Remnant's Twilight Rose

Two weeks after the Departing on the Geist Hunt

It had been a long and hard battle with the Geist pack. The group that Sunset had left with had numbered around a hundred Huntsman and Huntress, tops. The group she returned with numbered around half that. The Geist pack number in the twenties, with some of the larger Geists being as tall as a Nuckelavee when they weren’t possessing stones or trees. The Alpha had to easily be two feet taller than those and then in its possessed from it was easily as tall as a four-story building.

As soon as she got off the transport in Mistral Sunset’s mind was on one thing, Aeon. She had promised the boy she’d rescued that she would be his train if she made it back to the city and she had. He was the only reason that had kept her fighting in the Geist Hunt. She didn’t know why but something was telling her that she needed to live and make it back to him. Aeon had no one left in this world and she wanted to fix that. Whether it was out of compassion, the promise she made to him, or because she didn’t want him to end up in a similar situation that she been through. Sunset just knew that he needed her, but she had yet to realize how much she needs him as well.

Sunset headed straight to the hospital to find which foster home that Aeon had been placed in. Aura made healing wounds like his fairly quick. So his stay in the hospital outlasted her own stay in the city by about a day. Sunset had only four days before she had to set out on the hunt making Aeon hospital stay a total of five. In the time he was there Sunset had been true to her word and visited him every single day. She even stayed the whole time the visiting hour would permit her too. She even stayed overnight the first night she’d brought him to Mistral’s Shining Hope Hospital.

Sunset walked up to the nurse at the front desk her leather trench flowing behind her. She waited for the nurse to finish her call before she asked about Aeon.

“Ms. Shimmer it’s been a while. If you’re here to see young Aeon, I’m sorry to say that he was discharged the day after you departed for your last mission,” said the nurse.

“Actually, Nurse Lavender the Doctor told me that’s what was going to happen before I left. I came by hoping you could tell me where I could go to see him. I made a promise to him before I left and seeing as I survived my encounter I intended to keep my promise,” Sunset says as she leans on to the desk with pleading eyes.

“I take it you’re referring to the Geist Hunt. Terribly sorry about to hear we lost so many. Now let’s see where Mr. Crim was sent after his discharge,” Nurse Lavender says as she types on her screen. “Ah, here we are. He was sent to, Tusk’s Home for Children. I do hope he’s faring well. The poor boy was incredibly upset and scared when you left. That home is well known for supporting orphans that have lost their families to the Grimm. Though, it’s more well known for taking in faunus than humans.”

“That’s because I recommended he go there. That was the orphanage that raised me when I was a fill/ child. With Aeon’s body being severely scarred like it was, I thought it would be best for him to be somewhere more accepting of appearances. Besides, Mr. Tusk was my teacher and surrogate father while I went to school here in Mistral, so I knew Aeon would be in good hands even if I didn’t come back,” said Sunset as she pulled her hood up. “Thank you for your help, Nurse Lavender.”

“Anytime dear and do tell Mr. Crim hello for me,” said the nurse as she returned to her other duties.

“Good thing Papa Tusk took Aeon in. I was really worried that he’d end up somewhere…” Sunset whispered to herself as she left the hospital. “Stopping that train of thought right now. I know. I’ll stop by the market and pick up some ingredients for some stew for the kids at Papa Tusk’s. It has been a while since my last visit. I only spoke to him via scroll to see if he would look after Aeon’s name on the lists when it came out.”

Sunset continued to talk to herself as she walked down the street to Mistral’s outdoor vendor’s market. She spent the next few hours going through the market and get the ingredients for her vegetable and beef stew. While she mainly stuck to a diet of fruits and vegetables she had also learned to cook meat dishes while at the orphanage. It was so everyone would have some from food that they could have. After she the ingredients Sunset headed over to her apartment to drop off her weapons and take a much-needed shower. ‘Home sweet home’ she thought as she walked through the door.

