Tag Along (Final Rose AU Snippet)

“Mommy!” Eira shouted. “There’s a koala at my window.”

Elsa stopped mid-stride. Setting aside how weird it was for there to be a koala in Arendelle at all – there weren’t any eucalyptus trees and it was far too cold – it could not be a coincidence that a koala had shown up on Halloween. After all, she’d made a bargain with a certain koala on a previous Halloween. Perhaps the marsupial had come to collect what it was owed.

“Let me have a look.”

The queen duly arrived in Eira’s bedroom. The koala perched on her windowsill was a most familiar koala, and Elsa quickly ushered her daughter out of the room as she opened the window and offered the koala a chair.

“So…” the koala began. “How have things been, Elsa?”

Elsa fidgeted nervously. It was vaguely terrifying to realise that so much of her happiness was due to the machinations of a nigh-omnipotent marsupial. Then again, considering how happy she was with her life, she didn’t really care, so long as things stayed as they were. “Are… are you here to change things?”

The koala stared at her for a long moment. “That depends. You owe me, Elsa. For your sake, I hope you have my payment ready.”

Elsa gulped. She’d seen what the koala was capable of. Reality alteration on a titanic scale was the least of the koala’s abilities. “I… I do.”

“Good. I’m going to go see how your kids are. Bring the payment to me.”

Elsa hurried off. She did not want to take any chances. A few minutes later, she found the koala watching the sunset from one the balconies with the three royal children. The kids seemed to find the koala fascinating, and for the marsupial’s part, it seemed content to receive the occasional pat while it watched the sky slowly darken.

“What’s in that bag, mommy?” Eira asked.

Elsa shrugged. “It’s… it’s just something for the koala. You know, since it needs special food and everything.”

The koala accepted the bag and began to amble away. Elsa looked at the sunset and then back at the koala, but the marsupial was gone.

X     X     X

The koala settled down in front of its typewriter with a big bag full of the finest candy in Arendelle. Slowly, the koala reached over to the keys. Elsa had really gone all out with the candy. A suitable reward was in order.

X     X     X

Elsa’s nervousness slowly eased as she and Averia took the girls trick-or-treating. Nothing bad had happened, and she’d personally checked the bag of candy herself. Not even Ruby or Diana would have been able to fault it. However, she only truly allowed herself to relax when she got home. Averia tucked the kids in and then whisked her off to the bedroom.

Clearly, she thought, as Averia all but threw her onto the bed, the koala had found the bag of candy suitable.

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

For those of you who aren’t aware of the origins of this joke, I have long joked that I am actually a super-intelligent koala with access to a typewriter. Last year, I made a comment that only extreme intervention could get Averia to notice Elsa due to her obliviousness, and what could be more extreme than the author intervening on behalf of one of the characters?

Luckily for Elsa, I accept payment in candy.

Observation (Final Rose)

A followup to Visit.

X     X     X

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Lightning asked. She was sitting beside Vanille on a tree at the edge of the training ground, and both of them were carefully concealing their presences.

“Yep.” Vanille shook her head as Weiss made the mistake of trying to swipe at what she thought was Raven’s blindside. Of course, the Schnee had failed to take into account the fact that even if Raven couldn’t see her, the huntress could, through cunning application of her Aura, sense movement within a certain radius of her. Raven twisted away from Weiss’s strike and promptly folded the heiress in half with a kick to the gut that tossed her back like a sack of potatoes. “That probably hurt.”

Lightning nodded. “Weiss doesn’t have the same durability as the others. And she’d better get up quickly. Otherwise…”

Raven flicked her wrist, and the Dust in her blade ignited and unleashed a cloud of fire. Weiss gave a most unmaidenly shriek and belatedly hurled herself out of the way. She was only partially successful. Her Aura flared, and the blast sent Weiss flying into Ruby who somehow managed to catch the other girl before another blast knocked both of them away.

“In fairness,” Vanille pointed. “They are quite young. It’ll be years before they’re ready to face someone like Raven on even footing.”

“It doesn’t help that Blake seems to be doing her best to avoid her.” Lightning’s eyes narrowed as Raven gleefully impaled another trio of Blake’s clones before hurling a concentrated shaft of flame in the Faunus’s direction. “I think Blake is worried that Raven might actually stab her.”

“As if that would happen,” Vanille replied. “Raven can tell which ones are clones without even trying. She wouldn’t stab Blake. I mean, she wouldn’t stab her fatally. I could totally see her stabbing her a little bit, like in the leg or the arm or maybe in the right spot in the torso to avoid any major organs…”

“And there goes Yang.” Lightning sighed. “I know Yang wants to show her mother how much she’s improved, but I think she’s going a little overboard.”

