Chapter 4: First Madness
Review Replies
Neo Buried Legacy: Nice chapter cant wait for the next one. But I have to ask...
What's a Fiskarian?
Dragon Emperor0: Fiskarian is a Fixing RWBY (A series be Celtic Phoenix and the basis we based a lot of this story on) concept that's meant to act as Remnant's equivalent to the Vikings. All characters who are Norse based fall under this cultural umbrella term.
ThermalsniperN7: Yeah. Given how Nora is inspired by Thor, she falls under that category.
Dragon Emperor0: We go into more depth about it in our two other stories CESN: Ragnarok and MNSR: Life in Another World. I suggest checking those out if you want something else to read.
Knightmare Lord: Will Dominus Ghaul make an appearance?
Dragon Emperor0: Yes. Later on, but he and the Cabal as a whole will be coming. And since Sky is our Taken King, that means you'll be able to see what would've happened if Ghaul faced Oryx… Kinda.
ThermalsniperN7: It's not a bullseye on-the-mark thing, but it is close enough. Given that Oryx was able to solo the Ecuminae Empire in Destiny lore (to a degree and until he brought his siblings back), this should make for a good show of power for Sky to show that he can throw hands with big bads from the stars.
-Beacon Academy post initiation-
Sky sighed as he slowly awoke after a fairly long night's rest, to find that his second in command and resident lancer, Ace Scarlet, was currently doing one armed pushups next to his bed, clearly having been awake for a while.
"1997, 1998, 1999, 2000." He counted as he stopped, getting up and heading to his nightstand where a French press coffee maker had finished brewing, allowing him to make a mug.
"What time is it?" The Knight asked with a groan, rubbing his eyes.
"6:45 in the morning." The Guardian replied, taking a sip of the caffeine in his fist. "I woke up an hour ago, like I usually do. Decided to get a workout in." He shrugged, drinking more coffee.
"Well, looks like I got up at my usual time, then." Sky groaned, stretching a bit as he got to his feet. Then he noticed that Sun and Neptune were still asleep. "... Got an airhorn?" He asked his lancer, ready to pull a drill sergeant move on his subordinates.
"Right here!" Sundance chirped, materializing one for him.
"And a 1… 2… 3…" Ace counted down as Sky got ready to blow the horn, plugging his ears.
HONK!
Sun and Neptune screamed in surprise as they fell out of their beds, flailing as they did.
"Wake those asses up, guys!" Ace howled.
"Ain't no sleep happening when we're around, assholes!" Sky cackled.
"Oh, fuck all the way off…" Neptune groaned.
"Not happening. I only fuck one tenth of the way off today!" Ace heckled.
"It's way too early for this shit…" The monkey Faunus groaned, rubbing his eyes.
"Aw quit whining." The gunslinger told him.
"And start unpacking. We have plenty of time right now, so let's get it out of the way." Sky told the boys. Sun and Neptune groaned, but did so and started unpacking their belongings.
A few minutes later, the issue of personal space was brought up, but Ace solved that by suggesting the room be divided into quarters. There were no protests against this arrangement.
"You guys can do whatever you want with my space. I'll be sleeping in a hammock above everything else, so I won't be using my bed." Sun told his team.
"We might turn it into a guest bed, if it stays clean." Sky mused.
"Seems fair to me." Neptune shrugged as Ace plugged in the TV that he'd brought with him, allowing the image of come on, showing that it was set on the Crucible channel.
The team leader hummed as he checked the time and saw that it was 730am.
"Okay, let's put all our other stuff on hold and grab some breakfast. I don't feel like going hungry in class." He told the boys.
"Aye aye, Cap'n." The gambler nodded.
(Later)
After breakfast, the boys relaxed a bit before heading to their first class of the day: Hunter Regulation and Law.
That actually brought a wave of nostalgia to Sky, since he had studied this topic a bit growing up with his and sister's governess. Now he could refresh himself on it and improve it.
"I already know all this." Ace sighed as he flipped ahead in the textbook idly, stopping at the section that discussed Guardian regulations and laws.
"Yeah, but a good refreshment on a topic never hurts anyone." Sun pointed out.
"He's not wrong." Sky shrugged.
