Chapter 39

Robin stared blankly at the front of Port's class. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, echoed a voice and her attention was focused on that; "This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident." And behind Port there was an Ursa, batting what looked like robots away with ease. She watched the Ursa turn, heard it roar, followed it run off through a wall that clearly wasn't there for it and tilted her head to peer down at the ruined robot on the ground. It looked military, Atlesian.

"Miss Branwen!"

"Huh?" she snapped her head up, clear confusion in her gaze as she met Port's disappointed frown.

"See me after class."

Robin rolled her eyes and settled her chin back into her hand, ignoring the poking of a tail into the back of her shoulders. She could feel the eyes shooting her worried glances and she did her best to ignore them. Since her and Malcolm had returned from Atlas and settled back into enjoying the rest of term break, her semblance had been playing up. More often then not she was caught staring off past people's shoulders, over their heads, turning her back on them to outright stare at nothing. The nightmares had been a constant for a while but they seemed to be spilling over more and more into the time that she was awake. Class ended and she took her detention from Port without a grumble, head ducked as she dragged herself out.

Robin was ambushed the moment she stepped into the hallway by Tawney pouncing on her back, arms wrapped tightly around her neck. "Speak!"

She stumbled with the added weight to her back as Tawney wrapped her legs around Robin's waist. "I don't know," she whispered, making sure that there wasn't any other students around. It was weird enough talking about her semblance and what she saw with her team mates and best friends. "I keep seeing Grimm in the halls, Atlesian robots being torn apart, I hear screams, this woman, I don't know."

"Maybe you should speak to Professor Ozpin." Robin turned, Tawney still on her back and tugging at her ears and raised her brows at Yahto's comment. He held his hands up with a shrug, "It's worrying and something to be concerned about right? You've never been this bad before."

"Yeah," Tawney echoed, stabbing a finger into her cheek. "How many detention's have you gotten now?"

Robin waved her hand away and tried to wriggle Tawney off of her. "Maybe you're right." Tawney finally slid down and Robin turned with a glare at the green haired girl who promptly beamed back at her.

"Maybe he can help you learn to control your semblance!" Tawney grinned. "Then you can stop being so crazy all the time."

"I learnt that from my peers," Robin quipped.

"Funny, I was sure you were crazy first."

Malcolm sighed, "You two are terrible." He hooked an arm around Robin's shoulders and steered them in the direction of the main hall to grab some food.

"Look," Robin said as she glanced to her team mates, "As soon as we've finished with our mission, as soon as we get back, I'll talk to him."

"Robin," Yahto started.

She waved him off, "I'm not going to get anywhere in a day and I'd rather try to relax before we leave."

Malcolm raised a brow. "You sure you want to wait? We're going to be gone for nearly a month."

Robin shrugged, "One day will not get me anywhere."

"Kick ass, alright?" Yang cheered as she punched Robin's arm.

Robin chuckled as she hooked an arm around Yang's shoulders and tugged her against her so that she could rub her knuckles against her head. "Stay out of trouble." She looked up towards a giggling Ruby, "You too."

Ruby shrugged her shoulders, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Uh huh," Robin said and she finally released a squirming Yang. She pointed towards her younger cousin, "I mean it! Be good."

"Get out of here already, Mom," Yang whined.

"Bring us back a souvenir!"

"We're going to the ass end of Sanus. What am I supposed to bring back?"

"I don't know," Ruby shrugged.

Robin rolled her eyes with a grin as she started to walk backwards towards her team mates. "I'll bring you back a rock."

"Bird brain!

Robin sighed and turned on her heels. She froze at the sight of Nevermore in front of her, raised a brow and took a step forward, walking straight through the image. With a small shake of her head she joined Tawney at the ramp to their airship and ignored the Faunus' questionable look. "Nevermore," she said.

"Again?"

"Shut up."

"Maybe you should marry a Nevermore, seeing as how you see it all the time."

"Maybe you should shut your face and kiss my ass, kitty."

Robin slashed through another Beowolf and settled her weapon over her shoulder with a small sigh. There'd been an increase in Grimm presence along the northern borders of Sanus to the point that a couple of the coastal villages had already been lost and many more had called in reinforcements of various Hunstmen and Huntresses. They weren't the only team out here and they were supposed to clear out all Grimm presence and stay until the villages had restored themselves to a suitable standard of living. She scoured the tree line that separated her from the coast and narrowed her eyes, willing more Grimm to show themselves.

