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Chapter Text

Ruby Rose knew she and her sister should have left together that morning. Not only did the seventeen year old blonde think it a good idea to let her fifteen year old sister pick up the "goodies" for their visit, but their uncle gave her the worse directions to his newest cottage. Just. The worst. Of all time.

Ruby didn't know how she had done it. The local shopkeeper just stared dumbfounded at the minor when she had given him a long list of spirits she wished to purchase. While wearing a ridiculous faux mustache. The shopkeeper probably took pity on her, or recognized that she was Qrow's niece. After he gave her her change, and a cookie for the road, Ruby was on her way. If only she could read her map... She couldn't tell if she needed to take a left at a giant tree or some kind of furry rock... Her best bet was to find her sister as soon as possible.

Ruby's sister Yang and herself had always made a good team. It might be because they were related, but it was mostly due to the fact that Yang seemed to get into a lot of trouble and would drag Ruby along for the ride. So it was safe to say that the younger sister knew her way around a tussle. Then again, her uncle was just as bad. He was one of the influences that helped encourage the girls' brawling, much against their father's interest. Not that he was against them learning self defense, but rather he didn't care for them picking out fights with the naughtiest of ruffians in taverns they never should have been in in the first place.

Even with being able to take care of herself, Ruby still felt uneasy being alone in the woods. So she raced down the dirt path up until she came to a fork in the road. There were three paths; one heading towards a cobblestone pathway, the next was heading deeper toward the darker part of the wood, and the final path looked as though it lead out of the wood completely. So the last one was clearly not it. Ruby struggled between her two remaining pathways. The first looked peaceful and mostly brighter with maybe flowers growing around the path. The other looked like someone or thing would pop out and attack or eat her...

She looked up and down from her directions that had been drunkenly scribbled onto part of the back of a wanted poster from one of her uncle's old "jobs". There wasn't a fork in the road on it or anything resembling it... So Ruby picked the more dangerous looking one. It wasn't that she didn't find the spooky path super scary, or wasn't smart enough to know it wasn't safe. Her uncle on the other hand was probably not as... sober. He usually didn't stay in one place too long, but this was were he planned on making his "base camp." Considering her uncle had said he got the cottage at a steal of a price, he must have had one desperate real-estate agent.

But even with the creepy trees with limbs reaching out as if to grab you, howls and growls, and the ever feeling presence of someone watching her from a distance, Ruby didn't let that stop her from skipping merrily like the wind through the opening of the pathway. She tried not to let her basket of illegally purchased booze (which was unrealistically easily obtained by using a fake mustache and imitating one of her teachers) to weigh her down. After about three or four miles traversed, she decided to take a juice break, making sure not to mix up her bottle of grape juice with the much older, more fermented one. She had just about drank half the bottle when she heard a ruffle from above in the tree she was seated under. The little red hooded girl looked upward to see another girl, not too much older than she, perched on a branch.

The girl had raven black hair which was long in length with a bow tied on the top of her head. Her features appeared nimble as she was able to balance with ease on the slender tree limb. In her hands were a book, and hanging beside her from another branch was a basket much like Ruby's. Although the girl looked deep into thought with her reading, Ruby really needed directions. And considering she was just casually hanging out in a tree, the raven haired girl may know her way through the wood.

"Um... Excuse me?" Ruby called. But, the girl did not answer. She tried a little louder, "Hello? Ma'am? Tree Lady?" The girl above merely turned the page of her book.

Feeling a little defeated, but not willing to give up, Ruby began to climb up the tree. It was harder than she expected, seeing as there weren't many holds for her feet or hands. She finally, after a good few minutes of awkward shimmying, made it to were the other girl was leaning up against the tree. The hooded girl tapped the other, making her jump a little where she sat, but not enough to loose her balance.

"Hiya," Ruby greeted while semi-out of breath. She made sure to have a friendly smile decorating her face. As her uncle told her once, "greet danger and strangers with a smile."

"...Hello," said the other girl. Her eyes darted side to side. Clearly she had not noticed or even heard the younger girl struggling up the tree. "Can I help you?" Her voice wavered.

"Well, I was hoping you could," Ruby began, "I'm looking for this cottage somewhere in the middle of the wood. I have these directions...," she fished the crumbled up paper out of her skirt pocket, "but they aren't much help." Ruby handed the raven haired girl the scribbled page. She gave it a good looking over, squinted a few times do decipher if a line was intentional or it was just a crease or a stain.

"You're pretty close," she finally spoke, sounding a little unsure. "If you go down the path till you get to another fork in the road you should go left. Stop when you find a small river, then follow the current and it should be along bank." Handing back the paper, she gave Ruby a cautious smile.

"Thanks for your help, Miss... Um?"

"Blake," she finished. "Blake Belladonna."

"Well, Blake, thanks again!" Ruby said as she began to climb down the tree. Only her foot slipped. The closest thing she could grab before tumbling down was the basket hanging from the tree. But Ruby wasn't the only one to tumble. Blake reached out to try and catch the hooded girl but was only able to grab her hand before falling along with her. Blake somehow managed to land on her feet while Ruby's butt met the ground pretty hard.

"Owwwie!" Ruby cried as she wiggled up to her feet.

"Are you ok?" Blake went to help her up a little too late, but did keep her balanced until she dusted off the dirt on her skirt.

"Yeah I'm fi- Oh no! I need to go!" The sun was setting in the sky faster than the young girl expected. "I gotta get there before dark!" She scooped up her basket off the ground and began to rush away. "I hope I'll see you again!" she called behind her as she ran, waving to her new acquaintance. The last glimpse of the raven haired girl Ruby saw was her waving back before disappearing in the distance.

Ruby kept running and running, following Blake's guidance and almost making it to the cottage just as the sun set out of the sky. She could see the windows of the building lit up and shadows moving from inside. Shadows she could tell were her uncle and sister. Grinning widely, Ruby dashed to the front door of the less than shabby cottage. Knocking carefully considering the door looked like it could fall over any minute, Ruby rocked back and forth on her heels.

"Uncle Qrow! Yang! It's me!" she called. The door cracked open slowly with a pair of lilac eyes peeking through. The eyes widened and the door flew open, slamming against the wall.

"Ruby!" her older sister Yang greeted. She embraced her sister tightly, picking her up off the ground.

"Yang! It's so. Good to. See you. Ok. Can't breath," Ruby gasped out.

"Oh," Yang released her younger sister. "It's good you made it here safe and sound. I was sure you'd have some trouble getting here."

"Nope. Got some directions from this super cool girl named Blake and she could read, I mean she WAS reading when I met her, but I mean she could read the map Qrow made and- hey... What happened to your hair?" Ruby stopped her rambling to notice her sister's hair was a little uneven. It wasn't too noticeable but considering how much she knew her sister concerning her hair it was a bit of a big deal.

"Oh. That? Um... Well let's just say my trip wasn't as smooth as yours. But enough about that," even though Yang hadn't said much to begin with, "let's get you inside. We have cocoa and cookies."

"Don't forget the booze!" their uncle called from inside the house. The two entered into through the front door and into the kitchen. Ruby placed the basket on the table in front of Qrow who had been sitting there with his feet propped up.

"Here you go, Uncle Qrow. Now it took a bushy mustache and probably ruining my voice forever but I was able to get-"

She opened up the basket's lid.

"Books?"

"Well you got the 'boo' part right," Yang joked.

"Bu-bu-but I bought the booze! I did! All that hard deception... wasted."

"Well if this isn't your basket then who does," Qrow picked up one of the hardcover copies, "'A Midnight In Paris' belong to?"

"It was probably Blake's... She did have a basket too when I met her..."

As his niece trailed off in though, Qrow flipped open the book to a random page and paused for a moment. His eyebrow roze and a smirk appeared upon his face. "How old was was that girl you said you met?"

"Um... I don't know. Maybe Yang's age?" Ruby answered. Yang just rolled her eyes at their uncle's question.

He mad a bit of a soured look. "Damn... Did she mention an older sister?"

"Oh my Grim! Someone make him stop!" Yang exclaimed as she threw her hands onto her ears.

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding," he chuckled. "But really, we should probably return these to her." He tossed the book back into the basket. When it fell in, there was a strange cracking noise as if something broke inside. Before they could look inside to see the possible damage, there was a loud knocking at the door.

"I'll get it!" Ruby absentmindedly called with a pep in her step.

"Wait Ruby don't-!" Yang began to interject.

And then.....

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter Text

What Happens in The Woods
Chapter 2: White

Fairytales were a big lie. That was common knowledge for anyone above the age of ignorance and innocence, but it was still worth stating. All the stories that Weiss Schnee's older sister had told her at night before bed filled with snow white princesses being rescued from prisons and towers were nothing more than just that. Stories. There weren't "happy endings", just options that led to either more hardships or compromises. Weiss had learned that fact rather quickly growing up.

You'd think she would have everything she could ever want, growing up as an heiress to a large estate. The children in the nearby town would mockingly call her "princess" whenever she ventured to the lowest class's dwelling. Because of her status she never truly had a friend; either those who wished for her wealth, or those who hated her because of it. The only person she could consider close was her sister Winter. She would follow her around like a little duckling, and when Weiss was being bullied Winter would defend her. As they grew, the younger mimicked the elder, which included they both longed for some sort of rebellion.

Their father, taking note of this, made sure his youngest would take a more ladylike path. Winter chose her family's military background. Being a noble, she took advantage of the opportunity she had in being excepted into a minor leadership position. And unlike her peers, she more than earned her title with skill and valor she displayed.

Weiss was kept under a more watchful eye, but still did what defiance she could. She humored her father in singing and dance lessons (which she did honestly enjoy), but also trained hard in fencing and combat. She knew she could never go into military but she did her best to do her part in other ways; taking advantage of her father's company parties to discuss business instead of flirting, working in her dance choreography into her combat training and vice versa, making sure all of her gowns and dresses were more manageable in a fight, etc.

Weiss though what she was doing would help benefit her for becoming better than the fairytale maidens. She would become a hero instead of a damsel. It wasn't until she got locked up like one of the princesses in the stories that she released how wrong she had been. Freedom was just out of her reach. All her hard work would be all for not... All because of the one thing that helped her succeed; nobility.

Since Winter was no longer marriageable in their father's eyes, for she was practically married already to the military, Weiss was to be courted and engaged to whomever was most beneficial for both families financially. If anything, the one thing Weiss enjoyed about her bedtime stories was the tales of true love. Sure, it sounded fake or rushed, but at least they joined together on their own terms. It wasn't like they were being forced to marry a dry piece of wood or a soggy loaf of bread that happened to have wealth. Which, in all fairness, most of her possible suitors were just that... Uninteresting. Decent looks at best. Only after the Schnee Family fortune and Dust Mines. Also rather cowardly. Not one suitor could best Weiss in a sparing match. Unless, that is, her father requested her to let them win. Which was more often than not.

She was so close to marriageable age... Weiss was practically sentenced for life in her metaphorical prison. Just the thought of it made her almost wish Winter had stayed to take over as heiress of the household. But now was not the time for wishing and placing blame. Now was the time for action, to become her own hero. And when better way to do so but by running away in the dead of night, 'rescuing' herself from a fate worse than death. Well, maybe not worse than death but still, that's a lot of commitment to just place on one person.

Weiss packed a small bag of the bare essentials; some food grifted from the kitchen's pantry, some of her lightest clothes (mostly worn for sparing, heaven forbid her father let her wear outside of the training hall), a light brown bag filled with all her savings, and a photo. The only picture she had of all her family together, looking somewhat happy, taken before her mother had passed on...

Strapping her saber to her hip, the young heiress tossed a long rope of bedsheets out her window and began to scale down the ivory covered wall. Landing softly on the ground, Weiss crouched past the guards who watched over the estate after dark, and snuck over the granite wall that bordered the property. After that it was a mad dash into the wood. She dared to follow the paved path that led into town. They would just find her much more quickly that way and bring her back, possibly speeding up the engagement selection.

Weiss ventured deep into the unmarked area of the wood. It grew darker than the already bleak, black night. The treetops canopied over her, blocking out the light of the stars and moon. The sounds of crickets and the hooting of owls filled her ears as she passed. But not just that. A blood curdling howl of some sort echoed from the distance. This made the young girl run faster. Her nerve was slowly abandoning her as she kept hearing noises of predators. The tree branches looked more like shadowy figures lunging towards her, it felt like she was being watched from all around, it felt like the world was spinning around her almost tormentingly. She lost her footing and tumbled down the edge of a steep drop into a small gorge. Weiss's idea of living a self-fulfilled fairytale shattered as she hit the rocky bottom. Reality caught up with her faster than she could run. Her pure white 'common' dress was covered in dirt, slightly torn from the rocks sharp edges, as well as small blood stains from new wounds spotted the fabric. She was cold from the fridged night air, tired from her running away from most likely her own imagination, and completely alone in the dark.

Lunging to her knees, the young girl made her way slowly to her feet. She did not know where to run, or more or less stumble in her walk, to or where she even was in the wood. Using the last of her strength, she began to climb out of the gorge. She fell into the stream it held once or twice before making her way back to the top of the opening of earth.

Weiss looked around her, shivering from the mix of cool air and drenched clothing. Her bag began to grow heavy. Her saber was weighing her down as the hip. She walked aimlessly for what felt like an hour, but was more or less a few minutes. Her eyes were better adjusting to the darkness. She could see all her fears were uncalled for; trees were just trees, the eyes watching her were just squirrels and rabbits, and the noises of the wood were too distant to be any real danger. With a more calmed demeanor, Weiss trekked onward till she saw a small cottage. It looked a little shabby, like the place they would store her families gardening supplies, but there were lights on and shadows dancing inside. That's all Weiss needed to know. She hoped and prayed they were friendly, and that they weren't thieves, or outlaws, or worse, knew her father. But any company was good company at this point, the heiress thought to herself. She needed shelter and a warm fire, and maybe some hot cocoa (if that wouldn't be too imposing, after all she was a stranger).

Loud voices came from inside the cottage. There was laughter and a groan. There was the smell of... cookies. And cocoa. No one evil or wicked would drink cocoa. Would they?

Getting up her nerve and letting out a deep sigh, Weiss knocked on the door. A little too hard, but then again she was a little agitated. She didn't have time to regret it for a voice called out from the other side.

"I'll get it!" the voice rang.

"Wait!" another voice exclaimed. "Ruby don't-"

The door flung open. Weiss was met with a girl who didn't look to much younger than herself. She, who the heiress assumed was Ruby from the other person's 'warning', was draped with a rose red hooded cloak. Behind her stood a tall blonde girl, and at the table was an older man.

"Ahem," Weiss cleared her throat. "Hello, I'm-," she thought for a moment. There was no way she could use her real name. That would be a dead giveaway. Quickly she gave an alias, "Snow. Snow White."

Weiss then commenced to kick herself internally. Good one Schnee, she scolded herself, why to use your own name but just in a different language!

That didn't seem to be a problem however, for the hooded girl just smiled and greeted her.

"Hi there, Snow! I'm Ruby. And this is my sister Yang," she gestured to the blonde, "and my uncle Qrow." The man at the table gave her a nod. "What brings you out this far into the woods so late?" Ruby noted her wet clothes. "You're soaked! Quick come inside!" She dragged the other girl into the warm cottage and sat her down at the table across from Qrow. He looked her over as the girl in white tried looking away, hoping he didn't recognize her and send word to her father.

"So Snow," he began. "Mind answering my niece's questions? She may have forgotten," they both looked over at the young girl scrabbling together a cocoa from their unexpected guest, "but I would like to know why you're out here so late, considering it's awful dangerous at night. And you are in my house."

"Don't worry. I just need to change into dry clothes," Weiss insisted. She wasn't trying to avoid the question, but she didn't feel like sharing until after warming up. But the older man's eyes showed that although his face was calm and inviting, he meant business. "I was on my way into town and got a little lost. That's all. My map blew away and I got lost from the path-"

"You're not very good lying," the blond one's (Yang, was it?) voice loomed from behind her. "You sound a little too 'matter-of-factly' and your voice goes to a higher pitch."

"Just getting lost is one thing, but those scraps and bruises tell more of a different story," the uncle took his feet down from the table and scooted in closer. He knit his fingers together and looked Weiss straight in the eyes. "Now I don't know if 'Snow' is your real name or not, but it can be if that's what you want. I don't care. What I do care about is knowing what really happened?"

"I-," Weiss hesitated. She didn't know if she was embarrassed or just scared of being sent home. "I ran away from home..." She looked down at the table. "Some things happened and do don't want to go into any details, but I can't stay there anymore. And if I go back..." She trailed off not wanting to say anymore.

"A runaway, huh. You're not in any trouble with the law or anything?" The older man smirked.

Weiss perked up, "Oh no! Nothing like that! I'd never-"

"Relax, Snow. I'm just checking. If you were then I'd have to turn you in."

"To whom?"

"Uncle Qrow is a bounty hunter," Ruby answered, placing a fresh cup of cocoa in front of her guest. Weiss thanked her hostess.

"You're THE Qrow? The infamous, womanizing freelancer that burned down a whole tavern just for one man?"

"Well, yes. But to clarify, it was a whole gang. And the fire wasn't my fault... Presumably, at least," Qrow corrected. "I don't know why that's all I'm know for? Also, I'm not a womanizer. I'm a gentleman."

His niece Yang chuckled and rolled her eyes at the statement. "If you're a gentleman, then I'm a nun."

"Anyways. Since I'm not technically a public servant, I won't send you over to the 'proper' authorizes. However, if you stay here you gotta earn your keep. I'm looking for an assistant. Someone to work with me and my nieces on a few jobs. Also, I don't do dishes. So there's that too."

"What... You mean I can stay here?" Weiss inquired.

"Uh huh. But like I said, you gotta pull your weight. Though I'm pretty sure that's not a lot... So twice as much sounds far," he chuckled. "I just hope for your sake that that saber isn't just for show." He gestured to her weapon peeking out from under the table.

"No need for worry," Weiss replied confidently. "I know my way around a blade. No to be boastful but I even bested my instructor more often than not. And he had been one of the military's top ranking swordsmen."

"Well, Snow. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were related to another high-and-mighty swordswoman I know... But that isn't possible since you're 'Snow White'." He gave the young heiress a wink as if to say that he knew full well her secret, but was willing to both keep it as well as play alone. But, in the process, Qrow's nieces looked and most certainly were extremely confused by their uncle's secrecy. But the awkwardness soon blew over, and the four of them drank their cocoa. They chatted until the grandfather clock began to chime, and Qrow sent the girls off to bed for they had an early call in the morning.

Weiss cleared the table and washed the mugs (to start 'earning her keep') as Yang made sure the door and window shutters were locked up tight. Ruby helped 'put away' the big plate of cookies that had been forgotten.

Soon enough the girls went to bed in the bedroom while Qrow, being the self proclaimed 'gentleman' he believed himself to be, slept on the sofa. Then again, he would crash on there anyways from his usually 'to drunk to make it to the bed' attitude. The lights in the house went out and all was calm and silent.

However outside, although the silence of the wood's hushed background noise droned on, all was anything but calm. Panic and fear was emulating from a certain girl in the closest tree to the shabby cabin. The girl's ears were twitching. Her eyes stared into the window that had once been illuminated showing the people gathered at the table. But she had not paid them any mind. All she gazed upon from her tree perch was a particular shadow. The shadow of a basket. Her basket. Blake's basket. And inside, some of her favorite books, a small snack or two, and one damning piece of her past that she had meant to get ride of that very night. A mask. The face of a beast.

The face of The White Fang.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Chapter Text

Blake Belladonna was strange, no question. She always seemed to be dazed and distracted. She'd have a dreamy, far off look and would always have her nose stuck in a book as she walked through town. No one knew too much about her other than she lived somewhere in the woods, and she would come into town almost everyday for whatever she needed at the time.

But almost always, she would come for more books. She loved the escapism they brought her; far off places, daring sword fights, princes in disguise. It took her far away from her life, the things she had seen, the things she had done... She didn't have time to think about all that today. Instead, she was going to take action.

After stopping by the market and getting some fresh fish, as well as some milk and a fruit tart from the bakery, she made her way to her favorite place in town. With her basket full of books and snacks, she entered the establishment with the door's bell giving a charming jingle; Tukson's Book Trade, "Home to every book under the sun."

The owner, Tukson, was placing some books up on one of the higher shelves as the young girl entered the store. He turned from his position on a rolling library ladder. Seeing Blake, he greeted her with a welcoming smile.

"Well good morning, Miss Belladonna," he said. He took off a book from one of the shelves and carefully made his way down. "How's my favorite customer?"

"The same as yesterday," she replied smugly. "I'm ready for another book, please."

"Already? You really tore through that last one!" he chuckled not at all surprised.

"Well... I couldn't put it down." The young girl blushed. "It was just so... Exciting. A young girl taking on the hierarchy and liberating her people from oppression. It was inspiring. And the love story between the heroine and the man from a higher class just proved that they weren't so different after al. Part of me wishes it wasn't just a story..." The girl sighed and her eyes sank to the floor. She felt guilty for ruining the once chipper mood.

Tukson placed his free hand firmly on the girl's shoulder, causing her so look up at him reluctantly. He gave her a more sympathetic smile than his first.

"It doesn't have to be. You and I both know that," the shop keeper reassured her.

"But not with the way HE is running things... I tried, Tukson. I really did. But HE is beyond reason. Nothing I say will get through to that thick skull of his... He's an absolute monster, a stubborn beast...

"I just wish that we could come up with a more peaceful solution, like in the book." She cradled the hardcover copy in her arms, close to her heart. "But we can't do anything as long as HE'S in charge... Or with-"

"I know," he interrupted. "Sorry... for snapping... It's just not safe to mention our, um, 'affiliations' here. Even in the privacy of my own shop, I fear that our plans and words of treachery will be overheard. The walls have ears and seem to be listening at all times."

The two looked at each other with serious expressions. What they were doing was dangerous. Their civil conversations weren't just friendly chatter and borrowings of books. It was plans of getting away from a common alliance for peace turned into a small army. Instead of stopping hate they were promoting it. It had gotten far out of hand and had to be stopped. But that was impossible to do from within... As long as HE was in charge.

"But," Tukson's demeanor returned to his friendly openness. "Enough of that for now. I have a few books I'm sure you'd enjoy."

He guided his customer over to the back counter and placed the book he'd grabbed from the shelf on the counter's surface. The shop owner disappeared into the back room for a while and then reappeared with a small stack of hardcovers in hand. He placed them next to the other with a thud.

"Alright. So we have a good historical fiction piece, a few romantic novels that you haven't ready yet-"

"'A Midnight in Paris'?" the girl's eyebrow rose at one of the titles that was visible at the top of the stack.

Tukson chuckled. "It's something right up your alley. Lots of... intimate scenes." This made Blake blush again as well as giggle awkwardly. "But other than that we have a standard mystery involving a mansion and a nobleman being murdered, and also one of the few books published written by a Faunus."

"Really?" she questioned a little more excitedly than she had intended. The shop keeper nodded.

This was very important and special for the two. For, you see, Faunus were humanoid beings who looked more human than animal. They had, for a long time and even to the current day, been treated as second-class citizens. So, having a book written by a Faunus in the mainstream was a very big deal. Especially to two book enthusiasts like Blake and Tukson, who also happened to be Faunus.

Due to being treated differently, or being hassled, they chose to hide their features; Tukson retracted his claws, and Blake had her bow which covered the feline ears on the top of her head. It wasn't that they were ashamed of their heritage. More rather, most were reluctant to except Faunus with open-arms. The main reason for this was a once peaceful faction of Faunus protesting for equality now turned terrorist group called The White Fang. Things were seemingly getting better. Although there were still prejudices against Faunus, more humans treated them equally. But it was more out of fear than respect. Even those who believed in the original message of the group were reluctant to stay as long as the violent practices continued. Thus, Tukson had made plans to travel away to Vacuo and rebuild from there. Blake had no such plans set into motion as of yet.

"Although I have a title I'm sure you will want to see," Tukson slid a hardcover across the counter to the girl.

She wearily read aloud the title, "'The Third Crusade'? I don't think that's really my cup of tea-"

"Now, Blake. I thought you of all people would know to never judge a book by its cover. It what's inside that counts. And believe me, you'll want it's contents." The female Faunus understood his double meaning and placed the book carefully in her basket, then the others on top. She fished out the treat and placed it on the counter.

"Paying back in kind," she said. "And well wishes for your journey. When do you leave?"

"If all goes as planned, tonight." His brows knitted on his face. " I can't take most of my books with me but I've made arrangements with an acquaintance to take over the shop. Of course, it won't be called 'Tukson's Book Trade' anymore but it will be left in good hands. Can't let all these book go to waste..."

"Then, I guess I'll return the books to him-"

"No. Keep them."

"What? But Tukson-"

"I insist," his expression melted into an endearing one as he persisted. "You are, or rather were, my best customer."

Blake sighed and placed the books into her basket. She began to leave the shop but turned back to her old ally one last look. She smiled solemnly. "Thank you," she said before walking out the front door.

It was a bitter sweet passing for the young Faunus, but she knew it was for the best. Leaving The White Fang was not an easy decision, let alone a safe one, to make. Blake was more than capable of handling her ex-brothers and sister, while Tukson on the other hand was more... "up in years." They were both putting a lot on the line to take their own paths towards equality that the group once supported and practiced. Vacuo, not being exactly the most refined of countries, was still a lot safer than being around Vale's more vicious faction of the White Fang... But Blake couldn't dwell on that. They were on their own now and to survive they could only afford to look out for themselves.

"UH!" Blake exclaimed as she was almost knocked down off her feet.

"So sorry," said a mint green haired girl who had bumped into her. She didn't sound all too sorry though. The girl was with a young man with silvery-gray hair who didn't really look very impressed by the girl's actions.

"Come on, Em. Let's go inside already," he insisted.

"Alright, alright. Oh!" she bent down as to pick up something, "you must have dropped this." The girl then handed Blake her 'A Midnight in Paris' which she had placed at the very top of her basket. Carefully taking the book back and giving the strangers a very skeptical look, Blake replied, "Thanks," and headed back towards the wood's entrance. The last Blake saw of the two was them entering into Tukson's Book Trade and the door slamming shut behind them.

---

The day moved on as it usually would have on any other; Blake found a nice tree in the woods, had some of her fish and milk, and then began to read. It had been a shorter novel so she finished it in a book two hours. After satisfying her need for a good story, she dug through the basket to pick up the copy of 'The Third Crusade' Tukson had given to her.

"It's what's inside that counts," he had said, "...believe me, you'll want the contents."

Curious like, well, a cat to what his double meaning in tailed, Blake carefully opened the hardcover. To her surprise, the book had been hallowed out and it contained something Blake had never though she's see again. At least, in this lifetime. It had inside the mask she wore when a part of The White Fang. The last she had seen of that was when she left it in an abandoned manor they would inhabit to lay low. She head left it with a simple note to her ex-partner reading:

Adam,

I bid you adieu.

-Blake

She thought it would be harder on her than it was, leaving her friend, her allies, her partner. But most of their ideals were too much of bitterness and hate to see a brighter future of just being an equal, especially Adam. His let his more aggressive, dare she say animal like, nature dominate his whole demeanor and dictate his actions. Blake had once thought of his highly; a brother in arms or maybe something more... But after one night during what was supposed to be just a simple raid, turned to blood shed when they could have easily left the innocent civilians be, she realized what he truly was. His flaws were much too destructive. How could she possibly love a beast?

Holding the mask in her hand, she examined it as though it was her first time viewing the porcelain recreation of the face of a creature of Grimm. She wanted to toss it from the tree top and watch it smash into a million pieces. But, when she tried she just couldn't do it. Tukson must have know that she couldn't just simply throw away her past, and state over anew just in a turn of a dime. That mask was a reminder of that. To destroy it was to destroy her ties with those she once called brothers and sisters; the ones who were still naive to what was really going on and to the ones whom she hoped and prayed would see what they were doing was wrong. She could only begin to burn bridges when she herself was truly grounded in her beliefs, and had a good stance on how to carry onward.

She placed the mask back into the basket and hooked the wicker carrier on a nearby tree branch. Picking up one of the romantic novels to try and lighten her mood, she turned to the first page and began to read. For what she assumes to be an hour, three or four chapters give or take, she was readying in peace. That was, until she was greeted by a very hyper young girl in a red hood.

"Hiya!"

---

It wasn't until the sun was almost set that Blake realized the baskets had been switched. She had just finished her novel, having shed a tear at the sorrowful death of the protagonist's lover, and was ready to grab another for her walk home when she discovered a bottle. It wasn't her milk from the market, but rather of a very strong liquor.

Shocked and a little panicked, Blake dug through the basket pulling out bottle after bottle. There were no books, no fish and milk, and more importantly no mask. She immediately thought of Ruby and her similar basket. At first she contemplated why an underage girl would have so much alcohol, but then moved on to trying to remember the horribly drawn map she had shown her earlier. If she found Ruby and her uncle's cottage, she would most defiantly find her mask.

With night soon blanketing the sky, Blake dashed and leapt from treetop to treetop towards what she believed to be the right way. The darkness did not slow her down due to her eyes being more functional during night than a human's. She was getting closer to the destination of the map when she heard a loud gunshot pierce the silence. She didn't have time to investigate, and the noise gave her more reason to run away from it, and carried onward towards the cottage in the distance.

She arrived and perched herself in the tree nearest to the kitchen window. Blake saw Ruby's shadow dancing in the light. There was another taller shadow and one that was sitting down. The Faunus was paying so close attention to the scene that when a loud knocking noise echoed around her she practically fell from her tree. With that, an unknown girl joined the cottage and everything inside was still for a long while. She could only hear muffled voices and see Ruby's shadow popping around in between long intervals of time. Even with her extra ears perking up in attention, all she could pick up were "snow", something about burning down a building, and a nun. Clearly, it was not a dull conversation.

After more movement passed, the lights went out and all was silent and still. Blake began contemplating her options. Should she sneak in and chance getting caught? Should she wait it out and show up early before anyone walked up, knock and the door, and exchange baskets before they get a better chance to look inside? The latter seemed like the better choice considering she just decided to no longer be a criminal. Even worse, become know as a "cat burglar." Pun intended.

With her mind now made up, Blake waited in the tree. Her eyes began growing heavy. They fluttered and soon closed. "I'll wake up at sunrise," she drowsily promised herself before falling into a nice, relaxing sleep. She was unaware that sooner than later she would wake up far before the sun rose in the sky.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Chapter Text

When Yang imagined herself standing in the middle of a tavern, which was literally just called "The Tavern", and being surrounded by a group of guys trying to pick a fight, she'd expected it to be over something worse than asking for directions. Well, that wasn't the whole truth per se... She HAD just came in for directions to her uncle's cottage. She'd even made sure to leave early in the morning to get there before dark. But as she thought, she was lost in the woods because her uncle can't write directions for crap.

Yang had stumbled upon The Tavern after she had been wandering around the woods for a good two hours without making much progress. She was tired, hadn't had any coffee that morning, and was getting sick of trying to make out the scribbled mess of a map she was given. Figures it would be printed on a napkin from some random inn halfway across Vale.

Walking inside, the blonde girl took note that this backwoods bar was practically swarming with lowlifes and thugs. It wasn't anything new. Places like these always had some kind of outlaw hanging about. No wonder her uncle set up shop out here. It was like he was already counting his bags full of bounty money. Yang recognized a few faces from wanted posters she had at home, particularly a sleazy looking gentleman with gaudy orange hair and the somewhat grizzly bartender he was talking with. The sleaze she had seen on multiple posters all across Vale. He was wanted dead or alive. The other she had mostly heard of in passing. He was more harmless and tended to be a good information broker of sorts if you asked 'nice' enough.

She looked around, assessing the room and its other patrons. As she walked towards the bar the bartender, having seen the blonde in the corner of his eye, wrapped up his conversation with the other. The wanted man then left, seemingly exiting through the back entrance. Yang didn't go after his though. He wasn't doing anything (yet). Plus she didn't have time to round him and dump him off to the authorities. Instead, she sat down at the bar and waited for the bartender to come her way.

"What can I get for ya, Blondie?" the bartender asked.

"I'll take a pint of whatever fruit liquor ya got," she replied while leaning forward onto the bar top, propping her chin up on her hand.

"Aren't you a little young to be drinking?"

"Aren't you a little old to be called 'Junior'."

"So you're here for business then, Blondie? You don't look like my 'usual' type of clientele." He placed a glass of water in front of her.

Yang looked up disappointed. "Not exactly. Can't a girl just know people without having a shady motive?"

"Usually yes, but in this bar, that's another story. Now what can I really help you with?"

