//------------------------------//
// Assignment: Mistral 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Assignment: Mistral


The doors into General Ironwood’s spacious office slid open as the four of them walked inside, arrayed from right to left: Applejack, Blake, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle. 
It was a good thing that the office was pretty big, Rainbow thought as they walked forwards towards the General’s desk, because the office had a few people in it already: an old lady, with white hair and a walking stick and a face that looked to be made for glaring at people, was sat on a chair in front of General Ironwood’s desk, while behind her stood-
“Sun?!” Blake cried. 
“Blake!” yelled Sun Wukong, of all people, as he sprinted across the distance between the two of them, grabbing Blake by the waist – she squeaked in alarm or embarrassment or maybe both – and lifting her up into the air, spinning her around so that the tails of her long coat billowed out around her like one of Rarity’s fancy gowns. He stared into her eyes. “You… you’re okay. I hoped…” he grinned, started to pull her in for a kiss-
“Mister Wukong!” the voice of the old lady cracked like a whip. “Please try and control yourself. There will be plenty of time for… such things later, in private. I do not wish to observe them, and I doubt that General Ironwood desires to see it either.”
Sun’s back went as straight as a spear, and he let Blake go so suddenly that someone less agile would have fallen flat on their faces; Blake managed to land on her feet, although her face was more than a bit red and her ears were pricked up sharply. 
“Right, my lady,” Sun murmured apologetically. “Sorry, I, um, I just, uh…” He laughed nervously. “I, uh… Blake.”
Blake’s eyes narrowed. “Sun.”
“I’ll just go back over here,” Sun said, retreating back to his place behind the old lady, the actual ‘lady,’ judging by what Sun had called her. 
Blake glared at him for a moment, then ostentatiously looked away from him. 
“You okay?” Rainbow asked quietly, the concern in her voice at war with the smirk playing across her face. 
“I’m fine,” Blake muttered, before striding forwards and forcing the others to move quickly to keep up. 
General Ironwood himself sat behind his desk, his face stern and unreadable, while Major Schnee stood at his right hand, behind the desk, with her hands clasped behind her. And on the General’s left stood-
The smirk slid swiftly off Rainbow’s face as she came to a halt, her eyes widening and her pony ears pricking up sharply. “Aska?” What the… what was Aska doing here? Rainbow hadn’t seen her since… 
Since the funeral. 
Yeah, this probably isn’t going to be awkward or anything. 
“Rainbow Dash,” Aska replied, in a voice so chilly that it could have frozen Rainbow’s ears off. 
“Hey, Aska,” Twilight murmured, half-raising one hand in a slight wave. “It’s… it’s been a long time.”
Aska’s tone softened, just a little, as she said, “Indeed it has. You look well, Twilight Sparkle; I am glad to see it.”
“You… you look like you’re doing okay too,” Rainbow murmured.
Aska’s eyes flashed as her gaze returned to Rainbow Dash. “I am here on business, Rainbow Dash, not here to bandy idle words with you.”
Yeah, not awkward at all.
Blake’s ears descended a little towards her wild black hair. “Pardon me,” she said, her voice soft but firm, “but I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”
“This young lady is Aska Koryu,” General Ironwood declared. “She is… a huntress currently based in Mistral. Mister Wukong, I believe you know already.” His voice was dry, and you might almost have thought that he had not witnessed anything that had happened when Blake first came in. 
Blake made a kind of growling noise in her throat. “Yes, sir.”
“And this,” General Ironwood added, gesturing to the old lady with one hand, “is Hippolyta Nikos-”
She coughed.
“Lady Hippolyta Nikos,” General Ironwood corrected himself. “Forgive me, ma’am; titles are not common here in Atlas.”
“Nikos,” Blake repeated. “Are you… Pyrrha’s grandmother?”
Lady Nikos’ glared at Blake with her green eyes. “I am Pyrrha’s mother,” she said firmly.
Blake’s ears pricked up with embarrassment. “I’m sorry, ma’am; I didn’t mean to-”
“I am aware that I have an aged appearance,” Lady Nikos admitted. “I was blessed with a daughter of prodigious strength, but all my strength was taken in return. Still, so long as I possess my wits, I may yet be of use, to Mistral and  to my daughter.”
“Lady Nikos,” General Ironwood said. “Allow me to present Specialists Blake Belladonna, Rainbow Dash, and Jacqueline Apple, as well as Twilight Sparkle of the Science Division. At ease, Specialists.”
“Sir,” Blake said as the three specialists stood at ease, legs spaced out and hands clasped behind their backs. Twilight was left standing rather awkwardly at the end of the line, hands at her side. 
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, not least of which is what you’re all doing here, so for the duration of this meeting, you may all speak freely,” General Ironwood declared. “You may consider it blanket permission granted. Now, as you may have gathered, Lady Nikos has come all the way from Mistral to brief us on events in the kingdom.”
“Is Pyrrha okay?” Blake asked immediately. “What about Jaune?”
“Pyrrha is well, thanks be to the air and sky,” Lady Nikos declared. “And Mister Arc is, if possible, even better.” A smile played across her aged lips. “He and Pyrrha are engaged to be married.”
“Already?” Rainbow exclaimed, the word bursting from her lips before she could stop it. “They’re kind of young, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know,” Applejack replied. “My Ma and Pa were about our age when they got married.”
“You told me that your parents had to elope because your grandparents hated each other and your mother’s folks were going to take her away to Mantle.”
“It still counts!” Applejack replied indignantly.
“Yeah, but it’s not like Jaune and Pyrrha couldn’t afford to wait,” Rainbow said.
“To wait for what, Miss Dash?” Lady Nikos demanded, not harshly but unyieldingly at the same time. “For Pyrrha to perish on the battlefield? For Mistral to burn? For years to pass before something that might be called peace returns? Ten thousand fates of death surround us, Miss Dash, and so, it being so, is it not better to seize the day while light remains rather than wait for… for what purpose? To satisfy the mores of Atlas?”
