Through Victory My Chains Are Broken, Chapter 14

So, another chapter down. A bit quieter than the last, but I hope you like it.

- - ----====| | |====---- - -

Silba and Amber were sitting in the mental reconstruction of Ruby’s dorm room, taking a well-deserved break after hours and hours’ worth of varied and in-depth combat training. In the most recent session, Silba had begun to impart upon her apprentice the beginning aspects of lightsaber combat, namely the first three general forms. The first of them, Shii-Cho, Amber had taken to the quickest. Silba had expected as much, since that particular form was less a distinct fighting style of its own and more the universal basics of lightsaber combat. Well, at least as it had pertained to the Jedi Order of old, as well as her academies of new. Amber had practiced the style with a variety of different weapons, drilling and familiarizing herself with how the basics worked several different ways. But in the end, Amber had eventually settled for a curved hilt saber as Silba had expected she would. Amber had the principles down, and it was only a matter of grounding them in the tenets of a newer, different style of fighting.

Next came Makashi and Soresu. The former was the more maneuverable of the two forms, building upon the basics from Shii-Cho. Amber had quickly taken to it as well. Silba had gotten the impression at first that she preferred to fight defensively, so the aggression was a promising indicator of where she was heading, or at least intended to go. On the other hand, Soresu was unique among the lightsaber styles for being a purely defensive style, good against multiple opponents and even ranged attacks. Amber’s ability to defend against attacks from all around her needed a little work, especially if her battle with Cinder and her minions had been any indicator, hence the mixed drills she had just been subject to. Fighting multiple opponents, ranged opponents with blasters, a mixture of both. Silba observed that she tended to be all-in on one or the other, either aggressively attacking her foes while leaving herself open or fastidiously defending against them with no attempt to counterattack. Getting her to a point where she could strike a balance would take some time, but all things considered, Amber had plenty of it for now.

At the moment, Amber was sampling a collection of teas from across the galaxy, drinks that Silba had remembered and had shown to her young Apprentice. A table with two chairs was set up at the center of the room, an addition to the furniture of the real one. Amber had of course been curious to know more about Ruby’s teammates, and she had of course obliged her with stories about the three. Weiss, her partner, Yang, her sister, and Blake, the Faunus.

Which of course brought them to the present.

“You should tell them,” Amber said, sipping her tea.

Amber’s sudden statement out of the blue surprised her.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Your teammates, Master,” Amber said. “They deserve to know.”

“Ah.” Silba had thought about her teammates finding out the truth. She had decided that it would have been unwise to tell them anything about said truth, since she was not sure how they would react to knowing their team leader was now a several-hundred-year-old Sith Empress from the future. Shock, horror, fear, all of them were likely possibilities, especially with the yarns that the news stations were spinning about the Red Blade plaguing the city of Vale. That was another can of worms entirely, and if Silba was honest with herself, something much more salient than her past. Sure, she might have been able to gauge her teammates’ reactions by trying to scry out glimpses of the future from the Force, but her few attempts through her life at it had all had… mixed results. It was something she wasn’t keen on trying again, with how vague she knew the answers likely would be for her.

She took a hearty swig from her own tea, draining it in one go. “I cannot,” Ruby replied, setting down her cup. “For obvious reasons.”

“You’re worried about how they’d react.”

“It goes without saying, but yes, yes I do.”

“Okay.” She set her own cup down as well. “But, you might be missing something important, Master.”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“It’s… well… about your dad, your uncle.” She paused, lost in thought for a moment. Earlier, Amber had asked to see the fight that night, how Silba had squared off against Qrow and his little posse. She had certainly been both interested and impressed by the fight, or so Silba had thought. “But not just family, it’s also about your friends, everyone you knew from, how can I say it, this time?”

“Go on.”

“It’s how you’re treating them, reacting to them.” Amber went to pick up her cup, but she realized that it was empty and set it back down. “You’re keeping them at arm’s length,” she continued. “Why?”

