Ch 21 - The Mountain Kingdom
A/N: What's this? Two VAAPPR chapters in a row?
Anyways, I'm taking some artistic liberties with the political situation in Mistral. From everything I've gathered from canon, political control by the council outside of Mistral itself is tenuous at best, and the entire kingdom, while not in crisis, has been on the decline since the end of the Great War. Pair that with Lionheart ruining things further by gutting generations of huntsmen who would otherwise defend the nation and help solidify support in the central government, and I believe that in a world where Salem didn't choose this generation to wage war against Remnant, that its entirely plausible that in a pair of generations at most, the kingdom would have collapsed, with many of the smaller cities and towns outside of Mistral fragmenting into their own nations and confederations, and that in a case like Argus, which already has close ties to Atlas, some might seek to join another kingdom entirely. It wouldn't be a particularly bloody collapse, if only because Lionheart would have rendered Mistral proper unable to rein in its territory through force of arms (since of the four kingdoms, only Atlas has the proper military that a nation-state would require to defeat one or more secessionist factions), but I personally don't believe that Mistral as a nation-state controlling the entirety of Anima would've lasted more than another century at most.
None of this has a real effect on the story here and now, but I just wanted to preemptively justify any worldbuilding I do that doesn't strictly follow canon.
So, quick aside (man, feels weird editing these Author's Notes so long after the initial writings), Happy 2025, everyone. Shaping up to be a shitty year, politically (angrily grumbles about the human cheeto going back into the Whitehouse), but it's shaping up to be a pretty epic year for Gaming. We got Elden Ring: Nightreign (DAMN, am I looking forwards to Round Two with the Nameless King), The Witcher IV, Monster Hunter: Wilds, Doom: The Dark Ages, Subnautica 2, Gears of War: E-Day, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater (I swear to Gwyn if they put an ultra-long ladder) and possibly GTA 6, but I've also seen speculation that it's gonna get delayed to next year, so between that and all the "We got X before GTA6" memes, I'll take that one with a grain of salt. Now if only SONY weren't a bunch of dicks, and I could play Helldivers 2 on my Xbox… like, I am totally convinced that SONY, between the PSN fiasco and not putting HD2 on Xbox, is the only reason Helldivers 2 didn't win Game of the Year… or Bloodborne… like, seriously, stop fucking sinking more money into Conord already and just remaster Bloodborne and release it on all platforms! PLEASE!
…Ahem… In other news, I binged Murder Drones on Youtube recently, and uh, holy shit, I think it might be the single best Indie Animated Series I've ever seen. Like, sweet Robo-Jesus, it was good enough that I might add a Murder Drones fic to my to-do list. Also, that soundtrack had NO RIGHT to go as hard as it did. Like, fucking kudos to you, AJDiSpitiro, you knocked that shit out of the park. Like, I CANNOT stop listening to Bite Me (also, feat Zephyrianna, like you madlads legit got a Vtuber who does covers to sing for you, fucking awesome, and her fans loosing their shit when they heard the song on the live premire of EP8 was fucking hilarious) especially, nevermind the rest of the OST. I have not watched something in a while that legit causes me to catch myself full on smiling whenever I think about it. Seriously; Murder Drones, great godsdamned show.
Anyways, welcome to Mistral, everyone.
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)
Mistral, also known as the Mountain City or the Mountain Kingdom, was built upon just that. Whereas Vacuo used the deserts around it as an environmental barrier to ward off the Grimm, Vale was blessed by a mountain range on one side, unusually dense forests on two more, and the sea on a third, and Atlas and Mantle were protected by the frigid tundras around them, Mistral chose the mountains themselves to be its geographic defense. The city was built in some of the valleys within a mountain range, the main center of habitation being a sprawling mass of buildings nestled in the valleys created a a group of mountains circling the entire area, with twin peaks in the middle, crowded by structures between them, all along their slopes, and even upon their summits. The crowning achievement of the city's architects was a massive series of bridges and platforms between the tops of those twin mountains, atop which was the kingdom's seat of governance, along with their CCT tower and Haven Academy itself. Vyliria's personal thoughts on that were that it was monumentally stupid, because the beating heart of the city could literally be brought down upon the housing below, which in and of themselves were a few short steps from outright slums that were kept in the dark by the literal shadows cast from the rich above. The unkindled elected to keep those thoughts to herself, not wanting to deal with the hassle of offending the locals, and actually caring about not offending the half of her team that was native to the kingdom. Though she would say that Mistral was honestly impressive with how well it weaved itself into nature, with farmlands and forestry creeping right up to the city proper, and greenery and parks visible inside the city limits from miles away. It vaguely reminded her of the similar aesthetics found in the upper levels of the Ringed City. And the architecture, which looked as if it was outright copied from the Eastern Kingdoms during the Age of Fire, was also pleasing to the eye.
Politically, Mistral controlled the entire continent of Anima, making it the largest nation by both landmass and population on Remnant. In actuality, ever since the monarchy that the populace had wholeheartedly supported was deposed at the end of Remnant's Great war, central control had continuously eroded to where the council of Mistral only had nominal control of anything past the horizons visible from its peaks. The problem was only further exacerbated by the fact that in addition to deposing the previously popular ruling dynasty, the last king of Vale had also forced Mistral to disband its professional military and adopt the politically independent huntsman system which was also being taken up by Vale and Vacuo. Without any actual means to enforce their rule, local governors, bureaucrats, magistrates, and other officials were able to take power over their settlements without opposition. Cities like Windpath payed less and less taxes with each passing year, and Argus, on the kingdom's northern coast, much more closely tied with Atlas, was nominally independent. Pyrrha had mentioned that it wouldn't likely happen in her lifetime, but from growing up in that northern city, it was entirely possible that Argus may seek to split entirely from Mistral and become part of Atlas fully in two or three generations, taking as much as a fifth of the continent's landmass with them. In southeastern Anima, the Razorback Mountain range occupied a rather large area, towering peaks nigh-inhospitable, and with violent wind-currents abounding across the entire region, the interior of the geographical area remained unexplored, and even unseen by human or faunus eyes outright, today. To the west of one of the most unknown places in modern Remnant, where the White Fang was rumored to be headquartered, some dozen moderately sized settlements and two minor cities had deposed council rule in their entirety, one of the cities and some of the towns reorganizing their very economy and society around a system of parliamentary rule by representatives selected by organized unions of workers from various urban and rural industries. Said settlements, regardless of ideology, had formed a "League of Southern Anima," and had nationalized SDC mines and assets in the region, with only Vale's intervention as a mediator to secure monetary compensation for the megacorporation averting an Atlesian military response. They had also begun to train their own huntsmen and raise a professional militia to support them, and refused to recognize the authority of Mistral itself. The only reason they hadn't officially declared independence was that they refused to acknowledge the Mistralian government as a legitimate entity to do so from. The whole situation was honestly a fascinating subject to read about, and something that Vyliria had resolved to get back to when an opportunity presented itself at a later date. Though with the southern settlements as the notable exception, much like vassal states of feudal ages long past, for the time being at least, the cities and towns of Anima still elected to follow Mistral itself in terms of foreign policy and diplomacy.