Rainbow glanced down at the dark floor of General Ironwood’s office. When put like that… sure, it wasn’t normal in Atlas to get married that young, but not everywhere was Atlas, and aside from the fact that it wasn’t normal, it wasn’t as though there was any reason why they shouldn’t be engaged. If they thought that they could make it work, then, well, good luck to them. “Sorry, my lady,” she murmured. “I didn’t mean-”
“I understand that our Mistralian ways sometimes seem quaint to you Atlesians; nevertheless, I assure you that we have our reasons,” Lady Nikos said. She paused. “By the way, Miss Dash, Miss Belladonna, it is an honour to meet my daughter’s companions from the north kingdom. She speaks very highly of you both.”
Blake bowed her head. “Thank you, my lady. We’re glad to hear that our friends are well,” she smiled. “And glad to hear that they are happy.”
“They are engaged; I do not know that they are happy,” Lady Nikos muttered. “Not that their unhappiness springs from one another, you understand… but you will also understand that I did not come from Mistral simply to bring you news of Pyrrha’s engagement to Jaune Arc. Dark forces are on the move in Mistral; Pyrrha fears that Salem stretches forth her hand against our kingdom.”
Rainbow’s eyes widened, and her and Blake’s ears both twitched in surprise. Salem? Pyrrha told her mom about Salem?
She told Aska?
She told Sun?
“It appears,” General Ironwood said, “that Miss Nikos has fully briefed Lady Nikos, Mister Wukong, and a circle of others about the true nature of the threat that confronts us,” General Ironwood said evenly, with only a slight of tiredness to show what he thought about that.
“And what would you have had Pyrrha do instead?” Lady Nikos asked. “Fight alone, with only Jaune to support and counsel her? A small group such as yours may have sufficed when two people in Vale and Atlas could talk to one another as easily as if they shared a room, but now? Your Professor Ozpin is dead, and the CCT is down – for now, at least, until your efforts in Menagerie bear fruit – Pyrrha has need of allies.”
“I’m hardly one to talk,” General Ironwood conceded. “Since the Battle of Vale, Specialist Apple and Major Schnee have both been made aware of what we’re up against. And with Lionheart having betrayed us, I understand that there was nobody to make that decision except Miss Nikos.” He paused. “Lady Nikos has brought me a lot of bad news tonight, but there is one piece of good news to share with you: Miss Nikos is the Fall Maiden. It appears the destiny that Ozpin chose for her has been realised after all.”
“But how?” Blake asked. “Sunset, is she-?”
“Miss Shimmer transferred the powers to Pyrrha peacefully,” Lady Nikos said.
Blake’s eyebrows rose. “That’s… is that possible?”
“Apparently so,” Lady Nikos said. “Unless you think that Pyrrha would lie about such a thing.”
“No,” Blake said quickly. “Of course not, and she would never hurt Sunset. So… but-”
“If it’s that easy, then why is there so much fuss about these Maidens and their powers?” Applejack asked.
“It isn’t normally that easy,” General Ironwood declared. “If it were, Apple, then, as you say, there wouldn’t be so much fuss.”
“Sunset is… quite unique in certain ways,” Twilight ventured. “Unique in some of her… gifts. Perhaps that has something to do with it.”
“Quite possibly,” General Ironwood agreed. “It’s unfortunate if that is the case, but we’ve had to live with this system for a long time; if we have to keep on living with it, then that’s far from the greatest hardship that we face. The important thing is that the powers of Fall are in the hands of someone Ozpin trusted completely, rather than the hands of an enemy or… someone of dubious character.”
“Does that matter now, sir?” Twilight asked. “Now that Salem has the Relic-”
“The powers of a Maiden remain a potent weapon in their own right,” General Ironwood said. “A weapon which remains in our hands. In the right hands, the hands which Ozpin always meant to hold them.” He got up and turned away from the group, walking towards the windows out of which the night lights of Atlas could be seen gleaming brightly. “I hope that comforts him when he returns.”
Rainbow frowned. 'When he returns'? She looked at Twilight, and then at Blake and Applejack, to see if there was something they understood that she was missing. They all looked just as puzzled as she was. 
For that matter, Lady Nikos, Sun, even Aska looked pretty thrown by this as well.
“Um, sir?” Rainbow said. “Isn’t Professor Ozpin-?”
“Dead, unfortunately,” General Ironwood acknowledged. “But there’s something that you don’t know about Ozpin. Something that you aren’t aware of but that you – and Miss Nikos – need to know now.” He turned back to them. “Ozpin has been cursed with a sort of immortality. Every time his body dies, his consciousness will seek out a new host to inhabit-”
“Like the powers of a Maiden, sir?” Twilight asked.
General Ironwood smiled at her. “Almost exactly like that, Twilight. The difference being that Ozpin can make his presence much more directly felt in the mind of his new host.”
“What do you mean, sir?” asked Blake.
“I’m not entirely sure,” General Ironwood admitted. “By the time that I knew Ozpin, he and his previous consciousness had merged, becoming a single entity-”
“Sounds kinda rough on the new host, if you don’t mind me sayin’, sir,” Applejack declared. “At least with these Maidens, by the sounds of it, they stay the same afterwards, just with a few new fancy tricks.”
“I can’t defend a system I barely understand,” General Ironwood said. “The point is that we need Ozpin, his wisdom, his experience, and at some point, he will be reborn into a new host. I don’t know where or when; I only know that it will happen. And when it does, I hope that he will make his way here, to Atlas; but it’s possible that he may head to Mistral instead, and that is a possibility that Miss Nikos should be aware of.”
“And us, sir?” Rainbow murmured. “Why do we need to know now, when you didn’t tell us before?”
