11

Chapter 11: What's a Norway?

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Hey guys!!" Nora shouted across the cafeteria, standing on top of her seat. Yang waved back to her friend as they approached.

"Really, she doesn't need to be so loud. We meet in the same place every time." Weiss told her partner.

"It's Nora, she's only got one setting, and its thunder." Yang replied. Weiss tittered lightly at the joke, Yang grinning at the sound.

The pair greeted Ren and Nora and took a seat opposite them. Ren nodded respectfully and smiled at them both. "I take it that this means Ruby and Blake won't be joining us?" He said.

"Blake is Brothers know where, and Ruby is off training, as usual." Weiss waved her hand dismissively.

"Maybe she's with Pyrrha and Jaune then! They're off training too." Nora said.

"Course they are." Yang grinned and shrugged her shoulders. "I can barely get Rubes to do anything but training. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like training with her, but I can't do it all the time."

Nora nodded. "Jaune's the same. It wouldn't kill any of them to take a break!"

"Tell that to them. I swear the four of them act like the world would end if they let up for just one moment." Weiss said.

"They are on the same wavelength. Almost as if they were one team." Ren mused.

Nora jumped out of her seat and slammed her hands on the table, startling Weiss and Yang while Ren just looked at her impassively, used to this by now. "We should come up with our own team name then! If they're gonna be Team RANB, we should have our own name!" Nora grinned wildly.

"Team… rainbow?" Yang asked.

"Yep! I came up with that!" Nora said proudly. "I used their last names. Since their first names are already have a team! So, what should we call ourselves? How about Team NRWY!"

"Nora… just how long have you been thinking about this?" Ren asked. Nora ignored him and looked to Yang and Weiss for support for her name.

"What's a Norway?" Yang asked.

"No clue!" Nora replied. "But it fits us really well!"

"I refuse to accept you as leader." Weiss deadpanned. Nora stuck out her tongue to which Weiss only scoffed. "I propose that we should call ourselves Team YRNW."

"Ironwood?" Yang tilted her head. "How does that fit us?"

"I swapped the 'I' for your 'Y'."

"Ohh…" Yang paused. "Wait… Aww!! You want me as team leader!" Yang threw her arm around Weiss, who only put up a token protest.

Nora mimed a barfing action. "Ugh, we get it already, you two are sickeningly sweet." Ren took a quick drink of water to hide his smile.

Weiss huffed. "I retract my suggestion."

Yang laughed. "Fine, fine. What about SLVY?"

"We'd need a B for silverberry, and Blake isn't here." Ren remarked.

Yang admitted that yeah, that name was pretty weak without Blake. The four of them went back to thinking.

"Oh! I've got it! Team can be Team SYVR!" Nora waved her hand in front of her as she revealed the name.

"Silver?" Weiss asked.

"Yep! Schnee, Yang for the I, Valkyrie, and Ren!"

"Why do you guys keep changing my name to an I?" Yang laughed.

"Because hardly anything uses a Y, and trying to work an X into something is even worse." Weiss explained.

"Are you saying you don't like my name?" Yang wiggled her eyebrows playfully. Weiss glared at her partner.

"I think we should be called Team SNLY. Just as sunlight illuminates a rainbow, we support our teammates." Ren added his contribution.

"Hey yeah! Without the sunlight, you can't see a rainbow! I like it!" Nora gave her stamp of approval to the name. Yang gave a thumbs up too.

"Poetic, and has me in charge." Weiss nodded approvingly.

"You could fit right in with my team!" An unfamiliar voice said. Four heads snapped to a boy with an unbuttoned shirt, spikey blonde hair, and a monkey tail that flicked aimlessly. "Hey there! I'm Sun, from Team SSSN!" He grinned and made a peace sign.

"… You're a team of just yourself?" Yang asked.

"Huh? Oh! No! S-S-S-N! Sun! From Haven! I'm one of Blake's friends." He used his tail to point at Weiss and Yang. "You guys must be her teammates! Do you guys know where Blake is? I was supposed to meet her here."

Weiss stared at the tail being pointed at her before Yang elbowed her gently. She snapped out of it and replied to the faunus. "That's strange. Blake is usually very punctual."

