Of Maidens and Mecha - Four

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Beta(s) :

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I have a new job, and my mother had her first knee surgery, hence delays. Apologies. Will attempt to keep up as best I can after.

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Razorwing stood on the cliff-top, watching the staff and crew that the Headmaster had ordered work quietly as they lifted the tall, thick, heavy iron rods high and pressed them down into the grassy lawn nestled into the turns of a dorm building and the cafeteria. When they were deep enough, others came with heavy, concrete blocks they stacked around the poles and then poured liquid concrete into to solidify them, and make sure they wouldn't fall. Then he helped them raised the heavy, thick pavilion cloth the Headmaster had also ordered for him. It stretched out across the fifty feet or so with cloth to spare, hanging down to the ground on every side. He secured it on with heavy, threaded iron bolts screwed onto the head of each spike carefully, to avoid tearing the reinforced cloth.

"I'unno." The girl riding on his shoulder drawled, kicking her legs boredly, "You sure it'll hold?"

"You doubt it?" Razorwing asked, smirking thinly and turning his head to regard the orange-haired young woman. She was thick and powerfully built, as she had been for years, lounging on his shoulder comfortably and watching the clouds while a finger twirled the short-cut hair falling loosely around her shoulders. Quietly, he said,"The Headmaster seems confident. Apparently, this is the norm."

"I mean, it's just cloth…"

"It'll be fine, Nora." The young man on his other shoulder sighed, sitting with his legs folded under him. He was wiry and thin, with long hair he kept braided down the middle of his back and pink-painted finger-nails. An odd choice, he'd been told, for men of his species. But that hadn't seemed to slow him down at all. "Just like your uniform will be. As long as you don't run off into the forest to find something to hit."

"I mean, but that's fun?" She laughed, kicking her legs and stretching her arms out above her, flexing like she wanted to tear the blazer right then and there, "I'm just glad he let me wear pants instead of that silly thingamajig-"

"Skirt, Nora."

"Skirt!" She chuckled, "Like, ugh. Everyone would stare!"

"And whose fault would that be?" Razorwing asked, "You did them up yourself, girl."

"Still." She sighed, "Would be kinda annoying…"

"They're going to stare anyway, once they see a girl in pants." Ren sighed, "And from Mistral, too…"

"Hey, just cus my butt's cute-"

"Alright, enough of that." He chuffed, shaking his shoulders and tossing them both off as he turned. They curved and rolled in the air, pushing off his plating as they fell, and landed a few feet away without missing a beat. He tried not to grin, and said, "You're too good at that, you know."

"Did you want to concuss us…?"

"I mean, but that's fun?" He laughed, waving them toward the trolley of long benches rolling towards their little pavilion. "Go on, get to work. Ozpin let me put you through even after missing Initiation-"

"The village needed help!"

"That's why he did it, ya daft Cyberist!" He scoffed, kicking a foot out and clipping her shoulder gently. Her Aura sparked off the gentle blow and he sighed. "If you hadn't taken down that Webknecht nest… Well, you risked a lot, brats."

"It worked out." Nora shrugged, "No big."

He shook his head, waved them off, and then watched them go. Finally, as they got to work, he sighed and said, "One day, playing all this by ear won't work out for you, Nora… What then?"

"I'm sure we'll all find out, sooner rather than later."

"Ozpin." He sighed, turning and looking down at the man. "One day, I will discover how you are so adept at sneaking up to me."

"Is it so odd?" The man asked, cocking his head and looking up at the winged titan. "I've been told I have something of a talent for approaching people and catching them unaware, you know."

"I have very special senses, augmented by advanced sensors." Razorwing said, pressing his lips into a thin, iron-hard line, "Thermal, motion, infrared- That you can surprise me is meaningful, Headmaster. And I find myself more and more curious about how you continue to manage it."

"Well…" The man chuckled, pausing to take a sip from his mug. "Perhaps my years as a storied Hunstman, and then as the head of one of the most prestigious combat academies on the planet, may offer some insight to your curiosity?"

"Hmph." He rumbled, letting the topic go as he always did. Whatever the man was doing, he wasn't likely to reveal it anytime soon - though Razorwing wondered if that was simple preference, or due to what he was. His kind were still rather feared, after all…

And for understandable reasons.

"In any event." Ozpin pushed on, "I'm rather curious- What will your first lecture be about?"

"Ah, that." He answered, "Well, in truth, I'm still rather torn."

"Oh?"

