//------------------------------//
// Bound for Glory (Rewritten) 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Bound for Glory


"Has everybody got everything?" Sunset asked as she slung her rifle over one shoulder and her pack over the other.
Pyrrha slung her shield across her back and sheathed Miló behind it. "I'm ready," she said.
"I think we're all ready," Jaune said. "As ready as we'll ever be, at least."
“Good to hear,” Sunset said. “Now-” she stopped abruptly, blinking in surprise. “What is that?”
Jaune frowned. “What’s what?”
“That!” Sunset said, clicking her fingers as she pointed at Jaune, her ears pricking up. “What’s that slung across your back?”
“Oh, this?” Jaune asked, one hand rising to touch the strap of the guitar slung across his back. “It’s my guitar.”
Sunset stared at him. “You’re… since when have you had a guitar?”
Jaune’s brow crinkled yet further in puzzlement. “Sunset, come on, I’ve always had this.”
“No, no you haven’t,” Sunset replied. “I have never seen that until this morning.”
“Well… no offence, Sunset, but you are kind of self-absorbed,” Jaune said.
“Self-absorbed, maybe, but not blind!” Sunset snapped. “Where have you been hiding that, eh?”
“I haven’t been hiding it,” Jaune replied. “Ruby, Pyrrha, you remember my guitar, don’t you?”
“I remember,” Ruby said.
“You’re very talented,” Pyrrha added.
Sunset’s gaze flickered from Pyrrha to Jaune to Ruby and then back again. She shook her head. “Am I being angel streeted or something? I have never seen that in all the time I’ve known you.”
“Sorry,” Jaune said, “but it’s still my guitar.”
Sunset hesitated for a moment, then threw up her hands in despair. “You know what? Never mind. But you’d better be able to play it well.”
“He really can,” Pyrrha assured her.
“You would say that, wouldn’t you?” Sunset asked fondly.
“I…” Pyrrha hesitated. She found herself struggling to restrain herself. “Well… perhaps,” she admitted. It wasn’t like Jaune’s skill as a huntsman, after all. She wouldn’t lie to him about that, wouldn’t pretend that he was doing better than he was, wouldn’t coddle him from the reality of his situation. But this was different; there would be no harm in telling her boyfriend that he was a slightly better musician than he was.
My boyfriend. I have a boyfriend! 
I have a wonderful, kind, brave boyfriend, and he sees me for who I really am.
Words could scarcely express how happy she felt. And not just because of her relationship, although that was undoubtedly part of it, and a substantial part too. She had a boyfriend and two of the best friends she could have wished for. Pyrrha couldn't think of any group of people she felt so...so comfortable around as she did around these three. She felt no concern within her as to how they would react to her or what they wanted from her or whether they were wearing masks around her to hide themselves and be what they thought she wanted them to be. There was no trace of sycophancy from them, none at all; there was no pedestal in this room. And for that, she would never cease to be grateful.
She'd never felt this way before, certainly not since her father passed away and never with her mother that she could remember, nor with anyone else. It was, if not quite a unique experience for her, then at the very least so close as to make little difference. 
She went on, “But it happens to be true, doesn’t it Ruby?”
“Jaune’s really good,” Ruby agreed.
“I wouldn’t know, because apparently all of my memories of that thing have been stolen!” Sunset snapped. “But… okay, listen up." She paused and cleared her throat with a cough into one hand. She looked momentarily self-conscious, standing in front of the rest of them after having drawn their attention, but then she recovered her usual air of unassailable confidence as she resumed speaking.
"On the day after initiation, when I became the leader of this team, it became clear to me that we would have eyes upon us," Sunset said. "Eyes on Pyrrha, waiting expectantly for her to fulfil the potential promised by her early successes."
Pyrrha's chin dipped, almost involuntarily, at the reminder.
"Eyes on Ruby, to see if she really deserved her early admission into Beacon," Sunset said. "Eyes on me, if not as many as I might have liked and not for the reasons that I would have chosen: to see if a faunus deserved to lead a team as good as this one. But now we all have eyes on us, eyes not fixed on any one of us but on all four of us. Eyes watching to see if we can get the job done. Eyes watching to see if we can bring down the White Fang. Eyes watching to see if we are so talented as our membership ought by all rights to make us. Eyes watching to see what we do next.
"This is Team Sapphire's…” She paused and grinned at Ruby. “This is Team Sapphire’s first official mission. Assigned to us by the authorities here at Beacon.”
“Told you!” Ruby declared.
Sunset didn’t acknowledge her beyond the grin of her face growing just a little broader. “We were chosen for this, not Iron, not Wisteria, but us: Sapphire.” Sunset paused for breath. "There's a bit of a downside to having hype around you, which I suspect that some of you know already." She glanced at Pyrrha for a moment. "You have to live up to it again and again. But this is the first time. So don't let me down, okay, because... because I promise that I don't intend to let you down."
Jaune nodded. "We won't let ourselves down either."
"Yeah!" Ruby said as she punched the air. "Let's go save the world and whoop some butt!"
Any world saving, or indeed butt-whooping, was preemptively interrupted by all four of their scrolls going off at once.
The caller turned out, upon answering, to be Yang, her face filling up one corner of Pyrrha's screen as the faces of Ruby, Jaune, and Sunset appeared in three other windows around it.
"Yang?" Ruby asked, her voice echoing as it emerged out of the three other scrolls in the room before Sunset, Jaune, and Pyrrha all put themselves on mute. Pyrrha found Jaune and herself both moving a little closer to Ruby, so that if they needed to speak, their voices would carry to Ruby's scroll.
Yang's smile was a little tight and seemed a little forced to Pyrrha; she fancied that she was a good judge of such things, having worn plenty of fake smiles over the course of her life. "Hey, Ruby," she said. "Hey, guys. Good luck on your mission today. Take care of one another."
"We will," Jaune assured her. "Are you that worried that you had to check up on us?"
"She's not checking up on us; she's worried about something," Sunset said bluntly.
"Sunset," Pyrrha murmured reproachfully.
"I'm sorry, but it's written on your face," Sunset said to Yang.
That doesn't mean you should draw attention to it, Pyrrha thought.
"Yang?" Ruby repeated. "What's up?"
"Nothing," Yang said quickly. "Well… that is…" She hesitated. "I didn't mention this last night, and I wasn't sure if I ought to bring it up, but… Ruby, do you remember when Raven appeared in the courtyard? Just before semester started?"
Pyrrha found that her lips were pursing almost despite herself. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Yang to feel abandoned by her mother, to know that your mother was a deserter, that most wretched of men. Her inability to imagine it was so complete that she did not dare to speak of it, and yet, it seemed that her disapproval was making itself known upon her face regardless. She controlled herself, assuming with a practiced ease the mask that she had worn for so long, subsuming Pyrrha Nikos and her opinions beneath the visage of the Invincible Girl, a doll without thoughts or hopes of her own who merely reflected others hopes and dreams back at them.
"Sure," Ruby said cautiously. "I remember."
"She said that this is how it would start," Yang murmured, "with you getting training missions."
"Extra training missions," Ruby reminded Yang. "She said we'd get extra missions."
Technically, one might say that we are getting an extra mission, Pyrrha thought, if one knew about our return plans.
"Okay, but it's still really early in the semester; there's plenty of time for you to get 'extra' missions," Yang pointed out.
"Yeah, but you got a mission even before we did," Ruby reminded her. Her tone was playful as she said, "So maybe you're the one that Professor Ozpin is taking a special interest in."
Sunset snorted. "There's nothing special about Team Iron."
"I heard that, Sunset," Yang declared. "Listen, I… I know that it's Raven and that I probably shouldn't listen to her, but I was awake half the night thinking about this stuff, and I wouldn't feel right if I didn't remind you. I don't know what it means, but… be careful out there, okay? All of you, but especially you."
Ruby rolled her eyes. "We'll be fine, Yang. We'll protect each other."
"You do that," Yang told her. "You… I'll see you when you get back." She hung up.
"Do you… do you think we should have told her?" Ruby said, as she put away her scroll. "About, you know, the White Fang and stuff?"
"You're her sister; how do you think she would have taken it?" Sunset replied.
"Uh..."
"That's what I thought," Sunset said. "What your sister doesn't find out until after the fact won't hurt her."
"Will it hurt us when she does find out?" Jaune asked. He hesitated for a moment. "What do you think it means? What she said about her…” – he hesitated with a glance at Ruby – “about Raven and everything?"
Pyrrha wanted to tell Jaune to pay it no mind. Professor Ozpin was both formidable in accomplishment and impeccable in character; his deeds as a huntsman spoke for themselves, as did the preeminence amongst the four academies which Beacon  Academy had attained under his stewardship. Meanwhile, neither vice nor scandal marred the headmaster's reputation: he did not gamble, philander, or drink to excess; in all his years as headmaster, there had never been the slightest suggestion that he was in any way abusing the students under his care. Even Pyrrha's mother respected him, and that was no small accomplishment. He was a marble man, unblemished by any merely human imperfection.
Pyrrha couldn't imagine why Professor Ozpin might bear any malicious intent towards them. Nor could she imagine why such malice – if it existed – would express itself in offering them convenient missions. She couldn't conceive of what Professor Ozpin might have to gain from manipulating them in any way. Quite apart from any of that, however... Pyrrha didn't want it to be true. She didn't want to live in a world where authority figures were unworthy of the public trust or of her own faith, where they had ulterior motives or worked towards shadowy and unseen ends.
Pyrrha looked at Sunset, who had made it abundantly clear how much she disagreed with Pyrrha upon this topic; Sunset – Pyrrha meant no offence to say or think so – seemed as a rule a little more inclined to distrust than Pyrrha herself.
But all Sunset said was, "At the moment, I'm not inclined to look too closely at it. I don't like it, and you all know that, and I'm inclined to agree with Raven as a general point, but for now... this mission is convenient for our purposes, and it is waiting for us." She started towards the door. "Destiny is driving us on. We shouldn't keep her waiting."
But before they could leave the dorm room, they were, again, interrupted; this time it was not the buzzing of a scroll but a knocking on the door which heralded this new delay. Sunset huffed and had a slight look of irritation on her face as she opened the door to reveal Cinder Fall upon the other side, wearing a fiery red dress with golden thread upon the sleeves and trimming the neckline that only added to the impression of fire.
A fire that melted Sunset's slightly testy look and burnt a smile there instead. "Cinder!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"
Cinder flashed a smile as she swept into the room. "What do you think I'm doing, Sunset? I'm here to say goodbye and bon chance." She managed to keep her smile in place even as she contrived to look playfully offended. "Why, you didn't think I'd let you leave without a word of farewell, did you? Or were you hoping to sneak out without seeing me?"
"You've caught me there," Sunset said, holding up her hands in mock admission. "And it almost worked; a couple of minutes later and you would have missed us."
"Lucky me," Cinder said. "Although not as lucky as you, getting entrusted with a mission earlier than practically anyone else."
Sunset didn’t bother to conceal her smugness. "Talent like ours is hard to ignore, I suppose."
Cinder chuckled. "Indeed," she agreed. "You're so greedy, Sunset, to monopolise all of the talent like this." She sighed, as she turned away from Sunset to look at the other three members of Team SAPR. "Oh, if only you had chosen Haven over Beacon, Pyrrha; what a killer combination we might have been."
Pyrrha put on the kind of smile that an astute observer of her – or a stalker – would have recognised from a hundred pre-match press conferences and publicity appearances. "I mean no offence, but I'm very happy where I am."
"Well, of course you are," Cinder said. "You've found your fairy tale ending, and you're poised to give Sunset hers as well. Meanwhile, I must battle on with my crew of ambitious mediocrities. Unfortunately, the talents of Mercury and Lightning are far exceeded by their opinions of themselves; why Mercury is even talking about fighting you, Pyrrha; please go easy on him." Her smouldering eyes flickered towards Jaune. "Although I suppose you're used to having to do that."
Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid I always try my hardest in the arena," she said.
"I never meant to insult you by suggesting otherwise," Cinder assured her. She turned away from Pyrrha and back to Sunset. "Still, when you're hip deep in grimm and covering yourselves in guts and glory in equal measure, think of me, stuck in Professor Port's class."
Sunset snorted. "Sure, I'll think of you. With pity."
Cinder chuckled. "It must be nice having Professor Ozpin on your side." She glanced at Pyrrha over her shoulder. "Although, I suppose some of you must be more used to that than others."
Pyrrha pursed her lips together. Perhaps she was being oversensitive, but she couldn't help but take that as an insult. She wasn't a complete stranger to such things: amongst the crowds of fans and sycophants, there had always been a few who resented her celebrity or her perceived success and who alleged that she used both to get her own way, as though she enjoyed any of it. It was unfortunate that Cinder Fall was one of them, if only because Sunset seemed to like her, but she would survive her envy as she had survived the jealousy of all the rest.
"Everything we get," Sunset said as she took Cinder's hand, "we earn by our skill."
"Skill you have in abundance, of course," Cinder said smoothly, "but I hope you don't deny that you've enjoyed a measure of good fortune. You were very lucky in the composition of your team."
Sunset shrugged. "Fate did smile upon us, I suppose."
Cinder chuckled. "And I advise you to appreciate your good fortune while it lasts. You never know when it might just... run out."



The City of Vale had many train stations, from the gothic grandeur of King's Muster – the first or final stop, depending on how you looked at it, of trains making the westward journey all the way to Vacuo – to the hypermodern, glass and steel construction of Liver Bird Street from whence the rails ran east towards the mountains; travel to the north was principally served by Gateway Station, for passenger travel at least. The Cold Harbour route, however, was not a passenger route but a cargo one, and thus, the trains ran out of a rather dirty, industrial rail yard not far from the outskirts of the city. At present, it was quiet, with very little evidence of any activity as Team SAPR darted between stationary and unattended trucks, stepped over spurs of track left unattended on the concrete, or passed crates left mouldering in the eaves of warehouses while larger containers sat shrouded in shadow further in. The only sign of real activity was taking place around a single train – five cars attached to a single squat, almost bullet-shaped black engine – that sat purring softly as it faced northward. A group of labourers, most of them faunus, wearing red hi-vis jackets, were loading the rear two cars with equipment while a smaller cluster of other men, most of them human, in blue vests and orange hard hats, watched without offering any assistance.
"I guess that must be our train," Sunset said, as she led the way towards it.
One of the men watching the loading of the train spotted them coming and nudged a heavyset man in a blue hi-vis jacket before pointing out the team of huntresses. Said fellow – the heavyset one, and when he turned around, Pyrrha could see that he had stubble covering his face – yelled for the loading crew to keep working before he stomped across the concrete of the rail yard towards team SAPR.
"You the huntsmen?" he demanded.
Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby all stopped, leaving Sunset to close the distance to this man, who was presumably some kind of foreman or supervisor. Sunset held out her hand. "Sunset Shimmer, leader of Team Sapphire."
"'Leader'?" he said. "That some kind of affirmative action thing?"
Jaune and Ruby winced; Pyrrha struggled to keep the disdain off her face. Even if you think such a thing, have the decency to keep it to yourself.
"No," Sunset said coldly as she withdrew her hand. "It's a quality thing. Trust me, we're the team to keep you safe on this job."
“Trust you?” the foreman said. “You’re younger than my two kids, and I wouldn’t trust them to water my plants.”
Pyrrha could only imagine the look on Sunset’s face or the struggle that her friend must be undergoing to keep her cool in this situation. If there’s one aspect of leadership that Sunset is lacking, it's diplomacy; I’m not sure how long she can hold her temper in check.
Of course, one of the reasons for that was that Sunset knew exactly who she was and what she was worth; no matter what, she was always resolutely, gloriously herself. Pyrrha envied that about her. She envied it very much. 
“Well, we’re not your kids,” Sunset said in a voice that sounded close to seething. “Look, just because we’re not old, we are perfectly-”
“Hey, ain’t you Pyrrha Nikos?” one of the other men – the ones standing around watching the loading of the train, not the ones loading it – asked her suddenly, pointing his finger in Pyrrha’s direction.
“Of course they recognise you.” Sunset looked at her. She didn’t look particularly impressed. 
Pyrrha took a step forward. “Yes,” she said. “I’m Pyrrha Nikos.”
“We’ll be fine, boss,” the man who had recognised her said. “Seriously, you never heard of this chick? Last Mistral tournament, I bet my kid’s whole college fund on Arslan Altan to win the final, but she kicked her ass in, like, thirty seconds flat. I thought my wife was gonna kill me when she found out.”
“I’m sorry!” Pyrrha said automatically before she noticed Sunset giving her a look that suggested she had nothing to be sorry about. Except she had, really. It might not have been intentional, but a young man or woman’s dreams had been crushed because of her – and she wasn’t talking about Arslan either.
“Ah, so that’s why you slept on my couch for two months?” the foreman asked. He shook his head. “Still, I guess if he says you’re okay, you’re okay. You really think you can keep my boys alive in that wood?”
“I guarantee it,” Sunset said.
“You’d better,” he said. He half turned away from her and gestured at the train cars. “The engine’s up front. It’s all automatic, so no crew, but you can link up your scroll to get control over the defences. Front car is for you, the two after that are for my guys to sleep in, the last two are for our gear; don’t touch our stuff and don’t bother us when we’re working. Name’s Red, this is my crew.” He paused. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset repeated. “That’s Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, and Pyrrha Nikos is the celebrity.”
