The Great Temporal Step-Sibling War!
By Sift Green and AndrewJTalon
Disclaimer: This is a fan based work of Prose. RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth and ViZ. Please support the official Release.
Beneath the shade of a mighty oak tree overlooking Beacon's main campus echoed the voice a young woman singing an ancient psalm in its' original tongue, a dead language known as Ozymandilian that many sacred texts were first written in. With each stanza and verse the woman danced through the various fundamental katas that she had learned durning her study at the Temple of the Broken Table. Her rhythmic movements slowed as the psalm reached its' final verse, and as it ended she smoothly slid into a crosslegged sitting position on a stone she had placed beneath the oak tree beforehand.
With her morning communion with the divine completed, Arslan Altan moved on to more personal meditations.
'The mark of a good friend is that they make it easier for you to be a good person.' So said Guru Kirkpatrick when she informed him of her decision to stop her studies at the Temple and to attend the more secular institution of Sanctum Academy instead. 'The mark of a good rival is similar, they make it easier for you to be a good warrior.'
She had found many good friends at Sanctum, but she had only found one good rival. Pyrrha Nikos was a singular combatant that always pushed Arslan to the absolute limits of her body and soul. The two of them had clashed countless times in the school's combat classes, in the school's tournaments, and as representatives of the school in the Minstral Regional Tournament. As steel sharpening steel the two of them sharpened one another, and they both climbed higher for it...
...Or at least that was what she had thought at the time. It was clear that Pyrrha had not thought the same considering she didn't enroll in Haven nor did she invite Arslan to follow her to Beacon. And now that Arslan was here as an exchange student at Beacon for the lead up to the Vytal Festival Pyrrha had ignored her requests for any formal duels or friendly spars in favor of private training with her team leader Jaune Arc.
And so Arslan was forced to face an unpleasant truth: while Pyrrha had been a good rival for her she had not been a good rival for Pyrrha. This truth was evidenced by the fact that Pyrrha was taking the raw materials that were Jaune Arc and sculpting them into her vision of a perfect warrior.
Had she truly been such a lackluster rival that Pyrrha felt she was better off making a new rival in her own image?
And so she closed her eyes and altered her breathing using techniques she had learned at the Temple meant to help one recall and review old memories with fresh eyes.
Every clash with the Invincible Girl flashed through Arslan's vision. Every punch, every kick, every thrust of her dagger, every swing of her rope dart, every bruise, every sprain, every drop of blood spilt. All of her experiences fighting the redheaded warrior paraded through her mind and were examined from every angle she could conceive. The picture hindsight painted was not pretty.
A little over a hundred clashes, and Arslan was pushed to her limits every single time. Yet she had only pushed Pyrrha to her limits twice, and one of those times had been their very first fight. She had managed to make Pyrrha sweat for her victory in twenty-three of their bouts, and of course she had never won.
With a track record that abysmal it was no wonder that Pyrrha was looking elsewhere for a worthy foe. If someone with that bad of a record had considered her their rival Arslan knew she would have a hard time taking them seriously. It was clear now that the tournament of the Vytal Festival was her last chance to prove herself to the Invincible Girl, her last chance to prove that she was a good rival. If she failed she would need to find another worthy foe.
But if not Pyrrha, who? No one else came close to the champion, and she had climbed so high in her efforts to reach her... It was like she was a lonely mountain's peak, separated from the surrounding lands while trying to catch the moon.
With that sobering thought Arslan opened her eyes, and was surprised by the sight before her.
A younger woman who also wore the garb afforded to someone who had studied at the Temple of the Broken Table sat before her on the grass in a similar meditative pose to her own. The girls face looked similar to the face Arslan saw in the mirror every morning, though her skin was a few shades lighter and her hair several feet longer while being tied into a braid that hung over her left shoulder. A cousin she had never properly met? That was a likely possibility. Her great-great-grandfather had taken the commandment from the holy books of 'Be fruitful and multiply' very, veryseriously.
The younger woman held her hands in front of herself in the sign of The Table, and then with a flourish changed them into the sign of The Broken Table.
"My Guru," The young woman spoke, not in the modern tongues of Minstral or Vale, but in the dead languages taught in the Temple, "I am Petra, initiate of The Temple of the Broken Table. I seek your wisdom in my time of trial."
"I am Arslan, First Degree Stone Breaker," She replied in kind as she stiffened her spine. She had never acted as someone's spiritual guide before, but as the senior member of The Order present her duty was clear. It was time to see if the student could be a teacher. "I will freely share the truths that I know."
"What is truth? And why do so few find it?" Petra began her questions with a doozy; something that should be simple and yet people felt this compulsion to make it more complicated than it was.
"Truth," Arslan began, "Is a knowledge of how things really are, how they really were, and how they really will be. So few people find it because truth is as uncompromising as the sky; so when the sun shines too brightly, or the stars move in ways unpleasant to behold they seek to place clouds between themselves and the truth."
"If one finds oneself in a land completely overcast the clouds become the sky," Petra pressed on, "And the people of the land will act accordingly."
"Though clouds cover the whole sky, the Sun, Moon and Stars remain unchanged behind them," Arslan explained. "Such is the nature of truth. Though it may be obscured by the philosophies and conveniences of the day it remains unchanged by them, and it will outlast them. Clouds cannot hide the Sun and Stars forever, for the Sun and Stars will persist long after the storm is a forgotten memory."
