Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.
Didn't think it was going to take three months to crank out another chapter. Also didn't think my focus and concentration in all things was going to abandon me again either. Personally, with all of the mental crap I've had to wade through this year, I'll be glad to see 2021's ass go out the door and I'll gladly give it a kick to help it along.
I think I am going to have to give some serious thought to the idea of no longer updating every time I finish a chapter, and actually finish the story first before posting any more. I've never been truly comfortable with putting chapters up as I wrote them but I wanted to give it a go. Finishing it first without worrying about how long it takes to post another chapter might help with my focus issues and might put me into a better flow from one chapter to the next. I don't know, but it's worth thinking about.
Regardless of method I will continue to try and do my best with this story.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 20
Beacon Vault
Qrow stood beside the open medi-pod looking down at the unconscious girl within. The scars on her face were a testament to what he saw as his failure. He was supposed to be looking out for her, protecting her from threats that she might not otherwise see coming and he had failed. A few seconds, a few lousy seconds were all it would have taken to prevent this outcome, to prevent Amber from having a hole torn in her soul and half of her maiden powers forcibly taken away from her.
If he had arrived a few seconds sooner that doesn't happen. Cinder Fall, as he now knew her name, may well be dead by his hand and everything that she had wrought since would never have happened. No string of Dust robberies to supply the White Fang. No dust up between his nieces and Roman Torchwick over one of Ironwood's lost Paladins. No breach of the old train line from Mountain Glenn into the city. No plan to disrupt the Vytal Festival.
Five seconds, maybe not even that much would have been all it would have taken to prevent so much that had happened and what might still happen. At the very least he could have saved Amber from the agony and the terror that she must have felt and he could only hope that she hadn't been reliving it somewhere deep within her unconscious mind.
"She'll be fine," Yoruichi said from her position opposite him.
She was kneeling next to the pod, her hands placed only and inch or so above Amber and encased in a green glow as she slowly moved them back and forth. A diagnostic Kaido, she had said. Ichigo was standing behind her leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, while Ozpin, Glynda, and Ironwood stood nearby.
"We fixed the damage to her soul and stopped it from leaking her soul energy," she explained. "And we've been boosting her Aura so it doesn't have to do all of the work to replenish itself. She's out of any physical danger but it's going to take a while for her Aura to be fully back to where it should be."
"This never should have happened," he said.
"What else could you have done Qrow?" Oz asked.
"Stayed closer, been faster," he answered. "A couple of seconds Oz, that's all it would have took. A couple of seconds faster and she doesn't end up like this and you don't end up with one of Salem's puppets and her stooges in your school."
"But they are here and that's what needs to be dealt with," Ironwood stated somewhat rigidly.
"You got a plan to deal with that, General?" Qrow asked with a bit if disdain in his voice. Ironwood's tone may not have been outright accusing, but...
"A solid, concrete one?" Ichigo began, cutting off any conflict before it could start. "Not as such."
"Not as such?" Qrow echoed. "But if you two are as powerful as you claim to be shouldn't you be able to take her out? This could have been ended by now."
"Oh I could take her out in a heartbeat," Yoruichi said. "I could bust into that dorm room right now and hit her with an attack that would shatter her Aura and kill her in one blow, making sure she couldn't use any of the Maiden's power to resist and take out of half the building and everyone in it."
"They why not do it?" he asked with a glower.
"There's no guarantee that an attack like that won't do a hell of a lot of collateral damage," Ichigo said. "Her room is right in the middle of a dorm block, surrounded by other rooms full of students. Same thing if I were to attack her. My Zanpakuto can cut right through her Aura and take her head off. But all it would take is for her to have even half a second to react and use her power and she blows up the dorms. There isn't much room to swing a sword in a dorm room anyway and even if I catch her out in the open, I'm pretty sure we don't want the students to see one of their teachers murdering a student. Especially when we can't tell them why."
"And then there's the other big problem," Yoruichi added, gesturing toward Amber. "Kill Cinder and the Maiden power she took comes back to Amber. That much power flowing back into her right now would kill her."
"You said that you fixed the damage, that she'd be fine!"
"You're getting angry and it's making you miss the big picture," she glowered back. "We did fix the damage, but like any severe wound it can be reopened. That's why we are being so careful with how much Aura we transfer to her. Too much and the wound to her soul can reopen." She sighed. "Look, the bottom line is that I am not an expert in the use of Kaido. I learned the basics when I was training and I learned more advanced forms after I became a Captain and after I went into exile. Fortunately I was able to learn from two or three people who had a far more advanced knowledge of the Demon Arts than I did. What I did here is little more than battlefield emergency surgery compared to what they could do. Crooked stitches in a bloody wound, closed with a needle and some spare thread and the hope that it all stays put together. I was able to treat the wound well enough that the patient won't die before they could get to the real surgeon, but in this case there is no one else to take over and do a better job. The fix is holding and getting stronger. It isn't pretty and it could reopen at any time if we're not careful, but it's working."
"The way we figure it we would need at least six months for killing Cinder to be a workable option," Ichigo said. "And even then that might be too soon. Before that can happen Amber's soul needs to completely heal and regenerate the lost energy and she'll need to restore her Aura reserves."
"Well then what about capturing her?" Qrow asked. "Is that an option at all?"
"If she just had the power and ability of a Huntress, yes," Ozpin said. "You know as well as I that there are methods to suppress an active Aura and neutralize a Semblance. But she has at least half the power of a Maiden and that power, magic, is not so easily restrained. A battle to capture her would result in a great deal of collateral damage and loss of life. Short of being able to lure her to a remote or protected location, which is highly unlikely, we cannot have such a battle take place here or in the city. Even then, it is not a sure thing that we would be able to keep her or that power restrained."