Sunset walked into her apartment and looked around. It was a simple one bedroom apartment. She could have afforded a bigger one if she’d really wanted to, but there was no point as she lived by herself. She never had anyone over other than one or two of her old teammates from time to time. She had all the amenities she needs to get through daily life when she wasn’t on missions. A table, a couch that unfolds into a one person sleeper for guest and a wall mounted display screen for local news and the like. Her bedroom setup was a single twin bed in the middle of the room with a bookshelf next to with a few books and stories that Sunset would read and read to the children at the orphan when she visits in her spare time. Sunset also had a makeshift workbench setup for doing maintenance on her weapons. She also had a full bath and kitchen for herself complete with chairs and a table, which is where she put her groceries, keys, scroll, and here weapons for the time being.

Now that she had set her extras down Sunset was off to the bathroom to take a long hot shower to take some of the stress away. Sunsets thoughts quickly turned to Aeon and her situation with him. Sunset was still planning on going to Vale after all. In fact. when she checked her messages earlier one of the more well-known school had called her. It would seem fate had dealy her a great opportunity. One of the teachers at Signal Academy had recently accepted a position at Beacon and Signal was looking to for someone to fill his spot in the upcoming weeks. The pay was more than enough for two people to live off of while still not having to take missions as often as she did here.

‘I’m going to have to become Aeon’s legal guardian in order to get him to stay with me let alone move to Vale’ Sunset thought as she walked out of the bathroom drying her hair. ‘I’m going have to stay here a little while longer than I had originally planned in order to get all off the necessary paperwork signed and sent into the agency.’

“Enough of that for now,” Sunset said as she got dressed.

She put on a long sleeved dark purple top with a gold and red sun that resembles a yin and yang symbol on it. Her pants were made of a black denim material while she wore a pair of black boots with a light purple flame pattern on the front then gradually fades into a bright golden orange. She wore a pair of red dust infused dust that allowed her to utilize her semblance, Fire Weaving if needed. Once Sunset was fully dressed she put her leather trench coat back on and quickly followed by equipping her sword to her back and her revolver to her side. Once all of the usuals were in place Sunset put her scroll in her pocket and picked up the ingredients for the stew and quickly headed to the orphanage while locking the door behind her.

Tusk’s Home for Children

There was a young boy covered in bandages across the right side of his body and face that had been staring at a Scottish claymore that was hanging on the wall in the office of the head of the orphanage he’d been staying at. He had singed white forward spike and oxblood colored eyes. He was wearing a grey short sleeve shirt with a red snowflake design on it with black cargo shorts and black open-toed ninja sandals. It was Aeon Crim.

It was his turn to mop the upstairs of the home. The weapon had caught his attention when he moved into the office while he was doing the chore. He couldn’t help but feel a familiar vibe coming from the weapon hanging on the wall before him. Aeon then noticed there was a smaller sword hanging next to the claymore. The smaller of the two blades had what appeared to be a serrated blade on one side and a straight edge on the other.

“Hey, there lad. So this is what been holdin ya up,” said a thick-accented male voice from behind the be causing Aeon to quickly turn.

“I’m sorry for taking so long to finishing mopping Mr.Tusk. I sword these weapons here while I was mopping your office and couldn’t help myself,” Aeon says as he looked to the head of the orphanage, Oleander Tusk.

Oleander Tusk is an older boar faunus and a former soldier of the Mistral army. His facial features consisted of forest green eyes and a bluish-white buzz cut that connected to thick chops around his face. The most notable of these would be the large tusks the protruded from his bottom jaw. Tusk’s outfits usually were made up of a white long sleeve button down shirt with black suspenders that held up a pair of khaki pants and a pair of black marching boots.

