Chapter 38: Silver

Pyrrha's hands shook as sweat dripped from her brow. Letting out a soft grunt, she slowly raised her hands. Straining, she let out a tired gasp as she dropped her arms, struggling to continue.

Seeing that she was beginning to sway, I grabbed a hold of her shoulders, stopping her from falling over. "How much Aura do you have left?"

"A little less than half, I think," Pyrrha said, smiling tiredly. Taking a few deep breaths, she steadied herself. "I'm not finished just yet."

"Just don't overdo it, okay" I hummed. "We aren't in any hurry to get this done."

Nodding, she closed her eyes and began to focus, reaching out with her Semblance. At first it appeared that she had failed once more, but then the ground began to shake as a mound began to form, growing larger by the second.

Before too long, a large piece of metal was revealed, piercing through the top of the mound. Gritting her teeth, Pyrrha raised her arms as the metal was slowly pulled from the ground, revealing the battered form of the massive drill coated in dirt.

"Just a little bit more," Pyrrha grunted as she strained to lift the drill. Tearing it free from the ground, Pyrrha's hands shook as she levitated the drill over to more solid ground, setting it down with a loud thunk. "There!" She breathed tiredly, her arms falling to her side.

I stared at the massive hunk of metal that she'd just ripped out of the ground, impressed by how far she'd come. She'd done this without mastering Total Concentration Breathing… From this point forward, she would only grow stronger. "You're really something else, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha gave a beaming smile. Stumbling slightly, she grabbed on to me. "I think I might have overdone it and used a little too much Aura. Do you think that you could possibly help me?" She asked. "Perhaps in the same manner that you helped Weiss the other day."

If she wanted to be carried, all she had to do was ask. "…Okay," I said slowly. Crouching, I found Pyrrha gripping my arm with a surprising amount of strength.

"Not on your back," Pyrrha smiled innocently. "I meant the other way."

I let out an amused chuckle. Pyrrha tiredly wrapped her arms around my neck and hummed contently as I lifted her off the ground.

"Where to?"

"Anywhere is fine," Pyrrha yawned, closing her eyes as she leaned her head against my shoulder.

Looking around, I caught sight of Winter and Weiss standing on the opposite side of the clearing and headed over. Pyrrha had said that she didn't mind where I carried her after all.

"Hello there."

"Ah, Coal. Good morning," Weiss said. "Is Pyrrha…"

"I'm alright," Pyrrha hummed, opening her eyes. "Just a little tired."

"Oh," Weiss hummed

"Coal, Pyrrha," Winter greeted in a relaxed manner. "I see that the two of you decided to get to work early. I had planned on assisting by having my summons help dig, but it appears that it was not necessary." Pausing, she observed Pyrrha who was now actively listening in, observing the pair of sisters. "That was certainly an impressive display, Pyrrha."

"Oh, um… Thank you," Pyrrha gave a strained smile.

"You seem to be a little uncomfortable," Winter noticed. "If you would prefer it, I could have one of my summons carry you. They might not be the most comfortable, but they would offer more support."

Pyrrha tightened her grip. "No, I'm quite alright, thank you very much," She replied in a stiff tone, giving no room for argument.

Raising an eyebrow, Winter nodded and turned towards the broken drill. "Now that the hard part's done, we'll be able to figure out what went wrong," She said, tapping her chin in thought. "The damage done to it seems fairly intense. When I next speak to Ironwood, I'll have to recommend that he flies an expert out here instead of having it shipped back to Atlas."

"Father's not going to be very happy with that," Weiss muttered under her breath, going unheard by both Pyrrha and Winter.

"Weiss… Is everything alright?"

"What?" Weiss blinked. "Oh, I'm fine, thank you," She said, trying to look unbothered before deflating when a piece of metal from the drill snapped off. "Alright. I will admit that this hasn't exactly been ideal. I was supposed to supervise this project and ensure that it ran smoothly and now it's turned out to be a complete failure."

"It is a failure," Winter acknowledged, her gaze softening when Weiss shrunk in on herself. "But it was inevitable. With or without your presence overseeing the mine, this incident still would have happened."

"I doubt father will see it that way," Weiss sighed. "The one in charge gets blamed for the failures after all."

