Mistral
Ch 23 - Painting the Town Undead
A/N: Okay, first chapter I'm typing since I got back from Italy. Just gotta give me a sec here, gonna psych myself back up, and get into the swing of things. Anyways, I'd love to stay on the Atlas plot a bit longer, but I realized that I need to move some pieces in Mistral in order to catch up for the next fiasco going down over there.
And to get myself back into the swing of things, I'm gonna open up with my pressure release valve: Vyliria Avalon.
Started work again recently. Tiring stuff, but it is what it is.
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.
(Vyliria)
It was a quiet morning during the weekend in the rented house. Ren was making pancakes, Oscar had offered to help, Pyrrha and Jaune had just gotten out of bed and were refusing to meet the Irithyllian's eyes after noticing the deadpan, knowing look she gave them, she was moderately happy having a conversation about nothing in particular with Penny, and Nora was still asleep. Of course, knowing Nora, the quiet morning would go out the proverbial (and possibly literal) window the second she smelled the pancakes cooking in the kitchen. And… for once, the Irithyllian was actually looking forward to her teammate's impending antics.
Surprisingly enough, Nora came downstairs in a fairly relaxed manner, right up until she reached the table and then loudly slapped her palms upon it, drawing everyone's attention. "All right!" she shouted, "Since we're going to be spending the rest of the month preparing for an inevitable confrontation with Ozpin's ex-friend who is actually selling out humanity to the Queen of the Grimm, I am declaring that we are going to have a Tour Mistral Weekend first!" She blinked a few times, looking around the table when no-one raised a logical rejection to the idea. "Wait, no-one's actually gonna argue with me on this?" the ginger sounded genuinely surprised.
"Three of us have lived with you for about a year now, Nora," Pyrrha replied, "and Ren for far longer than that. By this point, we've all realized that it's easier to just go along with you and then make up for it later."
"And I would be happy to tour Mistral!" Penny added.
"Uh, Ozpin says that this is a bad idea," Oscar piped in, "but at the same time, I can read the room, and can see that you'll all just ignore him, so, uh, I'll just go along with you guys."
Nora's confusion shifted to a grin. "Awesome!" And then it went back to confusion. "I, uh, didn't actually think I'd convince everyone straight off…" she trailed off.
"And neither of us have been to Mistral proper, so you don't have any idea on where to actually go," Ren finished for her. Nora gave a sheepish smile and nodded, face flushed with mild embarrassment.
Vyliria rolled her eyes but still smiled, but Penny spoke up before she could. "Oh! Can we see that museum I read about?"
"Sure!" and thus Nora was back to her usual self.
"We could also combine a bit of work and play," Vyliria added, "and check out any places Mistralian huntsmen frequent, both for means of entertainment, and to see if there's anyone we might be able to bring in against Lionheart."
She noticed a barely perceptible flash out of the corner of her eye, and when she turned to Oscar, Ozpin spoke. "An excellent, idea, Vyliria."
The Irithyllian shrugged, pulling her hood down to be more sociable and actually show her friends the smile on her face. "I have my moments."
Penny looked over to her as she spoke, and she raised an eyebrow and squinted for a moment. "Is your hair longer, Vyl?"
The unkindled blinked in surprise, though in retrospect, Penny would be the one to figure it out first. She reached a hand to the back of her neck, idly curling a few black locks around her index finger. "I, ah, haven't cut it since we left Vale. I wanted to try growing it out for the first time in… well… literally millenia," she finished lamely.
She was nearly knocked from her seat when a grinning Nora stepped over and clapped a hand on the back of her shoulder. "Well good on you, girl! About time you started caring about your looks!"
Vyliria felt a smile involuntarily take over her facial expression. "Thanks, Nora."
"I think you look nicer with longer hair, Vyliria," Penny added, "and I hope you continue to let it get longer."
Vyliria's smile became a full on grin. "Thank you too, Penny."
"ALL RIGHT!" Nora shouted, placing one foot on a chair at the table, and throwing a fist in the air. "Operation Weekend Mistral Tour is a go!" Her stomach chose that moment to audibly rumble. "Riiiiiight after pancakes. Ren!" She shot into her seat faster than Vyliria could blink, raising a hand to catch a bottle of syrup that her boyfriend had tossed without even turning from the pancakes he was stacking onto the plate. "You know me so well," she said dreamily.
Vyliria couldn't help the snickers that started emanating from her lips. Gods, she was actually looking forward to this!
()
The trip was… okay. Having traversed a number of ancient and ruined structures herself, killing and being killed by their denizens, and looting everything from time-tarnished weapons and worn spellbooks to priceless artifacts, Vyliria was ambivalent at best when it came to staring at ancient, rusty weapons, sarcophagi, cracked pottery, and all other manners of knick-knacks recovered from civilizations that had fallen to war, natural causes, or the Grimm across Anima. But her friends seemed moderately interested, and Penny was having the time of her life, so while she idly listened to Nora coming up with her umpteenth ludicrous story that certainly wasn't true about the old statue they were looking at, she resolved to keep her qualms to herself. Nora finished her hastily spun tale, Vyliria gave a light chuckle, and they moved on, rounding a corner to what had been advertised as the main attraction of the museum: a section of "incredibly ancient" ruins predating any other archeological site discovered on Remnant to-date.
Vyliria drew her gaze to the exhibit in question, and stopped dead in her tracks. Penny bumped into her with a quiet "oop!" but failed to knock her down. She leaned around the Irithyllian to see what prompted the reaction, and came to a pause just as fast as her friend had. JNPR and Oscar did much the same scant seconds later. The whole group all stared ahead at the exhibit in silence. No one spoke for well over a minute.
