Northward Bound (New)
Northward Bound
The Atlesian Skyray carried the reinforced Team RSPT north from Beacon and from Vale proper, soaring over the Forever Fall Forest and beyond, towards the port of Cold Harbour.
Rainbow Dash was at the controls, with Twilight in the co-pilot’s seat. Ciel stood in the main passenger section, her large anti-material rifle resting against the wall, while another, more man-sized weapon was slung across her back.
Blake faced her, standing on the other side of the compartment, her hands idle. Despite the fact that Ciel was reading a magazine and Penny a book, nevertheless, Blake wasn’t sure what it would do for the Atlesian opinion of her if she were to do the same; she wasn’t ready to say for certain that they wouldn’t be hypocrites about the whole thing and take her to task for doing as they did.
Her attention was drawn to the magazine in Ciel’s hands; it was a bridal fashion magazine, with a woman in a billowing, voluminous white dress upon the cover.
“Are congratulations in order?” Blake asked.
Ciel’s gaze flickered up to take in Blake as she turned a page in her magazine. “No,” she said firmly. “Not for me, in any event, unless you wish to congratulate Bruno Hohenzollern upon his engagement to Miss Meghan Chotek. There is a feature of several pages upon their forthcoming nuptials.”
“Meghan… she’s an actress, isn’t she?” Blake ventured.
“Indeed, and he is a motorcycle racer,” Ciel confirmed, “and the heir to the claimant to the defunct throne of Mantle, but that is of little concern.”
“Is it?” Blake asked.
Ciel’s eyes flickered up to look at her again. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, is it really of little concern, or is it the only reason anyone cares that he’s getting married?” Blake explained. “Is it like Pyrrha where she’d still be famous for her skill and the royal connection is just one more thing for people to talk about, or is it more like… I suppose what I’m asking is if he’s any good as a racer.”
“Then I suggest you ask someone with more familiarity with the sport,” Ciel replied. “All I know is that he is considered notable enough that a considerable quantity of page space is devoted to him, alongside his wife, with whose work I am a little more familiar. Did you ever see Frozen Harvest?”
“No.”
“You should,” Ciel informed her. “A heartbreaking portrayal of life on the home front during the Great War; Miss Chotek played a young bride struggling to maintain her farm outside Canterlot while her husband was away at war. A stellar performance; she was robbed at the awards by some silly musical.”
Twilight looked around in her seat. “Are you talking about Edelweiss? Because there was nothing silly about that movie. It dealt with the tyranny of Mantle before and during the Great War-”
“Through the medium of rather mawkish songs,” Ciel retorted.
“There’s nothing wrong with sentimentality,” Twilight insisted. “Even if it is being used to sugar over some uncomfortable truths. Not to mention that nobody even realised Coloratura could act until she made that movie.”
“Her acting, such as it was, bore no comparison to the portrayal of courage and resilience under pressure given by Miss Chotek,” Ciel declared. “All the best Atlesian values were on display in that film, and the Academy snubbed them all.”
“Well, maybe,” Twilight conceded, “but they don’t give films awards just for how patriotic they are.”
“That way lies the road of Mantle and the Great War,” Blake murmured.
Ciel’s gaze sharpened noticeably. “I am proud of my kingdom,” she said. “I am proud of what it stands for, the values that it embodies; that does not mean I want to see the return of a despotic tyranny.”
“You’re right; I’m sorry,” Blake said. “I… have a little bit of an issue where I rush to judgement sometimes.” I should probably work on that, with how often it keeps getting me into trouble.
Ciel did not reply but returned her attention to her bridal magazine.
“So,” Blake went on, hoping to end the conversation on a smoother note, “why are you reading a wedding magazine?”
“I like the dress styles,” Ciel said candidly. “Styles that are, unfortunately, rather out of fashion in most circumstances. A wedding is one of the few occasions outside of a fancy dress event when one can get away with wearing a ballgown.”
Blake’s eyebrows rose. “Would you want to wear a ballgown in other circumstances?”
“I find them… rather lovely to look upon,” Ciel admitted.
“That isn’t the same thing as wearing them,” Blake pointed out. “Aren’t they… awkward?”
“Not once one gets used to them,” Ciel replied.
“And have you?” Blake asked. “Gotten used to them, I mean.”
Ciel turned another page in her magazine. “Not as much as I might like.”