I wouldn't exactly call what happened a failure. A Grimm version of Tyrian attacked us, Salem showed up and now the drill for the Dust mine somehow ended up malfunctioning… Yeah, It seemed more like sabotage than anything else… Or Qrow's Semblance was kicked into overdrive.

Although I'd spent quite a good amount of time in Atlas, I'd never really seen how Jacques interacted with his children, specifically, how he would treat them if they failed or screwed up… I did, however, know that he would strip Weiss of her heiress status if she made a big enough scene… He might even forbid her from going to Beacon.

I wasn't going to allow that to happen.

"There's a lot more going on here than meets the eye," I said. "If Jacques does decide to blame you for what happened here, then I'll have a short talk with him." We were technically business partners and I did own a massive portion of land that had untapped Dust.

"That's really not necessary," Weiss replied. "I'll be scolded at worst… You don't need to go that far for me."

"It really wouldn't be that big of an issue for me," I hummed. "We're friends after all."

"Yes… Yes we are," Weiss smiled.

My attention was brought elsewhere when I felt the ground vibrate, turning towards the large mound of dirt. I watched as a portion of it collapsed inward, filling the hole that had formed after Pyrrha had unearthed the drill.

That was probably for the best right now. It was possible that there were some Dust deposits in the underground cave, but it was incredibly unstable and would be unsafe to enter… Not to mention the Grimm spawning pool that Pyrrha and Yang had come across. It was likely a remnant of the pool the Ancient Grimm that occupied these lands used to regenerate itself.

The cave system was likely littered with these and while it would make mining Dust a bit harder, it did also leave a few interesting opportunities. It could give scientists the chance to study how Grimm were formed so that they could better understand them and how to kill them, or I could burn it with Sun Breathing and possibly create an area completely devoid of Grimm, allowing for a new city to be built.

I could also use it for training. While I didn't gain any XP from the Grimm I killed, setting up a combat farm using Grimm spawned from the pool seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up… Although, that might just be the gamer in me talking… It was a fun idea though.

Damnit. Why couldn't I have a full Gamer System? Things would have been so much simpler… although, I didn't like the idea of my life being dictated by how much HP I have. Stubbing my toe or getting a splinter a few thousand times only to fall over dead due to having no HP seemed both funny and a little concerning to me.

I was going to have to talk to Ozpin about this, when it came to Grimm, he did have the most experience… I was also going to have to talk to him about Raven who had taken up residence in one of the many empty cabins. The sooner Raven became Ozpin's problem to deal with, the better.

Transporting her there wouldn't even be that big of a problem, she still had a connection to Taiyang after all... I think. All it would take is sending him to Ozpin's office and then having her open a portal. Hell… Ruby, Qrow and Yang could tag along and skip on the travel time.

It was almost funny. Despite all her power, Raven's Semblance was far more useful than her Maiden powers. Instantaneous travel over any distance seemed far more useful than the ability to use the elements without Dust.

…Breathe…

Opening the cabin door, Yang stormed out, slamming it shut behind her and stomped off out into the woods, her eyes having long since turned red from her Semblance activating.

"Yang, wait up!" Ruby called out, chasing after her sister.

"Go away Ruby," Yang all but growled. "I'm really not in the mood."

"But what happened?" Ruby asked, following a few steps behind. "You were so excited earlier…"

"I don't wanna talk about it," Yang snapped. Lashing out, she punched a nearby tree, shattering its base. "Just… leave me alone. Everybody else does."

"Yang…" Ruby trailed off

Taking a short breath, Yang forcefully calmed herself and turned to face her sister. "I'll be back in a few hours. Just… Go back to the cabin."

Fidgeting, Ruby shot a quick glance towards the camp, before resolving herself. "Nope."

"Ruby," Yang said warningly, her temper beginning to flare.

"I'm not leaving," Ruby replied, taking a step forward. "I don't know what happened between you and your mom, but…"

"She's not my mom," Yang muttered, glaring at the ground. No mother could say the things Raven had said to her face. "Summer was my mom. Raven's just some person who decided to be a bandit… I can see why dad didn't want to talk about her."

"Yang…" Stepping closer, Ruby pulled her sister into a comforting hug.

Leaning into the hug, a few stray tears dripped onto the ground. "She told me that I shouldn't expect her to save me again… That it was a onetime thing. If I'm strong, I'll survive, but if I'm weak… I'm apparently not worth saving."

