Sisters, Part 2

This was bad, really, really bad.

Ruby was panting heavily, running as fast as she could back toward Beacon’s central Tower. She would have dashed the whole way there, if not for the risk of overtaxing her Aura. Jaune and Pyrrha needed her help, and she was the closest to where they’d last been heading.

The Grimm knew no end. They swarmed toward Beacon by the thousand, an endless tide of churning black. There were White Fang there too, the Grimm and Faunus somehow inexplicably working in unison to lay siege to the school. High above, two of the Lamenters’ land speeders swooped low, their bolther guns raking the swarm with torrents of shells. Somewhere else in the campus were the rest of the Lamenters that had been placed at Beacon, Aethon and his squad. All of the Huntsmen and students had just barely been able to hold the Grimm back with their help.

But then it had appeared.

Like the monster from myth it was, a colossal Wyvern descended from the skies with a roar. Its form briefly eclipsed the moon above as it swept low through Beacon’s campus, its  claws raking toward people below as its wings grazed whole buildings. Whatever organization the defenders had fell apart the moment it appeared, and many students broke and ran when suddenly faced with a literal legend from their myths, their shrieks and screams echoing through the night.

“Ruby!” Someone screamed through her voice link. Yang, her sister, her voice full of worry and tinged with panic. “Where are you!?”

“Running toward the Tower!” she shouted back. She had finally reached the square in front of the Tower, the entrance just a hundred paces away. “Jaune and Pyrrha went after Ozpin! They’re in there somewhere-”

She was cut off as the Wyvern soared above. Her instincts kicked in and she dashed to the side, one of the giant’s claws raking through the cloud of petals that marked where she’d been a split second before. She lost her grip on her scroll, the device slipping from her hand and skidding across the pavement.

Her sister had been saying something, but she couldn’t hear it. Ruby ran toward her scroll but stopped at the last second as a glob of oily black liquid splattered onto the concrete in front of her, seemingly shed by the titanic Grimm from above. The substance splashed onto her, eating away acidically at her Aura. Other globs splashed down around her and she had to dash to avoid them, lest they too wear down her strength. But the damaging sludge became the least of her problems as she became aware of a new, much more urgent one.

Grimm.

Grimm of all shapes and sizes began to claw their way out of the black pools of sludge before her. Ruby sprang into action, her Crescent Rose unfolding into its scythe form as she dashed and weaved through the newly-born Grimm. Solid, untainted ground was scarce, but she managed to capitalize on her initiative by cutting down a few before they could fully free themselves. The first to do so, an Ursa, took a swipe at her that she narrowly dodged, and soon the rest were soon fully freed as well. She had never seen anything like that, didn’t even know it was possible. Sure, people had speculated about how Grimm came to be, but-

No time to think about it, focus on the Grimm. The Ursa charged with a roar and Ruby responded, dodging its clumsy swipe and cleaving it in two with a swipe of Crescent Rose. A dozen more Ursas and a dozen Beowolves were right behind it, and Ruby became lost amidst the sudden battle.

Slash, dodge, swing. Dodge, fire twice. Dodge, swing, slash. Her motions became automatic as the newborn Grimm attacked her with frenzied abandon. The claws of a lucky strike from a Beowolf she had cut in twain but had yet to die raked her aura, breaking her focus for a split second that allowed the sole remaining Ursa to backhand her across the square. She landed on her feet, weariness and exhaustion creeping into her muscles and bones. Her Aura was at its very limit, and there were still half a dozen Grimm still standing.

They charged her together, heedless of each other, clawing and struggling over one another to get at her. She still had a couple of cards up her sleeve, the first of which was a recent addition to her Crescent Rose.

Ruby flicked a switch in the haft of her weapon, and the magnetic accelerator coils along the side of the secondary weapon began to glow blue. After a mere second it was ready to fire, and Ruby immediately brought the weapon to bear against the nearest Grimm, the Ursa.

