Red Pill
Sunset closed her eyes as she fell to the ground, the magic of the grimm withering in the silver light before it could break her aura and, the magic throwing her backwards broken, she ceased to move back but simply dropped like a rock onto the ground.
She closed her eyes against the blinding light that came from Ruby’s, but nevertheless the light burned through her eyelids, consuming all that she could see no matter which way she turned her head. It was like looking into the sun, only she couldn’t turn away. It was everywhere, and everything.
And then it was gone.
“Ruby!”
Sunset opened her eyes, once she thought that she could do so without losing the ability to see. The clouds of her own pegasus magic were starting to disperse, but slowly; they were drifting apart under the night breeze; as Sunset leapt to her feet she could see that the same breeze, equally slowly, was dispersing the smoke that had and still surrounded the Xiao Long-Rose cabin.
Ruby was on her knees, head bowed forwards, chin resting on her chest. She looked as though she was sleeping, and it was more pleasant to think that she was sleeping than that she had put herself in a coma again through use of her eyes.
More pleasant to think that she was sleeping than that she had put herself in a coma to save Sunset.
I need to get better at using my new powers.
Ruby’s father was already by her side – it had been his shout that Sunset had heard as he ran to her – kneeling beside her, one arm wrapped around her shoulders.
“Ruby,” he shouted. “Ruby, can you hear me?” He cursed as he got no response from her, confirming (to Sunset as well as to himself) that she was out of it for the foreseeable future, again.
Sunset left him to take care of Ruby. Not that she wasn’t worried about her – she didn’t know whether to thank Ruby or tell her not to be so stupid – but there was no point in everybody crowding around her; plus Sunset wasn’t sure how close Taiyang would want her to get to Ruby right now. She would neither be surprised nor would she blame Taiyang if he blamed her for this. After all they’d been living quite quietly together until Sunset Shimmer showed up to bring trouble back into their lives.
So she left Ruby to her father – and her dog who trotted up to the pair of them, tongue hanging out of his mouth – while Sunset turned her attention to the effects of Ruby’s eyes.
The smoke was dispersing, but there was no sign of that guy with the scorpion tail; she guessed that his beating at the hands of Taiyang had left him reluctant to take his shot again, even though he wasn’t likely to get a better chance than this. Hopefully he’d already withdrawn…somewhere else. Back to where he’d came from. Back to Salem, most likely.
Or he was licking his wounds before he tried again. Let him do that, so long as he wasn’t actively attacking them at a point where they were pretty vulnerable himself, with Ruby out of it, Taiyang distracted, and Sunset having already shown that she was no match for him.
Not right now, not in close at any rate.
I need to get better, I need to get more versatile. If I’m going to make use of pegasus magic then I need to learn to fight like a pegasus.
I can’t rely on Ruby just using her silver eyes until they get her killed.
Their effectiveness in this particular instance, however, could not be denied: where before there had been a small horde of grimm bent upon their destruction now there was a garden of stone to decorate the grass around the house that Ruby shared with her father, beowolves turned to snarling gargoyles to glare with sightless eyes towards the wooden building.
And in their midst, towering over all the others like the statuary centrepiece of some grand work of art, stood the grimm who had led them. The grimm who had spoken their names. The grimm who had wielded magic.
What was this thing?
It looked like a unicorn, or rather it looked like some of the more monstrous unicorn-derived creatures who menaced Equestria either in fact or folklore, like the Pony of Shadows or something like that.
It wasn’t impossible that a grimm could take such a shape, she’d just come from a fight with a grimm pegasus after all, but how could it speak? How could it speak and how could it use magic? That was what it was, it had to be; it wasn’t Equestrian magic, which meant that it must be Remnant magic, it felt the same as the magic that sustained the grimm itself, only most of them couldn’t actively channel it like that. The magic sustained them but they could not use magic; how was it that this grimm could? What was it?
And was it still alive under that layer of stone?
A crack appeared in the stone shell; it was very small, but it made a noise loud enough to split the quiet night. With her night vision still engaged Sunset could see it, a hairline fracture that began to spread before her eyes.
A chip of stone fell from the grimm to land upon the ground, and underneath she could see the black skin of the grimm itself.
Definitely alive under there, with the only question being how long it would take to get out.
And what could be done about it in the meantime?
Do I have enough magic for a dispel? She definitely didn’t have enough for the kind of mass dispel that she’d used at the battle of Vale, but Sunset wasn’t concerned with the beowolves right now; she was fairly certain that if they were still alive under there they nevertheless weren’t getting out any time soon.
It was the grimm that was getting out right before her very eyes that concerned her.
Sunset cast the counterspell.
Nothing happened. The grimm was quite visible still there, and the cracks were spreading slowly up the stone.
What that-? How could it be so unaffected by it? Why was it still here? Why hadn’t the counterspell disrupted the magic holding the creature together?
Because, as Sunset discovered when she stretched out her senses towards it, this creature wasn’t made of magic, as other grimm were.
Which meant that it was…that it was truly alive.
Was this thing even a real grimm? Was it something else pretending to be one, aping the look of the creatures of grim even as it was something different altogether?
That would explain how it talks and how it has-
Another crack fell off the stone.
Yeah, think about what it is later; think about what you can about it now.
Sunset dismissed the idea of attacking it; she had a sinking feeling that would only hasten its emergence from the stone cocoon into which Ruby had condemned it; she didn’t want to do anything to get it out faster. And she couldn’t just wipe it away by disrupting its magic because there was something more than magic in there. Which meant that she could…she could…
Yes! That’s it!
Sunset knelt down, put one hand on the ground, and cast Displace.
It was not a spell that she would have put much stock into in ordinary circumstances; she’d always regarded it as more of a practical joke than serious magic: why put a bucket of water above a door when you could cast a spell that would displace the water out of the bucket and into the air above the victim’s head whenever you wanted it to? It was a little like teleportation for inanimate objects and, like actual teleportation, you couldn’t use it to phase things into one another; which was why Sunset used the spell to disperse a yawning pit’s worth of earth under the feet of the grimm, if grimm it was, into the air above it’s head.
This had the beneficial side effect of opening up a yawning pit under the feet of the grimm, into which it dropped with a heavy thud a moment before a pit’s worth of earth appeared over its head to shower down upon it, burying it beneath the ground. Only a modest rise in the disturbed earth showed where it was.
Have fun getting out of that, I just hope you can’t do it too fast.
Not that she wanted to stick around and time it. Sunset ignored the weakening in her legs, the overall desire for rest that was stealing over her body, and summoned her gun and sword into her hands. “Sir, we have to go,” she said, taking a step towards Taiyang and Ruby.