"Nothing too suspicious. Just simple directions," Yang said as she pulled out the scribbled mess of a note and placed it on the bar top. "I'm looking for a cabin in the woods somewhere near this main waterway. Just point me in right direction and I'll be out of your hair."

Junior looked it over and pointed to a spot further away from the poor drawing of a 'house'. "We're here. You go north for around a mile to the river and follow the current down. You'll get there in an hour and a half give or take."

"Awesome!" Yang exclaimed. She picked up the water, chugged it down, and slammed the glass on the bar. "Thanks for the-" She was about to grab the map and be on her way but Junior had it in his hands now. He examined it closer and his eyebrows rose.

"This area is very dangerous and very... familiar. Who exactly are you 'visiting' over there, Blondie?" He stared her dead in the eyes. "It wouldn't be a dusty old crow perhaps; one that would be very bad for my business if he came waltzing in here?"

Yang was about to stand up from her seat but she felt one of the thugs' hands on her shoulder. It was clear they knew who her uncle was. Honestly, it would be stupid not to. A drunk bounty hunter walking into a tavern filled with wanted men? That's Christmas, birthday, and "world's best uncle day" all rolled into one.

"Is the resemblance really that striking? Or is it our 'charming' similarities in personality?" Yang gave a smirk as she felt an icy blade on the side of her neck.

"Lucky guess," Junior looked as if he about to grab something from underneath the counter. He pulled out a large bat that seemed to be coded in metal, and placed it on the bar. "Now I have a question for you; are you going to come willingly or are we going to have to escort you out of here a little less than quietly?"

"And where may I ask are you loooovely gentlemen planning on taking a poor defenseless girl like me? Hopefully some place with a comfy lounge, a nice meal to eat, and maybe even a warm... bed?" Yang batted her eyelashes as she nonchalantly placed her hands on her hips, one near a small ribbon at the side of her skirt.

Junior's eyebrow rose and have a small chuckle. "Sure, Blondie." He leaned towards her and they were now face to face, only an inch or so apart. "Whatever you want-" He was interrupted with the sound of a pair of guns being cocked.

Before he or anyone else realized what was going on, a shot was heard coming from Yang. Instantly behind her one of the goons who had had the knife to her throat dropped his weapon and fell backwards cradling his foot. The rest happened all too quickly for most in the tavern to realize what exactly was accruing. The blonde's elbow nailed the other goon who had been restraining her in the stomach, whipped around, and then grabbed him by the jugular. In turn she slammed him on the bar top.

While trying to process what all was happening, more thugs ran up to the young girl and began to start a fray. They all ended up the same, however; on the ground either unconscious or with an immobilizing yet nonlethal bullet wound. After over half the men in the tavern were taken care of, Junior could clearly asses the situation. The girl was now much less clothed. The bottom of her 'dress' was now only draping the back of her legs, revealing exceedingly short shorts and a custom made holster. What had been held in the holster were two shotguns that had been heavily modified and were shorted to half size. They were now one in each of the hands of the blonde.

Junior quickly picked up the bat as Yang began to reload at a lightening fast speed. He leapt over the bar and lunged towards the blonde with his bat at the ready. Before he could follow through with his first swing, Yang's boot met with the side of his face. The kick sent his flying across the room and slamming into a wall displaying liquor. Broken glass and booze covered the bartender and the floor around him. He moaned with his lack of breath and was too dazed to stand up. By the time he had less blurry vision, Junior was staring down the barrel of one of Yang's shotguns. Instinctively his hands slowly rose in surrender.

"Now I'm only going to say this once, Hei Xiong. If you even tell anyone, and I mean anyone, about the cottage on the map," she lowered the aim of her weapon, "we're gonna have a BIG problem. Ok, sweetheart?" She tilted her head slightly and batted her eyes. She was being sweet and 'cutesy' but Junior could tell she was as serious as the grave.

"Alright alright I-" he almost fully agreed to keep quite when he noticed there was something or rather someones behind the blonde. He smirked and he shifted into a more comfortable seating position. "It's about time, ladies! Where were you exactly; picking flowers and chasing gnomes?"

Yang wiped her head around. Standing in the back doorway were two girls. It felt almost like she was seeing double if not for the difference in color of their gaudy clothes. They both had 'stylish' long, black hair and green gemlike eyes.

"We were on our break," the twin in rose red replied in an uncaring tone.

"Couldn't stand that guy's cigar smell," the twin in snow white added as she waved her hand as if fanning away something.

"Uh," Junior sighed. "Just. Do. You know, something about 'her'. Please." He pointed to Yang with exasperation. With that the twins looked at the blonde and then to each other.

"You wanna go first Melanie?" said red.

"Sure, Miltia," said white.

With that, Melanie dashed towards the blonde. Expecting a frontal attack, Yang prepared to block but was bitterly disappointed to notice something about that particular twin. She had knives as heels in her boots. She was obviously going to favor attacking with her lower body... Yang wasn't very good fighting people who did that. She was more of a "fist to fist" type of gal. But whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to ram through Melanie and the sister to get out.

Taking a sigh, and making a small curse under her breath, Did her best to dodge the lower attacks. Melanie whipped her feet through the air with ease. Her right left kicked up high, barley missing Yang's cheek. Soon enough Miltia joined in, thankfully for Yang she wielded a more 'above the belt' weapon. Unthankfully, they were massive metallic claws that were gleaming as if they were coated in poison. On better inspection with another attack near the face, Yang took notice that Melanie's boots had the same shimmer.

The twins attacked in turn making it difficult for Yang to do anything but keep up a defense. And it wouldn't be long before Junior got back up on his feet to join in the fight. She did her best to avoid the poisoned blades but she was almost at a low point. Yang couldn't keep up with just dodging for very much longer.

Broken glass crunched under Junior's feet as he stood up. Melanie and Miltia noticed and used their attacks to push back the blonde. Taking advantage of this, Junior took Yang from behind by wrapping his arms around her torso, holding her back. The twins came in for the attack but Yang countered by kicking up both her legs, nailing the girls square in the chests, sending them flying back. Once her feet landed back in the ground, Yang jumped upwards. In doing so, she headbutted Junior's chin and he lost his grip. The blonde elbowed him in the gut and turned around to deliver a few frontal blows. She hit him in the jaw and then again in the stomach. After stumbling back slightly, he was able to deflect her next hit and then swing his bat just barely missing the blonde's head.

Yang continued delivering blows as well as traveling backwards towards her other opponents. She could feel in her gut as well as heard the sisters coming up from behind. At the last second Yang leapt into the air and watched the three collide beneath. She landed behind Melanie and jabbed her in the back, then whirled her around to and over the bar. Miltia came after the blonde and began high kicking towards her opponent's face. Yang bobbed and weaved to get better aquatinted with the white clad twin's rhythm. Once she had it, Yang acted on beat and grabbed Miltia's left leg. She soon joined her sister, being thrown against the wall and falling down behind the bar.

It was just Yang and Junior left now. She was getting tired but didn't let it show. She was having too much fun to do that. All through the fight she had had a cocky smile plastered on her face. To her, this was one heck of a workout. Her remaining opponent didn't appreciate her 'easy going' attitude towards their fight. To show that, he charged towards her, bat at the ready. Yang stepped calmly to the side but strongly felt a small breeze. And then she felt pain. She had been pulled back by the bartender to try and get in some kind of blow. On the wall across from her was a blade stuck in place, most likely from one of the twins who was now passed out over the bar top.

There was no noticeable physical damage and Yang felt fine after a minute. That was until she looked at Junior's hand.

Hair.

Blonde hair.

HER HAIR.

She looks down at the ground and saw small clumps of her blonde locks. Her eyes turned from purple to red. She was pissed.

Charging towards Junior, she shot at him with her shotguns. He barely dodged her bullets before she was up close enough to bust him in the nose with the butt of her weapon. Her hits were more rapid and her shots were hitting their target as her opponent staggered back from his now broken nose. He went from holding his nose to his left shoulder to finally being knocked on his back.

"I-I give! You win!" he exclaimed hiding hands up in surrender.

"Good. Now keep your promise, or else," Yang warned as she stood over the man.

With that she made her way towards the door. Picking up one of the few unbroken bottles of alcohol, she bid the bartender fair well. "See you later, Junior. Thanks for the booze! Oh! And I'll make sure all my friends here about this place! You'll thank me later~" She didn't look back as she did a small wave. The door slammed behind her.

---

If one thing could be said about Hei Xiong aka Junior aka the guy you go to for information, he wasn't a lier. Yang reached her uncle's cottage exactly around the time he said she would. She greeted her uncle's upon entering with the bottle she had taken and let him know about her 'adventure'. Uncle Qrow merely shrugged it off. It wasn't the first bar fight gone nasty and having possible killers after them type ordeal they, or at least he, had been in.

"If they came they're either stupid or have massive balls," Qrow assured her. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Hei wouldn't squeal unless someone dropped some serious coin..." He trailed off. He took a swig of booze without finishing his thought, making his niece slightly worried.

There didn't seem to be much to worry her throughout the rest of the day, however. Ruby made it to the cottage safely, there was an unexpected guest that Yang could tell saw lying but not an enemy at the least, and she was able to fall asleep soundly after cleaning up Ember Celica (her twin shotguns). She did wake up in the middle of the night to grab a late night snack. Her uncle, if he'd been awake and not passed out, would make a crack at her weight. But, lucky for for he wasn't and she could drink milk from the bottle (with a small splash of vodka) and inhale a slice of pie that was hidden in the cabinet.

She was mid-bite when Yang heard a noise coming from outside. It didn't sound like something an animal would make. At least, not the usual critters.

She looked over at the clock. It was around 2:30. It was far too early for any decent person to be out and about. That left the non-decent kind as a very likely option. Throwing on some boots and grabbing Ember Celica, Yang slipped out quietly through the front door. She scouted around the cottage, guns at the ready. She didn't see anything or anyone. Letting down her guard slightly, she turned around and headed back to the front door. That was until she heard a rustle in the bushes. Whipping around to the source of the noise, Yang took aim at the shrubbery.

"Show yourself!" she demanded.

"Alight, but please don't shoot me," a voice pleaded from behind the bush. Slowly a figure emerged. But before Yang could get a good look at the lurker, another figure fell from above. And landed on top of the bush person. Moans of pain were heard from both parties.

It got noisy enough that the lights in the cottage were back on and the once sleeping residents emerged in robes and bunny slippers.

"What the hell is going on out here?!" Qrow demanded, clearly feeling his exceedingly early hangover. The two on the ground separated and the bush hider got to their feet. The other who apparently fell from the tree got up as well.

"Blake?" Ruby murmured while rubbing her eyes. She blinked a few times and them lite up. "It is you! What are you doing here- oh! The basket!" Dashing back into the cottage, in lightening fast speed, and coming back out just as quickly, she ran to Blake and handed her the basket. "Sorry about the mix up," she sheepishly apologized.

"It's no big deal," the older girl assured her even though to her it really had been. Looking inside she saw that the mask, hidden under a book, had been broken in two... Suddenly relief overflowed her and she couldn't help but crack a soft smile. "Thank you," she managed.

"Great great. Good for you and all but who exactly are you?" Qrow pointed to the stranger.

"I'm just a messenger," they said stepping into the light. "I'm here with a job for you... and your team apparently?" They gestured to the three girls in pajamas. "I was sent my the Great and Powerful One known as-"

"Yeah yeah yeah. Ozpin the magic man, I know 'em. But what I would like to know is if my 'messenger' has a name."

A little flustered the messenger bowed and introduced their self. "I am Jaune Arc, a messenger of G- good news and a warrior for justice. And I was sent to escort you and your company to meet with the wizard."

They all looked at one another not knowing what to make of the boy. But Qrow quickly took hold of the moment with a slightly hungover but serious expression. "Pack up, kiddos. We're going to The Emerald City."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Chapter Text

Looking back on how he had gotten into his current situation, Jaune Arc was in way over his head. He was walking- no, he was leading one of the greatest and strongest fighters in all of Remnant to the Emerald City to see THE Ozpin. Not only that but he was also accompanying a group of attractive and possibly extremely powerful young ladies. That’s how it all started, he came to recall. A powerful young lady needing to send a message…

Jaune nervously looked back at the company. They had all packed up rather quickly; one having her bag at the ready as if she had just came from somewhere, another with only a basket, and the rest had put together small satchels with their weapons strapped to themselves prepared for battle. He had felt bad for waking them up but since half the party was already awake at that early hour, one of whom fell on him from a tree, his conscience was a little more at ease. But not by much. He’d been lost in the woods getting to the cottage, got chased by a bear at one point, was guiding a group of people to a place he had only heard about-

“So Jaune,” the young lady called Ruby caught up to the leader. “Do you work for Ozpin? What’s the Emerald City like? Is it really all green?”

“Um… well-” luckily for Jaune he didn’t get a chance to answer.

“I’ve told you about that place a million times, Kiddo,” Qrow stated as he took a sip from his flask. “Besides, you shouldn’t give the guy the third degree. Most of Ozzi’s messengers are hired out of Emerald. It’s more of an ‘adventure’ that way.” The boy relaxed a little with the unexpected ‘help’. He didn’t agree or disagree with the older hunter considering he didn’t know if he was trying to catch Jaune in his lie. The fact of the matter was Jaune had never met the wizard, let alone be summoned by him to deliver an important message. It was the woman he had met a few days prior who had been chosen.

“But you really don’t have to come with us, Juan.” The druncle pronounced the boy’s name incorrectly. “You’ve done your job just fine. You can just go home-”

“No!” the boy said a little too loudly. “I- I made a promise to someone… I’ve still got something other than a message to deliver.”

“So you’re an errand boy too, huh? Suit yourself, kid.” Qrow shrugged and took another sip.

With that, the girls began chatting among themselves while the huntsman staggered along the bright yellow path they all walked upon. As for Jaune, he remembered what had brought him here. Of what he had to do. More importantly, his promise to the red headed warrior clad in gold.
---

It was an average day for Jaune. He’d gone into town with his sister to get groceries and pick up the girls’ new Sunday dresses from the boutique. All eight Arc children pilled out of the horse drawn cart they had arrived in. Their father, who had been driving, instructed them to meet him back at the cart before noon. Otherwise, any later and they would be walking back home. Tough love considering it was a fifteen mile uphill journey. But with seven daughters, it was the only way to make sure they weren’t spending the entire day at the market.

Four of the seven sisters went to pick up the dresses and went to look around the hatter’s shop for any matching bonnets. The other three and Jaune were on the search for the groceries. Each one was equipped with a list. Jaune’s list was the longest including medical supplies, all of the fruits and vegetables, and picking up some metal work from the blacksmith. In his seventeen years of living, the blond boy had gotten used to his assignments. His sisters would sometimes mock him for being the “haggling old lady” when it came to the prices of apples and making sure to get the freshest fruits when they were in season. He didn’t mind it though. The shopkeepers knew him well enough to make sure his usual produce was together. Even the doctors at the small clinic had his supply of medical alcohol and bandages wrapped up (haha puns) and ready for him to pick up. They would even patch up his latest wounds free of charge.

Many of Jaune’s injuries came from his own clumsiness but the rest were from sparing with his father. The Arc men had always been great warriors so he was always training when his father was home from a job. It wasn’t like he was famous or anything. His father, his father’s father, and so on had always taken part in defending the land whenever drafting for a war occurred. But, other than that, Monsieur Arc was just a dime a dozen fighter who worked for the government when needed, and was a handyman whenever he wasn’t fighting. The Arc men were also known for fixing roofs.

With bags of produce and medical supplies stacked up in his arms, Jaune made his way to the blacksmith. He met up with one of his older sisters who gladly took the food out of his hands. “Don’t want you to bruise the bananas. Or accidently stab yourself,” she half joked as she went back to her own shopping. He kept the bandages and medicine. Just in case.

Jaune stood in front of the blacksmith’s shop, It’s Also A Gun. Taking a deep breath and saying a small prayer, he walked inside. The bell on the door made a little ding. The shop was relatively empty all except someone who was leaving. Jaune, of course, accidently bumped into the person and they were both knocked down to the floor. Gauze went everywhere.

“Sorry!” the other person exclaimed. It was a girl with the brightest red hair Jaune had ever seen. She was clad in armor that shined a glorious gold, even in the dimly light room. The blond managed to get himself up first and extended his hand to help her. She took it, giving him a small sheepish smile, and arose to her feet. To his surprise, the girl was only about an inch or so shorter than him. And he was over six feet tall.

“You’re not hurt are you?” Jaune asked. “There’s, ah, plenty of bandages if you need to be patched up…” He nervously chuckled as he scratched the back of his head with one hand and gestured to the mess they made with the other. The girl put her hands over her face to hide her embarrassment.

“I am so sorry!” she apologized while picking up bandages off the floor. Jaune rushed to do the same so she didn’t have to do much work. In no time all the supplies were back in the bag.

“Thanks, miss-“

“P- uh Poppy,” she introduced a little flustered.

“Nice to meet you, Poppy. I’m Jaune Arc. Are you new in town?”

“Just passing through, I’m afraid. I’m on important business and I just needed to give my weapon some maintenance,” she pointed to her back which had on it a spear holstered to a shield.

“What a coincidence, so am I! Well, I mean, I’m not new. I live near here. And I don’t have a spear. It’s a sword… but I do have a shield!” He proudly put his hands on his hips and rocked a little back and forth. He did his best to show off as much confidence as he could. Poppy just giggled a little.

“Well I sadly don’t have much time for talking… But my journey won’t take long. Maybe I’ll get to see you again when I return. I’d really like to talk with you more and make up for the uh… mess I caused,” Poppy said rocking a little herself looking up at Jaune and down at the floor.

“Yeah! That would be great! I don’t live too far from here, so I’m pretty easy to find.” He extended his hand once again, this time for a handshake. Poppy took his hand and firmly grasped it and gave it a friendly shake.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Jaune. I hope the Fates allow our paths to cross again soon,” she bid him farewell with another smile and walked out the door. Having made a new friend, Jaune felt like the day had become a better one.

“Real great there, lady killer,” the blacksmith spoke up coming back from the backroom. “You do realize she was waaaay out of your league?”

“Oh come on, Smithy. You know the last thing on my mind is girls in that way-”

“Right, right. Jaune Arc, Le Messager de Dieu. Le guerrier de la Justice! Celui qui ne peut pas parler aux femmes!” Smithy chuckled as he grabbed a plain sword from underneath the counter and placed in in front of the boy. (Jaune Arc, the Messenger of God. The warrior of justice! One who cannot talk to women!)

“Ha ha,” Jaune faux laughed bitterly.

“Oh mon erreur,” the blacksmith continued to chuckle, “Parle qu'à ses sœurs et milieu dames âgées! Hahaha!” (Oh my mistake. Speaks only to his sisters and middle aged ladies!)

Jaune took a big sigh. “Just. Just please give me my sword…” He picked up the blade and strapped it up on his back. Placing a small sack of coins on the counter, Jaune exited the building with Smithy still laughing. It wasn’t like the blond wasn’t used to this kind of teasing. He got it all the time at home from his many sisters. After a while, however, it got a little old and all Jaune could find himself doing was tuning it out. It was even worse when his granddad would get in on it. He would make jokes in old French using really stupid puns. The fact that Jaune got his name was a small joke considering it means “yellow”; often considered a term or nickname for someone who is cowardly. But, that didn’t matter to Jaune. He just kept practicing that Arc confidence and “charm”, as his father always put it. One out of ten times it actually worked in his favor. Poppy, as of current, was the one. To be fair, she was the only one. Jaune never had a good track record.

With the weapon and other supplies obtained, Jaune made his way to the meeting spot to await his sisters. He took his time considering his sisters were probably doing the same. The last time they had come to the market it was nearly sundown by the time they got all seven girls into the cart home with minimal complaining. He passed by the haberdashery and looked in the window; a pure white formal suit with a gold embroidered decorative cape… It was silly to him that he stared at it for more than just a minute, but aside from saving up for a ‘proper’ sword (not just the relic his father gave him) that suit was something he wanted. And for a very silly reason, none the less.

Jaune always daydreamed of becoming a hero of the people. He would fight the evils of the town, the kingdom, and maybe one day all the land! He would become a well-known warrior of justice and one day, after many acts of valor and heroism, he would be summoned by the most powerful people in all of Remnant. They would recognize him for his actions and Ozpin the Great and Powerful Wizard would ask him to join him and the protectors of the land. Jaune would obviously accept on the spot. And when the day of him being knighted into the kingdom’s royal guards, he would wear the white suit in the window. On his chest he would have his family’s crest embroidered on his left over his heart, and on his right hand he would don his late mother’s ring that his father had received as a tribute for her efforts in the more recent civil war. All his family would be there cheering for him and those who ever doubted him would be lined in the back of the ceremonial hall with shocked and guilt ridden expressions. He would have this daydream differently every time. But, the one thing that never changed, the one thing that he never intentionally imagined, was the faceless person who was always by his side…

“You finally made it,” the faceless being would say. “I always believed in you.” Jaune, after a while, decided that the mysterious person who was stuck in his head was his guardian angel that had helped, protected, and guided him to victory. At times he would feel as though the presence was female. He would almost kid himself into thinking it was his mother from heaven… But the angel was different. He felt a kindness and safety that wasn’t from the love of a mother, but more of a friend…

Jaune almost got lost in thought and into another daydream. Reality had caught up with him as the rustle of the now busy market place was picking up pace. With a small sigh, Jaune made his way to the cart. He was naturally the first to arrive. Even his father was still probably at the local tavern talking with his old soldier buddies. The old man could go on for hours about the same stories if no one stopped him in time.

The blond passed the time trying out his newly sharpened sword. He practiced his stance and swung around the blade at invisible enemies, making ‘swoosh’ sounds in the process. After going back and forth with himself, even though he was just swinging at air, he was getting forced back towards the nearby wood. His muscle memory was getting the best of him, and he unintentionally forced himself up against a tree. In trying to dodge an imaginary blow that he envisioned aiming for straight in front of his face, he spun around the tree’s trunk and then tumbled down an unforeseen drop. He rolled downhill uncontrollably until he finally fell into a nearby stream. Now looking like a sad wet puppy, Jaune shook his head to get most of the water out of his hair. He placed his blade on the ground beside the stream and took off his tunic to wring it out. Once the clothing was somewhat dry, he used it to get the water off the blade so it would have a chance of rusting. Especially since he just got it back from the blacksmith’s.

After getting moderately dried off, Jaune looked around. The hill he had fell down was a bit steeper than he though considering it was a relatively smooth tumble. He was about to start climbing up when he heard a loud noise coming from further in the forest. It was the sound of a tree falling over. It was followed by the scream of a woman. Jaune clutched his sword tightly in his hand and charged towards the source of the commotion. He noticed a small trail of destruction as he went towards the noises. The louder the sounds of battle grew, the larger and more abundant the destruction in his path became. The trees were gashed and punctured, some even completely chopped down and split in two. There was a little blood scattered on some of plants. It looked fresh.

Picking up his pace Jaune grew closer to the scene of the action. But it seemed as if he was too late. He stopped at a large crater like clearing. The ground had been all turned up and there were fallen trees inclosing the area. Hoping over one of the tree’s trunks, he tripped and tumbled once again. He quickly rolled back onto his feet and prepared himself to attack. Looking around cautiously Jaune searched for the source of the destruction. There was no one to be seen. It was almost deathly quiet…

SNAP.

Jaune whipped right around to the sound of a tree branch snapping. There was still no one in sight, just trees and dirt. And there were foot prints? Those hadn’t been there before, and they certainly weren’t his. They were heels not boots.

Walking slowly at first, Jaune followed the trail. The prints soon got further apart causing the boy to pick up his pace. Now running, he found himself getting deeper and deeper into the wood. Finally he caught up with a hooded figure looking down at something. Jaune tried to walk up to the stranger and take them by surprise, but much like earlier there was the sound of a branch snapping. He quickly looked down at his boot and then back up at the figure. They looked back at him, their face being somehow blurred by the distance, and then ran off. Jaune went to chase after them but stopped dead in his tracks as he came into view of what the stranger had been gazing upon; it was the girl from the market, Poppy, at the bottom of an animal trap. It was an extremely deep hole in the ground. The girl was covered in leaves that had probably been hiding the trap. Poppy was covered in fresh bruises and appeared to be cradling a broken arm. Blood stained her armor and made her naturally deep red hair clump together in small mats.

“Poppy?” Jaune called down to her. The girl looked up with eyes like a kicked puppy. “H-hold on! I’ll go get help!”

“No!” the girl interjected.

“B-but you’re hurt! And you’re bleeding and-”

“There’s no time! I’ll be fine! But I need you to do this for me.” She struggled in pain to reach for something. It was a small green velvet bag. With a good amount of effort she tossed it up to the blond. “Don’t open it! There is something very important inside that I was supposed to deliver to a very important man. You must take it to him!”

“But I can’t- I mean me? I couldn’t possibly- w-we need to get you help first!” The boy fumbled with his words as he nervously looked for something to trying and pull her out or to help with her wounds.

“You must understand!” she exclaimed. “That person who was just here, they are planning on something horrific. The whole kingdom is in danger! If this doesn’t get to him as soon as possible all of Remnant will be in grim danger!” She strained once more to toss up a thick peace of parchment. It was a map leading into the complete other end of the wood and then even further onto the Emerald City. “Find the huntsman Qrow Branwen and tell him the Wizard has summoned him! And promise me you will go with him and deliver the item to the Wizard!” Jaune was overwhelmed. The girl he had just met was giving him this huge responsibility. She was giving him a chance to do a most heroic quest. It was almost too good to be true!

“But what about you?!” Jaune insisted. He understood the gravity of the girl’s words but he also understood the graveness of her current predicament.

“Don’t worry about me! Just go! Only you can do this! I believe in you!”

Those words.

At that moment Jaune realized that in his daydreams, or maybe they were something more than that, Poppy must have been his angel. It couldn’t have just been a coincidence. All the events aligned perfectly, as if it was a sign from a higher power. The boy didn’t know if he should have questioned it, but he practically knew that this was his calling! All he could do now was accept and carry out the task bestowed upon him.

“I’ll do it!” Jaune exclaimed. “And I’ll be sure to tell someone were you are quickly so don’t worry! Help will arrive soon!” He dashed off back towards the cart at the edge of the wood.

“Ευχαριστούμε Άγγελος!” (Thank you Angel*) Poppy called as he made his way back to where he had fallen.

With map in hand and the green velvet bag tied tightly to his belt, the young warrior-to-be dashed to the cart. His sisters and father were there waiting. They joked slightly at the rarity of him being the last one to arrive, but Jaune had no time for making jest. He quickly explained what had occurred; from meeting the red haired warrior to being given his ‘divine’ quest. He emptied one of the sacks on the cart and put a little of all of the groceries and supplies they had just purchased inside.

“Jaune, my boy!” his father tried to slow him down. “This is- well it’s just so de nulle part (out of the blue/from nowhere)! How can you even trust this girl?!”

“Papa,” Jaune looked his father dead in the eyes, “Elle était un messager de Dieu. Un ange qui est venu à la terre. Il est juste comme mère. Il est un appel plus élevé. (She was a messenger of God. An angel who came to earth. It is just like mother. It is a higher calling).”

With a sigh and a shake of his head, as if he was silently saying, “what will I do with this boy”, Jaune’s father patted his son on the shoulder. “You really are your mother’s son.” He smiled and then took off the ring he always wore; the one that had been given to him in honor of his late wife’s valor. “May your mother’s spirit guide you from Heaven, mon fils (my son).” He placed the ring in the young man’s hand and closed his eyes in a silent prayer.

“Je vais vous rendre fier, Papa! (I’ll make you proud)” said Jaune as he placed the ring on his right ring finger and made his way onward, following the map he had been given. He waved goodbye to his family and they bid him farewell in return.

“Tu as déjà (You have already),” Monsieur Arc replied back under his breath after his son was out of his sights. “Juste s'il vous plaît nous retourner vivante … (Just please return alive)”

---

It took Jaune almost three sleepless days and nights to reach the cottage in the wood. He almost got eaten by a bear, gotten a small rash from poison ivy, almost got eaten by a crazy medicine-woman who helped cure his poison ivy, and in the end almost got shot at by a girl who became his ally and then crushed by another who had fallen from a tree. All in all, it had been filled with many tests of faith. And of the young man’s stamina and endurance. But, in the end, he felt he had grown a little. Or at least gained an immunity to women trying to kill him, either intentionally or not.

He kept his pace slower so he would be in between the girls and the older man; Qrow in lead while the others tagged along behind. The path they traveled turned from gravel and dirt to a bright yellow road made of stone. From the gaggle of girls, the one called Blake snorted.

“What’s so funny?” Yang asked. Over the moments together, the two had been taking about an assortment of things. The other girl’s outburst had interrupted something she had been saying midsentence. Blake looked at Jaune and simply said something that if Yang, having gotten to know her a little over the walk, understood French she would appreciate.

“It just appears we are now walking on a Jaune brique route**, eh Messager de Dieu?”

Jaune’s ears turned bright pink and his pace quickened. Qrow chuckled to himself having understood the well fitted pun, while the others simply shook their heads in confusion. Yang nudged Blake for some kind of translation but being oddly uncharacteristic, the raven haired girl refused with a smirk. She insisted the blonde go look it up in a book and proceeded to pick out a copy of a French dictionary from her basket. With a groan, the other girl rapidly flipped through the pages from some kind of understanding.

The path was now set to the Emerald City. Qrow was to attend his meeting with the Wizard, the young girls were to follow suit and discover what journeys awaited them, and Jaune was to deliver the important package given to him by the girl in the hole…

---

After Jaune had run off like the gullible fool he was, the girl who had “fallen” into the animal trap sighed at a job well completed. Getting up from the disgusting mossy ground, she swatted the dirt and leaves from her derriere. She looked up at the top of the pit as she heard footsteps.

“Oh my,” a voice from above said. “What do we have here? Looks like there’s a poor maiden stuck like a rat in a trap! Whatever should I do to save her?” Sarcasm and fakeness oozed from every word the person spoke.

“Just get me out of here, you airheaded twat!” the girl called up to the voice, crossing her arms and glaring up at the nothing.

“Alright, alright. Give me a minute,” the voice replied.

“A minute? With you it should only take a second, considering how much you brag about being soooooo fast!” The girl smirked while a rope flung down from the top of the hole.

“If it weren’t for the plan, I would leave you down there for a fortnight. Also your Greek γαμημένο χάλια (fucking sucks).”

Ignoring the comment, the girl made her way out of the hole. However, it wasn’t the same girl that Jaune had seen. She was less muscle with a deeper tan. Her hair was mint green and her eyes were as red as the hair of the unconscious girl the person at the top of the hole had slung upon his shoulder.

The young man had silver hair and a smug look on his face. “So what do we do with this Graece quisquiliae***? (Greek trash)”

“Dump her off with the hired ‘help’ back at base, I suppose. We have to get going if we want to keep schedule. And to avoid whoever that blond kid sends our way,” the mint haired girl noted as she walked away from her partner. “We still have to do some book shopping in the next town over.”

The silver haired boy readjusted his hold on the gold clad girl and began to follow behind. “At least this job’s done. She put up a hell of a fight… Didn’t know Graece quisquiliae could put up a good fight. But, she wasn’t as tough as they said she’d be.”

“She broke three of your ribs, smartass. And she was totally kicking your sorry hide until I stepped in.”

“Right right,” he put his hand on his side and flinched slightly. “Anyways, did you give him the item?”

“Of course. Unlike you, I can do my job without messing around. He’s taking it to Oz now as we speak.” The two reached a pair of horses that had been tied to the branches of one of the not too far off trees. They saddled up, the young man strapping the red head to the saddle in front of himself. “The sooner we get her to camp with those idiots, the sooner we can visit our good friend Tukson.”

“Ah yes,” the boy smirked. “I’m looking forward to that.”

“I know you are, Mercury,” the girl said. “So let’s hurry back.”

Voices could be heard off in the distance. It was that of a man and possibly a few younger women. They sounded puzzled and their footsteps crunched closer to where the two individuals currently were.

“Well, Emerald, that’s our cue,” Mercury kicked his horse in the side slightly and began to trot ahead. “Race ya!” he called back a little too loud for his partner.

“It’s not a race, idiot!” She rode after him, leaving behind the scene of destruction they had caused capturing the messenger of the Wizard. As the pair rode off, the unconscious girl’s slippers made of rose-red gold clanked together as the horse moved her up and down.

Poppy was going in and out of consciousness during the ride away from the wood. All she could think about was how guilty she felt for dragging Jaune into the mess she had gotten herself into. And why she had lied to him in the first place…

Much like the nom de plume she had given the blond boy, it was as if Demeter herself had placed a poppy crown upon her head. Sleep was tugging at her and her eyes became heavy as stone. She mentally cursed Hypnos as her vision completely turned to black and her mind became blank. The Fates were not on her side. Pyrrha Nikos had been defeated.