Oleander was a kind-hearted man that grew up on the outskirts of Anima’s wild’s. He was always to busy with the military and thus never married. He saw the orphaned children that had lost their parents during the Grimm attacks during his time of duty and want often wished to do what he could for them. Using his savings and petition he started the orphanage for those children who had nowhere else to go. Tusk would raise many of the orphans to as his own, which is how he got to be called Papa Tusk by many of them. He was also known to train many of the children in his home to become to go on and become accomplished Huntsmen and Huntresses.

“It quite alright lad. I thought these two might have caught your eye when you didn't come down after fifteen minutes,” said Tusk with a chuckle. “What are there names? And what can they do?” asked Aeon as he turned back to the blades.

“I call the claymore ‘Offence’ and the sword breaker “Defence’. As for what they do, lad, they helped keep me alive in the military and the helped me train a lot of the little one that came here before you. Before you ask they’re simple dust blades. Other than being able to connect at the pommels they have no other special properties,” laughed Tusk as he muffled Aeon’s hair a bit.

“Does that mean you’re Ms.Shimmer’s teacher?” asked the curious youth.

“I like to think she does. Sunset Shimmer. She was a different child. Always wanting to learn but always wanting to be left by the other kids. If she thought they had nothing to new to teach her then she’d interact with them. Once she got into Haven Academy she opened up a lot more, thank the gods. She still more or less a social outcast these days but that's more or less thanks to being a Huntress and coming by here to check on me and the young ones here,” Tusk smiled as he looked to a picture of a laughing Sunset, her teammates, and the kids she grew up with on their graduation day.

“Now finish up the mopping and then you can go play outside with the others while some of the older kids help me fix supper for you lot,” Tusk says as he walks out of the room.

Aeon looked back to the pair of weapons hanging on the wall and smiled softly. I knew why the claymore looked familiar. It was because his teacher had modeled one of her own after it. He went about his work all while smiling as he did it. ‘When she comes back then I can start learning how to be a true Huntsman.’ Aeon thought as he went about finishing his work and then went to play with some of the other children.

Most of the children in the orphanage were faunus like Sunset had said they would be but there were quite a few humans as well. It didn’t matter what race you were to them. Everyone got along fairly well with each other. It was only the ones that liked to cause trouble you had to watch out for and even then it was mainly the pranks and prank wars that were the bain of Papa Tusk’s existence. This part of his time in the home was one that Aeon enjoyed immensely. Somehow it helped him cope with the loss of his town, if not just a little bit at a time. Tusk really didn’t mind the pranks as long as the children kept it on themselves and not him and outside the house.

A few hours later…

Sunset Shimmer was standing outside the front gate that leads to the home where she had spent her youth after she arrived in the world. It wasn’t a fancy orphanage but it was well kept as every that lived here helped maintain it while they lived here. The orphans were assigned various chores that would rotate every week so that no one would have the same job and help teach them various skills for later on in life. This was also to help them interact with one another this way if one person didn’t know what to they could simply ask another.

Sunset’s favorite time for chores was when she was on any form of kitchen duty. Even when she was simply helping with the dishes after a meal. She didn’t really understand why she enjoyed working in the kitchen so much but it was the only other place she felt truly at one with her surrounds other than when she was training.

Sunset opened the gate and walked down the pathway to the medium size two-story home’s door and proceeded to knock. She heard the shuffle of feet from behind the door while someone called out.

“Someone go see who’s at the door, please. If it’s someone to see me show them to the kitchen please,” said a rough Scottish accent that Sunset knew well.

‘Looks like I got here just in time’ thought Sunset as the shuffling grows louder as she heard a young girl’s voice. “I got it, Papa Tusk.”

The door opened to reveal a twelve-year-old human girl in a green T-shirt and blue jean with short blonde hair and aquamarine eyes and began to speak. This was Liliana Pendragon or Lily to those who knew her best.

“Hello. What can do for yo- Big sister Sunset!” shouted the girl as she jumped to Sunset’s side as she flung the door open.

