Hello, loyal readers! WaterDragonMaverick here with the newest installment of "Sideline: Another Story". Now that we've reached Chapter 60 and Fragment Hunter has had a few encounters on their way to Mirabelle, it's now time for the heroes to reach Azalea's hometown! After they deal with the business of the last chapter and hand the criminals they captured to the police, the gang will see just what the village of Mirabelle is like. They'll also need to find out what to do with all the dogs they saved from the junkyard. We'll find out what will happen in this next chapter, "Mirabelle".

Welcome back!

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)

I only own my original characters.

The train carrying Fragment Hunter and everyone from the junkyard soon came to a stop at the planned station. When it did, Terracotta and Ivy were the first to step off and greet the man waiting for them. "It's been a while, hasn't it," Terracotta remarked with a grin.

"How's everything been in town, Tom," Ivy asked as the members of Fragment Hunter stepped off the train to see who it was.

The man was a little taller than 6 feet tall with a light tan, brown hair, a short beard, and indigo eyes. He wore a typical sheriff's outfit complete with boots, hat, and star-shaped badge on his shirt. "Everything's been alright, Ivy. Stressed about what happened at Beacon, but we've been able to pull through since we know you lot are too stubborn to die young," Sheriff Thomas Huckleberry said. "There ain't been nothin' that the village wasn't able to handle," he added while signaling for his men to help with the criminals and freed captives from the junkyard.

"That's good to hear," Azalea said as she watched the criminals get taken away while the Faunus and most of the dogs were helped by some of the younger police officers. The mastiff that she named 'Champ' growled defensively at a rookie, but Azalea was quick to calm the dog down by scratching his ears and chin. "Don't worry. You can come with me until I bring you to your new home," she told the big dog.

Sheriff Huckleberry rubbed his eyes as he looked at Azalea. "That really you, Lil' Lea? Well, you look better than when you left for Beacon," the sheriff said as he greeted the girl that he and several villagers remember being a shy and timid girl. "Everyone's going to be happy when they see you."

"How is everyone in town," Ivy asked. "I hope things are okay."

"We were both born and raised here, Ivy," the sheriff reminded the elder Holstein woman. "People who live in Mirabelle are too stubborn to go down without a fight," he said, which gave the Holstein women some relief. "Besides, those new hires your sister has been looking out for were more than happy to keep the Grimm away."

The moment that Thomas mentioned that, Slate walked up with Pinkie. "Did one of them look like me," Slate asked.

"Sure did. Must be your pa. I can see the resemblance. If he wasn't working on the farm, I'd ask him to join the department," Huckleberry answered. "He and those other two guys that Malus hired when Mason came back were able to deal with everything. Especially with that new inventor guy that moved in," he stated and caught Lazuli's attention. "Ah well, I'm sure you'll be able to meet up with all of them now. You're obviously here for more than just that junkyard dogfighting ring."

Azalea nodded as Lazuli and Lapis showed up with the older sister's bike. "My friend Lapis was hurt in the battle at Beacon," Azalea said. "She was lucky enough to survive, but so many others didn't," she sadly said. Slate immediately saw she was feeling upset and placed his hat on her head, which started to cheer her up. "We thought that Doctor Whitethorn would be able to help her," Azalea told the sheriff.

Thomas nodded in agreement about everything Azalea said. "Yeah... We're lucky to have you come back to us. I'm sure that even with the ones you lost, you were able to help so many others," the sheriff remarked as he flicked the edge of his hat upward. "You're all heroes for doing what you could. I'm sure that the ones that kept fighting can be called the same." The members of Fragment Hunter all sadly agreed as they remembered Pyrrha Nikos. "Well, no need to be glum about it. Let's head to town," Sheriff Huckleberry said as he offered an escort to the village.

"That would be good," Terracotta stated as the group headed off.

The members of Fragment Hunter were marching up a dirt road from the station while the rest of Huckleberry's men went the other way towards the local police department with the criminals that Fragment Hunter brought with them. Leading the way was Azalea as she was talking excitedly about her hometown. "You're going to love seeing what's in town," she told her friends and traveling companions. "There's the ice cream parlor, the movie theater, the pet store, the hobby shop, the pizzeria, and a lot of other things. And you'll be staying at my home while we're here!"

"That all sounds great," Percival exclaimed.