Taiyang looked up at Sunset, who was glad to see that there wasn’t any visible anger towards her in his eyes. “That thing,” he said. “It knew her. It knew both of you.”
“I know,” Sunset said. “That’s why I don’t want to be around here when it gets out of that hole. We should get Ruby to-“
“Beacon,” Taiyang said. “Ruby needs to rest, but not in a hospital. If she’s being hunted then Beacon is the only place safe enough to stop.”
“Okay,” Sunset said; she wasn’t as sure as he was about Beacon’s overall safety – it had just been attacked by grimm a few months ago, after all – but it had the advantage of being a long way away from Patch. “We’ll get clear of here and then I’ll call-“
She was interrupted – again – by the whine of a bullhead’s engines as the airship cleared the trees, breaking through the clouds that Sunset had conjured, its lights illuminating the darkness as it descended straight downwards, engines blowing at the grass as the ship dropped.
It came to a stop about a foot above the ground, hovering not far from the house and not far from them either.
The right-side hatch began to drop. Cinder had leapt out before it had even finished doing so, running across the grass. “Sunset! You-“ she noticed the stone beowolves as she stopped running. “Oh.”
“Cinder?” Sunset said. The hatch on the Bullhead had dropped completely now, and Sunset could see that Sami, Jack and Emerald were all inside. “What are you doing here?”
“We came to warn you that Ruby was in danger,” Cinder said. “We appear to be a little late.”
“I’m glad to see you all the same, really glad,” Sunset said, clapping her on the shoulder. “Is Cardin flying the Bullhead?”
“Yes,” Cinder said. Her voice dropped a little. “He saw the silver light. We all saw it. He’ll want an explanation.”
“I’ll…I’ll think of something,” Sunset said, strongly considering the truth. “But first we need to go. Sir, if you-“ she glanced back, but Taiyang was already way ahead of her. He picked up Ruby in his arms – she looked so small – and carried her at a run towards the Bullhead, Zwei running at his heels.
Sunset and Cinder followed behind him.
“You couldn’t defeat a few beowolves without relying on Ruby and her special eyes?” Cinder asked. When Sunset didn’t respond the mocking smile faded from her face. “It found you, didn’t it? Where is it now?”
“Buried, for the moment,” Sunset replied tersely. They reached the Bullhead together, leaping inside. Sunset gave a glance to see that Taiyang – still holding Ruby- had settled at the back of the airship, before she dived into the cockpit and took the free seat next to Cardin.
“Get us in the air,” she said.
“Sunset, what are all those stone grimm out there?” Cardin asked, gesturing out the window. He glanced behind him. “And what happened to Ruby, is she going to be okay?”
“Ruby will be fine once we get to Beacon,” Sunset said. “You need to get us in the air.”
“Beacon? What are you talking about?”
“Get us in the air, Cardin.”
“We came to warn you,” Cardin said. “The kid you rescued from that patrol started talking. He told us a grimm had-“
“A grimm had spoken to him, and knew Ruby’s name,” Sunset said. “Yes, I know, but I am still very grateful that you came because we could really use an airlift right now.”
“There was a light,” Cardin said. “A silver light, on approach-“
“Cardin!” Sunset snapped, because she had just seen the earth mound marking the spot at which she had buried the grimm move a little. “Cardin, later on I will tell you everything you want to know and a few things that I almost guarantee you won’t, but right now a grimm that talks and is so strong that the three of us together couldn’t kill it is about to crawl out of that hole so can we please get up in the air and get to Beacon?”
A beam of purple energy erupted out of the earth, scattering dirt upwards as the beam of light split the clouds and chased away the darkness.
“What the-“
“Now!” Sunset yelled, and this time Cardin obeyed her, hauling on the stick to pull the Bullhead upwards, away from the ground and into the sky.
Sunset leaned back into her chair as the airship flew away, leaving Ruby’s house and the buried creature behind.
It was only at this point that she realised that she’d been sweating.
“What was that?” Cardin demanded. “Since when do grimm speak? Sunset, what’s going on?”
Sunset took a deep breath. “Later, okay?”
“No, not okay,” Cardin snapped. “If you know something then you have to tell me!”
“Not now,” Sunset insisted, glancing back at the other occupants of the Bullhead.
Cardin scowled. “Fine. You want to head to Beacon?”
“Yes,” Sunset said.
“What’s there?”
“Help for Ruby,” Sunset said. “But also knowledge, I hope.”
“Knowledge?”
“About what that thing was,” Sunset said. “Excuse me.” She didn’t actually give Cardin a chance to object, she just got up and left him in the cockpit – for the moment at least – as she entered the main compartment of the airship.
Ruby and Taiyang were in the back, but Cinder was near the front, leaning against the now-closed door.
“If you’re about to ask me about a grimm that can speak,” Cinder murmured. “I really don’t know anything.”
“Nothing,” Sunset repeated. “Nothing at all.”
Cinder smiled sadly. “I wasn’t Salem’s trusted lieutenant, Sunset, I just thought I was. There’s a lot about her and her works that I don’t know. Including a grimm that can speak, apparently.”
“It can do more than speak,” Sunset said.
Cinder’s eyes narrowed for a moment. “Is it-“
“Still alive? Yes.”
“Not even Ruby could kill it?” Cinder said softly.
“Not even…not even Ruby, no,” Sunset whispered. “It could…it could do-“
“I saw the light, I know what it means,” Cinder said. “I don’t know anything about that either.” She fell silent. “I’m not even going to bring it up this time.”
“You just did,” Sunset said. “I don’t need more powers, I need to use the ones I have better.”
Cinder didn’t argue with that. “Do you think you have time?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“Death might be your other choice,” Cinder said. “If Salem is hunting you, which it seems she is. She isn’t going to give you time to train.”
“Nobody’s dying,” Sunset said. “Especially not Ruby.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
“I…I don’t know yet,” Sunset said. “Let’s just hope that once we get to Beacon what this thing is.” She paused for a moment. “How about a scorpion faunus, do you know anything about that?”
“Tyrian,” Cinder growled. “Him I know.”
“Although by the sounds of it you wish you didn’t.”
“He’s insane,” Cinder said. “And insufferable because of it. And dangerous, too.”
“More dangerous than you.”
Cinder’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said sharply. “But dangerous enough. He was there too.”
“He was,” Sunset confirmed. “Ruby’s father was about to do a number on him when the grimm showed up.”
“Pity they couldn’t have waited long enough for Mister Rose to finish him off. He’s the kind of person who would be better off dead.”
“Xiao Long.”
“Pardon?”
“His name is Xiao Long, not Rose.”
“Oh,” Cinder said. “Either way, it’s a pity.”
“It is,” Sunset agreed. “Especially since the grimm is already enough to worry about.”