"So what the hell do we do with her? We can't just let her run loose," Qrow said, exasperated.
"She's not running loose," Yoruichi said. "We know where she is and what she's doing. Her own plan doesn't allow for her to move about freely. What we know about her plans tells us that she isn't looking to make a significant move until the singles round of the tournament. Someone will defeat her pawn Mercury in a bout and the other pawn Emerald will use her illusion Semblance to make the victor think Mercury is attacking them after the match. To the rest of the world it will look like the winner attacked the loser with no provocation."
"That will cause a great deal of negativity among the viewers and will certainly stir up the Grimm," Glynda added.
"The next part of her plan is to cause a more significant negative event later in the singles round," Ironwood said. "We don't know what that is, but it seems likely it would probably involve a death."
"This is likely to be when the White Fang appear and make their attack and the Grimm won't be far behind," Ichigo said. "Tensa and Shiro have been thinning out the ranks of the Grimm around the Kingdom but they still keep gathering and waiting. No matter how many they kill the overall numbers don't change much. They're farther away than they otherwise would have been because of that thinning out, but they are still there."
"During the attack our little spy Neo was supposed to infiltrate Ironwood's flagship and let Roman out of his cell," Yoruichi said. "And he would introduce the virus into the Atlas tactical network and take control of the ships and the robotic soldiers, but that issue has been eliminated. Even if she wasn't working for us now, she wouldn't find him there."
"One piece of useful intelligence that we don't yet have is if she has a back up plan or not," Ozpin said. "While she would likely consider her own capture or demise to be an impossibility, we cannot discount the idea that she could have a contingency plan for it just in case. The same can be said if something happens to prevent or limit the White Fang's participation in her plan."
Qrow sighed. "So we have between now and the singles round to figure that out and either find a way to take her out of the picture that doesn't lead to large scale destruction, or at the very least to derail the coming attack. Failing that we'll have to then take our chances and take her out before they kill someone to escalate things."
"If the opportunity to take her out arrives, then we take it," Ichigo said darkly. "But if it doesn't we'll have to force things and hope like hell we get lucky and avoid a mass of casualties."
"Speaking of the attack, we got a message this morning from Neo," Yoruichi said. "Apparently Adam Taurus has been out of communication with Cinder since their last message after he hightailed it out of town. She spent all day yesterday trying to get in touch with him and when she finally did it was a pretty ugly and loud conversation. According to what Neo heard, and she didn't hear the entire thing, despite the difficulties his humiliation has caused for him he has managed to gather a few more troops and weapons. He sounded just as unstable as he did the last time they talked and just as consumed by the need to get revenge, even if he doesn't know against who exactly."
"He could end up doing his own thing and screwing up her plans altogether," Qrow surmised.
"That's not out of the realm of the possible," Ironwood said. "Past intel we've gathered has shown Adam Taurus to be impulse prone when agitated." He levelled a gaze at Yoruichi. "And right now he might well be the most agitated he has ever been."
She let the look slide off. "The timing of any attack he makes has never been carved in stone General, as someone who fights terrorists you should know that. Agitated or not, he's not going to make any move before he has a target rich environment, which will be when the festival is in full swing and every place is packed full of filthy humans for him to kill." She levelled a gaze back at the General. "And since you are in charge of security for this party then I guess it falls to you to root him out before hand. That's one of the reasons why you're here isn't it?"
"She's got you there Jimmy," Qrow barbed, taking a drink from his flask. "You wanted the job and you got it. Now you have to actually do it."
"I'm well aware of what my job is Qrow," he shot back.
"That's enough!" Glynda cut in. "We have enough issues to deal with without squabbling among ourselves."
"Quite," Ozpin echoed. "There is still intelligence to be gathered and opportunities to look for. We need to remain on top of things and prepare as best we can."
"One last thing," Ichigo said, directing his gaze to the General as Yoruichi closed up Amber's pod. "Last time we met we asked about one of your students that Cinder's people were shadowing. We never really did get a full answer and we've noticed that you've beefed up the security around her when she's outside the school."
Ironwood looked a bit less than comfortable and definitely annoyed. "I cannot share her connection to Dr. Polendina, that's a private matter, but given the obvious connection by name to such a high profile individual I thought it to be prudent to provide her with some extra security since our enemy seems to have taken an interest in her."
"And the issue of the oddly deeper footprint?" Yoruichi asked.
He did his best to look unaffected. "She can be a bit childish at times, perhaps she took the opportunity to stomp in the mud." His tone certainly reflected that he didn't like the question.
She could read the message loud and clear. He knew exactly what she had seen regarding that footprint and how it was made. She was being told that Penny Polendina was none of her business and off limits. Even he should know by now that something like that wasn't going stall her curiosity or stop her from snooping around.
"Ah well, kids will be kids I suppose," she drawled knowingly. She jumped up on Ichigo's back, forcing a piggyback ride. He didn't protest. "Onward," she ordered. "We've got young minds to educate."
He rolled his eyes and held up a hand in a lazy wave as he started walking down the long corridor. "Later."
"The General is full of crap," she said quietly as they waited for the elevator.
"And he knows that we know it," he responded. "He also has to know that we aren't likely to let this go either."
"I think he still underestimates my ability to get into places people don't want me to," she said. "Hard to believe that he still wants to keep secrets now. What could be that important or sensitive about one student Huntress?"
"There you go, tempting fate again," he smirked as the doors opened and they stepped inside the elevator.
"Lucky for me then that I have you around to shatter fate if it tries to bind me in its chains," she smiled cheekily as the door closed.
