Author's Note: Updates concerning story and chapter progress occur every Friday in r/RWBY's weekly fan fiction post. Coincidentally, the sub is also the most reliable way to get in contact with me, if that's a thing you want to do.
"Mind the fort until I get back, new guy," called Indigo, the owner of what was, perhaps, Vale's tiniest Dust shop. Her hand was already on the handle as she spoke.
Her dusky voice snapped Opher Riese out of his reverie. If he'd learned anything during the past two weeks under her employ, it was that when the clock struck noon, she was heading to lunch. You could set a clock by the woman's appetite.
"I think I'll head to that pizza place," she intoned thoughtfully. "You know, that one on the corner of 14th and Andesite. You want anything?"
Opher ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, collecting his thoughts. He replied, "Yeah. Preferably with sausage. Maybe peppers. Doesn't matter, I'll eat whatever."
"You are so easy to please, new guy. Have fun!" She flashed him a thumbs up and departed.
"My name is… never mind." Now her precious shop was his, all four basically empty floor shelves of it. On an average day he'd do inventory while his boss was away. Lately there wasn't enough stock to make the effort worth it, thanks to the crime wave. Despite this, Opher decided a simple look around couldn't hurt, so off he went.
There was plenty of time for Opher to check what needed restocking. Hardly anyone ever came by at this hour. They probably had the same idea Indigo did: why shop when you could go eat instead? Opher was frankly happy for the idle time. He wiled away the minutes by watching Vale walk by outside the plate glass windows up front.
One of them didn't walk by, however; she walked in. He recognized her uniform; this was a student from Beacon, with long, almost painfully brilliant red hair and bright green eyes. She wore a polite, if hesitant smile. "Oh, hello," she greeted, losing track of what small talk she was planning as she noted the lack of wares on the shelves. "...ah…?"
"I know," he said, trying again to pat down the terrible mess that was his hair. "We're waiting on our next shipment. You're welcome to browse what we've got."
"Right. Thank you." She wandered over to shelf number one and started looking. "I'm not keeping you, am I? I know it's lunchtime."
Opher shrugged off her concern. "Nah, my boss always leaves me here to mind the store while she goes to eat."
The redhead turned a deep blue Dust crystal over in her hand. "Well. That seems a little mean."
"Eh. I'm used to it by now." He watched her put the crystal away and grab another. She still appeared a little concerned. "Don't worry, she'll bring back food for me. Take your time."
A little chuckle escaped her lips, one that was more anxious than she intended. "Oh, all right. Good to know."
He'd been watching her long enough to realize her face was a little familiar. It wasn't that he'd seen her around town. Well, not in person. "Wait, aren't you on a cereal box? Pumpkin Pete's-"
Her cover blown, Pyrrha winced a little and looked over at him. "Th-that would be me, yes."
"Wow, that must have been something."
His neutral acknowledgment of the whole thing made her feel a little better. "You have no idea. I get asked for so many autographs."
Opher stretched his arms over his head and yawned. "I won't be asking, so don't worry. I'm not even sure why you're famous."
Which was sort of refreshing, as far as she was concerned. "I really appreciate it." Pyrrha couldn't help but notice he had tattoos now, a whole, thick sleeve of black symbols that covered the visible parts of his left arm from the wrist up. As with everyone she encountered, Pyrrha analyzed him whenever she noted him looking away. Her initial impression of him was how much he looked like Jaune, save for a few key differences. Height was one of these; Opher was a couple of inches shorter than her leader. Hair color was another. His was a dusky, almost dirty brown. Otherwise, he was clean-cut and somewhat lanky, just like Jaune.
"What?" Opher asked, having caught her gaze.
His muted green eyes were the last thing she could note before trying to smooth things over. "You, ah, look like a friend of mine, that's all," she replied hastily. "Don't mind me!" At last, she decided on a wind and ice Dust crystal and brought them up, one in each hand. "Here we are. I hope this is what Professor Peach wanted."
They made a clinking sound as she set them on the glass case. "Don't be nervous. Unless you're planning to rob me, I won't bite."
"Oh! I wouldn't dream of it! Really. I swear." She produced a Lien card and waited for him to ring up her sale. At this close range, it was apparent that something was off about this young man. His eyes were too much like hers – he'd seen things. He'd fought. Of course, she was much too cordial to pry.
