Quoth the Raven
“I’m sorry you had to come home early,” Yang said, “but not too sorry that you’re back. I did miss you a little bit while you were away in Mistral.”
“You could have asked me to stay,” Ruby pointed out.
“I don’t need you around that much,” Yang protested. “I’m your big sister, and I love you, but I’m not going to fall apart without you in my life.” She grinned. “Besides, it was a good thing for you to take the opportunity to get out, spend some time with your friends, see a different part of the world. Although I kind of wish you hadn’t had to fight any grimm while you were doing it,” she added.
“It was just the one.”
“Just the tough one,” Yang corrected her. “But, it’s dead now, so…” She chuckled.
Ruby frowned. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing really,” Yang admitted. “It’s just that I’m the one who wants to get out and see the world, travel, fight some monsters… and yet, you’re the one who ended up doing it already, and on your first break from first year, no less.”
Ruby grinned. “I guess that is kind of ironic.”
“It’s just what comes when one of us is on a team with a Mistralian princess and the other is not.”
“Don’t call her that,” Ruby said, softly but not without a certain firmness in her voice. “Pyrrha wouldn’t like it.”
Yang looked down at her little sister. “Come on, Rubes, you know I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“I know,” Ruby assured her. “But Pyrrha… she can be sensitive about this stuff, and… I don’t think she always knows when people are joking.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Yang admitted. She held up her hands. “Okay, she won’t ever hear me say anything like that.”
It was evening, approaching night time. Dinner for those students remaining on campus for the vacation – or back early from the same – had already been served, and the stars glittered in the sky above, surrounding the shattered moon which loomed so large over their heads. Ruby and Yang sat beneath a green tree, its leaves in the full bloom of spring, said leaves rustling gently above them as a breeze ran through the courtyard and caressed their cheeks as gently as any mother could have. They had their backs to the gnarled old trunk; Ruby could just about feel the ridges through her cloak.
“Thanks,” Ruby said quietly. “Pyrrha… doesn’t deserve it.”
Yang nodded. A frown creased her features. “So… she’s with Jaune now, huh?”
“I… think so?” Ruby said. “It’s… hard to say.”
“Ruby, they were holding hands,” Yang pointed out.
“Yeah, but I don’t think they’re… I don’t think they’ve made any plans to… you know what I mean?”
“I think so,” Yang replied. “But at the same time, I think they’re definitely what Nora would call ‘together-together.’ At least for now. Things change, I guess. Or they can.”
“I suppose, and I suppose you’re right.”
Yang put one arm around Ruby’s shoulder. “And how… how does that make you feel?”
Ruby looked at her. “What do you mean?”
Yang raised one eyebrow. “Come on, Ruby, I know that you liked him.”
“Of course I like Jaune; he’s my best friend.”
“Ruby,” Yang insisted. “Come on, who are you talking to?”
Ruby snorted, and then sniffed. “How did you know?”
“I’m your big sister; I know these things,” Yang said breezily.
“I would have thought you’d be a bit more obvious about it.”
Yang laughed. “Did you think I was going to threaten him? Come on, sis, I was saving that for when you started dating!” The smile died from her face. “But seriously, how does it feel?”
Ruby hesitated. She hesitated for quite some time, to be honest, because it took her that long to work out what the answer was. How did she feel? How did she feel about that in particular? “I… Jaune’s my best friend; he helped me find my feet on my first day here at Beacon – after you ditched me,” she couldn’t help but add. “And, yeah, I liked him. I do like him. He’s kind and brave and…”
Yang waited a moment. “And what?”
Ruby looked away. “I… nothing.”
“Come on, you have to say it.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ll think it’s stupid.”
“Probably, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you hold your tongue,” Yang declared. “Come on, Ruby, spill it.”
Ruby clasped her hands together and rather wished she’d kept her mouth shut. “He looks… he looks like the prince out of a romance comic, okay?”
Yang threw back her head so hard that she slammed it into the tree trunk. “Ow!”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Yang said, as she started laughing merrily at Ruby’s expense. “He looks… you know, I can actually see that. It’s the long, floppy blonde hair, isn’t it?”
“And his eyes,” Ruby said. “But… yeah, the hair is a big part of it. He wouldn’t look the same without it.”
“I know, he’d look terrible,” Yang agreed. She sighed. “This probably doesn’t help, but I can see why you had a crush on him.”
“But you know who else was there for me on my first day here?” Ruby asked. “Pyrrha. She defended me when Weiss was yelling in my face, and she helped Jaune and me find our way, and she’s my friend too, and my teammate. And I’m not going to stop being her friend just because she’s happy. She deserves to be happy, Yang, and so does he. And if they’re happy together, then… then who am I to be unhappy about that?”
Yang’s grip around Ruby’s shoulder tightened a little. “You’ve got a good heart, Rubes; a lot of people wouldn’t be so… good about this. Hell, I don’t know if I’d be taking it this well in your position.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Ruby asked. “Try and break them up?”
“Well, we could-“
“No, Yang!” Ruby cried. “I’m not going to do that! And neither are you!”
“Of course not,” Yang said, only slightly disingenuously. “I was only kidding.”
“Good,” Ruby said. “Because like I said, they deserve to be happy. If things don’t work out, then… but Pyrrha just walked away from her mom over this. Jaune… I think he means a lot to her, and I think he really likes her too.” She sighed. “She’s lucky to have him. Where am I going to find a guy like that, Yang?”
“I… I don’t know, Ruby,” Yang admitted. “But I know that you’ll find someone, if you want to. Someone like you… you won’t be able to keep them away.” She grinned. “Although I won’t let that stop me trying.”
Ruby covered her mouth with one hand as she giggled. “Thanks, Yang.”
“For what?” Yang asked.
Ruby shrugged. “Just being here.”
