Hey there everyone and welcome to the next chapter of divided. I hope you've been well and everything is going good in your life.

Chapter 14: An arrival and a departure

Raven shifted uneasily as she waited outside the house for Tai to get back with Ruby. He'd left about twenty minutes ago so he should at least be on the way back by now. Qrow rolled his eyes after taking a quick sip from his flask. "Would you just sit down already? Your starting to stress ME out and you know how much I hate that," he said.

"It still doesn't add up," she mumbled. Qrow just shook his head. Leave it to his sister to try and rationalize some motive for Tai's forgiving her. "Don't give me that look, you know why I'm uneasy about it," she snapped.

"Seems to me like you just can't wrap your head around being wrong about him. If you have to attach a reason to satisfy your paranoia though, allow me." Raven glanced at him, her eyes narrowing a bit. "You're the mother of his oldest daughter. Past events aside, that means something. I think deep down he still really cares about you like he did back then even if its just a bit," he said. "And besides, you know Tai doesn't hold grudges well. Hell, I've caused him so much grief that if he held everything against me I should be six feet under."

"Oh keep trying, brother. Im certain his limit is in there somewhere," she said, the smallest of smirks creeping onto her face. Both of them laughed and Raven relaxed a bit. "You really think he could..still feel that way?"

"I think so.." he trailed off seeing lights down the path. "But theres time for you to figure all that out later. Right now? We got more pressing issues to see to. You two ain't teenagers at Beacon anymore. After this is over, sit down and talk it over. It'd be good to have you back completely," he said. Raven nodded, though hesitantly. It wasn't going to be as simple as that, even Qrow had to see that. As Tai and Ruby walked up the path. Ravens eyes widened when she saw it wasn't just them. Close behind were four others, Raven assumed this was the rest of the 'rescue' team Ruby had In mind.

"Hey there! Sorry it took a little longer than I thought, but the docking station was a mess," Tai said before walking inside. Ravens eyes fell to Ruby as she walked by, following her father. She looked exactly like Summer from the eyes to the hair. If not for the color of the cloak flung over her shoulders, Raven could have sworn it WAS Summer in front of her. She waited until everyone was inside before she walked in, Qrow not far behind. After everyone was settled, Qrow began to explain the situation.

"Alright kids, I have some good news and I've got some bad news. Which one we going to knock out first?" When no one spoke, Qrow let out a breath. "Alrighty…we have a location on Jaune. More or less an exact location actually," he said. Smiles broke out on everyones faces, but quickly faded when they saw Qrow's eyes fall. "But…we think he may be in some serious trouble. Possibly even a danger to his life if we don't act quick." Pyrrha's face paled and Ruby's heart sank.

"Then why are we just sitting here?!" Ruby said as she jumped to her feet. There was a determined look in her face Qrow knew all too well and it made him smirk.

"We won't be much longer kiddo I just need to get a couple thing clear with the rest of you. Mistral..isn't the best place to be right now. A lot of nasty people, people who run the black market and the like, have been increasing their claims in the city. Violence is rising and despite what the council and civil guard try to tell you, they don't have control of the situation. Far from it."

"Civil guard?" Weiss asked.

"Think Atlas's special tactics units, like the ones your sister runs. Their a branch of the military that is used in a civilian capacity," Qrow said.

"Only a lot more ill-equipped and incompetent. Cops with fancier guns. May as well be asking the people who live their to try and solve the problem," Raven scoffed.

"If their that bad off, why does Mistral not use actual military forces to keep the crime in check?" Ren asked Qrow gave Raven a look that read like 'should I?' And after she shrugged he let out a sigh.

"Because Mistrals real military is doing something that diverts their attention away. Don't know what exactly, but needless to say it takes precedent to the leadership if they've let things degrade this much. My point is, watch your backs when your there and stick close together. Am I clear?" Nods answered him all around, "Good. Raven, I'll let you finish this up," he said relaxing back.

"We'll be taking you all to Mistral. Me and Qrow have to speak to the headmaster of Haven once we get there, but you all will be free to find your friend."

