An Adventure in the Market

Qrow had generally gotten used to the hangovers at this point. At times, they started to blend together, and stopped hurting some. Of course, that didn't meant that when his scroll started ringing, the sound felt like a Goliath stomping on his head.

"The hell is it?" he groaned, rubbing his throbbing head as he answered.

"Qrow!" Leo said, "Good news! I managed to convince Bartley to meet with you." Aurelius Bartley was the Chancellor of Mistral, the one Qrow had been trying so hard to meet with.

"When?" Qrow said, as he sat up straight, immediately thinking about it.

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Why tomorrow?"

"Because it was the best I could get, that's why," Leo answered, "You know how it was to arrange that much." Despite himself, Qrow was disappointed; still couldn't happen today. He then huffed slightly, figuring it was better than nothing.

"Just get it done with," he said, as he hung up. Great, and now he was awake.

(outside the house)

Yang let out a cry as she punched forward, only for Shade to easily duck out of the way. Pyrrha quickly came up next with a kick, but the doctor docked that as well. Yang quickly came up and gave several quick punches when Shade easily blocked. Pyrrha then leapt at her teacher, only for her leg to get caught, and for her to get thrown away. Yang gave another punch, but Shade easily got it, and flicked his finger in her direction. Yang was suddnely made to lose her footing, causing her to fall on her ass.

"Why'd we agree to this?" Yang grumbled, as she rubbed it.

"Because I suggested it, and you agreed," Shade said.

"It's not like we can really so 'no' to a god," Yang said.

"You do remember choice was my gift to you, yes?" Shade said, arching an eyebrow. Yang started to get up, only for Pyrrha to come and help her up.

"Uh, thanks," Yang said.

"Yes, of course," Pyrrha said. There was a period of silence between the two, an awkward one.

"Doctor...," Pyrrha said, only to notice Shade was gone.

"I really hate it when he does that," Yang said. The silence returned between the partners.

"So, the arm is looking good," Pyrrha said eventually.

"Yeah," Yang said, flexing her arm, "Your leg too." Again, back to square one between the two, Yang and Pyrrha just stood in silence with each other, until something came to Pyrrha's mind.

"Yang," she said, softly, "I just wanted to say…."

"It's nothing," Yang said, as she rolled her shoulder, and turned to walk away. Pyrrha held up her hand to call her, but backed off, as she lowered her hand and stared at the ground.

(downtown)

With Yang and Pyrrha training, Ruby was hoping to be able to spend some more one on one time with Jaune. Unfortunately, he said he wanted to get some practice done today, and with Ren and Nora having their own quality time, and Weiss being…. Weiss, Ruby decided to go into town on her own. She would've gone flying, but wasn't in the mood, so instead, she just strolled down the streets of Mistral, occasionally.

"You seem to like weapons." The sound of the voice made Ruby yelp slightly, as she turned to see a girl about her age with light green hair in a dark green dress. She had a jade necklace, and her hair was tied into a bun.

"Hi!" the girl said, waving, "Sorry to scare you, my name's Lina."

"Uh, hi, my name's Ruby," Ruby said, flushing red with embarrassment.

"Nice to meet you," Lina said with a smile, as she looked around, "From the way you're looking around, I take it you're not from Mistral."

"No," Ruby admitted, rubbing the back of her head, "I'm actually from Patch."

"Patch?" Lina asked, cocking her head.

"An island in Vale territory," Ruby admitted.

"Oh? You're Valan?" Lina said, "Haven't met a lot of people from the Republic. I never get places like that, I mean isn't it so much harder there? Always having to choose different rulers and councilors? It's so much easier in Mistral, with all the…." She stopped as she seemed to notice Ruby staring at her.

"Sorry," Lina said, looking at her feet, "I'm… not used to talking like this."

"It's okay," Ruby said, with her own smile, "I've been there too." Lina returned the smile, before she glanced over Ruby's shoulder, and her eyes widened.

"Oh no," she muttered. Ruby followed her gaze, and saw a group of people in red worming their way through the crowd. There were five of them, all Faunus. Their heads were all shaved, and four out of them had scales, while the remaining one had bright red feathers. All of them were wearing red armor in varying styles, but it all made them look no less imposing. The one in the middle had brown scales, and was wearing the heaviest armor, including a big strip of metal around his jaws; there was one with green scales, with what looked like a metal fin on her back. The third had leathery scales between his arms and torso (like some lizards Ruby saw in a documentary once), and his helmet had a large crest atop it. There was a fourth one with leathery, red and yellow scales around his neck. The last one with red feathers atop her head, and was wearing the lightest armor, but on her feet were a series of of imposing blades like talons.