General Ironwood didn’t answer that. Instead, he said, “Lady Nikos, I’m sorry to keep interrupting. Please, brief the specialists on the state of affairs in Mistral.”
“Thank you, General,” Lady Nikos said as she used her cane to push herself up to her feet. “I must confess that Mistral has not fared well since the Battle of Vale. With the CCT down, it has become impossible to communicate with the settlements that span our vast territory; that inability has bred panic, and panic-”
“It’s brought the grimm down on you, ain’t it, mah lady?” Applejack muttered.
“Indeed, Miss Apple,” Lady Nikos agreed. “And panic has bred yet more fear in a vicious cycle which draws the grimm like a beacon draws ships to harbour. Nor are the grimm the only menace with which the folk of Mistral must contend: bandits and brigands can sense weakness the way the grimm sense fear, it seems, for they have emerged in numbers undreamed of, laying waste to villages and even spiriting them away wholesale.”
“Spiriting them away?” Blake repeated.
“It was pretty bad,” Sun said, his voice low and sombre. “Everyone was gone by the time we got there.”
“'We'?” Blake said.
“The Myrmidons,” Sun explained, without explaining anything.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “We don’t know who that is.”
“Oh, right. So, the Myrmidons are a group set up by Pyrrha,” Sun explained, “there’s me and Neptune and Pyrrha, obviously, and Jaune and Ren and Nora and Arslan, and there’s Sage and Scarlet too, and then there’s Ditzy, and Lady Swift Foot-”
“The Myrmidons are the retainers of Pyrrha Nikos,” Aska declared, cutting Sun off. “We eat in her hall, we dwell on her estate, and we fight under her command to defend the people of Mistral from the darkness that threatens them. Mostly students of Haven Academy, there are a few tournament fighters amongst them also. And myself, of course. Around thirty warriors in all.”
“It sounds very old fashioned,” Blake murmured. “An aristocrat keeping a household of trained fighters? It could come out of a Mistralian epic.”
“As I told Miss Dash, Miss Belladonna, though our ways seem quaint to you, we have our reasons,” Lady Nikos reminded them. “Since no one else was both willing and able to defend the people of Mistral, Pyrrha felt the need to do so herself and recruited like-minded allies to assist her.”
“Do they all know about Salem?” Rainbow asked.
“No,” Lady Nikos said. “Only a select few within the company: Mister Wukong, young Lord Neptune, Mister Ren, and Miss Valkyrie, and Pyrrha’s old rival Arslan Altan. Lady Swift Foot Thrax knows something of the truth, touching on the Fall Maiden, but not the whole of it. The rest know nothing at all.”
“But why does Pyrrha need to do this?” asked Rainbow Dash. “You said nobody else would or could, but what about the Council? What about the troops who fought at Vale?”
“The Council sent forces to Vale in an attempt to enhance its prestige, prestige that had been dented by last year’s grimm crisis,” Lady Nikos explained. “Instead, the losses suffered and the comparative helplessness of our troops were a grievous blow to the Council’s authority with the people of Mistral. Any attempt to keep the troops in arms would have led to mutiny; they wished to go home, to their own families and their own communities, and who can blame them when those communities were under threat?”
“We can’t just look to our own affairs at a time like this,” Blake said. “If we don’t stand together-”
“And what has Atlas done in these past months but look to its own affairs?” Lady Nikos demanded.
Blake’s brow furrowed. “Atlas has reached out to Menagerie,” she said.
“But not to Mistral,” Lady Nikos pointed out. “And how many ships and soldiers have gone to Menagerie?”
“One ship,” General Ironwood said. “With communications down, I don’t want to spread my strength across Remnant where I couldn’t contact them or get word of what was happening to them out there.”
“That is your right, General, but it is the same reasoning that has led the Council to hide in Mistral, husbanding its strength, sitting atop a sandcastle while the tide rises around it.” Lady Nikos sighed. “In all of Mistral, for a time, only Pyrrha and her companions raised their swords to defend the common people, and yet, her actions – though I would never suggest that she had acted wrongly – and the acclaim from the people that her deeds have won her, left the Steward and the Council fearful that she would claim the throne that our ancestors held and left them even more determined to keep their own swords close in case they were needed. On top of that, the swords of Mistral are fewer in number than might have been hoped for; it appears that many huntsmen and huntresses have perished of late.”
“Lionheart,” Ironwood growled.
“It may be so,” Lady Nikos agreed.
“You said ‘for a time,’” Blake pointed out. “Has something changed, my lady?”
“Much, and not all for the better,” Lady Nikos muttered. “The Lady Terri-Belle, Warden of the White Tower, has consolidated the defenders of Mistral under her banner: Pyrrha’s Myrmidons, companies under Lady Ming and Lord Rutulus, who has come here himself to treat with you, and the Imperial Guard and whatever other huntsmen remain in Mistral and at the Council’s disposal. However, such forces are still insufficient to defend the entire expanse of Mistral’s territory, and so…” Lady Nikos scowled. “And so, that territory has been handed over in large part to bandit tribes to govern on behalf of the Council, paying taxes in exchange for near-unchallenged rule over the towns and villages that fall under their sway.”
“'Bandits'?” Rainbow repeated. “You’re letting bandits take over the kingdom?”
“Only the outlying regions,” Lady Nikos replied dryly. “Believe me, Miss Dash, I share your distaste.”
“And let me guess, they’ll be clawing those taxes back by screwing the folks who live under their ‘protection’ for all their worth,” Applejack muttered.
“It is very likely, Miss Apple.”
“You might as well try and set the fox to guardin’ the hen-house!” Applejack exclaimed. “If those darn bandits wanted to protect fellas from the grimm, they’d have become huntsmen. If they wanted to do work for a livin’, they’d have taken up honest work instead of robbin’ folk of all they’ve sweated for! If they lift a finger to protect anyone, I’ll be surprised.”