Morning had been busy on campus. Over the weekend school staff had marked out locations for vendors to set up their booths for the festival and during the course of the morning most of them had showed up to do just that. There would be food stands, merchandise vendors and carnival games, all decked out with colourful signs, decorations, and strings of lights, each doing their part to add to the atmosphere of peace and celebration that were the hallmarks of the Vytal Festival.
By the lunch hour the main attraction of it all was taking up its position in the sky between the school and the city itself. Amity Coliseum, the giant, floating stadium that was the venue for the tournament. It seemed impossible that a structure so large could simply float in mid air as if it weighed nothing, but there were larger masses among Mistral's floating islands, utilizing the same power of gravity Dust to hang suspended in the sky just as it did. It wasn't just a sports arena however, it was an iconic representation of the spirit of peace and cooperation between kingdoms that had begun at the end of the Great War.
After spending their morning going through their usual routine of going over what they wanted their students to work on during class and having a good spar of their own, Ichigo and Yoruichi had gone out onto the campus to have their lunch and watch the bustle of activity. As they were nearing the entrance back into the school an ongoing commotion caught their notice, just as it had caught the notice of the large crowd of students.
"Sounds like a fight," Ichigo said.
"Too much of a crowd to see," she complained. She looked up at the ring of archways that surrounded this part of the entrance courtyard and jerked her thumb towards one. With everyone's attention being on the fight, no one noticed them flash out of sight and reappear on top of the arch.
The combatants weren't students, nor were they teachers. One was Qrow Branwen and the other was a white haired woman in a white and pale blue outfit that clearly signified she was with the Atlas military.
"Is that Weiss's sister?" Ichigo asked. They had never met or seen her before, but the resemblance was too close to that of their student not to think so.
"Kick her butt Uncle Qrow!" they heard Ruby call proudly from her front row view of the fight.
"Teach him respect Winter!" Weiss called from beside her.
"Guess that answers your question," Yoruichi smirked. "I wonder what brought this on?"
"Who knows, but at least they're putting on a good show," he said.
That they were. All of the speed and precision of veteran, highly trained professionals was on display and it didn't fail to awe the young audience, all of whom aspired to be able to move and fight at the same level as what they were witnessing. Judging by the look on his face, Qrow was enjoying himself immensely. His opponent, well, one got the sense that she was certainly into the fight, but was not pleased at all with her opponent.
Gaining some space on him, Winter made a glyph appear behind her. It looked different than the glyphs they were used to seeing Weiss produce and so was the end result. Out of it, several small white Nevermores emerged and swarmed Qrow.
"Oh now that is something different," Yoruichi said. "I wonder if Weiss can pull something like that off?" It wasn't exactly a secret but it wasn't widely known either that the Schnee family had an inherited Semblance.
"I don't remember ever seeing her try to do something like that," Ichigo said. "We can always ask her when we get to class."
"Wait a second," Yoruichi said suddenly, staring very intently at the elder Schnee sister. She had even grabbed a handful of his coat. "Do you feel that? Her soul..."
She snorted, and snickered, then began to shake. She tried to hold it in but a gut busting burst of laughter exploded out of her. She was nearly bent over double and it was only her hold on Ichigo's coat that kept her from toppling off of the arch. She could hardly breathe and tears were streaming from her eyes.
It took a moment for Ichigo to feel what she had felt but when he did he broke into laughter himself. "No freaking way!" he wheezed.
"Bya-bo always was a pretty boy," she struggled to get out. "Now he's a pretty girl with a great rack to go with it." At that, she completely lost it, and he wasn't much better.
Yep, the familiar soul that had reincarnated to be part of Winter Schnee was none other than Byakuya Kuchiki. In their hysterics they nearly missed the end of the fight where Qrow sheathed his weapon and dared her to come at him, only to be stopped when General Ironwood, who had arrived with Glynda and Ozpin, barked out her name. Qrow just grinned while she looked mortified. The aftermath should be interesting but they had a class to get to and would have to get the details later.
During the course of said class, Weiss seemed a bit distracted and a bit off, not quite her usual self and it showed in a few, thankfully small mistakes that she made during sparring practice. So it was no surprise when they asked her to stay behind when class was over.
"I'm sorry," she apologized before they could even ask her anything. Uncharacteristically for her in the time that they had known her, her gaze was cast to the ground. "I performed very poorly today."
"I wouldn't say it was bad enough to rate being poor, but you were definitely distracted," Yoruichi said. "Does this have anything to do with the fight your sister was in earlier?"
"Not the fight as much as...the presence of my sister itself," she answered quietly.
"Are there problems between the two of you?" Ichigo asked.
"No, we get along very well, though we don't see each other very often," she said with a hint of sadness. "But there are... expectations. One in particular that I always fail to meet no matter how hard I try."
"Does it have anything to do with your family Semblance?" Yoruichi asked. The girl's eyes widened in surprise. "Just a hunch and a guess," she continued. "We saw your sister use it against Qrow and realized that we'd never seen you use it."
Weiss let out a heavy sigh. "It's because I can't. No matter how much she tries to teach me and no matter how much I practice and try, I can't do it. I can barely even form the glyph let alone make it big enough to summon something."
"Summoning?" Ichigo questioned. "Can you elaborate a bit? We knew your family had a hereditary Semblance, but weren't clear on exactly what it was or how it worked."
"With it we can, or are supposed to be able to summon a representation of anything that we have slain. Winter can summon quite few different things, but her favourite one to use is an Alpha Beowolf."
"What is it that you try to summon?" Yoruichi asked.
"An Arma Gigas," she answered. "It's a giant suit of armour bonded to a Geist. It was one of my father's many tests he hoped I would fail so that he could keep me from coming to Beacon or even becoming a Huntress at all."
"Your father made you fight something like that?" Ichigo all but snarled.
