"And you're sure we have to walk all the way around." I asked for the tenth time, more than a little peeved over my present situation. I didn't really mind having to come help him with... actually I still didn't know what I was helping him with. Ozpin had really just given me the vague order to assist him with something Magecraft related and then dismissed us from his office.
"Yes." Qrow replied flatly, continuing to walk blithely forward through the forested area just outside Vales city limits.
But regardless, I didn't really mind going out with another Magus for some field experience. No, the problem was -
"HOW DARE YOU!?" came the enraged scream of a woman somewhere to our left. I ignored it, just as I had ignored it the last several times it had happened. The words changed, but the results did not. There was a flash of heat, and a solitary moment in time where a fairly vast swathe of the forest was on fire, and then suddenly it wasn't anymore. Mostly because there was no more forest left. If someone wanted to, they could probably follow our trail just by getting a decent aerial view and following the circular zones of death Amber left in our wake.
"But why? We're literally going in the opposite direction of Mountain Glenn. This is going to take days." I complained, and though I didn't explicitly say it, Qrow and I both knew that my complaint wasn't so much with the journey as the constant outbursts said journey was creating. The first time Grimm had leapt up out of the forest at us, I had raised my shield and diligently prepared myself for a fight. Not a very hard fight given that it was just a couple of Beowolves, but still. Unfortunately for me, this was apparently the first time Amber had been out of the city with Qrow, and the sight of something attacking her 'beloved' was more than enough to set the... whatever she was off. It had been several hours now, about half a day into the trip, and both Qrow and I had pretty much given up on wariness. Oh to be sure I had taken significantly longer to calm down - owing largely to the fact that I was scared the angry woman was going to obliterate me where I stood, but after the third ground shattering explosion Anxiety had given up at the controls and quickly switched with Annoyance.
Qrow paused mid-step then turned to regard me pensively.
"Can't go in from the front. Definitely not on a bullhead. Too easy to detect." He said after a moment of consideration, then shrugged.
"Yeah about that - what exactly is going to detect us?" I said in exasperation, adding afterward under my breath "And why do I have to come..."
"Beats me. That's why we're going." Qrow said again with another shrug, palming his hip flask and taking a swig before offering it to me. The unpleasant smell of strong alcohol practically burned my nose hairs as it wafted up from the open container, and I took a step back gagging.
"Wha- You know I'm underage still right?" I complained, coughing and waving the stench away from myself.
"You're on an undocumented mission with another Magus to spy on and or kill someone else. I just thought you might wanna try it before you died." Qrow said nonchalantly downing the rest of the flask and then closing it and replacing it on his hip.
'I like him. He gets it.' Archer chimed in from about a kilometer away. It was a distance I was confident he could travel quickly to reach me in an emergency, but far enough away that Amber didn't detect him. Something I didn't think and still had a hard time believing was even possible in the first place.
'He's a fatalistic alcoholic with a bad attitude. Of course you like him, he's just you but drunk' I retorted.
'Yeah but if he's like me at least you know he's good at surviving. You can probably trust him to complete his mission if nothing else. He won't betray you.' Archer said with the mental equivalent of an eye roll.
'You realize I know enough about you for that to be absolutely no comfort right?' I thought back dryly, and then was dragged from my rapid fire conversation with Archer when Amber sashayed back into view. She was an attractive woman I'd give her that. Once I had been around her long enough to tamp down on the absolute terror she inspired in me, it had dawned on me that regardless of how she sounded like an over enthused teenager with a crush most of the time, her every movement was elegant and refined. The differences between how she spoke and acted were so vast that pretty much the only times they lined up were when she was attacking something. If I didn't know any better I'd swear I was watching two people at once, but that just didn't make any sense.
"Darling~ you know I don't like it when you drink." Amber pouted as she drew even with Qrow, who closed his eyes as if in prayer, then returned to walking forward as if she hadn't spoken to him at all.
"Aww don't be so cold! Your darling wife is doing her best!" Amber whined, chasing after him. I sighed and jogged forward to catch up.
"We. Are Not. Married." Qrow ground out through gritted teeth.
"Yet~" came Amber's sing song voice.
"Ever." Growled Qrow causing Amber to stop in her tracks. Foreseeing the need to defend myself, I pointedly turned and walked around the volatile woman.
"Darling~" cooed Amber, the temperature around her slowly rising until waves and distortions began to appear in the air.
"You said I could have 'Whatever I wanted' if I let you leave our nice, cozy, love nest to take this silly mission." She continued, voice as sweet as cotton candy. Quicker than I could follow she vanished, reappearing in front of Qrow with one hand gently cupping his chin and forcing the taciturn drunk to stop his forward motion. Qrow's aura flashed as the extreme heat began to bear down on him, and his brows pinched together into a tent shape on his forehead.
