Mistress. They-
I know. I know.
Mis-
HOW DID THEY SLIP RIGHT BETWEEN YOUR FINGERS? GET OUT!
Mistress?
Hazel. There's be a change of plans. Make your way to the next relic immediately. Do not give me a excuse as petty and inconsquential as Tyrian's.
Yes, Mistress. Right away, Mistress.
Have you found it?
I have not.
Why not?
I have yet to find it. You said to come back and report.
FIND. IT. NOW!
...Leonardo. Why are you sweating? I have not said anything towards you...oh dear. Someone please take him to his quarters. Who are you?
I come asking for power in exchange for the pursuit and destruction of a old friend.
Did you bring that...open it Cinder.
He...has excellent taste.
I can see that. Granted. See that he is indoctrinated immediately.
Kuo Kuana was as they left it, the sun threatening to hurtle out of the sky, the grasses burnt in its rays, the news split between the yearly wildfire updates and the new oasis in the west. Not that it mattered, as the fire wasn't lit for days, and the water was drunk fresh out of the bottles, and no one dared speak of the horror of drowning.
He held vigil over her, her crimson and grey hair let loose after the girls washed and dried her, as she had passed out as soon as they crawled their way out of the labyrinth, the strain of sun and water hard on her and Qrow.
"Blue." He turned, his neck complaining the whole time. Ren stood in the door holding a couple fried and sliced pot roasts on a platter, the middle still pink. "You have to eat." He opened his mouth and the sentence died. "I get it. She's your world. And you're hers. You have to take care of yourself. Go sit with the others, I'll watch."
"Thanks, Ren." He took the still warm plate and left the bedroom, Winter getting pushed out of her watch by Ruby.
"I see we're overdoing it." The blue eyed woman held her own plate of food. "Let's go..." They pressed through the halls, the sound of dishes being washed and dried, sitting at the table to watch Yang play Ninja Quest VII on the rented television, Ironwood busy getting the sand out of Oz' prosthesis, the owl busy dozing in a sunny patch, the cat in another.
"We pushed ourselves." Winter flipped the cassava in somersaults, none of them being eaten. "It's my fault, I should have said some-" A piece of bread hit her in the eye, Weiss holding the rest of the bag. Jaune finished his third glass of water.
"If you don't stop with that! We're all exhausted from traveling for six months straight! If it wasn't them it would have been...me! Or Oscar or Ren..." She stuck a roll into her mouth, flopping back onto the couch, fresh hems being sown to fresh black linen, Pyrrha's patterns nearly torn from being folded so much.
"We can't keep going." Taiyang took the controller from Yang after she lost for the fourth time, getting through the boss match in one. "We stop now or we'll die trying. Again."
"We don't have a objective until they wake up or Sugar Daddy gives us one." Blake flipped over. "Try to get some sleep."
"Any more sleep and I'm in a coma." Oscar came from the kitchen, Ruby on his shoulders. "...sorry Jaune, Winter."
"It's fine." Winter finally ate the roots after their edges were broken off and the centers had more stab wounds than Caesar, four glasses of water at her wrist.
"I don't remember you being a pushover, Winter." Ironwood got up to sit at the table with them, still holding the metal appendage, ignoring the 'Hi Irondad.' "What's gotten into you? And you, Jaune, you weren't a doormat."
"We've got to be there for them." Jaune took the plate of steak that Yang pressed into his hands, the gristle suspiciously missing. And by missing, it was in Yang's mouth, most of her teeth finished coming in.
"And so does everyone else in here, you can't sit here and walk on water one minute and then turn into bricks the second." A whirl of roses settled on his shoulders. "Ruby, I thought you were watching Qrow."
"I got hungry, sue me. And he wakes up for a few minutes at a time now." She swirled back into the kitchen for another bag of cookies. "And I wanted to make sure the fridge was stocked with nasty protein bars and shakes. Thanks Oz!" Oz threw a pillow at her. "I love you too."
Qrow, without a word, walked into the living room, hair white as the pajamas they stuck him in. He squawked as arms crushed him into a hug, sat him at the table and cracked open food and drink.
Nora came tripping down the stairs, still smelling of incense, just to squeeze the old crow to death."...I'm sorry for shocking you."
"Sorry for what?" He leaned back, letting Raven yank the hair out of his face and into a tie. "I'm more concerned with whether it's repeatable."
"I just did it, like Ruby can burst into petals, or Ren can dampen emotions."
