Revelatory Request
Revelatory Request
The snows were beginning to melt in Vale, leaving the streets covered in a wet slush through which Sunset squelched as she made her way towards the café where Professor Goodwitch had asked to meet.
Her outfit had changed a little bit since the professor had seen her last, although the broad strokes of it were still pretty recognisable: her jacket had gotten a little shorter on the body, barely going down past her armpits to the extent that it was barely a jacket at all, and certainly it had no pockets to stick her hands in as she walked, although it did have orange stripes around the arms just above the elbows; her blouse was a turquoise that matched her eyes, with a pale yellow underskirt emerging from beneath it; only her blue jeans remained the same, while her boots were shorter and tighter, and had the same orange stripe as could be found on her jacket. She had left all her armour behind with Cinder, along with her weapons, although her bridal gloves yet embraced her hands and headed upwards before they disappeared beneath the sleeves of her jacket.
She banged her hands together against the cold as she walked, her breath misting up in front of her face. Nobody paid her any notice as she walked down the street, squelching through the slush as she went; Sunset Shimmer was old news now, and nobody paid that much attention to the Most Wanted list anyway.
All the same, there was a reason why she had to meet Professor Goodwitch at this café instead of going up to Beacon to see her.
Sunset’s eyes turned upwards, her gaze travelling that way towards the school. The stump of the tower was visible still; four months after it had fallen and there was no noticeable progress on rebuilding it. Whether it was incompetence or a lack of interest Sunset couldn’t say; she made a mental note to ask Cardin about it…and then she remembered that she could just ask Professor Goodwitch what was being done when she saw her in a few minutes time.
An unsteady mountain of pots and pans and kitchen utensils, piled high outside the bingo hall – requisitioned by the newly minted Valish Voluntary Service – suggested that it wasn’t apathy that was behind the lack of progress on repairing the tower, so much as resources moving in other directions. Sunset might not have agreed with everything that the Committee of Public Safety was doing to secure Vale, but it couldn’t be denied that it was setting too with a restless energy to which the people of Vale were responding; take all those pots and pans and utensils for example, they had all been voluntarily donated by the people of Vale, and mountains like it were growing all over the city. The call had gone out for all kinds of household metal to be melted down and made into warships for Vale’s new air fleet, and the people of Vale had, it must be said, risen to the occasion; pots, pans, oven trays, the iron railings from parks and gardens, antique old door knocks, all had been donated to the cause of keeping the kingdom safe from future grimm attacks. Voluntary organisations had flourished like flowers springing up after a rain has finally wet the ground after a long drought: the Voluntary Service which did things like collect all the pots and pans and deliver public information leaflets and organise evacuation drills; the Home Guard for those too old or otherwise unable to join the new Army of Vale; the Auxiliary Nursing Corps; the Anti-Air Defence Corps who crewed the AA batteries springing up in all the parks and public spaces of the city; the Kingdom of Vale was coming together in ways that it never had during the long years of peace that had preceded the battle of Vale.
It was just sad that it had taken such a battle and the shattering of that long peace to bring about such a situation; just as it was sad that all of this pent up civic energy and communal spirit was being directed outwards in a fashion which seemed so uncontrolled. It seemed to Sunset a little as though nobody really knew how to keep Vale safe, so they were trying every single idea that they could think of and then some, and that some of these volunteer organisations were more about making otherwise helpless citizens feel involved and as though they were making a difference than they were about making real improvements to the state of affairs. Could you really make air cruisers out of kitchen utensils?
Sunset walked past a platoon of the Home Guard marching the other way. They were old men for the most part, although she saw one boy who looked old enough to be a Beacon student wearing a maroon scarf around his neck; they were armed with carving knives tied around broom handles to create makeshift spears; they had no uniforms, and instead were dressed as if they’d just come from work: a straw hat and striped apron, the three-piece suit of a bank manager. Sunset was a little surprised to find that some of them had their auras activated, and guessed that they might be retired huntsmen, but that didn’t change the fact that they were old men with carving knives strapped to broom handles, where they going to stop the grimm?
She supposed that people wanted to feel useful, and that there was no harm in them being allowed to feel useful, but wasn’t there something actually useful that the government could be doing to protect the kingdom, like mend fences with Mistral and Atlas and get the foreign students who had actually protected the kingdom last time to come back?
Enthusiasm and a sense of public unity was all very well but Sunset couldn’t help but think that without huntsmen it could all turn out to be tragically in vain.
Which is why I do what I do, I suppose. Take out the problems far away so that granddad going down the road can feel like he’d be ready when the time comes without having to actually find out.
The streets were lined with posters, a contradictory series of pulls appealing for men for just about everything: the army, the navy (as far as Sunset knew they hadn’t built any warships yet, but they’d been sticking guns on skyliners for the last three months), Beacon Academy, Combat School, every volunteer association that had sprung up after the battle; they all appealed for men and women to join their ranks, each claiming that theirs was the path down which you could best make a difference; each claimed that they needed you more than anybody else. Cardin’s face beamed down at her from several posters, as did those of Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlettina to be fair (and other faces that Sunset didn’t recognise) but it was Cardin’s face with which she was most familiar and so it was his face which both amused and slightly irritated her, although not as much as she knew it irritated him.
Unlock Your Potential! Proclaimed one recruiting poster featuring the Winchester scion, and Sunset had to admit that joining the military had done more for Cardin Winchester than Beacon Academy ever had.
She reached the café where she was meeting Professor Goodwitch, a middle-market establishment with a modern look to it: big windows that enabled you to look out onto the street and also let anyone out on the street look in at you; a white tiled floor, metallic furniture which Sunset was almost surprised to see hadn’t been donated to build warships yet (in fairness it was harder for businesses to volunteer this stuff than ordinary households, and this was a chain establishment). It wasn’t particularly crowded, in fact when Sunset walked in she could only see four other people there: a cute couple on a date, and a guy with glasses tapping away on his scroll while he sipped from a large latte.
The fourth customer was Professor Goodwitch herself, and Sunset caught her eye as she made her way down the café to where she sat, about in the middle of the place.
“Professor,” Sunset said as she pulled out the chair and sat down.
Professor Goodwitch smiled softly. “You’re not my student any more, Miss Shimmer.”
“No,” Sunset agreed. “But calling you anything would seem…strange.”
Professor Goodwitch didn’t press the point. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
“How could I not?” Sunset asked. “I was surprised you were able to reach me.”
“You have become a hard person to get into contact with.”
“Well, I am-“ Sunset stopped as the waitress arrived, and took Sunset’s order of a hot chocolate and a caramel shortcake. Professor Goodwitch, having nearly finished her latte, ordered another.
“At the risk of sounding rude I hope you’re paying for this, Professor,” Sunset said. “I’m not exactly drawing a salary at the moment, and the money that Lady Nikos was sending me has dried up.”
“Don’t worry, I’m picking up the tab,” Professor Goodwitch assured her.
“Thanks,” Sunset said. Her gaze briefly followed the waitress, who was now behind the counter making the drinks. “Is she the only person working here?”
Professor Goodwitch nodded. “I used to know four people who worked here, but one of them has joined the army, one the navy, and the last has applied to Beacon. Everyone wants to do their part these days.”
“So it seems,” Sunset said. “You come here often?”
“Every now and then,” Professor Goodwitch said. “It was sufficiently far from Beacon that I could be reasonably sure of not being disturbed, whether I needed time to grade papers without being interrupted or just wanted to get away for a little bit.”
“Which is what makes it a good place for us to meet too,” Sunset said. “It wouldn’t do for me to be seen coming up to Beacon. Although I’m not exactly attracting a lot notice for a supposed fugitive.”
Professor Goodwitch chuckled. “The kingdom has a lot on its mind right now.”
The two fell silent as their orders arrived, and they only resumed their conversation when the waitress went away again.
“So how did you reach me?” Sunset said.
“I’ve been trying ever since I found out that you got out of prison,” Professor Goodwitch said. “Eventually I twisted Mister Winchester’s arm until he gave me your new number.”