"Uh-" Oscar broke the silence, only for Vyliria to cut him off.
"What… where… how?" she said, genuinely at a loss for words. She tore her gaze from what was in front of her to look back at her friends. "I'm not hallucinating, right? You're all seeing this too?"
"Yeah," Ren agreed.
"Unless they put something in the ventilation system for the museum," Nora added. "But the windows are open, so I think we're all seeing this."
And there it was, right in front of them. The "ancient ruins" exhibit, with a plaque claiming that the site had been discovered, dug up, and then transported to and reassembled here. Vyliria plainly recognized some of the semi-intact pillars as Catarinan in origin, owed to the bulbous protrusions on their bottoms (and in three cases, tops) due to how they mirrored the onion-like armor the knights of the long-gone kingdom wore, and said as much, drawing eyes from not only her friends, but multiple onlookers and even a member of the museum staff who was giving a tour, who paled at the realization that there was a walking, talking, archeological goldmine standing in front of him. But still, that wasn't what prompted the initial reaction.
That would be solely due to the coiled sword sticking out of a small mound of bricks and ash in the center of the reassembled ruins.
"That is absurdly convenient," Penny stole Vyliria's own thoughts right out of her mouth.
"Ah, excuse me, miss?" and said staff member had left behind the tour group and had b-lined straight across the room to them. "I couldn't help but recognize you from the news, and you just mentioned that you know about this exhibit. Considering that you lived contemporary to the construction of these ruins, I don't suppose you might be willing to contribute to the museum's knowledge? For the sake of posterity, so that they can know more about their ancient past?"
Vyliria was about to tell the man to fuck off - okay, she would probably be more polite than that, to not embarrass her friends if nothing else, but then reconsidered. Obviously, she wanted to activate the bonfire, but she also realized that the museum would likely not appreciate her touching the ruins… at least without concessions that she was literally just provided an opportunity to bargain. "I suppose," she said, and then added, "On three conditions."
"Sure!" the man hastily responded, "whatever's within reason that the museum can provide."
"In that case, my friend over here," she gestured a hand at Penny, who offered a smile and a wave, "has enjoyed this establishment prior to now, and I'm sure she would appreciate a VIP tour, perhaps even seeing some of the artifacts in storage."
"Done," the man replied, and Penny perking up and grinning ear to ear already made the hassle of spending what was likely going to be an hour or more talking about Catarina worth it.
"Second, and this one is non-negotiable, as in I'm doing this regardless of anything else and am merely informing you instead of asking for permission. Since you already have one case of something from before this world was called Remnant, I'd like to inspect your entire inventory for anything else. Given that this building is still standing, I don't think you've picked up anything that could be dangerous, but given that I could recognize something that could be lethal if handled wrong, it would be better to be safe than have someone lose their soul or otherwise be murdered at a later date."
The man swallowed, visibly paling. "S-sure. I'll be more than happy to get you in touch with security to let you look through everything. And the third thing?"
Vyliria jerked a thumb towards the exhibit. "I want to light the bonfire. It isn't going to damage anything, but I'd much rather come back here than in the ruins of Kuroyuri if I happen to kick the bucket while I'm in Mistral."
The man blinked, evidently as flabbergasted as Vyliria herself was upon first seeing the bonfire, but managed to find his voice with commendable speed. "Well, as long as it doesn't damage the exhibit, I don't see why we can't accommodate you with that particular request."
"Wonderful!" Vyliria said, clapping her hands together once, "Give me a few moments to do just that, and then I will be happy to fulfill my end of the deal." She hopped over the waist-high wall dividing the exhibit from the rest of the museum, taking care not to disturb the ruins of what she wasn't looking forwards to reveal as a reveling hall where Catarinan knights got drunk until they passed out after major victories, and raised a hand to the coiled sword embedded in the stone. A small burst of flame, and then the bonfire was gently crackling.
She'd have to make sure to take Nora aside and profusely thank her for this trip later. Penny as well for suggesting the museum in specific. If she ended up dying when they confronted Lionheart, this would save her literal hours of trekking back to Mistral.
(Pyrrha)
"... but without a shadow of a doubt, the single worst place I ever traversed within the borders of Lothric were the swamps of Farron. The entire place was literally a poisonous quagmire, and was infested with basilisks, darkwraiths, giant carnivorous slugs, Watchdogs of Farron, giant crabs, and sweet Gwyn do I fucking hate those things, and ghrus," Vyliria continued as they walked. After leaving the museum, they'd gone and seen a couple famous buildings and statues, and then had checked two bounty offices and a bar where huntsmen frequented. However, nearly every single huntsman or huntress that wasn't confirmed to already be out on a mission was listed as KIA or MIA, and the ones that were still left were… suffice to say, they made CRDL in their first semester at Beacon look liked skilled paragons of virtue. The mood was already soured, and Pyrrha had caught Vyliria just stopping herself from saying something that was on her mind twice, and Oscar's disposition looked quite upset (though Pyrrha wondered how much of that was Oscar and how much was Ozpin's frustrations bleeding through). After all, it wasn't that hard to figure out that "MIA" actually meant "Lionheart set them up for agents of Salem to murder them and weaken Mistral against the Grimm." Once they'd left the bar, they'd trekked back up towards the higher levels of the city to search a third major bounty office, the last before the sun would finish setting, and Vyliria had evidently taken it upon herself to distract the group with a story of some of her worst past adventures.