Ruby hugged her tighter.

"What am I even supposed to say to that? The person who gave birth to me doesn't care if I live or die… Only if I'm strong?" Yang asked desperately. "I just… I don't know what I should do."

"Let it out," A voice called out from the tree tops.

"What?!" Yang asked. Drying her eyes, she pushed Ruby behind her. "Who's there?"

"Just me," Maria grinned, dropping down.

"Maria… Why are you here?" Yang asked, her face turning red in a mix of anger and embarrassment. "Wait, were you spying on me?"

"Not exactly," Maria hummed. "I was just making sure that you didn't run into anything that you wouldn't be able to deal with. You of all people should know how dangerous it can get out here in the woods, Blondie… I think Tyrian's bones might be lying around here somewhere."

"That still kinda sounds like spying," Ruby mumbled softly.

"I don't need a babysitter," Yang scowled.

"I never said you did. You're a fairly skilled young Huntress after all," Maria replied, smiling softly. "But I can see that you do need to talk." Moving in a blur, Maria unfolded her scythe and sliced through a tree, a trio of logs down on the ground. "So, what do you say? Got anything you want to get off your chest… And please, no boob jokes. Those might work with Coal, but not me." Shifting her scythe back into its cane form, Maria sat down.

"Um… Do you think I could get another log? Mine's covered in sap," Ruby asked.

"Hmmm, no." Maria smirked.

"Really?" Ruby squeaked.

"Nah, I'm just messing with you," Maria chuckled. "It's something us old folks like to do from time to time. Go ahead and get yourself another log."

"Thank you," Ruby said, her rifle slipping into its scythe form.

Glancing towards Ruby who was in the process of cutting the perfect log, Yang sighed and sat down. "There's not much to say. You've already heard all of it."

"That is true. Raven's a real piece of work," Maria hummed. "And I thought my dad was bad."

"Your dad?" Yang asked, shifting a little closer.

Placing her cane in front of her, Maria leaned forward, smiling wistfully. "He was part of a… harder generation… The one that fought in the Great War. Seeing the worst Remnant had to offer hardened him and left him bitter."

"He sounds a little a bit of an ass," Yang muttered as Ruby sat down beside her.

"Yeah, he kind of was. He was the one that trained me to be a Huntress," Maria waved her off. "It was bitter work. I was covered in scrapes and bruises more often than not and my Aura was broken at least once per day. His training did pay off in the end and I became a fairly successful Huntress… Although, I did get a bit of a big head which led to this," She gestured towards her goggles.

"I'm not exactly sure why you're telling me this," Yang admitted. "It doesn't seem similar to my situation at all. Your dad pushed you too hard while my… While Raven's the opposite."

"Eh, not really. I'm just talking for the sake of talking," Maria said. "I thought it would help since I overheard you talking about Raven… Even the playing field."

"You didn't have to do that."

"Maybe not, but I wanted to," Maria hummed softly. "Look, concerning Raven… I can't really tell you what to do, that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself, but I can suggest that you focus on those whose opinions really matter… Those who showed up and actively chose to be a part of your life," She gestured towards Ruby.

Looking towards her sister who looked up at her, Yang smiled and ruffled her hair, much to Ruby's annoyance.

"Yaaang!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Yang said, looking up. "So I guess it was the same with you?"

"If only," Maria chuckled mirthlessly. "I locked myself away and hid after these goggles became a necessity and before I knew it, a few decades passed. It wasn't until after Coal came into my life that I started opening up again."

"I'm sorry… That must have sucked," Yang muttered in an unsure tone.

"It is what it is," Maria shrugged. "It's easy to lock yourself away after a tragedy or some type of trauma, but opening your heart to the world… That's really tough to do. I guess the reason I'm telling you this is because the two of you kind of remind me a little of myself and I don't want to see you go down the same path I went."

"We won't," Ruby promised confidently before immediately backtracking. "Not to say that you lived a bad life, it's just that…"

"You don't need to explain yourself, I get it," Maria laughed for a few moments before sobering up. "There's… Something that I need to talk to the two of you about, concerning Ruby. I was trying to wait for the right time, but I don't think I can delay it any longer."

"It's not anything too bad I hope," Yang hummed, regaining some of her earlier playfulness.

"It does involve Salem," Maria noted.

