Her Second Assignment
“So,” Blake said as she and Yang walked back towards the dorm rooms from the amphitheatre, “did you get something out of that?”
“Oh, yeah, I got tons out of it; Goodwitch really knows her stuff.” Yang tucked her hands around the back of her head, her fingers disappearing amidst her mass of blonde hair. Her lilac eyes flickered towards her smaller companion. “Did you get anything out of it?”
Blake nodded. “It was interesting to watch you and Pyrrha go all out against someone who could challenge you.”
Yang chuckled. “Yeah, she’s pretty tough, huh? Way tougher than she looks.” She paused, her eyes widening a little. “She isn’t right behind me, is she?”
Blake looked over her shoulder. Pyrrha and Jaune were also leaving the amphitheatre, but they were hand in hand and moving slowly, their steps meandering and without clear direction.
“I think you’re going to be okay,” she said, a slight smile playing across her features.
Yang’s eyebrows rose, and she turned her whole body around to look at what Blake was seeing. A laugh escaped her as a smile escaped her face. “Oh, boy. They have got it bad, don’t they?”
“Beacon’s very own fairy tale,” Blake agreed wryly.
Yang was silent for a moment. “As Ruby’s sister, I know that I should probably be pulling for them to break up, but… I see stuff like that, and I just can’t do it.”
“Ruby wouldn’t want you to,” Blake pointed out.
“I know,” Yang agreed, “but I’ve always thought of myself as being… not such a good person as Ruby.”
“That’s… hard on yourself,” Blake murmured.
Yang shrugged, her hands dropping down to hang by her side. “It is what it is; Ruby… she’s so good, you know? Not many people can be as good as that, and I’m not one of them.”
“That doesn’t make you a bad person.”
“Did I say that it did?”
Blake blinked. “No, I suppose you didn’t, although your tone implied it. So, what did you mean when you say Pyrrha’s tougher than she looks?”
“You know,” Yang said, as though it should have been obvious. “She looks like you ought to be able to knock her down with a tap.”
“Are you sure you’re not thinking of Weiss?” Blake asked. “Pyrrha has always looked very strong to me.” She couldn’t quite resist adding. “She’s got more muscles than you do.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not what you show, it’s what you do with them,” Yang replied defensively. “I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. Or maybe it’s the way she acts.”
“That, I suppose I can understand,” Blake admitted. Outside of battle, Pyrrha did have an air of emotional fragility about her that belied her steadfastness in combat.
“I’ll get her before the year is over,” Yang vowed. “Hey, imagine if she found her semblance, then think what she’d be. That would be a hell of a challenge, huh?”
If only you knew, Blake thought. If Pyrrha had been allowed to use her semblance, then Yang wouldn’t have come as close to victory as she had done; if she had used it the way that she’d used it on the train, then Yang wouldn’t stand a chance, unless she forsook Ember Celica and fought bare-handed. “I… suppose,” she said in a careful tone that committed to nothing.
Yang nodded as though she had agreed with her. “So, you weren’t bored hanging out there?”
“Not at all.”
“To be honest, I think you’re good enough to join us.”
Blake shook her head. “I’m not bad-”
“You’re a lot better than not bad.”
“But I’m not on the same level as you or Pyrrha.”
“I don’t know,” Yang replied. “I’m not the one being headhunted for Atlas.”
“Well, yes, but that…” Blake trailed off. “That is… that’s more than a reflection on pure combat performance.”
“Yeah, I know,” Yang accepted. “Still, it must feel pretty good when another headmaster is trying to poach you specifically for his academy, right?”
Blake’s brow furrowed. “You’re not… jealous, are you?”
“No!” Yang cried immediately. “I mean… I suppose that I’m a little jealous. Not because I want to go to Atlas, you understand – etiquette lessons? Really? It sounds way too stuffy for me – but… I gotta admit, it would be pretty cool to be thought so much of that people want you, you of all people, to come and be a part of their institution.” Her voice dropped. “Nice to be wanted, I guess.”