By the time the airship arrived at Beacon it was past midnight, but it was still dark as the aircraft roared over Vale and headed towards the illuminating docking pads that jutted out over the cliff.
Professor Goodwitch was already waiting for them. Sunset had called her as she flew, letting the older woman know what had happened in as few words and as little detail as possible – she might trust Cardin with the truth but she didn’t trust Sami or Jack with the same – and now she stood on the edge of the landing pad, her cape fluttering in the wind that only got stronger as Cardin set her down upon the pad.
The bay door let out a hydraulic screech as it descended to let them out.
“Tai,” Professor Goodwitch said, with a rare fondness in her voice. “It’s been too long. I only wish that we could meet again under better circumstances.”
Taiyang leapt down out of the Bullhead. He was still cradling Ruby in his arms. “Likewise, Glynda.”
Professor Goodwitch glanced down at Ruby. “How is she?”
“Completely out of it,” Taiyang said. “Where can we take her?”
“The infirmary,” Professor Goodwitch said. She glanced at Sunset, and then at Cardin as he climbed out of the cockpit. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, Mister Winchester. Or should that be Captain?”
“Mister Winchester is fine, Professor,” Cardin muttered.
“Professor, is there somewhere my team can go?” she gestured to the group behind her.
Professor Goodwitch’s eyes narrowed in distaste. “The dining hall,” she said after a moment. “The vending machines still work no matter how late it is. Do you still remember the way, Miss Fall? Or were you not here long enough for it to settle in your memory?”
Cinder stared back at the Professor without a trace of shame. “I know the way, Professor, thank you for your consideration.”
“Take them there, keep an eye on them,” Sunset said softly.
“Understood,” Cinder replied.
“Follow me, Tai,” Professor Goodwitch said. “And you, Miss Shimmer.” She turned on her heel, and her boots clicked upon the stone as she led the way. Tai followed, as did Sunset and Cardin too.
Professor Goodwitch looked over her shoulder at him. “Mister Winchester-“
“If you try and stop me, Professor,” Cardin said. “Then I’m afraid that you will have to call me Captain.”
Professor Goodwitch was still for a moment, before she gave a nod that was peremptory, almost curt, and resumed her walk.
The school was dark, with barely any lights on. By the light of the moon Sunset could make out the ruined stump of what had been Beacon Tower; the rubble had been cleared away from the courtyard but the tower itself remained incomplete, stopping at jagged edges and wall fragments where the dragon had smashed it. That was the most obvious but not the only sign of the battle, however: while some of the buildings had been repaired, at least one of the dorm rooms still looked like a burned and ruined husk, the walls stained by burn marks where there were walls at all.
“This place has been through a lot,” Taiyang murmured.
“We’re making repairs as quickly as we can,” Professor Goodwitch said. “But there is still work to do. There is always more work to do.”
“It’s quiet,” Sunset said.
“It still hasn’t been decided exactly when the school will re-open,” Professor Goodwitch said. “There are many matters that remain to be settled. It’s unclear if we will be able to open this year at all. The Council has not yet made up its mind yet.”
“The Council has a lot to decide,” Cardin said.
“Yes, but I would hope that the training of our future huntsmen and huntresses would be considered a priority,” Professor Goodwitch replied, without looking over her shoulder.
“So, it’s just the professors here right now?” Sunset asked.
“Indeed, Miss Shimmer.”
That explained why there were so few lights on anywhere. Sunset supposed that that was good for them, but at the same time it also made this whole place feel so eerily empty that she’d have rather have taken their chances with a whole school full of students.
This courtyard where now they walked, this campus where they were, this school had been a place of life and light. She could see it now, without even having to close her eyes: she could see the sunlight falling on the courtyard and the buildings, driving the shadows away from the tall, grey tower; she could see the ghosts of Pyrrha and Jaune, Weiss and Flash, Blake, Yang. She could see them all as clear as day, hear them all, hear and see and feel this school as it was supposed to be, not only a place of learning but a place of joy and friendship too; in this bastion of the struggle against evil had been found all the things for which it was worth opposing evil. All gone now. Those who had filled it with warmth and light were scattered, and all that remained was cold and empty stone and a handful of professors devoid of either students or purpose, left to rattle around inside this shell until their fate was decided.
Professor Goodwitch brought them to the infirmary, a room as empty as all the rest but which had a bed in which Taiyang gently laid his daughter, as the sterile lights flickered on above their heads.
“Let me know if you need anything, Tai,” Professor Goodwitch said.
Taiyang nodded absently as he sat down beside his bed, his eyes wholly fixed on Ruby. Zwei hopped up into Taiyang’s lap and sat there, similarly staring intently at the sleeping girl.
Professor Goodwitch turned briskly to face Sunset and Cardin where they lingered in the doorway. “Would you care to explain to me just what happened, Miss Shimmer?”
“I’d like to get to that part too,” Cardin said.
Sunset took a deep breath. She blinked not only once but twice. She had given this a lot of thought on the flight over and she had come to the conclusion that there was only one choice in this situation that was both practical and right. “Professor, there are some things that I need to explain to Cardin, after that we’ll be back to tell you what went down tonight.”
Professor Goodwitch’s eyes narrowed behind her half-moon spectacles. “I sincerely hope that you don’t intend what I fear you intend, Miss Shimmer.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Professor.”
Professor Goodwitch sucked in a sharp intake of breath. “Mister Winchester, would you mind waiting here? Miss Shimmer and I have something to discuss.”
Cardin clenched his jaw. “Professor, I know that I probably still look like a kid to you but I am an officer of Vale, and-“
“And what Miss Shimmer and I need to discuss goes beyond Vale, or any other kingdom for that matter,” Professor Goodwitch declared sharply. “Wait here. Miss Shimmer, with me.”
Cardin – almost involuntarily, or automatically, judging by the look on his face – stepped aside as Professor Goodwitch swept magisterially past him, stalking off into the corridor beyond the infirmary with her heels clicking upon the floor tiles. Sunset followed after her, increasing her pace until she was matching the headmistress, who did not look at her, not even a glance, as they walked into Professor Greene’s office just down the hall.
Professor Greene wasn’t in at the moment, so Sunset and Professor Goodwitch had the room – where various model traps and snares sat on the shelves in front of books on outdoor living – to themselves as Professor Goodwitch slammed the door with a flick of her riding crop.
“Would you mind explaining to me what you think you’re doing, Miss Shimmer.”
Sunset clasped her hands behind her back. “I think that Cardin deserves to know the truth, Professor.”
“On what grounds, Miss Shimmer.”
“On the grounds that it will be very hard to persuade him to help me without telling him everything,” Sunset said. “On the grounds that I might not even deserve his help if I don’t tell him everything.”
