To Each A Task (New)
To Each a Task
Sunset swung her legs out over the sky as she and Cinder sat on the docking pad, looking out across Vale as the sun descended towards the horizon.
“How’s Ruby?” Cinder asked.
“Fine,” Sunset said. She hesitated for a moment. “Disappointed in herself.”
“For almost dying?”
“For losing,” Sunset explained. “She ought to have been able to take out a bunch of beowolves without breaking a sweat. Or so she believes, anyway.”
“I’m a little surprised you’re not with her,” Cinder murmured.
“Anything that I said to try and make her feel better would seem like a platitude at this point,” Sunset explained. “I think the only one who can really make her feel better is Blake. That’s what upsets her most: it’s not the fact that she couldn’t win; it’s the fact that she was so helpless that Blake had to save her life.”
“Is it a shameful thing to have your life saved by another?” Cinder asked. “I thought that what teams were all about: rah-rah, teamwork, watching one another’s backs, that sort of thing.”
“Could you sound any less sincere about this?” Sunset asked.
Cinder chuckled. “Sorry,” she murmured. “It’s just that, when it comes to the topic of personal helplessness… I’m afraid that I am inclined to agree with Ruby. She ought to be ashamed of herself.”
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “You won’t repeat that where she can hear you. Or at all, as a matter of fact.”
Cinder stared at her, a slight smirk playing across her face. “Of course not,” she said softly. She bowed her head. “Forgive me.”
Sunset snorted. “We all have bad luck sometimes. There is no disgrace in it.”
“I’m sure that Blake will agree, once she wakes up,” Cinder said airily. “Speaking of which, I’m a little surprised that you’re not with her.”
Sunset pouted. “They wouldn’t let everyone in the room. It’s just Yang and Rainbow Dash.”
Cinder giggled, covering her mouth with one hand. “So, does that make me your third choice of person to spend time with, or your second?”
“I’m here with you because I want to be,” Sunset declared. “And because I want to say thank you.”
“I did very little.”
“You came,” Sunset insisted. “That’s enough.”
“I would have liked the chance to save your life,” Cinder said.
“You saved Twilight.”
“I helped,” Cinder corrected. “Don’t overinflate the record of my accomplishments.”
“You came,” Sunset repeated. “You came to aid us. Only Pyrrha can say the same, in this whole school. Well, you two and Rainbow Dash and… Team Tsunami; by Celestia, I owe my life to the Great and Powerful Trixie. Ugh.” She got to her feet. “I might have to throw myself off this docking platform in sheer embarrassment.”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” Cinder drawled. “The sound of your screaming on the way down would make it very hard to appreciate the view.”
“You think I’d scream as I fell?”
“I think you’d scream the school down, yes,” Cinder said.
“Really?” Sunset asked, and her eyebrows rose as she stepped off the docking platform.
She fell silently, arms spread out, wind pushing at her face and rushing through her hair as she plummeted towards the ground… for all of two seconds before she teleported back onto the docking platform.
“There, you see?” Sunset asked. “Completely silent.”
Cinder glared at her. “Perhaps I should break your aura and then we can try that again.”
Sunset chuckled. “We could, if you like,” she said, with the smug confidence of someone who didn’t use aura to teleport.
“No,” Cinder murmured. “Let’s not; that would be rather tedious.”
“Fine by me,” Sunset said, sitting down again. “I mean, who wants to fight when we have this great view to enjoy, huh?” All of Vale was spread out before them, bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, the high towers casting long shadows over the rest of the city, the myriad panes of glass reflecting the light in vibrant flashes, the lights beginning to blink as the light fell.
It was no Canterlot, and it was not a perfect city, but at the same time… it wasn’t half bad.
“Thank you,” Sunset said again.
Cinder leaned backwards, tucking her hands behind her head. “You can make it up to me some other time.”
“I will,” Sunset said. “You can count on it.”
The golden light of the late afternoon spilled through the window into the room in the hospital wing.
Blake’s room.
She was sleeping still, her long black hair spilling out over the pillow in all directions, framing her face like a halo of darkness. She was covered by a white sheet from the neck down, obscuring the bandages in which they had bound her injuries.
Thanks to Jaune, she wouldn’t have any scars, or at least not any really noticeable ones; not that you could have seen most of her scars anyway, but if you could, they still wouldn’t be very noticeable.
