The group stared at Vorst, who was standing defensively in front of them with his large silver sword held out in his hand, the blade nearly touching the metal floor. His face held a warning, and his chilly stare froze everyone in place.
His whole face looked very controlled, solemn, and dead serious, threatening anyone who dared to come near. The soft blue glow of the Vault's door made his eyes shimmer, the reflection of the entrance clear in them.
No one took their eyes off of him, no one said anything, and neither did he. All was silent for several long moments before someone finally spoke up, nearly scaring them off the edge of the roof.
"I knew it," Qrow muttered darkly, "It was you all along."
Vorst's gaze didn't change as it moved slowly to Qrow. It still felt like he was looking at the others though, which was a very creepy and unsettling feeling. Oscar looked over at Qrow, wondering what he was thinking and also appreciating his attentiveness. Qrow had been watching around for a while the entire time after their first encounter with him...
"Yes, it was," Vorst answered, his voice low, "And here you all are, after telling me that you weren't up to anything suspicious whatsoever."
Nora and Ren exchanged glances and then squinted at him.
"You seemed suspicious of us before," Blake reasoned, "Why'd you let us go if you thought we'd be up to something before? I mean, you literally just let us pass, somewhat abruptly."
Vorst's gaze didn't turn from Qrow, even when he answered her.
"It's simple, really," he answered, "I knew I couldn't get the real answer out of you just then and there, and it was clear from your hesitance, tensity, and general suspicion of me when I wouldn't allow you through right away, that you were doing more than 'just visiting' someone."
He turned and looked at Weiss, a curious look in his eyes as he did. She locked eyes with him, confused at his appearance and how similar he looked to the others in her family. But he wasn't familiar, despite his familiar trait, however. His face was unknown to her.
"And it appears," he continued, still looking at Weiss, "That you not only payed her a visit, but you also took her with you for what I can only assume is some kind of 'master scheme'. Now, as to why you are all trying to take this Relic, despite your positions of huntsman and huntress, I don't know. The business of the Relics should have nothing to do with you."
"You're the Relic guardian, correct?" Oscar said, standing up. Vorst nodded.
"I am."
"And you were appointed by Professor Ozpin himself to guard this Relic at all costs until further notice?" he continued.
"Not quite," Vorst said, "I was appointed by the previous guardian, who could have very well been personally appointed by Ozpin. But I wasn't appointed my Ozpin himself; it was the previous one who did that. Whether or not Ozpin had known I had taken over that task, I don't know. That all depends on if the previous one notified him. But he passed in the Fall of Beacon, if you're not aware."
"Well, here's the thing," Oscar said, eager to get his news out, "I'm the next Ozpin, his reincarnation. He wanted us to get the Relic from here so that we could use it to protect the people from Salem, as well as hiding it from her."
Vorst raised a brow, cocking his head slightly to the left.
"Salem?" he asked, a pinch of curiosity in his voice, "What does she matter to you? And what do you mean by 'the next Ozpin'? No man on this earth can reincarnate, unless that's his semblance or some form of odd magic. Are you suggesting he can reincarnate?"
"Yes," Oscar answered, "And I'm his next reincarnation!"
Vorst shook his head with another chuckled, switching hands with his sword yet again.
"I could choose to believe your reasoning, young man," he said, "But to be completely honest, I don't exactly just beleive everything that people tell me, even if it's reasonable. I know magic exists, and I wouldn't be surprised if reincarnation was a reality. But for some group of huntresses and huntsmen to claim that Ozpin reincarnates and that the kid of the group is his next reincarnation, is a little hard to actually believe."
He shook his head and clicked his teeth.
"You could very well just be a group of thieves trying to innocently steal this powerful Relic," he sighed, "Or huntsmen and huntresses working for a thief. Or who knows? Even some kind of shape-shifters who knew the very people you claim to be."
"But you saw our ID," Yang said, getting impatient, "We're obviously the real deal."
Vorst stared at her straight in the eyes, making her inwardly tremble. Outwardly, she simply stood firmly where she was, her gauntlets locked and loaded and held out readily in front of her.
"Perhaps," he answered, "But what about the possiblily of betrayal? There are some who graduate as under that valiant, honorable title of huntsman or huntress, but aren't actually the individuals people assume or think them to be. I've seen more than one example of that very act."