A cold shiver went down Yang's back. "Crap."

"Um, what's this about?" Ruby asked nervously.

Maria sighed as she brushed a hand through her hair, thinking how best to broach the subject. "Ruby, you and I share a similar trait, one that made me a target back in my youth."

"A love for scythes?" Ruby guessed, glancing towards Maria's cane.

Yang slapped her palm to her head.

"No, although we do both wield a similar weapon, it's not that," Maria grinned. "It's your eye colour. Not many people have Silver eyes, but those that do have a massive advantage over the Grimm. We're capable of petrifying them with a single glance."

"That all sounds a little…" Yang began.

"Awesome," Ruby finished.

"It may sound a little too much like a fairytale, but trust me, it is very real," Maria said, glancing towards Yang. "Back when I was in my prime, there weren't many Grimm that I had to worry about. Having nothing to fear from the Grimm, I actively hunted them on my own and acted recklessly… Until I was attacked by a woman named Tock and her two followers." She paused for a few moments, remembering her final fight as the fabled Grimm Reaper.

"What happened next?" Yang pressed, a sinking feeling forming in her gut.

"We fought and I managed to take out her two henchmen, before Tock caught me off guard and slashed out my eyes," Maria explained, drawing a horrified gasp from Ruby while Yang looked nauseas. "Tock mentioned that she had a master. It was only recently that I discovered who she was talking about… Salem."

"Wait, if Salem is targeting people with Silver eyes, does that mean…"

"Mom," Yang muttered, clenching her fists closed. "Why are you only telling us this now?! Why didn't anyone mention this before?!"

"Careless realism costs souls," Maria replied. "With everything that was going on, I hoped to give the two of you some time to adjust, but I can't wait any longer. There is no perfect time to tell you about this."

"Yeah, well, what the hell are we supposed to do with this now?!" Yang all but exploded. "Someone should have told us… We should have been preparing for this!"

"That's why I'm telling you this now," Maria continued, unfazed by Yang's outburst. "At this point, I've spent more of my life without my eyes, but that doesn't mean that I can't give a few tips on how to use them."

"I think I'd like that," Ruby said.

"Are you sure about this, Ruby?" Yang asked worriedly. "Salem might not know about you. If you start learning how to use your eyes, you might attract attention."

"But what if she does?" Ruby replied. "Wouldn't it be safer if I learnt how to use them… Besides, I could always keep them for emergencies… Like a super secret weapon."

Yang shook her head. "Only you, Ruby," She sighed before turning towards Maria. "This isn't some kind of messed up joke, is it?"

"Sadly, it isn't."

"Damnit," Yang cursed under her breath.

…Breathe…

Stepping into a small glade, I was greeted to the odd sight of Ruby glaring at a tree, pulling a variety of different faces as she struggled to do something while Maria sat up on a tree branch, watching over her.

"So… What's going on here?"

"Ah, Coal," Ruby jumped. "Nothing, we're just… Um…"

"I'm just trying to get her to use her Silver eyes for the first time," Maria interrupted, hopping down. "It's not exactly going well. It's been so long that I think I might have forgotten how my eyes worked."

"Wait, you know about the whole eye lasers thing?" Ruby asked.

"Maria told me about them a while back," I explained, smiling at the way Ruby described her Silver Eyes before I turned back towards Maria. "Think back to the first time you ever used them."

From what I could recall, Ruby's Silver Eyes first activated when she was forced in an incredibly stressful situation, witnessing Cinder killing Pyrrha. There was no way in hell that I was going to let that come to pass, so we were going to have to figure out an alternate way to trigger her eyes.

"That's just the thing, it didn't really take me much effort to use them," Maria replied. "My father originally had me use a mantra, but even that wasn't completely necessary."

That sounded a lot like Pavlovian conditioning to me. "So like a mental trigger that…"

"I really don't think I'm following what you two are talking about," Ruby interrupted. "I don't get it. What's a mantra and how can I use it?"

"Right, sorry," I apologized. I'd gotten a little caught up in the mechanics behind her Silver Eyes that I'd forgotten to explain how they worked. "A mantra is a phrase that you repeat to yourself, if you repeat it every time you do something, it can become a habit and you'll eventually be doing that thing without having to think about it."