"I'd love nothing more than to go to the very beginning of my kind- Cybetron itself, and what we know of it from the Archive my creator left behind." And all the history that entailed, as lengthy and deep as it was. "But… I feel that the happenings after the Fall of Atlas may be the most pressing, for the majority of those present. Vale, Vacuo, Mantle- These students will all come with an understandably biased view of my kind and of things surrounding."

"A decent starting place, I agree." Ozpin nodded, "There will be a lot of mistrust among them. And you would do well to prepare yourself, and your children, for it."

"They are hardly my children." Razorwing murmured, watching Nora carry several of the benches stacked across her broad, bare shoulders - her blazer left behind in Ren's hands while she worked. Other staff turned as she passed, pulling benches off the stack and waving her on, and Razorwing sighed. "But… We're prepared, even so."

"Good." He nodded, "I won't sit in on the lecture, I can't seem to favor any of the classes, but be assured I will watch a recording of it later. I look forward to it."

"As do I." He smiled, "As do I."

"Very good." The old man smiled, turning with a small, lazy wave as he left. "A good day to you, then."

Razorwing watched him go for a moment and then turned and found his seat, with his back to the corner between dorm and cafeteria and the benches curving out in front of him like an amphitheater. While he settled in, he watched the Humans work and hummed. Not a Faunus among them…

After so long in Mistral and Menagerie, it was strange.

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Ruby practically sprinted out of the bathroom, buttoning up her shirt with rose-trailing fingers as she bounced around the room, "Oh Gods, it's the first day! First day, first class, at Beacon! Oh, and it's Professor Razorwing too! I wonder what he'll talk about?! What do you think, Weiss?"

"I think I've never been happier for caffeine." The Schnee sighed, laying on her bed and sipping at her coffee. She paid the other young woman a look, raised her brow and asked, "You do know that if you'd woken up earlier, you wouldn't be rushing to get ready on time, right?"

"Well, duh." The brunette scoffed, straightening her skirt and running a hand through her damp hair. "And if you'd just let me change out here, I wouldn't have-"

"You needed a shower, Ruby." She rolled her eyes, "And I have no desire to be faced with seeing your posterior every morning."

"Oi!" Ruby flashed as red as her name implied, flattening the seat of her skirt down and glaring petulantly, "No looking at my tush!"

"I just said I did not want to?!"

"Mhm." She nodded, "But daddy always said, if someone says something they don't want, then they're probably lying."

"How does that make any sense?!"

"He was talking about boys." Ruby clarified, as if that explained anything at all to the Schnee. "And some girls, too."

"Oh for the love of-" Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose, took a deep breath, and counted down from ten - exactly as she'd been taught. Finally, calmly, she said, "I don't want to look at that, Rose. Believe me, don't, I don't care. Do you want your biscuit or not?"

"You got me a biscuit?"

"Of course I did, you dummy." She snapped, shaking her head and pointing at the little bag on Ruby's bed. "And a juice, too, since you were running late."

"Thanks, Weissy!" Ruby said, flashing over and wrapping her arms around the Schnee. She went ramrod straight and felt heat creep along her neck, but Ruby had gone before she could say anything, flashing over to her bed to dig into the bag eagerly. Mouth half-full of biscuit, she slurred, "Dis good!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full…" Weiss sighed, looking up as the warning bell chimed gently. Standing, she said, "Ten minutes to get there. Come on, you'll have to walk and eat."

"Kay!"

Rolling her eyes, Weiss picked up her bag and held Ruby's out to her, and they were on their way.

The 'lecture pavilion', as it was called on the class dossier they'd all been sent, was far less like a prestigious campus event than she'd expected. Instead, with the heavy blue cloth hanging over it, steepling up to a high, pointed cap, it looked more like a circus. Albeit one emblazoned with the crest of Beacon Academy and with finely dressed Beacon Academy student teachers at the opening slits at the back, waving people in, rather than anything like a circus would have. But even so, she couldn't shake the impression.

Inside, rows of benches had been arranged with a careful hand, angling out in a third of a circle away from the end, where the cloth had been pulled up, letting Weiss see out to the brick wall of the cafeteria and dorm alike. Lights on rods as tall as she was had been embedded into the ground between each pair of seats throughout, save for the ends touching the walls, and small signs hung from little spokes to either side of the light's base.

"Assigned seating?" She murmured, brows knitting together, "What, are we in grade school?"

"Nah." A voice drawled from behind her, "S'Mistrali style. No one fights for the best seats since they rotate."

The woman beside them was taller than Weiss, though that meant little, and dressed in the same Beacon uniform as her. Except, she wore a long-sleeved shirt under the blazer, and a pair of long pants too instead of the cooler shirt and skirt that Weiss was wearing. Even so, the larger woman was powerfully built and obvious about it, her biceps flexing powerfully as she crossed her arms.

