Chapter 10 - Expected mishaps
Aen held the ornately decorated golden lamp before his eyes by its equally royal handle, allowing himself to glare forwards into an unlit flame.
What he held was almost an exact copy of what Aesir had used to travel between the 'overworld' as gods referred to it, and the Elysium palace. The only present difference with Aen's own lantern was the absence of the comforting flame.
Of all the tools and abilities Aen had been provided with, this was one that he had wholly rejected to use during his time on Remnant, as far as he had seen it had no use to him. He found no need to return to Elysium, nor did he find any want to, yet now he was starting to value the usefulness of the lamp.
The way Aesir explained it while clear, was not comforting. Aesir had explained it as a utility used to traverse purgatory, allowing Aen a straight shot towards Elysium through a theoretical 'back door.' Even though Aen knew he could travel safely it didn't make it any more convincing to him, he had spent an undetermined amount of time within the grasp of purgatory, long enough for his body and soul to go to rot.
Purgatory was a place that held a place within Aen's conscious, yet not for its fondness of memory or pleasantries. Rather, it was a place that had tormented Aen with thoughts of failure and loneliness, a place with original good intentions of ambition, only became more akin to an abyss, hence the ulterior naming.
Now though, Aen found himself at a point where it would be beneficial to return to Elysium. He could clarify many things by talking with Aesir, and as much as he knew could be shared with Aesir, granted that he wasn't already watching, a slightly disconcerting thought to Aen. Yet, that was also a thought that brought an equal, if not, slight amount of comfort with it, knowing that the god could keep a watchful eye on anything he deemed interesting was an intriguing thought.
Not only could he clarify things however, but he could also take it as a chance to fix the holes that had annoyingly found themselves upon his armor. For the longest time Aen had said he would get around to fixing that, however, he never actually found himself going out of the way to do it. Now however, he had the chance to do so without any interruptions.
After leaving the room of team RWBY and with it, a suspicious air, he had actually been able to enter into his room. Albeit he had done so with slight amounts of trouble, working a scroll had proven itself to be a more frustrating task than Aen would like to agree to. However, he was still able to enter his room, and find it to be almost identical to that of team RWBY's. In fact, the more Aen studied it, the harder he found it to discern differences, the only obvious one being the absence of shoddily made bunk beds and unnecessary clutter. For now, Aen actually had two places he could stay privately, although Aen hardly trusted the security of the places, it still acted as a temporary home for him.
That actually brought up another reason for Aen to return to Elysium, it acted as a safe haven of sorts that he undoubtedly had amounts of access to. It was much safer and much more secure than the rented room of the hotel, and far more secluded as well, the more Aen had thought of it, the more he reprimanded himself for not returning sooner.
Yet again though Aen had found his mind drifting towards other partially related thoughts, in this case, that being of Rex and the young boy Danny. Rex had told him that if anything were to go awry and become of great disturbance, then he would inform Aen with haste, yet he had heard nary a call from the two companions. Aen genuinely worried for the safety of the boy, as well as Rex's security.
Danny wasn't exactly being supervised by that of a saint, Rex was far from that, and considering Rex's defection from the CFS, it would make little sense for him to have many allies. It was a worrying thought that at any moment any person who had held some amounts of hatred towards Rex, could now take a chance to exact their hatred, and indirectly upon Danny as well.
Yet, Aen didn't need his mind to be plagued with negative thoughts, rather he needed to focus on what it was that he had set himself out to do. So without allowing himself to spare a thought towards any partially related topic, he gazed into the flame of the intricate lamp.
Aen recalled the process of traveling with the lamp and allowed his vision to be fully enveloped by the light of the lamp, and once he did he slowly felt his body become lighter with each fleeting second. His body had almost felt as if it was floating before it was violently ripped free from the sensation of flight.
Yet Aen silently wished to himself that he had stayed within the comforting embrace of the lamp's light, because the sight that now greeted him was not one of comfort.
Total darkness.
Like the darkness of an abandoned tunnel, yet rather than having some fleeting sense of direction and orientation, Aen only felt a sense of confusion and misjudgment.
Although the scenery portrayed that of a complete blackout, with naught but the dim light of the golden lamp shining upon Aen's armored being, it had still fond itself home to a solid and flat ground. Yet the ground had gone unseen, only allowing Aen to appear as if he was floating within an abyss, which was not far from truth itself.
Aen could find no sense of direction, no landmark, no depth, and only a fleeting sense of light within the glow of the lamp.
However, Aen did not allow himself to lose his calm, even with his will being tantamount to iron, it was hard to stay sane within the blackness of an abyss. The duo of silence and darkness worked greatly upon the sentient mind of a human, and Aen found himself as no exception to the rule, if anything he found himself even more susceptible to purgatory's grasp.
Once again staring into the light of the lamp, Aen frantically allowed his vision to become enveloped by the golden flame of the lamp, all until his body once again welcomed the embrace of the lamp's transport.
As similarly as it had done before, Aen's vision slowly faded in from a bleary mess to a focused stare. Yet, this time he had not found himself staring into the dark of purgatory, rather he had found himself within the main hall of Elysium palace.
