2 Days after the Day of Reckoning
Beacon Academy
As the airship landed and the doors opened, Miles and Blake stepped out to see Christy standing there with Beanie right beside her. The two of them and started exchanging hugs, Christy was clearly fighting back some tears.
“How you holding up professor?” Miles said giving Christy a quick hug.
“We’ve known each other for so long and I’ve told you several times. Just call me Christy” she said trying to hide the fact that she was struggling. “I’m hanging in there. How are you after everything that’s happened?”
“What does it matter?” Miles said in a surprisingly cold voice. “He’s gone. We see friends and comrades die in this line of work. We need to move on.” Christy was taken aback at Miles’ cold reaction as he immediately started making his way towards Professor Ozpin’s office. Christy, with a concerned look, turned to Blake and asked,
“Is he okay? I haven’t seen him like this since our first year.” Blake sighed, and started walking towards the office as well.
“He blames himself” Blake said rubbing her eyes to wash out some of the tears.
“What do you mean?” Christy asked as she had to jog a little bit to catch up.
“Well, the night after it all happened, like all of us, he was busy trying to mobilize troops and different factions across the world in case the Order was ready to attack us right then and there as well as dealing with all of the prison riots across the world. Then when it turned out they were just getting ready like we are, he finally got a chance to breathe, and he kept talking about how it was all his fault. He kept saying if maybe he had joined Nathan and his crusade, it might have been possible that he wouldn’t have gone down the path that he went on, maybe he could have saved him from doing what he had done during all those years. This that and the other, just trying to cope with what happened.” Christy sighed, and placed her hand on Blake’s shoulder.
“And how have you been dealing with all of this?”
“I don’t know” Blake said with a sigh. “But I can’t focus on that right now. I need to be there for what remains of his family. Aurora and Gray loved to play together, and Yang is my best friend. I can’t even imagine what they’re going through right now. And poor Ember….” Everybody fell silent after this. Beanie didn’t have anything to contribute to this conversation, so he just kept walking alongside his friends. When they reached the elevator to Ozpin’s office, still nobody talked. Beanie simply pressed the button and they all rose up to Professor Ozpin’s office. The doors opened, and they stepped into the office. Professor Ozpin looked up from his desk, his fingers pressed together, his eyes and body showing clear signs of fatigue and lack of sleep. He slowly got up, almost tripping over himself as he tried to go over and greet his guests.
“You….” Ozpin tried to speak, but clearly his voice was gone as well. After the declaration by the Order, he had been talking and planning nonstop with the other kingdoms of Remnant. He managed to grab a cup of old coffee and drink some of it to clear his throat. “You are the first to arrive” he said as he limply shook their hands. He then slowly went back to his desk. “Ironwood….is in the conference holodeck. He’s expecting you. I’ll wait here and greet the others.” Miles, Blake and Christy nodded their heads and made their way into the hologram room. Beanie stayed behind and walked over to Ozpin.
“You’re spent beyond reason” Beanie said placing his hands on Ozpin’s desk. “And I have a sinking feeling that we’re going to need you in the fights to come. Get some sleep. I’ll help get everybody else here taken care of.”
“I can’t. I’m the oldest being in this world, and I need to be there to help make sure this world is protected.”
“Yes, but that just furthers my point. We need you to be ready for battle, not ready for a strategy meeting. Get some rest. I’ll take care of things.” Professor Ozpin looked at Beanie, trying to see if he would flinch. But when he didn’t, Ozpin simply got up, grabbed his cane, and made his way over to a small room he had built into his office where he could sneak naps and meals if he had to work late nights. When the door closed, Beanie sighed and made his way back to the elevator to meet the next group arriving at the docks.
As the airship carrying Brooklyn, Ty, and Jacob continued on its approach, Ty looked out the window and saw the full grand scale of Beacon.
“Can’t believe this is how we get to see everybody again” he said making sure that he had everything together before they disembarked. Jacob sighed as he looked over a picture of all of them together back on Patch years ago.
“I just wish we could actually have everybody here” Jacob said as he put his scroll away. “It would definitely make this a whole lot less painful.” Brooklyn punched the side of the airship in frustration.
“Just about anything would be less painful if what happened to Nathan never happened” she said as she grabbed her belongings as the airship touched down. “What matters is that we do what we can to avenge him.” The doors opened, and they stepped out to see Beanie welcoming Evan as his airship had touched down close to theirs. They walked up to each other, greeted one another, and then made their way to the top of the tower where they were directed to the holographic conference room. As they made their way in, they saw General Ironwood with several other leaders and members of the world council all talking strategy when it came to trying to figure out the first move that the Order was going to take. When the five of them joined the call, Ironwood turned to greet them.
“Ah. Glad you finally made it” Ironwood said as he saluted them. “Beanie, when are Mrs. Rose and Ms. Xiao Long arriving?”
“They’ll be here shortly” Beanie said as he prepared to leave the room. “Ruby and Yang are travelling together, and there will be one other person joining them.”