The unkindled literally growled before she resumed her story. "The fucking ghrus. Mutated goat-man things that loved coating literally all of their weapons in poison, and had razor sharp claws. But even then, they weren't so terrible to deal with compared to the leapers."
"Leapers?" Jaune asked.
Vyliria clenched her fists, and Pyrrha heard the metal of her gauntlets scraping together. "Those Gywndamned, face-reaming arseholes!" she nearly shouted. "Still pisses me off just thinking about them!"
Pyrrha flushed. "Face reaming?" she asked, askance at the implication.
The Irithyllian's hood turned to regard her. "Bastards would jump on top of you and hump your face while trying to rip your head off, and if you survived, right after they'd go into a frenzy, most of the time immediately trying to do it again. Let me tell you all something: Having a rancid, filthy, foot-and-a-half mutant goat dick shoved right up into your face while the nine-and-a-half-foot monster it's attached to is trying to simultaneously crush you with its body weight and claw your scalp off, while also half-choking on poisonous fumes in an absolute hellscape of a swamp is not a pleasant experience."
"That is not a mental image I needed," Ren commented in a deadpan tone.
Jaune audibly gagged, and Pyrrha pushed down her own nausea as she looked at him with concern. "Really didn't need it," he agreed.
"That's just nasty," Nora added.
Penny just scrunched her face up in disgust, and Pyrrha was about to comment herself when she heard it again. The whispers. They'd been going on all day so far. It made sense, though. They were in Mistral, so of course people would just recognize her in the streets, and start commenting about it, speculating and gossiping. "Oh my dust, is that Pyrrha Nikos?!" or "The Invincible Girl is back in Mistral?" or "Pyrrha Nikos is here?" followed by a reply of "Holy crap, it is! She'll definitely be able to stop whatever's causing all the huntsmen to disappear!"
It made her sick.
She didn't deserve their praise. She wasn't invincible. All her tournament wins, all the fame, and sponsorships, all the prowess in combat, and what did that get? An arrow to the heel, Jaune nearly dying, her being a second from a demise at the hands of Cinder only for a half-crazed Vyliria to snatch her from the jaws of death and save the day herself. All her skills, all her talents, and when they mattered the most, they amounted to nothing. She amounted to nothing. And then again, when it mattered against Tyrian, just like against Cinder, her Polarity, the unique power of her soul, was less than worthless. And then Vyliria carried the day again, despite Pyrrha nearly hitting her own savior dead-on with a sunlight spear. She wasn't jealous, that wasn't who she was. But she felt utterly worthless, especially in the shadow of the unkindled who deserved whatever praise could be heaped upon her for her feats, and this was far from the first time she'd felt this way. These feeling of inadequacy had been brewing and festering ever since she'd been knocked from her metaphorical pedestal within the ruins of Ozpin's office, and though she'd buried them down like she'd buried her own emotions for years, hearing her fans heap laurels upon her that she hadn't earned brought them boiling towards the surface, and threatening to spill over.
"Excuse me?" Pyrrha froze, and turned to the source of the voice seeing a couple of men who looked to be in their twenties. As she put on her too-oft practiced "show smile," she was distantly aware that the rest of her friends had also stopped.
"Yes?" she responded, already wanting to be anywhere but here.
The man who had spoke continued. "First off, I just wanna say, we're all huge fans. I'm also really excited that you're back home in Mistral," he continued, conveniently ignoring the fact that she was born and raised in Argus, "We all feel a lot safer now that the Invincible Girl is here to set everything right. So many people are nervous because of all the huntsmen that have been going MIA in the past few months, but now a lot of us are sleeping easier when we found out Pyrrha Nikos was here."
"Oh." She didn't deserve their faith. "That's… wonderful."
And as if the dam broke, the people who'd been whispering on the periphery were now emboldened to come closer, any avenue to escape them rapidly sealed in a gathering crowd. Pyrrha blinked, suddenly feeling vertigo. She felt Jaune step closer behind her, and grabbing her hand, and she squeezed back hard enough to make his aura flare.
"I can't believe that you came back in Mistral's hour of need, just like in the old fairytales," the voice of a young girl came out of the crowd. Was the air thinner this high up Mistral? Pyrrha didn't remember it being an issue a few minutes ago.
"Mistral's three time champion and the Grimm Dragon Slayer's here! I bet that everything's gonna be back to normal within a week!" she heard a man from somewhere behind her. Since when did they start calling me that? The crowd was pressing in, Jaune only managing to stay next to her through their held hands, the rest of VAAPPR and Oscar getting pushed away by the throng despite their best efforts, handicapped by being unable to use huntsmen-level strength against civilians without harming them.
"Pyrrha Nikos is going to save us all, mom!" she heard a boy who probably wasn't older than six shout. I feel lightheaded. It was all she could do to try and suck in air, her breathing speeding up because she couldn't seem to get enough oxygen. The voices were blending into a hazy buzz around her, and she couldn't pick them apart anymore. The undeserved praise and adorations for the reputation she hated, that had amounted to nothing when she needed it to, was making her stomach churn. I think I'm hyperventilating, she idly thought, far less concerned than she should be at that fact.
"I feel faint," Pyrrha mumbled, and abruptly the world was twisting and she was looking up at the sky. She heard Jaune shouting her name and felt his warm arms holding her up and keeping her from falling to the ground, and concerned murmurs and exclamations from voices she didn't recognize, and for some reason that was making her feel awful and tears were starting to brim in her eyes-
An ungodly screech interrupted everything, and the crowd fell silent. In the relative quiet, she could just make out Vyliria's voice through the thundering of the blood pumping in her head. "Sorry about that, everyone. But as you can see, my friend Pyrrha isn't feeling well and I needed to get your attention so I could kindly ask you all to get out of the way so we can get her home." A few seconds passed in stunned silence, and then she continued in a significantly more hostile tone with, "I am not going to ask you all to move again."