Lady Nikos did not dispute the point; she merely said, “One of the bandit clans that has accepted this generous offer of a pardon for all past defences and a territory to call their own is known to you, I think: the Branwen tribe, led by one Raven Branwen.”
Blake’s eyes widened. “Yang’s mom?”
“Indeed,” Lady Nikos said. “It may gladden you to know, Miss Belladonna, that your friend Yang is alive and with her mother and her brigand crew.”
If Blake’s eyes gotten any wider, they were going to fall out and hit the floor. “Yang… Yang’s alive? How? That’s not possible; we-”
“Apparently, she was abducted from the battlefield by her mother,” Lady Nikos explained. “Taken back to the tribe by means of her mother’s semblance, and has been there ever since.”
“'Abducted'?” Blake repeated. “How is she? Is she a prisoner? How did you find out about this? Did Pyrrha get her out?”
“Pyrrha offered her sanctuary in our house, but she would not accept it,” Lady Nikos said, her voice touched with regret. “Apparently, she cannot escape her mother’s semblance, and she fears what might become of her if she tries to run or what might befall any who attempt to shelter her.”
Blake shook her head. “Yang isn’t afraid of anything.”
Lady Nikos was silent for a moment. “It seems… she may have been taught fear. When she visited with Pyrrha briefly, she was missing two fingers upon one hand. The price of… earlier escape attempts.”
Blake gasped. “And you… and Pyrrha just let her go?! She let her go back with the woman who mutilated her?”
“That was Miss Xiao Long’s choice.”
“Yang obviously wasn’t thinking straight!” Blake cried. “Believe me, people in that position don’t think straight; they need help – Yang needed help – how could Pyrrha and Jaune just-?”
“The Branwen Tribe has more than just Yang Xiao Long,” Winter said, cutting Blake off. “Isn’t that right, my lady?”
“It is even so,” Lady Nikos agreed. “They have the Spring Maiden also. Pyrrha feared that a battle between them, in our house, in the middle of Mistral, would have put innocent lives at risk.”
“How is that possible?” Rainbow asked. “I thought that one of the points of this group was to keep the Maidens secret and safe?”
“I gotta say, sir, it's starting to look like y’all aren’t doin’ a great job at it,” Applejack said. “What with the Fall Maiden business and now this.”
“It could be worse,” Winter said. “With Lionheart a traitor, the Spring Maiden could have fallen into the hands of Salem by now.”
“I guess,” Rainbow admitted. “But how did bandits end up with the powers? How did they even know about them?”
“Raven used to be a member of Professor Ozpin’s circle, remember?” Twilight reminded her. “She was on a team with Ruby’s mother and father and uncle.”
“Oh, right,” Rainbow said. “So is that how-?”
“We don’t know,” General Ironwood admitted. “All we do know is that the Spring Maiden abandoned her post some time ago; she couldn’t take the pressure of responsibility placed on her.”
“Sounds a bit like Starlight,” Rainbow muttered.
“If only the Spring Maiden had been found so easily and brought home so quickly,” General Ironwood replied. “Or not, because as Winter points out, worse might have happened to her or the powers if they had been left under Lionheart’s control. In any event, despite attempts to find her, her whereabouts remained unknown… until now. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that anyone else knows that the Branwens are sheltering the Spring Maiden – for now. With Salem’s agents in Mistral, and doubtless searching for Spring as we speak, who knows how long that will last?”
“How do you know that Salem’s agents are in Mistral?” Blake asked. “Are they so open about their presence?”
“We are not without some covert skill of our own,” Aska declared. “I observed Doctor Watts with my own eyes, in company with Chrysalis.”
“Chrysalis!” Rainbow snapped. “Chrysalis is in Mistral?!”
“Would it sound really selfish if I said ‘at least she’s not here’?” Twilight asked softly. 
“It might be a little selfish, sugarcube, but nobody would blame you for it,” Applejack assured her. 
“So the White Fang is still working with Salem,” Blake muttered. “I’d hoped… after Adam, I thought that maybe… is Sienna Khan really so blind?”
“Maybe she doesn’t know,” Rainbow suggested. “Maybe Adam isn’t the only one to start acting on his own. Maybe Chrysalis got a better offer from Salem and isn’t with the White Fang anymore.”
“Too many maybes,” Winter said softly.
“Do we know what they’re up to in Mistral?” asked Applejack.
“It appears that this Chrysalis, your old enemy, has killed Lady Ming, one of the Councillors of Mistral, and taken her place,” Lady Nikos said.
“Up to her old tricks again,” Rainbow muttered.
“She kept Cadance alive,” Twilight pointed out.
“Yeah, and how did that work out?” Rainbow replied.
Twilight frowned. “If you know that, can’t you expose her?”
“Pyrrha tried,” Lady Nikos said. “Lady Swift Foot was sent to convey this information to her sister, Lady Terri-Belle; however, testing appeared to reveal that Lady Ming was, in fact, Lady Ming. I fear that Lady Terri-Belle looks less kindly on us now than she did before we appeared to cry wolf.”
“Maybe Lady Ming isn’t dead?” Twilight suggested.
“What, and Chrysalis is letting her out sometimes?” Rainbow said. “Nah, she’s fooling the tests somehow.”
“Lady Ming,” Applejack murmured. “Ain’t she one of the ones with troops at her disposal?”
“Indeed, and what is more, Chrysalis and Doctor Watts have suborned Lord Rutulus to their will also,” Lady Nikos said.
“Not completely,” General Ironwood replied. “Captain Armor visited Turnus Rutulus in his hotel room tonight, and he gave the word ‘Chrysalis’; I wasn’t sure what it meant, but now, it seems like an attempt to warn us of her involvement.”
