Chapitre 16: Initiation (Other Perspectives)
POV Raven Branwen
Though some years had passed, raven had not forgotten Strife of Fury, who had seemed fairly dangerous so her, even when they were little pipsqueaks, and now they were planning to attend Beacon, and it just happened to be at the same time as her own daughter. Raven was not sure what it would lead too, and the fact that it was so far out of her control was something she did not like let slip by.
The problem, though, was that while she believed she could have beat them back on that day they met, albeit at great cost, she knw how much they had grown since then, and even if she took one of them on at a time, she was not confident in her ability to defeat either of them.
They hadn't given her any reason to believe that they would be a threat to her daughter, so maybe there was a small bit of hope in that, but it couldn't fully satisfy her either, which brought her to the Emerald Forest today, when the Beacon initiation was to be held.
Flying through the air in her bird form, Raven was looking below for any signs of students when something slammed into her back and sent her falling towards the ground, with the last thing she heard being "Birdie, nooooo!" before she crashed into a tree limb and was knocked out, only having survived thanks to her aura.
'Damn it Qrow' Raven thought while passing out, convinced that this was somehow Qrow's fault.
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POV Cinder Fall
Cinder, upon landing in the Emerald Forest, was quick to look to the sky and see where Emerald would land, an was grateful when she caught sight of her, and realized that she wasn't that for off.
After travelling a kilometer, Cinder came face to face with Emerald, and they exchanged a quick hug "Luckily I had no trouble finding you in your forest." Cinder said teasingly.
"Haha." Emerald answered, trying hard not to be amused by Cinders little joke.
"I know you liked that." Cinder insisted with a smirk. "For now, though, lets try to meet up with Mercury and Neo. Lets hope that they partner up as planned. Death was right about the nature of this initiation, after all"
"Oh please, are you underestimating me, Cinder?" Neo asked as she approached, walking alongside Mercury.
"Wow, Hop did you get here so fast? You were thrown off the cliff in a completely different direction" Cinder was quite surprised by Neo's arriving this fast, on top of bringing Mercury with her.
"I hope I never have to endure that again. So claustrophobic" Mercury answered cryptically.
"It got the job done, didn't it? So no complaining partner." Neo insisted.
Cinder couldn't help but get even ore curious about what Neo had done but decided that now was not the right time to ask about it "Okay, we're together now, so lets find our relics and finish this initiation."
"So why did you get nominated leader anyway?" Mercury asked Cinder with curiosity.
"Emerald and I were trained under Death, and that training included leadership training. You were trained by Fury and Strife. Both of them are strong, but they are not leaders. As such, Death and them decided that I'd be the best leader for our group. Please believe in them and trust me that I'll do my best to be a good leader for our team."
Mercury sighed and nodded in acceptance.
No one else questioned Cinder's leadership and the group set out and made their way to the relics. They appeared too have arrived first, so each pair took a matching relic before turning to leave again
They were making good time heading towards the cliffs, only running into a coupl Beowulf at first, but then they stumbled upon something more dangerous. It was none other then a Beringel.
The gorilla-like grimm beat it's chest with it's fists, and then charged towards the four of them. Green flames appeared around Neo's eyes and vines grew out of the Earth, rapping around the Beringal to slow it down while spears of earth started coming up and impaling the Beringal from underneath. It was eventually violently thrown back, busting through a couple trees, then dissolving into nothing.
Since it was killed in short order, Neo just yawned as her eyes were returning to normal and the green flame effect was disappearing "Did you guys hear something?" Neo grinned boastfully.
Cinder chuckled "You've gotten much stronger, Neo, that was amazing" she complimented "But now that we know things like this are around, lets slow down a bit. I don't want something like that to hurt Ruby, Yang, or Blake. Don't want to step in unless they really need help, since I could deprive them of opportunities to grow, but we can still help if they really can't handle something."
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POV Raven Branwen
She awakened in a tree, hearing the sound of something large beating against something hard. Still in the form of a raven, she looked towards the noise and found a Beringal about to attack four kids. As it charged at them, the familiar girl with pink and brown hair had green flames appear around her eyes, and started controlling plants and the earth.
'She's the spring maiden?' Raven thought to herself with shock, recalling the least intimidating and seemingly mute girl that had been with Strife and Fury all those years ago. She had the Spring Maiden in front of her and had absolutely no idea.
It left a bitter taste in her mouth. Her tribe had lost two fine bandits trying to acquire the previous maiden, and it appeared that this girl had benefitted from their loss.
