After far too many delays, here is the next chapter.
"So the stories say the Cetra were nomads that had magic and were the first to use dust," Blake explained to the other three of her team, they nodded and remain silent "They taught human and faunus to stand up and fight back the grimm. Or so the legends say."
"If that is true, as miss Gainsborough claims, what happened to them?" Weiss asked softly.
"There's only theories about that. Some think they faded over time, a plague wiped them out, war… there is one theory that they live with us but have a secret society."
"Oh! I read those books!" Yang cheered for herself with a wide smile.
"You have?" the other three asked with varying degrees of surprise and doubt. Yang sent each of them a playful glare.
"Yes, I read for fun to too. Just not as much you bookworms. Perry Hatter is a great series," Blake pinched the bridge of her nose to show her annoyance but Yang could see her smile.
"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You mean there could be a school for magic out there?" the way Ruby's face lit up at the thought was downright adorable to her older sister.
Blake gave a small chuckle "In theory."
"Do magic and first to use dust?" Weiss asked to redirect the conversation back to the original topic "Anything else?"
"Well uh, some legends say they could talk to Remnant as if the world itself was sentient," Blake explained. It had been a few years since she had read or heard the legends "Other legends say they could talk to the dead but that probably has as much truth as the people that claim they can nowadays."
For a moment Yang hoped it could be true but realized that as much as she would like to hear from Summer again it would just cause more pain. She did her best to casually look to her younger sister to guess her thoughts. Yang saw the shine of hope in Ruby's eyes and felt her own heart drop, even if the stories were false she would be hurt. But if they were true and Aerith could speak with the dead, it would cause much more pain for Ruby. Knowing someone important to you was out there but just out of reach is unbearable and Yang knew that if she and her father could talk to Raven at any time but not actually interact, the wounds would never heal. She just had to get to Aerith before Ruby.
"Right Yang?" Ruby cheerfully asked making the blonde realize she had tuned out the conversation.
"Of course Rubes!" She cheered and wrapped an arm around her little sister. If she had just invited some kind of horrible fate upon herself she was going to blame Blake.
Weiss rolled her eyes "Unsurprising you'd agree with that," her reaction did not help Yang decipher the situation at all. Weiss' default setting was disagreement with her peers "Are you sure about this Blake?"
"Could be fun," Yang wanted to scream. No one was giving any sort of context "So far none of Ruby's ideas have been boring," Blake's words both relieved and worried Yang.
Ruby had an innocent idea of what was fun but the last time Yang had agreed to something while not paying attention she wound up having to explain to their father what exactly a Strawberry Cataclysm was and how the kitchen had turned deep red. Ruby had to explain the empty dust phials, the disassembled vacuum, and the freakshow blender. Yang was grounded for a weekend, Ruby had her toolkit taken away for two weeks which resulted in one of the more amusing shouting matches Yang had heard.
Exams came and went, teams RWBY and JNPR passed with varying levels of success. Ruby and Yang returned home to spend the break between semesters with their father, Jaune and Pyrrha also returned home to their respective families for the semester break. It left Weiss and Blake in an awkward silence once the four departed, Nora forced Ren to go into Vale with her, the two had never really spent much time together. It was clear to Blake that as hard as Weiss was trying it was still tense between them. Blake's past as a White Fang member did not help at all.
Any conversation between the two had been fleeting at best which lead to Blake's surprise when Weiss invited her to a cafe for lunch on the third day of the break. Even though she would have preferred to stay in the dorm to read Blake knew she had to meet Weiss halfway and agreed. They travelled in near silence, one would make a comment and the other would give a short reply. When they arrived at the cafe they both ordered tea and a sandwich and fell back into awkward silence. Blake swallowed her pride and forced out a question.
"What did you think of the teachers?"
"Overall they are quite helpful," Weiss stated with practiced ease "Just between us though, Port really needs to rethink his methods."
Blake felt an actual chuckle rumble her throat "I think all of Beacon would agree with you."
"Yeah, most likely. Oobleck is great but he talks way too fast."
"No kidding. I heard some people betting on what's inside that thermos he always has on his desk."
Weiss laughed lightly as she finished off her tea "What did you think about miss Gainsborough?"
"Very helpful. She seems to know a lot about aura."
"She does claim to be a Cetra," Weiss commented as she stacked the dishes on the table.