“Are you kidding? Where else would I be?” Yang asked. “I’ll always be here for you, Rubes.” She hesitated. “But… aside from that… I’m glad you had a good time.”
Ruby leaned her head on Yang’s shoulder. “Hey, Yang?”
“Would you like to read some more of Mom’s diary?” Ruby asked.
“You want to take your mind off things?”
“Maybe,” Ruby admitted.
Yang chuckled. “Sure. Do you have it?”
“Sure do,” Ruby said, pulling it out of one of the pouches on her belt. “Now… where were we…” she opened the little black book and flicked through the pages. “I think we’re here.”
Tai asked me for advice on how to ask Raven out. I didn’t know what to say. I barely knew where to look.
“Okay,” Yang said. “I’m not sure that we want to read that right now.”
“No,” Ruby agreed. They had tended to skim over the entries in the past dealing with Dad’s burgeoning crush on Raven or Mom’s crush on Dad. Even if it was the reason that they both existed, neither of them really wanted to read that stuff. Maybe it was because it was a bit awkward, what with Raven and all.
And right now, it was hitting just a little close to home.
Nevertheless, before she turned the page, Ruby’s eyes lingered on what immediately followed.
I don’t know how to write this without it sounding awful. I don’t know how to write this without sounding like a terrible friend. I want to simply give Tai the best advice I can and wish him the very best of luck with Raven, but I can’t. I can see why he has a crush on Raven: she’s beautiful and powerful and amazing in so many ways. But at the same time, I just wish that he would turn around and look at me.
Yeah, I don’t really want to read this at the moment, Ruby thought,
Ruby had always known that her mother and father and favourite uncle had attended Beacon, and she’d known on some level that they must have done all the same things that she and Yang and her new friends had done, walked through the same hallways, sat in the same classrooms. But reading it, hearing it in her mother’s voice, made it real in the same way that finding the STRQ carving on the SAPR dorm room had been more powerful than merely knowing that they had slept in a room like the one that she was sleeping in.
When she read about her Mom, in Mom’s own voice, she could imagine them all as clearly as she could see the places in her mind’s eye: the hallways, the courtyard, the cafeteria. She could imagine them there, and she could imagine herself and her friends following behind them like shadows.
We had an absolutely epic food fight in the dining hall today, Team STRQ against Team DMND, and we kicked their butts! Although Raven got a little carried away and nearly broke Nettles’ aura, but she said she didn’t mean any harm, and I believe her. Or at least, I’d like to. Professor Ozpin was really good about the whole thing; he said we should try to have some fun while we still can. He’s pretty cool about all this stuff, like the grandpa I never knew growing up…
Qrow asked me out today. He’s a cool guy, but I had to say no; I’m just not that into him. Tai told me I’d made a mistake…
Raven and I were really in sync in sparring class today; we went up against Celestia and Luna from Team CELO. Although individually, they’re not the best huntresses in our year, whenever they’re paired together, they’re practically invincible, like they can read one another’s minds. But Raven and I beat them; it was incredible! It’s so awesome that we’re really starting to gel as a team, and I think Raven’s starting to warm up to me. She even smiled after we won the fight, although when I tried to give her a hug, she pushed me away. I guess we’re not quite there yet…
Professor Ozpin called me to his office today for a special lesson; I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but Raven looked so jealous that I had to tell her that it was about my silver eyes. She calmed down a little after that, since she knew that, although I’m getting special treatment, there’s nothing she could do to get it as well.
We worked on training my eyes, just like I thought we would: how I can use them more at will, and without tiring myself out as much as I do now. The same sort of thing that Dad tried to teach me, only I think that, even if Professor Ozpin doesn’t have silver eyes himself, he knows more about them than my father does. Where we live, the way we live, all we have is scraps of half-remembered lore and some inscriptions that no one can decipher. Professor Ozpin knows things; he has knowledge, real knowledge. He gave me some books to take away with me and study: histories of my people. It’s fascinating, but with so much schoolwork, I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to actually read these texts.
We had our lesson. You know, now that I’ve just complained that we’ve lost so much knowledge, I should probably write down some of it. My family might be the last of our kind right now, or so Professor Ozpin says, but I don’t want to be. I hope – and maybe it’s stupid of me to hope, since the guy I like won’t even look at me – but I don’t want to fight until I die and leave nothing behind me. I mean, I’m prepared to die, but what’s the point in fighting to save the world if you’ve nobody to leave the world too? I’d like to leave something, someone, behind me,
Ruby smiled a little. “Family?”
“Ruby?”
“It’s just something Jaune said, when we were hunting the karkadann,” Ruby explained. “Cinder asked… it doesn’t really matter, you had to have been there.”
and so, for future generations of silver-eyed warriors, I leave this, the basics as I understand them.
Ruby’s eyes widened. “It’s here, Yang! Mom’s finally going to tell us what it’s all about!”
We've forgotten most of where we came from. Our history has been lost to fairy tale and myth and the half-remembered mutterings of old men. Maybe the Professor's histories will provide some answers, but I only got them tonight, and I haven't had the chance to read through them yet. What I do know is that those born with silver eyes used to be much more numerous than they are now - that wouldn't be hard, considering it's just me, my father, and my sister now - and we were chosen by destiny to lead the lives of warriors.
At least, that's what I've been told. Maybe there really is such a thing as destiny, and my fate - like the fate of all my people - is to spend my entire life in battle. Or maybe that was just what people thought because so many silver-eyes became warriors. I don't know, and Professor Ozpin couldn't say for certain either. He tells me that I have a choice to make, whether I want to devote my life to the greater good of the world and its people or not, but a part of me would like to think that all of this was planned out and foreordained years ago. It would mean that I was definitely on the right path.
Although it would also mean that nothing I did or chose really mattered. This stuff makes my head hurt.