Chapter Text

A young Pyrrha Nikos stood looking up at the ugliest old ladies she had ever seen, but she would never say that. That would be rather rude. The ladies speedily talked in Greek to her parents who angrily talked back to them. Her mother was the scariest of them all, saying very crude things which was very contradictory to her normal behavior. Pyrrha was scared that her mother would break something, and she had a hard time deciding if it would be part of the building or someone’s nose.

Her father was finally able to calm his wife down after a while. There was silence and then sobbing. Her mother was crying and even her father looked grim in expression. “Πύρρα, η κόρη μου. Έλα εδώ, (Pyrrha, my daughter. Come here)” her mother called to her between breathes. Carefully, the small girl walked towards her parents and the old ladies. They all locked eyes on her as she made her way to her mother’s side. Getting down to Pyrrha’s eyelevel, her mother cupped her daughter’s face with her hands. Another awkward moment of silence passed until her mother sighed deeply, and Pyrrha heard the sentence that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

“Πύρρα... Πιστεύεις στο πεπρωμένο? (Pyrrha… Do you believe in destiny?)” she asked her daughter with the girl’s only reply to be a slow nod. The older woman’s eyes lost what little fire that remained. She hugged her child and then guided her with her husband out of the temple of the Moirai (Fates).

When they returned home Pyrrha asked her mother what had happened and what her question meant, but all she was promised was an answer when the time was right. It turned out that that answer was coming a lot sooner than expected. In the middle of the night, once her father was soundly asleep, her mother whisked her away to a place she had never thought she would ever go. It was a dark place like an eternal cavern, at least from what she could see, and was scary and yet peaceful at the same time. There was a long river flowing throughout the place almost endlessly, and if she looked harder she could see even more rivers. Pyrrha’s mother held her daughter close before pushing her into the river, holding her only by the ankle so that she would not drift away.

Pyrrha couldn’t breathe. She saw what little life she had flash before her eyes. It felt like time was slowing down to a molasses of existence to the point where to her everything was just… being. But, before she knew it, Pyrrha was pulled out of the river. Everything was groggy. She fell in and out of consciousness, remembering periods of her mother yelling in Greek, her father yelling as well, and others with extreme presences much more calmly arguing with her mother. Finally falling into a deep sleep, the little girl heard one last thing.
“Έχετε σφραγισμένο μόνο μοίρα της. Το μόνο που μπορούμε να κάνουμε τώρα είναι προετοιμασία της για το αναπόφευκτο (You have just sealed fate. All we can do now is prepare for the inevitable),” the one with the most soothing presence stated, looking at the semi-conscious child laying on the river’s edge. “Ελπίζω μόνο εγώ δεν θα χαιρετήσει Πύρρα εδώ πολύ νωρίς. Αν η προφητεία είναι σε καλό δρόμο, το Ἠλύσιον πεδίον θα επικροτούσε αυτήν αν δεν ... Πύρρα θα κριθούν δίκαια. Έχεις το λόγο μου. (I just hope I will not greet Pyrrha here too early. If the prophecy is on track, the Elysian field would welcome her if not ... Pyrrha will be judged fairly. You have my word.)”

---

The next few years were filled with intense training and very strict rules in place. Pyrrha was under strict curfews and constant watch by her parents, her teachers and trainers. A few days after ‘that night’, Pyrrha had realized what her mother had done. It was explained to her that she was now almost immortal. She had been bathed in the waters of the River Styx. All that hadn’t been submerged was her heel. Her father had stopped his wife before Pyrrha was drowned and lost too early for her destiny to be fulfilled. The young girl was now nigh-invulnerable. She rarely felt pain physically, and on the inside she never dared express it.
Day after day Pyrrha worked hard to best her opponents and succeed in any and every battle she faced. Within a few months, the young girl was developing muscles and could fight boys twice her age. She honed her mental ablilites as well, proving her knowledge of her heritage and all of the major and minor gods. Although if she was quizzed on the outside word…
“Άχρηστος! (Useless)!” they would tell her. “Είστε μια καθαρή καρδιά πολεμιστή! Δεν χρειάζεται να καταστραφεί από τις ακαθαρσίες των θνητοί! (You are a pure-hearted warrior! Need not be damaged by the impurities of mortals!)” But Pyrrha had a hard time believing that it was that bad among the mortals. She was traied by mortals, excluding Chiron, and her weapons had been forged by mortals in the nearby villages. How could people who can construct such a noble and fine spear be as unworthy as they would tell her? Was her father not mortal as well? Was she not barely mortal herself?

With curiosity and determination, the red headed warrior snuck out in the dead of night after her months, almost years, of isolation. She wasn’t a little child anymore grasping to the hem of her mother’s dress. She was a young warrior and could defend herself from the ‘mortal impurity’ she had been constantly warned about. When all were asleep she made her way quietly to the stables and took one of the horses. She rode into the night to the nearest town. It was a ‘quaint’ place that she had only heard about from small exchanges with her trainers. The buildings were made of brick and wood instead of stone and marble like her home, no one was wearing a himation or armor, and they were all speaking a language she could not understand. She could understand through their actions sometimes or through their facial emotions, but after a while she got a headache and began getting nervous. She had never felt that way ever since ‘that night’ had occurred. Pyrrha looked around desperately for somewhere quiet to hide for a while. In the distance she spotted a stable with a vacant stall, and trotted over to it for sanctuary from the abnormal. Hopping off the steed, Pyrrha tied the reins to a pole and began wandering around between alleyways. She found a very vacant building on the edge of the village. There was a large sign on the building that the young girl couldn’t read. But it was quiet so the girl didn’t care.

She carefully opened the entrance door and peered inside. There were a few men sitting around one of the many tables stationed around the room, a man behind a long wooded bar, and a young boy sitting at one of the bar’s stools. They all turned to look at Pyrrha as she walked inside, but the men at the table quickly went back to whatever they were doing. The man at the bar however kept her in sight.

“How can I help you, young lady?” the bartender inquired as he noticed her looking around cautiously. She didn’t answer. “Young lady?” he called to her again a little louder thinking she couldn’t hear him. Pyrrha looked at the man inquisitively clearly not knowing what he was saying but acknowledged he was talking to her.

“Είναι ήσυχα εδώ? (Is it quiet here?)” she asked to make sure she could stay in a peaceful environment. The bartender gave her a just as confused looks as what she had shown him before.
“Hey, Branwen!” he called to one of the men at the table. “You have enough brain cells to help me out here?”

With a sigh, one of the men came up from the table, telling the others more jokingly than seriously to not peek at his cards, and walked over to the girl. He knelt down to her eye level and looked her down. Pyrrha noticed at once his breath reeked of alcohol.

“Anglicus tu loqueris? (You speak English?)” the man asked her to get the same confused expression. Then he tried again, “Μιλας αγγλικα? (Do you speak English?)”

“Τι είναι η αγγλική, κύριε? (What is English, sir?)” Pyrrha politely asked as she was told to do with her elders.

“Jesus Christ… Um… Είναι μια διαφορετική γλώσσα, αλλά προφανώς δεν το γνωρίζουν. (It's a different language, but obviously do not know.)”

“Ω! Βλέπω! Τότε θα πρέπει να μάθουν αυτή την αγγλική σύντομα. (Oh! I see! Then you need to learn this English soon.)” She nodded understandingly and sat up at the bar. The man gave a deep sigh and patted her on the head.

“Όχι απόψε, παιδί, (Not tonight, kid,)” he stated putting his hands on her shoulders. “Αλλά μπορώ να σας διδάξει ένα σημαντικό φράση. (But I can teach you one important phrase.)” Qrow Branwen whispered into Pyrrha’s ear and then walked back to his game of poker.

“Um…,” Pyrrha looked over at the bartender and stated a little broken, a little confused, and a little loudly, “Give me a cold one, mister?” Much to her surprise, the bartender burst out laughing. She fumbled in her chair and bumped into the boy next to her almost knocking them both off their seats. “Συγνώμη! (Sorry!)” she exclaimed as she stabled herself. The boy wasn’t as lucky and fell to the floor.

“De tomber amoureux déjà, Jaune? (Falling in love already, Jaune?” the blond at the table chuckled.

“Dad!” the boy exclaimed picking himself up from the floor. Pyrrha extended her hand to help him up, giving him some form of leverage. Blushing, he took it with his own and got to his feet. Their eyes met but he quickly looked away only showing her one of his very red ears and not his tomato red face. The older men as well as the bartender laughed leaving a very confused young girl. In the moment, Pyrrha found herself letting a slight chuckle escape. Even the boy laughed, although it seemed to be in a more sarcastic sense.

The young red head didn’t stay much longer in the small tavern. She was given a drink, “Δωρεάν,” the man named Branwen stated with a wink which made Pyrrha chuckle again. It was a glass of juice, although she had half expected wine considering she was no stranger to that form of alcohol. She quickly downed it as she glanced over at a nearby clock ticking on the wall. She had already been out much later than intended and needed to return before her parents suspected where she had run off to. With another short conversation with the drunk man, she said, “Thank you,” to the bartender in her newly learned language. Wishing everyone a good night and safe travels, which only one other understood, she left the bar smiling. Rushing to the horse, Pyrrha rode as fast as she could to her home before the sun would rise.

Back at the bar, Qrow counted his winnings and downed his ten or twelfth drink of the night. He hadn’t expected meeting a Greek in a more French populated area. Then again, given how mixed everyone was since the latest war, it wasn’t too surprising. It was just odd at the least. He’d been, was supposed to at least, scouting for warriors to invite to the Emerald City. Noticing the girl’s toned nature especially at such a young age, the way she entered the room more calm and calculated than most men of war, and the fact that she reeked of ‘godly nonsense’, he was seriously considering looking into her for a candidacy.

“Well, that’s enough for one night,” Qrow said as he pocketed the money. “Best be heading home. Not very wise to be bringing your kid to a bar now, Monsieur.”
“Eh? Jaune? Nah, he needs to get out more,” Monsieur Arc chuckled half drunk. “Too many girls at home. He needs a break from the constant chatter.”
“Well, I can relate somewhat. My sister was a handful to deal with back home. I would get out as much as possible to avoid her, um, ‘chatter’.” He stood up from the table and walked over to the young boy. “But never forget to protect you sisters, ok? They can be a pain sometimes but you gotta love ‘em regardless.” Jaune nodded. Qrow patted him on the head much like he had Pyrrha’s and gave him a smirk.

With that the not-quite-so-old drunk threw a handful of his bills on the counter. “Paying off my tab,” he stated.

“You going for good this time? Or do you still want to clear out my storage? I think I have another barrel of ale in the back,” the bartender playfully inquired.

“Nah, can’t just drink the place dry. I have an image to upkeep. Wouldn’t look good for a public servant to run a local business into the ground because supply can’t make demand. Plus I think I found what I was looking for. But it was great beating the big bucks out of you guys. If I ever need some quick cash, I know where to go.”

The rest of the men laughed and made jest with the other man. Grabbing his duffle, Qrow took note of the clue he had picked up from the girl and headed out. Being a bit of a tracker, the man went towards the forest and upwards out of the town up a peak of a nearby mountain.

---

Pyrrha hadn’t made it back unnoticed. Everyone was awake and practically tackled her on arrival. Her parents, mostly her mother, were furious and forbad her from leaving again without an escort. She was sent to her room with one of her teachers to guard her, or more likely to keep her from running off again. The rest of the night was spent in sleepless silence. She stared out her tiny window and feared that that would be the only way for her to see the ‘mortal’ world.

The next morning things had calmed down drastically. Pyrrha was summoned to the living area by her parents. They were sitting calmly across from a familiar face, the man from the bar last night. “Πύρρα, αγάπη μου. Πρέπει να σας μιλήσω για κάτι σημαντικό. Ελάτε να καθίσει δίπλα μου. (Pyrrha, darling. We need to talk to you about something important. Come sit next to me.)” Pyrrha’s mother motioned her over and the girl complied.

The conversation that underwent was a mix of Greek with her and her mother, and the language called English with her father who mostly nodded. Qrow Branwen, the drunk man, conveyed to the family of his mission and his search for a special kind of warrior. The mother grimaced a little at the man’s request to recruit her daughter. But, with a nudge from her husband, she finally gave in with a large sigh.

“Γεια σου, παιδί (Hey, kid),” Qrow leaned forward in his seat. “Do you believe in fate?”

She somehow understood the question in a somewhat foreign tongue. “Εννοείτε σαν το πεπρωμένο? (You mean like destiny?)”

For some reason the man gave Pyrrha a look of pitty. “Is that how you described her situation to her? Destiny?” Mrs. Nikos looked away somewhat ashamed. “Όχι, δεν είναι έτσι. Είναι διαφορετικά. Πολύ διαφορετικό. (No, it's not like that. They are different. Very different.)”

“Ω?” Pyrrha looked at him for more of an explaination.

“Well… το πεπρωμένο είναι ένα σύνολο προκαθορισμένων γεγονότων μέσα στη ζωή σας που θα λάβουν ενεργό πορεία στη διαμόρφωση, ενώ η τύχη είναι η προαποφασισμένη πορεία της ζωής σας που θα προκύψει λόγω της ή παρά τις ενέργειές σας. (Destiny is a set of predefined events in your life that will take an active process in the formation and fate is a preordained course of your life that will occur because of or in spite of your actions.) Δεν μπορείτε να αλλάξετε τη μοίρα. (You cannot change fate.)”

“Α, κατάλαβα... (Ah, I get it…)” Pyrrha started piecing things together. The old ladies from her childhood, the protective few years, the worried looks and whispers from the adults around her. Something she couldn’t change was going to happen that she couldn’t control and she was constantly being prepared for it…

“Καλά τότε θα επιλέξει το πεπρωμένο πάνω από τη μοίρα. Αρνούμαι να επιτρέψουμε να σταματήσει μου από το πεπρωμένο μου, (Well then I choose destiny over fate. I refuse to let that stop me from my destiny,)” Pyrrha told them all with a naïve confidence that she gave a seriousness to that none of the adults felt like arguing with.
“Well then,” Qrow looked at the parents. “Looks like you two have a lot of work to do.”

---

The next few years were excruciatingly difficult. Pyrrha’s training was twice as rigorous and her studies doubled with English and mortal customs added. But, as a reward, she would be allowed to go into the village every once in a while. She would even go to the tavern she had first visited, but never got to see the blond boy again. At least not up close. Whether it was from a distance being surrounded by a gaggle of girls, or getting into a fight with boys twice his size, she was always so close to talking with him again. But, she never got to before being dragged back to her training.

There was one time where she found him unconscious in an alleyway with many bruises and small cuts. Since she knew the basics of tending battle wounds, Pyrrha patched him up best she could. The red head tore off pieces of her himation to use as bandages, and was careful when picking him up in case of any internal damage. She had to decide on whether to carry him bridle style or on her back. She chose the latter to make sure his pride would be kept intact. Not knowing where else to take him, Pyrrha carried him off to the tavern where they had first met.
The bar was as vacant as it had been that day. The bartender was cleaning a glass and some men were stationed at the same table just drinking the day away. Looking up from his work, the man behind the bar smiled at the girl.

“Picked up a stray this time around, I see,” he joked while putting down the glass.

“Not laughing matter,” Pyrrha said with no sign of lost breath. Jaune was particularly light. “Need alcohol. Medical kind, please.” Seeing as she wasn’t in a joke making mood and that some of the wounds might be more serious than he thought, the man ducked into the back room to immerge later on with a medical kit. He and Pyrrha began tending to the wounds she had missed, and reapplied proper bandages to the ones she had mended before.

Jaune’s eyes fluttered slightly as he struggled to regain consciousness. All he could see was a red angelic glow, which to him looked like a blur of a face with an almost divine presence. “Are you,” he fumbled with his words and his voice hoarse, “an angel?” Pyrrha’s face grew as bright a red as her hair, and in a panic smothered the boy back into unconsciousness with a wad of gauze.

“Careful now!” Monsieur Arc exclaimed almost jokingly, due to his semi-drunkenness. “I only have one son!”

“Sorry!” the girl apologized as she put her head to the boy’s chest. She could hear his heart beating. Letting out a deep sigh of relief, she looked over to the clock and noted the time. “Take good care of him,” she managed to say in her still unperfected English as she bid them a good day. She left the bar awkwardly and headed out to find her escort.

---

After that day Pyrrha visited the village even more rarely that she already did. Training and studies took up most all her time and she was going to other further off places to battle. She even entered in some international events and won gold medals in all the women’s categories and even some in the men’s. She didn’t care for the ‘fame’ and trophies she was receiving as much as she could entertain and lift up the spirits of those who watched her battle and compete.

Within a few more months, a message had been sent to her from an associate of Mr. Branwen about something important. It was her first mission as a warrior of the Emerald City. She was to meet with this associate just outside the village she loved to visit. The meeting place was a small cottage that seemed to be the coziest, more inviting home around. But, when Pyrrha walked up to the porch she could feel a strong presence of power. Somewhat nervously, she knocked on the door. A few silent moments passed. When she was about to knock again, echoing footsteps came close to the entrance and the presence grew stronger. Pyrrha felt a little nervous and shifted around in her stance.

The door slowly creaked open to reveal a regal looking woman. Well, regal in the sense of her attire but in her demeanor. She mostly reminded the red head of a wise sage or a honorable elder, but not old or at least didn’t appear to be.

“Miss Nikos?” she inquired looking Pyrrha up and down in a familiar way to that day long ago in the tavern.

“Yes, ma’am,” she replied standing up straight. She wasn’t used to wearing her armor that she had specifically worn for this important meeting. The woman noticed her discomfort and invited her in. Complying, she walk in to a very quaint study. A small fire blazed in the stone fireplace across from a lovely velvet sofa. The woman offered Pyrrha something ‘more comfortable’ and not entirely knowing what that meant replied yes. With a flick of her wrist, Pyrrha’s armor became lighter and much more agreeable.

“If there is one thing men have yet to realize is that armor is so impractical at time,” the woman sat down on the sofa and patted the seat next to her. Pyrrha took the seat. “Honestly, if I can’t fight grim in heels the least they can do is make a breast plate thrice the weight.” She flicked her wrist again and a tea set flew into the room and landed onto the coffee table. The girl just sat quietly at what she was viewing. It wasn’t as if she had never seen something as ‘supernatural’. Her mother was a nymph after all.

“I suppose introductions are in order,” the woman began while adjusting her spectacles. “My name is Glynda Goodwitch. I work for The Great and Powerful Wizard of the Emerald City, Ozpin. And I am very well away of who you are but I would like to know a little more.”

“Um, well, I’m Pyrrha Nikos. I am the daughter of a nymph and a human, great granddaughter of the god Poseidon, and a candidate of-"

“No! No! Not that! About you! Not the lineage of the legacy! About you, dear. What can you tell me about Pyrrha the girl?” Pyrrha was almost speechless. She struggled for her words and finally was able to say something. Anything.

“I enjoy learning English. I like… a boy…,” Pyrrha blushed. She had a hard time thinking of anything else. Glyda smiled.

“Well, at least we can say you’re a teenage girl. Tell me more about this boy.”

“Um… He is nice and he’s blond and um,” she was clambering up. “He’s a noble warrior! He isn’t a great fighter but has a wonderful spirit! I feel that I have a respect for him. But I’ve never really talked with him much…” Now she felt like she was creepy in her isolated somewhat sheltered self.

“You don’t get out much do you?” Glynda bluntly asked. Pyrrha shook her head. The woman let out a sigh and patted her on the shoulder. “Well we all have to start somewhere. I know my first crush was… an idiot. He wasn’t blond though, so stereotypes be damned I guess.” She moved her finger and tea poured into one of the cups. “Cream? Sugar?”

“Oh! Um… no thank you…” Glynda picked up the cup and handed it to Pyrrha. The girl thanked her and took a sip.

“Anyways, let’s get down to business shall we.” She ‘magiced’ herself a cup of tea and sipped periodically. “So you have been selected to join a special sector of warriors to work under the Great and Powerful Wizard (between you and me he’s not THAT great), Ozpin. Although you are more than qualified, you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t, you still need to be tested and work your way up in a sense. I’ll try and make it a little closer to home with some analogies that you can relate to. You must become a messenger before you can be his warrior. Information is an important part of this job, just ask Qrow Branwen. The enemies that we and mainly Ozpin has gained over the years intercepting our information or taking down our messengers is very common. That’s why not just anyone can do it.

“You missions to complete is to deliver this message to one of our current messengers, and then proceed to the Emerald City. On the way you will need to protect the other messenger even if they don’t need protecting. They have been instructed to not interfere unless absolutely necessary. So, don’t take this task lightly.”

“Yes ma’am!” Pyrrha quickly replied. “I never planned on taking this task without the utmost seriousness.” Glynda’s face melted into a warm smile.

“That’s what I like to hear. Now,” the blonde woman placed down her cup down on the table and stood up. She made her way over to a wooden chest that was set across the room. Taking a key that was strung around her neck, she unlocked the chest and pulled out a single pair of rose-red gold slippers. Glynda presented them to Pyrrha. “Don’t worry about these. They don’t look it but they’re actually quite comfortable.”

The red head took the shoes and awkwardly slipped off her boats and put on the heels. Well, the older woman wasn’t wrong, they were very comfy. They seemed to have a lovely glow to them with an almost warmth to them, but not the uncomfortable kind.

“I had a feeling you needed something to protect that… heel of yours,” the witch mentioned as she handed the young girl another thing, a map. “This will get you to Qrow’s cottage. It’s about a few days journey, but for you, I’d say maybe two days and a night.” Motioning for the girl to stand, Pyrrha complied once again and took to her feet. She felt as though she was walking on air. But, the feeling soon left as she could sense the floor beneath her giving a safe stability.

“Alright, well that was all that I needed to go over with you for now. I’ll be taking a… um… more efficient method of travel.”

“Then I’ll see you there then. Good day, Mrs. Goodwitch,” Pyrrha bowed from the waist and made her way out of the house. Glynda saw bid her farewell until the young warrior was out of sight.
“Good kid,” Glynda said to herself, “Very promising. But I wonder how she’ll take the big new what the time comes…” With a snap of her fingers, a large purple bubble surrounded the witch. Her image inside distorted and then vanished, the bubble popping.

Pyrrha, now nearing the village was officially on her way. All she needed to do was pick up some last minute supplies and get her weapon sharpened. It had been so very long since she had been to her favorite venturing spot that it almost pained her knowing she would just be leaving it once again. She made her way to ‘It’s Also A Gun’, not knowing that fate would lead her to a meeting with a person who was intertwined with her destiny. However, it wasn’t in the way she would think or would ever hope...

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter Text

Walking into It’s Also A Gun, Pyrrha placed her weapon on the counter in front of the blacksmith. He picked up the spear and took it to the back room to sharpen it. Silently waiting around the room, she looked at some of the swords and knives stationed on the wall. After a few minutes the smith came back out and handed her back the now freshly sharpened weapon. Putting it in its easily assessable station on her back along with her shield, the young warrior made her way to the door.

Well… that is until the door made its way to her.

Before she knew it, Pyrrha was flat on her οπίσθια and was staring at an all too familiar boy. He had also been knocked to the floor causing the girl to quickly apologize. She didn’t know if it was even her fault but it had become a habit of hers over the years.

The two stood up. Surprisingly she looked upward at the boy, and shared an awkward encounter. It felt almost unreal to Pyrrha that she was seeing a grown up version of a boy she once knew. She got a little light in the head and flustered. The warrior didn’t get too caught up in the moment, considering it was apparent that Jaune hadn’t remembered her for so long ago. Items from his shopping were scattered all across the floor around them, and Pyrrha decided to do what she could to help clean up the mess.

“Thanks, miss-?” she heard him speak after they had finished their gathering of items.

“P- uh,” Pyrrha heisted slightly before deciding on building a fresh start. “Poppy.”

They had a bit more of a conversation before ‘Poppy’ had to go on her assignment. Leaving the shop, Pyrrha felt like a bit of a fool but was looking forward to seeing her first ‘crush’ once more when she returned. She made her way towards the outskirts of the village, but was stopped by something in the corner of her eye. There was a young girl crying in the same alleyway that she had once found a badly beaten Jaune in the past.

Pyrrha couldn’t help but see her as a version of her past self; alone and anxious in an unfamiliar place. Walking through the steady stream of people, the warrior made her way to the alley. She ambled her over towards the child and knelt down to meet her eye level.

“Are you alright, little one?” Pyrrha asked. The girl looked up and her eyes which had presumably been filled with tears shown shimmering like gold. She chuckled with a smile and poked the older girl on the nose.

“Tag!” she exclaimed as she ran down the other entrance of the alley. Knowing full well she had a mission to get to, Pyrrha couldn’t help but follow. There was something about the child’s expression that drew his in and made her want to chase after the girl.

It wasn’t until she lost sight of the child until she realized how far she had traveled. Pyrrha was no longer in the village, but rather in the woods opposite of where she needed to go. Looking around, all she could see were armies of towering trees. Her eyes scanned the area and saw nothing but her surroundings.

A rustling and laughter came from behind, causing her to pivot and charge after the noise. She ran for what felt like miles, until she found the little girl standing mischievously in a small clearing bordered by what seemed to be the tallest trees in the forest. The girl almost glared at Pyrrha as she walked forward. An unsettling feeling overcame her as she drew closer. It felt like…

It was a trap.

Before the warrior could reach her weapon she felt an impact on her back knock her forward. She rolled with the impact and tumbled to her feet. Her new shoes seemed to keep her light on her feet as she stationed herself, facing her challenger. Behind, the vision of the girl disappeared into nothingness.

“So easy to fool, eh, Graecus?” her attacker chuckled. He was lean and completely robed in gray. His eyes were piercing like two small silver gladius. “Then again, my people were better when it came to a more organized attack.” He shifted his stance and casually moved his hand towards her as one would motion for a dog to come forward. “Let’s see you swing around that… what is that? A pilum?”

“It’s a spear, ρωμαϊκός (Roman).” She took her weapon, Miló, from her back in one hand and her shield, Akoúo̱, in the other. “But it is so much more. More than enough to defeat you.”

“Big talk coming from a wannabe child of Mars. I’m betting you’re not even worthy of being a temple maiden of Bellona. You look like more of a follower of Minerva; all wisdom and no fight,” the gray Roman cackled as the two began circling one another.

“I never intend to be like Ares in my actions, so I don’t appreciate the comparison,” Pyrrha said as she studied her opponent. “And I really don’t appreciate how your people depicted Athena. Taking war away from one of the greatest strategist of Olympus is rather infuriating.”

“Well graecus, if nothing, infuriating fiery red-heads like you are my specialty. But I’m not the only one you should be worried about.” He cracked a smile charged forward.

Preparing for the attack, Pyrrha hadn’t noticed a young woman appearing behind her with a sickle raised above her head. In the corner of her eye, the warrior was barely able to avoid the crescent blade. The Roman’s foot impacted her chest and send her back several feet. The air was knocked out of her lungs but only for a moment. Pyrrha was up on her feet within seconds. Pulling back Miló and took a deep breath. With a flick of her wrist, and her opponents anticipating her to throw her weapon, the spear changed shape in motion. Miló was now a rifle.

Taking a shot at the gray attacker’s feet, he ‘danced’ around the clearing, dodging every bullet. The other attacker, a young woman in green, made her way into the trees out of sight. The Roman came closer and closer for a frontal attack. Pyrrha twirled her weapon again as it transformed into a xiphos, and blocked his kick aimed for her face. With impact, she notice metal armor around her opponent’s boots. Concentrating on the element, she moved the man’s leg off its course and used her shield to strike him at his side.

His eye widened slightly and then narrowed. Following through with the impact, he glided across the clearing and landed in a runner’s stance. He put his fingers to his lips and whistled loudly.

“86 it like its Athens, Em! We’ve got a verticitatem user!” he exclaimed as he began to spin into a multitude of airflares, causing silver stars to surround him into vortex. Thinking fast, the fiery warrior ducked out of the way as fast as she could. The stars launched out and practically flattened the forest around them. Many trees were demolished into firewood, and the clearing was now almost a lea.

Rolling out from what was left of her hiding place, Pyrrha darted towards her enemy. She swung her xiphos with purpose yet he continued to dodge with ease. The warrior had no time to question her own abilities as she thought meticulously of how to proceed. They trailed around deeper into the forest; Pyrrha attacking with a purpose and the man blocking, keeping up with her rhythm. They forcefully made a pathway through the trees as they continued to fight.

“Any time now, Em!” he called sounding more irritated than before. He did his best to guide the fight back to the clearing, but Pyrrha did her best to make that more difficult for him. The Roman pushed her back with his attack. She pushed back harder. The fought over their battle ground until finally they bordered the clearing and tree line.

“Stand down, Nikos,” a voice came from behind. “Or the kid gets it.”

From the corner of her eye she could see-

“Jaune!” Pyrrha exclaimed at the sight of the blond being restrained by the woman in green. One of her sickles was pressed closely against his throat. With a quick attack, she managed to push back her main attacker. She ran as fast as she could towards the pair but was stopped in the middle of the clearing.

“Not another step,” the woman pulled her weapon towards the boy, causing a trickle of blood to flow. “Stand down. I hate to have to repeat myself again.”

“I’d do as she says, graecus.” The Roman walked into sight. “Unlike me, she’s more of a no-nonsense type of gal.” He chuckled slightly and inched closer. “Go ahead and test her. Απ' έξω κούκλα κι από μέσα πανούκλα. (Outside a doll, inside a plague.) She can even be a handful for me.”

Hesitantly, Pyrrha placed Miló and Akoúo̱ on the ground in front of her. The woman demanded Pyrrha toss them aside by her using her πόλωση. With a motion of her arm, the weapons were lifted and flung away. The man confiscated them and joined his partner. They eyed the warrior waiting for her to make a move. But, being the woman of her word that she was, Pyrrha stood her ground in surrender. The two attackers smirked and guided their hostage into the trees behind them. Nervousness and uneasiness overcame the warrior.

A gunshot rang out.

Quickly, Pyrrha dashed into the other side of the forest. Frantically she looked around for any sign of the three. She kept her eyes and ears pealed for anything and everything. There was the sound of something gliding through the air. Then the sound of a tree falling over, its leaves making a loud rustling as it crashed. The young warrior darted towards the noise only to be met with a bloodied and trapped Jaune.

“No!” she exclaimed as she ran to the boy’s side. Clawing at the bark desperately for a good hand-hold, she attempted to lift the tree. Normally she wouldn’t have this much difficulty but the obstacle just would not budge.

She saw his legs utterly crushed. He was bruised, scarred, and scared. Blood gushed from his head and mouth. Pyrrha’s eyes began to fill with tears as she murmured in Greek to try and calm him and herself.

“Θα είναι εντάξει (It will be ok),” she said as her hand shakily pressed against his cheek. “Κοίταξέ με. Έχε τα μάτια σου ανοιχτά (Look at me. Keep your eyes open).” She shook her head once she remembered that he could not possibly understand her words.

“Help… me…,” Jaune managed with the life draining from his eyes. Pyrrha leaned in closer to try and hear him more clearly. “Help me, Pyrrha…”

The warrior’s eyes grew as wide as Akoúo̱ and she leapt away from the scene.

“Don’t leave me!” the crushed boy pleaded.

“I do not know what you are, but you are not Jaune,” she said taking a battle stance.

The boy signed and suddenly the tree melted into the earth. The imposter limped forward and smiled gently. “What gave it away? I was sure the resemblance would be,” he whisked his hand across his face causing the injuries to disappear, “uncanny.”

“I wear my own helm much like that of my future master; however only invisible in the eyes of one. He would never call me by name,” a slight pain could be heard in her voice.

The faux-Jaune’s eyes soften and he took a step towards the warrior. She tried her best to keep up her defenses but, even knowing it wasn’t truly him, she could not help but want to stand down. Without even realizing it, she had allowed him to draw close enough to reach out and touch her. The boy’s head tilted and Pyrrha couldn’t help but follow his gaze. He smiled once again and before she knew it he tossed a powder into her face.

She felt… tired.

Poppy.

Demeter had had a crown of it made for her to sleep during the months of Persephone’s ventures to the Underworld. And now it was forcing Pyrrha into a sleep of her own. She fell to the cold forest floor.

---

Emerald dispelled her illusion and made sure the poppy powder had taken full effect. Seeing as her target had been sedated, she called for her partner. The clanking of metal against metal rang and drew closer.

“I’ll give her this much,” Mercury’s voice could be heard before appearing beside her, “The graecus can lift. No wonder this shield felt like a ton of bricks. Damn celestial bronze…” He dropped the weapons across from the unconscious Pyrrha and picked her up in their stead. “Also, we’ve got a ‘problem’.” He gestured to the clearing and Emerald peeked over in that direction from behind one of the few remaining trees.

