First Response (New)
First Response
Professor Port’s voice was booming, echoing, descending upon Pyrrha’s ears from all sides, louder even than the cheering of the crowds that descended upon her like waves about to flood the colosseum.
“And there we have it! After that final match, the champion of the fortieth Vytal Festival tournament is … Pyrrha Nikos!”
Pyrrha couldn’t see who she had beaten in this final match; an indistinct shape lay at her feet, faceless, lacking in details … although she thought that they were too short to be Rainbow Dash, they were more the size of Arslan, or perhaps Yang.
But it was hard to tell; they were little more than a shadow on the ground.
It was the same with the crowd too, the crowd that cheered her on, that cried out her name over and over, that shouted until their throats must have been hoarse; they filled up the arena, they made so much noise that it was as if the whole of Remnant had to come to this place to witness and acclaim her glory and yet … and yet, she could hardly see them. They were so indistinct; she knew that they were there, and yet, they were nothing but a blur in her eyes.
The world was bright, the sun shone full down upon her through the gap in the centre of the arena, and yet, she could hardly see anything. All things past the floor on which she stood, the floating platform raised up out of the arena floor, all else was vague and insubstantial to her.
Yet, Pyrrha stood in the centre of the Amity Colosseum, arms raised up in triumph, bearing her arms that they might catch the sunlight and gleam golden, letting the acclaim fall upon her like rain, so that even as the floor descended down, she was raised to the skies by the cheering of the crowd.
She was the Vytal champion, she was the victor, she was acclaimed.
She was alone.
Pyrrha was alone; she stood alone, and she could not see anyone who might alleviate that loneliness. Even as the surface upon which she stood descended back down onto the ground, no one came to join her; Jaune did not emerge out of the tunnels to run to her side and take her in his arms, Ruby did not offer her congratulations, and Sunset … Sunset would not come, of course, not now. No sign of Penny, either.
She was alone; even her opponent, whoever they might be, had vanished. Pyrrha had taken her eye off them for a moment, raising her head to soak up the cheering of the crowd, and they had disappeared.
And everything was growing darker. She could still hear perfectly well, the cheering went on as lustily as ever, but she could see even less than before, even the sun…
The sun was being blocked by the autumn leaves that were falling from … somewhere. Pyrrha knew not whence they came, but they deluged her just as much as the cheering did, falling out of the sky as though some airship hovering overhead had brought a shipload of maple leaves, rich and golden and perfect, and now released them to fall down through the hole in the roof to fall slowly down towards the surface, surrounding Pyrrha. None landed on her, none touched her skin, none got caught in her long ponytail, but they fell down all around her in a shower of gold and red, forming a thick carpet all around so that the grey surface on which she had fought this battle disappeared completely.
The cheering went on, and on, and on.
Pyrrha turned around, and a gasp escaped her lips because in place of the exit, the tunnel leading out from the battlefield, instead, there stood before her a set of stone steps leading upwards, like the steps leading up to the Temple of Victory in Mistral.
Pyrrha’s feet bore her towards those steps almost without thought; she could do nothing else, go nowhere else; she was compelled there, drawn by a power greater than her will. Her high-heeled boots stepped lightly over the autumn leaves, crunching them underfoot as she reached the steps and, the cheering of the crowd still ringing in her ears, began to climb.
There was something at the top of the steps, something that became visible even as the rest of the world darkened around her: an altar, and standing above the altar as the statue of Victory loomed in the temple, was a statue of Fall.
She looked exactly as she had done in the illustrations of the book of fairy tales which her mother had read to her when Pyrrha was young and there had been less formality and sometime awkwardness between them, before Pyrrha had become such an obvious prodigy, when there had been more time for them to simply be mother and daughter.
This statue had the same hair, cut short into a bob, with straight cut bangs, as the illustration in the book; she wore the same blouse with the sleeves rolled up above her elbow, the same scarf tied around her neck, the same long skirt; she was Fall.
She was the Fall Maiden.
The crowd cheered on as Pyrrha climbed the steps. They cheered for all that Pyrrha could not see them.
All she could see now was the statue looming over her and the altar of pure white marble.
The altar on which had been laid all her victories, all the spoils that she had dedicated in the Temple of Victory, the laurels of her tournament victories … there was the golden horse that she had had commissioned after Team SAPR’s defeat of the Karkadann, the golden horse with sapphire eyes and onyx hooves and fiery hair and tail like Sunset had.
Pyrrha’s circlet was in her hands. She didn’t remember taking it off, but there it was nevertheless, in her palms, the gold bright against the brown of her gloves, and she slowly laid it down upon the altar with her laurel wreaths.
The last of her glories offered to the Fall Maiden.
The crowd kept cheering as a flame leapt up from nowhere and consumed all of Pyrrha’s offerings and trophies, the fire devouring up the gold, and turning it to ashes until nothing remained.
Nothing but the cheering.
Pyrrha’s eyes opened upon darkness, and for a moment, she thought with a sense of rising panic that it might be the darkness of oblivion, until someone switched the light on to illuminate the very familiar ceiling of the Team SAPR dorm room.
Pyrrha closed her eyes and attempted to restrict her sigh of relief to a gentle breath that would escape notice.
A dream. Just a dream.
“Good morning, everybody!” Penny declared cheerily. “I hope you all slept well!”
“Okay, I guess,” Jaune muttered. “But good morning anyway, Penny. I mean, I guess it is a pretty good morning. At least, I hope it is. What do you think, Pyrrha? Is it a good morning?”
Pyrrha might, uncharacteristically, have liked to simply lie in bed, lights on or no, for a few moments at least, but Jaune’s question proved to be the push that she needed to force herself to sit up and throw the blankets off of her as she swung her legs out to touch the floor beneath her feet.
“Good morning,” she said softly. She would have smiled at him and hoped that he would smile at her in turn, and that would have made her feel a little better instantly, but … she wasn’t sure how he would take it. She wasn’t entirely sure how he felt. And so she said, “As to whether it is a good morning or not…” She got up, and took a step towards the curtains before she yanked them open, allowing the light of the rising sun to drift in and compete with the artificial light.
It being the autumn, there was not so much sunlight that they could do without the lights on.
“It certainly seems to be a fine day for it,” Pyrrha said. “I can hardly see a cloud.”
“That’s not exactly what I—” Jaune began.
“That’s fantastic!” Penny declared. “We wouldn’t want rain on your big day! Not to mention Rainbow Dash, and your friend Arslan, and Yang, and … do you think Sun will go forward into the one-on-one round, or will it be Neptune?”
“I think it will be Sun,” Pyrrha said, glad of the distraction; she turned to face Penny. “Neptune is not unskilled, to be sure, but he does not … Sun is not only the more skilled, but he has the more flair in his performance.” One corner of her lip twitched upwards. “And I think he’ll want to show off for Blake.”
Amber mumbled wordlessly for a few moments, before some comprehensible words made their way out of her mouth. “Would whoever drew those curtains mind pulling them back again, and whoever turned the lights on turn them off? I’m afraid I’m not ready for this day to start yet.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Amber,” Penny said, “but I think that we probably need to get up and start getting ready.”
“Really?” Amber groaned.