"So you're just gonna assume that we're traitors?!" Nora yelled angrily, "You're just going to ignore the possibility of truth?"
Vorst narrowed his eyes at her, making even her feel somewhat nervous. He looked so experienced, so solemn. Although she felt she could beat him up to some extent, she feared he could do the same to her and everyone else around her. Her hammer trembled slightly in her hands.
Ren glanced at her, a little feeling of pity welding up inside him. Seeing Nora even a little afraid as she was right now reminded him of when they had been nothing more than little orphans. Luckily, that feeling rarely occurred, but it was right now.
He was actually decently calm at the moment, as he knew how fear and shock could disturb his concentration. He also wasn't all that surprised that Vorst was the guardian. Although it was unexpected, it wasn't all that shocking. He had been a ticket man with a giant silver sword, for good riddance!
Vorst opened his mouth, about to say something, when all of the sudden, a shot rang out in the tense silence, nearly scaring everyone out of their wits. The short streaked through the air and exploded where he was, consuming the area in a cloud of gray smoke. The group stared wide eyed at it, only to be forced to close their eyes over the drifting mess of smoke that covered lightly over them.
"Get him!" Qrow's voice shouted in the confusion, "Oscar, break open the Vault and grab the Relic! NOW!"
Yang's first reaction was to immediately start shooting her gauntlets at the cloud of smoke, only to see the shadow of Vorst dodging each and ever one of them with precise agility. Reloading, she propelled herself towards him, punching shots all the way. His hand met her face, grabbing it, and then throwing her down.
Her back smacked on the floor, but she used the momentum to flip back up onto her feet. She whipped around and shot a few more punches at him, but he swiped his sword expertly around, deflecting and slicing all of them. He suddenly moved to the side as Weiss' sword nearly stabbed him, and he leaped out of the way of the speeding head of Nora's hammer.
He smoothly ducked under a large swipe of Harbinger, practically danced his way through several swift attacks from Myrtenaster, leaped over the countless shots of Ember Ceclia, dodged the endless bullets of Storm Flower, and then deflected the shots of Gambol Shroud, all in just a few moments of their attacking him.
One weapon, though, amidst all of the perfect dodging, counters, and blocking, was able to swipe him clear across his face. Without his aura to protect them, Crocea Mors would've left a nasty red gash on his face, bleeding badly. But instead, it hurt and caused him to notice Jaune for once.
He smashed his sword on the ground where Jaune was standing, but Jaune somersaulted out of the way and stood back up to his feet in an instant, his sword poised at him. His one attack cause Vorst to momentarily loose focus on his surroundings, and Yang's fist met his face.
Weiss formed several glyphs around Vorst, rushing to them and using them to ricochet off of each one and simultaneously attack him. But just as she was about to plant her sword into his head, a black glyph got in her way, stopping her sword just in time. But she hadn't made that glyph.
Vorst had.
He turned around, taking advantage of her temporary stunned self, and, with a few time dilation glyphs, lashed his sword heavily at her, knocking her far back and off the side of the top of the tower. She recovered, though, and used several glyphs to get back onto the roof.
"He has the Schnee Semblance!" Weiss screamed as she blew forwards with a glyph of her own.
"Well, isn't that great!" Yang shouted sarcastically, dodging a few shots from Vorst's gun that was in his sword, "Just wonderful!"
"B-but that means..," Weiss stammered, her voice still a yell, "That means he's related to me! He's got to be!"
"So what?!" Yang answered, reloading her gauntlets again, "It doesn't matter right now; we have a mission to complete, and we don't have time to worry about family trees and stuff!" She summersaulted under an attack from Vorst, only to be shot off the ground by a glyph from him.
Meanwhile, Oscar was summoning every possible inch of magic he had in him, trying to collect every bit he had any recollection of possessing. The brilliant green glow of his hands, enveloping the Vault's doorway, nearly blinded him. But he continued on, feeling some sort of sense of how much longer and more he needed to press at the code of the Vault to be opened.
He could see it very slowly opening, but the sweat pouring down his face, along with the burning in his arms and hands and the exhaustion, as well as the knowledge that a single mistake could inflict devastation on either him or the surrounding area, threatened to put an end to his efforts.
But for some odd reason, a constant feeling and thought seemed to bombard him with every time he pushed to open it. A feeling of uneasiness, accompanied by nervousness and fear, as well as a single thought that went threw his head.