“Hey there Lily, how have you been? Sorry, I would have called but I wanted to surprise all of and I just got back today,” Sunset said as she walked with Lily to the kitchen “How’s Aeon adjusting?”

“I’ve been great, big sis. I’ve been passing all my classes in school and Aeon’s been settling in great. He had a bit of trouble the first couple of days because he thought the others would make fun of those bandages he wears to hide his scars. He was still really friendly with everyone and after a few of us told him our stories he opened up. I still feel really bad though. We’ve all lost a lot here but we’ve at least have family or friends out there, but Aeon has no one left,” says Lily as she looked to the floor.

“That’s not true, Lily,” Sunset says as they enter the kitchen. “Aeon has me. I’m going to adopt him and he’s going to come and live with me while I teach how to be a Huntsman.”

“So like what you do when you come and visit us here,” Lily says tilting her head.

“Not exactly the same thing Lass,” said Tusk as he walked over to Sunset and gave her a bear hug. “Sunset is going to be more like Aeon’s new mom slash mentor rather than a big sister like she is with you lot. Good to have ya home lassy. How was the hunt for chaos causing Giests?”

“We managed to take them down but we last around have of the group we started out with,” Sunset says setting down the bag she’d brought. “Enough of this depressing stuff. I bought ingredients for beef stew. Want to help me make it Lily? We can give Papa a break to go have some of that sludge he calls coffee and catches up on his reading.”

“YEA! I’ll go get my apron from my room real quick,” exclaimed Lily as she ran out of the kitchen.

“Hey now, no running in the house. Sunset these kids really do think of you as their big sister,” said Tusk with a sad sigh. “I know and believe me, that’s what I’m going to miss the most when I move to Vale,” said Sunset wit ha frown as she paused from unpacking her ingredients to recompose herself.

“Then why are you moving. You should stay here and get a job as a school teacher and take over the orphanage from me when I can’t run it anymore. I don’t see why you’re so set on moving when you have those here that look to you for guidance.” huffed the boar faunus.

“Originally, it was selfishness Papa. I just wanted to stop from having to hunt the Grimm to get by every 6 or seven days. Now, its because I think it would be best for Aeon. I’ll be able to provide a much better lifestyle and be there for him when he needs me instead of hunting all the time. I also think it would help if he wasn’t so close to the Grimm. They aren’t as plentiful in Vale as they are here in Anima,” Sunset said as she put her weapons in the closest in the hallway and tied up her hair.

“So you already have a plan in motion, ay lass. That does give the old heart ah mine some ease. So what is your plan for your future with the lad?” asked Tusk looking at the younger kids playing in the yard, with Aeon among them.

“I know you’ve heard of the island of Patch’s Signal Academy. Well, their teacher history and combat instructor Bartholomew Oobleck recently took a job at Beacon and they were looking for someone to take his old spot as soon as possible,” said Sunset as she started to prep here ingredients for the pot.

“Ah, ya always did have a preference for books and combat more than most lass. How long is it gonna take ya to get everything packed up at that apartment of yours? Can’t be very long as you were never one to have very many possessions. Except for your books and weapons of course,” laughed Tusk as Sunset’s face flushed a bit from embarrassment know it was all true.

Sunset put a large pot of water on the stove a let the fire and turned to Tusk while she turned her head down as her gaze stayed on the older faunus she considered her father. She then took in a deep breath and let it out in a long exhale. Sunset then looked Tusk straight in the eye and he then knew what she was about to say was completely serious.

“Tusk do you think you have enough pull in the adoption system to help push Aeon’s papers through in a few days?” asked Sunset as she looked her father dead in the eye.

“Thought ya might ask me for something along those lines lass,” Tusk said getting up and fixing his evening cup of coffee. “Look, Sunset, I will do what I can but it will still take a few days since your going about this the long way. I don’t see why you don’t just get the papers from city hall and do it outright.”