"Well…" Sun leaned off to one side. "I was supposed to meet her here like a couple hours ago." He chuckled to himself.

"That's kinda early to be eating dinner." Nora quipped from across the table.

"Oh we weren't meeting to eat! She had some kind of top-secret mission that she wanted help with!" Sun replied.

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Really?" Blake hadn't mentioned anything of the sort to her.

"Yep! She didn't say anything other than to meet her here. But then I overslept and…" He waved his tail again.

Ren looked at his scroll. "It's early evening." A bit late for oversleeping. Sun only shrugged, unbothered.

"Well, if she's not here, can I join you guys instead?" Sun asked.

Yang looked over at her partner to get her tacit approval before answering. "Sure, grab a chair." Sun grinned and happily took a seat next to Yang.

---

Ruby looked around the lecture hall for some markers to draw on the board with. She was going to redraw the chart that her and Jaune made last semester. Jaune had told her that Pyrrha would be joining them on their way to go talk with Oscar, which, Ruby thought, went really well! Still, while on the one hand, Ruby was glad that Jaune had opened up to his partner about this, she was also worried. She trusted Pyrrha, but they weren't ready to be telling people yet. Cinder was still out there, with half of the maiden powers, ready to strike. Until she had been neutralized, and Beacon was safe, she would be putting her teammates in danger by telling them.

Still, Ruby couldn't help but wonder what this meeting would be like if instead she had told her partner, and Blake was here to help them. They would have to confront the White Fang several times in the next few months, no way around it. Then again, after how shaken Blake was after coming back from Mistral, involving her would probably not be a good idea.

Ruby and Jaune had gotten back before Pyrrha and Blake, and Ruby was resting in her tent, mindlessly browsing her scroll, laying on her stomach, when Blake got back. She watched as Blake opened the flap and ducked into the tent, zipping it behind her.

"Oh hey, you're back! How was Mistral?" Ruby asked her partner. When Blake seemingly ignored the question Ruby sat up and tilted her head at her partner. Blake wasted no time and hugged Ruby tightly. Surprised at the sudden contact, Ruby wrapped her arms around Blake. She could feel her shaking in her arms. "Are you okay?" She asked. When Blake didn't respond, and only buried her head into Ruby's neck, she pushed further. "Did something happen in Mistral?"

With an unsteady voice, Blake responded. "You're real, right?"

"Real…? What do you mean?"

"This isn't a crazy dream, is it?"

"Dream? Blake, what are you talking about?" Ruby asked, concerned.

"I…" Blake hesitated. "Nothing. It's nothing." She quickly clamped down on whatever was bothering her. Ruby frowned. Anything that made her partner this scared was something she should know about. What happened in Mistral?

Ruby was busy redrawing the diagram back onto the board they had used the first time and worrying about her partner when Jaune and Pyrrha entered the room. She shook the worry from her head, it was time to focus on her meeting. Ruby heard Pyrrha laughing before she saw either of them. They entered and Ruby could smell the pizza that Jaune brought. Her mouth watered. She hated missing dinner with her team, after all it was one of the few times she got to just hang out with them outside of training and schoolwork, but the pizza at least made it easier.

Ruby smiled at seeing her two friends so at ease with each other. Pyrrha had always been good for Jaune, and Ruby was so glad to see that he was slowly opening up to her again. For her part, Pyrrha had taken to her leader just as quickly as she had the first time, which Ruby wasn't envious of at all. Why couldn't she and Weiss have reconnected so easily?

Jaune set the boxes of pizza on the table at the front of the room.

"Sorry we're late, they didn't have any pineapple and ham pizzas, so we had to wait for another." Pyrrha pointed to the top box, which had Ruby's favorite.

Ruby opened the lid and grabbed a slice. "All is forgiven!" She said as she happily munched on piece after piece. Pyrrha and Jaune grabbed their own pieces from different boxes. Once they had all satisfied their immediate hunger, Ruby clapped her hands and laid out their plan. "Okay! So, thanks for joining us Pyrrha! First we're gonna catch you up on what we've got so far, then talk about our next steps. Also, we're gonna drop some pretty heavy knowledge bombs on you, so let us know if it becomes too much. Ask lots of questions and interrupt whenever!"