The gunslinger only let out a cavernous yawn as his attention shifted away from the class and onto Weiss, who was sitting further down on the same row as his team.
Unless he was mistaken, she was showing signs of agitation. If his assessment was right, then she wasn't getting along with her team too well.
'It hasn't even been a day yet…' The Guardian thought.
He really needed to do something about her before things got out of hand…
(Elsewhere)
Speaking of Team RWBY, the girls were now more or less going about their equivalent of a first day as a team.
Problem was, despite their initial connection as friends before and during initiation, Ruby and Weiss seemed to have friction between them.
As for why…
Ruby was currently sleeping through the class they were in, along with Yang. Weiss was exasperated because of this, but this wasn't the only reason for the friction.
The heiress was not one to dismiss her teammate's skills. Ruby was clearly a prodigy and had good leadership skills despite being younger, Yang was obviously a powerhouse, and Blake was definitely smarter than she let on.
Her issue was with the red hooded girl being made leader despite her clearly being far less mature than her other teammates. Not her age specifically, but her maturity level as a whole.
Other than that, Ruby honestly wasn't all that bad. But that glaring issue and the things that came with it hopelessly ground Weiss's gears.
Yang, meanwhile, Weiss's issue with her was the blonde's laziness, her habit of constantly goofing off partying, her seemingly slutty tendencies, and of course her wishy washy attitude towards her own sister.
If she wanted to support her sister, then the brawler should do so without hesitation. That's what a real older sister would do.
(Later)
Team SSSN now found itself in Grimm Studies—after having gone through economics by themselves and Sparring with RWBY—which was one of Sky's favorites. As someone who had been fighting Grimm for years, this felt like his bread and butter. Ace picked up on that, and smirked a bit when it clicked.
However, most surprisingly, the class textbook also had sections on three threats that weren't as prevalent as the Grimm, but still very much an issue. Two being because they hadn't been seen in centuries or decades, and the third because they typically stuck to certain areas.
These threats were the Hive, Cabal, and Vex respectively.
There was a decent amount of information on the Hive and Cabal, but the information on the Vex was almost pure speculation. The only real information they had on said robots was that they were timewalkers.
"Hey, didn't you say that there was a pair of Warlocks who were obsessed with the Hive and Vex?" Sun whispered as Port went into one of his long speeches.
"Toland and Osiris, yeah." Ace nodded.
"But Osiris always struck me as less obsessed and more just hyper fixated." Sky noted.
"What's the difference?" Neptune questioned.
"Take a look at the lengths Toland went to in his Hive studies." The gunslinger told him in reply. Boy, were there a lot on that topic…
"... Oh…" The blue haired teen shivered.
"What's this word? Thanato-what?" Sun questioned.
"Thanatonautics. The act of intentionally killing yourself and resurrecting in order to see visions." Sky explained. "Seems Warlocks do it to gain knowledge, Titans don't do it at all and Hunters do it when they're bored." He noted.
Sun and Neptune hummed at that.
"I don't think we need to guess which one Ace is." The monkey boy smirked.
"Piss off." Ace snapped.
(Later)
It was the team's second to last class of the day, weapon maintenance and mechanical engineering, which the boys took advantage of as a way to look for ways to upgrade their weapons and gear.
In some cases, though, certain weapons didn't require much, like non-mechashift weapons such as Willbreaker for example. That probably wasn't the best comparison, though; Hive weapons were pretty demanding with their maintenance, but could go a long-ass time before another round of maintenance was required, about 2 years or longer. Bolt was a completely different story, however.
Ace, meanwhile, was mostly focused on working on an upgrade for the Ace of Spades called a Catalyst which would increase the effectiveness of its Momento Mori and Firefly abilities. As well as sharpening his Hunter Knives and also creating new Dust cards.
One such new card was a Magma card, which could cause a volcano to burst from whatever it hit.
Granted, the amount of lava the volcano could spew was limited to what it grew with, but it would still cause damage.
Especially if it sprouted out of a person.
This last possibility caused the gunslinger to shudder.
Sun and Neptune didn't really do much to their weapons, just general maintenance and that was it. Meaning they finished up early.
Their teacher for the class noticed they were done and nodded silently, acknowledging that they knew their weapons well.
"And done." Ace grinned, twirling his gun as its cylinder glowed along its barrel.
