Ch50:The Sun Rises in the Mourning

(Mon, Y+1, M+5, D+10)

[Recruitment office, Firebase Alpha]

"Well.. Um… He's right outside actually." Ivan says, looking embarrassed.

"Sven?" I ask, the pieces falling into place.

"Yeah."

"And you didn't tell me this why?"

"Well we're still kinda… well… working it out."

"And when exactly did this start?"

"Well not long after we got back from Beacon. There just wasn't any time that felt right."

I sigh. "You still should've told me. You're as close as I have to a brother at this point. There is very little I would hold against you, and who you fall in love with is a non-issue. Anyway, if you want to we can discuss further in the room. For now, however, is everyone done?"

"Yeah" Ivan says, shaking his head a bit, as if to clear it.

Neo nods with a smirk.

"Alright then. Let's do this." I say, pressing the door controls.

(Later the same day)

[Mess Hall, Firebase Alpha]

"Wait, so you two just decided to shack up while I was literally on the brink of life and death?" I ask, leaning back against the chair in which I am sitting. "And you've known each other how long? Like, half a week at most?"

"How long did you know Neo? What was it? Love at first sight or something?" Ivan responds.

"More like we're both operating on the same wavelength of insanity. Literally, I think." I respond, chuckling and forking more of some meat/plant matter mixture into my food-hole. It's not bad, actually, although it could probably do with some more spicy somethingorother. "Hell is this stuff, anyway?"

"We call it Paste." Sven says, taking a sip of some sort of fruit juice type drink.

"What's it even made of? It tastes like starch mixed with some kinda meat." I ask, inspecting a forkful.

"All we really know is it's meat mixed with plant-matter mixed with some vitamins and minerals. And it pretty much never goes bad. So, yeah, that's what we usually get in high-risk or low-supply areas. Easier to just ship a shit-ton of the stuff than perishables that actually taste like something I guess." Sven shrugs.

"One question though. To all three of you." I say, a slight evil smirk on my face. My team all looks at me. "If you and Sven didn't tell me about you two being together, how exactly did Neo get that little nugget of information?"

Ivan sighs and Sven just blushes while Neo grins evilly.

'"I walked in on them in the middle of them getting it on. Want to know who was on top?"'

"Huh. And no thanks Neo, I would much rather not have that image in my head." I say to Neo. Now both Ivan and Sven are blushing, having some idea of what Neo and I are discussing.

'"It was-"'

"Nananananananananananana. I Can't heaaarr youuu." I say aloud, clamping my hands over my ears.

'"Maufhuhwuhumuhm."' I stop what I'm doing for a second.

"Waitaminute." I say, realizing something.

'"Yeah. Put your hand over your ears, that's definitely going to work."' Neo responds. I stick my tongue out at her. Immediately afterwards, an image pops to the front of my mind. It's a room on base, a small dorm room, with a couple of bunk beds, storage lockers, what I assume to be a TV-analogue, and a couch. On which Ivan and Sven are fuc-.

"HOLYFUCKINGSHIT IT BURRNNNNSSSS!" I exclaim, jerking my head backwards in an attempt to escape the image currently searing itself into my mind's-eye, before it fades away, to be replaced by Neo's laughter bouncing around the inside of my skull. "You evil little woman." I say to Neo. "Whhhyyyyy?" I beg, sobbing into my hands. "I did not need to see that." I say, ceasing my over dramatization. "In no way was that a necessary sight." I say, thinking for a second. "Also, we're burning that couch. Or at least getting another, untainted one."

"Oh God." Sven says, head planted firmly on the table.

"So I'm guessing she told you? In detail?" Ivan asks, sighing.

"She showed me. I honestly have no idea how. It was like an image right in my brain." I shudder a bit and make an unintelligible noise of disquiet.

"Since when the hell were you such a prude Kurt?" Ivan asks, while Sven decides it would be a good use of his time to plant his forehead in the table before him.

"Never. I am a gentleman. Usually. Sometimes." Ivan gives me a look. "Okay, whenever it suits me. But always in the bedroom. Which is why I shot out those cameras in my old hangar before my dearest and I got it on." I say, giving Neo a peck on the forehead. "But the image of two of my comrades-in-arms going at it like rabbits is rather unpleasant when it's forced to the front of your mind out of nowhere." I say, staring Neo down. In response she returns the glare and then smiles widely. I mutter something untoward in German.