“I’m sorry you’ve been frustrated,” Sunset said. “But my mission is supposed to be confidential; just like the work I used to do for Professor Ozpin.” She paused for a moment, thinking about the headmaster, before she attempted to brush such thoughts aside. “So how is it, being Headmistress of Beacon.”
“I’m only the Acting Headmistress,” Professor Goodwitch said. “At the moment Professor Ozpin is officially missing, and a permanent replacement won’t be appointed until he has been confirmed dead.”
“That’s a little ridiculous.”
“I don’t think they want me on the council,” Professor Goodwitch said. “As only acting headmistress they don’t have to give me that seat.”
“Is there a reason they don’t want you on the council?” Sunset asked.
Professor Goodwitch sighed sadly, and looked out of the large window to her right. “There are times when I wonder what’s happening to this country,” she murmured. “You’ll have seen that no work has begun on repairing the tower.”
Sunset nodded.
Professor Goodwitch continued. “I think that there are certain elements who don’t want the CCT network restored, they’re happier keeping Vale isolated from the other kingdoms.”
“Seriously?” Sunset said. “Vale survived because we stood together.”
“And now the goal is to make sure that Vale can stand alone,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I agree with you, Miss Shimmer, but let’s not pretend that that isn’t where Vale is heading: splendid isolation.”
“Things will calm down,” Sunset said. “The grimm attack will become more distant, people won’t care so much, all of this enthusiasm will die away and people will remember that we’re stronger together than we are apart.”
“I hope so,” Professor Goodwitch murmured. “But in the meantime people don’t want me saying that in the council chamber.” She shook her head sadly. “Ozpin wouldn’t have wanted this.”
“I’m not super happy about all of it,” Sunset said. “But Cardin says that Vale has to do more to defend itself than it did in the past…and I can’t say he doesn’t have a point.”
“Perhaps,” Professor Goodwitch conceded. “Perhaps I am simply too wedded to the way things were to see that they have to change. And I suppose if James can have all of his troops and toys then there’s no reason we shouldn’t have some too. But that’s not what really concerns me.”
“That’s not what concerns either of,” Sunset said. She sipped her hot chocolate. “Professor, you didn’t really ask me to meet with you so that we could talk politics, did you?”
“No, Miss Shimmer, I’m afraid not,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I asked you to meet me because I have a job for you.”
Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “A job as in…Professor Ozpin’s work?”
Professor Goodwitch nodded. “I need you to go to Anima for me.”
Sunset snorted. “Come on, Professor, if you’ve talked to Cardin then you know that I can’t do that.”
“I know that this is far more important than your indenture to Vale,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I know that you know how high the stakes really are here. And I know that you’re the only I can ask to do this. James has his responsibilities in Atlas just as I have responsibilities here, and with the CCT down I can’t make contact with Qrow or Miss Nikos; you’re the last one, the last member of our organisation that I can reach. You’re the only one who can do this.”
“And yet I can’t do it,” Sunset said. “How am I supposed to tell Cardin that I need him to let me wander off to Anima for…for what? What’s so important that you need me to do this?” She began to sip her hot chocolate.
“Professor Ozpin is alive,” Professor Goodwitch said.
Sunset choked on her hot chocolate, and put the cup down heavily as she coughed and snorted and tried to get it all out of her windpipe and nostrils. She was still left with a very uncomfortable sensation up her nose as she looked up at Professor Goodwitch. “What? What the…what do you mean he’s alive? Pyrrha found his cane and his glasses and he’s been missing for the past four months. What’s he been doing? And in Anima? We…I mourned him and all the while he’s been, what? Sitting on a beach somewhere drinking out of a coconut shell.”
“That’s Menagerie you’re thinking of, not Anima,” Professor Goodwitch said dryly.
“Not funny, Professor,” Sunset growled. “I’m serious, I…I thought he was dead and I…” She had wept, for all the time wasted on her groundless, paranoid suspicion of the man, the man who had turned out to mean more to her than she had ever realised when he was actually around for her to tell him so. She had wept until her eyes were red and raw and now to find out that he had ditched them to run away to Anima? “How could he treat us like that? Pyrrha was even more upset than I was and you’re going to tell me that…” she shook her head. “I don’t believe it.”
“It’s true,” Professor Goodwitch said.
“Professor Ozpin wouldn’t just abandon the fight and run off,” Sunset said. “He wouldn’t abandon us, that isn’t who he was.”
“No,” Professor Goodwitch said. “It isn’t. But he wasn’t given a choice in the matter. Allow me to explain: the body of the man you knew as Professor Ozpin is dead, I have no doubt of that; it was destroyed, probably by Amber, thus accounting for the paucity of remains that Miss Nikos was able to discover.
“But though the body dies the soul remains, and the soul of Professor Ozpin is…unique.”
“Unique…how?” Sunset asked.
“Cursed by the gods in ancient times,” Professor Goodwitch said softly. “Cursed never to find rest until he can vanquish Salem.”
“But the Professor himself told us that Salem is un-vanquishable.”
“It is a curse,” Professor Goodwitch pointed out.
Sunset leaned back in her chair. “So…Professor Ozpin is immortal but his body isn’t, is that what you’re trying to tell me.”
“That is exactly it, Miss Shimmer,” Professor Goodwitch replied. “When one body dies, his spirit is reincarnated, in a sense, into a new host.”
Sunset frowned. That seemed like a far less efficient means of immortality than simply not dying like Princess Celestia, but then a lot of things about Remnant were inefficient compared to their Equestrian counterparts – Maidens versus princess for example. “So…it was always him, wasn’t it? The old man in the stories, the founder of the secret circle, it was just him all the time wasn’t it, wearing different faces as he went along.”
“Precisely,” Professor Goodwitch said. “This is the worst time for this to have happened, we need him and his leadership now more than ever. Without him the organisation is in chaos, I have no idea what James is doing or where Qrow even is.”
“That’s as much to do with the towers being down, Professor,” Sunset murmured.
“That is true, but it doesn’t change the fact that we need Ozpin to take charge once more,” Professor Goodwitch said. “I don’t know where he is, or what he looks like; nothing about his reincarnation can be predicted except that it cycles through the kingdoms; last time was Vale, so Mistral will be next and that is good because Mistral – with Miss Nikos and Mister Arc and maybe even Qrow – offers the best chance to take stock and rebuild.”
“So you want me to go to Anima, find the new Ozpin without any idea where to start or how to find him, and bring him to Mistral?” Sunset said. “Why didn’t you just tell Pyrrha and Jaune about all this before they left?”
“I would have if I could have reached them,” Professor Goodwitch said. “The Mistralians wouldn’t let me anywhere near Miss Nikos; Valish authority figures no longer had their trust, and I can’t entirely blame them.”
Nor could Sunset, but it made things very awkward. Pyrrha and Jaune would have been ideally placed to take care of this, or at least as ideally as anyone considering the difficulty of the task. “I can’t do it, Professor.”
“You’re the only who can.”
“It’s not as simple as you seem to think,” Sunset replied. “Team Sapphire is gone, in my new team there is one person who I trust not to slit my throat while I’m sleeping. How am I supposed to go looking for Professor Ozpin with a band of cutthroats and desperadoes trailing at my heels?”
“Leave them behind,” Professor Goodwitch said.
“I would, believe me, but…” Sunset hesitated. “I gave my word, Professor. I gave my word to Cardin that I would fight for Vale. I know that this is important but if my word doesn’t mean anything then do I really deserve to serve Professor Ozpin?”
“He must be found,” Professor Goodwitch said. “The new host will be a young man, maybe even a boy, that’s how it works. Someone who knows nothing of any of this, probably not trained in combat, all alone and thrown into a struggle beyond anything he could imagine. He must be found and protected. The servants of the enemy will be seeking him also, we have to get to him first. You have to get to him first.”
Sunset frowned. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go, and she certainly didn’t want to turn her back on Professor Ozpin now that he needed here more than ever; she’d left to him die once at the hands of Amber, how could she leave him again for the servants of Salem to come upon him in some dark place where there was no help? Pyrrha and Jaune were close at hand but neither had any idea of this; she was the only one Professor Goodwitch had been able, at last, to tell.