Pyrrha took a look around the empty lecture hall. "Are you sure it's safe to meet here? What if someone walked in on you?"

"First Friday night of the new semester? The lecture halls are the last place people want to be." Ruby replied.

Pyrrha still looked skeptical, but nodded her head in indication that she was ready to listen. Ruby launched into an explanation of their position and strategy, pointing to various portions of their diagram as she talked. "To make this easier for both of us, I'll refer to what happened in Jaune and I's past as the original timeline, and the present as the new timeline, since it's new to all of us!

"In our original timeline, the fight at the docks still happens, but instead of all of us showing up, only some of us arrive. The outcome is mostly the same, but we were able to capture way more White Fang members this time. Still, our main goal was to stop Torchwick from stealing dust. I'll get to why later.

"So, why did we show up to the docks in this new timeline? First because we have a moral obligation to stop him, and second, because it's the first step in gaining the trust of headmaster Ozpin. We need his trust for the second phase of our plan."

"How does fighting the White Fang make Ozpin trust you more?" Pyrrha asked.

"Ah ha! Good question! So, this is one of those knowledge bombs I mentioned. The White Fang are working with the same group that causes the Fall of Beacon. They want to steal dust in order to use it for the Fall of Beacon. Ozpin doesn't know the two are related yet, but we're hoping that by showing up to fight every time these people do anything, he will make the connection, while at the same time realizing we would make good allies. Ozpin is…"

"Distrustful?" Jaune supplied.

"Well, he doesn't trust easy." Ruby acknowledge. "This semester we have lots of opportunities to fight. Jaune and I wanted to train our teams so that they would be ready for fighting at the docks, and anywhere we need to this semester. Once we have Ozpin's trust, we can use his resources and influence to stop the Fall of Beacon by confronting those directly responsible."

Jaune perked up. "Speaking of… Ruby, could you describe in detail what happened to you during the docks fight? We," he pointed to himself and Pyrrha, "were busy fighting the White Fang members, and didn't really even glimpse Torchwick."

"Oh uh, sure! Let's see… Blake spotted his ship first, we snuck over to him and caught him off guard. He wasn't really all that concerned about that though, and now we know why." Ruby turned to Pyrrha. "Originally, Torchwick didn't have a semblance, or at least if he did, he never used it when any of us were around. I was the last person to see him, and if he had a semblance then, he would've used it."

"That means that his semblance is new to us." Jaune added.

"Do you know what could have caused him to acquire one? Have you interacted with him since your return?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune shook his head. "We haven't. He's been missing ever since we arrived. Changes in personality and character can cause semblances to shift and manifest, but he shouldn't have been doing anything different in this new timeline."

"He was also surprised that Blake and I hadn't seen his semblance before." Ruby added.

Jaune nodded. "When you put those together, there's a few different things it could mean. Either the new timeline and the original timeline aren't the same realities, or if they are the same realities, then something intervened to cause Torchwick to gain a semblance."

"That's what Jaune and I could come up with," Ruby said, "but both have problems. For starters, he's the only person who has been acting differently who we haven't interacted with. If this was a new reality, there would be others. As for something else causing Torchwick to gain a semblance, there's nothing else to do so. The Brothers that brought us here were clear that each was only going to bring us and no one else. They were pretty clear about that, it's sort of a competition between the two, kinda?"

"What if they were lying to one another? One of them could've sent back multiple people and lied to their brother." Pyrrha asked.

"They could." Jaune admitted. "But from what we've seen, neither of us think that's likely. The brothers have this respect for one another, and I don't think one of them would go behind the others back. Plus, one time, a really long time ago, one of them did, and the other knew instantly. Still, we can't discount it."

"Yep! So, back to Torchwick then. He used his semblance, that weird smokey thing that lets stuff pass through him, Weiss and Yang showed up, and he said something about them not being Sun and Penny. Then he said something that Blake didn't like so she tried to stab him and from there, well, you saw what it was like when you got there. We fought him and then I think I actually did stab him, before he used his semblance to escape—why are you looking at me like that?" Ruby asked Jaune. His mouth was wide open, eyes wide, staring at her.