The great statue of Balder stood clearly at the end of the open columned room, this time Aen had even taken a moment to study the craftsmanship of the immaculate statue. It had been detailed to the finest point, from the wrinkles in his robes, to the hairs of his beard, Aen didn't doubt that Balder had made this himself. It did nothing but showcase the ability of the gods, even in it's run down state.
Beforehand Aen had been so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he never actually got to appreciate nor study the brilliance of the palace. The painted ceiling depicting tales of angels and wyverns, the unraveled carpet made of what only Aen could assume to be the finest fabric, and even the large statue of Balder. All of it was a perfect display of the pinnacle of craftsmanship and design, Aen was really on just beginning to comprehend the gravity of his current situation.
He was in the palace of the former gods.
All throughout his life he had devoted much of his time to the worship of the three gods, and had even allowed it to become a large part of his will. It had allowed him to be selected by the gods as a champion, and had even granted him the chance to directly speak with the gods. Yet, now he was within their home, as run down as it was.
It was an invigorating thought, and Aen had felt a sudden resurgence of his faith, albeit slight, it still granted hope to Aen.
However, before he could take time to consider more of his situation, the echoing sounds of footsteps touched at his ears.
"Aen?" A voice echoed out through the main hall of Elysium palace.
Aen had directed his sight towards the sounds and had taken in the form of Aesir walking towards him.
"Back I see?" Aesir spoke with a greeting smile.
-S-
Blake looked towards Yang, her face was not what she had usually determined it to be. It was one of confusion and definitely one of mistrust, it was all evident from the way Yang's eyes furrowed in thought, and the way she bit her bottom lip with concern.
"Ruby?" She spoke, freeing herself from her own ponderous stupor.
"Did that guy say anything weird to you? Anything that might sound kind of out of place?" She asked with a tone of confusion besides her being.
Ruby's face turned from one of a relief, to once again one of confusion and slight amounts of concern.
"No, why?" She questioned.
Blake was also interested at this point, as well as Weiss by the looks of it. Weiss was known by Blake to not be one for welcoming first impressions, especially when it involved things that were out of her own field of knowledge, and judging by Weiss's almost smug look, she seemed to suspect that something may have been up with the mysterious armored man.
"Because I saw some weird messages on his phone."
Blake had already figured out that Yang had seen something she had not expected, she hardly hid it well. Yang's expressions were always as clear as day, and it didn't help that she had so openly showcased it directly before Aen, who Blake had noted clearly noticed Yang's confusion.
As it stood, Aen was much of an enigma to Blake, and yet he once again found himself caught up with the team, once seemingly by coincidence, and another by Ruby's own naivety. Yet, Blake still couldn't comprehend the man, he didn't talk much aside from small talk and introductions, and he had refused to remove that armor. Blake, having been hiding something all her life, knew very clearly that Aen was hiding something. Whether it was from the way he talked by providing only broken fragments of who he was and what he did, or from the way he refused to remove his armor even going so far as to sleep in it, it was all clear that he was hiding something.
And now that Yang had found something that could possibly open up the team's doors to who Aen really was, Blake found herself listening closely, even speaking up in the hopes that Yang would continue.
"What did you find?" She asked with a barely contained amount of eagerness.
Yang looked directly towards Blake before beginning, "Fist off I think this guy is involved with the White Fang."
Blake's eyes widened and her attention found itself more focused on what Aen had to say then it had ever been before.
"What do you mean?" She asked, allowing curiosity to drive her speech.
"Well, he had these texts from this number saying, 'Aen it's Danny, Rex has been gone for almost the whole day and he hasn't come back, he even left his phone here. Is he with you?'" Yang spoke, trying her best to repeat what it was that she read.
"But that doesn't really mean anything, so get this." Yang spoke, allowing herself to become even more enveloped in the mystery of Aen.
"The same number texts him again later saying, 'Aen Rex hasn't come back at all today and I'm starting to think this might because of that guy you were after. You really shouldn't get involved with the White Fang Aen.'"
At this point everyone's attention was clearly being drawn towards what Yang had to say, this was information that cast an entirely new light on who Aen really was, and that light was hardly pretty. Blake found her four ears perking up upon all of this new information.
Before anyone could question anything though Yang spoke once again, interrupting the confused silence, "But that's not all of it, this guy then gets 7 missed calls from the same number and a text saying, 'Please pick up Aen'"
The room was left in a collective silence after Yang had finished speaking, every member was left in a state of either great confusion or a large sense of worry, Blake had only found herself feeling both emotions equally. This was all greatly concerning information, not only because of her prior experiences with the White Fang, but also because of the fact that the mystery man that had suddenly shown up may be involved with the White Fang. The same mystery man that they had openly conversed with and allowed into their room.
"You don't think he's working for them do you?" Ruby spoke up from next to Yang, allowing a certain amount of concern to drive her.
Ruby had never been one to sit by and let things happen, it was a clearly evident fact which was easily shown by her selfless acts that seemingly put her own life as the second priority. So now that a situation such as this one was surfacing, it would make sense that Ruby's protective instincts would kick in.
"No, he can't be" Blake spoke, answering the question that Ruby had directed to no particular member of the room. "When I was with Sun at the White Fang deal, Aen was also there, and he was fighting the White Fang, not helping."