Silba chuckled. “It’s something that’s bittersweet for me to admit.” She sighed. “I did not realize it then, when I was fighting them, when I saw my father and uncle last night. But for all I have thought about them, valued and cherished them, they are strangers, in some meaning of the word. I have lived a long time, my Apprentice, longer than my friends and family combined. I have come so far, far enough that I honestly do not know what to do, now that I have returned back to where it all began.” She paused for a moment, before continuing. “But I will admit, I am at a loss as to how I can get to know them all again.”

“Have you thought about just being yourself?”

Silba couldn’t help but laugh at that. “My dear, I could be several myselves at this point.” Another, longer fit of laughter, before Silba reined herself in. “You remind me of myself, you know. My old self, before she experienced the worst day of her life twice in a week. Hopefully you won’t be doomed to repeat her mistakes. Thankfully you have my guidance, in more ways than one.”

The other girl was flushed red, no doubt in embarrassment. “But still, do not worry yourself Amber, about my old friends and family. I have a plan as to how I can persuade them all. Or at the very least, work around them.” It was mostly true, in that Silba had the outline of a plan. Each of her teammates were different in their own ways, and thus each would require a different approach.

There was also the matter of what she wanted from her team. Did she want peers from them? Apprentices like Amber? Or did she want something else, minions and subordinates, henchwomen with which to do her bidding? It was telling that her thought processes defaulted to those latter options more than anything else. Silba decided that she would pick one member of her team to see how they would react. And depending on how things went, she’d go from there.

Silba sighed, deciding to change the subject. “What of your, how should I describe her, partner?” She asked Amber.

“Oh. Her.” There was a hint of venom in that last word, barely contained.

“Remember, it was your idea to spare her,” Silba said. “You took pity on her first.”

“Yeah, because that bitch was using her like Ozpin used me. I…” she trailed off. “I just didn’t think she’d be such a smarmy bitch, even after figuring that out herself.”

Silba laughed. “What did you expect from a thief, a hug and a kiss?” A wave of her hand, and their cups refilled. “Her nature was shaped by a harsh and uncaring world. And besides, she is needling you to gauge your reaction.”

“I am quite aware of that.” Despite the steaming hot liquid, Amber took the cup and downed the entire thing in a single swig, the sight of which caused Silba to wince just a little bit.

“Is… that painful for you?”

She looked down at the cup. “I’ve felt worse.”

“Fair enough,” Silba replied. “So, show her the reaction that both of you would like to see.”

“So, just be a smarmy bitch right back then?”

“Certainly,” Silba smiled. “That is not a bad thing to do. Well, so long as the two of you respect one another.” Unlike Amber, Emerald had been unexpectedly reluctant to learn a new set of skills. She had gone into it thinking she could merely heal herself of her wounds, only faltering when she realized just how much of herself she would have to change and alter, to endure to free herself of the chains binding her. Nevertheless, the girl had viewed it as some sort of challenge, to try and distance herself from the woman that had been controlling and using her.

Amber sighed. “Six months ago, I don’t know how I’d react if someone told me that this was going to be what I’d be doing. Training in my own mind, with some sort of Sorcerer Empress who actually used to rule the galaxy. Will rule? Stupid time travel….”

“How do you think I felt the first go around?”

“Fair enough, Amber echoed her.”

“Well, enjoy your moment of respite,” Silba told her Apprentice. “Because later on, the two of you will spar.”

“Do you think she’s ready?”

“Not exactly,” Silba replied. “But I want to see what points to focus on in her training, and what better way to do that than to pit her against my current best student?”

“Wait, current best?”

Silba grinned. “What, worried about being outdone?”

Amber grinned right back. “Not in a million years.”

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That morning was no different from any other, it seemed like. The cafeteria had filled back out. Most of the upperclassmen who had ventured out had for the most part returned to the campus. It felt like things were getting back to a degree of normalcy.

Normalcy. Was this what normal felt like? For a long time she had been constantly surrounded by intrigues, plots and schemes, many of which had been of her own design. For a brief spell in her life she had gotten away from it all, retiring forgotten on a tropical backwater. And now? Now she was here, home, trying to make some sort of difference in her world in a way she never got the chance to once upon a time.