The crowd started to part, and Vyliria surged forwards, calling back to Penny to clear a way back to the house while Nora and Ren kept concerned onlookers from closing the gap they just made. She grabbed Pyrrha from Jaune and hoisted her into a fireman's carry, offering an apology followed by "I can run faster and longer while carrying her than you," as way of an explanation, before she took off running in a direction the back of Pyrrha's mind recognized as leading to their residence, Jaune right behind her. Well over a minute had passed since the screech, and it was only now that she realized that Vyliria must have used her new banshee pyromancy to interrupt the crowd.
A wave of fatigue pressed over Pyrrha, and her eyes drifted shut to the dull pain of Vyliria's armor digging into her as she ran and Jaune's concerned face glancing towards her as his legs glowed white from the force of using his semblance to just barely keep up with the Irithyllian's marathon sprint.
()
Pyrrha groaned, eyes opening and focusing onto the ceiling of the living room of the house just in time for her to feel someone lowering her to the couch across from the television. "What…" she mumbled.
"You fainted," Vyliria bluntly supplied, hovering over her and pushing Jaune back with one hand to make some space while her other hand moved over Pyrrha's head and stuck out her index and ring fingers from a clenched fist. "Which fingers am I holding up?"
"Aren't you supposed to ask how many?" Nora questioned from somewhere out of view. Vyliria turned and leveled a deadpan stare in a different direction, and the ginger bomber gave a quick "Sorry!"
"Your first and third," Pyrrha answered, moving her gaze from the hand in question to glance at the nearest window. Night had fallen while she was out, evidently.
"Alright," she turned again when Jaune tried to get closer. "For fuck's sake Jaune, you're not supposed to crowd someone after they faint. If you want to be useful, go get her a glass of water, or some extra pillows! Actually, do both, so I can have ten seconds of Gwyndamned peace tonight!"
"Sorry!" Vyliria just sighed as Jaune made an exit to the kitchen.
"Alright Pyrrha, I'm not going to ask how you feel, because I know the answer is some variant of the phrase 'like shit,' so instead I'll ask this: Are you physically okay? Unharmed?"
"Y-yes."
"Okay, that's good." Vyliria nodded above her. "Now, as someone intimately familiar with depression, anxiety, and panic attacks, I can recognize when someone else has one." Pyrrha craned her head up, looking across the room to see Ren and Nora on the opposing couch, and Jaune just walking back in with a glass of water, Penny evidently having been one step ahead and bounding back in with a large pillow at the same time. Vyliria took a step back as the other two offered their respective items to the crimsonette, Jaune holding the glass as she downed it in seconds, and then carefully lifting her head so Penny could slip another pillow below it. Jaune sat on the floor next to her, head leaned towards her and reached out a hand to intertwine his fingers with hers. She offered a quiet thanks as she took in his presence, and Penny stepped back to hover just behind Vyliria. Now that she was better situated, the Irithyllian continued. "Do you want to talk about what caused it?"
"I… I don't deserve it," Pyrrha eventually got out.
"Don't deserve what?" Jaune asked, turning to look at her with confusion in his gaze.
"Their praise!" she spat out. "The reputation, their adoration! Everyone looks up to me, and puts me on this pedestal, when I don't deserve it! I lost to Cinder, I could barely help against Tyrian, my contributions against the Nuckelavee was throwing people at it! Vyliria saved the day every single time! I'm worthless!" she shouted, tears finally brimming in her eyes and beginning to spill.
"Pyr, you're not-" she cut Jaune off.
"I am! I've done nothing when all my skills and talents needed to count! I nearly died, I nearly got you killed, Jaune, and all of you act like that's fine. I shouldn't be here dragging you all down. None of you deserve me," she finished morosely.
WHAP!
Pyrrha recoiled from the sheer surprise of Jaune slapping the side of her face, and she looked at him to see him furious. "Pyrrha Nikos. You are the single best thing to happen in my life. Don't you dare put yourself down over some bullshit feelings of inadequacy! I would have died at Beacon's initiation if you didn't take pity on me. You trained me, you enabled me to get where I am now, you cared about me even when I didn't, and you kept caring about me even when my dense ass couldn't figure out you liked me until Vyliria shoved that fact in my face!" He lunged forwards, wrapping his arms around her, and she reflexively reciprocated. "I love you Pyrrha," he said in a more quiet voice. "I always will, so you're not worthless. No matter what, you'll always be worth everything to me."
"Jaune, I…" words eluded her, and she settled for crying in his arms.
"Uh, Pyrrha?" the redhead looked over to the gynoid that spoke. "When I was created, I downloaded a lot of video data and analysis on tons of different combat styles. And it was actually watching videos of you tossing around Aukúo̱ in your tournament fights that gave me the idea of throwing around the entirety of Floating Array like a buzzsaw in combat." Penny looked down at the ground, embarrassed, twisting a foot into the carpet and clasping her hands behind her back. "I never said it because I realized that it would make you uncomfortable, but I'm actually a fan of your fights."
"You never mentioned any of that just to make me happy?" Pyrrha looked at Penny as her thoughts ground to a halt.