"Yeah! Let's go now," Pinkie shouted in excitement before Slate grabbed her by the collar of her sweater, holding her up with ease like a cat holding its baby.

"Calm down, Azalea," Sunset told the Faunus girl. "I know you're excited, but can we at least see what the place looks like?"

Azalea only smiled as she made her way up a hill and stopped to see what was in the distance. The rest of Fragment Hunter soon joined her and they looked out at their destination, Mirabelle. Everyone could see it was an average quiet-looking rural town with rustic charm, but several buildings were easily noticeable out of others. Looking just outside of the town's main area, the teenagers could see a mansion to the east and a big farm out closer to the forest nearby. "We're here," Azalea said as her eyes filled with happy tears, glad to be back after several months of being homesick. "Welcome to Mirabelle."

The others looked at the village as they followed Azalea and her family into town, not entirely impressed with the look of the town compared to Vale or Notremodo, but they were happy for Azalea and glad they could find a doctor for Lapis. "Judging from how quiet everyone is, the village doesn't look like much to start," the blinded girl remarked. "I'm sure it'll look great to me when I can actually see again."

"I'm sure that Doc Whitethorn can help you," Sheriff Huckleberry stated to Lapis as he walked next to her and Lazuli. "She may have the only clinic in town, but she's skilled in all sorts of medicine and practices."

"Valerie was always a studious girl," Ivy voiced. "Let's see if she's available soon."

"That might be difficult," Thomas told everyone. "You'll find out why as soon as we get to the town square."

Everyone was confused at what the sheriff meant, but soon made their way into town. Azalea and her family thought it was strange when everything was quiet, but that changed when they reached the square to find everything was set up for a celebration. "WELCOME HOME," the townspeople exclaimed as they unfurled a banner that said 'Welcome Everyone'.

"Wh-what's this," Azalea questioned as she saw all the decorations, food, and people.

"You think that I'd just do my job when Terra calls me out of the blue," Sheriff Huckleberry rhetorically asked in response. "I made sure to tell everyone how he and his family were coming by with guests. Especially since we saw the Vytal Festival Tournament. Especially that first round," he stated, reminding Azalea about how she beat her former bullies, Team JADE.

"Everyone loved seeing you give those brats what they deserved," a Faunus with dog ears and a shirt that said 'Fiore Pizza' said.

"Yeah, those jerks got what was coming to them," added a younger Dog Faunus with a tail.

Soon, everyone in town was praising Azalea for how she stood up to her former bullies, making her blush in embarrassment and rub the back of her head. "I just got tired of them. That's all," she muttered.

"That doesn't matter now," said a familiar blonde that approached Azalea and gave her a tight hug. "My cousin beat down Team JADE and got herself a boyfriend," Valencia Stonehaven said, making Azalea and Slate blush at the memory of how the match ended with them making out on the floor of the arena. After meeting Slate's eyes, Azalea turned away and rubbed her neck before she got a good look at Valencia's choice of clothing. She was now wearing a fashionable pink and purple coat with green leggings and a pair of earmuffs that matched the coat. "Come on, we should celebrate your return," Valencia told her cousin.

Azalea could tell that everyone in town was happy to see her and put in the effort to set up the party. "Why not," the Cow Faunus remarked and everyone cheered.

The welcome party for Azalea's family, Fragment Hunter, and their guests was going well. Everyone was enjoying the food provided by the pizzeria, bakery, and a few other shops in town. Terracotta and Ivy were enjoying drinks with Thomas Huckleberry and Ventus, Team SAFR and Bianca Coloratura were listening to the music that was playing, and Azalea was talking with Valencia and Slate. Soon, their conversation's topic changed to the dogfighting ring and Valencia listened to every word. "Of course, Lea. I can talk with my dad about the dogs and Faunus getting jobs at his businesses," Valencia stated. "He'd be happy to help."

"That's great to hear," Azalea said just as Champ made his way to the girl. "And I was thinking that Champ here could stay with you and Aunt Malus. I'm sure Robin wouldn't mind either."

Hearing the new name, Slate spoke up in curiosity. "Who's Robin?"

"My little brother," Valencia stated as she tried to pet Champ and eventually succeeded. "He didn't come with us to Vale for the tournament because he wanted to keep training. He wants to be a Huntsman and what happened only made him want it more. Luckily, Daddy hired somebody to help with his training after we came back and we saw what happened in the finals," she explained before sadly looking at the ribbon on Azalea's arm.

Before they could say anything else, Pinkie popped up next to them with a large slice of pizza in her mouth. "This is delicious," she remarked as she removed the slice from her mouth to speak clearly. "Way better than the burgers in Vacuo. They're made out of bugs," she remarked, getting a disgusted reaction from Valencia. "How did this whole party get set up anyway? We were only on the train a little while ago. Do you have a cannon that shoots party decorations!?"

Valencia laughed at Pinkie's energy and question. "We don't have a 'party cannon'. Walter was able to set everything up. He was in town when he heard about Uncle Terracotta's call to the sheriff and helped out. He did a great job, too," Valencia explained.

"Who's he? Your butler," Slate and Pinkie questioned in unison.

"Indeed," said a new voice and everyone turned to see an old man greet them. "Hello, Miss Stonehaven. Miss Holstein, I'm glad to see you as well," said the man as he politely greeted Azalea. The Quartz Siblings looked at the man and thought he looked about 65 years old. He stood at 6'3" with a thin build, had blue eyes that held a lifetime of experience, and his graying black hair was put into a tight ponytail that reached the middle of his back. He wore a typical suit for a butler that consisted of black dress pants, a white shirt, a black vest, a red ascot tie, and strange gloves on his hands. He also had a monocle on a chain clipped to his vest and his ascot had a gold pin of a spool of thread with spider-like legs. "Hello there," he said when he noticed the brother and sister staring at him, adjusting the monocle on his right eye as he did. "My name is Walter Alfred Douglas, butler to the Stonehaven Mansion. I believe you've seen the mansion when making your way into town?"

"Kinda hard to miss it," Slate remarked. "It's like looking at Shade Academy in Vacuo's capital."

"I suppose that's a fair comparison," Walter chuckled before seeing Champ. "Don't worry, we won't hurt you like those monsters at the junkyard," he told the dog, holding out his hand to show he wasn't a threat. Champ cautiously sniffed him before Walter was able to pet the dog.

"He's a fighter," Azalea voiced to the butler.

"I'll be sure to train him well," Walter replied as he scratched the dog's ears. "I'll just need some supplies from the pet store," he says before walking off.

"Stop by the mansion when you can," Valencia told her cousin. "I'll be sure to throw a slumber party for everyone to celebrate."

"Thanks, Val," Azalea said as she waved to the girl as she and Champ left with Walter. As the three were out of sight, Azalea turned her attention to Slate and Pinkie. "So, you two want to check the town out a little more?"

"Yes," Pinkie exclaimed. "Let's get some more of those cakes!"

"I swear, you're eating everything now that it doesn't taste like sand, Pinkie," Slate remarked. Suddenly, the gunslinger felt his blood grow cold as he saw somebody notice him. "Oh no," he whispered before the girls saw his expression.

"Slate, what's wrong," Azalea asked before Pinkie turned to see what her brother was looking at.

Before Slate could say anything, a man and a woman appeared in front of the Quartz siblings. "Slate! Pinkamena! There you are," the woman said before grabbing the two in a tight grip. "Do you know how worried I was!? I thought I lost you two at Beacon!"

"Honey, calm down. If they could have called us, they would have," the man said. "Besides, he knows to keep his sister safe. Don't you, son." When she heard the man say that, Azalea got a closer look at the two adults that appeared. The man looked a lot like Slate as an adult, complete with viridian eyes and brown hair. He stood at 6'1" and looked to be about 37 or 38 years old to Azalea. The man had a deep tan from a lot of time in the sun, which she knew would have been from traveling across Vacuo. His attire consisted of a brown shirt and black pants under a red poncho, cowboy boots with spurs, a gray belt with a large buckle, and a hat that was similar to Slate's. But the thing that caught Azalea's attention was the robotic left had that had some sort of cover on it like a long glove that reached his elbow. He soon saw Azalea looking at him and showed a smile on his stubbled face. "Hello, miss. The name's Grayson Quartz. I'm Slate's dad," he greeted with a tip of his cowboy hat. "And this is my wife, Claire."

The woman soon looked at the girl while she still had a tight grip on Slate and Pinkie. "Oh, I remember you from the tournament footage. The one that jumped on Slate when you won the first round," she exclaimed as she brought up the battle against Team JADE of Mistral, making Azalea and Slate blush.

