Chapter 12 - A Sinister Chime
A/N: It's been a while since I've done Jaune.
Also, I'm gonna try bouncing between multiple groups in this chapter. Probably not gonna do it often, but VAAPPRs POVs aren't long enough for a chapter on their own.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Souls or RWBY. Dark Souls belongs to From Software and RWBY belonged to RoosterTeeth. I only own my OCs.
(Jaune)
The campfire they sat around burned brightly. Vyliria had joked that "all it needs is a coiled sword and some bones in it and it would be just like the bad old days." Jaune didn't have it in him to find it funny. He didn't think he could find anything funny when faced with the fact that the enemy now saw death as a mere inconvenience.
Evidently, the Irithyllian picked up on the cause of his foul mood, pausing the campfire conversation they were having before she and Penny would take watch, turning to address him with a critical eye (they were out of earshot of the Shion refugees). "Jaune. I know Tyrian being undead certainly isn't a good thing, but that doesn't make him invincible. I find it extremely unlikely Salem has access to a stockpile of humanity, so it isn't a matter of a foe who endlessly returns. The only difference is that he's now a foe we have to kill more than once. How many deaths exactly it will take for him to hollow, I cannot say, but without humanity, and without being unkindled, which is impossible since I snuffed the First Flame, his deaths are numbered."
"And there's that name again," Azul cut in. "Who's Salem, and what does she have to do with Tyrian?"
Jaune looked at Pyrrha, and they began a silent debate on whether they should inform him of something so massive that the world was unaware of- "Salem is the queen of the Grimm." Jaune blinked, and the rest of VAAPPR's heads turned to Vyliria. She regarded them back. "This isn't some third rate movie. All of you are barely adults, despite being engineered to be of a mental age equivalent to us, Penny isn't even two, and he's a professional huntsman with over a decade of experience. And speaking of, I have more than enough experience with the world myself, past and present, to know that not telling him and letting him discover it by other means at a later point is a terrible idea."
Jaune glared. "You should have asked us befo-"
"Jaune," the Irithyllian said tiredly, "I know oftentimes, while I may not appear as so, that I'm mentally unstable, that I've lost years to my curse, and don't remember the exact timeframe I walked the world as a normal undead, I'm still somewhere between seventy and a hundred years old, not counting the time I was unconscious in the Kiln. I will not tell you to blindly trust your elders, and I do look to you all for advice, because I acknowledge that I'm not infallible. All I ask is that sometimes, not always, but sometimes, you just accept that I have experience that you all simply don't. And that experience tells me that there are more negatives than positives if we refuse to inform Azul of the shadow war being waged across Remnant, and that things will be worse for us in the long run."
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and his eyes flicked over to Pyrrha's. "She just wants to help us."
A sigh left his lungs. "Can you at least promise to ask us from now on?"
Even though Jaune couldn't see Vyliria's face beneath her hood, he knew she was meeting his gaze. "I give my word that so long as it doesn't put lives at risk, that I will endeavor to ask you for permission to speak on matters of import."
"Great," Azul cut in. "Now, can we get back to the whole Queen of the Grimm thing?"
"My apologies, Azul," the Irithyllian began, "From what I have learned from Patches, who witnessed or was contemporary to many of these events, Salem was once human, and attempted to defy the natural order of life and death, and so was cursed by the Brother Gods from Remnant's mythology, so that she'd never pass to the afterlife to reunite with her lost love. As you can imagine, she didn't take this well, and turned humanity against the Brothers. So… the Brother's killed everyone, with the exception of Patches, who hid behind his curseward greatshield, and myself, though I'm unsure if I survived by being deep enough beneath the earth, or if some residual magic from the Kiln protected my unconscious form. The Brother's departed the world, but left behind four relics, along with laying a path for another humanity, and the faunus, to eventually rise. Those relics are each hidden beneath a huntsman academy, and only accessible by a specific Maiden of the seasons. Salem has since somehow bonded herself to whatever abyssal magics make the Grimm, and has dedicated herself towards the destruction of this world, and obtaining those same relics. And no, I don't know what the relics do."
Azul blinked. "Salem is immortal? As in, she can't die, or even be killed?"