And glared at Weiss-

"If you're just gonna stare," the woman smirked, greenish eyes hardening a bit, "I'm gonna have to charge."

"Yeah!" Ruby chirped, drawing Weiss' eyes around and her eyebrows up in surprise. Ruby pouted at her a bit, crossed her own arms, and added, "It's rude to ignore people!"

"That's not-"

"Incorrect." Weiss cut in, before the Mistrali muscle-woman could go on. Her eyebrows shot up and Weiss cocked her head, smiled politely, and added, "Or is there another meaning you want to explain to the fifteen year old?"

"The fifteen…"

"I'll be sixteen in, like, three months!" Ruby argued, "Wait, if that's not- Then what did she mean?"

"U-Uh…"

"C'mon, now I feel left out!" Ruby pouted, flicking looks between them until the Mistralian chuckled unsurely. "Fine, I'll just look it up on-"

"N-No, she's right, I was just, um, surprised. By how young you are!" The woman rushed to say, stammering, "O-Or I guess you were right. Or you both were? Um, I mean-"

"Weiss Schnee." Weiss cut in, offering a hand if only so the change in subject could steer away from the more troublesome one they were on now. The Mistralian blinked, surprised either for the offered hand or - less likely for obvious reasons - her name and she offered in what she hoped would be an encouraging way, "A pleasure."

"Oh." She took the hand, squeezed far too hard, and beamed a maniacally wide smile when Weiss threw her Aura up. Like she was amused by it. "Nora Valkyrie. Happy ta meet you."

"I-I see that." Weiss chuckled, withdrawing her hand and fighting back the urge to shake the soreness out of it. Gesturing to Ruby with a bob of her head she said, "My partner, Ruby Rose."

"Hi!"

"The fifteen year old." Nora nodded, and then snorted when Ruby pouted deeply, "Sorry, sorry… If you're here, you've probably earned it more than any of these other tin-boned ditch-diggers."

"Tin-boned…?"

"Ah, uh, it's a Cybertronian saying." Nora shrugged, "Just means weak. In polite company at least…"

"I see…"

"So?" Nora asked, cocking a hip and then her head. "How'd ya get in early?"

"Stopped a robbery." She shrugged, smiling pleasantly, "The Headmaster seemed impressed. Gave me some cookies, and offered me a spot. He even covered tuition for me, bought my books, all that stuff. Since it was such short notice, and my dad had already paid for my sister, Yang's, tuition."

"Your sister's here?"

"Mhm!" Ruby nodded, turning and humming as she searched the crowds finding their seats. Finally she pointed at a mop of blonde across the way and said, "There she is! Hey Yang! Mooorning!"

"Mooorning!" The blonde called back, turning and bouncing up and down, waving with both hands. "Baby sisssssster!"

"Guh!" Ruby squawked, flushing red as more than a few eyes fell on her - with more than a few chuckles to accompany them - and she pouted. "I am not a baby, Yang! You… You meany!"

Whatever inside joke was on display, Weiss didn't get a chance to see more than Yang doubling over in laughter before heavy steps shook the ground.

"Alright now, children, alright." A loud, vaguely synthesized, voice called out as the metallic man finally stooped down in the opening at the end of the seating area. The machine knelt first, easing in and then sitting back in one motion with a sigh, his massive legs folded under him, almost invisible under the swell of his layered metal…

Well, Weiss couldn't see anything but a robe made of metal feathers.

So, robe.

Elbows on his knees, he laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them, "If all are present, please, take your seats. I will do an attendance scan, and we can begin."

With the typical dull thrum of muttering and murmuring, and more than a few confused call outs by lazier students who hadn't bothered finding their seats beforehand, the class did as they were told. Weiss found herself on the outside of their seat, sitting beside Ruby with Nora on her other side and Nora's partner - Lie Ren, according to their sign - on the far side.

"I still can't believe they got a real, live, Cybertronian to come teach us!"

"Right?" Nora laughed, "When he told me we were coming to Beacon, I almost called him a liar."

"That's right, you're Mistralian." Ruby hummed, drawing Weiss' attention away from the front as she went on, "I read something about… Orphans and the robots? Like adoption, but not?"

"Oh you mean the-"

"Nora Valkyrie." The booming, synthetic voice cut off the woman's words and drew Eiss' attention right back to the front. The machine was watching her - or, well, them, but Dust those eyes on her sent a chill up her spine - and smiling thinly. "I would thank you not to spoil today's lessons. Yet again."