Her food was barely touched on her plate, the conversation she had had with her Apprentice still weighing on her mind. She had been treating everyone around her as pawns at best and obstacles at worst. And even worse, she hadn’t even realized it, the line of thought had been so ingrained in her. Leave it to the Master to learn something new from her Apprentice. But what Master didn’t learn something new?

“Hey, Ruby?” Yang asked her.

“Yeah, Yang?”

“Are you okay? You’ve barely eaten anything.”

Ruby regarded the half-eaten waffles and poked-at fruit on her plate. “I’m just not really hungry today.”

“Oh. Not feeling well?”

“I just… have a lot on my mind.” All of the sudden, it felt wrong to be lying to her sister, her flesh and blood, let alone her teammates. And yet at the same time she knew that it was the only thing she could do at the moment without causing her own plans and schemes to come crashing down around her. “But I think I’ll feel better by lunch though.”

“Well, alright then.”

“Ruby, does it have anything to do with last night?” Blake asked her suddenly.

“Last night?”

“The news said the Red Blade attacked the dockyards, fought some huntsmen there.”

“Oh. Well yeah, I guess it kinda does.”

Weiss grimaced, and Ruby didn’t need to pry at her mind with the Force to tell she wasn’t in a good mood herself. Hearing news that your sister nearly died fighting someone would have that effect. Not that Ruby ever intended to kill anyone, especially not her and her teammate’s family. “I hope they’re stopped soon,” Weiss said. “That… crazy person isn’t doing anyone any good.”

No, she is really not, is she? Ruby had decided to test the waters eventually, to feel out how her teammates felt about the Red Blade and about the current goings-on. Breakfast was about as a good a time as any. “Maybe…” Ruby allowed a little hesitation into her voice. “Hear me out. Maybe she’s doing something good, by being a vigilante?”

All that statement got her was three strange looks from her team. “Let me explain-” Ruby began.

Before she could continue, Blake interrupted her. “Ruby, hurting and killing people is never right.”

Silba managed to keep from rolling her eyes. Hypocrite much, girl? “I-”

Weiss cut in, “The news did say the Fang were planning to attack Vale. Maybe that’s why the Red Blade attacked them, preemptively?”

Blake shook her head. “That’s why there are police,” she shot back at Weiss. “Huntsmen too. It’s not about hurting people, but protecting them!”

Behind the mask, Ruby observed her teammates, and gauged their moral stances. She’d always known where Yang stood on most things since childhood, and here was no different; the bruiser of the team was as usual more nonchalant about this than the other two. Weiss and Blake were more obviously opinionated, and it showed. The former could not care less about the fates of the White Fang, and perhaps even privately would encourage the Red Blade, whereas Blake was horrified at what befell her former comrades and terrified at what the Red Blade might do next.

“Police?” Yang scoffed. “These cops in Vale can’t even deal with some crook stealing Dust from corner stores. Do you really think they’d be able to take on a bunch of White Fang terrorists?”

Blake visibly bristled at that word. “That’s not the point-”

“Yang, Blake, Weiss, guys,” Ruby spoke up, putting on her best leaderly impression. “Please, don’t argue here.”

“Well, you started it,” Weiss retorted.

“I…” she trailed off. “I guess I did, didn’t I?”

“But, I’m thinking the point you were going to make was that the Red Blade was trying to save lives, rather than take them?”

“What?” Blake and Ruby said almost in unison.

“Well, think about it, that’s a lot of Dust they had stolen,” Weiss explained. “Who knows what they had been planning to do with it. What if they had been planning to blow it up? How many people would have been hurt had they detonated all of that in the city? There would have been a giant crater in the center of Vale instead of its docks, not to mention the Grimm it would have attracted.”

“But… that doesn't...”

“I mean sure, she’s killed a few people, but nobody that didn’t have it coming to them.”

“And Blake, why are you defending the White Fang?” Leave it to Yang to finally recognize the obvious, Ruby noted.

Blake said nothing. She got up from the table and hurried away, bussing her tray without a word.

Yang was about to call out to her but Silba stopped her, slipping off her mask for a moment. “Yang, it's fine.”