"I thought you just wanted to fu-" Qrow started indignantly with sweat slowly beginning to bead and slide down his face.
"I said I wanted to consummate our union." Amber said in a matter of fact tone that stated in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going to accept any misinterpretation of her meaning. Qrow looked like he was going to try to argue anyway, but a tightening of Amber's hands on his face and the spontaneous combustion of a nearby tree nipped that in the bud.
"...Fine." Qrow rasped through clenched teeth.
Her grip tightened.
"Fine... Dear?" Qrow tried, and a huge smile spread itself over Ambers face. The oppressive heat vanished without a trace, and the nearby burning trees snuffed out like candles on a birthday cake.
"Oooh darling!" She cried joyously, lunging at Qrow and dragging him into a hug that involved a little too much groping and rubbing on her part to be entirely chaste.
"I know it hurts to have these little spats, but every problem we overcome just makes our relationship stronger!" She crooned. At this point I was awkwardly looking away, having moved as far from Amber as I could without vanishing into the woods. I could already see where this was going, and as much as it terrified me to do so I had found I had a very specific niche on this mission.
I had to cockblock Amber.
"AHEM." I coughed, then stepped forward and tried again when I was summarily ignored.
"AHEM!" At this, Ambers head shot up, her eyes slitted and golden as they landed on me. There was an alien sort of intelligence in that look. A kind of calculated consideration that a human might get when looking down on an anthill. Sure you could obliterate the anthill easily enough, but why?
"My apologies Nuisance. I had forgotten you were present." She said, blinking once and revealing her eyes in their usual, not slitted state. Then she separated herself from Qrow, trailing a finger delicately over his jaw. She moved back until she was standing demurely next to the older man then quirked her head to the side as if in thought.
"Why is he here?" She asked Qrow with a hint of petulance in her voice.
"Because Oz said so." Qrow said stonily, rubbing at his neck and massaging his temples.
"Actually I wanted to ask the same thing." I chimed in.
"He said it's because I know more Magecraft than you but I find that hard to believe." I continued, gesturing at the grey stripe in his hair to emphasize my point. Qrow was a grown man, who presumably had been learning Magecraft from Ozpin for sometime. I had been at it for less than a year, and I had been mostly making it up as I went.
Qrow wrinkled his nose qt my insinuation that he was 'old' then turned to continue our trek through the woods, beckoning me next to him. Of course, 'next to him' was a position I had quickly learned was reserved exclusively for Amber, so instead I took up position three steps behind him with Amber standing sanguinely between us.
Qrow rolled his eyes at the biplay but otherwise let it pass without comment.
"Listen, Magecraft can be easy or it can be hard." He began after a second to gather his thoughts.
"The hard way, that's the way you do it, requires knowledge. Understanding. It takes years of learning and practice. It produces excellent Magi - eventually. Unfortunately, it isn't very fast." I stared at him for a second, waiting for him to continue.
"The easy way only requires three things. Circuits, good Prana control, and a Semblance. This type of Magecraft is good for training fighters quickly, but it leaves us mostly useless for anything but fighting." Qrow said, finishing his explanation and looking at me expectantly.
'The hell?' I asked Archer in dismay. Granted I had no idea what my Semblance was, so the 'easy' way wouldn't have worked for me. But still.
'You heard 'easy' and ignored everything else huh?' Archer answered with a mental snort of disdain.
'Good for training fighters quickly is a nice way to describe a training method for easily sacrificed shock troops. The training has to be fast because you expect there to be turnover." He explained, and I cringed inwardly.
"So you're the latter I guess?" I asked Qrow tentatively.
"Exactly. Point me at something and I'll kill it. Ask me to examine or pull apart something delicate though..." he trailed off.
"Which is why I'm here..." I said, realization dawning on me. There was just one problem. I wasn't nearly as well trained as Ozpin obviously thought I was. I was still firmly in the class of 'Amateur' and it showed. I gulped nervously.
"And we might be going up against another Magus. On his home turf. Where he's had who knows how long to prepare." I thought aloud.
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure Oz wouldn't send you on a suicide mission. Your mom would kill us all." Qrow opined, causing Amber to stiffen then eye me speculatively.
"She would try." she mumbled darkly, sending a chill down my spine.
'Archer, how did we get here? Did I do something to offend God do you think?' I asked blandly.