"I hear ya." Neptune smirked as he too finished his own round of maintenance.
BOOM!
Seconds later, an explosion rocked the school.
"... Okay, what the hell?" Sky deadpanned. "Who could possibly cause something like that on day one?" He sighed.
(Elsewhere)
A short while later, Team RWBY was sitting in Ozpin's office with Glynda scolding them about causing the Dust Lab to explode on only their first day. After a bit, Ozpin raised his arm to silence her.
"Girls. The intention of the randomized team system was meant to facilitate the growth of multiple individuals by forcing them to confront their faults when they see how they affect others." The man told them. "As well as work with or against them both as combatants and people." He continued, sipping his mug. "Willing to cooperate with each other is one of the greatest things we have in the face of threats like the Grimm, Vex, or even more distant threats like the Hive and Cabal." He elaborated. "For those of us who do not have the Traveler's light, we must do everything we can with what we do have." He added.
The girls seemed to remain silent as they listened to this before the headmaster resumed after another sip of coffee.
"While working alone is common. Working together with other people is just as vital to a Hunter or Guardian's tool set, which is why Fireteams are so common." The man stated. "Seeing as this is your first day, I'm willing to assume that this is mostly a mishap." He continued. "But recognizing problem students when I see them, I'll be assigning you some guidance from a team one year your senior to help you work out your individual issues." He added, casting a knowing look at Weiss in particular who was glaring at Ruby. "As well as community service for the damages." He amended.
"B-But that's not necessary! I can pay for the damage!" Weiss tried to offer, but the headmaster shook his head.
"Monetary issues are not a concern to me, miss Schnee, but rather, it's the principal of the matter." He told her. "Your team's attitude issues are the more pressing concern." He added knowingly.
He was far from wrong there. Team RWBY was pretty dysfunctional right now, and a toddler could tell that much.
Growling, Weiss got up and stomped out, Blake and Yang following. Ruby, however, lingered in the office longer.
"Ozpin… Was putting me in charge of this team a mistake on your part?" She asked softly, sounding nervous. Ozpin looked at her and exhaled a bit.
"That remains to be seen. It's only been a day." Ozpin told her.
"Really?" Ruby asked.
"Miss Rose, I have made more mistakes than any soul on this planet. I do not believe that choosing you to be team leader is one of them." He told her. "Your performance in the initiation proves that. You are a combat prodigy and a leader, but you lack the ability to communicate with others. It's up to you to fix that." He continued.
"O-Okay." Ruby nodded as she left.
(Elsewhere)
It was night time now and Team SSSN was now in the forest known as Forever Fall camping together for an assignment that they had to do for their team building class.
Right now, the boys were sitting around a campfire talking.
"Hey Cap'n!" Ace called across the fire where Sky was sitting, the boys all roasting hot dogs over the fire while a pot of chili simmered in a Dutch oven for some chili dogs.
"What?" The boy questioned.
"You never did finish that story about how you got that sword of yours." The Guardian replied, fixing his hotdog in a bun and putting the chili, onions and cheese on it along with mayo and mustard.
This caused Sun and Neptune to look at their leader, who groaned, seeing that he was put on the spot, meaning that if he didn't say anything or declined, it'd seem like he was hiding something.
He saw what his second in command was doing: he was trying to get everything out in the open between the four of them. And if the leader did it, the others would follow, building a foundation of trust.
It was smart, but that didn't mean that Sky was gonna enjoy it.
"... I got it after my family's old governess sold us out to a serial killer." Sky sighed.
"Whoa, drop a bombshell, why don't ya?" Sun said, shocked.
"I hope this doesn't make me lose my appetite." Neptune groaned, fixing a chili dog like Ace's, but his had relish and sauerkraut.
"Me neither." Sun nodded, his dog being like the other two, but just had chili, cheese and mustard.
"It was brutal. The killer murdered my parents, kidnapped my sister and left me to die slowly." Sky breathed, his mind vividly remembering that dreaded day. "I was bleeding out, but then I seemed to hear a voice calling out to me. It was coming from a nearby Hive cleaver that got discarded at some point. It was talking to me, telling me to pick it up." He continued. "I, being a desperate seven year old that just wanted to live, did so. The next thing I knew, I was healed and ready for a fight." He went on. "After that, trust became something difficult for me to do for a while." He finished.