There was a round of silence, which was (as Jaune had come to expect by now) broken by Vyliria. "You know, that hadn't occurred to me until just now. Which is fairly stupid, considering I was told she was immortal. I guess I'd just assumed it was like undead immortality, or my gods' immortality, where she just doesn't age. But then she would have just killed herself to spite the Brothers." She raised a hand to cup her chin. "That is rather problematic. And I have to say, a foe that is unable to die, by any means, is a genuine first for me." Her shoulders slumped, and she looked quite perturbed, and if Jaune could hazard a guess, possibly even depressed by the thought of an opponent she couldn't simply stab to death. Which would be completely in-character for her. Not that she was upset for being unable to murder, but that there's a foe that she can't beat by words, and she can't fall back on the blunt-but-violent solution.
"Wait, if she can't die, how are we supposed to defeat her?" Penny asked.
"Is there even a point in fighting a battle we can't win?" Ren added.
"Of course there is!" Nora shouted, looking askance at her partner. "Because if she wants to kill everyone, we have to stop her, even if it's just holding her back forever. Because if we don't, she'll just kill every person on Remnant because some gods blue-walled her!"
Vyliria snorted, appearing to be having great difficulty in restraining her laughter at the ginger bomber being her typical self. "Nora's right," Pyrrha added. "If all we can do is hold the line, then we owe it to our oaths as huntsmen and huntresses to hold the line, even if we have to do it forever."
A thought occurred to Jaune, and he seized upon it. "But at the end of the day, she's still just one Grimm-person. There's got to be a way to defeat her, even if she can't die."
Penny perked up. "If the relics can only be accessed by a specific Maiden, would it be possible to lure Salem to where one of the relics are stored, and then remove the relic and have the appropriate Maiden seal her where the relic was? Granted, we would have to ensure that successive Maidens never let her out, but it is a definitive way to defeat Salem."
The resident unkindled froze, turning over to the gynoid as a wide grin slowly began to grow on her face. "HA!" Vyliria cried out, rising to her feet and picking Penny up in an embrace. "That's genius! Absolutely genius! Penny, you just solved defeating immortality in under a minute!"
The gynoid blinked, legs dangling in the air. "It occurs to me that this is the first time that you initiated a hug instead of me," she said in an even voice, a curious expression on her face.
Vyliria froze again, seeming to come to that realization herself, and blinked, before she put her friend back on the ground and took a step back, raising a hand to her chin. "So it is."
"Well, I don't know about the rest of you kids," the licensed huntsman of the group said, "but this is a lot to process. I think we should turn it in for the night, and address any more questions in the morning."
"Yeah," Jaune said, even as a yawn forced its way from his lips. "Refining a plan to defeat an evil immortal Grimm witch is something we should do after a good night's sleep, not before."
"Well, if that's the case, then I hope you don't mind if Penny and I do some more brainstorming between now and morning." A beat, and then Vyliria added, "I didn't intend for that to rhyme."
"I think it was a nice unintentional rhyme," Penny said.
The group had a round of laughter at an unkindled's expense.
(Blake)
The crickets were chirping in force tonight. That was something she hadn't heard often in Beacon. In fact, she could only recall one night spent by a bonfire, and a few pyromancy lessons at sunset by that same flame as occasions where she heard crickets in such large numbers. She leaned over the balcony railing, inhaling the scent of the ocean breeze. Blake turned around as she heard a screen door sliding and footsteps on wood.
"You know, you could always go in and say hi," her mother said, walking up to her while holding a tray with a tea set on it. "A father's never too busy for his daughter."
"Weiss would disagree with you on that," Blake remarked. "And the less said about Vyliria's biological parents, the better, nevermind that her surrogate father was a literal god."
Kali blinked. "Your father is never too busy for you," she said, her tone slightly firmer. She leaned over, kissing her on the cheek, before handing the tray to her, which she took despite her confusion. Said confusion only increased when she turned and began to walk away.
"Wait, where are you going?" Blake asked.