Not that it would have been a big deal if you could see them. All that scars did was show that you were brave.
The exercise had been called off, but although there were a lot of people who would have liked to be here for Blake when she woke up, the size of the room and – more importantly – the attitude of the nurse meant that only a couple of people were allowed to stay with her. Rainbow Dash was one of them, leaning against the wall with her arms folded across her chest, one leg raised and pressed, sole down, upon the wall.
Yang was the other person here; it was weird… well, no it wasn’t; there were perfectly valid reasons why Rainbow Dash didn’t think of Blake’s team leader as being one of the people closest to her, but it said something about the way things had turned out for Blake lately nonetheless.
Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that Rainbow would have listed Sunset above Yang in terms of people close to Blake, Yang had insisted on being here. And, since Rainbow had refused to go, that meant that Sunset would just have to wait for news about Blake like everyone else.
Sun was also not there, by his own choice instead of by the decree of the nurse; he had told them that his place was with Sage, his teammate. Rainbow couldn’t help but think that Blake would be impressed to hear that when she woke up.
Yang was sat in the only chair in the room, by Blake’s bedside, close enough that she could have reached out and touched her if she wanted to. She didn’t, but she could if she chose.
For the moment, she kept her hands to herself, lying in her lap one on top of the other. She just looked at Blake, her purple eyes soft.
She glanced at Rainbow. “You don’t have to stay, you know.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow contradicted, “I do.”
“She’s not your teammate.”
“Not yet, maybe, but she’s still my responsibility.”
“'Not yet'?” Yang repeated. “You’re that confident, huh?”
“It’s nothing personal,” Rainbow said softly.
Yang’s brow furrowed for a moment. “I know,” she said. “You want what’s best for her.”
Rainbow nodded. “That’s right.”
“And you really believe that’s Atlas?” Yang asked. “In spite of…”
“In spite of the racism?” Rainbow suggested.
“You said it, not me,” Yang replied. “I know that it’s Blake’s choice, and I’m not like Sunset looking to stand in her way, but… why? Tell me that, tell me why?”
“Why what? Why Atlas?”
“No,” Yang said. “I can guess why Atlas; it’s because you’re from Atlas, and you think that it’s the greatest place on Remnant, right?”
“Well, yeah,” Rainbow said, “but only because it is.”
“Beacon has Ruby, and Pyrrha, and Sunset; hell, Beacon has me,” Yang declared. “What does Atlas have to compare to that?”
Rainbow thought about that for a moment. “Me,” she said.
Yang smirked. “Who else?”
“Air support, that’s who else.”
Yang snorted. “That was a big help today, wasn’t it?”
“That was Vale’s fault, not ours,” Rainbow replied. “The General would have come in with all guns blazing if your councillor-”
“Don’t call her my councillor; I didn’t vote for her,” Yang said. “A leader should have a strong chin. Her opponent has no chin, and his deputy has several, but I’m still going to vote for them first chance I get; Councillor Aris doesn’t have what it takes.”
“Because she left your sister to die in the forest?” Rainbow asked.
“I mean, that, for sure,” Yang agreed. “But even before that, she might know how to make money, but she doesn’t know how to keep this kingdom safe. She wasn’t able to get a handle on the White Fang, so Ruby and all you guys had to do that; she tried to arrest Blake so that she could get a good headline; I don’t think she’s made a single good call since all of this started. Actually, no, she did send out the huntsmen to protect the villages, I guess. Huh, I wonder if she just got it right for once or if someone pressed her to do the right thing.” She paused. “I don’t get how you can want to be tied down to one place.”
It took Rainbow a moment to work out that they were back to talking about Atlas now. “It depends on the place you’re tied to, I guess. And the people who live there.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Yang murmured. “Easier to travel when you’ve got nobody to tie you down.”
“What about Ruby?”
“If you think Ruby is the settling down type, I’ve got a bridge to sell you,” Yang replied. “I don’t think her feet will let her rest while there are grimm in the world.” Once more, she took pause before she said, “So why Blake? Let’s say that Atlas really is so great and wonderful, why do you want to sweep Blake off her feet and carry her there? Maybe I’m being hard on you, but I don’t think that it’s just for her own good.”
“And what if it was?” Rainbow asked. “What if it’s nothing but the fact that some people gave me a shot at making something of myself, and I’d like to pay that forward by giving Blake a shot?”