'Well Jaune, I imagine it all started when you were born...' Archer began, launching into a long winded exaggeration of what a mistake I was. It was oddly comforting, and before long I began to wonder what my friends were doing. With me gone things should be pretty quiet on the home front. Caster was probably still licking his wounds, Assassins Master was kind of sort of neutral, and Rider should be able to protect Pyrrha from anything unforeseen.
So at least nothing momentous should occur while I was out here with Gruncle Qrow and his nutjob paramour.
Silver linings and all that.
-ooo-
"Suspended." I stated flatly, squinting suspiciously at Pyrrha as she informed me and the rest of Team RWBY about what had apparently happened last night. To her credit, she had the good grace to be cowed by my annoyance, a state of affairs I wished could extend to all of my interactions with the woman.
Alas, the life of a Schnee is never easy. It's the burden we bear in order to maintain our greatness.
"Yes. Miss Goodwitch said he was sent home to Ansel for the duration." Pyrrha commented, worrying at her bottom lip nervously. It was a terrible habit that a savvy political enemy could take advantage of, and I filed it away for a later date. I could, of course, just point the problem out to her, but as the only other student of decent upbringing at the school, something about Pyrrha just left me feeling... competitive.
"Did she say why he was suspended?" I asked pointedly, fishing for information. It didn't make sense for the school to send a student like Jaune off by himself after an event like what had occurred at the Forever Falls. If anything Ozpin should have been keeping the school locked down as tight as possible.
"Yes Weiss, she absolutely deigned to explain the full, private, details of another students situation to me. Very professional of her." Pyrrha bit back. Ren, Nora, Yang, and Ruby - who had been sitting nearby at our shared table in the cafeteria winced and shifted slightly away from the redhead. It wasn't surprising to me in the least. Despite her sweet outward demeanor, Pyrrha and I had never quite gotten along. I had no idea why.
"Well maybe if you paid more attention to the rumors going around you might have heard." I said smugly. Eliciting a very unladylike grunt from the championship prize fighter.
So maybe I had a tiny inkling why we didn't get along.
"Ah, what exactly have you heard." Ren said slowly, inserting himself into the conversation with all the diplomatic skill of a rhinoceros.
"Well it seems that some second years got into a fight and tore apart a classroom and its adjacent training room last night." I said, waving a hand airily towards the largest grouping of older students I could locate.
"Presumably Jaune bit off more than he could chew and had to do his whole 'scorched earth' thing." I added dismissively. The idea that Jaune could lose a fight against a normal Hunter with no knowledge of Magecraft was about as alien to me as pigs flying. Entirely unworth considering. The fact that Pyrrha could likely still run roughshod over both of us at once no withstanding.
"Wait. Did the second years get suspended too? My dad told me lots of stories about Beacon, and he got away with way worse before he ever got in trouble." Yang said rapping her knuckles on the table irritably.
"That is the question isn't it? Of course there is an easy way to answer it..." I said coolly, taking a secret joy in the way my friends leaned forward to listen to me as though I was about to divulge the secrets of the universe to them. I had long since stopped trying to classify and manipulate them - it had become abundantly clear to me that normal people didn't look kindly on such things. But still there was a kind of catharsis in applying myself in the leadership and planning role I had been raised from birth to take on.
I was so focused on drawing out the moment of suspense that it caught me completely by surprise when Blake dropped into a seat next to me, practically vibrating with nervous energy. I glanced at her askance for a moment before returning to my declaration.
"All we need to do is-" I began but was swiftly cutoff.
"Does anyone know where Jaune is?" Blake piped up, drawing the eyes of everyone present.
"We were just discussing that same topic." Pyrrha answered for the group, her eyes darting to me and then back to Blake with the barest hint of mirth present in them.
"Oh. So where is he?" Blake said, clearly missing the concerned way everyone at the table was now looking at her. She had been somewhat put of contact in recent days. Disappearing off to the city after class before anyone could catch up with her. If I was being honest I had just assumed she had found a boyfriend. Thats what normal girls our age did right? Date? But the haggard and sleep deprived look the raven haired girl was sporting put that conclusion into question.
Of course, if the reason she looked like this was a boyfriend he could probably expect a visit from a security team tonight...
"He got suspended..." Ruby answered carefully, her eyes searching Blakes face for something.
"Dammit!" Blake growled, her fists slamming in to the table.
"Wanna share with the class?" Yang asked curiously, no doubt trying to inject some levity into the situation.
"I can't - you wouldn't understand." She said, quickly amending her statement and moving to stand up.
"Blake." I said in exasperation, quickly raising a glyph beneath her to freeze her feet to the ground and then tugging her back in to her seat when she nearly fell.