She was being offered a chance to make things right, to do better by the professor than she had done, to serve him better than she had done.
But at the same time… “I have responsibilities here, Professor. Vale needs me and I can’t just keep running away every time it’s inconvenient for me to stick around.”
“Not even when you know that what is at stake matters so much more?”
“I think Professor Ozpin would be the first to say that the survival of an entire kingdom is worth more than his life,” Sunset murmured.
“This Kingdom doesn’t understand that the greatest danger to it has passed,” Professor Goodwitch said. “Now that Salem has the Relic of Choice the Kingdom of Vale is of no more interest to her. I don’t know what her new design will be but we have no hope of countering it without Ozpin, especially now that she has one of the relics in her possession.”
“You put me in a tight spot, Professor.”
“I think we’re all in a tight spot at the moment, Miss Shimmer.”
Sunset couldn’t argue with that. “Cardin might more amenable if you would let me-“
“That isn’t your decision to make, Miss Shimmer, or mine,” Professor Goodwitch said. “Professor Ozpin always decided who would know the truth that lurks in the shadows; others might make their recommendations, but the final decision rests with him.”
“And do you think General Ironwood is adhering to that rule in Atlas?”
“What James does in Atlas has no bearing on what we do here in Vale,” Professor Goodwitch replied primly. “And besides, I have no reason to believe that Mister Winchester is deserving of this knowledge or could be trusted with it; I cannot reveal such information as we are privileged and burdened to possess to anyone simply to make our lives easier.”
Sunset frowned. There wasn’t much to argue with that, either. “What about Ruby? Have you spoken to her?”
Professor Goodwitch shook her head sadly. “I don’t think anyone’s spoken to Miss Rose since she went home.”
“What if I spoke to her,” Sunset said. It should be easier to persuade Cardin to let her go to Patch than to let her go to Anima. “Told her what you’ve told me. Then…maybe she would go.” That would be the ideal, for Ruby to find, guard and protect Ozpin while Sunset continued her unpleasant work here in Vale.
“Do you really believe she will?” Professor Goodwitch asked.
Honestly the answer was no, but this also the only easy answer left to Sunset because if (when?) Ruby refused then she would be in the position of having to make some hard choices. So she had to give it a try.
And besides, it had been too long since she had seen Ruby. Since anyone had seen Ruby. She wanted to see how she was doing.
“I don’t know,” Sunset said.
“And what will you do if she can’t go?” Professor Goodwitch said. “Or won’t?”
“I…” Sunset fell silent for a moment. “I really don’t know.”
Three Months Earlier…
Sunset sat down in the room. It was an unfamiliar part of the prison to her, though it looked like an interview room of some description: moderately sized, sparse, but with a table in the middle of it and a chair on either side. She wasn’t sure why a prison needed an interview room, but perhaps it was in case more evidence surfaced after the verdict.
She glanced at Douglas, the guard whose life she’d saved during the prison riot. “So what am I doing here?”
He shrugged.
“Come on, I saved your life,” Sunset said. “The least you could do is answer one question.”
“If I had an answer, I’d give it to you,” he said. “I was just told to bring you in here. Someone wants to talk to you. That’s all I know.” He paused. “Actually, I know one other thing. I was told to wait outside, someone wants this private.”
“Someone who isn’t scared either,” Sunset murmured. “Or they just know I won’t make any trouble.” She smiled in an attempt at seeming jocular. “Perhaps they’ve decided my sentence and have come to tell me that I’m getting out of here, huh?”
Or they’ve decided to put me to death and have come to tell me how long I have left to live.
She couldn’t discount the possibility, even after the battle. For the last month she had heard nothing about her sentencing hearing, let alone her sentence. She hadn’t been asked to provide a list of witnesses who would speak up in mitigation for her, and even if she had been asked most of them had gone by now: Pyrrha and Jaune had sailed for Mistral last week with the remnants of the Mistralian Expeditionary Force, Pyrrha’s mother, the Haven students and most of the Mistral-born Beacon students too; Ruby had gone home to tend to her father; Team RSPT had pulled out two weeks ago with the Atlesian forces, taking Blake with them. Professor Ozpin was dead. She was all alone.
She was alone and Vale was in chaos. The news that Sunset had been hearing, mostly passed to her by Mister Douglas, who seemed to feel – not without justification – that he owed her for saving his life, wasn’t great. The fact that the Mistralian and Atlesian students had all left Beacon was a very bad sign of the way things were going. Vale was in bad odour with both of those nations and it seemed determined to make it worse with its turn towards inward looking isolation. How long before they turned on the faunus?
Apparently the Council had declared a state of emergency, suspending normal processes and elevating a select few of its number to form a Committee of Public Safety with powers greater than those allowed to the Council in normal circumstances. Sunset hadn’t been blind to the possibility that one of those new powers might allow them to simply put her to death without any due process; that was one of the reasons why she’d given the Maiden powers to Pyrrha: because if she was going to die then she wanted to be able to choose her successor now rather than take the risk of who might end up being the last person in her thoughts when they put her to death.
The other reason was that, even if she was not put to death, then the powers of the Fall Maiden wouldn’t be much good to her in a cell; better that they should be out in the wild, as it were, where Pyrrha would make good use of them.
Whatever happens next, I’ve done the best I could to make sure that I’m not missed too much.
Mister Douglas tried to smile at her. “I’m sure it’s not bad news, whatever it is.”
Sunset nodded stiffly. “Maybe not,” she said, without much conviction.
I really wish I could believe you.
“I…” he hesitated. “I’ll be rooting for you, kid, and I’m not the only one here, either. Good luck.”
Sunset, her eyes fixed on the other door, the door through which her visitor would shortly – hopefully, although she wasn’t impatient for it to be over with she didn’t want to wait in dread ignorance for a long time either – emerge, didn’t see him go. She just heard the door behind her clank shut with a heavy metallic thud.
And then the room was empty save for her.
Empty like her life. Ruby gone, Pyrrha gone, Jaune gone; Blake gone, RSPT gone; Professor Ozpin dead.
Professor Ozpin dead. Dead without them ever getting a chance to move on past all the ways that she had let him down over Amber. Dead without him getting a chance to see her become the Fall Maiden, if only for a little while. Dead without her getting a chance to tell him how much she cared about him, valued his wisdom, his trust. Before she could thank him for giving her a shot, for seeing something in her that nobody had seen since Princess Celestia. Dead before she really got a chance to learn from him, as she would have liked.
I’m not sure whether I would have been a good Fall Maiden, Professor, but I would have done my best.
In the end, I hope that you agree that the choice I made was the right one.
She was always your first choice, after all.
But he was gone now, and she was all alone. That was good, it meant there wouldn’t be a scene and nobody would get hurt or ruin their reputations trying to help her.
It also meant that she was alone. All alone except for Cinder, who was in here with Sunset; that was some consolation, even if she wasn’t much help to Sunset’s hopes.
The door at the other end of the room opened. It took Sunset a moment to recognise the man who walked through the door as Cardin Winchester, mostly because she wasn’t used to seeing him out of either his armour or a Beacon uniform. He was wearing a different sort of uniform now: navy blue with silver piping on the collar and cuffs, slightly baggy trousers and polished black boots that thumped on the floor as he marched inside.
Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “Cardin?”
“Sunset,” he said, in an even tone that could have meant anything at all.
“That’s a new uniform,” Sunset observed.
“Uh-huh,” Cardin said as he sat down. “It’s Captain Winchester now, Captain Cardin Winchester of the Valish Corps of Specialists.”
“The Corps of Specialists?”
“We’re new,” Cardin said.
Sunset rested her elbows on the table in front of her. “You realise that just because you take names from the Atlesian military it doesn’t actually make you the Atlesian military.”
“We don’t want to be the Atlesian military,” Cardin said. “We want to be the Valish military, and keep Vale safe from the grimm and all our other enemies.”
“What other enemies?”