“You can’t possibly be serious” Ember said as she piloted their personal airship towards the docks. Her mother, Yang, sat in the passenger seat while her aunt Ruby continued to sit in the back in silence.
“Young lady, I am not going to lose you as well” Yang said while gritting her teeth. “I refuse to let you go and fight in this war. And if you go off to fight, what about your brother? Who’s to say that he won’t join you on this crusade?”
“He won’t mom. He’s still a student. I’m sure if we talk to Uncle Oz, we’ll make sure that the students don’t fight unless the fight comes right to their doorstep.”
“That may be, but you yourself Ember…..”
“I’m a full-fledged huntress mom. I’m not some weak kid that you need to coddle and keep safe from the boogeyman at night. I’m a registered fighter, and I am going to help in whatever way I can. Heck, my old teammates have agreed to come back and help out like we did in the old days.”
“That doesn’t surprise me” Ruby said finally piping up in the back. “You and all of Team BEAT remind me of us when we were your age.”
“Don’t encourage her sis” Yang said as she clenched her fist.
“Yang, you can’t protect her from the world. If this is what she wants to do and how she wants to protect the world, who are we to stop her?”
“I’m her mother Ruby.”
“And how do you think dad felt when we risked life and limb on two separate occasions? Heck, how do you think he felt when we said that we were going back into that mess during the first time the Order showed up?” Yang fell silent and simply stared out the window as they came in on the final approach to Beacon. As they landed and opened the doors, Ruby stepped out and made her way over to where Beanie was standing. Yang just continued to stare out the window. She recognized so many different places where she and Nathan would have their little dates doing stupid stuff instead of studying for finals. Ember took off her seatbelt, leaned over and put her hand on her mother’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry mom.” Yang turned to look at her daughter’s face and saw tears running down the side of her face. Yang wiped away those tears, but neglected to tend to the tears running down her own face, which Ember returned the favor. They then embraced each other tightly and let the tears go for a few minutes.
“I miss him.” Ember said between sobs.
“Me too sweetie” Yang said between sobs as well. Beanie and Ruby both saw them sitting in the airship, and didn’t say anything. They simply stood there in silence, Ruby fighting back tears herself. After a few minutes, the two of them emerged and made their way to the main tower.
“No one would question your absence in this meeting” Beanie said to Yang as they waited for the elevator. “Heck, Professor Ozpin said that if you both wanted to sit out, nobody would blame you.”
“No” Ember said clenching her fist. “This is something I have to do. For my father.”
“And I need to make sure that the students don’t fight in this mess” Yang said crossing her arms. “I refuse to let Gray go off on a rage-driven revenge plot.”
“Don’t worry” Ruby said as they reached the top floor. “I’m sure no one in that room wants to put the children through such a harrowing experience like this one unless the enemy is right at their doorstep.” With that, they opened the doors to the holo-room and were greeted by Miles screaming at the top of his lungs,
“Are you serious Ironwood?! There’s no way that I’m letting you let our kids fight in this coming war!”
“We still don’t know what to fully expect from this newly resurrected Order Miles!” Ironwood yelled as he slammed his fist down on his desk. “We need all the help we can get! And if I’ve learned anything over my years of battle, it’s that we need to make sure that we use all the soldiers available to us!”
“Soldiers?!” Miles yelled back. “They’re just kids!”
“So were you the last time!”
“General!” Weiss yelled at the top of her lungs. “You are out of line!”
“It’s our job to make sure that the children don’t have to see the horrors we did back during the battles of Beacon and Vytal!” Pyrrha said as she pointed her spear at Ironwood’s head.
“A holographic spear is not that threatening child” Ironwood said as he walked through the hologram and towards Pyrrha. “Besides, we won those battles because of the children! I say, they are the key to our victory!”
“Natalie had to die and come back before we achieved that victory!” Christy yelled at the top of her lungs. “And she almost died again a few days ago even with all of her experience now. And now you’re saying that you want our children to make a similar sacrifice just because the Order declared war on us? You general, have your priorities backward.”
“My priorities are protecting the world of Remnant! And I refuse to let it die now after we have fought so hard to achieve what we have today! You all fought for this future when you were children, why not let them fight for their future?!” Suddenly, a shot rang out. Yang had fired a round from her robotic arm at the hologram of General Ironwood. The entire room fell silent after this moment, and Yang marched straight towards Ironwood’s hologram.
“When I was a kid, I lost my arm to these monsters” Yang said holding up her hand in Ironwood’s face. “My sister-in-law got killed trying to stop them. And now, I’ve lost my husband to them. While I can’t do anything to stop my daughter from joining the fight, it’ll be a cold day in hell before I ever let you even think about letting my son fight in this war.” The room stayed silent, no one really having a reaction. Then Ironwood, clenched his fist, and yelled back,
“What do you know about sacrifice?” He then proceeded to rip of his shirt revealing his half-cybernetic body. “I’ve lost everything in my life to keep this world safe! My wife! My children! My soldiers! I have risked everything and given so much to keep this world safe! So don’t you dare lecture me about sacrifice!”
