SAPR

by Scipio Smith

First Duty (New)

First Duty

Rainbow and Ciel carried Penny out into the street together. It was… not the easiest thing in all of Remnant that she’d ever done. You didn’t realise how much you missed aura until you didn’t have it anymore, until you had to carry a robot who was heavier than she looked down several flights of stairs without it.

Penny’s arms were spread across their shoulders, with each of them having hold of one of her hands, while Penny had obligingly raised the one leg that she had control over so that it didn’t drag along the ground. The other one, limp rather than locked in place, had fallen and did drag along the ground, making scraping noises as they went along.

Since they couldn’t retract Floating Array back into Penny’s backpack, they had resorted to wrapping the wires around her body, trussing Penny up with her own weapon like they were about to dump her body on the railroad tracks in one of those old videos that Applejack didn’t know that Rainbow knew she liked.

They emerged out onto the street to find Ruby, Pyrrha, Jaune, and Professor Goodwitch waiting for them. Of Blake and Sunset, there was no sign.

Of the green grimm, there was, also, no sign; that was a good thing, to Rainbow’s way of thinking. She wasn’t exactly in much state to help in a fight right now, and although Ciel’s aura hadn’t broken, Rainbow guessed that there wasn’t much in it.

“Penny!” Ruby cried, spotting the trio of Atlesians first. She rushed towards, followed quickly by Pyrrha, and then by Jaune and Professor Goodwitch. “Are you okay?”

Incomprehensible nonsense tumbled out of Penny’s mouth.

Pyrrha frowned. “What happened?”

“Electric shock to the system,” Rainbow said. “Half her functions are shot.”

More incomprehensible nonsense fell from Penny’s lips.

“Including her speech centre,” Rainbow added.

“Oh, my,” Pyrrha murmured, aghast. “How? Her aura-”

“The shock travelled down her cable and into Penny’s systems, bypassing her aura,” Ciel explained, her breathing heavy.

Ruby gasped. “Can you fix her?”

Rainbow gave her an incredulous look. Do I look like I know how to fix a robot? Okay, Ciel talks like she might, but how long has Ruby known us? “'Fix her'? Ruby, we need Twilight to even know if Penny can be fixed or if she’s going to need three weeks in the shop and a load of parts stripped out and replaced.”

While it wasn’t Penny’s fault that this had happened to her – it was Rainbow’s fault; she should have… well, she probably should have insisted that Blake come with them so that she could have left Blake outside with Penny and Ciel so that someone could have fended off Lightning Dust at close quarters while Rainbow cleared the room and dealt with Mercury – but it kind of showed her limitations. Rainbow’s aura was done, but she was still on her feet, and even if she’d taken an injury, her aura would work to heal it once it came back, and as long as it wasn’t too serious a wound, she could walk it off until that happened. Penny got hurt, and that was that until the damage could be repaired because her aura couldn’t repair her the way that it could heal flesh and bone.

She was fragile in a way that people weren’t.

To be honest, the more time that Rainbow spent with her… Penny was a good kid, Rainbow liked her, Rainbow wanted to do right by her, but was she the future of warfare? Rainbow had her doubts about that, and not just because of what it took to make her in the first place.

She was coming to wonder, honestly, if Penny’s father had made her more to show that he could rather than because she represented something important that Atlas had to have.

From what she knew of the guy, it wouldn’t surprise her too much.

None of that, obviously, was anything that she would say to Penny out loud. Once she got able to talk again, Penny would probably start beating herself up enough without Rainbow beating on her.

I need to think of something to say to make her feel better once this is over, Rainbow thought. She was lucky that Penny couldn’t talk right now; she could pretend not to understand what Penny was trying to say, when her tone was speaking volumes already, regardless of the lack of words.

Case in point, the mournful sound that came out of her mouth.

“But you can fix her, right?” Ruby asked anxiously. “I mean she’s going to be okay, isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said. “Of course she will. She’ll be fine, up and on her feet again in time for the Vytal Festival.” She grinned. “You’re not getting off that easy.”

“Thank the gods,” Pyrrha murmured.

“The gods have got nothing to do with it; it’ll be her father and Twilight that you have to thank,” Rainbow replied.