Two Ursa barrelled through the trees and she swung her staff back down, both sickles unleashed and ready. She waited until one of them was a foot away before she stepped forward, swung up and twisted her weapon to slice through its neck. One sickle stabbed itself into the ground and she turned her attention to the second one, jumped back from a swinging claw, pressed a button to separate her weapon into two and swung the sickle to block the Ursa's next attack. It fell onto all fours, roared at her and started a charge and Robin side stepped to one side, weapon held out and let it use its own momentum to run into her weapon. She grinned, tightened her grip on her sickle and twisted it around to cut straight through its body. She gave it another couple of seconds before she trudged to the other half of her weapon and plucked it out of the ground.

"Lit-" Robin spun, one sickle raised and froze as she stared at nothing as that same, almost maniacal voice carried on, "-tle Bird, Little Bird!" She turned again, one brow raised with a sense of unease settling in her stomach. "Oh this, this is going to be so much fun." She was definitely alone and whoever that voice belonged to sent shivers down her spine. And by the sounds of it they were going to meet. "I can't wait to hear you scream." That same voice drifted into a series of maniacal, psychotic laughs that made Robin wince at the idea of how the brain of this person worked.

"Who are you?" she whispered to herself, eyes flicking over her shoulder, almost wishing she could see this rather than hear it. There was a roar and she turned back to see another four Beowolves charge at her and she sighed, turning both sickles over in her hands before she ran at them and took them down in a couple of quick swings.

"This is exhausting," Yahto complained as he took a seat with the rest of team Myrtle.

Tawney moaned in agreement, "This is crazy! I've never seen it this bad before."

"And it's only been one week," Yahto went on. Robin shook her head as she shovelled food into her mouth. They'd barely slept. Between fighting Grimm, rescuing stray villagers, eating and taking five minutes to just breathe, they barely had time to sleep. Even when they did manage to get their heads down it felt like ten minutes before they were being woken again to deal with a fresh wave of Grimm. They were doing their best to take it in shifts but somehow it didn't quite work.

Malcolm dropped into an empty space next to Robin and let his head fall onto her shoulder. "I need to sleep."

"We all need to sleep," Robin mumbled around a mouthful of food.

Tawney slid down in her seat until she could rest her knees on the floor, back arched painfully back onto her chair with a groan. "SLEEP!"

Robin and Yahto chuckled and Robin nudged a toe against her knee, making her fall the final distance to the floor. "Stop being dramatic."

Malcolm pulled himself up and grabbed a bowl to serve himself some food. "Who's good to go?"

Tawney whined, throwing an arm over her face. "If I must."

Robin finished her food and sat her bowl on Tawney's empty chair. "I'm good." She stretched her arms over her head with a yawn and settled her hands behind her head as she walked away. "Get your cat nap kitty, we all know how grumpy you get without at least three hours sleep."

Tawney raised a hand to flip her off, "Bite me, birdy!"

Robin chuckled, "Maybe later!" She hummed as she made her way back to the tree lines and back to her post. It was only an hour later when Yahto joined her with a wave and a comment that Tawney had taken up post somewhere else whilst Malcolm got a few hours sleep. "How long before she goes crazy?"

Yahto chuckled, "That girl is already crazy." They took care of a group of beowolves and Yahto grunted with a frown. "So, I'm not the only thinking that this is ridiculously insane right? I can understand a group of Grimm coming through here every now and then, but this? This feels like something different."

"Like they've gone crazy or something?"

"Exactly."

Robin hummed. It did feel unusual, especially with the knowledge that there were several villages along the coast being submitted to the same heavy, repeated attacks. Something was definitely off about all of this and she really hoped that this didn't have any links to the nightmares she'd been having, both asleep and awake. "Maybe it's just a weird thing that'll pass."

"It better be," Yahto said as he transformed his pickaxe into a shotgun and blasted the next beowolf that showed its face.

