Bargain (Rewritten)
Bargain
"Heck of a thing to wake up to on a Monday morning, huh?" Yang asked as the bullhead carried her, Sunset, Weiss, and Blake away from Beacon and out over the Emerald Forest, the same forest in which they had endured their Initiation just a couple of weeks earlier.
Weiss sniffed. "If you had a late night last night because you didn't expect this, you have no one to blame but yourself."
How were any of us supposed to see this coming? Sunset wondered. She was fairly certain that the answer was ‘they couldn't have, but Weiss was hoping it would make her sound good in front of Professor Goodwitch.'
She did not like this girl.
Sunset had just finished getting dressed when she got a high priority message from Professor Goodwitch telling her that morning classes for the freshmen had been cancelled and to meet her – alone – at the skydock. When Sunset arrived, she had found that all the first-year team leaders were present, along with a pair of Bullheads into which Professor Goodwitch had chivvied them.
Professor Goodwitch was on their Bullhead, but she stood with her back to the four and gave no sign of either wanting to speak to them or of having any desire to stop them talking amongst themselves as they flew away from the school. The green woods lay thick and tangled beneath them, broken up only by the broken stone fragments of ancient ruins which erupted out of the cover of the forest.
"Beacon is known for giving its students a more hands-on experience than the other academies," Blake allowed. "I suppose we should have expected that there would be sudden incidents like this."
"Maybe," Yang said. "Not sure that we could have expected having to do this by ourselves, though. Feels weird. I just got my new team, and I'm already having to do stuff without them. Doesn't it feel like this sort of thing should be covered under Grimm Studies rather than Leadership?"
Yang looked at Professor Goodwitch, as if that had been her cue to say something, possibly to offer an explanation as to what they were doing there. But the professor said nothing.
Sunset looked out of the open door on the side of the Bullhead, brushing her hair out of her face as the wind blew past their airship. She could see a true ship behind them, hovering between their location and the rising spires of Beacon. It was smaller than any of the stately Skyliners that routinely plied their trade across the skies of Vale; it was smaller, too, than an Atlesian man-of-war, although it was also a warship. Sunset guessed it to be a Valish Royal Navy destroyer: it looked like an armoured box, or two flat-topped pyramids placed base to base, with wings jutting out the side that flapped lazily in the air; guns emerged from all eight sloping sides, and a large ram jutted out from the prow.
Blake's eyes followed Sunset's gaze. "That's a Valish destroyer," she said without any doubt in her voice.
"A warship?" Yang asked. "You almost never see those. What's going on?" Once more, she looked to Professor Goodwitch, and once more, Professor Goodwitch did not reply.
She said nothing at all to them until both Bullheads had descended into a forest clearing not too far away from Beacon, a meadow with space for the two airships to land.
Only once all of the team leaders had disembarked and assembled in a line abreast did Professor Goodwitch, striding down the line, explain what they were doing here. "As you should all be aware, study at Beacon Academy involves significantly more fieldwork than is involved in studying at Atlas, Haven, or Shade. For you team leaders, that fieldwork begins now. Early warning systems in the Emerald Forest have detected a horde of grimm moving through the woods towards Vale. It is your job to stop them."
"Um, Professor?" Yang said. "Not to sound like a big old downer or anything, but what if we don't?"
"And is there any reason why this assignment isn't being carried out by actual huntsmen?" Blake added.
"Huntsmen, along with units of the Royal Navy and the Self-Defence Force, are standing by to intercept the grimm beyond the Emerald Forest," Professor Goodwitch explained. "However, as the grimm concentration is at the low end of level one, Professor Ozpin feels that this is a suitable situation to test your skills as huntsmen and as leaders."
Sunset raised her hand. "Professor, wouldn't this be a better test of leadership if we had our teams with us? I'm not sure how us being out here by ourselves teaches leadership."
"I'm not sure how getting into a public fight with one of your team helps you be a better leader, but it seemed to work for you," Yang said, prompting a round of chuckles that deflated a great deal of the tension from the group.
Even Professor Goodwitch smiled, if only very slightly and only for a moment. "As leaders," she explained, "you will inevitably have to deal with unexpected situations. This exercise will test your ability to improvise and adapt without relying upon the established skills and abilities of your teammates." She got out her scroll and tapped a few times upon the screen. All of the team leaders received an alert on their own scrolls. "I've just established a link between your scrolls and the early warning systems; you can now see the location of the grimm concentration relative to your position. At twelve-hundred hours, whatever the condition of the grimm, you will retreat back to this position for extraction. Professor Ozpin and I will monitor your progress and send assistance if we judge you require it. Are there any further questions?"
There was no reply but silence from the team leaders.
"Very well," Professor Goodwitch said. "Good hunting, all of you." She climbed back into one of the Bullheads as the pair of airships took off, rising up into the air above them.
Everyone checked their scrolls for the location of the enemy. The grimm horde was presented on a map of the Emerald Forest as a malign red blob, teardrop shaped and trailing backwards; it was currently to their north, and if the huntsmen did nothing, the grimm would pass to the east of them on their way to Vale.