She squeezed the trigger, and the results were blinding. The plasma gun discharged, an actinic blue beam of superheated gas ripping forth into the Ursa. Both it and the Beowolf behind it simply disintegrated in squalls of gore, the chunks dissolving as they flew through the air. Their comrades paid the fallen no mind as they rushed onwards, drenched as they were by the sudden death of the first two. Ruby was warned about firing multiple times in quick succession, but she had no choice. She swiveled to the next group and fired again, and two more perished the same way.

Two Grimm left. She aimed at the closest and squeezed the trigger thrice more-

Crescent Rose blew apart as the integrated plasma gun disassembled itself in a blast of light and heat. Ruby was knocked backwards by the explosion, her Aura shattering as she hit the ground. She rolled to a stop, her body wracked with pain from sudden burns. She realized that she couldn’t see from her left eye, and Ruby hoped that the damage wasn’t permanent.

There was still one Grimm alive, albeit dazed, the other having been slain by whatever had come out of the business end of Crescent Rose before her weapon destroyed itself. Said scythe was lying nearby, the complex upper assembly broken and warped in an unsalvageable mess of glowing metal. She had no aura, and now no weapon.

Well no, she took that back. She had one weapon, one last card to play.

Ruby raised her left fist, aiming it at the rushing Beowolf. She squeezed the inside of the ring she wore there as hard as she could like she’d been instructed to do so. Please work, please work, pleas-

Another, nearly-as-bright actinic beam of light shot forth, this time from the ornate ring that Weiss had given her. The Beowolf had been rearing up to slash at her when the digital weapon discharged, and its head and upper body simply blew apart in a blast of viscera. Some of it rained down onto Ruby, who could only stagger back and collapse onto the flagstone beneath her feet. She was hurt in what felt like a hundred places, but she was alive.

Her scroll. Ruby quickly got up, the pain almost overwhelming. Her scroll was somewhere in the pools of sludge. The Wyvern must have shed them, she realized as it swooped overhead. Her scroll was likely ruined as well, if her burns were anything to go by-

Blinding, piercing pain shot through her thigh. Ruby screamed and fell, her hands going to her left leg and wrapping around the shaft of an arrow that pierced it.

“Bravo,” someone said from nearby. Ruby looked up, over at the newcomer, the person that had just shot and maimed her. It was someone she barely recognized, one of the tournament contestants from Mistral. She was walking from the Tower, looking the part of someone out for a stroll despite the battle raging around them. Her red dress glinted in the light of nearby fires, and her heels loudly clicked as she walked.

“All hail the conquering huntress,” the woman said. “I’m sure you had aspirations of being some kind of hero tonight. But sadly, it’s not meant to be.”

“You…” Ruby tried to stand up, but her injured leg refused to comply. She was at the mercy of the woman, someone who seemingly had none to give.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” The woman spoke, looking around. Sounds of distant battle rumbled through the square near the Tower. “Your lauded heroes, these Lamenters, powerless to do anything.”

“Who are you?” Ruby cried. “Why are you doing this!?”

The woman walked up to her, crouching down just low enough to grip Ruby by the chin. “Why?” she smiled. “You Huntsmen, these so-called Lamenters? My Queen decided that all of you must die, so die you all shall, one way or another. But don’t worry little girl, you’ll be among the first.” She stepped away, stopping a few paces from where Ruby knelt on the ground. With a crackle, a glass arrow took form in her hand, its interior glowing with orange heat. The woman smirked as she knocked it in her bow, drawing it back and aiming it at Ruby.

So this was how it ended, Ruby thought. Murdered in cold blood by someone she didn’t even know. She closed her eyes-

And the world around her was filled with golden light, so bright it was blinding even through her eyelids. They shot open, and somehow she wasn’t instantly rendered sightless by what she saw. All around her the campus was lit brighter than day, golden rays drowning out the firelight. The woman that had been about to kill her had discarded her bow, her hands instead clawing at her own eyes. She screamed in pain, clawing at them as if she had seemingly been blinded where Ruby herself was fine.

“W-what?” she said to nobody. Up above, high in the sky, were two pinpoint sources of brilliant golden light. One radiated warmth, the other hope. How Ruby knew that, she couldn’t quite puzzle out.

