Deep Talk of Ones' Self at Night
Team WBY, JNPR, and Cinder are seen sitting inside a ruined building they have taken as their camp for the night with a fire at the center made by Cinder without using her Maiden fire power and eating some food they packed for the trip.
"I can't believe we didn't find anything..." Yang exclaimed.
"Besides beating up some Grimm here and there, I'm a little disappointed that we couldn't find anything about the bad guys." Nora commented.
"We've always been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. I guess we can't always have luck on our side." Blake figured.
"Sometimes life can surprise you in the unexpected things, we just have to be patient." Ren stated.
"He's right, the best thing we can do is just keep on looking with all of our strengths after we rest for the night." Cinder said.
"That's not what I meant." Weiss said, completely off topic of what they are talking about as they turn to her.
"Earlier, about... upholding the legacy. There's more to it than that." Weiss said a little sad.
"Wait, did Oobleck asked about why you choose to become a Huntress?" Nora asked.
"Yeah, he did and I'm not sure if I was being completely honest with myself." Weiss answered.
"Huh, did he asked all of you that same question?" Jaune asked around and they nod.
"Weird, he never asked me." Jaune mentioned.
"Me neither." Cinder added though can understand since she never became a Huntress.
"To be honest, I don't know. I know what I want to do, but I figured I'd always take things one step at a time." Blake believed.
"Well, it doesn't matter. We know why we're here. Right?" Yang asked, but no one answer not even Nora as everyone became silent.
"Ah, wonderful; a textbook campfire!" Oobleck impressed as Ruby and Zwei sit close to it.
"Very good! Eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for first watch?" Oobleck asked.
"Yo." Ruby volunteered as Zwei barks.
Ruby is about to go out for the lookout job, but Yang stops her when she called her out.
"Hey, did Oobleck ask you why you wanted to be a Huntress? I mean... what did you tell him?" Yang asked.
"Hmm... No, he didn't. Weird." Ruby answered.
"Well, I think you already know the answer like wanting to help others and be brave like your mom, right?" Jaune recalled hearing Ruby telling her about that once.
"Totally, that has always been my goal and I'm not changing it for anything because becoming a Huntress is everything I could hope for." Ruby smiled brightly before going to her post.
This left Yang with a small smile on her face, believing her little sister knows her goal exactly though she and the others are still wondering about if they have also settle on their goals too.
(Beacon Academy, Salem)
Salem is seen looking at the Vale City in the night having some deep thoughts in her head.
"It looks like I'm not the only one having trouble with sleep." James said walking up to her in his military uniform.
"Mind if I join in?" Glynda asked, also awake in her clothes.
"I bet you're all still conflicted about me and Ozma, learning the truth about our past and the war." Salem guessed.
"You're right, it still haunts me of how this is humanities' second chance in life. If you two didn't show us than I would've thought you were crazy." James stated.
"Guess now you can understand how Ozpin is so passively." Glynda commented.
"It does put me at ease a little, but the truth still hurts from the man I trusted for so long to keep this secret from the very group he started." James glared down at his left hand.
"Some truths are always painful, but what's important is that we accept it and move on with our life because now I've been given a chance to make amends with Ozma and start earning back his trust with helping you all." Salem determined as her red-black eyes glow a little.
"Glad to hear that because I would have arrested you and send you to Tartarus if we were still enemies." James smiled making Salem laugh a little.
"I just hope dealing with your former subordinates won't be difficult." Glynda sighed.
"I wish that were true, but they are deadly in their own rights. Tyrian being the murder Remnant fears. The former Scientist of Atlas, Arthur Watts. And the man who believed to lost everything and blames Ozpin, Hazel Rainart. I'm planning on returning to my castle as soon as Jaune's group comes back to capture them myself." Salem informed of her plan.
"They won't make it easy." James pointed out.
"I know, but it's the least I can do to help the world I tried to destroy for so long." Salem said before walking away.
There was this one question James wanted to ask Salem about, but he decided to ask her later since the Grimm woman wants to focus on her current goal right now.
(Back with Jaune and Ruby's Group)
The side of the moon that is not broken, the full moon, shines in the night sky with some twinkling stars as the young Hunters-in-training are sleeping on their sleeping bags except for Yang.
"Blake, are you awake?" Yang asked.
"Yeah." Blake answered as she wasn't sleeping much either.