Lily came back into the room in her pink apron as Sunset pulled a knife from the knife block and started to peel the potatoes. “Here Lily, you can start on the carrots. Just toss them in the pot as you go. I’ll get to the meat in a minute. And thank you, Papa. Now, you go up to your office and pull out one of those old books. We’ll call you when supper is ready.”

“Okay,” said Tusk as both Lily and Sunset shewed him out of the kitchen. “Both of you lasses are worse than a Goliath on a rampage when it comes to a kitchen.”

Lily and Sunset spent the next couple of hours cutting vegetables and throw them in the pot along with seasoning and browning the meat. Sunset was a lot closer to Lily then the others as Sunset was there when Lily arrived as a baby. It wasn’t that no one wanted to adopt her it and it wasn’t that she didn’t get along with most of those who tried to. Lily was raised in the orphan and it was what she considered her home so much so that she would often run away from her foster families. She did try and stay with them but she just found it too hard to stay away from the orphanage. In the end, Tusk had her name taken off the adoption list. That’s why Sunset wanted to cook alone with Lily though. She wanted to tell Lily what was going to happen after she adopted Aeon. As she Lily started to cry and ask why she said she/ be a better sister if Sunset stayed. That she wouldn’t run away from her next family the tried to adopt her. Sunset then told her that had nothing to do with her and that she needed to be the new big sister of the orphans that were here and were to come.

It was true the Sunset didn’t want to truly leave but she also knew if she didn’t she would never grow as a person and neither would Lily or Aeon for that matter. When Sunset had finished calming Lily down the stew had finished. The set the table for the other, Tusk and themselves. Lily went and told the little ones that it was time to wash up for supper while Sunset went upstairs to fetch Tusk from his office. She found the older Huntsman doing maintenance on his weapons. Sunset told Tusk that supper was ready and everyone was gathering in the dining room, Tusk then put his weapons back on the wall and followed Sunset down the stairs.

Dinner Table

Everyone came inside and washed their hands and immediately came to the table. Lily, who looked as if she’d been crying, had said they were going to beef stew and a surprise for supper. Of course, everyone knew something big was going to go down if there was a surprise involved. It usually meant that someone was going to be adopted but it could mean a few other things to. Everyone just knew that something in their daily lives was fixing to change again. With everyone now gathered at the table, they were all looking around curious as there was still an empty seat and Papa Tusk and Lily were both sitting at their spots at the table, but most importantly they were wondering where the stew was. Before anyone could ask a woman with hair that looked as if it were made of flames came through the kitchen door carrying a large pot as she then set on the table.

“Sunset’s home!” yelled everyone but Tusk, Lily, and Aeon, who couldn’t help but start to cry at the sight of his teacher.

“Hello everyone, I wanted to come by and make stew for everyone once I got back. And I needed to come by and check on my student,” Sunset says with a smile as she looked to Aeon who was drying his eyes. “Guys, I have so big news and I need to tell all of you but first you have to promise you won’t get mad, sad, or start to crying. But first, let’s all have some stew”

“We promise,” the children said in a unified but hesitant tone.

The surrogate family sat and ate their supper together. Everyone was quiet except for Sunset and Tusk. Every now and then Sunset would be asked for the details about one of her missions by one of the younger children and she would answer with a short tail of its happening. Aeon would pay attention to this part of supper in great detail. He would often start to ask a specific question about the fighting parts. This lead to time passing rather quickly for the family. The next thing they knew they’d already emptied the stew pot. Sunset stood up and started to give her family the news.

Once Sunset had finished giving here news to her family she took in a long breath and then exhaled as she now looked to the faces before her that were doing there best to hold back tears. She knew they were too young to understand why she was doing this. The only reason they knew that was good enough for them was that it was for Aeon. He was going to be a family with Sunset and that was good enough for them. They were going to miss her and Aeon all the more though.