Anyway, the powers of the silver eyes come from, wouldn't you know it, our silver eyes. When we feel especially intense positive emotion – love, friendship, the desire to protect life - our eyes manifest in power unlike any other. Professor Ozpin called it magic, even though he told me not to call it that in front of anybody else.
"Magic," Yang murmured. "Like in airport novels or something?"
"I suppose Professor Ozpin had to call it something."
"Okay, but why call it something made up?"
"It isn't made up; Mom could actually do magic."
"You know what I mean," Yang said. "Of course Mom could do... something that she'll hopefully explain in a second, but why name it after something made up? It makes the whole thing sound ridiculous."
"Maybe we'll find out if we keep reading?"
Yang chuckled. "Yeah, maybe. Sorry about that."
I asked the Professor why he called it that, when everyone knows that magic didn't exist, and he just smiled and said that not everything that everybody knows is correct. Professor Ozpin has been really kind to me, and it's great that he's teaching me how to master my gifts, but I swear, sometimes, it's as if he's trying to be mysterious on purpose.
The point of our lesson tonight was about control, I think that's what all our lessons are going to be about for the foreseeable future. Professor Ozpin showed me a video of me using my eyes against the grimm during initiation; it was the first time I'd ever seen what other people see when I use my powers, and let me tell you, if they weren't my powers, if I was watching someone else do this, I'd think it was so incredibly awesome. Light comes out of my eyes like wings, burning the darkness all away. But Professor Ozpin warned me that my powers come at a cost: they use so much energy that I'm really vulnerable after using them. Apparently, more than one silver-eyed warrior has died after being incapacitated by their own powers, devoured by grimm they didn’t destroy or who arrived after the blast faded. Professor Ozpin's tuition will focus on being able to use my powers without requiring an excess of emotion, so that I can use my abilities at will. Once I can do that, then we hope that practice will mean I'm not so worn out by exercising my ability.
Yang put one arm around Ruby's shoulders. "Ruby," she said. "That... I gotta be honest, that sounds kinda dangerous."
"'Chosen by destiny to lead the lives of warriors,'" Ruby murmured.
"Huh?"
Ruby looked up into Yang's confused-looking face and smiled. "People with silver eyes were destined to lead lives as warriors. So I was meant to come to Beacon, just like Mom was."
Yang grinned. "And to think, when last semester started, somebody didn't want to be special. Now who has normal knees?" The smile faded a little. "All the same, you can be special, and you can be a huntress and a hero without knowing anything more about your eyes. You can fight the grimm and save people with Crescent Rose and your semblance."
"Yes, but I could save even more people if I knew how to kill a whole bunch of grimm at once and-"
"And then what?" Yang asked. "You read what Mom wrote; after you did that, you'd be vulnerable."
"My team would be there," Ruby declared.
Yang didn't reply to that, but her expression spoke of scepticism, even if she wasn't quite willing to express it out loud.
"Do you want to stop?" Ruby asked, even though she didn't want to. She wanted to read more and find out more about how Mom had learned to master her abilities. But even more than that, she didn't want to fight with Yang. If this was starting to make her sister uncomfortable, then she was willing to leave it, for now.
“I…” Yang hesitated. “Yeah. I would. For now, at least.”
“Okay,” Ruby said softly. “Can I talk to my team about this? About the silver eyes, I mean?”
“Sure,” Yang agreed. “And if this is what you want, then… just be careful, okay?” She squeezed Ruby’s shoulder affectionately. “You have so many gifts, Ruby. You don’t need to risk yourself chasing one more.”
“In this world, the weak die, no matter how the strong attempt to coddle and protect them. If you have the opportunity to grasp power, then you should reach for it quickly, for the sake of your own security. Just be sure that you don’t allow others to make you a pawn of their designs, and thus take your power for themselves.”
Ruby gasped. That voice! She had heard that voice before, once, when she was very young.
The raven in the garden. The one that spoke to me.
She had thought… she had allowed herself to be convinced by others, and thus convinced herself, that she had dreamed that, but now, she heard that voice again. Was she dreaming once more? Or had it never been a dream at all?
“Oh, Summer child, you know nothing of your mother. But I will tell you stories of her, if you wish. But you must keep me secret and not tell a soul. If you break this promise, I will know, and I shall not return.”
Ruby had broken the promise. She had told Uncle Qrow about the talking bird, and he had become very quiet, and unexpectedly grim faced for a moment before telling Ruby that she had imagined the whole thing. Then he had stalked out into the garden for a while, and the talking bird had not returned.
But now, it was her voice that echoed through the night air.
Ruby and Yang leapt to their feet as a portal opened up in front of them. It was dark, and in the darkness, Ruby would hardly have seen the portal if it were not for the crimson border, pulsing with malevolence, that surrounded this tear, this hole in the world.
This hole from out of which strode a single figure. She – judging by the shape of her figure and the undulating waves of black hair, as long and thick as Yang’s own golden locks – was clad in ornate, Mistralian-looking armour of black and crimson, with a helmet that reminded Ruby uncomfortably of the masks worn by the White Fang, but while their masks only bore a superficial resemblance to the creatures of grimm, if Ruby hadn’t known better, she would have sworn that the helmet that this newcomer was wearing – the helmet that concealed the entirety of her face from view – had been cut entire from the head of some grimm that she couldn’t put a name to yet.
She was carrying a large sword at her hip, one of her armoured hands resting casually upon the hilt.
Yang took a step forward. Neither Yang nor Ruby were armed, but Yang clenched her hands into fists and threw one arm up in front of Ruby.
“If I wanted to harm your sister, Yang, you couldn’t stop me,” the armoured figure declared, “but don’t worry. I don’t waste time talking to my enemies.”
“If we’re not enemies, then who are you?” Yang demanded.