Yang had ramped up considerably, and her punches were doing a great job of rearranging the landscape since Raven had thus far deflected or simply evaded all of them. The blonde had a tendency to begin telegraph her moves when she got overexcited, and she was so eager to show off her improved use of her Semblance that she’d forgotten to be careful.

“On the upside,” Vanille said. “Raven seems to be enjoying herself.”

Indeed, she was. The dark-haired woman had a grin on her face, and she was merrily shouting tips and advice as she skilfully fended off Team RWBY. The team was trying to use its advantage in numbers, but Raven was cutting them off, forcing them to fight her one or two at a time. Given that she was strong enough to fight all of them at once, it was basically a losing proposition for them.

Finally, Ruby managed to close in next to Yang, and the two sisters fought with furious abandon. They had trained together so many times that they didn’t need to say a word. Instead, Ruby used the force and weight of her scythe to try to push Raven back or at least force an opening that Yang, who was faster yet hit even harder in her ramped up state, could take advantage of.

Naturally, when they finally managed to force what they thought was an opening, Raven simply opened a portal on the ground and fell into it, reappearing next to Lightning and Vanille.

“How long do you think it will take them to find me?” Raven asked.

Lightning gave her a thoughtful look. “If you actually leak enough Aura for them to follow… I’d say five to ten minutes. What do you think of them so far?”

“Their teamwork needs work,” Raven said. “But it’s still early days. They’re at least trying to work together, and their styles are quite different, so it will take some time. Yang’s use of her Semblance has gotten a lot better. I take it she’s been getting special training.”

“Snow,” Lightning replied. “He helped her get a better understanding of her Semblance, and they’ve been working on it together.”

“Can you work with her too,” Raven asked. “She’s still a little wild and reckless.”

“I will, but Snow can fix that. For the moment, they’ve been focusing on her Semblance itself. Once she’s got all of the new tricks worked out, they’ll start ironing out the issues with her style. You might want to bring Taiyang along too. I think some of his techniques would work well with her Semblance.”

“Ruby is faster too,” Raven said. “A lot faster. She’s been working on her Semblance as well, and the Schnee isn’t half bad. That thing where she tried to blow me up was actually quite impressive… or it would have been if it didn’t take so long.”

“She’s working on speed,” Vanille said. “Using her Glyph Semblance like that is a work in progress. I give it at least three months before it’s ready for use in a live combat situation without teammates to buy her time.”

“The cat is good,” Raven said. “But she should be. I trust you know who she is.”

“Meh, I do.” Vanille shrugged. “She’s been working on her Semblance and her skills as well, but it’s hard trying to wean her off some of her bad habits.”

“Oh?”

Lightning took over. “Blake is used to fighting guerrilla-style actions. That’s fine, and there’s a time and place for that, but she still isn’t used to fighting in a more normal situation, which she’ll have to get used to if she’s going to be going up against larger Grimm and more powerful opponents who can handle her stealth.”

“Well, I’d better get back,” Raven said. She chuckled. “Care to spar after I’m done with the girls?”

Lightning considered the time. She should be able to fit in some sparring before her next class. “That should be fine.”

X     X     X

“We kind of suck compared to them, don’t we?” Ruby murmured.

As Team RWBY struggled to catch their breath – and nurse their new bruises – Lightning and Raven were fighting at a pace so swift that only Ruby could truly appreciate just how quickly they were moving.

“They are two of the most powerful huntresses in the world,” Weiss replied. A shockwave of super-pressurised water lanced toward Lightning, the result of an expert combination of fire, wind, water, and gravity dust, and Weiss made a mental note to see if she could copy the technique. The pink-haired woman didn’t bother to dodge. Instead, she simply split the lance in half with an Aura-reinforced strike and then spun, twisting away from a succession of followup attacks as she fired a volley of shots at Raven. “And, yes, compared to them we do suck.”

“Relax, kiddos.” Vanille gave them all a look of deep wisdom and knowledge as she sat down beside them. “And watch closely. There are probably going to be some moves you can steal.”

Visit (Final Rose)

“I hope you’ve been keeping up with your homework.”

Ruby froze. She knew that voice. Slowly, very slowly, she turned around. “Uh… yes?”

“Is that an answer or a question?” Raven grinned and ruffled Ruby’s hair. “How have you been, kiddo?”

Ruby huffed. “Stop ruffling my hair, Raven Mom!”