Red nodded casually. “Nice to meet you. Get on board; we’re heading out as soon as these lazy asses finish loading up the train. Move it, people!”
“Do you need any help with the loading?” Pyrrha asked. She wouldn’t use her semblance to make the job as easy as she could have done – her desire to retain her trump card outweighed her desire to be helpful, as selfish as it might be – but she was willing to do what she could with the strength that aura granted her.
“No,” Sunset said firmly. “They don’t.”
“Sunset,” Pyrrha began, “if we can be of assistance-”
“We are here to protect you,” Sunset declared. “We are here to keep you alive if the grimm show up. We are not here on a work placement scheme; we are not here to make your jobs easier; we are not here to do extra labour for you. Do I make myself clear?”
“Hey, you don’t tell me how to do my job, I won’t tell you how to do yours,” Red said. “You get paid to fight; these guys get paid to work. So hop to it!” he shouted at them.
“Actually,” Jaune murmured, “we’re not getting paid for this.”
“Why am I not surprised? That’s probably why you got the job,” Red muttered.
“We got the job because we’re good at what we do!” Sunset snapped. She inhaled deeply, her eyes closing. When she opened them again, she seemed – and Pyrrha was quite certain that she only seemed that way – to have calmed down. “Anyway, the yard’s quieter than I expected,” Sunset said.
Red said, “There ain’t no trains moving until we get that rail line repaired, and until there are trains moving, there ain’t no need for the yard to move; all the other guys got sent home on no pay until we mend the railroad, so you see why this job is important, right?”
“Sure,” Sunset said. “Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Hey, gambling man!”
The man who had recognised Pyrrha looked guilty to be singled out. “Yeah?”
“They got odds up for the Vytal Festival yet?” Sunset asked.
“Uh… yeah.”
“What are the odds of Team Sapphire to win?”
“Sunset,” Pyrrha murmured.
“I just want to know,” Sunset said softly.
The man who had lost a shirt on Pyrrha’s opponent got out his scroll and began to scroll through a website of some kind. “How do you spell Sapphire?”
“S-A-P-R,” Sunset informed.
“Nine to one,” the man said incredulously. “Wow, those are seriously good odds before the tournament even starts. Must be 'cause you’ve got Nikos.”
“Put a bet on us,” Sunset said with a grin on her face, “because those odds are going to shorten fast once the matches start, I guarantee it.”



They kept watch on the roof of the train in staged shifts, so that the last half of each person's shift would overlap with the first half of another's and so on.
What this meant in practice was that at the moment, Jaune and Ruby were up on the roof of the train while Pyrrha was down below with Sunset. The train car that they were using as their, for want of a better word, living space during the trip north to the sight of the breakage was bare, without so much as an empty crate to sit on. It was also dark, with only a red light to illuminate the interior, although Jaune had brought a lamp of his own which they had set up in one corner, providing a little more light to see by. Outside, it had gotten dark, but Pyrrha could only tell that by looking upwards at the hatch leading onto the roof, because for the rest, their compartment was completely sealed with the door shut. 
Beneath their feet, the train rolled onwards, rattling upon the rails as it was borne along. 
Sunset had her rifle propped up in the corner, not far from Jaune’s lamp, and her black sword out as she practiced her stances. She flowed like water from one position to the other as Pyrrha watched her.
“Like this?” Sunset said, moving from a high guard to a downward slashing stroke.
“Yes, but remember to twist your foot for balance,” Pyrrha said.
“Right,” Sunset said, and she did it again.
“Better,” Pyrrha said. “Now, take a break.”
“I don’t need one.”
“Yes, you do,” Pyrrha replied. “It doesn’t have to be for very long.”
Sunset huffed impatiently, but she sheathed her sword across her back nonetheless. “I suppose you’ll be doing this with Jaune when he comes down here.”
Pyrrha’s lips twitched. “Yes,” she said. “I suppose I will.”
“Don’t,” Sunset said.
Pyrrha blinked in surprise. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t be so… so happy,” Sunset said. “Do you know how hard it is to watch you two sometimes? You’re so… happy!”
“Do you really think so?”
Sunset frowned. “Don’t you feel happy?”
“Yes, of course,” Pyrrha murmured. “Although… until we talked again last night, I wasn’t sure that… I mean, ever since we came back from Mistral…”
“Nothing had happened?”