"Well, I wanted to be your friend, and one time I was talking to Vyliria, she mentioned how you didn't like your fame, so even though I wanted to talk about your fights and combat style, I kept quiet about being a fan so you could be happy that you had another friend. If… if you still want me to be your friend, that is…"
"Penny!" Pyrrha untangled herself from Jaune and sat up, though her boyfriend merely moved up to the couch and sat back next to her to quietly offer his emotional support. "Of course you're my friend! That you'd go so far out of your way to keep me happy means the world to me!"
Her fellow redhead met her gaze once more, positively beaming. "Sensational!"
And speaking of redheads, that's when the third one on the team spoke up. "Pyrrha, you're totally a badass. You might have taken a few knocks, but you absolutely lobotomized Kevin and probably saved dozens of students in the process back in Beacon!"
"Kevin?" Every voice in the room besides Ren and Nora herself asked.
Nora looked around at them. "Duh! What, did you all think I was just gonna keep calling it 'The Grimm Wyvern' for the rest of time?"
"I can see naming it," Vyliria said, "but why Kevin?"
Nora shrugged. "I dunno. He seemed like a Kevin to me." From behind her, Ren mouthed Just stop asking.
"Ooookay," Jaune said, "I guess he's Kevin."
Pyrrha managed to snicker, Nora being Nora managing to get past her current mood when all else failed. And ever the compliment to his girlfriend, Ren chose to capitalize on this.
"Pyrrha," he quietly began. "You're always worth something to all of us. You're our friend. If you can all still find worth in me after I lost my cool against the Nuckelavee, then we can all still find worth in you regardless of you winning or losing a fight."
She swallowed. "Thank you, Ren, Nora."
"No problem, Pyr!" the ginger bomber enthusistically replied.
"Pyrrha Nikos," a quick look over to the farmhand made it blatantly obvious Ozpin was currently taking the reins. "I once told Miss Avalon and Miss Rose that I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet." He glanced over to Vyliria before she could open her mouth. "Given my discovery of the longevity of certain individuals, that may no longer actually be the case, but I can assure you, that taking you on as a student was not one of them, and that burdening you with the choice of taking Amber's power and the implication that you would have to fight Cinder certainly was. And I must apologize again for any strife I've caused you. But if I can fail so many more times than you have, you are more than allowed to still hold your head high after a single black mark on your record."
His eyes flashed, and Oscar was back at the helm. "Plus, while I haven't known you all for that long, between what I do know and what Oz shared, I think you guys are all really cool, and that includes you, Pyrrha."
"Thank you," Pyrrha said, feeling hope well up inside her. If her friends really, truly believed in her, even after her failures, then that meant that maybe she was worth something to them after all. And… they were right. She had saved Jaune's life, and got him to where he was now. She did kill… Kevin… She was still a prodigy in combat, and a few losses just meant she had to try that much harder to catch up to the foes that were above her. And to hell with what other people thought of her.
"Pyrrha." She paused, and everyone turned to the unkindled in the room. "I don't like to think myself as good at inspiring speeches, but if everyone else is taking a shot at hammering it into your skull that you matter, then I might as well try to drive it homeward." Vyliria took a breath, closing her eyes and rubbing her fingers over the lids as she visibly prepared herself for a speech. She sat down on the armrest next to Pyrrha, the extra inches afforded by it paired with her natural height causing the Mistralian to cran her neck to look up and meet her mismatched eyes.
"Do you know why I'm so good at fighting that I was able to beat Cinder?" The Irithyllian asked, taking a brief pause to meet her gaze. Before Pyrrha could discern whether or not that was a rhetorical question, Vyliria continued speaking. "Because I died. Over. And over. And over again. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of times. I failed to beat my foe, and died yet another agonizing death. And the only reason I'm here is because I'm literally damned to come back, just so I can throw myself into the fray once more." She took a breath, clearly letting out some frustrations on the exhale. "I was so much worse than you, losing in combat and losing my life again and again. But only because it was impossible for the defeats to stick, I rose back up, having learned from the last attempt. And I came back just a little bit stronger, a little bit faster, a little bit more intelligent, and got that much further before my next death, pushing inch by bloody, tear-stained, agonizing inch until I ground down my foes through attrition alone. And I came out of each of those fights stronger than I was prior, and that was before I used the souls I'd gained to strengthen myself even more dramatically. You, on the other hand, with nothing but your own skills, lost once. Once! All those years, all those tournaments, against Grimm and the White Fang, and you won every battle before Cinder. Whether or not you believe it, you're better than me, Pyrrha. We fought in Beacon, and you beat me." She stood up, and started pacing, a grimace on her pale face. "Not that I'd ever wish the curse upon another being, but if you had the same opportunities and history as I did, you'd be a thousand times my better. If we swapped places, you would be literally unstoppable, only delayed by your foes at best." Vyliria stopped, and looked Pyrrha in the eyes. "Sometimes, it's okay to lose Pyrrha. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be the Invincible Girl. You only have to be Pyrrha. Our friend. And we'll be there to pick you up when you fall down." The unkindled sighed, and walked away a few steps, looking down at the floor. "I won't let you end up like me, broken by the weight of the world."
Pyrrha went to open her mouth to immediately try to stop her friend from putting herself down literally as she was trying to help her up, only for Vyliria to suddenly freeze, eyes going wide. She shoved her hand under her collar, yanking out her Darkmoon Amulet to see it glowing blue. Everyone stopped when they realized what that meant.
"Penny!" she shouted, and Pyrrha glanced over to already see the other girl fishing out her blue-eye orb from a pocket. By the time she turned back, Vyliria was already sitting on the floor and had her own out.
