I think separate books was a good idea since it helps me slow writing down a bit and gives me a chance to feel it out chapter by chapter
While the rayla and the others geared up for the mission ahead rayla showed just as much of a cold shoulder to the others as Ruby had, jaune was punched in the mouth when he said he was sorry for cole's death telling him that if he was sorry he would have never done it, Pyrrha got the death glare, but ren and nora were the only one's that only got the silent treatment and ignored altogether.
Ruby got all of rayla's warmth and love while not caring whether or not the others heard them bond over cole and they had to admit that they loved seeing the happy Ruby again after a year and a half of cold and ruthless looks. "ren, will Ruby ever forgive any of us?" she asked helping him pack the provisions and drinks. Ren was just about finished with rayla's bag when he zipped it up and said calmly "eventually nora, but she just needs time. Remember that it took us a long time to forgive jaune for faking his transcripts; these are the consequences for decisions made in the past" nora tried to use her signature smile but it faltered and went to a halfway smile at his words, and these days she and ren felt that Ruby was in more pain then she should've been in over something like cole but love was something she was new at and she loved too hard. They all grabbed their bags and began walking towards the exit when jaune walked over to rayla and said something that his team had been unable to make out and thankfully this time, rayla just whispered angrily in his ear and left him frozen in place. The rest of his team rushed to his side when she'd whipped him across the face with a shadow that sent him stumbling into them, "what the heck did you say to her this time?" nora and Pyrrha let him go when he turned around with a shocked look and tears flowed freely from his eyes.
"I asked if there was anything I could do to earn their forgiveness and-" he stopped to force his tears back but they just kept falling. "and she said that I'd have better luck getting my family to take me back" Pyrrha gave a remorseful look and hugged him but he didn't notice for almost ten minutes.
when he finally got a hold on himself he wiped his eyes and said "let's get this mission started before they leave us behind"
"yeah, lets do this!" nora exclaimed following the others with a smile so forced it looked psychotic.
Ciri knew the whole story and had her opinions but as far as she was concerned they needed to be strong enough for this mission and if it mean letting a bit of difficulty seep in their road so be it but she still felt as their teacher she had to butt in.
"just remember that this rayla might not mean what she says and you'll be okay" they saw her glowing green cat eyes travel to each of their eyes and gave a nod that it was the truth.
"Thank you professor, but that's cole's sister and we're all responsible-" ren said but cut off short by ciri
"For nothing she's doing to you; hate breeds hate, break the cycle or it'll break you and as for this rayla I doubt it's really his sister, I was there they died and his sister had brown hair not black."
Pyrrha spoke up and glared at rayla "she has shadow control, maybe her semblance is a side effect"
"Miss nikos you have zero room to speak of side effects when you drank a tonic for my father's insomnia and ended up comatose thinking you would be fine"
Jaune groaned and spoke up "regardless, I just want weiss and ruby's forgiveness now. If she's lying like you claim then we can apprehend her"
"umbra-kinetics can only be trapped by light and only Weiss knows about it" ciri gave a wink as she slipped in the seat next to ren whom flew the craft and took control "go spend your time with them mr.ren"
Giving a hum and a nod he left to be with nora and immediately fell asleep on her shoulder.
Rayla muttered to herselfbefore passing into a shadow and dropped in from the shadows on the ceiling just as ruby stood up with her scythestaff and put it in her case for safe keeping, "you should know that weiss' father, Jacque schnee?" Ruby started as she rest her face in her hands trying to figure out how to address this man correctly but couldn't find the right words. "he's kind of an asshole that treats family like it's business and he believes he's the one who belongs on top" rayla smiled at her and put the cases on their sides and approached. "Ruby we aren't going to Atlas on a diplomatic excursion, we're going to Atlas to get the heiress of the SDC for a dust crystal recovery mission….or at the very least that's what we're letting them think" she looked at her with a questioning gaze and said "you mean to tell me that you lied to the head of the SDC that we needed weiss for dust crystal retrieval" she deadpanned at the end and let out a dry chuckle "that's both genius and stupid I cant believe it" she laughed at that and grabbed a bottle of vacuian wine and two glasses and used her shadows to fill the glasses and gave one to Ruby to which ciri snatched.