“Yes,” Pyrrha admitted. “I suppose you could put it like that.”
“And what did last night yield up?”
“We’re going out!” Pyrrha cried, bouncing for joy on the balls of her feet.
“Good for you. Out where?”
Pyrrha hesitated. “We haven’t decided yet.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “You two are impossible.”
“We’re taking things as they come,” Pyrrha explained defensively. “I think it’s rather exciting.”
“'Exciting' isn’t the word I’d use for it,” Sunset declared. “Although I suppose it is rather adorable. Like putting two kittens in the same room together.”
“As long as we are happy, does that matter?” Pyrrha asked. “Does it… does it really bother you?”
“No,” Sunset said quickly. “It just… it reminds me a little of what I had. And what I lost.”
Pyrrha’s brow furrowed. “Have you ever… have you considered that… perhaps you and Flash could-”
“No,” Sunset said quickly.
“Why not?” Pyrrha asked. “I don’t need to be the most perceptive girl in the world to know that you still care about him.”
“He couldn’t handle me back then, what makes you think he’d be able to handle me now that I’m so much more awesome?” Sunset demanded. “And besides, I’m not going to beg a racist to take me back, and even if I… even if I do… it’s not going to happen. And besides, he’s on a team with Weiss Schnee. How am I supposed to compete with the beautiful, talented, insanely rich heiress to the Schnee Dust Company?”
“I did,” Pyrrha reminded her.
“Oh, so the answer to ‘how do I compete?’ is to be a beautiful, talented, slightly-less insanely rich Mistralian princess who is also an international celebrity,” Sunset said. “Perhaps I should get your mother to adopt me.” She grinned. “We could be sisters.”
Pyrrha chuckled but could not quite keep the sigh out of her voice as she said, “Mother probably would adopt you, if you asked her to.” You are just the kind of daughter she wanted, after all.
“Have you spoken to her yet?”
Pyrrha was much more open about her sighing now. “No,” she said. “And I think you knew that.”
“I don’t follow you around every minute of every day; you could have done it while I wasn’t around.”
“But I didn’t,” Pyrrha murmured.
“You should.”
“She lied, Sunset,” Pyrrha declared. “She lied to Jaune for no other reason than to deny me happiness.”
“That’s not actually why she did it,” Sunset replied. “Your mother is many things, but she is not a sadist.”
“I know that my mother made a good impression on you, but please don’t act as though you know her as well as I do,” Pyrrha whispered. “I am the one who grew up with her.”
Sunset folded her arms across her chest. “Are you honestly going to stand there and tell me that you think your mother is sadistic?”
Pyrrha could not meet Sunset’s gaze. “No,” she admitted after a moment, as she looked away at the side of the train car. “But she has never held my happiness as her greatest concern.”
“Your mother… has a different sense of what will make you happy than you do,” Sunset conceded.
Pyrrha shook her head. “How is it that you can accuse Professor Ozpin of all manner of villainy on the flimsiest of foundations and yet with equal zeal defend my mother from something that is true beyond doubt?”
“Because your mother gives me nice things,” Sunset said bluntly.
Pyrrha froze, genuinely uncertain as to whether or not Sunset was joking. “You… you’re not serious?”
“Of course I’m not serious,” Sunset snapped. “Were you unsure about that?”
“No, of course not,” Pyrrha lied and hoped it was convincing.
“The motives of Professor Ozpin are yet opaque to me,” Sunset declared. “I don’t know what he wants or what he’s up to, and that bothers me. I will allow him to make use of us while it serves our needs and wants and purposes, but that doesn’t mean that it stops concerning me. I know exactly what your mother wants: she wants what’s best for you.”
“What she believes is best for me,” Pyrrha corrected. “As you pointed out, her opinions differ from mine quite a bit on some subjects.”
“I’m not telling you to let her control your life,” Sunset said. “She’s on the other side of the world from us now; she can’t make you break up with Jaune. She hasn’t even cut you off. What harm is there in letting her hear your voice?”
“What would we say to one another if I did?” Pyrrha asked.
Sunset’s mouth opened, but no words emerged. “I… I told your mother that you would forgive her, such was the generosity in your heart,” she said, after a moment. “I would rather not be proved a fool.”
“I… may, in time,” Pyrrha allowed. “But… at the moment, we should probably get back to training.”
“Sure,” Sunset agreed, and she raised her sword once more to resume the lesson.
And the train rumbled on.