“I’ll stop doing it when it stops being fun.” Raven chuckled. “Now, how are things going? I know you were having some trouble earlier with some of the academics, but your Aunt Lightning said it was being taken care of.”

Ruby grimaced. Despite having the combat abilities required to be part of Beacon Senior Academy, there were definitely holes in her academics. It was simply part of skipping ahead two years. She hadn’t been coping too well with it early on, but after the first semester, her parents had convinced her to ask for more help. It hadn’t been pleasant – Ruby hated to be a burden – but it was working out now. “It’s going okay. I’m not top of the class or anything, but I’m kind of in the middle, I guess.”

“That’s good.” Raven turned as the door opened. Yang, Blake, and Weiss entered the dorm room. The blonde paused for a moment before taking up a fighting stance. 

“You ready to be defeated?” Yang taunted.

“You’re about ten years too young to even think of beating me.” Raven smirked. “Besides, this is your dorm room, right? I don’t think smashing it to pieces in a spar would be good.”

“Heh.” Yang smirked back. “Maybe. But we’re definitely going to spar before you head back, mom.”

“Of course.” Raven’s gaze turned to the two others. “Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. This is the first time we’ve had a chance to really speak.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you Mrs…” Weiss winced. She hadn’t really thought that through. “Uh…”

“Just call me Mrs Branwen,” Raven replied with a snicker. “Branwen-Rose-Xiao Long takes forever to say.” Her eyes gleamed. “Your friend there is awfully quiet though.”

Blake, meanwhile, was frantically wondering whether or not Raven recognised her. The huntress had been involved in several missions against the White Fang, and Blake had seen her several times. If she could identify her…

“What’s wrong?” Raven asked. “Cat got your tongue?”

Blake’s eyes twitched. Damn it. “I was just wondering how you got here.”

Weiss gave Blake a sceptical look. “Blake, we just went over this in class. Mrs Branwen has one of the most powerful mobility Semblances in the world. She could, admittedly, have taken a transport here, but she could easily have used her Semblance to get here too since both Yang and Ruby are here, to say nothing of the other professors.”

Raven smiled… and then ruffled Weiss’s hair, earning a look of disbelieving outrage. “Not bad. Yeah, I used my Semblance to get here. I wanted it to be a surprise, so I used Professor Farron as the target.” She patted the sword at her side. “Anyway, I was thinking that we could get some training in. I’d like to see how my daughters have been going, and I would like to see what their team is made of.”

In your ‘Divine Assistance’ series, do you have any plans for Young Death’s eventual romantic adventures? Because right now, I’m kind of shipping her and Zephyra. ;)

For those who don’t know, Divine Assistance is one of my original series which you can get here. If you have liked my God!AU Snippets for RWBY, you’ll love the series.

With regards to your question, it’s a bit too early to be thinking about Young Death’s eventual romantic adventures. As gods go, she’s one of the youngest out there. She has a lot of growing to do before she even begins to think about romance.

Of course, when she eventually does start thinking about romance, any prospective suitors will have their work cut out for them considering that Young Death’s parents are Death and Life, and her older brother is Young Life. You can just imagine how scary that bunch can be if they put their mind to it. Of course, some of the gods will be overjoyed. Mischief, Mayhem, and Rabble will probably start a betting ring while trying to rope Fate into telling them what happens, so they can maximise their winnings.

This Final Rose AU where Savior is taking over the kingdoms is really interesting. How much do you plan on expanding on it?

Not too much. It’s more of a thought exercise. I mean, you can play it two ways: the horrific way in which Saviour slaughters its way to the top or the more humorous way where it manipulates events in seemingly bizarre and unrelated ways to somehow seize power. 

It’s also written to give people some insight into what an unfettered Saviour might act like without a bearer to properly guide and restrict its behaviour.

Speech (The Vestige?)

“Fifteen million. Fifteen million. Just saying the number aloud… I almost can’t believe that it really happened, that all those people are gone. But it did happen, and they are gone. When the Transgressor made landfall at Oerba, we weren’t ready. When Bodhum burned, we weren’t ready. And when Balamb fell, we weren’t ready.

“But we are ready now. We built machines to fight the battles we never could. We made monsters of our to turn back the monsters at our door. For too long have we feared the enemy. It is time they feared us.

“The next time we meet them, we will be ready. We will be waiting. We will kill every last one of those sons of bitches. To all the brave pilots who I have the honour of commanding, know that you are not alone. The whole world stands with you. Everyone in this Ark stands with you. The souls of those fifteen million stand with you. 

“I will not lie. Our enemy is strong, ruthless, and determined. But our resolve is unshakable and our wrath inescapable. Every scrap of ingenuity that we can muster, every science or feat of engineering at our disposal, all of them have been used to craft the weapons you ail wield in this terrible war.