"13.75," he said, looking up from the register and noticing her gaze again. "You've been staring at me a lot, you know."
"Oh! I'm-" Pyrrha looked away, trying fruitlessly to dismiss the embarrassed color from her cheeks. "I'm sorry! I'm just… um… nothing! Forget it!" In the act of handing him her card, she brushed his hand with her fingers.
That brief contact let her detect something terrifying. It manifested first as an ashen gray light like any other Aura, but in the instant's worth of contact she had with him it changed to something else entirely. Parts of it seemed to be anchored to him like the roots of a tree; others clung to his frame like misshapen arms with no hands or joints. Around his head she caught the faintest glimpse of some gray fog peeking out from behind. The vision left Pyrrha slack-jawed and silent.
"Uh… what?" Opher asked, waiting for her to take her card back.
"Nothing! Everything is fine!" Pyrrha snatched the card back and crammed it, and her purchase, into her bag. "Thank you!" she chirped awkwardly, turning quickly away. "Sorry for staring! Have a nice day!" she added as she moved toward the door. "Goodbye!"
The look on her face left Opher more than a little confused. "What the hell just happened?" he asked the hand she'd touched. "I'm not that sc-" And then it hit him. "Oh, damn it. She saw, didn't she." He rested his arms on the counter and leaned forward with a frown. "And she goes to Beacon. This might get complicated."
Indigo burst in just then, balancing a couple of boxes and cups in her arms. Her purplish-blue ponytail bounced with every step. "Opher! I just saw Pyrrha Nikos!"
He raised up and watched her stumble toward him. "Oh? So did I. She was just in here."
"Are you screwing with me?" she asked, dropping her load and staring up at him. "Did she buy anything?"
Opher rolled his eyes. "Yes, Indy, she bought something."
Indigo clapped her hands with glee. "Awesome! Hey, think she'd be a spokeswoman for the shop?"
"I doubt we have the Lien to pay her fees, shorty." Opher opened one of the boxes and removed a slice of pizza.
"Damn!" A perturbed Indigo stormed into the backroom, ranting about their revenue.
Her tirade went unnoticed by Opher, whose thoughts were focused elsewhere. He stared outside with a frown, wondering just how much Pyrrha had seen of the other him.
A trickle of customers passed through Indigo's little shop, and as the sun crept away to die behind the western horizon, Opher was preparing for his shift to end. "Indy! I'm clocking out!" he called into the back.
"All right! Have a good weekend!"
To restrain his hair he plopped on an urban camouflage hat, and walked out. The muggy heat nearly took his breath away. "Ugh. I wonder when the word 'summer' started meaning 'oven'," he breathed, staring up at the clouds. His path took him through the evening crowd and northeast, away from downtown and toward a rather seedier part of the kingdom. The streets grew more empty the closer he got to home.
There were, however, those who waited beyond his gaze. Pyrrha, in her usual armor, crouched on the edge of a tall building with Jaune at her side. "There," she said, pointing down at Opher as he walked past. "That's him."
"He looks like me," Jaune noted with a frown, "which, by the way, is totally not a compliment." Her slap on the shoulder, feather-light as it was, made him gasp. "I'm just being honest here!"
"Don't sell yourself short." She looked back down just as their quarry disappeared. "Come on, we have to jump across."
"Are you serious? I'd need wings to clear this!"
Pyrrha cocked a brow at him. "I suppose I could throw you over, but I'm trying to keep this covert, and, um, you have a tendency to scream. I don't want any loud noises."
He regarded her blankly. "That's why you told me to tell Nora to stay in the dorm, isn't it."
"It is absolutely why I told you to tell her to stay in the dorm, yes. Please don't tell her I said that." She backed up a few steps and charged, flinging herself over the street below and reaching the other roof with effortless grace. "Come on!" she said, waving to her leader.
"I'm gonna die." Jaune backed up much further than she did, just to be sure, and ran forward with all the speed he could muster. He made it over to her, although with much more flailing. He tumbled for a few feet after landing and tried to bounce up like nothing had happened. "Success! W-whoa. Blood. All the blood to my head. Oh boy."