The inhabitants of Shion that had made the full trip to Mistral were now being helped by the city to find new housing and restart their lives, and Azul Carmon had left the party with a heartfelt promise to help those refugees to settle down, along with his best wishes for VAAPPR themselves. And also, of much more tangible assistance to the team, he set them up with an appointment to see Professor Leonardo Lionheart, the headmaster of Haven Academy, and currently their only real lead on where Cinder came from, and by extension, a reasonable means to combat Salem. Well, reasonable in the sense that the only other remotely viable course of action would be to set out into the Grimmlands and start killing the locals until Salem was located, but that strategy wouldn't exactly go well for anyone besides herself, and Vyliria wasn't exactly keen on such a herculean task to begin with.
For VAAPPR themselves, as it would turn out, Pyrrha had made quite a lot of lien in her youth off her tournament career. It took a bit of convincing from Jaune (and a none-too-subtle statement from Vyliria that it would ensure less fans bothered both the team and Pyrrha herself if they went for better, more private, housing), but the ex-championship fighter had splurged from her bank-accounts, and they were renting a moderately sized house in the upper, more wealthy parts of the city, complete with a backyard and training area. The not-so-humble abode was part of an entire complex of such buildings, specifically constructed to be rented by huntsmen and huntresses from outside the city who needed a place to stay for longer than a few days. They'd paid for a month's rent, and depending on what the future held, if they were staying longer they'd worry about paying for the next month then. If worse came to worse, Vyliria had a downright absurd amount of precious metals, gems, and jewelry she'd looted over the years that could be converted to funds, though she doubted it would ever come to that. They'd taken a day to settle in, Nora had gotten Magnhild repaired, and Penny had searched for and located a few places within the city that she wanted to visit, but their allotted time to see the Headmaster was today, and so to Haven Academy they went.
The campus itself followed the same aesthetic as the rest of the city, and was quite impressive to look at. However, the first problem had reared its head virtually as soon as they set foot on the school ground. Vyliria understood that there was no active semester occurring, and that as such most of the students weren't currently on campus, but even so, there should have been some staff visible, or students from outside of the city who had elected to continue dorming at Haven over the break. At the very least, by the time they had entered the faculty building, they should have seen at least one other person, even if it was just a custodian making the rounds to keep the grounds in order. But by all appearances, the school was empty.
She decided to voice as much. "Am I the only one off-put by the complete lack of people here?"
"Statistically speaking, it's extremely improbable that we would get this far into campus without encountering at least one other human or faunus," Penny replied.
Nora shrugged, "Maybe we're actually just really unlucky?" Jaune went to open his mouth to reply, but before he could, Nora cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted, "HELOOOOOOO? ANYONE HOME?"
A few seconds ticked by. Ren put his hand on Nora's shoulder. "I don't think anyone's here."
"Or, if they were, they definitely would've heard that," Jaune remarked.
"Unless they're deaf!" Nora countered.
"It is very strange," Pyrrha concluded, electing to brush past the ginger bomber's statement without taking the bait.
Vyliria's gut was telling her something wasn't right. "Excuse me?" With everyone's attention, she continued. "Perhaps… given the situation, we should refrain from telling Professor Lionheart about the unique encounter we had with the Branwen Tribe. Obviously we mention the encounter itself, but can we just omit that particular detail? At least until we're certain we can trust him?"
"Uh, why?" Nora asked.
"I'd rather not trust sensitive information to a man we haven't met when everything about this screams at me that something foul is afoot."
"Isn't that just… a little paranoid, Vyl?" Jaune questioned her.
Vylira pulled her hood down, and fixed a deadpan gaze upon the blonde knight. "The last time you all mocked my paranoia, the Breach happened literally less than a minute later."
Jaune blinked, opening his mouth, and then closing it and looking thoughtful. "She is right," Pyrrah murmured.
"Just, humor me, please?" the Irithyllian asked.
"I see no reason not to," Ren chimed in.
"And I don't see how it can hurt us," Penny helpfully added.
The unkindled threw a glance to Nora. "If you feel like it's the right thing to do, go for it," the ginger bomber supplied.
Jaune shrugged. "Alright. Let's keep going then."
And so they did, though Vyliria elected to manifest the Moonlight Greatsword onto her back, wanting to be able to draw it even faster than calling it from her storage could manage. They cautiously made their way to the Headmaster's office, still not seeing another soul. By the time they reached the door to said office, Vyliria's unease had spread to the rest of the team, and weapons were fully drawn and readied as they faced the door. Vyliria put one hand on the handle, as the other held her blade, and then twisted the handle and slammed the door open. It banged as it struck the wall, and appeared to scare the elderly man who had been walking towards it from its other side half to death. The man, who Vyliria could only assume was Leonardo Lionheart himself, had skin on the darker side, and what she could only describe as a short mane of gray hair around his head, reminiscent of that on an actual lion. Said hair continued down sideburns, and met at the front of his face in a beard and mustache. He had dark gray pants and brown shoes, a long-sleeved white shirt with buttons on the wrists. Over this was a dark brown vest, with lighter brown upon its edges and brass buttons, and over that was a cloak of sorts, comprising several shades of brown the inner portion of which was open at the front and went down to his waist, and the outer portion of which stopped a few inches below his shoulders, with holes cut in it for said shoulders, as well as a collar that was folded back.