Something isn't right. About taking the Relic. But what?
He felt very panicked, and he had to fight against his own will from looking back and seeing what was going on behind him. But he pressed on, feeling more and more inclined to give up and just take a break. But a break would halt the whole process and restart it completely. The doorway was one-sixth open.
Out of the corner of his eye, Vorst saw a bright green light, and he immediately knew what was happening. Or, well, what he assumed was happening. Back slamming Blake and slicing wildly at Nora and Ren, who were in front of him, he pushed himself forward, using a few glyphs to speed of the process.
The doorway was one-third open.
He could see Oscar right there, and he was nearly on him, when Qrow suddenly appeared and punched him increadibly hard in the face. Vorst lifted his blade in front of his face to dodge a few more aimed directly at him, and he turned around, kicking his foot heavily at Qrow's chest. But Qrow just sidestepped and raced at him.
The two of them engaged in an insanely speedy sword battle, smacking, slicing, dodging, blocking, and countering each other over and over again. Even Yang was surprised at how well Qrow was holding up; she'd seen him do very well before, but this?
The doorway was half open.
Qrow slowly began advancing his attacks forward, causing them to move closer and closer to the edge of the roof. Qrow grinned and felt a familiar feeling of some kind of chill inside him.
It's gonna be decently big, aint it.
He continued to fight him, annoyed when he found that Vorst seemed to be getting the upper hand in this fight. He was starting to actually hit Qrow, and soon enough, they were back towards the middle of the roof. Qrow grunted in frustration. They'd been so close! Another surprise hit from Vorst and Qrow was thrown to the floor.
Fortunately, Weiss suddenly appear, blocking Vorst's strike and then returning it with a few more swift attacks. Vorst easily dodged and deflected them, but Nora's hammer just about crushed his head in, and after he managed to dodge that, Ren's blades where hooked onto his shoulders.
Ren jerked him around so that he was facing Yang, and she met him to the face with a hard punch shot. He flew backwards, but used a glyph to catch him. Then he jumped onto the floor, stabbing his sword into the it and errupting the area under him in a white flurry. Soon after, a snowy white Beowolf came up from his large spiraling glyph, and leaped at Ren.
"How does he summon so fast?!" Weiss shouted, half amazed, half bewildered. Vorst just gave her a sly smirk and raced at Oscar again. But right before his blade even touched the young man, a loud, roaring sound was heard and a great wind moved him off target, and Jaune's shield smacked him out of the way.
Confused, he looked up, only to see the nose of an Atlesian ship coming right towards him, the astonished and frightened face of the pilot visible from the window. He flipped backwards, the bottom of the speeding ship scraping his knee as he did so. He yelled in pain, but continued on, trying to ignore his now burning knee.
Qrow grinned wider, feeling appreciation form his semblance for once. Sure, it came in handy during fights, but lately he hadn't been fighting solo, which meant bad luck for his allies. But for now, it was good enough, and its timing had been fantastic.
"Duck!" Jaune shreiked, throwing himself and Weiss to the ground. Yang, Ren, Nora, Blake, and Qrow, dropped to the floor, grabbing onto anything around them that could help them stay down as the large ship flew over them, blowing wind everywhere. The strong gusts whipped there clothes and hair around, roaring in their ears and making it hard to hear.
Qrow saw Vorst army-crawling towards them, using his sword to move the process along faster. Grunting, Qrow began crawling towards him as well, and the moment the ship finished its flight low above them, he jumped right back up, slicing hard at him. But a black glyph slowed it and allowed Vorst to escape the attack.
"Blake!" Weiss cried, rushing towards her teammate, "Checkmate!"
Blake was almost confused for a moment, wondering what Weiss' exclamation had meant. But then she remembered, and it clicked in her head what it was. It had been quite awhile since the two of them had performed that team attack, and it had always been Ruby who had signaled that. But she wasn't here right now.
Blake nodded quickly at her teammate and hurried to oblige. Rushing at Vorst, who was currently fighting off Qrow, Nora, and Ren all at once, she pulled out her katana, though it was rather short, and began rapidly attacking him, feeling a mild rush of excitment when she spotted Weiss alongside her. Together, the two of them simultaneously attacked him, freeing up Ren, Nora, and Qrow while he fought against them now.
