"What do you do?"
"travel."
'Where?"
"Anywhere really."
"Have you seen any sloths?"
'Not recently."
'How about a sloth Grimm?"
"No, but I saw a pack of Beowolves fairly recently."
"Ohh! How did you get rid of them?"
'Well…"
Fenrir shifted uncomfortably. Here he was, in a diner, with two hunters.
Make no mistake, he was happy to be getting all you can eat pancakes and waffles with a free chocolate milkshake, but seriously, how many questions did this Nora girl have to ask? It really shouldn't have been that hard to get food then get out.
Then again, this girl seemed really cheerful; maybe she could be fun to hang around. Not necessarily a bad thing, it wasn't like he had any intention of destroying this place today.
Fenrir noticed that while Nora Valkyrie, the bright bubbly teenage huntress- in-training was bouncing on her seat, her friend Ren, had been quietly examining him. Fenrir figured he was unusual for a Faunus, supposedly people with animal traits, but he didn't think he was that unusual. Lie Ren begged to differ.
'It is rare to see a wolf Faunus this far from Menagerie. Are you traveling somewhere specific?" Ren asked politely.
Fenrir shook his head. "Nowhere in particular. Just wanted to see the world." He replied calmly. Ren nodded in understanding.
"Why here then? There are plenty of ways into Mistral by Vale, why go through one the most famously anti-Faunus towns? Ren asked. Nora turned to look at him. An ounce of concern on her face, before looking at Fenrir.
Fenrir scrambled for a believable answer. Any answer.
"I got… lost?" he said weakly, knowing it to be a poor excuse.
"That happens to me all the time too! I'm so glad I'm not alone in that feeling! It is so terrible when that happens! In fact! That happened to me today! I found a sloth, or at least I though it was a sloth but it wasn't and by the time I found that out, it was actually and ursa by the way, we were in this town! And then we ran into you!" Nora blurted out. Ren simply nodded.
"An ursa is one of the large bear shaped Grimm by the way." Ren added helpfully, likely noting the confused look on Fenrir's face.
"How does a sloth look like and ursa?" Fenrir asked.
'Your guess is as good as mine Fen!" Nora chirped cheerfully. Resulting in Ren shaking his head and mild disappointment.
'Your tea sir." A waiter said placing a steaming cup of green tea in front of Ren.
'About time! Fen's milkshake was about to melt!"
"Only because you insisted I wait for Ren." Fenrir argued. Nora looked at him with puppy eyes. "But it's not nice to start eating before your friends." She said, Ren nodding sagely.
'But Nora, A milkshake is a drink, not food." He said.
"But it has ice cream in it! Ice cream is a food!" She exclaimed, her hands raise din the air in frustration.
"We're friends?" Fenrir asked looking at the two hunters in training.
Ren and Nora stared at him. It made for a funny picture, Ren was sitting, back straight holding his steaming cup of tea, Nora however, Was sitting cross-legged facing Ren, her head and eyes twisting to get a good look at Fenrir.
Suddenly a big grin appeared on Nora's face. "Of course silly! Nobody who likes pancakes can be a bad person! So of course we're friends. Right Ren?"
Ren nodded gently, a hint of suspicion apparent in his eyes. "We just met this morning but you don't seem to have any negative intentions towards us, and whatever you are doing heading towards Mistral, I know one thing, Nora is a good judge of character." He said his voice barely rising at all.
Fenrir didn't know whether to smile or sob. What was this feeling, this almost warm blanket that felt like it surrounded him? He was Fenrir, the great wolf, and the destroyer of worlds. He would bring ruin to everything they were trying to protect, cause all their efforts to be for nothing.
At the same time, the idea of having friends, even if just for a short while, appealed to him. Fenrir debated the merits of immediate destruction of the planet with the long-term benefits of having friends. It didn't take long for him to decide.
"Well, not like I'm on a specific schedule for destroying this place or anything." He thought. He could always destroy remnant after they were dead, it would be, what, a hundred years if that? For him that was almost nothing.
He cheerfully picked up his Milkshake and held it out.
"To new friendships!" he said
'Yay! Friends!" Nora cheered. The three clinked their glasses (or in Ren's case, mug) together. Fenrir took big gulps.