Nice of you not to drop us directly athwart their path, Professor.
"Okay, let's do this!" one boy shouted, brandishing his staff above his head as he set off towards the grimm with an eager shout. Most of the others, though they were themselves team leaders, followed in his wake.
Sunset did not. She continued to look at her scroll. She felt fairly confident in saying that there was a better approach than charging the grimm head on. She looked at the terrain. The grimm's route would take them across the river; if she got to the crossing before them, then she could hold the bottleneck… and that would be better than nothing, but still less than ideal.
And then it came to her. Yes, that would work.
"Sunset?"
Sunset looked up to see Yang was looking back at her. Yang, Weiss, and Blake were the only other team leaders who had not immediately run off, although Yang looked as though she was about to do so.
"You're not coming?" Yang asked.
Sunset snorted. "If you want to run off with the rest of the idiots, then be my guest."
Yang put her hands on her hips. "'Idiots'? We've been told to fight the grimm, and the grimm are over there. What's the problem?"
"A plan might be nice," Blake murmured, in a tone that suggested she was trying to think of one, "but I take your point that we have to engage the enemy at some point."
"But not head on," Sunset replied. "Am I the only person here who pays attention in Grimm Studies?"
"If you mean 'are you the only one who listens to Professor Port's stories' then probably," Yang admitted.
Sunset rolled her eyes. The defenders of humanity. "Grimm hordes form when a single alpha becomes so strong that it can intimidate other alpha grimm into following it," she explained, summarising one of the salient details from one of Professor Port's stories from last week. "A horde moves with a screen of juvenile, weak grimm in front, followed by older, more powerful grimm behind."
"So that any defences or opposition will be tripped by the expendable juveniles while the older, more experienced grimm can react appropriately," Blake said. She paled a little, which was quite an accomplishment, considering how fair she was already. "So what you're saying is that when the other huntsmen hit the front of the formation-"
"They'll dispatch the weak grimm up front but almost certainly have to fall back in the face of the more dangerous grimm coming up behind," Sunset said. "Grimm we might not be prepared to handle."
"Speak for yourselves," Yang boasted.
Sunset looked at her. "It would not bother me one bit if you went and got yourself ripped to pieces by whatever kind of grimm are waiting out there, except insofar as if you did, then Ruby would probably cry, so if you could listen to me and stay alive for the peace of our dorm room, that would be great."
Yang grinned. "Okay, baconhair, if you've got another idea, let's hear it."
I'm tempted to feed you to the grimm for 'baconhair' alone, Sunset thought. However, she said, "Our mission objective is to stop the horde, not to kill grimm; if we can kill the alpha, then the horde will break up and become just a bunch of grimm in a forest that is already full of them. I'm not certain of our chances of breaking through the front, but at the rear of the horde, where it trails off, that's where the absolute weakest grimm with the lowest bloodlust will be."
"Did Professor Port tell you that as well?" Blake asked.
"Yes," Sunset replied.
"I need to start paying more attention in that class," Yang remarked.
"I have been paying enough attention to know that this is a ridiculous plan," Weiss declared, having been standing aside pretending that she wasn't listening. "How exactly do you plan to kill an Alpha, especially one of such size and experience?"
"I… haven't quite worked that out yet," Sunset admitted.
"But the four of us should be able to figure it out," Yang declared genially. "We'll even have the journey to consider it."
Weiss spluttered. "The four of us?"
"Unless you want to try and catch up with the crowd, ice queen," Yang said.
"Do not call me that," Weiss snapped.
"Do you have a better idea?" Blake inquired gently.
"We find good terrain, inflict as many casualties as we can, and weaken the horde for the huntsmen and the defence forces," Weiss said.
"That's not our mission," Sunset said.
"What if our mission is impossible and this test is to see which of us is smart enough to work that out?" Weiss countered.
"I don't think Beacon would do that," Yang said. "Not with real grimm and real lives at stake."
"I'm willing to give this a try," Blake added. "Are you coming or not?"
Weiss hesitated for a moment, before she huffed irritably. "If I die as a result of this foolishness, I expect all of you to be buried alongside me."
Yang chuckled. "That's the spirit."
"I'll take the lead," Blake said, setting off into the woods along a path that would take them around the edge of the grimm horde. Sunset and the others were left with no choice but to follow her.
Blake moved swiftly, darting on ahead into the woods, moving so quickly and so quietly that none of the other three could keep up with her, disappearing into the trees for a little while before doubling back to wait for the others to catch up. Sometimes, she left the ground and headed into the trees themselves, leaping from branch to branch to branch like a squirrel, but always doubling back again to let Sunset, Yang, and Weiss catch up with her.
She proved to be a swift guide, but a skilled one, navigating a path around the edge of the grimm horde, never bringing them into contact with any grimm, lest they draw the power of the horde down upon themselves. And yet, she also chose an easy path for those less light on their feet than Blake herself to follow, avoiding particularly dense tangles of undergrowth or bogs or rocky outcroppings that might have slowed them down too much.