Blake supplying this information only complicated the situation even more, but Blake also thought that she had a hopefully clear idea of what may be going on with Aen.
Aen had very clearly shown himself to be of the opposite alignment to the White Fang, and judging by the way Aen had intently pursued Roman Torchwick, Blake could only assume that this was the person that number had said he was after.
"I think that he was after Roman actually, now that I think about it." Blake spoke up, trying to allow the rest of the group a small amount of insight towards what Blake thought could possibly be going on with the mysterious armored man.
However, before Blake could elaborate, Weiss who had been silent during most of the discussion had decided to enter her input. "Well of course he was after Roman!" She spoke out with an amount of confidence Blake had been too negligent to accept.
"Who else would he be after? Think about it, he's obviously not friends with the White Fang and that number said he was after someone, who else would he be going after?" Weiss added, but without faltering or hesitating for a second she continued.
"I bet you those savages were the reason this number keeps calling Aen. They must have done something to that caller." Weiss spoke with noticeable amounts of disgust traceable amongst her posture and speech.
Blake spoke out, attempting to add to the mystery that had presented itself, albeit with a slight annoyance for Weiss's attitude. "Alright, then if Aen's after Roman then they probably went after the people he's working with. There's no way Aen could be working alone with what he's doing, and we even have proof of it now."
Not allowing anyone a moment to speak however, Ruby had blurted out allowing her protective instincts to drive her, "We need to do something then!" She yelled. "There's someone with their life at stake and Aen probably doesn't even know about it yet, we can't just wait for Aen to notice that something's wrong, we need to move in and help!" She added, disregarding any thoughts of possibly thinking the situation through.
As expected, Weiss had been the first to speak up against what Ruby was saying. She had arrogantly crowned herself a sort of voice of reason over her headstrong partner.
"We can't do that! We barely even know this Aen person, we have no idea what he's working towards and for all we know he could be working for some other entirely different terrorist organization. We can't go after things that we don't know about!" She spoke attempting to talk sense into the naive girl.
Ruby once again spoke up, not allowing anyone else in the room to properly voice their stand, "Of course we can do that! We're huntresses! It's our job to protect the people and their lives no matter the threat, and this sounds like something that requires the work of a huntress!"
"In training!" Weiss shouted, "We are huntresses in training, this isn't something we should be getting involved in as students!"
Ruby opened her mouth to retort, but was stopped by her older sisters hand, which was found itself placed gently upon Ruby's shoulder in a calming form of gesture.
"Sis, calm down." Yang spoke slowly, to which Ruby's face visibly dropped in a manner of disappointed embarrassment.
"I don't want another big argument to start so how you guys just need to calm down." Yang discussed, attempting to calm the argument before it could become any more tense.
"What if some of us just go check out whatever is going on, and whoever doesn't want to get involved can just stay behind and catch up later." Yang proposed.
However, the tense atmosphere that had quickly been sapped from the room, returned as quickly as it left after Yang had finished speaking.
"What!?" Weiss shouted. "You're taking her side! Yang, you're her sister, you shouldn't let her be doing this!"
The seldom lived peace of the room was now but an ideology rather than a reality, the indifference and differing opinions once again returning to the room.
"Look, Weiss." Yang began, "Ruby's got the right idea, Aen's going off to do his own thing and I cleared the messages when he came over to take his phone back. So, chances are he hasn't even checked yet, it might even be too late before he realizes the situation he's in, and because of that I think Ruby's right, we should step in and help out."
It was clear Weiss was dissatisfied to say the least, her twitching eyebrow, clenched fists, and scowl were all very evident of that. She had thought herself to be the most responsible one on the team when it came to making decisions, yet it seemed her teammates cared little for the responsible approach. That had done very little to help seize her already unkempt anger.
However, before she could even get a chance to retaliate with an undoubtedly long-winded explanation of her reasonings, the voice of the cat-eared faunas had hit her ears.
"I agree also." Blake spoke simply, only serving to bewilder Weiss to her fullest extent. She still held some amount of faith in the faunas to make the correct decision, yet she had found that faith handed wholeheartedly back to her without a second thought.
"Blake!?" Weiss shouted, "Don't tell me you're actually agreeing with them, I would've thought you would know better!"
"Ruby's right, Weiss." Blake spoke, "If Aen doesn't know what's going on, then we can't just sit back while someone is clearly in danger. Plus he's made it clear that we have a common enemy, both being the White Fang. We need to do something Weiss."
"All of you can't be serious?" Weiss spoke with a tone that spoke more of defeat than it did anger.
"It's the right thing to do." Ruby spoke. However she had not done so insultingly, rather she was doing so to help sway Weiss's opinion, hoping to have her switch her views.
Weiss only stood with her eyes closed, clearly trying to calm her enraged self. There was a certain silence in the room while Weiss stood unspeaking, enough to the point that the tension was greater than that of the argument itself. A Schnee was easily comparable to a bomb, and knowing that she stood silent within the room where she had just lost an important argument, was a worrying thought.
The tension had thankfully never reached its climax though, as a slow sigh had escaped Weiss's lips. An easily distinguishable sign of resignation.
"Fine." She spoke.
A very noticeable air of unease had been quickly lifted from the room with only one spoken word.