"There she is!" the one with brown scales, who seemed to be the leader, said. The five all started moving in their direction.

"You've gotta get me outta here!" Lina said, grabbing Ruby's shoulder, "They want to kidnap me!"

"Uh…"

"I said they're going to kidnap me!" Lina said, now shaking Ruby slightly, "So get me outta here!"

"Uh… this way!" Ruby said, pointing. She then lead her new friend down the street, hoping to lose them in the crowd. Unfortunately said crowd seemed to part for the five easier than walking through water.

"Someone stop them!" the woman with the fin said, pointing. However in the confusion, Ruby grabbed Lina's hand.

"Hold on!" she said. Before Lina could say anything, Ruby activated her Semblance, carrying Lina as they zipped away.

"Spirits, damn it!" the lead said, with a glare, "Not again."

"Girl's persistent, gotta give her that," the Faunus with feathers said, "Maybe we should let her have this."

"None of that, Carmine," the leader said, before turning to his team, "Come on, we've got a job to do.

(at the house)

Weiss thrust out with Myrtenaster, before spinning around, and letting out another thrust. She then thrust the rapier into the ground, summoning up her construct. The dragon spread its wings, and Weiss grinned.

"Wow." The sound broke Weiss' concentration, causing the dragon to fade away. Weiss was annoyed, yes, but didn't say anything as she saw it was Jaune carrying two water bottles.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said. Weiss took a breath.

"It's fine," she eventually said, "What is it?"

"Oh, I just thought you could use some water," Jaune said, offering Weiss one of the bottles, which she took.

"Thank you," she said politely. As she was sipping, she took a look at the blonde, who was drinking from his own. Weiss had to admit, he looked better than he did at Beacon; much less scrawny, and even looking a tad taller.

"Nora's been telling me that you proved yourself quite capable in the journey here," she said.

"Well," Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head, "Nora, Ruby, and Ren were doing most of the actual fighting. I'm just the strategy guy."

"Don't understate the importance of that," Weiss said, looking at him, "Some of the greatest leaders in Remnant's history were just 'strategy guys', as you so eloquently put it."

"Thanks," Jaune said, "Still not nearly as good as any of you, though." Weiss frowned at that, not entirely pleased to hear Jaune putting himself down like that. She'd heard enough put downs from her father to have a friend of her's start doing it to himself.

"Come," she said, gesturing, "Let's practice." Jaune seemed surprised by the suggestion, but figured he knew Weiss long enough to know better than second guess her, so he took out Crocea Mars, and took a battle stance. Weiss was moderately impressed by his stance.

"Look's a lot better, than it did before," she said, as she took her own.

"Darkness helped me a lot with it," he said. With that, Weiss thrust at him, which he managed to block with his shield. He then let out a slash, which Weiss evaded.

"I suppose it helps to have a god as your tutor," she said as she swung at him, which he managed to block.

"No kidding," Jaune said, as he parried a strike from Myrtenaster, "I don't know what I'd do without him." They continued dueling for a time, parrying slowly one after the other.

"I notice you aren't using your Semblance," Weiss noted.

"I… still haven't unlocked my Semblance," Jaune admitted. Weiss frowned at that slightly, before sighing.

"It's not all that bad, honestly," she said, "I only just recently started being able to create my constructs. And Nora told me you were the one who actually figured out how we could be able to transform." Jane nodded slightly at that, but didn't say anything more.

"You know, let's do this again sometime," Weiss said, "I could always use the practice too."

"Uh, sure," Jaune said, somewhat surprised to here her say that, "I do appreciate the help." Weiss only nodded at him, though as she left, she let herself smile.

(downtown)

"That was awesome!" Lina said, "You mean you can do that anytime?" She and Ruby had zipped further downtown, and were now hiding in an alley.

"Well, if I have an Aura left, yeah," Ruby answered, as she panted, "Do you have a Semblance?"

"Yeah," Lina answered, but didn't look to enthusiastic about it, "It's a hereditary Semblance, but I'm no good at it."