“Ruby?”

“I'll talk to her later. I’ve been meaning to anyway. For now, just let her be.” It was the basic truth. It had become apparent to Silba that the strain of Blake hiding her Faunus heritage was starting to get to the young woman, and recent events had only highlighted how tenuous said deception was. For Weiss and Yang, recent events were impersonal. But for Blake, who until not too long ago had counted herself as among the ranks of the White Fang? They very much were personal, and in more ways than one.

Yang nodded. “Okay sis.”

Silba slipped back behind Ruby. “Just trust me, okay Sis? Don’t worry about Blake, I got it.” She would give the girl a chance to settle her thoughts a bit, and then sometime later that day she would approach her. In the meantime though, she had to take care of something else.

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Later that morning, Ruby found herself in one of the workshops set aside for students to maintain their weapons and gear, Crescent Rose resting on the workshop bench in front of her. At first, she’d had misgivings about modifying or damaging the weapon. She had wanted to avoid perverting the memory of Ruby Rose, the girl she once was, but the conversation with her Apprentice had cast new light on her initial views regarding her miraculous return to her past. In truth, she would absolutely need to adapt to better overcome whatever future trials and encounters she might be faced with, whether she would face them as Silba or Ruby. There were many threats on Remnant, some like the Grimm she once knew, some like people she knew all too well, and one she would never have known had existed that seemed to blur the very line between the two.

Hence, an upgrade to Crescent Rose. Ruby closed her eyes and Silba opened them, metaphorically letting her hair down to get to work. She had given it a fair amount of thought on how to give both Ruby and herself an added edge, no pun intended. The solution she came up with was, unexpectedly, not a lightsaber for a change.

No, she was going to make a vibroblade for Crescent Rose.

Logically, it made sense to her. Instead of a lightsaber, or anything even remotely resembling something that would draw obvious parallels between Ruby Rose and the Red Blade, a vibroblade would seem much less flashy by comparison. It would also minimize any major alterations she would need to make to Crescent Rose, save for replacing the cutting edges of the scythe. And while the weapons were ubiquitous in the wider galaxy, they were a complete unknown on Remnant. If anyone asked, Ruby or Silba would just say that it was something she came up with on her own, and a little Force-based suggestion would sell it if necessary.

Of course, this little project would have a dual purpose. While making the new vibroblade upgrade, Silba would also lay the groundwork for a new lightsaber, or at least a proof of concept for something sourced entirely on Remnant. She already had the most important component in the form of a proper power cell, but as the cell was now it would be useless to her. It was non-rechargeable and disposable, and thus would eventually need replacement at some point. Fortunately, it was well within her capabilities to rectify a minor issue like that. The workshop areas were practically deserted right then, but Silba wasn’t one to take chances. She reached out with the Force and closed the two doors to the area, locking them. Now in private, she could let loose a little on the restraints she kept on her will and ever-present fury. Not like that disastrous night with the White Fang, but a smaller, more measured application.

Before her, the power cell began to float off of the work counter, levitating a dozen centimeters above it. It spun lazily in the air as Silba raised her hands to either side of it, not quite touching either end. Sith Alchemy was as much an art form as it was a strange and arcane science, and as a result, intent played a major role. It was forcing one’s will on the material plane after all, and having the mental fortitude to essentially overwrite reality at such a fundamental level was critical. She had plenty of that.

Of course, having the right materials to work with was also critical. While intent was a major factor, so was the materials an Alchemist had to work with in the first place. The closer said materials were to the end result, the better the outcome generally was. It was why most common applications of Alchemy could be summed up as minor enhancements to an object’s function in some way, as pushing the envelope further meant increasing the risks of a catastrophic failure and backlash. It was also easier to do multiple incremental improvements over time, rather than a single major improvement. The results would have been almost guaranteed to be explosively disastrous, had she tried what she was about to do with just plain metal or scrap. There might have been one or two Masters that could have accomplished that feat during the height of the Sith, who had been deeply specialized in the Art, but-

Silba jarred her train of thought to a halt and focused on the battery. The last thing she needed right now was to accidentally blow up the workshop with a stray thought. She visualized the battery in her mind, scrutinizing it inside and out. The Force flowed through it, its internal structure and components. She focused on what she wanted: a diatium power cell, a nigh endless source of energy for her planned weapon. And the Force responded, reshaping the matter within on a molecular level. Once upon a time, she would have had no issue with something as… trivial, as this. But here and now in her younger body, Silba could feel the effort taxing and draining her in a way nothing else quite had. Yet one more indicator of how far she had fallen, and how far she would have to go to get back to her previous level of power and beyond.