Pyrrha shook her head with a smile and walked over to the opposite ledge. "Still going north. This is a pretty bad part of town, isn't it?"
"If you say so." Jaune watched him walk slowly onward. "Why are you so interested in this guy, exactly?"
Her eyes narrowed a little. "I saw his Aura by accident. The way it looked… it was so wrong. I'm worried it might be something the teachers should know about."
"Then we should, I don't know, talk to the teachers instead of stalking this guy, right?" He raised his hands a bit as she looked over. "What? I'm trying to be leaderly. That's what a leader would say. Isn't it?"
"I don't want to bother them with something that turns out to be nothing. That's all." She peeked down at the sidewalk and found it empty. "Let's drop down," she said, giving him no time to object before she took the plunge. With a tepid thrum, her Semblance enveloped them both. Gripping her own armor with it was easy; Jaune's lighter plate was a different story. She nearly dropped him as they reached the concrete. "Oops. Sorry."
"No problem," he assured her breathlessly. "I really need to stop flailing when I fall off of stuff." He led her across the street just as their target turned another corner. "Really don't think we should hang around here too long."
"Agreed." Fortunately, he was just a few yards ahead as they made the turn themselves. Between the late hour and her unsavory surroundings, Pyrrha was beginning to feel pressured. Her original plans went out the window. "Excuse me!" she called uncertainly.
Opher came to a stop and looked back over his shoulder. "What's going... oh." He turned to face them and blinked at Jaune. "I mean, I don't know who you are, but you," he said, firing a displeased glance at Pyrrha. "My life is about to get difficult, isn't it?"
"We're not here to make your life harder, trust me," she replied. "I just want to talk to you."
Jaune looked at her, then Opher, and shrugged. "I'm here to back her up. That's pretty much it. Whichever way this goes."
"Admirable, I guess," Opher said with a nod. "Were you seriously following me? What the hell?"
Pyrrha screwed up her courage and strode toward him. "Your Aura is – I don't even know how to describe it. I've never seen anything like it before. Why does it look that way?"
"None of your fucking business," Opher spat bitterly. The question was all it had taken for him to lose his patience with the whole affair. "Leave me alone."
His venomous tone served to confirm Pyrrha's original notion that something was amiss. However, she now had a sinking feeling that she'd overstepped her bounds. "Perhaps I made a mistake. Ah, Jaune, we should go. I think."
"He swore at you. Aren't I supposed to defend your honor, or something?" Jaune peered at him and blinked. "...I could take him. I'm fifty percent sure." Another look made him frown. "Maybe forty."
Opher was still furious in spite of Pyrrha's show of deference. "If her honor is worth dying for, then come on," he said, folding his arms.
"Whoa! Whoa," she interjected. "No. None of that, please. This is my fault. I apologize. There's no need to come to blows."
"Yeah, well, I don't particularly care for this kind of attention. Especially not from an Academy." It was clear that neither of them was really willing to fight, which helped him cool down. Despite that, his guard remained up. "Look, just keep your curiosity to yourself, all right? Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go home. I mean, it's right there," he concluded, waving at an apartment block across the street.
"Yes, of course. I'm-" She fell silent, as Opher didn't even wait for her to apologize again before he started off. "Well, that was a rapier wasp nest I wasn't expecting to stir up."
"Yep. You're right though, something is definitely weird about that guy." Jaune turned around and began to move. "Still think he's worth telling the teachers about?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe." She followed him, but kept watching Opher until he entered his apartment building. "Maybe it's not my place to barge into his life, either."
Unbeknownst to them, Jaune and Pyrrha were also being watched. A dark-skinned girl with pale green hair loomed above them briefly before retreating out of sight behind a ledge. She looked at her male partner, who, unsurprisingly, wasn't paying a bit of attention. Both were in Haven Academy uniforms. "Mercury, if you're asleep I'm going to-"
"I'm not, but I sure wish I were," he said. "Are you done with your little investigation?"
A growling Emerald produced her Scroll. "No, it's just gotten started. Why would oh-so-perfect Pyrrha Nikos feel the need to stalk this guy, huh? She has to know him. And if she knows him, I want to know him," she said, tapping the button to open it. "Cinder should probably hear about this too. Something fishy is going on."