Yang followed immediately after Blake, leaving Sunset and Weiss to bring up the rear.
Sunset regretted that fact, because it meant that she had to be in close proximity to Weiss Schnee, and Weiss seemed to dislike Sunset as much as Sunset disliked her and for far less cause.
Sunset had every reason to feel the way she did about Weiss Schnee. The Schnee heiress was petty and prissy, and she walked around with her nose in the air like she was better than everyone else.
She acted, in fact, exactly the way that Sunset had used to act when she was Princess Celestia's personal student, beloved of the ruling princess of Equestria, the chosen one. What right did Weiss have to act that way, as though she were some sort of princess herself and not the daughter of a dust salesman with ideas above his station? Sunset should have been the one to act that way. Sunset was the only one who was allowed to act that way. When she acted that way, it had probably been just as annoying to everyone else as Weiss was annoying to Sunset, but that was completely different because Sunset had been the one annoying people instead of being annoyed. Which was, of course, a completely different thing.
And she was so pretty and so rich and what loser guy wasn't going to fall head over heels for her? Flash probably felt exactly the same way about Weiss that Jaune did, and unlike Jaune, Flash actually had a few things to recommend him.
Which meant that Weiss was probably going to steal Sunset's boyfriend at some point in the near future, and there wasn't much that Sunset could do about it except stew and hate.
Yes, Sunset considered, rightly, that she had cause to hate Weiss Schnee. What she wasn't so clear about was what Weiss seemed to have against her, unless it was the fact that Sunset was a faunus.
The rest of her team are a bunch of bigots, after all; what's one more?
"Have you had any thoughts about killing the Alpha yet?" Weiss asked as they followed where Blake led.
"No," Sunset admitted. She had been too busy thinking about Weiss to come up with a plan as yet.
"Really?" Weiss said, feigning surprise. "You don't have any more little tricks that you've been hiding, waiting to show them off at the most opportune moment? Or is the defeat of an alpha grimm and the salvation of Vale not a prestigious enough occasion for Sunset Shimmer to use her full potential?"
"What is your problem?" Sunset demanded.
"My problem? What is your problem?" Weiss demanded.
"Guys, this isn't really the time-" Yang began.
"I don't have a problem!" Sunset declared.
"That's debatable," Yang began, "but maybe we should-"
"Why did you throw that fight?" Weiss snapped.
Sunset made a sound that was halfway between a gasp and a scoff. "Throw the fight?" she repeated. "You think I let you win?"
"Do you expect me to believe that you didn't?" Weiss replied. "I saw the way you fought against Pyrrha, the difference with the way you fought against me… it was nearly incomparable, as if you were a different person!"
"I needed to go all out to have a chance against Pyrrha."
"But not against me?"
"What are you complaining about?" Sunset yelled. "You won!"
"Because you were holding back, which means I won nothing!" Weiss cried. "Do you think that I want people to go easy on me? Do you want a job at the SDC when your four years at Beacon are over?"
"Oh, bite my tail," Sunset snapped. "I don't want anything from you, and I don't need anything from you."
"Then why did you go all out against Pyrrha but not me?" Weiss shouted.
Sunset smirked. "Because I take Pyrrha seriously."
Weiss recoiled as though she'd been slapped. Her face reddened with anger. "How… how dare you? You impertinent-"
"Impertinent!" Sunset repeated.
"-little upstart-"
"Upstart?!"
"-who do you think-"
"SHUT UP!" Yang yelled. "Both of you BE QUIET!" Flames flickered upon her body, dancing upon her shoulders and weaving through her hair as her eyes turned red. "We're on a mission with real lives at stake, and you're bickering like a couple of little brats! And over what, some stupid sparring match? We don't have time for this."
The forest was disturbed by shots, gunshots to the north that scattered the birds of the trees, the sounds of a variety of different weapons, some high-pitched and some low and thudding, echoing in wild fusillades through the trees.
"It's the other team leaders," Blake muttered. "They've engaged the grimm."
"We really don't have time for this," Yang growled. "Let's go!" she cried. "Blake, come on; let's get moving."
Blake picked up the pace so that the others had to run to keep up with her now as she darted ahead of them through the trees, doubling back less often and waiting for less time so that her fellow huntresses had to be faster to keep her in their sights.
Nevertheless, as they ran, Weiss was able to mutter out of the corner of her mouth, "And by the way, what did I do to you that you felt the need to inflict Jaune Arc upon me?"
You became my boyfriend's partner. "Inflict? I didn't inflict Jaune Arc on you; he just likes you." Celestia knows why.
"Well, make him stop; it's annoying," Weiss said.
"So? It's no less than you deserve for inflicting Cardin Winchester on us."
"Cardin doesn't do anything to you," Weiss replied.
"Where you can see," Sunset corrected her.
"What do you expect me to do about things that you can't see?"
"Lay down the law," Sunset suggested. "Be a leader."
"I am a leader, and I don't need to get into public fights with my teammates to prove it," Weiss replied haughtily. "Besides, why should I help you when I'm kept awake all night by Jaune Arc panting and grunting on the rooftop above my dorm room? What is he even doing up there?"