“Well, I guess we arrived just in time,” someone said from somewhere, the voice feminine and almost regal. Ruby got the impression the voice had come from high above, from one of the two points of light above her. Logically, there was no way she should have heard them. “What does that make us, I wonder?”

Heroes. The thought was somehow in reply to the woman. It came unbidden to her mind, masculine and foreign, yet somehow familiar.

The woman's voice chuckled at that. “Aren’t we just?”

----

“Tell me, Miss Rose, how have you fared these past few years?

Ruby didn’t hear her superior at first. So lost had she been in her recollection that she hadn’t realized she’d been spoken to.

“Ruby?” Miss Goodwitch spoke again.

“Oh? Oh. yeah, it was engaging, I suppose.”

“Something weighing on your mind?”

“Just… Beacon.”

“Ah.” No further explanation was needed. They’d all had nightmares from that night, in one way or the other.

The Palatine and her Canoness were sitting in a quaint, Valian-styled cafe off of one of the station’s several vast promenades, this one dedicated mainly to fine dining and entertainment from Remnant. For the numerous travelers, pilgrims, station crew and other people that passed through Welledge’s halls, it was a taste of the world that was so close, yet so far. The station itself acted as the main hub for travelers coming and going from Remnant, with security enforced by the system defense fleet and station-based PDF. The shops in the Remnant spokes of Welledge sold everything from trade goods and clothes, to food and drink and even a wide variety of high entertainment. Most of those travelers and aspiring pilgrims aboard the station would never set foot on Remnant due to the enforced travel restrictions, and would have to settle with the few bits of transplanted culture brought up from it.

Somewhere out in the station, Ruby’s Sisters were no doubt entertaining themselves with whatever they fancied. She could imagine Coco visiting one of the clothier boutiques to catch up on her out-of-date Remnant fashion. Yang was probably talking with her mother, spending time with her. The Lamenters? Ruby mentally chuckled at what they were probably up to. They’d have a modicum of free time and they’d probably be focused on martial training and the like.

Past the cafe, a veritable tide of people flowed. Ruby recognized an exotic and eclectic mix of dress styles and colors from the crowd. The tuned fashion sense she picked up from Coco after spending years alongside her helped her identify the various origins of the garb. Some were from Remnant and its kingdoms, purchased by visitors and those just passing through. Many more however were Imperial in origin. While every world had its own culture, common themes could emerge based on sector and segmentum. For starters, the more regal and aristocratic dress styles that were common within the core worlds of the Solar Segmentum, or the dour and depressing fashions of the Gothic and Calixis sectors within the Segmentum Obscurus.

Within the cafe was much the same. The baristas were hard at work creating orders and tending to their customers, who flowed in and out with their purchases while glancing their way out of curiosity. A pair of Battle Sisters wearing full power armor sans their helmets, relaxing in a corner of the cafe on two of its comfortable sofa chairs had the tendency to turn heads.

Ruby picked up the steaming mug of coffee from the table, the barista having delivered the sugary drink precisely as she requested. That cafe’s gourmet coffee had been the main reason Ruby had insisted visiting there and it tasted amazing, a far cry to the usual rations of freeze-dried recaf she’d had to make do with from whatever Munitorum supplier or Guard regiment they were obtained or bartered from. It had been a lucky day when they managed to get something that had actually come from a living plant and not something synthetic.

“Ruby, I still can’t believe you still take your coffee that way,” the Canoness said. “With that much sugar, I dare say it’s a miracle that you still have teeth.”

“I have it other ways too, you know,” Ruby smiled. “Sometimes I’ll even have it black.”

“You, drinking coffee black?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow. “Who are you, and where is Ruby Rose?”

Ruby chuckled. “Blame Sister Adel, since she’ll only drink the fancy gourmet stuff. Quote unquote, ‘I prefer to taste what I am drinking.’” Ruby chuckled, “I humor her from time to time.”

“Well, that does sound like her. How about the others? How are they doing?”