“The White Fang,” Cardin suggested. “And anyone…anyone else, who we’ll find out if they try and make trouble for us.”
“Right,” Sunset murmured. “So you’re…what’s the name…um-“
“The self-strengthening movement?” Cardin suggested. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. I’d just call myself a patriot but if you want to stick me in a box I suppose that’s as good a box as any for me to go in. It’s a box that we should all want to go in.”
“You think?”
“Yes,” Cardin said firmly. He placed his own hands on the table. “I know that you were one of Professor Ozpin’s prized students, and I know that you probably feel a kind of loyalty to the old man and his way of thinking, but come on: the Breach, the two grimm attacks during the Vytal Festival, the battle of Vale, what more do you want? Vale needs to start taking its defence seriously if its going to survive, we can’t just rely on Atlas any more, especially after what happened during the battle.”
“After the way that Council alienated Atlas and Mistral with its behaviour, you mean?” Sunset said.
“Exactly,” Cardin said, surprising Sunset with his agreement; she had expected him to try and defend the decisions of the Valish authorities. “That was stupid, but we are where we are and where we are is that the Atlesian fleet sailed home two weeks ago.”
“I know.”
“And you also know that the Mistralians are gone too.”
“Yes, I know that too,” Sunset said. “Pyrrha came to say goodbye. Self-strengthening sounds all well and good but how exactly is Vale strengthened by driving out all the foreign students, some of the best students in Beacon?”
“Of course not,” Cardin snapped. “I know that I missed most of the battle but I know what happened. I know that Vale wouldn’t still be standing without Polendina and the Atlesians and all the other students from all the other academies. I know how much better Nikos and Schnee and all the others who are leaving are than me and the rest of us who are left behind. I know that half of the ideas being thrown around for how we can protect ourselves are dumb ones. But you know what? It doesn’t matter, because I’m not making those decisions and I can’t do anything about them; I don’t have to like everything that the Council or the Committee or whatever does, I just have to live here. Because I do live here, Vale is my home and I’m going to fight for it no matter how many stupid things it does. I’m going to fight for it…and I’d like you to fight for it too.”
“You want me to fight?” Sunset said. She hesitated. “You just got done saying that you don’t make the decisions.”
“I don’t,” Cardin said. “But my family has a little pull. Not enough to stop all of the stupid, but enough that I could push one idea and see it float to the top, and that one idea was you.”
“Me?”
Cardin leaned forward. “What are you doing in here, Sunset?”
“The judge is your grandfather, why don’t you ask him what I did.”
“I know what you did,” Cardin said. “And ordinarily I’d be fine with throwing away the key, but Vale needs you right now; more than ever maybe, with so many of the best students having left. But that’s not what I asked: I asked why you were here.”
Sunset frowned. “I don’t follow the difference.”
“I read the reports from the guards about what happened during the battle, the way you saved the prison was pretty impressive,” Cardin said.
“Thank you,” Sunset said softly.
“What was most impressive was the fact that you got out of your cell with your collar off before the White Fang disabled the security systems,” Cardin said.
Sunset licked her lips. “You picked up on that, huh? You’re not as dumb as you look.”
Cardin refused to be deflected. “That collar isn’t doing jack to you, is it?”
“It’s doing something,” Sunset said.
“But not enough.”
“You don’t need to be scared of me,” Sunset said. “My intentions are honourable.”
“I know,” Cardin said. “I got that from the fact that you could have walked out of here any time you wanted, but you haven’t. That’s the reason I’m here, that’s the reason I pushed my folks to use up our influence to get this.”
“And what is ‘this’?” Sunset asked.
“I want you to fight for Vale,” Cardin said. “Officially, you’ll have broken out of prison and remain a fugitive…I wanted to get you a pardon, but nobody wants to take the heat for letting you out of jail right now.”
“So officially I’m the most wanted person in Vale,” Sunset said. “What about unofficially?”
“Unofficially you’ll be leading a squad of…talented convicts on missions to protect Vale from threats to its security,” Cardin said. “All your missions will come from me, all your reports will go through me, and together we can make Vale a safer place.”
“Convicts?” Sunset said flatly. “You want me to lead convicts? Cutthroats and desperadoes?”
“What do you think you are?” Cardin asked.
“I…okay, fair enough, but like you just said yourself, I’m different; how many people in this prison do you think would still be here if they could leave?”
“Why do you think I want you to lead, you’re the only person I can think of who wouldn’t bail at the first opportunity.”
“So I’m keeping an eye on them?”
“Just like I’m keeping an eye on you,” Cardin said. “Theoretically, at least.”
Sunset was silent for a moment. It wasn’t an idea that filled her with enthusiasm to say the least, and to from Team SAPR to Team Murderers wasn’t filling her with warm and fuzzy feelings, but on the other hand…what else was she going to do? Go back to her cell and rot away? Wasn’t doing something, doing some good no less, worth a little discomfort? “You really used up your credibility for this? You don’t even like me.”
“Like you said yourself once, hearts can change,” Cardin said. “And so can we. Vale doesn’t have time for me to hold onto stupid schoolboy grudges any more. Vale needs every weapon that it can lay its hands on…and that’s what worries me.”
“Is it bad out there?” Sunset said. “I’ve heard…some things that didn’t sound great?”
“People are scared,” Cardin said. “People are desperate. We’ve got no time at all to build what it took Atlas years to get right. They’ve already graduated all the students who fought at the battle, they’re talking about graduating the ones who didn’t fight as well so that we can get more bodies in the field. Some people are even talking about graduating the third and fourth year students from the Combat Schools.”
“The Combat Schools?” Sunset said. “They’re just kids.”
“So was Ruby, so the thinking goes.”
“Okay, but Ruby’s a prodigy,” Sunset said. “You can’t generalise by the exception, everybody knows that. You put those kids out in the field you’re going to get ten kids dead for every Ruby Rose you find.”
“I know that,” Cardin said. “I know that we need to give them time to grow into passable huntsmen. I know that we shouldn’t have sent away all the great huntsmen that we already had just because they weren’t born here. I know that even while we were building our own military we should have crawled on our hands and knees to get Atlas to stay instead of saying ‘good riddance’ as they flew home. I know that for everybody good idea someone is having about we keep Vale safe someone else is having a bad one. That’s why I needed to come up with a good idea, something to balance out a bad one that someone else is having. That’s why Vale needs you; you’re one of the best huntresses in the school and I think that if we act now then…maybe when you’re done things won’t look quite so scary and people will stop talking about sending kids out to fight.”
He had a point there, and a point that was pretty inarguable when Sunset thought about it. He was right that Professor Ozpin probably wouldn’t have wanted all of this, but if Atlas then why not Vale? Why shouldn’t they protect themselves?
And Cardin said that they were scared, and fear that would bring more grimm was what Professor Ozpin had most wanted to avoid. If she could help lessen that fear, if by working in the shadows she could make the sun seem brighter, then didn’t she have an obligation to do it?
She was a huntress. She might never graduate but that didn’t change the fact that she was, finally, a huntress in her heart. She wouldn’t make sacrifices, and included standing by while Vale sacrificed the seed-corn of the nation because they were panicking like headless chickens. She wouldn’t turn her back on those in need, which sounded like everybody right now.
She wouldn’t sit in a cell when she was being offered the chance to get out of it and do some good.
“I want Cinder,” she said. “You want me because you trust me, I want Cinder because I trust her. She’s the only person I can think of who I can trust.”
“Fine, I’m sure I can arrange that,” Cardin said. “So you’ll do it?”
“Yeah,” Sunset said. “I’ll fight for Vale, and for you.”
Although if I’d known that I was going to get out of here I might not have given the Maiden’s magic away.
Now...
There was an anti-air battery in the park, a four barrelled autocannon with boxy magazines and a complicated sighting mechanism half-dug into the lightly frosted ground; it was surrounded by a shallow layer of sandbags, and a couple of men wrapped up against the cold kept the children away.
