I may have written a section to Erlkonig. Oops. Don't look that up if you're going to sleep soon.
New Vale was ringed in Dust, the southern edge thick with a military presence, as the ruins of Beacon laid only a fortnight's travel from the city, the spire crumbling without maintenance, a grim reminder of all that passed.
The skyscrapers mixed with exposed wood and plaster decor, the roads were paved in cobblestone, the streetlamps were wrought iron, anything to preserve the air of the old city. The people still bore the scars of ten months ago, Human and Fauni still calling truce against the greater threat, still helping each other as neighbors.
Life slowed to a crawl, the black linen now thin against the darkening sky as they pressed into a lodge, a manor at the outskirts of the city, thick with displaced Hunters and rabble-rousers alike.
"Council's in three days." Ruby sat right on the carpet. "What we are doing? We tried pulling big damned heroes last time and we ran into the villains. This is hopeless."
"Kiddo," Qrow finished a bottle, stuck in a windowsill, Raven in the opposite one, asleep in the sun. "You're a villain in somebody else's story. Right now, if we want to be taken seriously, we'll have to look serious." He picked at his battle beaten dress pants. "And right now, we look like trash."
Weiss dragged in the takeout with Blake. "You sti- No, that got blown up or destroyed. Someone come up with a script in case we need to monologue."
Raven looked at Adam, her eyes restored.
"...I was Sienna's speechwriter, not seventeen people's speechwriter." Oz threw a pad and pen at him, the bull already sitting at the table. "I'M NOT THAT GOOD. Why do you people think I'm some sort of jack of all trades?"
"Adam, stop being dramatic-"
"I'm not being dramatic, I am stating the obvious-"
"-and write the fucking speech." Oz finished his mead with his meds. "Weiss, go sweet talk Grandpa into giving us nice clothes instead these combat fatigues."
Yang swallowed her jerky wrong, trying to laugh and eat at the same time.
"Sweet talk? EXCUSE ME! I am a wo-"
"OH GODS!" Glynda yelled from the kitchen, hands tied up in takeout. "JUST DO IT, PRINCESS!" Weiss grumbled up the hall.
"What did we do to get stuck with two opera stars?" Taiyang was stretched out on the floor, Ironwood on the couch besides him. "Jimmy?" The heavier one grumbled. "Your back's out again?"
"The fun part about a exoskeleton is that it can take extraordinary amounts of damage. The not so fun part is that you can't."
"Muscle spasms?"
"In spades." Taiyang popped up, offering heated hands. James grumbled, letting the blond relax the overworked shoulder. "...thank you." Tattoos peeked from under the collar of the slate grey shirt.
"What're those?" He let him go.
"Memoirs of a different life." James fixed his shirt, Glynda rolled her eyes. Tai ran off to stick his head in the freezer. Raven raised a eyebrow.
"A FUCKING MIRACLE." Nora rolled down the stairs, side cut freshly buzzed off and soaking wet, love bites hot purple. "WE'VE GOT SOME HELP!"
"...what do you mean?" Jaune refitted Crocea's edging himself. "What's going on?" Ruby woke up, Blake spun to look from on top of the series of bookcases.
Nora projected the news from her Scroll: "Calls for the Brotherhood Swarm the Streets." The noise was audible as she pried open the windows. The sound of gunshots ducked her head. "UH...I think that we should have been a bit more scrupulous."
"Excellent." Ren came down the incline, hair stuck in a double wide towel, stopping to let Pyrrha hop the railing for her frozen Moussaka. "This is why it mattered that we be recognizable, as for the gunshots..."
"Are we staying in here?" Ruby piped up. "...should, should we?"
"We don't know where our adversaries are. It's better if we keep a low-" Scuffling and a argument outside the door. Footsteps. Another gunshot. Ren turned everyone air thin. It never opened.
'Can't catch a break, can we?' Pyrrha pulled the spoon out of her mouth, calling Akouo from its spot against the wall.