"Mistral is a pretty big place..how the hell are they going to find Jaune in all that?" Tai asked

"Well that's where Leo comes in. Mistrals council keeps a record of everyone that comes through the front gate if their not citizens already. The reason for their visit, all of that. Beacon put them on edge just about as bad as Atlas, honestly. Leo will have access to those records. If the kids can't find him, we will." Seeming to be put at ease if only a little by Qrow's words, Tai relaxed and nodded. "Now then..are all five of you going with us?" Pyrrha cleared her throat and shook her head.

"N-No..just Ren, Nora and Weiss will be accompanying Ruby on this mission. Im nowhere near where I need to be. Even though the medicine is helping a lot with the pain, I haven't trained at all. Its best if I stay behind. The only reason I came was..well.."

"She needs a place to stay while all of us are in Mistral. She's been staying with Ren and Nora, but with them going with us..well we thought it'd be best if she weren't alone.." Ruby said slowly, drumming her fingers together as she glanced at her father who smiled.

"Shes more than welcome to stay here. No problem at all." Pyrrha smiled a bit at him and Ruby grinned. "Maybe if your feeling up to it, we can spar a bit. I may be older, but Im no slouch," he said proudly.

"Right..and Im the king of Remnant," Qrow smirked. Tai glared and the two began to bicker back and forth, the others laughing at them. Raven rolled her eyes, smiling a bit. The more things change the more they stay the same. She stood and stretched a bit, nodding towards the door.

"If you all are ready we can be going," she said. Ruby walked over and wrapped her arms around Tai, hugging him tightly. Tai smiled and gently ruffled her hair.

"You be careful okay, sweetheart? I love you," he said kissing the top of her head. Ruby smiled up at him

"I will dad, I promise. I love you too. And Pyrrha?" Pyrrha's eyes met hers as she turned around. "We'll bring Jaune back to you. I..I promise," she said her smile falling a bit, but remaining in place. Pyrrha didn't seem to notice however as she smiled back.

"I'll never be able to repay you for it Ruby..thank you." With that, Ruby filed outside with Qrow and the others. Raven looked at Tai again, seeing the worry all over his face.

"I'll..watch out for her, alright?" She said softly. He nodded, grateful for the assurance. Raven shifted a bit, her eyes falling to the floor as she turned and followed the crowd out. She stood beside Qrow and carefully drew her sword, the blade glowing as she did so.

"You all are in for a treat. Walking through one of these things never gets old," Qrow said. He smirked seeing the grin on Ruby and Nora's faces and the look of worry on Weiss. Ren showed no outward reaction other than to shift a bit, his eyes on the blade.

"Yes Qrow, let's terrify them right out of the box. You never change," Raven said with a roll of her eyes. She sliced the air in front of them and the portal appeared. "In we go," she said waking forward. Ruby took a deep breath before following.

"Hang in there Jaune…were coming."

-Mistral, entrance checkpoint-

"For the nine hundredth time I was just here a couple months ago! Jaune Arc?" He snapped tapping his fingers impatiently on the desk. Saya rolled her eyes at his outburst. It never failed that the littlest thing could get under his skin. Really it was rather amusing, if she was being honest with herself. They'd been waiting for over an hour due to a mix up with some papers and Jaune had clearly had enough.

"I know what you said sir. I am merely saying I can't find a record of your arrival, and since you have no witness to verify that you'll have to wait like every other new arrival. And with the refugees from Kuchinashi flooding our system it may take longer. I really don't know what you expect me to do about it." Jaune grit his teeth, his hands trembling. If he wasn't in pain right now, this might not be bothering him. The wound the Leecher had left him was throbbing like crazy, sending a wave of nausea and aches through him.

"I'll tell you what, how about I shove your records and your paperwork right up-" Saya cleared her throat and pulled him away.

"Down boy. Look, you need to get a grip. You said yourself security is extremely tight nowadays. Give the man some time to do his job. They try to send us away, you can let him have it then, alright? Hell I'll even hold him down for you," She smiled seeing Jaune relaxed and chuckle at this.. "We'll get through this like anything else, yeah?"