"Good heavens, children, you scared me half to death!" the man cried out from where his fear had caused him to fall to the floor.
"I would like to point out that I'm older than your entire civilization," Vyliria dryly remarked.
He swallowed. "You… you're Vyliria Avalon. I… apologies. I should have met you at the front entrance, but time slipped away from me."
Vyliria sighed as the man stood back up. "Ah, Pyrrha Nikos, Penny Polendina, and the three of you must be the other students Azul told me about."
"Jaune Arc," the blonde supplied.
"Nora Valkyrie!" the ginger bomber exclaimed.
"Lie Ren," the stoic man rounded off the introductions.
"A pleasure to meet you all," the man said, offering a half bow. "Leonardo Lionheart, at your service. Though I'm afraid that most of the staff is away until classes resume."
Vyliria crossed her arms. "Not to sound rude, but that seems to be the height of stupidity, especially when one considers that after Salem tried to destroy Vale, it's entirely possible she could turn on Mistral next."
Lionheart blinked, gobsmacked, panic clear on his face. "H-how do you-"
"An… associate of mine, who has surprisingly managed to endure from the same era I hail from, picked up that information himself over the millenia, and upon discovering that he was still around, we met, and he informed me of the relics, the Brothers, the Maidens, and Salem. I then elected to fill in my friends. So again, why do you think it's a good idea to leave Haven unguarded?"
"You… you filled them in?" Lionheart seemed to not be understanding a relatively simple concept, and Vyliria sighed in annoyance.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed Nora lean over to Penny, and not-at-all quietly ask, "So… is this not going at all like anyone thought it would?"
()
They were in the office proper now. Lionheart was seated behind his desk. "So," the Headmaster began. "I imagine you have questions."
"Well, first and foremost, Cinder apparently came from your school," Vyliria spat out.
"We checked their records the day after the attack on Beacon," Lionheart replied. "Lies and forgeries, the lot of them."
"That speaks very poorly of your data security," Penny stated matter-of-factly.
"And doubly makes me question why you think it's a good idea to leave Haven empty right now," Vyliria added dryly.
"Mistral is in chaos," Lionheart defended. "Everyone in the kingdom saw you get murdered on live television, the Grimm and White Fang descend upon Vale, and just after communications cut out, the first news we get from Sanus is that some kind of walking corpse of a demigoddess single-handedly caused a storm that blanketed the entire city while calling down blue lightning and causing an explosion that could be heard as far as Patch while fighting and killing a Maiden. The amount of negativity the night of and the days following the attack caused record amounts of Grimm to surge forth." Leo adopted a regretful expression. "We lost many good huntsmen that week, including teachers and students from this very school. In light of that, in order to keep morale across the kingdom up, I ordered them to go to their homes, so that the people would feel safe and therefore not attract the Grimm."
"That is fairly valid reasoning," Pyrrha spoke up.
Vyliria looked back to the crimsonette, and then turned to Lionheart once more. "I'll give you that, but it still seems like a poor idea to leave Haven virtually defenseless. Are there no huntsmen at all that you could station at the school?"
Lionheart gave a sardonic laugh. "Ha! If you think you'd have better luck convincing the rest of the council that I need huntsmen more than they do, be my guest. But otherwise, I'm making the best of a terrible situation."
"Then, there's nothing you can do to help us right now?" Jaune asked.
"I'm afraid not young man," Lionheart answered. "I'll share my contact information with you, so that we can easily arrange another meeting in the event that I do find any information that can lead you to whoever faked Cinder's records. And, since you're already in the know, I'll assume that you're also aware that the Spring Maiden fled from her responsibilities a decade ago. If I learn anything of her whereabouts, can I rely on your help in bringing her back to Mistral, especially considering that one of you bested a Maiden in combat before?"
VAAPPR shared several glances between each other, before Vyliria gave a response. "Should any of us find out information on Spring's whereabouts, we'll be willing to help you bring her back to Haven," she lied with a completely straight face.
"Right. Thank you, and I wish you all a good day," Leonardo concluded.
"And you as well," Vyliria responded, not-at-all meaning it, even as she turned around to leave. The rest of her friends, similarly discontented by the lack of anything meaningful found at the end of their journey, began to follow.
Penny lingered behind for a second. "It was nice to meet you, Professor Lionheart!" the gynoid said with a smile and a wave.
"Likewise," the man responded, and then Penny shut the door behind her.
And then Penny immediately leapt to the side as Vyliria slid up to that same door, and put her ear to it, sticking a finger in her other ear to block out sound from the opposite direction.
"What-" Vyliria cut Ren off with a raised finger and a sharp "SHHH!"
It was muffled, but she still heard a voice over some kind of call that wasn't Leonardo's own. "Oh, Leo, we have got to work on your improvisational skills."
"A-Ah! Watts! You were… listening in to that entire meeting?"
"Of course I was. The second you told me that you'd be meeting with Avalon I made the time to listen in. Keep them close for now. Our Mistress will be interested to know that the Irihtyllian is in Mistral right now, and out of the reach of any of Ozpin's pawns. And I'm quite certain that Emerald and Tyrian will be even more so."
"Of-of course! Is that all?"
"For now, yes. But do be on call. It's entirely possible that I'll need to contact you again before the day is out."
Vyliria heard enough. She stormed away from the door, throwing up her hood and silently motioning for her friends to follow her. She ignored their questions until they were off-campus, after which…
"That Gwyndamned, Abyss-fucking, bastard-son-of-a-whore!" she spat out with enough vitriol to make her companions flinch in surprise.