There was a loud caw and both parties lifted their head to see a Nevermore circle the trees above them, a series of Griffon's flying with it, before it let out another caw and dived to a different point. There was the sound of a few explosions going off and Robin and Yahto turned their attention to one another. "Tawney," they said in unison. There was two more explosions before silence descended and the Nevermore could be seen darting back up into the air. The Griffon's started in their direction and Yahto cursed as he fired off pot shots into the air, clipping a couple of them in the air. Robin sliced through them on their final descent, jumping across their backs to take out the next one as they tried to thin out the herd.

Their scrolls burst into life and Tawney's voice was muffled by the sound of whipping air, "Erm- I have a nice- ow- nice view from- damn it- from up here."

Robin tumbled back to the floor and snatched up her own scroll, "We'll get you." She stared up at the sky and narrowed her eyes at the Nevermore that seemed to head towards the coast. "Yahto-"

He fired off another shot, turned to look at her and grinned. "You two are as insane as each other." He opened the ammunition slot, popped out the bullets that were in there and refilled the chambers with two bullets from his pocket. "You sure about this?"

"Not really," she said.

"This'll hurt."

"I've had worse. Think you can reach it?"

"I'm insulted." He let out a breath and fell to one knee as he cocked his shotgun, loading the rounds. They were two high explosive bullets that he only tried to use only in emergencies. The recoil on them alone had him wincing and the fire power from them was incredibly devastating. Combined with his semblance that let him amplify and concentrate the fire power in his shots and it was one deadly shot. They'd only done this twice before and Robin sliced through another Griffon and took a few steps away from him. Yahto nodded his head, propped the butt of his gun against his shoulder and pointed the barrel directly towards the Nevermore. He pressed a button and the barrel's expanded. Robin nodded, took another step back before she ran directly at him, jumped and turned so that her back was to him. She landed on the barrrel's, gritted her teeth and braced herself as Yahto fired off the shots.

She felt the power jolt through her and rattle every bone and muscle in her body as her aura crackled in a flash of red and faded. She held her sickle out by her side, slicing through any Griffon that tried to approach her as she was shot through the air. The Nevermore was still climbing and she gritted her teeth as she felt a Griffon get lucky and slice across her arm as it passed her. "Come on," she hissed, eyes focused on the Nevermore's clawed feet. She could see Tawney's green hair and white clothing against it's feathers and could start to make out her face. "Little, more," she whispered and she felt the power of Yahto's shot start to fade. "No, no, no," she grunted. There were no Griffon up here to jump off, nothing but her, the open air, the Nevermore and Tawney clutched tightly in its feet.

"Robin! Are you crazy!" Tawney yelled down at her.

Robin grinned for the briefest of moments before her face fell. His shot hadn't reached her, her pace was slowing down far too much, she was going to fall, she couldn't reach Tawney. "No," she cried as she felt herself start to drop out of the air. "Tawney!"

The Nevermore seemed to take notice of her then and Tawney cried out as it tightened its hold on her. "Robin!"

The Nevermore turned in the air, beak wide as it yelled at her before it dived straight for her, beak still wide. "Crap," she whispered, her body tumbling back so that her feet faced the Nevermore and she swung her sickle up in front of her. "Crap, crap, crap." There was another cry from Tawney and Robin's eyes widened. Dodge, dodge, dodge, I need... to... dodge! The Nevermore was almost on her and Robin gritted her teeth. Move... move…move… Move!... MOVE! And in a moment she felt her body bank right and shoot up, a flurry of brown feathers surrounding her.

A/N: I never said anyone on team Myrtle were sane... anyway it's the next chapter! With a few hidden secrets ;) (Can you spot them?) I hope you enjoyed and I forget how much I love writing this series.

Diego Silver: It's always the calm before the storm. Always.

xenocanaan: True, nosy people are her mortal enemy who will always be in her life.

Sabert00thsa: That is exactly how I pictured Harken's weapons too. And did you get my message about the comment on her past? Did you find it? And there has to be a chapter where Robin fights both Harken and Merel. Maybe at the same time, maybe not. Who knows? When Qrow makes his entrance with Winter... That I cannot wait for... trust me... it's going to be fun.

Dragon lord Syed 101: Thank you! And when I watched Robyn being introduced in volume 7 I had one of this, "Robin, Robyn. Robyn, Robin" moments. Again, fun to be had.

Kat: Happy new year! And thank you!