It had felt like hours, but the clock on the wall showed that only a few minutes had passed from when she started. Silba let out a shaky breath that she hadn’t realized she had been holding, allowing the newly transmuted battery to land gently on the bench. At a glance the remade power cell was indistinguishable from any of the others like it, but internally it was a different story. Sith Alchemy had completely remade it into a diatium cell, sheathed in the field conductors and vortex rings needed for proper functionality in a lightsaber. Silba did not want to knock  Dr. Frieze’s work, but the good doctor had a lot to learn from the wider galaxy.

One component down, many more to go. Fortunately, the rest would be fairly trivial. The design that she had in mind for Crescent Rose’s upgrade could be made from fairly simple materials, based on widely circulated designs during the later years of her rule, thanks to the resurgence of popularity of the martial arts. While vibro-tech weaponry lacked the effectiveness of lightsabers, the weapons could be mass-produced at scale and thus could find their way to the masses.

Silba shook her head, focusing again on the task at hand. The blade would be more mechanically complex, but the rest was proven and applied science for her. She looked down at the newly remade power cell, visualizing the rest of the construction and fabrication of the upgrade. Replacement alloy blades, heavy-duty power feeds, a new toggle in the haft and an expanded housing to store the battery and any future upgrades for here scythe. She reached out through the Force and around her, components and materials floated out of drawers and storage lockers before drifting toward fabrication stations.

As tools and machinery powered up around her, Silba allowed herself a small smile. Things were coming together.

- - ----====| | |====---- - -

As she was putting the finishing touches on Crescent Rose, Silba recognized someone familiar at the edges of her senses. Her uncle Qrow was striding over with purpose, in stark contrast to his typical inebriated slouch. He arrived at the door to the workshop a moment later, opening the door and peeking through.

“There you are,” he called out to her as he saw her.

Silba blinked. “Uncle Qrow!” Ruby feigned surprise. “What do you need?”

“I came to find you,” he explained. “I was wondering what you were up to.”

Again, she feigned surprise while plastering a happy smile across her face. She was already aware that her uncle had come back to Beacon that morning, although he had slept in at the guest quarters in the faculty building. Understandable, after last night and the ringer that both Silba and the specter of the Seventh Sister had put him through.

Last night. Her Apprentice had been onto something, had seen her situation from a different perspective. She was right in that she was seeing everyone she had once known personally as ghosts and specters. With Qrow at least there was more to it than that. He was working with Ozpin, and that still put the two of them at odds to a degree. As things were going, it would not be long before she would run into him again on one of her outings. Qrow's skill and knowledge were unquestionable, and he would make an excellent ally. More importantly, he was family. She would need to accelerate her plans for him. The problem though was in how loyal he was to the Headmaster. There were aspects of their relationship she did not know, and she would have to discover them to understand the bigger picture better.

“Well, as you can see, I’m working on an upgrade,” Ruby told Qrow. “Wanna help?”

“Nah,” Qrow answered. He looked over her shoulder at what Ruby had been working on. Crescent Rose was lying on the bench, partially disassembled to expose the internals. Thinking about it as she was now, her current project actually echoed something she had done centuries before when she had needed to pretend to be someone she wasn’t. “So, what’re you up to with your weapon now?”

“Oh, this?” Ruby said, gesturing to the scythe. “Well like I said, I’m working on an upgrade! It’s something I had an idea for, well, for a long time now. I didn’t have the means to implement it until now, but thanks to Weiss I finally can.”

“So, what is it?”