"Not during a mission"
"can I ask you something Ruby ?" she asked putting the glasses away glaring at ciri.
"sure, what's up?" she asked taking a drink from a water bottle she found on the floor.
"what made you so invested with my brother in the first place?" this question got everyone's attention and caught her off guard with how to answer her question with the right words, "uhmm, well….i guess it had to do with the fact that he was honest and treated everyone the same until he got to know a few of us more personally" she smiled and paused to grab the necklace "but with me I cared for him when he got beat up by yang in a fight after he accidentally ran into me and fell on top of me"
Rayla took a few more sips of her drink before she said "I kinda assumed that you were just a loving person and treated everyone like a friend but you fell for him when you first met didn't you?" she asked smiling.
"not really, I actually hated him in the beginning of his time cause I was constantly outclassed by him and he treated me like a kid for weeks before he actually got to go on missions with me, and since we needed back up he was assigned to his own category since refused to let ozpin put him in a team"
"you and him were competitive on those missions weren't you?" she asked smirking widely.
Ruby paused mid drink and swallowed before thinking it over but eventually had an answer. "well not exactly, he was assigned to me by yang as my team's guard dog while we slept. and he took those moments so seriously he wouldn't let me stay up to talk with him and i think I know why"
"so let me guess, your sister is super irrationally overprotective?" she inferred and finished her glass laughing when Ruby spit her water on herself. "I'll just take that as a yes then" Ruby huffed annoyed and glared out the window watching the world pass by. "the last time we were alone together he told me that he'd always be there for me…and that he saw me as family" she added quietly. Of course rayla didn't know what to say to that, how could she?
For a few hours the ship was relatively quiet with the occasional question from jaune towards the mission ahead and surprisingly rayla actually answered the questions with detail and understanding of what needed to be done. Ruby looked at the fuel gauge and took the controls flying it toward a depot.
"if you guys need to do anything do it while you can cause we aren't landing for a long while got it?" rayla asked walking over to the fuel vendor and left the others to their own devices.
Ciri followed close by and watched from afar while holstering cole's pistols she'd kept after weiss gave them to her claiming that she could make use of them more than her.
Ruby immediately went for the bathroom while JNPR helped get the nozzle in the ship to start fueling up the ship. While they waited for it to finish a few shady guys walked up to Pyrrha and the biggest one said, "hey baby, what's a dame like you doing in a place like this. It's a little remote for you isn't it?" her face paled as she put her hand over her mouth to keep her from puking and backed away when her vison was blocked by a back plate of white armor and long shoulder length blonde hair. Jaune stepped forward and got in the man's face staring him down but the guy's buddies got close just in case something happened.
"whatever you're thinking…rethink it" he said warningly inching towards his sword.
The man smirked and looked at his goons "rethink it. He wants me to rethink it fellas" he said and quickly threw a punch at him but failed when his fist hit xaio long's aura "ah, what the fu-" he exclaimed holding his wrist just before jaune punched him in the face with his armored glove sending him into his friends knocking them all over. The two goons helped their leader up and heard Pyrrha speak up "he warned you" before walking into the bullhead but stopped when he yelled "I'm not surprised a slut like you settled for a disgrace like him, I almost pity you; stupidity must be-" his statement was cut short when ren hit him with quick palm strikes in the stomach knocking him out cold while nora and jaune dealt with the others.
Finishing up Pyrrha looked over at jaune and watched him grab the three of them and dragged them over to an anchor, tied them up and walked over to her kissed her before walking into the bullhead.
Ruby came back and paused seeing three junkies covered in puke tied to a rusty anchor.