The furrow of Blake’s brow deepened. “Yang…” A part of her felt as though she was the last person who ought to be even attempting to offer advice to anyone, but another part of her felt it would be obnoxious in the extreme to let this pass without comment. “Is there…? I mean, I’m here if you want to talk.”
Yang shook her head. “It’s nothing,” she said swiftly.
“Are you sure?” Blake asked.
“Yeah,” Yang insisted. She stopped, her face falling a little. “Well… I don’t know; it’s just that sometimes I think… would anyone really miss me if I wasn’t here?”
“Yes,” Blake answered at once. “Lots of people. Your sister, your team-”
“Ruby has Sunset now, and Ren and Nora have each other,” Yang pointed out. “You’ve got all your Atlas friends-”
“So?” Blake demanded. “Are friendships rationed now? Just because Ruby and Sunset are close, just because Ren and Nora have known each other for a long time, that doesn’t mean that they don’t care about you.”
“Of course not, but you get what I’m saying, right?” Yang asked. “I’m no one’s…” She trailed off. “Ah, forget it. Don’t mind me, I’m just… I get like this sometimes; I shouldn’t inflict it on you.”
“I’m your teammate now,” Blake reminded her.
“But not my therapist,” Yang pointed out. “Come on, let’s get back.”
Blake’s scroll went off as they continued to walk across the courtyard. The caller ID informed her that it was General Ironwood himself.
“Wonder what he wants so late?” Yang muttered.
“It might be that Torchwick has started talking,” Blake replied. “You go on ahead; I’ll try not to disturb anyone when I get in.”
“It’s cool,” Yang said. “I’ll wait.”
“Are you sure? I don’t know how long I’ll be.”
“It’s fine,” Yang assured her. “Now you’d better answer that, or he’ll think you’re blowing him off.”
“Right,” Blake murmured. “Thank you,” she added, with a slight smile at Yang before she turned away, and took a couple of steps away besides, and answered the scroll.
General Ironwood’s image appeared on her screen. “Miss Belladonna,” he said, “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No, sir, you didn’t,” Blake said.
“Good. Now, before you get your hopes up, I’m not calling about Torchwick; he’s still not saying a word,” General Ironwood informed her. “I’m calling about a different matter that we discussed.”
“I see, sir,” Blake replied, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice, “and what would that be?”
“We talked about you participating in missions alongside other Atlesian teams,” General Ironwood reminded her. “Well, something just came across my desk, and I thought of you. It’s nothing to do with the White Fang, so I can’t order you to do it-”
“Actually, sir, I think you probably could.”
“Perhaps,” General Ironwood conceded, “but I won’t. It’s up to you, Miss Belladonna.”
“What’s the mission, sir?” Blake asked.
“The CCT relay tower in Badger’s Drift went dark about twelve hours ago,” General Ironwood explained. “We don’t know if it’s a technical issue or something more serious, but a mission was flagged to check it out and get the relay back online, and that mission was picked up by Team Tsunami.” He paused. “With so many Valish huntsmen scattered across the country protecting remote settlements from grimm concentrations, a lot of training missions this year are going to be remotely supervised or without supervision at all. That will be the case here. So, are you interested?”
Blake didn’t need much time to think about it; she had asked for this, and it would be churlish of her to ask in principle only to turn down every opportunity in specific. “Yes, sir.”
“Excellent,” General Ironwood said. “I’ll inform Team Tsunami to expect you. Meet them on docking pad one at oh-eight-forty-five hours tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir,” Blake said. “And thank you for giving me the opportunity.”
“Good luck, Miss Belladonna,” General Ironwood said before hanging up the call.
Blake looked slightly apologetic as she put her scroll away and turned back to face. “So… I won’t be around tomorrow,” she said.
Yang smiled. “It’s no big deal. Although you’ll miss out on Nora’s pot-luck pot roast.”
Bake blinked. “Can you have a pot-luck with such a small number of people?”