"I doubt she is," Blake's response seemed to surprise Weiss, if her eyebrows rising a tiny amount was any clue "All through recorded history there have been people claiming to be greater than others. I think she just has an exceptionally rare kind of semblance that is similar to the Cetra stories."
"Do you really think Ozpin would hire someone that's delusional?" Weiss sounded caught between being patient and insulted.
"He did hire Port," Blake said with a smirk to hopefully diffuse Weiss. A smile proved her successful.
"Controversial choices of teachers aside, have you heard about mister Fair?"
"I've heard team juniper enjoyed his class. Sounds like he's focused on making teams work."
"I heard from team sand that he's harsh in class but his methods work. They work much better together now," Weiss was curious about how her and Ruby would match up in a duel.
"I'm not looking forward to that class. I have to fight Yang,"
"It won't be bad. It's about making us learn about each other's strengths to help us coordinate."
"I know," Blake defended "But I have to fight Yang Xiao Long."
"Hmm… I see your point. Good thing you are great at evasion," Weiss added as they both stood to leave.
The duo fell into a much less awkward silence as they ventured into Vale. They visited a dust shop to get extra ammunition for the team, then a bookstore where Blake discovered Weiss' guilty pleasure of novels about heroic adventures. Conversation became easier as the day drifted by but cut off when they rounded a corner and saw several Vale police officers fighting back a growing crowd and two other officers quickly covering a form on the ground with a sheet that quickly soaked through with deep crimson. It took a second for them both to realize they were witnessing the establishment of an actual crime scene. Judging the factors, a murder had just happened in broad daylight.
"Oh my god," Weiss barely whispered as they both stood frozen by the sight. Unknown to each other was it is not the first time either of them had seen a body.
For Blake, however, the flashing lights and the sight fell to the back of her mind as her neck started to itch. She was being. Out of everything happening currently, she was being watched. A quick scan of the officers did not tell her anything, nor did looking through the crowd. A glance to the side had her turning. Across the street, on the fifth floor fire escape, is a figure dressed entirely in black with a black hood and snow white blank mask. The figure is casually leaning on the railing as if relaxed and enjoying a lazy day. Blake's heart thundered and her blood went cold as she unconsciously reached for her throat. The shadow with the mask gave a slight nod to her, striking terror into her.
Blake turned away and grabbed Weiss by the arm to pull her away "We need to go," Weiss' protests went unheard as she hauled away quickly.
Across the street on the fifth floor fire escape, the man known to a few as Silver gave an annoyed sigh. As fun as it was to strike fear into the heart of that cat faunus it did little to alleviate the stress of having to eliminate that reporter quickly. No method, no preparation, no pride in the act, just cold blooded messy murder. But that's what Cinder paid him to do and he was not about to complain. He had tripled his price for the rush job and she paid with no objection. That brought a chuckle up from his throat. The woman is arrogant and betrayed she has connections but that was of no concern to Silver, no connection could outdo his.
He chuckle to himself about his situation and stood tall then took a deep breath to steady himself and felt the world slip away. What felt like minutes later the concrete floor of the warehouse Roman was currently using as his base met his boot soles, in real time it was only a moment. The power to cross great distances in a moment is invaluable and a massive advantage, one best kept secret. Silver had teleported into one of the aisles of the warehouse and took a short rest to recover, while very useful he could understand why the eldest of his siblings rarely used it. He assumed that it was much worse for himself because he was not as great, merely a remnant of mother's favorite.
Deciding he had taken enough time Silver left the aisle and was amused by the surprise of the White Fang guards. Even better was the way they cowered away from him. He was glad the vermin knew their place, out of his way. He walked up to the office with his usual confident stride and opened the door, catching a quickly halted conversation between Cinder and Roman.
"Oh, Silver," Cinder began, making the man in question roll his eyes behind his mask "I am glad-"
"The job is done. That reporter is dead," Silver stated, intentionally cutting off Cinder. He hated having to listen to her prattle on.
Cinder hid her annoyance well "Good to hear. That nosy journalist-"
"I don't care," Silver interrupted again. He could see Roman struggling to stifle a laugh and could understand the pain. He enjoyed irritating Cinder "Just make sure the money is transferred by tomorrow morning."