"I was quite insistent on becoming a Huntress and coming here," she explained. "When simply saying no does not work for him, he will challenge you with something he feels is guaranteed to see you both fail and be humiliated. It doesn't matter if you happen to be one of his children."
Subconsciously, she had begun to lift her hand toward her scar but caught herself and stopped. She didn't know why she was suddenly feeling so self conscious about it, she had put all, well, nearly all of her thoughts about the scar behind her. Her upbringing had demanded no less of her, forcing her to act as if it wasn't there. Even when she heard others commenting behind her back, calling her damaged goods or scar face, or worse, she paid little heed to it. Snapping at them would only draw unwanted attention to it and let them know that they were getting under her skin.
She also didn't really know why she was telling this story to them so freely and easily, she hadn't even told her team or their friends any of it. Maybe it was because they had shared so much of their own story that she felt comfortable telling something of hers? Perhaps, but she had never been one to give up information about herself easily if at all.
"Does it bother you?" Yoruichi asked, referring to the scar.
She paused for a moment. She was going to say no, but that wasn't the truth. "I try not to let it," she answered. "But sometimes that's hard to do. I suppose it depends upon my mood. I may barely notice it or think about it, or it feels and looks like it covers half my face. I think my father was actually more upset that I won than he was that I got hurt and could have easily lost my eye."
Yoruichi smiled lightly. "Well, from one woman to another I don't think it detracts from your looks at all. If anything, I think it gives you a bit of that bad ass warrior princess vibe."
"Is that from one warrior princess to another?" Ichigo asked, grinning.
"That's bad ass warrior princess to you Mr. Berryhead," she smirked. "And I don't hear any complaints when I wear the sexy warrior princess outfit I got at the lingerie store."
Weiss's face had pinked slightly at the compliment she received, but now she was outright red. "I don't need to hear about that!"
"I could lend it to you if you have someone you'd like to show off to in it," she teased.
Such a shade of red, surely it couldn't be healthy and her brain was about to shut down at the thought of wearing such a thing. Worse, in a little corner of her mind the image of someone to wear it for popped up and she brutally stomped the whole thing down.
"Moving on," Ichigo said. Any more teasing and the often uptight girl was likely to have a stroke. "We'd be willing to help you with your Semblance if you like."
"I...appreciate that," the girl said, calming down. "But I wouldn't want to waste your time. I don't think I have a talent for the family Semblance."
"You have plenty of talent," Yoruichi assured her. "To be technical, the usage of glyphs is your Semblance and summoning would be an advancement of the form. Just like any advanced technique it can take time and effort to perfect."
"But if I can't make it work there won't be anything to perfect," Weiss countered.
"For you to be this negative about it, this must have really be eating at you for a while," Ichigo observed. "The different aspects of an evolving Semblance don't always come easily. Even two people with the same Semblance might develop it at different rates. You might have an affinity for certain aspects of it, while another aspect might take more effort."
"Give it a shot," Yoruichi said with an encouraging smile.
Inside Weiss, her heart sank a bit. She had hoped that she wouldn't have to try and do this in front of them. She felt a great deal of shame at not being able to use this aspect of the family Semblance and she didn't want to demonstrate her oft repeated failure to do so to her instructors. Like the others, she had learned so much in a short period of time in this class, and just like the others she also didn't want to fail before them when they did so much to help them all learn and improve.
They made class fun and as easy as they could. Not that they weren't pushed, they very much were, but when everything you were learning was so well explained and demonstrated, and they would walk you through every technique step by step, it made it easier to grasp. Once you learned it, you were immediately putting it into practice and would be pushed to your limits on using it. Just like all of her friends, it was a challenge she revelled in.
But this, it was her family's inherited Semblance for crying out loud. She should not be having so much trouble with something that should be ingrained into her very soul. In her mind she could see the smirk that came to her father's face every time she failed to make it work, and could hear the mostly hidden frustration in Winter's voice on the few instances where they had been able to train together. She always tried so hard to take pride in her accomplishments and the hard work she put into them, but there were two things that would always make her doubt herself and feel like an utter failure. Her father's admonishments, and her inability to use this inherited power.
She moved to the centre of the arena and took a deep breath to try and settle herself. Drawing Myrtenaster, she pointed it to a spot on the floor a few feet away and began to concentrate on the particulars of the summoning glyph and what she wanted to summon. Like usual, it was a struggle just to form the glyph correctly and it was about the size of a saucer from a tea set. Useless. Even if she could produce the Arma Gigas it would be on the same scale and would look like a miniature from a table top RPG game, good for little more possibly than slaying a wayward housefly.
She put as much as she could into the effort for as long as she could. When she stopped she nearly stumbled and fell down and would have if Yoruichi hadn't caught her. As usual combat class had taken a lot of her Aura and her attempt at summoning had spent the rest.
"It's the same result as always," Weiss said bitterly. "I can never make the glyph big enough let alone form the Arma Gigas."
"Well, I think I see what the majority of the problem is," Yoruichi said.
"What is it?" Weiss asked, a bit of guarded hope in her voice.
"First, you're way too tense," she answered. "When you began your whole body clenched up. We could even feel it in your Aura. Basically, everything about you was wound so tight I'm surprised something didn't snap. Secondly," She raised her hand and poked the girl between the eyes. "You're thinking way too much. In a nutshell, you're trying way too hard and hindering yourself in the process."
"Remember back to when we started teaching you about feeling out and manipulating your Aura?" Ichigo asked. She nodded. "Remember how tense you were then? Well, magnify that several times and it's the same thing here. Have you tried a summoning since you started working with your Aura?"
"No," she admitted. "I've been working on getting better at the various exercises you gave us."