"Gonna want to be careful there Fen!" Nora warned just a little to late. Fenrir felt the chill reach up his throat and spread towards his head. How did I forget about these! He wondered furiously as he clutched his head, desperate to ride out the freezing pain that made his skull feel like it was about to burst. He growled in frustration Fenrir, the Great Wolf, felled by a simple milkshake he thought ruefully. Slamming his head against the table with a clink. One day, one of these worlds would progress far enough to add something to ice cream to stop ice cream headaches. But it wouldn't be this world.
"Fen! I told you not to do that! You'll get a brain freeze!" Nora said tutting while shaking her head slowly.
"Tongue against the roof of your mouth, it eases the pain." Ren advised helpfully.
Ren got a pained moan in response.
Fenrir noted ruefully that he had forgotten how painful "Brain freezes" as Nora called them, were. He had also forgotten how they only lasted a few seconds. After half a minute, a mere thirty seconds, of moaning, he had recovered. That usually would have been the end of it, but Nora had taken photos.
So there they were, walking towards a tavern that would allow Faunus to stay in an actual bed, while Nora flipped through pictures.
"And this is when you moaned for the fourth time in five seconds!"
"Wouldn't that just be a really long moan?" Fenrir asked, exasperated at watching what was effectively, a play by play of his suffering.
"Nah!" Nora said in response. Not explaining he reasoning. She skipped ahead of the group, allowing Fenrir and Ren some time alone.
"She is a bundle of energy." Fenrir said pleasantly.
"I'd tell her to calm down, but I'd figure you would just rile her back up." Ren replied.
"I don't think I have ever met anyone that happy."
"You learn to cherish the happy moments." Ren said, a hint of bitterness entering his voice.
"Hurry up you two! The tavern is here!" Nora said from out of nowhere.
"Nora! Where are you?" Ren asked, scanning the street for evidence of Nora.
'Graw! Graw!" Nora responded, landing in front of the two of them silently. Fenrir raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Nora poked Ren "Boop." She said gently, causing Ren to smile.
"I still don't think that is what a sloth sounds like." He said.
"That was supposed to be a sloth?" Fenrir asked in wonderment.
Ruby had expected the trip through the portal to be a little unnerving, they always were. She still recalled her first time; she and Yang had still been in training. She had felt dizzy when they arrived on a desolate plain. It was Valhalla her mother had explained. Jaune had immediately earned the nickname "vomit boy" after he had subsequently vomited all over Summer Rose's cloak. But that wasn't exactly a surprise, he had never been a lucky child. A small smile slipped its way onto Ruby's lips without her knowledge. All that's changed. She thought, the smile on her face vanishing as quickly as it came.
Blake and Weiss were gone, Blake's mind perverted beyond recognition by a corruption she never deserved and Weiss, well Ruby didn't even try to hope anymore think of a way Weiss could have escaped that deathtrap. She sacrificed herself for the greater good. I can't let that sacrifice go to waste. Ruby told herself day after day. She wouldn't lose the last remains of her team, she wouldn't lose what was left of her family, never again would she feel the kind of pain that she felt at the loss of Weiss.
"Land ahoy!" Yang shouted, snapping Ruby from her thoughts. It took ruby only moments to gain a bearing on their situation and their surroundings. This was of course, in part because the portal had seemingly opened into thin air. Ruby saw the bright blue sky, sun shining in the distance. There was barely a cloud in the air allowing her to see miles of blue ocean. Noting no land, Ruby looked down At first she did not notice the small island as the air whipped in her face, but slowly, a pinprick of green grew into an apparent island.
"Let's land in an uninhabited area!" Ruby shouted over the buffeting wind. Yang nodded a massive grin on her face. She pulled out a pair of Aviator glasses and twisted her body to dive headfirst towards the ground. Ruby rolled her eyes before following.
For most of the people on patch, the day was rather calm. For Taiyang Xiao long, long time widower and father of two huntresses in training little had changed in the past months. Ruby had run off before the end of winter, sending him into a panic. He had called Qrow probably thirty times in the first hour after he found the note. The response he got while somewhat easing his panic, made him angrier than ever. Qrow knew where Ruby was, where she was heading and flatly refused to tell him! The nerve of that ass!