A wet thud hit the outside of the panel, blood seeping through the slit at the base of the door, erratic desperate mewing rattling through the crack...
Jaune looked up at Blake, she slid down from the bookshelves. The door fell open under the weight of a tiger striped woman with a bindi, a black and red coat torn to shreds underneath her, soaking up blood, a purplish slash oozing poison.
The bags went flying off the spare couch as she was dragged onto it, Jaune and Glynda working double time to stabilize her, entire rolls of paper towels pressed on the pavers outside to hide the mess, stuffed into the trash one by one. Oscar tore through bags for gauze, unearthing the packed rolls, several black glyphs spinning on the door to hold it sealed.
The tigress' eyes fluttered open, Jaune and Glynda exhausted in their chairs. "W-who?"
"You're amongst friends." Qrow spoke. "Stripes, what happened."
"Tyrian...gotta find Rose...he's coming... " She fell into unconsciousness.
Adam rolled up his sleeves to wrap the soft and unstable scars in gauze, sparing the thin duster he had on underneath the cloak for a blanket.
"How many times did I kill him?" Pyrrha sharpened Psallo's blades, eyes turning flatter with each swipe.
"Not enough..." Adam's eyes flashed umber, remaining by Sienna's side, thorns crawling down his arms. "Not nearly enough."
"Well, that's a threat! What if the pool of blood leads here!" Nora screeched, looking out of the window. "We've got-"
"I've got to." Adam thumbed through his Scroll, a siren blaring from the speakers. "Sienna's been assassinated. Excuse me while I go-"
"Not without me." Yang wrangled bladed knuckles and a meteor hammer from the stash.
"You're not Black Claw." Tai frowned, Adam catching the nodachi and dust bullets she threw at him.
"I'm choosing to go with him. It's as simple as that." She pulled the top half of her hair into a bun, tying the mass out of the way with the yellow kerchief. "And if it means I'm joining Black Claw, then that's a self-fulfilling prophecy." Blake stared her down.
"I need my coat." Adam threw the cloak off. "It'-" And there it was, golden petals sticking to it, the medals clipped on. "Hmm, thanks Grandfather. Oscar?" He turned. "Seeds." He threw a packet.
"You don't have to go with him!" Blake's hackles raised, sliding off the bookshelf. "Why ar-"
"I don't answer to you, Blake." She followed him out of the door. "I answer to myself and my gods."
"Why aren't you going, Uncle?" Oscar swallowing his sixth apple. "You're Black Claw."
"Because I'm dead." Qrow finished his food and went for his over-sized bag of granola. "And she's my 'disgraced' sister, before you ask."
Blake skittered back on the bookshelves, arm over her eyes. The house resettled.
'Now that's the Yang that I remember.' Jaune sat a sunlit armchair, everyone else trying to make sense of food and medicine.
'Yet, no matter how far we get, it's not far enough from Beacon. The web doesn't contract, it just thickens. And at the core, Salem remains. Why? Who is she? Who are the Gods? What will become of us? How? When does this end?' A glass of wine and a plate of heaped blood sausage slid onto the arm of the chair. A couple of big ol' boxes dropped in the center of the floor. 'BOX!'
Weiss came back to empty one of them, a awkward blush on her face flipping to frown at the contents of the box.
'Think I'll get laughed at if I-' Blake hopped in without a second thought, purring loud enough to shake the cardboard. 'Well.' Nobody said anything.
Except Pyrrha. "We need to talk."
"I'm not getting in there, I promise."
"What's with you? You're silent." He turned to Pyrrha, she was leaning against the wall, the necklace catching the light, her rings and the oil on her salad completing for second place. "...is it her? Does she keep you up at night? If you need her, then I am completely out of her league and I understand, go ahead, don't tell me about it."
"No. I'm overthinking." He picked up the fork and ate without tasting. "I'm sorry, I've been trying to put two and two together for the longest time."