I have no idea. "Nothing that need concern you," Sunset lied magisterially.
Weiss sniffed. "Then Cardin is doing nothing that need concern you, whether I can see him or not."
Meanwhile, the shooting that they had heard reached a crescendo, even as its direction relative to the four huntresses changed, until, as the sounds of fighting were at their height, they were to the south of Sunset and the others. Checking her scroll, Sunset could see that for a brief moment, the bulbous crescent that marked the forefront of the horde flattened out as the grimm encountered resistance… but then the creatures of grimm began to surge forward once again, and the sounds of gunshots from the south began to grow weaker and less frequent.
"Fighting retreat," Yang said, sounding as much hopeful as she did certain. "They're falling back; it doesn't mean they're… it doesn't mean we left them to…"
"Our presence wouldn't have made much difference," Weiss declared. "We can do as much good for them by following the plan as we could by standing with them."
"I hope so," Yang muttered.
Blake also looked unconvinced, but she continued to lead the way nevertheless until she had brought them around the flank of the grimm horde and up behind it, to the rear where only those grimm who were the weakest, the wounded, and the least eager for battle, trailed off in a gradually diminishing trickle behind the main body. The grimm were smarter than anybody would have liked in some respects – like sending in cannon fodder to feel out the enemy ahead of the main force – but they were not smart enough to know to round up stragglers. Their rear was made up of one-armed beowolves and boarbatusks with cracked face masks and ursai with both forepaws missing stumping along on their hind legs. They followed at the rear of the horde, and no doubt if the grimm came across a village or if Vale had possessed no defences to keep them out, then these grimm would join in the slaughter with gleeful abandon, hunting down children and civilians with no aura to protect them. When there was the threat of fighting, however, they kept well to the back. They were cowards, in other words.
Still, having found them, it meant that they didn't need to look at the data from the early warning systems any more to track the rest of the grimm, who had left not only a tail of lesser grimm to follow but also carved a swathe through the forest as they smashed down trees and trampled undergrowth with gleeful abandon. Sunset and the others avoided engaging the weakest grimm but followed parallel to them as they reached the main body of the horde.
Those poor saps who had rushed off to take the grimm head on had done one thing to benefit Sunset and the others: they had drawn a great number of the grimm forward to engage or pursue them. This meant that the Alpha of Alphas, the commander who led them, who would at one time have stood in the very centre of the horde, surrounded by all the grimm under his command, was now closer to the rear, with only his weakest and most pathetic grimm behind him.
Mind you, it still looked like a lot of grimm. It might only have been a level one concentration - and on the low end of level one at that - but it still looked like a lot of grimm to Sunset. They were mostly beowolves, but ursai rose up amongst them like towers rising above the walls, looming over the smaller grimm that surrounded them. Boarbatusks ranged upon the flanks, while creeps growled as they waddled forwards. They were all headed forwards faster than their commander, leaving him behind. Sunset would have liked to have said 'leaving him vulnerable' but she couldn't quite bring herself to think it.
The leader of the horde, the commander of grimm, the alpha of alphas, was the largest beowolf that she had ever seen, as tall as the trees, with spines of bone each as large as a juvenile beowolf emerging out of his head and neck like the crest of a bony helmet. His black body was encrusted with plates of bleached bone like a suit of armour, and he was surrounded by bodyguards, each of them large enough to be an alpha in their own right. As Sunset and the others watched, crouched behind a fallen log, the commander reached into the midst of the horde, grabbed a creep out of the press and watched it squirm helplessly before he bit off its head and threw the rest aside.
"So, Sunset," Yang said, "do you have a plan, yet?"
Sunset was starting to wonder if even this much of the plan had been a stupid idea. Perhaps she ought to have contented herself with thinning out the numbers of the grimm a little bit. "No," she admitted.
"I… might know what to do," Weiss said, her voice diffident. "I've trained against large and armoured opponents. But… I'll need help to get past the bodyguards."
"I'll do it," Blake said. "In terms of raw strength, I'm the weakest of the four of us, but if I can lure at least some of the commander's bodyguards away, then the three of you will have an easier time taking care of him."
"Maybe, but what are you going to do about all those grimm once they're on your tail?" Yang asked.
"Try and lose them, then meet the rest of you back at the extraction point," Blake replied.
"But if you don't lose them, it's suicide," Yang pointed out.
"It's what I signed up for either way," Blake said. She looked at Weiss. "Can you kill that thing?"
Weiss gave a jerky nod of her head.
"Then it doesn't matter what happens to me," Blake declared. She crept away from the other three huntresses, putting some distance between them before she emerged, sword in one hand and cleaver in the other, into the light of the clearing that the grimm had made.
She advanced, a swagger in her step as she walked with one foot directly in front of the other like a catwalk model. Blake held her blades low on either side of her as she strode across the trampled ground towards the weak and feeble grimm that lagged behind the rest. A beowolf, one foreleg missing, spotted her, turning its head to cry out in alarm. Blake swept her katana up in front of her face, kissing the hilt of the black blade as she continued to walk forwards.