"R-Right." The muscled woman laughed, scratching at the side of her head and waving it - him? - off with a hand. "Sorry, Razor."

"Professor Razorwing…"

"Professor Razor."

The metal man sighed and shook his head at that, the metallic pseudo-hair of his head shaking a bit as he did. Finally, he raised his voice and turned to regard the room as a whole, "We are missing one. Where is Ni-"

"Here!" A woman called out suddenly. Weiss turned and watched as another woman, with literal bronze legs, come jogging between the seats. Flushing brightly, she said, "I-I'm sorry, one of the gears on my leg got damaged the other day, and fixing it-"

"Ran long." The Cybetronian nodded, "Unavoidable, so far from Mistral and it's advanced cyber-labs, I'm sorry to say."

"Y-Yes, Sir…"

"Take your seat, no harm done. We were just beginning." He nodded, turning as a blonde man Weiss vaguely recognized stood up and waved her over. When she took her seat, one hand holding onto her knee, the professor sighed and said. "Well, now we're all present, we may begin today's lecture."

"And I will say, it is one I have spent some time considering. For what could be the best first topic for Valeans, Vacuoans and Mantlelians to hear? What could possibly unite such distant, disparate peoples that you would not already know?" The metal man let the question hang, for a long moment, before he finally said the one word Weiss herself could come to. "War."

"War unites history and peoples in blood and pain and metal." He rumbled, chuckling and tapping a hand to his chest. "In more ways than one. And ours was as destructive, bloody and tragic as most others. All but one. The one which, in its unending, entropic excesses, created that which created every 'Bot on Remnant."

"The War for Cybertron will wait for another day, however." Razorwing murmured, "Instead, I will speak on the so-called Bloodline War of recent years. And the Fall of Atlas, which ended it… And, ultimately, why that happened."

"But first," He leaned back and smiled, "Do any here have theories?" Weiss saw Nora's hand raise almost instantly and the machine sighed, "Anyone that hasn't attended my lectures for years, Valkyrie."

"R-Right…"

For a few moments, the room was quiet, and Weiss gnawed at her lip. Finally, though, she couldn't resist raising her hand. The Cybertronian smiled and gestured to her, "Miss Schnee, please, speak your mind."

Hesitating as she did, unsure of if she was supposed to but leaning on her old lessons in Mantle, Weiss stood and took a breath. "The Fall of Atlas coincided with a since declassified strike on Menagerie. It was a light attack, all considered, easily repelled - but most Mantle military minds believe it demonstrated a desire to end the war before Atlas could continue developments. Everyone knows the mechanized units deployed were capable of… Well…"

"Of killing my kind." Professor Razorwing nodded, "You needn't be coy, Miss Schnee. I was an Insecticon soldier as all my kind were, then. I took lives, and lost comrades, the same as any side did."

"I see." She nodded, "I'm sorry, I just… Wanted to be polite."

"I understand, and thank you." He nodded, "But history is rarely polite. Within this tent, speak your mind. Right or wrong will be determined in the discussion. With that said…" He turned to the class, "Who here agrees with Miss Schnee on this?"

Several hands went up as Weiss sat, and the Professor nodded, gesturing to a man towards the front and grunting, "You, Winchester, stand and explain. Why would the Faunus and Insecticon army have reacted so powerfully?"

"It knew that the animals couldn't keep it going." The burly man grunted, "They were smart about it, don't get me wrong. But Menagerie never really fought Atlas and Mistral head on. And with Vale leaning into things? Had to know he couldn't hold."

"If so, why didn't he just… Start by attacking Atlas?"

"What kind of-"

"No, no, Winchester, he gets to speak." Professor Razorwing cut him off, "Stand, Mister Arc. Speak your mind."

"Well…" The blonde, Jaune Arc she recognized now, stood after a look to his partner. Scratching anxiously at the side of his head, he said, "I think it's because the big robot, Shockwave I mean… I've seen his recording. What he broadcast."

"And?"

"And.. Atlas took something." Jaune said, "He didn't say what, but… It must have been important, right? No one's even seen him since."

"You are quite right." Professor Razorwing murmured, the jovial tone dying as he did. Turning, he addressed Winchester, "You have valid, if ill-phrased and reasoned, points. Menagerie was a guerilla fighting force, bolstered by Insecticon strength. It is doubtful that Menagerie's forces would have been able to move on and capture any more."

"But…" He finished, "You are wrong about the motivation behind the strike. You see, my creator, my… Master, at the time. He had a dear friend. One called Ghira Belladonna. Atlas' strike consisted of a bombardment, shelling the coastline and foremost blocks to prepare a landing assault."