“Some warning,” Rainbow muttered. 
“They have a knife to his sister’s throat,” Lady Nikos said. “Is that not cause enough for caution?”
“I guess,” Rainbow admitted. She knew as well as anyone that you could do stupid things sometimes when the lives of people you cared about were at stake. 
“It is for that reason, the infiltration of Salem’s agents and the power they have already accrued, that Pyrrha asked me to come here,” Lady Nikos said. “To beg for General Ironwood’s counsel and his aid.”
“You’ll have both,” General Ironwood assured her. “Although I’m not sure how much use my counsel would be. Or how much you will like it. Are the Myrmidons strong enough to launch an assault on the Brawnen tribe?”
“'Assault'?” Sun said. “You want us to attack?”
“The General would have us put the Spring Maiden to the sword and hope that the power passes to one of Pyrrha’s company,” Lady Nikos said. “Is that not so, General?”
“Nothing is more important than keeping the Relic of Knowledge out of the hands of Salem,” General Ironwood declared. “She already has one relic; she cannot get a second. And the Spring Maiden is a dangerously exposed variable in this battle. At the moment, the power of Fall gives Pyrrha an advantage over her enemies, but if that changes, if Chrysalis, gods help us, were to become the Spring Maiden, then not only could she walk into Haven Academy and retrieve the relic, but-”
“But the balance of power in Mistral would become dangerously even,” Lady Nikos finished. “We are aware, General, and I will not deny that Pyrrha has considered the notion. Miss Valkyrie and Miss Altan have both been considered as viable prospects to become Spring Maiden. But the Branwens have entered into the service of Mistral; if Pyrrha attacks them, she will be defying the authority of the Council.”
“Much must be risked in war,” General Ironwood said. “Ozpin believed that this war could be fought in the shadows, but our enemies aren’t hiding any more; they’re coming for us openly, and we have to strike back. For that reason, my advice to you is to strike first and strike hard. Occupy Haven Academy and deny the enemy access to the Vault, descend upon the Branwen Tribe-”
“And Lady Ming? And the Rutulus family?” Lady Nikos demanded. “Would you have us inaugurate a civil war in Mistral while the grimm howl beyond our walls?”
General Ironwood was silent for a moment. “The bandits are one thing,” he said. “But it seems that the forces that Chrysalis has accumulated do not serve her willingly, but out of duress and under false pretences. Aside from the question of whether they would attack first if ordered to, that offers an opportunity to eliminate our problems by eliminating Chrysalis herself.” He clasped his hands together. “You have my advice, to deny the enemy the chance to reach the Relic of Choice by any means, as for my aid…”
He’s sending us, Rainbow thought. That’s the only reason why he’d call us all in here for this; it’s not just so we can learn that Pyrrha and Jaune are okay. He’s going to send us to Mistral, with Blake in command. She knew that. She could hear the words coming out of General Ironwood’s mouth as though he’d already said them. It was like it was already a memory to her. Blake would be given the command because she’d earned it, because she was better suited than Rainbow was, because she hadn’t screwed up like Rainbow had. 
Because she was smarter than Rainbow Dash, better spoken, more inspiring… just plain better. 
She was the one that Atlas needed. The one that General Ironwood needed. The one whose task for Atlas would be something great. 
“I’m sending a team to Mistral to support Miss Nikos against our enemies,” General Ironwood declared. “Dash, you’re in charge.”
Dash made an incoherent spluttering noise as the not-quite memory in her head was thrown wildly off course by an uncooperative reality. “Sir?” What the hell? She glanced at Blake; she didn’t seem as surprised by this as Rainbow Dash was. In fact, she didn’t look surprised at all, let alone offended to be passed over. 
That didn’t make it better. In fact, considering that Rainbow probably would have felt a little offended in spite of everything, it kind of made it worse.
She was in charge? She was in charge? Rainbow Dash and not Blake? Yeah, she’d been given jobs by General Ironwood before, but that was… that was before. Before Blake… before Rainbow had blotted her record. Why her, even now? 
“You with me, Dash?” General Ironwood asked.
“Yes sir!” Rainbow said loudly.
“I recommend that you take Belladonna and Apple, as well as at least one other, but ultimately, you have freedom to choose your own mission team,” General Ironwood said. “Subject to my approval, once you present me your names before your departure.”
“Understood, sir,” Rainbow replied. 
“Your orders are to accompany Lady Nikos to Mistral and present yourself to Pyrrha Nikos and to assist her in securing Mistral and denying the Relic of Knowledge to Salem’s forces,” General Ironwood. “And while you’re there, you are to eliminate Chrysalis. Locking her up didn’t work, so I want her put down, understood?”
“Perfectly, sir; it’ll be a pleasure,” Rainbow growled. 
General Ironwood nodded. “Any other questions for Lady Nikos?”
Rainbow thought about it for a moment or two. “What’s the status of Haven Academy?”
“Closed, essentially,” Lady Nikos said. “Many of the students are serving with Pyrrha, and the Council does not have the appetite to either order them back to school or expel them, and so, the vacation is simply extended and extended.”
Rainbow nodded. “Do we have any other allies in Mistral besides Pyrrha and her group?”
“Councillor Ward is a friend of mine and our backer on the Council, but he has no forces of his own,” Lady Nikos said. “Lady Terri-Belle is honourable, but loyal to her father, the Steward. She would not betray him for our sake. Lord Rutulus would be an ally, I think, if his sister were not being used against him.”
That might not be a problem once we’ve put a bullet between Chrysalis’ eyes. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Yes, thank you, my lady; you’ve given us course and direction at last,” General Ironwood agreed. “I may not be able to send a fleet to Mistral, but I can send my best people. I hope that’s enough.”
“In Mistral, we have a saying, General,” Lady Nikos said, “’Boldness is armour to a brave man.’ If your young women are brave, then that will be of more use to us than a squadron of your warships.”
