//------------------------------//
// Whatever It Takes (Rewritten) 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Whatever It Takes


Sunset stood, frozen, as the ashes of the grimm descended to the floor. A cloud of dark smoke hovered in front of her for a moment before it disappeared, just as the grimm itself had. 
Just as Salem had. 
Except she hadn’t. Not in the way that mattered, not in the way that would have helped Sunset, or at least, not in the way that Sunset wished. 
She could still hear the screams. She could still hear it in her head. They mingled together like the discordant screeching of ill-played violins. And when she shut her eyes, as she momentarily shut her eyes and hoped no one could see it, she could see them dying. Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune, Blake; even Rainbow Dash, even Twilight; she could see them dying, she could hear them crying out, and she could not stop it. She could not help them. 
“You will watch your friends die all around you. You will be powerless to help them.”
No. No. I deny you and defy you.
But she could not defy her fears. She could not deny that Salem’s words, her visions, had taken root inside her mind. She could not deny that she feared, as she had always feared, but Salem had taken those fears and given shape to shapeless dread, had formed her misgivings and her lurking terror and dragged those new-formed qualms out where she could see them.
Where she had no choice but to look at them. 
She did not turn around. She didn’t want to look at any of them. She feared that if she looked at them, she would see only Salem’s visions: Pyrrha choking on her own blood, Jaune devoured, Ruby torn to shreds. She feared that if they could see her eyes, then they would know how deeply fear held her in its grip. 
Professor Ozpin had warned her that she might need to sacrifice the life of a friend to achieve victory. He had warned her, and she had glibly and proudly dismissed his warning, glorying in her own strength, thinking more of her own power and resolve than in the foe that waited for them here. And thus, she had ventured to this dead place, to the very dominion of death and darkness, she had led her team, her friends, into the underworld, and there… there they had met their adversary. 
An adversary who prophesied the deaths of those that Sunset held dear. 
Omens upon omens piled up high, foretelling death within the mausoleum. 
No. No, I will not suffer it. 
Words, words, words, what are words when set against Adam’s terrible red sword and Cinder’s all-consuming wrath?
She could not drive the visions from her mind. She could not cease to hear the voices. 
It was like when she had discovered her semblance and used it on Cinder, when Cinder’s own feelings and emotions had threatened to overwhelm her… except this seemed worse. Yes, she had dreamt of striking down Pyrrha then, but then, it had been only her own actions that she needed to fear; she could resolve to control herself, she could – at the last resort – stay away from the people she cared about. 
But now, in this place, her fears were not of herself but of what others might do, and she could not resolve it so easily by keeping her distance. 
Nor could she banish all wicked thoughts by the simple expedient of taking Ruby’s hand. 
Not when Ruby had her own battles to fight. 
Her mother.
Unless Sunset guessed wrong, Salem had amplified the discordant note that Sunset had felt in Ruby’s soul when she had used her semblance on her partner. 
Sunset began to contemplate the possibility – eagerly contemplate, she could admit to herself – of aborting the mission. Of declaring that they were all too shaken to continue, their nerves too jangled to attempt a task of such great moment. Yes, they would return to Beacon as failures, with their work undone, but at the same time, they would return to Beacon safe and sound, all of them. Salem’s grim prophecy would be averted for the present. 
And they would not return without some useful intelligence. Cinder and Adam were both at Mountain Glenn; it was not too much to say that this was, indeed, the White Fang base. 
Perhaps we should have simply reported that fact and then left last night or this morning. Let the Atlesians take over and flood the place with soldiers. 
Perhaps it was merely vanity that we did not. 
And look where vanity has led us now. 
A groan from Rainbow Dash drew Sunset out of her thoughts – for the moment, at least. “What… what was that?”
“Magic,” Sunset said, trying to keep her voice steady and free from trembling. “It was not Salem’s words alone that affected us so; she… she was using magic to… to put the fear in us.” 
It was not a very scientific explanation for what had just happened, but at the moment and in her present state of whirling thoughts and lingering anxieties, it was the best that she could come up with. 
And it did explain concisely what had just happened. 