Mercury sat up and watched her tap the screen. "I don't know what this thing between you and Cinder is, but man. Aren't just you a precious little teacher's pet?"
Emerald rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever. You're just mad she likes me more."
"It's Cinder! She doesn't like anybody!"
"I'd bet you money she likes me more than you. Come on, let's get back." Emerald stared at the apartment building, committing its location to her memory, then turned away. On the Scroll in her hand were a few pictures she'd taken of the stranger. "Maybe we should pay this guy a visit in the morning."
Dawn came with a persistent drizzle that finally forced Opher off his steel balcony and back into the living room. "So much for my plans today," he grumbled, moving back indoors. The weather was still acceptable enough, he decided, to run down and get breakfast. Once he had some Lien, he picked up a gold coin from his kitchen counter and slipped it into his jeans pocket. The Lien, however, went under his hat, an old habit he'd picked up from dodging street thieves in Vacuo. Despite it being in his pocket, he kept his hand around the coin as he walked outside and down the street. Even though the rain had picked up, there were others on the sidewalks. A dark-skinned girl with pale green hair stuck out like a sore thumb.
Emerald was doing her best to look like an inattentive tourist. She glanced from side to side with an open mouth and feigned confusion until she bumped right into him. In an instant, she'd checked his pockets for loot, but only found his clenched fist in one before the impact separated them. "Oh! I'm so sorry," she said. "I'm not really sure where I am."
"I can tell," Opher replied, a brow slightly raised. "This isn't the best neighborhood." He pointed south. "You might have better luck that way."
She cocked her head and kept up the act. "Better luck?"
"I felt you check my pockets," he stated, walking past without another word.
"Wh-" A suddenly grumpy Emerald growled at his back as he moved away. "I hate hard targets." When Opher took a right turn and vanished, she pulled out her Scroll and made a call. "Hey, he's heading right for you. Hold him up until I get there."
"Yeah, yeah," Mercury replied with a yawn. He peeked around a corner and saw Opher's approach. "I see him." Tucking his Scroll away, he stepped out onto the sidewalk. "Excuse me?" he called. "I'm a little, uh, lost. Do you know where the shopping district is, by any chance?"
"Sure. Just follow me," Opher said, not even slowing down.
Which put a hole in Mercury's plans that he had to act quickly to patch. "Oh, okay, but can we wait for my friend to catch up? Should be just a minute."
Opher halted and turned to regard him, getting a smile for his effort. It was not returned. "Fine. I hope they're quick. I don't want to be out here when the storm shows up."
"You and me both," he affirmed with a shrug, He walked into an alleyway with Opher in tow. "Wanna share my umbrella? Not right for you to go without."
He tapped the hat on his head. "I'll manage." Mercury's boot-mounted greaves caught his eye. "Interesting."
"Oh, aren't they? I'm a student at Haven. Just here for the Vytal Festival and all. Vale's pretty… fun."
"Isn't it, though." For a split-second, the rain stopped hitting his hat and tipped him off that something was above. When Emerald landed in a crouch to his left, therefore, his surprise was muted. "Huh. Here to try and rob me again?"
"Don't start with me," she fired back, taking shelter under Mercury's gray umbrella. His snickering made her glare. "Don't you start, either."
"Now she's gonna be grumpy all day," he said with a grin.
"I do get the feeling this isn't about directions," Opher cut in. "News must travel fast if I have two Academies' worth of students after me."
Emerald leaned against the brick wall behind her and eyed his tattoo sleeve. "We couldn't help but notice how Pyrrha was acting. Care to explain why?"
"Here's a thought: ask her that and leave me alone." His attempt to leave the alley was blocked after a few steps by Mercury. "You are actually doing this, aren't you?"
"It's not worth getting knocked around over a few questions, is it?" he asked, bouncing from heel to heel. "Come on, don't make me deal with a ticked-off Emerald all morning. Cut me some slack."
"Yeah. Don't be difficult," Emerald added, falling in behind Opher. "We're just trying to figure out what's going on. For a friend."