“What’s the matter?” Dove asked, getting up off the camp bed, stretching his arms up. “Didn’t you sleep well?”
Amber was silent for a moment, before she said, “I certainly don’t feel as though I did. I had the strangest dream last night.”
“Like a nightmare?” asked Ruby, as she sat up in bed.
Amber appeared to concede that they were not going to turn off the lights and close the curtains, before she, too, sat up in bed. “No, it wasn’t a nightmare,” she explained. “I … I dreamed I dined with Ozpin, that we dined with him, you and I,” she said to Dove. “We … were in his office, only there was a giant dining table set up there, and we were sitting at one end, and Ozpin was sitting at the other end, and there was…” She trailed off.
Dove sat down on the bed, although the fact that Amber’s legs were still running down the length of the bed meant that he had to perch awkwardly upon the edge of it. Nevertheless, his gaze was wholly upon her, and he reached out to take her hand, and his voice was ever so tender as he asked, “There was what?”
“A … a great feast,” Amber said, turning her back on Dove as she swung her legs out of the other side of the bed. “A great feast laid out before us, so great that the table groaned beneath it, but … anything that I ate, it turned to ashes in my mouth, it tasted foul, rotten even.” She looked at him. “You … looked as though you wanted to be sick.”
“That doesn’t sound great,” Ruby muttered. “But I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. It’s just a dream, after all.”
“Is it?” Pyrrha asked softly.
Ruby frowned. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, that’s all it was, because it was a dream.”
“And yet, dreams … can have power, upon occasion,” Pyrrha replied. “Not always, of course; many times, false dreams fly swiftly through the gate of ivory, but every now and then, a true dream will float through the gate of sawn horn to touch our minds with messages.”
“Messages from who?” asked Penny.
The question gave Pyrrha pause. Her ancestors, of course, had believed that it was the gods, particularly Erech, from whose domain the dreams arose to pass through the gates of horn or ivory, who were sending such true dreams, but the gods … had never been. There had only been two gods in Remnant, and neither of them were named Seraphis, or Tithys, or Re or Amphitrite, Erech, Callisto, Eulalia, or any other god or goddess in the pantheon. And yet, though Pyrrha knew that the gods of Mistral had never been gods, she could yet believe in much else contained within the tales, and she could believe in dreams.
“I know not,” she admitted. “And I know not whether it truly matters; yet, I believe that dreams may sometimes speak to us nonetheless and should not always be dismissed. In your case, Amber … though it may not have always been a pleasant dream, nonetheless, I think it may mean that you will reconcile with Professor Ozpin soon.” She smiled a little. “Although you may not have a feast in his office — it’s hard to think how he would get a table up there — you may have dinner with him, the two of you, before you … go.”
Amber looked over her shoulder at Pyrrha, then turned away again. “I don’t think that will happen,” she murmured. “I’m not sure that I’d even want it. Should I?”
Pyrrha hesitated. Sunset, if she had been here, would have encouraged the idea, without doubt, but Sunset was not here, and Pyrrha’s own attitude towards Professor Ozpin was … somewhat more ambivalent. After all, if it had been left up to Professor Ozpin, then Pyrrha’s body might be playing host to an amalgam of her and Amber’s souls right now.
And yet, at the same time… “I will not tell you how to feel, of course,” Pyrrha said, “but, when my mother and I were on the outs … although I would not have relented without an apology, once my mother unbent sufficiently to apologise, I am glad that I accepted it, rather than continuing to hold a grudge. But, as I say, it is your choice, not one that anyone here should make for you. And it may be that Ruby is right, and this dream of yours presages nothing at all but, if it is not so, please keep an open mind.”
She might have preferred it if Ruby had been right, at least tonight, because it would have meant that her dream, too, meant nothing at all. But Pyrrha … true dreams, it was said, lingered in the memory, while false ones faded away, and while that was obviously not completely true — Pyrrha could remember more than a few dreams that had been utter nonsense — nevertheless, she would have preferred to have forgotten this dream swiftly.
Instead, it stayed with her, and the cheering of the crowd still echoed in her ears.
The cheering of the crowd as she had offered up all her glories to the Fall Maiden.
Perhaps it meant only good things, perhaps it meant that she would win the tournament today, but that offering, the Fall Maiden … Cinder was the Fall Maiden — or had half the Fall Maiden’s power — and she was not dead yet, as far as Pyrrha knew. Perhaps … perhaps they would meet again, and Pyrrha would be alone this time, and Cinder would—
No. No, that was too much, that was far too much; Cinder was captured, Cinder had been beaten, Cinder had been beaten by her amongst others; to fear her now was ludicrous. Cinder had been defeated and could trouble them no more.
Speak only good things.
That worked out well, didn’t it?
There was a very loud, insistent knocking on the door.
“Hey, it’s me!” Yang called, her voice so loud that the door only slightly muffled it. “Open up!”
Penny was the closest to the door itself, and it was Penny who opened it, her tone bright as she said, “Good morning, Yang.”
“Okay,” Yang said, as she stood in the doorway wearing an orange tank top and black short shorts, “I have three— Penny?”
“Precisely.”
Yang blinked, her lips moving silently. “What are you doing here?”
Penny did not reply for a second, and when she did reply, it was to say, taking a step backwards, “Why don’t you come inside?”
Yang’s mouth opened, but no words emerged before she did as Penny suggested and walked into the dorm room, shutting the door behind her.
“Hey, Yang,” Ruby said. “What’s up?”
Now it was Yang’s turn not to respond as her eyes swept around the dorm room, passing over Pyrrha and everyone else. Silently, she stalked across the room to the bathroom door, flinging it open and looking inside.
Finding it empty, Yang turned around to face the occupants of the room.
“Okay,” she said again, “first of all— Dove? You too?”
Dove smiled sheepishly. “Morning, Yang.”
“If I get down on my knees, am I going to find Weiss under the bed?”
“I sincerely hope not,” Pyrrha murmured.
“Mmm,” Yang muttered. “And Blake’s not here either?”
“She spent the night with Team Rosepetal,” Penny explained.
“Of course she did,” Yang said. She took a breath. “Right, before you took the wind out of my sails a little bit, I had three questions, and that was one of them. I have two left.” She got out her scroll and opened it. Pyrrha was too far away to see what was on the scroll, except that she thought she could make out Lisa Lavender’s picture. “Have you guys seen this, is it true, and where’s Sunset?”
“That’s three questions,” Penny pointed out.
Yang’s eyes narrowed a little. “Nobody likes a smartass, Penny.”
“Sunset,” Pyrrha began. “Sunset is…”
“Sunset,” Jaune said, “is on a—”
“Sunset’s gone,” Ruby said. “I sent her away.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Well, we can tell Yang, right?” Ruby asked. “I mean, she already knows everything else; why shouldn’t tell her this too?”
“Thank you, Ruby,” Yang said. “About time,” she muttered, not quite under her breath enough that the others couldn’t hear it.
Ruby looked away.
Yang snapped her scroll shut. “I guess that answers my other questions,” she said quietly, as she put the scroll away. “It’s true, then? What they’re saying?”
“Yes,” Pyrrha said. “Yes, it is true, but you can’t tell anyone outside this room.”