“I… I heard them,” Rainbow murmured. “I heard them crying out. Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Scootaloo… I could hear all of them. I heard them… I saw them… I saw them-”
“Dying?” Sunset asked, in a voice barely louder than a whisper. She ventured a look at Rainbow Dash, who had confessed fears so like to Sunset’s own. She saw in Rainbow’s magenta eyes her own fears reflected. The fears that had taken the heart of her. 
Rainbow nodded, a short, sharp gesture. “How… how?” she demanded. “How could she know that, who could she-?”
“She didn’t, until she plucked it from your mind,” Sunset said.
“And she can do that too?” Rainbow demanded. “How?”
“I don’t know, with more magic?” Sunset snapped. “I can’t explain how she did it!”
“Why not, aren’t you supposed to have magic too?!” Rainbow yelled, before she gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. 
Professor Goodwitch let out a weary sigh. “Relax, Miss Dash; I am already quite aware of Miss Shimmer’s unique abilities. If you were trying to keep it a secret, Miss Shimmer, you were not doing a particularly good job.”
“With respect, Professor, I suspect that if you didn’t already know that magic existed, you might give me a different answer.”
“Perhaps,” Professor Goodwitch allowed. “But I do know, and I have known that you possess magic for some time, as has Professor Ozpin.”
Sunset let out a ragged sigh. “I thought he might, Professor.” She paused. “But my magic… it is not as Salem’s is; I cannot say how she did what she did, only… only that she did it.”
“How, then, can you be sure it was magic?” Ciel asked.
“She didn’t deny it when I accused her of it,” Sunset said. “She could have, although… it must be magic of some sort that let her project herself from her true location through that grimm, and to project a semblance so far as well? No, it felt like magic, and I… I am confident that it was magic.” 
That might be the only thing I’m confident in at this point.
“Then… then it wasn’t real?” Penny asked.
“It was our fears,” Sunset declared. Which isn’t to say that they aren’t real.
“These are not childish nightmares that we speak of,” Blake murmured. “These fears she played upon are… it does concern me, the possibility that I might be turning away from helping my people, selling out to live in luxury and contentment.”
“I saw… it was as though I stood in the Fountain Courtyard,” Pyrrha whispered. “Except… except that death lay all around me, as it is here but more recent and so… so even more terrible to look upon.” Her voice trembled. “The courtyard was burning. The waters were red with blood, and when I rushed from the courtyard, rushed out of the palace, I saw… I saw the whole of Mistral being devoured by flame.”
“And I saw you,” Jaune declared softly. “You were fighting… something. I couldn’t make out what it was, man or grimm, it was wreathed in shadow; I couldn’t get a proper look at it. I wasn’t trying to get a proper look at it. I could only see you. I was only focussed on you because… because you were losing. It felt like I kept trying to help you, but you kept pushing me back until in the end, you… you threw me away. You threw me away because you were-”
“Losing,” Pyrrha finished for him. Sunset dared to look at them, and as she looked, she saw Pyrrha reach out and take Jaune’s hand. “I have given you my promise, Jaune. Whatever else I am, or whatever I am not, I should like to think that I am a girl who keeps her word.” She hesitated. A shudder wracked her body and made her fair uncovered shoulders tremble. “Although,” she confessed, “if I were fighting a battle I knew I could not win, I… I do not know that I would wish for you to watch me die, still less-”
“Do you think that I’d want to live after… do you think that I’d want to live without… that’s exactly why I asked you to promise.”
Pyrrha looked into his eyes for a moment, and then closed hers. “And that is why I shall keep it,” she murmured.
Jaune kissed her, in spite of everyone who might be watching – in spite of Professor Goodwitch – and afterwards, he held her, his arms around her as he cradled her, her head pressed against his chest, her red hair falling down into his lap. 
Jaune looked down at her, and then looked up at Sunset – Sunset turned away before she could meet his eyes – and then glanced back to see him sweep his blue-eyed gaze around the room. 
“Can I just say something?” he asked. “I… I know that I’m not as good with words as Sunset is, so don’t expect a great speech and don’t expect it to sound the way that a speech should, but… but just let me say it anyway. 