Vorst glanced quickly at the progression of the Vault's opening. But he couldn't quite see it through Blake and Weiss' blades constantly trying to hurt him. Growling in frustration, he used a few glyphs and jumped up onto them, hurrying upwards and leaping off of them, about to land on top of Oscar.
The doorway was nearly open.
Oscar felt as if every muscle in his body was about to disintegrate. He wanted to just stop and rest for at least a moment, but he couldn't; not when he was this far. The feeling of uneasiness had grown even more, as if he was trying to remember something that would halt the process of taking the Relic.
This Relic is being used for something! But what? Is it being used by Salem? Or am I using if for something; Ozpin.
This time, Yang attempted to shoot Vorst out of the way, but only ended up taking the blow from his silver sword. She was shot to the floor, denting the metal roof badly inwards. She slowly got up, her eyes red and her hair glowing, and gritted her teeth, glaring at him as he deflected some more attacks from her comrades.
"Yang!" Jaune shouted as he attempted to hit Vorst with his sword, "Use your semblance!" He was roughly hit away by the white haired huntsman, who hurried towards him to deal some more damage and finish him off.
"The door's just about open!" Nora shouted, throwing a massive blow at Vorst, almost succeding in hitting him, but missing just shy as he dodged nimbly out of the way. Weiss glanced at Vorst, then at the nearly open Vault, then at Yang, who was standing up after a hard hit.
"Yang!" Weiss called, running backwards from Vorst, "Freezerburn!"
Yang, who was steeping in her steamy hot anger and semblance, nodded with a grin and raced towards him, shooting herself upwards and kicking him hard on the head. Jumping off from the kick, she looked down at the scene below her, loading her gaunlet and grinning as a rush of eagerness and energy pumped through her.
"Yes!" Jaune shouted, throwing a fist triumphantly in the air.
Weiss spun around, the dial on her sword switching, and stabbed her sword into the floor, a smooth sheet of ice covering over a large section of it. Nora slipped and fell into Ren's arms. Weiss used some glyphs to speed Blake and Jaune away from where Yang would land. Qrow didn't see it coming and was simply blown backwards into Oscar when she did land.
A massive cloud of warm steam covered over everything, making it all too foggy to see anything. Vorst stood up on his feet, listening to everything going on around him. People were slowly moving...The doorway was open now...Someone was approaching him from in front and behind.
He reached out his hand and abruptly caught the hilt of Jaune's sword, twisting it towards his thumb and yanking it from his hands. The he threw it at Ren, who had been coming from his other side. He caught the sword and threw it back at Jaune, who caught it and proceeded to attack Vorst again.
But Vorst, seeing an opening, threw himself as hard as he could at Oscar, sliding next to him, and swung his sword roughly at Oscar's leg. It hit it very hard, causing his knees to buckle and his hands to cease glowing.
"RUN!" Oscar panted, falling to his knees, "Get...the Relic..."
His eyes rolled into his head and he fell backwards into a panting, sweetly, exhausted heap. Qrow skidded backwards from a slice by Vorst and saw him laying on the floor, unconscious.
"Hey!" he said, bending down and putting his hand under Oscar's head, "You alright?"
He turned and looked at the open Vault, suddenly realizing that he needed to grab the Relic, and quick. Taking his hand out from under Oscar's head, he bolted into the Vault, ignoring the peculiar change in the atmosphere as he entered.
He didn't stop running until he spotted the beautiful golden staff, the bottom part of it mounted in the sand-colored stone it stood on. He grasped its handle, the gold of it feeling warm and pulsing with energy. Then he yanked it out of the stone with surprising ease, turning around and racing towards the door again.
To his horrifying shock, he saw that the door was closing. He saw Oscar laying outside of it, his eyes fluttering slowly open and he began to regain consciousness, and he saw Vorst rushing towards it, his hands outstretched and an angry look on his face.
Then Qrow had an idea.
Looking at the staff in his hands, he looked back up at Vorst, how small the entrance was getting, and then he began running forwards as fast as he could. Qrow, having experience and teaching from Ozpin, easily allowed the Relic to shrink to about the size of large pencil.
Vorst pulled out his sword, the anger on his face smoothing over into calm concentration. He formed a summoning glyph right in front of Qrow, focusing as he began summoning a Grimm.
But Qrow, just as he was nearing the newly formed Ursa, took a deep breath and jumped over the Grimm, transforming into a crow in a flurry of black feathers, and he simply flew out of the small exit, carrying the staff with his little bird feet. Vorst's eyes widened and he skidded to a halt, smacking into the nearly closed door.