“If you know so much about sacrifice general,” Blake said stepping forward, “Wouldn’t you want to make sure that no one ever has to endure and sacrifice what you have sacrificed?” The room fell silent once again, no one offering any solutions to the issue at hand. However, after a few moments of silence, Jacob stepped forward.
“May I make a suggestion?” Nobody said no, and nobody protested, so Jacob continued. “The thing is, if the Order is as powerful as we believe them to be, then we are going to need all available huntsmen and huntresses on deck for dealing with the threat at hand. And that will leave the smaller towns and villages virtually defenseless save the few huntsmen and huntresses we can spare. I do not think it is wise to put the students in the front lines of battle, but perhaps a compromise can be reached. To gain experience in the real world, the students and their teams will shadow professionally trained huntsmen and huntresses in the field, all the while making sure they are doing jobs that will benefit the people. I know this system isn’t perfect, and it is entirely likely that the war may come to them before we have a chance to stop it, but it ensures that we are keeping the people safe while not having the students be forced to stare right down the barrel of the gun. Can we all find this agreeable?” There wasn’t an initial reaction at first, but then Miles stepped forward.
“Most of our kids, while they may not have seen the stuff we did back in our day, they have had their own fair share of trials to reach where they are today. My own daughter had to fight off hordes of Grimm in her own home since me and my own comrades failed to keep them away from civilians. They shouldn’t be a part of the coming war, but Jacob makes a good point. We are going to be stretched to our limit here. Plus, this is a good way for the students to stay on their toes. I agree with this plan.” Miles raised his right hand as a sign of approval of the plan. Slowly but surely, everyone else in the room also raised their hands in agreement.
“Very well then” Ironwood said as he sat down at his now almost destroyed desk. “I will coordinate with my officers here and keep an eye out for the Order’s first attack and when it might arrive. The rest of you, I suggest you do the same. Keep the channels open in case a surprise attacks pops up.” Ironwood then ended his call, and several other people ended the call as well. Yang, still clearly distraught, walked over to Jacob and hugged him.
“Thanks for trying to keep the kids as safe as you could” she said holding back tears.
“I wish we could have had the chance to make sure that nobody fought, but it seems we’re past that now.” Everybody else in the room simply walked over to the two of them and all created a large hug group. They didn’t have any words to say, nor did they have the chance to process everything. This was their first time since what happened two days ago did they get the chance to truly mourn. Not a word was said, but several tears were shed and several hugs were shared.
2 Hours Later
Yang stood just outside the door of the dorm room where Team GASH stayed. She took a deep breath., not wanting to continue. Blake then put her hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“We need to see them” she said. Yang sighed, and knocked on the door. The door swung open, and young Sora Nikos was the one who answered it.
“They’re over there” he said pointing to a corner of the room where Hera, Gray, and Aurora were all sitting on the bed. The parents all walked in and saw that they were looking over old family photos of all their families together. Hera pulled up a picture on her phone.
“Hey Gray, remember this day?”
“Yeah. My dad had just jumped off the side of the boat we had rented and found out that there was tiny baby crab Grimm where he was swimming. They pinched him red. He was mad.”
“Is that why he’s got so many red spots all over him?” Aurora asked looking over the picture. “I thought I heard it was from a training accident.”
“That’s the age-old excuse he made for years” Gray said with a sad chuckle. “Heck, any time that dad did anything stupid back at the house, he would always tell me and Ember that it was just a training accident.” The three of them laughed, then looked up to see their parents standing there. Once more, no words could come to mind. They all just started embracing one another tightly with the occasional “I’m sorry” popping up on occasion. Nobody knew what the correct response was outside of to just be there for one another.
General Ironwood continued to finish up the information needed to ensure that the armies of Atlas were ready for whatever the Order threw at them. Suddenly, an alarm flashed on his monitor. He quickly answered it and saw the panicked face of Pyrrha Nikos.
“General,” Pyrrha said in a panic, “how quickly can the troops of Argus get to Mistral?”
“Depending on how prepared they are, not long. I take it the Order is attacking?”
“Full force. We’re holding our own since the natural design of the city is perfect against ground forces, but their airships are giving us trouble.”
“Hold the fort Mrs. Nikos. I’ll let everybody know.” Ironwood hung up, and then grabbed his Scroll and started a recording. “This is General Ironwood calling all available forces. The Order is making their first attack at Haven Academy. This is not a drill. This is how the war begins.” After he said that, he sent out the recording in a mass message to everybody who made the decisions in Remnant. He then ran towards his personal airship and started making calls to all his officers as well as to the officers in Argus, telling them what was going on. As the airship took to the skies, he looked down at the Atlas Academy grounds and saw the students training. Students who had been blessed with the gift of peace for so long, now not far away, that very peace was being threatened by an old enemy. Ironwood loaded his pistol, and watched as the airships began taking off and making their way to Mistral.
“Whatever it takes.”
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