"Why do you think he asked us about being a Huntress? Like, what was he trying to say?" Yang wondered.
"Maybe he was just curious." Blake guessed.
"You think?" Yang asked.
"No." Blake sighed.
"Weiss, are you awake?" Yang asked the white-haired girl.
"Of course, I'm awake! You two are talking." Weiss rolled her eyes, but the truth is she was still a bit awake.
"Mind if we join?" Pyrrha asked as she, her team, and Cinder reveal themselves to be awake too.
"Professor Oobleck maybe trying to see if we were serious about our goals of being Huntsmen and Huntresses." Ren pointed out.
"Maybe… When I said I wanted to honor my family's name, I meant it. But it's not what you think. I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a... moral gray area." Weiss clenched her fists in anger.
"That's putting it lightly." Blake commented.
"A man obese with business and making names will make people go through great lengths to achieve that." Cinder stated.
"Which is why I feel the need to make things right. If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it." Weiss promised with determination.
"(Hopefully, your resolve with your father will be better than mine.)" Cinder thought.
"At least you have a parent to be angry about." Nora said looking at the night sky past Ren.
"I was told my parents died sometime after I was born. The caretakers I was with tried their best, but they were overwhelm with the other kids and I decided to leave to ease up their burden though I didn't have any idea of what to do or where should I go until I ended up in the village Ren grew up in." Nora mentioned as she saw Ren's hand closing hard.
"I was scavenging for food and being picked on because I was poor. Ren and his dad saved me from some bullies though I didn't bother to thank him for that, then the next thing I know the village was overrun by Grimms and Ren saved me again, telling me we would be okay together." Nora explained, placing her hand over Ren's to calm him down.
"Must have been hard for you guys." Jaune said.
"It was hard, and we trained very hard to this day to prevent anymore horrible fates like ours to happen again." Ren said strongly.
"All my life, I fought for what I thought was right. I had a partner named Adam. More of a mentor, actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place. But of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be not perfect for everyone." Blake looked up at the ceiling remembering Adam and the things he has done.
"I joined the Academy because I knew that Huntsmen and Huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world. Always fighting for good. But I never really thought past that. When I leave the Academy, what will I - how can I undo so many years of hate?" Blake asked worry and scared.
"I'm sure you'd figure it out. You're not one to back down from a challenge, Blake." Yang believed.
"But I am! I do it all the time! When you learned I was a Faunus, I didn't know what to do, so I ran! When I realized my oldest partner had become a monster, I ran! Even my Semblance! I was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself; an empty copy that takes the hit while I run away!" Blake ashamed of herself.
"Well, that's not what Sun thinks of your Semblance." Yang said.
"He doesn't?" Blake asked.
"Nope. He thinks your Semblance is a sign to keep you safe from harm so you can come back to us in one piece, like cats having nine lives only your Semblance makes it looks like you have tons to spare and still some." Yang explained of Sun's opinion on Blake's Semblance.
Blake became surprise of hearing this and let out a little laugh.
"I swear, Sun is like a dork monkey in an adorable way." Blake said, feeling cheered up a bit.
"And we're both married to him." Yang reminded.
"Let just hope your dad doesn't try to kill Sun upon first meet." Jaune joked a little.
"Can't promise you there." Yang shrugged.
"Yeah, I just hope my parents would still care enough that I'm married to three women." Jaune exclaimed.
"You don't get along with them?" Ren asked.
"No, no, I love them greatly and they love me back along with my sisters. But to them, I was never good enough to be a Huntsman because I was weak and couldn't be trained… I wanted to prove myself that I can carry on the family legacy of the Arc to be a warrior and I was desperate to use a fake transcript to get in." Jaune admitted, almost sounding pathetic to himself.
"But you still got in. Ozpin knew about your fake transcript and he still let you in for the potential he saw in you before any of us." Pyrrha believed.
"Yeah, it was great. But… Even when I told my parents I was going to Beacon, they told me not to worry if I ended up having to move back home. How depressing is that?" Jaune sighed.
"I'm sure they didn't mean anything like that. They were perhaps just worry for your safety; you do intend to get emotional in the heat of things." Pyrrha pointed out.
"Like when?" Jaune asked.
"Like during training and Emerald insulted your family, you got very angry from that and she used that anger against you." Cinder mentioned.