At the other side of the clearing, the blond boy she had previously been posing as was observing the battlefield. He was frantically searching for what she could only assume was the scream the hero had let out earlier. Letting out a sigh, Emerald turned back to her partner who had a malevolent smirk upon him face.

“I’m gonna stop you right there and say ‘no’ upfront,” she stated.

“But it would be soooo easy!” Mercury moaned. “It would only take a minute- maybe a few seconds? I promise I’ll be quiet about it.”

“We got what we came for; captured someone who was supposed to leave today, but if a dead local is found in a destroyed forest there may be some questions asked. And the last thing we want is another ‘witch hunt’ like in Vacuo.”

“In my defense, that was more accidental than anything else. And is it really a witch hunt if the one they’re looking for killed a witch?”

Ignoring his snarky retort, Emerald wadded her way behind a few trees and disappeared.

“Real mature, Em. Don’t use that illusion shit on me-”

“I’m here, idot,” her voice came from below. Looking over, he saw his companion in a ditch.

“Perfect. Now where did I put that shovel?”

“Oh my God, will you just shut up!” She stamped her foot into the dirt and almost climbed back out to strangle him. “Could you just toss me the bag? I think we can use this guy to save us a trip to the Emerald City.”

“Well, he does look a little like a mule…” Taking a velvet green bag from his back pocket, he chucked it at Emerald’s face. She just barely caught it before it hit her dead on.

“Now beat it.”

Mercury picked up Pyrrha’s weapons and began to walk away, but stopped and looked down at his partner with seriousness. “Hey, Em. Don’t mess thing up.” His face twisted into a smile as he dashed off. Can’t keep serious for two seconds can he, Emerald thought as she began her illusion.

She lured over the boy, Jaune, and did her best to manipulate him into passing on their ‘gift’ to the wizard. Emerald would never admit it but she felt a little sorry for the guy. He’d probably get eaten alive in the woods on the way to the City. But, if ‘the great Pyrrha Nikos’ seemed to think highly of the scrawny kid then it would make what was to come to be all the more bittersweet. As quickly as she could, the illusionist got rid of the blond boy. Anticipating there was a possibility of him sending help, the two along with their unconscious captive rode off to their next destination.

---

Pyrrha awoke laying down in a cold, dreary room. There was a single door with no knob, and no widows to be seen. All that dwelled in the space were a bed, a chair, and a single mirror. She failed to get up, noticing that her body was chained down to the bed. Her vision adjusted to see a woman sitting in the chair. Shrouded in shadows, the woman’s bright amber eyes were the only thing lighting up the room.

“Welcome, Pyrrha Nikos,” the woman’s voice enveloped the room like a toxic mist. It chilled the warrior to the bone, and sent feelings of sharpness clawing at her skin. “You have something I want. Let’s see if we can’t come to an… understanding.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chapter Text

“Are we there yet?” Ruby asked as she lazily clung to Jaune’s back, him having carried the smaller huntress for several miles. His feet were dragging along at this point. The hooded girl was a lot heavier than she looked, given a steady diet of cookies and milk.

“I’ve said it once, I’ve said it twice, and I’ve said it about eighteen more times, so I might as well say it again,” Qrow exasperatedly said in reply to his younger niece, “No, we are NOT there yet.”

Ruby groaned loudly.

They had been walking forEVER. Well, Ruby hadn’t been walking the whole way. But her trusty ‘steed’ was getting noodle legs and she was getting bored. For all the stories her uncle had told her of his work and of Oz, she expected danger and excitement at every turn; not following a seemingly endless yellow road. It wasn’t even really that yellow. It was all faded and sad looking. Ruby wanted to experience new bright quests, not already-exploded-into-faded-sidewalk errands. Her teammates didn’t seem to complain all that much.

Well.

Snow had made them stop for a break or two occasionally. Her feet hurt. She wanted to have an impromptu tea-time. And other dainty things.

Blake had mastered the art of reading while walking. Ruby assumed it was some kind of superpower, like how she could run really fast if she wanted to. As, for Yang, she was shooting the breeze with Qrow. Many bad puns and inappropriate jokes were exchanged.

Jaune had been very quiet. He was able to awkwardly dodge all of the young girls’ questions during their time together. Ruby could relate to that. But still her curiosity couldn’t help but overcome her own awkwardness.

“Hey Jaune?” she said a little too loudly into his ear.

“Yes, Ruby,” he replied a little worn down, a mix of exasperation and exhaustion.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

The blond nearly dropped his rider.

“Wha- no. Me? That’s just- no I, uh, I do not have a girlfriend. No.”

“Really? But you’re so… charming,” Yang chuckled from up front.

“And brimming with confidence,” Blake added looking up from her book.

“You’re sarcasm is duly noted and my feelings are very hurt. Thanks for that,” Jaune sighed and adjusted Ruby on his back before he almost dropped her from the blows to his self-esteem.

“You’re not that bad, John,” Qrow said after a sip from his flask. “I’m sure there’s some girl back home who’s just dying for you to notice her…”

“Nah… that’s not possible.” The boy looked down but then perked up. “Unless you count my sisters wanting me to do something for them. Then that makes me the most popular guy in the world,” Jaune laughed half-heartedly. The group let out a collective chuckle as they walked onwards.

The forest around them began getting less full as they noticed more tree stumps than towering greenery. Stacks of white smoke could be seen in the distance, and the road they walked upon grew cleaner and better kept. Qrow took a bit long sip from his flask and put it into his vest pocket. Slicking back his hair, his pace slowed to meet next to ‘Snow’.

“You guys go on ahead,” he told the others. “Go to the ‘Steal Trap’ and tell them I sent you. They’ll hook us up with my usual table.” He looked down at the swordswoman, “I need to have a word with Miss White, here.”

Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but Yang took the hint and diverted her sister’s attention with the possibility of cookies at the tavern. Blake and Jaune decided to mind their own and followed the blonde off down the road.

“Alright,” Qrow looked the girl dead in the eyes. “You’re a Schnee girl, aren’t you?”

Weiss bit her lip. Her silence was all the answer the drunk huntsman needed. He sighed and rubbed his eyelids. “That’s going to make things a little… more complicated. So, we’re about to enter a village where an alley of Ozzy- obviously you’re familiar with the Atlas military, correct?”

Her eyes widened. “My sister-”

“Winter Schnee, one of the highest ranking officers under General Ironwood. Both of them don’t like me. At all. And both of them are going to hate me more if they know I have the younger sister of said officer who ran away from home, and failed to tell the proper authorities that I found this runaway…” He pulled out his flask again and chugged the rest down. “Let’s just say, you’re about to be a lot more trouble than you’re worth, kid.”

“I understand… But I can’t go back! I’ll hide or I’ll just wait for the group at the edge of town or…” Weiss’s eyes stared at the yellow brick road beneath her. Her first spontaneous escape was going to crash and burn before truly taking off. But her spirits and gaze were lifted upward as the old crow’s hand grasped her shoulder. He smiled. Then he handed her something from his pack.

“Put this on and keep your hand on your sword at all times,” he gave her a black cloak that was slightly torn and smelt faintly of blood. “Even though this place is swimming with soldiers, it’s still not the ‘safest’. Despite what ol’ Jimmy may think, his men are still men. And men are idiots. We shouldn’t take long so be ready to cheese it, ok?”

“Yes, sir,” she said slipping on the cloak.

“Lose the formalities, kid. In the real world, that won’t get you as far as you think it will. At least with me,” Qrow pat the girl on the head before pulling the hood of the cloak over it. It was clearly too big for her, but that just meant it would cover her more.

The two walked into the village to join the others, and parted ways as the huntsman entered the Steal Trap.

---

The Steal Trap was the ritziest tavern Qrow had ever been in. That was saying a lot considering how plain and dull the simple looking building was inside and out. At the table in the far corner of the room next to the fireplace sat the kids along with an older man the huntsman unfortunately recognized. He took a long deep breath.

“Jimmy!” he called out extending his arms outward. “Looking… well like you always do, sorry I couldn’t think of a positive. How’s it going?”

The man glared up at his ‘alley’ and stood from the table. “Qrow,” he simply said as he straightened his stature. Awkwardly, Qrow coughed and sat down next to his youngest niece who was munching on a plate of cookies (which he couldn’t believe they would actually have at this place). Now looming over the huntsman, the general preceded to speak literally down to him.

“I understand you’ve also been summoned by Ozpin to the Emerald City, from what these ladies and young man have told me,” Ironwood gave a kind nod to the girls and Jaune who shifted nervously in their seats. Qrow confirmed his assumption and explained that the girls were assisting him and that Jaune was delivering something other than a message for the Wizard. Both of them knowing the old illusionist and how he loved his secrets, they both didn’t bother pushing the boy’s mission further.

“I see you brought more than your fair share of help,” Qrow said a little loudly as he looked around the tavern. Soldiers were at every table and sitting on every bar stool. Their weapons were visible at their hips. “I just assumed ol’ Ozzy wanted a little get together with his closest and dearest friends,” he over exaggerated his vowels which made the general’s eyes twitch slightly. This made the old crow grin smugly. Well, that and the bar maid coming over to him with a pint.

“Didn’t you’re note give more detail?” he asked visibly holding back anger.

“It said to come to the city so I’m coming to the city,” Qrow took a drink.

“Not to burst your bubble, Branwen, but there’s more to this than meets the eye… There’s a storm brewing… And you know how he feels about storms.” Ironwood pulled out something from his jacket pocket and placed it on the table in front of the drunkard. “My orders were to wait here for you to arrive and then take the off path. Questionable things have been going on and I’ve been placed in charge of investigating.”

Qrow picked up the object and looked at it closely. It was a small silver whistle with a thin gold chain. “What? Is it only something dogs can hear?”

“Well… you said it, not me,” another familiar voice peered up from behind the general. A slender woman in a finely tailored uniform made her way to his side. She was a strict, prim and proper prudish woman who was someone he was hiding a certain runaway from.

“Ice Queen! Well, I guess when I need you I’ll make sure to blow extra hard,” he retorted while taking a long drink. He looked her up and down as he did so. Yang rolled her eyes as she covered her sister’s ears as she innocently continued eating. Clearly their uncle either forgot they were there or just didn’t care. The other two teens just kind of looked around nervously as they tried to ignore the adults’ awkward tension that was worse than anything they had ever personally experienced.

“You like historical fiction?” Blake whispered.

“Right now? I love it,” he replied as she handed him a random book from her basket.

The banter went on for a good long while before Yang finally took Ruby out of the tavern, leaving behind the other two to suffer with their reading.

---

Weiss had been leaning up against a pole for what felt like hours, but that wasn’t possible since the clock in the town said it had only been five minutes. The area was crowded with soldiers like Qrow had said. It was hard for her to find few, if any civilians walking about. She knew that the Atlas military was vast and powerful, but the amount of men and woman in armor was almost ridiculous. What was even more ridiculous was how one of them felt the need to walk over and talk to her. Maybe it was because she was dressed somewhat conspicuously and standing alone without moving. That would have been the sensible thing a noble soldier would do to make sure all was well in the area they swore to protect. However that was an incorrect assumption.

Swaggering over, the soldier wore a cocky grin and leaned up against the air next to Weiss. She wasn’t the least bit impressed. With a flourish motion the soldier took off their helmet and rustled their hair, “So what brings you out to a place like this, young miss? Rather dangerous for a lovely lady like yourself to be out all alone…” Their eyebrows waggled. It was corny and Weiss wanted to run away, but all she managed was an eye roll.

The soldier put their arm around Weiss’s shoulder causing her to tense up. “If you like, I could do my civic duty and help you on your travels. Where are you off to?”

“That,” the swordswoman pinched the gloved hand of the soldier and remover their arm, “is none of your concern.”

Murmuring and chuckling came from the other guards across the way at their comrade’s epic failure of a pickup. Not taking the hint the soldier decided to embarrass themselves further and pressed the issue. “Come on now… Don’t be so cold.”

“That’s my specialty,” she retorted as if she was addressing one of her past possible suitors. “And as for danger, I can manage for myself.” The soldier now noticed that the whole time her other hand never once faltered from her blade’s hilt. She had been prepared to attack from the very start.

Stepping back with hands in surrender, they shrugged. “Alright, miss. But can you actually use that thing? Talk is cheap when an Ursa is barreling toward you and no one can come to your rescue-”

Without thinking, Weiss drew her blade and placed it under the chin of the fool. This caused the other soldiers alarm and urged them to follow her lead, but she quickly swung the weapon to her side. She took a stance and gave the now fully intimidated challenger a confident look. Taking the invitation, the soldier unsheathed their sword and took the same stance. Many of the other soldiers gathered round and began taking bets. Most of which were on the unknown woman…

---

Ruby, although without meaning to, managed to lose her sister in the crowd after just leaving the bar. She thought it wouldn’t be too hard to spot a tall blonde in a sea of silver metal but no. It was. It was very hard. The young girl wished she was in the nice tavern eating her cookies but instead she was looking up and down alleyways for her sister. So it was like every other day that she spent with Yang.

There was a commotion coming from the other side of town so obviously Ruby assumed it was her sister. That tends to happen when the fiery blonde was left alone. She was a fight magnet. Their dad always called her 火热磨炼 (fiery tempered).

Surprisingly, instead of her sibling fighting, the hooded girl saw Snow battling blades with a soldier. And, to the young girl’s excitement, her friend was winning. Metal clanged against metal. Sparks seemed to be forming and lighting up as they danced around one another. The soldier jabbed right only for Snow to deflect the blade. They kept going back and forth until the soldier was knocked down.

If this had been an official match and if the soldier still wanted to charm the swordswoman, this would have been then end of it all and they would get up and salvage what dignity they had left. Neither of those things however were relevant any longer. They wanted to win. And real fights were never played fair.

Tossing some dirt up, the soldier managed to knock the cloaked fighter down to the ground with them. This caused Snow to panic as she fumbled to her feet, but it was too late. Her opponent had already taken the upper hand and had their blade pointed square at her chest.

The crowd’s yelling drowned out Ruby’s cheers for her companion to keep fighting and not to give up. The soldier looked more menacing now and with a hint of anger wanted to teach the girl in front of them a lesson. But before anything could happen a loud shout pierced through all the noise.

“Stop this at once!” a chipper tone silenced the others. With a shock to most, a girl had suddenly appeared between the two fighters. The soldier stood down annoyed, and backed away. Snow dusted herself off and looked at the girl in disbelief.

“And I thought I was fast…” Ruby muttered as the girl took an authoritative stance.

“General Ironwood said not to cause trouble!” the girl said. It was hard to take her seriously however with her curly orange hair bounced along with her big pink bow. And it seemed that none of the soldiers did.

“Aren’t you supposed to be with the general, Penny?” one called. “It’s not safe for you to be about like this.”

“He said I could look around as long as I didn’t go far,” Penny hiccupped and her nose grew ever so slightly.

“Penny” another guard said sternly while giving her a look of disbelief.

The girl held her tongue until finally pouted her lips in reply, “That’s a lie…” She stared down at the dirt but then looked up defiantly as her nose returned to normal. “But I do know that he also said not to cause trouble! And I think he will be more angry with your tomfoolery than with me!”

She seemed to have made a valid point, as the soldiers mumbled to themselves and dispersed from the crowd. Making a 180 turn, Penny looked at Snow and asked if she was alright.

“Just fine,” the swordswoman replied somewhat defeated.

“Snow!” the two turned to see Ruby running towards them. Once she got to them her excitement knew no bounds. “That was amazing! You totally could have taken that guy out if he hadn’t cheated like that. And wow! How cool are you? Being able to stand in the middle of a fight like that is so cool! I do that all the time but I never look as brave! Normally I just look like jam sandwiched between bread… My name’s Ruby by the way.” The excited girl extended her hand to the stranger.

“Salutations, Ruby!” the girl exclaimed. “My name is Penny Polendina! It is a pleasure and honor to meet you!”

The two looked at Snow who had just put up her weapon. They looked at her longingly.

“Oh yeah,” she cleared her throat. “I’m Snow White… but just call me… um… Snow? I guess?” She was slightly disinterested as she tugged her cloak on further over her face.

“An honor to meet you as well! So what brings you here? Business like us?” Penny asked with bright eyes.

“Yeah, we’re going to the Emerald City to see the Wizard! You know, kinda a big deal,” Ruby boasted as she tried her best at playing cool.

“Wow! That’s amazing! We’re going to see the Wizard too! But not right away. We have to do very important secret things first. Well… the general does. I have to sit in the carriage and wait most of the time…” The curls in her hair seemed less bouncy as the brightness dimmed in her eyes.

“That sucks!” Ruby exclaimed. “I hate just having to wait! It can be super boring!”

“It’s not so bad,” with a hiccup her nose grew.

“Wow! How do you do that?” the hooded girl marveled at the ability. She forced herself not to boop the other girl’s nose in examination.

“It just happens! It’s my… quirk, I guess? Papa says it’s how you can tell that I’m lying… It’s honestly not so bad,” she crossed her eyes to see and make sure her freckled area on her face wasn’t extending further outwards. She let out a sigh of relief. “But it goes back to normal when I tell the truth. Papa says that real girls always do their best to be honest even when it could mean they get in big trouble… Like I will be if I don’t get back to the general…” Penny pouted a little before chippering up. “So I’d better get back! It was nice meeting you Ruby! And you Snow!” She saluted the two.

“You too, Penny! It’s always good to meet a new friend,” Ruby smiles and did a goofy little salute back.

The orange haired girl froze slightly and her eyes widened. “Friend?” she repeated in almost disbelief. “Am I really your friend?”

The hooded girl nodded. “Sure, why not.”

“Wow! I’ve never had a friend before! I’m so happy!” She picked up Ruby, almost crushing her with an inhumanly strong hug.

“I’m- glad- can’t- breath…” Without missing a beat, Penny dropped her new friend back to her feet.

“I’ll see you in the City, Ruby!” Penny waved as she ran off towards the Steal Trap, almost running into a wall in the process.

“She seemed nice- Snow? You ok?” Ruby noticed her company mate spacing out with a worried expression. “Snow?” she said a little louder to try and get her attention.

“Oh. Um… Yes. I’m fine,” Snow replied while puller her hood a little further in front of her face. “Just a little… tired after the fight is all. How about we go a little more towards the forest. To wait for the others.” Nodding in agreement, Ruby followed her also hooded friend further out of town to wait on the rest of the group.

---

The banter at the bar ended after about another half hour; including drinking, more talk of the Wizard, and Jaune and Blake both getting a good ways into their respective books. Yang met back up with them, having snuck away from her sister for some “all in good fun” gambling with a few “honest” soldiers. She managed to get some more shotgun ammo, a large amount of gold and lien, as well as a little bit of booze for the road. It was a little something special for herself if she could hide it from Qrow. Not that he would have a problem with her drinking underage (he’s the one who took her to her first bar and bough her first pint) but because he would covet it for himself.

They met the two hooded company members near the edge of the town and traveled onwards; following the yellow brick road. Snow continued bearing her worried look, prompting her impromptu-guardian to figure out what was up.

“You alright, kid?” he leaned in closer and added with a hushed tone, “They didn’t find out, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It’s not that…,” she began, finally taking down her hood, “It’s the opposite. I…” Snow looked at her companions longingly. “I don’t think I should continue lying to them… ‘Real girls do their best to be honest’ and I haven’t been, well, ‘real’ with them. I know you said when we first met that that didn’t matter to you… But it’s starting to matter to me.”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret, at least to where my nieces are concerned. They really won’t care that you’re a rich kid. Money may get food on the table but those are some good kids. They aren’t the type you’re used to. As for bookworm and white knight over there, I’m sure they’ll understand,” Qrow said. He took a drink from his refilled flask and gave Weiss a wink.

Knowing now what to do, the runaway heiress took a deep breath and stopped in her tracks. She called everyone’s attention and with a little nervousness at first, explained her deception.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chapter Text

General James Ironwood and his forces were once again on the move. After a not so pleasant meeting with his alley Qrow Branwen, the general was in less than a good mood. It didn’t help that the girl who had joined them, Penny Polendina, had wandered off after being specifically ordered to wait in the guarded carriage. It was part of his mission to make sure she had safe passage to the Emerald City, and she was proving to make that difficult for him. The young girl, who was more like him than he let on, was very curious and nimble. He would look away for less than a second and she would end up several feet away if he wasn’t careful. Even with putting several guards in charge of her safety, Penny would still somehow manage to get separated from the group. That made their search through the wood that much more tedious.

Iron clad soldiers shimmered in the green of the wood. All were cautious of their surroundings. When going off the path, anything was prone to happen. The party was separated into groups; Ironwood took a few of his men, Winter had an elite squad of her own, and the rest were guarding the carriage full of supplies, ammunition, and Penny.

It was even more dangerous than normal to be straying from the yellow brick road. There had been more reports of Grimm attacks, as well as a person of interest in an ongoing investigation was spotted somewhere near the area. The investigation was on something that was on a need to know basis for those closest to the Wizard (so either his colleague was playing dumb-drunk or James had more seniority than he realized). Someone or ones were plotting something big against those who swore to protect their land. Hushed rumors and foolish hearsays were suddenly becoming more creditable as Ironwood’s forces and the information gathering of his allies started unearthing some… disturbing developments. All of this, again, was confidential. Most of his men, even his highest ranking officer Winter, were kept in the dark. Things were already more complicated than they needed to be without panic and misunderstanding from his own men. He did not want to add that to the mix.

The general’s group was investigating the furthest out point of the search area. There was nothing suspicious in sight. Yet. But all of them were kept on high alert. The same could be said for Winter’s search. The wood was eerily quiet.

The supply carriage was stationed at a glade that was closer to the town they had just departed from. A very patient Penny was rocking back and forth in her confines. She was doing her best to do as the general had instructed of her; “Wait in the carriage this time,” he’d said, “and no wandering about. It’s too dangerous,” but then she’d tried to protest and would be immediately shot down, “I know you can take care of yourself but this a direct order,” and then that would be that.

Penny didn’t have much to entertain herself with. She tried humming the one song she knew and practiced whistling. She picked up the picture book her Papa had given her that she had read almost a gazillion times, so much so that it was starting to wear out. All was quiet except for the muffled talking of the soldiers outside. The girl so desperately wanted to peek her head out the window and join in, but she knew if she did all she would get was a stern “stay inside”. So, she waited. Her knees bounced as she struggled to whistle her tune.

She thought about her first friend and about the fun times they would have in the City. Well. If there was any time. General Ironwood ran a very tight ship and time was a very hard thing to find free in his schedule. The same could be said about Papa. Everything with them was run like clockwork, which worked well for them. And it worked well for Penny. She was more spontaneous than them, however. Even when things ran like a finely tuned machine, she could always find a hiccup to help liven things. Sometimes that wasn’t always appreciated, but it almost always managed to make her Papa smile. That would make any goofiness she attempted all worth it.

The soldiers grew silent outside.

Penny tried best for her curiosity to stay in check, but it was almost a worrying silence. She shifted in her seat before giving in and reaching for the door handle. But, before she could grasp it, there was a knock. Cocking her head to some side, Penny followed through with opening the carriage door (as it was in good manners to do so since they did knock first. It would be rude not to answer. And real girls did their best not to be rude).

Instead of being met with one of the guards, a small girl, even smaller than her, with funny looking hair and a parasol looked up at her. She was all mixed matched as if she hadn’t decided on whether she wanted to dress in pink or in brown, or just black and white. It was almost as if she was imitating the ice cream she had in her free hand. Her eyes, which were mixed matched too, shined upward meeting Penny’s. Behind the girl was a man older than the two. He looked like he could have been old enough to be the freckly girl’s brother (only because he looked too young to be a papa, and his hair was bright and orange like hers). He was more forward in appearance; black and white with a hint of red in his attire. He had a bowler hat and a cane like he was a gentleman out on the town. But they weren’t in town. They were in a wood. So these two interesting characters very presence confused Penny.

“Who are you?” she asked.

The man spoke up, “I am Roman Torchwich.” He gave a little bow and extended his hand for Penny’s. She took the invitation and he gave the top of her hand a kiss. This irritated the other girl. She elbowed her companion in the ribs. “And this delightful little lady is Neo. Forgive her, she’s normally not this rude.” He gazed down to give his partner a disciplinary look.

“What happened to the soldiers?” Penny inquired. She had just noticed that the guards were no longer in sight. It wasn’t like them to leave the carriage. Especially since the general had been very ‘scary’ when giving them their order.

“They went to go meet with the others,” the lie flowed smoothly off of Roman’s tongue with a smile. Neo was smiling sweetly now too. “They made progress with their mission.”

“So they found the bad man they were looking for?”

Roman and Neo looked at one another, then back at Penny. “He was closer than they realized,” he replied. Both their smiles never faltered. “And since their mission is almost complete, we thought we’d come and ask if you wanted to come with us. A girl like you deserves to have some fun while she’s on an adventure like this.”

“But I have to get to the Emerald City-” she was silenced by Roman putting his finger on her lips.

“And you will. We’re on our way there too but there is just the most amazing detour that we both thought you would love to take.” Neo nodded in agreement.

“I don’t know… General Ironwood would get mad if he came back and I wasn’t here… again.”

“The ol’ rust bucket doesn’t need to know,” Roman’s voice persuaded. “You’ll be there and back before he ever finds out. And you won’t regret coming along. Where we plan on going has the most amazing things! A carnival, candy, magicians, fire breathers, you name it they have it!”

“Well,” Penny said as the gears turned in her head. “I’ve never been to a carnival before. Or ever seen a fire breather…”

Roman clapped his hands together. “Then it’s decided! Back in time before bed but just long enough for a trip you’ll never forget as long as you live!” He offered his arm to the girl and she accepted. Neo took the other, offering Penny some of her ice cream. Excited about her secret journey, the girl took the treat.

One lick. Two licks. Three…

Her eyes grew heavy. She’d never really felt this way before…

It was a very… human feeling. Her aura felt depleted. She went into power-save mode.

---

The metal girl felt heavy on Roman’s arm as she shut down. He slid out from the position and threw her over his shoulder. He was met with the eyes of his partner.

“Don’t give me that look,” he told Neo as she pouted. “If you’re so jealous, why don’t you carry the deceptively heavy girl through the woods? Yeah. Didn’t think so. What did you put in that ice cream anyway?” She put her finger to her to lip seductively and winked in response. “…I’m guessing I don’t want to know.” Neo nodded and skipped ahead. Slightly worried, Roman checked the unconscious girl’s pulse. It wasn’t until he felt her neck that he remembered the hunk of metal slung over his shoulder wasn’t human. The mysterious substance merely drained away her artificial aura, shutting her down to self-recharge.

The two criminals walked away from the scene they left behind…

---

Planning on moving out and continuing their search, the two groups returned to the carriage. They were not prepared for what they found. On one side, things looked normal; just soldiers absent from their posts and a clean grassy glade. On the opposite side however, there was nothing but utter horror.

Dead soldiers laid atop of blood stained grass. They appeared to have been taken out professionally. The wounds shown instant kills and no room for error to be found. No one was left alive. General Ironwood practically tore off the carriage door. There was no Penny to be found. The only clues he had to go on were the strong smell of blood masking a faint smell of vanilla…

He didn’t want to jump to conclusions. He didn’t want to doubt Ozpin. But he feared they strongly underestimated their enemy. All Ironwood could do now was send his men lead by Winter on a search for the girl, and he would have to travel as fast as he could to the Emerald City.

Little did he know, things were only going to get a whole lot worse, and there was no stopping them. Or rather, her.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chapter Text

After delivering the heroine to the temporary base camp they had managed to take over, Emerald and Mercury were on their way to complete their next mission. In return for allegiance of the White Fang, the two mercenaries had to run a simple errand. A deserter named Tukson was planning on skipping town without as much as a goodbye, and that was just plain rude. The two planned on giving him a proper send off. Just not to the destination he intended to run off to.

Walking through town, Emerald noticed a girl coming out of their target’s shop. Noticing the basket the girl was carrying, she ‘bumped’ into her and saw what she could snatch up. She took a peek at what she grabbed while apologizing to the girl for knocking her down.

Just some racy novel, Em thought as she faked a smile.

She gave it back while pretending that the girl had dropped it. Her companion chuckled as they walked on into the shop. The bell rang as they entered and Mercury slammed the door shut behind them.

Slightly startled from the slam, the man they assumed was Tukson jumped from behind the counter. A stack of books he’d had in hand clattered to the floor. Bending over to pick them up, the owner didn’t notice one of his new customers locking the only entrance.

“Welcome to Tukson’s Book Trade; Home to every book under the sun. What can I help you with today?” the owner’s voice came from behind the counter. He popped back up with a pleasant smile and a handful of novels.

“Is that true? Every book?” Emerald inquired. Disinterested, Mercury picked up random book and flipped through the pages.

“Yes,” Tukson replied proudly as he organized his pile.

“How about ‘The Thief and The Butcher?” she asked leaning over the counter.

“Sure do,” he replied. “…would you like a copy?”

“No. Just curious.”

SLAM. Mercury put down the book and picked up another, opening it to a random page.

“How about Violet’s Garden? In paperback?”

“He’s got it,” Mercury piped up. “Hard back too,” the boy slammed another book shut and dumped them on the nearest shelf. Tukson’s expression started to show worry. Whether it was him sensing the danger, or the fact that he would have to reorganize, Em didn’t care.

“Got anything with pictures?” the silver haired boy asked.

“Yeah,” the owner crossed his arms. “In the children’s section on your left.” Merc looked slightly offended but turned to the nook in the room filled with simple storybooks. But instead of looking through the selection, he began closing the front window’s curtains.

“Oh! I’ve got it!” Em leaned even further on the desk. There was a look in her eye that Tukson instinctively did not like. “Third Crusade,” she said dryly with a smile that was sweetly threatening. Tukson’s face grimaced. “What? You don’t have it?”

“No… not that particular title…”

“Wait a minute,” Mercury closed the last curtan. “Isn’t this place supposed to have ‘every book under the sun’?” Tukson nodded. “And you don’t have THAT book, correct?”

“It’s just a catchphrase.”

“Its false advertising.”

The room was silent.

SLAM. Emerald’s hand hit the counter and she straightened her posture. The gleam in her eye was unsettling.

“You know who we are, don’t you Tukson?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“And you know why we’re here?”

“Yes.” Tukson’s eyes looked back and forth from the girl in front of him and the boy now guarding the door.

“You’re brothers in the White Fang aren’t too happy with deserters like yourself. We heard you were heading to Vacuo. If that’s the case,” she put her hands on her hips, “then you know we can’t just let you run off in the middle of the night.” Mercury started walking forward. “So, are you going to fight back?”

Tukson’s eyes narrowed. “Yes!” He jumped up on the counter. He revealed claws and fangs, sharp and ready to attack. But before he know it, Mercury attacked first. There was a single gunshot.

---

Walking out of the establishment, Emerald whipped a small droplet of blood off her cheek while Mercury flipped through one of the storybooks he’d taken. His companion looked over at the cover.

“Cenerentola? Really?” Em looked at him in almost disbelief.

“I like the pictures,” he defended as he turned the page.

With a roll of her eyes, the two abandoned the shop and made their way back to the White Fang’s base of operations. Or rather, their boss’s new manor.

It was an extravagant old mansion deep within the wood. It had been long since abandoned by its owner, probably a very wealthy family that got ran out during the last war. The property was massive. Just big enough to house and hide an entire terrorist organization plus a few mercenaries, a professional criminal, and the mastermind’s assistant behind something greater than them all.

It took Emerald and Mercury a while to get back to the base. The secret entrance was kept… well, secret. And it was also heavily guarded by members of the White Fang. The two being skilled assassins, instantly noticed them in the trees and all around hiding. Mercury flashed a symbol, the insignia of the organization, and stood his ground. Having received the proper clearance, the faunus in hiding did not attack and opened the entrance.

The grounds of the manor had been dug up. What once was probably a beautiful courtyard filled with shrubbery and flower gardens was now flat dirt and stone. The statues and fountains scattered about were cracked and crumbling. Most of which were used for target practice. So many cupid’s had missing limbs and were decapitated. The manor itself wasn’t in the best of shape either. Every other window was broken, a third of the house was completely ivy-covered, and the stone walls were chipping away. The inside however, was a different story all together.

The two passed by many tents filled with faunus donning Grimm masks. Some were conducting weapons maintenance, others were looking over maps and charts. The largest tent that was closest to the manor had a small group of faunus discussing a future assault on a Schnee dust mine. Even though they were serious in thought and probably didn’t wish to be disturbed by a “filthy human”, Mercury gave a ‘later, Em’ to his companion and joined the gathering to report the ‘tragic’ resolution of Tukson.