As some of the stronger grimm further forwards turned towards her, Blake broke into a run. Her arms pounded up and down, sword and cleaver in hand, as she charged towards the injured beowolf that had first spotted her, dodging its feeble attempt to swat her before she cut off its head. Blake changed direction, heaving south towards the commander and his guards, leaping up into the air to decapitate a forepaw-less ursa as she went. The injured and pathetic grimm scattered before her, but Blake killed three more as she charged before cutting down two mature and healthy beowolves who sought to stay her.
Blake's katana transformed fluidly into a pistol as, with her cleaver, she sliced another beowolf clean in half at the waist. She leapt into the air, shooting, her pistol flashing as her shots struck home against the armoured carapace of the commander of the grimm.
The great grimm roared, angered even though he was not hurt, and gestured with one massive paw at the impudent huntress who had dared assail him. For a moment, Blake stood as a half-dozen or more of the commander's bodyguards, more than half of them, broke from their protective huddle around their leader to charge upon all fours at Blake Belladonna.
Blake turned and ran, the beowolves in hot pursuit. She leapt over a fallen log as she broke eastwards. She tripped and fell forwards, sprawling out upon the ground. The mighty beowolves howled in triumph as they leapt upon her… but the Blake they leapt upon disappeared in a puff of black smoke as the real Blake was revealed some distance away, still running.
And the grimm continued to pursue, smaller grimm joining the larger bodyguards, until the commander had not only been stripped of half his guards but of his other grimm as well.
"Good luck, Blake," Yang whispered. She looked at Sunset. "Looks like it's up to us now."
Sunset nodded, silent as she leapt over the log that they were using as cover and showed herself to the grimm. Sadly, she feared that she didn’t look quite as cool doing it as Blake had just a few moments earlier, but she did manage to take out a boarbatusk with a magical blast from the palm of her hand, which was pretty cool, right?
The remaining bodyguards of the grimm commander began to turn their attention towards her. Sunset’s hands were surrounded by a green magical aura as a score of magical spears, the spears that she had used to wow the crowd during her duel with Pyrrha on Sunday, appeared around her.
Sunset gritted her teeth as the spears flew past her head, zooming forwards to strike the great and armoured beowolves who clustered about their fell captain. Some of them struck the beowolves. Some of them struck the ground around the beowolves and kicked up clouds of dust and dirt into the air. That dust and dirt obscured the beowolf guards for a moment before, roaring in anger, they charged out of the dust cloud with claws out and fangs bared.
Yang rushed to meet them. Her hair was on fire, her body was on fire, Yang was covered by flames, but the flames did not consume her as, with a great shout, she closed the distance between herself and the beowolves. The grimm commander was roaring and growling, probably ordering his grimm to kill the huntresses.
They tried, at least at first, but whatever their limitations against the great beowolves, Sunset’s magic and Yang’s power were able to make short work of any lesser creature who ventured too close. It was the guards they had to worry about, the ones so big and so tough they could have been alphas themselves. Sunset’s magic could make them growl, but it couldn’t kill them; Yang’s punches could knock them backwards but not reduce them to ashes. Yang was a burning dwarf surrounded by giants as she danced amongst the looming, larger beowolves, leaping away from the swipes of their paws, doing backflips as she went, before leaping back to deliver a flurry of punches to the chest.
A beowolf swung its paw at her. Yang counterpunched, catching the blow with her fist, but such was the strength of the grimm that Yang was soon using – forced to use – both her arms to brace herself against the grimm as it pressed down on her. A second beowolf lumbered forward to attack her from behind until a blast of magic from Sunset’s palm sent it flying.
Weiss sped forward, a silver streak, gliding on glyphs. She slid past the beowolf guards, preoccupied as they were with Yang and Sunset, and darted through the midst of the grimm, killing a few as she went but never stopping to do so. She was focussed on their objective, the giant grimm who led the horde, the one who directed them, the one whose death would, hopefully, reduce these grimm to squabbling monsters bereft of purpose.
He was without his guards, and his army was engaged to the front. All that was left was him.
Only the biggest beowolf Sunset had ever seen.
She had little enough attention to spare for Weiss’ fight with the grimm commander. She was a little preoccupied trying to avoid being eaten by the guards or anyone else, but out of the corners of her eyes, she could see flashes of white and silver in the air, little blasts of fire and ice, she could hear the great grimm howl as Weiss hit it from all sides.
Sunset fended off a beowolf with a couple of magical blasts. They seemed to be doing okay. Nobody had died yet, and-
Weiss cried out as the great beowolf caught her with one enormous paw, slamming her into the ground with crater-inducing force. He kept her pinned there as the commander bent down, his fangs larger than Weiss’ head as he snarled into her face.
There was a flash of cobalt blue before the alpha of alphas was flung upwards into the air with a startled howl, arms and legs flailing.
“Yang! Sunset!” Weiss cried, as she too ascended, leaping from white glyph to white glyph as she climbed a stairway constantly in conjuration. She got above the grimm commander, and just as she had with Sunset, she descended on him from above.