"But don't think I want to get involved in this. I'm just going to take up Yang's offer and stay behind until this all blows over, I do not want to get in trouble because of these stupid things." Weiss spoke sternly and hurriedly, attempting to get her point across clearly.
But before she could end off on positive remarks she made one more comment, "Do you guys even know how you're gonna find the guy? It's not like Aen's just gonna tell you where he is you know."
The point that Weiss had brought up was fairly concerning to both Blake and Ruby, yet it seemed otherwise to Yang, as she had only allowed for a mischievous smile to find its way upon her face. With the smile still on her face, Yang crossed her arms in a gesture of confidence, "I already know how."
Blake seemed to have caught onto some sort of underlying tone, yet hadn't encroached on it, and instead opted to ask about Yang's plan.
"Well, what it is it?" She asked briefly.
Yang tapped a finger to her head. "I remember the number I saw on Aen's phone."
"I say we just give him a call, ask him what going on and then lend a hand." Yang spoke with a smile, seemingly attempting to brag about her own plan, which she had failed to notice had many flaws. However, the discrepancies had not flown over Blake's head.
"Yang" She began with a disappointed deadpan, "Did you not think any of your plans through? You're gonna call a kid say you know Aen and then ask where he lives, you know that's the kind of technique pedophiles use." She stated with some hints of amusement only barely traceable in her voice.
Yang's proud smile quickly dimmed to a straight face, and then to one of realization, a realization that her plan was clearly not fully fleshed out. The more she considered Blake's words, the more she seemed to understand the truth in the statement.
Yet, no matter how either of them saw it, there were very few other methods of finding the mysterious caller on the other end of the phone, and a sense of urgency had yet to make itself apparent amongst the skeptical half of the team. Perhaps, there were other methods but considering the tone of the messages it was clear that the caller was feeling immense desperation, and disparity was an attributing factor in fleeting decisions.
"Well." Yang began again, hoping to defend her plan with some points that neither could deny. "We can always tell the person that we're from Beacon, we can tell that Aen is obviously up to something with Ozpin, and if this guy on the other end knows this then why wouldn't he believe us... ya know."
The point that Yang had brought up clearly betrayed her own levels of intelligence, as it was a rather fair point that had made progress in swaying Blake's opinion on Yang's hastily made yet not unruly plan. What was apparent though was that they needed to take some chance to help, lest they loose their opportunity to not only live up to their titles, but to potentially save a life as well.
"Ok, I guess that makes sense." Blake responded agreement. "We won't get anywhere if we don't try anyways." It was a surprise that Blake had been so easily persuaded, yet a welcome one to the rest of the team, they didn't have many other options anyways, and judging from how desperate the texts sounded...
Although that last sentence was clearly a sign of her agreement, she had said so with an underlying solemnity, as if she held a relation to the current situation. However, considering the past that was now newly known to her teammates it would make sense that her senses of accomplishment would resurface. Yet, those tones had gone unnoticed to even Blake herself, only for the briefest of moments could it have been tangible.
Yang only smiled in triumph, whilst her sister looked on with her own anticipating glare. She reached a hand into her pocket, pulling free her own scroll, and when she opened it she strained to remember the number, it wasn't that complicated anyways.
-S-
Aen stood his scabbard against the stone wall of the now secluded room, and watched as ethereal ice danced around the finger he had outstretched. His magic, whilst elementary was a useful thing that he enjoyed the pleasantries of from time to time, even if his sword had outshone his simple magic's elementary. After returning he had found himself retiring to a room shortly after his return to the eroded Elysium palace.
The room was hardly anything special to the inhabitants that once lived within the palace, however to Aen, it was more than enough for him. It wouldn't irk his ire even if he had lived within the lowliest quarters of the palace, for no matter how cramped or destroyed the room was it didn't matter, rather it was the known fact that he had a place within the palace that mattered.
Though it was far from its glory days, it was still a rejuvenating thought to dwell upon, Aen only wished he could have witnessed the tranquil bustle of the once divine palace. It was a place of unparalleled faith and worship, a fortress of hope amongst an otherwise cruel world, an escape where weary souls could retreat to in the afterlife. Aen knew the rules though, only the most virtuous men could seal themselves a place firmly within the palace, the other souls would rather wander the peaceful plains of Elysium.
Whilst Aen had clearly seen the palace, and had even seen the depictions in tomes and murals, it was only a fleeting thought of the hopeful that did very little to compare to the divinity of the palace itself. Yet, Aen had never gotten clear view of the outside of the palace.
Aen himself knew little of what could be found behind the palace doors, but he assured himself that whatever beauty that once thrived outside the walls of the palace, was one incomparable to any place from his home world. Sadly though, if what Aesir had told Aen was true, then whatever was out those doors was now a sight that reeked only of decay and corruption, the grasps of demons firmly clenched upon the outside.
The thoughts only strengthened his resolve to complete his task, Seraphim had been the malignant example of impurity for every waking man and flora upon the surface, yet he still stood in a careful state of hiding.
It was unlike Seraphim, which was a clear thought that Aen had neglected to indulge upon before, his own rage and focus not allowing him to do so.