Jaune returned her smile. "Yeah….we will," he said holding out his fist. She laughed softly but bumped her fist against his. They found a couple chairs and decided to get comfortable in case this took much longer. It helped the pain a bit to not be on his feet, so it wasn't a hard decision for Jaune to make. Saya looked around at the people around the checkpoint. A lot of them reminded her of the people back in Nagano, not just in how they dressed or spoke but in their whole demeanor. These were people who were just taking things as they came, but had hit a rough spot. She felt for them, and hoped they would be able to enter Mistral. No one deserves this.

She looked over to Jaune who was relaxing back in his chair, eyes closed. She smiled at this, thankful he was trying to calm down. It meant a lot that he valued her opinion enough to actually listen to her advice. Gods knew people back home never did. She'd never be able to really express how much being here and Jaune giving her this chance meant to her. It felt good to be out and planning to try and make things better. Keeping him from strangling someone was the least she could do, she thought to herself barely keeping in a giggle at the thought.

Her smiled dropped however when her eyes fell to the hole in his chest plate which he'd insisted could wait to be fixed until they were actually inside the city. Her eyes saddened remembering how he'd bled and looked so weak after that. Jaune had known her less than a month, and he'd already damn near died because of her and he'd done it without hesitating. 'That will be something I have to try and repay. It's only fair right?'

"Excuse me, Mr Arc?" The voice of the checkpoint worker called out, breaking her from her thoughts. Jaune opened his eyes and stood, a slight wince flicking across his face. Grumbling, he walked over to the desk, Saya right behind him hoping for this guys sake he didn't interrupt Jaune's rest to tell him more bad news. "Im terribly sorry for the inconvenience. Your friend cleared up everything and your free to enter," he said with a quick bow of the head. Jaune's eyes widened as he was handed his stamped paper. The big doors were opened, and Jaune and Saya were lead through. "Welcome back to Mistral."

Saya gazed around, taking in every feature of the city before her. Her eyes were most drawn to the beautiful waterfall that sat towards the center of the city. "Wow…its beautiful.." Jaune meanwhile looked around the crowd. Who had helped them-he grinned when he saw him leaning against the side of a shop.

"Crimson!" He called and Saya turned and watched as the man made his way over to them. He was a bit taller than Jaune, spiky red hair combed back even so you could see the deep orange color of his eyes. He wore a sleeveless black shirt and pants that matched with a light brown vest that carried what looked like dust ammo. At his hip was a sword a lot like Jaune's but curved halfway down the blade and the gears along the hilt probably meaning this weapon could transform.

"About time you dragged your sorry self back through that gate. Was starting to think you'd forgotten us," Crimson smirked as he and Jaune exchanged a quick hug.

"Yeah..well sorry, but I got a bit sidetracked," Jaune said chuckling softly. Crimson looked over his shoulder to Saya who was watching and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh I think I can see what sidetracked you, my friend. He slicked his hair back even further and walked over to Saya, holding out his hand. "Hey there, my names Crimson Merlo. Pleasure to meet you…"

"Saya," she said shaking his hand. Crimson stepped back and looked her over a couple times, something that made her eye twitch in annoyance when he took a lot slower look the second time over. "Take a picture why don't you?"

"Won't lie, it's kinda tempting to. Jaune didn't mention how beautiful you were in his messages," he said with a bow. Jaune smacked the back of his head and he stood up. "Ow! Asshole." Jaune rolled his eyes making Saya smirk a bit. He got off easy, considering she was a second away from doing the same.

"Keep it together there, Crimson. Thanks for getting us in by way. That place was driving me insane…but can we get going?" Were already behind schedule and I'm sure Tanaka is about ready to kill me at this point," Jaune said with a bit of a groan. Crimson grinned and let out a laugh at the nervous look on his friends face.

"Don't mention it. Perks of actually living here right? And yeah, Tanaka was pretty steamed at you but he's cool now. Though I can't really blame him. Jaune, there is a LOT of lien at stake here. Could keep us comfy for a long time. C'mon I'll take you to where were meeting the clients," he said, Jaune walking beside him and Saya just behind them.