"What kind of two and two?"
"Where does this begin? Where does this end?" Pyrrha said nothing as his eyes flashed blue.
"Winter would have to help you?" He frowned. "Qrow's my other half. You have her from a reason. I think she's done eating."
"What do you see?"
"The future tense. Qrow sees the past tense." She stuffed more leaves into her mouth.
"...and together?"
"All present."
"That's incredibly creepy and I apologize for the impossible burden that mus-" She booped his cheek, finger running into stubble. "What?"
"You were here for me. Let me be here for you." She took the empty plates and stepped away.
"Thank you, Pyr." He turned to the rest of the house, indeed Winter was done, watching the news. Weiss was inspecting the outfits that Cosmic Sugar Daddy gave them, pulling them out of the box, Pyrrha arriving with freshly washed hands to assist, his folded at her side. Nora and Ren were sipping tea while the pink streaks in his hair finished processing. Raven was in the other windowsill, Taiyang nearby, Glynda sitting where Ravens' legs should have been, reading a prayer book. Oz was on the table for some reason, falling asleep, Ironwood sitting on one side with Ruby, Blake and Oscar, who was waving at him hard enough to catch flight. He waved back.
'When this is over, will we be together?'
Winter stood in front of him, her eyes two toned, darker on the inside than the edge. "It's sudden, I know. But-"
"I know. Do you want to do this privately?"
"...I would prefer it." Qrow laid a hand on her shoulder, on his way to bother Raven for his granola, clearly labeled Feather's. "Let's go. Your eyes are creepy now. Like a well."
"I don't look at myself in a mirror all that often." He walked away with Winter, flipping a coin over whose room, it ended up Winter's. Their necklaces were the only personal effects left on the desk, now a simple iron and platinum chain from each, the whole things kept with Ozma. 'I wonder how Zwei is doing.'
"Before, it was like we fell in." She pulled her braid into a fat bun. "...let's see if it's that simple." She held out her hands. He offered his, careful of his claws on her.
"This is uncharted territory. I'm not sure how this-"
The mists rose out of the corners of his eyes. She nodded, closing hers. His vision hazed over as he shut his eyes.
-.-.-.-. * -.-.-.-.
Winter tapped his shoulder, the two of them standing in the center of a cavern, sparkling waters running over their feet, a waterfall thundering down the only visible wall.
"This is the rest of it?" He asked. "The section behind Ariadne?"
"We're somewhere else. At least, our consciousnesses are. I'm not going to attempt to parse that out and neither should you."
"Agreed, what do we need to see?" Photos whirled by. "Show me...the next twenty four hours."
Nothing happened.
"How do we get to the path that we need to walk?" She looked into the darkness on either side
Nothing happened.
"...Show us what we need to see?" Jaune called into the void.
The photos halted. A temple in ruins. Four swords. Blood in a circle. The closing of a door. The opening of a new one.
"...That's useless." She huffed. "Why is it so blurry?"
"Because it's too far. Qrow and Pyrrha have the immediate present. We see..."
"The long term." She pressed her lips together. "Where the river meets the ocean."
"If we turn around? When the rain returns to the river?"
They turned.
Two dragons leered at them. One dark and one bright. "How adorable. They've finally begun to catch a hint."
-.-.-.-. * -.-.-.-.
He woke up screaming and so did she. A cold sweat soaked through his shirt, red hair tangling in his hands as he tried to scramble up and way from whatever beasts were coming.
"JAUNE!" He ended up falling back on the floor, not that he got a inch farther from where he fell. "Jaune?!" He let tanned and scarred hands pick him up, rest him back on plush thighs, as the rest of the living room came into view.
"...where are we? The living room."
"YOU HIT THE FLOOR!" Irondad yelled from over his head. "What were you doing?"
"...the future..." Winter raised a wobbly hand, he looked over to find her in Qrow's arms. "is fine...that's good. The past has dragons."