He didn't believe that for a second. As he glanced over his shoulder at her, then back at Mercury, a gust of wind blew through the narrow space. "I am truly sorry," he murmured, holding down his hat with his left hand, "but I'm trying to beat the weather." That gust became a sustained howl, then ceased altogether. While Mercury fumbled with his umbrella, Opher suddenly launched skyward and landed on the roof of the building from which Emerald had jumped earlier.
"What the—?" she exclaimed, his departure so quick she didn't have time to draw her weapons. "How did… ugh. I'm going after him. Can you kick yourself that high?"
"Afraid not," he said, squinting against the rain. "I'll follow down here in case he jumps down."
"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but good idea." Emerald scrambled up the external stairs, reaching the top just in time to see him leaping between structures a block or so distant. "You must really have something to hide, huh?" she asked, breaking into a sprint.
They bounced from rooftop to rooftop in the driving rain. While Opher had a head start, Emerald was fast enough to close the gap. She hurled herself across the narrow streets of Vale for three more blocks in pursuit, until finally she started landing on buildings just as he was leaving them. As she continued to close the distance, she shouted, "Stop running!"
Opher glanced back at her and yelled, "Or you could stop chasing me, that would also work." He flung himself onto a large, sloped, rectangular roof as the rain intensified. The surrounding buildings were all much taller than this one.
Emerald noticed this and figured she had him trapped; he even came to a stop, which led her to believe he thought the same. "I was planning on being nice until you got me soaking wet," she grumbled, drawing her revolvers. "I've killed people for less."
Opher, also completely drenched, crossed his arms and frowned at her. "So have I."
She kept her guns trained on him and moved closer. "Then why are you buddies with Pyrrha? That sanctimonious little… you don't seem like the kind of company she would keep."
Emerald's assumption turned his scowl into a smirk. "Do you always jump to conclusions? No wonder you're so spry. She doesn't even know my name."
"Wait, what?" Emerald let her face, and her weapons, drop a little. "Yesterday suddenly makes even less sense."
Opher groaned, rubbing at his eyes as the wind picked up once more. "Welcome to my life." A wind kicked up, so fierce it began to blow him around on the slippery metal.
Or that's what it looked like, until Emerald realized the breeze around her wasn't very stiff at all. "You almost had me!" she snapped, opening fire on him. And she almost had him, too; none of her shots actually struck. In fact, they seemed to curve subtly away from her target. "Huh?" Her surprised utterance barely had time to get out before he flung himself at her, bringing the gale with him. A cold mass slammed into her stomach, stealing her breath and knocking the revolvers out of her hands.
With the girl on her hands and knees at his feet, Opher drove a shoe into her shoulder blades to force her down. "Let's see if your friend is as stupid as you are," he said lowly, and jumped from the roof to the pavement below.
Rain tapped Emerald's skin as she struggled to heft herself off the cold metal. She grabbed her Scroll and rolled onto her back, hissing with pain. "Mercury… do you see him?"
"Nope. Why, he get away from you too?"
"We danced. I didn't exactly win." With considerable effort, she sat upright and took deep breaths. "My bullets wouldn't hit him. I don't know if he has a Semblance like Pyrrha or if something else is going on."
"This guy just gets more and more interesting."
Emerald stared up at the darkening clouds. "Yeah, well, all I care about now is getting somewhere dry. We should probably ask Cinder what to do next."
After hanging over Vale for the entire morning, the storm proper finally arrived. Coupled with the earlier steady rain, this deluge brought on quick street flooding and drove everyone into whatever shelter they could find. Everyone, that was, except for Opher. He had the town to himself, more or less, and used the lack of traffic to get in a good run home. On this occasion, nobody accosted him, which meant he returned to his neighborhood in blistering time. He kept an eye out for the two kids that had chased him when he got there, but saw neither.
"About time I got some peace," he muttered while dashing across the empty road. When he reached the awning over the entrance, he checked both inside and out for . Satisfied he was alone, Opher closed his eyes and concentrated. His dripping clothes began to emit little wisps of steam; in sixty seconds, everything he wore was dry as a bone.
His Scroll began to chirp just as he got inside. "Hello, shorty," he greeted, knowing it had to be Indigo. "I can't believe you opened today. Aren't you hungover?"
"Mmm, good guess, but no," a a sultry voice replied. It certainly wasn't the green-headed pickpocket from earlier. "Perhaps you should try again."