"why am I not surprised?" she sighed walking in the ship and saw the four of them quiet and clearly upset with themselves, "alright JNPR" she began as she walked over to them and sat down across from them. "what the hell happened out here?" she waited for five moments before she got an answer from ren of all people.
"one of them called Pyrrha a slut and jaune a disgrace. I put them down but I don't think they deserved it" Ruby looked them over and noticed how upset they were and it got worse when that happened, "jaune" she said trying to get his attention but he was too lost in his head to have heard her so she sighed and grabbed him by his wrist and led outside the door and said "this'll take a few minutes" to rayla before walking over to a few large wooden spools a few hundred feet away, sat him down and asked "feel like talking now?" but he just sat there so she stood up and stood in front of him until he looked up and got a powerful backhand to the face whipping his face to the side and saw her frowning at hwalk.
"ow" is just about all she got making her upset and stared at him balling her fists "am I going to get an explanation or do I have to hit you again?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.
"it doesn't matter to you so just let it go" he said hopping down and walked away, but as soon as he got a few feet away Ruby jumped up and spin kicked him in his chest sent him skidding to a stop five feet away on the floor. She straddled him and yelled "I am the one leading this mission, now what the hell is your damn problem?!" he glared at her and forced her off him. Everyone else watched from afar as she used her semblance to toss him across the lot, all of them winced when he hit the ship with an audible choking gasp.
"should we do something?" ren asked
"let them fight it out" rayla said grabbing a box of crackers, "this will go smoother if we let them do their thing" Jaune slid down the side of the ship and peeled off five feet off and hit the ground with an 'oof' and groaned rising to his feet, "you hate us *argh* for hurting your boy-toy, his sister wants nothing to do with us, and im no longer a arc" he seethed before grabbed his sword and threw it aside before walking toward her "you ask me what my problem is?" He stopped a few feet from her and said "well, my problem is that other than schoolwork and missions you don't want anything to do with us, so why should you care if we're not doing well. Its not like it matters, Because we aren't friends anymore, you made that perfectly clear back at beacon!"
as soon as he tried going back to the bullhead she swept his legs from under him and held him up by his chest plate keeping him from falling on his back.
About this time ciri had gotten outside to see what the problem was and as soon as she spotted everything she ran over to Ruby and jaune, pulled Ruby off him and bound her to her spot using yrden and pulled jaune to his feet.
"Okay, I'm done with your squabbles and bitching ms.branwen, and you mr.arc are going to take your team and go into the ship, I need a word with you and rayla."
Ciri let the sign dissipate as soon as jnpr got into the ship and dragged her to rayla, whom still ate her popcorn and sat there disappointed.
"It was getting so good too" she said pouting face added for drama but ciri wasn't having it.
"do you honestly think torturing them with their faults TWO YEARS AGO is the best way to make that ego of yours any bigger? I'm not in charge of this mission but I'm still responsible for these students" ciri said taking her popcorn and threw it off to the side.
Standing up, shadows whisping about ciri smirked deviously and used Axii on her, "go in the bullhead, shut up and sit down"
Rayla nodded blankly and walked back to the bullhead sat down and then just like that Axii faded.
"uhm, ms.rivia what happened to rayla?" pyrrha asked pointing at the seething woman.
"I won an argument" she said coyly. "sit down and get some rest while you can, Atlas wont be for another day or two. and we have two more refueling spots to get to before then" she said taking the controls and put on some music
'The world was changing and there was so much that could've been done to have made it better, why did it play out like this?' Ruby thought as she spaced out to the music.
Jaune and pyrrha talked over a few snacks and soda next to Ruby and nora, the latter of whom hummed happily with ren in front her reading while she put braids in his hair to keep it out of the way but in the far back rayla fumed in anger with how her mind had been used against her to shut her up and interrupting her fun watching these children squabble amongst each other; entertainment can only last so long after all.
'What the fuck was oz thinking letting her come with; sister or not something is wrong here' ciri mused as she used her scroll texting geralt.