"What did you hear?" Nora asked.
"That piece of rat-shit started speaking to someone working for Salem the second they thought we were out of earshot. Someone called Watts, who mentioned Emerald and Tyrian by name. Faked records my arse, the rotten two-faced waste of flesh probably put them there himself!"
That sobered them all. "Well," Ren was the one to break the silence. "I suppose you were right not to trust him."
"What are we going to do?" Penny asked.
"Nothing for now. They don't know that we know," Vyliria said. "We'll take a bit to settle in, so we don't appear to be suspicious. Maybe see a few of those places you wanted to visit, Penny. Perhaps that archeology museum?"
"That would be fun!"
Vyliria hummed an acknowledgement. "We'll take a few days to rest after the journey here. From what it sounded like, there's no immediate plans involving us or Haven, so we may as well enjoy ourselves, or you'll all be hypocrites for constantly telling me to unwind. Then four, maybe five days hence, we'll sit down, outline a plan, and start training so we'll be ready for a confrontation." She paused, and blinked a few times beneath her hood, before adding abashedly, "If that's okay with you all, I mean…"
"Yeah, that's fine," Jaune answered. "Ah man, we really stepped into a mess, didn't we?"
"A mess? This is par-for-the-course for me," Vyliria half-joked. Then she sighed, back to being serious. "I'm going to write a letter to send back to Goodwitch in Vale and warn her. Penny, you were going to send a letter to your father and General Ironwood tonight, correct?"
"I was planning on doing so."
"Mention Lionheart's betrayal in it. And this 'Watts.' Perhaps Atlas knows something about him. And we need to keep quiet about both that and Raven in our electronic messages. If they know we're here, its entirely possible that whoever managed to make the virus that tried to hack Atlas' army at the Vytal Festival could be trying to intercept our electronic messages."
"I didn't even think of that," Pyrrha muttered.
"Dear Gwyn, what would you people do without me," Vyliria sarcastically said. "Oh, and for the record, none of you are ever allowed to call me paranoid again. It's not paranoia when everyone actually is out to get you."
(Pyrrha)
All things considered, their first proper day in Mistral was going pretty poorly. After the let-down at Haven, Nora had dragged all of them to a noodle kiosk, and Vyliria had managed to get food poisoning… which was evidently different enough from regular poisons and toxins that her moss clumps couldn't cure it. Something about how since it was technically food, it wasn't designed to be hostile to the body, but was simply due to poor preparations/ingredients, and while her moss was great for all manners of poison, they were made specifically only for poison. They'd gone straight back to their rented home after that disastrous lunch, and Vyliria had promptly spent the next five and a half hours in one of the bathrooms in pain, and at one point Penny had become near hysterical in her efforts to convince the Irithyllian that it wasn't worth it to just kill herself to stop said pain, and then make the trek back from Kuroyuri with an undisturbed digestive tract. Personally, Pyrrha was torn between joining the gynoid's emotional state due to the stress of such a situation, and laughing at the downright absurdity of it. It had taken the whole team and a moderate amount of guilt-tripping, and Ren and Nora had continued to hover around that particular bathroom just in case, but they'd ultimately convinced Vyliria to just endure the situation… though the unkindled had vowed that she was done eating solid food for good.
At the end of the day, it was probably something they'd laugh about later in life, but as of right now, the atmosphere was still somewhat uncomfortable. Though Vyliria finally appeared to be done alternating between vomiting and voiding her bowels and was hesitantly sitting with the rest of them, clad in the Dancer's armor for the sake of comfort instead of the attire she'd been wearing on the journey to Mistral. For the moment at least, the Irithyllian seemed content merely listening as they debated on a movie to watch tonight. Which was when the knock on the door happened.
A few seconds passed, before a second series of knocks. "None of us were expecting visitors, right?" Jaune whispered.
"I know I wasn't. Were you, Ren?" Nora asked, to which she received a shake of the head in response.
Vyliria grimaced, and called forth her sword, rising to her feet and cringing as she moved a hand to her stomach. "Never fucking eating again," she muttered. "Pyrrha, can you get the door?"
"I'll be ready to back her up!" Penny volunteered.
The person outside knocked a third time, and Pyrrha readied her aura and called out, "I'm coming!"
Nora snickered, and then blurted out in a stage-whisper, "That's-what-she-said!"
"Nora!" Ren scolded, as the ginger bomber snickered some more, and Jaune failed to hide the sudden flush to his face.
The Mistralian Champion reached the front door, and cracked it open, looking down to see a young man, who looked to be a farmhand who might have been even younger than Ruby. "Can I help you?"
"Uh, yeah. Is there a Qrow Branwen here?"
"Ruby's Uncle?" Penny asked from behind her.
Pyrrha turned back to the boy. "No, he's not here, or in Mistral to our knowledge."
The boy looked confused for a second, and then looked to his side, whispering, "Well, he wasn't at the bars either, so maybe you can just admit you're wrong already!"
Pyrrha looked back into the building, meeting the confused gazes of her friends… and then the downright shocked expression Vyliria was wearing.
THUNK
The Moonlight Greatsword slipped from her fingers and hit the floor rather loudly, and the boy leaned around to look past Pyrrha and see what made the noise. Vyliria's expression suddenly shifted from shock to annoyance, and she raised a hand to her face, pinching her nose as she let out an explosive sigh. "Oh for fuck's sake! Qrow Branwen, you godsdamned bastard, you absolutely knew about this and didn't tell me." She lowered her hand and addressed Pyrrha. "Let the kid in, and then shut the door, I'll explain in a second."
Pyrrha shrugged, and opened the door the rest of the way, both Penny and her standing to the side. Vyliria turned around and walked back to the couch, sitting down, but none of them missed the fact that her darksign was burning bright enough to be visible through her clothes on her back right shoulder, and she heard the boy gasp as he witnessed the tell-tale sign of Vyliria using her self-termed "soul-sight" for the first time. She sat back, sighing once more, and again pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment before rubbing her eyes. The fact that there were bags starting to develop under them when Vyliria was literally incapable of sleep (yet had never had bags before) hinted to Pyrrha that the Irithyllian had been dealing with a long period of constant stress, and her clear aggravation at whatever she'd seen in the boy's soul certainly wouldn't help that. The kid hesitantly stepped inside, and Pyrrha shut the door behind him.