“You’re very brave, to speak to someone who might be an enemy that way, when you are unarmed and practically helpless.”
“Draw that sword, and you’ll see how helpless I am,” Yang growled.
“You didn’t get your courage from me,” the other figure said, continuing as though Yang had not spoken, “but then, it was clear that you always had more of your father in you.”
Ruby gasped. Yang’s eyes widened, and she lowered her hands a little, almost in spite of herself. She looked as though her breath had caught in her throat.
Ruby could understand why. Could it be? After all of Yang’s futile searching, here she was, in Beacon's courtyard?
Raven was here?
It hardly seemed possible. Yang’s voice, when it came, mirrored Ruby’s disbelief: it was softer, quieter, strained like credulity, wrung dry of its anger and soaked with a mingle of desperation and disbelief in its place.
“Who are you?”
The woman took off her helmet, revealing a pale face that was so alike to Yang’s own that it was uncanny. Her eyes were red, as red as Yang’s became when she was angry, which meant that they were as red as Yang’s eyes were right now.
Those eyes turned from Yang to Ruby. “You have your mother’s eyes,” Raven said, calmly but not without a certain wistfulness in her face. “In fact… you look so much like your mother, it’s almost like I’m looking at her ghost.” Perhaps it was for that reason that she looked away and focussed her attention upon Yang. “We have a lot to talk about.”
“'We have a lot to talk about'?!” Yang shouted, and she gesticulated furiously with her hands as she advanced a pace towards her… towards Raven. “'We have a lot to talk about'? You just show up like this, and that’s what you have to say? You’re damn right, we have a lot to talk about. How about we talk about where you’ve been and why you walked out on me and Dad and-”
“Yang, do you love Ruby?”
Yang halted, stunned into momentary silence by the unexpected question. “What?”
“Do you love Ruby?” Raven repeated, her red eyes glancing at Ruby herself.
“What kind of a question is that?” Yang demanded. “Yes, I love Ruby, why-”
“Well, you wouldn’t have a little sister if I hadn’t left your father free to come to terms with the feelings he’d been too dense to realise he possessed and Summer free to act upon the feelings she’d been holding in check,” Raven said casually. “So you could say that it all worked out for the best.”
“Except for the fact that Mom died,” Ruby reminded her. “Mom died, and Yang looked for you and-”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Raven said sharply. She scowled for a moment. “I thought that I was leaving you with the kindest, most generous people that I knew. I loved your mother.” She glanced away for a moment. “I need you both to understand that. I loved Summer, as much as I loved your father, in spite of her… I loved your mother; I wept to hear that she was dead.”
“I’m sorry that it upset you,” Yang growled.
“So am I,” Ruby added. “Really, I am.”
Raven looked at her. “Gods, you even sound just like your mother. In fact, you might be even more saccharine than she was, and I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Um… thank you?” Ruby murmured.
“She wasn’t paying you a compliment,” Yang muttered.
“Actually, I was,” Raven said. “It may not have sounded like it, but… I haven’t had a conversation like this in… too long. That you have ended up like your mother is nothing to be ashamed of. You have her looks, you have her eyes, and you must fight like her, or you wouldn’t be at this damn school, but… if you have her heart as well, you should guard it more preciously than any treasure. Never lose it.” She scowled. “Our time here is not unlimited; I didn’t come here to have my decisions questioned.”
“Then why did you come here?” Ruby asked. “What are you doing here?”
“I understand that you must-”
“No,” Yang snapped. “No, you don’t. You don’t know me, or Ruby. You weren’t there. You were never there.”
“Don’t mistake invisibility for absence,” Raven replied. “I’ve been watching over you almost every day since news of Summer’s death reached me.”
“Then it was you,” Ruby gasped. “I knew that I remembered your voice; it was you in the garden that day, when… when the bird spoke to me. I didn’t dream it, did I?”
“No, you simply broke your promise,” Raven reminded her.
Ruby looked down at her hands. “Right. Sorry about that.”
“It was your loss, not mine,” Raven replied. “But… yes. I was the raven.”
Ruby’s head snapped back up, her silver eyes widening. “How?”
“Ask your team leader; our time is too limited for me to waste time explaining that to you.”
“Convenient,” Yang said. “So you say that you were there as some bird who Ruby spoke to when she was a kid? How about the day when I went looking for you to that cabin in the woods? Were you there, watching me walk through the cold and the dark with Ruby in the back of a wagon, trying to find you? Were you there when I arrived at the cabin and all I found were beowolves?”
“If Qrow hadn’t come, I would have stepped in to protect you.”
“Why didn’t you show yourself?!” Yang demanded, a screech of rage that had been almost seventeen years coming bursting out of her mouth like a racehorse out the gate. “I was looking for you! If you were there then why didn’t you let me find you?”
Raven’s expression was almost inscrutable. Only the slightest tremor betrayed any hint of guilt for what she had done or not done. “You weren’t looking for me, Yang. You were looking for another Summer, someone to take her place. But that was more than I could give, to you or your father or anyone else. It was more than anyone could give. No one could replace Summer Rose… so why should I have tried?”
Yang shook her head. “But you showed yourself to Ruby,” she replied, her voice harsh. “You showed yourself to Ruby but… but not to me?”
“Ruby deserved to know what her mother truly was,” Raven declared. “You deserved better than to know what I am. If your father and uncle were honest with you about the world I move in, then you would not be so eager to become a part of it. I kept my distance for your own good.”
“Then why are you here now?” Ruby asked again. “Why show yourself, after so long? And at Beacon? What do you want from us?”
Raven stared at her for a moment. “I’m here to tell you to open your eyes. You’ll need to see clearly if you want to understand what’s coming.”
“What?”
“Watch Ozpin,” Raven continued. “Don’t trust him. Ask yourself why he decided to admit you to Beacon two years early, why he couldn’t wait until you were old enough.”