"All of that when you were just seven years old?!" Sun gaped in disbelief.
"Well, then the same voice told me to… Ingest a Hive worm, about a year later." The swordsman added.
"Did you?" Ace questioned, his eyebrow raised.
"I did." He nodded, revealing the chitin that had slowly started growing all over his body for years at this point. "It was called a 'King Morph'. And according to the voice, it would make me follow my nature." He elaborated.
"Wh… What exactly is your nature?" Neptune asked, tearing his eye away from the chitin his leader sported.
"To Navigate, understand and ultimately become death." The teen replied.
"... Okay, it's been only a day, and I can tell that doesn't seem like your cup of tea. It seems like a twisted version of your nature, if that's possible." Ace commented flatly, taking a bite out of his chili dog.
"Maybe. I never really thought about it that much." The boy mused, looking at his hand. "What about you, Ace? What's your big secret? Since you started this little fireside talk." He prompted, eating his just regular old hotdog that he had a simple assortment of mustard and ketchup, and not much else.
"It's a roller coaster, kinda like yours." Ace sighed. "I grew up in Mantel with my mom mainly. Due to my dad being Hunter Vanguard and my… I hesitate to even call him this—brother, working as a guardian, I was mostly on my own." He began. "My life in Mantle was basically the average experience for a person in its upper middle class. Then my dad was murdered—and then everything went to shit." He added.
"Do I wanna know how bad?" Neptune asked with a gulp.
"My 'brother' went completely insane. Now he hates the faunus as a whole for what happened to our dad." The gunslinger sighed in reply. "Me? I'm more specific. I hate the White Fang and the White Fang only. End of story." He continued.
"How… did your dad die?" Neptune questioned nervously as Sun started boiling milk in a campfire kettle for hot chocolate.
"He was murdered by Adam Taurus, the same guy with a rep for senseless slaughter. He killed my dad right after my old man saved his sorry ass!" Ace growled a bit in reply.
"I remember that guy." Sun nodded. "I helped you fight him and you shot his arm off." He added.
"A decent first taste of retribution." Sky nodded. "Me, I'm not that far along my own road. My old governess doesn't even know I'm still breathing." He added, taking a bite of his hotdog.
"What's your brother's name?" Sun asked Ace as he poured everyone some hot chocolate as the air got chilly.
"Jack Scarlet, or "Jack the Ripper" as he likes to go by these days." The gunslinger replied, causing Sky to nearly spit out some hot chocolate before he caught himself and swallowed it.
"Seriously? That psychopathic bastard is your brother?!" Sky coughed in disbelief. "I had some run-ins with him, and all of them involved him trying to murder innocent faunus that were just going about their lives as best they could. I had to step in every time I found him to send his sorry ass packing!" He added. "And every time he would force me to kill him—and then his Ghost resurrected him." He amended.
"Now you see why I wanna kill the asshole." Ace stated. "And I've been working on something for just that purpose." He added.
"What are you even working on?" Sun wondered.
"I'm keeping that to my chest for now." Ace told him in reply. "Other than all that, my biggest problem currently is Weiss." He sighed, pouring himself some hot chocolate.
"Because of the friction between her and the rest of her team?" Sky guessed, getting a nod in return. "You're not the only one who's noticed. I'm more concerned with Yang, though; I know it's just a day into our Beacon time, but she's still coming off as careless." He admitted.
"Well Weiss has some underlying racism towards the Faunus and delusions of grandeur that's going to bite her in the ass if she doesn't change." Ace stated. "I love the girl, more than most women I've met, but she needs a serious reality check." He added.
"Yeah. I swear I heard her make a few less than savory remarks about me in our first class of the day under her breath." Sun nodded.
"Or about a couple of the Faunus second years." Neptune nodded.
"See?" Ace stated, as if to say 'I rest my case'. "I can acknowledge some stuff that I might be too… careless and nonchalant. But my old man taught me that if I give into negativity, then I give into death." He explained, shaking his head as he talked.
"Wise words." Sky nodded.
"What about you, Sun? What's your story?" The gambler questioned.
"If you guys have heard the name "Shan Wukong," then you guys must know his rep." The monkey boy told his team.