"So, uh, what's exactly the deal with the kid?" Jaune asked.
"H-hey, my name's Oscar Pine," said boy defended, and then he wilted as Jaune affixed a deadpan gaze upon him.
Vyliria took a breath, and then looked straight at Oscar, raising a hand and pointing at him. "Oscar, over there, has two souls in him. And not like me, where I consume the souls of things I kill, and I have no risk of said souls trying to mess with me." Pyrrha's eyebrows raised in confusion and slight alarm. "No, he's got two… 'equal' souls, for lack of a better term. One of those souls is the boy himself… and I'm almost certain the other one is that of… Professor Ozpin," she finished with a sigh.
Dead silence, in which Pyrrha heard the clock on the wall tick three times before Nora blurted out an incredulous "WHAT?!"
"How?" Jaune followed up.
"Since when?" Ren asked.
"Why?" everyone looked at Penny, who suddenly looked sheepish. "What? That's a valid question too."
"I don't rightly know," Vyliria responded, "Perhaps he… they'd like to explain?"
"I… uh," the boy muttered, then looked to the side for a few seconds. "Okay, okay!" he muttered, and then looked at them again. "Are you sure Qrow isn't here?"
"Definitely not here," Vyliria shot back. "I know he went after his nieces on their trip to Menagerie, and he nearly died saving Ruby from a darkwraith."
"W-what?!" Oscar asked with alarm.
"But," Vyliria continued, seemingly ignoring the question, at least for the time being, "I now know why he asked me to carry this," she finished, and then a wash of embers went down her arm and coalesced into a very familiar cane.
"Is that Ozpin's cane?" Pyrrha asked.
"It is." Vyliria stood back up, and gestured with said cane to where she was just sitting. "Take a seat, Oscar. This is probably fairly overwhelming to you."
"Y-yeah," the young man answered, walking forwards and flopping onto the offered spot. "Thanks, I uh, I'm sorry, I've just never really met huntsmen or huntresses before, and then Pyrrha's famous, and then after the attack on Beacon, the news from Mistral was saying that Penny is an AI, and that you're some kind of ancient living corpse, and it's all so much so suddenly and-"
"Hey," Vyliria said. "As someone who's been through a lot of shit, and has had personal experience with standing before people with important names and not knowing what to do in her youth, just take a few seconds and breathe."
"I… right." He took a few breaths. "Thanks. You're right that this is really out there for me." He took another breath. "Okay, so, Ozpin wants to talk to you. Just so you know, I'll still be here, and still be listening, okay?" Vyliria raised an eyebrow, but otherwise nodded, and Pyrrha looked on as the boy relaxed, and then closed his eyes. A few seconds passed, and then a green shimmer washed over him, and he sat up straight as he took a sharp inhale. His eyes opened back up, and they seemed to glow for a few seconds.
His posture changed, and gone was the shy farmhand, and in his place was a boy who looked to be far more experienced, mature, and wise than his years would suggest. "It is so good to see you again, students," he spoke, Pyrrha jerking her head back in alarm as she swore she heard an ethereal overlay perfectly matching Ozpin's voice for the first words of that sentence. And judging by the reactions of her friends (save Vyliria, who merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow), she wasn't the only one to hear that.
"What just happened?" Jaune asked.
"Professor… Ozpin?" Ren followed up.
"Correct," the boy (man?) responded, "and although I am the one currently speaking, Oscar is still present mentally, and can hear everything we're saying. He's merely handed over the controls, so to speak. I'm afraid this all must be very perplexing," he concluded.
Nora answered first. "I would say its kinda bizarre, confusing, and really hard to believe at all, but when you've lived with Vyliria for as long as we have, it isn't really that out there. Right, Renny?"
"Some of the things we've encountered does make something like this seem more mundane than it probably should be," her boyfriend replied.
"Not really," Vyliria gave her own answer. "It's definitely up there for me, but by far this isn't the weirdest thing I've dealt with. To borrow a contemporary expression, this is just Tuesday for me. Then again, I doubt much can beat literal time travel."
Ozpin(?) seemed slightly taken aback by the nonchalant replies, but continued on. "I… understand that there is quite a lot that I don't know about you, Miss Avalon, and Oscar passing rumors onto me has only further reinforced that. But, I don't suppose I could ask for my cane back, first?"
Vyliria crossed her arms, and Pyrrha could swear the temperature dropped. "That would depend on the answers to a few questions I have, Ozpin."
Ozpin raised an eyebrow, but acquiesced. "Ask away then."
"Your… possession of Oscar. Was it intentional?" she asked as she narrowed her gaze.
"I assure you," the man in a boy's body placated, "I have no choice when it comes to my reincarnations, and if I did, I certainly wouldn't have chosen a child."
"And you swear this, upon all you hold sacred?"
"I do."
"And does your presence have any harmful effects upon Oscar?" the Irithyllian pressed.
"Not at the moment, but eventually, since two souls cannot stay in the same body as equals, they will begin to merge," Pyrrha gasped, an action mirrored by her friends. "Over time, Oscar will cease to be, and eventually his memories and personalities will be incorporated into my own, as have all of my previous hosts. There will no longer be an Oscar, nor an Ozpin, but a sum of the both of us."
"And how does Oscar feel about this?"
Ozpin sighed. "He is understandably upset and scared by that, but also understands that there is nothing either of us can do to prevent it."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Vyliria responded, and Ozpin's eyes widened. "I may be far from an expert on souls and their nature, but I certainly have more experience than most people in this Age, so at some point I will set aside the time to see if I can do something to help you, Oscar."
Ozpin nodded. "Oscar says thank you."