“Because I proved myself,” Ruby said.
Raven stared at her. “Is that the only reason? Did he say anything to you, when you spoke?”
Ruby swallowed. In spite of herself, she took a step back. “He said… the Professor said that… that I had-”
“Silver eyes,” Raven breathed, her tone as sharp as the edge of her sword. “Just like your mother before you. How much have you seen of your headmaster?”
“Not a lot,” Ruby said.
“It hasn’t started yet then,” Raven said, almost to herself. “Good; you’ll notice when it does.”
“When what does?” Yang demanded. “What are you talking about?”
“Ozpin plays favourites,” Raven explained. “When I was at Beacon, it was Team Stark; every few years, it’s someone else; this year… ask yourself this: do you think it’s a coincidence that a prodigy with silver eyes happened to be the girl picked to attend Beacon early? Or that you ended up on a team with two of the most talented huntresses to attend the academy since Summer and me? I guarantee that he’s already taken an interest in you, Ruby, and soon, he’ll start to show it: extra training missions, indulgence for breaking the rules… and then he’ll pull back the curtain and show you a little of the truth he hides from the rest of the world.”
“What truth?” Ruby demanded. “Why can’t you just give us a straight answer and explain what you really mean?”
“Because the things I know would shake the foundations of your world, and you wouldn’t believe half of the things that I could tell you.”
“Why should we believe a word out of your mouth now?” Yang yelled. “You’ve never been a part of my life, and now, you just show up here of all places, saying a lot of vague stuff, and we’re supposed to just buy it? What are you saying? Why are you here?”
“I’m trying to arm you!” Raven snapped. “You don’t believe me? Fine, you don’t have to. Keep reading the journal; you ought to believe Summer when you wouldn’t believe me. All the answers are there, the answers that your father and your uncle won’t tell you: about Silver Eyes, about Ozpin… about why Summer died. You just have to keep reading, and when you’re not reading, then watch.”
Ruby felt as though her head was spinning. This was all happening much too fast, and too unexpectedly, for her to really process half of what she was being told. “Why are you telling us this?”
Raven looked away. “Because… because I wasn’t there for Summer when she needed me most, but I hope that I can save… her daughters from the same fate.” She drew her sword and began to turn away. “I have to go.”
“Wait!” Yang shouted, reaching out with one hand. “You can’t just go! You can’t just show up, dump all this stuff, and then just… leave!”
“You shouldn’t take my word as truth any more than Ozpin’s word or the words of your father or Qrow. Keep your eyes and your ears open and decide the truth for yourself,” Raven said, slicing her sword through the air to create another portal. She smirked briefly as she put on her helmet and concealed her face once more.
“Wait!” Ruby called. “Can’t we just… can’t we talk? About, just, you know… family stuff? How you are, how we’ve been, what Beacon is like now compared to how it was in your day? Can’t we just talk… like family?”
Raven was silent for a moment. She looked over her shoulder at the two girls. “That… that would be…” She looked away, her gaze flying upwards to the green lights that burned in the night sky atop the tower. “But the eyes of the Emerald Tower are always watching, and I have tarried here too long already. Coming here was foolish… but I owed her that much. Good luck, and for your mother’s sake, be careful.”
“No, wait, come back!” Yang yelled, but already, the portal that Raven had sliced through the fabric of the world itself was beginning to close. Yang dashed forward, hand outstretched… to close on the empty air as the portal disappeared as completely as if it had never been at all.
“Damn it!” Yang yelled. “How can she just… aargh!” She stepped forward, shaking her hands in futile anger.
“Yang,” Ruby said, her voice soft and small. “What… what are we going to do?”
Yang looked at her. Her eyes remained red, but there were traces of tears in them. “What are we going to do?” she repeated. “Nothing. Not a thing.”
“But-“
“We haven’t needed that woman ever,” Yang declared. “We haven’t… we don’t need her, and we don’t need her advice. We had a mom, and it wasn’t Raven. Whatever she has to say, why ever she just decided to show up like this… it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing she can tell us that we need to know.”
"Activate your silver eyes?” Sunset said. “You know how to do that?"
Ruby nodded eagerly. "Last night, when Yang and I were reading through the diary, we came to a point where Mom explained everything.”
Sunset waited for her to continue. “Well?” she demanded. “Celestia’s sake, Ruby, don’t leave us in suspense!”
“Sorry,” Ruby said. “It’s just that… this is going to sound a little crazy, but… I have magic eyes!" she declared, infusing her voice with what Sunset could only guess to be an attempt at sounding mystical and mysterious by drawing out the word 'magic' far longer than necessary.
Sunset's eyebrows rose. Honestly, that was not what she had been expecting, although perhaps she should have. After all, she knew full well that magic existed in this world; with the benefit of hindsight, it had been conceited arrogance on her part to assume that she and she alone in all of Remnant had the ability to access and manipulate its energies.
Princess Celestia, blending magical theory with a dash of sociology, had taught her once that nothing exists in perfect isolation. All things leave their mark upon the world and are in their turn marked by it; either they will accommodate themselves to the world around them and in so doing force the world to somewhat accommodate them in turn, or else, they will make their presence known by force and either destroy or in struggle be destroyed themselves. It had been part of Celestia's mission in ruling Equestria to find sufficient space - physical and social - to accommodate all things which would be accommodated. The principle was more easily observed socially but could be seen also in magic and in the society that unicorns had built to make use of their command of it.
Why should it be any different in Remnant? Why should a power such as magic be ignored, existing in isolation and affecting the world not? True, Sunset had not come across another magic user yet - that she knew of, she corrected herself; who knew who else might be disguising their command of same as a kind of semblance - but that had been no reason for her to suppose that they did not exist.
My vanity remains, I see.