“I suppose,” Pyrrha agreed mildly. “And, oh, I’m sorry, how are the both of you?”

“I’ve got no aura left, so Jaune, I’d appreciate it if you could lay your hands on me,” Rainbow said.

“Uh, sure,” Jaune said, taking a step forwards and holding up his hands, hovering over Rainbow’s shoulder as his hands began to glow, spreading their rippling glow like water across Rainbow’s body. It felt like taking a lukewarm and kind of underpowered shower. Rainbow, who liked powerful showers that felt like you were being shot and preferred to crank the volume all the way up or all the way down, depending on the situation, but never in between, didn’t much like it. But she put up with it because she needed it right now.

“What happened to you three in there?” Jaune asked.

“Mercury Black and Lightning Dust happened,” Rainbow growled. “They’re dead now, but they put up a hell of a fight first.”

“You can confirm their deaths?” Professor Goodwitch asked.

“I emptied a mag into Mercury’s gut after his aura broke,” Rainbow said. “And I dropped Lightning Dust all the way from the ceiling.”

“Was her aura broken?” Professor Goodwitch demanded.

Rainbow inhaled through her nostrils. “No.”

“Then it’s possible she may have had a landing strategy,” Professor Goodwitch pointed out.

That was uncomfortably true. “I wanted to end the fight quickly,” Rainbow replied. “She’d already taken out Penny and Ciel, and I… I wasn’t sure I could take her one on one after I’d already been weakened by Mercury.”

“I’m not accusing you of anything, Miss Dash,” Professor Goodwitch said, her tone softening. “I’m sure you made the best tactical situations you could in the moment. I’m merely pointing out the possibility that one of your enemies may have survived. However, given that they have not continued to trouble you, I would hazard that Miss Dust is in no fit state to continue the battle. For now, that is enough.”

Rainbow nodded. “Thanks, Professor.” She glanced at Ruby, and at Pyrrha. “What about you guys? No grimm, does that mean you took it out?”

Ruby nodded. “Me, Sunset, Blake, and Professor Goodwitch managed to deal with it.”

Ruby’s words drew attention to the absence of Blake and Sunset. Rainbow swallowed. “And Blake, Sunset, are they… did they…?” It couldn’t have; one grimm couldn’t take out Blake and Sunset, no matter how big or how weird it was. Not one grimm, not Blake.

Not after everything that we’ve been through. Not after everything that she had left in front of her.

“Miss Shimmer and Miss Belladonna were still alive when last we saw them,” Professor Goodwitch assured her, although the assurance was undercut by the disapproval obvious in her tone.

“It was Adam,” Ruby murmured. “After we were done with the grimm… he showed up. And it was my fault; he got me and-”

“It’s not your fault, Ruby,” Pyrrha insisted, taking Ruby by the shoulder and squeezing it reassuringly. “You were taken by surprise, and-”

“And Sunset wouldn’t have left if it had been you!” Ruby shot back, a pinch of venom in her voice to go along with the hurt.

Pyrrha looked away, her hand falling from Ruby’s shoulder. “Perhaps not,” she admitted softly. “But perhaps she should have.”

“What did Sunset do?” Rainbow demanded.

“Teleported away,” Professor Goodwitch explained. “Her current location is unknown, as is that of Miss Belladonna, who went after her.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened, and for a moment, she wanted nothing more than to tell Jaune to hurry up and restore her aura so that she could go after them. No, scratch that; she wanted to leave right now, no matter whether Jaune was done or not; she’d take however much aura she had now and take the risk. She wanted to spread her wings, take off, and scour the whole city from the air until she found them.

“You are the worst kind of team leader.”

Are you sure about that right now, Sunset?

Nevertheless, as much as she was the biggest hypocrite in Remnant right now, Sunset’s remembered words reminded Rainbow that she couldn’t do that. If she did that, she’d be leaving Ciel and Penny, and it wasn’t even as if SAPR had a leader who could take over right now.

The opposite, in fact; there was only one leader between the two teams until Sunset got back – and she would get back, and so would Blake; Rainbow refused to acknowledge any other possibility – and that was her.

