Chapter 42
The ticking of the tower clock was annoying in the silence. Robin gave it another five seconds before she let her eyes soften and let out a sigh, shoulders sagging with the breath as she slouched in her seat. "Are you going to say anything?"
Ozpin straightened up, "In all my years I've never come across such a semblance."
Robin arched one brow and folded her arms over chest. She'd spent the last thirty minutes explaining to Ozpin that her semblance was getting worse and what had happened on her team's latest mission. He'd listened silently throughout it all, his face a mask complete interest. "That's all you have to say?"
"I understand your concern, Robin, and it is worrying that your semblance seemed to transport you to another place." Ozpin stood up and grabbed his cane. Robin watched as he turned and stepped over to the large glass window behind his desk. "You want to retain some control over it before something worse happens, correct?"
"Yeah," she mumbled, "if you know a way."
He turned back to face her, "Not for certain but if you're willing to put in the time with myself I can perhaps try to assist you."
Robin raised her brows, "Like, what? Having special lessons with you?"
"Precisely that, although I cannot promise anything. If we try to schedule some time every week for you to come here and we'll do some work on learning to control your semblance."
"How exactly would we try that?"
"Meditation and concentration."
Robin looked unimpressed as she stared the Headmaster down before she sighed and said, "And the whole turning into a bird thing, how does that work?"
Ozpin let out another breath, "There's no exact science to magic, Robin. All that I can assume is that there may have been some residual magic that Qrow passed down to yourself."
Robin hummed, eyes narrowing ever so slightly, "So does that mean that Yang might turn into a bird too?"
"Only time will tell." He walked back over to his desk, cane in hand and levelled a look with her. "Just before you found yourself in that other place, what were you thinking?"
She blinked before she furrowed her brows with a shrug. "I don't know."
"Semblances have been known to be deeply linked to our emotions and thoughts, so much so that those who retain the greatest control of their emotions go on to become some of the strongest Huntsmen and Huntresses."
Robin glanced away in thought. Her and Yahto had been facing down numerous Grimm and he'd just fired off a few shots when there was something behind them. She'd turned and that was it… what was on her mind? Killing the Grimm, protecting the village, having Yahto's back, where were all of the Grimm coming... from… She snapped her head up to meet Ozpin's raised brows, "I wanted to know where the Grimm were coming from." Ozpin tilted his head to one side and Robin let out a breath, "Those black pools I saw..."
"The source of the Grimm."
She met his gaze and couldn't stop the wide eyed expression on her face. "But where-"
"We don't know. If we knew, we'd have solved the Grimm problem a long time ago."
Robin pursed her lips with a frown at Ozpin's words. That didn't make her feel any better, but it at least maybe, kind of answered the question about this new development with her semblance. So if all she had to do was think or feel hard about something… she shook her head at how stupid that sounded. Could it really be that simple? And even then, how did that help with the "foresight" part of her semblance? Even then… "What about the transforming into a bird thing? Will you help with that?"
"To the best of my abilities, yes."
She nodded her head. That would make things a lot easier, in everything. She could scout better, perform reconnaissance better, get closer to anybody, no wonder her Dad took the offer. "Fine. How often would we be having these lessons?"
Ozpin sat up straighter, hands clasped underneath his chin, "We'll aim for twice a week. How does every Wednesday and Friday sound?"
Robin shrugged, "I'm not busy."
"Good. Your first lesson starts tomorrow then."
She raised one brow and let out a sigh as she stood up. "Tomorrow, fine, whatever." Robin let out a breath and couldn't stop the small frown. "What about the Vytal tournament?"
Ozpin gave her a levelled gaze, "What about it?"
Robin stared at him before she shook her head, "Something bad is going to happen."
"If we cancel the Vytal tournament, all we'd do is cause panic."
"And if you don't cancel somebody is going to get hurt."
Ozpin stared her down with a blank expression before he sat back in his seat, "You've said it yourself, your semblance isn't concrete proof."
"No, but it acts up right before shit goes down. You've said it yourself, Salem's got people working for her who are probably already here or on their way. I'm seeing Grimm in the school grounds, Atlas robots decapitated everywhere. What part of keeping the tournament going makes sense?"
"And if we were to cancel the tournament due to 'concerns', we'd be creating the same panic we would be trying to avoid. Not only that but we'd be alerting our enemies that we're aware of their movements."
"So your idea is to risk lives for the sake of having the upper hand."
Ozpin kept his gaze levelled with her, "That is not what I said."
Robin narrowed her eyes, "It's what you implied."
"We've already looked through and considered all of our options. Your concerns are understood, but we believe this may be the best course of action at this time."
Robin stared him down for several silent seconds before she shook her head and turned away, waving a hand over her shoulder, "You know what, fine. Let me tell you I told you so."
"If you still wish to turn up tomorrow for our lesson, my door will be open."