"Believe it or not, we do consider ourselves your friends. Tell us whats wrong." I told her gently. My head tilted towards the ice holding her to the ground making the 'or else' part of the statement silent but obvious.
"I..." she said before gulping, her face screwing up like she'd just swallowed something foul.
"Faunus are disappearing off the streets. Mostly the homeless. The news says its the Whitefang and -" Blake blurted, her face becoming redder and redder with each word as anger began to take over. It was commendable that she was concerned about all those innocents. Unfortunately her intended target was wrong, much as I hated to admit it.
"It wasn't. The Whitefang, I mean." I interrupted her, and had to suppress a guffaw as Blake sputtered to a stop mid sentence.
"You- They- What!?" She blurted out.
"Remember when Jaune got captured? Pyrrha and I sort of... snuck in to the rescue mission." I whispered, leaning in and flicking my wrist under the table to create glyph that would block outside listeners.
"What does that have to do with-" She said, but I cut her off again, continuing as if she had never spoken.
"When we arrived, the Whitefang was already there, trying to free all the kidnapped Faunus. Only Jaune really knows the details, but I gather there was a lunatic he called 'Caster' experimenting on them." I explained, glazing over anything that would force me to explain what Caster actually was.
Blake's facial expression, usually bored, dour or both, cycled rapidly from elated, to annoyed to determined.
"And he's suspended?" She questioned quickly, darting a look to Pyrrha for confirmation, much to my annoyance.
"Yes. He's been sent home to Ansel apparently." Pyrrha said with a nod.
"Then I'm going to Ansel." She said plainly, standing up and glaring down at me until I realized she was still frozen to the ground.
"That's-" exactly what I was going to say, was what I tried to blurt out, but was quickly silenced by the voices of everyone at the table trying to speak at once.
"That's perfect!" Ruby yelled shooting up and sticking a triumphant fist in the air.
"We'd get to meet his pareeeents~" Nora added, elbowing Pyrrha in the side.
"The weekend does begin soon." Ren opined, rubbing his chin in thought.
"I wonder if his Dads hot. Like Jaune, but less geeky and more rugged." Yang mused.
In short order, the conversation, and the group, had moved on, leaving me sputtering behind them. Pyrrha had the temerity to send me an apologetic look before rising to follow them.
Suddenly deprived of my reveal, and found myself staring straight ahead as I followed my friends from the room. I didn't know how but this was Jaune's fault, and I was going to have it out of his hide when we got to Ansel.
One way or another.
-ooo-
A chill shot up my spine and I paused momentarily in my prodding of our meager campfire.
"What?" Qrow asked curiously from where he was sitting on a log Amber had dragged out of the woods for him. I made due with sitting cross legged in the dirt. In theory I could have gone to get my own log, or asked Amber to bring me one, but either way I was afraid Amber would take the opportunity to remove me from her list of obstacles preventing her from ravishing Qrow.
"Nothing. Just... got a bad feeling. Like someone was walking over my grave." I admitted. I had gotten a handle on Qrow in the day I'd been forced to accompany him, and against all odds, he actually seemed like he might have a heart somewhere under all the snark and alcoholism.
"Hrm." He grumbled, and then I could feel it - the sudden presence of Prana not my own wafting through the air. Given that my sense of touch was how I interpreted it, it was an extremely weird sensation - like someone dragging a knife across the back of my hand but not actually drawing blood. Sharp, no, jagged. That's how Qrow's prana felt.
The older man stared at me for a few seconds before grunting again, and resettling himself on his seat. Amber, who had been standing behind him rubbing his shoulders, allowed an annoyed look to cross her face as her ministrations were interrupted.
"Your fine. Mostly. Bad luck with women." He explained after a second when I just stared blankly at him. As though that explained anything that had just happened.
"...What?" I asked after a second when it looked like he was done.
"Look, my particular brand of Magecraft is based on my semblance - which causes bad luck." Qrow stated, waving a hand in my direction.
"I just used reinforcement on my eyes while applying my semblance and looked you over. Bad luck with chicks. Sorry." He said with a shrug.
"So you can just.. tell when something bad is going to happen? All the time?" I asked incredulously. That sounded way more useful then blowing shit up. Anyone could do that with enough dust. But precognition? That was something else entirely.
"No. I can tell when something bad is going to happen, in a general sense, to people in my field of view while using a single very taxing application of my power." Qrow growled.
"Trust me. I can't see the future." He added with an aggravated look over his shoulder at Amber who just smiled sweetly at him.
"Oh darling. Of course you didn't see me coming. You said it yourself - you can only detect bad things." She said, gently shifting from rubbing his shoulders to massaging his temples.