"Excuse me?" Glynda fixed her glasses. "Can you speak more clearly?"
"We turned to look at the past...there were two dragons. One bright. One dark." He swallowed though there was nothing. Footsteps ran and ice clattered. "It was...them and nothing else. Standing guard against us."
"What does that mean?" Oz rustled papers. "What are you talki..." His voice eroded and his eyelids turned into lead, sliding close, slamming shut.
"Bring them to their knees."
"Without hesitation."
The front door got kicked open, death followed, a meteor hammer crushing in the soldiers in orange and black. Grimm snapped and howled, a single kick sending a Deathstalker into a heap.
"A-adam?" A girl in blue and white croaked, holding a gash on her side. "Praise the gods...you're not dead."
"Well then, we've got work to do." He sauntered in, taking out Grimm and Men alike with singular shots, red Aura piercing defenses. Yang swept around his warpath, the hammer rattling as it fell, the sphere glowing white hot with her burning hands, cracking skulls and sending teeth flying. He pulled out survivors from the wreck of conference rooms, saved who could and closed eyes of those he couldn't, afterimages catching bullets meant for him, the red halo reaching down the rope of hair.
The throne room awaited, Clementine's forces busy executing the Faunus left and right, the chair itself destroyed, peachy banners hanging where blue and white used to, seven mundane cartridges later, most were dead or dying. Except.
"Archie." The blue haired man turned at his name. "You are so de-" Adam took the punch to the chest, only sliding back a few inches. "I take it Clementine isn't dead either. Oh well." Archibald drew his claymore.
"How convenient that you deliver yourself to me. Where's the big bitch? Finally left her at home-" Yang swung the burning ball into his face, searing his eye shut. "AARGH!"
"The big bitch has a name." She pulled it back, the ball cooled only slightly. "You can go." She looked at Adam. "I've got this."
He drew the plain odachi, edging the blade on Gravity Dust.
Archibald recovered, his face dripping blood through the weeping burn, lumbering towards them. He swung wildly, the broadside of the sword halting Yang's charge, sending her into the wall. Adam waited.
"You do know this is a fight?" Archie held a hand to his face.
"Whenever you feel like screwing up is fine with me." Adam checked his nails. Yang's hair burned up, she was on her Scroll, texting away as she walked back over.
"Oh, you're cockier than your father."
"Are you going to swing or are you going to lecture me about a dead man?"
"He's-"
"Good." A afterimage dissolved.
"You're left with me." Yang rolled her wrists.
"Does he get his women to do all his work for him?"
She swung the hammer, picking up speed. "Enough talk." She swung first, he ducked and she flipped over the chain to keep momentum, whirling flames through the room. Archie swung the claymore, breaking off the white hot ball, it crashed into the wall and smoldered, cracking the porcelain vase it came to rest against, the moist soil of the potted plant cooling it off. She pulled back the chains, splitting it in twain with a kick, wrapping the links up her arms.
The upstairs creaked with weight and footfalls.
"Nuisance." Archie swung again, she caught the claymore, breaking the dust cartridges with a single punch.
"We're even." She texted quickly. "Now what-" A overhead strike threatened to crush her, she skidded out of the way, still texting, still dodging as she slipped the phone in a pocket, jumping on the breath of the sword, launching forward with a sucker punch. He dodged at the last second, bringing the heavy sword up to block, she kicked it into his face, sending him back with a crunch.
A body fell through a hole in the ceiling, rose petals drifting after.
"WHERE'S THE HEADMASTER? HAVEN'T YOU TIRED OF HER LIES?"
"Who-" Adam went flying past the same breach, landing in something wooden and sharp by the bellow.
"Oh, shit-" The sword caught her in the back, and his hand reached for her face, his arm purpling by the second, draining her golden aura into his own. She screamed, the embers turning into flame, he released her, her hair duller for half its luminescence. He clicked a button on his sword, the broad sides fell off, revealing a serrated edge.