She didn't bother acknowledging his comment, keeping her back to him as she entered the elevator and punched the button for the ground floor. Vytal would still be happening. The Grimm would still storm the grounds. Robots would still be torn apart. People will still get hurt. She let out a groan of frustration and slammed a fist against the wall, annoyed and pissed. She had probable cause, plenty of warning and a history of enough shit going wrong for her to be listened to and her words of caution taken seriously. Robin slammed her fist against the wall again before she let out a heavy sigh and let her hand fall to her side. Being angry wouldn't be good for anyone, being pissed off did nobody any favours and she forced herself to take deep breaths.
Meditation. Concentration. She scoffed internally and shook her head as the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open. She turned, let out another breath and made a hasty exit, hands stuffed into the pockets of her jeans. So Ozpin knew that something could happen, he knew that their enemy was close to being on the premises or right underneath their noses. He'd already discussed it with other people about their best options and had unanimously decided that keeping everything running as normal was the best course of action.
Robin scrubbed a hand over her face and made a sharp right, needing a walk away from anyone and everyone. Her gut was telling her that this decision was the worst but she didn't have the power to halt an entire event. All she could do was voice her opinion and her concerns and hope that it was enough, which clearly it wasn't. Robin groaned and took another right until she could walk the side of one of Beacon's buildings without being interrupted. She needed to think and with a huff she took several more steps before she stopped, let her back rest against the wall and slumped into a crouch. She let out a sigh, closed her eyes and hung her head. There was also the question of the information about her semblance and her new found ability to turn into a bird. That certainly wasn't helping her growing headache and she groaned again. What do I do? What do I tell everyone? How is meditation supposed to help?
What were you thinking?
Robin paused at that simple question. Did her thinking about somewhere or something really affect her ability to use her semblance? It had only been a fleeting thought about where all of those Grimm were coming from. Had that really been enough to move her? With a silent shake of her head she tipped her head back to let it rest against the cool stones of the building, let out a deep breath and did her best to clear her head, but where did she want to go? If she went back to her dorm room there would be a dozen questions from her friends about her conversation with Oz and she wasn't ready for any of them. There was no telling where her Dad was and if he was currently in bird form and flying through the sky, that would not end well for anybody. Ruby and Yang would have far too many questions and she knew she still had to tell them about what her actual semblance was. Which left… Tai. He was always great at having an objective viewpoint and talking sense into everyone, seeing everything from both sides. And she did miss Zwei. "Home," she whispered, feeling herself relax with the single word. Home. Patch. The constant hint of sea salt in the air, the flower beds Tai took care of all year round, sunflowers far outlasting the seasons, the vast expanse of greenery, trees and open plains. Her bedroom with walls painted a soft, pastel blue, her bed probably still unmade. The pot of cocoa that Tai always had on hand and her favourite chocolate that never ran out in the fridge. Home.
Slowly, Robin let out another breath and cracked her eyes open.
Beacon's grounds stared back at her and she sighed, disappointed. With a snort she pulled herself to her feet and turned back to the main grounds of the school. After three slow walked laps of the school's grounds she finally made her way back to her dorm room, hesitating a moment before she stepped inside and offered her team mates and friends a brief wave.
"Well?" Yahto asked.
Robin shrugged, "I'm going to be spending a few hours a week with him, see if we can make some sense out of my semblance and how it works."
"That's good," Malcolm said.
Tawney hummed as she sat up on her bed with a bounce, "How're you going to do that?"
Robin shook her head and threw herself onto her own bed, wrapping her arms around her pillow. "By thinking really carefully."
Tawney snorted, "Don't think too hard. Wouldn't want hurt what you've got left in there."
The small flicker of a smirk couldn't be helped and Robin lifted a hand to flip her friend off, "Bite me, Kitty."
"Tell me where," she purred.
"Do you two want us to give you the room?" Yahto asked.
Robin snorted and kicked her shoes off, "Please do not give her ideas."
A/N: Apologies about the delay but I hope you're still just as excited about the story. And yes, I enjoy making characters suffer emotional turmoils...
xenocanaan: Here's what Ozpin had to say! Of course there may be more with her personal lessons with him.
Diego Silver: Thank you! They're a great bunch of crazy kids who like to test each others limits.
KDBloomfield: ... We'll pretend that she didn't lose her weapon okay? Shhhhhh...
Sabert00thsa: Nothing wrong with conspiracies. As much as I love your "two places at one time" theory, that will not happen. (That would be a kinky AU chapter for Malcolm to explore though ;) ) Of course I like to keep my secrets, it makes watching you suffer that more enjoyable! 3
Xellos1: I never said she was travelling through time, just that she travelled to somewhere else... Robin is in for a rough time.
bjenk4: Only IF Robin can control any part of her developing semblance... IF. And the thing about Yang being able to turn into a bird... I guess we'll find out