We continue bantering and eventually an alarm chimes on my scroll.

"Well. See you guys later, I've got somebody to say goodbye too." I say, standing up. "I'll be back after the service is over."

"What service?" Ivan asks. "Going to church or something?"

I laugh out loud for a good three or four seconds. "No." I say, waving my hand. "I'm going to a memorial service for Pyrrha. She was a friend and I must say my farewell. When the memorial ends, I'll return to my medbay." I say tersely.

'"Do you want me to come with you?"'

'"No thanks Neo, I talked with my sisters. Nobody's bringing any guests. No media either. Just a small ceremony for her friends and faculty."' I give her a hug. '"I'll let you know when I get back."' I kiss her on the cheek and sketch a short goodbye wave.

*Bamf*

I appear in my room at home, picking up a pair of items wrapped in black cloth. One is a thin pole roughly 1.5 times my height. The other is an object roughly the size of my head. I tuck the roundish one under my right arm and hold the other object with the same hand. Then I pick up a small object from my barely-used desk and tuck it inside my greatcoat.

*Bamf*

I appear a few yards from the entrance to the cemetery, to see a small crowd of reporters and other civvies.

I sigh.

"Hello, I'm Lisa Lavender live at th-" The reporter walks up to me and shoves a microphone in my face.

I reach up with my free hand and hold it up to forestall any questions. I turn to stare directly into the camera as I pluck the microphone from her hand and hold it up to my mouth.

"I have a message for a very specific group of people. You know who you are." I pause for a beat. "You will die. I do not care how many of your so called soldiers or warriors or monsters stand between us. You will die. I shall not promise a swift end. I shall not promise a slow and painful end. I am not even saying that I will personally take the time to kill you myself. I am simply informing you of the inevitable fact of your impending nonexistence. You have awoken a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve. There will be no forgiveness. There will be no escape. Mercy, of course, is an entirely unnecessary concept for you to contemplate. That is all." I turn back to Lisa Lavender and hand her the microphone before I sharply turn on my heel and march into the cemetery proper to find the funeral-home/welcome-center-thingy.

Before long I reached the building to find my sisters, Jaune, Nora and Ren along with some of the few surviving teachers from Beacon. Port, Goodwitch, Oobleck and a few others whose classes I was probably in line to take next semester. All were wearing a good deal more black than usual. I always wear mostly black so I just came wearing a black bodysuit under my greatcoat. I quickly remember something and gingerly lean my parcels against nearby wall. I pull a dark red strip of cloth with golden trim along the edges from my greatcoat and tie it off around my left arm.

After all, the dead must be afforded the respect they deserve.

I pick up my offerings and walk up next to Ruby. "Hey." I say, my voice low and my tone flat.

"Hi Kurt." She replies, her voice low. "Are you doing better?"

"Much better. And now all I've got to do is wait. Wait for the cyber, wait for the docs to okay me for surgery and wait for the cyber to properly calibrate. Whole lotta waiting." I say quietly to her as a funeral home worker walks up to our little group and quietly leads us to the viewing room.

The room is surprisingly colorful, but then again this is Remnant. It is rather large, about the size of one of Port's lecture hall. On either side of a black strip of carpeting is a veritable rainbow of flowers, presumably from the four (metaphorical) corners of Remnant. On either side of the carpeting are two banks of seats, currently empty.

The centrepiece of the room, however, is a casket resting on a black stone bier. The top section of the casket is open, revealing Pyrrha's head and upper body dressed in her Beacon uniform, arms folded across her chest. She looks rather peaceful.

Jaune and Nora look like they're on the verge of tears. Ruby's face is already marked by a single wet trail leading from her right eye. I reach over and wipe the tear from her face with my thumb as I turn her face to mine.

"Never again." I say to her, my voice kept low. "Never again." I repeat, pulling her into a quick hug. We quickly take our places again, standing as RWWBY once more right behind JNPR, and behind us stand the remaining faculty members who are both mobile and possessing enough free time (read: not currently in combat or rebuilding) to attend. From the looks on some of their faces, this isn't their first funeral since the battle.

The funeral worker walks to the front of the room and waves for all of us to come closer.

"Alright, you will have an hour to say your goodbyes before the burial. If you need anything else, ask the receptionist at the front desk. I will be back in an hour along with some workers to help you move the coffin if you would like." The worker says.