"And once you relaxed you began to excel at them," Yoruichi reminded her. "You do them now almost naturally and with little thought because you have become comfortable with and used to the feel of your Aura and it made the glyphs you were already using more stable, durable, and powerful. You should be able to approach your summoning the same way. Relax and let it become instinctual."
"It seems like you've had a lot of pressure put on you and a lot of expectations piled on when it comes to using that part of your Semblance," Ichigo said. "And not all of it is from outside sources."
Weiss sighed. "That is true. I've probably put more pressure on myself than anyone else has at this point and it only compounds itself at every failure. I feel a bit foolish now though," she admitted. "After all, you did teach us that it's much easier to use your Aura with a clear and more relaxed state of mind."
"No need for that," Yoruichi smiled. "This is an important and personal issue for you that has caused you a lot of grief. You can be forgiven for overlooking that detail. With that said, before you try summoning again, take some time in your Aura meditation exercises to focus on the feel of the summoning process. When you're used to that then maybe try creating just the summoning glyph without worrying about actually summoning something. That might help you get it up to the proper size, then you can concentrate on what you want to summon."
"Just don't let anyone's expectations, including your own, weigh you down," Ichigo offered. "Give yourself a break. Believe in yourself like we do... and like the eavesdroppers at the door do." There was a surprised but muted squawk from the barely cracked open door.
The girl gave a small but entirely genuine smile. "Thank you." She wasn't used to having others believe in her and it felt really nice to know that her teachers and her friends did. "And thank you for your help, I truly appreciate it."
"Our pleasure," Yoruichi said. "Now why don't you go rest and recover a bit before dinner."
"I will, and thank you again." At that, she headed for the door.
"And remember," Yoruichi called after her. "If you ever want to borrow that sexy warrior princess outfit, just let me know."
The girl stumbled then hurried away after righting herself.
"Couldn't resist huh?" Ichigo asked with a smirk.
"Can't tease just Ruby," she countered. "Have to spread it around a bit or the others will feel left out."
He rolled his eyes. "So, still going out snooping?"
She nodded. "Ironwood is hiding something regarding the Polendina girl and whatever it is, it seems he doesn't want us or even Ozpin to know about it."
"He was pissed off enough when you visited Roman." He smirked. "So don't go getting caught."
"The nerve!" she huffed in mock indignity, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away with her nose in the air. "Just who the hell do you think you're talking to Strawberry?!"
"My hot, mischievous wife who just can't resist stirring the pot?"
"...Okay, you got me there," she acquiesced. She gave him a quick kiss before turning into a cat. "So, what are you going to be doing?"
He bent down and started gathering her clothes. "I think I'm going to look for Qrow and see what that fight was about. There has to be a story behind that."
"Here's hoping that whatever you find out is more compelling than what I do," she said. "Hopefully he's just being overly paranoid about something that's relatively minor. This situation doesn't need any more complications."
He gave her a flat look. "And when's the last time that there wasn't more complications when you and I are involved in something?"
She blinked then slapped a paw to her head. "Dammit, I just had to say that out loud didn't I?"
A Short While Later
The campus grounds were even more congested now with the students out of class for the day, but with her speed, dexterity, and small size, she had no problem navigating it and reaching the landing pads. She had spotted the Polendina girl and her companion along the way and didn't have to wait long for them to arrive. Once she confirmed which Manta they were going to board she zipped ahead of them and through the open door, taking up a hiding spot in the framework beside and just behind the pilot's seat. The space was cramped but it was the best place for her to hide without being seen. It had worked the last time she snuck aboard Ironwood's ship.
She could have air walked and flash stepped up to the ship on her own and found her way in, probably through the landing bays. But, hitching a ride saved energy and she wanted to be in close proximity to her target and follow her rather than having to search for her once she was aboard the flagship. She would have enough to concentrate on to avoid being seen by the crew without having to do so while searching the ship. Thankfully due to the level of automation the crew compliment was surprisingly small and other than some guards routinely making their rounds there wouldn't be a lot of people wandering the corridors.
When the two girls boarded, followed by the soldier that had been standing outside the ship awaiting their arrival, she noted the significantly heavier sounding footsteps of the ginger haired girl. Heavier even than the soldier in his combat gear. Just as when she saw the strangely deeper footprint in the mud, she didn't know what to make of this.
When they took off she found herself kind of wishing that the Atlesian craft was a little nosier like a Bullhead was. The girl talked incessantly and rather excitedly about parts of her day, her companion looking rather disinterested and throwing in the occasional and deadpan,'Yes Penny, I was there'. A bit of a cold fish that one.
Thankfully the trip was a short one and the passengers wasted little time in disembarking. She waited until they were going through the doorway to exit the hangar deck before flashing after them. Using her senses to feel the souls around her as much as using her eyes and ears, she followed her target from a distance, being careful not to be spotted. It wasn't the easiest thing to do given that the interior of the ship was decorated in shades of white and pale blue.
Thankfully, just as she already knew, the crew compliment wasn't large and there wouldn't be a lot of people roaming about aimlessly. She did have to duck a technician who was too busy studying something on a large scroll to really notice her, and there was a guard on patrol but she was able to avoid his not too terribly vigilant scrutiny. Shortly, her quarry separated from the other girl and went down a side corridor. With no one in the immediate vicinity she waited around the corner before flashing down the hall and in the door just as it was about to close.
She only had a split second once she was inside to find a place to conceal herself and did so under a desk. She needn't have worried about being seen as the girl enthusiastically greeted the occupant of the room, said occupant being one Dr. Pietro Polendina, whom she addressed as father. She was definitely not expecting to see him here. The man moved to greet his daughter in his...you couldn't call it a wheelchair...a pedi-chair? It moved on four articulating legs rather than on wheels.