Vyliria grunted in response. "Final question, and this is a personal one from me. Why the Izalith did you catapult us off a cliff for initiation in Beacon?!"
"On the practical level," Ozpin replied without hesitation, "it was to see if students could come up with a landing strategy on the spot. On a personal level, when you've existed and were conscious as long as I have been, sometimes you need something truly absurd to get a laugh, and I found launching students off of a cliff via hydraulic springboards to be quite hilarious."
Pyrrha blinked at that information. "Are… are you serious, Professor?"
"Completely," he said, without missing a beat and the ghost of a smile on his face.
"I would stab you right now if that didn't also stab Oscar," Vyliria deadpanned.
"And again, Oscar thanks you for that," Ozpin cheerfully responded.
"Fuck you, Ozpin," Vyliria replied, and then tossed him his cane, which he deftly caught.
"Ah, it's good to have The Long Memory again," the ex-headmaster softly spoke, before collapsing the walking aid and setting it to his side. "I know you've all been through tremendous hardships already." He took a breath, and when he spoke next, that overlay was present once more. "I'm sorry."
"What happened at Beacon wasn't your fault, Professor Ozpin," Penny said.
"It's all my fault." A beat, and then, "I told you all once that I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet. And I wasn't exaggerating. I am… cursed."
"Welcome to the club," Vyliria dryly commented. Ozpin looked over to her for a moment, and then chose to continue without responding.
"For thousands of years I have walked the surface of Remnant, living, dying, and reincarnating in the body of a like-minded soul. The Professor Ozpin you all met was not my first form, and clearly wasn't my last. It's an… extraordinarily strenuous process, on everyone involved."
"So, what exactly are you, then?" Pyrrha asked.
"I am the combination of countless men who have spent their entire lives trying to protect the people of Remnant. As I have told Miss Avalon, with every rebirth my soul is eventually merged with another, and I am changed, but my memories stay with me." He looked down at his lap. "This curse was bestowed upon me by the gods, because I failed to stop Salem in the past," he continued, looking back up. "But we must stop her now."
"And how do you suppose we stop the literally-unkillable immortal queen of the Grimm, Ozpin?" Vyliria asked. "And don't bullshit me and try to deny it, we figured it out on our own."
"W-what-"
"And it took Penny the whole of two minutes to figure out that we could stop her by locking her in a vault, and since then, I also thought up the idea of throwing her into a volcano to keep her melting faster than she can regenerate, or chopping her into a bunch of little pieces and then throwing them in quick-drying concrete before cryogenically freezing them with ice dust and storing them in a bunch of different locations." Pyrrha wasn't the only one to give Vyliria a look at that last idea.
"I-"
"You do have a plan, do you? After all, you've been around fighting her across multiple lifetimes. And I'm sure you're also aware that Leonardo Lionheart betrayed you and is also working for Salem, right?"
Oscar's countenance looked devastated. "Are… are you sure-"
"I overheard him talking to one of Salem's other agents personally," Vyliria cut him off. Her expression softened. "For what it's worth… I'm sorry. I know the sting of betrayal."
"I… I see. I suppose we should keep my identity within Oscar a secret then."
"We should. There's a lot to catch up on. A great deal about me and my nature alone, as well as some other things we've learned."
"Yeah, like how Yang's mom is the Spring Maiden!" Nora helpfully added.
"What?!" Ozpin shouted.
Vyliria started moving towards the kitchen. "I'll get some water. Ren, could you brew us some tea, perchance? We have a very long conversation ahead of us."
Ren nodded, and Nora happily followed after him as the three left the room. Ozpin turned to Pyrrha. "Miss Nikos, once again, I have to apologize for what I put you through when pressuring you to make a choice on inheriting Amber's power. I'm… so sorry that events played out the way they did."
"Its-" Jaune cleared his throat, and Pyrrha sighed, standing up for herself a little. "It's not okay, Professor, but I understand why you did it, and I won't hold it against you."
"I will," Jaune said. "We both nearly died that night, and if Vyliria had been a literal second later, then Pyrrha wouldn't be here right now. And for once, I'm inclined to share Vyl's distrust towards you."
"I understand. Then, I suppose it is time we begin to share information, and prepare for the future?" Ozpin took a breath, and then slumped over, Oscar shouting in surprise and barely stopping himself from falling off the couch. "Gah, you could have warned me, Ozpin!" The farmhand took a few seconds to reorient himself. "But, uh, thanks for letting me sit through this conversation. I appreciate it." He tilted his head to the side, presumably receiving a mental reply from the Professor, but in the world outside, Pyrrha heard nothing.
Jaune fought a slight smirk off his face. "Yeah, let's get started."
"We'll be combat ready!" Penny cheered, and Pyrrha couldn't help but let the gynoid's infectious grin spread to her own face.
(Hazel)
Hazel Reinhart eased the door to the bar open, and then shut it behind him with a gentleness that belied his ability to rip it off its hinges if he felt so inclined. The bar had several patrons, but by far outnumbering the customers themselves were the gang members. Dressed with some manner of purple present in at least one part of their outfits, every single one had a tattoo depicting the same stylized spider visible on their skin, all marking them as members of one of Mistral's most infamous gangs. Lil' Miss Malachite's Spiders ran an information network that controlled a near monopoly on the brokerage of the stuff, as well as being one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Mistral to boot. And if there was anywhere that Hazel could use the kingdom's underworld to advance Salem's plans, this would be the place to start.
Behind the bar, fanning herself with what appeared to be a ricepaper fan but was notably reinforced and sharpened to a deadly edge, was none other than the Little Miss herself. A rather heavyset woman, she was fair of skin, lavender of eyes, and kept her blonde hair in a bob cut. A spider in its web was tattooed on her left shoulder, a beauty mark sat beneath her right eye, lipstick only rested upon her upper lip, and purple nail polish adorned her fingernails. The top of her dress was white and backless, long-sleeved and with beads and straps detailed in purple. Her midriff bore a purple corset, and below that was a long, pleated skirt, yellow on its top layer, purple on the middle, and white on the bottom. Her shoes were brown and were each decorated with a green ribbon.