Yang looked at her. “Because … because the First Councillor knew about it, and the old First Councillor as well?”
“And Ozpin too,” Jaune added.
Yang blinked twice. “Ozpin?” she squawked. “Oz-Ozpin knew about it?”
“Yeah,” Ruby growled. “He knew everything. Knew and did nothing.”
Yang’s mouth hung open for a few moments. “Gotta say, I was not expecting that.” She paused again. “Is it wrong of me that the thing I’m thinking the most right now is wondering where the hell he got off looking down on me for who I was and who my mom was, and all the while, he knew exactly what Sunset had done, and he didn’t give a damn?”
“Don’t you think there are bigger things to worry about?” asked Ruby. “Bigger things to be upset at Ozpin about?”
“Probably there are, but that’s the one that’s personal to me, so you’ll have to forgive me—”
“No,” Ruby snapped. “No, I don’t; why would you expect me to just forgive you for something like that? Personal isn’t the same as important; why is it so hard for everybody to get that?”
There was silence in the dorm room.
Yang turned her head slightly, so that she was looking at Ruby out of, if not the corners of her eyes, then something close to them. “Ruby?” she murmured. “Are you okay?”
Ruby exhaled out of her nostrils. “I’m fine.”
“Sure,” Yang said, with a slight chuckle. “Sure you are.” She scratched the back of her head with one hand. “So … you knew about this before this morning, right? Last night?”
“It emerged,” Pyrrha said quietly, “while we were at the police station, with Cinder.”
“Right,” Yang said. “Cinder. What happened with—?”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Ruby said.
“Actually,” Pyrrha said, “it does. I know that we were too … I know that we didn’t talk about it last night because of … well, you know, but the fact is that we would have talked about it under different circumstances, and we should talk about it. Cinder had quite a lot to say, and while some of it was obvious nonsense, some of it … is less easily dismissed.”
“Pyrrha’s right,” Penny said. “We should hear what Cinder said, or at least we should hear the important parts. Yang—”
“Hey, it’s fine,” Yang said. “We can get back to the other stuff later on. I’d like to hear what’s going on myself. Unless it’s too sensitive for my ears to handle.”
“Yang,” Ruby moaned.
“Sorry, sorry, you’re not in the mood, obviously,” Yang muttered. “Of course you aren’t.” She looked around the room, taking one of the seats beside the wall and pulling it out, sitting down on it backwards, legs spread out and arms resting on the back. “So, what did she say?”
Pyrrha walked forwards, away from the curtains and the window, closer to the centre of the room.
“She said,” she began, considering whether she ought to or needed to include any of the rubbish, and deciding that no, she didn’t, since it was clearly not true, since everyone who had heard it agreed that it wasn’t true, and if she spoke it aloud, then it might do what Cinder had presumably intended that it would and spread distrust. No, better to leave that out and focus only upon what might, at least, be true. “Now, please, bear in mind that there is no proof of this bar Cinder’s own word; take that for what it may be worth to you. But Cinder says that Professor Lionheart, of Haven Academy, has betrayed Professor Ozpin to Salem.”
“Who?” asked Dove. “Salem?”
Pyrrha realised with a little bit of a sinking feeling that Dove didn’t know about Salem because they hadn’t told him about her.
It’s so very hard to keep track.
“That’s Cinder’s boss,” Jaune said, coming to her rescue. “She’s … like a crime lord, or a terrorist, or … the point is that she’s got tentacles everywhere, and Cinder’s just one of her followers.”
“If a particularly important one,” Pyrrha added, in case it seemed like the capture of Cinder had meant nothing at all, since she was just a pawn who could be replaced on the board in an instant. “Although if Professor Lionheart has betrayed Professor Ozpin to Salem, he would also be an important asset for her.” She looked at Amber. “According to Cinder, Professor Lionheart’s treachery is how Cinder knew where to find you, Amber, or at least, that is how she knew that you were the Fall Maiden.”
“That explains that,” Jaune said. “But then, what about the other Maidens? Does Salem know who they are too? Are any of them safe?”
“I’m sure that Professor Ozpin will be moving them somewhere safer now that he knows that they are — or at least that they may be — at risk,” Pyrrha said. “The Spring Maiden is … missing, apparently.”
“'Missing'?” Amber repeated. “You mean they—?”
“No, not like that,” Pyrrha assured her. “It seems that the Spring Maiden found it all a little bit much, after a while. Too much. She ran away and disappeared. Neither Salem nor Professor Ozpin can find her, although Salem is certainly looking for her, and I must assume that Professor Ozpin is doing the same, to some extent. But Anima is a very large land, with a lot of sparsely populated space where one might go to ground.”
“So she got away,” Amber murmured. “She got away from him, and all of them.” She closed her eyes, and her free hand rose to her face, to the scars that criss-crossed that face like rivers cutting through the land.
“But what kind of life does she lead?” asked Pyrrha. “A very lonely one, I should imagine; for all your travails, I think you are the more fortunate.”
Amber glanced up at her, and then looked at Dove. Her scars, even without any makeup of any kind to hide them, seemed to soften as she smiled at him. “Yes,” she agreed. “Yes, I’m sure you’re right, Pyrrha.”
“And do you believe that?” asked Jaune. “Not about Amber, I mean, about Professor Lionheart having betrayed Ozpin, betrayed Amber, betrayed … all of us.”
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. “Arslan told me something interesting, some time ago,” she said. “I confess I thought too little of it at the time, but … she told me that she had been at home in Mistral during the spring break, with her parents.”
Yang frowned. “I’m not getting the—”
“Professor Lionheart told us that we were the only ones who could hunt the Karkadann prowling around Mistral during that break, when we were there,” Ruby explained. “Because all the other huntsmen were busy, and all the students had gone away. There was only us, and Cinder. And Juturna’s friend Camilla, but I’m not sure she’s actually a huntress.”
“No, she isn’t,” Pyrrha agreed. “She is well respected by many, feared by the rest, but she has never set foot within a combat school or an academy. But the point is that—”
“That Arslan was there too,” Jaune said. “And, you know, come to think of it … most of the Haven students must come from Mistral, right, so a lot of them would have been at home, wouldn’t they?”
“I don’t know whether I would say 'most,'” Pyrrha replied. “Mistral controls a large territory, and many students, great and small, hail from settlements across Anima — I know that Medea comes from Colchis, Meleager from Calydon, Jason from Iolcos, and so on — but you are right, there must be more than just Arslan, and so—”
“Lionheart lied to us,” Ruby said.
“Or he just didn’t know,” Penny suggested.
“Isn’t it his job to know?” Ruby demanded. “And someone told Cinder who the Fall Maiden was, and if it wasn’t him, then who?”
“But why would Cinder tell the truth?” asked Yang. To Pyrrha, she said, “Why do you believe any of this? If you don’t believe some of it, why do you think that she’s telling the truth at all?”
“Because it makes some sense,” Pyrrha said. “As Ruby pointed out, he should have known, or at least it feels as if he should. To speak truly, the only reason I would prefer for this not to be true is that it would prove some of the worst people in Mistral right about him.”
Yang snorted. “Yeah, that’s annoying when it happens, but you have to admit that it does happen sometimes. So what’s happening about that?”