Professor Goodwitch exhaled loudly. “I understand your feelings, Miss Shimmer, but that isn’t how this works. Don’t you think that Professor Ozpin would have had a much easier time of things if he’d simply been honest with more people? If he had told the world the truth? But there are some things that are better kept secret, that must be kept secret. If the world knew about the Maidens then they would be hunted down for their powers, even more so if they knew about the Relics as well.”
“I’m not proposing to tell the whole world, just Cardin Winchester,” Sunset said. “There’s a reason I left the rest of my team back in the cafeteria and you’re right, I wouldn’t trust those scumbags with all of this but…he’s a good guy. He’s come a long way since Beacon. I think I can trust him with this.”
“That isn’t your decision to make, Miss Shimmer.”
“Then whose decision is it, Professor?” Sunset demanded. “Professor Ozpin? Professor Ozpin isn’t here, isn’t that the whole point? Now the Professor left us to do a job, that’s fine; but he doesn’t get to tie my hands behind my back while I do it and…and neither do you, with the greatest of respect.
“Professor Ozpin isn’t here. He’s not here to decide who does and doesn’t deserve to get brought into the magic circle. He’s not here to give me instructions or even to tell me what the right thing to do is. He’s not here, I am and I think that Cardin can be trusted with this. And I don’t think I have much choice.”
Professor Goodwitch was silent for a moment. “Is there nothing that I can say that will dissuade you?”
“I don’t think so,” Sunset said softly.
“You’ve been wrong before in your choice of who to trust.”
Sunset clenched one hand into a fist as she winced at that. “I was wrong about Amber,” she admitted. “But I was right about Cinder, in the end.”
Professor Goodwitch shrugged. “But was Professor Ozpin right about you?” she said softly.
Sunset bowed her head. So, that’s how you feel. You did a good job hiding it up until now, but in some way I prefer to know. “Maybe not,” she said. “But he did it anyway.”
“Just like you intend to trust Mister Winchester anyway.”
“If you like, Professor,” Sunset said. “Even if Professor Ozpin isn’t dead it doesn’t change the fact that he’s not here. We can’t act as though if we wait five minutes he’ll get back from the dentists.”
“No, I suppose we cannot,” Professor Goodwitch said. “Go, Miss Shimmer; tell Mister Winchester everything you feel he can be trusted with, and then I expect you to tell me everything that happened to you tonight.”
“I’ll be glad to, Professor,” Sunset said. She showed herself out, and briskly made her way back up the corridor to the infirmary, where she found Cardin waiting impatiently just inside the door.
“Are you done?” he demanded as Sunset came back. “Do I get to find out what happened now? Do I get to understand?”
“Oh, you’ll understand alright,” Sunset said. “Come with me and you’ll understand more than you ever thought you could.”
She took him outside, to that empty courtyard where only memories dwelled, to where they could see the ruin of the tower where Professor Ozpin had revealed the truth to Sunset, Pyrrha, Rainbow and Twilight; it seemed so very, very long ago. It had only been…a few months, but it felt like a lifetime. That had been the moment when everything had changed, the moment when all expectations of what her life would be about had shifted, what all of their lives would be about; the moment when they had become a part of something bigger than themselves, enmeshed in it, inextricably.
Put like that what am I about to do to Cardin, huh?
Sunset began to wonder if the reason Professor Ozpin had kept so many secrets was that he didn’t want to burden people with them unnecessarily. Did she want to burden Cardin just to make her life easier?
“Do you want to do this?”
Cardin frowned down at her. “Do I want to do what?”
“Know the truth.”
“Of course I want to know, there’s something going on and I’m not just going to ignore it,” Cardin said sharply.
“Are you sure?” Sunset repeated. “Once I start to talk there’s no turning back, but you don’t have to listen. You’ve got a choice.”
Cardin stared at her like she was nuts or something. “Sunset, I know that you and Ruby and Professor Goodwitch apparently are involved in something secret. I know that there’s apparently a grimm that talks and I know that you know something about that silver light and whatever turned those beowolves to stone. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t know all of that so why don’t you stop beating around the bush and tell me.”
“Okay,” Sunset said. She sighed. “But don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”
She told him everything. She told him about the Relics, she told him about the Maidens, she told him about Salem, she told him about magic, she told him about Professor Ozpin; about the only things that she didn’t tell him where about her own unique situation, her truth that didn’t belong to him; and about Ruby’s silver eyes, which was her truth to share.
She told him almost everything and then when she was done he just stood there staring at her like he didn’t know where to start.
“And you just…wow.”
“I know it’s a lot to take in-“
“This isn’t about it being a lot to take in!” Cardin snapped. “This is about the fact that none of you, not even Professor Ozpin, had the right to keep all of this stuff a secret! From everyone! How could you find this out all the way in back in second semester and you’re only now telling anyone?”
“To be fair, we weren’t exactly friends when I found out the truth,” Sunset said.
“I said anyone, not me,” Cardin said. “How could you keep this to yourself?”
“Because I liked the feeling of having secret knowledge that only a select few were privy too,” Sunset said flatly. “Also, because Professor Ozpin said it was a secret.”
“What gave him the right to make that kind of decision?” Cardin asked.
“The gods, apparently.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” Cardin said. “The grimm have a mistress? If people knew about that, if people knew that the grimm were more than just a mindless horde-“
“If people knew that there was an immortal and sinister intellect at the heart of all evil, drawing her plans against us, they’d be out of their minds with panic and bring even more grimm down upon their own heads,” Sunset said. “And for what purpose? We can’t kill her, all we can do is fight the grimm, like we already do.”
“There’s a difference between fighting random dumb monsters and fighting an army.”
“The grimm are random dumb monsters most of the time,” Sunset said. “I don’t know what Salem does to them exactly but I don’t think that she moves them all around like they’re units in a game. At least not most of the time. What Professor Ozpin does-“
“Puts people in danger,” Cardin said. “This place was supposed to arm us with the skills and the knowledge that we needed to fight the grimm but the man running it held everything back.”
“Professor Ozpin always made the best decisions he could-“
“And the tower got destroyed, Vale got invaded and a whole lot of people died so he was really doing a swell job wasn’t he?” Cardin demanded.
Sunset slapped him, hard enough to knock him sideways in spite of his aura. He stumbled over his own feet, falling onto the ground at her feet while Sunset glowered at him. “Don’t,” she snarled. “Don’t talk like that.”
Cardin stared up at her in disbelief. “What the-“
“Stop it!” Sunset yelled. “Just stop…stop…”
“Stop what?” Cardin asked as he got to his feet.