"Time to scale the dragon." It sliced through her shoulder without a second thought, she ducked out of the way, spinning around to dodge the second swing, it clipped the edges of her hair. "Now what, sweetheart?"
A body went flying through the glass at the front of the room, revealing the halls that laid beyond.
Her hands burned. She launched forward, kicking him in his face. He caught her leg, dropping the blade to slam her into the floor, the hardwood splintering with the impact.
"I can call you dead." He walked away, picking up the serrated blade. "Get a stronger bitch, Adam."
"...you forget who you're dealing with." She stood up, scales glowing gold, eyes burning red. The wall on the other side of the room buckled in. "I'm not his bitch. I'm Yang Xiao Long." She waved at him. He howled in pain, falling to his knees as golden fire burned out the myriad Auras within him. "And strength isn't your strong suit."
The door kicked open again, Adam strolling in, dragging somebody by the hair, the other hand spared to hold a bleeding gash, earphones around his neck blaring a opera at full tilt. "Step away from my throne, I have things to do."
"Ah, there you are." Her back was torn up from the splinters, the contusion on her leg showing up in her stance. "He's-"
The serrated sword clipped past Adam's head, cutting the rope braid's tie. It planted into the wall, Archie standing up once again.
"Gods, you're stubborn." He dropped whoever he was dragging, the person already blacked out. "We both know how this is going to end. You can crawl back to her now, or you can eat dirt-" Archie's fist landed into a afterimage. "Guess it's always the hard way with you thugs." The backhand was dodged, the grasp at the throat wasn't, Yang looping burning chains around Archibald's forearm before he could drain him dry.
Adam pulled his own pair of pistols, the sound of gunfire spilling from the front of the room, catching Yang's eyes as he retreated once again.
"Stop running and face me!" He barreled towards her, a pair of hunting knives from his belt in hand, he swiped thrice and caught her the fourth, the links in her hands clattering on the hilt of his sword.
"Desperate words from a desperate man." The chains came at him again and again, the final swing ripping the serrated sword out of the wall and at his final sloppy dodge, his head went rolling.
She stabbed it into his chest for good measure, limping to meet Adam wherever he went.
Thankfully, for her, not far. Unthankfully for him, a bullet had gone through his outer ear, his back pressed against the wall, a flimsy knife stuck in his coat. Someone fell out of the rafters, orange now red with blood, a foreign sword sticking out of their ribcage. Black petals stuck to the pool of blood.
Adam watched the beam groan, a shadow creeping across the beams and out of the way, the velvet edged sleeves of a black coat just visible in the dim light. "I don't like that. Not one bit." Fatigue kept him pinned against the wall.
"What's wrong? Aren't those yours-"
"No, they're my-" His skin went pale, a cyan eye watching the battering ram take out the front door. "It's not important, he's dead. Several imposters cou-" He swallowed. "Shit..."
"You're hurting."
"Look down, Yang." She did, a shallow laceration crossing her front.
"Oh..." The adrenaline started to fail. "OH..." She pressed her hands against it, pulling the ruined jacket around to blot the wound.
"There's..." He got up, waves now stained with blood, eyes squeezed shut, blood staining his teeth. "The rest out there." He waved towards the front of the meeting hall, blue and white visible through the parted door. "They're friends."
She walked towards the medical kit on the wall, rifling through it for gauze. the entire stash depleted in minutes.
"We've gotta go!"
"No. I can't right no-" He vomited blood.
"What did you fight up there?" She held his hair back. "A grizzly bear?"
"A motherfucker...with a green coat. Was there befor-" She pulled his hair out of the way as he retched again, yelling at Ozma for...whiskey of all things. "Hits like a train. The foot was worse." A couple middling bottles fell in, she finished hers, the first sips of his ended up on the floor. "Let's-"
"We're cutting and running?"