Qrow flew above all of them, the whole group, and swooped down the Academy, flying as fast as he could. He flew over the towers, flew over the sides of the building, flew over everything until he landed on the tallest, closest tower to the top of the Academy. He dropped the Relic on top of it and then flew back to the top of the Academy's main tower, hoping very hard that everyone was ready to go.
He transformed back into a man and landed in a summersault, jumping back to his feet. He looked around wildly, the thick mist of earlier just now beginning to really fade away completely. He saw Oscar slowly sitting up, Yang laying unconscious against the metal rod in the center, Jaune checking on everyone, Weiss and Blake panting, and Ren holding Nora in his arms.
"Hey, Juan," Qrow panted, turning to the Jaune, "Are we all set? We've gotta move, now!"
Jaune glanced around and nodded vigorously at him.
"That Vorst guy knocked Nora and Yang out in a jiffy!" he shouted back, "But I can carry her while Ren's got Nora. Blake, Weiss, and Oscar should be ready to go. Now let's get outa here!"
He paused for a moment, panting a little, and then added,
"And it's 'Jaune'!"
"Shut up," Qrow shouted back, hurrying to the group.
Jaune ran over to Yang and hoisted her into his arms, running as fast as he could alongside Ren, who was carrying Nora, Weiss, Blake, and Qrow. Oscar was just standing up, still confused as to why something seemed so wrong. He could hear Vorst slicing his sword around behind him, and him yelling all kinds a crazy things.
And then, it suddenly clicked.
"WAIT!" he shrieked, holding his hand out to the others, who were shouting at him to hurry up and teleport them, "We can't take the Relic!"
They all looked confused, but Qrow suddenly aimed his sword right above Oscar's head and began firing rapid shots at the nearly on him Vorst. Vorst had to stop his attack to block the bullets, allowing Oscar to limp to the others.
"Why not?!" Weiss shouted, whipping around and looking at how high they were again.
"Because!" he shot back at the top of his lungs, "This whole place is going to fall! The Relic holds it up, and since we took it from its place, Atlas is going to fall on Mantel! We need to put the Relic back, now!"
Oscar's stomach dropped. Literally. And so did everyone else's.
The group felt a horrible feeling of fear as their stomachs were dropping and the whole area around them began to fall, the sound of roaring wind picking up and intensifying as the seconds passed. The entire city of Atlas was falling towards Mantel, about to crush everything underneath it.
"Why didn't you say something earlier?!" Nora, who had just snapped back to full consciousness, screamed, "Could've been good to know!"
"That's right," Vorst said, standing right in front of them, the wind and the momentum making his snowy white hair blow around his face and flapp his coat about. "Listen to him. You don't put the Relic back, thousands of people die, thousands of buildings are destroyed, and millions of lien are wasted."
Qrow grunted in frustration and then, jerking himself around, leaped off the side of the roof, transforming into a crow and flying as fast as he could towards the tower he had left the Relic on. Once he arrived to it, he snatched it up in his feet and flew back, beating his wings faster than he ever had in his life.
Transofrming back into a man, he landed on his feet, now holding the staff in his hands, and sprinted towards the Vault door. It was just about closed, and all Qrow could think to do was simply hurl it at the entrance, through the small space left to enter in. It landed right inside, flopping on the soft, odd colored, nearly glowing sand.
To his surprise, it shot back to the rock, as if the rock were a strong magnet, and it stuck right into it. It glowed brightly golden, and then, after a few brief moments, the terrible dropping feeling ceased.
The group let out a long sigh of relief. Vorst bowed his head, feeling exhausted. Qrow laughed aloud and fell backwards onto his back, not caring about the discomfort of the landing.
"There, all of your efforts have been wasted for nothing," Vorst said, walking over to Qrow, "You've managed to lower Atlas by some feet, got beat up some, and waisted whatever lien, trouble, and time you've spent on accomplishing this goal."
Qrow just stared up at the man, giving him a long, intense glare.
"Yeah, well, I'm sure we would've figured out why not to take the Relic without your obnoxious defenses," he spat back, slowly standing to his feet, "We didn't need you to inconvenience us."
Vorst raised a brow.