As he seemed to listen rather happily to his daughter's account of her day, she looked around the room, largely tuning out the chatter. It was a fairly large room that seemed to be a combination of living quarters, lab, and office. When she entered he had been across the room at a table that had two different computers set up on it. A few feet to the left of that was what looked like the same sort of chamber that Amber was resting in, only this one was standing on end and there was no lid.
"What have you been doing today?" Penny cheerfully asked her father.
"I just finished working on the antidote for that virus that was implanted in the CCT," he answered.
That made Yoruichi's ears perk up and her head turn so quickly towards the man that is was a wonder she didn't suffer whiplash. Well, that explained why Polendina was here alright. Apparently the good General had decided to intervene despite the Council's decision on the matter, and he had done as they had suggested and did it without their knowledge. Problem was, it also seemed that he had done it without telling Ozpin or anyone else.
"As a matter of fact the fix just finished uploading to the system," he continued. "It will eradicate the malicious code and patch the loophole in the system that it exploited. Anyone trying to use the viral link will have connection issues, making it look like their scroll is having technical problems."
'No no no no!' she screamed in her head. 'It's too soon to be cutting off her access. If she suspects that there's more happening than just having a glitchy scroll she could change her plans, change the timetable of events... Shit!'
"I also finished that software upgrade for your power systems," the doctor said.
Yoruichi did a double take. She must have been too wrapped up in her thoughts because she couldn't possibly have heard him right. What he just said didn't make any sense.
"Outstanding!" Penny exclaimed and immediately went to the upright pod half.
She turned around and stepped back into the unit, reaching up under her hair to the back of her neck. Yoruichi heard a clicking sound, then the girl leaned back and there was another sound like a mechanical connection being made. Something literally flashed over in the girls eyes and a screen next to the pod came to life. Yorurichi's feline eyes widened as a full body schematic appeared on the screen with a stream of data scrolling down the side.
Dr. Polendina walked his chair over to the screen and pulled up a keyboard from a swing arm under the console and began typing. "This upgrade should increase the efficiency of your power usage. I haven't quite finished the sensory upgrade yet so that will have to wait a day or two."
Yoruichi was gobsmacked. This odd girl... was a freaking robot... and a far more advanced one than anything else she had seen. But she had Aura and not just a little bit of it either. She focused her senses on the girl and reconfirmed given the incredible circumstances, that yes indeed she did have Aura. She turned her attention to the doctor and got another surprise. His Aura felt the same as hers, only far weaker. Had he given her a large part of his own Aura to literally give her a soul?
If that was the case it was freaking incredible and any other time she would be highly intrigued by it, but she couldn't help but wonder why General Ironwood had brought a robot disguised as a student here to Vale. Was she going to participate in the Vytal Festival tournament? What was the reason behind her creation? Who else knew the truth about her? Did Cinder know about her? Gods she hoped not. Given past history there was already a certain amount of lingering distrust towards Atlas, rightly or wrongly, and if this became public knowledge that mistrust would grow... and that would fit right into Salem's modus operandi of sowing distrust and causing disharmony.
She needed to go. Now. She needed to let Ozpin know what she had found and she didn't have time to wait for someone to open the door so she could slip out, hopefully unnoticed. All it would really mean is that Ironwood would find out she had been aboard his ship again tonight rather than in the morning when confronted by what she found, and if it was just about robot girl, she would have waited until then to tell Ozpin. Once he knew, he could handle the situation however he wanted to.
She shot out from under the desk and jumped, hitting the door release and as soon as her feet hit the floor again she was off in a shunpo. Planting her feet on the wall opposite the door, she then veered away to her right... and slammed head first into the midsection of a guard doing their rounds. In her cat form she wasn't very big, but at that speed she still packed a wallop. A wallop that she bore the brunt of since the guard was one of the AK-200 robots. If she were an ordinary cat the force and speed she hit it with very well could have snapped her neck and possibly fractured her skull. She may have actually left a dent in its chest plate.
She bounced off and hit the floor in a heap, the impact had stunned and disoriented her enough that she wasn't able to pull off landing on her feet. She shook her head to clear it and the world swam violently. Not good. She didn't expect the robot to reach down and try to grab her but that's exactly what it did. Frankly, given his reaction after her last infiltration of his ship, she wouldn't put it past Ironwood to have instructed his robots to be on guard for her in either form. She doubted the flesh and blood troops would have gotten orders to be on the lookout for a cat though, they would think that he had lost his mind.
She got her feet under her enough to evade the robot and took off running down the hall, stumbling along like she'd been in the catnip. Rounding the corner, she had to go in to shunpo to zip by another robot but didn't get far. Her head swam violently again and she face planted and slid along the floor, retching as she came to a stop. Apparently exerting her spirit energy was not a good idea right now. Fortunately however the AK-200's, while and improvement over the AK-100's, still weren't quick enough or agile enough to catch her, even in this damaged state.
At the sound of the two she'd already encountered clomping along behind her, she got back up and ran down the hallway as fast as she could manage. She had a third one to avoid to get through the door to the hangar deck, and did so even after rebounding off of one of its legs.
'This would be a lot easier if I wasn't seeing two of everything,' she thought. And that wasn't helping her figure out exactly how many other robots and flesh and blood people were on the hangar deck. Not that it really mattered because she could see the hangar doors closing and if she didn't hurry she'd be out of luck.
"This is going to suck," she sighed. Going into a shunpo she managed to get to the doors without hitting anything along the way, but did hit the edge of the door itself as she made it outside and began to free fall.
The ship was about two thousand feet up and she didn't regain her senses until she was halfway down. Getting herself slowed down was not an enjoyable exercise and the strain on her head from the effort nearly had her blacking out. Despite everything else that had gone sideways on her during this venture, she was above Beacon and not some random part of the city and as she got close enough she could see team RWBY walking across the courtyard. A slight course correction had her heading straight for them.