"The Chieftain… Died." Razorwing said, "And when Shockwave left, all our kind could feel, through the connection we shared to him, a sense of… Breaking. Then the Fall, and nothing since."

"So he killed Atlas for…" Winchester scoffed, "For one animal?"

"How many of my kind would Vale kill if I were to reach out and crush you now, boy?" Razorwing snapped hotly, rounding on him with narrow eyes. Raising a hand, he said, "I will not, of course, for the same thing that my kind learned from all we experienced leading to that moment. Nora, if you would…"

"Empathy." The Mistralian called out, not even bothering to rise, "What the Insecticons felt drove them to understand… Things, a bit more."

"As a result, Mistral was not conquered." Razorwing nodded, "Instead, it was accepted. My kind spent years rebuilding its city, its walls, its villages. We spent years more fighting for it, against the Grimm, even as our own nature began to change. Molded by the world."

"When the dust settled, Haven Academy became a new place." Nikos called out, cutting in with neither ceremony nor permission. "A place for orphans to be taken care of. Faunus, Human, whole or not. Even Cybertronians, unsure of their place, came there."

"From them, Holds emerged." Razorwing nodded, "Groups of beings. Metal, man, Faunus, coming together and building a life. Miss Nikos is here for talent - she is our best fighter by far, and a good representative for what Menagerie has become. But Nora and Ren? They are here because they are my Hold. And I would not leave them."

"War unites history and peoples in blood and pain and metal." He reiterated, "I said that in some cases, that was meant in more ways than one. Many, I'm sure, believed I meant the 'metal' bit. In truth, I meant the unity it can bring."

"So," he smiled as a bell chimed, "I want you all to read the text on your Scroll labeled 'Blood and Chrome : A Unity Born in Mistral'. I want a one-page report on your feelings on the matter, which we will discuss next week. Speak honestly, and come with integrity, ready to defend and listen!"

Weiss stood and turned, watching and Nora and her partner did the same. When the Valkyrie turned to her, though…

Weiss flinched, looked away, and marched off, head held low.

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Soundwave completed the reading within five minutes - it was only forty pages, with pictures included - and retired to 'his' room in the Academy to think.

He was aware, of course, that the Insecticons had changed in the years since Shockwave's departure. But the extent was… Breathtaking. The way Razorwing spoke, he would have believed him an old, storied scholar. Not a purposefully brawler-built war-machine only a decade and change old.

As ever, he was impressed…

He turned, closing the connection, to regard the sleeping Human in her pod and hummed as he thought. "What will he make of you, I wonder? Will it be as impressive?"

He could not be sure but, more and more, he found himself… Anticipatory.

"Soundwave."

He cocked his head as the signal registered, "Lazerbeak?"

"I have confirmed Shockwave's reports, as you requested." Not for the first time, of course, but redundancy was the best way to rule out coincidences. "Eight signatures. Four stationary, one of which is… Oddly dissipated. Four mobile."

"Can you track them?"

"No." Lazerbeak answered, "The energy is too… Weak a signal. Hard to trace beyond a region. Concentrated in places, and not in others. No consistent pattern among all of them, however."

Whatever it was was moving, leaving faint trails of the odd energy, then. Finally, he said, "Which is in the most sparsely populated region?"

"The Mistrali signals." Lazerbeak answered, "But…"

"The 'Bots there would prove troublesome." He hummed, turning to regard the mission dossier available to first year students. None would go there, unfortunately. But next year… "Continue your sweeps. Report any anomalies. I am formulating a plan."

"Understood."

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Penny sat at the cliff's edge and watched the distant Academy with a frown. It was bright, shining, and with her advanced optical unites, she could make out people on the lawn and along the cliff edge. Workers, students, coming and going. Talking, fighting, dancing in one case, and in a few secluded others doing… Things.

Quietly, she said, "So many people…"

"I know, Dear." Her father said, voice echoing out of the Seer floating at her shoulder. "But we don't have a choice. And at least if it is us, we can… Minimize the damage."

"To an extent." She sighed, tucking her knees up into her chest and resting her chin on them. "I know it is unavoidable, and best we handle this. I just… Wish I could make friends here, instead of war."

"One day…"

"Yeah." She sighed, turning as heavy footfalls reached her. "One day… Goodbye, Father."

"Goodbye, Dear."

She rose as Hazel neared and rumbled, "It's time. Our contact will get us into the city unknown. From there, the Cyclops will guide us an prepare."

"Very well." She nodded, "Let us go."

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Waytodawn :

He would have found SOMETHING, yeah. Best intentions, he may have. But he's a son of a bitch indeed.

Love him tho. XD