Ch. 10

As the days went by for the students of Beacon, they were informed of the Vytal Festival: an event that happens every two years in which students from different combat schools around Remnant come together to participate in a tournament. Everyone was encouraged to practice for the tournament as many exchange students from schools such as Haven and Shade began coming in bit by bit. Unlike everyone else who was preoccupied with getting to know the competition, Ruby was drawn to the kinds of weapons that they carried.

"Oh my gosh! I saw so many kinds of weapons! There was a laser gun that could turn into a trident, a bladed crossbow, and even a bow staff that transforms into a pair of gun nun chucks! This. Is. Awesome!" Ruby screamed.

Ruby, along with her team, and KAJE, were hanging out in a small pavilion with a domed roof supported by white pillars. The middle of the pavilion dipped down in stone stairs that ended in a circular flat opening used either for plays that were being performed or even battles for all to see. It was one of several around the school grounds. After a grueling midterm exam from Oobleck early that morning, they decided to go see the exchange students that were coming in. Weiss had a plan to "observe" the competition so she could see who the real threats were in the tournament, but this plan ultimately failed.

"I can't believe I was unable to observe anyone. How come Ruby was able to see all those weapons?" Weiss whined.

"Maybe because they didn't want a snobby ice queen stalking them and being nosy," Blake said, causing several others to chuckle.

"I see Yang's rubbing off on you a bit Blake," Jurano said.

"Maybe," Blake replied.

"Hmph, well I won't give up yet," Weiss stated.

"Calm down ice queen. You don't need to do that. With just some practice and a little bit of teamwork, I'm sure we'll conquer any huntsmen team that gets in our way," Yang said proudly.

"There is one problem in that equation Yang," Jurano said.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Us," Jurano replied, standing and raising his arms to include his entire team. "I bet we could blow you guys right out of the water."

"No way!" Ruby yelled.

"You wish," Weiss added.

"Pffft, as if," Yang said. "I could beat you with one 'Yang' tied behind my back."

Everyone groaned at Yang's joke.

"Boooo! Get off the stage!" Emma said.

"Well, back to what I was saying," Jurano continued. "When we were just little kids, we were trained by one of the best. I have full confidence in my team's victory in the tournament."

Suddenly, Ruby's giant scythe stabbed into the ground in front of Jurano, causing him to jump back in surprise.

"Does this help your 'confidence'?" Ruby asked as she brandished her huge sniper scythe.

"Whoa, easy there Ruby," Jurano said, his hands up in a friendly gesture.

Although, another huge scythe implanted in the ground near Ruby's. It was similar to hers, but had two large serrated blades sitting side by side with dual blue green rifle barrels integrated into the staff portion. The staff portion was black and curved with white wraps on the handles and a trigger to use the rifle function. The scythe also had a smaller blade opposite its regular ones and a dagger like blade at the bottom of the staff.

"Does this answer your question Ruby?" Emma asked.

"Why don't you two go at it then?" Abaddon asked.

"I'm not sure this is the best place for that," Blake said.

"Why not? Their weapons are already out, there's barely anyone around, and the pavilion clearly has enough space. What do you say girls?" Abaddon asked.

"I'm game!" Ruby said cheerfully.

"Me too!" Emma answered.

"Alright it's settled. Let's see who the best reaper is," Abaddon announced. "Ruby and her Crescent Rose, or Emma and her Umbra Claws. Let's go!"

Jurano and Yang both sat down with their teams while Ruby and Emma moved to opposite sides of the arena. They faced each other and took their battle positions.

Yang held up one hand to signal the fight to begin. "You guys ready? Aaaaaaannddd, GO!"

Ruby rushed in first and took a wide swing at Emma. Emma flipped over Ruby and slashed at her, but the little girl used her speed semblance to quickly turn around and block it. As Emma landed, Ruby used her speed once more to quickly dash and slash at the cat faunus from the left. Emma saw this coming and used her teleportation to appear behind Ruby and delivered a solid roundhouse kick to her back. Ruby was thrown back, but quickly recovered and dashed forward. She used her speed to perform consecutive dashes around Emma to confuse her. Then she hit Emma with an upward slash that sent her up into the air, then quickly jumped into the air above Emma and kicked her back to ground. Emma was dazed, but quickly came to her senses.

"I can do that too Ruby."