"Yeah; Strongest male faunus alive that was rumored to have knocked out a Worm God with a single punch." Ace nodded.
"And start an earthquake with one punch and stop it with another." Neptune added.
"He's also been said to sleep around." Sky added.
"Try imagining what being his son must be like." Sun told them. "Expectations aren't that big of a deal after a while, but there are other things that are." He continued.
"Like what?" Sky questioned.
"The self-doubt, for one. I often questioned if I would be able to take the mantle of 'strongest male faunus' from him when I reached that point. It almost made me give up." Sun admitted in reply.
"My guess is you haven't?" Ace questioned.
"Yeah. I remembered what my dad told me and just kept going." The monkey boy nodded in reply.
"What did he tell you?" Neptune asked, realizing that his friend never mentioned this before.
"If a child is born a male, they will desire to be the strongest man in the world." The blonde replied.
There was a beat of silence before Sky chuckled a bit.
"I dunno if I should call that true or not, but I feel like I'm on my own path to that, now that I think about it." He remarked.
"Well, given what's going on with you, you might be right." Sun mused thoughtfully before another thought hit him. "Now that I think about it… Ace, don't most Guardians kill anything related to the Hive? I figured that you would've shot Sky in the head by now." He noted.
"Yeah, but after hearing Cap'n's story, I decided that it wouldn't really be fair. He was a kid when he went through what he did, and he's not a madman, so no sense wasting ammo over it." The gunslinger shrugged in reply.
This got a shrug from the other guys.
"Alright, Neptune, you're up." Sun told his best friend as the blue haired boy sipped his own cocoa.
"Where do I even start…?" The blue haired teen groaned. "I guess my family is as good as any." He mused. "My family, they've done just about everything that isn't combat related. When I realized there wasn't much for me in that department, I turned to being a Huntsman in an effort to stand out." He explained.
"Given your situation, that part makes a lot more sense." Ace shrugged.
"When you wanna stand out and not be just another face, you'll look for whatever avenue you can." Neptune shrugged.
This got a cacophony of nods from the other boys before Sun yawned, having finished his cocoa.
"Well, I'm gonna hit the hay." Sun sighed, stretching.
"Yeah, me too." Neptune yawned, finishing his hot chocolate as well.
"Go ahead, I'll take first watch." Sky nodded.
"Got it." The monkey boy nodded as he and Neptune got into their tents.
Ace, however, lingered since he had something else to discuss with his leader.
"There's one last thing I wanted to discuss with you privately, Cap'n." The Guardian smirked before he teleported—using his semblance to steal Sky's perception to mask his approach—and grabbed the still sheathed Willbreaker, Sky grabbing it as well to keep Ace from pulling it out.
"Let go of my sword, Ace." The last survivor of Miyuri village said evenly, his voice having the ever so slight edge of anger.
"Oh~? So you can get angry?" Ace grinned as he kept trying to pull on the blade, Sky matching his strength and keeping it where it was.
"You don't want me angry, Ace." Sky told him, his tone still even.
"Ya know, looking at you now. I think I finally understand why people tend to avoid you. Chitin and all. They might've thought you were a Hive." The Guardian mused, again trying to pull Willbreaker free. "Having this thing and a Boomer around certainly must not have helped things." He hummed. "Makes me wonder what kind things you would be capable of if actually were angry." He nodded.
"Let. Go." The hybrid teen ordered, trying to keep his anger in check.
"Or what? You gonna get angry? Come on, captain, that's what I want, remember? I wanna see you get angry. See what those Hive bits and bobs can do." The Gunslinger taunted, pulling on Willbreaker even harder. "And if taking your sword means I get to see that, then it makes me wanna do it more. No—it makes me wanna steal it." He added with a wild grin.
Right at that moment…
SHLCK!
Faster than Ace had thought, Sky spun around and slashed him with Willbreaker, forcing him to jump back. The gambling teen was alive, but he had taken a blow from the left side of his neck to that side of his jaw. Sundance fixed it up, but the blow had surprisingly left a scar.
And most notably, Willbreaker was now ablaze with green soul fire.
"Heh? Looks like I found your dark side, Captain." Ace grinned, not even mad in the slightest. "I like it. You should be angry more often." He added.