"Vyliria. Miss Polendina." The Irithyllian and the gynoid whipped their heads to look at Oscar, though Ozpin was the one to speak from his mouth. "Keep them safe. Keep Miss Rose safe." Pyrrha wondered why Ozpin would go out of the way to specify Ruby's safety, and even imply it mattered the most, but the only response Vyliria gaze was a nod before she was gazing into the blue eye in her hand.
Seconds later, the two Blades of the Darkmoon closed their eyes and slumped over.
(Hazel)
Though he would never admit it aloud, in the privacy of his thoughts, Hazel was more than happy to be annoyed at how cliche a hidden button under Leonardo Lionheart's desk was, as it opened a false wall in his office to lead down a windowless, candlelit hall to a circular chamber housing a single floating Seer Grimm. He and Watts stood to the left and right of Lionheart, respectively, and after a few seconds of hesitation on the faunus' part, the doctor cleared his throat, and with a swallow, the headmaster walked up to the placidly floating monster, tapping the crystal ball that was its head.
"Y-your Grace? Are you there?"
Eddies of Black and Red smoke swirled within the Grimm, and soon resolved into an image of Salem seated at the head of her table in Evernight, Emerald behind and to her right.
"Hello, Leonardo," the alabaster woman greeted, an echo present to her words. "Do you have something to report?"
Lionheart swallowed. "Of course, Ma'am. I would not waste your time if not."
Hazel silently watched as Watts strolled up to the Seer, genuine curiosity on his face. "I'm still so fascinated by this creature," he mumbled. "Emerald, dear," he spoke aloud, "Are we coming through? Can you see us clearly?"
"What do you want, Watts?" the mintette spat out.
Hazel heard doors opening from the other side of the Grimm, and both Salem and Emerald looked past the creature on their end. "I apologize for any interruptions," the voice of Sulyvahn emanated from the Seer, "but Dunnel told me that Mercury had spoken to him of his annoyance that Emerald was unavailable, as she was required to be present when you were to communicate with your underlings." There was a brief pause, and then, "I will freely admit my curiosity when it comes to this… Seer, I believe it is called? I merely wished to observe it in action."
"It would appear we have something in common," Watts observed aloud.
Salem hummed an acknowledgement towards her fellow despot. "You were not asked for," she began, "but nor are you unwelcome."
Sulyvahn strode into the left side of the view offered by the seer, leaning forwards as he observed it and the image of Haven that it presented. "Truly a fascinating creature," he noted. "Watts, should you have time at a later date, I would be more than pleased to collaborate an observation of it from both a scientific and an arcane point of view."
The doctor perked up. "I would be more than happy to, sir."
"Your report," Salem brought the subject back on track. "What is it?"
"We… we have found the Spring Maiden," the headmaster stated.
Salem gave the slightest of smirks. "Is that so? Arthur," she continued, Lionheart stepping to the side as she addressed Watts. "If I had known how much you would have expedited this process, I would have sent you long, long ago."
Watts rolled his eyes. "As much as I'd love to take credit, ma'am, I can't say that either of us are to thank for this development. In fact, it was Hazel," he spoke, gesturing to the large man, "who learned of this development from Mistral's criminal underground. And he only learned it because someone observed a little birdy out in the wilderness."
The Grimm queen raised an eyebrow. "Explain."
Hazel stepped forwards. "I spoke with a woman in charge of a criminal syndicate that specializes in information brokerage. They had a number of interviews stating that Avalon and her friends, who have recently arrived in Mistral itself, had an altercation involving the Branwen tribe, and eyewitnesses stated that Avalon battled someone who was wielding powers that perfectly describe what a Maiden is capable of."
"They didn't tell me this when they spoke to me earlier!" Leonardo spoke out.
"Is that so?" Salem asked. "They already distrust you so only upon their first meeting with you?"
"I-I've done nothing to give them suspicions, your Grace, I-" One of the Seer's tentacles shot forwards, and wrapped itself about Leonardo's throat. The man began to choke.
"Leonardo? Do you remember the first time we met?" Salem spoke as if commenting on the weather. "I remember." The creature pulled, and Lionheart fell to his knees, weakly clawing at the tentacles around his throat. "I remember your fear. But, since that day, you've been extraordinarily brave." Another tentacle rose up, bladed end coming to a rest hovering an inch from one of the headmaster's fear-stricken eyes. "I won't forget what you've done for me," Salem continued, "Do not forget everything I can do to you." A few more seconds passed, and then the Seer let go, Lionheart falling to his hands and knees as he gasped for air.
"Emerald," Salem continued impassively. "You and Mercury will meet with Watts, and you will convince Raven Branwen that the survival of her people depends upon her cooperation, and then obtain the relic as soon as possible. Hazel," she addressed the towering man directly, "after this meeting is finished, you will take this Seer with you back to this criminal… contact, and you have my permission to reveal me to them to convince them that their best hope for survival is the destruction of Haven. Inform me when you are ready, and I will make myself available. Leonardo," and the man on the floor looked up with naked terror in his gaze, "You will go to the same coordinates that you obtained this Seer from. Another will be waiting for you there. And if Avalon and her friends are alone in this city and already suspicious of you, then once the relic has been retrieved, we will have the perfect bait for a trap. As soon as Hazel provides a date, you will have the Irithyllian and her friends come to Haven. Lie about finding information on the Spring Maiden if that's what it takes, just ensure they come at that time. You will all lie in wait to kill them, and when that is done, you will leave just before the school is razed. We will obtain the relic and with so much strength gathered in one place, we will remove a host of Ozpin's pawns from the board in one fell swoop."