“Stop reminding me of myself, it’s what I always hated about you!” Sunset shrieked at him, turning away and pacing a few paces off with her back to him. She hugged her arms. “That’s what I always…ever since I first saw it in Forever Fall. Do you remember that?”
“I remember you talked a lot and didn’t make much sense.”
“I was trying to make sense of it myself,” Sunset growled. “It was when I saw you…you were arrogant and entitled and bad tempered-“
“Thanks a lot.”
“And you were just like me and I couldn’t stand it!” Sunset said. “You just looking at you and feeling like I was looking into a mirror I just…it made me feel dirty. It made me feel like I needed a shower. It made me want to be a better person. So…thanks, I guess.”
Cardin rubbed his face. “You’ve got a funny way of showing your appreciation.”
“But you’re doing it again,” Sunset said, wheeling to face him. “Professor Ozpin…I spent so long thinking that exact stuff, the same nonsense that you’re coming out with now: Professor Ozpin doesn’t have the right to keep secrets from us, why isn’t he telling us everything; Professor Ozpin’s dangerous, he’s putting people at risk; Professor Ozpin is the reason people die. I even wondered if there was something sinister going on.” She glanced into his eyes. “Don’t,” she said. “Please don’t.”
“It would explain-“ Cardin began.
“The truth explains everything perfectly,” Sunset replied. “The truth that Professor Ozpin was – or is, whatever – a good man, trying his best in an insanely difficult situation. Trying to do something that neither I nor you nor anyone else have the right to judge him for. So please don’t try because…because I hate being reminded of myself and the mistakes that I’ve made even when…” she sighed. “I wasted so much time in baseless distrust and suspicion. Maybe if I had been more open and ready to think clearly then…I don’t know. But don’t make the same mistake.”
Cardin was silent for a moment. “Listen, I’m sorry about…you liked the guy and now…except he isn’t dead, is he?”
“Apparently not,” Sunset said. “Not in some sense, at least.”
“I get what you’re trying to say, but all the same,” Cardin said. “But all the same-“
“Professor Goodwitch didn’t think you could be trusted to know this, I’d prefer that you didn’t prove her right,” Sunset said.
“Ozpin didn’t have the right to keep this to himself,” Cardin repeated stubbornly.
“Who else had the right to know?” Sunset replied. “Who else has the right now? The Committee of Public Safety? I thought the same way once but after what’s happened to Vale…if people knew about the Maidens and the Relics then they would become pawns in power games between the Kingdoms.”
“You don’t know that,” Cardin said.
“No, but it’s something that I’ve worried about more since my friend became a Maiden,” Sunset said.
“Vale needs a hero.”
“Doesn’t it have you?”
Cardin snorted. “Something like a Maiden could give this Kingdom hope.”
“And are you willing to kill Pyrrha to return that hope to Vale?”
“Of course not!”
“Can you guarantee that everyone would be so forbearing?”
Cardin didn’t reply. Sunset thought that was probably because he couldn’t. He slammed his fist into his open palm. “I hate this,” he growled.
“I’m sorry,” Sunset said. She didn’t add that she had tried to warn him. “But you understand now, right?”
“Sort of,” Cardin said. “If you believe in secrecy then why are you telling me?”
“Because you’re sort of involved at this point,” Sunset said. “On the periphery, but…this would have been very hard if you don’t know.”
Cardin shook his head. “I hate this.”
“I got that.”
“And I meant what I said,” Cardin said. “Vale does a hero right now. Everyone is asking where the next Ozpin is going to come from. We could really use the powers of the Fall Maiden right now.”
“Everyone could use a Maiden right now,” Sunset said. “The real question is what are you going to do about it?”
“I…I don’t know,” Cardin said. “You go back and talk to Goodwitch. I think you can explain everything. I…need to think about all the stuff that you’ve already explained.”
Sunset nodded. “That sounds fair.”
Cardin nodded absently. “This is going to sound like such a huge double standard but…you’re not going to tell the team about this, are you?”
“No,” Sunset said firmly, in a voice that was almost a squawk. “Of course not, I wouldn’t trust them with this. Cinder knows some of it, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know everything but I haven’t confirmed with her. Either way, I don’t think she’ll…”
Cardin’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Emerald,” Sunset said, as she remembered the other person who knew some of the truth of what they were about and who, unlike Cinder, had no reason to keep silent.
Sami leaned forwards. “Magic?” she said. “Magic is real?”
“Yep,” Emerald said. “And I’m pretty sure that’s what we just saw before we took off. The purple light that just ripped out of the ground?”
Sami’s eyes were wide as dishes. “That was…magic?”
“I can’t believe that that is what you’re focussing on,” Jack said.
Sami glowered at him. “I’m sorry, what part of the revelation that magic is real shouldn’t I be reacting too?”
“How about you react to the fact that the grimm have a boss who wants to kill us all?” Jack said.
“How about you don’t react at all to things that are none of your concern,” Cinder said as she stalked up to the table where the other three sat, sharing secrets that it would have been better if they had remained secret. She didn’t look at Emerald, not yet; she would deal with her in just a little while. For now she wanted to make sure that neither Jack nor Sami got any ideas as a result of this.
Jack got to his feet, his face flushed with anger. “You knew about this? You and Sunset both knew and you kept this from us?”
“Sit down,” Cinder said, her voice deceptively soft.
“Maybe I would have stayed in my cell if-“
“Sit down,” Cinder said, her voice becoming as sharp as glass.
Jack swallowed, flinching away from Cinder’s smouldering gaze.
“Thank you,” Cinder said. She glanced at Sami, but the reindeer faunus didn’t seem to be taking much notice. She appeared to be lost in her own thoughts.
“Sami,” Cinder said. “What are your thoughts on all this?”
Sami blinked. “I…wish that I’d known sooner,” she said.
“Why?” Cinder asked.
Sami shrugged. “Just…because…like Jack said, I…might have made different choices.”
“You would both have rather mouldered away in your cells?” Cinder asked. “Lost out on any chance of getting your freedom? Getting that farm you dream of?”
“How am I going to get a farm or freedom fighting a fight that can never be won?” Jack said.
“Let me stop you right there,” Cinder said. “Nobody is asking you to fight Salem. Nobody is asking you to save the world. You were recruited to fight for Vale and that’s all that you are going to be asked to do. Magic and Salem and all the rest is nothing for people like you to be concerned about. So calm down, settle down, and keep what you’ve just found out to yourselves or you’ll answer to me.” She leaned forward, getting into Jack’s face. She had her aura up and he didn’t, and they both knew it. “Do I make myself clear?”
Jack swallowed. “Yes. I’ll just-“
“Follow orders? That’s probably for the best,” Cinder said. It wasn’t how Sunset would have handled this but she thought that it had worked out pretty well. Now there was just one other loose end to tie up. “Emerald? A word.”