Ciri: [Look into rayla foster]
[I don't feel right about ozpin's trust in her]
Geralt: [give me a week and I'll even give you her favorite restaurants]
[remember your training and you'll be fine]
Ciri: [I will, be careful to you as well]
[Do you want me to send hourly updates?]
Geralt[that would be appreciated]
Ciri: [well two hours ago to now she tried intimidating Ruby and jnpr, she watched jnpr assault three civilians and ate popcorn, she's uncaring that Ruby and jaune fought before I stepped in, and she tried intimidating me but I used axii on her; she's pouting at the back of the plane]
Three minutes passed after she sent the update so she decided to just grab some provisions from her bag and a bottle of water while she waited.
Geralt: [proud you calmed things down and handle being a professor but don't use those often; the wild hunt might still be looking for you so unless it's an emergency don't teleport anywhere]
Ciri: [will do, ruby and jnpr are possibly getting comfortable for a few hours worth of flying so I'll be flying the whole way]
Geralt[take care and rest up and use autopilot if you get tired]
With that she wolf-ed her food down, set an alarm for two and a half hours and went to sleep.
Atlas, Schnee manor*
"target on the second floor entering music room, clean house and make this visit is quick and clean don't mess up like mistral" the voice said flatly. "and no poems this time, last one took me weeks to wipe off the cct network!" they added sternly.
A tall and slender lone figure chuckled quietly as they stalked the heiress from the shadows while slinking through the window towards the door.
Hearing footsteps near him he acted quick hurling himself in the closet to the left of the music room.
"I'm definitely writing a poem" he said jokingly in the room.
"you write the poem I'll kill you"
"what makes you think that you will, you need me; riches flow for those who own killers" he replied muting his side as quick as possible and stealthily moved over to the wall he used his 'other' sight to see a butler smile happily with a cup of hot coco, walking into the music room he set the cup down and watching as a small exchange was made back and forth he focused his ear to the wall and heard a muffled laughter followed by a woman saying, "no I think I'll be at this a bit longer, thank you though." with that he left the room and disappeared through the halls.
The man quickly slipped into the room and saw weiss facing away from him tuning a guitar, he held up his palm and out sprung a needle like blade from his left hand but quickly moved when she spun around happily holding out her instrument and played a few notes, 'I love how peaceful this room is' she thought to herself gently setting it down.
Before she had time to react, a metallic hand was put over her mouth and a strong arm wrapped around her midriff and arms trapping her in their hold, she was about to scream when she heard "scream and I will kill you earlier than I should" the man's voice sounded deep and bass-y with a hint of a guttural rumbling. She slowly steadied her breathing and nodded frantically wetting the metal hand with tears but noticed he didn't let go of her.
"I know who you are but count yourself lucky that I'm not here for you" he kept his hand over her mouth as he spun her into a rolling chair and pinned them both against the glass wall. She pointed at her phone and made a typing motion silently asking to type her response.
"no" he said putting a needle-like blade to her throat, "I'm going to ask you some questions so just answer honestly and I let the Schnee princess live. lie and your blood paints this dress and chair"
he gently dragged his human finger under her chin and cupped her neck and cheek. she was whimpering and crying when he pulled back but kept his blade on her neck. "your allowed two questions" he added as he pulled up her father's picture. 'she's as beautiful as the media portrays' he thought off-handedly
"is this man here?" he asked as calm and collected possible
"y-yes sir" she whispered so quietly it was almost barely audible
"is he awake" he pressed
"yes" she said letting her tears hit his blade. She got a good look at her attacker and she had to admit he was terrifying, he wore a black military bodysuit with ballistic plate coverings around his neck, shoulders, chest, shoulders, forearms, hands, every joint on his fingers, all around his thighs, groin area, thighs, shins, and around his ankles and feet. He wore a hooded black cloak and a bloodied skull mask. Her heart leaped into her throat when she saw his pure white hair unfortunately she couldn't see his eyes.
'who else has white hair?!' she thought trying to stop her body from shaking but it didn't stop. 'please don't be him' she thought fearfully.