Sunset would have to confess that she had never heard of ocular magic before, but that was no reason to suppose that it did not exist. What reason would Summer Rose have to lie in a private journal? To play a joke on her children or descendants who might read it? That would take a rather singular sense of humour for which there was no evidence. That she had set down the truth as she perceived it was far more likely an explanation.
So, Ruby has magic in her bloodline, or the potential for it at least. The idea was fascinating, even more than the mere prospect of some untapped source of power within her, and that had been quite enticing enough for Sunset. Fascinating, enticing... and intriguing too. A young prodigy and sprung from a line of magic too. What are the odds?
What are the odds of this company? That Ruby, with her hidden legacy of magic, should be placed on a team with someone who was a practiced wielder of magic; that Team SAPR should include not one but two prodigies, one of whom was also the heir to one of Remnant's ancient thrones, and Jaune, who, behind his facade of aggressive ordinariness, had turned out to be a kind of human battery for the aura of the others. Sunset had been glad - and was still glad - to have been gifted, blessed with such talented raw materials to work with, but the more revelation piled upon revelation as to the overwhelming extraordinariness of this company, the more she was forced to question if someone's thumb was being placed on the scales. Destiny was watching over them; of that, Sunset did not wish to doubt, but was destiny driving them on sufficient to explain this run of providential good fortune? Were they being looked after by someone closer at hand?
How random is the team selection, really?
"Um, Ruby," Pyrrha murmured and, by her speech, made Sunset consciously aware of the fact that a prolonged silence had followed Ruby's pronouncement. Judging by the expressions that Jaune and Pyrrha wore - the former openly disbelieving, the latter what could best be described as a polite scepticism combined with a degree of nerves, presumably about giving offence - they were not so open to the idea that Ruby might have latent magical powers. "Are you certain of that? Magic?"
"Uh-huh," Ruby said. "Yang thought it was weird too, but it's just a word, right?"
"But... but, magic?" Jaune said. "Come on, Ruby, everyone knows there's no such thing as magic. That stuffs for fairy tales and comic books."
"What are you saying, Jaune?" Ruby asked. "Don't you believe me?"
"Nobody's saying that," Pyrrha began, "but-"
She said more, but that was the point at which Sunset tuned her out; her thoughts turned inwards because Sunset could see, with such perfect clarity, that it was as if she had suddenly been blessed with the gift of foresight, how this conversation would go: anything useful that Ruby might have learned about her magic would get lost as the conversation was derailed into the weeds of arguing over magic even existing or not. Rational scepticism, empirical evidence, and general consensus of opinion would be pitted against the word of Ruby's late mother and Ruby's faith in her. Sunset could predict exactly how long the argument would go on and on. And Sunset, who knew full well that magic existed, would have to sit here and listen to it all.
Or she could nip this in the bud right now and tell them the truth.
Some of the truth anyway. The parts about magic. Not the part about her being an alien; that was just ridiculous.
That was an uncertain road. She couldn't see where it would go. But it would probably spare her a headache from listening to these three blind men argue about sight. So long as she could keep off the 'unicorn from another world' business that would be even more of a distraction from the point than debating the existence of magic, then they might actually get somewhere.
If I wrote to Twilight about this, she'd probably tell me to trust my friends. Well, look at me now, Twilight: I didn't even need you to tell me that. Aren't I becoming nice and friendly?
"Neither of you," she said, "should be so quick to dismiss what you don't understand. There are more things in heaven and earth than you have dreamt of." Celestia had told her that, referring to the magic of friendship; now, Sunset used the line to refer to a more prosaic power by far.
Another silence descended on the dorm room.
Jaune laughed nervously. "Sunset... come on... you're not...do you believe in magic?"
"I don't need to believe in magic any more than I need to believe in this desk," Sunset said, knocking on the desk behind her with one hand. "I know it exists."
More silence greeted this pronouncement. Jaune, Pyrrha, even Ruby were looking at her strangely.
Sunset smirked. "People keep saying that my semblance is amazingly versatile."
“Indeed,” Pyrrha murmured. “I find that I’ve noticed that myself once or twice during the vacation. You’re not a Schnee, and if you were… not even Weiss can put her semblance to such varied uses as you. What you did with the crowd ought not to be possible, at least not with a semblance that lets you shoot energy blasts out of your hands.”
“You’re right, no semblance should be able to do the things that mine can do,” Sunset conceded. She spread her hands. "That's because it's not a semblance."
Pyrrha’s eyebrows rose. “You mean… you’re suggesting… all this time…”
“It’s magic?” Jaune asked.
Sunset took a deep breath and focussed her magic into her fingertips. She would have to do something special. Something beyond the usual combat tricks that she'd been passing off as her semblance for years. Something impressive for the eyes, something-
Sure. Something like that.
Sunset's fingers began to glow. I hope this works, I haven't actually used magic like this for a while.
"Watch," Sunset said as she picked a satsuma up off her desk and tossed it up into the air. She pointed her fingers at it as it fell, and a spark of green light leapt from her fingertips to strike the falling fruit, turning it into a frog.
Sunset caught it with her telekinesis, lowering the frog more gently down to the floor, lest anyone get distracted by the idea of wanton cruelty to animals.
"Can a semblance do that?" she asked rhetorically. Or least, she hoped it was rhetorical; there might actually be a semblance that could do that, but Sunset took comfort from the fact that it was almost impossible that there could be a semblance that transfigured objects and fired energy beams.
The frog croaked indignantly and hopped across the floor.
Jaune's were as wide as dinner plates. Pyrrha's expression was more guarded, but she could not keep the surprise off her face or out of her posture completely. Ruby looked in awe.
"You're a witch!" Ruby said. "That is so cool."
Sunset snorted. "I've never actually been called that before but... I suppose it isn't inappropriate." After all, we speak of wizards; why not witches too?