“There can be no retreat, no surrender, no quarter. Either we win and survive, or we lose and perish. Strike the enemy down without doubt, hesitation or mercy, for I guarantee that you will receive none. They are monsters, but you are the ones who kill monsters. Remember your training, trust in each other, and you will prevail. 

“In a little over an hour, we will commence the operation to end this war. We will suffer so that our children and their children never have to. We will carry this great burden because we are strong enough to carry it, because are the ones who fight. That is who we are. Remember those fifteen million. We couldn’t save them. But now, at last, we can avenge them.”

– Excerpt from a speech given by Marshal Lightning Farron shortly before Operation Ragnarok. The speech is particularly remarkable since the marshal gave it after spending the better part of a fortnight in a medically induced coma due to complications arising from the role she played in the defence of the Eden City Ark. 

What does Fang think of Lightning the Conqueror?

It was really hot right up until Lightning started murdering people.

How many common languages are there in the final rose universe and how many do the main characters ie(vanille, fang, lightning, etc) speak?

The most widely spoken language is Remnant Standard, which is spoken through Remnant. However, different regions and groups still maintain their own languages (e.g., the Yun, the Dia, the Water Tribe, the various kingdoms). In general, though, characters in Final Rose can be assumed to be speaking Remnant Standard since almost the entire world can speak it to a reasonable degree.

Remnant Standard has a roughly phonetic alphabet with letters corresponding to sounds (i.e., it is similar to English). It was formed over the many centuries of contact between the various kingdoms in times of both peace and war. As a result, much like English, it is a bit of a mess from the point of view of grammar, etymology, and so on. What sets Remnant Standard apart – and what makes it so useful – is that it has a high tolerance for failure. You can mangle the language badly and still be understood reasonably well.

As detailed in a previous post, people from the clans are multi-lingual. Fang speaks Remnant Standard fluently. She also speaks Modern Yun, Modern Dia, and Ancient Yun fluently while being highly conversant in Ancient Dia. Vanille is fluent in everything because of course she is. Lightning and the Farron sisters have become good at the very clan languages largely through contact with their teammates/spouses.

Someone like Summer, who is an expert huntress, is fluent in Remnant Standard as well as the language that once served as the principal tongue in Vale in eras past. She is also conversant in most major dialects found in Vale (e.g., the many Water Tribe dialects, the clan languages, etc.).

Practice (Final Rose)

“Is this really necessary?” Ruby asked.

Vanille cackled. “Do you want to improve your Semblance or not?”

“Well, of course I do, but I’m not sure that training is acid rain is going to help.” Ruby winced. “Yeah, I definitely don’t think it’s going to help.”

“Think about it this way, Ruby. Your Semblance allows you to move super fast, but it also increases your perceptual speed as well. Given how far you’ve already developed your Semblance, just shooting at you with a regular gun isn’t going to help. Guns just don’t shoot fast enough. With your Semblance active, you can actually see the individual bullets and respond accordingly. Having you train in acid rain gets around that problem.”

“How?”

“Imagine that you’re stuck outside when acid rain starts to come down. Think of how many individual drops you’ll have to avoid. Oh, it won’t be too hard at first, but as the rain intensifies…” Vanille’s smile widened. “I think you get the idea.”

“But won’t there come a point when there are just too many drops to dodge?”

“Actually, careful analysis suggests that if you can move with sufficient speed and accuracy, that shouldn’t become a problem.” Vanille gave Ruby a thumb’s up. “And don’t worry, the rain isn’t that acidic. You’ll be fine.”

“Then why do you get to stay inside a shielded tank?”

“Because I need to carefully observe your training, and I can’t do that if I’m stuck in the rain. And don’t worry about harming the environment. That’s why we’re in the middle of nowhere in an area that used to be a testing ground for anti-colossal Grimm super weapons. Nothing has grown here in years, and it’ll be years before even the stubbornest of weeds even can.”

“Uh…”

“Just relax and do your best.” Vanille leapt into the tank. A missile rocketed out of one of the pods attached to the vehicle. It raced up into the clouds and detonated, and shortly after it began to rain. “Now, get moving. That cloud was slightly smaller than expected, so the rain might be a tad more acidic than I planned.”

“Oh crap…”

Does Light ever whack Averia over the back of the head like she does with Diana?

Not really. Getting chopped over the head is mostly something that happens to bearers of Ragnarok. More to the point, Averia rarely does anything worthy of that whereas Diana makes a habit of it.