"last question, and you'd better answer this one very carefully: do you remember your old friend cole foster?" he asked pushing the blade harder to make her feel overwhelmed with fear but she still answered but did so shakily and trembled "y-yes, I remember hi-him but his last name is valentine not foster" she gave a pause trying to swallow her fear to keep talking "I know because I loved him-" her voice broke at the regret and fear of him she still held "i wish I could just tell him how sorry I am" she gently grabbed his wrist and said "if you were here to kill me and my father then make mine later, I want to live a little longer for cole; I loved him"
He pulled the blade away from her neck and asked softening his grip on her but stiil kept it firm. "you aren't going to ask your two questions?"
She stood up and said "there's no need"
he sighed and gently pushed her to sit down, blindfolded her and walked over and picked up a long auxiliary cord taking a look at her for a moment and said "because you were sincere, I'll just tie you up and leave you in here" and true to his words he tied her up, wheeled her into the booth and left as quickly as he could locked her inside. "I wont be coming back for you snow angel" he said gently touching the door before walking towards the door and quickly closing it.
Checking room after room the man knocked out everyone that wasn't Jacque Schnee until he reached his prize, the biggest bedroom door he'd ever seen. "tonight a jester dies in his queen's kingdom" he said opening the doors and jumped onto the bed and quickly slit Jacque's throat and to make sure it was him he grabbed the head of hair and brought it up but froze when the person he'd just killed was a decoy; a gel doll lookalike of Jacque.
"reaper, it's a trap!" he heard in his ear,
but it was too late, before he could react a large armored arm grabbed him and threw him into the wall. "forgive me but as much as I'd love to see my husband dead, my girls need their father" a woman said getting out of bed and held her hand out commanding the hand to bring the man close to her. Belting out a terrifying laugh he looked into her eyes "and your first mistake was thinking he was the only target tonight!" he chuckled as he began to charge up and pushed out a shockwave so strong the orange gold energy lit the room like a roaring fire lighting up and dying out in seconds. The force slammed the woman into the wall and immediately passed out from the impact.
landing on the ground in a crouched position he slowly stood up "your old friends are also on my list…" he turned to her and said softly "but your not so I'll let you keep living" walking over to her and picked her up bridle style he gently put her on the bed tucking her in. Just as he did jacque was kind enough to show up, "hold it there you fool!" he ordered pulling a blade from his cane "you aren't taking my wife from me! Despite that she's still my wife I need her"
smiling reaper put a finger to his ear and said "target in sight" before he used his power to dash toward the man with inhuman speed, Felix thrust his blade forward but missed entirely and was pinned to the wall by reaper's left hand. A smile spread over his face under his mask when reaper looked into his eyes and quickly activated and ripped the needle blade out of his chest and angrily whispered "she was a trophy to you, nothing more, not that it matters" in a bright orange gold flash he was gone.
Jacque coughed up a mouthful of blood and slid to the ground choking on his breath. as his mind raced with regrets and anxiety, distant memories of how little cared for them and more for control and wealth the more he smiled bitterly, "there's no…stopping what" he coughed up so much blood it looked projectile worthy "-I've done; weiss is a fool for choosing that sparkler" two harsh coughs were choked through as he began to fade off to death. "over money and status"
Behind him on the wall was a note in cursive written in his blood:
Like a shadow the king slips
like a comet a spirit never dies.
It can only transform soon again will rise.
-The Reaper-
Some part of weiss was creeper out by reaper's romantic advance but glad she'd live, he felt as creepy as a long time stalker finally getting their window for her lock of hair.
Weiss took a breath as she summoned her Arma gigas and had it remove the blindfold and cut the mic cord by cutting both off and after a second to look at her surroundings she used the summons's gauntlet as her own and ripped the doorknob out the other side and ran off to find the man only instead of a servant she ran straight into ciri, throwing both on the floor.
they both groaned as they sat up and held their heads in their hands. As they both stood weiss looked around and saw Ruby, ren, jaune, Pyrrha, and nora standing behind the woman that knocked her down.