"Your father asked for some tea. I was hoping you wouldn't disappoint him," her mom said over her shoulder. Then she stopped, and half-turned. "You've never been very talkative. But that boy you brought home, and your partner, love to run their mouths. I'd like to hear more about the adventures of team RWBY from you, instead of Yang. And I'd certainly have rather heard about you holding hands with her from my own daughter instead of Sun."
"Mom!" Blake squeaked.
"She seems nice enough," Kali continued, as Blake's embarrassment rose in proportion, "and with modern science, it's not like you need a man for me to have grandkids. It's amazing how technology advances in just a few decades. Or you could just adopt. But you should probably tell your father before he finds out himself." With that, she left, and Blake was left holding a tray of tea, groaning as she tried to school her expression before she went to see her dad.
"Kali, is that you, dear?" her father's voice came from inside his office.
Blake swallowed, and walked down the balcony, raising a hand to slide open the door. "Hey, dad."
Ghira Belladonna perked up from the mountains of paperwork on his desk. "Blake! Well, this is a pleasant surprise. Please, come sit." He rose from his desk, moving over to the table further into the room. She placed the tea set on the table, reaching for the pot, only for her father to cut in with, "Don't worry, I've got it. Sit down. Sit down."
She stole a glance back towards the desk. "I don't want to keep you from you-"
"Nonsense," her dad responded, pouring tea into their cups. "I've been cooped up in here almost all day." He reached for a lump of sugar in a bowl next to the kettle, and only reflexes honed by countless sessions of pyromancy practice with an unkindled made her mind put together the fact that he was moving his hand to her cup and that she didn't take sugar with her tea anymore.
She managed to briefly beat her emotions down, saying, "Dad, no sugar, thank you."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Blake."
"It's fine dad," she apologized for his apology.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
Both of them floundered for a subject to swap to when silence ensued, but Ghira found one first. "So… is it much warmer in Vale?"
"Huh?" Blake responded, confused by the topic.
"It… it, uh, just seems like your outfit doesn't cover very much," he said. Blake blinked, and then froze. He thinks I'm dressing promiscuously, like the characters in Ninjas of Love.
Indignation shot through her, and she crossed her arms. "It covers plenty," she said tersely.
"I mean," her dad had seemed to realize his faux pas, "a little more armor might help, don't you think?"
"I'm fine," Blake defended. "I don't need armor; I can look after myself."
She saw his eyes flick down for half a second, but she knew his gaze had fallen to the faded scar and burn mark left by Adam and her own pyromancy flame, and she knew that even if he wouldn't say it, that he doubted her. And that hurt. Enough that her eyes started watering, and her face set into a grimace.
"Blake, I… I know you can. I'm sorry."
And those words broke the floodgates. She averted her gaze, cat ears drooping, and tears started running down her face. "Why?" she asked in a small voice. "Why would you say that? After… after everything I did to you and mom. After I called you cowards to your faces, and… and I ran off with Adam and Sienna, and I let so many people get hurt, and I enabled them, and maybe if I had listened to you, I could have convinced Adam to stay behind, and then the attack on Beacon wouldn't have happened, and-" she put her hands to her face and started sobbing. "But you're saying you're sorry… and, and… how can you both still say that you love me after what I did?!"
Her dad rose from his seat, moving to the couch she was on, and sitting next to her, wrapping an arm around her. "Your mother and I will always love you."
"You were right! You and mom were right!" she shouted, "And I shouted at you, and-"
He wrapped her in a full embrace, and she started crying into his shoulder. "It's okay, Blake."
"I should have listened to you!" she sobbed. "I should have listened to you and I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry."
"Blake, it's fine," Ghira said, running a thumb across the back of her head. "We never held anything against you, and I never feared you would fail. The only thing I ever feared was that you would fall down the wrong path. And I am so proud to see that you haven't."
"SUN!" Yang's voice shouted from outside, and Blake and her father froze, turning towards the closed door to the walkway outside.
"Guh! Woah, this isn't the bathroom!" A voice came from right outside the door.
"Are you eavesdropping on Blake and her dad?! I can't believe you!" A slap sounded just outside, along with a male shouting in pain. "Wait right here and shut up before I decide not to teach you pyromancy!"
