out for your relationship right?" she asked Weiss.
"That shouldn't be an issue." Weiss replied. "I think he'll meet father's checkboxes."
Winter's glare did not seem to lift from Erick. However, she appeared to be willing to put aside her disinterest, or rather, so Weiss didn't get suspicious about whatever vendetta Ironwood had towards them that carried over to Winter.
"I suppose he will, his teammates already made hot lines, and I suspect that there are people willing to learn more about them."
"You really are just a marketing tool to this dysfunctional family." Dark Erick hissed. "Granted, you and I know that our princess here is really a tool for me. But I suppose that bitch calling himself her dad has abused her enough to make that her only mindset. Hell, her sister got disowned and ran from home, and even she won't speak of any abuse she endured."
"Regardless of how HE will feel about this new development, that is not what I am here for." Winter continued. "I would like to meet your teammates, then, I must go see the general and Ozpin to discuss important matters.
"Sir, I'm going to ask you to AH!" Erick flinched as he heard a loud ruckus and shouting before the firing of rifles and slicing swords.
"Well, well, look at Miss Ice Queen, thinks she's SO important." The three looked across the courtyard to another adult man. He appeared to be maybe five or ten years older than Winter was. He also looked homeless, quite a dirty appearance on his gray and black fighting outfit, drawing eerie similarities to Ruby actually. The man also talked in a way that reminded Erick a bit too much of the elite drunks in Fourside. Though, noticing the hip flask, that part became obvious real quick why.
"You…" Erick and Weiss looked over at Winter, who had a disapproving frown over her face. The man took a swig from the hip flask, "I'll have you know that you're damaging the property of General Ironwood."
The man just kind of gave her a bit of a sarcastic eye roll before looking at the Atlas soldiers that he knocked unconscious. "Oh? I'm sorry Ice Queen. Why don't you tell Jimmy that training needs to be upped for more recent soldiers."
"How lovely, I see you haven't given up the booze." Winter grunted. "I have reason to arrest you on the spot here. Seeing your own blatant disregard for Atleisan foreign law."
"I'll have you know that I drink not for the taste, precious," The man hiccuped a bit as he took out his own large sword. "Sometimes there are just things you'd want to forget eh?" The man had a dumb smirk leering at her.
"Oh yes, we would both know," Winter muttered, Erick noted the blush on her face. "Now, are you going to leave us alone now?"
"Nah, your little buddies have been all over my ass today." The man hiccuped again before chuckling. "I want to go give Jimmy there a piece of my mind."
Winter drew her sword out of her holster. "Not without going through me first you drunk bird-brain."
"Wait Win-" Before Erick even knew, Winter charged towards the man and immediately started a clash between both of them.
Winter spun her sword as a mural similar to what Erick had seen Weiss use sprung behind her. A few icy spears shot out from the mural. The man flipped around before doing a corkscrew motion as he charged towards her. Winter simply crossed her blade to block the strike as the corkscrew pushed through her.
"What's going on?" Erick and Weiss turned their heads as Ruby skidded up to a halt right next to them. "I heard a loud explosion come from here?"
"Some creepy drunk just appeared and started heckling us before attacking my sister!" Weiss sounded almost dumbfounded herself.
"What?!" Ruby was taken aback. "That's terrible, who would do such a thin- OH!" Erick blinked as her eyes caught wind of the man fighting Winter, her tone changed from an almost worried tone to a giddy excitement of a young child. "THAT'S MY UNCLE!"
"WHAT?!" Erick almost felt bad for Weiss' dumbfoundedness. Things just spiraled out of control really quickly.
"KICK HER BUTT UNCLE QROW!" Ruby cheered in excitement.
"Y-You do realize that this is your own Teammate's sister right?!" Erick asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, Uncle Qrow can get like that when he's been drinking a bit." Ruby blushed. "He won't hurt her though, I'm sure this is just a big misunderstanding."
"Well, I can assure you, Miss Rose, that will be the least of our problems." A gunshot fired into the air as both Winter and Qrow froze in place. All heads turned to the courtyard as Ozpin and Ironwood stepped out from the headmaster tower entrance.
"Now, Miss Schnee, and Mr. Branwen." Ozpin hummed as he calmly took a sip from his coffee mug. "Must your constant flirting always be so destructive? I mean, just look at the state of the courtyard from your start only five minutes ago."
Both adults just looked at one another and then back to the ground.