“I don’t know,” Pyrrha admitted. “Professor Ozpin … sent us to bed. He was going to consult with General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch—”
“And Uncle Qrow too,” Ruby added. “He was there, when Penny and I went to see him.”
“You went to see him?” asked Yang.
“Of course,” Ruby said. “I wanted to know why he’d allowed Sunset to stay in school, after what she had done.”
Yang looked from Ruby, to Pyrrha, and then back again. “I want to hear about that,” she said, “but first of all, let’s let Pyrrha finish. What else did Cinder have to say?”
“That there are, unfortunately, other agents of Salem present at Beacon,” Pyrrha said. “So we cannot relax our vigilance around Amber just yet.”
“Others?” Jaune asked. “There are more people that we didn’t know about. Even after Cinder got found out and had to run, there have been others just … sitting here?”
“Did she say who they were?” asked Ruby.
“She gave two names,” Pyrrha replied. “Whether they are the right two names, I do not know.”
“Who are they?”
Pyrrha licked her lips. “Tempest Shadow, the Atlas student … and Bon Bon.”
“'Bon Bon'?” Amber whispered. “Tempest Shadow and Bon Bon, those were the names she gave?”
“Precisely,” Pyrrha said. “Although it may be that she was just giving names to distract us from the real agents.”
“Is that…?” Dove paused for a moment. “Is that what you think?”
Pyrrha sighed. “I don’t know what to think, and neither…” She stopped herself before she could say ‘and neither did Sunset’; those would not be welcome words amongst this company. Instead, she said, “I don’t know what to think. Tempest Shadow is unknown to me. Do any of you know her?”
“Tempest,” Yang mused. “Tempest Shadow, she’s Team Tsunami, right? Blake went on a mission with her; why don’t you ask her if she noticed anything or sensed anything, if anything seemed off about her?”
Pyrrha nodded. “That is a good idea, we will do so; thank you Yang.”
Yang grinned. “I’ve got my moments.”
“But as for Bon Bon,” Pyrrha went on, “we’ve left her with Amber, she’s been around her; sometimes, she’s been around her when we haven’t, and Dove, she is your friend, isn’t she?”
Dove didn’t look at Pyrrha. He seemed strangely reluctant to meet her eyes. “She was my friend,” he said, his voice sounding a little hoarse. “She and Lyra were a great comfort to me during this year, before … when I thought Amber was … you know, before Sunset—”
Ruby growled wordlessly.
“Just because you have fallen out of love with her doesn’t mean that I will forget everything that she has done for us,” Dove declared. “But Bon Bon was my friend, true.”
“'Was'?” Ruby asked. “Did something happen between you?”
“If what you’re saying is true—” Dove began.
“What Pyrrha’s saying is that she’s having a hard time believing it,” Jaune said. “Isn’t that right, Pyrrha?”
Pyrrha nodded. “That was my meaning, yes.”
“And it’s clear that Bon Bon didn’t hurt Amber because, if she did, then Amber wouldn’t be here,” Penny said. “In fact, if I say that these agents of Salem here at Beacon haven’t done anything since Cinder left, would that be wrong? Anyone? Can anyone think of anything that would prove me wrong?”
“No,” Ruby said. “No, I can’t think of anything that they’ve done. But that doesn’t mean that they haven’t done anything, just that we don’t know about it. Did Cinder say what they’ve been doing?”
“She spoke of an imminent attack on Vale,” Pyrrha said.
“By the grimm?” Ruby asked.
“What grimm?” asked Yang.
“There are a lot of grimm massing around Vale,” Ruby told her.
“There are?” Yang cried. “Since when? And why haven’t the Atlesians done anything about them, isn’t that what they’re here for?”
“General Blackthorn has tied General Ironwood’s hands,” Jaune said. “We saw them face off about it last night.”
“But Councillor Emerald is going to summon all the huntsmen back to defend Vale, and after the Atlesians leave, they’re going to mount a big counterattack to drive the grimm back,” Ruby added. “And we can help!”
“After the Atlesians leave?” Yang asked. “Why not before?”
“Because of politics,” Pyrrha said softly.
“Oh, great, so we have to put up with a whole bunch of grimm camped outside our city because of nationalist dick swinging, awesome,” Yang growled. “You know, sometimes, I think the Last King of Vale should have just taken over the whole world. No more kingdoms, or just one kingdom, that didn’t have to worry about how it looked in the eyes of the other kingdoms, because they’d all be one big happy family. Brothers, instead of rivals.”
“I’m sure he had his reasons for doing otherwise,” Pyrrha said. “But, in any case, Cinder spoke also of a magical creature, a creature … from Sunset’s home of Equestria, something that has been causing, or at least stoking, the unrest in Vale, the ill-feeling towards the faunus and the Atlesians. She called it a Siren, and Sunset recognised the word.”
“A creature from Sunset’s home?” Ruby asked. “Messing with Vale using her … magic?”
“So Cinder said.”
Ruby was silent for a moment. “I wish we’d never heard of Equestria,” she muttered.
“Ruby!” Penny cried. “That’s … you don’t mean that.”
“No,” Ruby said. “No, I don’t. We need to know so that we can fight monsters like the one that Cinder brought here to Vale.”
“Did Cinder say what she is?” asked Jaune. “I mean, what’s a Siren?”
“There are three of them,” Pyrrha said, recalling what Sunset had explained to her. “Although I think only one of them is in Vale at present. They use their voices to stir up negative emotions, strife and hatred; they feed upon such things, apparently. And then, having surfeited, their powers are increased and may control the minds or wills of others.”
“Yikes,” Jaune said. “They sound bad.”
“But do we have to hear them singing?” Ruby asked. “If we wore ear plugs, then maybe—”
“Do you have to do anything?” asked Yang. “What’s Professor Ozpin going to do about all this?”
“We don’t know,” Pyrrha said.
“Right, yeah, maybe you should have asked him that when you were up there asking him about Sunset,” Yang suggested.
“I didn’t know about any of this, we didn’t talk about it,” Ruby pointed out.
“Well maybe you should have,” said Yang. “Before you…” She paused and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and thumb. “But let’s put that on pause again; Pyrrha, was there anything else?”
Pyrrha considered. She had told them about the attack on Vale, about Tempest and Bon Bon, about Professor Lionheart … there was only the accusation of Amber’s own treachery, which she would not mention because it was pointless to bring up something so ridiculous, and everything that Cinder had had to say about her own past. Pyrrha would not call that pointless; it had made her rather … rather pitiable in Pyrrha’s eyes; someone who had been stripped so violently of all the comforts and advantages which they had once enjoyed and had thought to enjoy was, it might be argued, even worse placed than someone like Arslan, who had never enjoyed them to begin with and thus never had to learn to cope with the lack. And Arslan, at least, from what Pyrrha understood and knew of her, which admittedly was not a complete picture, had had loving parents, which Cinder had also felt the lack of eventually. She had been wounded, that was plain; Pyrrha could understand why she had come to hate the world.
It did not excuse her actions, but Pyrrha pitied her nonetheless.