“Because the people who gave you a shot didn’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts,” Yang pointed out. “They did it because they wanted something from you.”
Rainbow was silent for a moment. “You make Twi and the General sound like they’re using me.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Yang said quickly. “But you know what I meant, don’t you? It’s like that fancy sword that Sunset came back from Mistral with. Pyrrha’s mom didn’t give it to her because they ran out of the room on the mantelpiece or because she was feeling generous that day. She gave Sunset the sword so that she could get something back from Sunset.”
Rainbow frowned. “Am I the sword here? Is Blake a sword?”
“No, I think your wings are probably the sword,” Yang explained. “You’re still you. But ‘the General’ might be Pyrrha’s mom.”
And what would Aska have to say about that? “Do you believe in fate?” Rainbow asked.
Yang blinked. “You mean like destiny?”
“Sure,” Rainbow replied. “I can’t tell the two of them apart.”
Yang nodded. “No,” she said.
“That was certain.”
“Nobody is pulling my strings,” Yang averred confidently. “The only person who decides where I go or what I do is me. And Dad, sometimes, and the teachers when school’s in session. And when I take missions, then I suppose that… wow, I’m really not free at all, am I?”
“We’re too young for freedom,” Rainbow said. “Don’t let it get to you.”
Yang chuckled. “And what about you? You do believe in fate, don’t you, or you wouldn’t have asked.”
Rainbow reached up and scratched at one of her equine ears. “If I didn’t, I don’t know if I could…” She trailed off.
Yang waited for a moment. “You don’t know if you could what?”
“To each of us falls a task,” Rainbow replied. “It might not be a big thing, it might be one of the smallest things, but we’re still put here to do it. It’s our purpose, our… our gift. Something that only we can do, for Remnant. And it all adds up to something amazing, something huge, all the things that only we can do all piling up on top of one another, it’s a thing as big as Atlas. But of course, for some people, the task that falls to them is already pretty huge, like leading our forces against the darkness all around.
“I’m not saying that I know exactly what Blake’s task is yet, but I think… when I think of the things that she could do, I think of some pretty big stuff.”
“In Atlas?”
“Anywhere,” Rainbow replied. “But yes, in Atlas. Maybe. Hopefully. She’s smarter than I am, she’s a better fighter than I am… she’s more deserving to follow in the General’s footsteps, if that’s what she wants.”
“I’m not sure that’s true,” Blake croaked, her hoarse voice cutting into their conversation like an out of control airship through the front windows of an edgeside cafe. “Apart from anything else, we haven’t actually fought one another, have we?”
Rainbow’s eyes widened. “How long have you been awake listening?”
“I just woke up,” Blake replied, speaking slowly and somewhat drowsily. “I take it I’m not dead.”
Yang laughed. “No,” she said. “No, you’re not dead.” She paused. “Thank you, for protecting Ruby.”
Blake glanced at her, a slight smile crossing her face for a moment. “It was no problem,” she said.
“Your injuries might disagree,” Rainbow said.
Blake groaned. “You know what I mean.”
Rainbow nodded. “You did good today,” she said. “You did real good.”
“I almost died,” Blake pointed.
“Some things are worth dying for,” Rainbow declared. “Our friends most of all.”
“Mhm,” Blake murmured. “What happened, down there in the forest?”
“Something went wrong,” Rainbow replied. “A lot more grimm showed up than expected to.”
“Thanks, I would never have guessed that from the fact that I almost died,” Blake grumbled. “I was asking if we knew why?”
“No,” Yang said.
“And we won’t, probably,” Rainbow said.
Blake was silent for a moment. “Nobody can go in to investigate yet because the grimm concentrations are still too high, and by the time the grimm have dispersed, they will have consumed the lures that were drawing them in, because they devour the works of man as well as humans themselves.”
“Probably,” Rainbow agreed. “So if anyone did interfere in the test, chances are that they’ll just walk away.”
“So the rich and powerful get away with it again,” Lightning Dust muttered. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? Just another day on Remnant.”
“Quite,” Cinder murmured. “As you say, the wealthy and the powerful will continue to escape justice, while those who are charged with the protection of the world turn a blind eye to their evil… or actively enable it.”
Lightning grunted. “Pity you didn’t bring one of those lures back with you.”
Cinder smirked. “Lightning. Lightning. Now why would I want to do that?”