"Yes ma'am!" Sun squeaked, followed by the sound of a set of feet rapidly retreating a few steps away.
"I really don't like that man," her dad muttered.
A few seconds passed, before the door slid open, and Yang stepped through, appearing much calmer than she likely was before she'd taken that time to compose herself. "Ruby's missing."
"What?!" Blake shouted.
"Neo too," Yang continued. I found Ruby's door open when I went to go to the bathroom, and she was gone, her window wide open as well. Patches only found a note in Neo's room, reading 'Following Red because she's doing something stupid.' I already grabbed Weiss, and she's waiting at the front door. And Patches knows what she went to do."
Blake took exactly two seconds to figure it out as well, and groaned. "She went to try hunting the darkwraith that the eon-old animate corpse said would find her as an annoyance at best, that he told us all explicitly not to, and decided to do so without asking any of us to come along, because of course she would, didn't she?"
Before Yang could respond, they both froze as a long, droning chime sounded off, resonating against their very souls. Ghira looked confused. "What happened? Why did you freeze?"
"You didn't hear that?" Blake asked her dad.
"Didn't hear what?"
Two pairs of footsteps thundered on wood, and Sun was heard yelping outside as he leapt out of the way. Patches barged in seconds later, Weiss right behind him, a speed glyph fading just outside the door. And for the first time Blake could remember, she saw fear in his eyes.
"It's here."
(Penny)
They'd traveled back to where their team was after the latest loop of the camp. Vyliria had woken up Nora and Ren, and Penny watched as they stretched and got ready to take the next watch, while Vyliria would get what rest her undead body could.
"I haven't seen a single Grimm in the past three hours," Vyliria told them, "So you should be fine, though it will pay to keep an eye out regardle-" The Irithyllian froze, taking a sharp breath in.
"Vyl?" Nora and Penny asked at the same time. Somewhere in the back of Penny's processors, she noted the genuine concern Nora was showing, because her fellow ginger hadn't jinxed her. Ren took a few steps towards her, but stopped himself. The unkindled didn't respond verbally, instead hastily pulling out her darkmoon amulet from under her armor, and gazing at it as it glowed blue with clear horror in her bodily and facial expressions.
Penny opened her mouth to ask what that meant, since she'd never seen the amulet glow prior to now. But before she could, Vyliria managed to pale even more than usual, and without hesitation, said in an even tone, "Watch my body."
"What does that mea-" she cut Nora off.
"Ruby's life is in danger. I don't have time to explain. Watch my body. I'll be back by sunrise at the latest." The two orange haired girls (and Ren) watched with mounting concern as a flicker of embers raced down her arm, coalescing into a strange, blue orb with a single blue-irised eye on it. She sat cross-legged, and gazed into the orb. Her eyes glazed over, and the eye in the orb flashed, a blue energy wafting off it for a few seconds. The Irithyllian let out a single breath, and then her eyes closed, and she slumped over.
()
A/N: Ah, Vyliria being Vyliria and just spilling the beans. Let me tell you, someone like her definitely wouldn't do something stupid or hypocritical like withhold information about Salem's immortality from the leader of the single professional military of Remnant. But my personal gripes with certain actions characters took in canon aside, she's chosen to fill in one Azul Carmon about Salem, who pointed it out. So yes, even though they should have been aware Salem was immortal when Patches said so, none of them really realized she's immortal, since everyone (Patches included) just assumed it was an immortality with some kill-condition still mixed in, rather than literal plot armor. And yet in just the span of five minutes, characters who are capable of logical reasoning rationally worked out that even if the foe can't die, they still have to oppose her, and that there are still ways to defeat Salem regardless.
Like, seriously, by Volume 6, they all know that only a specific Maiden can open a vault. So logic dictates that a foe who can't be killed can at least be imprisoned by something strong enough. Logic also dictates that something that literally only one being on Remnant can open or shut would be strong enough to imprison Salem. So therefore, logic would dictate that one could just lock Salem in a vault after removing the relic inside. Obviously, there would be a lot more steps to that plan, like getting her into that vault in the first place, and possibly sacrificing people to keep her in there long enough shut the door behind her, but still, it literally took me five minutes to come up with a way to beat Salem without killing her that's also canon-compliant.