"Ruby… repeat what you just said."

"Uh… He said something Blake didn't like so she tried to stab him?"

"No, before that!"

"That Weiss and Yang showed up and he said something about them not being Sun and- ohhhh." Realization dawned in Ruby's eyes.

"What? What is it?" Pyrrha asked.

"In the original timeline, two of our friends, Sun and Penny, showed up and helped us instead of most of the people we had there this time…" Ruby explained. "So how did Torchwick know that they were supposed to be the ones who were there?"

"Do you think he could be like us?" Jaune asked immediately.

Ruby bit her tongue. How could she have missed that the first time? If she was alone, Ruby might have a few curses to mutter under her breath.

"You just argued that the Brothers wouldn't have sent anyone else back, so he can't be like you, right?" Pyrrha said.

"I… I don't know." Ruby answered. "There's also the fact that he died at the Fall of Beacon. The Brothers said they don't want to upset the balance of life and death. Bringing Torchwick back might be considered upsetting that balance."

"He… died, at Beacon?" Pyrrha brought a hand to mouth, aghast. "Ruby… you said you were the last to see him. Did… did you kill Torchwick?"

"What? No!! No! A grimm ate him! I just happened to be there." Ruby quickly defended herself, but Pyrrha only looked slightly less horrified.

Jaune nodded and refocused their conversation. "Yeah. I don't think we have enough information to know how he knows what he knows. Let's try and focus on what he knows. So, he knew who was supposed to be at the docks fight. We should assume that he has as much knowledge on future events as we do. How would that change things?" He asked.

"Well… capturing him is going to be wayyy harder now." Ruby started. If he knew their strengths and weaknesses, that would be pretty crushing. Together he and Neo would probably be more than a match for them. "Hey, wait a minute… if Torchwick knew about the docks, where was Neo?" Ruby caught Pyrrha's perplexed look at the name and elaborated. "Neo is sort of Torchwick's partner. She's really protective of him. If he knew about the docks, he must've known it would be a trap. So why come? And why was Neo not with him?"

"Maybe he wanted to hide that he knew something? If he hadn't shown up, the two of you would've known immediately that something was wrong." Pyrrha supplied.

Jaune scrunched up his face in thought. "If that was the case, he wouldn't have used his semblance. That's a dead giveaway."

"I think he was testing things." Ruby spoke up. "When I first came back, I tested my semblance, my combat skills, and even Yang to see how much had changed."

Jaune nodded. "I did something similar. So you think he was testing something too? That might mean he only gained his knowledge recently."

Pyrrha shifted uncomfortably. "The more you talk about him, the more dangerous he seems to become."

Jaune winced. "Unfortunately, there's way worse people than him out there we have to stop." Ruby agreed with that. Torchwick was a criminal, and a murderer, and a thief, but at the end of the day, he was still less of a threat than Cinder.

"We can't spend all night just talking about him. At the end of the semester, Torchwick and the White Fang are going to use the dust they've stolen to blow holes in Vale's defenses and lead to a major grimm attack downtown." Ruby explained for Pyrrha's benefit.

Pyrrha reacted with horror, again. Yeesh, this conversation must really be a downer for her. "Grimm, in downtown Vale?? Is that what causes the Fall of Beacon??"

"Oh no, the Fall of Beacon was way worse." Ruby quickly answered. Jaune gave her a look, as if to say, 'you're not helping!' "I-I mean, it was pretty bad, but tons of hunters and students just happened to be in the area, and then the Atlesian military showed up and cleaned up." Pyrrha still looked concerned as Ruby continued. "So, uh, yeah! Our plan is still to capture him before he's able to carry out that attack. He's going to be busy preparing for it most of the semester. So at least we know where he'll be if he keeps to the original timeline."

"Which he might not." Jaune reminded.

"Which he might not." Ruby said, much less enthusiastically. This was so much simpler just a few minutes ago. "Okay. Let's stay vigilant with Torchwick." Ruby exhaled dramatically and hopped off the desk she had been sitting on and paced around the room. Torchwick was just one guy, and look just how complicated this was getting. He might tell Cinder what was going to happen, or what he had learned at the docks, or change up his plans, or any number of things.