The response to her question was silence.
Team CLEM sat in their dorm room. Mercury was lying on his back, reading some sort of Atlesian comic book. Emerald sat at the foot of Cinder’s bed, looking up at her. Lightning was doing one-armed push-ups, presumably because she could.
Her vanity was rather amusing, in a slightly pathetic way. But ultimately, her vanity was what made her useful.
Lightning completed another push-up. “She nearly got your friend killed; I figured you might want to do something.”
“We have more important things to concern ourselves with than Sunset Shimmer!” Emerald snapped.
“Do not presume to define for me what is and is not of import to me,” Cinder hissed.
Emerald flinched. “I’m sorry, Cinder, but I thought-”
“That was your mistake,” Cinder declared. “Do as you’re told, but leave the thinking to me.” She smirked at Lightning. “Lightning Dust, go and pay Phoebe a visit for me.”
Lightning stopped doing her push-ups. “You want me to kill her?”
“Lightning!” Cinder gasped theatrically. “Are you suggesting that I would have a fellow student murdered?”
Lightning looked her in the eye. “Wouldn’t you?”
Cinder chuckled. “Oh, yes,” she agreed, her voice a feline purr. “If it served my interests. Phoebe’s death does not. Not yet, at least. However, I do want her warned off; she’s been making too much noise, and I want it stopped. So go, and make sure that she understands that from now on, she’s to keep her hands to herself. Off you go.”
“So, Professor Ozpin, can you shed any additional light on what was going on in the Emerald Forest today?”
Ozpin sat back in his chair. “I’m afraid I’ve very little to add, Lisa; as you are no doubt aware, we at Beacon frequently test our students in practical exercises to test their skills in simulations of the situations that they will encounter in the field. That’s what happened today.”
On the other side of the screen, Lisa Lavender looked at him sceptically. “Surely you’re not pretending that it’s normal for the sky to be filled with grimm during one of your school exercises.”
“No,” Ozpin allowed. “But the grimm are not our pets; they are not predictable creatures. Unforeseen circumstances are inevitable in an environment like the Emerald Forest.”
“So what happened?”
“It was always our intent to draw in grimm to oppose our students,” Ozpin said. “In this instance, some more arrived than we had anticipated.”
“Wasn’t that dangerous?”
“Lisa,” Ozpin said, in the voice of an indulgent uncle. “Everything that the students are training to do here is dangerous.”
“Some might question whether that is a good thing,” Lisa said.
“I’m afraid that I have little time for armchair professors,” Ozpin said, his tone hardening. “We are training huntsmen here, and the life of a huntsman is filled with peril. Yes, some of our practical exercises are dangerous. Sometimes, students do not survive. Each death is a tragedy, and one which we try very hard to avoid, but I will not apologise for the curriculum they died in pursuit of. This is a dangerous life; best they learn that here rather than out there.”
“But what about the intervention by the Atlesian fleet?” Lisa asked. “In addition to the nevermores, many observers saw the guns of an Atlesian warship lighting up the sky. Was that a planned part of the exercise?”
“No, I’m afraid I must credit General Ironwood for that display,” Ozpin said. “The good general is a little less tolerant of risks to his students than I am; he felt it necessary to intervene.”
“You mean that in Atlas, they aren’t as willing to tolerate loss of life amongst the student body?”
“In Atlas, they do many things differently,” Ozpin said. “But let me be clear: no lives were lost today; two students were injured, true, but they are both expected to make complete recoveries. They all acquitted themselves very well in a deliberately trying circumstance. I couldn’t be prouder of them. If only one thing that I say to you takes root with people, Lisa, it is this: that Vale is being guarded by some of the bravest young men and women I have ever known, and that is something that should bring everyone great comfort.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Lisa said, and the picture cut out as she started to turn away.
Her voice continued to echo out of James’ scroll as he and Glynda entered from the elevator. “In other news,” Lisa continued, “the First Councillor’s daughter, Skystar Aris, has been seen with-”
James shut off the broadcast and closed his scroll. “I’m less tolerant of risk to my students?”
“Is it not so?” Ozpin asked mildly.
James stared at him. “You think I coddle them, don’t you?”
“I think that they will not always have air support to call on when they are in desperate need, and it is better they learn that sooner rather than late,” Ozpin replied. “They’re not your children, James.”