Emma's scythe changed into its second form. The staff split into two smaller halves, each carrying one of the serrated blades. Emma aimed her smaller dual scythes at Ruby and began firing her rifles. Ruby dodged the bullets and rushed straight towards Emma. The cat faunus teleported right before Ruby could strike her and appeared to her right with another kick to Ruby's side. Ruby jumped away from Emma, but then she rushed at the silver eyed girl and disappeared once more. Then, in rapid succession, Emma teleported all around Ruby. It was similar to what Ruby did earlier, but Emma was able to deliver a volley of quick strikes that Ruby couldn't follow. After that, Ruby fell to her knees, breathing hard from Emma's assault. Emma combined her mini scythes back into one and folded it into its compact double barreled rifle form, then clipped it to its holster on the back of her coat. She went up to Ruby and held out her hand, which Ruby accepted and stood up.

"That was amazing!" Ruby said.

"Your speed is pretty awesome too Ruby," Emma replied.

The others stood up from their seats and joined the two girls on the stage.

"You did your best Rubes," Yang said as she hugged her sister.

"Thanks sis," Ruby replied to her older sister.

Kathleen gave Emma a hug and after her Abaddon picked Emma up and sat her on his shoulders.

"You've really improved Emma. I've never seen you do that before," Kathleen said.

"I have," Jurano said. "We were practicing to improve her semblance use a few months ago. She kicked my ass with that move once. I was sore all over my body."

Abaddon then looked over at Ruby. "You feelin okay Ruby?" he asked.

"Sure, I'm fine," she said.

Then suddenly a growling noise emanated from both Emma and Ruby. They both clutched their empty stomachs in dismay.

"I am kinda hungry though since we skipped lunch," Ruby said shyly.

"Feed me Abby," Emma demanded.

"Alright kitty, as you command. Come on guys, let's head to the city and get something to eat," Abaddon said.

"Thanks, but I don't have much Lien left in my wallet," Yang said.

"No worries. Weiss and I are going to pay," Abaddon replied.

"Hey, don't I get a say in this? What gives you the right to make that kind of decision?" Weiss snorted with her hands on her hips.

"Because you're a beautiful snow angel with a kind heart that everyone here appreciates and we'd be nothing without you," Abaddon said sweetly.

"Well, that's very sweet of you to say Abaddon. I'll pay for the food, but next time you shouldn't outright include me in something without my say," she said before leading the way to the air pad.

"Did you really mean all that?" Kathleen whispered as the group caught up with Weiss.

"Kinda, but I just wanted her to pay for everyone's food. Plus she's a Schnee so she's full of herself and can literally make it rain Lien if she wanted to," Abaddon whispered back.

"You're such a dick," Kathleen laughed, elbowing him in the ribs.

"But I'm your dick," he replied.

Kathleen laughed harder. "I don't even know how to respond to that!"

"That's Abby for ya," Emma giggled.

Everyone walked through campus to the airpad and boarded an airship to the city. Once there, they decided headed towards a burger joint that Yang recommended since the place on Weiss had in mind was too classy for their taste. Although, on the way, the group got lost since Yang didn't remember the exact way to the restaurant.

"Yang admit it. You have no idea where you're going," Weiss said.

"Look, I'm sure it's just down this street over here," Yang said.

"It better be. My feet are killing me," Ruby whined.

They continued to walk down the street they were currently on. As they reached the end of it at a crossroads, Emma felt something tap on her lower back. She turned around to see who it was and smiled. Since she was still sitting on Abaddon's neck, she tugged on his ears to get his attention.

"Abby, look behind you. We have company," she whispered in one of his ears.

Abaddon turned around only to see Neo jump on him once again. She smiled as he picked her up.

"Neo, what're you doing here?" Abaddon asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," Neo replied.

She climbed up his torso until she was sitting on his shoulders with her legs crossing over Emma's. When they were eye level, they high fived. Unfortunately for Abaddon, Neo had a very inconvenient spot covering his face. The others saw this and laughed at them.

"Wow," Blake shook her head.

"Hey Fido, how's the view?" Yang chuckled.

Abaddon's voice came out muffled as Neo's body still covered his mouth and nose, preventing him from speaking or breathing. She finally jumped down from his shoulders and gracefully landed on the ground in front of him.

"Neo, even though you and Emma both like using me as a jungle gym doesn't mean you can smother me with your vagina ok," Abaddon said to her through ragged breathes.

Everyone laughed after he said that.

"And that's probably the closest he'll get to one too," Jurano whispered to Yang, who laughed even harder at his joke.

"No promises Abaddon," she said.

"Whatever. Where are the others anyway?" Abaddon asked.

"They're in that bookstore right there." Neo pointed to the shop that they just passed a minute ago. "I was bored and came out when I saw you guys through the window. Also, Cinder wants to talk to you."

"Yeah, I was trying to find her the other day, but couldn't," Abaddon said.

"Who's Cinder?" Blake asked.