She resisted the urge to grab Emerald by the scruff of the neck and drag her away, instead her old subordinate, trembling, got up and followed her across the otherwise deserted dining hall, past empty chairs and empty tables, until Cinder rounded on her, “Would you care to explain yourself?”
Emerald didn’t meet Cinder’s eyes. “What we saw back there…that was magic, wasn’t it?”
“Possibly,” Cinder allowed, although she was as baffled as Sunset when it came to how a grimm could possess magic.
“If that’s what we’re involved in now, again,” Emerald said. “Don’t you think that they should know?”
“No,” Cinder said flatly. “Those two may be fit to fight, or to bear burdens, but to not to be trusted with our secrets.”
“Our secrets?” Emerald said. “Or Sunset’s secrets?”
Cinder tilted her head minutely to one side. “Is that what this is really about?”
“She’s using you,” Emerald said. “She’s using all of us, but especially you. She stole your power-“
“I gave it willingly,” Cinder said. “I hope you didn’t tell them about that?”
“No,” Emerald said quickly. “I told them about the Maidens, but I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t never give your secrets away, Cinder.”
Cinder grunted. That was good. They would think her weak if they knew what she had done. Sunset too, probably. “But you didn’t consider the truths I showed you to be my secrets?”
“I…that isn’t the same thing,” Emerald said.
“Isn’t it?” Cinder said. “I opened your eyes so that you could assist me, not so that you could shout the truth from the rooftops to let it fall like rain upon unworthy ears.”
“I am helping you,” Emerald said. “You deserve better than to be Sunset Shimmer’s running dog. With their help maybe we can overpower Sunset and Cardin and-“
“And what?” Cinder demanded. “Cut Ruby’s throat while she’s sleeping? Hunt down Pyrrha for the power of the Fall Maiden?”
“If you wish,” Emerald murmured. “Whatever you wish.”
“Except that my wish is to stay here,” Cinder said. “To do this.”
Emerald shook her head. “You’re better than this,” she said. “You’re more than this.”
“No,” Cinder said. “I am more than empty dreams and airy ambitions.”
“You can’t honestly mean to tell me that this fulfils you,” Emerald said.
“No,” Cinder said again. “But this is Sunset’s place, which means it is my place too.”
“Sunset again,” Emerald growled. “Why does she have such a hold on you? What does she have that I don’t? I would do anything for you, go anywhere for you, I would…I would stand by you while you cut Ruby’s throat as she was sleeping, or killed Pyrrha for her powers or burned down Vale and Mistral both, do you think that Sunset would?”
“I know she wouldn’t,” Cinder said. “And that…as much as anything else that is the reason why.”
“I was too late,” Cinder said. “It was as you feared. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, what’s done is done,” Sunset said. It wasn’t that it wasn’t disappointing – because it was – but there was no point in blaming Cinder for it. It was her fault for not remembering Emerald sooner, although even if she had remembered it was doubtful if she could have kept her from blabbing out the truth indefinitely.
It was done, and she would just have to deal with it now. “What’s the mood like?”
“Jack is scared,” Cinder said. “Sami…I’m not so sure.”
“What’s she said?”
“Very little, that’s the point,” Cinder said. “Whatever she thinks about this she’s keeping it to herself for now.”
“I see,” Sunset murmured.
“How did Cardin take it?”
“He’s taking some time to think it over.”
“That bad?”
“He’s not feeling very well disposed towards Ozpin right now.”
“I know that you liked him, but he did have a talent for upsetting people,” Cinder replied. “So what now?”
“I see if Professor Goodwitch knows what that thing at the house was,” Sunset said.
“And then?”
“I don’t know yet,” Sunset said. “One thing at a time.”
“Good luck in there,” Cinder said, before ending the call.
Sunset folded up her scroll, putting it away as she cursed inwardly. So they all knew. They all knew some of the truth anyway; Cinder hadn’t told Emerald everything and so Emerald hadn’t been able to reveal everything; but she knew enough to reveal enough.
But there was nothing to be done about it now, it wasn’t as though she could just erase their memories.
Sunset pushed open the door into Professor Greene’s office, to find Professor Goodwitch sat on the desk waiting for her.
“How did it go with Mister Winchester?”
“He’s…taking it in,” Sunset said. “He’s not the one I’m worried about.”
“What do you mean?”
“Professor Ozpin wasn’t the only person who could tell this story,” Sunset said.
Professor Goodwitch’s eyes narrowed. “Miss Fall.”
“Her accomplice, Emerald Sustrai,” Sunset said. “I don’t mind telling you, Professor, that my former thief and murderer were not people I wanted to bring into this business.”
“What do you intend to do about it?”
“What can I do but my job: make sure they don’t get out of hand? So long as they’re with us they can’t do anything with their knowledge and they’re not in much position to spread it around.”
“All the same this is far from ideal.”
“The fact that I had to come here under these circumstances is far from ideal, Professor.”
“Yes,” Professor Goodwitch murmured. “You were going to explain what brought you here, weren’t you? Mister Winchester won’t be joining us for this?”
“I’ve given him enough to ponder for now, apparently,” Sunset said.
Professor Goodwitch almost smiled at that. “Very well, Miss Shimmer; what has occurred tonight to bring you back here?”
“I went to talk to Ruby, as I told you I would,” Sunset said. “I asked her to go to Mistral to find Professor Ozpin and, after thinking it over, she agreed to do it.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I would be more glad if Miss Rose was currently in a position to go.”
“We were attacked,” Sunset said. “First by a man, a scorpion faunus; Cinder said his name was Tyrian.”
“Not a name I’m familiar with,” Professor Goodwitch said. “But the servants of the enemy are, for the most part, unknown to us. We endeavour to keep the names of our own allies hidden from Salem also. Although that hasn’t worked in your case.”
“Unfortunately,” Sunset agreed. “Tyrian closed the distance too quickly for either for either me or Ruby, but Mister Xiao Long was a match for him. He was about to finish him for good when the grimm arrived.”
“It must have been some grimm to get the better of Taiyang Xiao Long,” Professor Goodwitch said. “Not to mention you and Miss Rose.”
“It was some grimm,” Sunset agreed. “It recognised us.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because it told us so.”
Professor Goodwitch pushed her glasses back up her nose. “It spoke? The grimm spoke to you?”
Sunset nodded. “It wasn’t loquacious but it spoke. And it knew our names. That’s what it said: Ruby Rose, and Sunset Shimmer. And it could wield…I would bet my arm it was using magic.”
“That’s impossible,” Professor Goodwitch said. “The only magic remaining in the world resides with Salem, Professor Ozpin and the four maidens.”