Continuing onwards, Emerald made her way into the manor. Unlike the front grounds the inside of the property was a sight to behold. Gentle light was given off by gas lamps and a roaring fire in the fireplace that was almost as big as the wall itself. So pretty damn big. The lighting would have come off as eerie if it wasn’t for the warm color scheme of the décor. Inviting reds and browns gave off a cozy feeling. The furnishings were all relatively new as well as some of the rooms that had been added to accommodate certain expected guests.

Passing the parlor, the living area, and up the extravagant staircase, Emerald traveled towards a room at the very end of the long hallway at the stair’s base. Reaching the door to the master bedroom, she knocked gently and waited.

“Enter,” a voice from inside the room called. Opening the door slowly, Emerald peered in. The room was ridiculously huge. It was practically the size of a house. The bed was bigger than a carriage with an extravagant canopy with red and gold velvet drapes, there was an entire parlor set next to a lite fireplace, and the most fantastic part of the room was sitting in the antique armchair; the owner of the voice, Cinder Fall.

She waited for her underling to enter and gestured for Emerald to take the seat across from her. Shifting position, Cinder leaned forward in anticipation for a good report. She knit her fingers of which she used to rest her chin.

“I take it you took care of our alley’s problem,” the boss lady inquired.

“Merc took him out and I cleaned up the rest,” Emerald said as she plopped onto the mini-sofa across from the armchair. “I expected more of a fight but he was put down easily.”

“Good,” Cinder smiled sinisterly. “I have another assignment for the two of you when Mercury finishes his report. As well as Roman.”

“Uh!” Em groaned. “I can’t stand that guy!”

The door flew open.

“You don’t have to stand me if you’re already sitting, Emmy. And you do know what they say about the devil and all that,” a booming, cocky voice chimed in. Roman Torchwich was leaning against the door frame.

“Did anyone teach you to knock and wait to be invited before entering a lady’s room?!” Emerald exclaimed, getting up from her seat to confront the man.

“Well, all I see in here are you and the boss; you barely qualify as a ‘lady’ in my book, sweetheart. And I wouldn’t just barge in if it were only Cinder. I’m not stupid and I’m sure as hell not suicidal. Plus, I was invited.” He shouldered past Emerald and took his seat on the sofa. Taking out his lighter, he lit a cigar and puffed smoke in the girl’s general direction.

“Be nice, Roman,” Cinder said while giving him a bit of a stern look. “She means well. And you could do with showing a little more respect.” The criminal looked semi-nervously at the woman’s hands before taking another puff.

“Dually noted,” he replied as he crossed his legs and tipped his hat.

There was a silence as the three waited for Mercury. Emerald had sat back down on the sofa, doing her best to sit as far away from Roman as possible. Which, given the size of the furnishing, was proving difficult.

There was another knock at the door and the silver assassin was summoned in.

“I’ll stand,” he insisted after seeing the less than ideal seating arrangement. He didn’t want to get tightly sandwiched in between those two. And he knew that if he made a “you can always sit on my lap, Em” joke, she would probably not like him more at that moment and most likely stab him. He didn’t feel like stitching up another slash wound. When tensions and emotions were high, ‘friendly fire’ was more common than Roman having a snarky comment.

“All of you are aware of our special guest, Miss Nikos?” Cinder quizzed as she lounged back in her seat. Her audience nodded in reply. “She’s currently… tied up.”

“Good,” Mercury said while crossing his arms. “My ribs still hurt…”

“I’ve tried ‘explaining’ her current situation to her but she’s being rather difficult. Emerald, I would appreciate it if you did your best to get her to understand her place here. And Mercury… I may need you to fix her with some new,” a smile twisted onto her face, “feet.”

“I’ll get my guy on it. What is she? Like an 8.5? It doesn’t really matter but I know how much of a pain it is to buy new shoes,” he quipped as he took a pen out of his back pocket and scribbled on his hand.

“As for you Roman, I need you and your partner to go retrieve a certain young lady,” Cinder pulled a bound up blueprint from behind her chair, handing it to the criminal. He unrolled the sheet and looked it over carefully. His face changed to match Cinder’s smile, twisted and extremely entertained.

“What an impressive young lady… I’m assuming very sheltered and probably highly flammable if put in the right position?” he looked over the blueprint with a wicked look in his eyes.

“I’d rather her be in one piece, but do what you must to get her here.” Cinder stood from her seat, causing the others who weren’t already to rise. “You have your assignments. Try not to fail me.” She looked Emerald dead in the eyes. “The most important thing as of now is getting those shoes off of Miss Nikos’ feet. I want those shoes, Emerald.” A fire burned in her eyes. “You’re all dismissed,” she said with a flick of her wrist.

Following her order, each member scattered to their respective mission. Back into the hall, Neo was waiting for her companion outside patiently. Seeing them exit, she perked up and glided to Roman’s side. He gave her the rundown of what they were to do, and she clung to his arm as he showed her the blueprints he’d been given.

Emerald and Mercury made their way down a corridor and to door at the far end. It didn’t lead to any room, just a tight spiraling staircase. They climbed up the stairs that almost seemed to be endless. It took them a long while until they finally reached the top. At the end of the climb was a guard in front of a knob-less door with a large lever next to it. Upon seeing the two, and knowing they had the proper clearance, the extremely muscly guard pulled the lever and the door slid upwards. Em and Merc walked inside the room and the door dropped with a loud thud. It shook the room slightly.

It was a small, simple room that was barely livable. So, it was rather fitting for a temporary prison for their ‘honored’ equally as temporary prisoner. Pyrrha Nikos struggled in her bindings atop the bed she was forced to lay upon. Her eyes looked at the two mercenaries and she mumbled something in Greek. Not paying attention to the top half of the girl, Mercury went straight to the foot of the bed to look at, well, her feet. A nervous look overcame Pyrrha’s face as he tugged on the shoes and picked up her feet by the heels.

“You can’t get them off,” she protested weakly. “You’re leader already tried…”

“Oh. I’m not trying to get them off, Graecus. I’ve just doing what the boss lady asked of me. On an unrelated note, what’s your opinion on phantom limb pain? Personally it’s a real bitch but you’ll get you used to it,” he chatted. His face bore a wicked grin. Pyrrha’s eyes widened, then looked at Emerald for some sign of comfort but she just looked the other way.

“What are you going to do exactly?” the warrior didn’t sound brave anymore. Worry and almost fear could be heard in her voice. That only fueled Mercury’s snarky yet amusingly cruel explaining.

“Oh, nothing much. Just if you can get these snazzy shoes off those feet of yours… Well. I’m afraid the feet are going to have to go.” He held up his hands palms flat. “And before you say anything, it’s not so bad having prosthetics. I’ve been there and trust me they really work to your advantage. Everyone is going for the half robot look now-a-days. It’s all the rage.”

Pyrrha had long since tuned him out after the fact that they were going to CUT OFF HER FEET. Many questions rushed around in her head. Would that kill her for good? Would her weak point be removed with no consequence? If she no longer had the untouched heel would she be fully immortal? How far had she gotten at wriggling her hands free from her bindings? No matter how she looked at it, this situation was very, very bad. The warrior was trapped in a room completely devoid of metal so her powers of polarity were useless. She was constantly guarded and only allowed to get up once every few hours. And all she had to look at was the four bare walls and her own reflection. It was safe to say that things were not going very well.

“What my ally is trying to say,” Emerald snapped Pyrrha back into the conversation, “is that if you don’t want us to have to amputate, then you’ll take off those shoes.”

“I told you! I tried! If I’d known I couldn’t take them off then I wouldn’t have put them on in the first place!” Pyrrha struggled leaning forward to properly address her captors.

“Well, we tried,” Mercury shrugged. “More fun for us.” He scribbled down something on his hand and headed towards the door. Knocking and called for the guard, it opened and he left Emerald and their ‘guest’ alone as he went to go place an order with his ‘prosthetics guy’ (which amazed most that he even had a guy for that).

Em dragged the lone chair, spun it around, and straddled the seat. She used the back as a perch for her arms. Looking down at the girl, she couldn’t help but think of how pointless it would be to keep her around after they got what they needed. What use would they have for a hero? Get a ransom or use her as a bargaining chip? There wasn’t even a guarantee that the Wizard would risk anything for one of his blind sheep.

“He’s taken your place,” Emerald broke the silence. “That kid you seemed attached to took over your mission. And,” she smirked down at the girl, “without even knowing it, he’s helping us.” She waited for what kind of reaction she’d receive.

“You used your illusions on him as well?”

Emerald nodded.

Unexpectedly, the warrior let out a dry laugh. This was a little surprising to the assassin. “I wonder what he saw…” Not knowing how to respond tauntingly to that, Emerald just told her exactly what the illusion entailed.

“He wouldn’t shut up about getting ‘you’ help,” Em for some reason felt like she needed to mention. “You must really have that boy under your thumb.”

“The opposite actually. He’s just like that by nature… Like I had mentioned to you before, I’m invisible to him… And I’m still wondering if that’s a blessing or a curse. Aphrodite loves watching us heroes suffer like that….” Pyrrha laughed dryly again. Her thoughts and mind were clearly drifting someplace else.

Emerald looked away from the girl uncomfortably. She hadn’t expected that kind of response. But, remembering what she had been given the task of doing, Emerald stood up and walked to the side of the bed. She was now looming over Pyrrha.

“Let me make something clear,” the assassin began. “You may be ‘gifted by the gods’ or whatever, but there are much more powerful people in our ranks. You, well, aren’t as impressive as you think you are. Try and escape, and I won’t hesitate to shoot you down. Cinder might want to use you for whatever she pleases but I know how worthless you really are without those shoes. Once we have them, you are easily expendable. Remember that.” Not giving the prisoner a chance to speak, Em pivoted towards the door and made her exit, leaving Pyrrha alone in thought.

Em walked past the guard and was halfway down the steps before she stopped. Nothing was in her way. She just needed a breather. It had been a long day and she really didn’t have a ‘safe’ place to just think. To just be. Looking back over her shoulder to where she had come from, Emerald wondered if what she had told the prisoner was true. Would she really be killed off after they got what they wanted? She had mostly told her that so she wouldn’t do or say anything to challenge Cinder’s authority. Emerald knew for a fact that if their leader was tested hard enough she could kill them all if she so desired. Even though she looked up to her, it was mostly in fear and a necessity to show her respect.

Emerald’s thoughts and emotions were confused and conflicted. Push it down, she told herself. No use letting it all swirl around in my head when I can just deal with it after the fact. She kept on walking and just left all her doubt on those steps. She had to keep following orders. That’s all she could do at this point. There wasn’t much room for turning back now

---

It had been a few days since the book shop. Mercury had come back to the manor with a pair of full-leg prosthetics. “No use just cutting off JUST the feet! Chopping off above the knee is much more effective; more of a trophy and less of a chance she can run off right off the bat. Or a higher probability she would bleed out faster. Jupiter knows, I wouldn’t mind a ‘twin’ and/or the death of a graecus from major blood loss.” He gave a double thumbs up. Emerald just ignored his antics. It was bad enough she had to work with him, but being forced to listen to him was unnerving. He was way too chipper about the fact that they were going to amputate limbs.

Moments later Roman and Neo had returned with an unconscious girl who was less of a limp noodle and more of a bent angle. He passed her off to two members of the White Fang, who then struggled to carry her up the stairs to her own ‘guest room’. Now with two ginger prisoners, both being essential to whatever plan Ozpin was cooking up, and a camp fill of terrorists and stolen dust, things were going swimmingly.

Chapter Text

When Penny woke up she was pleasantly surprised with her surroundings. First off, she was lying in a fluffy bed of pillows and stuffed animals. The pillows were pink and light green, and some were shaped like hearts and flowers. Looking her in the eyes when she awoke was a cute stuffed beowolf. It was tiny and nonthreatening.

Upon sitting up, Penny observed her room further. It was fairly large with the most wonderful things contained within it! There were shelves full of picture books, a large chest of toys that was almost overflowing, and a table filled with snacks; cotton candy, ice cream that wasn’t all melty somehow, cakes and cookies, and many other sweets. The young girl could hardly believe her eyes!

In a comfy looking armchair next to the book nook, Roman sat reading something to the girl he called Neo. He had been midsentence when he noticed the mechanical girl struggling to get up from her pillow ‘prison’. Closing the book, much to his companion’s dismay, and standing to his feet, Roman greeted their ‘guest’.

“Good morning, Copper Top!” he said with that plastered on smile. “Welcome to the fun room! What did I tell you? Pretty amazing, right?” He extended his arms to show off the room.

“So this is a ‘carnival’?” Penny asked once she finally made it to her feet.

“To an extent… More like a Paese dei Balocchi. Anyways, have some snacks and have some fun! Hey, Neo! Show our friend a good time, would ya?”

Following Roman’s orders, Neo took Penny by the hand and dragged her over to the table of sweets. Hesitant at first, Penny picked up a fluff of cotton candy the size of her head. She nibbled it down until it was no more, and then moved on to a giant slice of chocolate cake. Neo joined in with a big ‘boat’ of ice cream; Neapolitan ice cream, of course. They kept snacking and you’d think that they would run out, but men in ‘masquerade’ masks made sure the table never went empty.

Roman excused himself, saying he had to go meet someone elsewhere, and asked Neo to entertain dear little Penny. Her nod said “yes” but her smile said something very unladylike and that they would have a nice little ‘talk’ once she could slip away. Noting this he kindly asked one of the White Fang members to make sure she didn’t do that. He liked not having an icepick like wound in his abdomen.

Even after he left, Penny had a wonderful time. Time didn’t seem to pass normally. It might have been since there were no windows or clocks to show how long she had been there. But, once she finished her third slice of cake and her large pint of fizzy drink, she was too full to care. She and her new ‘friends’ gathered together for book reading, and then for a tea party. It was the most fun Penny had had in… well, ever. She normally didn’t have anyone besides guards and soldiers to do these things with her. And they were usually very open with their disinterest. But each of her companions were smiling and enjoying in the sweets and activities.

Soon, the feeling Penny had experienced when first meeting the two kind strangers overcame her again and she powered down. One of the White Fang members who was wearing a top hat for the formal tea time, carried her over to the pillow pile with the help of his comrade in the floppy sunhat. Neo slipped out when they weren’t noticing and went on the hunt for Roman. If she was going to be stuck with that ‘thing’ for another minute, she was going to have him stuck with her. Sharing or causing suffering was HER thing. She rather didn’t care for it being aimed at her unless she was allowed to return the favor…

---

Roman wasn’t ‘hiding’ per say from entertaining their new guest. He was simply focusing on the other tasks at hand. One of which was keeping up good relations with the terrorists living in the front yard. They had a tendency to get a little vexed when they didn’t get enough attention. Rather childish, but what could be said; they were a bunch of animals… Although Roman tried very, very hard not to say that to their faces. He liked living more than he let on. Dancing with possible death was one thing, but slapping death in the face and calling it a whore was a whole different ball park.

He had been doing a good job with rallying up the ‘troops’ and even in getting new members to join the cause. Going village to village for secret rallies, he shared his hatred for humans (which wasn’t as ‘faux’ as most of his compatriots at first believed, he really did think humans were the absolute worst) and got the young, moldable minds of the faunus. He had some of them hanging onto his every word and, for lack of a better analogy, had them practically eating out of his hand.

But the fun avoiding work came to an end when Neo kicked him in the back of the knees for his undying attention. He fell face first to the floor and almost broke his nose. The pint-sized (pun intended) assassin loomed over her partner with a very stern glare plastered on her porcelain face. He had the sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t be able to sweet talk his way out of suffering her wrath. He was correct.

Neo grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up to meet her eyes. He was standing on his knees slightly hunched. Without her even saying a word he knew exactly what she was angry about.

“…damn Perry,” he cursed under his breath. “Look, Neo. I’m sorry I left you alone like that but I had some other business, you know how it goes. The strays in the yard were barking a little too loudly so I had to throw them a bone. Can’t have them waking up the missus. …you’re not buying this are you?”

Her expression never changing, she shook her head and tightened her grasp. Roman was finding it a little harder to breath but he could work through that. “Listen, I promise I’ll find someone to help you out with Copper Top- Emerald!” he called from across the hall as he spotted the minty assassin in the corner of his eye. She had stopped to observe the scene, a dumbfounded look plastered her face. She knew now she had to run, but before she could, Neo and Roman quickly got to her and pinned her in a corner. She was trapped by the two.

“Say, Emmy-”

“Do NOT call me ‘Emmy’,” Emerald growled.

“Fine, fine. Anyways, Neo and I had a favor to ask of you. Since you’re soooooo good at taking care of our other guest, we thought it would be fun for you to pay our redhead a visit. I did promise her a magician and well, with your illusions you could entertain the runt for a good few hours before the drugs kick in again. It would be easy!”

“You know using my semblance drains my energy. I can’t always do your job for you, Roman.” That jab stung a little but he decided to take the hit to avoid one from Neo later on.

“Listen, punk. It’ll only take an hour or so. We need a break from little miss nuts, bolts, and freckles for just a little while. Look at poor Neo. She definitely needs a break.”

Emerald looks down at the very on edge assassin. She was usually smiling with malice but now all she looked was pissed off. That was never a good sign. Ever. With a moment of silence to think, Emerald let out a sigh and agreed. But, she made abundantly clear, for only an hour and nothing more. She still had a prisoner to deal with. Without her around, Mercury would jump the gun and play magician of his own. And he wasn’t trained enough to reattach sawed off legs. Once she agreed, Neo’s face melted back into a smile as she dragged off Roman to a nearby room. She slammed the door and a locking sound could be heard.

Em really did not want to know what was going on behind that closed door.

---

Penny woke up again, this time to see a new lady in her room. Struggling to get up once again, she slipped on a pillow and fell even deeper into the mountain of fluff. The woman came over and helped Penny up while introducing herself.

“Did someone call for a,” she rolled her eyes while saying the last part, “’magician’?”

Penny nodded furiously and clapped her hands together. “Oh yay! I’ve never seen a magician before! Except for Ms. Glynda, but she’s different.”

Emerald faked a smile and sat the girl over in the reading nook. She sat across from her and took out one of the wordier of the books. Em began to read as she used her semblance to put on a show for Penny. It started off with the illusion of simple tricks like pulling a stuffed Grimm out of a hat and making a stack of books levitate. She even pulled a copper coin out of Penny’s ear, which really amused her. More tricks were ‘preformed’, and Penny clapped and cheered.

After exactly an hour and the last trick displayed in the girl’s mind, Emerald told Penny to go eat some more cake. Complying, the girl grabbed a slice and went to her ‘tea time’ table to enjoy it with a cup of oolong. It didn’t take long for her to begin to nod off and pass out. Not being as ‘compassionate’ as the terrorists that were taking care of her when Em arrived, she left Penny asleep at the table. Bookmarking her page, she left the book in the chair and exited out the door hidden behind the cotton candy machine.

Closing the door behind her, she was greeted by Roman. “How’s the little angel doing? Did she enjoy her time with Aunty Em?”

Emerald glared at her ‘ally’. “She’s sedated. And don’t expect me to babysit your problem again. I’ve got enough to deal with upstairs.”

“Ah, yes. ‘That champion’, Pyrrha Nikos… Isn’t Mercury up there with her now? He seemed happy about something. I wonder what…”

“He’s WHAT?!” Emerald bolted off like a flash towards the town entrance. Roman laughed at the sight. Neo popped out from seemingly nowhere and leaned up against his side.

“Ah!” he pulled back. “Easy now, icy-pop! Or did you forget about beating me up pretty badly earlier?” She gave him a sinisterly sweet look and poked him in the ribs only to watch him squirm.

She signed something to him and gave a little wink.

“No, I do not want you to ‘kiss and make it better’. I want you to go get Perry and send him my way so I can kick his ass! …and so he can watch the kid. You and I need to go to another rally tonight. Ready to rile up some dumb faunus?” Neo nodded gladly and skipped off to go find their goon.

Taking out a cigar, Roman went for his lighter but found nothing. “Oh that little thief,” he muttered as he patted himself down.

---

Emerald played with the lighter as she climbed up the steps. She handed it off to the guard as she ordered him to open up the door. She wasn’t stupid. Taking metal into the room specifically designed and built to hold a user of polarity? Cinder would murder her if she did something that careless.

The door thudded behind her as she saw Mercury looming over Pyrrha. From what she could see, the warrior’s feet were still attached. The silver assassin looked over to his partner. “Oh hey, Em. What brings you up here so soon? I was spending some quality time with little Miss Perfect, here. Did you know she’s practically immortal? I keep trying to do some small incisions but they just won’t stick!” He gestured to the girl’s now bare thighs. There were no signs of cuts or wounds, just plain ol’ skin. “Her mom must have been one paranoid bitch because these legs aren’t going anywhere. How did she do it? Some kind of deal with the gods or something?” He poked Pyrrha in the face a little with the blade in his hands. It drew a little blood but the wound quickly healed up. She stayed silent.

He took the blade and rammed it into one of her thighs. Pyrrha wailed in agony. Even though she was practically invincible, that didn’t mean she was free from pain. The wound desperately tried to heal, almost pushing out the blade if it weren’t for Mercury forcing it to stay in her flesh. Emerald just watched on, taking the sole seat in the claustrophobic room.

Suddenly, the knife was thrown across the room, flying into the mirror causing it to shatter.

Metal.

Before Pyrrha could do more, Mercury held down her squirming body. He uncorked a vial with a strange pink liquid and poured its contents into her mouth. She struggled but with him clasping over her nose and mouth, all she could do to not drown was swallow. Her pupil dilated and she faded into a weaken state.

“Not so tough without your aura, huh, graecus?” he chuckled as he let go of her now limp body. “Now I’m going to ask again nicely, why are you so damn hard to ‘kill’, βασιλοπούλα (princess/king’s daughter)?” He went to retrieve the knife from bits of broken glass, and picked up a large shard for good measure. He walked back over, both sharp objects in hand.

Pyrrha looked unafraid. Even when he plunged both the blade and the glass into her upper thighs. She grunted through her teeth, pushing herself through the blinding pain. Her eyes never left his as he did it. She didn’t plan on telling him anything or giving into any of their demands. Although she was destined to die, she was going to put up as much of a fight as she could.

“Πηγαίνετε επιμείνω στα Τάρταρα (Go dwell in Tartarus),” she spat out looking him dead in the eyes, and meant every word. She had never said that to anyone before in her life, let alone wished that fate upon anyone. Mercury just cackled and dug the knife and shard in deeper until they almost poked out the other side of her limbs.

“Give it a rest, Merc,” Emerald finally piped in. “This is a good thing isn’t it? We can peel the shoes off without having to deal with some rotting feet stinking up the place and attracting more Grimm than we already have to deal with. You can ‘play’ with her more later after you get a refund on those nice new legs you bought your ‘date’ here.”

“Oh yeah…,” he said pulling out the knife but still leaving the glass. “Almost forgot about that. By the way, graecus, you own me a lot, and I mean a lot, of lien once you can actually be useful. Ok, βασιλοπούλα?” He patted her on head even though he was pretty sure there was a good chance she would bite his hand. Luckily, she took her humility like a champ.

Em got up from her chair, avoiding the glass on the floor. The two assassins made their way out and ordered the guard to clean up. He did as instructed and was able to pick up most of the glass. Although he left the shard in Pyrrha’s leg untouched for obvious reasons. Just as quickly as he had entered, the Grimm masked individual left with the collection of glass leaving only an empty wooden frame.

The door slammed shut and Pyrrha was all alone.

However, although one of her few things to interact with was taken away, she had gained something new. Something that could brighten up her seemingly lightless situation. Something she had used the last ounce of her semblance to take from the guard.

She had Roman Torchwick’s lighter.

---

Penny woke up again to see a very pretty lady in a red dress sitting in the armchair as Roman and Neo sat at the tea time table.

“Hello, Penny Polendina,” she said, smiling charmingly. “Roman told you that you could see a ‘fire breather’, correct?” Penny nodded excitedly. “Well, he wasn’t completely honest-”

“Perish the thought,” Roman said pretending to be offended.

“I’m not exactly a fire breather,” she continued on. She snapped her fingers and a small flame came to life in her hand. Penny’s eyes widened in awe. “But I can show you a good show.”

Hamming it up, Roman cupped his hands over his mouth and did his best announcer voice. “Ladies and gents, boys, girls, and sentient life of all ages, introducing the one – the only – the magnificent fire bender and all around strongest woman I know, Cinder Fall.”

With a flourished motion of her arms, Cinder created an image of a dragon made of flames. It flew around the room and danced in the air. It was an amazing display that transfixed Penny’s attention. Any questions she had about where she truly was or when she would return to her party in the woods, even her fear of angering General Ironwood and getting back in time before he realized she was gone had disappeared. Penny was just having too much fun.

But in another part of the manor another fire was burning. Rope and an old, worn down mattress had been set aflame. A small stack of smoke trickled out underneath the doorway. The guard opened it up only to be knocked out by the other prisoner. The fire was quickly smothered with the blanket on the bed. The shard of glass was ripped out of the prisoner’s leg and held in her now bleeding hand. She took it and sliced off her ponytail, stuffing the long hair into the pillow case. Taking the armor and clothing off the guard, leaving him only in his undergarments, Pyrrha changed into her disguise. Doing something like this was outside her character but it was what needed to be done to escape. Or at least attempt to.

Wishing she still had the mirror to see how convincing she hopefully looked, Pyrrha pulled the Grimm mask over her face, and made sure the guard’s weapon and keys were safely fastened onto the belt she now wore. Not knowing what to do with the lighter she kept it in the pant pocket from which it had been taken.

Taking a deep breath, and making a small prayer to every and any god she could think of that could give her good favor in this situation, Pyrrha set off down the stairs in hopes that she could blend in with the other White Fang members. She hoped that she could make it at least as far as she could to the nearest exit, until her aura could replenish, and she could fight the rest of the way.

Chapter Text

It was surprising to Pyrrha how normal the members of the White Fang appeared. Despite the ominous Grimm masks, they all seemed like normal soldiers; walking and talking like those who had strong comradery would. But that didn’t lessen the warrior’s tensions. Although she had managed to escape her prison, it wouldn’t take long before her absence would be discovered. She had only made it to what she assumed was the second floor, and other than the small flintlock pistol she had no practice in using, Pyrrha was practically defenseless.

Upon entering the hallway, she sensed the special metal of her weapon and shield, Miló and Akoúo̱. They were in the room at the very end of the hall. It felt like it was a million miles away as the young warrior walked towards it. She was just about to reach for the knob as she heard footsteps coming from behind.

“You’re not supposed to be here!” a booming male voice called. Turning around quickly, Pyrrha was met by two armored faunus. “Seriously, what are you doing here?” The faunus who had stopped her crossed his arms. He seemed to be a wolf faunus, and a big one at that. Next to him was a stag faunus who looked her up and down.

“You must be one of the new recruits,” said the stag. Pyrrha nodded and kept her eye level low. She really didn’t need to draw too much more attention to herself. Showing a small sign of inferiority always seemed to deceive whomever she was avoiding, giving them a false sense of power.

“Well, new or not, you really shouldn’t be up here. The lieutenant won’t be very happy to see anyone snooping around. Say…,” the wolf sniffed the air. “You smell kinda… familiar?” He stepped a little closer. “Kinda like… Marcus… but isn’t he guarding one of the- oh.” Pyrrha almost though she had been until the wolf practically howled in laughter.

“That sly dog! You must be Fianait, right? Marcus’s girlfriend?”

Pyrrha decided to nod in agreement and smile sweetly, trying to hid her nervousness. “Yes, that’s me. I was just visiting him. He gets very lonely staying stuck up there guarding the tower.” Clearly the faunus in front of her took that as something much less innocent than what she had intended, but her deception had managed to be convincing enough.

“Well don’t sneak up there too often, alright? Those humans we’re forced to partner with aren’t very understanding. I saw one guy leaving from there with blood all over his hands…,” the stag said as a shiver went up his spine. “Try to keep your personal time to a minimum. It’s bad enough we have to say around these stinking humans, but it’s even worse that they are calling the shots, at least in here.”

The two faunus offered to walk with Pyrrha back to the camp but she declined. She fumbled around with some sort of excuse about her forgetting something up with Marcus and they left without her, each giving a wink and a chuckle. She was once again alone in the hall. Putting her ear to the door, Pyrrha listened for anything and anyone.

From what she could hear there was no one in the room. She quickly opened the door and didn’t even bother going inside. Using her polarity, she summoned her weapons from where they had been hidden. They rushed from across the room into her hands. She compacted Miló best she could and hid it under her armor. As for her shield, she snagged one of the drapes and wrapped it tightly, concealing the gold with the faded red fabric.

Pyrrha didn’t have too much time to ask herself if she was making herself more conspicuous. Dashing down the hall, the warrior made her way to the staircase. She skipped every other step as she ran down it. She was almost to the massive front doors when she was stopped yet again.

“Hey you!” a commanding voice said causing her to stop. She turned around slowly to see a man smoking a cigar. “Pick up this box to load on the carriage!” He pointed the cane in his hand towards a crate. Not wanting to make a scene, she silently nodded and did as instructed. The box was heavy and even heavier when the man put another on top. Pyrrha followed him out the doors and into what she assumed to be a war camp, which she did not expect to see. There were so many soldiers in the same uniform she had ‘borrowed’, all wearing the Grimm masks. It seemed to work well enough in her favor. That was, until an enraged voice yelled from the front steps.

“Pyrrha Nikos has escaped!” the faunus called Marcus huffed in the doorway. No one bothered making fun of him being only in his underwear, but rather took up arms and frantically looked around for the prisoner.

“Don’t just stand there!” the smoking man knocked on the side of the boxes. “Get it on the carriage and then start looking!” He pushed her towards to her destination, causing her to almost drop what she was carrying.

Dumping the crates next to the other crates and boxes, Pyrrha observed what she could through the now chaos. There was a huge gate in the center of the wall bordering the property. She weighed what would be easier to do; rush to the gate and try her way with what guards were outside, or try and hide amongst the other White Fang members for a while-

“I can smell here! She’s near the gate!” one of the faunus exclaimed. This faunus had been one of the many surrounding Marcus who had a lock of Pyrrha’s hair in his hands. She temporarily overlooked the fact that some faunus were extremely good trackers.

The first option became the only option.

Knocking over one of the crates, dust crystals spilled out across the ground in front of her. She took out Miló and converted it into his shotgun form. She aimed and shot at the fire dust crystals. Before any of the terrorists or the man with the cigar could realizes who she actually was, a wall of fire engulfed the area near the gate. Lunging deeply, Pyrrha leapt over the wall. She left a thick mist surround her as she passed the top.

Upon landing, she felt as though she was in a completely different world. Glancing back behind her, the wall was completely covered in foliage. She wouldn’t have believed that a battle camp was hidden behind if not for her once being on the other side. Or the fact that loud yells and orders were being barked from behind the greenery. From the trees and bushes around her, faunus popped out and took fighting stances. Pyrrha took her own and uncovered Akoúo̱, putting it close to her chest in defense. She eyed the space between two faunus directly in front of her. She knew that she had to conduct a strategic retreat, otherwise her enemies behind the wall might over power her once they get past the fire.

Taking a runner’s stance, Pyrrha charged towards her opponents. One of the faunus from her far right prepared to strike with their claws while the two in front drew swords. Using her control of polarity, the warrior shifted the metal weapons away from their target (her) and moved her shield to block the threat she could not control. It all happened at once; the ones wielding swords were driven off course and their blades were thrust into nearby trees. The other attacker was deflected but still at large. Pyrrha danced with them, continuously dodging the sharp claws. She did so while backing away in the direction of her escape.

Stopping for a moment to take one of the hits, as it impacted her shield, she faked an attack only to lower herself and knock the faunus off their feet. Taking advantage of the disoriented and struggling opponents, she ran off deep into the wood. From behind she could feel a strong fire. She could almost see the bright red glow in the corner of her eye. She had no time to look back to see if it was her doing or someone more powerful… One of her captors did say there were those much stronger than she. Pyrrha shook her head and kept running. She had no idea where she was going, but she figured if she ran in a straight direction long enough she would reach a town. There she could find assistance and possibly a speedy way to the Emerald City.

---

“What kind of town is called ‘Hjemby’? That’s a little overkill,” a girl clothed almost completely in mail said. She cocked one of her hips to the side, placed her hands on both, and looked back at her travel companion.

“Well it’s pronounced, ‘家乡’ but I guess you’re right about the name,” the companion stated. He readjusted the comically large pack on his back that wrinkled his changshan, and kept pulling his long ponytail.