Both Aen and Aesir clearly knew that within enough time, the power of one will eventually diminish to a point of futility. It had even happened with Seraphim's own power, within time it faded away from the annals of the world's history, until it become but a distant memory to those of the current time.
A blank section of history...
Yet, unlike Aen himself it had not disappeared, only it had waited until it could once again resurface. However, determining when that very force could resurface was a daunting task of chance, one that slowly wilted away at Aen's own sanity.
He had little time to think over the entirety of the situation till now, except perhaps for his down time upon his travel to Vale, yet he had spent most of that time devising his actions. Aen clearly knew that Seraphim was in hiding, assuredly because of his loss of power, it was a sealed fact at this point.
However, it was still strange to Aen...
The relentless demon that stopped at naught to complete whatever warped task he had in mind, was now in hiding, with a nary peep coming from him. It was unlike the demon to simply stand by whilst opportunities ran wild, even with his diminished powers Aesir had surmised that he was still very capable of doing what he had done many years before.
So why did he not act?
Did he know that Aen was about and was hiding for that reason, or are there others unknown factors at play that are keeping him at bay, whatever it was, it was no doubt strange.
It was a thought that needed not much indulgence however, Aen knew his goal, and it was his only purpose now.
However, Aen's ever fervent mind once again strew from its stricken path, an occurrence not uncommon to Aen nor his conscious.
He had been wrong, there was one other thing that concerned his attention.
It was of the well being of the boy and his caretaker, Danny and Rex. The more that Aen had pondered on it the more he had become aware that he had made very little contact with the two recently. Although he had only been gone for perhaps a few days, it was still a long outing without a single word from the two, it was only a more worrying thought considering Rex's previous 'profession'
Rex assuredly did not find himself with a clean record of his actions, they were things much rebellious in the end. It really did very little to ease the worries that already ran wild about Danny and his well being.
Perhaps it may seem selfish that he had found his mind's care drifting towards the boy rather than his miscreant caretaker, but he held trust within the man's abilities to take care of himself. However, Aen did not doubt the boys own abilities as well, if he were capable of sustaining his own life for as long as he did with very little to no guidance, then he had certainly done enough to set himself apart from the other people that Aen had taken to observing in this world.
Yet, these thoughts still didn't help to calm Aen's rapid mind.
Perhaps he owed the two a visit, it may actually prove beneficial to what he worked towards. He had already surmised that his next goal would to be to investigate the peculiarities of this old religion which found its worship surrounding 'Seraphim.' Yet, that didn't mean that he knew exactly where to begin in these actions, after-all, up until this point he had only found himself loosely following the guidance that Aesir had briefly provided with scarce relativity to what he actually needed to accomplish.
Aen had also found Rex to be just as reliable of a source of information as Aesir had been, Rex had been the one that had pointed him towards all of his ever-changing objectives until now, which made him a valuable ally to Aen. Perhaps, even an ally that Aen could vaguely consider a friend in this new time, he hadn't acquired many that he actually conversed with upon levels of intimacy belike to that of two friends in the end.
So, if Rex was able to point him towards all of his goals until now, what stopped him from being ale to allow at least a smidgen of enlightenment upon religion, which Aen felt more befitting to call a cult.
However, as much as Aen knew that he would need to return to the inn he had stayed at nights prior to his departure to Beacon, he still found a certain amount of difficulty in doing so. Not so much because he couldn't, or other discrepancies that had held his course of action, but rather he found himself struggling to do so because he truly felt no want to leave the Elysium palace.
It was certainly a place of great reverence which held enough of a calm aura to it to subdue even the angriest of men, however the irrelevant aura Aen had thought up even worked it powers on himself. Leaving him with little reason to want to leave, aside from a call to his responsibilities which burned with a certain urgency within Aen's gut.
With the way Aen's newly ever active mind worked, drawing situations together from simple similarities to the furthest fetched details, it never stayed in one place for long. Which led him back to a topic that he should have found himself indulging upon earlier in his return to the corroding palace, his scroll.
Whatever Yang had seen within the scroll's contents had been enough to push the room he had regrettably stayed a night within, from a diffused tension to a heavy room filled with abundantly noticeable tension. So whatever it had been that Yang saw must have been important, and Aen had inwardly cursed himself for not allowing his attention to brought to this earlier.
Allowing himself to take action, Aen reached into the leather pouch he had kept his scarcely used scroll, alongside the other things he had collected and been given. He pulled it free, neglecting any regards of the fragility of the object itself, and began to use the object that had been the source of previous frustration to him.
Aen actually had very little experience with the object itself but had found himself picking up on the general applications and uses of the device, the more he looked it over the more it had actually occurred to him how useful the object actually was, His observations still did very little to ease his earlier frustrations with the object however.
He had allowed those thoughts to slip from his mind though and instead decided to actually focus his efforts into discovering what had infatuated the blonde haired girl to the point of secrecy. As he navigated throughout the multiple confusing pictures on the scroll with a great deal of his mind being focused on how to actually work the thing, he came across several messages which he had quickly allowed his eyes to brush over.
Only after realizing who the messages were sent from though did it actually dawn upon him that what he was reading was important.
They were from Danny, and the news they carried hardly harbored good omens.
A knot twisted itself within Aen's stomach as he read.