“Cinder spoke of her own past,” Pyrrha said. “In fact, even more than giving us any warnings of the future, I think the account of her past was what she mainly desired to get across. She wanted to be remembered by someone. But I think you would probably rather discuss the events of last night than Cinder’s travails growing up.”
Yang nodded. “Unless there’s anything more important you need to share with the team.”
Pyrrha shook her head. “No, nothing more.”
“Right,” Yang murmured. “So…” She ran one hand through her luxuriously long blonde hair. “You were at the police station and … the news came on? With this?”
“That’s it, yeah,” Jaune said. “Pyrrha and Sunset were down with Professor Ozpin in the interrogation room when we noticed that this was on all the TVs: someone had gotten that deleted email from somewhere and passed it on.”
“First Councillor Emerald denied it,” Ruby said. “He said it was all nonsense, said that he’d never do something like that. He said the real scandal was how someone had gotten one of Skystar’s deleted emails in the first place. But I knew what Sunset had done. I knew that she would have done it.”
“Hmm,” Yang murmured. “I gotta say, that is kinda worrying, I thought that when you deleted stuff, it was gone. Not that I’ve got anything like that sitting around that I deleted, but … is it really that easy?” She shuddered. “But, anyway, go on.”
“That news was still playing when Sunset and I returned with Cinder and Professor Ozpin,” Pyrrha took up the account. “Sunset said nothing, but Professor Ozpin spoke in Sunset’s defence—”
“That should have been a clue,” Ruby muttered.
“As did Cinder,” Pyrrha said. “With great eloquence, I must confess.”
Yang’s eyes narrowed. “Cinder? You…” She looked down at the floor, shuffling her feet awkwardly. “You don’t think … you don’t think—?”
“No,” Pyrrha said before she could say. “No, I do not think that, and I urge you not to finish suggesting it. Let the words lie while they still possess some comfortable element of ambiguity. What Sunset did, she did not do it because she is a servant of Salem, I will stake my life upon it.”
“I … agree,” Jaune said. “Sunset isn’t working against us. That’s … not the problem.”
“They’re right,” said Ruby, more softly. “Pyrrha’s right, although I wouldn’t say it in quite the way she did. But that’s not something we have to worry about.”
“Sunset is not our enemy,” Amber said. “She is not my enemy.”
“It seems like we can all agree on that,” said Penny. “Even if we can’t agree on a lot of other things.”
“Good,” Yang said softly. “That’s good. I didn’t really … she never seemed the type, but with everything … I just wanted to make sure.” She sighed. “So then why did Cinder defend her?”
“Honestly? Vanity, I think,” Pyrrha said. “She didn’t want to share the spotlight with Sunset. This was supposed to be her moment.”
Yang frowned. “Her moment … of being captured?”
“She would at least get to dominate the news,” Pyrrha explained. “Councillor Emerald was certainly hoping that she would dominate the news when he arrived at the police station: the menace of the year captured and soon to be brought to justice. And since Cinder could not achieve anything that she had set out to achieve, I think she was hoping for that moment of fame as … a last resort?”
The frown remained upon Yang’s face. “I’ve got to be honest, that sounds really weird.”
“I don’t claim that it makes perfect sense, only that I think it was Cinder’s thought,” Pyrrha said. “It formed part of the tenor of her speech, along with pointing out that the accusations against Sunset were very similar to the ones recently made against me. A point I must confess I found convincing.”
“I can see it,” Yang admitted. “So Professor Ozpin, Councillor Emerald … Cinder, they all spoke up for Sunset, and then…”
“Valish soldiers took Cinder away to be detained until her trial,” Jaune said.
“Soldiers!” Pyrrha gasped. “That was the last thing that Cinder said, that the Siren’s song had gone so far as to affect soldiers of the Valish Defence Forces!”
Yang’s eyebrows rose. “And you forgot that?”
“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha said. “But it was a very long and busy night.”
“I guess it was,” Yang said. “And you don’t know what’s being done about that either?”
“I don’t think Councillor Emerald trusts General Blackthorn,” Ruby said. “He seemed pretty upset when he found out that the general wasn’t doing anything about the grimm outside the walls.”
“Makes sense,” Yang said. “I’m not too happy about that myself.”
“And then Professor Ozpin suggested using the police to defend power and stuff like that,” Ruby went on. “In case someone tries to sabotage it. And I think that’s going to happen.”
“'Sabotage'?” Yang asked.
“Maybe that’s what the Siren plans to get people to do?” suggested Jaune.
“Yikes,” Yang muttered. “You are not making this a very happy morning, guys, I’ve gotta say.”
“It wasn’t a very pleasant night for us, either,” Penny pointed out.
Yang winced. “No, no, I guess it wasn’t. But, going back to that night, even if it wasn’t very nice for you, what happened?”
“We came back to Beacon, and Professor Ozpin told us to get some rest, while he and General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch went to make plans, like we said,” Ruby said. “But we didn’t go to bed.”
“Obviously not,” said Yang.
“Instead,” Ruby went on, “we all gathered here—”
“'All'?” asked Yang.
“Everyone here,” Ruby said, “and Blake, Rainbow Dash, Ciel, and Twilight.”
“Right,” Yang said. “Of course.”
“And when I confronted Sunset about what she’d done,” Ruby said. “She … admitted it.”
“She admitted it?” Yang repeated. “She confessed?”
“She said that it was fear for our lives that motivated her,” Pyrrha said softly.
“She told us that Cinder had left her the trigger to blow the mine in the cab of the train,” Jaune explained. “She arrived before any of us, and it seemed — Cinder made it seem — like if she didn’t blow the mine, and blow the Breach, then we’d all die down there in that tunnel.”
Yang was very still, practically frozen, her body rigid, her arms trapped despite the somewhat awkwardness of the angle at which they were trapped, held up in their gesture of surprise from the fact that Sunset had confessed at all.
Her mouth barely seemed to move at all, and her voice, trembling, was quiet. “She did it to save you.”
“She did it because she doesn’t care about other people,” Ruby declared. “She did it because she doesn’t care about Vale, or about the values of a huntress. She just cares about—”
“About you,” Yang said. “About whether you live or die.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” Ruby insisted. “That doesn’t make it any less evil.”
“'Evil'?” Yang repeated. “Evil, that …” She paused. “How… how are you—?”
“I’m fine,” Ruby muttered.
Yang took a step towards her, and then another. “Ruby—”
“I said I’m fine!” Ruby snapped. She closed her eyes. “I … I don’t need … I know you’re trying to help, but this isn’t about me, and I don’t need a hug or a coddle or anything else, so can we please, please just carry on?”
“Sure,” Yang said, the softness of her tone belied somewhat by the way in which she raised her hands pacifically. “Sure, I didn’t mean to … okay, we can get on.” She glanced around the room. “How did you all take it?”
“Ruby was very—” Amber began, but then stopped, glancing at Ruby.
“I did what had to be done,” Ruby said firmly. “There was no alternative.”
“I was angry,” Jaune said. “One of my friends was cut up in all of that, one of her friends was one of those who died, and … it was because of her. I can’t say for certain that I would have had the strength to do the right thing, but it’s like Ruby said, that doesn’t make it any less … to hear her admit it was … it made me angry.”