“They’re as good as,” James replied, walking towards Ozpin’s desk. “Some of them don’t have anybody else.”
“Nevertheless, they will have to-”
“To what?” James asked. “'Grow up'? This from the man who tolerated a food fight in the cafeteria on the grounds that they were still children.”
Ozpin glanced at his redoubtable lieutenant. “Et tu, Glynda?”
Glynda coughed into one hand. “You do have a somewhat inconsistent attitude, Professor,” she murmured.
“Man is an inconsistent creature,” Ozpin replied. “I am allowed to have two thoughts in my head, though they be the most contrary thoughts that ever were thought. On the one hand, I deplore the fact that this error occurred, and our students were forced into this position; on the other hand, I am, as I told Lisa, intensely proud of them. I am even, perversely, glad that it was Team Sapphire that were engaged in this… debacle. They are one step closer to being ready.”
“So you have chosen then,” Glynda said. “Miss Nikos?”
“I said ‘closer’ to being ready, and I said the team,” Ozpin reminded her. “I will not lie; she has always been my first choice-”
“And what happened in the forest hasn’t changed that?” James asked.
“Miss Shimmer remains fundamentally unsuited to become the Fall Maiden,” Ozpin replied. “Not only on account of her temperament and character – although I must say that would be quite enough; she would be as poor a guardian as Raven would have been – but because we do not know what mixing the magic of two worlds will do.”
“What about Miss Belladonna?” James asked.
Ozpin’s eyebrows rose. “You astonish me, James, what about Miss Dash?”
“Rainbow Dash would make a fine guardian for these perilous times,” James said. “But Miss Belladonna-”
“Is too in love with death,” Ozpin interrupted. “That would be bad enough, even were the death she is enchanted with not her own. How is Miss Belladonna, by the way?” he asked Glynda.
“Predicted to make a full recovery,” Glynda said. “If she hadn’t fought as hard as she did, there’s a chance that Ruby might have died before Miss Shimmer could get to her.”
“True, but there is also the report of the incident at Badger’s Drift,” Ozpin replied. “A Maiden cannot throw away her life so recklessly; she must live, for at least a little, but Miss Belladonna seems to have no concern for her own survival whatsoever.”
“Is that why you don’t mind that she might be coming to Atlas?” James asked.
“Could I stop her, if she wished to go?”
“I don’t know,” James said. “You seem to try and keep all the best students for yourself.”
“I would be failing in my duties if I did not,” Ozpin replied. “Nevertheless, regardless of my feelings on Miss Belladonna, I am glad to hear that she will recover. Have you heard from Councillor Aris?”
“Not yet,” James said. “Which surprises me a little.”
“I doubt she wishes to send you home,” Ozpin said. “Perhaps she thinks it better to pretend this never happened rather than bark futilely at you.”
“Maybe,” James muttered. “You understand now, don’t you Oz? Why I came?”
“I thought you came to fight the White Fang, not rescue students from exercises gone wrong,” Glynda said.
“I came because the waters are rising,” James said sharply. “She’s coming for us now.”
“You think this was her work?” Glynda asked.
“You don’t?” James asked.
“Accidents happen,” Glynda replied.
“And the rampage of the White Fang, is that an accident too?” James demanded. “She’s coming for us now.”
“'Coming for us'? No, James, she will not come. She will not come save only to triumph over me when all is won,” Ozpin murmured. “She uses others as her weapons. Weapons which we will confront, as and when they show themselves. Until then… the students have survived a harrowing experience and won another victory. I suggest we take that and be well satisfied with it.”
Phoebe Kommenos stalked through the moonlit streets of Vale, looking for someone to vent her frustrations on.
Of all the rotten luck! They’d survived! Sunset had survived, and all the rest of them as well! Pyrrha had dived off the cliff into the forest after them, and she’d made it out alive as well!
And now everybody was talking about them. The whole school knew that the last exercise had gone horribly, terribly wrong, and yet, those eight students had fought their way out, and weren’t they amazing! Pyrrha Nikos had gone in to rescue her friends, and wasn’t that just what you’d expect from the Champion of Mistral? The Ace of Canterlot had flown her way through nevermore infested skies to extract the students, but what else could you expect from General Ironwood’s star pupil?
It made her sick to her stomach.
She hated them. She hated all of them. Pyrrha, Sunset, Rainbow Dash, the whole damn pack of them.