“Let me show you.” Ruby stepped over to the bench, reaching into the internal workings of Crescent Rose just above the main rifle assembly. “Well, it’s basically an upgrade to the blade segments?” Ruby fibbed. It was even technically correct. “It’s hard to explain, but basically the blades can now vibrate supersonically while cutting?”

Qrow blinked. “Why?”

Ruby grinned. “Why not? My Crescent Rose’s original blades couldn’t cut through some things, so maybe it’ll help me cut through those things better now? I mean, I’ve already tested it and it seems to work.”

For a long moment, Qrow just stared at her. “But, why?” He asked. “Not to mention you’d need a ridiculous power supply for that.”

“Oh! Well, Weiss’s dad gave me a freebie,” Ruby explained.

“Weiss’s father?” Qrow asked incredulously. “As in Jacques Schnee, the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company?”

Ruby smiled and nodded. “I talked with him! I think he likes me.” Ruby pushed and twisted one way, detaching the power cell from its new, covert compartment within Crescent Rose. In an emergency she could extract it, just in case. She had future plans for the compartment of course, as it would eventually function as a hidden compartment for her next lightsaber. Eventually she would be really, truly armed at all times, but for now it was just a glorified battery compartment.

Qrow took the proffered power cell, scrutinizing the object and the markings on its casing. “Ruby, this is SDC hardware.”

Ruby grinned. “Like I said, her dad likes me.”

“No seriously,” her uncle pressed her, “You didn’t steal this, did you?”

Well, not that one, she thought to herself “It’s a freebie! Weiss vouched for me.”

“I just… what.” He handed the cylinder back to her, before leaning against the bench. “You got that guy, who treats every Lien he pays like he’s being forced to give up his flesh and blood, to give you something for free.” He brought his free hand to his face, rubbing his eyes and temple. “You know what? I don’t even want to know how.”

Ruby just chuckled. It’s best that you don’t.

He handed the power cell back to her. “So, what brought this on, Ruby?”

Ruby smiled. “A couple of different things, actually. I’ve been wanting to add something like this to my scythe since I came to Beacon, and Weiss helped me get this as a favor. That, and… recent events.” She deliberately let the moment pass in silence for subtle emphasis, as if to deliberately avoid talking about certain things. “I’m trying to be a better team leader, and things made me look at everything in a new light and I-”

“You’re afraid.”

What? “What do you mean?”

Qrow sighed. “About what the Headmaster was talking to you about,” Qrow said. “Out of the blue, he drops something like that on you, so you’re trying to keep a brave face, trying to do stuff to prepare.”

She let another beat pass in silence. “Y-yeah.” Silba wasn’t afraid of this Salem. She didn’t know what to feel about the woman, at least not yet. She wouldn’t find that out until tonight. But Ruby? Yeah, she really would have been afraid, and not like the faux fear that Silba was presenting through that mask. Sure, Ruby would put on a brave face, but she’d be terrified right now.

“But anyways, you’re tinkering again, so that’s good,” Qrow changed the subject. “So, when are you planning to test it out?”

“Oh? Well, soon,” Ruby said. “I have sparring practice this afternoon, so maybe this evening? I’ve only got the one battery, so any tests will have to be limited.”

“Understandable.” Qrow stood up, his slouch returning. “Well, just came to check up on you Ruby, I’ll leave you be. Oh, and one other thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Your dad might be coming to Beacon today,” he told her. “Just wanted to let you know.”

“Wait, dad?” Ruby exclaimed. “Dad’s coming? Does Yang know?”

“I told her first,” he replied. “Then I came to find you.”

“Oh, alright. Well, I’ve still got some work to do. Maybe I can show dad what I made!” Last night aside, Silba hadn’t seen her father in literal centuries. And here she was, about to spend time with him as daughter and father. So why wasn’t she happy about it?

- - ----====| | |====---- - -

5.1K words. A bit longer than some, shorter than others.

So, this was originally going to be much longer, but I decided to break it up. So to speak, into a two parter. The next chapter will take place later in the evening/night, and will finally have the two queens meet. :D

Until then, ciao.