"So soon? What if there is a delay?" she was implying something or trying to push Silver's buttons. But he had a very strict procedure to his work. She had earlier agreed to the payment amount and date.
"Then you lose a powerful ally and gain a very dangerous enemy. No one changes a deal with me."
"You would try to kill me over a small delay in payment?" Cinder asked with false shock and a smile. He caught the hidden message though, she honestly thought he was no threat. In a regular fight, she would win, he could sense the power she had. But Silver does not fight head-on or fairly.
"Payment is to be transferred by nine in the morning. If it's not there, you'll learn how I've become a prolific hunter of Hunters."
"Blake! Seriously!" Weiss complained as she tried in vain to pry her teammate's hand off her bicep "What is wrong with you?"
Blake had all but dragged her teammate back to the bullhead station from the crime scene. It was not a short journey. They were just outside of the building in front of the docks when Blake released Weiss. The pale girl is glad to be free and amazed by Blake's strong grip and endurance.
"Now can you explain what got into you?" Weiss asked forcing herself calm while massaging her bicep.
"I saw the guy from that night at the docks. He was watching the scene and me," Blake felt the tremble in her voice and took a deep breath.
"Torchwick?" Weiss asked in a harsh whisper.
"What? No. The hunter."
"What!?" Weiss tried to whisper but it came out as a frightened squeak "We have to go to the authorities! We have to tell Ozpin!"
"It's not that simple. He was wearing his mask," Blake said back.
"How do you know it was him then?" the speed at which Weiss went from frightened to skeptical was astounding to Blake.
"Same clothes, weapons, and clothes. That night on the docks he just had a White Fang tunic on top," Blake took a deep calming breath before divulging the true story of what happened.
She would never forget that night. Staring up at two parallel blades hovering above her while the masked man pressed a boot down on her throat. Nothing had her more fearful than that moment, being powerless against someone that so easily broke through her aura. Not even Adam had frightened her that much and she had seen him unleash merciless fury. This man though, had so effortlessly taken her down with no battle cries, mocking, growls, goading, or anything. Just silent pinpoint accuracy and pulled punches which had been driving her mad until he spoke one line that been haunting her since.
"Adam paid extra to leave you alive. You should be glad he discovered my contract to dispose of the traitor."
Those words had been haunting her since then. She had woken up in a cold sweat on multiple occasions with those words crawling through her mind. Someone or several people wanted her dead for leaving the White Fang and Adam had saved her. That could not be true to her. If that man could find her it was only a matter of time until Adam did as will. Did he tell Adam where she was? Was he already coming for her?
"Blake, let's get back to Beacon. I want to make a call," Weiss demanded more than suggested. They both knew Blake would feel safer there and Weiss intended to squeeze as much information about the man as she could out of her friend.
The remaining few days of the semester break drifted by and soon enough Ruby, Yang, Jaune, and Pyrrha were arriving back at school. Blake, Weiss, Nora, and Ren were there to greet their friends and were surprised to see Yang and Ruby accompanied by two older men; one that was unquestionably their father and one that had a similar fashion sense to Ruby. He was assumed to be the cool uncle they had heard about. They all walked towards Beacon in a group of ten, talking quickly about their time apart. Qrow and Taiyang fell behind to let the kids chat, neither spoke during the approach to their old school.
"Hey kids," Taiyang said loudly to specifically his kids "We're gonna say hi to Ozpin. Let him know the trouble makers are back."
Yang and Ruby waved their goodbye and the adults split from the group of teenagers to go see their former headmaster. The elevator ride was long and quiet but not awkward or uncomfortable. Taiyang's scowl spoke volumes and Qrow had to suppress a chuckle. Qrow had spoke with his old friend during the break, got him up to speed on what is happening in Beacon and Taiyang was less than thrilled but was able to hide it. He wanted to have a few words with Ozpin and Qrow informed him of the plan he had been building. The elevator chimed and the men stepped out to see Ozpin speaking on his scroll, his strangely cheerful tone indicating it most likely concerned funding for Beacon; Qrow had learned the man only used that tone with the Vale council. The call lasted several more minutes, just long enough for Qrow and Taiyang to begin to feel awkward standing around their former headmaster.
When the call finally ended Ozpin took a sip from his mug then spoke to his visitors "Taiyang-"
"Qrow filled me in," the blonde interrupted "After everything that's happened you're letting two unknown people near my daughters."