“I know what I saw,” Sunset said. “I know what I felt. Could Salem have given a part of her magic to a grimm the way that Ozpin gave his to the Maidens?”
“I don’t believe so,” Professor Goodwitch said. “The grimm are not human, after all; they are constructs of magic, and as such they shouldn’t have the ability to wield magic.”
“Nevertheless,” Sunset said. She ran one hand through her fiery hair. “I was hoping that you would have an answer for me. Do you think Professor Port might know?”
“If he did I’m sure I would have heard him mention it,” Professor Goodwitch said softly.
Sunset nodded. “The library?”
“You might find the answers there, in some old and mouldering text, if you had the time to look,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I’m not sure that you do. If this creature still lives then they will come after you again.”
Sunset smirked. “Is this your way of telling me to go to Anima, Professor?”
“In Mistral is the Relic of Knowledge, which can tell you everything you wish to know about this creature and how to destroy it,” Professor Goodwitch said. “That is if Professor Ozpin, in his wisdom, does not already have the answers that you are looking for. And ask yourself this, Miss Shimmer? Do you really think that this city can survive another grimm attack at the moment?”
Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “Do you really think it would attack the city just to get to us?”
“I can’t say that it wouldn’t,” Professor Goodwitch said. “And if it does, even it is seen, the panic that it could cause might bring even more grimm.”
“So you’re saying that I should leave to draw it away?” Sunset said. “What about Ruby?”
“With luck it will assume that Miss Rose is with you, and follow,” Professor Goodwitch said.
“And if it doesn’t? I can’t run away and leave Ruby to face this thing by herself?”
Professor Goodwitch smiled.
“What did I say that was so amusing, Professor?”
“What will you do if Miss Rose wakes up and remains determined to set out for Anima?” Professor Goodwitch asked.
“I…” Sunset faltered, because there was only one answer and Professor Goodwitch knew it. She couldn’t let Ruby go to Anima by herself, not after this, not after the hypothetical perils of the journey had become both real and so much more perilous than Sunset had thought. “I need to speak to Cardin again.”
So, it’s real.
Magic is real.
And it always was.
Just like I was always told.
Sami sat in the moonlight and thought about her mother.
Emerald and Jack were both asleep. Cinder wasn’t, because she didn’t trust any of them. So she was watching Sami from the other side of this cafeteria, watching her in case she did anything wrong, stepped out of line.
As well she might watch, but she couldn’t watch the inside of Sami’s head.
Magic was real. That was something that Sami should have known, considering that she’d been told it often enough.
“We are the old blood, my child,” Mother said. “The blood of the First Men flows in our veins.”
Sami frowned. “If ours is the blood of men, then why are we faunus?”
“Some of our ancestors were faunus,” Mother said. “But some were men. The old blood, the blood of power, the blood of magic.”
“Magic isn’t real, Mom.”
“Stifle your tongue! This is knowledge passed down through generations of our people; though the world has forgotten we remember.”
Sami’s mother had been a wise woman of her tribe of semi-nomads living in the wooded foothills of the mountains on the edge of Vale’s territory. They had lived on the outskirts of the kingdom, dodging the grimm and the kingdom authorities equally; they had foraged for food and hunted for the skins of animals to wear or sell or barter: deer, rabbit, beaver, bear, lynxes and the great mountain lions that roamed the peaks. Sami had always believed that the reason the grimm existed was to protect those creatures; they were stopping men from expanding too far and taking all the land for themselves and leaving none for the beasts and the birds. They were nature’s protectors, and that was why those who lived off nature had to be wary of them.
Sami’s mother had called that a lot of nonsense, and it seemed that she had been right because the grimm weren’t an earthborn force at all, they were just monsters that somebody had created to attack their enemies.
And because her mother had been right about magic too. That was something else her people had done, as well as hunt and fish and forage: they had told stories, about magic and the old blood and the first men and the great cataclysm. Sami hadn’t believed any of it. She hadn’t believed in magic, or the idea that her ancestors had been great once. After all, it wasn’t as if anyone she knew had any magic to show for their old blood, for the legacy of the First Men.
So Sami had left it all behind and gone to Vale to seek her fortune, where she had found out that the only thing that she knew how to do well enough to carve out a space for herself in the city was hunt and take lives, which was exactly what she’d done.
And now she found out that it was all true. That magic was real.
And if magic was real then that made it her birthright.
She didn’t know how she was going to attain it, but she knew that she would.
No matter who she had to kill first.
Sunset emerged out into the courtyard; the night breeze was chill upon her face as she wandered through the deserted, empty space in search of Cardin.
She found him on the docking pad, standing beside his Bullhead, looking out over Vale as it lay swathed in darkness, bathed in moonlight, illuminated by a hundred thousand lights below them like a mirror reflecting back the starlight at the sky.
His arms were folded across his broad chest. He was staring intently down at the city below, saying nothing to anybody.
He continued to say nothing as Sunset came to stand beside him, waiting, looking at the city.
The city that she had betrayed. The city that she had sworn to serve. The city that she…that she wanted to leave behind no matter how wrong it was of her to do so.
Would it be any less wrong of me to abandon Ruby in the face of this?
“What did Professor Goodwitch say?” Cardin asked, breaking the silence.
“She doesn’t know what it was that we fought.”
“What was it that you fought?”
Sunset glared at him, but she understood what he really meant. “A talking grimm,” she said. “A grimm that used magic.”
“And that’s not normal?”
Sunset glared at him again.
“Hey, I just found out magic is real, how do I know what’s normal and what isn’t?”
“No,” Sunset said. “A grimm using magic is definitely not normal. I had to bury it because there didn’t seem any way that we could kill it.”
“And Professor Goodwitch wasn’t any help?”
“Professor Goodwitch wants me to go to Anima,” Sunset said.
“For Ozpin.”
“And for answers,” Sunset said. She didn’t mention that getting those answers would first require getting the Spring Maiden, which would require going up against Raven Branwen and her bandit tribe. “It knew our names, Cardin; not just Ruby’s name but mine too. It recognised us, it was hunting us. So was the man, the faunus, who accompanied it.”
“You’re saying that…Salem?”
“Yeah,” Sunset said. “She’s after us.”
Cardin scowled. “Why? Because you worked for Ozpin?”
“Probably,” Sunset said, if only because – having not told him about Equestrian magic or silver eyes – she could hardly cite any other reasons to him.
Cardin closed his eyes. “I don’t like this,” he said. “I don’t like this one bit. But then…there’s a lot I’ve had to put up with lately that I don’t like.