“They’ll be okay,” she said, and hoped it sounded convincing. Adam wasn’t likely to show either of them the same mercy that he had shown to Fluttershy, but all the same… it was Sunset and Blake, and he wasn’t that tough.

She couldn’t worry about Blake or Sunset right now. She could only deal with what was in front of her.

“Pyrrha, Jaune, what happened to you two?” she asked.

Jaune began, “How do you know that-?”

“Ruby said that she, Sunset, Blake, and Professor Goodwitch took out the grimm,” Rainbow explained. “You wouldn’t have sat that out unless you had no other choice.”

“Cinder,” Pyrrha growled.

Rainbow winced. “Yeah. That’d do it.”

“She got away from me,” Pyrrha added bitterly. “I couldn’t beat her.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it; I couldn’t beat her either,” Rainbow replied.

“But-” Pyrrha started to speak.

“You said ‘she got away,’” Rainbow said. “And you’re here, which means she’s the one who ran. I doubt she’ll try again against more of us.”

Pyrrha didn’t look comforted by that, but at least she didn’t argue against it. Rainbow understood why she didn’t look comforted by it: it was never an easy thing, not being able to finish a fight, and it was even harder if the reason you couldn’t finish it was that the other guy was as good as you or better, but all the same, so long as Pyrrha wasn’t arguing, she’d live with that.

Maybe Sunset would have tried to pick up the pieces right there and then, but Rainbow wasn’t Sunset, and she didn’t have the gift for words that would make people feel better just because they left her mouth. She’d take not arguing for now.

“Ciel,” she said. “Can you support Penny by yourself?”

“I believe so, yes,” Ciel replied.

“Thanks,” Rainbow said, releasing Penny and letting Ciel take the strain, which she did with a slight grunt of effort. Rainbow stepped half a pace away, her attention focussed on Professor Goodwitch. “Professor, can I ask you to escort Penny and Ciel back to the Skyray?”

Penny made an outraged but incoherent sound.

“What?” Ciel demanded. “You’re ordering me out? My aura is-“

“Low,” Rainbow said.

“Yours was nonexistent, not so long ago,” Ciel retorted. “Jaune can boost my aura as well as yours, or if he has not the reserves-”

“Are we going to drag Penny into battle with us?” Rainbow demanded. “Someone has to take Penny back to the Skyray, someone has to get on the horn to Team Tsunami and get them down here on the double-”

“'Someone' need not mean me,” Ciel declared.

“It does mean you,” Rainbow said. “Because I am not leaving you down here while I go topside, and I am not leaving Applejack-”

“My sword was broken, fighting Cinder,” Jaune pointed out tremulously. “If Professor Goodwitch is escorting us, then I could-”

“Thank you for the offer, Jaune, but I didn’t call for volunteers, and this matter is not up for discussion,” Rainbow said. You want a team leader, Sunset, I’ll show you a team leader.

“If Jaune has no weapon,” Ciel insisted, “then he is the obvious choice to-”

“Cadet Soleil!” Rainbow snapped. “Ten-hut!”

Ciel’s mouth closed instantly, and she snapped to attention almost as fast, or as close to attention as she could get without dropping Penny. Her blue eyes widened in surprise.

Rainbow clenched her jaw for a moment. Maybe there were arguments against sending Ciel away, maybe she could send Jaune with Penny, but she had almost lost her entire team down here in a situation for which it was clear they were not ideally suited, and she had every right to order Ciel to retire, especially considering her injuries. Plus the fact that, as Penny’s partner, it was arguably her responsibility to shepherd Penny out of the combat zone and see her gotten to Twilight for technical attention. And that was before mentioning the fact that, sword or no sword, Jaune’s greatest asset was his semblance and that ordering him out would be a questionable exercise of her authority in Sunset’s absence.

But ultimately, none of that mattered. Rainbow didn’t have to explain herself to Ciel because she was the leader, and Ciel wasn’t, which meant that Ciel would suck it up, do as she was told, and wait until she got on the command ladder to start doing things her way.