"So... you've been using magic all this time?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yup," Sunset said. "You asked me why my basic combat skills were so... basic. And that's the answer: I was learning magic since I was a kid, not how to fight."
"I see," Pyrrha murmured. "That… I’m bound to say, that explains a great deal."
"How can you both be so okay with this?" Jaune demanded.
"If your head is going to explode, Jaune, go into the bathroom first; it'll be easier to clean up the mess," Sunset said.
A nervous laugh escaped from Jaune's lips. "So... you're being serious? It's... magic? You're... you're like... a magical girl?"
Sunset's eyes narrowed. "If you're expecting to see me in a sailor fuku or a frilly dress, you can forget it, but... I suppose, as I am a girl who has magic, I could be called... a magical girl."
Jaune's mouth moved silently. "How?"
Sunset looked away. What can I say: I'm a magical unicorn from another world? I'm the fallen angel who was expelled from paradise? "My past is my own. Nothing personal, I just... there are things that I don't want to talk about, and in any case, I didn't bring this up so that we could talk about me. I brought it up because, well, if Ruby has magic, then... it’s best that we agree that magic exists so we can get down to the actually interesting discussions around Ruby’s particular kind of power."
“Such as?” Pyrrha asked.
“Such as how we’re going to activate this gift of Ruby’s,” Sunset replied. She glanced at Ruby. “Assuming that’s what you want.”
“It is,” Ruby said firmly. “I want it just like I wanted to find out the truth about it. I know that it has downsides, but it’s such a powerful tool, and I know that I’ll be safe after using it with the three of you with me. Hey, Sunset, if you have magic too, then could you teach me how to use my eyes?”
“That depends,” Sunset said. “What does your mother say about the way this magic works?”
“It comes from positive emotions,” Ruby said. “From love.”
“That doesn’t sound right,” Jaune said.
“You didn’t even know magic existed until a second ago, and now, you presume to be an expert,” Sunset scoffed.
“Hear me out,” Jaune begged. “Ruby… unless you’ve been hiding how sad you’ve felt all this time… you’ve felt happy here, right? You’ve felt joy? So, why haven’t your eyes… exploded?”
“That… okay, that is not an invalid point,” Sunset conceded.
“That’s what Mom said,” Ruby pointed out.
“True, but there could be other factors she didn’t see fit to mention, such as the power only activating in the presence of grimm,” Sunset replied. “No offence to your mother, but we often omit things that seem obvious to us, forgetting that they won’t necessarily be obvious to other people reading. All of which being said, unfortunately, I doubt that I can teach you how to unlock this power, let alone to make full use of it. My magic, although it can be affected by particularly strong emotion, is primarily intellectual. I think things, I will them in my mind, and then my power makes them happen. This, emotionally based magic… combined with the other differences, I’m not sure that I can get a handle on it. I’m sorry.” She did not like admitting any hint of failure or inadequacy, but at the same time, she wasn’t going to raise Ruby’s hopes only to disappoint them later.
“So… there’s nothing that we can do?” Jaune said.
“So it would seem,” Pyrrha murmured.
"There's Professor Ozpin," Ruby suggested. "I think he taught my mom, at least a little."
That was interesting. Professor Ozpin knew about magic? Sunset supposed that that ought to have been obvious, since they already knew that he had known about the silver eyes of Summer Rose, and if said eyes were magic, then it followed logically that he knew about magic. More of a revelation was the fact that he had taught Summer Rose how to use her gift, to an extent at least. How did you do that then, Professor? The headmaster of Beacon did not have silver eyes himself... could he have magic of his own? It was certainly possible; the fact that Sunset hadn't seen him use magic meant nothing, since she'd hardly seen him at all, and never in a situation where magic would be called for.
The fight with Pyrrha. He knew what I was going to do.
He knows that I have magic. Not too surprising, if he knew of its existence; Sunset had relied upon people's ignorance to be her shield, but if Professor Ozpin was not ignorant... if he was not ignorant, then was he unconcerned? He knew that Sunset had magic, but he hadn't done anything about it, not even approaching her to let her know that he knew. He had done nothing.
Nothing but put me on a team with Ruby.
Did you plan all this, Professor? Are we all dancing in accordance with your will? The notion seemed absurd upon its face - how could Professor Ozpin have known that she would sneak into the archives, let alone find Summer Rose's diary? - but at the same time, Sunset couldn't entirely dismiss the thought, couldn't shake it from her mind. Perhaps it was just her experiences with Celestia getting to her, but it was all starting to seem so convenient. Too convenient.
Sunset scowled. She was done being a pawn of the Wise; Sunset Shimmer was no one's puppet. Although she could think of Celestia with fondness, although she had forgiven her old teacher, that didn't change the fact that the princess had led Sunset around by the nose for years with promises of destiny and greatness that had turned out to be as substantive as the air. The fact that Celestia had been as much mistaken as she had been lying made no difference to how frustrating it had been, how much time Sunset had wasted pursuing a fantasy. She would not suffer such again.
"I… would rather not approach the headmaster with this,” Sunset said.
“Why?” Jaune asked. “I mean, if this is about you being in the archives and the fake transcripts… don’t you think this is bigger than that? I’ll say that I was the one who broke into the archives and stole the journal and my transcripts; you won’t get into trouble.”
“But you will!” Ruby cried. “Jaune, you could be expelled!”
“And you could learn how to harness an extraordinary power,” Jaune protested. “Isn’t that worth the trade?”
“Not if it means losing you,” Ruby declared. “Yang told me not to risk myself chasing this gift, and while I think she’s being too cautious about that, I’m not going to risk my friends.”
“This could make a huge difference to the fight against the grimm,” Jaune insisted. “If these powers are all that they’re cracked up to be, then you, armed with your magic, are worth so much more than-”
“Nope!” Ruby cut him off. “I’ve warned you about this, Jaune! If you keep it up, I’m going to get really mad!”