Several of the gang members stood and moved to intercept him as he made to step closer to the bar itself. "I don't want trouble," the towering man rumbled, "I'm just here to do business."
The Lil' Miss raised the hand holding her fan, and her underlings stopped, before stepping to the side and leaving his path unimpeded. "It's fine boys," she said in a confident tone. "He knows he ain't leaving here alive if he starts anything." Hazel sincerely doubted that, but didn't show it.
He sat down at a stool in front of the bar, the furniture creaking in protest of the weight of his imposing physique. "Good evening," he said, as a way of a polite greeting.
The information broker gave a condescending smirk. "My, such a gentleman." The smirk melted away. "But let's cut to the chase. You said you're here to do business. So let's talk business."
"Very well," Hazel replied. "I'm here looking for two things. The first is information on a person and anyone she's traveling with. The second is anyone willing to take on a high profile, very illegal job. Money won't be an issue."
"Well," the Miss leaned forwards, interest clear in her gaze, "I can certainly put together a list with locations and contact information for other gangs who would be interested in a high-risk, high-reward job quick enough. Who do you want to know about though?"
"Vyliria Avalon."
The room went quiet, and the Lil' Miss' gaze narrowed. "That woman," she said tersely, "is a problem best left well alone, and very bad for my kind of business. I know her type, and she's the kind of person who'd walk into this room, gut everyone in it like animals, and then cut down whatever consequences would come her way without giving a damn. And I certainly don't want that Darkmoon bitch poking around in my direction, so anything you want on her is gonna cost extra, especially when she's already in town."
"I already knew that," Hazel responded. "I just want whatever information you have on her. Once again, money won't be a problem."
"How much money?" Hazel calmly reached into a pocket, pulling out a stack of lien and gently placing it on the bar. The Lil' Miss picked up one of the cards, inspecting it briefly, before placing it back down and looking back at him with a renewed interest. "You already know she's in town. She and her friends went to Haven very recently. They also killed some kind of mutant Nuckelavee, while escorting an entire village's worth of refugees to Mistral to boot. Though some of those refugees had some… rather interesting stories to share…"
"What kind of stories?"
Lil' Miss Malachite placed a burner scroll on the bar, pulling up an audio clip and letting it run.
"I don't know for sure what was going on there, but there was a lot of lighting coming down behind those buildings, and at one point it looked like there were over a dozen bolts all coming down on one spot. Like… someone was controlling the weather…"
Hazel's eyes widened a fraction of an inch, and he immediately put another stack of lien on the bar. "I want everything you have on that encounter."
The woman on the other side of the bar let her mouth split into a wide grin. "I can do more than that, mister. For enough cash, I might even be willing to tell you exactly where they are…"
()
A/N: Once again, Dark Souls paranoia comes in clutch. Granted, Lionheart was being sus AF to begin with, so maybe in this case, it's actually justifiable to the average person. That being said, like it or not, Vyliria, Penny, and Pyrrha have garnered a good deal of notoriety between them, and it shouldn't come as a surprise to you guys that they'd be recognized without a need for introductions. Especially Pyrrha, considering that she's in Mistral itself right now. If she'd lived in canon, I'd fully expect random fans to just recognize her in the streets and start hounding her for an autograph and whatnot.
So, Vyliria literally put her ear to the door and caught Watts talking to Lionheart. And honestly, Watts has the exact kind of arrogance for something as simple as that to work. You'd think that selling yourself out to evil would mean you'd soundproof your office just in case of something like this, but I don't think Lionheart was the sharpest tool in the shed to begin with. Definitely not a blunt instrument, but no scalpel either.
And then poor Vyl gets food poisoning just in time for Oz-car to show up at their front door. It's a good thing that Qrow gave her a briefing on what to expect when he handed her The Long Memory… oh wait… he didn't. Yeah, Vyliria's probably gonna be pissed the next time she sees Mr. Branwen.
Anyways, I do plan a chapter, maybe two, of just some moments in Mistral without the sword of Damocles hanging over VAAPPR's (plus Oscar) heads. At the very least, I want to visit that museum Penny wants to go to, and explore the impact of Pyrrha's fame on herself and those close to her in the capital city of her native kingdom.
But at the same time, I've looked at my outline, and I've realized that I have quite a bit of catching up to do with Roman and Atlas, so the next couple of chapters are almost certainly gonna occur there. And I am a bit excited to get into more of the stuff I have in store there.
Last but not least, Hazel is in Mistral. It's honestly kinda funny that even though I changed so much, those same changes still let Salem find out about the Spring Maiden in the Branwen tribe. It's really ironic. If VAAPPR had been slower and less OP, they wouldn't have been in time to save most of Shion, and then no-one would have been able to pass on that information where some spiders might have been listening in.
I'll see you all next week.
Omake: A letter home
A/N: This omake is canon to the story. I mentioned that Penny was going to write back to her dad, and then actually thought up a letter.
()
Dear Father,
SALUTATIONS! I am writing to you from Mistral, and am letting you know that we've arrived safely in the city. Well, Vyliria died again, and it was a very unpleasant experience for all of us, especially Vyliria herself, but she came back, and she'd found another bonfire, so she didn't have to walk all the way back from Vale. Oh! That reminds me, I talked with Vyl (she's letting us use that as a nickname, which is fun, because I've never had a friend with a nickname before), and she let me become a Blade of the Darkmoon. I can fend off invading dark spirits from her era, and I can also apply the Darkmoon Blade miracle to Floating Array! It was something that meant a lot to her, and I'm glad that it made her happy.
On the subject of invaders, however, there is, and I'm quoting Vyl, "an abomination from the Abyss cloaked in human form" called a Darkwraith that's invading and killing faunus in Menagerie. Vyliria summoned herself as a Blade of the Darkmoon to fight it, and ended up saving Ruby and Qrow's life in the process, but also encountered several other undead who were invading at the same time. I wanted to warn you and the general, because if they could attack there, they might attempt to hurt people in Atlas and Mantle. Also with this letter, I've enclosed some notes that I copied from Vyliria's descriptions of darkwraiths and invaders. Please pass them on to General Ironwood.