Because there were still plenty of children here, in spite of the presence of the instrument of war in the middle of the public space; the snow had not quite melted here as it had on the streets Sunset had walked down to reach the café, and there was just enough left for a few shrieking children to be making snowballs to hurl at one another while their mothers watched with mingled happiness and anxiety. Other children kicked a football around, driving gorges through the snow as they forced the ball through the receding drifts; still more were playing a game that seemed to mostly involve chasing one another around while screaming very loudly. Despite the presence on the gun in the midst of it all the park all around the battery teemed with life and enjoyment: Sunset could see a man and a woman walking together, and the man was obviously very much in love with her else he wouldn’t have put up with the fact that the woman was paying far more attention to the overweight pug in her arms than she was to him; another woman was being pulled along by her greyhound as it raced through the snow deaf to her pleas to slow down just a little, please? If it wasn’t for the gun then you might never know that anything was amiss in Vale.
Maybe that was the point? Maybe that was the point of all of it, the pots and pans, the old men with their knives and broom handles, the army of volunteers, the army itself even; maybe it wasn’t going to stop the grimm but so long as it stopped people from panicking, so long as it made them feel same, then maybe the grimm wouldn’t come again anyway.
At the edge of the park somebody had parked a van selling coffee and crepes; Sunset knew that she shouldn’t eat after having had a cake with Professor Goodwitch, but it was cold out here and so she brought herself a coffee and clutched the cardboard cup tightly in both hands as she walked through the snow towards a park bench. It was lightly dusted with snow, but she used her tail like a brush to clear it away before she sat down to wait for Cardin.
The screaming of all the children, wrapped up in their winter coats and bobble hats (it was getting into early spring by now, but nobody had told the weather that) filled the air. She noticed one child standing a little on his own, away from the rest. It looked as though he was trying to get a kite up, but the wind wasn’t quite strong enough to lift it. It had left him looking absurdly dispirited.
Sunset wasn’t quite so old that she couldn’t remember the way that objectively small things couldn’t feel enormous when you were a kid, and she needed to get more practice in with her pegasus powers. They came less naturally to her than unicorn magic, but now that she had, it seemed, ascended when she wasn’t looking they were as much a part of her as her earth-pony-born increases in strength and stamina, so she might as well use them.
It took a little more concentration than calling on what she still thought of simply as magic, but fortunately she wasn’t trying to do very much: just create a gently breeze to blow across the park and lift that kite up into the air and set it fluttering there.
She still had to concentrate, especially since she didn’t just have a pair of wings she could beat to start this off. She had to imagine the wings, feel them as though they were there, draw them in her mind and make them real; she had to conjure the breeze within herself, not too strong and not too weak either, conjure it in tranquillity and send it forth into the world.
Sunset smiled as the little kid squealed for joy as his kite began to dance amongst the air currents.
She thought that the princesses would approve of such a little use of her new powers.
Which reminded her that she should tell Princess Celestia the news about Professor Ozpin; when Sunset had finally gotten her journal back and informed the princess of the professor’s death her old teacher had taken it surprisingly hard. Apparently it had only taken a single conversation for them to grow close, or feel as though they had. She would probably be glad to learn then, that he was alive in some form; although what she would think of the method of his immortality…Sunset wasn’t sure what she thought of it. She wasn’t sure that she quite understood it.
She almost hoped that she didn’t understand it, because it meant it could still be better than it sounded.
Else it isn’t just a curse for Professor Ozpin but for the kid as well.
Cardin, swathed in a dull and nondescript overcoat which hid his uniform – judging by his boots he wasn’t wearing his armour; Sunset found that she was getting more and more used to the uniform – sat down beside her. He was holding a coffee in one hand and a disposable polythene plate with a chocolate-hazelnut and banana crepe on it in the other.
“Oh my goodness, is that the Cardin Winchester?” Sunset declared in mock surprise. “I think I might faint.”
“Shut up,” Cardin muttered, sipping his steaming coffee. “It’s weird, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“This,” Cardin said. “Everyone just doing their thing as though that gun wasn’t even there.”
“You and me, Cardin,” Sunset said. “We’re making all of Vale feel safe.”
Cardin snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“We’re making a difference, aren’t we?” Sunset said. “Or else what’s the point.”
Cardin glanced at her. He nodded. “Yeah, we’re making a difference.”
“Thank Celestia for that, or this would be depressing,” Sunset said, as she plucked one of the slices of banana off Cardin’s crepe and popped it in her mouth.
“Hey!”
“Serves you right for having your breakfast in front of me,” Sunset said. She paused. “How long are the banana supplies going to hold up if we don’t resume trade with Menagerie soon?”
Cardin blinked. “You know…I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Has anybody thought of that?”
“They’ve probably thought that keeping White Fang infiltrators out is more important than whether we have bananas.”
“Say that when all of the exotic fruit is gone and there are riots in the streets,” Sunset said. “So how as Alexandria?”
“I arrested the commandant, thanks to you and the proof you provided.”
“Glad I could help, but not what I asked,” Sunset said. “How was Alexandria? You must have had a little time to see the sights.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I didn’t so I’d like to hear it from you,” Sunset said. “They say the library there is one of the biggest in all of Remnant; maybe the biggest.”
“Did you read that in a guidebook?”
“…yes,” Sunset said.
“I didn’t go to any libraries,” Cardin said. He shifted slightly uncomfortably in his seat. “They gave me a tour of Pharos,” he said; he ate some of his crepe before Sunset could steal any more of it.
“The Combat School?”
Cardin, his mouth full, nodded.
“What’s that like?”
“Full of eager kids,” Cardin said. “I think you would have liked the tower. If they can’t rebuild Beacon tower then I think Pharos would work as our connection to the CCT network.”
“Does anyone want to rebuild the CCT network?”
Cardin didn’t answer. “Those kids…the way that they looked at me. The headmaster introduced me as a hero and…we were never wide-eyed, right? We never thought that we were just going to show up and all the grimm were going to fall down dead and we’d right our names in the history pages.”
“No, that’s definitely what we thought,” Sunset said. “I’m not sure if it isn’t something that you have grow out of on your own; people can tell you its wrong but you need to go through some things to actually believe them.” She fell silent for a moment. “You didn’t answer my question about the CCT.”
“I don’t have an answer for you,” Cardin said. “I don’t think there’s an opinion one way or the other; just people fighting about it.” He ate some more crepe. “I also got to go down to the docks and see the new ships they’re building, the Beacon, the Signal, and the Pharos. There’s not much to them but the start of skeletons, but they’re working on it and that…that was good to see.”
Sunset nodded. “So…things are going pretty well in Vale then?”
Cardin shrugged. “Everyone is pitching in, that’s good.”
“But?”
Cardin snorted. “I don’t know why I tell you all of this stuff.”
“Because who else are you going to tell? Come on, a little gossip from around the family table is the least you owe me.”
“I let you out of prison and got you off a death sentence, I don’t owe you squat!”
“I suppose not, if you want to be technical about it,” Sunset muttered. “But is it so strange that I want to know that it isn’t just you and me and Cinder keeping Vale safe?”
“Vale is safe,” Cardin said. “It’s safer than it was.” He paused. “It’s also going broke.”
Sunset’s eyebrows rose. “Seriously?”
“Raising an army, building a fleet, finishing the outer defences, installing anti-air defences, apparently all of this stuff costs money,” Cardin said.
“Is that why the Home Guard don’t have guns?”
“No, that’s because we don’t have enough guns to give them,” Cardin said. “They’re finding stocks of old rifles from the Great War, bolt action stuff, but they’re all being used for the army; we ran out of modern rifles more than a month ago.”
“Are you…how?”
Cardin finished his coffee. “Did you know that Vale has a thriving weapons industry?”
“It doesn’t surprise me.”
“There’s a whole district called the Gunsmith’s Quarter,” Cardin went on.
“I didn’t know that.”
“Neither did I, although I probably should have cause the guy who made my Executioner works out of there,” Cardin said. “But that’s the problem: it’s all custom work for huntsmen or private use. There isn’t a single place in the whole of Vale that can gear up for the mass production of weapons that we need. Atlas has that capacity, even Mistral has some of it, but not us.”