"Then tell me, my Guru, how should one act during the day of obscurement?"
"As one who has seen the Sun and the Stars you must not forget how they shined in the sky," Arslan instructed. "For forgotten truths cannot guide you through the storm."
A moment of silence passed between the two, with Petra deep in thought. Part of Arslan felt she should wait for Petra to fully mull things over and present her next question, but the rest of her was curious and figured asking a question of her own could help her better help her impromptu student.
And so Arslan inquired, "What trial do you face that makes you ask these questions?"
"My Guru, I must convince you of a truth that would appear as a falsehood at first with only the evidence I have in my mind," Petra answered. "For my scroll is not with me, and all else I carry will mean nothing to you."
"Interesting..." Arslan mused, "Then tell me of this truth that appears false, that we may discuss what you would need to share to prove if it is of the sky or of the clouds."
"I believe that you believe I am a cousin of yours," Petra began, "Yet I am not. I am the fruit of your field's first harvest, fallen through a hole in time to an era before my father sowed my seed. If I fail to convince you of this, and you fail to secure my father's hand in marriage my life is forfeit, for the day of my birth will never come."
Arslan felt her eyebrows rise to a hight they had never risen too before. That... was definitely hard to believe, especially without physical proof. Still, there were ways...
"Is there something known in the time you claim to come from that isn't known now, but can be proven now?"
"Is the nature of Pyrrha Nikos' semblance common knowledge in this time?"
"It is not..." If Arslan thought her eyebrows couldn't rise higher they proved her wrong that very instant.
"Pyrrha calls her semblance Polarity," Petra explained "It's most basic application allows her to become a living magnet, allowing her to attract or repel any metal she wishes."
Arslan brought her hand to her chin. That... that made waaaay too much sense. Hindsight told her that she had never landed a hit on Pyrrha with her Dagger/Rope Dart. Every attack that had connected with the Invincible Girl had been made with her feet or fists. However, even those hits were few and far between, so how...
"Another basic application of Polarity allows her to sense the metal around her, letting her know where attacks are coming from. I'm unsure how refined this ability is right now, but in my time she can sense the iron in your blood."
That... that also made sense. She might not be consciously doing the blood thing yet, but Pyrrha had definitely dodged punches she shouldn't have seen coming.
"She can also control the metal around her in a manner that looks telekinetic, something I know she has practiced but has not yet been forced to use in a way that can be seen."
Manny things were falling into place. How Pyrrha was able to keep track of everyone in a four vs one. How challengers who normally had solid stances slipped against Pyrrha because they were wearing metal boots or leg guards. How weapon strikes that should have been solid hits never connected.
If this was true than Arslan was still the lone mountain peak that had stretched into the sky to touch the Moon...
...But Pyrrha was no longer the Moon. Her invincibility was tied to her semblance, and there were ways she could work around that. She could have a fair fight and prove her worth as a rival...
...If it was true. This still needed to be proven... so another question was warranted.
"Are there no witnesses that could corroborate your story, did anyone see you fall through time?"
"Nobody saw me fall, but I did not fall alone," Petra answered. "There were fourteen of us. First is my friend Moses, who's semblance allowed the fall in the first place. The rest are all children of my father, from different times where you are not the mother. Not all of them chose to name their mothers, but among those who did were Julian son of The Reaper, Ruby Rose; Leander and Leandra children of Menagerie's Queen, Blake Belladonna; Xia daughter of the Raging Dragon, Yang Xiao Long; Xander son of the Invincible Woman, Pyrrha Nikos; and Nicholas son of Weiss Schnee."
Those were all pretty impressive titles for her fellow students. Which of course lead to the question: "Who is your father, that so many worthy women take notice of him?"
"My father, your husband, is Jaune Arc."
The raw clay Pyrrha sought to mould into her own image. If what Petra was saying was true then the man had enough potential for Pyrrha to succeed in that endeavor. She could see the appeal of a man like that.
It also meant that it didn't matter if it was sky or cloud; Pyrrha would believe what this Xander told her, meaning Pyrrha would hold nothing back if she tried to fight her for Jaune's hand. The prospect of fighting Pyrrha at her most dangerous was as daunting as it was exhilarating, especially since she had never beaten the girl before...
Yet if what Petra said was true then Jaune Arc was going to grow into a man who's affections would be worth any challenge. Arslan was definitely interested in getting to know a man like that.
Arslan stood up, and extended a hand to Petra. Then she spoke, not in Ozymandilian, but in the modern and far less formal language of Vale.
"I don't know if you're my daughter, or if Jaune Arc is my future husband. But I'm willing to find out. I'm going to have to find a wooden dagger though."
"I have something else that could help," Petra offered, also in the modern language of Vale, as she accepted Arslan's hand and rose to her feet. "There is a technique I can teach you in something like, ten minutes. It uses your Aura to conceal all of the metals naturally found in the body."
Arslan felt a very sinister grin grow across her face. A giggle escaped her lips, which rose into an unhinged cackle that lasted for an embarrassingly long period of time. Why was this making her feel so giddy?
Definitely something to meditate on later.