“Of their courage, there can be no doubt,” General Ironwood declared. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have operational matters to discuss with my personnel. Major Schnee, will you please show our guests out and help them find suitable accommodation?”
“Of course, sir,” Winter said, clicking her heels together. “Please, follow me.”
They all did, with Lady Nikos leading the way and the other two following obediently at her heels. Sun glanced at Blake, who still didn’t really meet his eyes. Aska didn’t look at Rainbow Dash at all. 
So, she’s been in Mistral all this time. 
This is going to be a fun mission, I can tell.
General Ironwood’s face was impassive, until the doors closed behind Winter and their Mistralian visitors. 
“Questions?” he asked.
“Availability of Specialist Soleil, sir?” Rainbow asked.
“You can have Soleil, if you want her, but not Penny,” General Ironwood said. “We need her here for propaganda purposes.”
“Understood, sir,” Rainbow said. “And… if I select anyone else for the mission, someone who doesn’t know… can we tell them?”
“Give me their names, and I’ll tell you if they’re cleared to know,” General Ironwood replied.
“What about Professor Lionheart, sir?” asked Blake. “Are we going to…?”
“It’s not a priority, but if you have the shot, I expect you to take it,” General Ironwood said. “At this point, we have to assume that he’s provided Salem with all the intelligence that he had access to, but killing him might still make it harder for her agents to get into the Vault of the Spring Maiden. And, as I said, keep an eye out for Ozpin; he won’t look like the man you remember, but he may try and make contact, so be open to the possibility.” General Ironwood paused for a moment, closing his eyes and leaning forward so that his fingertips touched his forehead. “And there’s something else,” he said, “something that I couldn’t discuss in front of our guests.”
“Sir?” Rainbow murmured.
General Ironwood took a few moments to say anything. “It may be that it isn’t possible to save Mistral,” he said. “You heard what Lady Nikos said; the entire kingdom sounds as though it’s in a mess. By the sounds of things, Pyrrha and her comrades are the only ones trying to hold the levee, and there’s no guarantee that it will be enough.” The General opened his eyes, which seemed colder now, as he looked at them. “If it is not enough, if in your judgement, Dash, it seems that Mistral will fall, then you are to acquire the Relic of Knowledge by any means necessary and bring it back here to Atlas.”
“'Bring it-'” Blake gasped. “You want us to abandon Pyrrha and the others?”
“As a last resort only, Belladonna,” General Ironwood said.
“Even so, sir, we can’t go to Mistral to aid our friends and then just ditch them when-”
“Nothing is more important than keeping the relic safe!” General Ironwood declared, his voice rising. “Salem already has one of the four relics; if she acquires a second, she’ll be that much closer to total victory. But so long as we can keep the relics safe here in Atlas, then she will never win, and humanity will survive, even if Mistral does not.”
Rainbow frowned, but she said nothing. What the General was saying made a lot of sense. In a way, all of the other battles that they fought, all of the grimm or other enemies they beat, none of it really mattered, because Salem would keep coming anyway. The only things that really mattered were the relics; if Salem got them, she could destroy the world; so long as she didn’t have them, then she couldn’t. It was that simple. If Mistral was going to fall, then their team dying in the defence with everyone else wouldn’t make much difference, but if they saved a relic, then… like General Ironwood said, humanity would survive. 
It made sense. But it was a cold, brutal kind of sense, the kind of sense that said you should abandon your teammates because at least you would survive even if they didn’t. 
It made sense… but she didn’t much care for it. 
But it was like she’d said to Ruby, back at Beacon such a long time ago: you had to trust. She had to trust General Ironwood; he saw more than she did; he understood the big picture that she couldn’t see. She was just a knight, and she had to trust the king knew what he was doing, and was doing the right thing. 
Applejack didn’t look too happy about it either, but she didn’t question the orders themselves; rather, she said, “How are we supposed to do that, sir? We ain’t got the Spring Maiden to open up the vault for us, and even if Pyrrha takes your advice, and the powers go to one of her friends, they ain’t likely to hand us the relic so we can skip town and leave ‘em to face the music.”
“Pyrrha might, if she agreed that all hope was lost,” Blake murmured. “She’s… she’s someone who really would put the greater good of humanity first.”
“Noted,” General Ironwood said. “Nevertheless, I don’t think you should inform her of this particular aspect of your mission. It might generate ill-feeling on the Myrmidons if they don’t think that you’re there solely to support them. They might not trust you.”
Blake looked as if she wanted to say something, but didn’t.
“As to the how,” General Ironwood went on, “if Pyrrha won’t take the Spring Maiden’s power, then I advise you to consider doing so yourself.”
“You mean kill the Spring Maiden, sir,” Blake said, not questioning but wanting the General to spell it out.
“That’s exactly what I mean, Belladonna,” General Ironwood replied, without flinching. “If that’s not possible, then, Twilight, I want you to look at ways of breaching the vault. You can study the Vault of the Winter Maiden for reference, though don’t damage it, obviously.” He smiled, but it didn’t last much longer than a moment. “I need you to have something for the team by the time they leave.”
“Right, sir,” Twilight murmured. “So that’s why you asked me here, sir?” She laughed nervously. “For a moment, I thought you wanted me to go to Mistral.”
“Don’t worry, Twilight; I wouldn’t ask that of you,” General Ironwood assured her. “Just this.” His gaze fell upon each of them in turn. “I’m not going to pretend that I’m not asking something very dangerous of you – and I know that the danger isn’t the worst part of what I’m asking – but you’re about to embark on a mission critical to the survival of Atlas and of humanity itself. I want you to remember that.” He paused. “You have five days to make your preparations. Dismissed.”
“Permission to remain, sir,” Rainbow said. “There’s a couple more things I’d like to discuss with you, privately.”