During our trip, we had an encounter with a tribe of bandits, and their leader, Raven Branwen, who is also Yang's biological mother, turned out to be the Spring Maiden! Regretfully, when we arrived in Mistral, Vyliria discovered that Headmaster Leonardo Lionheart is a traitor working for Salem, and is in contact with a man who he called "Watts." I've also enclosed a thumb drive with a video of Vyliria using her mirage pyromancy to show us the conversation she listened in on, so it might be possible to ascertain the identity of the man in question using his voice (Vyl was very impressed that I thought of that). Can you also pass that on to the General, Father?
Lastly, we found the next reincarnation of Professor Ozpin, a boy named Oscar Pine. He is safe with us, and we're all going to be training very hard in preparation for a confrontation at Haven. Don't worry about me though, Father, I promise I'll be safe, and we'll stop Lionheart and Salem's minions and save the city. I hope to write again to you soon.
I love you dad,
Penny Polendina
P.S. During the journey to Mistral, it came to my attention that all of my female companions have larger breasts than me. When I thought about that, I became upset. Since I couldn't figure out why, I asked Vyliria just before I wrote this letter, and although she was uncomfortable for a reason I couldn't understand, she explained why I was upset. Apparently I am experiencing "breast envy," wherein I become jealous and upset by my friends who are better endowed than I am. As such, is there any chance that when you make the new mobile platform for my CPU, that you could increase the size of its breasts by one or two cup sizes? Nothing major, I just want to have a chest of an equivalent size to my friends, so I don't have to feel upset when I'm with them. I don't want to feel upset or jealous, because that makes me sad that I feel that way about my friends.
(Ironwood)
James Ironwood's office was quiet after he handed Pietro back the paper letter that his daughter had sent him. Despite the impossibility of it, the room felt even more quiet after they listened to the recording of Vyliria's projected memory. The General stared impassively at his own desk for a few seconds longer. "We're going to need to do an overhaul of Mantle's entire security grid. Watts coded them himself, and there's no telling what kind of backdoors he embedded in them and what kind of havoc he could cause. As if the White Fang abusing the systems wasn't already bad enough."
Peitro was also looking down. "I… I just can't believe that Arthur would fake his own death and join Salem simply because my project was picked over his. And Penny is in the same city as him…"
Ironwood grimaced. "I honestly feel like I've shot myself in the foot here. With the tightened borders and defensive stance Atlas is in, I can't justify sending a fleet to Mistral without informing the Council about Salem, and I would rather avoid doing so until after the Amity Project is finished." He sighed, and rubbed his temples as he rested his head in his hands. "I'm very glad Penny brought us this information, but at the same time, I wish it wasn't this dire."
"I understand, James. I'm going to be very busy with all the coding I'm going to be doing in the coming days." A few seconds passed in silence in the office, before Pietro brooked the subject that James had really hoped he wouldn't. "Sooooo… about the postscript, James…"
The General groaned. "Are you seriously asking me to approve another 120,000 lien to go into the funds for Penny's next platform because she's jealous her friends are more endowed than her?"
Pietro hesitated for a few moments, before responding with a wince. "Essentially…"
"Remind me again why we let her identify as female when she first chose that gender in the later days of the project."
"Because if we had forced Penny to identify as male, not only would it have been against her will, but I had also threatened to quit the project if Atlas was going to refuse one of the most basic forms of self expression to life I made with my own soul. And at least larger breasts could probably house extra hardware, or a pair of miniature cooling fans of some sort."
Ironwood sighed again. "I am not bringing this up to the council."
Pietro put his face in his hands. After a few seconds passed, he said, "I suppose I'll dip into my own funds then. Brothers know I have more lien than I know what to do with from my time in Atlas' R ."
Ironwood looked at Pietro.
Pietro looked up, and met his gaze.
Several seconds passed.
James spoke first. "This part of the conversation never happened?"
"What conversation?"
"...Well, it was wonderful seeing you today, Dr. Polendina. Thank you for bringing me the urgent information your daughter sent you. I hope you have a safe trip home."
"Thank you, James. Now if you excuse me, I need to stop by the bank before I go home. I need to withdraw some funds for a… personal project."
Ironwood didn't respond as Pietro left his office. Though he did marvel at the fact that for once, he was entirely fine with his semblance hijacking his thought process. In fact, a distinct smile graced his face as Mettle began to suppress certain memories from the past few minutes.
()
A/N: I couldn't help myself. Penny not getting scrapped means that she's hanging out with people her "age." And when four of her five friends are dating, that inevitably means she's gonna be experiencing a rough equivalent to puberty. Even without any hormones involved, the humanity Vyl gave her is still letting her experience a lot of emotions, and this idea popped into my head and I thought it would be hilarious to go through with, as well as Penny's logical but still ludicrous solution to her dilemma. I mean, it's just so Penny to want a larger bust not so that she's closer in size to her friends, but so that she won't feel bad for being jealous at said friends. Like, she doesn't actually care how big they are herself, but she feels bad that she's experiencing breast envy, so her solution is to just ask her dad to build her bigger boobs. If she matches her friends or is at least close, then the problem is solved in her mind. And then the General's reaction was just the icing on the cake.
Also; does it count as transgender if you were built as a robot and people de-facto identified you as male, only to decide to instead identify as female when you start to explore organic genders when perusing Atlesian databases? Especially when as a synthetic lifeform, every body you have had since your creation has lacked replicas of sex organs and technically meant you didn't have a gender (in the biological sense)? Like, I'm genuinely curious if this counts as her being trans or if it counts as cis since she chose to be a girl when she wasn't officially assigned a gender prior to then. If it does count, I guess Penny is a transgender woman in this universe, so more power to her.
…how the Izalith did I write myself into this conundrum? In an omake of all things?