"No." Jaune says, pausing a beat. "We'll move her ourselves." He continues, his voice thick.

"Alright then." He says, "You have our condolences." He says wearily. I realize that I'm probably one of the few people in the room that hasn't been to at least one other funeral recently.

'Now that's just depressing.' I think to myself. 'But the dead must be given their due.' I think, as Jaune, Nora and Ren gather in front of Pyrrha to pay their respects. Jaune plucks a flower from a nearby vase and places it overtop her crossed arms. Ren and Nora do the same, as do Ruby and Yang. When my time comes to stand before a fellow student and fallen warrior I reach inside my greatcoat and pull from it a metal flower forged of reddened bronze, with a black metal center. I pin the poppy to her outer jacket and bow my head for a few short seconds before moving past to sit with my sisters.

In the same row are Jaune, Nora and Ren, all dealing with their sorrow in their own way.

Nora and Ren are, as always supporting each other.

'Seriously, get a room already you two. Make something good of this day.'

Jaune, on the other hand, is simply staring at Pyrrha's casket. Poor guy's probably still in shock. Or maybe he's doing the same thing I am. Resting, recuperating, planning and building up a decent store of rage.

The cold-burning kind of rage. Not the kind that leaves you seeing red, burning hot like my sister used to. The rage that leaves you cold and calculating, no quarter given and no prisoners taken.

Either way, the attending faculty continue to file by and pay their respects, each leaving a flower picked from the pots lining the aisle.

Eventually the line ends and silence falls, broken only by the discrete whispered conversations between attendees, and the occasional dejected sigh, sniffle or quickly muted sob.

Before long, the funeral worker quietly opens the door in the back of the room, closing it with equal grace. I turn my head to look at him before he raps his knuckles on the wall next to the door.

"It's time. We have a plot ready if you all will just follow me. I'll wait if you need a few more minutes. We leave through the door over there." He says, pointing to a set of double doors inset into the wall and flanked by a pair of large potted flowering plants, sprouting what appear to be black roses.

(About an hour later)

[Burial plot]

As the workers finish tamping down the dirt overtop Pyrrha's grave, we stand solemnly out of respect. Really. It's fucking depressing, this entire affair is. In Remnant, it appears to be tradition for a few of those left behind to keep an item from a departed friend. A distinctive piece of clothing, armor and occasionally a weapon.

Jaune kept her armor while her weapon, shield and circlet were will be sent to her family in Mistral along with a lock of her hair.

Nora, Ren, Jaune and Goodwitch were chosen to be the pallbearers, and they stand flanking Pyrrha's tombstone, a simple slab of stone bearing her name, date of birth, date of death, her symbol superimposed over Beacon's and a small note reading Fallen in Defence of Remnant. All in all, it is surprisingly dull and colorless for Remnant. While I normally approve of a functional, utilitarian design, this seems to be missing something. It definitely lacks the personalization that I've come to associate with Remnan culture.

I intend to change that. A small Terran gesture of respect for a fallen Remnan comrade. I wait a few minutes for Jaune, Nora and Ren to pay their respects before I walk forwards bearing my final gifts. I place both on the ground next to the tombstone, still wrapped in their black cloth coverings. I unwrap the longer of the two, revealing a long spear with a brazen-golden spearhead and a dark wooden shaft. I spin the spear in my left hand a few times before stabbing it into the ground next to the tombstone, sinking it a good eight or so inches into the dirt. I ripple of shock quickly makes its way around the onlookers before quickly being suppressed. Next I unwrap the next parcel, a brazen-gold helmet forged to resemble the ancient Spartan design, with a red horsehair plume cut to about an inch long and resembling a short mohawk. I hang the helmet on the end of the spear, in homage to the tradition of hanging a soldier's helmet and dog tags on their rifle in memorial. I walk back a few feet and rejoin my sisters. I'm not great at this kind of thing, I don't do greif very much and I am not very good at consoling people. But I can make things, I can actually do that rather well. While my sisters do know of my background, I'm almost certainly the only person here who fully understands my gesture. Either way, I have made what peace I can with this loss, and now I must return to base. Apparently my non physical training begins in about an hour, and missing it would be a rather poor showing.

"See you two later. I've got a class to get to." I whisper to Ruby and Yang.