Huh. That’s not something I expected to find out about her. Blake’s gaze descended, as well as moving sideways, to fall on Penny, who was sitting on the floor reading the assigned Fairy Tales of Remnant textbook for Legends class.
Homework, I suppose.
“Hey, Blake,” Rainbow called from the cockpit. “Do you know how to fly an airship?”
Blake’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve flown Bullheads a couple of times.”
“Come up here a second and relieve Twilight,” Rainbow told her. “I want to have a word with you.”
Blake frowned, but judging by the quiet smile on Twilight’s face as the latter got up from her seat in the cockpit, she wasn’t in any trouble. Blake silently walked to the cockpit, brushing past Twilight as she did so, and sat down in the now vacated copilot’s seat.
“I didn’t mean to bait Ciel,” she said. “I just-”
“Ciel’s a big girl; she can handle it,” Rainbow assured her. “That’s not what I want to talk about.”
“Oh,” Blake said softly. “Then… what?”
Rainbow didn’t reply right away. She gripped the controls tightly with both hands as she guided the airship along. “I’ve never been to Cold Harbour, so I don’t know exactly what it will be like there,” she said after a moment. She spoke softly, and Blake would have been surprised if her voice carried very far beyond the cockpit. “But before we arrive, I’m going to tell you something that the General told me once. Not every officer we run into is going to… some officers might-”
“Be racist jerks?” Blake suggested.
Rainbow shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I was going to say they might not mind their manners,” she replied. “So we have to mind ours, okay?”
Blake’s eyes narrowed. “You’re telling me to put up with abuse from bigoted-”
“You could always put the bow back on?” Rainbow suggested.
“Passing for human isn’t much of a better alternative than bearing insults,” Blake snapped.
“What are you going to do, yell at them?” Rainbow demanded.
“Maybe,” Blake said. “It can’t be worse than just standing still and taking it like you’re proposing.” She breathed in deeply. “When I first met you, I thought that you were just like Ilia, someone who had learned to keep quiet in the face of racism from your friends and your teammates. A suggestion that you found insulting.”
“Because it was!”
“But you’re telling me to do exactly that!” Blake cried.
“Not from your friends,” Rainbow corrected. “Only from superior officers.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re superior officers,” Rainbow said, as though that explained everything. “You can’t do anything about them, so you might as well… nobody is going to promote anyone, faunus or otherwise, who acts like a brat.”
“I’m not an Atlas soldier; I don’t care about my career,” Blake said.
“Not yet you don’t,” Rainbow muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Blake asked.
“It means… the system won’t get any better if good people give up on it,” Rainbow said. “If you walk away because things aren’t perfect, then you leave it to people who just want to make things worse.”
“And keeping quiet in the face of injustice isn’t going to make things any better,” Blake insisted. “Why do you think that so many faunus are willing to talk to the White Fang about what’s on your trains? Because their conditions are bad, and they don’t see them improving any time soon.”
“And how is killing people going to get them better wages or healthcare or anything else?!” Rainbow snapped.
“How long are they going to have to wait for people like you to climb sufficiently high that you can start to make changes?” Blake countered.
“Considering that Cold Harbour is, at the end of the day, a Valish port, then perhaps they should look to someone other than Rainbow Dash,” Ciel observed from behind them. “And yes, we can hear you.”
Rainbow winced.
“Why are you two fighting?” Penny asked.
“Because… because there are no right answers, Penny,” Blake said, softly and sadly. “Much as I wish it wasn’t so.” She looked at Rainbow Dash. “I… I know that you believe that you’re doing the right thing, and that your way is the best way. I’m just not sure I agree with you. But I shouldn’t… it doesn’t have to make us enemies.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Rainbow said. “The fact that you care… it’s one of the things I like about you. You’ve got a lot to give to a cause, if you could only find the right one.”
Blake snorted. “Like what? Atlas?”
“Is something wrong with that?” Rainbow replied.
“I don’t know; you’re the one who warned me that the officers were racist.”
“And I’m regretting it more and more ever since,” Rainbow muttered. “I don’t know who the commander at Cold Harbour is, I don’t know how they feel about faunus, I’m just saying… ah, forget it.” She looked at the instruments in front of her. “That’s weird,” she muttered.
“What?” Blake said, looking at where Rainbow was tapping the console. She wasn’t entirely familiar with the controls of a Skyray, but she thought that Rainbow was looking at the fuel gauge.
“We’re using more fuel than we ought to be,” Rainbow said.