She didn’t look at the others. She didn’t want to see if they were looking at her, although she thought they might be. 
General Ironwood looked at her, unblinking, unspeaking. “Alright, Dash, you can stay.”
“Thank you, sir,” Rainbow said, looking straight ahead, not looking at her friends as they – Blake and Applejack, anyway – saluted the General, turned away, and left the office. 
She was alone, with General Ironwood looking at her, staring at her, waiting. 
“Did…?” Rainbow hesitated. “Did you know that Aska was in Mistral, sir?”
“No,” General Ironwood said at once. “I haven’t spoken to Aska in… in some time. Is it going to be difficult for you, working with her?”
Yes. “I’ll make it work, sir,” Rainbow replied. “I’m sure that Pyrrha and Jaune will be a help with that.”
“Mhmm,” General Ironwood murmured. “But that’s not all, is it?”
“No, sir,” Rainbow replied. She hesitated. Her throat was dry, and her lips felt chapped. She licked them. “Why did you put me in charge of this assignment, sir, and not Blake?”
General Ironwood was silent for a moment. “Belladonna… Belladonna is a damn good soldier, and you did good work by bringing her here to Atlas, but she has a history of putting her own ethics above her orders.”
So you’re worried Blake won’t obey your orders? Rainbow couldn’t deny that she could see the General’s point; Blake wasn’t happy about the last resort, she’d made that plain. “And you think I won’t do that, sir?”
“I think that you understand the consequences of using your own initiative at the critical moment,” General Ironwood said.
Rainbow flinched. She’d expected the answer, but she flinched anyway. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”
General Ironwood clasped his hands together. “I think I can guess that you’re not happy about this either, Dash.”
“You’re not just asking Blake to betray someone who was there for her when others weren’t, sir; you’re asking us to betray someone we’ve fought alongside for the best part of a year, including one of the most nightmarish places in the whole of Remnant.”
“As a last resort,” General Ironwood reminded her. “Not as your first priority.”
“I know that, sir,” Rainbow said. “And if… and if it’s the only way to keep the relic away from Salem, I’ll do it, but… but I don’t like it.”
“And I don’t need you to like it, Dash,” General Ironwood said. “And nothing would make me happier than if you didn’t have to do it. But if you do… Salem cannot obtain a second relic, do you understand?”
Rainbow nodded her head, but only a little. It wouldn’t go further. “Yes, sir.”
“Then make sure that doesn’t happen,” General Ironwood commanded. “Dismissed.”
Rainbow saluted, then turned on her heel and walked out of the office. She found that Twilight, Applejack and Blake were waiting for her outside. The latter had her arms folded and her ears were pressed down a little. 
“You guys didn’t have to wait,” Rainbow told them.
“Well, we did anyway,” Applejack informed her. “And we ain’t gonna ask what you needed to talk to the General about all by your lonesome, neither.”
Rainbow Dash reached them, and stopped walking. “You know, he didn’t even ask how your mission to Mantle went, Blake,” she observed.
“I’m not surprised,” Blake replied. “Compared to what’s going on in Mistral, the capture of Robyn Hill looks like pretty small potatoes, doesn’t it?”
Rainbow snorted. “I guess so.” She paused. “So… Mistral, huh?”
“At least we know that Jaune and Pyrrha are okay,” Twilight said. “In fact, they seem to be doing pretty well. I mean, it’s not great that Chrysalis is there, or that she’s working with Salem,” she glanced behind her in case anyone was listening. “But still… it could be a lot worse for them, right?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “Yeah, it could be a hell of a lot worse. But it sounds like they’re amongst friends, and they’ve got each other and… and they’re even going to get married, huh?” she grinned. “How about that?”
Blake smiled softly. “Well… if anyone was going to get married straight out of Beacon, it would be them.”
“Yeah, but usually ‘straight out of the academy’ means like twenty one, twenty two,” Rainbow said. “Not nineteen.”
“Do you think two or three years makes such a big difference?” Blake asked.
“I don’t know,” Rainbow admitted. “Does it give you any ideas?”
Blake’s eyes narrowed. “Ideas for what?”
“You know,” Rainbow said. “You and Sun?”
Blake stared at her for a moment. A kind of laugh escaped her lips. “No,” she said. “I think that Sun and I… it’s not… he’s a good guy but he’s not…”
“Does he know that?” Applejack asked.
“Judging by the way that he acted tonight I’m going to guess ‘not’,” Twilight murmured.
“Then you owe it to the fella to let him know, as soon as possible,” Applejack declared. “Otherwise… the longer you leave it the more it’ll hurt him.” She paused. “I mean, if that’s really how you felt you ought to have cut the guy loose when you left Vale-”
“Applejack, come on,” Rainbow murmured.
“I’m just sayin’, he’s been carryin’ a torch fo there, anyone can see that,” Applejack declared. “He don’t see things the way Blake does, and she ought to tell him where she stands.”
“But only do it if you’re sure,” Twilight added. “You don’t get the chance to change your mind. Is it how you feel?”
“I thought you liked him,” Rainbow added.
“I do,” Blake said, “but… the only reason Sun would ever settle in one place… is because I asked him too, and I’m not ready to do that. I won’t tie him down, but I can’t wander like a lost balloon the way that he would if he could.”
“Long distance?” Rainbow suggested. “Once the CCT is back up-”
“Even long distance relationships usually have the promise of something closer, don’t they?” Blake asked. “Even if that promise seems very distant.”
“I’m just saying…” Rainbow said, trailing off for a moment. “If you break his heart, you realise we’ll still have to work with him, right?”
“You’re not suggesting that Blake lie to him, are you?” Twilight gasped.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, since we’ll be lying to Pyrrha,” Blake muttered.
Rainbow sucked in a breath. Now they were come to it. She supposed that they’d just been putting it off up until now. “Right. That.”