“My sister sister? She’s gotten a lot stronger. Well, all of us have, but her most of all I think. We’re older and wiser after everything, although Nora still tends to act immature from time to time.” Ruby took another sip before continuing. Weiss and Blake, both of them I could see leading their own squads one day. The same goes for Coco and Velvet. Did you read the after-action about Solrisia?”

“I did, Ruby.” Solrisia, the very first stop on their past five year campaign. Her and her Sisters had responded to a distress call from the agri-world, from a convent of Sororitas and the world’s beleaguered PDF. A full half of the planet’s population had rebelled, and they were the closest help at the time. Both her Sisters and the Lamenters had responded in force, Several dozen of each descending upon the world. Coco and Velvet had been amongst the harshest of the fighting, stood shoulder to shoulder with the Space Marines as they reclaimed the planet for the Emperor. For a day and night they fought, wave after wave of traitor suiciders rushing the battle lines, only to be mowed down by their heavy weapons.

“Velvet and Coco tend to stick together,” Ruby explained. “Velvet’s really flexible, but she tends to act as a second heavy weapon in combat. I’ll just add that those two have definitely earned a respite.

“And lastly, tell me, what of Sister Sustrai?”

Ruby fell silent for a moment, regarding the Penitent Sister in her care. “Quiet, but I think you know that already.”

The Canoness nodded. The hypnotherapy and surgeries the woman undertook had changed her in a fundamental way, more than the Miracle had. Whoever Emerald might have once been had been swept away, and what was left was a being of focus and belief, someone who sought to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Emperor. Privately and deep down, Ruby wished that Emerald could find redemption for her past actions in a manner that wouldn’t lead to a bloody end on a battlefield far from home. But despite her own guilty hopes, such was the Emperor’s will. Ruby or the others would at least guarantee that she would be laid to rest in their Hall of Heroes, that much Ruby would guarantee when that time came.

“Well, it seems that you’ve had things well in hand these past years you’ve been away,” Glynda said. “Between your squad and the Scout Brethren, I can’t imagine your hands being anything other than full for these past five years.”

“Yeah, they really have been.” The cooperation between the Order of the Shining Beacon and the Lamenters had been quite productive in those last few years. A year into their campaign, a squad of Scout Marines had been seconded to her company for training purposes. Technically speaking, she didn't actually have any authority over Yanis or the rest of the other Scouts, said authority resting with the Lamenters they accompanied. Nevertheless, both the Sisters and Brothers had worked together well enough, an unspoken agreement to allow the Palatine to take the lead, at least in regards to battlefield situations.

“Well then, it’s good that your team has made it all back in one piece,” Glynda spoke. “Honestly I am quite relieved that your casualties were minimal, the other companies sent out have all had their share of losses.”

“Well I can’t take all of the credit, Miss Goodwitch. The others worked hard to prepare, and we’ve trained just as hard.” There had been a bit of luck here and there as well, but she left it unspoken.

They finished their coffee in silence, and Glynda paid for them both. As Ruby was getting up, Glynda once more spoke. “Ruby, before I forget, your father wanted me to let you know that he’s taken time off from teaching at Signal, and that he wants to spend that time with you and your Sister.”

Oh, dad. “Ah, I’ll send word that I look forward to coming home. Although, I’ll be busy for a bit with-”

“Ruby,” Glynda cut her off. “Don’t worry about busywork right now. Your family wants to see you, so go spend some time with him.”

She’d stressed the world family, ever so subtly. Almost as if to remind her that she had one beyond the Order. “But I-”

“No buts.”

Ruby could hear the old Headmistress in those words, almost the same tone she’d usen over two decades ago when she had first lectured her before ever even setting foot in Beacon. “Are you… ordering me to take time off to see him?”

“In a way yes, to make up for how little time off you had the last time you came home. And I know you tend to bury yourself in paperwork. It can wait, Ruby.”

Ruby sighed, picking up her helmet from the table between them and tucking it under an arm. “Alright.”

“Thank you.” The Canoness got up, fetching her own ornate helm. “I still have some other things that I want to talk to you about Palatine,” The Canoness continued. “Let’s walk and talk, shall we?”