"Winter, Qrow, please follow us to Ozpin's office, we can't have both of you going on like this giving. Certain students. Any ideas." Erick noted Ironwood's glare in his general direction.
Winter begrudgingly grumbled something as she put her sword back in her sheath. "I'll get back to you eventually Weiss."
"Hello Uncle Qrow!" Erick and Weiss watched as Ruby latched onto the man's arm. "Didya miss didya? Didya?!"
Qrow just chuckled as he shook his niece off his arm. "Nope. But you can go set up a round of Blaz for when I'm done with this nonsense."
"OKAY! I'll go get YANG!" Ruby fluttered herself up in her cloak and took off.
"Let's go QROW!" Ironwood shouted.
"Sheesh Jimmy, I'm coming, stop." Qrow put his hands in his pockets and strutted up the pathway, as he stopped by Erick and Weiss he shot both of them a leer before taking another swig from his flask and walking into the headmaster area.
"What was that all about?" Erick grumbled.
"I don't know." Weiss replied, putting a hand on her chin. "Based on what Ruby told me about her uncle, I guess he and my sister have something of a rivalry between Ozpin and the General."
"What the hell is wrong with both of you?!" Glynda snarled at Winter and Qrow. "Just starting an all brawl over your pettiness over one bad night you both had?!"
"He started it!" Winter grunted. "He was drunk."
"He's ALWAYS DRUNK!" Glynda snapped. She pointed at Qrow, who was taking a swig out of his flask yet again.
"It's not my fault those stupid freakshows have started a similar playtoy with your own sister." Qrow grumbled. "Speaking of which, I don't recall anyone inviting you here!"
"You have no right to comment on my own general's family problems. If you were one of my men, I'd have you shot."
"Be thankful I'm not, I'd sooner shoot myself than work for you." Qrow grumbled. "And before you comment about my lack of commentary, I'll have you know that we've had more problems going-"
"I don't care about your lack of communication. I care about you and my operative second-in-command getting along. As you know, Ozpin and I won't always be here, and we expect both of you to be able to get along to be able to carry on our…mission."
"Now, moving past your arguing." Ozpin continued, pushing past Ironwood's irritation as Qrow opened his mouth again. "Qrow, you've been on espionage for five months now, and I've kept you up to date on the…situation…going on. Please tell me you have the information we were looking for."
"Well, unfortunately, I couldn't figure out the identity of those freaks that did those things to Autumn. So unfortunately, that's a bit of an issue. Lionheart and I kept looking around the Mistral students, but we couldn't find them. Suffice to say, I think the first half of those powers are as good as gone."
"I was afraid of that." Ozpin folded his hands as he leaned back. "With the project Atlas has been working on still not nearly complete, as you've said James, we have no choice, we need a hostess and we need one fast. Especially now that they're here."
"Speaking of which." Winter's eyelashes narrowed. "What the hell are you thinking letting those…those THINGS get so close to my sister?! Father would flip if he found out!"
"I can assure you, Winter, that once we're done here, you and Weiss will have no issues with them." Ozpin continued. "We just need to apprehend Pokey and Seiros and we can send those four on their merry way and get back to business as usual."
"However, with that being said." Ironwood continued, "We still need to prepare for an event where it happens. Thankfully, those four are down one member, and it just so happens to be the only other one who had powers. One-half of a Maiden should be more than enough insurance for now. Have we decided on a hostess?"
"Indeed," Ozpin replied, "I had a feeling this may occur, so I was quick to set up a rig course when I found out Mrs. Nickos applied here. While Beacon's transcripts showed more than enough improvement and more than capable teammates for guards if necessary, I think the four she ended up with happen to have gotten it best for her."
"Is there really no other option at this particular moment." Glynda replied. "I mean, I've offered to take the maiden powers myself you know."
"A younger child prodigy would be the last place she'd look compared to you Glynda, you know that." Ozpin replied. "Now, go fetch Team JNPR, we must discuss these issues with all of them together."
"Understood professor Ozpin." Glynda walked towards the elevator before turning around and looking at them as the door closed.
"Are you sure that this is the best idea Oz?" Qrow asked again. "You know all of us here trust your judgment, but still, surely it'd be better to use someone older with more fighting experience. You never know when the Crimson Follower will show up again. Her little minions got the upper hand over me and prevented me from seeing her face."
"I am very well aware." Ozpin replied.
"So…Team JNPR are chosen to be guardians for a hostess maiden named…Autumn?" Sapphire asked quizzically.
"Yes Yes! Heard correctly!" Astro honked. "Tin man says so. Him says "Need Maiden for counters."