“The police? The National Guard?”
“Imported.”
Sunset thought about it for a moment. “What about Merlot’s Island?”
“Who?”
“Right, you weren’t there,” Sunset said. She wondered how to begin. “Okay, long story very short: summer break, we went on a mission and ended up following a chain of clues that led to a secret island base run by a mad scientist and I know this sounds like a James Blond movie but I swear this happened, anyway, he had an island base and a big part of the base was this factory where he was making advanced androids, better than anything the SDC or the Atlesian military is producing right now, and he was arming those robots with some pretty powerful guns. I don’t know how many his facility was designed to produce but…it has to be better than nothing, right?”
Cardin looked at her. “And this facility is still there? It works?”
“It wasn’t destroyed.”
“And you’re only bringing it up now?”
“I didn’t know you had this problem until now,” Sunset said. “Besides, you’ve got access to the mission reports, right? You could have found this out yourself.”
“Why would I?” Cardin replied. “Do you know where this island is?”
“The coordinates will be-“
“In your report, got it,” Cardin said. “I’ll have it checked out.” He nodded briskly. “Thanks, if this pans out it could be the life saver we need.”
“Glad I could help,” Sunset said. “Just remember that I did help when I ask you for a favour.”
Cardin shook his head. “Go on.”
“I need to go to Patch,” Sunset said. “I need to talk to Ruby.”
Cardin’s jaw tightened. “Is this something to do with the talk you had with Professor Goodwitch?”
“You still call her that too, huh?”
“It wouldn’t feel right not too,” Cardin said.
Sunset hesitated. She watched the breath steam up in front of her face. “She asked me to do something for her; I can’t do it so I need to ask Ruby to do it instead.”
“What kind of a favour?”
“She…she wanted me to go to Anima.”
Cardin spluttered. “You’re right, you really can’t do that. I couldn’t let you do that even if you wanted to; or even if I wanted to. What’s in Anima for you?”
“I can’t tell you,” Sunset said.
“But you still expect me to let you go to Patch and talk to Ruby?”
“Don’t be a jerk, it’s not as though I’m asking you to let me go to Mistral,” Sunset said. “I’m talking about two days, one there and one back. Two days, I’m sure you and Vale can survive without me for that long.”
“And what about your team?”
Sunset shifted uncomfortably. “Cinder can hold them together for that long,” she said. I hope.
Cardin hesitated for a moment. “Talking to Ruby…it might not be such a bad idea. Ruby going to Mistral might not be such a bad idea.”
Sunset frowned. “Why?”
“The Committee wants her,” Cardin said. “They want her badly; she was the best Vale-born huntress at Beacon and she…she’d be a greater symbol of hope than me or Coco or anybody else they stick up on posters. She’s not answering their letters. My father said that if she doesn’t answer they’re going to ask me to talk to her…if she won’t come then it might be best if she left the country before-“
“Before what?” Sunset demanded. “Before someone tries to drag her back here by force?”
“It won’t be that…it won’t be like that,” Cardin said. “But there’s pressure that can be put on her and her father: stop the old man’s stipend, threaten to repossess their house, that kind of thing. It isn’t something that I want to see happen.”
Sunset growled wordlessly. Ruby had lost her sister, for crying out loud, couldn’t they have pity on her? Couldn’t they have some empathy for what she’d been through? Where they that desperate? Yes, obviously, as so much so aptly demonstrated. “If that’s the bad idea then what’s the good one to balance it out?”
“They’re forming a second squad, since the first one worked out so well,” Cardin said.
It took Sunset a moment to work out what he meant. “A second squad of prisoners?”
“They’re capable, and nobody will miss them,” Cardin said.
“Maybe, but can they be trusted?” Sunset said. “How many other people like me do you have lying around to lead these teams?”
“Team Bluebell,” Cardin said.
“Team Bluebell?” Sunset repeated. “They…” she stopped, because the fact that Lyra, Bon Bon and Sky had betrayed Beacon and Professor was not entirely their fault. In light of what she had learned about Amber’s semblance it seemed likely that she had used it to gain their affection and their loyalty. That didn’t make it incredibly easy for Sunset to forgive them, however; Amber’s influence or not their actions had still contributed to Professor Ozpin’s death (and the fact that he wasn’t quite dead didn’t make it easy to forgive them either); not to mention the fact that, even if Sunset could see that they might be somewhat trustworthy, they just weren’t that good. “Is it really worth it? For Team Bluebell?”
“They want to make amends for what they did,” Cardin said. “And they have more training than a lot of the people who we’re asking to help keep Vale safe.”
“That’s true, I guess,” Sunset said. “Anybody else?”
“Your old pal Roman Torchwick.”
“I didn’t even know he’d be arrested.”
“It was kept hushed up.”
“To make it easier to recruit him for this?”
Cardin nodded. “I’m keeping that girl of his under supervision in case he gets any ideas.”
Sunset shook his head. “Even so, you’ve got a tiger by the tail with him.”
“Team Bluebell will be able to handle him.”
“You’ve got more faith in them than I do.”
“He’s just one guy,” Cardin said.
“And they’re…them,” Sunset said. “Do you really think that squad is going to do any good?”
“I think we need the bodies and you could use the backup,” Cardin said. “Now that the force has grown I can assign you more dangerous missions.”
“Oh, great,” Sunset said. “So do I get to go to Patch before you throw me back into the fire?”
Cardin pulled out his scroll, and opened up what looked like a variant on the mission board. He used his forefinger to scroll through the list of available missions. “Hmm, maybe there is something that you can do on Patch.”
“Trouble?” Sunset said, leaning closer to him.
“Looks that way,” Cardin said. “A village called Threadneedle has been reporting grimm attacks on the outlying farms; they don’t have a garrison, they’re requesting a search and destroy.”
“Will anyone find it odd that someone like you is taking a job like that?”
“I go where you’re needed,” Cardin said. “It’s all Vale and it all needs defending. Head out there, clean up, save the village. Once the mission is complete then…I’ll lose you for a couple of days and you can go and see Ruby, talk about whatever secret stuff you two have going on.”
Sunset let out a sigh of relief that she hadn’t realised she’d been holding in. “Thank you,” she said softly. “You’re a good man, Cardin Winchester.”
“No I’m not,” Cardin said. “We’re neither of us good people, Sunset; we just do the best we can anyway.”
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I agree, it was a good chapter
9973903
I think the name SERC (Circe) would be better. With a current and a former magic user on the roster, I think it'd be fitting to name it after the Grecian Witch.
This is gonna be GoOOOd
At last, Sunset now knows that Ozpin has his own form of immortality. I've been eagerly looking forward to this! After all, she used to be more skeptical of him than anyone in SAPR, partially because it was hard for her to trust leaders who didn't have Celestia's vast wisdom and experience. The sweet irony is that after she would eventually learn of Ozpin's immortality, Sunset's own experience with immortals and the great burden they carry would likely make her his most understanding ally.
I'm also looking forward to Sunset meeting Ruby's dad again. With Yang gone, Tai's not in the best shape right now. But he knows very well that if it wasn't for Sunset, Ruby would have died on that train. And then he would have lost both his children. Sunset saved her, and he won't forget that.
So why is Neo the one being contained? Seems to me like she would be a greater asset in the field than Torchwick.
Some good explanation for how Sunset ended up in her current role. Very happy to see that explained. Also why Pyrrha is out and about.
Cardin is... Interesting. Feels like a secret agent handler. Sunset is a deniable asset.
What happened to Yang though? That is what has me curious.
9974062
I’m thinking that Neo is being contained instead of Torchwick because if she wasn’t she’d break him out in a week and kill half a dozen people in the process.
Containing an illusionist isn’t too hard if you know what she can do. Stopping one who’s breaking into your facility is a LOT harder.
Honestly, how is it that you manage to make characters that are basically fairly bland antagonists in the series actually interesting and, well, non-terrible? Like, you've managed to make me have respect for Cardin Winchester or all people.
Honestly, Vale doesn’t deserve Sunset Shimmer. She’s still considered a criminal? OK, so everyone who both have the power to have her pardoned and knows her worth is either dead or gone... but still.