"What? I thought you weren't going to Signal?" Ruby asked.

"I'm not. It's a class from The Company designed to introduce new hires like me to various things that we should really know. It's an introductory-type class until I'm back up to spec." I say, tapping the right side of my face. "See you later ladies." I say, tossing a quick two-fingered salute before jogging out of sight and BAMF-ing back to base.

(Sat, Y+1, M+10, D+28)

[Xiao-Long household, after dark]

"Umm hello…" I say, upon BAMF-ing into the kitchen at home straight from Firebase Alpha and seeing Professors Port and Oobleck talking with my father.

"Hey Kurt, I was wondering when you'd get back today." Dad says, walking up to me and giving me a hug.

"Hey dad, I've not got much time to talk. So I guess I'll need to get this out fast." I say, returning the hug before we both break the grasp. "I'm going to be going away for a while. Basic starts up Monday but they want us all ready tomorrow." I say, taking my helmet off with the usual noise of an airtight seal breaking and clipping it to my belt. "Doctor" I say, nodding to Oobleck, "Professor" I say to Port.

"Hello Mr. Wagner." Oobleck says.

"How are you Kurt?" Port asks.

"I'm doing alright. Better than I've been doing in a while, actually. Eye's Integrating well." I say, detaching the 'eyepatch' that is normally locked over my new bionic eye, a blue-lensed augmetic.

"Well then. That is an impressive piece of engineering you have there. Did Ironwood's technicians provide another of their technological marvels to the Xiao-Long family?" Oobleck interjects.

"Nope. Company designed, produced, installed and paid for. Also a slightly-experimental design. So now I've got a shiny new bit of tech installed into my skull. It's rather neat, IR and heat-sensing, full electromag spectrum, inbuilt HUD system and a lensed energy-projector linked straight into my LOS. It's a beautiful thing. I miss the squishy-eye but this makes it an almost-equal trade." I say, tapping the side of my head, near the metal-rim around my lens.

"Company?" Oobleck inquires.

"Yeah, the Alpha Company PMC. Subset of the Armatech Corporation."

"Wait… aren't they those mercenaries that set up a compound in the middle of Vale?" Port asks.

"Technically we call it a Firebase and we're officially PMCs. It's like a mercenary company but with more oversight and legality. And glorious glorious air support. You've not seen anything until you've seen a gunship let loose with a pair of 7.62 minis, a full on 20 mike mike gatling and dropping rockets like rain. And these are the new models, not some bullhead with guns strapped to it. This is a mean old bird that can take on all comers and still have room for more." I say with pride.

"And what company is it exactly that makes these?" Oobleck asks.

"Classified sir. Our supply chain is something we wish to keep very secret." I say, walking to the fridge and picking out a canned drink. I open it and start drinking. "And either way I should get moving. Progress awaits." I say, saluting a bit with the can and walking up to my room. I see Yang just outside the kitchen and nod to her, giving her a one-armed hug before walking up to my room to grab the kit I'd left at home. A wood-furnished Mosin-Nagant replica goes over one shoulder, a chainsword and holster get clipped to one hip and a heavy pistol to the other. I pull a steel pistol magazine from one drawer of my desk and in the light I see something that I've never noticed before, a design etched into the the bottom of the magazine. I take a closer look and see a fragmentary insignia, with an eagle's head and parts of what looks like a globe and one fluke of an anch…

Was the other guy a Marine?

No wonder I feel more comfortable in the Company. Apparently he was a Marine.

I chuckle a bit. 'Auf Wiedersehen mein kameraden. You will be remembered. In spirit if not in name. Off to basic then. Gunny here I come.'

AN:

BOO!

I!

AM!

NOT!

ALIVE!

Wait... That's not right...

I am theoretically alive. And on break from school for now. And also missing a soul. Although I technically was never isssued with one. But that's neither here nor there. I, as usual, promise no consistency except for the consistant lack thereof. But yeah. i will probably be posting a couple new chapter at least thanks to the new RWBY season providing motivation. But not without HIS RADIENT MAJESTY'S GLORIOUS IMPERIAL GUARD providing a rather fun painting and modelling distraction. Because I've got a rather neat-looking Guard army now as well as a Necromunda set to paint and then on top of THAT, SLY MARBO is returning to 40k and therefore I will need a model with which to AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Purge the heretics.

That is all.