Once everyone had finished asking their own questions Tusk had them help clean the dining room. Then, he had them start to get ready for bed as they all had school in the morning, except for, Aeon as he’d never been registered for it and there was no point now that Sunset was back. Sunset pulled Aeon of to the side so she could explain in more detail what her plan was.

“Listen, Aeon, I’m going to adopt you and become your legal guardian. I’m not trying to replace your mom in any way and I never will. I don’t care how you see me in this. That’s up to you. Whether you see me solely as your teacher, your big sister, or as your new mom it’s all up to you, but I intend to be there for you no matter what. If you decide you don’t want to be a Huntsman then I won’t stop you, but I still be there for you okay,” Sunset says as she was kneeling in front of the young boy she’d found only three weeks ago who was constantly wiping away his tears to sear the face of the Huntress in front of him.

Sunset had only known Aeon for roughly a month and she already cared for him deeply. The next thing he knew she was holding him tightly while telling him it was going to be alright. The hours passed into the later hours of the night while Sunset stayed to tuck the children in. She took some more time to explain to Aeon some more while he was in bed.

“One more week here in Mistral while I get the paperwork done for your adoption Aeon. I’ll be coming by here after I get done with the business and packing up my stuff at my apartment in town. Then we’re heading to an island called Patch. I was able to get a teaching job at one of the more well-known schools of there. It called Signal Academy. I’ll be around for you a lot more than if we stayed here and I’ll make more money so we can live in a bigger place than the one I have now. That’s enough for tonight okay, Aeon. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night,” Sunset said as she kissed his forehead. The boy looked up to her with the moonlight gleaming of his red eyes causing them to glow.

“Goodnight Sunset,” said Aeon as she left the room and then he drifted to sleep.

Sunset left to through front door stopping by the closest to get her weapons. She was followed close behind by Tusk. She turned to her father who immediately embraced her. Tusk started to speak to her softly.

“I’m so proud of you Sunset. You’ve come so far from the little girl that wandered into the city from the wilds,” Tusk says as he releases her from his embrace looking into her into cyan eyes while tears started to form in them. “I know Aeon is going to be in good hands.”

“Thank you, Papa. It means the world to me to hear you say that. But, please keep an eye on him. I know you already have an idea of what he’s been through Papa. He may not let it show but he’s really hurting right now,” Sunset said drying her eyes.

“I have an idea is right Sunset,” Tusk said as he stepped out of the house closing the door behind him. He then sat down in the nearest chair and looked to his daughter. “But at the same time, I don’t. The poor lad has been through something even worse than a battle, though. He had everything, his whole world, taken from him and I think you're the only person in this whole damn city maybe even this whole damn world, that has any understanding of it. I don’t know how or why I know this, but I just do. Chalk it up to a father’s intuition, I guess. I know you’re worried about the lad Sunset but you he’s in a good place right now. ”

“Do you think he could come and stay with me one night this week before I have it all packed up for the move? I know I’m not supposed to ask for things like that but it would mean a lot to me if we could try it out at least,” Sunset asked with bated breath.

“I don’t see why not lass. Aeon doesn’t attend school so the lad isn’t on a set schedule like the other kids. But it can’t be more than a day. I don’t want the brass coming around here asking any more questions than they already are. They’re already all over this place as is because it an orphanage run by a faunus that takes in both faunus and humans,” Tusk says as he gets up from his seat and gives Sunset one more hug before bidding her goodnight and heading back into the house.

Sunset’s Apartment

Sunset arrived home and shed her coat weapons, boots, and weapons. Leaving them all on the floor. She then headed to the bedroom and threw herself down on to her bed. She was completely worn out. She still managed to roll over on to her back so she could look at the ceiling so she could think while she didn’t suffocate from burying her face in the blankets.

‘I’m going to be there for Aeon. Even if he decides he doesn’t want to be a Huntsman anymore. I would be lying to myself if I said I wanted that life for him.’

“Aeon, please don’t hold it all in,” Sunset said as she turned over and drifted off to sleep.