“So what is it we’re here for? Grimm attack? Oh! Is it a pack of Beowolves? No! Is it an army of Ursa?” she spat out questions with anticipation in her eyes.

“Just thugs,” he said crushing his friend’s excitement. “But we get to help a sheriff.” He wore a huge smile.

“Oh you and your weird ‘warrior’s way’ thing. How does being a junior sheriff or deputy or whatever help you become a true warrior exactly?” The girl skipped along down the dirt road leading to the small town.

“It intrigues me,” he vaguely stated, his smile never faltering. His partner just shrugged as they walked into the place called ‘Hometown’.

The town looked like a stereotypical old west town, except it was a lot sadder looking. There was only three buildings; the saloon, the sheriff/mayor’s office, and the general store. A few townsfolk walked around glumly. Any who noticed the travelers simply ignored them and walked in the other direction they took.

The pair entered the combined authority office and saw a man with a Fu Manchu moustache asleep at the sole desk in the far end of the ramshackle building. As the door slammed shut unintentionally behind them, the man fell out of his seat and clambered up to his feet, his hand shakily holding a sad looking pistol.

“We’re here to see Mayor Jang…,” the long haired young man stated eyeing the pistol.

“Who’s asking?” the man boomed nervously.

“I am the vakker kriger dronning, Nora Valkyrie and this edel kriger is Lie Ren!” the girl exclaimed.

“Oh…,” the man lowered his pistol and dumped it on the table with a huge sigh of relief. Straightening out his wrinkled and stained vest, he became a lot more friendly. “Thank goodness, you all are here. I am Mayor Jang. It is a pleasure to meet you! I am so glad you came so quickly! As you might have seen, this town does not have much to offer outside of a saloon… So you can see the problem with it being taken over by strangers. I haven’t had a drink in two weeks. And considering the stress I’ve been under, I’ve really needed one…” He slumped back into his seat and motioned the two to come forward. They sat in the less than sturdy chairs in front of the desk. Nora’s broke from the heavy weight of her mail. She crossed her legs and took comfort on the floor.

“We were informed we would be working alongside the local sheriff,” Ren stated as he looked around the combined office. There was a small jail cell sandwiched in with what appeared to be a waiting room.

“Oh, right!” the mayor exclaimed. He turned around the name plate on his desk from the side that read “MAYOR” to “SHERIFF”.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Nora said loudly from below.

“I know… But after budget cuts we couldn’t pay a real law man to take care of the non-existent ruffians that are ‘normally’ wandering about. Before now we had the lowest crime rate in all of Vale… The only reason we were able to hire you two was because you seemed so willing. And that you would work for food… Let me assure you Ms. Belinda makes the world’s best apple pie! So hopefully that will be-”

“EPELPAI!” Nora shot up from the floor. “You’ve got yourself a deal!”

“Hold on, Nora,” Ren spoke up. “I have one other condition.” With a very serious expression, he leaned forward and looked the mayor dead in the eyes. “I want the badge.”

“Um… It’s yours?” Jang replied as he unfastened something that was hidden underneath his vest. He placed a rusty, bent star badge on the desk. Ren took it immediately and pinned it over his heart. He beamed with pride and followed his already departing partner out the door which they had entered.

They took a few steps out into the street and were instantly in front of the saloon doors.

“This really is a small town,” Ren mentioned before Nora busted the door open, knocking it clean off its hinges. All the thugs’ heads turned to face the pair. They did not look happy.

Nora strolled up to the semi-shell-shocked bartender and slammed her fist onto the counter.

“Give me a pint!”

“Nora.”

“Give me some milk! In a dirty glass!”

Ren planted his face in his hand.

The thug to her right let out a strong laugh. “What brings a lady like you to a place like this?” he asked amused.

“Business,” she said before chugging down 2% milk from a slightly smudged glass the bartender had slid in front of her. “Hey, Ren~!” she cooed. “Magnhild, please!”

Ren dumped his absurdly large pack with a loud THUD and struggled to pull out a giant hammer. With an impatient sigh, Nora stomped over and lifted the hammer with ease. She slung it around her shoulder and it spun around her neck before it slammed into the floor. It shook the whole building, and forced all the thugs out of their seats. They all stumbled up to their feet, drawing concealed weapons like knives and pistols. Nora just laughed. With a swing of her hammer, she was able to knock three of the men up over the table where they sat and into the nearest wall. By this point Ren had unholstered his twin handguns and took aim for the thugs’ weapons. Not missing a beat, he was able to disarm everyone in the room just in time for them to be flown back by his partner’s hammer.

Within seconds the bar was filled with half-conscious men moaning on the floor. Digging through the bag once more, Ren pulled out a long stretch of rope and began tying up the ruffians while Nora ordered them more milk. It had been a normal job well done. Although the more formally dressed of the two was disappointed that his childhood friend stole the show. This was his only chance to use the ‘new sheriff in town’ line. But now no one was coherent enough to hear it.

They took their drinks and the bartender ran out to go spread the good news. The saloon was soon flooded with gleeful townspeople and homemade pie. This made Nora very happy.

---

Pyrrha had been running for what seemed like hours, but that was probably just her exhaustion talking. She hadn’t stopped moving. Finding a village was taking a lot longer than she had hoped. The people who had taken her made very sure they couldn’t be easily found, so of course that meant being in the middle of nowhere. Even from all the running, her much sought after shoes were keeping her feet comfortable. Although that couldn’t be said for the rest of her. Even though she was almost immortal, she still had a human body. The warrior was hungry and dehydrated. If she didn’t find food or fresh water soon she would-

Pyrrha smelt the most delicious aroma she had ever smelt in her life. That might have been an overstatement, but she didn’t care. Changing course she made her way towards the smell.

---

Nora was on her third pie when a girl her age collapsed onto the saloon floor. The two unofficial hunters quickly ran to her side, dropping their forks in the process. Ren checked her pulse and breath, and took comfort in the fact that she was still with the living. They instructed the bartender to get some water as fast as he could. Complying, the bartender poured a glass and as Ren held the woman Nora poured the liquid into her mouth. Soon the strange girl coughed and her eyes fluttered open.

“H..he..lp… pl..ease…,” she coughed. Nora and Ren looked at each other and then back at the girl. At that moment, they had unintentionally taken up their next job.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chapter Text

Three young warriors sat around a table in a small saloon. Empty tins of pie were stacked next to one of the warriors, Nora Valkyrie, and she was nibbling on her fifth whole pie. Her partner Lie Ren was nursing a glass of milk as he overserved their new acquaintance. The last member at their table, Pyrrha Nikos just looked down nervously at a small slice of what the spunky ‘apparently not an official huntress’ called epelpai. She had finally caught her breath and, after uncomfortably giving an explanation of her situation, she was savoring a small moment of peace.

‘So…,” Ren placed his now empty glass in the table and looked at Pyrrha. He cocked an eyebrow. “Shall we head out?”

“What?” Pyrrha said slightly confused. “What do you mean?”

“Going into the Emerald City, of course!” Nora exclaimed, standing up abruptly and slamming her hands on the table. All of the pie tins clattered to the floor. “You need some help taking on terrorists and getting to maybe kind of save the world? We’re your jegere til leie (hunters for hire)!”

“Pardon?”

“What Nora means is that we are here to help,” Ren elaborated. “If you will have us.”

“I couldn’t possibly ask you to join me in such a dangerous-!” Pyrrha was cut off by Nora’s hand covering her mouth.

“Nope! We’re invested! Time to go meet the Wizard!” the spunky girl jumped up on top of the table. Ren guarded his glass from impact as Pyrrha did the same with her plate. “Maybe he can make us real hunters! We would be legal and unstoppable!”

“And we would get a proper payment system,” Ren said while looking up at her companion. The elevated girl nodded in agreement. Flipping off the table and landing with a room shaking thud, Nora picked up Ren by the back of his changshan. She strapped the large pack back onto his back, and picked up a tin of pie for the road. Reluctantly, Pyrrha stood and was immediately whisked away, the three now tightly linked by their arms. Making their way out of the saloon, they were sent off by the grateful townspeople as they made their way to the nearest main road.

They had a lot of ground to cover to catch up with the boy carrying the ‘gift’ meant for the Wizard. And the yellow brick road in front of them wasn’t getting any sorter…

---

MEANWHILE

“You’re an heiress?!” Ruby exclaimed with her jaw completely unhinged and her hands smacked against her cheeks.

“I don’t see how that’s so hard to believe,” Blake said looking up from her book as they kept on walking. “The Schnee Family is known all across Vale, and even further. The real question is how you didn’t know Ruby.”

“She tends to live under a rock,” Yang chuckled as she pat her shocked sister’s head.

“He is a very nice rock named Horacio, thank you very much, and he keeps me safe from debauchery and ending up like Uncle Qrow… At least that’s what dad says.”

“Your dad worries too much. I’m not that bad! And Horacio didn’t protect you from Grimm, or save you from thugs in dark allies,” Qrow said in between drinks from his flask.

“Hey! Horacio was very good at protecting me from Grimm and thugs! You just have to throw him very, VERY hard!”

The group laughed. The ‘big secret’ Weiss had been so worried about wasn’t as big as she had first thought. She was surprised at how ‘not caring’ or nonchalant everyone was. It was… nice. Everyone she ever talked with only accepted or was kind to her because of her family. Weiss had finally met a group of people who like her for herself. She couldn’t help but smile and laugh along with her first real friends.

“Please tell me that no one else has any mind-blowing, earth-shaking secret they aren’t telling me!” Ruby exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air.

Jaune and Blake laughed nervously and avoided the young huntress’s eye contact. They started to sweat slightly.

“Let’s not get too crazy, kiddo. If they have anything they want to tell us they’ll do so when they want to,” her uncle reassured his niece while giving the two nervous teens a wink. “Remember what I always tell you.”

“If you’re going to do something questionable don’t get caught by the cops?”

“…the other thing. The one that’s relevant to what I’m telling you right now.”

“Secrets are like doors; you can pick the lock all you want but it takes someone with the key to truly open it.”

“Wow… did I really say that? I must be smarter than I realize,” Qrow laughed and took another swig.

The group kept walking down the road and the shape of it became less than well kept. Blades of grass and wildflowers peeked up from the cracks of the brick. The trees seemed to grow taller and fuller, canopying over them as they traveled deeper into the wood.

It wasn’t long until they were hearing noises. Distant growling and even louder rustling echoed throughout the area. The group’s formation unconsciously became tighter. Ruby was safely in the center of a sort of protective human circle. Qrow took the lead, both his hands free in case he needed to quickly draw his weapon. The rest of the group did the same.

“Keep an eye out, kiddos,” the huntsman instructed. “This area is known for some pretty nasty Grimm. Lots of Ursa.” Yang shivered at the mention of the bear-like Grimm. But not out of fear; out of excitement. She did not like that particular type of beast at all, however she did love to fight them. Somehow the thought of big, hairy, sad looking creatures reminded her of a particular information broker.

Somewhere out there, Hei “Junior” Xiong sneezed.

“Why would this be such a dangerous place if you have to go through it to get to the Emerald City?” Jaune asked the old crow.

“It’s either to weed out the weak, or to protect the City entrance. Normally hunters like Jimmy or me are around to escort people safely to and from. Usually that involves a heavily armored carriage and ‘happy thoughts’ as protection. But our group consists of an alcoholic and five teenagers. We are very unsafe right now, not gonna lie,” Qrow brushed his fingers through his hair and exhaled deeply. “Just… just stay close.”

Yang took the safety off of Ember Celica. Blake took out a weapon, a thick bladed katana, she had been concealing. Weiss kept her hand on her blade’s hilt, ready to strike. Jaune unsheathed his sword and readied for an attack, but held his shield with a little more purpose. Ruby, still in her protective human shield, just awkwardly waddled around her perimeter. Her eyes were fixated on her uncle’s weapon. She was waiting for something really cool to happen. Or, for her to show off her own super-cool, top-secret “don’t tell dad she has it with her because of what happened last time she used it” weapon.

A bush nearby rustled. They all turned to the source of the noise and all aimed their weapons at the shrubbery. Almost like a sense of déjà vu, a blond individual popped their head out of the bush.

---

SEVERAL MINUTES EARLIER

“We’re lost,” Neptune told his friend who was trailing ahead. He did his best to send him annoyed glares, and imagen his eyes burning a hole in the back of Sun’s head.

“We aren’t lost! You’re over exaggerating!” Sun brushed off his partner as he brushed aside some tree branches. They in turn hit Neptune in the face.

“I swear, this is the same tree from twenty minutes ago.”

“Oh come on! We’re in the woods! All the trees look the same!”

“One; that’s rude and flora-ist. Secondly,” Neptune picked up something that was stuck in the same branch that hit him, “you remember my goggles that I lost the last time you hit me with a tree? Well, I found them. In the same tree!” He waved the accessory in his friend’s face.

“…ok. We’re lost.” Sun flicked his tail and ran his hands through his hair, almost getting them caught up in the tangles. “But I mean it could be worse. Right?”

Neptune just looked at him for a moment.

“Right?” Sun repeated with a little more desperation.

“Do you really want me to answer or was that rhetorical?”

“Well… I mean when you put it like that I guess not… but I’m sure we’re close enough-!”

The two heard noises coming from the distance. They suddenly remembered that this area was filled with Grimm. The two boys crouched down low, back to back, and began to walk in the direction of the possible danger. Using little hand signals, the friends agreed that Sun would go from the front, and that Neptune would come from behind.

The blue haired boy disappeared as the blond faunus snuck into the bushes…
---

NOT LONG AFTER

“I come in peace!” Sun said while standing up from his hiding spot. His hands were in the air in less of a surrender and more of a ‘come ooooon’. Some of them lowered their weapons, while Blake and Weiss still had their blades pointed towards his face. “Nice bow,” Sun made a comment, directing it at Blake with a smile. She looked away nervously and her katana lowered slightly as if something heavy was weighing on her arm.

“Stand down you two,” Qrow ordered while using both his hands to push down the arms of the girls. “If he was an ‘unfriendly’ we would be surrounded by now and outnumbered. Speaking of… Hey kid, you alone?”

“Nope. Hey Neptune! Get your butt out here! They’re not gonna kill us!” He pausing and lowered his voice, “You’re not gonna kill us, right?”

“Depends,” Qrow jokingly replied with a smirk. The boy seemed to respect that.

“I don’t like the sound of that…,” a voice popped up right behind the group. That caused most of them to jump from his sudden appearance.

“How-? When did you-?”

“It’s a secret,” Neptune chuckled while walking to Sun’s side.

“So who are you and where are you off too exactly?” Qrow cut to the chase, taking a sip from his flask seeing as there wasn’t any immediate danger.

The one that had been called Neptune stepped in front of his friend, “I’m Neptune Vasilias and this fool of a man is Sun Wukong. We’re traveling to a village near here to meet with our other teammates. We are a part of a huntsman group from Vacuo. Once we regroup, like most of the other teams, we’re going to be attending the gathering in the Emerald City. I’m guess you guys are going there too?” He gestured to the lovely ladies, the drunk, and Jaune.

“Sure are,” Yang said putting her hands on her hips. “But we didn’t realize just how big the whole thing was.” She looked over to her uncle for any comments or explanations.

“I guess Ozzy has more in mind than I initially thought… He does love surprises, well, surprising others. Himself? Not so much,” he took a drink. “But whatever he’s planning, we just have to trust him. If we’re lucky he’s just throwing a tournament or a really big party,” the old crow chuckled half-heartily.

The others would have shared worried looks, but the positivity of their new acquaintances made things less stressful. They all got to talking for a while, especially Blake and Sun. She didn’t know how, but she felt as though somehow he knew her secret… It was hard to tell just how he knew or if he was going to say anything, but she didn’t get around to asking him. There wasn’t much of a point. As long as she kept quiet about it, Blake had a feeling he wouldn’t just bring it up. He seemed to understand that she didn’t want to talk about her bow and what it was hiding.

Neptune was a bit more popular among the other ladies, in the sense that he talked to them and not just Blake. He and Yang shared some pub stories, he sent a few winks Weiss’s way and she blushed every time, and Ruby just thought the weird welding goggles on his head were super cool.

Off to the side, Qrow had pulled Jaune away from the others for a little man-to-man talk. Not so much about ‘normal’ guy stuff but about his other mission. A large gathering of huntsmen and huntresses wasn’t Ozpin’s normal modi operandorum. Something was up.

“So Jaune, what exactly are you delivering to the dear ol’ Wiz? Is there something Glynda couldn’t tell him herself?” Qrow inquired in a hushed tone. Jaune didn’t appear to register the witch’s name. Letting out a sigh and pinching his temple, Qrow thought for a moment. He did his best to not let the alcohol cloud his head. He mentally kicked himself for not realizing something so obvious. “She didn’t send you, did she?” Jaune nervously shook his head. “Who exactly told you to give this extremely important and confidential letter to me then?”

“A girl in a pit fall…,” the blond sunk into his shoulders. “She said not to tell anyone, she made me promise not to, but now… This is just getting weird…”

“Was this girl around 6 foot in heels, bright red hair, has a bit of an accent?” he described while taking a drink.

“Yeah! How did you-?”

“That dear boy is a woman who clearly has a red string tied to your pinkie. She was supposed to be a champion that we’ve been training to become one of Oz’s elite- are you sure she was in a pit?” Jaune nodded. “Well whatever it is she gave you, I need you to show it to me. I was personally in charge of her for a while until I dumped her on Glynda (she’s one of us).”

“She told me not to… She was very specific. Only the Wizard can-”

A loud rustling could be heard. It wasn’t another hiding boy in a bush. They were surrounded by Grimm. Beowolves and Ursa blocked any chance of exit. Everyone took up their weapons.

“We’ll talk about this later!” Qrow assured Jaune as he transformed his large broadsword into a scythe with a single motion. Steam whistled from his weapon and the sound of gears clanking was very audible.

The older girls unsheathed and unholstered their swords and guns. The two new party members took out their weapons, a pair of flint pistols chained together and a guandao. Jaune took out his sword and held his shield close. This was his first time, well, EVER fighting a non-imagery enemy. The same could be said for Weiss who was only used to human enemies in nonlethal combat. The rest were fully ready to attack. Not waiting for the Grimm to charge, most of the group took action.

Yang was shooting up as many Ursa as her guns could reach, giving Blake and Neptune an opening to slice them clean in two. Sun assisted as he made his way up the trees to supply more aerial attacks; shooting downwards and then jumping from his higher ground. Qrow was having no difficulty taking out a pair of Grimm at a time with a single, strong strike of his scythe.

Even Weiss, having never faced a creature of Grimm, was able to hold her own. Her technic and stamina kept her on an equal footing as her opponent, making fatal hits and even taking out her fair share of beasts single handedly. The other novice, on the other hand, was struggling greatly… Jaune had never had any ‘proper’ training other than some pointers from his père and pépère. But they never believed him to be a warrior… They never actually thought he would fight anything or anyone.

He swung his sword with as much purpose as he could. He’d miss his mark but did put up a good defense when a counter attack was made. Jaune could barely hold his own. But then, in the corner of his eye he saw something troubling.

Not too far from him was Ruby standing alone and surrounded by beowolves. Swinging as hard as he could, Jaune managed to, in that moment of worry, slice the head of the Ursa he was fighting clean off. He started to run over to Ruby and help the seemingly unarmed girl, but Qrow came on of nowhere and held him back.

“She needs help!” Jaune protested and wiggled his way out of the old crow’s grasp.

“Trust me kid, when she gets started, you’ll want to be a safe distance away. She may not look it, but I taught her everything she knows… I just haven’t gotten around to ‘self-control’ quite yet,” Qrow smiled and went back to fighting, decapitating another Ursa that had gotten close to taking off Jaune’s head. “If I were you, I’d worry about yourself for the time being.”

The two got back to fighting with the others. Ruby stood alone in the center of the pack of beowolves. She pulled down her hood and reached for something she had hidden underneath.

She finally had another chance to use her precious weapon. It had been so long since she had used her extension of herself, her family member forged in metal. Ruby had been keeping her close to her side ever since she had been instructed by her father to only use it unless it was an emergency. And her uncle telling her to disregard those words and go wild. With a content smile, Ruby pulled out something that was compacted, but not for long. A similar steam and gears turning occurred like with her uncle’s weapon. Soon a giant scythe, almost twice the girl’s size, was extended and was rested on her shoulders.

Ruby was so excited to finally reintroduce her loving weapon, Crescent Rose.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chapter Text

{2 YEARS EARLIER}

“Dad! Come ooooooon!” Ruby whined as she clung to her father’s leg. She did not intend to let go.

“I said ‘no’, Ruby,” Taiyang Xiao Long told his daughter as he dragged her along into the kitchen. His brother-in-law gave him an amused look as he walked past almost normally with a tiny girl hugging Taiyang in protest.

“But I’m 13 now, dad! Yang was my age when she got HER weapon!” Ruby hugged her dad’s leg tighter. She wasn’t even close to cutting off his blood circulation.

“And like most parents, I learned from my first child and from the things I let her do. You’re not your sister, and the answer is still no. The last thing I need is another one of my baby girls getting into trouble,” he stated while picking up his youngest daughter with ease, and placing her in one of the dining table chairs. He sat down across from her for a ‘dad talk’. Ruby crossed her arms and looked up at him with disappointment. “You know how I always want you to be able to protect yourself and be safe, but knowing you, you’d go out searching for Grimm or criminals to fight purposely. I know that you look up to your uncle and myself, and want to be a hero like your late mother,” he paused as his face got a little solemn. “But,” he continued, “I can’t honestly let you carry around a weapon, especially what you have in mind-”

“How do you know what kind of,” she gasped, “did you read my diary?”

“No. I’m not that kind of dad. Again, learned from my mistakes…,” he cleared his throat. “Regardless, I know how you think and I know you’ve been scheming with a certain someone…” He turned around and glared daggers at Qrow who was turning his coffee into an Irish coffee (minus the sugar). “And I have to say, I would be less against the idea if it wasn’t so…”

“Awesome?” Ruby suggested.

“Badass?” Qrow contributed before chugging his drink.

“Dangerous. Experimental. DANGEROUS! Don’t think I haven’t seen the blueprints!” Taiyang was unintentionally standing now. His hands formed into fists almost leaving scratch marks on the table.

“Those were super-secret!” Ruby was now standing in her father’s shadow.

“They were taped up all over the workshop walls. I’d hardly call them ‘secret’ let alone ‘super’, sweetie.” Taiyang pat his daughter on the head. He rustled her hair and knelt down to meet her face to face. “Modify. Make it safer,” he said that last part more towards Qrow than anyone else, “and maybe next year, after some more training, we can get to work on building it. Ok?”

“Pinkie swear?” Ruby smiled and held out her finger. Her father took it with his and gave her an Eskimo kiss.

---

“Oh great and powerful Oz. You didn’t…” Taiyang looked at the finished product of his daughter’s, and soon to be LATE brother-in-law’s, project. He stood in front of the two, holding up the most dangerous looking thing he had ever seen in his daughter’s hands.

In front of him was a scythe much like Qrow’s but with some major differences; a lot redder, a lot tighter in design, and a lot larger than its user. It was smoking and whistling as the unseen gears inside turned. Thinking back to the older blueprints Taiyang had seen, they didn’t change much, at least in the way he had ask for them to do. It was debatably “safer”. But still, it was a little unsettling… The completely and utterly stressed out beyond belief father pinched his temple and counted down from ten. Not because he was angry, but because he was finding it hard to keep calm and breathe normally.

“Ok. I know it’s a little ‘much’,” Ruby tried to calm down her father. “And we kind of jumped the gun-”

“It’s also a gun,” Qrow quickly added with a little too much glee.

Taiyang started hyperventilating.

Trying to ease his internal and now external panic, Ruby converted her weapon into its compact form. It went from a huge scythe to a small rectangle a little less than half her size. She clipped it to her waist and did her best to keep her laughing uncle from egging her father on too much more. “See, it’s totally safe. It doesn’t look too conspicuous and it’s kinda like one of those tiny knives they give girls. Or like the kind you use to cut apples.”

“Ground rules,” Taiyang breathed out as he gained composure. “Keep it compact in the house. No scythe winging in the house-”

“Like uncle Qrow?”

He nodded. “And no shooting in the house.”

“Like Yang,” Ruby stated as she looked over towards one of the many broken windows.

“Yep. Just… don’t use it to show off, ok? Just to help others and protect yourself.”

Ruby saluted her father and promised with her huntresses’ honor. Taking her word, he sent her into the house with the persuasion of freshly baked cookies. She quickly rushed inside, leaving the two old men alone in the front yard.

Taiyang’s demeanor changed; his panic was replaced with a serious expression. He looked the other man dead in the eyes. Qrow sighed and took out his flask, and took a quick swig.

“You went against my wishes. Again. I know how important you are to my girls, Qrow, but you can’t just keep undermining my authority,” he used a stern tone. Seriousness dripped from every word.

“You gave the ok,” Qrow stated. He crossed his arms and his gaze wandered away from his brother-in-law. “She’s been training, like you asked.”

“I said a year. A year of training before you started constructing *that* and nothing else; that was the deal.”

“We got excited, and I had all the materials-”

“It’s been three months. Three months since I told her this. And what do I find? Sure she’s been training, but her ‘dream’ weapon is full constructed and now in my house strapped to my child’s body. What if it’s like your beta project? Remember that, Qrow? How it almost took off you own head because you didn’t carry the one when you were calibrating? How it almost shot a hole through your sister?” Qrow kept his eyes averted. “I know she looks up to you. Even more than me which I’m not going to lie, that does upset me somewhat. But if you continuing to push her passion so far so fast… Qrow you know what’s out there,” his voice started to crack. “You know how much I’ve lost to the things that she is to desperate to go out and fight head on. You did this this with Yang. You can NOT do this with Ruby. I can’t lose her, Qrow. I just… I can’t.”

Qrow finally looked at his friend, at his family. He took a step forward and up his hand on Taiyang’s shoulder. Their eyes locked and they both saw the same thing; two broken men who had lost so much in their lives.

“You won’t, Tai. And that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. It’s not just them. We’re teachers, Tai, you know that. We need to prepare them for the storm that’s coming. I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but I do know that they need to be ready. I want them to be those little girls that wore our old tunics, and played hunters and huntresses with sticks in the wood just as much as you. But I hate to say it, these kids are growing up a hell of a lot faster than we ever did… I’m not trying to put her or Yang or anyone purposefully in danger. I’m trying to get them ready. The question is, are you?” He took a long drink form his flask and walked away towards the wood.

“And where are you going? Just going to preach and walk away?” Taiyang scoffed.

“I have a mission. That’s why I rushed our agreement. I leave when I’m told and at a moment’s notice,” Qrow looked back at Taiyang and smiled. “That’s why you don’t have too much to be jealous over. You’re here, Tai. And that’s what these girls need more than anything. I’m just the drunk uncle. They only have one dad and that’s you.” With a blink of an eye, the dusty old crow vanished.

“Dad!” Ruby called from in the house. “I don’t want to ‘cry’ over it, but I… spilt the milk…”

Without missing a beat, Taiyang hurried back into the house. “I’ll get the mop and don’t you dare touch any of that broken glass, young lady!”

---

Ruby and her older sister Yang sat at the kitchen table across from their father.

“I’m not mad,” he began.

Here is comes, the two girls thought.

“I’m just disappointed…”

A verbal arrow shot through both of their hearts. If there was a master of killing with kindness and non-angry, their dad was an assassin.

They weren’t even supposed to be having this conversation. They were never meant to be sitting at that table, and be being looked at with disappointed eyes… It was just supposed to be a little outing. Two teenage girls going shopping and then out to a meal. Ruby just wanted to get polish for Crescent Rose. She just wanted make sure her ‘baby’ was well maintained. She never intended to actually use her weapon. “It’s a good pub,” Yang had said. “They have good, cheap meals,” she’d said. Ruby knew she meant they were one of the few places that would serve her sister booze. Yang didn’t even drink anything, so she couldn’t get in trouble for that, thank Oz. But she did throw the first punch over practically nothing.

A bar brawl, several lien worth of damage charges billed to their uncle’s tab, and a pile of drunk patrons later, Taiyang had been summoned to collect his girls. The walk home was almost unbearable with tensions so thick that it would break whatever knife you tried to cut it with. The silence was unbreakable. Their father hadn’t said a word until he asked them to take a seat.

“Weapons. Now,” he tapped on the table. The two girls complied and gently laid the compacted Crescent Rose and Ember Celica, holsters and all. He collected them and placed them in the top cabinet where he hid the good alcohol from Qrow. “I’m trusting you girls to only take them out, and I mean ONLY (I swear to Oz I mean it with deathly seriousness) take them out if you are going on a mission or for supervised training. No just taking them into town and starting fights. If you go out into dangerous territories that’s one thing, but you two are fully capable of fighting hand-to-hand combat. Especially if it’s just a bunch of thugs who can’t even walk straight from inebriation.”

“That’s not fair!” the girls protested in unison.

“Life isn’t fair!” Taiyang outburst. This took his daughters aback. “I… I’m sorry girls. But you need to understand that your actions have greater consequences than you realize. Ruby, you destroyed half the tables in the pub. Yang, several men are going to be in the hospital for probably months even if they had used their aura to heal most of their wounds. You two are becoming young women and plan to be huntresses. I hate to sound like your uncle, you know that. But you girls are growing up so fast. Too fast. And even still, you’re acting like children in all of the wrong ways. Ruby, Yang, I know you can be wonderful huntresses. But, you have to take on more responsibility. Just humor me, ok?”

The girls nodded and he excused them from the table.

---

“Are you sure this is ok?” Ruby asked as her sister handed her Crescent Rose.

“It fits the rules… ish,” Yang stated as she adjusted her holster and checked the safety on her guns. “Besides, there have been more and more Grimm sightings in the woods lately, especially near where Qrow decided to hide out. We have to defend ourselves.” She checked her ammunition.

“Ok… But I still think dad won’t like it…” Ruby clipped her weapon to her belt and covered Crescent Rose with her cape.

“Well dad is out of town and the weapons cabinet doesn’t have a lock. Honestly it’s mostly kept in there via the honors system. And we are honoring his wishes, so there isn’t an issue. You have the map?”

“Yeah, but it’s not very good…” She handed the less legible copy she’d been given to her sister.

“Well… it doesn’t really matter. Chances are we’ll find it eventually. Oh! The house warming booze! I almost forgot!” The two girls looked into the cabinet. It was now empty. “…well that’s a first.”

“Then go buy more! We can’t show up empty handed…”

“I can’t, remember. I’m banned. But you aren’t.”

“That’s illegal.”

“Only if you get caught…”

One bushy moustache later, the two parted ways.

---

She had trained long and hard. With the guidance of her father and uncle, Ruby was confident in her ability. She wasn’t worried by the beowolves stalking around her.

Tired of dancing and side stepping around the girl, the first beowolf attacked. It lunged for Ruby but she swiftly avoided the Grimm. She hooked Crescent Rose around its neck, and with a pull of the trigger, the scythe propelled forward and decapitated the beast. This caused the other Grimm around her to strike. The pack bounded towards the girl but she was unafraid.

Her silver eyes look around only slightly before she spun her weapon into a ‘full moon’ of sorts. This warded off some of the charging beowolves, while the rest were sliced in two. She continually pulled on Crescent Rose’s trigger, keeping her spinning while also sniping multiple targets in their torsos. This agitated them more so but also made them weaker. The glorious weapon steamed as it was converted into a smaller shape much similar to its dormant state. With easier control, Ruby shot at each and every Grimm in her sights. She was able to get in a few headshots, but otherwise hit more of the Grimms’ hind and front legs. The monsters’ speed dropped drastically. This gave the young huntress the advantage.

From behind, one of the bigger beowolves came up from behind Ruby. It drew back its massive claws with intention to strike, aiming for the small girl’s throat. She swiftly turned on her heels. Gliding on the air, Crescent Rose shifted form. Ruby flowed with the movement of her scythe and pulled the trigger once more, escalating her momentum and cleanly decapitating the monster.

It wasn’t long until the grass around her was covered in sliced off bits of Grimm. Rose petals mysteriously swirled around the battle field. Letting out a deep breath, Ruby went from a more serious demeanor to her usual chipper self. She looked around to find her friends and other company were finished with their respective fights. Grimm were lying motionless all across the wood. The groups gathered back together, some more out of breath than others.

“Good job, lil sis!” Yang exclaimed while picking up her younger sibling in a bear hug.

“You did good, all of you. It’s nice to see kids being able to hold their own,” Qrow stated as he took a ‘victory drink’. He looked towards the two in the back of the pack of teens. Weiss and Jaune were visibly out of breath. The former much less than the later, but it was still apparent that they fought a lot harder than they would have normally. Considering one was a farmer and the other a very sheltered (and growing up in an authoritarian household), Qrow wasn’t too surprised. “Well… ‘still standing’ would be better to say.”