“Is that a problem?”
“Yes, it’s a problem because I only fuelled up with the bare minimum to get us to Cold Harbour because I’m an idiot, and this is baby’s first field trip, no, it’s not a problem!” Rainbow snapped. “But it’s weird, and it might become a problem if there’s something wrong with the airship.” Her frown deepened. “I did a complete check last night. I did an external check this morning, and I didn’t spot a leak. Twilight, take the controls.”
“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked.
“I hope not,” Rainbow said softly. “I’m going to take a look in the trunk and see if I can see a problem. If not… I don’t want to land if we can avoid it; we’ll make it to Cold Harbour as we are and let the base mechanics figure it out.”
“Okay,” Twilight said as Blake got out of her seat and allowed Twilight to squeeze past her to retake the controls of the airship. “I just need to hold her steady, right?”
“Right,” Rainbow agreed. “Do you have control?”
Twilight’s grip on the controls tightened. “I have control.”
Rainbow nodded and patted Twilight on the shoulder as she got up and left the cockpit.
Blake leaned down so that her head was just about level with Twilight. “Nervous?”
“Not really,” Twilight replied. “I’m just not quite as good a flyer as Rainbow Dash. But I’m just flying straight and level, and anyone can do that, right?”
“Not anyone,” Blake said, “but you seem to be doing fine.”
Twilight looked up at her, a smile on her face, before she remembered that she should be keeping her eyes on the outside and turned away with a squeak of alarm.
Meanwhile, Rainbow had knelt down on the floor of the central passenger compartment and started to open up the maintenance hatch in the floor, which would expose some, at least, of the inner workings of the airship.
Rainbow threw open the hatch, revealing-
“Hey guys!”
“Sun!” Blake yelled, as the open hatch revealed her boyfriend stowed away inside.
Sun grinned at her. “Hi Blake. Nice to-” his words stopped, transformed into a squawk of alarm as Rainbow grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him out of the crawlspace.
“I guess now we know why the fuel consumption was higher than it should have been,” Rainbow said. “We were carrying extra weight.”
“Hey! This is all muscle.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“It seemed like-”
“Like a good idea at the time,” Blake groaned. She rested her fingertips upon her forehead, her hand covering her face as she shook her head. “Please tell me that you didn’t stow away aboard this airship because of me.”
“I could tell you that, but I would be lying,” Sun admitted.
“Oh, come on,” Rainbow snapped. “Do you honestly expect us to believe that? Do you really expect us to believe that you are that stupid that you would…” She trailed off. “Okay, you’re right, I can absolutely believe that coming from you.”
“Believe what?” Penny asked. “Hello, Sun. I didn’t know you were joining us.”
“He wasn’t supposed to,” Ciel said.
“I just thought… I just wanted to be here in case Blake needed any help,” Sun said, turning an almost pleading gaze towards Blake.
“Blake’s got us to help her out,” Rainbow said, putting Sun back down on the floor of the Skyray, “but I suppose it’s kind of sweet that you care so much.”
“That’s one way of looking at it,” Blake muttered.
“Have you considered taking out a restraining order?” Ciel asked.
Blake’s hand descended from her face so that she could get a better look at the other girl. There was no sign on her face that she was anything less than sincere. “I don’t think that’s necessary,” Blake said. “Although a stern talking-to might be in order.”
“So would a decision on what we’re going to do now,” Twilight said from the cockpit. “Hi, Sun.”
“Hey, Twilight, how’s it hanging?”
“Well, the airship is still hanging in the sky, so that’s a pretty good thing from where I’m sitting.”
“What do you mean, Twi?” Rainbow asked. “We don’t need to think about what we’re going to do now because the mission hasn’t changed. We continue on to Cold Harbour.”
“With Sun?” Twilight asked.
“You don’t want me to throw him out of the airship, do you?”
“Of course not!” Twilight cried. “But perhaps we should head back to Beacon-“
“We’ll lose too much time if we have to go all the way back to school,” Rainbow replied. “Not to mention having to explain to the General why we came back. I swear, if we did that and Neon found out, she wouldn’t let me live it down.”
“So we are bringing this stowaway with us for the sake of your face?” Ciel demanded, her voice dripping with disapproval.
“We’re bringing Sun with us because we don’t have time to keep doubling back,” Rainbow replied, “and besides, if we dropped him off, he’d probably climb onto the roof and cling on as we were taking off, wouldn’t you?”