Yang gave a slight, barely perceptible nod of her head. Her gaze fell upon Pyrrha, as Pyrrha had known that it must even as she had hoped that it might not.
“Pyrrha?”
Pyrrha swallowed. “I … am sad to see her go. She was a great friend to me, for all her faults.”
“But she went,” Yang said. “You sent her away?”
“How could she stay in this school after what she did?” Ruby demanded, looking at Yang once more. “How could Professor Ozpin let her stay in this school?”
Yang didn’t answer that. Instead, she said, “So Sunset left? Do you know where she went?”
“She went to see Skystar Aris, at the latter’s request,” Pyrrha said. “That was where she was bound when I left her. But where she went after that, I do not know.”
“And you went to see Professor Ozpin?” Yang asked. “What did he say?”
“That Sunset … that he needs Sunset,” Ruby said. “That sometimes, we have to work with people who aren’t the best, who aren’t heroes, who might have done things that we don’t like. That he knows best and knows what he’s doing. Uncle Qrow agreed with him.”
“Maybe they’re right,” Yang said. “They’ve been doing this for a while, seems like.”
“That doesn’t mean that she has to stay at this school,” Ruby said. “Just because Sunset might have some use to Ozpin doesn’t mean that she needs to be here!”
“No,” said Yang. “No, I guess it doesn’t.”
“And he…” Penny cleared her throat. “He also made me team leader.”
Yang turned to look at her. “You?” she said. “I mean … you! You, that’s … but you’re an Atlas student.”
“I’m transferring to Beacon next year,” Penny pointed out. “So why shouldn’t I transfer early?”
“Like Blake has, spending the night with Team Rosepetal,” Yang muttered. “Still, at least you’re amongst friends, and at least Team … what are you—?”
“I decided not to change the team name,” Penny said. “Not yet, anyway. It felt disrespectful, and besides, we don’t actually want people to know that Sunset’s gone.”
“Right,” Yang said, with obvious scepticism in her voice. “Well, I’m glad that this team has a leader who knows the people in it, but … so, to be clear, you kicked Sunset out because what she did was so awful that you couldn’t stand to be around her, but at the same time, you don’t want anyone to know that Sunset actually did it, and you’re going to stand by what Councillor Emerald said that this is all just a load of garbage?”
“We don’t want to cause a panic,” Jaune said. “Or cause another First Councillor to have to quit.”
“Three in one year would be a lot,” Ruby said. “People would get worried, and with there already being a lot of grimm outside, we don’t want to—”
“And a magical creature stirring the pot, apparently,” Yang said. “I get all that, but … you don’t see a contradiction here, or any problems at all with this scenario? I mean … are you going to tell everybody that Sunset ran away because she wasn’t guilty?”
“We talked about that last night,” Penny explained. “We’re going to tell everyone that Sunset is away on a mission.”
“A mission that she so conveniently got sent on, alone, while her teammate is fighting in the one-on-one round of the Vytal Tournament, while Vale is being half encircled by grimm by the sounds of it, just as she by complete coincidence happens to get accused of a crime,” Yang said. “Uh huh, sure, I’ll buy that; I’m sure everyone else will too. Have you spoken to Sunset about this?”
“No,” Pyrrha confessed. “She had already departed by the time that we discussed the matter.”
“Then you’re going to have to call her,” said Yang.
“What?” Ruby cried. “No!”
“Yes!” Yang insisted. “What do you think it’s going to look like if you tell everyone that Sunset has left on a mission, while Sunset herself is bumming around Vale because she hasn’t got anywhere to go because the city is being surrounded by grimm? Where is Sunset gonna go, anyway?”
“Back where she came from, maybe,”
“I … I suggested that she might speak to my mother,” Pyrrha said, very quietly; she would have rather not said anything at all, but silence would have been rather cowardly, especially in the face of Yang’s direct questioning. “I thought that perhaps Mother might find her a position, if not in her household, then in Mistral, at least.”
“Your mother?” Ruby repeated. “Your … after what she did—”
“I rather fear that what Sunset has done will burnish her up in my mother’s esteem,” Pyrrha said. “You could pile Vale upon Vale until the mass of cities overshadowed the mountains, and it would not equal up the worth of my life in my mother’s eyes. It is … unfortunate, but—”
“But it’s Mistral,” Jaune said. “To be fair, I’m sure that there are some people out there for whom a lot of Valish would see Mistral get overrun for.”
Ruby looked at Pyrrha for a second. Then she snorted. “Sounds like they’re a perfect match, then,” she said. “If that’s where Sunset decides to go, then I hope she’s happy there, but I won’t be able to stay in the same house as her if we ever visit Mistral again.”
“Fortunately, Mistral is not short of hotels, provided you book ahead,” said Pyrrha.
“To get back to the point,” said Yang, “you need to talk to Sunset to make sure that you’re all on the same page, story wise, or else you’re all going to look like liars, and bad liars at that, and that won’t help anyone.”
Ruby’s jaw clenched. “Fine,” she muttered. “Pyrrha—”
“I’ll call Sunset,” Penny declared. “Since I’m the team leader, I should be the one to do it.”
Because you’re the team leader, or because you didn’t get to say goodbye? Pyrrha thought. Not that she begrudged Penny the decision; as team leader, it was her right to make such decisions, after all, and so long as the good of the team was not affected — and Pyrrha had no reason to believe that it would be, in this case — then there was nothing saying a team leader had to be completely selfless.
She wished Penny joy of the conversation, although how pleased Sunset would be to be called up so that they could discuss how to manage her banishment was not something Pyrrha would speculate on with any confidence.
She took her departure in good part, I suppose.
But that is no guarantee that such a mood has lasted.
On the other hand, if there is anyone with whom Sunset will find it difficult to be bitter towards, it’s Penny.
“We should talk to Ozpin too,” Yang said. “Find out what he’s going to do about … all of this other stuff.” She sighed as she folded her arms. “I don’t know about you, Pyrrha, but this is kind of denting my enthusiasm for today’s matches.”
Pyrrha let out a soft chuckle from her lips as she retreated towards the window and sat down on the seat there. “Indeed,” she murmured. “It all seems … rather unimportant, doesn’t it? Assuming that the matches even go ahead, with the danger from the grimm—”
“If they were going to be cancelled, they would have been cancelled already, wouldn’t they?” asked Jaune.
“You may be right,” Pyrrha said. “Something else that Professor Ozpin might tell us. Shall we … shall we get dressed and go and see him?”
“Or we could call him,” Penny suggested. “That way, we wouldn’t have to wait until everyone was ready, and we wouldn’t have to worry about people seeing us on the way. Sometimes, it’s better not to be noticed.”
Penny spoke wisely; in light of what had just come out — or rather, what had been suggested, since the truth was something that they were hoping would not come out — then any eyes that were abroad this morning would doubtless be drawn to them even more than the tournament warranted, and she was not at all sure they wanted the attention.
“Will he be awake at this hour?” she asked.
“Does he ever sleep?” asked Jaune.
“He must do so,” said Dove. “Sometimes.”
“If we call him, the worst that can happen is that he doesn’t pick up,” Ruby pointed out.
“That’s true,” Penny acknowledged. “Alright then, I’ll call him.”