"Heads up!" she called, right before plowing into Ruby with just enough force to send them to the ground with an audible 'oof!' from the little reaper. Not where she had been aiming, she'd been trying for a more... cushioned landing on Yang. Damn double vision, she had aimed for the wrong one and landed on Ruby instead.
"Yoruichi?" the young girl questioned.
"Ahh, sorry about that," she apologized. She didn't get up however. It felt like too much effort right now.
"So what's up?" Yang questioned. "You just felt like... dropping in on us?" Everyone groaned.
"I was just out snooping and had to make a quick exit," she answered. "It happens. Occupational hazard."
"Where would you need to make a quick exit out of that would have you falling out of the sky?" Weiss questioned. They looked around. Beacon's tower was behind them and the only thing up high enough and more or less in front of them, the direction she had fell from, was an Atlesian airship. "Were you snooping around on General Ironwood's ship?" she asked.
"...I can neither confirm nor deny that," the cat answered.
Blake knelt down beside her. "Are you alright? You're slurring your words a bit and your eyes don't look just right."
"Yeah, and she's got a big lump on her head too," Ruby observed.
Yang knelt down too. "Okay, what's going on?" She asked. "While sneaking on board just because you could sounds like something you would do, you're too good to get yourself hurt just for the sake of shits and giggles."
"Even I have off days," she countered nonchalantly. "I was just merely curious about something."
"Just curious?" Weiss said. "I thought you and Ichigo said you would never lie to us?"
"Weiss!" Ruby gasped.
"One doesn't just get 'curious about something' aboard an Atlesian warship, and the General's flagship at that and go snooping around," Weiss said. "Being the weapons geek you are it would be one thing if it was you being curious about it, but by her own admission Yoruichi was a highly trained intelligence and stealth operative. So, like Yang asked, what's going on?"
Yoruichi sighed and flattened out even further on top of Ruby. "Look at me, banged up and being interrogated by my own students. I'll never live it down. Fine, you're right, there is something going on but it's not something I'm going to talk about in the open courtyard where any passerby might hear. Ichigo and I have been debating just how much to tell you and when, since there is an issue at hand, elements of which you have already been involved with. I will say no more about it until tomorrow in class where we can take measures to secure the room... and hopefully I will be feeling better than I am right now."
"Promise?" Ruby asked, her tone in serious leader mode as she looked her in the eye. It was hard to return that look with her eyes crossing but she did.
"Promise," she acquiesced.
"Do you need us to call Ichigo for you?" Blake asked. Her mind was already working on the 'elements of which you have already been involved with' revelation.
"Where is he anyway?" Weiss asked. "Wasn't he with you?"
"He was going to hunt down Ruby and Yang's Uncle Qrow to ask what the history was between him and your sister," she answered, causing the girl's eyes to widen. Yoruichi turned to Blake. "Please call Ichigo and if he is with Qrow have him bring him along and come to Headmaster Ozpin's office. If one of you could take me there it would be greatly appreciated, or even to Professor Goodwitch would be sufficient."
"Are you sure you don't need a hospital bed instead?" Yang asked.
"I'll be fine," she countered. "With a little boost to my spirit energy from Ichigo I will recover quickly enough. I am a soul reaper after all, we can take a great deal of damage and still carry on."
Ruby giggled. "Reaper kitty." Everyone giggled over that one. Ruby stood, careful to cradle Yoruichi and not jostle her too much, while Blake placed her scroll call to Ichigo. "We'll take you to Professor Goodwitch," she looked to her team. "...and won't stick around and listen at the door."
"You're no fun," Yang teased.
"And when you're done your meeting could you or Ichigo call us and let us know that you're okay?" Ruby continued. "Because you really don't look okay right now."
"I'll be fine," Yoruichi reiterated. "But yes, one of us will call you."
She couldn't help but smile inside. She and Ichigo had begun to see their group of students as if they were family of a sort and apparently it went both ways. As such, they really did deserve to know at least the most pertinent parts of what was going on as it pertained to them because one way or another they would be right in the middle of it. Or, more accurately, they would continue to be right in the middle of it.
Meanwhile, a little later, as a very heated meeting was getting under way...
Another meeting of sorts was about to take place. Well, one of the participants was contemplating it at least and was seriously wondering if she had lost her mind, while the other was totally unaware of her dilemma or possible intent.
Even after starting the advanced combat course, Pyrrha had continued to train with Jaune on the school roof. The class was rapidly making him better but he was still so far behind and she enjoyed helping him almost as much as she just enjoyed being with him... even if he still didn't seem to be able to recognize her interest in him.
At a point recently she had actually begun to doubt herself where her feelings for him came in. Was she just crushing on him because he hadn't had a clue about her fame and had treated her just like he would anyone else? Like a normal, average, unremarkable girl, and not a famous tournament fighter and bad cereal endorser? No, as she had thought more about it she realized her feelings weren't just some passing thing born out of gratitude. She may not have had much experience with having these kind of feelings for someone, but she was sure that they were genuine and growing deeper each day.
They were also growing more desperate at the same time. Jaune was a genuinely nice guy. Definitely inexperienced in many things, immature at times, and certainly kind of dorky. At the same time he was also kind, a loyal friend who truly valued those he was close to and he was a man of his word. He accepted those around him with their unique natures and peculiarities without question. She always felt a certain warmth around him, a sense of rightness and peace in her soul.