"Hereditary?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, it runs in my family," Lina added. Ruby was surprised to hear that; she knew Weiss' was hereditary, but she didn't think anyone else's was.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Lina said, before grabbing Ruby's hand, "Let's go!"

"Go where?"

"Anywhere!" Lina declared, as she pulled Ruby away into the market.

For what felt like a couple hours, they wandered aimlessly, as Lina insisted on stopping at every single one, and trying every article of food there was. Ruby had to wonder if this is what it felt like to hang out with herself.

"So, how are you liking Mistral?" Lina eventually asked. She and Ruby were sitting on a bench in a park, both with a cake of what was called "mochi", a local desert in Mistral, which Ruby had never tried.

"I guess it's pretty nice," Ruby said, as she took a bite of her cake, "It's a lot different from Vale."

"I wouldn't know, I guess, I've never been outside of the capital," Lina said, as she took a bite of her own, which she looked at strangely, "I've never had mochi like this."

"Do you not like it?" Ruby asked.

"No, no!" Lina said, "It's great! It's the best mochi I've ever had! It's just…" Her face pinched slightly, as she stared at it.

"Different," she finally said. Ruby looked at her for a time, as she took a bite of her own cake. It was certainly different, at least different from anything Ruby had ever eaten. But she thought it tasted good; she'd try it again if she got the chance. That was when she sensed something…

"There they are!" She looked up to see the five Faunus in red coming at them.

"We got to go!" Ruby said, grabbing Lina's hand to take her away. But somehow, she didn't seem as enthused this time, as she was dragged after Ruby. They ran back into the crowd, though she then noticed the feathered Faunus, and the one with the crested helmet running across the rooftops, and in her moment of distraction, the woman with the fin on her back dropped in front of her. She then held up her hands, which were covered gauntlets which massive blades came out of.

"Aw crap," Ruby said, as she drew Crescent Rose, and took a fighting stance; the remaining five surrounded her and Lina. She was outnumbered, as the five all drew their own weapons.

"Don't hurt her!" Lina said, holding per hands, "She was just trying to help me!"

"Lina, don't…" Then, to Ruby's shock, all five fell to one knee before Lina.

"Your Majesty," the lead one, the one with the metal jaw, said as he kept his head bowed, "We must insist that you return with us to the palace."

"Huh? Palace? Your Majesty?" Ruby said, somewhat dumbfounded by what she was hearing, before asking, "Wait, so you're not crazy kidnappers?" All five people looked at Ruby in surprise.

"What?" the lead one said, "I'm Rowan Hammond, Captain of the Mistrali Imperial Guard."

"Wha…," Ruby said. She then looked to Lina, who was staring at the ground, before she looked towards Ruby.

"My name's Lin Hanzhi," she said, "33rd Empress of the Empire of Mistral." Ruby could only stare, gaping as the people around them slowly knelt before their Empress. After a moment, Ruby curtseyed slightly, doing the only thing she thought right. Lin just looked at her sadly, before she followed her guard. Watching from the rooftop of a nearby building, was a cloaked figure with a metal faceplate, his gaze completely focused on Lin.

"Target identified," Talos muttered to himself

Note: Some of you may have seen that "twist" at the end coming, and I'd understand why. It is kind of a done concept.

I wanted to give Weiss a real scene with Jaune. I'll definitely be doing more, if only to give her a fair shot as well.

I'm going to say this here because it probably won't come up in the story. All the Imperial Guard are themed off dinosaurs, but since dinosaurs likely didn't exist in this world, I decided to cheat it a little by making them normal Faunus, but with non-Faunus traits that make them resemble dinosaurs. They're all also themed after Jurassic Park (the book, not the movie).

- Rowan Hammond: a T-Rex

- Cherry Malcolm: a Spinosaurus

- Cornell Sattler: a Pteranodon

- Roy Nedry: a Dilophosaurus

- Carmine Grant: a Velociraptor

Be sure to review.

Side note: I'm considering rethinking Jaune's dragon design. I've never been wholly happy with his current one; while I prefer the "being dragons" over the "beast dragons" (i.e. dragons that are intelligent vs animals), looking at the description of Jaune, it didn't seem to have that bestial majesty that the others did. I've been browsing some designs, and there are a few I'm partial to.