"So my successful guarding of the Relic, as well as me proving my worth in this task, is a bad thing?" he asked quizzically. Qrow just shook his head and headed over to the others, who had their eyes fixed on either men.
"Oscar, get us out of here," he muttered, to which Oscar nodded slowly and tried to summon one last effort, despite his concentrated and very dragging exhaustion. They were all encased in a pale green glow, which slowly began to bolden as Oscar continued on, panting harder and harder as his efforts increased.
Vorst stood in front of them, a piercing look in his icy blue eyes as he watched them prepare to leave. Weiss suddenly gasped and franticly reached her hand out towards him, an unanswered question that had been sitting in her mind this whole time suddenly occurring to her.
"Wait!" she cried, a green glowing mist running off of her as her arm moved, "Who are you?!"
Vorst just continued glaring at her as everyone began to very slowly fade in the green light. The noise of it all, the wind swirling and the teleportation sounds, grew louder and louder as the seconds passed, and she felt even more frantic to get an answer.
"Please!" Weiss begged, feeling a sense of urgency taking her over, "Who are you! You're very clearly a Schnee, but who are you?!"
Vorst closed his eyes and let out a slow, light sigh. He looked almost exasperated from his previous efforts, as well as relieved that he had done his job. But he also looked exasperated about the answer to Weiss' question that he knew. Looking back at Weiss, a new look had crossed his face.
"Just ask Mother," he answered, his voice so gentle and soft it was hard to believe that it came from him. Weiss' eyes widened and she staggered backwards, the scenery around her slowly fading into a green that slowly got brighter and brighter.
"WHAT?!" she screamed, catching one last glimpse of Vorst's face before a green flash erupted and he and the top of the tower disappeared. The area around them began to slowly melt into a different setting, of buildings and the streets of the city around them. One the swirling green lights of Oscar's 'semblance' had faded, Oscar's knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground, panting.
Then the group just stood there, an occasional citizen walking past and giving them an odd glance or paying to attention at all. Weiss stared at the concrete below her with wide, quivering eyes. Oscar half lay, half sat on the road, panting very hard. The other's just exchanged glances, while Qrow glared at the top of the Academy, which was in view.
"Wait, where are we right now?" Nora asked, looking at Oscar for an answer. Oscar just continued panting, attempting to sit up, but failing to completely do so. His face was slick with sweat and his cheeks were bright red from his efforts, exhaustion making him feel lightheaded and drained.
"We're..," he began, panting in between words, "We're in...Atlas s-still...we're just...a few blocks from...Atlas Academy..." He finished by coughing roughly and then spitting out some saliva that had built up in his mouth.
"So...now what do we do?" Blake asked, cocking slightly to the side.
"Perhaps we should move on to the other Relics," Ren suggested, "Although, the fact that Salem is searching for all of them, and one of them causes an entire city to fall onto another, is rather frightening. If only there was a way to protect the Staff of Creation."
"Oh, uh, speaking of which," Jaune said, glancing down at Yang's eyes, which were still closed, "Do any of the other Relics do anything? Like, not magically and what not, but do they do anything to their surrounding areas or whatever, like this one did?"
Oscar gave up on trying to stand and simply sat, still panting heavily.
"N-not that I can...recall," he managed, swallowing and then continuing to pant, "But for now...we should just...get back to...Maria's house." He took a few more moments to catch his breath before continuing. "We need to rest up and check on Ruby."
"I hope she's feeling better," Nora said, concerned, "She was in pretty bad shape when we left."
Jaune nodded, looking slowly down.
"Yeah," he said, his voice a little lower, "She did."
Qrow stopped looking at the top of the Academy and then turned to the group, an authoritative look on his face. He nodded at Oscar, cleared his voice, and then walked over to the front of them all.
"Alright, first we get back to Maria's," he said, "We rest up for a bit, check on Ruby, and once everyone's ready, we'll leave. Understand?"
They all nodded, but Nora still looked a bit questionable.
"What are we gonna do with Ruby?" she asked, "I mean, she can't really fight and all that, ya know, cuz the baby. And I don't think it's very practical for her to travel too much and stuff, ya know, cuz the baby, and all of that has to do with the Relics. And I don't think we should be handling Relics and stuff, ya know-"
"Cuz the baby," Jaune, Ren, Blake, and Oscar all finished for her, knowing full well what she was going to say. Nora raised a brow and them and then shook her head, looking like a mother about to scold her children.