“It’s always pot-luck when Nora cooks,” Yang informed her. “You never know what you’re going to get.”
Blake smiled. “I’ll be sorry to miss that.”
“Maybe,” Yang said.
“Any regrets about having me on your team?”
“None at all,” Yang declared. “Now come on; if you’ve got an early start tomorrow, then we’d better get you to bed.”
Yang and Nora were both still sleeping as Blake stole out of the Team YRBN dorm room. As Blake looked at them, both sprawled out across their respective beds, both snoring in counterpoint to one another, she couldn’t help but observe that they looked as much like sisters as Yang and Ruby did.
The thought brought a smile to one corner of her mouth as she turned away and slipped quietly out of the dorm room, shutting the door gently behind her. There was no sound from the SAPR dorm room across the hall; it was Sunday, the laziest of days for most, and she had no doubt that Sunset and Ruby, at least, were still asleep, although it was possible that Jaune and Pyrrha had already set out on their morning run. Or not; even they could take mornings off.
Blake kept her footsteps light and quiet as she walked down the hall towards the little galley kitchen not far from the stairs. Fortunately, she had experience in moving stealthily, and the hallway was so quiet that she could believe – she allowed herself to believe – that she was not waking anyone by moving about at this time.
She thought about Yang and Nora, sleeping behind her, and Ren, wherever in Remnant he might be – he was no slouch in the stealth department himself to leave the room without even Blake noticing he was gone. They had welcomed her into their team, and yet… and yet, could she really call herself a member of their team if she kept slipping off to go on missions with sundry Atlesians? But then, if she wasn’t a member of Team YRBN, then what team was she a part of? Not SAPR, not any more, for all that the letter B would be on the wall to confuse future generations of huntsmen and huntresses. Not RSPT either, when it came to that.
She was… she was the cat who walked by herself, although not out of choice, and not forever. Whatever decision she made about her future… either she would stay at Beacon when the Atlesians departed, and she could move forward as a member of Team YRBN in truth with no other ties of obligation upon her, or she would go to Atlas and become part of a new team to go along with her new start.
In the meantime…
It was with such thoughts in mind that Blake walked into the kitchenette and – her hands moving automatically – got her mug down from out of the cupboard. The mug was blue, with a cartoonish tortoise on it; it had been a gift from Rainbow Dash.
Blake filled the chrome kettle up with water and sidled across the cupboards towards the one with the coffee in it.
“Good morning, Blake,” Ren said.
Blake’s ears stiffened visibly. She looked sideways; there he was, standing near the back of the small room. She let out the breath she didn’t realise she had been holding. “Usually it’s me sneaking up on other people,” she pointed out.
“I have mastered the art of moving so slowly that I appear to become invisible,” Ren declared.
Blake stared at him.
“That was a joke,” Ren pointed out helpfully.
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry; it’s not as funny as one of Nora’s jokes,” Ren said.
“It was funny,” Blake assured him. “I’m just-”
“Preoccupied?” Ren suggested. “That was the real reason you didn’t notice I was here.”
“I suppose you could say that,” Blake said as she reached up and got the coffee jar down from the cupboard. She pulled open a drawer and got out a teaspoon. “What are you doing here?”
“Once I’ve woken, I find it hard to get back to sleep,” Ren informed her. “I come here to think.”
“I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you,” Blake said. “I just wanted a quick coffee before I leave.”
“I understand,” Ren said. “Although Nora will be disappointed you left without saying goodbye.”
Blake winced. “I didn’t want to disturb her.”
“I can certainly understand that,” Ren said. “And so will she. But she’ll still be a little disappointed.”
“Apologise to her for me, will you?” Blake asked.
“Of course.”
“Thank you,” Blake said. “Do you want anything?”
Ren shook his head. “Not right now.” He paused. “So, what’s on your mind?”
Blake shrugged as she started the kettle boiling. “My future,” she admitted. “This team. Whether or not I’m letting you down by pretending to be a part of it.”