"No, they'll come bursting in..." He grabbed her hand, helping her limp back into the throne room. "And see me. Like it should be. Though..." He swallowed again, a cold sweat breaking out. "'I'm not staying, per se. Nor are you. Grandpa, do me a solid and get us out of he-" A golden petal stuck to his face.
"Drama King." She pulled down the orange banners, sliding up the exit stairs after him, the scent of wet earth and evaporating blood thick in the air.
"Iris Espadrille of the White Fang commands you to cease and de-"
In the place of the old throne stood one of made of vines and thorns, a crest of roses and sunflowers dripping blood from their petals, pooling at the base of the chair, dawn shining down on the seat, a red odachi in its owner's place.
"...oh what the fuck." One of the Fang threw their hands at it. "What is that?"
"That is Adam Taurus' flair for the macabre. He's supposed to be dead. And the girl too."
He woke up in a bed, hurting in places he didn't know he had.
"You're awake." He caught a series of red braids, and their bronze chains at either edge.
"...How long was I asleep?" He hurt himself sitting up
"It's the next morning...we're not doing anything." Pyrrha reached to hold his shoulders, eyebrows crawling up her hairline. "Jaune. It's okay. You need help getting yourself sorted?"
"No."
"Good. If you need help, yowl and its there." She helped him out of bed, the pajama pants causing static as he went, missing the heat from his hands as she left.
'...And this is how she ends up dead over the course of a few months.' He pulled himself together, running a wide tooth comb through the mass of curls while it was still wet, ignoring the urge to go float in the tub for the rest of his days. 'Gods, I'm tired.' White shirt and pants as usual. 'I want to go back to sleep.' He crept down the stairs.
Winter was sitting at the base of the stairs, out of breath, the dove gray shirt-dress pooling on the floor.
"Ah..." She turned. "Sorry." He sat next to her. Wordlessly her hand wrapped into his. The inertia eased. 'And this is why they're always touching.'
Morning reached through the window. They moved off the stairwell and onto a couch, too busy watching the world sway to do much.
"Jaune. Winter." He looked at Ruby, pajama pants covered in hearts. "You're swaying." And so she swayed with them, soft left, soft right, soft left, soft right...
"They're water." Ren looked over her head. "They're gonna do that. Let them be, Miss Leaves Petals Everywhere." She whirled into the kitchen to catch the kettle before it screamed.
Qrow rolled down the stairs, looking left and right to find them dead center. "Oh. I don't know what I expected. Are they okay?"
"I honestly don't know, and I'm too scared to ask." Pyrrha yelled out of the kitchen, over the mixer, over frying eggs. "Is this what we put them through?"
"Yep, toss my granola." She did. "You guys okay?"
"Address them directly." Ironwood vaulted down the stairs, heading right for coffee. "It requires a greater stimulus than passive conversation."
"Jaune?" He turned to look at the old bird, however briefly. "...oh that's terrifying."
"What?" Raven stole the bag from him. "...oh that's terrifying."
"The twins finally agree on something. Huzzah." Weiss peeked out of the kitchen. "Um, Pyrrha, come get Jaune!" The flame haired girl came running.
They were leaning against each other, dozing in the sun, eyes half open, the abyss resting behind their lashes. The rest of the Cavalry slid over to watch, sans a pair.
"...Yup. I did not sign up for this." Ironwood sat down at the table to sip his coffee, Oz patting his back. "This is getting stupid."
"Do we just leave them?" Pyrrha watched. They blinked, she spooked, the darkness faded and bottomless navy and two toned slate returned.
"What's going on?" Winter yawned, Jaune stretched. They both stood at the same time. "I'm okay." She let go of him for Qrow who looked her over. Pyrrha checked Jaune just the same. "I was just really tired...so I slept."
"Where?"
"A lake?" She yawned, speeding into the kitchen, throwing one gallon of water at Jaune, both half chugged before they came back down.
"The Whistling Canyons of Mistral." Ren pressed by. "There's a nice lotus field at the bottom."
"A volcano." Tai was on his fourth cup of coffee.