While her thoughts had distracted her, though, the Spring Maiden had sent the Beringal flying directly towards her. Raven tried to dodge by taking flight, but was still grazed and was sent flying again 'Damnit Qrow!' Raven thought while trying to stabilize in the air and lesson the damage she would take when she inevitable crash landed.
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POV Strife Belladonna
At the top of the Beacon Cliff, using senses consolidation to weaken four senses and greatly enhance the remaining sense. In this case, he was amplifying his sight in order to be able to see through the canopy of trees and for dozens of miles, allowing him to perfectly track Cinder and her team of four. In doing so, he finally saw something that made him chuckle.
"What do you see, brother?" Fury, who was standing beside him.
"The little birdie that's been following us off and on for the last decade or so is having a very bad day." Strife admitted to Fury
His hearing was weakened with senses consolidation active, but itwasn't like he was completely deaf, and she was standing right beside him.
"Is she a threat to our little students?" Fury asked Strife with concern.
"No. Neo has grown incredibly strong." Strife reassured Fury "She seems to have unlocked a second semblance. That is rare, but not unheard of."
"Then I can be at ease." Fury agreed as War and Death were walking over to them.
"How is my adopted sister doing?" War asked Strife.
"Weiss was fine when I checked a bit ago. She teamed up with Blake in the woods." Strife explained to War without facing him "Neo and Mercury paired up, as did Cinder and Emerald, Ren and Nora, and Ruby and Yang. The boy named Jaune that Neo tutored ended up teaming with Pyrrha Nikos.""
Strife looked back towards the shrine again "Oh, it looks like Jaune and Ren have collected Black Knight pieces, while Ruby and Weiss have selected the White Knight pieces. They seem to be having trouble with a Nevermore and a Deathstalker but Cinder and her new team are keeping tabs on them in case they need a rescue."
"Then it sounds like they'll be fine" Death said, seeming relieved.
Strife deactivated Senses Consolidation and turned towards his siblings "Death, we met up here, but you still haven't told us why. Now might be a good time, big brother."
"Well, I can't go into too much detail out here, but to it mildly, the world of Remnant is not as peaceful as it seems. I was sent here on a task by a deity that called himself the One-Above-All to save this world. Part of that mission required me to come here." Death enplaned to the three of them "Your main purpose here, I believe, was to finally experience what it is like to be a child, to have family and to know love. Even if that is the case, we all know that if I needed help you would come to assist no matter what it took to get there."
Strife, Fury and War all nodded in agreement to that.
"Well, by coming here together and joining the same team, it'll be much easier for you to be there when I do need help." Death insisted "Some of the tasks that the One-Above-All gives me, you probably wont be able to help with, but those places where you can, I'll be relying upon each of you."
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POV Ozpin
Ozpin sat in his office alone, it was evening now and teams had already been assigned and named, but his mind wasn't on the teams at all, but rather on one of the students. It was none other then Neopolitan Arc.
When he had first seen her in the assembly after she arrived at Beacon, the girl was like a giant magical Beacon saying 'look at me'. He immediately realized that she was a maiden, but he was not sure which one.
The Summer Maiden was recently assassinated near Vacuo, and the Spring Maiden disappeared from Haven academy more then a decade ago, so at first she could have been either of them, and if she had been the Summer Maiden, then that probably wwould have meant that she was an enemy, so it was natural for him to pay extra close attention to her.
Fortunately, she used her maiden powers during initiation and he was able to verify that she was the missing Spring Maiden. He briefly considered notifying his allies of Neo's existence, but then shook the thought away. He asked himself why he should tell them, and the only answer he came too was none at all.
The purpose of relying upon his inner circle to protect the maidens was that they tended to start out weak, and were easy targets for others, meaning that the maiden powers could be lost again due to something as simple as a mugging. Neo, though, he had seen in action on video, and he understood that she was easily at the level of an elite huntsman, even without relying upon her Maiden powers, so the odds of anything stupid like that causing the maiden powers to fly to Brothers knows where was slim to known.
No, the only threat Neo had to worry about was Salem, not random street thugs, so every person that knew her secret was one more person that could potentially, whether through betrayal or accident, leak her identity to Salem.
He decided to talk to her privately and to suggest that she not use her 'second semblance' in front of others unless it was a matter of life and death, or she trusted everyone present implicitly. He'd tell her that her semblance was special and that it was best hidden as long as possible.
Ozpin knew he'd have to tell her that she was a Maiden in the future, but decided that this, for now, was good enough. Let her enjoy her youth and freedom while she can. It is not something she'll be able to enjoy forever.' Ozpin though.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone