"What are we doing?! What are you doing?" Cole nearly shouted, waving his sword and shield around in disbelief.
"We're on our mission. There's a village to the north that has been assaulted by Grimm lately, so we were told to thin their numbers on our way to the village." Ruby shrugged, gesturing north.
"Wait. Ozpin sent you on a mission to a village to the north?" Cole asked as he sheathed his sword.
"Yeah. Why?" Ruby asked, a look of confusion on her face.
Cole brought out his scroll and summoned up the map once more. He zoomed out slightly then pointed to the holographic representation of a village. "This one here?"
Ruby moved around to see the map better. "Mhmm. Looks like it. Why?"
Cole closed the scroll again, then looked to Jaune. "You have GOT to be kidding me!"
Jaune looked puzzled for a moment, then realization dawned on him. He keeled over in laughter, followed by Cole.
"Um, what?" Ruby's confusion grew, making her tilt her head to the side, scrunching her nose up.
"Ozpin sent me to retrieve a relic from a village to the north as my initiation." Cole bent back down in anther fit of laughter. "That cheeky bastard!"
Ruby looked confused for a few moments more, then started laughing as well.
"What is going on?!" Yang yelled, fed up with everyone knowing more than she did.
"My initiation is to retrieve a relic from a village in the north. Your mission is to clear Grimm on the way to a village in the north." Cole opened the map once more. "How many villages are north of our position?" All of teams RWBY and JNPR looked at the map. "One. Which means that we are technically on the same mission." Cole turned to Jaune. "Remember what he said after I asked what we could bring along?"
"Huh?" Jaune looked at Cole in confusion again.
"We are allowed to use any resources or assets we come across in the forest." Cole recited.
Recognition once again lit up Jaune's face. "I would certainly say Ruby and her team are assets." Jaune thought, considering the tactical boost team RWBY would provide.
"Hey bub, you're talking about my sister there!" Yang extended Ember Celica, ready to punch Jaune hallway to the village.
Weiss sighed. "Asset is a term the military commonly uses to describe troops or equipment. He means that we are supposed to join forces to complete our missions."
"Precisely." Cole smiled at Weiss, while she huffed and crossed her arms.
"In that case, what's the plan?" Blake asked.
"Well, it's getting dark, so we'll need somewhere to set up camp. I spotted a stone tower over in that direction" Cole pointed to the north west as Pyrrha grumbled about 'stupid flying monkeys' "Which should be pretty defensible. I say we camp there for the night and figure out a plan from there."
"Sounds good to me." Ruby cheered. "Let's go!"
The two teams made their way toward the tower, running across more Grimm along the way. With the combined power of nine huntsmen-in-training, the clusters of Grimm stood little chance against them.
As they reached the tower, the moon just started to rise in the east, with the sun peeking over the horizon in the west.
"Right. There should be some shelter near the top, which will provide some protection from any Grimm that decide to go hunting tonight." Cole said, pointing to the top of the tower.
The two teams started to climb the built-in staircase running the entire way up the tower, occasionally having to stop, due to some of the older bricks crumbling or coming loose.
As they reached the top, everyone was exhausted. Everyone picked a corner of the tower and tossed their bags down. Everyone pulled out the thin blanket they were to use as mattresses for the night and began to get comfortable.
"I'll take first watch. We should keep at least one of us awake to make sure we aren't ambushed by a murder of nevermore." Pyrrha spoke, taking position in one of the decently sized windows dotted around the tower.
"I'll join you." Cole said, moving over to sit in the window with her. "You guys get some rest. We've still got quite a ways to go to get to the village, and the Grimm will not be making it easy for us. Jaune, Ruby, you guys okay taking the next shift?"
"Sure. Wake me up when you start getting tired." Jaune said, stretching out on his blanket. Ruby nodded, then instantly fell asleep as she laid down on hers.
"Alright. See you in a few hours." Cole said.
After about five minutes, everyone had fallen asleep, save for Cole and Pyrrha, who kept their eyes scanning the forest and skies around them. They sat in silence, keeping watch for another hour before Cole spoke.
"Soooo…. About Jaune…." Cole said slowly, glancing over at Pyrrha.
"What about him?" Pyrrha asked guardedly.
"Well for one thing, I know you like him." Pyrrha's eyes grew wide in shock, starting to deny it, but deciding not to waste the energy. "I also think he likes you. He's a bit hard to read, though." Cole continued.
Pyrrha scowled slightly. "Really? Even you can't tell with him?"
"Most things, I can. I think it's something to do with him hiding it better. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say he knows you are interested, but thinks he's not worth your time, and shouldn't even bother. Certainly fits with his usual stubbornly pessimistic personality." Cole frowned, gauging Jaune's relationship with Pyrrha that he's seen.
"That does certainly sound like him. No matter how strong he gets, I think he's always going to think less of himself." Pyrrha mused. "Wait, why do you think he knows? He seems to think that I'm just being a good friend and partner."
"I know Jaune. He's a brilliant tactician, like many of the Arcs before him. He spots anything that seems to be amiss and analyzes it, usually figuring something out in seconds. I have never successfully pranked him before." Pyrrha looked somewhat shocked at this, as she has been on the receiving end of more than a few of her old partners antics, never once being able to predict them.
"He did have us take out the deatstalker from initiation pretty easily." Pyrrha thought back to their own initiation, remembering how Jaune seemed to notice the deathstalker's weaknesses immediately, and knew precisely how to exploit them.
"What I want to know is why." Cole said, locking eyes with Pyrrha.
"What?" Pyrrha gave him a confused head tilt.
"Why do you like Jaune? Is it the family name, the looks; what?" Cole shifted slightly in the window to be facing Pyrrha full on, not out the window.
"I... I don't know really. He didn't know who I was when we first met, so that may have helped. You should have some idea what my fame has done to my social life. It also helps that he is kinda and loyal to his friends."
"Yeah, I kinda do." Cole replied.
"So you're not angry?" Pyrrha asked.
Cole scoffed lightly. "Why should I be? It's not like I control your love life. Or his."
"Well, no, but after that one time during third year…." Pyrrha started to say, before Cole cut her off.
"That is in the past. It wouldn't really work out anyway. Besides, Jaune's a much better partner for you than I could ever be." Cole voice fell, losing almost all it's confidence.
"That sounds just like an excuse Jaune would use." Pyrrha said, pursing her lips, not too happy with her friend putting himself down.
"Yeah, except it's a bit truer for me." Cole's voice lowered further,
Pyrrha sighed lightly. "You two are so alike I'm surprised you aren't actually brothers. Jaune reminded me of you, when I first met him. I think that was part of the initial attraction, too, but I can't be sure."
Cole chuckled slightly. "Flattery gets you nowhere, Pyrrha, you should know that by now."
"Oh hush you. It's been a few hours. You think we should switch shifts?" Pyrrha asked.
Cole yawned lightly. "Might as well. You wake lover boy, I'll take Ruby." Cole hopped down from the window sill and moved over to wake his team-mate, chuckling when he saw she slept cradling Crescent Rose.
He lightly grabbed her shoulder, giving her a gentle shake to wake her up. "Hey, your turn to be bored for a few hours. Come on." Cole jumped back before the unfurling of Crescent Rose took his arm off.
"What!? Oh sorry." Ruby replied, sheepishly collapsing her beloved scythe to it's travel mode. "You startled me."
"Remind me never to do that again. Your turn to take watch." He replied, moving over to his blanket and laying down. "If you let a nevermore kill me in my sleep I will be very cross with you."
She laughed lightly, moving over to the window. "I won't, I promise. Night."
"Night." Cole then drifted off to sleep, clutching his bag to him.
Author's Note: Hey guys, took a little longer that I wanted for this second chapter, but I got it fairly polished in that time. Next chapter I might try to work in another fight scene, but it will definitely have more Cole back story. Exposition will be had, and even more references to to the inspiration for Cole's character. I didn't really have one person in mind while coming up with him, so he's more influenced by a number of things. If you can figure it out, post it in the comments. There's already been one big whopper of a clue in the story, so it shouldn't be too hard.
Pretty soon I'll post a character sheet for Cole that doesn't have some random notes all over it about what I want to try to do with his character, but I'm trying to commission a piece to give him more of a solid image in people's heads, as I'm not too great with his description.
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