“Some of you have said what it was that you saw, what she showed you. Not all of you have, and that’s fine; you don’t have to say it. It sounds as though we mostly all saw similar kinds of stuff anyway. Like Blake said, these aren’t like nightmares that we saw. She didn’t show us monsters that aren’t real, or anything like that. As great as Pyrrha is, I know that there’s a chance… no offence.”
Pyrrha chuckled. “I’m well aware of my limitations,” she murmured, her head still resting against Jaune’s breastplate. “Trust me.”
Jaune nodded. “So I’m not going to say that there’s nothing to be scared of, but… do you guys remember the fight at the docks? Do you remember what happened afterwards?”
“I believe I had some harsh words for you all, Mister Arc,” Professor Goodwitch reminded them.
Jaune chuckled nervously. “Well… yes, that too, Professor, but… what I was thinking of was after that. We promised that whatever happened next, we’d face it together. Well… a lot has happened since then, but we’re all still here. We’re still together, and as long as we stick together, I don’t see that we won’t get to the next thing, just like we’ve gotten this far. Together.
“Blake… I don’t know, I’m not a faunus, I can’t tell you how to feel, but I do know that you’re not sacrificing anything to live in comfort. You’re putting your life on the line as much as any of us to protect the world, including the faunus. You saved Ruby’s life in the Emerald Forest, you risked chills to find us a way through Mountain Glenn, you’re not doing nothing. You’re doing a whole lot. We’re all doing a whole lot to make sure that… to make sure that none of the things that we saw, none of the things we’re afraid of… we’re doing it to make sure that none of that happens, right? 
“And it won’t, so long as we stick together, just like we have done since that night at the docks.”
Pyrrha smiled, though her eyes remained closed. “Together,” she murmured.
A smile tugged at the corners of Blake’s mouth. “Together.”
“Together!” Penny cried, pumping one fist into the air. 
Ciel took a deep breath. “You are correct, of course. Our… these visions that she planted in our minds should not discourage us; rather, they should remind us of what we fight to protect. Together then, while the road lasts.”
“Together,” Ruby said, slowly getting to her feet, her red cape swaying a little behind her. 
“Ruby,” Sunset said. “Are you-?”
“I’m fine,” Ruby said, wiping the tears away from her face.
Sunset’s eyes narrowed a little. “Are you sure about that?”
Ruby nodded. “Really, Sunset, I’m fine. We’re all fine now, right? It was all just magic, and she’s gone now.” She smiled. “Thanks for getting rid of her. It’s… it’s good that’s over.”
“Ruby,” Sunset murmured. “You don’t have to pretend that didn’t happen.”
Ruby was silent for a moment. “It doesn’t matter,” she said firmly.
“But-”
“It doesn’t matter, Sunset,” Ruby insisted. “I know that you worry about me, but... nothing that she said to me… I’ve always known that… I mean I should have known that… my mom’s dead,” she declared. “But it doesn’t matter if she didn’t manage to stop Salem; what matters is that she left a world for me to grow up in. And now, it’s my turn. Now, it’s all of our turn to pass that world on to the next generation the way that it was passed on to us. Whatever it takes.”
'Whatever it takes'? Sunset wanted to hug Ruby and recoil from her at the same time. She was in awe of Ruby’s courage, and at the same time, she was disgusted by it. 'Whatever it takes'? What if it took Pyrrha’s life, or Jaune’s life, or Penny’s life? 'Whatever it takes'? The sacrifice of Ruby herself, the loss of the entire party, both teams wiped out, Yang bereaved, the Nikos line extinguished? 
'Whatever it takes'? Ruby would say 'yes,' Sunset was sure. Yes to all of it, yes to their annihilation, yes to every sacrifice. She would see the fears that Salem had planted like weeds in Sunset’s mind, and she would not flinch from any of them, not even from her own death. 
Especially not from her own death. 
That was what made her such a true huntress. 
That was what made her such a terrible friend. 
Is there anything worse than loving someone who does not, cannot think the way that you do? Sunset wondered. And knowing that the way you think, the drives that animate you, would leave them disgusted if they found them out?