Ren took a couple of steps towards her, placing a hand upon her shoulder. “Everyone in Team Iron understands your obligations to Atlas at the moment. Nobody holds them against you, any more than we hold your past against you. We don’t always get to choose the circumstances in which we live our lives,” he added, his voice solemn. “Sometimes, the most that we get to choose is how we respond to those circumstances, be they pleasant or otherwise.”
Blake smiled up at him. “Everyone… you’re all so very understanding,” she said, “even of the possibility that I might leave at the end of this year and you’ll be left a man down.”
“There are worse reasons to be a man down than because our teammate found her path, though it led to a place we could not follow,” Ren declared. “You can’t live your life according to the dictates of others’ desires.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” Ren asked, gently but pointedly. “You can’t worry about what I think, or Yang or Nora or anyone else. If Atlas is where you want to go, then go to Atlas; if Beacon is where you want to go, then stay at Beacon. But that is a decision only you can make and a decision that you should make for yourself and yourself alone.”
Blake was silent a moment. “You should talk more often,” she said. “You’re very wise.”
Ren shook his head. “No,” he said. “I wouldn’t claim to have wisdom. But you and I – and Nora – are a little alike: we’ve all been taught a few lessons by the world that came earlier for us than for most.”
“Perhaps,” Blake whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you,” Ren said, almost as quietly. “You know, your water boiled some time ago.”
“Thanks for telling me,” Blake muttered, switching the kettle on again and watching it as it brought the – still heated, fortunately – water back to boiling point, at which point, she poured it into her cup and watched it turn the coffee granules into a steaming black liquid. A drop of milk from out of the fridge turned the inky blackness to a dull brown colour.
She took a sip. It was hot enough to scald her throat. “So what made you choose Beacon?” she asked. “Instead of Haven?”
Ren was silent for a moment, and very still. “Haven,” he said, “is… traditional. I was afraid that amongst the first questions our teammates there would ask would be ‘what is your parentage’? For some, like Pyrrha, the answer is so well-known as to bring its own difficulties. For others, the obscurity of the answer is the cause of issues. I thought… it was better if Nora didn’t have to answer.”
“I… I didn’t mean to pry,” Blake said.
“If you had been prying, I would have told you,” Ren informed her. “Good luck.”
Blake offered him a thin smile in return. “Thank you.”
She finished her coffee and then ran down to the amphitheatre to grab Gambol Shroud out of her locker. She was surprised to be met outside by Twilight in her lavender armour.
“Hey, Blake!” Twilight called.
“Twilight?” Blake said, slowing to a halt. “What are you doing here, and dressed like that?”
“I’m coming with you,” Twilight said, as though that should have been obvious. “General Ironwood is concerned that you might need someone with advanced technical skills to get the relay tower back online.”
“So, you’re coming with me and Team Tsunami?” Blake asked.
“Uh huh, that’s what I just said, isn’t it?” Twilight asked.
“And Rainbow is okay with letting you out of her sight like that?”
“Rainbow isn’t like that!” Twilight squawked.
Blake looked at her flatly.
“She’s not,” Twilight insisted, “really. Besides, Team Tsunami are perfectly capable.” She hesitated. “Although… when she found out that you were going on this mission, she did say ‘well, that’s okay then.’”
Blake blinked. “Really? She actually said that.”
“Yeah,” Twilight said, nodding her head. “Why? Are you surprised?”
Honestly, yes. Blake… the little humour that Blake had obtained from imagining Rainbow’s reaction to Twilight being temporarily assigned to another team had vanished in the face of the other girl’s trust in her. Not in the team to whom the mission had been assigned, but Blake.
Last semester, she wanted to kill me; now, she trusts me with the person who means the most to her in the whole world.
It was… humbling, honestly, in a strange way because it probably ought to have boosted Blake’s ego. Instead, it made her consciousness of the responsibility that had been placed upon her shoulders. She had not asked for it, but she would prove herself worthy of it.