"Mom! Stop embarrassing my girlfriend," Slate said through gritted teeth while his face turned red.

When Azalea calmed down, she saw Slate's mother stood around her height with short sandy blonde hair and light gray eyes. She was currently wearing a white jacket, a black t-shirt, a pair of dark leggings, and some brown snow boots that looked recently purchased. From her face and fit figure, Azalea could tell Claire looked to be about 36 years old, but still youthful enough to resemble Pinkie. "Ahem... Hi, I'm Azalea. It's nice to meet both of you," the Cow Faunus greeted as she looked at the Quartz parents.

"Oh, we know who you are," Grayson replied. "You definitely look like Miss Ivy's kid. I'm glad that we were able to get here before the tournament went haywire like it did."

"I'm just so happy my babies are back," Claire exclaimed as she tightened her grip on Slate and Pinkie. Seeing the two desperately trying to free themselves, Azalea removed Claire's arms from them and the teenagers panted heavily when they were released. "I'm sorry, but... I nearly lost Slate once before," Claire explained as she put her hand on his scarred cheek and rubbed her thumb against the mark. "Did this get bigger the last time I saw it," Claire questioned as she looked at her son's scar.

"Blame Team JADE," Slate voiced. "I tried to stick up for Azalea when me and her friends learned of her days at Sanctuary Academy. Then ended up beating me down when I didn't expect the only decent guy on their team to show up."

"Good thing Azalea got payback for you," Pinkie said as she rocked on her heels.

Claire and Grayson looked at Azalea, who only rubbed the back of her head and looked away. "Slate did so much for me when I was upset at them being at Beacon. I had to do something when we had to fight against them in the tournament," she remarked.

The parents smiled at each other before turning to Slate. "You have a good partner, son," Grayson said. "Treat her right." Slate only chuckled nervously as he nodded to his father. "Mom and Dad still need to meet her, too. But they're back at the farm since they can't stand the cold."

Azalea wanted to ask more about Slate's family, but decided to just give them time to catch up when Pinkie started explaining what happened since the Fall of Beacon. Smiling to herself, Azalea went to get something to eat when she saw Rua putting Percival into a headlock while she had a slice of pizza hanging in her mouth. "She must arguing about pizza toppings again," Azalea remarked as she decided to change directions and wandered around instead. As she did, she greeted the various townsfolk who kept talking about how well she did in the tournament and how they were happy to see her again.

"This is some party, isn't it," said Terracotta Gaia as he cracked open a beer and took a sip. "I know I wasn't expecting it after that call I made." Azalea soon stood next to her father as the two Faunus leaned against the wall of the local library, watching everyone celebrate. "It must be good to know the town is okay after everything." Azalea agreed as she just watched everyone to relax with her father by her side.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT," Rua shouted as she kept Percival Ivory in a headlock. "Pineapple on pizza is an abomination worse than Grimm!"

"It's delicious! It just works so well with everything," Percival exclaims as he tried to get out of his friend's grab.

"You grew up in a freaking desert! Anything tastes good to you when it's not covered in sand," Rua retorted as she started to bend Percival's arm, making everyone around them laugh as they knew it wasn't anything serious.

Silver, Vixen, and Bianca were laughing their heads off as they watched the scene in front of them. "Hahahaha! I could watch this all day," Silver remarked before getting drinks for himself and Bianca. "Here you go, Bianca."

The Dove Faunus thanked Silver as she looked around her hometown, glad to be back safely after everything that happened. As she took a sip of her drink, she turned her attention toward a certain part of the town. "I wonder if my mom is busy at the boutique," Bianca asked herself.

"I'm sure you'll see her later," Vixen remarked before she put her attention on the library where she saw Azalea and Terracotta leaning against. "I'll just check things out for myself," she said as she walked into the building just as a girl with dyed hair and black nail polish walked out with her nose in a book.

As Vixen entered the building, Bianca chuckled as she spoke to Silver. "I always thought she was more of a prankster. Never pictured her for a bookworm," she admitted while she looked at the girl who left the library, thinking she was familiar.

"Neither did we," Silver agreed as the two soon turned their attention to Rua, who was trying to force Percival off of her. "Well, tides have turned for Rua now," he voiced as Bianca snickered. As they looked around, Silver soon noticed a statue in the center of town. "Who's that," he asked Bianca since she grew up in Mirabelle with Azalea.