"Don't worry Jimmy," Oz fixed Jimmy's hair into its normal low bun, his own hands too busy rubbing his temples. "We'll get you a nice boring rock."
Qrow's phone went off, Electra on the line. "Yo." He winced, holding the phone away from his ear, the shrieking voice on the other side of the line cursing with words nobody could catch. "Listen! ...That's a you problem. Adam ain't a me problem! Deal with it!" He hung up, choking back laughter.
Raven just shook her head. "Let me guess-"
"Yeah."
"What does that mean?" Ruby finished her cookies.
"Old Adam is back! Great!" Qrow turned to the opening door, Adam sliding in with Yang in his arms. his hair loose and drying sticky with blood, her hands occupied with pressing into a wound. "NOT GREAT!"
Blake shook her head at the spectacle, the House running to offer aid.
"What did you fight? A cement mixer?" Taiyang took his daughter. Jaune helped Adam in.
"Hazel and Archibald." Yang whispered. "I killed Archie...but Hazel? I don't kn...I do..." She went limp.
"Prepare for trouble." Qrow sat in a chair, eyes flickering gold. "As always."
Dawn rose again. Sienna still slept, the girls washed and dried her, a partition raised for her privacy.
"Um, guys?" Nora had her cloak over her pajamas. "I'm fairly sure we've been spotted. So you might want to unplug and pack up." She slipped out of the door, and came back with snacks spilling from her hands. They shuffled to pack up. Breakfast came and went with militant efficiency. Sienna coughed and roused briefly, but fell under again.
"We can't leave her here." Adam's wounds were still tender as he got up, Yang's black eye hidden under her hood.
Jaune cleared his throat, pulling off a glove. "TAI!" The elder dragon turned to look. "Burn me."
"Absolutely not!"
"I need to stop disassociating." The other blonde sighed embers, poking Jaune on the hand with a heated claw. The world did a double take, something deep within him finally removed from the cracks at the bottom of the sea. He scooped up Sienna, hiding her in blankets.
"Are you okay?" Pyrrha watched, still blinking sleep or sight from her eyes. "Can you move without swaying?"
"Yeah, do it to Winter." He did. She blinked, shifting back into place.
'He's got too many patients.' Pyrrha sighed. 'He needs help.' She looked at Adam and Yang. 'These two still think it's them versus us. It's not like we're all in a position to help them.' She watched Glynda mouth prayers, her glance raising her eyebrows. "Are we a team or a group of like minded individuals? Can it get better? Can we do better, together?'
The cobblestone streets held a few brown leaves, most still green, though the chill seemed to come in earlier by the day. Bearable by sunlight, the linen would have be changed for flannel before long. The altar wasn't just in front of the house. It stretched on either side, tubs of snacks, bolts of fabric, bottles of alcohol. Ruby wasted no time cracking one open.
"What? It's for me! I'm not being ungrateful!" She downed the entire bottle, the veil pushed aside.
Glynda rolled her eyes, sticking a printed note to the door: "We are grateful for your support, please donate these same offerings to the less fortunate. -Brotherhood." She also took her choice bottles just like the rest of them, sliding through the streets towards the Council.
What they didn't expect was to find around the corner was the Valian National Guard, a familiar face in a green and black coat, bowing as they approached, green scales flashing, a pair of White Fang members on either side of her.
"Liberated Vacuo, Lisieux and Crystal Gorge from the Grimm, gave fresh water to Kuo Kuana, halted a terrorist invasion in Mistral with holy water, put out Mani, and saved Vale's chapter of the White Fang from Clementine's Faction." Jaune looked at Adam. He nodded, giving Sienna to one of the Fang, he gasped as the blanket fell from her face, rushing her away. "Are you not Gods?" Everyone took a shot. "I'm going to go ahead and take that as a non-answer. Shall we?"
Brother.
I know.
We cannot allow this.
I know.
So deal with it?
I will. I should have been more careful.