"Not just those," Sulyvahn spoke for the first time in a few minutes. "I… took the liberty of having my agents brand the corpse of young Adam Taurus with the curse of undeath. He has been useful in Menagerie, and due to the actions of other of my agents upon the island, a spy I have placed in Mistral has reported to me that Sienna Kahn has elected to depart for the island. They have reported that Qrow Branwen, the silver-eyed girl, and Patches are there as well, and when Taurus learns that his former liege is coming straight to him, he will take those loyal to him and attempt a coup. That will provide the perfect distraction for my own people present in Kuo Kuanna to exterminate most of the rest of Avalon and Ozpin's side of the board."
"That is a surprising amount of initiative," Salem remarked, "that you did not inform me of."
"You had no agents located there that could provide aid to or accidentally hinder mine. We work towards the same goal, and I saw no point in disturbing you unless there was something of actual import to inform you of. Now there is, and so here I speak."
"And your spy?"
"She is quite adept at remaining and killing unseen. Skilled in both blade and mind, going so far as to craft entirely original dark miracles during the waning centuries of the Age of Fire. And you need not worry. Much like young Emerald, she has a host of reasons to want a certain Irithyllian dead and gone. She has lost two who were precious to her at the hands of Avalon," he finished.
Salem met his unflinching gaze for a few seconds more. "Very well. The rest of you: your tasks remain unchanged."
"It will be done," Watts replied.
"Good," Salem spoke, raising her hand as if to end the connection between the Seers.
"If I may," Sulyvahn requested, and though Salem frowned, she paused. "I would like to request that Doctor Watts return upon convincing the Branwen tribe to acquiesce to our demands. I have plans involving the city of Argus, and would like his technical expertise in discerning a means to disable the early warning systems the city has employed for mass Grimm movements. I would send one of my outrider knights to help convince Raven, and he would also escort the good Doctor back here."
"Arthur?" Salem inquired.
"Well, I doubt my skillset will be particularly of use in the face of Avalon, and in the likely scenario that we can't have her death stick, I would rather not reveal myself and potentially tip off Atlas before we are ready to proceed to them, so I have no personal objections to this. Plus, when I finish whatever task Sulyvahn has in mind, I suppose I could then work with him to see if there are any ways we could improve the Seers in addition to discerning their base workings."
"Truly?" Salem remarked. "Fine then, I will agree to this proposal. Unless there's something else you wish to reveal to me?" the Grimm queen directed towards the towering mage.
"Nothing at this time," the man replied.
"Then that is all," Salem concluded, and the image on the Seer faded seconds later.
(Vyliria)
The chime of her summoning echoed to all who were capable of hearing it as the shade of Gwyndolin rose from a blue vortex on the ground, a mass of spiritual energy resolving into the phantasmal projection of Vyliria Avalon, Blade of the Darkmoon. She was in an alley, and Penny wasn't in sight. Not an immediate concern, because the summoning was more likely to place them in a random position near to the invader than next to each other, so she willed forth the Moonlight Greatsword and the parrying dagger she'd pilfered from the Farron Mausoleum, jogging onto the paved street.
Wait. Paved street?
Vyliria looked around at the city that was decidedly not Kuo Kuanna, and then realized she was cast in a shadow. She looked up, and saw the bottom of the floating city of Atlas overhead.
Something was very wrong.
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A/N: Given that Oscar showed up a bit more ahead of the canon schedule, I wanted to give VAAPPR at least one day to unwind in Mistral without something going to shit or preparations for the confrontation at Haven to be dominating everyone's minds. Of course, Murphy's Law is omniversal, so while Penny got to enjoy herself and Vyliria got a bonfire from a very unlikely source, the other shoe dropped in the form of them realizing just how much Lionheart's treachery is endangering Mistral and Pyrrha having a breakdown. I told you those self-worth issues had been simmering since Beacon, and where else would they boil over than in Mistral, the city where she's most famous, and fans would recognize her and outright mob her in the streets?
Of course, her friends are having exactly none of Pyrrha's self-worth issues, and are very quick to remind her just how important she is to all of them.
Jaune enforces gender equality, by slapping Pyrrha in the face to balance out Nora slapping Ren back in Kuroyuri. Also, without his GF dead, I've been looking for an excuse to have Jaune lose his cool, and the woman he loves that saved his life saying that she's worthless seemed perfect. Being synthetic and designed for combat, Penny would have absolutely been given literally thousands of hours of footage of fights and information on combat styles and tactics to improve her own skills. That inevitably means she'd be taking some inspiration from some of what she witnesses. And a three-time tournament champion prodigy of a young adult would definitely be something that the Atlesian military would grab to throw in with the rest. So even if it's not actually canon, I fully believe that Penny at the very least knew who Pyrrha Nikos was and watched her fight. And throwing Floating Array like a buzzsaw was kinda similar to Pyrrha tossing Aukúo̱, so I thought it would be not only cool if Penny had originally gotten the idea from Pyrrha, but a great way to have her contributing to cheering Pyrrha up. Then Nora is Nora and Ren is practical, and they tag-team their efforts. Ozpin gives a headmaster-esque speech and Oscar gives some honest reinforcement at the end, and then Vyliria's up.