Yang was hurled upwards by another glyph of cobalt blue, and as Weiss shot down, Yang shot up, striking the grimm in the small of the back with both her fists.
Just as Sunset hit it with the strongest magical blast she could muster.
The grimm commander cried out as he was consumed in light… and then turned to a cloud of ashes, drifting away in the morning air.
Sunset panted with effort as Yang and Weiss landed on the ground… still right in the middle of the horde.
We didn’t really think this part through, did we? Sunset thought, as all around the grimm began to howl in outrage.
A beowolf was flung backwards by an invisible hand even before the whine of Bullhead engines presaged the airship’s descent. Professor Goodwitch stood in the doorway, and with a swish of her riding crop, she sent another pair of beowolves flying. “All of you, get in!” she snapped.
They scrambled for the airship, which began to rise again as soon as the three of them were safely aboard, rising beyond the range of the grimm and their pursuit, leaving them to do nothing but shake their claws in impotent fury and howl at their escaping quarry.
As the young huntresses watched from the central compartment, the grimm had already started fighting amongst themselves.
“We did it,” Sunset muttered. “We did it. We broke the horde.”
“And would have lost your lives in the process if I hadn’t been on my way to assist you already,” Professor Goodwitch declared.
“We’re very grateful, Professor,” Weiss assured her.
“We prefer our students to live to see graduation,” Professor Goodwitch informed them all. She paused for a moment. “That said, your plan was… conceptually sound, and undeniably bravely executed.”
“Blake,” Yang asked. “What about Blake, Professor?”
Professor Goodwitch’s expression became pinched with pain, and she did not reply.
Yang scowled. “God, no.”
The Bullhead carried them back to the extraction point, where there was little to do but wait for the others to show up.
Nothing to do but sit in the Bullhead while a deathly silence prevailed amongst them.
Sunset sat with her legs dangling out of the airship, watching and waiting. She didn’t move when Weiss came and sat down beside her.
“The fact that Blake… didn’t mean it was a bad plan,” Weiss said.
“Hmm,” Sunset said, because she didn’t need validation from Weiss Schnee of all people.
“And it seems that we completed our objective,” Weiss continued. “The grimm horde is beginning to disperse throughout the forest.”
“Why are you trying to make me feel better?” Sunset asked calmly.
“Who says that it’s you I’m trying to convince?” Weiss asked. “Perhaps I just don’t want to think it was for nothing.”
Sunset didn’t reply. Ruby would have said that it wasn’t for nothing because they saved the city. That sort of thing was harder for Sunset to accept.
It’s not like I knew her.
But she was under my leadership nonetheless.
Dear Princess Celestia, I got someone killed today.
Gradually, the other team leaders staggered out of the forest and into the clearing where the Bullheads awaited them. Some of them were angry at the absence of Sunset, Yang, and Weiss, but Professor Goodwitch appeared to explain everything to them, quietly, because they soon stopped complaining. By five minutes to twelve, everyone had returned to the rendezvous point… except Blake.
“We should go and look for her,” Yang said.
“That would not be wise, Miss Xiao Long,” Professor Goodwitch said.
“We can’t just leave her out there!” Yang demanded.
“Search and rescue will be carried out by-”
Professor Goodwitch was interrupted by none other than Blake Belladonna, looking very frazzled and close to exhaustion, who staggered out of the woods and dropped to her knees. A sigh escaped her. “Hey guys,” she murmured.
Yang let out a loud and joyous whoop as she rushed over to Blake, scooping the smaller girl up in her arms and carrying her back to the Bullhead. Professor Goodwitch had a smile on her face which she did not bother to disguise.
“Ten out of ten for valour, the four of you,” she said, as she walked back to the airship. “Five out of ten for sense, and that is me being generous.”
As the airships took off, Weiss sat down beside Sunset. “You had no idea how to get out of there, did you?” she asked.
“I knew that Professor Goodwitch would arrive to rescue us,” Sunset replied.
Weiss snorted. “Of course you did.” She was silent for a moment. “Regardless of what you may think of me, I’m not just some dilettante waiting until I can get a job at my father’s company. I aim to be a huntress, and a good one too. So take me seriously in the future.”
“Fine,” Sunset said. “Next time, I’ll kick your ass in the sparring ring.”
Weiss’ eyebrows rose a little at that. “Hmph,” she said. “I suppose that I could talk to Cardin and impress upon him that his behaviour reflects upon the whole team, whether the team is present or not.”
“You should.”
“And I will,” Weiss agreed. “Provided that you talk to Jaune Arc and impress upon him that my ceiling is not an appropriate place for his… obscene behaviour.”
Sunset looked at her. “‘Obscene behaviour'?”
“He’s grunting and panting all night,” Weiss reminded her. “Russell finds it very amusing in a distinctly masculine way.”
Sunset winced. “I… fine, you talk to Cardin, I’ll talk to Jaune. Is it a deal?” she held out her hand.