Is she never going to be pardoned?
It reminds me, unfavorably, of how Yang was never cleared of the charge that she’d attacked Mercury unprovoked after his aura broke. Yang, to this day, has never gotten vindication during the canon show... and it looks like she never really will.
I mean, sure, if you’re trying to show that Vale’s government is corrupt and incompetent, then job well done there, I suppose.
If the story ends and Sunset is still considered a criminal at the end of it... I’ll be very disappointed.
Ah well. I have to read to the end to find out, huh?
9974062
Likely because someone with decision-making powers believes Torchwick is the more controllable/predictable of the two. Playing the odds.
9974055
Let's not forget Sunset herself is Immortal now.
9974178
Yeah, Salem is NOT going to like that.
9974119
I think it's more like an illusionist such as her is far too slippery to be allowed to walk around in open air. Roman can't disappear into shards of glass and vanish into the wind once you deactivate the collar.
9974139
Considering that Yang received her official Huntress license like the rest of the group, I'd say she's been officially cleared.
Yeah, things are falling to pieces.
Goddamn it. This is only the second story I've ever read where I end up liking Winchester.
This all of BLBL that lived, Lyra, Bon Bon and Sky? I know Dove is dead but I honestly have forgotten about Sky's fate.
Do wonder just how they are keeping Neo. If she wants out she is out. And Roman isn't going to be that easy to control either. Cardan is playing a very dangerous game with this. I guess the collars will help, but I wouldn't put it past Roman to know how to get around them, or Neo to have just used her symblence to fake having one on.
Seeing the effect the attack on Vale had has been... refreshing I guess is the word, its nice. a exploration of how the city is dealing with what happened, how its healing. how people are coming together in the face of this tragedy, but not always in the right ways, or useful ones either.
the talk with Cardin, both of them, were great, and honestly if Vale can mass produce those combat robots, or even fix them up, that along with the guns will really launch them forward on the global stage. lets hope that's all they discover there tho.
and the last bit, well im really interested in seeing both Roman again, as well as Ruby's dad. the first cuz we haven't seen him around in a while, and it would be nice to get his 2 cents over all that's happened. the second because its thanks to Sunset that he didn't lose both his daughters to Vales protection, and given all that's happened it would be nice to see some one just glad their kid isn't dead thanks to her.
which brings up the future interaction between Ruby and Sunset, it will be interesting to see how recent events have changed her outlook on Sunset, and how Sunset will try to get Ruby out of where she is emotionally speaking. Sunset's right in that she can't just leave Vale right now, so she NEEDS to get Ruby to go after Ozpin, that means she needs to find the right words to convince Ruby to go.
oh Snap just realized we are going to be seeing Zwie again :)
Sounds like we'll get to see another Roman and Sunset interaction. I wownder how he will react to being effectivly under her command...
Yes! Some exposition, finally! Glad things are cleared up! Sorry for the rant in the previous chapter, though.
I really enjoyed the WW2 references concerning the homefront such as during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz and the hints of the German counterpart/equivalent. This includes the problems caused by a shutdown of international trade which hits hard on any economy due to the lack of imports & exports, and the financial costs of rapid military buildup (starting from scratch no less). Most laymen tend to overlook the importance of needing a proper war economy, industry and logistics system to support the frontline units.
And I like the idea of bringing up Merlot's combat droids and the automated manufacturing and support facilities to produce, arm and maintain them. The irony now is Merlot's original plans for them are more or less being fulfilled. Even if the Merlot combat droids themselves won't be used, both the custom double-bladed polearms and minigun/grenade launcher combo weapon could still prove useful on their own to arm the human/faunas fighters for both melee and ranged combat respectively.
I forgot, could the custom double-bladed polearms be used by human/faunas wielders too? We already got confirmation with the minigun/grenade launcher via Rainbow and Jaunne.
Well it looks like one of my hopes from last chapter is coming through in that we can probably consider Cardin and Sunset officially friends.
Now all we have to hope for is for Cinder and Emerald to become REAL friends instead of master and lackey. If those two can become true friends then Sunset can become friends with Emerald. This is assuming that Emerald won't become friends with Sunset until she has a healthy relationship with Cinder.
I'm also glad we got to hear about team BL(x)L. It's a shame that they had to go to prison too, seeing as that they were mentally manipulated. Although, from the sound of things they feel guilty about what happened, so maybe being punished will help ease how they feel. After all we still don't know how exactly they feel about things now that Amber is dead. All I know is that it will be deviously hilarious if they become the first people controlled by the Sirens.
I just hope at the very least that Lyra is able to come out alright. She was the only genuinely good person on that team. Bonbon was good in the beginning, but how she reacted when Blake tried to make amends really soured my opinion of her in this story.
So Oz is the Avatar?
9974476
Oz is the Avatar, except that he becomes like a second personality, able to swap control with his host to talk to others.
9974510
Well, that's the case with Oscar, anyway. Ozpin seemed to just be one person while he was still, well, Ozpin. I think Jinn may have explained the process in Volume 6 but I don't really remember.
Does this mean that team BLBL is now Team RBLL (Rebel) with the addition of Torchwick?
9974521
It's likely that the personality that was Ozpin will merge with his new host, becoming the new version, in canon's case, Oscar, but with the knowledge of all previous versions.
9974386
While I like the idea of Marlot's factories being used to help but I getting more worried about the idea of the Committee getting its hands on any stray pieces of Marlot's research as I doubt they would ignore the opportunity to get an edge over any perceived threats
Hopefully Ruby isn't still hung up on Sunset over the whole train thing.
9974588
I think that's part of the future story plot. Merlot's physical resources+facilities, tech and weapons are badly needed.
It's Merlot's genetics research and the green crystals/slime/ooze found on that island that would be the main problems if Vale's politicians start going further into the mental deep end in the future.
That's where we have to start worrying if the Vale politicians+extremists start becoming like either:
- HYDRA (MCU franchise);
- Cobra Command (GI Joe franchise);
- Weyland-Yutani (Aliens franchise);
- the Umbrella Corporation (Resident Evil franchise); or
- Project Cadmus and Amanda Waller (DC franchise since we already have the Suicide Squad reference);
with said examples' various mad scientist research projects in their respective franchises.........
Hear's the name of vale's defense committee; gets French revolution and Reign of terror flashbacks
So are the 2 other criminals in Sunsets team whose names I have already forgotten going to be fleshed out at all, or get killed off and replaced. I gotta be honest I was hoping for a team of sunset, cinder, roman, and emerald/Neo
First you send her to prison for Breach, proclaiming "No, you do not define who lives." Then, after she ignores imprisonment measures, gets out, saves prison and two armies, they let her free, unoficially but still, and ask her to protect Vale. Essencially they not only admit her right to decide but outright ask to make life-saving choices. And admit that they outright can't hold her or even try to execute her without displeasing their own prison guards, basically admiting that no, Vale does not have hold on Sunset's life, while other way Sunset has hold on lives. At the same time Vale rulers reject professor Goodwitch, who is official agent of Ozma, previous immortal protector of Vale... And that is while sirens make claim on city and Vale outright needs immortal protector.
Cardin, do you know how you call Goddess-Princesses to rule your country? Because what you are doing is exactly calling Alicorn of Life Sunset Shimmer to become responcible for Vale. It will be quite amusing at the end - Pyrrha, Maiden-Queen of Mistral returns to Vale only to meet Goddess-Princess Sunset Shimmer on Vale's throne
https://grimmeclipse.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Android
https://grimmeclipse.fandom.com/wiki/White_Android
I just realised something due to the Merlot combat androids' rather large sizes (compared to most humans and faunas). The minigun/grenade launcher design aside, wouldn't the custom double-bladed glaive be too large for most humans and faunas to use?
Besides salvaging/reverse-engineering and reactivating the production facilities at Merlot's island to produce those combat androids and their weapons again, would it be possible and practical in the long run for Vale to reverse-engineering and redesign those same weapons to smaller, more practical sizes for human/faunas users?