"Please understand-"
"After Summer. She knew the dangers and volunteered for your mission. But this is too much Oz. You are using my children as bait now," it had been years since Taiyang had felt his semblance begin to activate only from emotion, longer since Ozpin and Qrow had seen him furious "I'm here to demand transfers to Atlas."
"You'll be dividing the team and taking them away from dear friends."
"Then transfer the whole team. And team juniper if it makes you happy. I know you have that power Oz," As Taiyang spoke he walked up to the opulent desk and set his hands on the clean surface "I'm not letting you pull my kids into your games before they're ready. I know James would help speed up the process."
The mention of the General of the northern kingdom made the headmaster bristle "It's not that simple Taiyang. Assuming Qrow also told you of Vincent, if what he says is true Zack is waiting for right moment to strike. A long trip to Atlas would give him that opportunity. I did not put Ruby in this position, Zack or another arranged it and I am doing all I can to protect her without letting it be known I am aware of the plot."
Taiyang swung his fury filled gaze over to his old friend and Qrow raised his hands in surrender "That part I didn't know. But we're in a corner now. Clearly Zack has been playing us. I'm betting he knows he's being monitored by more than just Vincent and is manipulating us."
"We have to be extra careful," Ozpin agreed "Dealing with a mastermind strategist is no easy feat."
Zack sheepishly sat on the examination bed in the clinic portion of the Beacon Infirmary. The way the doctor, who was also a trained Huntsman, looked bewildered was not helping. Aerith sitting nearby with her head in her hands stifling laughter made him feel worse. Good thing he was extra durable and had been through worse but it was good to know what to expect.
"Seriously?" the doctor, a middle aged woman dressed modestly and combat ready with a touch of gray in her light brown hair, asked looking between them "You're a Huntsman."
"I don't use dust at all in my weapon or techniques."
"You're a teacher."
"I'm from a small village."
"Your students use dust."
"I, uh, confused it for salt?"
"A whole vial? And it was red!" the doctor was getting more flabbergasted and louder with each of Zack's responses.
"I was curious how it tasted?"
The doctor took a deep breath to calm down. It was one thing to deal with stupid students taking ridiculous risks to impress their friends but a whole other issue when a teacher did something so foolish. Not the first time a teacher had come to her with a silly injury or issue but never something like this and it deserved a reprimanding "The reason why is unimportant. And you'll be fine aside from the horrid heartburn and unpleasant bathroom trip in the near future," dust consumption was really only dangerous to regular people "Just drink lots of water to wash it through and for god's sake never do it again."
Zack grabbed his sword then left the room and the infirmary in a hurry while Aerith lingered to speak with the doctor. After sending a quick message to Aerith, Zack wandered off hoping to catch some students off guard. Maybe menace them a bit to keep them guessing and a great target presented itself when the ex-SOLDIER exited the building. Cardin Winchester. He was with his team surrounding a pair of girls, one looked to have gills in her neck and the other looked like a regular human from what Zack could see. He had heard Glynda had dealt the teen boy punishment for harassing that girl in the cafeteria, and for hitting a teacher, and was curious how effective it was.
"Cardin Winchester," Zack called as he stood straight and marched over. The way Cardin flinched was amusing "I see the punishment from professor Goodwitch was lacking. Perhaps we need to double down on your team." The looks of fear from the other three of team CRDL were grand.
"What does that mean?" while Cardin was focusing his ire on Zack, the two girls took their leave. The teenage bully refused to show more weakness to Zack.
With his regular cheerful smile Zack leaned in close to speak in a low voice "It means that for any mistake from any of you four, all of you will suffer the punishment. So reasonable behavior from now on or the four of you will be cleaning every bathroom in Beacon," the one punishment that always worked on people with superior physical abilities: long, tedious, manual labor. Zack himself cleaned the SOLDIER command offices enough times to know the most efficient route.
Cardin was puzzled by the threat "Seriously?" he was failing to see the true ramifications of the punishment.