No matter what, she would not let Rainbow Dash down.
She wasn’t sure how to say that to Twilight, however, without sounding unbearably pretentious, and so she simply said, “We should probably get moving.”
“Probably,” Twilight agreed. “I… I’m glad that you’re here, too.”
“You are?”
“Of course,” Twilight said, her voice bright and rich with a subtle undercurrent of laughter. “You find that so hard to believe?”
“Well, you and I haven’t really…” Blake trailed off.
“You’re our friend,” Twilight insisted. She fell silent for a moment. “To be honest… it’s easy to be nice when you grow up like I did: loving parents, a big brother you can depend on, good friends, everything I ever wanted. But you… to go through things I can’t even imagine and still come out kind and generous and brave… you’re the strongest person I know, Blake.” She paused, a smile flitting across her face. “But don’t tell Rainbow Dash I said that.”
Blake chuckled. “I won’t.”
The two of them lapsed into a companionable silence as they set off in the direction of the docking pads.
“You know them, then?” Blake said, as they reached the long path that led beyond the school.”
“Hmm?”
“Team Tsunami,” Blake clarified, remembering that Twilight had described them as being quite capable.
“Oh, yes. Well, some of them better than others,” Twilight replied.
“What are they like?”
“Well, they… they’re characters,” Twilight admitted. “Some of them, anyway. She’s the one I know the least, but you’ll probably get on best with Tempest Shadow. From what I can tell, she’s very… intense.”
“You think I’m intense?”
“You don’t think you’re intense?”
Blake fell silent. “That’s a good point,” she admitted.
They reached the docking pad, where an Atlesian Skyray was waiting for them alongside four figures.
One of them Blake dimly recognised as the girl who had beaten Ruby in combat class, the girl with the curly hair of purple and aquamarine. She waved at them as they approached and jogged across the docking pad towards them. “Twilight, hey!” she cried. “It’s great that we’ll finally be getting the chance to work together, don’t you think?”
Twilight smiled. “Hey, Starlight. Yeah, although I hope you’ll forgive me for hoping I don’t get to see too much of Equaliser in action.”
Starlight laughed. “You know what they say: any mission where you don’t have to fire your weapon is a successful mission.”
“Up to a point,” Blake murmured.
Starlight turned her big blue eyes upon her. “You must be Blake Belladonna, right? The auxiliary.”
“That’s right,” Blake said softly. She didn’t offer her hand. She remembered what Starlight had done to Ruby’s semblance, and she wasn’t all that keen on having it done to her.
Starlight waited a moment, possibly for the hand from Blake that wasn’t coming, before a little nervous laugh escaped her lips. “So, anyway,” she said. “Let me introduce you to the rest of Team Tsunami: Tempest Shadow, Sunburst Flare, and-”
“The Grrreat and Powwwerful Trrrixie!” Trixie declared, throwing her arms out wide on either side of her as firecrackers of many colours – red, green, blue, and purple – exploded in a semi-circle above her.
“Trixie Lulamoon,” Starlight said, a fond smile playing across her lips. “Our team leader.”
Sunburst Flare was the only male on the team or even in the larger group, once Twilight and Blake were taken into consideration. He was a tall, lanky young man with very large, round spectacles resting on top of his pointed nose and appearing to magnify his blue eyes. His hair was red and brushed across his head so that it fell down across the right-hand side of his face, falling slightly over his eye. Despite the fact that he was the same age as Blake and Jaune, he had managed to grow a goatee of some length that descended down from his chin and made him seem as if he very desperately wanted to seem grown up and mature. The effect was slightly undercut by the fact that he was wearing a dark blue cape, with a high collar and stars embroidered on it in green, over his orange waistcoat and tan pants. White gloves enclosed his hands, in which he gripped a gilded staff tipped with a pale blue ice-dust crystal.