This could allow them to continue using the glaives' tech in future human-/faunas-sized melee weapons and the ammunition and parts used in the minigun/grenade launcher design for rifles.
"had betrayed Beacon and Professor was not"
Missing an Ozpin there.
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Considering Ruby has suffered Sunsets Dilemma and payed the price Sunset was afraid of, Ruby might be a bit more accommodating.
Great Chapter with great character development. Cant wait to see the meeting with Ruby, should be interesting.
It was hinted via Blake in the last chapter that Mistral, even before the Battles of Beacon and Vale, was already publicly spoiling for a fight. Or at least that was what Mistral's Council tried to portray to distract the masses.
I'm surprised there wasn't some rapport or acknowledgement between both the Atlesian and Mistralian soldiers who fought together (and got hung to dry together outside Vale's walls) after this that could help ease some tensions between Atlas and Mistral. And lets not forget the Huntsman and Huntress teams that fought for both the Atlesian and Mistralian soldiers.
Was there any other hints beyond Blake's in the last chapter?
Because I'm both curious and worried how this could affect Cadance's and Kali's plans and negotiations between Atlas and Menagerie without Mistral's support. Maybe this could offer better chances for the others to reunite during talks to smoothen things between Atlas, Menagerie and Mistral?
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Torchwick would likely be more amenable to Sunset as a handler anyway. And that's before he even learns that she tamed Cinder.
If Sunset gained the ability to turn herself into a pony, that would go a long way to helping Ruby feel better.
Any plans on having Cinder refer to Cardin as “Karen” like in the Chibi series?
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Heh, that would be an interesting snark and show the differences in interaction.
BTW Scipio Smith, were Roman and Neo intercepted and arrested while trying to get to Vacuo like in the last chapter they were seen? I'm guessing they would have to stop at Vale to get whatever they needed to help them get to Vacuo but got stopped in Vale and arrested instead.
Also, I just watched this Equestria Girls video and it reminded me of some of the combined RWBY and Equestria Girls elements in SAPR. Considering the gloomy feeling now, I felt we could use some cheering up from this video. What do you all think? Notice some of the RWBY and SAPR elements?
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I read it as Seeker
Man, I finally caught up. I get why Sunset did what she did, I don't like it, but it makes all the sense in the world.
I do hope Cinder travels with Sunset on her journey, I love them together and ship them together.
Though, I will say that I'm a little surprised you didn't break up the story. Since Team SAPR appears as finished, I'd have thought you'd mark this complete and start the sequel as a second story. Definitely would make any potential re-read less intimidating. Lol
Still, congrats on the first ... large ... chunk, looking forward to more! As always.
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Ruby is the member of the four I have the hardest time writing for, I admit. In the early part of the story I default to writing her as 'the kid' far too often.
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That's understandable honestly.
I just... maybe... no, this is the only Ruby I've actually read and I might need to watch the show again to get a grasp on what bothers me exactly but
Yeah making her optimistic without seeming childish and reproducing her actual maturity and tendency to say the right thing at the right time can be a challenge. I'm just saying: there was a reason why she became the leader of Team RWBY, and there hardly seems to be examples of that leader at this point in the story (where I am at least). I understand Sunset as a leader above her, but being "the child" so often doesn't sound like Ruby at all. Does that make sense...? I'm not trying to seem rude
I wonder if the story behind the first Oz, Salem and the first Maidens from volume 6 is going to be in this. That would be really cool. I have also almost gotten this and RWBY mixed up because I have been watching volume 7 while reading this.
Sunset, another settlement needs your help. I will mark it on your scroll.
I hesitate to call the introductory sequence 'light,' but for coming off a timeskip, you paint a picture of the Vale well: the society, the city, the physical buildings and landmarks, and the people. Even Sunset, but us coming to know here was fairly inevitable. And Cardin and Velvet's posters were an especially nice (and perhaps a bit amusing) touch on things.
Perhaps 'light' isn't the word for a description that ultimately takes at least two pages, but it feels lighter as we're not hanging on any one thing for a particularly long time. Walk down street, here is how this is, walk down next street. Simple, but effective.
Funnily enough, I'm reminded of a conversation in Fire Emblem Three Houses, incidentally after the (5 year) time skip. Yes, you can tell the students to call you by your name, but, no, they can't do it. It sounds too weird. And so, they stick to calling you Professor.
I also like that you actually touch on the politics of Vale, and how Glinda's position is intentional to keep her away from the council is also there. Not terribly plot relevant, if at all (at least not yet), but another little touch to the worldbuilding that grounds us to where we are. The relations between nations is a bit more important, so I suppose it can be seen as all rolling together, but it still didn't require us knowing Glinda's exact standing. Clarifying that before the question is posed is laudable, or at least I think so.
With regards to the flashback with Cardin... I'm not sure if it was actually necessary? I know, that is a thrice strange thing for me to say, as I love more to read, I love more Cardin, and the writing and character in it is all around great. It is certainly great context, and packaged into a nice, tight bundle, I just feel like a lot of it is context we'll be let in on as we go along anyways, at least with regards to Sunset and Cardin's dynamic. And if we're getting the bulk of information anyways as we progress, do we need the flashback (this is really the main reason this vexes me).
But your Cardin is a delight to read, so I can hardly criticize the inclusion what is basically some character and context dessert.
If the start of the chapter was telling us about the state of the world, then this machine gun is what is selling that vision to us. Life continues, but war has come home. It has become the new normal, and who knows how long that anti-air battery will remain there waiting for the great threat it was meant to fight against? You could have just gotten away with implying much of the changes through the AA battery alone, but showing and telling us it all on both a micro and macro level like this I think helps us better come to grips with Timeskip Vale.
Being honest though, the AA Battery in the park is a phenomenal image, because it works without context. Take it completely out of this story, and it still says the exact same thing. It is sobering, it is dreadful, and yet around it there is an element of hope to it too, as otherwise normal lives find a way to continue on. There's a poetry to it that alludes to our own war and conflicts, as if we might be in, say, Phoenix, Arizona in '42, rather than Vale in Remnant.
I feel like I could go on and on. I won't, but I feel like I could.
Okay, let me set aside the whole subject of their conversation and the state of affairs of Vale for a moment, and focus on this, because this was a brilliant moment of writing. Even if nothing comes of all of this plot-wise, it brings Grimm Eclipse back into the story, if only as a referenced moment, and makes this feel much more like a lived in world. Then, on top of that, there are the plot considerations for the government of Vale taking over Merlot's old facility. It is practically a free cache of Atlas-grade weapons/robots at the least, to say nothing of industrial potential. The readers that would actually think to question Vale wanting or needing to use the island might be few and far between if nothing was said, and if you chose to bring it up later even without this it would be entirely believable, even without this setup, if it is a setup at all.
Praising their back and forth on another look at Vale's situation, especially on a more micropolitical level (bananas) is also great. It is restating the same idea again in different ways, that I admit could get redundant, but each time it is presented differently, and it gives us that lived-in feeling of the world, and how such tragedy is shaping it (or at least here, Vale). And Sunset asking about a library still offers us some perspective on just how outside of society she seems to be (which makes sense, being a supposed fugitive).
The last major thing to comment on is how politics is coming for Ruby. It's an odd little nugget that makes sense with everything we've been given and, again, adds just a little bit more. However, while the focus might be on Ruby, it really cements how far Cardin has actually come since he gives context and reason for her to go to Anima outside of what Sunset needs her to do, and is for her own good to protect her from Vale's own government. The council might be painted as boogeyman, but if they weren't so desperate, Sunset wouldn't be out and about (albeit secretly). Yet, Cardin is the one to do that painting of the council, and does so on Ruby's behalf.
That is a far cry from Forever Fall Cardin.
Oh and Sunset and Cardin's dynamic is great. I could be verbose about it, but it speaks for itself. And when it's not speaking in dialogue, it's in bananas.
Huh, I wonder...... does Vacuo have its own arms industry like Vale (all custom work for huntsmen or private use) or it is a mixed industry like Mistral's due to necessity there?