"Well if you wish to start right now, that can be arranged. It'll give plenty of time for the entire population of Beacon a chance to see mighty team cardinal scrubbing toilets and urinals," the horror sinking in was hilarious to Zack. He now knew why Angeal and Genesis used to argue about who got to discipline unruly recruits. It was once believed that Genesis just hated new recruits and loved making them miserable and while that was mostly true, Angeal had revealed that Genesis got great amusement out of using dense literature as psychological torment or using the recruits as his personal cleaning service. While Angeal was more reasonable, making rule breakers clean around Shinra HQ, he enjoyed watching the victims realise the horror of having to vacuum the lobby in full uniform.
"Thanks for the warning, sir," Russell quickly said.
"Yeah, we'll behave ourselves," Sky added. The team of four took their cue and retreated from the area.
Once they were far enough away Zack laughed to himself and scanned the area for more students to pester. Short blond hair and white armor caught his attention and he walked across the plaza towards his pupil. The blonde girl saw him approaching but chose to not mention it. Zack barked Jaune's name and the way the teen jumped ripped a laugh out of Zack, the blond girl, Nora, and Ruby.
"Sorry Jaune," Zack laughed "I couldn't resist. How was the break for all of you?" the expected chorus of 'good's and 'not bad's rang out "Good, good. Any of you looking forward to class?" a couple false confirmations and several mumbles "I felt the same way as you when I was in training. Although I didn't have Port as a teacher," Zack heard two pairs of feet approaching behind him as most of the two teams cursed Zack for being able to dodge the boring lectures.
"Hey dad, hey uncle Qrow!" Ruby called out. Zack turned to face the older men, as did team JNPR, and looked over the blond man, that is obviously the blonde girl's father, and the one that looked like a relaxed Vincent.
"So which friend is this?" the blond asked.
"He looks a bit too old to hang out with a bunch of kids," the one with dark hair commented.
"Zack Fair. I teach better team cohesion."
"Like how to better get along?" blond man asked.
"You're teaching kids how to make friends?" unkempt man asked. Zack could smell lingering alcohol on his breath.
"Don't have to like each other to fight well together," Zack reply with a shrug. The two men looked to each other and shrugged with added nods.
"Sounds like a class we could've used," the blond said with a smile to the unkempt man. Zack could see through their false cheerfulness easily. It was in their posture, forced ease.
"Why don't we step over the friendly interview?" Zack asked with a smile "Get to the meat of this talk."
"No idea-" mister unkempt began but Zack cut him off.
"You're both tense. Acting like you're both relaxed. So what's up?" once more the two men looked at each other before speaking.
"I'm just a worried about a new young teacher at Beacon, that I don't know at all, teaching my daughters to fight their friends," blonde man said with barely contained anger. Zack realized then he is a very protective father.
"Oh come on dad," the blonde girl whined from behind Zack.
"You're welcome to sit in on the lessons. I guess you know the other staff to some extent and Ozpin won't mind."
The unkempt man laughed as he stepped forward to wrap an am around Zack's shoulders "I like how chill you are. Definitely friendlier than Glynda."
"I save the mean and scary thing for the classroom. Keeps the students on their toes," Zack said with a smile as he wrapped an arm around the unkempt man's shoulders.
"Come for a drink with me and Tai. We'll let the kids go play with their friends and we can swap teaching horror stories," the unkempt man said with a tilted smirk.
"Sure. Smells like you know you're way around Vale's bars," this time Tai laughed while unkempt looked shocked by Zack.
"We'll see you later, girls," Taiyang said to his daughters as Zack and Qrow separated and started walking away while making jokes at each other before turning on his heel.
The group of eight teens watched the adults walk away before Yang broke the silence "Weird. I've never seen them so interested in a teacher."
"Yeah. Except if uncle Qrow thought he had a chance," Ruby added drawing a laugh from her sister.
"So true. But I don't think dad and uncle want in Fair's pants."
Jaune groaned and covered his face with both hands "That's an image I didn't need…"
"Anyways," Weiss called out to the group "Let's head up to our dorms and get you guys settled back in."
"Me and Weiss have something to tell you," Blake followed up.
"Oh my god! You got her pregnant!" Yang immediately shouted with a smile that showed she knew exactly how obnoxious she was being, and drawing some looks. Weiss blushed bright red from embarrassment, Yang laughed, Blake looked like she was struggling to process what had been said, and the other five of the group awkwardly chuckled.
"There are so many things wrong with that I don't know where to begin…" Blake eventually said "Let's just get going."
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