“I don’t like the fact that everyone treats me like I’m some hero when all I did was get my shoulder dislocated during the Battle of Vale. I don’t like the fact that all the real heroes got kicked out or felt like they had to leave. I don’t like the fact that my team just disappeared, I mean just because we weren’t a brotherhood like Team Sapphire doesn’t mean that I didn’t care about them! So this…even though I don’t like this…I suppose that it has to join the line of stuff that I don’t like, but that I have to live with.
“Because you’re right. I don’t like it but you’re right. If people knew the truth then they’d be afraid, even more than they are. Things are just starting to calm down in Vale and if this came out then…between the people who would want their Maiden back and the people who would be scared of all of this…it might bring the grimm back. I don’t think that Ozpin had the right to just keep all of this to himself but right now…I think it might be our best option.”
Sunset sighed. “You have no idea how relieving it is to hear you say that,” she said. “I was worried that…I was worried that you’d be one of those who would want to claim the magic for Vale.”
“I’d rather that we had some,” Cardin grumbled. “But only because it sounds like we could use it to keep the kingdom safe, not so that we could use it against other kingdoms.”
“How long until one became the other?”
“That’s the point, isn’t it,” Cardin muttered. He let his hands fall down to his sides as he continued to stare out across Vale. “So they’re hunting you.”
“It looks that way.”
“And they won’t stop?”
“I can’t know what they’ll do, but I doubt they’ll give up so easily,” Sunset said. She didn’t mention, because she trusted him to realise, that Vale couldn’t afford another grimm attack.
Cardin said nothing, not for a few moments that ticked by while he continued to look down at the city. “Lionheart,” he said after a while.
“Lionheart?” Sunset repeated.
“Isn’t that how Cinder and her allies got into Beacon in the first place? Because Lionheart from Haven helped them out. And he’s still there, isn’t he?”
“I…I’m not sure,” Sunset said. “Nobody’s sure, with communications down.”
“Let’s assume he is,” Cardin said. “Or at least that he hasn’t gone very far. This team will travel to Mistral, acquire Leonardo Lionheart and render him back to Vale to stand trial for his crimes.”
“And then after he gets found guilty he can join our squad,” Sunset muttered.
“I’m serious,” Cardin said. “You want to go to Mistral? This is how, this is the mission. This is the way that I can sell letting us leave.”
“Can you?” Sunset asked. “It seems like a stretch, to take an elite squad out of the kingdom on a journey of who knows how long it will take just to get a minor player in all of this.”
“He’s only a minor player if you know the truth,” Cardin said. “Take away the demon goddess and who’s to say that Lionheart didn’t set up everything with Cinder and the White Fang? Who’s to say that he didn’t pull the strings, and use Cinder as his field agent to coordinate everything.”
“Why would he?”
“We’ll ask him that when we pull the bag off his head,” Cardin said. “We don’t need the answers, I just need to make the questions seem as though they’re worth asking. I can get us the go for this, trust me.”
“Us?” Sunset repeated. “Cardin, are you-“
“I can’t let you go without me,” Cardin said. “Not all the way to Anima, it’s too far and the mission is too important.”
“But…but this has nothing to do with you,” Sunset said.
“What did it have to do with you, before Ozpin told you the truth?” Cardin asked.
Sunset snorted, because of course he was absolutely right. No less than Professor Ozpin had told her once that choice was the most powerful of the four kinds of magic in Remnant, and if that was true then who was she to stop Cardin from making his own choice, here and now. “Okay then,” she said. She held out one hand. “Welcome to the shadow war, Captain Winchester.”
Cardin took her hand with a firm grip. He opened his mouth, but he was cut off from saying anything by the buzzing of Sunset’s scroll.
“Hold that thought,” Sunset said, as she pulled out her scroll and opened it up.
“Sunset? Are you okay?”
“Ruby?” Sunset said, looking down at the face of her former team-mate on the screen of her scroll. It looked as though she was sitting up in bed. “You’re awake. I mean, obviously you’re awake but…that was fast.”
“I know,” Ruby said. “Maybe it’s a sign that the more I use my eyes the easier it’ll get.”
“More likely it’s related to the intensity of the burst,” Sunset said. “You saved my life out there. Don’t do it again.”
“Sunset,” Ruby said. “I’m fine.”
“What’s this about eyes?” Cardin asked.
“Ask Ruby and she can tell you if she wants to,” Sunset said over her shoulder.
“Who are you talking to?” Ruby asked.
“Cardin, he’s here with me,” Sunset said. “Hold on, we’ll come to you.” She began to walk in the direction of the infirmary. Cardin followed.
“Is Cardin coming?”
“Don’t worry, I just told him everything…almost everything.”
“Almost?”
“I told you you’d have to ask Ruby,” Sunset said. “We were just discussing our next move,” she added to Ruby. “And how we could get to Anima.”
“So you’re going to come with me now?” Ruby said.
“You still want to go?” Sunset replied.
“Yeah, I still want to go,” Ruby said. “I knew it would be dangerous before I said I was going to go in the first place. The only difference-“
“The only difference is that I’m coming too,” Taiyang said, taking the scroll out of Ruby’s hands and holding it up to his own face. “No offence, Miss Shimmer but you would have both died there without me. I’m not taking that risk with Ruby. If you have to go to Anima – and I think that’s probably wise in the circumstances – then I’m coming too.”
Zwei barked happily.
“I’m not going to lie, sir, we could use more trustworthy people on this trip,” Sunset said. She grinned. “How do you feel about a road trip with your dad, Ruby?”
“I’d say that…I’d say that it was really cool…if only Yang was here to come with us.”
The smile faded from Sunset’s face. “Yeah, I…I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Ruby said. “So when do we leave?”
“As soon as we can,” Cardin said, looming over Sunset’s shoulder. “But I’m not sure when that is, we still have to arrange how we’re going to get out.”
“Can’t we just fly?” Ruby said.
Cardin shook his head. “Skyliners aren’t running internationally at the moment, and even if they were Sunset and her team can’t just walk onto a commercial airship and I can’t be publicly seen to be leaving the kingdom. We’re supposed to be engaging in a stealth mission so we need to leave stealthily.”
“So what you’re saying,” Sunset said, with a heavy feeling settling in her stomach. “Is that we need somebody with shady connections and experience in evading scrutiny to help us get an illicit passage out of Vale and to Anima?”
“Sunset,” Ruby said. “It almost sounds as though you’re talking about-“
“That’s exactly who I’m talking about,” Sunset said. “He got picked up recently, and it seems like we need his help again.”
“Who are you talking about?” Taiyang asked.
“Roman Torchwick,” Ruby said.
“Roman Torchwick,” Sunset repeated, because if anyone could help them cross the country in secret it would have to be him, wouldn’t it?
Roman Torchwick, their best hope.