"...right..." I said, mulling the idea over.
"So... can I learn to do 'easy' Magecraft or am I stuck with what I'm ready doing?" I asked curiously.
"They're not mutually exclusive kid. Ones just easier than the other." Qrow said, his body relaxing under Amber's determined assault on his personal space. I brightened at that.
"Too bad I don't know what my semblance is." I said, with just a hint of complaint in my voice. It's not like I was bitter about the shortcut or anything. Definitely not that.
"Well whats your Origin?" Qrow asked, his eyes now narrowed down to slits.
'Don't answer that.' Archer said sharply before I could get out the obligatory 'what the hell is an Origin and why are you saying it like it has a capital O'.
'Why?' I asked quizzically.
'Your origin informs everything you do. It's easily one of the biggest components in any given form of Magecraft. It dictates what your good at and what your bad at. It's not information you want your enemies to know.' Archer said sternly.
'I don't see how its such a big deal... and Qrow isn't an enemy.' I pointed out.
'Jaune. We don't actually fully trust Ozpin remember? And that's all Qrow is. An extension of Ozpin.' The servant of the bow chided me.
I frowned for a second then carefully said;
"I'm not sure I'm comfortable telling you that." I tried to keep my tone of voice polite and apologetic, but even still I could see the tiny bit of hurt in Qrow's eyes at the answer. Which was weird. Did he just expect kids to trust him for some reason? Him, the rude drunk with a psychopathic superweapon hanging off him?
"Well." He said, coughing awkwardly to clear the sudden silence between us.
"Your semblance is an expression of your soul. So usually it's easier to figure out if you know your Origin - which is basically just a description of your soul." He pointed out.
I blinked once. Then twice. Then allowed my face to fall into my hands, a long groan escaping my lips and filling the silence between us. Qrow laughed for the first time since I had met him, and even Amber chuckled a bit at me. Of course they were laughing at me because they thought I had never made that connection. The truth was this was the first time I was hearing about whatever an Origin was, and that was why I was suddenly so frustrated.
'Archer, why the hell is this the first I'm hearing about something that supposedly 'informs everything I do'?' I asked, making sure every ounce of the irritation I was presently feeling made it's way down the link to the white haired jerk.
'Well you see Jaune there's a very good explanation for that.' He said soothingly.
'That being?' I groused.
'I forgot.' He chirped in an entirely too happy tone of voice.
'You... forgot.' I said incredulously.
'Yep. Completely slipped my mind. Usually when I'm summoned it's by a competent Magus. I'm not a good teacher.' He said with the mental equivalent of a shrug.
'You think!?' I practically screamed at him before giving up and changing topics.
'Look just... how do I figure out what my Origin is?' I sent, lifting my head and grabbing the stick I was using to poke the fire, then thrusting violently at the burning embers in front of me.
'Tell you later. It's not a good idea to do it anywhere near Qrow and that Thing.' Archer said, a note of worry entering his voice. This wasn't the first time he'd been dismissive of Amber. From pretty much the minute we had encountered her Archer had described her as either 'that thing' or 'that bitch'. I had no idea why, but I could only assume he had a good reason for it.
'Fine. Also, and just for the record? You suck.' I said grumpily.
'That'll do Jaune. That'll do.' He shot back, and I got the distinct impression he had just insulted me, but couldn't for the life of my figure out how.
With a sigh and the mental image of Archer tallying a point on his side of the board, I shuffled over toward a nearby tree, carved a rudimentary warding scheme into it, and settled down to go to sleep. This was going to be a really long trip.
-ooo-
I'm baaaaaaack. So, as many of you will have noticed, I've been out of contact for about a month. The reason for this is that I've been training for the promotion I was given (I mentioned this a few chapters ago I think).
I had assumed at the time that the promotion was confirmed that this would provide me with less free time to write. And with regards to the training I had to undergo, that was true. However today was my first actual day doing my new job, and as it turns out, there was so little to do that I managed to finish most of this chapter while sitting at my new desk.
Crazy how things turn out.
So yeah, this chapter is kind of just a lot of talking and not a lot specifically happening, and I hope most of you are okay with that. Qrow might come across as a bit less 'fun' than he would in canon, but that's largely because Amber's presence is throwing him off and leaving him perpetually grouchy.
In other news, I'm considering trying to get a tvtropes page running for this, if only for my own entertainment. Lord knows I'd be interested in seeing what tropes other people think apply to this story that I never wrote in intentionally.
Anywho. That's all. Back to the usual once a week shtick. And as always,
Thanks for reading.