Why do they keep rising from strength to strength while I languish in the gutter?
Her hands itched. She had restrained herself for long enough. She needed to take her frustrations out on someone. She needed to take the pain that was in her heart and make it visible on someone’s face.
And so, she stalked the alleys in search of a victim.
A garbage can rattled behind her. Phoebe turned around, her chin tilted upwards, her nostrils flaring.
“Who’s there?” she demanded of the darkness.
There was no response.
Phoebe laughed. “Do you think that you can frighten me by hiding and making noises? I am Phoebe Kommenos, warrior of Mistral and student of Atlas Academy; you’d best run along, unless you want me to teach you why you ought to fear my name.”
Still there was no response.
Phoebe snorted in disdain and turned away.
There was a flash of lightning in the corner of her eye. She started to turn back, but her attacker was on her before she ready her weapon.
She was fast and ferocious, a freak of a faunus whose equine tail swished from side to side as her fists pounded Phoebe from all directions. Lightning surged up and down her body, and as she slammed Phoebe up against the wall, that lightning rippled across Phoebe’s skin, ripping at her aura as she screamed in pain.
Phoebe cried out as she was thrown to the ground; she winced as she was kicked in the stomach, then picked up and slammed into the pavement again as she tried to crawl away. She felt another shock of lightning tear over her, the crackling of the lightning countering her cry of pain before she was grabbed by the throat with one hand.
“Please!” Phoebe cried as she looked helplessly into the burning gamboge eyes of the muscular faunus. “Please, don’t kill me!”
The faunus growled. “We know what you did.”
Phoebe’s whole body trembled. “What I did?”
“In the forest,” the faunus said. “The way you sabotaged the test, we know. We have the lures to prove it.”
Phoebe gasped. Dying was bad enough, but disgrace would be even worse. If she got expelled from Atlas, she’d have to limp home and be a laughingstock back home in Mistral. It wasn’t like she had Turnus’ money and name to shield her from the consequences. They’d lord it over her in the arena for the rest of her days, a pathetic failure who couldn’t even graduate from an academy.
“What do you want from me?” she cried. “I have money, I can pay-“
“We don’t want money,” the faunus grunted. “Just leave Team Sapphire alone. No more games, no more messing around. You’re done. Understand?”
“Team Sapphire?” Phoebe murmured. “Did they put you up to this?”
“Understand?!” the faunus yelled, and lightning wreathed her free hand as she raised it to strike.
“Yes!” Phoebe yelped. “Yes, yes, I understand! They… they will get no more trouble from me.”
She hated having to say those words. She hated meaning them. She hated it as she hated them. She would never stop wishing for their deaths. But in the face of this monster, in the face of potential ruin and deaths real and social, she didn’t dare say anything else.
She didn’t dare mean anything else.
She had been defeated.
Just like she always was.
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Thanks for another good chapter, you deserve a good rest after all these releases with both the rewrites and the new chapters.
It is Ozma/Ozpin or Ozpin/Ozpin who talk ? Because this moment made me wonder if the Ozpin who is born with this body (I also wonder if sometimes ozma had been put in a baby, maybe than it was the case for the prince of Vale before the great War) is the one who reprimand Ironwood or the one who had let the teams be childrens.
And the level of sympathy I feel for Phoebe=Zero. Self entitled, racist and is only willing to fight her own 'battles' either when victory is assured or when it's not really a battle at all, such as what happened with that homeless man... and what she was actively looking for in this chapter before other plans got involved.
The fact that she begged for her life is what gets me the most. If you're going to be a monster to others, at least have the decency and strength of will to die without pleading for mercy.
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I've followed what I believe to be the implication from canon, which is that Ozpin has, by this point in his life, completed his merge with the previous personality and therefore there is no longer any distinction to be made.
10785656
His phrasing had confused me
Wow. I guess James knows about Equestria now.
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Was he ever implied to not know in the original? I mean, the portal is in Atlas, telling him what to keep an eye out would be common courtesy.
That's interesting...