If Ruby knew how afraid Sunset was right now, then she would think her a coward. If she knew some of the things that had been going through Sunset’s mind since they arrived in Mountain Glenn, she would think her much worse. 
All of these thoughts, Sunset kept hidden as she put on a smile and said, “Your mother had a hell of a daughter.” And then she did hug Ruby, because as much as the younger girl scared the living daylights out of her sometimes, Sunset wouldn’t want Ruby anywhere else but on her team. 
So she wrapped one arm around her and held her close and felt the leather of her jacket crumple a little as Ruby enveloped her in turn. 
“You’re all so young,” Professor Goodwitch said, in a voice that was wistful, soft and filled with melancholy, like a country lament. “So young and with so much ahead of you. Don’t waste it.”
“Professor?” Ruby asked.
Professor Goodwitch blinked. Like Ruby, she too wiped at her eyes, or at least dabbed at them. “Salem… she wasn’t wrong about everything.”
Sunset frowned, because even though she was minded to agree, that didn’t make it any stranger to hear one of Professor Ozpin’s lieutenants say so. “Professor?”
“I remember all the students that I have taught,” Professor Goodwitch said. “Or tried to teach. I remember them, and I listen for news of them… and I learn of their fates. I’ve had so many students, and so many of them have given their lives to preserve our kingdoms, and I sometimes ask myself how many of them are remembered by anyone but me. We don’t even have a memorial for them anywhere on the school grounds. I sometimes ask myself if there’s more I could have done for them, or if I really did anything at all.
“There are times when it seems to me that those who do well in my class are those like Miss Nikos who need no instruction, while those like Mister Arc who require assistance do not find it in my class. And at times like that, I ask myself just what I’ve done, what I’m doing… whether I wouldn’t have been better off going out into the field, like my team-mates did after graduation.”
“Professor,” Ruby said, sounding a little tremulous. “I’m sure that if she were here, she’d tell you that you don’t have anything to be ashamed of.”
Professor Goodwitch’s gaze sharpened a little as she looked at Ruby. “Really, Miss Rose? As a teacher, I am supposed to dedicate myself to the pursuit of truth and knowledge and pass on both to my students. And yet, I have become a dealer in lies and deceptions, concealing from the students who come to me for knowledge the truth of the world that we live in, the war that we are fighting. I send them out to fight an enemy they do not even know exists.”
“You send us out to fight the grimm, Professor,” Pyrrha said, getting up as Jaune released her. “Just as we expected that we would when we applied for Beacon. It’s true that you don’t tell everyone everything, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t teach us what we need to know.”
Ruby nodded. “And for what it’s worth, I think you’re a pretty good teacher.”
“Really?” Professor Goodwitch said. “And what have you learnt from me, Miss Rose?”
“I can’t speak for Ruby, but I’ve learned not to rely on my magic so much,” Sunset said. “It might have taken me a while to finally get it, but you were the first to point that out. You can’t teach us how to fight, Professor; we’re each too unique for that. But you’ve got a good eye, and you can spot our weaknesses before they get us hurt, or worse. That isn’t nothing.”
Professor Goodwitch was silent for a moment. She pushed her spectacles back up her nose. “However much of that was sincere or not, Miss Shimmer, I thank you for it. And now, I think that we have tarried here long enough. We’d best get moving.”
Sunset nodded, but she took a glance at Rainbow Dash, still kneeling on the floor, and said. “You go on ahead. I need a quick word with Rainbow; we have matters to discuss.”
“Huh?” Ruby asked.
“This won’t take long,” Sunset assured her. She waited for the others to take their leave, scrambling through the hole in the wall. Sunset waited for them to go, and as she waited, the sights flashed before her eyes, and the sounds of the screaming rang in her ears, and she would do anything, anything at all, to make them stop. 
She would do anything to ensure those awful visions would not come to pass. 