“That or grab hold of the tail maybe,” Sun said lightly. His own tail snaked up behind his head and waved jauntily as he said it.
“Are you sure this behaviour should be encouraged?” Ciel asked.
“I think caring about others should totally be encouraged,” Rainbow replied. “What kind of a world would it be if we didn’t care, huh?”
Ciel didn’t reply; nor, however, did she look particularly mollified either.
“Welcome to the team, Sun,” Rainbow said, patting Sun on the back hard enough to stagger him.
“Yeah, the team,” Sun agreed. “The team that is… doing what exactly?”
“You stowed away without even knowing whither we were bound or upon what purpose?” Ciel said.
“I knew Blake was going,” Sun offered.
Ciel sighed in exasperation. “Are we certain that he isn’t a spy?”
“Do you seriously think he’s a spy?” Rainbow asked.
Ciel was silent for a moment. “No,” she admitted.
“Does that mean you’re going to tell me what we’re doing here?” Sun asked.
“We’re going to ambush the White Fang!” Penny announced.
“Great!” Sun cried. “I can’t wait to get back at that Adam creep.”
“Don’t joke about that,” Blake snapped. “Don’t talk like that, even if you don’t mean it. Adam… Adam’s nothing to joke about. He’s dangerous.”
“He’s run away from me twice,” Rainbow pointed out. “Admittedly, I am pretty awesome, but-”
“You got lucky,” Blake said.
“I did not get lucky; I got trained,” Rainbow insisted. “Trained to take on guys like him, no matter how tough they are.”
“In any event,” Ciel said, “the settling of accounts with Adam Taurus will have to wait. Initially, we will land at Cold Harbour; for the benefit of the uneducated,” – she shot a glance at Sun – “I will explain that Cold Harbour is a port town north of Vale and a major demarcation point for shipments by sea or air coming down out of Atlas. Once we arrive, we will carry out a Search and Destroy mission in the wilds beyond the town before rendezvousing with Team Sapphire for a return to Vale by train which will, with good fortune, come under attack by the White Fang, enabling us to ambush them.”
“Wow, you’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?” Sun said.
“Yes,” Ciel replied. “Yes, we have.”
“I should get back to the controls,” Rainbow said, patting Sun lightly on the shoulder. “Oh, but one more thing: next time you want to come along on our missions with Blake? Just ask, okay?” She winked at him, then resumed her seat up in the cockpit.
Blake rolled her eyes. Really? Should a good Atlesian cadet really be encouraging this kind of behaviour?
Sun laughed nervously. “Hey, Blake,” he said. “I… I’m gonna be honest, I kind of wish that there was a little more privacy for this. I don’t suppose that-“
“No,” Blake said. “No, it can’t wait until we land. You need to explain yourself, now.”
“I mean… what’s there to explain?” Sun asked. “I knew that you were going on this mission with these Atlas guys, so when Rainbow Dash had finished checking the airship last night, I snuck on board and hid in the crawlspace.”
“That was dangerous,” Blake cried. “What if you’d got the wrong airship? What if we hadn’t let you out?” As a child, she had been fascinated by the urban legend of the Bride in the Oak Chest, the young girl who, playing a game of hide and seek upon her wedding day, had locked herself inside an old oak chest and slowly suffocated to death as the box muffled all her screams for help, her hiding place so well chosen that it went undiscovered for years until nought but remained but a mouldering skeleton in a wedding dress.
“You would have heard me call for help,” Sun replied. “Or I could have broken through that hatch, probably.”
“What I would like to know,” Ciel said, “is how you got into the airship once Rainbow Dash had completed her examination. The doors should have been locked.”
“They were,” Sun said. “Sunset helped me get them open.”
“Sunset!” Blake exclaimed.
“Sunset Shimmer can crack electronic locks?” Ciel asked, sounding surprised in spite of herself.
“Apparently, she can do all kinds of things,” Sun said.
“Hmm,” Ciel murmured.
“What are you doing here, Sun?” Blake asked. “What about your team?”
“They’ll be fine without me,” Sun assured her. “They probably won’t get any missions while there are only three of them.”
“There aren’t supposed to be only three of them,” Blake shouted. “If you keep running off like this, then they’re going to make someone else Team Leader.”
“So?” Sun replied. “If Scarlet wants the job so badly, he can have it. I’ve got something more important than a badge.” He reached out towards Blake, but as his fingertips touched her arms, she squirmed, and he drew back. “Or maybe I don’t.”