“Just… barely…,” Jaune heaved as his knees wobbled. One gave way and he tried to stable himself on Weiss’s shoulder. She quickly moved out of the way and let him fall to the ground. “…did I just fall for you?” he joked with a face full of grass. With a roll of her eyes, Weiss just walked away.

“So now that THAT excitement is over,” Sun shifted the conversation. “I guess we’ll part ways? We still need to get with our team. They’d be pissed if we just left them for some lovely ladies. Again,” he looked over at his Casanova of a partner. Neptune just shrugged.

“Alright, but be careful. Are you guys sure you can handle the big bad woods without us ‘lovely ladies’ to protect you?” Yang chuckled, still suffocating her sister with her hugging.

“I think we can manage… but only just barely,” Neptune said with a tilt of his head. With a collective laugh, the two boys and the larger group went in different directions. Following the yellow brick road, Qrow’s company went deeper into the more Grimm infested part of the woods.

---

On a large rock in the middle of a clearing, a lone man sat in meditation. An array of Grimm surrounded him. They weren’t paying him much mind seeing as no negative emotion was drawing them in.

Suddenly, one of the Goliaths turned its head at the man. He sensed… a worried feeling from him and began to charge. The man’s brow furrowed and he stood from his position, and prepared to be on the offence. What negative emotion attracted this Grimm attack?

Taiyang Xiao Long sensed his babies were in danger.

Chapter Text

Cinder Fall was much less than pleased. She didn’t expect much from her subordinates; follow simple orders and have the common sense to find one girl out of a group of their peers. It was bad enough that one of their prisoners had escaped from her cell that had been designed to keep specifically her, but she had even left the manor grounds.

In the ‘meeting room’ of which Emerald and Mercury sat, Cinder was looming over them with a fire in her eye… and a fire sparking in her palms. The silver assassin’s gaze averted from his boss’s with his arms tightly crossed. Emerald looked up at her superior with her head lowered in shame.

“How?” Cinder simply and firmly stated.

“Well,” Merc loosened up a bit and began his answer. “After having a talk with Marcus (and yes we got him some clothes first, I’m not that heartless… I mean who can honestly take a half-naked guy seriously) and from what he told me that somehow the graecus set fire to the bed. Using the smoke as a, well, a literal smoke screen, she was able to take him out and blend into the other White Fang.”

“Now how did she manage to set a fire while being tied up and been drained of her aura?” Cinder snapped her fingers and a rush of flame sparked, illuminating her face and casting shadows upon it that made her look even more menacing. The two mercenaries stayed silent. Not getting any verbal response, the boss lady zeroed in on the physically nervous of the pair. “Emerald,” she said causing the girl to tense in fear. “Would you happen to know how this occurred? She was mainly your responsibly. And you know how much I trust you to do the best you can at whatever assignment I bestow upon you…” She was laying on the guilt sweet and thick.

And Em cracked like a brick to a mirror.

“I’ll take full responsibility for this. I don’t know how this could have happened but I grantee that I will do anything and everything to make up for-” Emerald’s words became stuck in her throat as Cinder got less than an inch from her face.

“Anything?” she echoed. All Emerald could do in reply was nod. “Then get her back. Bring me only her legs if you have to. I need those shoes, Emerald. And Mercury,” her gaze never left the mint assassin. “You have my permission to not hold back. Do whatever is needed.” Cinder pulled back and her once angered face twisted into a somewhat sweet smile. “You’re excused.” She turned away from the two and walked over to a desk on the other side of the room.

Emerald and Mercury made their exit, and as soon as the door was shut behind them, Merc just looked at his partner with the most conniving grin upon his face. Em let slip how annoyed this made her by her expression turning sour. He kept up the silent smirk until his companion finally snapped at him.

“Would you give it a rest?!” she exclaimed with throwing her arms in the air.

“Not anytime soon, Em. I don’t know how but this is just… wow. How did you fuck up this badly?”

Like a heaven, or rather hell, sent answer, Roman and Neo appeared at the end of the hall. “Ah Emmy!” Roman called out. Emerald grunted in anger like a dying moose. “Easy there, ya little thief! Gesù! I know we are all stressed over this ‘minor’ inconvenience. In fact, I still am actually. And I need a smoke. So fork over my lighter, would ya?”

Emerald’s eyes widened. “You’re lighter….”

“Yeah, don’t deny it. I know you lifted it!”

“She took the lighter…”

“What?” Roman leaned closer. “Who is ‘she’ exactly? Did Cinder confiscate it or something I don’t- hey!” The assassin pushed the crook out of the way as she took off down the hall and down the stairs.

Even when she believed to be taking precautions, she still hadn’t been careful enough. She could have placed most all the blame on Roman since it had been his lighter, and that the drug his partner gave them hadn’t worked as well as it should have in depleting Pyrrha Nikos’s aura. But when it came down to it, it was all her fault. She got cocky and underestimated the ‘easily beaten’ hero. With Mercury hot on her heels, the two dashed out of the manor and into the White Fang’s base camp.

“Adam!” the mercenary called out into one of the main tents. Luckily he was the only one inside, standing over a large map of Remnant. “We need some trackers,” she somewhat demanded. “Seeing as it was one of your men who let her escape, and even more of your so called soldiers failed to stop her escape,” Mercury added with a hint of sarcasm that only Emerald picked up on.

Acknowledging their presence, Adam Taurus looked over his shoulder at the pair. “Is this an order from your superior?”

“It’s more like a humble request with everyone’s best interests at heart,” Merc egged on. “Unless you want another batch of charred faunus.” He gestured to the opening of the tent and at the crater like display of ash and incinerated land.

Letting out a grunt, Adam pushed past the two and called over a group of three or four White Fang members. “Go with them in search of the escaped prisoner,” he ordered before walking off.

“Lovely as always,” the silver assassin offhandedly said to his partner.

They gathered up a few supplies and tracked out on foot with the group into the woods. With the trackers, as well as the knowledge of their prey heading to the Emerald City to play ‘catch up’, it would only be a matter of time until they found their target. It all way just a matter of what they were going to do when they reached her.

---

“You ready, half-pint?” Roman called from outside of Neo’s room. The door opened and Neo skipped out, looking a little more ‘dolled up’ than before. “What you got a date or something?” He cracked a smile. “Should I be jealous?”

Neo just rolled her eyes and signed to him before walking head.

“What do you mean ‘maybe’? Hey! Don’t walk away from me!”

Neo just shook from her silent laughter as she gave him a bit of a race down the hallway. It was one of the few ways she knew to get him going without much of a complaint. They had an important rally to go to, and some faunus to rile up. And if Neo knew one thing was that if anyone could rile up a group of people into joining a terrorist organization, it was Roman.

They made their way with a few current White Fang members as well as with a few lieutenants, and headed to the location of the secret rally. The only higher powers of authority were Adam and Cinder. One of which was sulking away in his personal tent, while the other looked down at the war camp from her room in the manor. The two schemed in their minds of what was to come.

All the pieces were starting to fall into place. But with a few key elements still not quite aligned into the path they were paving, it was only a matter of time before things got a little more… bloody.

Chapter Text

“So what’s this Jaune guy like exactly?” Nora asked her new friend as they dashed through the woods. The group of three had been keeping up with each other as they followed the yellow brick road. They were in a triangle formation; Nora and Ren as the side-by-side points, while Pyrrha was the lone point in the back. The helpful duo had loaned her some of Nora’s spare clothes; a really tight fitting tunic and a battle skirt covered in metal armor (which for Pyrrha, wasn’t an issue), she still kept the Grimm mask just in case and had it hidden in Ren’s pack.

“He’s…,” Pyrrha considered her answer as she leapt over a branch in the road. She still wasn’t sure what exactly she felt for Jaune. They hadn’t had a chance to spend much time with each other, and from what they did he’d either been incapacitated or had no idea who she was. “…he’s my thelo? No, that sounds odd. He is someone I feel close to but I am not? I’ve always wanted to get to know him but never really knew how… Whenever I look at him,” she ducked under another branch, “I feel sick; like my face will go hot and my stomach will turn if I look at him.”

“Oh girl,” Nora spotted an Ursa. Instinctively, Ren threw her hammer to her, in which she smashed it in the face of the Grimm. It was down in one blow. “You’ve got it BAD! It sounds to Dr. Nora-”

Ren cleared his throat and cocked his head. “You never finished your PHD…”

“ANYWAYS! DR. NORA - WHO ISN’T ACTUALLY A DOCTOR - (thank you Ren for reminding me) diagnoses you with butterfly tummy and a bad bite of the love bug! I mean it could just be puppy stuff, but considering you were willing to die and risk your super-secret mission on them I think it could be a legit case. Ren, your thoughts?” She turned her head over to her partner.

“It’s possible… But then again we would have to assess the other party, get an idea of what she is like around him in real time. How would you describe your past experiences with this boy?” Ren inquired as he effortlessly somersaulted over a fallen tree.

“They tended to be brief and not exactly ideal… – but, I don’t think now is the best time for this discussion,” Pyrrha remarked as she leaped into an attack, aiming the tip of Miló at the body of a Grimm. Before they had realized it, the group had become mostly surrounded by the creatures.
“Excuses, excuses…,” Nora tutted as she readied her weapon. Ren stationed himself with his partner, back to back, and took a fighting stance. The three leapt into battle quickly so they may hurry along the path to the Emerald City. But more importantly, to keep talking about Pyrrha’s very sad lack of love life.

---

Team SSSN decided to regroup before heading out to the City. The faunus and his partner had joined the other two, Scarlet and Sage, at the Little Rascal Tavern for some drinks and the Chinese buffet. They may have indulged in the buffet a little too much.

“哎, 阿姨! (Hey, Auntie!)” Sun called out to the owner of the tavern. “More kǎo ròu!” He held up a licked clean plate in the air. The owner walked over, empty handed, and hit him upside the head. And then lectured him rapidly in Chinese. The young faunus glanced over at his friends for backup, but was only met with their howling laughter. The older woman was not letting up, and wasn’t too happy to be called an ‘auntie’. After about five minutes of lecturing and her clapping her hands together in front of his nose, she finally walked off to go get some more bbq for the group.

“吉兹 (Geez),” Sun slumped back into his seat. “Thanks for the backup, TEAM.”

“You looked like you could take her,” Neptune said with a mouth full of food.

“I don’t know, mate. She looked pretty tough,” Scarlet retorted after he sipped his tea. He smirked. “But not as tough as that Gran from the pub last time. I thought she was going to strangle you with her apron strings.”

“What did I ever do to these ladies?!” the faunus threw his hand into the air out of exasperation.

Sage coughed on his noodles before finishing his bite. He looked his leader dead in the eyes with an expression of almost disbelief. “Sun… You call them old and demand food. If you call every woman a θείτσα or चाची they will get angry, and they will want to kick your furry ass.”

“The only ‘furry’ thing about my ass is my tail, and I don’t think it’s that bad… It’s endearing?”

“Dude, this isn’t your home town in Vacuo were you know everybody and every lady over thirty is your ‘auntie’. Trust me. Women don’t like being equated to someone who would be old enough to be your mom. It’s rude,” Neptune gifted his lady advice like always. He pointed his chopsticks at his friend’s face and just about poked Sun’s eyes.

“Well, that’s just as rude.” Sun knocked his friend’s hand aside to avoid injury. “And I get it. But what I’m saying is, why do women seem to always want to kill me?”

“That girl Blake didn’t hate you.”

“Yeah… She was pretty great, wasn’t she? Did you see how she took down that Grimm? She was like some kind of assassin ninja chick! It was soooo badass!”

The others laughed at him and how bad he seemed to be crushing on this girl. Sun wasn’t known for his flirting skills, and most of the time he liked the fighting more than the girl. So he tended to have not many ex-girlfriends and just more sparing partners. But his eyes lit up a little differently when he talked about her combat style. It was more lovesick puppy than just an admirer.

The team enjoyed more of their downtime before their leader separated himself from the group for a quick walk to get away from the hostile tavern owner.

---

Sun was a lot deeper into the wood than he realized. His light walk turned almost into a hike as he started having trouble remembering which direction he had come from. He’d neglected the fact that most trees tended to look the same when you were completely surrounded by them. He would have traveled back on the path, but it had seemed to disappear somewhere along the way; only small clearings and dirt walkways were in sight. Sun looked around for some sign of civilization or at least somewhere to get directions. He looked around in every direction only to see trees.

“Well, this isn’t good…,” he muttered as his eyes darted from left to right.

There was a rustle in the bushes. Jumping up into the nearest tree, Sun searched for his weapons, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, but only found emptiness as his hip. He mentally cursed at his careless action and practically saw them slumped over his chair back at the tavern.

Luckily, or rather unluckily depending of if they were a friendly, a small group of faunus walked into the clearing. Thankfully it wasn’t a Grimm, but un-thankfully, they seemed to be well armed. White masks cladded upon their faces as they ushered themselves along the dirt path. One of them, appearing to be a wolf faunus, led the way. He was more decorated in what could be seen as a lieutenant’s uniform of a certain terrorist group that Sun never wanted to be associated with…

As quietly as he could, Sun leapt from tree to tree and followed the crowd. He stopped and watched from a distance in the nearest tree as the faunus entered into a less than safe warehouse type building. Taking a leap of faith, Sun jumped onto the roof of the building and prayed to any deity who would listen for him not to fall right through it. It stayed solid upon his landing but the noise it made drew the attention of one of the terrorists.

“What was that?” they spoke up, bunny ears perking at the thud.

“Probably just a squirrel,” another answered and led the skeptic into the dingy building.

Sun crawled across the roof until he found a broken skylight window square. Peering in, he could see the scene in its full; a large handful of faunus lined up in multiple rows in front of a speedily built stage. The lieutenant from earlier was on the stage alongside the only two humans in the room; a small girl and a smarmy looking douchebag with a bowler hat.

“Why is there a HUMAN here?” a doe faunus yelled from the crowd. Murmurs of others echoed in the room in agreement.

“Patience! All will be explained, just stay silent. Mr. Roman Torchwick,” the lieutenant gestured to the man, “is a very special comrade and good ally to our cause.”

“Well, dearie,” the man called Roman stepped forward with a bad (possibly racist?) pun, “I know just how awful humans can be, believe you me. Humans are the worst! I mean, they’re the real monsters, am I right? Humans should be caged, hell, killed! But even humans like me have a common enemy; the filthy humans who run it all. They sit on their towers built by faunus like you, and the poor, and ‘deplorable miscreants’ they look down upon, both figuratively and literally. The Wiz in the Emerald City sips on his coffee behind his curtain, leading along the kingdom like a game of chess, and guess what? You’re all the pawns. But then again… so am I. But although the King is up in his castle, we have a Queen on our side. Now I’m no chess expert but I’m pretty sure that gives us the upper hand.” Roman twirled his cane before slamming it onto the stage. “So what do you say? Are you going to keep on letting the military and the Great and Powerful hold you back? Or are you willing to listen and use what I, and my employer, can offer you to take back what’s rightfully yours?”

The crowd roared with cheering. It took almost a minute for them to calm down. Once they were more or less silent, other lower ranked officials of the group led the clearly new recruits single file down into a concealed area of the warehouse. Sun took this as his sign to cheese it. He’d have to do his damnedest to get back to where he had come from, and get his team ready to leave in double time. They would have to catch up to Blake’s group, and to get to the Emerald City, as fast as possible. There was a bunch of angry terrorists and apparently a mysterious evil sect of humans who were going to raise hell. And not the good Friday night kind.

---

Neo tugged on Roman’s coat sleeve as he began to light his cigar. He looked down at the girl. “What is it, half-pint?” She pointed up at the roof. Upon shifting his gaze, all Roman spotted was a small poof of fur whisk past the skylight. “It’s probably just a squirrel.”

“A blond squirrel?” Neo signed out of disbelief.

“Albino squirrels exist, Neo. Don’t be paranoid. That’s not our job. It’s that guy’s.” Roman pointed over to a heavily armed White Fang member with bared teeth. She looked back sternly towards her smirking partner.

“You’re not very funny, Roman,” she signed before walking off with a roll of her eyes.

“Oh come now! I think I’m rather hilarious!”

She gave him the universal sign to go screw himself.

Chapter Text

Blake: “Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques”

Weiss: “Schlafst du noch? Schlafst du noch?”

Jaune: “Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines”

Ruby: “Ding dang dong, ding dang dong!”

The group laughed and sang along the yellow brick road. It had taken them much arguing until they finally settled on a song they all seemed to understand… well, to some extent.

“At least the last part was universal,” Blake chuckled.

“I’m not sure… I think it might be different in Dutch? Oh well!” Ruby laughed along as she trotted ahead of the pack, leaping onto her uncle’s back. The old crow wasn’t too old it seemed, as he caught the girl with ease.

“You… have a very angelic singing voice,” Jaune mentioned to Weiss as he tried to keep up with the time of her steps. She didn’t seem to take his comment to heart.

“I know,” she stated as she walked ahead, more towards the front with Qrow and Ruby.

Yang, who had been oddly silent up until this point, lightly punched Jaune in the shoulder. “Don’t let her get you down, buddy. Better luck next time.”

“Thanks… I think…,” Jaune sighed while looking down as his feet as he walked. “I’m just-”

“Not too good with the ladies?”

“Yeah… I mean I should be better at this kind of thing, talking to girls I mean. I don’t have a problem talking to the girls back home.”

“Jaune, your sisters don’t count. Trust me, talking to your sister and to nonrelative ladies is a totally different landscape to venture.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “Take it from me, flirting is a hard subject to tackle. Well… If you weren’t a natural like yours truly. That’s why you need a well versed wingwoman to help you out.” Yang grinned almost sinisterly as she elbowed him in the side.

“I don’t know… My dad says all women look for is confidence,” Jaune sheepishly stated, looking up at his newly found ‘help’.

“And how’s that been working out for ya?”

“Not very well…”

“Rule number one, my friend: don’t listen to your dad’s advice. Especially in relationships. It’s never a ‘good’ idea.”

---

Taiyang sneezed as he left behind his self-made battlefield without a scratch. It was odd since he had shown no signs of a cold or illness. Someone must have been talking about him…

He dashed deeper into the wood and towards a certain area that he knew, if Qrow was truly on his way like planned, he could regroup with his ex-brother-in-law. The huntsman had been on a scouting mission for quite some time now, and had noticed a major change in the movement of the surrounding Grimm. They all seemed to be heading more towards the Emerald City. Taiyang had heard in passing about Ozpin’s gathering of huntsmen and huntresses, along with his observations, and all he could think about was something not right starting to unfold.

He ran onto the path and past the rows of trees. He leapt over the fallen foliage and charged down the beaten path. Taiyang could almost sense the nearness of his allies as he inched closer towards a merging part of his path with another.

---

“What was that?” Blake stopped mid-step and scanned the area carefully. Instinctively, her hand was stationed above her weapon, at the ready to strike if need be. The others didn’t pay her words much mind until they heard what she had, but much louder; an unnatural rustling from a not-so far off tree. They couldn’t tell if it was a Grimm, or some kind of harmless animal, or a ninja. Taking her lead, Yang, Weiss, and Jaune prepared themselves to fight. They all looked around the surrounding wood, searching for the source of the noise.

“Do you think it’s a beowolf?” Ruby asked while doing the best she could to hide her excitement. She started to go for Crescent Rose, but her uncle held up his hand, signaling for her to stand down. Hiding a smirk, Qrow shook his head.

“No… not a Grimm… But, they say this area was taken over by lions, and tigers, and bears,” Qrow stated. Yang just rolled her eyes but the others took his words with a little more severity.

“W-what d-do you mean by ‘bears’?” Weiss inquired as her posture became smaller and more closed in. “Like just a baby Ursa or…?” Her words trailed off as she looked up at the huntsman.

“Oh no. Just bears. But unlike Grimm, they aren’t just attracted to negativity. They also like sweet things; like red hooded little girls with cookie crumbs their pockets,” Qrow halfheartedly joked as he saw his younger niece frantically empty the inner pockets of her hood. “But make no mistake, they can be rather grizzly.” Yang moaned in the background. She was the only one allowed to make bad puns, Oz dammit.

The rustling grew closer. The group huddled together. All except Qrow as he shuffled forward. He lunged down and leapt behind a wall of shrubbery. There was an even louder noise when the huntsman let out a yell. The worried companions stepped forward to aid him… this is, until he burst out in laughter.

---

Taiyang had been meaning to see his ex-brother-in-law to discuss the current situation that was unfolding. However, he didn’t think it would be via tackle to the forest floor. He’d honestly thought this kind of greeting had died out after their school days.

“王八蛋!” Taiyang exclaimed as he spat out grass from his mouth.

“Careful, Tai. Your ex has the same mother,” he chucked once his out-of-breath laughter died down. Removing himself from his old teammate, Qrow extended his hand out to help up his tackle-victim. With a huff followed by a small smile, Taiyang took the assist and stood up. “And keep in mind, I’m the more ‘level headed’ sibling when it comes to my temper.”

“What’s going on?” Ruby’s voice yelled from the other side of the wall of natural green. “Is it a bear?”

“No, kiddo. It’s an old dragon with a dumb soul patch!”

“Dad!(?)” two voices called; one excited, and the other a mixture of surprised and annoyed. Much like her uncle, Ruby leapt out from the other side and flew at her father. Unlike her uncle, it thankfully didn’t knock him over. She did her best to hug and hold on to her father much like a koala to a tree.

“Hey there, baby-bud. Didn’t think I’d see you out here,” he smiled at his daughter while giving a side glare to her uncle. As he hugged her back, he noticed something almost instantly. “Not to be ‘that dad’ but have you been snacking a little too much on the cookies? You feel like you’ve gained an extra 20+ pounds… in metal.” He cocked an eyebrow and a gave her a knowing look.

Ruby’s grasp weakened and wiggled to escape. But sadly, Taiyang was the king of dad bear hugs. She tried to laugh it off but it just came out as a nervous cry for help.

“Well… I’m not mad-”

“But you’re disappointed?” Yang finished as she and the rest of the group made their way into view.

“I was going to say ‘proud’, considering how dangerous this area is. I assume you’ve got Ember Celica?” Yang nodded as she showed off her weapons a tad too ‘suggestively’ which instantly made Tai’s face twist into the dad-frown. It wasn’t judge-y as much as his overprotective nature seeping through.

“So, who exactly is this guy?” Jaune sheepishly spoke up as the mini-family reunion recalled that there were other members to the party. Qrow proceeded to introduce each of the young people to the ‘old geezer’ and them to him. They regrouped for a bit until Tai kindly asked of Qrow and his eldest daughter for a moment of their time. In private. The three walked out of earshot of the rest of the party (as Ruby unknowingly distracted them with a story of ‘this one time my dad did this cool thing’).

“I’m guessing you’ve talked to General Ironwood,” Tai stated as his eyes met Qrow’s. The drunkard nodded. “…when did you last speak with him, if I might ask?”

“It was in the last town before this part of the wood so… maybe about two or so days? Why?” Qrow inquired as he crossed his arms.

“That’s not good…” The blond looked down. “From what Glynda last told me, he should have moved on to this area yesterday. If luck was on our side, James would be here for this talk… Then again, this would go by faster if I take the kids to the City and you were to double back-”

“No,” Yang interrupted. She had been silent so far, but was more than happy to speak up after her father attempted to play chaperone. “I mean… Qrow isn’t the ideal adult to have around but…”

“But he’s not ‘dad’, right?” Tai said. He wasn’t really hurt anymore by that kind of attitude. Having two teenage daughters, he learned really quickly not to take those comments to heart. Dads just “don’t get it” when it comes to friends and missions… But he also understood that dad was supposed to be embarrassing and he couldn’t help that.

Yang just averted her gaze.

“He’s got the right idea there, kid. I’m good at traveling fast on my own, and your dad is better with keeping kids in line; he being the ‘better’ teacher and all. Plus, I’m sure Jimmy is just dying to see my smug mug again,” Qrow came to his old teammate's defense while putting his hand on Yang’s shoulder. He gave her a reassuring smile before he went for his flask.

With a sigh, Yang got the message and rolled her eyes. But before she swaggered away from the conversation, her father patted her on the head. She swatted his hand away muttering “not the hair”; seeming a bit more childish than her normal demeanor. Tai just chuckled and looked down warmly as his daughter. “Stay safe, firecracker. And keep Ruby safe, ok?”

Yang tried hard not to smile as she looked up as her father, giving him a nod in reply. Looking around a tad nervously, she quickly gave him a peck on the cheek and ran back to the others. Tai’s face let slip a small smile.

However, his warm expression disappeared as he turned to his colleague. Tai and Qrow were left with an awkward silence. Silently, they took in that most likely the worst was happening.

Qrow held out his flask to his old friend.

He hesitated for a moment, but Tai ended up taking it for a quick sip of liquid courage. Qrow smirked, “That’s not being responsible, Tai.”

“There’s a first time for everything… And I need to be a little ‘loose’ if I’m going to kill time with baby stories,” the blond gave off a mischievous grin. He looked over at his daughters who were chatting with the other young people.

Qrow snorted. “Not if they kill you first.”

---

James Ironwood continued searching on foot as his soldiers took the carriages and horses. He had two dead and one missing. Things were the opposite of ‘good’. He had not slept or stopped ever since Penny’s disappearance. His once white and grey uniform was now ruined with grass stains and dried mud. He wasn’t sure where exactly he was in the area, or if he was still near where he’d started. Ironwood had seen something flash off in the distance and decided to venture towards the source. However, it wasn’t a fruitful endeavor. He wasn’t lost. He just didn’t know exactly where he was at the exact moment in time. He knew he was getting close to the flash’s origin because there was one point where he saw dried blood upon a tree trunk.

CAW.

A crow landed on the branch right above James and just glared down at him. He stared back at it for the longest time, until he blinked. In an instant, when his eyes opened, the bird was replaced with a familiar face.

“Branwen,” he greeted.

“You look like hell,” Qrow replied as he leapt down to the ground.

“It’s been a long day or so. Weren’t you with a group of young people?”

“Tai is with them. He told me you might need me more.”

Ironwood let out a small chuck. “Well, he would be right.”

The general informed his colleague on his current predicament. And Qrow chuckled at his misfortune before ‘sobering’ up to the situation. They made a plan for the huntsman to fly ahead and scout out to where the blood trail lead. He did so and was gone for almost a little too long. It wasn’t until he returned with a truly grim expression that they both knew just how bad the circumstances were.

“How bad?” Ironwood said with a small sigh.

“We’ve got White Fang, a big ass mansion doubling as a war camp, and a crater the size of my house in between the two…” Qrow took his weapon off his back and swung it onto his shoulders. “I’m pretty sure that’s where we need to go. If we’re lucky, there will be more than just your special snowflake in that hell hole.”

James unholstered his gun from his hip and took off the safety. “There’s no such thing as luck.” He walked forward to follow his comrade towards the inevitable battle. “With two old men going in to save a young inexperienced ‘girl’; let’s rather hope and pray we all just get out in one piece.” The general felt a slight twinge of pain course through his right side.

“Whatever you say, Jimmy.”

Chapter Text

Penny was starting to get very confused about her current situation… She was sure that she had been in the Paese dei Balocchi for a lot longer than Mr. Torchwick had said she would be, and she knew that General Ironwood was probably very upset with her at the moment. The young girl had just woken up from yet another nap to find that only two of the nice faunus men who had been her tea time friends were standing close to the somewhat hidden door. They hadn’t noticed her awakening from one of her many naps quite yet. Crawling on her hands and knees, and hiding under her stuffed animal buddies, she made her way closer to the two guards.

“So did you hear about Marcus?” one asked the other.

“Who hasn’t? I’m that guy’s replacement…,” the other said letting out a sigh with a bit of shakiness to his voice. “Let’s just not talk about it. I’d rather not let the boss hear us, just in case. It’s like there are eyes and ears everywhere, well, except when prisoners escape apparently…”

Penny tossed Mr. Ursa-flufficans across the room to draw the attention of the guards. They looked over, their heads whipping around almost too quickly. Almost instantly, Penny tapped them on the necks only to have them take a nap of their own.

“Sorry,” she whispered as she dragged them over to the bed of stuffed animals. “Sweet dreams.” She kissed them each on the forehead as she tucked them in.

Penny walked back over to the exit and cracked the door open ever so slightly. The coast looked pretty clear. She slinked into the hallway, hugging the walls as if she were inching across a canyon. She looked around and tried her best not to get spotted. Even though she had technically been invited something was telling her that she wasn’t ‘supposed’ to leave.

There were no guards to be seen. The hall was empty and, as she reached and peered down the staircase, there was no one in the down stairs’ rooms. Penny cocked her head to the side in confusion and started walking down the stairs to the grand entrance. Her eyes looked around the room with an intensity. The big living area was empty even though there was a flame burning in the fire place.

Penny, taking her chance to leave, walked quickly over to the door and was about to turn the knob…

---

At this point, stealth was out of the question. It wasn’t Ironwood’s style, but he and Qrow went in full force. They had taken out the guards in the front no problem. The faunus didn’t even have a chance to scream before the two huntsmen rendered them unconscious. Much like a certain huntress before them, they donned the uniforms of the incapacitated terrorists and let themselves in, and onto the mansion grounds. No one paid them much mind as they ventured forward. It appeared to the two that the forces looked spread a little thin. Mainly, there were a few groups scattered around the many tents and by the mansion entrance. But other than that, the camps looked like they were set up for maybe hundreds more faunus than what they were currently seeing. It was a little unsettling, but for what the two huntsmen needed to achieve, their lack of numbers was much to their advantage.

But that didn’t mean it would make it easy.

“Hey, you!” a female faunus called out to one of them. Not wanting to make a scene (yet), they both turned around to see that there was more than just the one. “Don’t think we don't recognize you, General!” The faunus who’d called them out lifted up her shotgun and pointed the barrel between the eyes of his stolen mask.

“Either you’re more popular than I initially thought, Jimmy, or these masks don’t do shit…,” Qrow huffed as he lazily tossed his mask to the ground and ran his fingers through his hair. The faunus shifted her aim towards the other huntsman, and looked back and forth between the two with slight panic. She was having a hard time identifying the bigger threat.

The two older humans just looked between each other before darting off in opposite directions. And with that, gun fire followed. A trail of bullets dug into the ground behind them as they weaved and dodged the gun fire. Several faunus came there way and slashed at them wildly with large blades. They clearly weren’t the terrorist group’s strongest fighters. Most of them looked and sounded like young, misguided souls fighting for what they thought was a good cause. It almost made Qrow and Ironwood feel bad for counterattacking. Then again, they were trying to kill them, and this was a good teaching moment for them to display. Most forget, the two are some of the best teachers in Remnant. And not showing a few young minds the error and consequences of their actions, well, that would just be them not doing their jobs.

In a matter of minutes, over half the attacking faunus were unconscious, and the rest were no longer able to fight from minor injuries and exhaustion. The battle was clearly over. However, the two men didn’t come out unscathed. Their stolen White Fang uniforms were in tatters, and the two were slightly covered in a few scars their auras hadn’t finished healing.

Qrow and Ironwood started rounding up and restraining the terrorists, before heading up to the large mansion at the center of the property. The two older men were about to reach for the knob but the door was already being opened. They shifted their stances to get ready for another fight. But instead of encountering another enemy, they were greeted by the bright, sunny face of a young girl who was very familiar to the general.

---

“Oh! General Ironwood, sir!” Penny exclaimed before giving him a salute.

“At ease, Penny.” The general let out a sigh of relief. “They didn’t hurt you did they?”

“Oh, no! Mr. Torchwick was very kind! Though he didn’t let me leave like he promised… But he did give me all sorts of wonderful sweets, and books, and I got to see a fire bender!”

Ironwood and Qrow exchanged worried glances, taking a deeper meaning from her statement. It sounded like she was talking about some other people they were currently looking for that were… persons of interest. The general patted Penny on her shoulders and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Well, it’s time to go home now, Penny. I’m sure your father is very worried about you,” Ironwood said as he got down to her level.

Her face saddened and her eyes stared at her feet. “You don’t think…,” Penny’s eyes darted up to meet the general’s, “Do you think he’s angry with me?”

“I… I wouldn’t say angry,” he struggled to answer. “He probably is very worried about you and sad that you ran off.”

“I’m sorry…”

“I know you are, but I think the person who really needs your apology is your father. Qrow,” he turned to the other huntsmen, “Could you take care of these… radical faunus. Maybe see if they know where the rest of them have gone?”

The drunk old crow gave a nod and walked over to the nearest faunus for some “interrogation”. Ironwood turned back to Penny. “Now, Penny. We need to head back to the others now. Do you have enough aura to make the trip or do you want to power down for a while?”