Whatever it takes, Ruby had said; sometimes, you had to sacrifice someone, or you would lose everything, Professor Ozpin had said; they would die, and there was nothing she could do about it, Salem had said. To which Sunset replied ‘no.’ She would not admit it. It was not in boldness that she spoke, not in vanity, but in… in desperation. She would do whatever it took… whatever it took to make sure that ‘whatever it takes’ did not come to pass. 
She loved them, and though she loved not wisely but too well, that did not invalidate her love, and for those feelings… she would do things that would make them blanch to think of. 
Speaking of loving not wisely but too well, Rainbow Dash was kneeling on the floor. 
Sunset’s steps sounded heavy as she approached her. 
“I know what you saw,” she murmured. 
“Of course you do, I told you,” Rainbow muttered.
“I could have guessed anyway.”
“Because you’re a mind-reader like she is?”
“No,” Sunset said patiently. “Because what do you think I saw?”
Rainbow looked up at her, mouth slightly open. 
Sunset snorted. “What else would I be afraid of?”
“Being forgotten?” Rainbow suggested.
“Jerk,” Sunset growled. “You think I prize fame or glory over the lives of my friends?”
“No,” Rainbow murmured. “No, I guess not.”
Sunset knelt down in front of her. “It’s not going to happen,” she said. “Your friends will not perish, nor my friends, nor your teammates. None of them.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I won’t let it, and neither will you,” Sunset declared fiercely. 
Rainbow glanced down at the filthy ground beneath them. “Sunset… what you said last night-”
“Forget last night; it’s not important right now-”
“I failed the entrance exam for Canterlot,” Rainbow admitted. “I didn’t… I didn’t make the grade. Literally.”
“I… I didn’t know that,” Sunset murmured.
“Not something I’m keen to shout about,” Rainbow muttered. “I was admitted through personal recommendation.”
“General Ironwood,” Sunset said softly.
Rainbow nodded. “Why did I get this position, Sunset?”
Sunset blinked. “Because you’re General Ironwood’s golden girl.”
“And why is that?” Rainbow pressed.
Sunset grinned facetiously. “Because he’s a terrible judge of character?”
“Sunset,” Rainbow growled, in a serious tone.
“Okay then, you tell me the answer.”
“Because I saved Twilight one time,” Rainbow said. “Because I was in the right place to do something when she was in trouble. I chased off a couple of small-time hoods. That’s it. Everything else has flowed from that. Twilight’s family took me in, I met General Ironwood, he took me under his wing, and why? Not because I passed any tests, not because I have special powers… because I was in the right place at the right time.”
“Lucky you,” Sunset said. “That shows that you had a stroke of political luck; it doesn’t prove that you lack courage or ability.”
“I’m a fake.”
“I defy anyone who has seen you send Adam Taurus running with his tail between his legs to call you a fraud!” Sunset snapped. “What you have done…” She trailed off, because accomplishment wasn’t really the point, was it?
“I get it,” Sunset said. “Girls like us will do amazing things to be seen, won’t we? My whole life… I always felt I deserved more, and you wouldn’t have been in that right place at that right time for your stroke of political good fortune if you had not felt the same. We do what we must, we do whatever we can, to carve out great gilded lives for ourselves that do not humiliate us to live. And then… in this world that seems determined to ignore and to belittle us, in this world that regards us as a problem that it does not want, we enjoy such good fortune, we are so very blessed, as to find those who see us as we are and embrace us in all our flaws. And so we need to protect them. I have to protect them because they mean the world to me, and I need your help to do it.”
“My help?”
“You’re the only one who understands,” Sunset said. “None of the rest of them understand, not even Pyrrha, but you… you understand, don’t you?”
Rainbow hesitated a moment, before she said, “They could replace us so easily; they don’t get that we could never replace them.”
“Precisely,” Sunset agreed. “So will you help me protect this great gilded space I have carved out for myself?” She held out her hand. “Will you help me, sister?”
Rainbow looked at Sunset’s hand, then at Sunset herself. “Are we sisters, Sunset?” she asked. She smiled, as she took Sunset’s hand. “I’d like that a lot.”
Sunset helped Rainbow to her feet, and clapped her on the shoulder. “We will rescue Applejack,” she promised. “And bring everyone back home safe.”
Whatever it takes.