Okay, these past few chapters made me very confused about Ozpin. I understand that his age gives him the ability to keep his "poker face" so to speak, but his withdrawal and an almost disregard for his students makes me very uncomfortable. Especially concidering Sunsets whole super-loyal-to-Oz-he's-my-prof-i-owe-him in all the chapters after the fall of Beacon. I mean, the man was willing to just not do anything cus "his hands were tied by the higher-ups"
After how he acted here, i'm inclied to agree with Sunsets views on immortal beings. I mean, Celly wouldn't be so detached from the fates of her subjects. Yes, the studenrs knew that their study would be dangerous, but there is a difference between acounted risks and throwing not even half-baked children into a fight that would be letal for most professional hunters. Even not including ethical implications, thats just not very resorceful, cus these children will be more useful alive and freaking graduated
This one, this pissed me beyond belief. So when Oz messed up but there were no casualties, it's a-okay, no harm done, but when Sunset's failings result in a same death rate of zero, she is still the horrible criminal, destroyer and traitor, who needs to die. And Sunsets actions actually saved like 50 people (including White Fang solders) and she participated in protecting the city, Oz's withdrawal, on the other hand, not only hadn't any benefit on themselves, but also almost resulted in death of an good amount of very promising hunters and Twilight, who wasn't even supposed to be there! OZPIN KNOWS THAT SHE IS NOT A FREAKING HUNTRESS, SHE IS A FREAKING IT-MANAGER OF PENNY
AGH
Sorry, i just recently reread the chapters with Sunset's trial and her accention, so it's a sore topic
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Ozpin options on this case were talked about in Spacebattles and the official explanation is that the cliff is too steep for a ground retrieval, meaning that Ozpin didn't really have any options. As long as the air stayed too full of nevermores to get a ship inside, anyone going down to the forest was just one more pointless death. It does put more weight over Ironwood, since he HAS the means to get them out and the only reasons that hold his hands are the political/tactical implications of telling Novo where to put her orders and moving the fleet anyway.
Of course, that would have brought a lot of additional problems, since Atlas military acting on another kingdom without authorization is the kind of actions that sparks a war.
Twilight situation is also Ironwood responsibility, since he was the one who decided to act as if Twilight was a normal huntress, when she clearly isn't. She is part of the class and will end up being treated as one of the students, ready or not.
Ozpin does seem to be of the "if they die they die" mentality, considering that he let Jaune in when he should have died at initiation if he hadn't been so damn lucky to catch Pyrrha's attention, but it looks like the profession has such an insane death rate that going out of your way to ensure the safety of the students is not really relevant, considering that in canon Lionheart betrayal was only noticed when Crow did a census of Mistral huntsmen and noticed that so many were dead, implying that losing all the huntsmen in an area is so common to be unremarkable, and is only when you pull back to a kingdom level and notice that ALL areas are losing all their huntsmen that it becomes a sign of something going wrong.
Scipio, the fanfiction Friendship Souls had introduce me to Chrysalis childrens (although I guess it's depend of the explanation, either childrens or just ex minions and same people ) Thorax, Pharynx and Ocellus, I didn't read the chapters of the first version beyond Sunset getting her semblance and is purified of Cinder bad ones by the good ones of rwby for the original and the rewrite, so I want to know, are they present in SAPR, and if so, are they Chrysalis childrens in your story ?
scipio im gona hold you to your word about that its ongly gona be a few weeks till next chapter...
otherwise im gona start pining you non stop untill you realese another chapter once a month has gone by
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Thorax and Pharynx are in the story, but as members of the Mistral Chapter of the White Fang, not as Chrysalis' children; Ocellus hasn't appeared yet, but I do plan on including all the Young Six at some point.
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oh, it's sad.
I really liked the idea of them being Chrysalis childrens.
Friendship souls had really made me like the idea, sue me
I really hope than you will changing your mind and making them her childrens, and also being her childrens doesn't opposate being members of the White Fang
Hold on, who the heck is Aska?
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You'll find out eventually.
For the first time I was proud of Lightning Dust for beating Phoebe so satisfying.
Ozpin really seems to be embracing his meme'ier sides...
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She has earned her blaze of glory
Somebody's jealous!~ You could say Emerald is green with envy.
So, the secret of Equestria and its magic is known not only to Ozpin but his inner circle, meaning the entire time Sunset's been fighting in combat class, Glynda is well aware she's using magic and not a semblance like most (rightfully) assume.
Also I find it funny that Ozpin says Raven would be a poor guardian and not made the Fall Maiden, yet Raven ends up with the Spring Maiden powers anyway (At least in RWBY canon, as I don't know if this story will change that or not)