"His secret girlfriend," Jurano blurted out. "She came to our dorm one day asking him to come over to her room. She told him he could sleep in her bed."

"Ooooo, Abaddon, I didn't know you played like that," Yang cooed.

"First of all, I don't. Second, she's not my girlfriend. She's just an old friend," Abaddon explained in a slightly annoyed tone.

That's when the door to the bookstore opened and Mercury and Emerald came out. When they caught sight of Abaddon and the others, Mercury waved while Emerald simply crossed her arms. The duo walked over to the group, Emerald looking somewhat reluctant to meet them.

"Were you bored as well Merc?" Abaddon asked.

"Naw, I got the comic books I wanted," Mercury said. "Emerald here just felt impatient, as usual."

"Whatever," she huffed.

Everyone could tell that something was clearly bothering her. Every now and then, she would glare at Abaddon. This left him confused since he didn't know what he did wrong.

"Is she okay?" Blake asked Mercury.

"Yeah, just got a few things on my mind. That's all," Emerald answered. She still had trouble trusting others that weren't part of here team, but it was Abaddon that seemed to stand out. It wasn't the fact that he and Cinder had a relationship in the past, it was the fact that she still seemed to be so intoxicated by him and that there seemed to be a certain secret between them that Cinder was reluctant to tell her or Mercury.

"Well why don't you come with us to get something to eat," Ruby suggested.

Emerald weakly smiled and nodded at the little girl. "Sure, I'd like that."

"See, there's the smile I've been waiting for all day," Mercury added.

"Hey guys, where's your leader?" Weiss asked.

"Oh, Cinder's still in the store. The owner's wife has a greenhouse on the roof, so Cinder went up there to read," Mercury said.

"Thanks for the info Merc," Abaddon said. "She wanted to talk to me about something. I'll join you all later alright." The others nodded. Abaddon knelt down so Emma could climb off of him, then walked towards the bookstore. The others, including Mercury and Emerald, continued down the street as Yang went back to her lost search for the burger joint.

Abaddon entered the store after seeing them round the corner. The inside was bigger than the small two story building showed. There were rows upon rows of bookshelves along with coffee tables and wooden or plush chairs to sit comfortably in. The store was lit by lanterns, but the open windows provided most of the light.

Abaddon walked up to the front counter, which is on the other side of the room, parallel to the door. A middle aged man with short brown hair, a green collared shirt, brown eyes, and eye glasses was reading a book at the counter until he spotted Abaddon approaching him.

"Well hello young man," he said as he straightened up. "How can I help you?"

"I was told a friend of mine is in your wife's greenhouse. Is it okay if I go in there too?" Abaddon asked.

"Oh, not a problem. Only four people at a time are allowed and it's 5 Lien for each." Abaddon pulled out five Lien from his pocket and gave it to the man. "Alright, that staircase to my right will lead you up to the roof where the greenhouse lies. Be sure not to break anything. The wife will have my hide if you do," he said.

"I'll be careful sir," Abaddon said as he walked to the doorway that went into the staircase. He walked up the stairs, past the second floor, until he reached a black door. He opened the door into a large greenhouse with light green semi-translucent walls and windows. It looked like it occupied the entire roof, shaped like a dome with many exotic plants either sitting in makeshift gardens on the walls or large shelves, or hanging from the ceiling in small baskets. Abaddon walked through the giant house of flora, with its blue tiled floor, and taking in the fresh air until he came to hexagonal clearing. In the middle stood a grey stone table with three curved stone benches encircling it. On one of these benches sat Cinder, in her usual red dress. She had taken her shoes off and was reading a black book with red trim.

Abaddon smiled and walked towards her. "You were always attracted to places like this."

"Why not?" she said as she closed the book and placed it beside her. "When undisturbed by Grimm, nature can be filled with such wonder."

Abaddon sat down beside her with his arms crossed. Cinder laced her arms around his left arm and lay her head on his shoulder, eyes closed. At first, Abaddon thought she would try to swoon him like she usually did, but she just seemed relaxed that he was here with her.

"So what did you wanna talk about Cin?" Abaddon asked.

"Well, I have news for you. I found some new info about the White Fang a while ago, though you'd want to hear it." Cinder didn't move from her spot while she spoke, but she could feel Abaddon tense up a bit. He should've known the news would be related to them since he killed most of that squad in Junior's club.

"I know they're in Vale again Cin. I encountered some the other night. I shouldn't be surprised since they changed the entire protest regime into a terrorist group. They've been popping up on the news lately," Abaddon said.

"It's not that," she said. She sat up and looked him dead in the face when she said the next thing. "I found some intel on their plans. They've gotten their hands on more Longinus pieces."