“Okay.” Ruby followed her commander out of the cafe, out onto the main promenade. To call the stretch a slice of Remnant would have not done the space proper justice. The promenade had been modeled after the urban streets of Argus, wide cobblestone affairs lined with streetlights and wide sidewalks. Shops, boutiques and restaurants of all sorts could be found along the stretch. There was even a functional replica streetcar, carrying passengers up and down the spoke. Despite the interior’s Remnant-esque stylings, there were still indicators that this was not entirely Argus, nor Remnant. Here and there were Imperial aquilas, incorporated into building designs and the scenery. Touches of Imperial gothic architecture were scattered around for good measure, incorporated into facades and storefronts. The artisans that had crafted them had done a good enough job of incorporating the two distinct styles together that it felt seamless enough to her sharp eyes.

“I’m curious, what are your team’s plans for the next few weeks?”

“My team?”

“Yes,” Glynda continued. “It’s been almost five years since you all were last home. That’s a long time away from your family and friends. And with a full month to yourselves, I fully expect some sort of trouble to befall Remnant.”

“Hopefully not,” Ruby answered. “We’re all professional enough to not cause havoc like some inebriated neophyte.” The crowd parted to allow the duo to pass, and Ruby couldn’t help but notice more than a few gawkers and onlookers stopping to look at them. Armored Battle Sisters of any Order could have that kind of effect, although it was nowhere near as pronounced as with Space Marines. “I do know Yang wants to go see dad.”

“What about the other two members of your demi-squad?”

“Weiss? Likewise,” Ruby answered. “She’s going to go see her family in Atlas. Blake plans to return to Menagerie to see her mother and father. Her parents have been busy these last few years.” Menagerie in the years since Remnant was brought into the Imperial fold had been fully recognized as a polity in its own right, complete with all that entailed. Blake’s father had led an interesting life, going from a leader of a group of rebels to esteemed politician in a fairly short amount of time, sitting on the world’s ruling council. Blake also had new siblings, her younger brother and sister that she wanted to catch up with as well.

Ruby grimaced. So did she and Yang.

“And Coco’s squad?”

“I fully expect her to spend every moment of her free time shopping,” Ruby stated confidently, pushing her personal life to the back of her mind. “She’s probably going to drag Velvet along with her. As for Nora, Nora has… her own thing to do. She wants to go to Argus.”

“I see.” They were quiet for a moment. “And the Brothers?”

Ruby thought about them. Ostensibly they had been allotted time off, but most of Squad Yavis would likely return to the Lamenters’ Chapter Keep in the Darklands for the time being. She did know that Ren wanted to accompany Nora on her trip to Argus, and she had even encouraged him to do so. They both had some things to catch up on and old classmates to visit. “They have their own plans and their own ideas for having fun,” Ruby smiled. “I don’t think I’ll have to worry about Yavis or his Brothers. It was fun, getting the chance to fight with them again.” Ruby smiled. “Like old times I guess.”

Glynda smiled back, and was about to open her mouth when a chime came through her comm bead. “Goodwitch here,” she quickly answered. Ruby toggled on her own comm bead, quickly syncing it to that of the Canoness so she could listen in as well.

“Canoness Goodwitch,” came the voice. Ruby recognized him as Lieutenant Anaric, the Lamenter Officer in charge of Welledge. “The station has a visitor that is requesting to speak to a member of your Order.”

“Oh? Who is it?”

“An Inquisitor, Canoness,” he replied. “One Zemelda Cleat.”

“I see.” A beat passed in silence. “Please inform her that I will be up at your office shortly.”

“An inquisitor,” Ruby said as the line disconnected. “Do you want me to accompany you?”

“Don’t worry about me Miss Rose,” she replied with a smile. “Inquisitor or not, I can handle myself. Besides, you have some R&R to catch up on, don’t you?”

Ruby sighed and nodded. “Of course. Farewell, Canoness.”

“Same to you.” Glynda parted ways with Ruby, leaving her alone in the crowd on the promenade. Ruby sighed, mag-clamping her helmet to her waist to free her arm.

“Free time,” she said to nobody in particular. “Great.”