"So how about you fill me in on these clients? Who the hell are they and what's so important that their paying enough to get Tanaka this worked up?" Jaune asked. Saya listened in as well as she could, the racket from the people around her making it hard as they walked down a shopping district.

"Not much to tell really except one of them gives some Grimm a run for their money in the 'creepy as fuck' department. And his partner just makes me feel weirded out the way he's always looking at people..its bone-chilling shit man." Jaune frowned as they rounded a corner and walked down a street full of homes.

"If their that bad, why did you all agree to do their job?"

"You don't have to necessarily trust someone to take work from them and get paid. Tanaka is smart, he'll be looking for stuff that's out of whack and if it gets bad, he'll pull the plug"

"Has that ever happened to you guys before?" Saya asked. Jaune nodded a bit and looked back at her. She could see his eyes sadden at the thought of whatever it was. He clearly didn't want to talk about it so she decided to drop the subject.

"Let me know if you need to stock up on anything. I know a few good shops that can give you a discount," Crimson said. Jaune's eyes widened a bit

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. Vulcan still run the forge in that one place?" Jaune asked. Crimson nodded and Jaune let out a quick breath. "Great. I don't trust anyone but him to repair my gear and Saya here needs some stuff too," he said smiling back at her. Her eyes lit up at this, excited at the idea of getting some new gear of her own. Crimson saw the damage he was talking about and frowned.

"How the hell-oh don't tell me you let one of those bugs get you, Jaune. You know how dangerous those damn things are, gods know what a wound from one could do," he said. Jaune rolled his eyes a bit.

"Suddenly your giving me speeches about safety? That's rich coming from you, earthquake boy. Now shut it and let's get there already." They walked in silence the rest of the way until they came to what looked like an old meeting hall that had been abandoned. "Damn, what happened to this place? It looks worse than when I was here last."

"There was an incident with some unrefined dust a while ago. Rei can fill you in on that one."

"I didn't think there would be any abandoned buildings here.." Saya said softly as they walked in.

"Here in the outskirts of the place theres more than a few. Once you get towards the inner city its like night and day," Jaune said. Saya nodded and moved a little closer to Jaune as they walked. The place was honestly giving her the creeps. Crimson thew open the large double doors that led to the main area.

"Honey, Im home! And look who I found in the gutter while I was out!" He said with a big grin. Two men turned to look at them, both smiling when they saw Jaune. The first to approach was a man with dark brown hair that was smoothed down and his eyes were a pale brown to go with his hair. He wore a dark green cloak and grayish black outfit with a leather chest piece that housed a few knives.

"Saya, this is Rei Xian. He's the one who taught me a lot of the tracking skills I know now." Saya shook his hand politely and smiled. The other man was grinning wider than any of the others. "And this is the one you read so much about when you swiped my scroll. This is Tanaka Raijin."

"A pleasure to meet you, Saya," he said shaking her hand with his gloved one. Tanaka, like Jaune, wore an armor chest plate, but his was spiked on the shoulder pieces and instead of white and gold, it was red and black. "It's great to have you back, brother." He hugged Jaune and stepped back. Jaune smiled and nodded, feeling relief seep through him. He hadn't seen these three in a while, and it never failed to cheer him up. The moment was broken when someone cleared their throat from behind them. Jaune saw Tanaka scowl a bit before hey turned so Jaune could see the two people standing off to the side.

"If your done prattling on, I believe we were here to finally discuss our business, yes?" Saya leaned to look past Jaune. One of them was a tall man with long tied back hair, long coat and dark gold eyes. The smirk on his face made her gulp. His friend however, was worse. His cold eyes slowly looking over the two new arrivals. He looked at Jaune quickly but..something changed when he looked at her. He smirked about something before stepping away from the wall. Jaune cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"That's right. Im Jaune Arc, and this is Saya. Sorry for making you wait Mr….?"

"I am Dr Watts. And my..charming friend here is Tyrian," he said motioning towards him. Tyrian smirked wider and let out a half-insane sounding laugh.

"The pleasure is all ours."

Writers block is a bitch.

Alrighty folks, hope you enjoyed and I shall see you next time

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