Weiss stared at Sunset’s hand as though it was dirty. Well, it probably was dirty, but that wasn’t why Weiss was staring at it.
Sunset’s ears flattened downwards a little.
But then Weiss reached out, and took Sunset’s hand.
“Deal.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.198 seconds
Total duration
1,086 users online
2,109,822 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
9190855
Hmm... Well it's your story so you decide what to use and how =P I just feel that having Ruby ''not know who Yang's mom is'' kinda just opens up for a LOT of family drama o.o And I REALLY can't see Taiyang being the type of father to completely avoid telling Ruby about Raven at all <.<;; I mean.... They were team Stark after all.... Taiyang not talking about her... and Qrow NEVER mentioning her? that's just a bit strange in my eyes XD
Anyways... As I said it's your story and I'll read it all the same =P I was just curious about it is all....
Kinda also really looking forward to what you'll do with Torchwick and Neopolitan XD Best duo deserves some limelight =P
side note: Yang calling Raven mom in season 5 felt pretty normal to me o.o I mean yes she considers Summer to be the one that raised her and took care of her and was her ''Super-mom'' ... But that still doesn't change that Raven is her mother... She's not using the word with affection at all... She's simple constantly stabbing Raven with the fact of who she is and what she did to Yang...
Will the other members of team sapr also write in the journal or only sunset.
Okay to interesting things in this chapter Weis doesn't seem to want to admit that she is a racist and sunset has never heard of tact I'm not saying since it was wrong here I'm saying she really could have handled it better I wonder when sunset will start warming up to the rest my guess is around the end of volume 1 she'll finally start to see them as friends or at least genuine allies that she can trust not to stab her in the back
dang it ruby/Pyrrha, you just had to try to encourage his creepy behavior. honestly I wonder just how badly this will blow up into their faces.
any way like the chapter, great set up for what ever comes next. though I do hope that we will get an answer for why Jaune is just so hung up on Wiess. I mean I know the whole confidence thing but why Wiess in perticular, and just what is he reading into her flat rejections that keeps him coming back.
One day Sunset will realize she's doing herself no favors by letting Jaune self-destruct like this... Because I'm a sucker for flawed but ambitious characters I hope that's sooner rather than later. Although, maybe Jaune will be the one to learn from this particular experience. It kinda seems like the sort of humiliation after which one would sit down and make a reassessment of one's priorities.
Interesting chapter. So Jaune's affection with Weiss is going to take a different direction this time. He's sulking now and I suspect he'll try to back off per Sunset's orders, but Jaune is a persistent determined guy. I think he's not going to let this go without some big gesture which is going to likely humiliate and anger Sunset something fierce.
Weiss having a genuine fear of the White Fang is something that in hindsight seems obvious but was never really openly talked about in the canon RWBY. She's not really a racist (at least not in the hateful 'put them in their place' kind. She definitely has that rich snob mentality of 'I'm better then you because I'm rich not because your a different species') but she definitely mistrusts them deeply, and without having a Faunus team member like in canon, that fear isn't going to go away as quickly, if at all.
The relationship between Sunset and Flash still seems to be secret. I'm wondering what will happen when that little nugget of information comes to light. especially since Cardin and Russell don't seem to have taken Weiss' warning to leave team Sapphire alone all that seriously.
Sunset said Celestia's name out loud. Odds are it wasn't caught by anyone, but who knows: the way it was used, it could sound like a goddess, but there's likely not a goddess or god named 'Celestia'. if there is, I wonder if it would show up on a search on whatever Remnant has as an internet service.
Of course since Canterlot High (of a sort) exists in this version of Remnant as an Atlas school, and has a Principal (or likely Headmistress) Celestia, the question could become, why was her name used in a way a god's would be used in a conversation?
9191416
I think she mentioned it near the end of the first season that White Fang had attacked SDC employees, but that whole arc was wrapped up quickly once they found Blake and fought Torchwick. After that she and Blake were on good terms and she didn’t act like the White Fang were representative of the Faunus as a whole.
9191754
I remember that. It was the end of Volume 2, and then Volume 3 was done by Kerry and Miles after Monty's passing, so the tone completely shifted.
You've really shown off how the members of RWBY may be different due to the development their not receiving by being on the same team. When I first read who was on Weiss's team, I was concerned that the presence of an open racist with Cardin might cause her to shift towards open racism herself. Wether if it's too early to tell or not to see if she'll become one right now she seems to have enough morals to resist becoming one. Not only that, without Ruby, Weiss is most likely not going to be able to remove the stick that's up her ass to relax. You've done a good job showing what's going on in her mind.
Now we're left to wonder how the other girls will react to not being on the same team. So far the only thing that I can think of is Blake may burn herself out searching for the White Fang without Yang's story to help ground her. And the fact that since she was placed as a team captain she might not open herself up as much due to that responsibility and without Ruby being there to help bring down some of her walls. Yang's and Ruby's character development occur due to major plot event, so with the inclusion of Sunset into those events it's highly likely that those events will change causing those events to affect them differently. Can't wait to see how you approach things on that front.