Sunset couldn’t help the slightly bemused look that crossed her face. “You’re going to get mad?”
“Well… I’ll get upset, anyway!” Ruby said. “You wouldn’t want me to get upset, would you, Jaune?”
Jaune looked at her. His lips twitched. “No. I wouldn’t want that at all. I’m sorry, Ruby, I just… I want to see you… I want to see you become everything that you were meant to be.”
“And you will,” Ruby assured him, “but by actually helping, not by turning yourself in to Professor Ozpin and taking the blame for something you didn’t even do.”
“I hope you’re not suggesting that I should turn myself in for this?” Sunset asked archly.
“No one should turn themselves in for this,” Ruby said. “I just… who’s to say that Professor Ozpin will ask any questions if I ask him about my eyes? I could say… I could say that my Dad told me.”
“Is there any reason you couldn’t ask your father about this?” Pyrrha suggested. “He might know things that your mother, for whatever reason, didn’t see fit to write down.”
“Maybe,” Ruby said softly. “But… Dad doesn’t like to talk about Mom very much. Part of the reason I was so excited when Sunset gave me Mom’s journal is that, well, when I was growing up, I couldn’t get anybody to tell me about my mother. Not Dad, not Uncle Qrow, not Professor Port or Doctor Oobleck when they visited. The only person who would tell me anything was Yang, and I think she was just making up stories to make me feel better.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Jaune said. “My sisters used to make up stories to make me feel better all the time when I was a kid.”
Princess Celestia made up stories too, but they did me a great deal of harm. “That is debatable, but leave that for now,” Sunset said. “The fact is that made up stories don’t help us to work out what to do with Ruby’s eyes.”
“Which brings us back to Professor Ozpin and the possibility that he might not leap to accusations of rule-breaking,” Pyrrha said.
“I’d rather not talk to the headmaster,” Sunset replied.
“Why not?” asked Pyrrha.
“Because I don’t trust him!” Sunset exclaimed. “I think he’s playing us.”
“And I have to say, I think that you’re a little paranoid where the headmaster is concerned,” Pyrrha said, with a gentleness that belied the harshness of her words.
Sunset sighed. "Look, I'm not saying that I have this all figured out, but think about it, look at this team: a world-renowned fighter, a young prodigy who is also the heir to a magical bloodline, a... a magical girl or a witch or whatever you want to call me, and a boy with a sword of ancient heroes and enough aura for a small army; we're a super team! Maybe we just got really lucky, but what if it was more than that?"
"But team selections are random!" Jaune protested.
"Says Professor Ozpin," Sunset said.
"Yang said the same thing," Ruby said. "She told me that I really lucked out with my teammates. She called it winning the lottery. She also said..."
Sunset leaned forward. "Go on."
Ruby frowned and looked at her hands. "Yang and me... we're actually only half-sisters. Summer Rose, she was my mom. Yang's... Yang's mom is actually... the R in team Stark. Her name's Raven."
Pyrrha reached out and put one hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby, you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to."
"It's fine," Ruby said, although she didn't sound entirely fine. "The point is... we saw her last night. She… she appeared to us, her semblance… it must let her move around; she created this portal thing. And she…”
“Ruby?” Pyrrha asked.
“Sunset,” Ruby said, “is there some magic that would let Raven turn into, well, a raven?”
“She turned into a bird?” gasped Jaune.
“Not right then and there in the courtyard,” Ruby corrected. “But… when I was a kid… she said that it was her; it’s a long story. Anyway, Sunset… is that possible?”
Sunset nodded. “Transformation of species? Yes, it’s possible. It’s advanced magic, and I’m a little surprised that your… that this Raven could do it,” Sunset wondered where Raven had gotten her training from? Had Ozpin overseen that, too? How much magic is in this world that I knew not of?
Is it possible that Raven came from Equestria too? A powerful unicorn who found her way to Remnant?
No, that would mean that Yang would be… part unicorn, or something like that; anyway, the point is that would mean Yang would have inherited magic, and she’s shown absolutely no sign of it.
So where did Raven get her power from?
“So it was her,” Ruby whispered. “She did visit me when I was a kid. Anyway, she said something about Professor Ozpin too; she said… she said that we shouldn’t trust him."
"But it's Professor Ozpin," Jaune cried. "He's... he's a legend. The youngest headmaster in history!"
"His reputation is formidable," Pyrrha agreed. "It's hard to believe that a man so well-beloved, a hero of Remnant, could harbour any ill-intent towards us."
"I never said that he had ill-intent," Sunset said. "I just said that he might have intentions that are not immediately obvious, for good or ill."
"But if he trained Ruby's mother in her powers," Pyrrha said, "why would he not want to train Ruby?"
“Because… because… alright, I don’t have the answer to that – yet,” Sunset admitted. “Maybe he’s just worried that he couldn’t keep private lessons with Ruby a secret and people would find out about her eyes. Incidentally, I hope it goes without saying that none of this stuff leaves the room, especially about my magic."
Pyrrha nodded. "Of course."
"Why would it matter if people found out about Ruby's eyes?" Jaune asked.
"I don't know," Sunset said. "Like I said, I don't have all the answers. I'm just musing aloud at this point. But the point is… as much as I would like to see Ruby come into her magic, I agree with Yang that you shouldn’t take unnecessary risks to obtain that power. Search for it, reach for it, seek to obtain it, sure, but not at the cost of making yourself a puppet of others, a weapon for Professor Ozpin to wield in battles we did not choose and games we do not understand.”
Ruby frowned. “Sunset,” she murmured.
“Something wrong, Ruby?”
“I… no,” Ruby said quickly. “It’s just…”
“What?” Sunset asked.
“It’s just… that that’s pretty much what Raven said.”