Penny, who alone of everyone in the room was completely dressed, got out her scroll. In fact, she had gotten so far as opening it up before she stopped and said, "I don't have his number."
"Here, Penny, I've got it," said Ruby, picking up her own scroll from where it sat on the pile of books next to the silver rose. "I'll send it to you."
Ruby opened up her scroll, and there was a momentary pause while her fingers worked across the screen before Penny's device gave off a little buzz for a message received.
"Thank you!" Penny said brightly. "Now I can call him.”
Now it was the turn of her fingers to skip lightly across the screen before she held out the scroll, flat on the palm of her hand, away from her as though it smelled, or carried a disease she feared to catch.
There was a pause. Pyrrha got up from the window seat and moved closer to Penny and her scroll; Jaune and Ruby likewise moved. Amber and Dove did not move, and Yang had no need to.
The pause ended, the quiet broken by Professor Ozpin's voice entering into the room. "Miss Polendina, good morning."
"Good morning, Professor!" Penny cried in an effervescent tone. "I'm sorry to bother you so early—"
"Not at all, Miss Polendina, not at all," Professor Ozpin assures her. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm here with T—… with my entire team," Penny said, letting out a little giggle of excitement that no one could begrudge her, "as well as Amber, Dove, and Yang. Pyrrha just finished telling us everything that Cinder said last night."
"'Everything,' Miss Nikos?" Professor Ozpin asked, in a tone so pointed that Pyrrha could see him staring at her over his spectacles in her mind's eye.
"Yes, Professor," Pyrrha said, raising her voice a little so that he could hear her. "All the relevant information."
Professor Ozpin took a moment to say, "I see. Thank you, Miss Nikos."
"We were wondering," Penny said, "if there was anything you wanted us to do about any of the things Pyrrha mentioned."
"Or if you had any plans to deal with them," Yang added.
"Indeed, Miss Xiao Long, I have not been sitting idle," Professor Ozpin replied, with no sign that the question irked him. "General Ironwood's forces will be on standby to resist an assault by the grimm mustering around our walls, and prepared for any … difficulties with the Valish Defence Forces. General Ironwood will also be taking steps to monitor his accused student, Miss Shadow."
"And … Bon Bon?" Amber asked, her voice trembling somewhat. "What about Bon Bon?"
Professor Ozpin did not offer an immediate response. "It is … difficult to credit Miss Fall's accusation, but nevertheless, I would appreciate it if you would keep Amber out of Miss Bonaventure's way. I'm sorry, Mister Bronzewing, I know she is your friend, but we must err on the side of caution."
"I understand," Dove said. "And it's alright. When it comes to Amber's safety, we don't want to take any risks."
"Quite so, Mister Bronzewing," Professor Ozpin said approvingly. "Now, I had intended to ask Team Sapphire to hunt down the Siren that Miss Fall claims is responsible for so much discord on the streets, but without Miss Shimmer—"
"We can do it, Professor," Ruby insisted. "We don't need Sunset to be a good team, or for you to rely on us."
Professor Ozpin took a moment to reply. "The Siren is a creature of Equestrian magic, Miss Rose, and I had thought to counter it with magic of the same origin. There was no other judgement implied."
"Then let us help anyway," Ruby insisted. "Let us take care of it for you. Let us prove to you that even without Sunset we're still as good a team and as worthy of your trust as we were when … when you sent us into Mountain Glenn."
Pyrrha wondered if she was the only one thinking that it might have been better if Professor Ozpin had not sent them there.
“I … will consider it, Miss Rose,” Professor Ozpin said, in an even tone. “For now, Miss Nikos and Miss Xiao Long must both look to the tournament.”
“Really?” Ruby said. “Really, Professor, when Vale—?”
“Yes, really, Miss Rose,” Professor Ozpin said, cutting her off before she could finish. “If the tournament is cancelled, or even postponed, due to the grimm threat, then more people will learn about the grimm threat, and that … will only make things worse, not better.”
“Bread and circuses, Professor?” Pyrrha asked.
“Most people in the fairgrounds seem to prefer popcorn or cotton candy, Miss Nikos,” Professor Ozpin replied dryly. “But … yes, you are correct. Whatever its other qualities — and it has many — the tournament is, at this point, also an exercise in managing the mood of the city of Vale; in this febrile atmosphere, despite the possible presence of this Siren, the tournament has nevertheless … I would like to say that it has reminded the people of Vale, and all our guests, that there is more that unites than divides us. With this unfortunate business surrounding Miss Schnee, I fear that it would be a lie to say so, but nevertheless, if it has not healed all the wounds of Remnant, it has, I daresay, spread good cheer and glad hearts throughout Vale and the wider world. And in these perilous times, as the era of peace we have long enjoyed is threatened from without, as shadows grow long across the green, that is not nothing.”
“I guess not … when you put it like that, anyway,” Yang muttered. “But all the same—”
“It seems a trivial thing to fight for the entertainment of the crowds when there may be real battles to be fought soon enough?” Professor Ozpin asked. “Is that not always true, Miss Xiao Long? Is that not the very paradox of this entire spectacle?”
“Thanks for pointing that out, Professor,” Yang said. “But it’s more than that now, because it’s … at least, normally, it’s not all happening in the same day! Or even so soon after.”
Professor Ozpin chuckled. “You are not wrong, Miss Xiao Long, but, if I may, why did you want to fight in the tournament in the first place?”
Yang shrugged, for all that Professor Ozpin couldn’t see it. “For the fun of it,” she said. “For the test too — I wanted to see how far I could go against the best — but … mostly for the fun of it.”
“And is the possibility of real danger, of real risk, not reason enough to have fun while you can?” Professor Ozpin asked. “To revel in the joy of a battle without consequence, with only pride at stake?”
Pyrrha could not help but chuckle. “Some would dispute that a battle with pride or honour at stake is without consequence, Professor.”
“No doubt, Miss Nikos, please forgive me,” Professor Ozpin said. “But my point remains: it is true that the grimm may attack soon, it is true that you may be asked to fight a fight more real than any that you will find in the Amity Colosseum, but that, it seems to me at least, is all the more reason to enjoy yourselves while you may.
“Miss Shimmer erred out of a fear of death. I do not judge her too harshly for that, for death is something greatly to be feared, but it should also be a reminder to savour the sweetness of life while the chance remains.
“And, if that is not enough to move you, then please remember that in keeping the people happy and content, in distracting from the shadows even as they lengthen beyond the walls, you are doing as good service as any you might render on the battlefield.
“So please, Miss Xiao Long, Miss Nikos, fight hard, fight for Beacon … and, in spite of everything that’s happened, please, try and enjoy yourselves.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.053 seconds
Total duration
883 users online
1,319,701 hits today, 2,054,621 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.®
Wow, Ruby needs to chill out, geez. She seems to be tormenting everyone because of Sunset's actions, and she will start to regret it if she doesn't stop. It seems like things may start to move forward with the fact that we are finally on the last day of the Festival, and it seems like the Fall may begin soon...
Also, I feel bad for Yang with her being left out of everything, and Ruby snapping at her. I wonder if her fate on the OG version will occur again...
Ah yes, is Ruby going to banish the Siren too?