"No, no!" she chided back, "I was going to say, 'cuz of Salem's evil minions or whatever'." She put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Shameful, guys. Never fill in a Valkyrie's sentence! You'll always get it wrong. Ren can testify!"
They all looked at Ren and he shrugged, holding his hands out as if to say, 'She's not wrong; I don't know'.
"What...in Remnant?" Weiss stuttered, still staring with quivering eyes at the ground, "W-what just happened."
They all looked at her, confused. "What do you mean?"
Weiss seemed to shoot out of her stupor and glared at Blake, who had asked the previous question. She stepped up to her and shoved her finger in her face, looking partially scared out of her mind, partially confused, and partially wild-minded.
"My mother is in a coma!" she snapped, "And there's a chance that she's dead by now!" She stepped away from Blake, who looked at her with wide, somewhat confused eyes, and flurried over to Ren, waving her arms by him.
"My sister randomly came back home while I was gone! My father's probably looking for me! Atlas was just before falling, about to crush Mantel! We just fought some crazy guardian guy, and he says he's my brother! What the heck is going on?!"
The group stood back, a bit surprised at the word Weiss had said. She seldom, if never, had ever used the word heck before, and it seemed so out of her nature. So to hear her say it was a little odd, but it did help her point of confusion get across.
"He said he was your brother?" Jaune asked, confused.
"Vorst was crazy?" Ren said.
"Oh dear," Nora said, "Poor Weiss' mom."
Weiss just fell to her knees, tears spilling down her cheeks, and began to sob again. The sobs were from confusion; they were from shock; they were from fear, from sorrow, and they were from the feeling that nothing would ever be right again. That feeling was not new, but she was also not immune to it, and when it struck, it never felt good.
"Weiss..," Blake began, kneeling beside her teammate, "Are you okay?"
Weiss wiped her eyes, standing up soon after, and looked Blake in the eyes, a different look in them now. She sighed, a brief, short sigh, and walked daintily over to Qrow, putting Myrtenaster away and recomposing herself.
"I'll be fine," she answered firmly, putting a hand on her hip, "But I have a lot of questions I'll be asking Winter, and if she doesn't know, then Father will get an awful lot of interruptions while he's trying to work."
The other's exchanged glances, and Jaune sighed, looking ver tired. He knew that Weiss what a lot more confused and shaken than she looked at the moment, but he had to admit she was taking it a lot better than he ever would. 3 years after Pyrrha's death, and he would still loose it at times.
Sure, he had loved Pyrrha and had bonded with her incredibly well, while Weiss hadn't seemed to be much of a mommy's girl, but it was still her mother, and he could only imagine the times when she and Weiss had likely bonded over the pain that Jacques had caused them. She was under a lot of pressure, constantly, so he couldn't blame her.
He gave her a soft, reassuring look before quickly looking back down at Yang, who had begun to stir. Her eyes fluttered open and she met eyes with Jaune, a confused expression crossing her face, accompanied by a silly grin.
"Jaune, don't you have enough girls to sweep of their feet?" she asked wickedly with a crooked grin, "You didn't need to try on me next."
He sighed and shook his head at her, while Nora and Blake stifled smirks and giggles. Qrow just rolled his eyes, turning around and muttering darkly under his breath in a low tone,
"Kids."
Alas, when you're watching volume 7 during the writing of your fanfiction that takes place after a made up volume 7. :P Fun fact: I had planned on having them kill Vorst, when I first made up his character. But after a little bit, I decided that it didn't make much sense, so I didn't kill him off. He's too cool.
As an answer to Sweet Guest: Yes, he was the one following them the whole time; nice observation. AND YES, YOU CAUGHT IT! Yes, it was a Screen Rant reference, so again, wonderful observation. XD You have no idea how much I was screaming when I read that from your review. Yes, it is TheAngelOfFate. Just PM them if you're confused. Thanks for the names! I appreciate it. :D
Story Advertisements: Blooming Rose, by Maria65. (Ship Family fans, read this. It's super sweet; I think she posts multiple stories regarding that, so just follow her if you're interested)
Do What We Do Best, by RelightTheTorch. (Roman, Trifa, White Fang, and Adam fans read this.)
Thank y'all for reviewing and all that stuff. Makes my day! And no worries, Ruby is coming back into the picture now.
Thanks for reading and tune in for more chapters!