Opher stopped halfway up the first flight of stairs and blinked. "Who is this?"
"Names aren't important. I don't appreciate people beating up on my associates."
He resumed his climb, though at a slower pace. "Maybe your associates shouldn't be chasing me, then."
The stranger laughed briefly. "Sometimes she thinks before she acts, but she triesso hard. I'd be worried about her getting revenge. The girl can hold a grudge." And then whoever it was hung up.
"I should have stayed up north," he lamented, tucking the device away. "Nobody there was trying to kill me. So far as I know."
Attentive, but not exactly frightened, Opher carefully opened the door to his apartment and peeked in. Nothing jumped at him, so he proceeded forward, step by step, into the small living room. For once, his lack of unnecessary furniture proved useful; it minimized hiding spots. The living room was clear, as was the kitchen beyond. Past that lay a hallway. He sliced the corner into wedges as if he were aiming a gun. After clearing it, he headed toward the far end of the corridor and the bedroom. That door was open. When he left earlier, it had been closed. As he slowly approached, someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind.
"What's up," Mercury greeted as he turned, before driving a straight kick into his chin. A shot went off. He had made contact, but Opher stayed on his feet and only leaned back with the impact. His head was cloaked in the gun's smoke. Mercury prepared to spin and deliver a finishing blow, but slipped on the tile floor. Or, rather, he slipped on a sudden patch of ice. "What the-"
Opher charged forward and grabbed him by the hair, driving his face down into the floor. "Wow. Wow. This is getting old." He kept ramming Mercury's head against the tile, being careful to keep his legs pinned. "'Go to Vale,' I told myself. 'The summers are so much warmer,' I said. 'A change of scenery will be good for you.' What the fuck was I thinking?" He kept up the assault until his attacker went mostly limp beneath him.
"Why… why are you not dead?" Mercury wheezed through the pain.
A cruel grin split Opher's lips. "If I had a Lien for every time somebody asked me that… Call that woman. I want to talk to her."
"And if I don't?" He grew still as a cold sensation penetrated the hair on the back of his head. In the corners of his eyes, he could see ice beginning to form. "Okay! Okay! Take the Scroll out of my back pocket." Once he had it, he slowly dialed a number, a task made harder by the concussion he'd suffered.
It only rang once before she answered. "I hope we're done with this. We're wasting time."
"Uh, Cinder..." Mercury moaned.
Opher snatched it away from him. "Cinder, is it? Yeah, hi. I have your boy here on the floor in my kitchen. I'm trying to decide how to kill him."
"Yeah, if we could not kill me, that'd be awesome," Mercury whined.
"Unbelievable… Mercury, what happened?"
He groaned at her complaining tone. "Really appreciate the vote of confidence, thanks."
"Actually, you know what? I just mopped this floor and I don't feel like doing it again." Opher looked at a window off to the side. "You obviously know where I live, so come get him. He'll be on the roof. Oh, and let me make this as clear as possible: leave me the fuck alone!" He ended the call and tugged Mercury to his feet. "This is your first and only warning. If either of you show up again, you're leaving in body bags. I've run out of patience."
"Noted," he said in a warbling tone, barely able to keep his feet under him as they walked out of Opher's apartment. "Why do I see three of everything?" A potent downpour greeted them on the roof. Opher tossed him down just beyond the door.
"Pass along a message to your friend for me, would you?" he asked while turning away. "Tell her you two might be equally stupid."
Mercury just moaned in reply, trying hard to clear the cobwebs from his brain. He had to wait for his Aura to do that work for him. "I hate today." The rain abruptly stopped. "Huh?"
Emerald had arrived. She stood over him with his gray umbrella in hand, staring at the bruises on his face. "Wow, he messed you up good, didn't he?"
He sat up and rubbed his temples. "His face didn't mind my kick very much. Guy's obviously a Huntsman or something. I don't think I even made a dent."
She looked down at the open Scroll in her other hand. "I'm glad Cinder made you do this. Ma'am, what next?"
Cinder's voice was stern and chilly. "This little escapade is over. If you're right about him being a Huntsman, I don't want the attention. Get back here so we can think about damage control."