To make things worse, Yang was still moping in her room. She hadn't pulled herself together at all. Taiyang had tried everything he could he had gotten to the point of begging her just to eat. Sometimes she did, but she was wasting away all the same.
It was at this point when he heard a familiar voice which caused his heart to almost burst out of his chest.
"Incoming!" A cheerful voice shouted. Taiyang turned around to see two figures plunging towards the ground. He swore instinctively charging towards the two, paternal instinct taking over.
Yang didn't get much of a look at whom she was plunging towards; Ruby had been a complete bore during their short descent and Yang wasn't motivated to try to pull words out of her younger sister. The flash of blonde hair caught her attention quickly, and she noted that he was close to where they were about to land, he'd probably be caught in the shockwave.
Ruby glanced at her, clearly debating the risk to this helpless fool. The could go for a somewhat more stealthy approach, but Ruby knew by know that subtlety was not Yang's forte, that had been more of Blake's thing. Yang grinned and shouted a warning to the man.
"Incoming!" She shouted, immediately looking up at Ruby.
Ruby's face was sheet white. An expression somewhere between terror and joy played on her features. Her silver eyes were wide.
'Rubes what's going-" Yang began but was silenced by the feeling of her own knee slamming into her face. She hadn't even felt the contact with the ground! Yang spun backwards tumbling through a grassy plain. The sound of the ground cracking open signaled that ruby had made a more successful landing.
Yang stood dusting off her armor. It wasn't so fragile to break under some mild strain like striking the ground at terminal velocity but keeping it clean was a hassle. The golden scale mail clinked softly as she patted it, shaking excess dirt off the freshly cleaned armor.
'Rubes, what the hell did I-"
"Yang?" A voice whispered almost in shock. Yang would have recognized that voice anywhere. A voice she had wished to hear so many times before. The memories came flooding back. The weapons and armor buried, what little remained of the body cremated and placed in an urn, buried under a statue. Summer hadn't been there, she would found out days later.
Ruby sobbed, clutching Yang and later Weiss. Yang hadn't held back on the tears either, sobbing openly while making a speech about her father's courage and sacrifice. The words had been draining, the feelings remote, the world hadn't felt right. Sometimes yang wondered if that was the beginning of when Ruby changed. She would become a little colder, more distant, but also viciously protective. It also was when the close mother daughter relationship between Summer and Ruby started to strain.
Now in front of her, was the catalyst for so much change. His blonde hair wild, his form as muscular as ever and the concern on his face reminded her of exactly how her dad had acted to her antics. With complete and utter confusion.
"Well, this is a thing." Yang said, crossing her arms.
"You're supposed to be in bed! How did you get an arm? What the hell is going on?" Taiyang started to ask. Before he could continue Ruby struck him with a fierce roundhouse kick, intending to knock the poor man out.
Yang could only laugh as Taiyang turned around, rubbing the back of his head where the kick had landed.
"Ruby?" Taiyang asked in wonder, still trying to connect the powerful kick with his daughter.
'Damn, not enough force." Ruby muttered, lowering herself into a guarded stance.
"Don't think that'll be necessary Rubes." Yang said. Walking up beside this man who looked exactly like her father. "Ozpin's report said there'd be a ton of differences. It seems in this world, Dad survived."
'Survived what?" Taiyang asked turning to look at Yang.
"Just the biggest Grimm Invasion of Vytal ever." She said quietly, her expression darkening as the memories replayed themselves in her head.
"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed, fury in her eyes.
"Don't be like that Rubes, We need all the help we can get!" Yang said smiling. In truth she wanted to hug the man tightly, pretend it was actually her father instead of another who looked and acted like him. She wanted to cry and sob, as years ago, Ruby would have. Maybe he'll be able to break Ruby's shell. Yang hoped.
Ruby relaxed slightly cold hard reason beating out her fear at revealing that gods had landed on this world.
"Can someone explain what is going on?" Taiyang asked desperately.
Yang shrugged "Sure, but can we get some grub first? I'm starving!"
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