His indecisive desires to leave the palace now held no opposition...
-S-
Yang looked at the street sign, then back towards her scroll, and once again to the street sign.
"Yang, how long are you gonna keep doing that. This is the street." Ruby spoke with a tone of annoyance that held traceable amounts of urgency and impatience to it.
The most of their time had been spent with Yang stopping every few minutes to make sure that they were heading in the right direction, even though it was very clear to Ruby that they were heading in the correct direction and had been for the longest time.
It almost made Ruby regret not taking Blake with them.
It really made Ruby regret not taking Blake with them actually.
They probably would have arrived at where they needed to be had Blake come with the two rather than staying with Weiss after her argument about how she "Wouldn't stay alone while everyone went on a wild goose chase!"
It made sense that Weiss made someone stay with her though, she wasn't as well acquainted with team JNPR as the rest of team RWBY was, so she couldn't just stay with them for the team's outing, and Ruby was already very set on her decision as was Yang from the start. So the only other person being left that had actually volunteered to stay with Weiss had ended up being Blake in the end.
Ruby cursed the heiress for her hatred of being left alone, yet really didn't hate her for it. It was actually kind of cute to Ruby that the ice princess needed her attention, what wasn't cute however was how Yang continued to check her scroll to make sure that the directions the boy had given them were correct.
"Just hold on Ruby I'm trying to figure something out here. I think I've got it now." Yang spoke with her eyes glued to her scroll and one hand haphazardly waving Ruby off.
"Ya know, I'm starting to think that kid gave us the wrong directions." Yang had muttered to herself, however it had not gone unheard to Ruby.
It wouldn't make sense though, Ruby thought. Why would the kid that sounded so relieved to hear of a friendly person that knew Aen, give them the wrong directions to get to him? Yang had done the talking but that didn't mean that everyone else didn't know how the conversation had gone down.
The kid had even answered almost immediately after Yang had called the number, almost like he was waiting for someone to call.
Even though Ruby knew Yang was a lot better in social situations than her it still surprised her that the boy had been so willing to share what had actually been going on, and even trusting enough to allow Yang and Ruby to help him out with practically no convincing. The kid most have been worried out of his mind to have been that responsive to Yang of all people.
It kind of reminded Ruby of the times when Yang made her watch horror movies with her when they were little, and Ruby would get so scared that she would always make Yang take her up to her room or get her some food for the fridge because she was too scared to do it herself.
That was a kind of a stretch though... ok maybe it was a big stretch Ruby concluded. The similarities still were there in Ruby's mind at least.
"Yang we both know that doesn't make sense. Just keep going, ok?"
If Yang hadn't spent a majority of her time stopping at every intersection, every street sign, and every notable building, then they probably would have been there by now. Nevertheless though, Ruby knew that they were getting at least a little closer to where they needed to be, Yang had already gone through so many of the directions at this point that they had to be nearing the destination.
Yang threw her free hand up that wasn't holding her scroll, "Ok Ok, I'm just making sure Ruby."
She looked at her scroll.
Then back at the next street sign...
"Yang!"
"I got it!" She yelled back.
"That's the right street!" She yelled triumphantly with a finger pointed towards the street sign that had been before them for perhaps the last few minutes.
Ruby just sighed, she didn't really understand her sister sometimes.
They had been at the same street for the longest time and Yang was just now confirming that they were going the right way when they had obviously not taken any wrong step on the way here.
"Then it should be around the corner right?" Ruby asked genuinely, hoping she wouldn't draw her sister into checking her scroll multiple times to make sure it actually was around the corner.
Yang nodded her head, thankfully refraining from checking her scroll once more. "I think so, if we head down the street it should be just over there."
Yang pointed a finger down the block, until it then trailed to the corner of the block, pointing towards the bend.
Ruby spoke up, bringing upon a question as they walked towards the bend. "What was the kid's name again? I can't remember."
Yang reached a hand to her chin in thought, small amounts of just noticeable panic traced her face for the briefest second, "Oh, uh, what was it again."
Ruby deadpanned at Yang, "You forgot his name?" She asked with a straight face, questioning her own sister's intelligence.
"No! I didn't forget it, it's just hard to remember." Yang yelled out in protest.
"It was like... Ray, or something like that..." Yang spoke slowly, coming to the realization that she had pretty much forgotten the name of the kid that the entire outing was based around.
"How do you even forget that?" Ruby questioned, surprisingly calm, talking with more disappointment than any amount of anger... which was worse anyways.
Yang waved her hands dismissively, and with a sheepish smile just spoke, "Ah don't worry about it!"
Ruby just sighed again, she had come to expect these kinds of things from her sister anyways, as long as they knew where they were going and what they had to do it didn't matter at this point.
"Fine, you're gonna be doing the talking though if we have to." Ruby retorted in response to Yang's shortcomings.
Yang just threw a hand onto her little sister's head messing with her hair as she spoke back with a smile, "I planned on it anyways!"
Before Ruby even had a chance to fix her hair, they had arrived at the bend and had come to face a fairly plain apartment building, which had a structure that resembled a Motel rather than the intended apartment building look.
"Is that it?" Ruby asked.
"It should be. He said it was just a plain apartment building, that's what that looks like to me." Yang responded, looking over the aspects of the building, trying to find any details that could have matched a description given to her before that she had trouble recalling.