Moving on, Kali is being a total mom, Blake has an emotional breakdown, Yang joins her partner in the Slapping Sun's Face Club, and everyone realizes that literally the first night here Ruby follows her hero complex and leaves to charge certain danger head-on. At least Neo decided to tag along. And you know, a certain crow wasn't in sight over the manor. I'm sure they'll be fine.
On second thought, considering that last perspective, there might be a problem.
Omake: Silent, But Deadly
A/N: For once, it actually isn't a fart pun. This is entirely non-canon, and as such, I don't need to worry about where in the timeline I am.
(Neo)
She blinked. The eyeholes of the helmet staring at her did not. The man standing head and shoulders above her was clad from head to toe in steel plating, a small, ornate roundshield upon his back, and a halberd clutched in one hand. She hesitantly raised a hand and waved. He waved back. Seconds passed in silence, before Neo pulled out her scroll and opened the notepad app.
I'm Neo, she typed.
The stranger thrust the butt of his halberd into the dirt, and began to use it as an improvised writing implement. Horace.
So, you can't talk either? she asked.
He gave a rasping grunt, affirming that his vocal cords did function, but not enough for coherent speech.
Neo blinked, put off by that fact. Wanna get some ice-cream?
Horace tilted his head to the side in confusion, and her eyes widened. She grabbed onto his free wrist, and began to drag him along. Ten minutes later, they were on the curb outside an ice-cream parlor, and the man had taken off his helmet to reveal pale skin (though nowhere near the level of Avalon's), brown eyes, and a mop of messy black hair. That, and a horrendous acid-burn along his neck. Even as he sat and appeared to be in heaven from the ice-cream, she kept slipping glances towards the wound, and he eventually noticed. He removed a hand from a glove, and gestured for her scroll. She passed the item to it, and after a few seconds of figuring it out, he began to type.
When I was a kid, the Cult of the Deep would feed people to Aldrich. In particular, the abomination liked eating children. He ate many. Too many. Anri and I were the only ones who ever escaped it. I didn't escape unscathed. It felt, and he paused for a few seconds, cathartic to finally avenge everyone it devoured.
When he passed the scroll back to her, she offered an apology, but he just shrugged in response. Before she could come up with another suggestion, a female voice carried over from the distance. "Horace? Horace, where are you?"
Neo and Horace looked up, to see Avalon looking right at them while another woman in the armor of an elite knight of Astora seemed to be looking everywhere around her except the one spot where Horace actually was.
"Anri," Vyliria said. "ANRI!" The Astoran didn't respond. "I swear to fucking Gwyn…" she muttered to herself. A hand raised, and metal clanged as the back of a helmet was slapped. Even as Anri whipped around with indignation, she continued with, "He's literally right in front of you. And besides that, I turned around for four seconds when you lost him. How do you lose Horace in the middle of Vale in four seconds?! Aaaand, you aren't even listening to me…"
Anri was ignoring the unkindled, hugging onto and sobbing into the shoulder of a clearly exasperated Horace. Neo looked back to Vyliria, who was standing with her shoulders slumped, a hand on her face and shaking her head. She stood up, walking over to the Irithyllian as she typed, and then showed her her scroll. She's hopeless.
"You can type that again. And she's also so enamored with him it's just sad to watch."
It's like a female Jaune, she signed.
Vyliria looked back up to see an unamused Horace gently rubbing a hand along her shoulder as she hugged him. "Considering the fact she also has blonde hair and blue eyes, I can't really say that you're wrong. Though even Jaune isn't this hopeless when it comes to romantic pursuits."
(Jaune)
The only Arc son of this generation suddenly sneezed, causing Pyrrha to look on with concern.
"Someone is definitely talking smack about me," he muttered.
()
A/N: Hey, ReaperOfLiterature, this one is for you. I have no idea what Horace looks like under the helmet, so I made something up. And the only time you can see Anri's face in-game, she's hollow. So I decided that since Solaire has blonde hair, and since Jaune has it as well, and since she uses a sword and shield, that Anri would basically be a female Jaune in Dark Souls.