11760612
I think the issue is that Ruby is trying to convince herself that personal doesn't mean it's important... but Sunset was important to Ruby and Ruby's willingness to die for others is conflicting with the fact that Sunset risked innocent lives to save hers. She's hurt and angry and she's lashing out at everyone because Ruby was never good at that emotional stuff to begin with and this is a lot.
Also, I kind of get the feeling that Yang, among seeing Sunset, is going to give her a big hug and thank her deeply for saving her little sister. Even if said little sister doesn't appreciate the fact that she is alive to be a bitch about being alive.
This will be the last time any of them have a proper night's sleep for a long time. A long day awaits; a day of tournament revelry and joy, and a long night of battle, loss, and betrayal.
Well, that was an impulsive lashing out for something that wasn't related to forgiving Sunset. Ruby is really in a bad state of mind, to put it mildly. In the words of Captain Picard, "There can be no justice if laws and ideals are absolute. Even life itself is an exercise in exceptions. For when has justice ever been as simple as a rule book?"
Yeah, that didn't work out for the Ace Ops, did it? And at this point in time, the Ace Ops are far more capable than the main protagonists; they even had Cinder in chains. The Sirens are literally a league of their own, one that huntresses are not trained for. If their mouth opens even half an inch, the fight is already over. The Ace Ops tore each other apart under her influence, and it would be arrogant to presume that (S)APR is automatically superior in willpower, especially given their current state of mind. Even Cinder crumbled in a few seconds. But none of the team knows this without Sunset or her book, huh?
Besides, I wonder if Sonata can even be hurt at all. Sirens grow stronger in every way the more they feed, and Sonata has had an entire metropolis to feast upon without needing to share with her sisters. Without magic, I wonder if conventional weaponry of mere mortals would even graze her.
Honestly, I was hoping Yang would want to call Sunset herself to see how she is and thank her for saving Ruby. I mean, in the original, after Sunset confessed, Yang hugged Sunset and thanked her before taking her into custody.
Ruby's deluding herself if she thinks she and the new team can do anything about Sonata. Heck, given the last chapter and how powerful Sonata is now, even with Sunset's help I think the team would have difficulty.
Knowing Sunset is going to talk to princess Twilight in the next chapter, it's likely she'll ask more about the Sirens.
Yeah... I can see Sonata using all that rage inside Ruby to have her try to kill Sunset. Honestly Ruby has fucked them all, no one but Sunset has the magic and knowledge to counter a siren and I would be laughing at Ruby if it weren't so sad and infuriating. Ill just be here patiently waiting for the chapter where someone/thing humbles Ruby.
11760718
11760756
Since the chance of PAPR going up against Sonata has been brought up, I don’t think they are completely boned. PAPR’s illustrious new leader just happened to gain a semblance that allows her to resist things taking control of her. That combined with her mega laser will allow her to get into beam clashes with Sonata. Hopefully with those factors in play Sonata won’t be able to focus on controlling the APR half of the team and they can take her down.
11760984
Shoot... I had completely forgotten about that! Thanks for reminding me! (sorry, Penny! I still love you!)
You know, after reading this chapter, i think i realised what it is about Ruby that pisses me off the most. Ruby attitude bothered me in the original, especially after the Fall of Beacon, to the point where i would skim her chapters. But now i know what is the worse part of her attitude to me. And in a weird way, its not entirely her fault.
For me, its the fact that no one is willing to take Ruby to task about her beliefs. They are either on her side, or if they disagree, like Ozpin or to a lesser extent Penny, they are way too soft with voicing it. Because of this, Ruby sees no reason to think about her actions and beliefs in a critical way, and so she just continues on this path until it blows up in her face
In retrospect, it was probably for the best in canon RWBY that Weiss was her partner. Between Yang being her sister and Blake just going with the flow, Weiss is the only person willing to challenge Ruby on her beliefs and actions. This in turn leads to the talk with Ozpin and Ruby starting to put more effort in being a leader. But because most, if not all, the people around her coddles her in this story, she sees no reason to change. And that leads to this ironclad belief that she is the one in the right, and makes her lash out at anyone who goes against that.
11761051
Yeah
That's why when Yang asked if there was Weiss under the bed, my brain went "yeah, would have been nice to replace someone here (idk, Dove, he is rather boring) with Weiss"
My girl has enough bitchiness not to buy into Ruby's bullshit and at least use a more irritated tone
Come on you guys, time to stop coddling this child, she herself asked for it several times already
On another note, I think that Yangs inclusion here was great and I hope she will have the opportunity to talk to Ruby, cus it seemed she has a lot to say to her
And quoting best RWBY girl "let me once again be the voice of reason" , but now it's Yang, showing these guys a lot of plot holes in their "perfect" plan
Hmmmm
You know, Ruby trying to fight Sonata might be the shake down that she needs, there is no way they can win against her (if you exclude Sunset's magic or Penny's semblance), and, as someone already pointed out here, Ruby's anger will be an easy thing to use to instantly control her
Was worried about Yang for a second there but seems like she at least has a decent head on her shoulders.
Seriously what is with all the characters shitting on Sunset like she's the one who made the bomb in the first place? You would think that Oz's little cabal would be a little more practical minded. Why won't anyone take Ruby to task? Her feelings do not outweigh a war, and her contributions are no where near the equal of Sunsets.
Honestly, this part of the story I just do not like. It feels like railroading that none of the adults are telling Ruby to sit down and shut up.
In regards to Sonata, Penny is the best choice, because of her semblance. But Sunset is also important. I truly belive that Sunset has some sort of mental defense or immunity against mind attacks. It's so dumb to have a semblance that deals in souls and the mind and still be affected by it. It's like Cinder having her fire semblance and still be affected by flames, it's just not true. She has fire immunity.
Also fuck Rwby, and Yang, go hug Sunset.
Also also. Mate, are you ok? You dish out new chapters like a machine gun. I mean, i do enjoy it, but, are you ok?
11761015
11760984
11761147
Ah, an excellent point about Penny's semblance! And she is indeed one of the top fighters in the series!
But the key is that the rest of PAPR would still be helpless against a Siren's magic. Ruby wants to prove she, Pyrrha, and Jaune can do this on their own, that they never needed Sunset. But it will only prove they are just as dependent on Penny to save them as they relied on Sunset, and would've been helpless without. Just as they were helpless against Salem's magic down in Mt. Glenn, where only Sunset's willpower and magic saved them.
11761266
Something to also consider. I don't know if Penny's semblance works on anyone outside of herself... through maybe if Jaune super charges her it can shield other people.
The issue is that Siren magic targets negative emotions... and right now, Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha are drowning in the stuff. Ruby with her deep seated anger, Pyrrha with sorrow and Jaune... also with anger, but on a more personal, reasonable level. All fuel for the siren fire.
So Penny isn't just fighting Sonata... Penny would be fighting Sonata, anyone Sonata brought with her (Like Cinder) and the rest of her team. Including Pyrrha... who has a semblance that is super effective against Penny.
11763093
I realized that about four minutes ago and was legit in the middle of typing it up. You beat me to it!
But not the part about Jaune potentially supercharging Penny's semblance, nice idea!
11763093
Cue Loki's line in The Avengers: "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"