"Seems our Semblances have a active and passive application." Glynda threw her little purple book into the hearth, Taiyang igniting it. "We'll have to start over. I don't know what Ozma has done to us, but Tai's hair is gold again. Ironwood looks not a day over thirty. Something is wrong with us." Glynda held her face in her hands, the crow's feet now smooth and taut skin. "Something is wrong."
"I should be dead, four times over now." Qrow passed up the fifth shake. "I'm sorry you have to suffer, Snowball."
"I signed up for this." Winter reached for his hand, now mostly bone and skin. "I'm not leaving."
"I didn't sign up for this." Jaune finished the fifth glass. "This sneaking around, the lying and the half truths. All the shadows and the visions. Where are we going? What are we doing?"
'Determine for yourself your own fate, and you will be able to answer that question.'
His eyes snapped open, Winter staring at him with a strangeness in her eyes. 'Am I high? Or crazy?'
The labyrinth sat just inside his mind's eye, a pale hand reaching for his. Portraits, pictures, visions floated by on the tide. She let go. He breathed once again.
Blake slid the old crow a bowl of granola. "...good to see you." His girlfriend took a sample as the cat turned around. Nothing happened. At least, within the first few minutes.
"We're not acting on anything until you're ready, Qrow." Ironwood handed Oz back his leg.
"It's best that we keep moving." Ren flipped through newspapers, arguments between Mistral and Atlas on the front pages. "We have a reputation now, and we cannot afford to get nailed down doing things for people who don't matter. As soon as you two are ready, we're leaving." Qrow finally picked at the granola.
Raven ate hers, fried in the sun. She caught Yang, at the edge of things, looking across the way at Adam asleep on a couch. She put down the pan, watching Qrow go to steal it and drop it on the floor as she pulled Yang aside to talk.
"...what do you need, Mom?"
"...I-"
"You've apologized already. You've...made up with Dad. Yet you're skulking around me. Just talk."
"Recently, I've learned that talking is not my strongest suit." Lilac eyes refocused on her mother's face, the age lines now missing, her hair growing in blacker than black. "...I'm not a good person in the slightest. I've watched better men than me die in the Gorge. I had to be bribed to be here, after nothing was left and there was no one else. But you...you're stronger than me already and you-"
"...Mom, just talk." She hugged her daughter. "Is that you wanted?"
"The last time I hugged you was in your sleep as I left. And after..." She blinked away tears, staring at the back door as Blake slipped out. "Forgive your foolish mother for having a hard time watching her baby drown." She hugged her mother back.
"It was hard watching you drown, too."
She rose at dawn to the sun in her eyes, glinting off the pistol that she threw out of the window at three in the morning.
It was slow going to sit up, and even slower going to put her spine back into place. Adam had dozed off in a chair at her sides. "...hello fellow murder kid. You sleep like a rock." He didn't budge. She booped him in the arm. The uncovered eye opened, the sleeves pulled back down his arms.
"...you're awake. It's been two weeks since the desert. Jaune said something about you having a mild illness." He got up, hand flying to nurse the crick in his neck. "Oscar's probably up. I'll leave you to get sort-can you walk?" He offered his hands, she pressed into them, and step by step regained her balance, Aura still crackling like foil.
"Wait! I have a odd question."
"Preferably," He backpedaled, eyebrows raised. "you would simply ask the question, but go ahead."
"...do you," He came closer, her voice at a whisper. "ever feel like...you're just waiting for the end?"
"Everyday, I know that's not worth it. But, the curtain has to fall someday. It's a literally a godsend that I'm talking to you."
"Perhaps, we shouldn't push the lever?" He looked down at her, catching the shining metal in the sand.
"Pyrrha. Are you okay?" Tears ran down her face. "Do you-"
"Jaune is too happy for me, sometimes. You get it."
"I do." He adjusted the scarf, plain black after all. "If you don't." He raised a fist.
"Then I won't." She met it with hers.
"Pyr." She looked him in the eye. "Back then, thank you."
"What are you talking about?"
"You picked me up." She leant back, eyebrows hitting the ceiling. "Thank you."
"It's the simple things with your dramatic ass, isn't it?"
"I'm not dramatic."
She cracked up laughed, grabbing clothes. "And my hair is GREEN." She left, running the shower too hot, parking herself on the couch to finish drying. The rest of the house bustled, breakfast finished, pots placed away. Weiss distributing new black gauze.
"Are you okay?" Oz sat with her. "You don't seem well."
"I...um. Had a bad night-" Honey met emerald. "Right, you're a lie detector."
"You don't have to tell me the contents. You do need to tell me what I can do to help you. 'Nothing' is not a answer, when I know that look in your eyes."
"...is it that obvious?" He offered his hand. She took it. "I'm sorry."