Ruby ran her hands through her hair, fixing the mess that Yang had created of her hair before saying, "Well why don't we go in?"
Providing a silent nod, Yang followed after Ruby through the main doors of the apartment building, hoping that the kid they were hoping to help out would be easy to actually fine, despite Yang having forgotten the name.
The room was simple, a few waiting chairs, but both of the girls' attention was brought towards the main desk, where a girl, presumably the owner (or secretary), rifled through some unseen compartments behind the desk.
As Yang approached with her younger sister in tow it became more apparent that the girl behind the counter hadn't taken any notice of her, she had obviously been more infatuated with whatever she was messing with behind the desk. The sisters stopped a few feet before the desk, Yang having cleared her throat to draw attention to the fact that the two of them were there.
The woman behind the desk jumped in surprise, a loud bang being produced from whatever she was messing with, as she turned around startled.
Her frantic purple eyes quickly searched the room before coming rest on Yang's form as well as her sister for a fleeting moment.
"Oh, Hello!" She spoke frantically, shoving a container that was in her hand into a drawer behind the desk with an amount of discreetness that had failed to go unnoticed by the two sisters of all people.
"Sorry, I didn't even hear you two come in." She spoke with a smile, "I was so busy fixing things back up over here that I didn't even notice you guys come in!" She pronounced, throwing her arms up onto the counter, making her already shapely form more apparent.
"So what do you girls need?" She questioned kindly, flicking a bit of her brown hair away from her eye.
"We, uh.." Yang began, wondering to herself how she was to phrase any of this. She hadn't really thought through how she was going to word her intentions exactly. She wasn't just going to say that there was a boy who possibly was involved with the white fang staying in her apartments.
Throwing away any want for a plan, Yang just decided to talk away.
"Well, we're actually looking for a friend here. We're from Beacon and so we wanted to stop by real quick." She spoke with a smile, talking behind a small lie.
"Is there an Aen, that's staying here?" Yang questioned. Since she had forgotten the name of the kid, finding if Aen had stayed with the kid would probably lead them to the same place in the end. He had contacted Aen after all, so there was an obvious connection between the two.
The entire stature of the woman seemed to have just slightly perked up upon Yang's pronunciation of Aen's name. However, it was a barely noticeable quirk to both Yang and her younger sister, who stood silently next to Yang, fiddling with her hands as she waited through the conversation.
"Yeah, where's that guy been? It's been a little bit since he stopped by." The woman spoke back, responding to Yang's question with one of her own.
"Not sure where he is right now, but he just stopped by Beacon earlier to talk." Yang responded, putting her and Ruby under the ruse that they were friends with the armored enigma.
"But I just wanted to know if he's got a kid with him here? He wanted me to stop by and check up on him." Yang spoke, once again telling a lie all behind an expertly crafted veil of nonchalance. Ruby seemed to have caught onto the lying, but thankfully her naturally good willed self didn't call Yang out on it.
The brown haired girl rested her head in her palm, thinking for a moment before responding to the sisters. "Yeah, I remember now. The kid's been here for a little while, I'm pretty sure he's upstairs if you want to go talk to him."
Yang smiled, partially to be friendly, and partially for the fact that her lies lead her to where she needed to be going.
"Thank you so much!" Yang spoke with a smile.
"No problem." She responded. The lady returned her own smile, however it had morphed into more of a smirk as Yang caught sight of her eyes quickly trailing themselves up her body, in one discreet motion that may have been meant for Yang to just slightly pick up.
Second guessing her own eyes, Yang left her mouth open for a moment before continuing her speech. "Uh, What room number is he?" She questioned, struggling to keep her confident air about herself as she almost found herself getting lost in the lady's surprisingly beautiful eyes.
The woman wasn't even all that bad looking the more that Yang considered it, her figure almost capable of making Yang doubt her own. Especially considering the way that she leaned over the counter just enough to show off h-
"Room 16 on the second floor." She said, turning back around to rummage through some of the things she had been working with before.
Yang shook her head, removing any thoughts that had just found their way into her mind unannounced.
Where did that come from? She thought to herself, a little taken back that those thoughts had freely entered her mind.
Deciding she shouldn't stay around for too long unless those thoughts decided to come back, she ushered a final thanks and made her way to the stairs with Ruby quickly in tow behind her as she walked just a bit faster than she usually did.
Even as she started to walk up the stairs Yang felt a glare at her back, and when she peeked over her shoulder to check, she came to realize that the glare was a bit lower than her back. A slightly unnerving thought to even the notably flirtatious Yang, escpecially since such sctions came from another girl. Swallowing hard Yang hurried up the stairs and out of view with a confused and equally worried Ruby following behind.
"Yang?" Ruby spoke up from behind Yang as they reached the hallway of the second floor.
"You ok? You looked a little nervous back there." Ruby questioned, bringing light to something that Yang herself didn't quite even understand, she was operating fine until...
"Yeah I'm all good, I just kinda dazed off trying to think up another lie." Yang smiled, attempting to ease Ruby's worries.