“What are you doing here, Sun?” Blake asked again.
Sun’s hands fell down by his sides. “I said I wasn’t going to apologise for caring about you.”
“This isn’t the same as last time,” Blake declared. “I’m not on my own any more; I’m not even just with Sunset. I have Team Rosepetal with me-“
“So you don’t need me,” Sun finished.
“That’s not really what I…” Blake trailed off, because it kind of was what she’d meant. “I just… there was no need for you to abandon your team and stow away aboard an airship to protect me. As you can see, I’m not doing anything stupid this time.”
“Which is good, because doing stupid stuff is supposed to be my job,” Sun said, flashing his teeth at her.
Blake covered her mouth as a slight chuckle escaped it. “You shouldn’t have come,” she said.
“Why not? The more the merrier, right?”
“I suppose, but…” Blake hesitated. “Are you really going to keep neglecting your own team, your own life, just to keep chasing after me?”
“Are you going to keep putting your life on hold to fight the White Fang?”
“Right now, fighting the White Fang is my life,” Blake said.
“Then it’s mine too,” Sun said. “Because you’re my life.”
“Fighting humanity is my life, Blake.”
“Then it’s mine, too, Adam, because you’re my life, and your cause is mine.”
“Sun,” Blake murmured. “I can’t…”
“Can’t?” Sun repeated. “Can’t what?”
I’m not Adam. I’m not Adam, and Sun isn’t me.
“Nothing,” Blake said. “What you did, coming here, was stupid and reckless and unnecessary… which I guess is why I like you so much.”
Sun took a step closer to her. “Maybe your impulsive side is rubbing off on me.”
“Now kiss!” Penny cried.
“Penny,” Ciel admonished as Sun and Blake drew back, embarrassed looks appearing on their faces. “Ladies do not blurt out such things, nor interrupt other peoples’ tender moments. That said, please do not kiss.” She reopened her magazine.
“Oh, hey, congratulations,” Sun said. “Are you getting married?”
“No,” Ciel said firmly. “Why does everyone keep assuming that?”
And the airship flew on towards Cold Harbour.
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You scare me and make me somewhat jelly on how fast you churn these chapters out at times.
Sun... *facepalm* Constantly ditching your team, which hurts their future immensely, and to stow away on a military airship for a classified mission? Not cool. You can even be placed under military arrest. (Though I’m also sure that Sunset helped him to give Blake someone trustworthy, and to mess with Rainbow Dash a bit).
Moving on, I hope Rainbow Dash and the rest of their team take this mission to heart. Other than Vale, this is their first major mission outside of Atlas. Just as Rainbow was trying to caution Blake about, they need to see what Atlesian soldiers can become so far away from the shining city in the sky. And how much other Faunus have no choice but to work under brutal conditions for little pay. Just as she tried to warn Blake about bigoted officers, Rainbow Dash needs to be careful about how those laborers will react to seeing a Faunus wearing an Atlesian uniform.
Not that obvious at first but none of the Atlesian ships have an autopilot to fly from point A to point B. Why would anyone do an extra work otherwise?
Good, now toss that idiot overboard, because of an extra one they are wasting fuel that they don't have.
Wonder what her interaction with Cordovin would be like. If she'd be too much even for Ciel.
Gods dammit Sun...
Sun's mind: Hot catgirl >>> Team Leader duties
I'm hoping that, like Adam's brand, the inevitable fallout with Sun's no-doubt frustrated team is shown and not dismissed like in the show. Though I believe the books had some sort of confrontation based on the wiki.
Penny is best Real Girl.
This particular Sun is best Sun!
That carries more weight that fat dumbass. God Sun is fun.
The more I read, Sun you fucking Dumbass! It’s funny because he does do the exact same thing in the show, the show even points out how he abandoned the other guys, but like, wow I never really thought about how bad it was.
Am i the only one who thinks Sun is a certified stalker? This is borderline creepy, and the way Blake is just ok with this is just... girl, what are you doing? He just ditched his team, and this is not the only time, not by a long shot, to sneak into an airship, and mind you, they probably got into that thing very early into the morning, so that begs the question, Is Sun stalking Blake while she sleeps or something? If he can't even commit to his team, then what the fuck is he doing? And how are other characters supposed to trust him.
I'm sorry to say this but Sun's character is just fucking GARBAGE.