"Do not be sorry for your past. Do not let it ruin your future." A plate of food sailed from cotton candy painted nails to his. "Eat. Please."
She did. It tasted like ash. Nora sat at her side, Jaune the other. Ruby, Yang, and Weiss followed, Blake curled into a chair after taking her empty plate away. The rest showed up, the waves the only music, the news the only other voice.
"When I said I did not like fucking with divine providence, this is exactly what I meant." Ironwood let Glynda do whatever to his hair, the beard now pure black. "Somebody is going to end up paying for it."
"I want this over with as soon as possible." Taiyang and his daughter were mirror images in the sun. "...This is killing us."
They got dressed while the news continued on about war between Atlas and Mistral, the refugee crisis still in full swing.
The door knocked. "Lord Belladonna requests a audience. Imme-" Ghira burst in anyway, Kali behind him, Sun and Ilia right after. Another entered through the back, a petite tiger striped woman with short hair and a bindi, age lines just kissing her face, a black and red jacket on her shoulders.
"BLAKE!" He roared, grabbing her without needing to look through hoods. "HOW DARE YOU!"
"I don't know what you're talking about! Can you accuse me of something before you blame me!"
"Tell me the truth!" He dropped her, hands shaking, claws digging into his palms. Kali's foot bludgeoning a divot into the floor. "Tell me the truth once and for all!"
"Actually, no." Jaune pulled off the gloves, showing his claws, standing in front of the screen door, the ocean at his back. "Allow me, sir, as she'll waste your time manipulating the truth to serve her own ends; kindly tell me, what would you like to know?"
The tide outside of the house rose.
"Were you at Beacon?" Kali snarled. "Were you at Akros? Sienna, he's here."
"I know, I smell roses." The tiger striped woman searched the hoods, squinting at the smaller rose for a bit. "Too tiny." She sauntered through the crowd, looking through gauze for someone. "Please..." Tears ran down her face. "Adam?" He waved, standing against the wall. She pounced into his arms, trying not to cry. "Why didn't you text me? Why didn't you call? I worried day and night about you."
"I was blind. I couldn't serve if I wanted to." He hugged her back. "I'm sorry." Yang offered a wave. "Thank her." Sienna did.
The tide kissed the foundation. Winter watched it ebb and flow, sorrow wetting her eyes. Raven reached for the surface as it came in, adding one of her feathers as it receded.
"I have had enough." Jaune folded his arms. "Forgive me, sir, I will be telling you the truth. At Beacon, a faction of murderers came in to attempt to exploit the student body at a sanctioned dance." He pulled up the headlines, all but Blake's half-assed appearance blurred out. "The next day, Beacon fell. Your daughter was not there."
Kali turned to look at Blake who was too consumed with tears to talk. "YOU SAID OTHERWISE. Continue, son."
"She was in the city, with her." He waved at Ilia. "Smokes?"
"She abandoned me, her partner." Yang huffed.
"She put a bounty on Adam's and her partner's head." Weiss spoke up.
"With Black Claw's money." The tiger woman spoke up.
"She left me to die in a Dust Heist." Adam sighed.
Sienna looked up at him. "You didn't say that!"
"You wouldn't have believed me."
"I would have, had you told me." Ghira checked his claws.
"Nearly got Adam and her former partner killed in combat." Ruby finished her flask.
"Nearly three years ago, she got me and Flicks stabbed because she couldn't be asked to defend herself from a hit." Qrow finished his, meeting Raven for a toast, watching the feather leave on the surf.
The tide washed in and out of the edge of the house, the hearth undisturbed. Kali watched the sea recede.
"Your daughter is a consummate liar." The water at Jaune's feet shimmered. "And I refuse to let you believe otherwise."
Ghira looked at his little hellion. "I knew that I was not a perfect father. We never held anything against you, and I never feared you would fail. The only thing I ever feared was that you would fall down the wrong path, and I am... I stand here today corrected. The road to destruction is often paved with good intentions. What did you intend to accomplish by lying left, right, and center? What did you hope to gain? Do you understand that I shouldn't trust anything that comes out of your mouth? That simply having you in the house may comprise our efforts?"
Sun came forward. "She lied to me as well." He held the gold necklace aloft before committing to the flames. Kali held her heart in horror. "I knew nothing. Now I know everything. Who do I thank?"
Jaune sat back down. "Call me Shine."
"Thanks." Sun turned to leave. "Ray of light you are." He did just that, Ilia right behind.
"I hope that, with these people, you'll own up to your mistakes." Kali pulled Ghira away. "I sincerely hope you do."