Yoruichi was right, if she wanted him to notice her and to find how just how deep his own feelings for her went, she would have to be the one to make a move to find out. Subtlety hadn't worked. Being a little more direct hadn't worked... okay, she was only fooling herself if she thought she had really done anything that was truly more direct. In essence, she was just as guilty as Jaune was when it came to the lack of progress in advancing this relationship, or seeing if there was even anything there to advance.
With that said however, just how in the hell had she actually ended up were she was right now and contemplating what she was? After their training session they had departed for the locker rooms not just to put their fighting gear back in their lockers, but to use the shower facilities as well. This way Ren and Nora were free to use the shower back at their dorm room and no one would be waiting any great length of time for their turn, which would also give them all a little more free time for the evening to do whatever.
As usual, they were the only ones here at the time and as usual since his combat gear took less time to get out of than hers did, he had made it to the showers first. It had only been a couple of days since Yoruichi had made her bold suggestion and it had been on her mind a lot but for some reason it was in her mind full force this evening. As she took off and stowed her gear she had fought to push it out of her mind. She just simply couldn't do something like that. It was far too forward for her.
When she entered the women's side of the shower she had found herself stopping at the large mirror that ran along above a row of sinks. Did she always have that look of uncertainty in her eyes? That look of disappointment, not in others but in herself? For her seeming inability to direct her own life, to be hiding in the background when someone wasn't pushing her out front into the line of sight of a camera or into the limelight?
She had come to Beacon seeking not just a first class education to become a Huntress, but to have a new start of sorts. She knew her fame would always follow and she didn't like it, but that was reality. But she had found a new start in a group of friends that didn't care that she was famous. Some hadn't even known or if they did, they hadn't cared. It was wonderful but she also realized that she was also hiding behind them, never stepping to the front when it may have been the right thing to do either for the group or herself personally. Never taking that step forward to stake a claim to something that she wanted.
Why was she so afraid to ever take the lead on something, even if it was just some fun group activity to spend time with her friends? She always just followed along behind, never truly being a part of things and never rocking the boat. Had her fame done this to her? Robbed her of her own individuality? Nearly everyone saw her as the Invincible Girl, Pyrrha Nikos, four time champion of the Mistral tournament. It dawned on her that even she had never seen herself any other way. She had never truly seen herself as just Pyrrha Nikos, aspiring Huntress, or even just Pyrrha Nikos the young woman, but just as what the propaganda and fame machine had made her. It had taken her identity and had left her as little more than an actress playing a role.
She had been expected to act and interact a certain way that would endear her to the public and make money for her sponsors. She couldn't step out of that framework without repercussions. Not that she would have ever done anything outlandish anyway, that's not who she was. Or was she? The fame machine had taken over before she had ever really begun to explore or figure out who she was and what she wanted and how she would go about getting it.
She could almost hear Yoruichi's voice in her head, knowing more or less what the older woman would likely say to her right now. 'If you don't know who you are, don't you think it's about time you tried to find out? It's your life, not theirs. The sponsors and the publicists and agents don't get to decide who you are, only you get to do that and thus far they haven't let you even try. It's your life. Do what you want to do and do it the way you want to do it. Play it safe or go for broke, but what ever you do, do it your way.'
She sighed and allowed herself a slight smile. "I'm not sure if having an 'inner Yoruichi' is a good thing or not." Perhaps, those words were actually her own thoughts previously unexpressed but they seemed to sound better and make more sense to her if she imagined them in Yoruichi's voice.
She stepped back out of the women's shower area and looked toward the entrance to the men's. A second later she actually found herself striding towards it, entering, making her way down to the closed stall Jaune occupied, happily humming some tune as he went about his business. She began to waver as her mind caught up to her and reminded her that just on the other side of the thin shower door he was there naked, rivulets of water streaming down his increasingly fit, naked body.
She suddenly became very aware of her own state of dress. She was wrapped in a towel and barely so at that. The towels Beacon provided were large bath sheets, but given her height and build it barely kept her covered. Her breasts were mostly bare but for her nipples and her long hair now out of its ponytail probably did more to cover her rear than the towel did. Was she really contemplating this and just exactly how had she managed to get herself to go even this far? All she had to do was drop the towel and enter the shower and she would most certainly get the answer she sought, be it good or bad.
Fate got tired of waiting it seemed and decided to take the choice out of her hands when she heard a couple of people enter the locker room, their loud conversation making it clear that they were looking forward to a nice hot shower after the workout they had just had. Panic began to rise within her and she audibly gasped at the sudden arrival. If she left the men's side of the shower now she would definitely be seen and the rumour mill would start grinding out its grist soon after.
"Is somebody there?" Jaune asked. Her panic rose further and as fate would have it Jaune wasn't satisfied with simply asking, he opened the door. She startled and the sudden movement made her towel come undone and drop to the floor, leaving her in all of her fully naked glory.
"Pyrrha? Wha...?!"
And there they stood, both naked and in full view of one another, eyes wide at what they were seeing. Neither could speak or move, just turn brilliant shades of red. Fate intervened again. Pyrrha heard the voices from the locker room again and did the only thing she really could. She moved forward, grabbing Jaune and pushing him back into the stall and shut the door.
Funny how events sometimes take on a life of their own and force things to work out.
AN: Thanks for reading and I hope you leave a review. One thing that has been missing along the way is commentary on whether or not certain things I have been doing are working. Are the bits meant to be funny actually funny, or at least chuckle worthy? Are the serious or emotional bits working and getting the desired and intended reaction?
Hearing that you like the story is great, but hearing what you like and why and if these things are working the way they are intended to does just as much to help an author as constructive criticism does. I know it would be very helpful to me.
This crossover could use more stories Only 124 there and few are active. Need more authors to get in on it.
As always, trolls and idiots need not bother commenting so don't waste your time or mine. You'll just get ignored, deleted, and/or blocked for it.