"And you should be less of a loose cannon." Sky rebuked, snuffing out the soulfire and putting Willbreaker away.
"Now where'd be the fun in that?" The guardian chuckled as he too looked tired. "Well, I think that's enough crazy for one day." He yawned as he stretched. "So I'm gonna crash for the night. See ya in the morning, cap'n!" The boy smiled as he went to his tent.
Sky watched his second in command vanish into his tent and scoffed a bit. Not only did the Human-Hive hybrid know that he was gonna get a scolding for what happened here, he had to do something about Ace's tendencies.
What a drag…
(Timeskip)
The boys now sat in Ozpins office, in a slightly more tame position compared to Team RWBY's. When the report on their team building trip came in, the altercation between Sky and Ace prompted the man himself to call the boys up to discuss it.
Glynda was scolding Sky for attacking his second in command. While she understood Ace could handle it, the principle of the matter remained.
Not to mention, attacking someone who was egging him on to do so was just giving the person what they wanted and just on the whole, reflected poorly on him as a leader and as a person.
"If you need to scold someone, look to my left at this loose cannon for not taking a hint." Sky sighed dryly, jutting his thumb at Ace.
"I got two words for ya, Cap'n. Loosen. Up. You should try that sometime." The gunslinger retorted as he pulled out a bag of what looked to be gummies, but the package had a leaf on the front.
"Depends on the definition of loosening up." The Knight grunted since the idea of 'loosening up' varied from person to person.
"Whatever." The gunslinger shrugged nonchalantly, eating a few of the gummies.
Ozpin raised his hand to halt the chatter, and everyone quickly shut up.
"Mr. Obsidian, I know that your sword is a rather large mind field topically speaking, given its and your history." The teacher hummed. "But I don't think slashing a student who is not only your teammate—but seemingly a vitriolic friend from my perspective—is the correct way of expressing your aversion to learning about it with others." He added.
"I tried to make it clear that I wanted him to leave it alone, but he wouldn't take the hint." Sky told him.
"I am aware of that, which brings me to another topic." Ozpin acknowledged before looking at Ace. "It's quite obvious that your loose cannon attitude, recklessness and nonchalant attitude has already proven to be a problem for your team." He noted. "That's something that will need to change." He added.
"I think I'm fine. Why change who I am?" Ace asked as he ate another gummy.
"Because your attitude can send the wrong signal instead of the one you mean to send, in a wide assortment of cases." The Headmaster told him in reply. "So, I will do to you what I have done with Team RWBY and have you four counseled by a team of second year students to address the aforementioned issues along with any other issues I may not be aware of." He continued.
"You gotta be kidding me…" The two boys groaned while Sun and Neptune just looked at each other.
"Wait, us too?" They questioned.
"To give you an extra chance to get any other personal issues off your chests, mostly." The aged man told them in reply. "And to send the message that a whole team will be affected by any issues it has." He added. "You'll have to deal with this for at least a week." He continued.
"Great…" The two boys groaned in exasperation. Despite the way things were, Sun and Neptune wouldn't hold it against Sky and Ace, given the experiences those two had gone through.
There was bound to be some form of friction, regardless.
ThermalsniperN7: Sorry about the long wait. An assortment of other stories were on the docket, so this one was on the backburner.
Dragon Emperor0: Technically we're still working on said roster, but we needed to break up the monotony, and this was the one we decided to do. Anyway, yeah, I'm already seeing some similarities between Meliodas and Ban with Sky and Ace, only their relationship is a bit more antagonistic… or is vitriolic the correct word? Cuz that seems to be Ace's archetype here: The Vitriolic Best Friend variant of the Right Hand Man archetype. (Go watch Red's trope talk on it for more context).
ThermalsniperN7: Yeah, but that didn't mesh very well with Sky, given what he did. He's not exactly… Used to those types of people, I suppose one could say. He's susceptible to getting the wrong signal at first until things clear up later.
Dragon Emperor0: But that's how Lancers are with their leaders. It's what makes them interesting. That being said, it makes me wonder just who these two teams will be taking to RWBY and SSSN?
ThermalsniperN7: Some interesting people, most likely, in the case of SSSN. Maybe people who can relate? Anyway, see you guys next time.