Also, damn Weiss was scary being able to read Sunset like an open book.
I don't know wether to chalk that up to her analytical skills or Sunset not being portrayed as a smooth manipulator as other stories do.
9191774
S1E15 Weiss and Blake blow up at each other and Blake runs off, then they make up in the next episode after Blake and Sun battle Torchwick. They spend most of Season 2 investigating Torchwick when they’re not having epic food fights or school dances.
9192297
Man I really need to rewatch these. I remember the scene but I thought it was season 2 not the end of 1. I miss the stuff with Torchwick and Neo. Did we ever get a confirmation of Neo's status after season 3?
9192317
Nope, she hasn’t showed up since. I know what you mean, they were my favorite villains by far though Hazel and Watts aren’t bad. I kinda wish they’d bring them back but having Torchwick somehow survive being eaten would be a biiiig stretch and he doesn’t really fit with the more serious tone of seasons 4 and 5.
And for our next story arc we move on to Weiss and you actually did a good job expressing how racist attitudes develop in good people.
It's one thing to be racists because you don't know better, it' another to be racist because you're the victim. Still wrong, but understandable.
Sunse5's
One thing that I really appreciate with this story, by the way, is how you handle racism. Sure, some racists are the Cardin type, but most are ordinary decent people who have learned the behavior from parents, peers, or negative experiences. If it's one thing that men like Daryl Davis (the black man who befriends KKK men) have taught us, it's to see the humanity underneath the inhumanity, because that's the best way to change things. I truly enjoy that you take such pains to show the complexity of it and humanize even those who are bigoted.
Weiss smiled at thought of her bug sister
to be trying to pay the groundwork with
Sunse5's insincere smile turned into something
1. Big.
2. Pave.
3. Sunset's.
"Sunse5's"
I believe you misplaced a 't' darling.
You are nailing how the different teams effect their day to day life. I’ll say that much. No Penny yet?
9718417
Penny doesn't appear until the chapter 'New Friends, Old Rivals' which is 11 chapters from where you are now.
Oh Sunset.
On a more serious note, a very solid setup for future interactions with Sunset and SAPR. Setting up dominoes to be knocked over, but done well enough that even a less eventful chapter still feels filling, particularly with the 'characters of the arc,' so to speak.
Oh... and Weiss.
Typo located.
Comments on Rewritten:
This chapter is so different than the previous one that you might as well have made this a new chapter before Bargain.
Also I don't know what you didn't like about the first draft around. Given both of their personalities it makes sense for them to be upfront with each other and not dance around the issue and make a deal. It also gave us a good outside looking in perspective on Sunset through Weiss's observations of her.
All around though the new content in this chapter was pretty good. Putting a bunch of leaders together was bound to cause some clashes in personality and it showed with Weiss and Sunset. Blake had to constantly double back to make sure she didn't leave everyone in the dust, but adapted that to a good scouting role. Lastly Yang was able to bring everyone together in her usual big sister way.
Situations like these make me wonder how the examiners think things are going to go down. The three strongest leaders of the first years just barely had enough brute force to take out the super alpha so did the examiners think more people would go surgically strike against it. Goodwitch gave them a generous 5/10 when it came to sense so maybe they did expect more people to have payed attention in class. Maybe Weiss was right and they were fully planning on using the more experienced huntsmen and the destroyer to take out that monstrosity.
10368938
Mostly, it's the way that all the guys are written like a bunch of horndog bros. Also, Weiss comes off as far too racist in her thoughts on Sunset and her powers.
10369041
Well Cardin does have a confirmed girlfriend now means that that would have to change, however I disagree with Weiss being too racist. This Weiss not only doesn't have Blake to give her perspective, she also is rooming with people who are racist. Cardin and Russel are two people who are also racist and so it would normalize things, but so far everyone thinks that Flash dumped Sunset because she was a Faunus, including Weiss. All that combined with the White Fang attacking her family in the past would make someone be bigoted. And even in the base story she was obviously less bigoted than some of the more outspoken racists. 9191416 did a good job of surmising this. That combined with the character growth she receives from interacting with Sunset and eventually Blake during the first vacation gave Weiss a good character arc in this story.
10369132
The problem is that later on in the story (in bits that were written after the original chapter here) it's revealed that Weiss's nanny, the woman who raised her, was a faunus. It's a little hard to justify her being super racist against faunus when at the back of her mind there's a little voice screaming, "Mama's gone! They took Mama away because of her race, but Mama's innocent! Give me Mama back!" She still would hate and fear the White Fang, but that nagging point in her subconscious about how one of the vanishingly bright spots in her childhood being a faunus is going to make her a lot less amicable to the idea of painting all faunus with the same broad brush even if she consciously is never aware of that voice. (And she probably is aware of it consciously to a certain extent.)
Interestingly enough I never saw Blake participate in the fight. I would have almost thought that she run away.
10503526
She didn't just run away, she lured away some of the grimm so the others would have an easier time of it.
You know, I wasn’t giving Weiss enough credit for half this chapter, what Sunset did would’ve probably genuinely upset me too.