Thinking like that was no good though. The most Ruby could do was concentrate on what was in front of her. Fight the beowulf attacking you before worrying about the boarbatusk behind it. Ruby looked at the other labels on the board. Her eyes turned to the most defining event of her entire life.

"What do you know about the Fall of Beacon?" Ruby asked Pyrrha.

Pyrrha exchanged a glance with Jaune before answering. "We haven't discussed the specifics. I know that it caused Beacon to be uninhabitable, scattering us all in different directions."

Ruby nodded. She wasn't surprised that Jaune hadn't told her much, and Ruby certainly wasn't going to tell her anything more than she needed to in order to get Pyrrha up to speed. "The Fall of Beacon was orchestrated by someone who was attending at the time. She came for the Vytal Festival, and participated in it, along with her team. Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black are going to be arriving in a few days, and they are the ones who cause the Fall of Beacon. What I'm about to tell you, you cannot tell anyone until we're completely ready." Ruby emphasized.

"Cinder is powerful on her own. Remember how Jaune told you that the schools have powerful relics created by the gods? Well, each relic is inside a vault, and each vault has a unique key. The key isn't an object though, it's a person." Ruby paused to make sure Pyrrha was still following.

"These keys are called maidens. There are four, and they're named after the seasons. Beacon's maiden is called the Fall Maiden. Right now, Cinder holds half of the maiden power for the Beacon relic. The other half is held by a girl named Amber who is slowly dying. If Amber dies, Cinder will control the entirety of the Fall Maiden's power. We need to apprehend her before then." Ruby finished. She wasn't telling Pyrrha everything, but she was giving her enough information that she would understand what was at stake.

Pyrrha sat in quiet contemplation. It was a lot of information to take in so suddenly, and for a moment Ruby worried that she had overwhelmed her friend. Still, she only had to wait a minute before Pyrrha spoke.

"How do we stop Cinder?" She said.

Ruby turned back to the board, hiding a smile. "Well, to start, we confront her and those working with her as many times as we can!" Ruby wrote up a bulleted list of all the times and places she and Jaune had thought of to fight Cinder. The CCT tower during the dance, the White Fang rally, and of course in Mountain Glenn. "The White Fang are going to hold a rally soon that Torchwick and Neo attend. During the Vytal Festival dance, Cinder is going to try and sneak into the CCT to inject a virus into Beacon's network. Finally, the White Fang and Torchwick are building a base of operations underground in Mountain Glenn. We're going to show up to each of these and stop them. Ozpin is already watching us due to what we did at the docks last semester, and by the time we stop them at Mountain Glenn, he will trust us enough that we can convince him to arrest Cinder, saving Beacon."

It was a simple plan, and there were so, so many things that could go wrong, but that was the main gist of it. No Cinder, no Fall of Beacon.

"We'll fill you in on the details of what happened in the original timeline for each event." Jaune said. "Once we do, it'll be planning time."

Pyrrha nodded. "Then let's get started."

---

Roman's base of operations right now was little more than a glorified warehouse on the outskirts of Vale. White Fang members, those who hadn't been captured, milled about, hauling material this way and that, packing it into boxes to be stored on airships. Roman stared at a map of Vale, thinking about what he would hit next. The docks were a bust, so that meant he would just have to try something else…

His concentration broke when the doors swung open. "Oh look, she sent the kids again." Roman said as he turned away from his map towards Cinder's newest pets. Even though he knew eventually they would rebel against their master, or at least who their master worked for, at this point they were still brainwashed puppies. "This is turning out just like the divorce." Roman walked over them, leaning on his cane, before coming up behind them and wrapping his arms around them in for a mock hug.

"Ulggh." Emerald shivered and pushed him away. "Spare us the thought of you procreating."

"That was a joke." Roman sauntered away from them. "Where have you two been all day?" Roman had already sent several lackeys to deal with the shopkeeper, and they reported that the wayward member had already returned to their ranks. Was it petty for him to use his premonitions to avoid being humiliated by two murderous teenagers? Maybe. Was it fun? Definitely.

"Keeping our heads down, like we were told." Mercury snapped.

"Really? You were told to do nothing? So why are you even here then? Kiddie table is that way." Roman gestured with his cane.