"Okay, so I do get emotional. I just hope my parents will still welcome me when I go see them." Jaune hoped.
"I'm sure they will, at least your parents aren't making you into the spotlight for everything you've done." Pyrrha remembered her hometown and how she was always praised like a Goddess.
"I've been blessed with incredible talents and opportunities. I'm constantly surrounded by love and praise, but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long, you become separated from the people that put you there in the first place." Pyrrha explained.
"Sounds like those people are being arrogance if you ask me." Cinder commented.
"I believe so too. Everyone assumes I'm too good for them. That I'm on a level they simply can't attain. It's become impossible to form any sort of meaningful relationship with people. That's what I like about you. When we met, you didn't even know my name. You treated me just like anyone else. And the friendship we made was incredible before we got married through liquor, you're someone who saw me for me." Pyrrha kissed Jaune on the lips for a second.
"The reason I wanted to become a Huntress is to hopefully show everyone that I am just like everyone else, to never let fame get in the way of one's life." Pyrrha explained.
"You all have such good goals while I used to be a bitch." Cinder cursed herself.
"I grew up in an orphanage, not the ones you heard of. I was forced to do chores and constantly get into fights with the other children, then I was sold to a woman with twin daughters living in a fancy hotel. They treated me like a slave, doing all the chores in the hotel and the woman even forced a shock collar on me to obey her, forcing me to think I would be nothing without her." Cinder explained her story.
"Fuck! If it were me, I would teach that woman a lesson." Nora pounded her fist on the ground.
"Already beat you to it. But before that, I met a Huntsman named Rhodes who saw I was being abused and decided to train me for the Hunter exam in Beacon. We trained for several years, but my adopted "family" found one of the swords he gave me as a gift and the mother tried to zap me again… only this time I snapped and killed them." Cinder revealed shocking everyone except Ruby who is still on lookout.
"Then Rhodes tried to take me in for murdering them, I was sad and angry that I attacked him and… killed him in the end. But not before giving me one last smile before he died." Cinder remembered that smile and a singe tear shed from her right eye, Jaune wipe it with his finger.
"I'm sorry that happened to you." Jaune apologized.
"Don't, I brought that fate onto myself. And to this day, I still carry the swords he gave me, guess deep down I want to honor the kindness he showed me." Cinder revealed her swords to them.
"Anod now, being with you all for these short times. I decided that my goal would be to help those who might suffered like I have and to make sure they don't make the same mistake as I have, to help heal the world." Cinder determined.
"And we'll help you, together." Pyrrha smiled.
"Well, at least you all have something that drives you. I've just kinda of always, gone with the flow, y'know? And that's fine, I mean, that's who I am. But how long can I really do that for? I wanna be a Huntress, not really because I want to be a hero, but because I want the adventure. I want a life where I won't know what tomorrow will bring. And that'll be a good thing. Being a Huntress just happens to line up with that. I'm not like Ruby, she's always wanted to be a Huntress. It's like she said, ever since she was a kid, she'd dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day, and never asking for anything else in return. Even when she couldn't fight, she knew that's what she wanted to do. That's why she trained so hard to get where she is today." Yang explained and proud of her little sister.
"Well, she's still just a kid." Weiss said.
"She's only two years younger. We're all kids." Blake pointed out.
"I act like a kid because I just wanted to stay positive, keep the mood alive." Nora explained.
"Mature can also be a positive thing for all of us." Ren stated.
"Yeah, I mean, look where we are! In the middle of a warzone and armed to the teeth!" Yang commented.
"It's the life we chose." Blake said.
"It's a job. We all had this romanticized vision of being a Huntress in our heads! But at the end of the day, it's a job to protect the people! And whatever we want, will have to come second." Weiss believed.
"Yes, focus on the goal to make sure all is right before going for the second." Cinder agreed.
Soon, everyone went to sleep though unknowingly Oobleck have been listening to the whole conversation and smile knowing these younglings are going to be fine Hunters.
KO a new chapter is done and hope you all enjoy it!
Wow, those were some pretty deep talking not just with three of team RWBY but also with JNPR and Cinder revealing her past to them as the conversation has helped them renew their goals as Huntsmen and Huntresses. There was also some talk with Salem, James, and Glynda as they will do their best to make the world a better place.
KO comment, favorite, and follow through of how this story will go!