“I am ordering you,” she said, “to take Penny back to the airship and to make contact with Team Tsunami by any means necessary – including retreating from the area – and summoning them to assist us here, as well as bringing Twilight to examine Penny. Once Twilight arrives, you will follow her directives to ensure that Penny is given all necessary assistance as quickly as possible. Do I make myself clear, or do I have to write you up for insubordination and disrespect?”

Ciel glared at her furiously, and the same fury that was evident in her eyes strangled her voice as she said, “I have never disobeyed a direct order. But I would like it noted in the record that I did not approve this course of action.”

Rainbow nodded shortly. “Noted.”

Ciel’s jaw tightened visibly as she saluted with drill-ground precision.

“Professor,” Rainbow said, “since Ciel has her hands full, literally, can I ask you to make sure they reach the Skyray safely?”

“And what do you intend to do in the meantime, Miss Dash?” Professor Goodwitch demanded.

“We’ll continue with the mission plan,” Rainbow said. “Get to the railyard, see what we can see, leaving markers for Blake and Sunset to follow on the assumption that they will come back here once they’re done.” She didn’t question whether they would be done or whether they would be coming back. This wasn’t the moment for it. “The markers will also serve to guide Team Tsunami from the landing site once they arrive. Once we make it to the railyard and see what’s up, we’ll know if we can afford to wait for Team Tsunami to arrive or if we need to move sooner to stop the White Fang or rescue Applejack.”

Rainbow looked away from Ciel and to the professor, who looked thoughtful, as if she were weighing Rainbow’s words up in her head.

“Very well, Miss Dash,” she said. “I will make sure that Miss Soleil and Miss Polendina reach the airship safely, and then I will return. I strongly advise you to do no more than reconnoitre until I get back, unless circumstances make it absolutely vital that you engage immediately.”

“Like I said, Professor, ideally, we’ll wait for you, Sunset, Blake, and Tsunami,” Rainbow replied.

“Indeed,” Professor Goodwitch said. She swept her green-eyed gaze over the three members of Team SAPR who were here right now. Her expression softened. “You three should not be too hard upon yourselves,” she told them. “You have made it this far, which is something that not every team of students, or every grown and graduated huntsman, could have achieved. Do not forget that and do not let the imperfections of this mission drown it out.” She paused. She might have sniffed, or perhaps Rainbow had imagined that. “Take care of yourselves,” she said. “Take care of one another. I expect… I do not expect to see any empty places in my class next year. And you are to tell Miss Shimmer that I said so, too.”

Rainbow noticed that she too refused to admit the possibility that Sunset might not be coming back. That was… well, it made her feel a little better about her refusal to do so either.

“Don’t worry, Professor,” Jaune said. “You’ll see us all again.”

“Indeed, Mister Arc, and sooner than you seem to be implying,” Professor Goodwitch declared.

Penny again tried to speak, to no avail.

Pyrrha smiled at her and placed one hand upon Penny’s cheek, stroking it gently. “Farewell, for now, Penny. I am sorry that we did not get the chance to truly fight alongside one another, but the road is long, and our time will come, I have no doubt. Until then… goodbye, and get well soon, if that has any meaning for you.”

Penny made a low, sad sound.

Ruby leapt forward, wrapping her arms around Penny as best she could, with the way that Penny was being held up by Ciel. “Don’t worry, Penny,” she murmured. “We’ll see each other again, real soon.”

Penny looked as though she wished that she had been created with the ability to cry. She tried to reach around and embrace Ruby, but her arm was damaged, and she could not control it, and it flapped uselessly up and down without getting anywhere near the girl in the red hood.

“Come along now, girls,” Professor Goodwitch said primly. “Let’s get Miss Polendina to safety as quickly as we can.”

“Yes, Professor,” Ciel said quietly. She sighed. “May the Lady watch over you, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow didn’t look at Ciel as they departed, or at least, she didn’t look at Ciel’s face. Only when their backs were to her did she look, and then she watched Ciel and Penny’s retreating backs, heading for safety until they, and the professor, were out of sight.

“It occurs to me,” Pyrrha murmured, “that you could have escorted Penny and Ciel back to the airship yourself.”

“I could,” Rainbow admitted. “If Sunset were here.”