"We're here because Cinder sent us a message telling us to be here." Emerald crossed her arms, annoyed.

"Are you sure you read it right? You can read, can't you?" Roman kept riling them up. Emerald looked ready to snap back with some retort when Cinder emerged, standing at one of the lifts in the warehouse, dramatic as ever.

"Enough Roman." She commanded. Roman chuckled to himself as she descended. "I thought I made it clear that you were to eliminate the would be run-away."

Shit. Cinder had wanted that, hadn't she? "I thought the White Fang should deal with their own." It sounded like a good enough reason to him. In reality, he was simply too busy to deal with it himself.

Cinder leveled her gaze on Roman. "Don't think, obey." Emerald stuck out her tongue at Roman. "Why weren't you able to acquire more dust?" Cinder used a hand to gesture to the crates that surrounded them.

"Uhh… eh?" Roman pointed his cane towards the entire shipping containers filled with the dust he had already stolen. "Eh?" He moved again and pointed at cardboard boxes stacked floor to ceiling packed with dust. "Eh??" He raised both arms dramatically. "Sorry if I've been busy stealing every speck of dust in the kingdom! There aren't any more targets. Everyone who's left holds their dust closer than their lien."

"You're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask." Mercury added from the peanut gallery.

"Look around kid, I've got this town running scared. Police camping out on every corner, dust prices through the roof," and Roman still could not believe they would pass up that profit, "and we're sitting pretty in an old warehouse with more dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with! What the hell do you even need this much dust for?" Course, Roman knew exactly what kinds of insane plans Cinder had for all of this dust, but better for her to think he didn't.

"Oh Roman, have a little faith. You'll know what you need when you need to know it." Cinder reached out to caress Roman's jaw. Well, she wasn't wrong about that, though probably not in the way she hoped. Roman already knew everything he would need, and none of that came from Cinder. "Besides, we're done with dust. Have the White Fang clear out. Pack everything. I'll send you details and coordinates tonight."

Cinder walked off in her dramatic fashion with her pets. Roman grabbed a cigar and reached into his pocket for his lighter and lit up. Emerald had tried to swipe it from him, but she had only grabbed the wooden decoy he had put in his pocket before they arrived. The benefits of future sight.

Once Roman was convinced the trio was sufficiently far away, he dashed off to a back room. Neo was waiting for him as he shut the door so no one else could hear. Neo raised one hand in a questioning gesture.

"She doesn't know." Roman said. He had been worried that somehow Cinder would've sniffed something out, realized that something was up, but she still seemed to be clueless and proceeding as if everything was normal. His careful planning had paid off, and it would have to continue to pay off, if he and Neo were going to get out from under this.

Neo nodded and poked her left shoulder. Roman brought a hand to his and rolled his arm. "It's healing, still." He had been forced to drop his aura when Little Red was about to stab him, in order to have enough juice to be able to use his semblance to escape. It hurt like a bitch, but his aura had repaired the worst of it. Still, those kids were dangerous. Course they were, they had extra years of experience that Roman had been denied.

Still, the docks weren't a total loss. Roman had still confirmed that his premonitions weren't some fluke. They were real, and they were pretty damn accurate so far. Still, what would happen when he completely broke from what they told him? He hadn't seen Little Red and her friend actually talking things out with him at the docks in his visions, but he had tried anyway. They still attacked him, so did that mean Roman couldn't change the future, or just that his particular plan was doomed to failure?

Until he had reason to believe otherwise, he was going with the latter. Plus, the hunters had brought new blood to their little fight. So whatever Roman was seeing wasn't immutable. That just meant he needed a better plan. That was do-able.

Roman thought for a moment about the resources available to him. It was a short list, given that using any of Cinder's resources for other purposes was not a risk he was prepared to take, yet. Roman was positive that Cinder viewed him as expendable, and if he crossed her, he would find himself quickly replaced. That just left himself, his earnings from previous robberies, and his partner in crime. Slowly, a plan started to form.

"How do you feel about going undercover?" Roman asked Neo.

Notes:

Chapter 11!

Yeah, I've got nothing more than that.

Thanks to everyone who reads, kudos, and comments!