Tempest Shadow was a pony faunus, with a tail of rich rose red, cut in a ragged and uneven fashion, descending down towards the ground between her legs. Her hair was of the same colour, arranged in a tall Mohawk that rose like the rest of a helmet upwards and along the middle of her head. Her eyes were opal, narrow and cold, and a scar ran down her face on either side of her left eye. She was dressed in a form-fitting black bodysuit, with dark grey armour over the top protecting her torso, upper arms, shoulders, and thighs. She held a metal staff in one hand, so slender that Blake could not believe that it transformed into anything else.
Trixie Lulamoon had hair of grey and silver, long and curled, descended in waves down her back and framing the left side of her face. Her eyes were purple, and she wore a matching purple pointed hat and cape, adorned with glittering stars of gold and purple, over her similarly-adorned blue hoodie and purple skirt, so that she looked rather like a wizard from somebody’s childhood storybook. Blake could only assume that was the intention behind it. In one hand, she held a pale and slender wand.
“How do you get ‘Tsunami’ from that?” Blake asked.
“T-T-S-S,” Starlight explained.
Blake thought that was a bit of a cheat, even moreso than as spelling ‘Sun’ SSSN.
“So, Blake,” she said, her voice languid and her vowels stretched out as she strutted forwards, “I hear that you want to learn how real Atlesian huntsmen conduct themselves.” She smiled. “Well, you’ve come to the right place, because there is no better place to see true Atlesian greatness in action, than with the Grrreat and Powwwerful Trrrixie.”
“Ahem,” Starlight said.
“And her team of faithful and glamorous assistants,” Trixie added hastily with a wink at Starlight. She threw one arm around Blake’s shoulders, pulling her forwards. “Oh, it must have been so awful for you, having to take Rainbow Dash as a model of what Atlas is made of-”
“I’m standing right here, Trixie,” Twilight pointed out.
Trixie ignored her. “But now that you’re here, you can relax and bask in the radiance of Team Tsunami. Gasp with awe as you behold the greatest team in all of Atlas in action! Be amazed by our feats of daring! And bow down before our magnificence beyond compare!”
“Um,” Blake had no idea how to respond to that. “I, um, look forward to working with you.”
“Likewise,” Sunburst said eagerly.
“Are we actually going to get to work?” Tempest demanded. “Or are we going to stand here on the docking pad talking all day?”
“Yes, yes, we’re getting there,” Trixie said. “I’m just putting our guest in the right mood. And you might learn something too, Twilight,” she added.
“I’m sure,” Twilight muttered dryly.
Trixie pulled her arm away from Blake. “Onward, team!” she proclaimed, waving her wand above her head before gesturing towards the Skyray.
“Hey, Twilight,” Blake said softly as Sunburst and Tempest followed Trixie aboard. “This team, is it-?”
“Any good?” asked Starlight, who had remained a little behind the others. She put a hand out to stop Blake, and Blake did stop, lest she touch Starlight and have her semblance affected somehow. Starlight’s brow furrowed a little, but only for a moment. “Yes,” she declared. “Yes, we are. We might not actually be the best team in all of Atlas, but this team knows what it’s doing.” She paused for a moment, staring down at Blake. “General Ironwood assigned you to join us on this trip, and I’m sure the General knows what he’s doing-”
“But you don’t want me here,” Blake finished for her.
“All that time alone as an undercover agent has to be tough,” Starlight said. “If you were an undercover agent, that is. I’m sure you know how to handle yourself in a fight, but we’re a team, and I’m not having any member of it get hurt because you can’t remember what that means. The lone wolf stuff stays behind, clear?”
How is that you’re not the leader? Blake wondered. “Crystal clear,” she said.
Starlight nodded, seemingly satisfied with Blake’s word. “Then let’s go,” she said.
They boarded the Skyray; Blake took a degree of comfort in the fact that there was no sign of Sun anywhere.
The doors of the airship slid shut.
“Good to go!” Starlight declared.
The airship lifted off the docking pad and headed westwards, weaving between the Atlesian cruisers, waggling its wings in salute to the capital ships as it soared towards the mountains, and away from Vale.