"I think I get it. It's like how when my dad accidentally hits his toe against the coffee table, he swears even when he tries not to?"

That wasn't exactly what I was going for, but it kind of worked. "Sure?" I hummed.

"Okay, so once I learn how to use my eyes, all I'll need to do is remember my mantra and that'll make using them easier," Ruby noted. "Now I just gotta figure out how they work."

Glancing towards Maria, she motioned for me to continue. "Well what have you been doing so far?"

"Um… I was following what Maria said and thinking about everyone I love," Ruby chuckled awkwardly. "And also… How cool it would be to petrify Grimm just by looking at them."

Right… That made sense.

"Instead of focusing on everyone that you love, try focusing on your happiest memory with your family," I suggested. At least that way, she would be a little more focused. "Close your eyes too, that should help you get a better picture."

"Okay," Ruby hummed. Closing her eyes, her face scrunched up into a look of concentration.

"Where are you?"

"Oh," Ruby jumped in surprise. "I didn't think we would be talking while I was doing this… Um, I'm at the arcade. It's my tenth birthday and I just won a prize, but some guys tried to steal it… Yang beat them up."

That did sound like Yang. "But what if they weren't just some guys? What if they were Grimm disguised as guys?"

"It doesn't matter, Yang would still beat them up," Ruby dismissed the thought. "And since they were Grimm, I'd be able to help without having to worry about getting into trouble," She said, subconsciously shifting her gun into its scythe form.

"Um, Ruby… You and your sister might be really awesome, but we're trying to shock you into using your eyes," I sighed. "Maybe we should start over. Is there anyone that you care about that wouldn't be able to fight off a hoard of Grimm… Like if your uncle ended up drinking too much and passing out just as there was an attack."

"I think uncle Qrow fights better when he's drunk," Ruby noted. "But I see what you mean. I suppose there was Zwei when he was a puppy. He didn't have his Aura unlocked at the time, so he wouldn't have been able to protect himself."

Now we were talking…

"Luckily I'm there to help save him," Ruby grinned.

"Your shoes are tied together," I deadpanned. "And so are your hands. You also forgot your scythe at home."

"Then I'll, um… I'll… I'll figure it out."

"There's not much time, Ruby. The Grimm have Zwei cornered," I pressed.

Ruby began to nervously fidgeted as she failed to come up with an idea. "I'll, um… I'll… No!" Ruby's eyes snapped open and a tiny amount of silver light shone sparking from her eyes.

"Well damn, it worked," Maria hummed, shooting me a questioning look. "How'd you know to do that?"

"Wait, it did?" Ruby asked softly,

"Just from an expression I heard a while ago," I explained. "True focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity. By the way, you did really well, Ruby."

"I did?" Ruby asked, before an excited grin came to her face. "I did!"

"Now all you have to do is keep practicing and you'll eventually be able to use it whenever you want," I continued, before looking around. "By the way, where's Yang? I thought she'd be here for this."

"She said that she was going to see if Pyrrha was up for another spar," Maria answered.

"Yang was a little stressed out when she learned that Salem might be after me," Ruby explained. "She normally likes to unwind with a fight."

Ah, well, that might be a little difficult. Although Pyrrha hadn't actually needed me to carry her, she had still tired herself out and fallen asleep… From my experience with a sleeping Pyrrha, she was all but impossible to wake up.

"Let's try that again."

I was experiencing some difficulties uploading this chapter... I still actually am. I'm only able to post this due to a workaround that I might only be able to do once. It keeps giving me an error message which seems to be coming from fanfics side of things. Hopefully they sort it out before Friday or I might not be able to post the next chapter of PTL.

Just letting you all know that, if I'm ever not able to post here for whatever reason, the next chapter will always be on my P word account without needing any form of subscription. This chapter's been available there for a few hours now.

This was a bit of a cooldown chapter, setting a few things up for the future. Yang meets Raven and it doesn't go well as Raven explains her one save rule which pretty much amounts to letting Yang die if she ever gets in over her head. Coal laments not having an Xp system which he could have exploited by farming the Grimm spawning pit and Ruby gets a little practice with using her eyes.

Anyways, I'm up to chapter 43 on the P word website.

P
A
T
R
E
O
N

I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.

Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.

The next chapter will be posted on the 20th of January... Assuming this site works properly.
See you all then, dudes and dudettes.