“No… I can do it. I’ve been ‘powering down’ a lot lately… I think they had something funny in the sweets. They would make me sleepy… And that has never, ever happened to me before!” Ironwood patted her on the head and faced his back to the girl. He bent down.

“Well, then. I guess I’ll just have to carry you,” Ironwood said as he held his hands out like footholds.

“Oh! I couldn’t!” Penny bashfully looked down at the general.

“Do you want to though?”

“No…”

HICCUP!

“Are you sure about that, Penny?”

“Ok. But only for a little while,” she tried to say with ‘cool teenage’ embarrassment but couldn’t help but let her excitement for a piggyback ride slip through her tone. She hopped onto his back and he carried her out of the mansion grounds. This meant Qrow’s fun could finally begin.

---

“So, I’ll ask again, where did they go?” Qrow asked as he got in the face of yet another faunus. The old man’s interrogation tactics weren’t the most orthodox. He was already onto his third White Fang goony, and he was so close to getting the information he needed.

“I- I won’t talk!” the faunus spat in his face.

“I will,” a voice from behind piped up.

Qrow turned around to see a deer faunus who had managed to stay out of the skirmish from earlier. She looked like she was fueled by rage, but not for the human in front of her; for a different individual. This faunus was Fianait.

“They took the main forces and the human trash who’s been leading us to the Emerald City. You may not be able to make it there before them,” she said while handing him a map that had been torn from one of the group's atlases. “I’m done with seeing my kind needlessly die for humans who just use our cause as a tool for their own.”

“But Fianait!” the faunus who was being interrogated exclaimed. “You know what will happen if they find out you helped this- this human! He’s a huntsman who’s a part of Ozpin’s inner circle! They’ll-”

“They’ll what?” the deer faunus stopped them mid-speech. “Kill me? They already killed the one I love over one prisoner escaping. I might as well take the blame for the other.”

“Traitor!” a wolf faunus who had slipped through his ropes yelled as he threw a knife towards Fianait. Qrow had been so wrapped up in the “touching moment” that his reaction time was just… too slow. The point of the blade plunged into the deer faunus’s heart and she stumbled to the ground. Qrow caught her before she hit the dirt, cradling her in his arms. The knife was too close to her heart. Her lungs were flooding with blood. Her last words were garbled and weak, but anyone who knew her understood…

“I can see him… Marcus…”

Fianait’s eyes went lifeless.

---

Mercury was randomly smirking maliciously out the carriage window. As the vehicle rocked and swayed across the uneven road they traveled, he gazed upon the trees and White Fang soldiers riding alongside on horses. Suddenly, he let a slight chuckle slip.

“Alright, what’s got you in a good mood, Merc?” Emerald finally asked after getting rather annoyed at his sudden chipperness.

“Oh… I was just thinking about Marcus. And how he’s dead.”

“I didn’t know you hated that guy so much… What did he ever do to you? You met him like a month ago.”

“Oh, nothing really. I just hate the name, all things considered.” He pat his legs and let a dry laugh pass through his lips. “Then again, that was the best day of my life.”

That shut up Emerald for the rest of the trip. Mercury continued looking out the window as they kept moving on. It wouldn’t take too long for them to reach the outer wall of the Emerald City. That’s when the real fun would begin.

Chapter Text

The walk down the yellow brick road was an awkward one from the point Qrow had left for his side mission. Taiyang, with his slight buzz, spent a large portion of the time answering questions and telling embarrassing stories about his daughters. To the others, this was hilarious! To Yang mostly, it was aggravating. She had stomped off head of the others, and sulked with her eyes narrowed. She just wanted to focus on getting the City as fast as she could, so that the “baby Yang used to play cowboy in the front yard with her stuffed Ursa” story would end for at least a second.

Ruby didn’t mind her baby stories much, considering she still did most of those things in the present. They involved cookies and breaking things. So, basically a typical Ruby moment.

They all laughed and chatted along until Blake’s body stiffened like back when they had met Sun and Neptune. The group stopped and looked at her for some kind of report on what she sensed. “There’s three of them and they’re moving fast,” Blake stated as she turned towards the direction right of the road and took a fighting stance. The others followed suit and took up arms.

“YYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” a voice drew nearer and nearer until a spunky young huntress in pink and chainmail fell from the sky and landed in the center of the group’s formation. She left a crater in the brick, causing it to crack and crumble under her feet. “…oopsie dasiy!” she exclaimed as she brushed the yellow dust off her knees. “Ren! I broke it!”

“Broke what?” a huntsman around the falling girl’s age asked as he appeared from behind a wall of leaves. He took one look at the mess his friend had made, along with the hostile looking travelers around her, and got his weapons at the ready. However, he was stopped by a hand of someone behind the wall of leaves.

“Αποσύρω (Withdraw),” the owner of the hand said. “We are among allies.” The voice was all too familiar to one of the group.

“Poppy?” Jaune said as he lowered his sword and stepped forward towards the strangers.

“About that name…,” the girl whom he called out to stepped into sight. She looked much different from what Jaune remembered her to have appeared; her hair was shorter and choppy, and her beautiful armor had been stripped away having been replaced with a military-like black and gray uniform, and attached to her hip was a Grimm mask that made one of the group even more on edge.

“It’s Pyrrha Nikos, correct?” Taiyang chimed in and walking over to the huntress. It was time for him to be the adult and defuse the possible unpleasant situation.

“Correct, sir.”

“THE Pyrrha Nikos!” Weiss said a lot louder than anymore had heard her speak before. She pushed back Jaune and Blake, and extended a hand to the huntress. “It is an HONOR to meet such a pristine warrior such as yourself! I’ve been an admirer of yours for quite some time.”

“Ah yes… It’s nice to meet you, Miss-”

“That’s not important… What brings you here?”

“And more importantly,” Blake came forward with her eyes narrowed, “why are you wearing a White Fang uniform?” Everyone became uncomfortable by the mention of the terrorist organization. The light seemed to slip from Pyrrha’s eyes, but only for a second. She blinked and gave Blake a weak smile.

“Oh… this… someone let me borrow it after I… got a little blood on my other clothes. It’s a story for another time,” her arms instinctively crossed and her gaze trailed to the forest floor. Her eyes widened and she jerked her head to face Jaune. Walking over to the boy shyly, Pyrrha looked him dead in the eyes before falling to the ground in a kneeling position. With her head bowed, she looked up with severity. “Jaune, I deeply apologize. I- I lied to you about my identity. I… I truly thought I wouldn’t meet you under circumstances like these. It was wrong of me to lie.”

“I accept your apology,” he stated as he took her by the arm and lifted her up to her feet. “What I really want to know is how you got out of that hole? The last time I saw you-”

“That wasn’t me. You were deceived by an assassin from what I can understand. We have to reach the Emerald City quickly! The Great and Powerful Oz needs to know about the people who took me, and who tricked you.”

Upon hearing this news, Jaune’s hand reached for his belt and took off the green velvet bag. He showed it to the huntress and reconfirmed his suspicions. “You didn’t give me this to give to Oz did you?”

She shook her head.

“Huh… Well, I probably should give this to you, sir.” He handed the bag over to Taiyang, who proceeded to tuck it away into one of his pockets. The older huntsman would have to let Glynda handle this mystery item once they were in a safer place.

“So this is Jaune!” Nora exclaimed, lightening up the mood. “We’ve heard soooooo much about you! All good things, no worries!” She wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him down to her level. Leaning in, with a hushed whisper, she said, “You break her heart, I break your knees.”

“What? I’m not following you here…” Jaune looked half confused and half terrified. Nora’s face changed upon realizing just how clueless and out of the loop he truly was, and just smacked him real hard upon his back.

“You’ll get it someday. Hopefully…” She let go of his neck and skipped to Ren’s side.

“We can’t stay in one place for long,” Pyrrha stated with some urgency. “Although we seemed to out run our enemies, we may still be being followed… And I’m sure they are heading to the City as well. I must get to the Wizard and warn him. I’m afraid there is something malevolent aiming to cause chaos to the kingdom… To all the kingdoms…”

“I understand,” Tai said. With a sigh, he looked to his children and to the other young hunters. “Alright… Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, you’re with me. We’ll continue off the path and see if we can clear the area around it of Grimm or… any unfriendly travelers. The rest of you, follow the road to the City. Find Glynda and get inside as fast as you can. Ozpin is expecting you Miss Nikos. And I’m afraid there might not be much time to spare.”

With a nod, the groups were formed and sprinted off.

---

“Wow… I’m an idiot.”

Pyrrha had just finished telling Jaune, and in turn their other two teammates, the full story of how she was connected to the boy.

“You’re not an idiot!” Pyrrha corrected Jaune. “I just wasn’t having a very… strong παρουσία (presence). And I appreciated that… I tend to be in το φως των θεών (the light of the gods), far too much. It was nice to be normal to someone like you, even if you didn’t realize it.”

“You were my ange gardien (guardian angel),” Jaune breathily chuckled as he continued running down the road. Pyrrha’s face flushed and ran ahead of the rest. Even though she didn’t understand French, she did realize that his compliment meant a lot more to her than he probably meant it to.

“We’ve got Grimm,” Ren called after looking ahead to the right. An Ursa stood near their path and took notice to the group.

“Dibs!” Nora called as she darted forward. Hammer at the ready, she called upon her ancestors and whacked the fluffy demon-bear! It growled in pain as she hopped onto its back and rode it like a horse. She disappeared out of sight until the other caught up to find the Grimm “sleeping” next to her as she poked it.

After that, they slowed their pace. They faced the last “defense” of the City; a large field of flowers… poppies. The sea of red flora waved as the wind as the breeze blew its pollen towards the teens. Their eyes already began to flutter from the sweet smell of the flowers, and from the calmness they seemed to emulate.

“We’re going to have to run for it,” Ren said as he picked up Nora and she hooked onto his back.

“Oh Demeter… Have mercy on us…” Pyrrha silently prayed and wished she could give an offering before charging into the flowers of eternal slumber.

The three still standing, one carrying a drowsy Nora, charged into field along the almost overgrown path. The yellow of the road was getting harder and harder to make out over the red seeping through the cracks and sides. It wasn’t until halfway through that they started feeling the full effects of the flowers’ magic. Their feet started to drag. The only thing that felt light to Pyrrha was her feet, the slippers keeping her standing. Her male companions weren’t as lucky. Nora was weighing Ren down. Her snoring was the only thing keeping him awake. Jaune was tripping over his feet, and fell to his knees…

“Jaune!” Pyrrha called with a small rush of adrenaline that moved her towards him, and gave her the strength to pick him up. She slung his arm over her shoulders and partially carried him as they inched closer to the edge of the poppy field.

But, like the others, her eyes were fluttering… Using the last ounce of her strength, she picked up Jaune and sprinted until her knees gave way. Thankfully, it was just enough. The two carrying their teammates crashed into the dirt for a quick nap.

“Oh dear…,” a woman’s voice echoed in their minds as they slipped into sleep.

---

“What a rip off!” Ruby exclaimed as the rest of the group huffed from their tired run from the other side of the poppy field. “It’s not even green! It’s just a dumb regular city!” The young huntress pouted and crossed her arms tightly across her chest.

“Yeah… I was honestly hoping your uncle would have told you about the part,” Tai said as he put his hand on his disappointed daughter’s shoulder. “Oh! Here we go!” He ran over to the booth outside of the entrance gate and talked with a woman behind the counter. He returned back with an armful of emerald-tinted glasses, and handed them out to the girls. They all put on the glasses and looked around once more. “Better?”

“Well… It does look more emerald…,” Blake stated. The young huntresses were clearly unimpressed. With a sigh, the group talked with the woman in the booth, and soon were let into the city.

Most of the buildings must have been white or very light colors, because everything through the tinted lenses were a prominently emerald shade of green. But nonetheless, the City was as grand as they had all heard. Buildings towered, shadowing the bustling streets with their outstanding architecture. Shops of all kinds were around every corner, and the welcoming smells of sweets and coffee wafted from the surrounding cafes. Citizens and visitors alike were chatting and rushing about from place to place. It would have been too much for them to take in if someone hadn’t been there to meet and ground them in reality.

“They said you weren’t far behind,” a stern voice pipped up. Tai turned around and gave a little bow to a strict looking woman.

“Good to see you again, Glynda. I take it you tucked the other kiddios in for a nap?” Tai chuckled upon seeing his old colleague.

“I was hoping Miss Nikos would have held out longer than she did… However, given she had to carry ‘dead’ weight, I can’t fault her too much. Regardless, the Wizard will see you now. If you would follow me,” she said before turning around and started walking towards the ginormous building in the center of the City.

The girls looked around in awe as they kept up pace with the good-witch. Ruby would excitedly ask questions to which Glynda would answer dryly. Their back and forth continued on until they reached the large gates of the House of Oz. With a swipe of Glynda’s hand, the doors moved open with ease. She ushered them inside and into a small room, and with another swipe of Glynda’s hand, they were closed in and began to travel upwards. Light music played among the group’s silence until there was a loud DING.

The doors opened and they entered a large room with a glass wall, overlooking the entire city. In the center of that room, was an opulent desk and a chair facing the window and away from them.

“I’ve brought them,” Glynda stated as she stepped forward.

There was silence.

She tapped her foot before walking over to the chair and twisting it around. It was empty. Glynda groaned and placed her head in her hands before walking towards the far right side of the room. She opened a door that was slightly hidden by a potted plant and vanished behind it, and slammed it shut behind her.

There was some muffled arguing until the door once again opened. Glynda stepped out slightly flustered, while a man followed behind her. He was wearing the same glasses they had received, and a bathrobe and fuzzy bunny slippers. Ruby held herself back from giggling, while the rest of the girls just stared in disbelief.

“Greetings and Welcome to the Emerald City,” the man said as he sat in his swivel chair. He knit his hands and propped up his chin upon them, as he gave his guests a small grin. “I am Ozpin, The Great and Powerful.” Ruby couldn’t hold back her utter giggle fit and crashed to the floor. Ozpin just smiled even more.

All their time spent to reach the City and the dangers they faced, and Ozpin wasn’t even dressed. Underwhelming was a word for what the girls felt. From those who knew the Wizard, this was just a lazy afternoon from man who needn’t prove a thing.

Tai was able to calm Ruby down before Ozpin properly addressed the huntresses.

“Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long; how would you like to join a little project I have planned?”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chapter Text

“What kind of project?” Ruby asked Ozpin as she stuffed her face with some cookies he had brought in. She swallowed and chugged her glass of milk. As she put the now empty glass on the table, she made a serious face with her newly formed milk-mustache.

“Well,” Ozpin leaned over his desk and looked each of the four girls in the eye. He rested his chin on top of his knitted hands, which covered his face from showing his expression. Sitting up, his small grin was visible as he explained. “I assume all of you have some form of training in fighting the creatures of Grimm? Miss Rose and Miss Xiao Long, I am familiar with your family and the service they have contributed to the kingdom, so I have no doubt you two can hold your own. Miss Schnee, I have heard many good things from your fencing instructor. With some polish, I’m sure you will make a fine huntress. Miss Belladonna,” he paused. Blake began to visibly sweat. “Living outside the kingdoms growing up makes one a strong individual, especially from such a young age. All of you have magnificent potential.

“This ‘project’ I put forward for you to contemplate participating is nothing more than a joining of young people in a unifying event. I, as well as the leaders of the other kingdoms, have been planning this for quite some time now… A tournament of sorts. Testing ones’ skills, strengths, and talents. And, of course, have a little competitive fun. Now this project won’t be effected until a month from now… so that gives you time to train. Or, to make a choice; join in or watch. But that’s a question for another day.”

The Wizard stood up from his seat and walked out from behind his desk. The girls held back their chuckles upon seeing him, now visually being reminded Ozpin was in only a robe and slippers. “Right now, I expect you all are tired from your journey. Glynda,” he looked over at the still miffed huntress, “Would you mind showing our visitors to one of the guest rooms.” She nodded and ushered the girls out the door from which they had entered. Tai told the group he was going to hang back and talk business. He assured them that he would catch up with them later before the door closed, leaving Oz and himself alone in the office.

---

The first thing Pyrrha saw when she woke up from her sleep was Jaune’s face. Her eyes fluttered slowly as she smiled up towards him. “γεια σου και πάλι (Hello again),” she cooed as she sat herself up. For the first time in a while, she found it nice to wake up on a bed she knew not how she arrived in. At least her legs were still intact, and she wasn’t tied down. She could feel warm sunlight seeping through the windows, and also the coolness of the spots protected by Jaune’s shadow.

“Glad to see you’re awake!” an energetic voice pipped up, showing the two were not alone. Pyrrha looked over to the other side of the room to see Nora and Ren standing against the wall. “You’re a reeeeeaaallly quiet sleeper. We had to check your pulse like a bazillion times to make sure you weren’t dead!”

Pyrrha let out a warm chuckle. “I appreciate that. But may I ask… where are we? We made it to the City, yes?”

“Yep,” Jaune spoke up. “We were found right outside the City’s limits. Ms. Goodwitch brought us here.”

The warrior smiled at the woman’s name being mentioned. Her eyes looked down at the shoes still stuck on her feet. Her expression wavered as she recalled the information of which she needed to convey with urgency. Hopping out of the bed, she tried to make her way to the door before her allies blocked her from leaving.

“You still need to rest,” Ren insisted as he and Nora blocked the door. Pyrrha just shook her head and tried to give them a more calmed, reassuring look.

“I’m fine. Trust me. I have been through much worse. I’ve rested plenty, but now I must visit the wizard. I have to tell him what I know,” she said as she stepped forward. The two blocking her way exchanged glances with one another before parting, letting her exit the room.

---

The Wizard slumped back in his chair, and glared at the velvet bag laying at the center of his desk. Taiyang had handed it over to him when they were alone in the room. The Arc boy had given it to him, of which he received from the girl who claimed to be Miss Nikos. Ozpin wasn’t just staring at it because he didn’t want to know what was inside, but because he knew what WAS inside. He didn’t feel like opening it… didn’t feel like seeing a reminder of how he and his allies were too late…

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

“You may enter,” he said as he sat up, and threw the bag into one of the desk drawers. The door opened to reveal a somewhat out of breath Pyrrha Nikos. “I see you were able to find my office. Have a seat,” he gestured over to one of the seats in front of his desk.

“If it is alright with you, I wish to stand. I haven’t had a time to stretch my legs as of late…,” she looked down at her feet as she tried not to sound grim in her delivery.

“I’m guessing that’s a not too obvious segue into what you’re about to tell me?”

She nodded before telling the Wizard all of what she had experienced in the past few days. The start of her mission given to her my Glynda, the detour into town, the abduction, the escape… Meeting Jaune and the mention of the bag. Ozpin sighed and looked back at the desk drawer.

“You have questions, yes?”

“Πολύ (A lot)…”

“Well then… let’s start with what’s freshest on your mind.”

“What was Jaune told to give you? If it’s something dangerous…” Pyrrha’s posture tensed.

Not being able to avoid it any longer, Ozpin took the bag out of its hiding place and placed it back on the desk. “It isn’t dangerous. You can open it if you like.”

Hesitantly, the warrior picked up the velvet fabric and reached inside. She felt cold metal in her hands as she took out the hidden object. It was a pendant; an amber gem framed in gold, little feathers decorating one of the sides.

“It’s… lovely.”

“It belonged to a young woman whom we have been searching for for quite a long time. She was like you, Miss Nikos. She had something certain individuals wanted and would do abhorrent things to obtain…”

“Have… have you found her?”

“Yes,” he replied. “And no… time has never been on our side, on my side. We found part of her… the human soul can be a tricky thing it nail down when others do their best to attempt to take it away. And souls can’t just be brought back.” Ozpin closed his eyes and let out a sigh. “The pin was a ‘trophy’; a taunt of what is to face the next to possess what they require. And I regret to say, that would be what you possess. I apologize for putting you in this position, Miss Nikos…”

“I was prepared for this,” Pyrrha calmly said. “The Moirai told me of my fate.”

“Funny… I remember a dusty, old crow once told me you referred to it as ‘destiny’, once upon a time.” His comment caused Pyrrha to grin. She looked up at the Wizard with a fire in her eyes.

“I didn’t say I was going to not defy it. I am prepared for it if I cannot make a change, however if the gods allow I will do all I can do go against it. I am a fighter after all.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Ozpin smirked as he stood from his seat. He walked over to the girl and placed his hand on her shoulder. “And for what I have planned this coming month, you’re going to need that fighting spirit. However, my question to you, Pyrrha Nikos, is are you prepared to do whatever it takes to defy your destiny?”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chapter Text

It had been a long deserved night of rest, as the new ‘team’ of huntresses were bunked up in one of the Wizard’s guest rooms. They even skipped dinner and went straight to bed. Sleeping in a nice warm bed for the first time for what felt like weeks really kick started them for the following morning. Breakfast was promptly at seven o’clock, which Ruby had slept through as the other girls got their fill. Yang made sure to smuggle her sister some pancakes and bacon. They sat a table off from Jaune and his new friends, excluding Pyrrha. Ms. Goodwitch gave them a rundown of the day and a little schedule of the day’s itinerary.

Once they were all fed, Blake, Weiss, and Yang rushed back to the room to wake up their still sleeping teammate. Yang put a single pancake on her sister’s face. Ruby stirred slightly.

“You have ten seconds before I start water-boarding you with maple syrup,” the blonde warned as she poked the pancake.

“I’ll take that risk,” Ruby said muffled by the fluffy food. She slowly ate her way to freedom, halfheartedly hopping for syrup to appear before she finished. Sadly, it was only a bluff.

Weiss went over the schedule with everyone as Ruby struggled to get ready while eating her smuggled goods. “We have a tour of the training facilities in a half hour, and then after that is individual interviews; Ruby, myself, Blake, and then Yang. After that, we have the rest of the day to ourselves.”

“Do we have to wear those dumb glasses all day?” Ruby inquired with one boot on and bacon in her mouth.

“I think so…”

“Can’t break the illusion. Emerald City has to be emerald,” Yang commented. “Otherwise it’s just some old normal boring city.” She clipped on Ember Celica and pulled up her hair. The rest of them finished up getting their weapons together, and headed out.

They met up with all of the other hunters that had currently arrived, which wasn’t many, and followed Glynda as they toured the building. They saw the dining hall, the smaller training rooms as well as the main training arena, and a common room that was sandwiched in between the guest housing and the training areas. Glynda even showed them to the garden around the property. Everything was a different shade of green. But, that was just due to the glasses. Whenever the young hunters got the chance, they would pull up the glasses to get a better view. Much to their surprise, the facility was filled with an array of breathtaking colors. It was almost a shame to have it hidden with all the green…

The tour came to an end and they were all lead to the lobby area of the House of Oz. Glynda then had them all take a seat before addressing them. “Now, children, these interviews are purely confidential. Nothing you say goes in or out of this meeting-”

“Like alcoholics anonymous?” Ruby blurted out while raising up her hand, which seemed pointless considering she hadn’t even been called upon to speak.

“Yes, Miss Rose. Except, unless that is something you wise to divulge, not about your addictions. We wish to better understand all of you so that we can better train you for the event, as well as for you futures as huntsmen and huntresses. Take it as…. a counseling of sorts.” She began calling forward hunters one by one. Some sessions took five minutes, some took fifty. It wasn’t long until Ruby was called up. She wasn’t up there long. However the rest of her team took a little longer than she had.

Weiss was the second to finish her interview.

“I have a feeling Blake and I may be a while,” Yang said as Blake and Glynda disappeared behind the elevator door closing. “You two go on ahead and grab a bite. Take a look around. We’ll catch up.” Ruby and Weiss decided to take up that offer and left for the downtown area.

It was as “green” as everything else, and was just as breathtaking as when they had first arrived. The shock of the towering buildings and hustle and bustle died down as the two walked along the long lines of shops and cafes. Considering one of them has a small budget, and the other had basically cut herself off by running away, they did more window shopping than anything else. At some points, Weiss had to pry Ruby away from the stores, specifically the weapons shops. Ruby would do her fair share of nagging to leave when Weiss would look at the different dust shops. Except instead of ‘looking’ she was comparing prices from shop to shop. The one stop on their exploration they could agree on was visiting a small café in the center of the city called Horonigai.

As the two walked through the door, a little bell dinged and they were met by a cute faunus girl. Her bunny ears perked up as she smiled at the new guests. “Welcome to Horonigai! Is it just the two of you this arvo?” she asked picking up menus.

“Um… yes?” they replied in unison.

“Lovely! Follow me, please,” the waitress instructed as she led them to a cozy little booth close to the bar top. They took their seats and she handed them each a small menu; drinks on the front and a list of sweet on the back. “Just call for me when you’re ready. The name’s Velvet,” the rabbit faunus said pointing to her name badge. The girls nodded and the waitress dashed off to check up on the other tables.

Ruby and Weiss sat in silence for a while as they scanned the menu. It wasn’t until Ruby perked up that the two made eye contact for the first time since being seated. The young girl practically shot out of her seat, while the other almost fell out of hers from being startled.

“VELVET!” Ruby called. She waved her arm around in the air. Weiss sunk in her booth from embarrassment, and hid her face with her menu. The waitress rushed over upon hearing her name with pen and pad in hand.

“I want this!” The huntress pointed to her menu as though she only knew how to order her food like a little kid. Velvet just smiled sweetly and wrote down the order, and then she turned to Weiss.

“…I’ll just have a coffee. Two sugars. And,” she looked back at the menu (specifically the prices), “that will be all.” She held out her menu for Velvet to take. Ruby, noticing what Weiss was doing, did the same.

“I’ll have those right out,” their waitress stated before leaving the two.

They were pretty quiet. Smooth jazz music and the sounds of the other customers’ conversations lulled in the background. Ruby awkwardly looked around as she tried to think of a conversation starter. Even though they had spent days talking on the road, that was mostly when Weiss wasn’t Weiss. She realized that she didn’t know too much to talk about when her conversation partner was an heiress. And with the menus taken away, there wasn’t much of a distraction to keep them from chit chat.

The tension was somewhat broken as Weiss began to start absentmindedly humming along to the music. She subconsciously started tapping her fingers on the table to the beat, and her hums became quiet singing. And that gave Ruby a topic she could work with.

“Did you do a lot of singing before you hit the road?” she curiously asked, causing Weiss to realize what she had been doing.

“Oh…,” the snowy heiress averted her eyes and her expression became distant. “It’s something, as to be a proper lady of society, I learned. I don’t hate it… but I much preferred fencing. ‘Better to be a hawk with talons than a caged up songbird’, Klein would say.” A small smile found its way on her face upon remembering the Schnee Family butler’s words. “I’d preform at a number of galas and concerts all across the kingdom. I’d never get to visit the cities though. Although I can say I’ve seen the insides of some of the greatest concert halls in Vale and Atlas. It would be a treat to preform here in the City.”

“Then do it,” Ruby smirked. She wiggled from the booth and stood up upon the seat. Weiss’s eyes grew wide and she attempted to pull the young huntress down from across the table, but it was too late. “Attention everyone! My friend Weiss is going to perform a song for everyone!”

“R-ruby!” the other girl’s cheeks turned bright red. “What are you doing?!”

“Come on! It’ll be fun! And everyone seems to be into it.” She gestured towards the non-objecting staff and the patrons looking towards the two with kind expressions of anticipation.

“Well… since you’ve backed me into a corner…”

Weiss stood up and walked into the center of the café. She didn’t have any music to accompany her, but she didn’t need it. Taking in a deep breath, she started to sing.

“Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten,
sie fliegen vorbei wie nächtliche Schatten.
Kein Mensch kann sie wissen, kein Jäger erschießen
mit Pulver und Blei: Die Gedanken sind frei!
(Thoughts are free, who can guess them?
They fly by like nocturnal shadows.
No man can know them, no hunter can shoot them
with powder and lead: Thoughts are free!)

“Ich denke was ich will und was mich beglücket,
doch alles in der Still', und wie es sich schicket.
Mein Wunsch und Begehren kann niemand verwehren,
es bleibet dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei!”
(I think what I want, and what delights me,
still always reticent, and as it is suitable.
My wish and desire, no one can deny me
and so it will always be: Thoughts are free!)

As Weis sang, her heart felt lighter and her smile once again appeared.

“Und sperrt man mich ein im finsteren Kerker,
das alles sind rein vergebliche Werke.
Denn meine Gedanken zerreißen die Schranken
und Mauern entzwei: Die Gedanken sind frei!
(And if I am thrown into the darkest dungeon,
all these are futile works,
because my thoughts tear all gates
and walls apart: Thoughts are free!)

“Drum will ich auf immer den Sorgen entsagen
und will mich auch nimmer mit Grillen mehr plagen.
Man kann ja im Herzen stets lachen und scherzen
und denken dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei!”
(So I will renounce my sorrows forever,
and never again will torture myself with whimsies.
In one's heart, one can always laugh and joke
and think at the same time: Thoughts are free!)

There was a beat of silence before the other patrons began to clap. Blushing slightly, Weiss took a small bow before taking her seat. As she did, Velvet came back with their order; Weiss’s coffee, and some kind of extravagant ice cream dish for Ruby.

“That was ripper! I mean, that was really fantastic, ma’am,” their waitress said as she placed their order on the table. “Hey, sweets on me. Can’t have an artist perform unpaid here. Plus my boss seems to think you two are some nice lil sheilas,” she said a little hushed as she gestured towards the bar counter. A woman behind the counter gave a small wave towards their table. She tilted her surprisingly not-emerald glasses onto the bridge of her nose, and gave a little wink before nagging the barista next to her how to make a better cup of coffee. He didn’t seem to mind though.

Velvet sashayed away, leaving the two slightly flustered girls. They smiled at each other a little bit at the sudden good luck. Ruby picked up the long, thin spoon that was next to her huge ice cream and scooped up a big bite. She impatiently ate the ice cream, only to have a shooting pain in her brain.

“Cold~!” she cried, holding her head with her free hand. But, then she went right back to eating only to repeat the same feeling over and over. Weiss just casually sipped on her coffee.

“What exactly is that?” the heiress askes as she watched her friend make a dent in the dessert.

“It said ‘kukkī bakudan’ on the menu. I assumed it would be delicious, and my instinct hasn’t been wrong yet,” she replied with a face full of ice cream. Weiss felt a little bad for getting embarrassed over Ruby’s pointing on her order. She hated to admit, but even she didn’t understand some of the names on the menu…

“From what I can taste, it’s the biggest cookie flavored ice cream treat I’ve ever snacked on! They didn’t skimp out either; chucky chip instead of regular chocolate chips, hot fudge, cookie crumbles, and cookie dough ice cream!”

Weiss looked at the huge dessert and then to the extra spoon that was on the table. Velvet probably figured that Ruby wouldn’t have been able to finish it herself. Well the faunus girl was dead wrong. It took the young huntress only ten more minutes of intense snacking until the bowl was empty. Her face was covered in hot fudge and cookie crumbs. Weiss had to hold herself back from laughing.

That didn’t mean someone else had to however. A burst of laughter came from the front entrance as Yang and Blake walked in. The elder sister made jest at her sister’s choco-face.

“I thought I might find you here!” Yang exclaimed as she walked past the waitress and to her sister. Blake apologized for her friend’s rudeness and let her know that they were with the other girls. “Considering this is the best sweets café in the whole City, I expected you to be sitting here with the whole menu on the table!”

“I have more self-control than you give me credit for…. I just ordered the biggest dessert.”

The two sisters laughed as Blake sat down in the available seating of the booth. Yang and she made their order and chatted with the other girls. The café got notably louder.

“So from what I gathered from Glynda, training starts tomorrow. So we don’t have to worry about the calories we eat now. I’m gonna burn them off super-fast tomorrow!” Yang said as she ate something called ‘Matcha Yama’. Blake just sipped on her green tea frappe and rolled her eyes, but in a friendly way. “Do you guys have any idea what kind of things they’re be having us do?”

“Probably weapons training, sparing, the kind of thing they do with military,” Weiss suggested as Velvet came over to top off her coffee.

“Ah, are you sheilas here for the tournament dealy that ol’ Ozzy is going to hold this year?” she asked as she poured the hot drink into the ice queen’s mug. They all nodded. “Ah! We’re going to be entering too! Did our training last year though so they know we qualify. Been working the shop ever since. I wish you lot luck. It’s going to be fun but a lot of hard work.” And with that she left to check on another table.

The girls speculated what she had meant by that, but figured it was best not to over think it. They finished up their leisure time as the noticed the sun about to set. Blake and Yang paid, since they didn’t get the ‘cute girls’ discount (this time), and the group left to go back to the guest housing.

They spent the rest of the night not-sleeping on their sugar high and excitement for the next day.