The Dove Faunus looked at where Silver was pointing at and saw Team SAFR looking at the statue for themselves. "Oh, that's a statue of the town founder, Diana Demeter Holstein," Bianca explained as she and Silver approached the girls at the statue's base. The former students of Beacon remembered the name from Azalea talking about it in Doctor Oobleck's class before and looked at how the depicted figure stood before them in a motherly pose with an outstretched hand while holding a basket of fruit in her other arm. "I'm sure Azalea's mentioned something about her family and the village."

"Oh, she has," Sunset mentioned. "Not like we'll be able to forget what happened in that class."

"Cardin deserved that beatdown," Vinyl remarked before putting her headphones back on and listening to some music.

"I'm sure if he survived Beacon, he would have likely changed after everything," Rebecca voiced.

Celadon didn't speak up as she was too busy admiring the statue of Mirabelle's founder. Out of the corner of her eye, she soon saw Ivy speaking to a woman in a white coat. "Hmm? I wonder who that could be," she asked and everyone overheard her.

Looking in the same direction with Team SAFR, Silver and Bianca tried to see who Celadon was referring to. Recognizing the outfit that the other woman wore, Bianca immediately knew who it was just as Lapis and Lazuli approached them. "She's who you've been looking for," Bianca stated. "That's Doctor Whitethorn."

As the doctor inspected Lapis' vision for herself, she soon spoke to Ivy before leaving the party. Seeing the girls, the Cow Faunus walked toward them. "Good news. Valerie is willing to help Lapis as soon as she can," Ivy explained. "The only thing we have to do is find a donor."

"Which I've already taken care of," Lazuli stated. "My sister will get all the help she deserves."

Lapis smiled as she looked at the blurry image of her older sister. "Thanks, Lazuli. Hopefully, I can see your face again."

"I'm sure you will," Sunset voiced.

Soon, all of Fragment Hunter gathered at the statue of Diana Demeter Holstein and Ivy spoke to everyone. "After our tiring journey here, I'm positive we could use some rest. Let's go."

"I'm sure an inn would be great right now," Cereza said before Azalea laughed with her parents.

The Faunus family laughed just as Slate's parents arrived. "You're not going to stay at an inn," Azalea chuckled. "You're all going to stay with us at the farm."

And now I'm finally finished with this chapter! With Mirabelle reached, our heroes can now get Lapis the medical attention she deserves. We'll also be exploring the town more within the next few chapters, so don't worry about me not showing everything this time. I plan on showing more of the place when I can.

I would have gotten more of this done and probably finished faster, but I've been watching The Owl House a lot recently and I've become a bit obsessed with it. You would too because of the humor, action, character development, and emotional moments. I plan on making a fic for that show as well, so that will be something to see in the future. It'll help me out with my writing too, so check out the actual show and my fic when you can.

Now, my main points for this chapter were to introduce the characters I debuted here. While the doctor had a cameo, I'll save her for later so that she can show her personality more in her main environment. As for Thomas Huckleberry, he's going to be the main person that Fragment Hunter goes to for dealing with criminals they beat. With all the bad guys from the last chapter caught and the captives rescued, he'll be willing to help out more when he can.

As for Walter Alfred Douglas, I plan on him showing he's more than just a typical butler. When we get to the Stonehaven Mansion, you'll see what I mean.

Finally, we have Slate's family introduced. You'll probably find Grayson a bit familiar in looks because I based his appearance off of McCree from Overwatch. If Ren's father can look like Hanzo, why not have Slate's be McCree. XD We'll see them more in the next chapter, sharing stories from Vacuo with Slate's grandparents making their appearance. Not to mention seeing Plum Blossom Farms itself.

Now then, the next few chapters will be lighthearted like this one, but the action will pick up again when we explore the rest of the region and even head toward Mistral and Kuchinashi in the future. After all, Azalea isn't the only one from Anima and I plan on giving more moments to the rest of the characters when we leave Mirabelle in a few chapters. This will give us the chance to see Sanctuary Academy and Nashihana. For now, you'll have to wait until I have the time to share more ideas with my OCs. I'll write up what I can for this, RWBY Rangers, or my Owl House fic.

Until next time, WaterDragonMaverick signing out.