"Maiden powers…Autumn…All of that sounds familiar to that fairy tale we read to you actually."
"Oh, the one with that man who gifted four powers to four young women who went on to use those powers to establish the seasons?" Sarah asked. "So…wait…if that fairy tale is actually real…then…what else is real?"
"At this point, who even knows what we know." Moon grumbled. "It does seem like Winter will be suspicious of Erick's relationship with Weiss, so hopefully he can persuade her to agree to a nightly heartbound."
"Aren't you concerned though?" Sapphire asked. "I mean, we know they're obviously talking about you three when they were discussing what Autumn was meant to be a counter for. If they plan to pass this "Autumn Powers." into Pyrrha or Nora, that's something you should worry about."
"Eh, we can probably get into their heads somehow." Moon shrugged. "You heard what Ozpin said. "They need one and they need one fast. Pyrrha may be a prodigy, but she's surrounded by Jaune, Nora, and Ren. We can probably counter."
"Yeah, but they also mentioned some Crimson Followers?" Sarah whispered. "Like there was some woman that tried to steal powers from the original Autumn, clad in Crimson with 3 henchmen who managed to swipe out one of Ozpin's best huntsmen, who was the original guardian to Autumn."
"That much is true, the Crimson Follower is likely a member of Salem's entourage." Moon shrugged his shoulders. "They said they went to Mistral, but they couldn't find her. Maybe whoever the Crimson Follower is caught wind of the relocation of Autumn here and wants to get in."
"Yep, should account for that." Moon whispered. "But, then again…we have a few issues regarding who is a "Crimson Follower." could be."
"Like, as we all know, there's already plenty of people here that could qualify under the code name of Crimson. Like, why is everyone here named after some type of fucking color? Isn't that kinda weird." Sapphire asked.
"I'd hardly be talking considering you fit the naming scheme." Moon replied. "But you make a point, hell, Pyrrha herself could use a codename of Crimson couldn't she?"
"Well, I guess for now we'll have to abandon our focus on the remainder of Team RWBY then." Sarah replied. "We'll need to try and dig more into this thing with the maidens, especially if they're supposed to be a way of dealing with us."
Team JNPR had followed Ozpin, Ironwood, Qrow, and Glynda down into a secret basement vault within the depths of Beacon. Each of them had been taken aback by sudden calls for them to come to the headmaster's office, only to be greeted with a rather unfortunate proposition, one that they still had trouble wrapping their own heads around.
Magic, Maidens, and the Grimm connection of a Hunter's true purpose? It all seemed too much to take in at once.
Once the four of them had seemingly walked in silence, they eventually stopped with the adults at a large door, it was a multicolored door with four colors listed on it, Pink, Green, Orange, and White. The four represented colors of the seasons, depending on who you asked of course.
"Now, we know that what you just heard may be a lot for you younglings to take in." Ozpin said. "However, we wanted you to see that we are telling you the truth. The secret pasts of those fairy tales of Remnant date back centuries before the likes of any of you were born. And we, who were trusted with those secrets by our ancestors before us, believe that there is an ominous threat lurking within the distances, and the arrival of Team MESS has only solidified our decisions."
"Just to be clear here," Ironwood said, crossing his arms. "None of you have any say in this matter, and if you so much as mentioned this to those four…children. So sit back, and enjoy yourselves, you've been selected for a bigger destiny than any of your peers could ever imagine."
Bit of a shorter chapter than normal, but this is what I wanted for this chapter, the initial idea was going to condense this chapter and last chapter into one big chapter, but that got cut when I realized how long that one ended up being, so this chapter ended up becoming a lot shorter than normal.
I was initially concerned I wouldn't get this out this month, College finals really came in and kicked my ass for better or worse. You never know how rough people it has until you have to see it yourself in college lmao. I always saw the memes about college textbooks, and only upon getting to college and have even the teachers been like "Yeah, college textbooks suck ass so much that they had to start including program codes that are mandatory for homework just to get you to buy them." speaks volumes.
Anyway, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet recently came out, I've been playing the shit out of that game, buggy it may be, but it is such a fun expierence from the initial Pokemon gaming scheme. Ah wait, this ain't my Pokemon audience, it's my RWBY Audience. Hmm...well...I guess there's not much else I can really talk about as of now.
I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, any thoughts you have are always appreciated as I love to respond to anyone.
Happy Holidays to everyone, I'll see you all, next year for the next chapter ;)