"good job, you ran-" rayla started but was interrupted
"Ruby?!...and JNPR! What are you all doing here" she turned to the woman and asked "and…uhh, who…are you?"
Ciri rubbed the side of her head and said "I'm ciri rivia, glynda and ozpin sent us to collect you and bail yang out of jail she's still in the prison she was sent to, so she'll be on ice for a while"
weiss looked at the others and said "she's not serious is she?"
Nora spoke up this time and went right to the point "deadly serious weiss, an assassin is after you and-"
"my father!" weiss screamed running out of the room with the others on her tail.
"weiss wait!" jaune said but got no reply as they chased her down the large hallway. Being the faster one she got there first and found him. By the time everyone got there they all stopped at the doorway when they spotted weiss on her knees sobbing on her father's blood soaked chest, "f-father no, no no no no no no! I should have lied to him…I could've stopped him! It should've been me not you!" she started pounding his chest forcing more blood to pour from his wound. "I hated him for years, he controlled my life, he hurt people, he may have been worse than grimm, but he was still my father gods damned it!" she bunched up her fists in his bloody suit and screamed her heart out and only ciri and ruby were able to comfort her since no one else moved a muscle.
"you idiot, you stupid, entitled, pretentious spoiled fool" she growled before a thought crossed her mind, she let him go, shot to her feet, looked over to the bed and saw her mother's chest gently rise and fall; she was asleep and seemingly unharmed. Without hesitation she ran over to her mother's side letting out a sigh of relief and hugged a woman's unconscious body. rayla walked over to the reaper's note and snapped pictures of it and Jacque's body but she grimaced when she saw winter glaring at her. "have some respect!" she angrily whispered.
"ozpin asked me to document everything if the reaper hit" she said walking over to weiss.
Winter rushed into the room and joined the other's followed her and saw weiss happily holding her mother in her arms thanking the gods for sparing her mom.
"weiss is she okay?" winter asked putting a hand on their mother smiling wide and uncaring for restraint.
She turned to them and wiped her eyes "she's just unconscious" she replied hugging her sister tightly, but it was short lived when she pushed away in surprise and asked "what are you all doing here, I'm not a huntress anymore remember?" she looked at everyone and saw them all slowly look over to rayla who looked at Ruby and motioned for her to explain.
She glared at her lack of tact and said "weiss, we need you to help us look for the reaper, he's accredited for a few dozen assassinations, including your father and Blake" she looked down at Jacque and added "and it looks like this guy is getting stronger"
Rayla stepped in and said "weiss you can come with us but it's up to you; we'll go into the city and get yang for her community service, you know where to find us in the meantime" she turned and left with everyone else in tow leaving weiss, winter, and their mother alone together.
Winter sat next to her mother's side and said smiling "go with them weiss, me and mom have everything under control"
"but winter-" She began but for once her mother stopped her with a smile filled with pride.
"weiss, your sister is the headmistress of Atlas academy now, i can take over our family's company while whitley can chase his dream of
being a tailor" she looked at winter and nodded before hugging her daughters both "I love you and winter so much, im sorry for not being better for you kids"
She giggled and hugged her back "I love you three too, after im done with this I'll help rebuild our family" she let go and both willow and winter watched her dash out the doors with her sword in hand.
"Please be safe out there" she said grabbing her phone and called her best students "yes, this is headmistress Schnee, I need your team for a clean up job…Jacque's body…the funeral can be held in two weeks time….yes sir, ironwood it's the reaper"
She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding and grabbed her mother taking her to Atlas academy for protection.
I'm actually rather happy with this new story coming out.
For those curious, yes I know it's cheap to make people who actually read this still look for the story but at the very least you don't have to when you can just look at the very last chapter of: no intention is pure and you'll see that I left hints on where you could all find it and to go to my reddit if you had questions, comments or concerns.
H6pp1n355_in_misery on reddit for those who forgot.