“Would you have?” Pyrrha asked. “If Sunset were here?”

“A huntress’ first responsibility is to preserve life,” Ruby said. “To protect those who can’t protect themselves. Professor Goodwitch is the best person to make sure that Penny makes it back to the Skyray alive. That’s her first duty, not to the rest of us.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow muttered. “That.”

It’s not that I refuse to go home without Applejack or anything.

“Now, I would love to wait for Sunset and Blake to get here, but we can’t wait. Or at least, we can’t wait here. We have to press on, but we’ll mark the trail, and when they are done, Blake and Sunset will come back here, find the marks we’ve left, and follow them right to us.” She paused. “Now, at this point, Sunset would probably give you a speech, because she seems to enjoy that part of being a leader, but I… I don’t have the words. I haven’t read enough books to know how to say this stuff.” Something else I should probably do something about. “So I’ll just say 'be proud of yourself, fight for your pride and for one another, and we’ll get through this together.' Okay.”

She pulled Unfailing Loyalty over her shoulder. “Let’s move.”

Comments

[Voltaje]

So rainbow grew up a bit in here XD.

[Aemon Targaryen]

“And Sunset wouldn’t have left if it had been you!” Ruby shot back, a pinch of venom in her voice to go along with the hurt.

Ruby, you would have done the same as Sunset if your positions were reversed (both as team leader and as someone having been hurt by Adam) and you showed many times than you consider than the way you act must be the normal way for a good Huntress.

Also, Pyrrha is the strongest of the team and have one of the best Semblances to opposate Moonslice as long as adam use his katana.

Are you sure about that right now, Sunset?

Shut up.

Ciel glared at her furiously, and the same fury that was evident in her eyes strangled her voice as she said, “I have never disobeyed a direct order. But I would like it noted in the record that I did not approve this course of action.”

Jaune is the weakest of the group and without a weapon, he would made more sense to get her and others as much in good shape as possible without putting himself in danger and take back Penny to Twilight.

Also i still dislike this hierarchy with Atlas.

Where is Midnight ?

Edit : also, with team Tsunami coming for help, maybe there will not be that much problem and the fight will be far more even.

After all, Gilda and a lot of the White Fang are out, Adam and Mercury are dead and i doubt lighting dust will be able to fight if she had survived, but with team Tsunami as back up and if Pyrrha and Sunset have time to heal and get enough stamina back, they could give Cinder a run for her money at two to one, and with only Emerald as a fighter able to go toe-to-toe with the others or beat them, victory might be obtained.

[Adser]

10980651
Midnight was left behind protecting Fluttershy.

EDIT: About the Ruby thing:
1) She thinks that Huntsmen in general have to sacrifice themselves for the non-combatants that they protect. Doing it for another huntsmen would be pointless.

2) Ruby has a big "left behind" fear, so she is particularly sensitive when Sunset get her out of the fight to protect her.

Also, some chapters before Sunset was bickering with Pyrrha about who takes point, she would totally do the same if it was Pyrrha the one being threatened by Adam.

[Aemon Targaryen]

10980667
I was more talking of the fact than if Ruby thought about it, Pyrrha make far more sense as someone helping to fight, since Pyrrha is both stronger and more suited to fight Adam than Sunset or Ruby, so, wether it is true or not, Ruby point doesn't hold water.

Now, Ruby is a mess, so eh.

[Kiue Jin]

10980651
I will say, Rainbow Dash does make a solid point about Jaune here in that his semblance is his primary benefit to the team; Yes it's sucks that his sword is broken, but he wasn't the strongest of fighters anyway and he has value elsewhere. On top of that, considering that he's part of Sunset's team and not her own, having him leave the field either by order or volunteering to escort another without Sunset's say so is... complicated.

That being said Rainbow was never the most charismatic of people and we're seeing her standard 'Looks like a nail' approach to things. Ciel will remember this.

[Aemon Targaryen]

10980698
Jaune doesn't have infinite aura, better make him give as much as possible to everyone, than he will get out.

Because the ennemy know his abilities, and targeting the healer, especially if the healer ability to help decrease the more he heal or is hurt, would make far too much sense.