Here's a fun fact: Vyliria's pep-talk to Pyrrha was thought up and then typed onto my phone while I was in the shower. Inspiration can come at strange times and strange places, and I thought it was so good that I wrote it down immediately. And everything in that speech is both true and pretty self-explanatory. Vyliria learned through constant deaths and failures, "gittin gud" by bashing her head against the wall until the wall finally broke before her skull did, over and over. She's only so deadly because her deaths didn't stick. Vyliria would win a rematch, but Pyrrha did beat her in their first fight, even if only just so. If their positions were reversed, Pyrrha would be leagues better than Vyliria is right now.
And then shit hits the fan once again, because Menagerie is getting invaded, but Vyliria gets summoned to Mantle instead. I'm obviously going to explain it later in-story, but for now, I'll just try to head off questions by saying that the amulet is synced to Ruby's Way of the Blue parchment, which lets Vyliria know when Ruby specifically is being invaded, not that there's an invasion ongoing. The blue-eye orbs themselves don't discriminate. They'll send a Blade to any invasion in progress, and occasionally after invaders themselves when they're in their own bodies (unless a certain invader knows a way to hide from detection when not hitting the red-eye orb). It doesn't discriminate. So Penny is going in to help Ruby and co alone, while Vyliria needs to figure out who's invading in Atlas, and then introduce them to the business end of one or more of her many weapons.
Also, Sienna is heading to Menagerie? Salem is altering her plans to ensnare VAAPPR since she believes they are isolated from any dangerous form of aid? Sulyvahn has spies and other forces working behind the scene? Who's this strange woman who has snuck into the White Fang enough to learn of Sienna Kahn's movements without even being spotted? Well, I know the answers to those questions, but I'm definitely not telling them to you lot. And again, unlike in canon, where Qrow is skilled enough to not go down easily and is also very capable of escaping and ruining everything at Haven, this time around, the only real threat to Salem's plans in Mistral (they don't know about Oz-car yet) is Vyliria. VAAPPR is seemingly isolated in the Grimm's den, and there's no reason not to lure them into a trap and kill them, especially since the current plan is to have the relic already taken long before they arrive at the school and can present a threat.
And with that, I leave you all until next week, where I'm intending to get back to Mantle to resolve that first.
Though I will disclose that the chapter after the next chapter is absolutely going to be titled Darkmoon Ready. I feel like you'll all be able to guess why.
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Omake: Arkos vs Non-Soundproof Walls
A/N: This omake is canon, and explains why Vyliria was unamused at Jaune and Pyrrha at the start of the chapter. It's not necessary to read this by any stretch, and while nothing is explicitly described, it is definitely Not Safe For Work. If you're under the legal age of consent where you live, I am obligated to tell you to skip this omake and go to the next chapter. If you don't like stuff even slightly more raunchy than hand-holding, you should probably also skip this, but this omake popped into my head during the production of book 1, and refused to leave until I put it to paper, and added my own personal spin of humor to it. So here it is, for your enjoyment.
(Vyliria)
Crickets chirped in the night outside the street. Vyliria sighed as she watched outside the window, unable to sleep and not currently in the mood to attempt a state of meditation/rest close to it. Penny was on standby in her room and charging her internal batteries, which was honestly both a fascinating and morbid subject to be told about, Nora and Ren were fast asleep in each other's arms, and Oscar was out cold on the couch. Technically, so was Ozpin, though Vyliria idly wondered if the yet-to-merge soul of the headmaster could actually sleep, or if he would be forced to stay awake and aware in Oscar's sleeping body until the Oz-mosis (as Nora had taken to calling it) advanced to a certain stage. That would absolutely be the worst case of sleep paralysis in the history of ever if the latter scenario was true.
As for Jaune and Pyrrha…
Muffled sounds, that were either voices or moans of some sort, reached her ears from down the hall. Vyliria frowned. It had already been forty minutes, and the small drain of constantly keeping up a spell was irritating her even if it was virtually no effort whatsoever. The Irithyllian stalked down the hallway, leaning against the door to the room claimed by Jaune and Pyrrha, and gently placed her ear against the wood, past the muffling spell she put on it-
Flesh slapping against flesh, accompanied by moans and gasps from Jaune and Pyrrha both.
"P-Pyrrha!"
"Inside! Fill my tight tournament tushy up! Gape my asshole with your huge, fat-" her sentence was cut off by a sudden gasp. "Oh dust, right there! Right there Jaune!"
The slapping became much more erratic, the sound of heavy breathing and ecstasy speeding up.
"Pyrrrrrhaaa!"
"Jaaaaaaaaaune!"
She heard further sounds of coital bliss, and then-
Vyliria leaned back from the door, and silently walked down the hall to the window at its end. A few seconds passed without a thought going through her head, before she finally decided to address the mental giant in the room.
Okay, so that finally confirms it- at some point after coming back as an unkindled I completely lost my sex-drive. Nothing down below from either set whatsoever…
A few seconds ticked by, in which she walked back to the window and gazed out at the broken moon overhead. A sigh sounded out in the hallway, borne from an unamused Irithyllian's throat. She'd have to make it clear without outright stating she knew that she wouldn't be casting a soundproofing spell on their room in the future. Even this time, she'd only done it so that everyone else in the building could continue their lives without the knowledge that Pyrrha and Jaune were fucking like animals in heat at a very loud volume just a stone's throw away. At least Ren and Nora had waited until everyone else was out of the house to copulate, even if Vyliria could smell the stench of sex when she went upstairs by the time everyone got back, and had opened all the windows before anyone else came up. A cloud drifted in front of the moon, and Vyliria mused over her thoughts until she replayed what she'd heard in her mind.
Also, I'd have never guessed that Pyrrha was violently into anal.
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A/N: Let's all face it, Pyrrha definitely would be into it.