“I don’t like it,” Applejack said flatly. “I don’t know Pyrrha or Jaune or any of ‘em the way that you three do, but even so, I don’t like it. It’s dishonest.”
“It’s dishonourable,” Blake said.
“It’s a last resort,” Rainbow insisted. “Just like General Ironwood said. It’s a last resort and we probably won’t have to do it. If we do our jobs then we won’t have to do it.”
“You know that we can’t guarantee that based on our efforts,” Blake countered. “Not least because the enemy has agency as well.”
“It’s a last resort,” Rainbow repeated.
“And I’m glad of that, believe me-”
“You don’t sound very glad,” Rainbow pointed.
“I’m sorry, should I sound happy that I probably won’t have to abandon our friends to die!” Blake said, her voice rising. “We’re talking about Jaune and Pyrrha here! We’ve fought with them, I shared a dorm room with them, and when General Ironwood told us that we were going to Mistral to see them again I felt so... I can see the smile on Pyrrha’s face,” she said softly, her ears drooping. “I can feel the warmth of her embrace as she welcomes me to Mistral the way that you know that she’ll welcome all of us: with open arms and an open heart. I can… I can hear her telling us how glad she is to see us again, how grateful she is to have us here.”
“I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but at the same time I confess I did hope that if General Ironwood sent us any aid it would be you. I will be honoured to fight alongside you once again.” “Yeah,” Rainbow said hoarsely. “Yeah, I can hear that, too.”
“And it will feel like a dagger through my gut because I know what she doesn’t,” Blake went on, “that we’ve been ordered to betray her and abandon her to her fate. And not just Jaune and Pyrrha but the whole of Mistral.”
“As a last-”
“Stop saying ‘last resort’!” Blake yelled. “And it’s not just Jaune and Pyrrha that we’re talking about, but the whole of Mistral! Forgive me, but isn’t that what Sunset’s name was tarred with seven shades of infamy for even contemplating?”
“It’s not the same thing,” Rainbow declared.
“Isn’t it?”
“No,” Rainbow insisted. “Yes, if our orders were to bug out and save our own lives for no other reason than to save our own lives then it would be exactly the same thing, but they’re not. We’re not doing this to save ourselves, we’re doing it to save the Relic, to keep it out of Salem’s hands. General Ironwood’s right, we can’t afford to let her get another one. Apart from anything else, the more she has the easier it might get for her to pick up the rest.”
Blake began, “So long as she doesn’t get the Relic in Atlas-”
“She might find hurting Atlas a lot easier once she has more Relics,” Rainbow replied. “We can’t take the risk.”
“So we lie to the people who think we’re there to help ‘em?” Applejack asked.
“We are there to help them!”
“Then we should tell ‘em everything,” Applejack said. “And if they’re as nice as you say, if it’s as obviously the right thing as you say it is, then they’ll understand and won’t hold it against us.”
“That’s not our orders,” Rainbow said.
“I know,” Applejack admitted. “But I like the sound of my plan a lot better.”
“I don’t like either plan,” Blake muttered.
“I don’t like it,” Rainbow told her. “But this isn’t Mistral. We don’t always have the option to be honourable. You don’t like it, I don’t like it, I don’t think General Ironwood likes it either. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not the smart thing to do.”
“There was a time you wouldn’t have done the smart thing,” Blake pointed out.
“There was a time I screwed up,” Rainbow replied. “That’s not going to happen this time.” She paused. “But I… maybe we could… Applejack, I’ll think about it.”
Applejack nodded. “Can’t say fairer than that, I guess.”
“How are you going to get the Relic?” Twilight asked. 
“You tell me, Twi, do you have any ideas how we could get into the vault?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, I’m thinking ‘bomb’, but I’m hoping that you’ve got something smarter in mind.”
“No, bomb is one of two options I can think of,” Twilight admitted. “The other is a laser.”
“That one’s probably more subtle than a bomb,” Rainbow said.
“The other option being murder,” Blake said darkly.
Rainbow sighed. “It would make it easier to rescue Yang,” she pointed out.
“We’re still talking about killing someone.”
“A bandit, by the sounds of it,” Applejack said. “I got some problems with this mission, but putting some low-life, no-good, lyin’ and murderin’ outlaw scum ain’t one of ‘em.”
“Bandit,” Blake said. “Not outlaw.”
“There’s a difference?” Applejack asked.
Blake snorted. “Outlaws are good men, forced to go outside the law to fight wickedness,” she explained. “At least, that’s what May told me.”
“Would you be acting like this if you hadn’t just spent the night with the Shadowbolts?” Rainbow asked.
“I might be more easily convinced by you if I hadn’t spent the night with the Shadowbolts,” Blake answered.
“That’s what I said,” Rainbow said. “Come on, it’s been a long night, let’s hit the sack and tomorrow we can talk about who we want to make up the numbers on the mission team.”
Blake inhaled deeply, and exhaled just as long. “That’s probably a good idea,” she admitted. She uncrossed her arms and let them fall to her sides. “Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah?” Rainbow answered, as they all began to make their way towards the elevator.
“Who was that girl, Aska?” Blake asked. “You seemed to know each other.”
Rainbow glanced at Twilight, and at Applejack. “I, uh… well… Aska… it’s a long story,” she said. General Ironwood had introduced Aska only as a huntress, after all; if he didn’t want to disclose who she was to him then it wasn’t Rainbow’s place or Twilight’s place or the place of anyone else, for that matter, to do that instead. “Can we just turn in? It’s been a night, don’t you think?”
Blake hesitated, but nodded in the end. “Sure,” she agreed. “We can pick all of this up in the morning.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said. In the morning. 
When nothing would have changed, Aska would still be here and they would still potentially have to do something downright unpleasant in the service of Atlas. 
But at least it would be brighter in the morning.