Ruby looked at Yang unconvinced, "You sure?" She questioned, held tilted in and eyes narrow. Yang just smiled again, attempting to divert Ruby's inquisitive mind, "All good sis, if anything you looked a little bit more nervous than me. You were just fiddling with your thumbs the whole time." She joked back to her, hoping to ease her worries.
Although Ruby wasn't convinced she didn't get a moment capitalize on the peculiarity, before Yang spied out a number on one of the doors reading off 16.
"Look, room 16. That's the one." Yang spoke, pointing towards a door only a couple doors down from where they currently stood.
As they approached, Yang gave Ruby a quick glance, seemingly sizing her up before asking, "Ready?"
Ignoring the fact that Yang had blatantly changed the subject, Ruby just decided to agree with a nod, signaling to Yang that she was ready.
Yang outstretched her arm and gave a quick knock on the door's hard surface before puling back and giving Ruby an anticipating smile with a subtle thumbs up. It was a superficial gesture, but a comforting one that Ruby had come to love about her sister.
There was a quiet shuffling on the other side of the door that Ruby could just barely make out above the ambient noises of the surrounding apartment. The sound moved about before it came to a stop, the only other sound being a quiet voice coming from behind the door.
"You guys are from Beacon?" The voice questioned from behind the door.
Ruby followed Yang's gaze as it stopped at the small peephole just below the number marking the room placed upon the door.
Yang spoke up, being careful not to speak too loudly for fear of worrying the already on edge kid.
"Yeah, I'm Yang and this is my little sister Ruby." A hefty pat on the younger girl's shoulder gestured towards who Yang spoke of.
"We're Aen's friends. We called earlier." Yang responded, adding clarification to their identities as well as there reasoning which the boy was probably already aware of.
A moment of brief silence followed before, the sound of a lock shifting from its place became apparent to the sisters' ears.
The door slid open just enough for the kid to poke a head through the crack from behind the safety of the door's fragility. Yang now was now beginning to realize just how young the boy actually was, sure he had sounded young when they had talked over their scrolls, it still didn't take away from the fact that the boy was younger than Yang had guessed. However, that was just what Yang was able to tell from looking at him, it seemed as if he was maybe a year younger than Yang's own sister, or perhaps even the same age, it was unclear however.
The boy released a small sigh before opening the door to it's fullest and offering a noticeably forced smile to the two siblings.
"Thanks for helping out. My name's Danny by the way" He spoke behind tired tones that spoke of countless nights with little proper rest. However, Yang had only picked up on the name he had said... she was close enough before.
Yang allowed a smile to become plastered across her face, it was a good feeling to her knowing that they were doing their part to help as huntresses. Even if they were just in training.
"Hey no problem kid, that's what we're hear for!" Yang spoke, allowing her usually boisterous attitude to take over as she spoke aloud.
The boy made an inviting gesture with a wave of his hand, "I guess we should talk in here." He spoke before stepping aside and allowing room for the two to come through the door.
"You got it." Yang spoke, before slamming a hand onto her sister's back to push her along with her, eliciting a quiet yelp from the unsuspecting younger sister.
As the two siblings entered the room, Yang had thought that as the door closed she could just barely make out a head of brown hair making it's way up the stairs. Her timing was unlucky though, and Yang hadn't been allowed a chance to second what she saw before she had completely entered the room, the door closing behind her.
Deciding to disregard what she had thought she may have seen for now, Yang made her way towards the center of the room where Ruby sat on one of the two beds in the room, waiting for anyone to say anything. Ruby hadn't done much talking since they got here anyways, not with other people at least.
She cursed her social inabilities at times.
Following suit, Yang plopped herself down on the bed next to where Ruby had found herself.
"So what's the problem exactly?" She asked, deciding to get things to the point.
While they had talked on their scrolls beforehand, it had only really included a brief description explaining to the older sister that a friend of his had gone missing and that he didn't know what to do. Their may have been other details thrown in, but as they made their way here, Yang's memory of the actual situation found itself replaced with the directions to the place itself.
She could ask for a refresher anyways.
Sitting on the bed opposite from where Yang and Ruby had both found themselves sitting together, Danny sighed, racking his brain on ways to start to explain his current dilemma.
Danny ran several fingers through his short brown hair, ruffling it even more than it already had been.
"Where do I even start with this one..."
~S~
F me. That just about sums up my recent experiences, and guess who's not actually dead? I am very aware of how long it's been since I last updated this story, but like I have said before, I will not abandon it without letting anyone know beforehand.
But before I say anything else you guys should really hear just how 'lucky' I have been recently. So to kick things off my computer broke, like, won't even start, need to buy a new one kind of broken. Now guess who had all of their chapters that they were working on for this story on that computer, yup, me! Give or take a month and then I finally get a new computer and then I'm actually able to start writing again.
But you guys don't care about that anyways, but I just want to give out a very sincere thanks to everyone that has followed or favorited this story. You guys are actually the soul reason I continue to write after my series of wonderful events. It's just an amazing feeling to know people enjoy what I put out.
So a huge thank you to anyone who still kept with this story after it went on vacation.
Also an apology for any spelling mistakes, I'm not the best when it comes to proofreading, also I'm pretty lazy.
So any reviews if you want, feel free to leave them.
- Stay Toasty, From Loasty of the Toasty